Dominus Automa opens its playtest: your hero keeps grinding with the game closed

Metashift Labs opened the Dominus Automa multiplayer playtest on August 7 and keeps it running until the 23rd. It is the first public test with the persistent world actually up, and more than 6,500 people had signed up before it started. Access goes through the Steam page.

The studio pitches it as an MMO for busy adults who still want to play online but no longer have endless hours. Your character lives on the server around the clock, training, fighting, gathering and crafting with the client closed, so progress does not depend on when you can sit down.

The centerpiece is called the Combat Matrix, and it replaces direct control. That is where you define how your hero acts: health and mana thresholds for both you and your target, distance and positioning, how many enemies are nearby, ability priority and how skills chain into each other. The match is played before it starts, on the rules board.

The test caps at level 25 and includes 24 skills, ten locations, twenty enemy types and three bosses. It also adds the Paladin, a new class joining the Mage; the healer is still missing to close out the trinity. Around the automation, the game promises dungeons, guild wars and a player-driven economy.

The official store listing has it as free-to-play with in-game purchases, on PC and macOS, in seven languages including Spanish. There is no release date: the studio has not given one yet.