Dominus

"Dominus is a science fiction MMO with three different factions. Each homeworld is safe from attack, but the rest of the galaxy is open to all for exploration and battle." 

Whilst searching the outer rim of the universe for a new MMORPG to play I came across a post by a popular blogger I read detailing Dominus. Now at first I wasn't sucked in thinking "holy crap balls what a game!", but a few of the headlines increased my interest exponentially.

1. 3 Playable Factions - Now this made me excited [but, obviously in a non mis-construable way] as it's been WELL overdue and the fact that a developer, PitchBlack Games in Dominus's case have realised how competitive and engaging Dark Age of Camelot was back in early 2000 with 3 realms was very exciting indeed.
2. Crafting that actually has a use - Now with the majority of MMO's nowadays their crafting systems  tend to be more of an afterthought that's bolted on doesn't really add a huge amount to the excitement of the game, as the best stuff is found on end-game bosses. Step up, Dominus whose crafting system is going to scrub that and allow the players to craft the best armour, weapons etc in the game (yes, better than the boss drops). Now for the DAoC players out there this won't be something revolutionary, however it's certainly another tick in the box for me.
3. Huge RvR battles - Not a huge amount of information has been released regarding how the RvR will really work, and the game is in closed beta I believe so it's obviously subject to a lot of change. That being said however the developers (I hear) are huge DAoC fans so that's bodes well and I assume is the reason for the 3 faction system and USEFUL crafting.

There are also other teasers of information to get thinking about too, including a huge universe with 11 worlds,  GM driven content, bounty hunting and strategic bases to contest and use to fight the other realms.

The bounty system sounds very interesting, and it makes me think of SWG (before it was ruined, god bless it's soul) and selecting a bounty from a terminal and heading off to hunt said bounty for a reward, whether that be a real player or an NPC. At the time of going to press (I've always wanted to say that) anyone will be able to put a bounty on anyone's head, so that annoying little sod of a stealther that has killed you 5 times in a row is about to be hunted by other players - mwhahaha!

It all sounds good to me, with the one downside being that it's due for release sometime in 2012, however I wouldn't be surprised if it slipped.

For lots of other Dominus goodness including their forums go here.

Ish