As Pax Dei Early Access Starts Tomorrow, New Roadmap Shows Of How Much Work Still Remains To Be Completed

Fans of sandbox, player-driven MMOs have been eagerly awaiting getting more time in Pax Dei. The betas were well received by those that love gathering and building, and a recent contest showed of just how robust the building system can be. Last week, we covered a post from the team specifically detailing what Pax Dei will not be. Don't expect theme park elements, don't expect arrows over peoples' heads, and get ready to explore things yourself if you want to figure out the mysteries of the game's world.

Today, a new roadmap shifts the focus to what Pax Dei is...or more accurately, what the team at Mainframe Industries hopes the game can be in the future.

Early access for Pax Dei starts tomorrow, June 18th. When it does, you'll be able to gather, build, and explore. This early access period will last at least a year, currently planned to run until June 2025, at the earliest.

Why does a game need a year-long early access? Quite a few reasons, it would seem. While the team talks about how well building is doing and how much more will be added to that system, it also takes a dive into other key aspects of Pax Dei: combat and making the game feel like a real civilization.

This is where you may be right to have concerns, hell, the team has them, too. On the combat front, Pax Dei has PvE and PvP content, kinda. The team knows this is probably the largest area of work and it won't be easy or fast. They want combat to have a high skill celling, be balanced, and work for single players exploring and groups diving into dungeons. They recognize that it isn't there yet, not even close. They also advise that the PvP currently in the MMO is a test implementation. It's "fun", but not where it needs to be yet.

On the civilization front, gold will be coming back to the game. This makes sense in an almost totally player-driven economy. Why farm materials if you can't sell them after you're done with them? Baseline clans are in the game now, but again, not where they need to be and this will be another huge focus over the next few months.

It actually makes me a little bit nervous looking at the list. I understand the team wants players involved in the creation of Pax Dei, but I feel like there's always that fine line. If you enter early access too early, you always run the risk of turning players off because there's not enough content...despite it being "early access."

We'll see how things start off tomorrow!