Last week CCP announced the 11th expansion for Eve Online, Dominion will be making its way into players hands this winter. Of course, inquiring minds wanted to know more so we caught up with Lead Content Designer, Scott Holden at PAX to do just that.

ZAM: What is Dominion all about and where is it taking EVE Online?

Scott Holden: Well, we have changes to sovereignty coming in; the first stage of a series of introduced steps on sovereignty should probably happen over the course of the next year and half—it's a long-term project. We [also] have some new balancing for capital ships, more epic mission content coming and the cosmos, which is essentially a new communications platform inside the game. It's basically taking the email system the way it is now—chat channels will still exist, as far as I know at this point—but basically making it much easier for people inside the game to communicate with other people. You can kind of think of it like Facebook inside EVE.

ZAM: What about some of the pirate epic mission arcs, can you tell us about those?

UPDATE: The deployment of Apocrypha 1.5.1 has been delayed until Thursday, Sept. 10.

EVE Online Apocrypha 1.5.1 will be implemented tomorrow, Sept. 9, in an attempt to fully eliminate client-server simulation desync issues. The patch also contains a handful of other fixes. For example, 1.5.1 makes it "possible to shoot objects that are 0 meters away with turrets, and hit them."

Apcrypha 1.5.1 is scheduled to be deployed between 8 a.m. and noon GMT tomorrow. You can find the full patch notes below.

The first qualifying round for the seventh EVE Online Alliance Tournament was held over the weekend and the results are now available, both in list and video form. Here's all the links you need to catch up on the first qualifier: "official match results are available, along with the team rankings and the schedule for Qualifying Round Two. Full video replays of all matches are available on CCP’s YouTube channel (playlists: Saturday and Sunday). Full match reports and other statistics have been compiled by the Interstellar Correspondents and are available on their website."

The second qualifying round will be held this weekend from Sept. 12-13, paving the way for the finals Sept. 19-20. As we've reported, the finals will be broadcast on EVE TV in high definition. Check out the teaser trailer to see what the footage will look like in HD. If you use Twitter, be sure to follow the EVE Tournament feed for up-to-the-minute news during each round.

The Penny Arcade Expo kicks off tomorrow to begin a weekend full of gaming, and members of the ZAM staff are currently on their way to Seattle to bring you exclusive coverage of the festival. In case you're unfamiliar with PAX, the event was created by Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik to focus on tabletop, console and PC games. The first PAX was held in 2004 and has exponentially grown in popularity. In fact, this year's convention has already sold out.

That's where we come in. If you're not able to attend PAX, then we want to bring PAX to you. You can check out all of our news from the floor on our PAX news page, which is also accessible via a banner on ZAM.com. To be honest, our schedule is packed. We'll provide you with news on Aion, EVE Online, Global Agenda, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons: Eberron Unlimited, Star Trek Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Warhammer Online, League of Legends and more. MMOs certainly have a strong presence at the festival, so keep an eye on our coverage for updates from our team in Seattle.

Our readers on the East Coast may be happy to hear that PAX East will be held in Boston from March 26-28, 2010, marking the first time the Penny Arcade Expo will be held outside of Washington. While it's exciting to have another PAX to look forward to, we're completely focused on this weekend.

The seventh EVE Online Alliance Tournament begins this weekend with the first round of qualifiers, and there's a multitude of ways you can listen in to all the excitement. If you plan on playing EVE this weekend, just join the chat channel "Alliance Tournament" and select "Join Audio"to hear the commentary while you play. If you can't log in, you can listen to the live commentary feed on EVERADIO, Split Infinity Radio and New Eden Radio.

The second qualifying round will be held Sept. 12-13, and then the final weekend will be shown live on EVE TV from Sept. 19-20. EVE TV will be broadcast in high definition for the first time to give you a crystal clear view of the PvP action, and it will be broadcast in standard definition as well. You can even view a new teaser trailer to see what the tournament coverage will look like in HD on your screen.

To say CCP has been busy these days would be an understatement. DUST 514, an MMOFPS set within the EVE Online universe, was recently announced at the Game Developers Conference Europe in Germany. Apocrypha 1.5, an EVE mini-expansion, was just released on Aug. 20. And let's not forget the company is preparing for the Penny Arcade Expo, Dragon*Con, the Austin Game Developers Conference and the seventh EVE Online Alliance Tournament in September, as well as Fanfest 2009 in October (which is where we'll get more details on DUST 514).

Well, if all that wasn't enough, CCP just announced the company will be launching Dominion, the 11th free EVE expansion, this winter around the release of "The Burning Life" novel by Hjalti Daníelsson. Keep reading after the jump for more information on the expansion that will change the end game for EVE Online, and keep an eye out for more Dominion details this fall in dev blogs and at Fanfest.

EVE Fanfest 2009 is scheduled to be held from Oct. 1-3 in Iceland, but CCP is using the convention season as a way to prepare for the big event. To that end, EVE Online will have a presence at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle from Sept. 4-6, Dragon*Con in Atlanta from Sept. 4-7, and the Game Developers Conference Austin from Sept. 15-18.

If you can't make it to Iceland in October, you still have a chance to get your EVE convention fix this year. According to the announcement by CCP Manifest, PAX is "one of our favorite shows each year, bringing the unbridled enthusiasm of video games to the downtown area." So if you plan on attending, make sure you stop by the CCP booth and enjoy some PvP at the stations.

Apocrypha 1.5 launched on Aug. 20 and the mini-expansion includes four new epic mission arcs for each of the four main Empire factions. CCP Jasonitas has written a dev blog entry outlining these four arcs and lists some points you should keep in mind before diving into these missions.

These epic arcs are a a bit harder than level 4 missions in difficulty. "You are playing an immersive story, with dramatic arcs, unique characters, and an ebb and flow of dramatic events," Jasonitas said. "You, as a player, are engaging in a persistent story handed to you by characters with motivations, desires, and personalities unique to them. The missions are scenes of a longer narrative, and the drama unfolds not only in the agent window, but through the action you experience in deadspace."

Check out the full dev blog entry after the jump.

UPDATE: The official press release can now be found after the jump. Also, check out two screenshots of DUST 514 in our gallery.

Our very own Andrew "Tamat" Beegle is currently at the Game Developers Conference Europe in Cologne, Germany, and CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson just announced the company's new project is DUST 514, a hybrid MMO FPS/RTS set in the EVE Online universe.

The primary features of DUST 514 include real ground combat on the surface of planets. Tamat was able to watch a trailer of the new game during the announcement, and he said it looks like a stunningly beautiful, adrenaline-fueled experience with amazing physics.

Perhaps the most exciting news surrounding DUST 514 is that gameplay on the planets in the MMOFPS can actually affect EVE Online.  This will truly give the sense that you're playing in one massive universe.

Dust 514 is being developed at the Shanghai CCP studio. Peterrsson made mention that some EVE players will understand the meaning of the 514 in the name. We'll continue to bring more DUST 514 news to you as it develops, so stay tuned.

CCP has announced that EVE Online Apocrypha 1.5 will be released on Thursday, Aug. 20. The company is calling the patch a mini-expansion, and it will include four new Epic Mission Arcs, one for each of the main Empire factions.

In addition, multi-sized rigs will be available, changes have been made to Factional warfare, and lag has been reduced. You can read more about the mini-expansion below.