A small patch will be deployed in EVE Online during downtime on Tuesday, May 26. The main purpose is to fix a critical issue so jumping through a gate will no longer cause the client to lock up. Here's the other miscellaneous fixes that will be implemented, straight from the patch notes:

• The reprocessing window will no longer re-position itself when opened.
• Several server side issues have been fixed that were causing proxy servers to crash.
• Database procedures have been optimized for mission spawning.
• An exception error will no longer be generated when switching between full screen and windowed mode.

CCP has launched its EVE Fanfest 2009 Web site, which contains all the information you need to know if you'd like to attend the festival that will be held Oct. 1-3 at the Laugardalshöll Convention Center in Reykjavik, Iceland. Tickets are currently on sale and cost $75, while Sisters of EVE (spouse) tickets cost $188. Here's some of the information offered directly from the site:

• A Complete Information Center: Full FAQs for both Fanfest and Iceland have been compiled as well as a Reykjavik Survival Guide for those that want to take some time to tour the town.
• PLEX for Passes: Visit our PLEX for Passes page to see how you can purchase Fanfest tickets with in game ISK.
• Fanfest Photo Gallery: Browse through photos from previous Fanfests to get a glimpse of the festivities.

Also, the site offers flights and package deals, and passes for the event can be purchased directly through Account Management.

A small patch will be implemented tomorrow in EVE Online during downtime to fix the UI, storyline agents and server side issues. Here are the short patch notes for Apocrypha 1.2.2:

• Modules will no longer be subject to an activation delay when a ship has de-cloaked after jumping through a stargate.
• Storyline missions have been fixed and will now be offered correctly. Any storyline missions that you have already qualified for will now be offered.
• Station environments will no longer move with you when you use the clone jump service.
• Fixed an issue that would cause the ships and items panels to not display correctly when the load station environment option was unchecked.
• Numerous server side issues have been fixed.

The election for the third Council of Stellar Management is under way, and you have until May 26 to cast your vote.

If you're curious to see how the CSM can affect EVE Online, CCP Xhagen has posted a dev blog entry containing a list of topics the CSM has brought up with details on how they have been implemented in the game. For example, the skill training queue was a CSM idea.

Check out the Assembly Hall forum on the official site to read up on the candidates' stances and then vote for the players you want to see represent the EVE community in the third CSM.

Apocrypha 1.2 is scheduled to be deployed tomorrow, May 14, with downtime starting at 5 a.m. GMT and ending at noon.

According to the patch notes, there's one critical change: "The default overview setting for war, militia, and global criminal targets has been changed. War and militia targets will now blink when previously they did not. Global criminal targets will no longer blink. A dev blog detailing this change is coming soon."

According to the announcement, other changes include "a wide variety of fixes to ships and modules, agents and missions, user interface and much more." You can read the full patch notes below.

The EVE Online team is going to begin a huge overhaul of the game's published canon tomorrow, May 11, in an effort to "eliminate or reconcile" some inconsistencies that have slipped into EVE's massive storyline. Every change will be listed in the official forums so you can keep track of them. This will be an ongoing effort, and there's a specific reason why they're doing this now: the storyline is about to become more integrated with gameplay.

A recent dev blog entry has outlined the entire plan. According to the post, "Our goal is to combine every tool - chronicles, short stories, novels, videos, mission content, and epic storyline arcs - in such a way that the full scope of any one major story thread is covered in part by each of these mediums." For example, information in a chronicle may help you in a mission.

In addition, every NPC storyline effort undertaken since 2003 has been added to the EVELopedia. And beginning in June, the team's going to start publishing a briefing every two weeks called CORPS: CONCORD Outer Region Political Summary, which will "keep everyone informed of what those crazy capsuleers are doing outside their borders."

You can read the full dev blog entry after the jump.

EVE Online is celebrating its sixth anniversary today, and CCP has a special announcement to coincide with the birthday. Over the past couple days, the game has surpassed the milestone of 300,000 active subscribers.

To put that in perspective, EVE had 244,000 in the beginning of the year. CCP attributes the 22 percent growth in subscribers in the past five months to the release of the Apocrypha expansion and the retail box.

Also, EVE has broken its peak concurrent user record three times in the past five months. The current record is 53,850 players on at the same time. As CCP Manifest put it, "We couldn't think of a better birthday present than having more people playing EVE Online than ever before. It is another sweet reminder of EVE's boundless potential."

A small patch was implemented today for Mac users that should increase your performance, especially when moving your mouse. Here's the short patch notes:

• Fixed a memory leak that occurred every time the mouse was moved.
• Included a version checking dialog that gives the user better feedback when they're attempting to run EVE on an unsupported version of Mac OS X.
• Implemented a small engine update that increases performance.

CCP has put out a warning players of a phishing attempt, using its in-game "EVE Mail" system. The message falsely claims to be from EVE's customer support team, saying that account security has been compromised. The message then asks players to log into a fake version of the EVE Online website.

The full warning given by CCP can be found here.

The application period for for the Council of Stellar Management election has concluded, and CCP has released the results of the application process. According to a dev blog entry, 56 applications were received and 16 were rejected due to reasons such as passport issues and EULA violations. Three females and 37 males are running, and the candidates are all between the ages of 21 and 53.

For those who don't know, the CSM is a group of gamers that brings suggestions for game improvements to CCP. You can check out this article to see how the last two CSMs fared with having their suggestions implemented.

The election process will begin on May 5 and polls will be open until May 19. The list of applicants can be viewed here.