Hi HWS Community,
finally I have a little bit of time for the second HWS 9.X Teaser. But before we dive into it let me quickly recap some changes we made again after the first Trailer:
- HWS Garage get a new sub-feature “Categories”.
- HWS Garage ship Miner Drill count will be max. 10
- HWS Garage ship Fighter will get +2 weapons per type (+2 from the default limits)
- HWS Garage ship Tank can have Armored Concrete blocks
HWS Universe 9.X
(You can always check all older versions of the HWS Universe here)
A lot of thoughts went into this one again, even though it looks similar to the versions before.
At some days I’m like “let’s do a complete new shape, a total different universe”… but then again, why change something which works for almost one year now. I would say that is one of the best universe we had the last 3 years. Overall it’s a great fundament for changes, if needed, in the future.
As always, I spare you with tiny details and dive straight into the highlights and thoughts:
- We have 3 new PvP and 2 new PvE playfields: Pandora, Eton and Triton and its Orbits
- Pandora is the Home planet of Polaris and Talon in the PvP Sector
- Triton is the Home planet of all three factions Polaris, Talon and Zirax in the PvE Sector
- Both Planets are only reachable via CVs – no SVs and no Supergates. These planets will be very lucrative for trading and territorial resource fighting but seen as lategame content and not recommended for Empyrion beginners
- SV jumps are possible around the Homeworld System again
- The “Supergate Sector” containing Armageddon, Eton and Titan are only reachable with Supergates. All three Orbits will have multiple entry and exit points and this time no Base spawning at all possible there (Eton not even CV spawning)
- Eton will be a reworked planet of the current Homeworld planet. That means Eton will be the dedicated "Capture the Base" Event planet only.
- The other two Systems Nova and Titan System are reworked to focus on difficult trade routes and very lucrative Commodity Traders. Multiple Orbital Asteroid Stations are waiting for you.
- Homeworld System got reworked. For every PvP enthusiast there will be big rewards for living on these planets. On Homeworld 7RP & 7000 credits and on Lava-, Ice- and Desertworld 5RP & 5000 credits per day (per planet) if you have a 1000+ Block Faction Base for 24 hours holding.
- Rework of Golden Globe (and other PvP planets). It’s so big, I will create a dedicated Teaser announcement about it.
- Reworked all Starter Planets. As before you have the normal PvE Cryo Temperate planet for all 3 Origins. But the Cryo-X planet is now a Survival planet with more challenges for you. For Pirate-Cryo-X it means also PvP again.
- Reworked the Prototype Planet (Barren Metal). You are now Unfriendly with all three factions and only real Empyrion Survival Veterans will survive this planet. You can’t use OCD there either anymore! Tip: use the Water Bottles to reduce your body temperature
- Almost every Orbit has now a special Trading Station. You will find Mission Dealer, Commodity Trader or more there.
- Implemented tons of new PvE content – new POIs, new PDA missions and more.
- To push the Penthouses a bit more (we get a new one as well!), the Penthouse Planet is now located in the ECC System, below the HWS Meta planet. To stop confusions it will get even a (7Euro/Season) tag as name.
- Updated and reworked every other playfield to latest feedback and changes by Eleon.
- Lots of new secrets I can’t tell yet
Some impressions:
Reworked Atlantis Ocean planet with a One-Way-Supergate in the water to his dangerous brother planet Waterplanet
The new Federation-Cryo-X Start Planet
The new Freelancer-Cryo-X Start Planet
The new Pirate-Cryo-X Start Planet
The new harsh survival Prototype Start Planet
New Mission Dealer are waiting for you. Get interesting daily jobs to earn Faction RP, Credits, HWS RP or more
HWS Origins / Story
The community decided for new Origin names, so here we are
- Federation (was “Alliance” before)
- Freelancer (same as before)
- Pirate (was “Lawless” before)
I think this feels much better and gives us a great basement for more Story progressions in the future!
But that was also the trigger point for some thoughts on the current system. Here are the main changes so far:
- We removed the “Get guilty + RP loss” if you kill 5 Federation (Alliance) players
- We removed the “Unlawful kill counter” if you kill 10 Federation players in a row
- We removed the “Get guilty + RP loss” if you kill a Federation player as Federation member
That means we are more equal in terms of PvP again and less complex / confusing / tricky.
To still encourage the War between the Origins there will be still the kill RP bonus for Pirates against Federation and vise versa.
In general though, for the future, the HWS Garage Categories and the HWS Skill Tree 2.0 implementation with HWS Connect v5 will be probably the last major Tool driven Origin integration.
More, better and advanced Origin specific elements no matter if PvP or PvE will be most likely coming from the PDA. Let’s see but it got very powerful lately (you will see in HWS 9.X) and even more powerful in the future 
That’s it for now. I’m still far away from ready and must hurry a lot to make it an awesome season for you. Unfortunately recent events in the Community cost me too much time.
But the highest and most important goal this time is to not delay the 20th March Full wipe this time!
Stay tuned for more Teaser along the way and thanks a lot for your patience, friendly messages, excitement and loyalty. It really means a lot to me because well, I’m working the last weeks 18 hours every day for you. 
Your HWS Team
