After silently having slipped past its previous release dates for a couple of times, I was beginning to have my doubts that the devs from CCP will manage to deploy the EVE Online: The Path to Kali expansion in time for Christmas this year. But thankfully they will, albeit under a different title. As announced on the EVE website, the new expansion will be called Revelations, and its first chapter will be deployed tomorrow, November 28.

This will of course lead to an extended dowtime on the Tranquility server, running for 24 hours from Tuesday morning at 02:00, to 02:00 GMT Wednesday. Once that's done, EVE Online: Revelations will bring a wealth of new features, content, improvements, optimizations and fixes both to server and client. Detailed Patch Notes are available for registered users only, but everyone can check out the Revelations Features listed on the official website.

As you may know, this will mark the beginning of the second major expansion in the EVE Online saga - the first one being Exodus, with its two instalments: Cold War and Red Moon Rising. Revelations will be the first of three instalments in EVE's second expansion, in which the empires make their final push towards the brink of war. Uncharted regions of space will open for pilots to explore, yielding vast wealth and the untapped resources needed to feed a hungry war machine. New innovations in weapons technology will provide pilots with the means to wage the battle for supremacy in the universe of EVE. Here are Revelations' main features:

- Contracts - Term-driven, enforceable work agreements between pilots

- Combat Organization - Enhanced situational awareness, command hierarchies in gang formations, and fleet broadcasts

- Exploration - Discover the wealth hidden in the massive void between the stars

- Invention - The secrets of Tech II technology revealed through intrepid engineering opportunities

- Combat Boosters - A temporary burst of enhanced combat abilities, but at a cost

- Rigs - Recover and utilize the unscathed technology of shipwrecks

- New Battleships - The newest flagships of fleet warfare unleashed

- New Battlecruisers - The versatile gunship evolves for the challenges ahead

- Salvaging - Sift through the wreckage of shattered ships to recover materials for Rigs

- Eight New Regions - Immense opportunities for conquests and riches as the horizons of EVE continue to expand

Soon after Revelations, Chapter 1 is deployed, CCP will roll out another important (and long-awaited) addition in December: voice communication. By integrating the Vivox technology in the game, real-time voice chat will finally be possible between players, without them having to resort to other third-party applications. Looks like another happy Christmas for EVE Online, then.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)