Community Beat for 16 January
Happy Friday, spacefriends, and welcome back to another edition of the community beat - your source for the goings on in and around the community of New Eden!
2026 has arrived since the last edition of the Community beat, and across the New Year, many took the opportunity to spend time getting creative with a plethora of projects, both in and out of the universe.
Over the last few months of 2025, we started seeing many of you receiving your copies of “War for New Eden”, the board game, being shipped. As part of that order, unpainted minatures featured in shapes and sizes as optional expansion packs, and we’ve been seeing more and more people taking their imagination to the next level of not only painting, but giving the ships “texture”.
Avatars aren’t just gold and white, they’ve got worn-out panels and scuffs, Ragnaroks aren’t just rust coloured.. they’re 10 shades of rust! AT Captain (and self-proclaimed “worst FC in the game”) “Shathx” over on Reddit posted the collection of painted miniature Titans, the 4 Empire Titans, and the Azariel - complete with fully authentic paint-covered hands in the shot! (That’s when you truly know they’re a grate artiste).
The modelling and creativity didn’t end there either, we saw three other cool models that were 3D printed and painted! Did some of you get 3D printers as gifts over the break or what??
Painting Paradise
First up was Golem made by Hero_Tengu - We loved this one because not only has it been hand-painted beautifully, in pure nerd style, the image is model → Keyboard → Paints below monitor → Monitor with EVE being played. This feels like the bliss of a setup - opposing fleet hasn’t turned up for the timer because their FC left their pet Fedo in the oven? No problem! Let's bust out the Golem and add some colour!
There are four ninjas in this picture
The second 3D print was a Tengu, also by Hero_Tengu! As much as it was advertised as just a Tengu, we can see there’s a Collector's Edition Megathron lurking at the bottom of the case as well, and there’s probably at least one Proteus also cloaked somewhere in this picture, too! Complete with launchers and highlighting accents, it's great to see it just tucked in above a graphics card - we know those things can get a little hot, so hopefully it's not overheating anything while it’s keeping that GPU webbed and scrammed.
EVE Zen
The last one was a cool little EVE Logo lightbox by phreakrider! Made with a 3D-printed design and a few other components from online sellers, the purples, pinks, and blues in this combination smoothly transition to a calming, almost synthwave-type vibe. Something we could absolutely see attached to an EVE Radio DJ set, or at the Pulse bar across New Eden!
Returning to the universe, we also saw a couple of Keepstars destroyed as well! We’ve been watching intently at the size and scale of these engagements in both fights and their build-ups, as well as the different approaches they took.
Bombs away!
We start off with two clips covering the battle in 49-U6U where a Keepstar belonging to Legion of xXDeathXx eventually fell to a coalition of alliances, comprising primarily of OnlyFleets members.
Firstly, during the battle, an OnlyFleets fleet comprised of bombers and smartbombing Apoc’s dropped in on a BUNCH of ravens. With a little over 300 Ravens being destroyed on the defending side, the timing and choreography of the attack certainly feels something to behold. The video includes all the comms from the battle, so you can see and hear the timings of everything as it happens.
Additionally, Warlock Industries was on location, capturing footage, and has also been doing some mildly accurate battle reporting and investigation throughout the process. The fourth video in the series covers the deeper underlying story of the dynamics in play here, as well as the final Keepstars destruction in glorious cinematic detail. We highly recommend checking out the earlier videos to learn more about what's been happening behind the scenes in this battle!
Shell Games in Sahtogas
Moving back to the other Keepstar destruction - over in Sahtogas, the Dragon Riders Legion Keepstar also had coverage from the rather dubious-sounding “The Cope” news network, providing their own colourful details on the details of the fight. Sometimes referred to as a “Shell Game”, if the reporting is to be believed, it looks like the alliance was using profits gained by participating in local Factional Warfare to produce ships and supply a null sec alliance. Individuals at war with that null sec alliance decided they didn’t like it and came over to shut it down, with the aid of several neutral states and other regional inhabitants.
Me Myself and I
We finish up today's Community Beat with a new YouTube channel that has caught our eye called “EVEAlone”. EVE Online, like many MMOs, is built around social interactivity and connections among many, in both positive and negative ways, which often impact each other. Someone comes along and destroys you, and you have a bad day. But you sometimes have to rally others if you want to get revenge, and in doing so, you may find new friends and connections. As EVE Online is a sandbox game, you may decide that you don’t want to do that. In fact, you may decide that you just don’t want to interact with anyone at all, and you can absolutely do that - the universe may still present you with your own challenges, but you’re already setting your own goals at this point, so why not go all the way?
EVE Alone is a new series about a player intentionally going completely solo. That means no trading with players, no buying items from the market from other players, no use of player structures, it's just pure salvage operations with no shortcuts - everything is made from loot from destroyed NPCs. They started back in 2010, so they have a reasonable degree of knowledge, but they’re exploring the challenges of their self-imposed isolation in a game designed to connect people - Episode 1 and 2 are out now, check it out, and if you like it, take a look at the next video!
We look forward to seeing what everyone does in 2026, but New Edens is certainly off to an explosive start. Until the next beat! o7