Future Updates will be at https://paxdeimmo.wiki/index.php
NEW Information
The latest information updates can always be found in the Pax Dei Blog Posts section, and I also update this page with that information, about once a week right now.
Accompanying Video
Studio, Funding, and Inspiration of Pax Dei
Studio
Pax Dei (Divine Peace) is an upcoming Sandbox “Cloud Native” MMORPG being developed by a new Nordic studio called Mainframe and is currently using Unreal Engine 5.1. They are partnered with Dreamhaven as well.
Funding
They are a very well-funded project that has raised more than 31 million dollars from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Riot Games.
Inspiration
The developers have a lot of experience in previous MMOs, with EVE Online being the most prominent, and you can definitely feel the influence of EVE on this game. This quote from Amrun talks about the games that have inspired Pax Dei the most.
Having said all this, I can mention a few games that have been inspiring:
Amrun-Developer
– EVE Online – the emergent patterns of social and political groups and structures
– Valheim – Creation of home/base/bat-cave and the joy and comfort that brings
– EverQuest – early open world static dungeon gameplay (think Sebilis for example) and the nice and cozy feeling of tucking away somewhere with your group of friends , camping stuff.
– Ultima Online – some social aspects and PvP elements.
And again, this long post from Amrun talks about the influence of EVE and the sandbox elements that might also be present in Pax Dei.
The Lore, Story, and The Setting of Pax Dei
The world of Pax Dei is said to be inspired by the legends of the medieval era(see the video description here). The developers want the world to have a more “grounded” and “realistic” feel, but in this case, magic is a real part of this world. It is confirmed to be a low-fantasy setting.
The player will not be the central focus of the story, they will not be the “HERO” of the world as we have seen in most modern MMOs. To become a hero, you will have to become a hero in the eyes of other players.
Immersion and the feeling of the world being real are a big part of what the developers want with this world.
They intend to have a lot of books containing lore, quests, treasure locations, etc.
RP Mechanics such as Transmog, Dice Rolling, Emotes, etc. will be in the game.
The Map
The size of the world is said to be very large. The world is divided into provinces, each of which is 100 square kilometers. There are MANY provinces, and each has it’s own map. Not all locations will have a map, however. There is an in-game map in the UI. The map is said to not be highly granular and will be missing some details. It will be on the players to fill in the details.
The developers want the size and scale of the world to matter and they want distances to matter for crafting, gathering, and building, but they also want players to be able to play together and not have to travel for hours to meet up. In the recently updated FAQ, they further mentioned that they want players to be able to play together, but they also want the distance to matter for other aspects of the game.
Players will start their journey in Pax Dei in an area called the Heartlands. This is an area that is a PVP safe zone and is at a higher elevation from which players can see a long ways. Anything the player can see, they can get to from these areas. The further you venture from the Heartlands, the greater the dangers. These dangers might include stronger NPC enemies and they could include PVP areas potentially, but the exact PVP system is still unknown. There are multiple “Heartlands” safe areas on the map, not just in the starting area. Many of the Heartlands seem to be in the “valleys”, and near the center of the world.
Servers and Instancing
The World of Pax Dei will be broken up into individual shards, but the aim according to MMORPG.com is for the total player count per shard to be 20K per shard. From Discord, we also see that they say it will be bigger than 5K at a minimum. Technology is in place to stitch servers together for various parts of the land. Spire one of the developers on the official Discord mentioned that each server might host a specific patch of land, and when you move to a different patch of land you might go to another server. But, in essence, there will still be separate servers, the stitching is a technical thing to decrease each server’s load.
There are no instances in Pax Dei. The entire game is an open world. There will probably be no RP Servers and the developers have plans to deal with overcrowded streamer servers.
The Building of the World (By Both Players and Devs)
As a sandbox MMO, players will set the tone for how a server develops. Players will craft the best gear and, players will build all the cities and towns in the game. Quest Giver NPC’s will not be present, Quests will be delivered via notes found on items and other areas of the world. But the player stories regarding both cooperation and conflict can create incredible stories that live on for a long time, similar to what we have seen in EVE Online.
The developers want players to be able to do whatever they want, and not be led down a linear progression path. They want solo and casual players to have a place in this world as well, and not only be a home for the hardcore players. They want the journey to matter and the game to not only be focused on the end game.
The world is being developed using a semi-procedural approach. Developers still have some input, but some of the terrain and world-building is done procedurally to speed up the development of the world. The visuals of the world use a modular approach, which can give the players a tremendous amount of agency when crafting and building in the world. The developers are building the game for change and expansion. The developers are building an Ambient Audio System that changes based on the environment and blends different audio tracks together based on what is happening in the area.
Magic and Disease
Magic does exist in the world, and it takes on more forms than just in combat. Disease in the world of Pax Dei might take on “magical” forms. Players will not be able to create their own spells.
UI, Voice Chat, Addons, APIs
UI Customization is planned, but they also want the default UI to be really good as well. Depth of Field will be changeable. In Game Proximity Voice Chat not likely, instead we might see an invite-only Voice Chat. Further comments on proximity chat here. The only thing they have said about UI mods is any mods cannot give an unfair advantage to those that do not have the mod or addon. This doesn’t confirm or deny add-on support. On Dataming. Datamining is bad, players experimenting and finding things out on their own in the game is good.
Platforms
The game is initially being developed to run on PC and launch on steam, but the ultimate goal is to have a cloud-based client that easily runs on any device. The game is already running on other platforms, such as mobile. VR Support is not likely.
Monetization, In-Game Currencies, RMT, Etc.
No Pay to Win Not much else is currently known, but the developers have talked about it a little in these two posts: Post 1 Post 2 This is not a confirmation of anything, but this is the devs comments on currencies like PLEX from EVE Online. Further comments on PLEX HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Character Customization
There is a lot of character customization according to the devs. All players will play as humans.
Combat, Camera Perspective, and Death
Combat
The combat shown in the trailer is placeholder. Combat is action-based, but is more strategic than reactive and it is directional and gear matters. Player knowledge plays a role in combat mastery. A stamina meter was mentioned in the PCGamer article, and is confirmed to be the main combat resource. Using a weapon increases your proficiency with it over time. Weapon swapping is confirmed, and main and off-hand weapons are confirmed. Weapons will have different attack rates and damage based on their size. Charging your shot is a thing. Gathering Tools can be used as a weapon if needed.
Magic combat is in the game, but it is a process to acquire and use it. You don’t create a spellcaster, you become a spellcaster. There will be different schools of magic, and some Magic uses reagents.
Hitboxes are the same size, despite players being able to create different-sized characters. Projectile physics including gravity are confirmed. The developers are considering ways to account for server lag with projectile collision detection.
Gear is the main source of abilities/spells
Camera Perspective
The Camera Perspective is 3rd Person, but players can zoom in quite a bit.
Death
Death will have consequences but will not be so harsh to discourage players.
Classes, Leveling, and Skills
Pax Dei is not a class-based game, instead, your “class” is chosen based on your gear choices. Similar to New World or Throne and Liberty. There are 8 slots on the action bar, but it is not known how many skills a player will be able to slot. Leveling is based on progressing your skills and equipping different weapons and armor, and there are NOT player levels.
New player experience without a lot of quests? New players will be able to make a meaningful contribution no matter the gameplay area they engage in, and will be able to quickly equip decent gear. The New player experience is currently pretty good according to the developers. Leveling is fairly quick without the need for grinding
The game does have a holy trinity.
One character might be able to learn every skill and master every crafting profession, but that might not really benefit them that much. However, despite this new players will still have a big role, because each player has a limited amount of building plots.
Alts will not be hindered despite being able to master everything on one character(potentially), because most gear is freely tradeable, and housing plots can be shared with your alts.
PVE and Endgame
PVE does exist in the heartlands. Solo Play is feasible. Can’t do everything, but you can still do a lot.
As already said, there are no quest NPCs, but there are enemy NPCs. Eventually, some interactable friendly NPCs might be added but they are not currently in the game. Dungeons are confirmed. Raiding is also confirmed. The main attraction of PVE is adventuring.
Dungeons explained by a dev. The dungeons are very large and open-world and heavily inspired by Everquest. Dungeons are mysterious and dangerous. Mastering them will take experimentation and practice. NO INSTANCES CONFIRMED BY A DEV! All dungeons and the entire game is in the open world. Dungeons will have to be replayed many times. Ninja-loot protections will be in place.
Survival Game Mechanics like hunger and thirst appear to not be present, food and drink appear to instead be for buffs. Torches and Campfires will have various beneficial effects
Some “reputations” with NPC factions might be in the game. Some in-game organizations might be supported, and some might be developed by the players.
Pax Dei is not about the rush to the end game, the journey matters.
PVP
PVP “Opting-in” will not be PURELY ZONE BASED, as recently made clear in the updated official FAQ section of the official discord. And there is “value loss in PVP“. There is also a method for players to choose how much they want to risk for greater rewards. My best guess as to what this means is that players can choose which items they drop on a PVP death when opting in, and depending on the tier and amount of items selected that will boost the drop tables in PVE and gathering, as well as maybe XP gain and other benefits, a corresponding amount to how much risk the player chooses to take.
The heartlands areas are free of PVP, but outside the heartlands, players can choose how much they want to risk.
The developers have stated that Opting-In to PVP will be made very clear to players. Consensual PVP does not mean instanced battleground type of PVP. The developers want there to be Risk to Reward tied to the PVP system. They also want the PVP to be geared towards player politics, with the PVE more about adventuring. In-Game politics will be supported. The developers are also confident that the system will please both PVE and PVP players. All players can benefit from the results of PVP encounters, even non-PVPers (Note: I take this to mean your clan might get buffs or rewards for winning battles, similar to how DaoC approached it.
At least for now, the developers are not considering separate PVE and PVP ruleset servers.
Will there be large engagements in Pax Dei? This does not confirm or deny anything with Pax Dei but one of the developers prefers smaller-scale engagements
Player collision is on in PVP areas, but not in PVE areas except when both players are wielding a weapon is a recent change they have made.
It sounds like a built-in bounty system will likely not be in the game, as that reduces the chance of emergent gameplay.
Crafting, Gathering, Player Run Businesses, Building
Crafting
As already stated, players will make the best gear. Being a sandbox MMO with EVE Online roots, I would expect a lot of professions and a deep crafting system. So far we have seen a gathering profession, a mining pick on the hot bars, a hammer that could be a blacksmithing hammer or a weapon, and some sort of potion that presumably is player crafted. And from Discord, it appears Brewing is very likely. Mining, lumbering, gathering, and farming are all confirmed. Mushrooms and Reeds have been seen as gatherable’s in the world. Fiber, Mushrooms, Berries, Meat, Hide, Bones, and Lumber have been seen in the inventory. Crafting benches have also been seen, and they appear to have a tier system. The crafting system is built with a modular design that allows for high customizability by the players.
Crafting is a major part of the game and economy, players can make it the main thing they do in the game. Players cannot master all professions, but some will go well together. Some crafting is skill-based(Crafting mini-games?), and some are time/process based. Flowers are A BIG part of the crafting system. Very few recipes will not involve Floura or Fungi. Discovery is a part of crafting. Player Names might be on some Crafted Gear.
Reliance on other players is a thing. You cannot do everything yourself.
Food and drinks are made and traded by the players themselves.
Musical Instruments might be in the game.
The developers have plans to deal with server lag from players having huge inventories of crafting materials.
Time gating seems to be a thing for crafting and other aspects of the game.
Gathering
Gathering is a “Non-System” system. Anything you see you can gather. (NOTE: Does this mean everyone can gather everything, not just those that select certain gathering skills?) Fishing is confirmed. Low-level resources will retain value.
Trade Runs MIGHT be more of an organic thing and not a built-in system
Player-run Businesses
Player-run businesses are a thing. Player shops are also a thing.
Building
As stated before, players will build all the housing, cities, and towns in the game. Buildings will get damaged and wear out and need to be repaired. There is room for everyone to build in the world, but some areas might be better than others. Like the crafting system, the building system is HIGHLY customizable. Players will need to own a plot to build on, and if the plot does not exist then the building will start to decay. If a structure is abandoned, it will become a free for all, meaning the world will not be filled with abandoned buildings. Buildings can be moved by the players as well, and there are many reasons why the players might want to do that. There will not be terraforming of the land.
Players will not build roads at least for now, but maybe in the future. The roads will be built by the developers.
Players will have to experiment to find the best ways to build. The building system has been described as similar to Valheim. Structural limitations will be in place, based on physics. There will not be a test mode to test your structures. You can share your plots and build together with other players and doing so will have some advantages, the main being that your normally round plot will become a square plot when connected to another player’s plot, thereby giving more space to build! Buildings in the heartlands will be completely safe, in other areas they might not be. Building in the Heartlands will be forgiving. As for the best location to build, the best place to build will be wherever your friends are!
Underground structures will exist but will not be man-made.
Gearing, Inventory, Storage, and Consumables
Gearing
Power is not based on gear score, but gear will matter. Gear will take damage and wear out over time and need to be repaired. This wear is visible on the gear’s model in the game. Gear has tiers. All items are FREELY TRADEABLE. You must build your own storage! Gear slots seen so far (copied from THIS REDDIT POST) 1 Head, 1 Shoulders, 3 Chest, 1 Gloves, 2 Pants, 1 Shoes, 1 Earrings, 1 Cloak, 1 Necklace, 2 (I assume) wristbands, 3 rings. There will be reasons to retire your gear.
PVE Players can get the best gear in the game without engaging in PVP, and PVP is not forced.
Using the “best” gear might not always be optimal. For some simpler encounters, you might want to use lower-tier gear. There is no “best” gear. Gear is dependent on the encounter. Gear will be best for a specific thing in game. Supply/demand can drastically affect the value of gear.
Players can equip any gear, but without the skills in that gear, you may not be effective with it.
The developers want to eliminate the massive gear grind before new players can even try to play together with their friends.
Some potions will have gameplay effects.
The developers want food and consumables to be really meaningful, but don’t want them to be a nuisance
Inventory
Inventory is slot-based. No item Tetris like in ARPGs. We have seen 24 “bag” slots. The developers want the inventory to matter more for crafting materials, building, and trading than they do for Gear and things needed for PVE (Separate inventory for gear and consumables?)
Storage
Players build their own storage, and that storage can be set to public. Players can set many different permissions on their storage, such as clan, specific people, or public.
Mounts and Pets
Mounts
Pets
Animals are an integral part of the gameplay. The interactions go well beyond the kill on sight of animals. The specifics of this are still not known.
Here is another dev post with similar information.
Clans, Religion, Weddings, and Other Social Orgs
Clans
The game has a clan system which has been seen in the UI from the gameplay videos.
Devs don’t want to dictate the size of clans, inter-clan connections/alliances are being considered.
Religion
Religions were mentioned in both the MMORPG article and hinted at in the Discord Rules. Religion is confirmed by this Discord Post, and it seems to have a big role in the game as well.
Weddings
Player Weddings sounds like it might be more of a player-driven thing, with housing, churches, and all the available role-playing elements available. But the devs are considering some in-game functionality, POTENTIALLY, as well.
Testing, Server Regions, and Languages
Testing
Some smaller-scale invite-only tests have already happened, and sign-ups for bigger tests are said to be happening “soon”. There will be wipes during testing. As for an NDA/Streaming during Alpha, no answer just yet. Answer two: LINK
Invite Testing is still months away. Friend Codes for the Alpha allow players to hopefully get invited to the same test(My Friend Code is Aetherius)
Starting zone for the Alpha: Gallia, which is divided into several heartland provinces such as Merrie and Kerys
Languages and Regions
They intend to launch in South America and support as many regions as possible.
The game is initially going to be translated into English, French, and German. Future languages will be considered based on community feedback.
Miscellaneous
Sailing/Naval
Lakes and Rivers are confirmed. Ships and boats are not likely in the initial release, but there is some gameplay involving the water.
Twitch Integrations and Cloud Gaming (Highly Speculative Based on the Thor Gunnarsson Interview)
Potentially there might be some integrations that allow spectators on Twitch to quickly jump into the Cloud Based Client and start playing at that location. This might also suggest fast travel. Again, this is highly speculative based on this interview at these timestamps:
Updates, New Trailers?
When the Alpha gets closer we will see that.
