EVE Online is rebuilding the screen you fly by, and you can opt out for a long time
EVE Online, which is a long-running science-fiction game about spaceships, is taking apart the most established screen in it. And its second design blog is unusually explicit about the order. An opt-in phase, then a long opt-out phase, then a full switch only once adoption is high. A first version is aimed at the next expansion, with no date attached.
The screen in question is the HUD, which is the set of bars and buttons drawn over the game. At its centre is the medallion, a round dial carrying your ship's speed, its health, its heat, and its capacitor, which is the energy pool that powers guns, shields and engines. A module is a piece of equipment fitted to a ship and switched on and off in combat. To overload one is to run it past its safe limit for extra power and some damage. And the minimap is the small radar view showing what is near your ship.
The studio is Fenris Creations, which is the company behind the game. It took that name when it announced on 6 May 2026 that it was becoming independent again.
What changes, and in which release
| Element | Change | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Moves out of the medallion into its own controls | First |
| Health | Shield, armour and hull stay around the capacitor, with clearer proportions and possible ticks | First |
| Capacitor | Keeps its circle, gains a gauge showing how fast energy is gained or lost | First |
| Rack heat | Moves beside the medallion, pointing at the rack it belongs to | First |
| Overload (running a module past its safe limit) | Becomes its own interaction; Shift-click is preserved | First |
| Modules | Clearer active and inactive states, a moving cycle indicator, discoverable shortcuts | First |
| Minimap | On-grid, metro and system views | Second |
| Boosters | Dedicated consumable slots with shortcuts | Third |
| Customisation | HUD as movable components, hideable parts | Fourth |
One row there needs a word: boosters, which are consumable drugs that raise a pilot's stats for a while.
Our take: what it means for players
The rollout plan is better than the redesign, and the redesign looks good.
An opt-in phase, then an opt-out phase the studio itself expects to run long, then a switch only once adoption is high. That is how you change an interface people have spent years learning without taking those reflexes away from them. Compare it with the industry norm of shipping a new screen on patch day and learning from the forums afterwards. Nobody's Friday night fleet gets ruined by a redesign they did not ask for, and the studio still gets its modernisation.
The research is credited where it belongs, and that should be noted. New players were brought in to be watched. Veterans were interviewed. There were sessions with the player-elected council the blog calls the CSM, plus a workshop and a booth at Fanfest, which is the game's own convention. The single most useful finding in the whole blog came from watching newcomers fail to realise the security status element was a button at all. A designer does not find that by thinking harder.
Our one reservation is sequencing. Customisation is the thing veterans have asked for longest, and it is the answer to the screen space a minimap and consumable slots will eat. It is explicitly last. Screen space is a real cost in a game played in several windows at once, and shipping the parts that take room before the parts that let you hide them is the wrong order for the people most likely to opt in early.
What's next
A third blog is promised, covering what comes after this work. The first round of HUD changes is targeted at the next expansion with no announced date, so nothing here joins the calendar yet.
Common questions
Is EVE Online's new HUD mandatory?
Not for a long time. The HUD is the set of bars and buttons drawn over the game screen. The blog describes an opt-in phase first, then an opt-out phase the studio expects to be quite long, and a full switch only once adoption is high. It says you will be able to opt out while the HUD is in development, as you could when the Photon UI was being built.
What is changing in the EVE HUD medallion?
The medallion is the round dial that carries your ship's speed, health, energy and heat in one place. Speed controls move out of it into their own part of the HUD. Shield, armour and hull stay around the capacitor, which is the ship's energy pool, with clearer proportions and possible tick marks. The capacitor gains a gauge showing how fast energy is gained or lost, and the heat indicators move to the side of the medallion, pointing at the rack of equipment each belongs to.
When will the new EVE HUD arrive?
The studio is aiming to have a first version ready around the next expansion, with no date given. The first round covers the medallion, overloading and modules. The minimap follows, then consumable slots, then the ability to move parts of the screen around.
Written by 0hp from the publisher's own announcement, linked above, and every specific in it was checked against that page by a second pass before it published. Independent, and not affiliated with the publisher. Dates are announced or labelled as estimates. How this site is written, and how to correct it.
