PVE Overview
Pax Dei is not about the Hero’s Journey. It’s not about grinding to max level. The story nor the game make anyone the Hero. The hero that matters is the one who is a hero in the minds of other players. The one who uses his time, effort, and skills for the good of his fellow players.
PvE is very free form and open. There will be large open and deadly dungeons. There will be raid targets. When it comes to PvE the game is not going to make any promises about whether you will succeed or not. Pax Dei is not going to tell you how many people you need to bring. You can go anywhere, with any number of people and try and try again. If you prefer to just be a master crafter in your village and never venture out, then that is possible too and will be just as important in fact as other activities. There are always tradeoffs naturally.
No NPCs?
Pax Dei won’t be a traditional MMORPG with NPC cities, NPC quest givers, NPC vendors. Instead, the players will build the towns, handle trading, handle crafting. This is not to say there will be no quest-like content. The world is filled with lore and mysteries that require exploration, deduction, and collaboration. Mysteries and clues will be found by examining the world, finding notes and researching discarded books or artifacts. Players will unlock recipes and clues that lead them to dungeons or treasures. Following the clues will lead you to rare content and rewards that would otherwise remain hidden from you.
Starting Characters
You will start the game with nothing in a zone protected by one of the gods. As you explore a procedurally aided open world and collect resources, you can build a home. You will start with two empty hands, but you will be surrounded by everything you need to get started. You will make simple tools, simple weapons, simple clothes and you will take it from there.
The developers of Pax Dei want to eliminate the massive gear grind that is necessary before new players can even try to play together with their friends who are already established in game. New players will be able to make a meaningful impact in PVE when playing with their more experienced friends, but having high skills will give an advantage and specially a wide variety of strategies against different enemy types. This doesn’t mean that playing the game does not give you an advantage. New players won’t be equal in terms of damage output, and that doesn’t mean a new player can fill any role or replace a player who has been playing for longer. It just means that a new player can help and have a compelling experience, but there’s plenty of stuff to achieve and unlock by playing more.
Death Penalty
While Mainframe is not ready to discuss death penalties yet they have said the mechanics should motivate the players not to die without killing the desire to continue playing.
Inventory
The inventory backpack fill is based on the amount of inventory slots filled. There won’t be a Tetris like system similar to Diablo or Tarkov where you have to angle certain items to fit.