EVE Online, Crusader Kings III and Stellaris set November dates as Jagex fixes a login deadline

EVE Online's Fractured Skies expansion launches on 10 November with four navy attack battlecruisers, synchronizer rigs, 13 free Academy ships and new Military Campaigns. EVE Vanguard opens as a paid alpha the same day.

• —Navy attack battlecruisers: Naga, Tornado, Oracle and Talos Navy Issue, sold only through Factional Warfare LP stores.
• —Nine synchronizer rig sets cover the four empires and five pirate factions; each rig strengthens with every matching faction module fitted.
• —Campaign bonuses go live across designated faction systems from 5 January; a lowsec empire clash follows later in January.
• —The first Conquest, a seasonal Factional Warfare conflict with a winner, comes online in February; the updated HUD is optional via Feature Preview.

Jagex opened The Fractured Archive, Old School RuneScape's fourth raid, on 20 October and hotfixed Defence reduction the same day after the Twisted Bow outperformed expectations. Six bosses now cap reduction at 60 percent.

• —Raid scales 2-8 players; Jagex recommends 3-5. Practice Mode is not available at release and deaths are not safe, so HCIM status is lost on death.
• —Uncapped Defence reduction: Dreadnoth, the Smorks, the Dagon'Hai Trio and The Blade. 60 percent cap: Archive Guardian, Bork, Ezekiel, Moia, Xarth, Ocellus.
• —Ocellus no longer restores Defence when moving between quadrants in phase 3; a Zorya's Tome special attack pre-stacking exploit was also fixed.
• —Known and unfixed: Ascension shard Grand Exchange limit of 100 is too low, and UIMs with items at Pete Kayer cannot enter. No global times were reset.

Jagex will require every account still on a legacy RuneScape or Old School RuneScape login to move to a Jagex Account on 17 November. Accounts that have not upgraded by then cannot log in until they do.

• —The upgrade needs only the existing username or login email and password; access to the email on the old account is not required.
• —Steam, Apple, Google and Game Center logins can still log in as before, but need a Jagex Account for the Launcher and website features such as Support.
• —The Jagex Account character cap rises from 20 to 50; Approved Third Party Clients such as RuneLite keep working through the Launcher.
• —An Apple Silicon Jagex Launcher is due by the end of October; a Linux Launcher beta is out now.

Apex Legends laid out a two-season Ranked overhaul. Season 31 adds Legend banning in Diamond and above plus lobby-based entry cost changes; Season 32 adds Iron, Emerald and Grandmaster ranks, Open and Pro-Am leagues, and new scoring.

• —Season 31 (November): Diamond+ matches get a banning phase; each player votes for one Legend and bans are drawn at random weighted by votes.
• —Squads two or more Rank Tiers below the Lobby Tier pay reduced entry cost (Challenger); two or more above pay increased cost (Goliath).
• —Ranked access returns to Account Level 20; Road to Ranked challenges are removed.
• —Season 32: kills and placement become flat RP values, assists are removed, Open League favors kills and Pro-Am favors placement, Weekly Ladders end.

Battlefield 6 lays out the rest of Season 5: a European Casino map and leaderboards in November, then Platoons, the Server Browser and reworked Blackwell Fields and New Sobek City in December.

• —Phase 1 runs from October 20 with the Dead Space: Convergence event, live until November 10.
• —Phase 2 (November 10) brings a close-quarters European Casino map, Multiplayer Leaderboards and balance changes, including SCW-10 and KV9 extended mag nerfs under review.
• —Phase 3 (December 8) brings Server Browser, Platoons (up to 100 players, custom names and squad tags, XP bonus in squad) and map updates.
• —The Server Browser uses persistent lobbies and sits first in Quickplay; a 2027 roadmap is promised early in the new year.

Paradox set 23 November as the release date for Stellaris: Willpower and the 4.6 'Corona Borealis' update, and used the dev diary to detail Galactic Halls, Gestalt interaction with Ideologies and the Lost Makers Machine origin.

• —Galactic Halls are megastructures unlocked through Ideology and Ideological Strength; they can be relocated for some Energy, with a 10 year cooldown.
• —Gestalt Pops cannot be converted directly; foreign Reach causes Deviancy, which lowers Ideological Strength, and Hive Minds and Machines use Instincts or Directives.
• —Ethical Buildings can be upgraded twice, and Ideological Beacons on Starbases add Unity and Ideological Push.
• —Lost Makers is a Machine Intelligence-only Origin tied to a Precursor and can generate a special Ideology at the end.

Paradox will release Silk & Silver, the next Crusader Kings III major expansion, on 17 November. It adds Merchant and Republic government types, a new trade system and two bookmarks, 1066 and 1178.

• —Merchant: a landless trading-company government with trade routes for over 40 goods and three specializations: Caravaneer, Creditor and Artisan.
• —Republic: patrician families vie for the role of doge through an Assembly, laws, and a chosen administration; Trade Leagues give commercial and military benefits.
• —Two new bookmarks: 1066 Channels of Commerce and 1178 Guelphs & Ghibellines.
• —Historical Italian flavor includes civic carnivals and the Guelph and Ghibelline conflict in Northern Italy.

The Quinfall's patch 1.3.0.3 adds a worker system: capturable NPC workers that gather, craft, farm, breed animals, run caravans or fight. New clan members now wait two days instead of five before joining Clan Wars.

• —Capture needs a Truncheon, Worker Badge, Lasso Rope and Wheel of Discipline; training happens only in Altar areas, not purchasable houses.
• —One worker can follow you at a time; a personal Altar area holds up to 50 workers and a Clan Altar area up to 200.
• —A worker that dies is permanently lost along with its equipment; costumes return by mail. Warriors have the highest base stats.
• —New clan members now wait 2 days instead of 5 before joining Clan Wars; PvP is disabled in blue altar areas on Channel 4.

Albion's October Dev Talk reviews the Dragonfire update and announces the 1v1 Arena will return for the next Guild Season. A broad overhaul of seasons and challenges is planned for the next major update early next year.

• —Small Portals in Yellow Zones are now permanently available, with slightly reduced rewards; Lethal Zone portals are unchanged.
• —A new Item Freeze mechanic protects items brought into the Ancient Lands; only loot acquired inside can be lost.
• —The 1v1 Arena returns for the duration of the next Guild Season.
• —Early next year, seasons will merge Guild Seasons, Adventurer's and Conqueror's Challenges and the Faction Warfare campaign into one framework.

Sea of Thieves runs its Season 21 Community Weekend from October 23 to October 26, with Twitch Drops, a Community Emissary Grade reward boost, Pop-Up Plunder and the return of the Tricksters and Treaters event.

• —Runs Friday, October 23 to Monday, October 26 at 10am UTC.
• —Community Emissary Grade (1 to 5) rises with Twitch viewing time; at Grade 5 all High Seas players earn 2.5 times gold, reputation, Renown and Guild Reputation.
• —Twitch Drops: 30 minutes for a bucket, 1-3 hours for Gilded Phoenix ship parts, 4 hours for the Bat Cutout Emote.
• —Tricksters and Treaters uses the Outpost Quest Board; five accepted maps earn the Pocket Pumpkin Emote.

Pax Dei marks its first anniversary with R49: Saddle Up!, which adds horses, and a few days of boosted XP and Grace. The Plot Token expiry has already been removed.

• —R49: Saddle Up! adds horses; it needs at least one more PTS patch, and the 16 October post puts the earliest release toward the end of the following week.
• —Planned anniversary boost lasts a few days: XP for Gathering, Combat and Riding, and a Grace boost for Daily Grace and Gold offerings.
• —Unused Plot Tokens no longer expire; previously they lapsed 12 months after acquisition.
• —Items from expired plots can be claimed from any Home Valley in the same world; a free 7-day Trial is on Steam.

The Indie Stone says it officially supports only Lua modding for Project Zomboid. Java mods, loaders and frameworks are unsupported, may break with any update, and bug reports must reproduce without mods.

• —Java mods run outside the game's code confines and can add code the player never sees; The Indie Stone calls for open-source or reproducible builds.
• —Java-based mods, including third-party loaders and frameworks, are not officially supported and will be broken by updates without warning.
• —No technical support or compatibility fixes will be given for Java mods.
• —Bug reports are investigated only when reproducible in an un-modded game save, for Java and Lua mods alike.