Overview
Pax Dei is a vast social sandbox massive multiplayer online game being developed in Unreal Engine 5.1. The game is inspired by the legends of the medieval era. Here myths are real, ghosts exist, and magic is unquestioned. Immerse yourself along with thousands of other players as you explore the land, build your home, forge your reputation and craft your own stories.
Solo Play
Pax Dei is designed so that you can play with friends or you can play alone and take your time doing things that you want to do. There will be soft incentives to cooperating (trading with other players) but none of it will be forced. Surviving alone is more difficult, but nothing forces you to interact with other players. It is important to have the proper expectations for your gameplay. Can you explore the most dangerous parts of dungeons? Probably not, but you can have other types of adventurers. You can also do things on your own like crafting goods and selling them.
Casuals
Pax Dei is also being built around the idea of casual players.
Players who want to make a home, grow things, forage, hunt, chase things that go bump in the night, and be known for producing the best sausage in the valley? Players who want to play a bit every now and then and mostly in a low intensity setting? Yes, this is something that Mainframe Industries is trying to cater to.
Players that want to log in once a week and do hardcore raiding or high adrenaline PVP for a few hours? This might be a little harder, but Mainframe is trying to accommodate that playstyle as well via a couple of different methods. The first, is a real non-abstract solution. If all the items in a game are tradable, then as you have a friend who needs a leg up, you simply give them the gear they need, and now you go and adventure together. Additionally, if you include horizontal progression, where it is easy to become good at one thing but it takes a long time to become good in all things, anyone can become an important part of a company, casuals and new players alike.
Most of the time games are about escapism and the developers at Mainframe want Pax Dei to feel like home, even if it has been a while since you visited it the last time. They feel it is important to not punish people for not having as much time to play as others. Everyone should be able to enjoy the game with the time they have available but that doesn’t mean it’s away from mastery and commitment. It’s about allowing to take your time to do things slowly - enjoying the journey - or being more active and committed and be able to do very specific things that really take time and effort to do.
Gear
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.