EVE Online: Incursion 1.2 is now live

Today EVE Online: Incursion 1.2 was deployed to Tranquility, the EVE Online server, continuing CCP's new content deployment strategy of smaller, more frequent content patches in order to deliver optimizations and features to players as soon as they are polished. Incursion 1.2 is the thematic successor to Incursion 1.0, which brought a host of changes with the prioritization help of the Council of Stellar Management, a player-elected representative body of EVE's 350,000 pilots. A team of dedicated EVE Online developers have declared war on hundreds of "quality of life" improvements and are working their way through them throughout the Incursion release cycle. Today's release addresses often-requested optimizations including enhancements for clones and jump clones, market improvements, the return of character capturing in game and much more. A full list of improvements can be found here.

CCP Zulu, EVE Online's Senior Producer, penned a Producer's Letter late last week contextualizing the new release paradigm, celebrating the successes of Incursion and hinting at things to come such as the later Incursion releases and the beginnings of the Incarna deployment. His dev blog can be found here.

The Council of Stellar Management (CSM) is now undergoing it's candidacy application period for the Sixth CSM, which ends just prior to midnight on February 23rd. Then, March 2nd will see the publication of approved candidates. Voting will occur between March 9th and 23rd. The CSM, unique to gaming, is a player-elected council that represents the views of the members of the EVE Online community to CCP. More information on the CSM and candidacy application can be found here.

EVE Fanfest 2011 looms large on the horizon, March 24-27 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Unprecedented access to developers, an event space done in true Gallente style, the the beauty of Iceland itself, a pride-crushing PvP tournament, thoughtful and inspiring round tables, a glimpse into our crazed Viking visions of the future and The Party at the Top of the World with FM Belfast, Booka Shade and RoXoR, the ubertalented CCP dev band....are just a few of the amazing things those attending will experience. Tickets are still available-take that plunge and join us in a unique gaming experience in Iceland. Visit the official Fanfest page for more information.

And finally, don't forget to follow along with all the EVE Online happenings on Facebook and Twitter and in our developer's blogs.