This year's EVE Online Keynote kicks off with a SCOPE newsreel, but with a difference! Usually from the SCOPE, we would expect beautifully rendered ships in space, some little nuggets of lore; but this SCOPE video included fantastic new artwork showing planet side events. It included a Condor flying into the Kyonoke mining facility, a Kestrel crashing on a planet surface, and the lockdown of an entire city affected by the Kyonoke plague. It brought this year's theme immediately to the front of the keynote, as well as to the roleplay themed around these events. It also included CCP Seagull as part of her introduction to the keynote.

CCP Seagull kicked off this year's keynote by looking at all the changes that have taken place over the last year, in a fantastic recap video produced by CCP Leeloo - which included some interesting statistics!

These changes included - New Force Auxiliaries Capital Ships, New Fighters Quadrones, Doomsday Weapons, Citadels, Shadow of the Serpent Event, the First Faction Capitals, Multifit, new Billboards, Purity of the Throne Event, Coronation of Empress Catiz, Crimson Harvest Event, New Explosions, New Command Bursts, Fitting Simulator, Clone States (Alpha Clones), New Industrial Command Ship the Porpoise, Engineering Complexes, Guardians Gala, many new SKINS, and NPC mining operations. On top of this long list of changes by CCP, a number of large player events made it into the video, such as the anchoring of the first Keepstar, Faction Warfare stats, Battle of F4R2-Q, Battle of Oijanen, Battle of M-OEE8, and some fascinating Skill Trading Stats with over one trillion skill points extracted over the last year!

CCP Seagull then started the presentation talking about the new Clone States and their impact on EVE. She explains that many veterans have returned to the game using the new Alpha clones to keep up-to-date on changes. She also indicated that players from countries such as Spain and Brazil have been signing up in greater numbers than before.

CCP Torfi Frans then took to the stage to talk about the new Frigates of EVE Book and showing off some of the illustrations. He highlighted some custom modifications that had been made to a Navitas frigate (below)

The book will cover seven frigates from each race, but also includes the history of the technology and physics of the new Eden Universe. The book has 160 pages detailing 28 frigates, two short stories, one chapter on propulsion technology, and one chapter on capsule technology. The book is available for pre-order now, and will be released on the 6th June 2017 from all good retailers.

Torfi Frans also revealed the Limited Edition book, of which only 1337 copies will be available. The limited edition book includes not only the hardcover copy of the book, but comes in a deluxe clamshell case, has a commemorative plaque featuring exclusive art and redemption codes for EVE Online in-game content, a portfolio containing a three-layered acetate and lithograph representation of the Minmitar Probe frigate, and a cloth blueprint of the Caldari Condor frigate! This book has been on sale now for a few days now and it looks like now only a few US and UK versions are currently left - so if you want to get your hands on this book be quick!

CCP Seagull returned to the stage to show the results of this year's Council of Stellar Management elections. The 12th election saw 64 candidates apply, up from last years 53. 31,274 votes were cast, which is up almost 40% up on last years election. CCP Seagull thanked the outgoing CSM 11 and announced the results of this year's election which included the re-election of six candidates (Steve Ronuken, The Judge, NoobMan, Jin'taan, Innominate, and Aryth) and the election of four new candidates; Rhiload Feron-drake, Vince Draken, Yukiko Kami, and finally, Suitonia!

CCP Seagull moved on to announce the update to Project Discovery and how players will be assisting scientists with the hunt for planets around our own universe. A test version of this was available at Fanfest to try, and we will be covering this update further in an upcoming article, along with a summary of the key presentation videos.

An update for the Vexor was also revealed for the first time, showing some incredibly detailed animations and effects- check it out in the clip below!

Continuing the graphical updates within Eve Online, CCP showcased the changes to station graphics and how they have changed over the last two years; but one upcoming feature is the inclusion of alliance logos on citadels, which will be coming in a future update. But that's not all! CCP showed off updates to the stars within the New Eden universe - you can see this in the clip below.

CCP Larrikin then took to the stage to overview the new Blood Raider capital ships coming in an update this year. There will be three new ships: the Dagon (Force Auxillary), the Chemosh (Dreadnaught), and finally the Molok (Titan). The build cost of these ships will be 50% more expensive than the standard version, but you will not be able to obtain these ships through any Loyalty Point store like the Serpentis ships. Instead, you will obtain these via a brand new PvE feature: A Blood Raider-style incursion involving the raid on a Sotiyo Engineering Complex, as explained in a special Scope video.

The only way to find these new Blood Raider complexes is by following a hauler carrying ore to the structure. The site will spawn a response fleet based on your own fleet's composition, and will attack in way not too dissimilar to how player fleets would respond and behave. More on this behaviour in a later article covering the Phenomenal PvE presentation.

CCP Narwhal took to the stage to talk about how Citadels have progressed over the last year, and gave some interesting stats about where citadels are located. As of the last week of March, some 16,818 structures have been deployed; 10,800 Citadels and 6,018 Engineering complexes with a wide distribution across all areas of space, including over 3,200 in wormhole space! CCP Narwhal also showed a slide showing how Engineering Complexes have almost completely taken over production from Stations and Starbases.

He then moved on to give a high-level overview of the upcoming phasing-out of existing player outposts and their conversion into Faction citadels. CCP realises that many of these original outposts hold historic value; so once the changes have been introduced, CCP will place permanent monuments to remember the battles that took place over them. CCP Narwhal also introduced the two newest structures Refineries; the Athanor and the Tatara, which are specialised in refining, mining moons, and reacting moon materials. More information on this on a later article covering the Structures presentation.

CCP Ghost took to the stage and continued what is becoming a Fanfest tradition- after showing a scan of his brain last year, this year's presentation began with him showing x-rays of his broken hands. He spoke about how he broke his arms on a company ski trip, and how purpose had gotten him into that situation. He explained that it is this sense of purpose that he and the new player experience team want to impart to new players. He delved into the new player experience and their accomplishments over the last year, before discussing how he and his team plan to progress and take the new player experience into 2017. With a focus on building purpose for players, the new introduction video to EVE Online was revealed.

CCP Seagull returned to the stage and discussed the upcoming change to PLEX, as well as the ability to buy items from the NES as a gift for other players.

You can keep up to date on upcoming changes by visiting the EVE Online updates page. CCP Seagull discussed some of the future vision of the New Eden universe, and showed off a series of images and concept art covering the look and feel that CCP is driving towards- which will eventually culminate in player built stargates. CCP Seagull also alluded to brand new PvE content that will come this winter to Empire space, as the result of building on all the progress they have made over the last two years.

CCP Seagull wrapped up this year's keynote with a collaboration video between Permaband and the EVE Online player base!

You can watch the full keynote below.