Pax Dei and the current state of the game - Opinions and feelings vs Facts

[Kerpal]

Hello Paxians, hello to all others,

I think this thread and the information that we can gather together will be important for players who like to play Pax Dei and motivate them to keep playing rather than stop, for those who complain, and for players who might want to buy the game. I want to give all players the opportunity to read and discuss the criticism, feelings, opinions and facts that can be found here on the Steam Forum on a daily basis. I’ll just try to counter a few examples of criticism with facts and everyone is welcome to add more and vice versa, of course.
Let’s bring some light to the dark. Maybe in the end everyone can create a long list for himself with the truth about the current state of the game.

Let me start:

1. The current number of players for the game is insufficient, leading to a decline in activity as the Steam charts show and will destroy the game soon! <-- It´s still EA. If the Devs brings out an update including substantial content and thoughtful improvements then it lead fast to higher numbers. Returning players will return and new buyers will be generated automaticly.

2. The game is an endless grind and I'm not enjoying it. <-- If grind is your problem then you shouldn't play grind-heavy games. In addition the publishers have said they'll be tweaking things and adding more solo playable content. Also, try to find contacts or any guild that can help you in the group content or trade important items with till they added the trading system.

3. The game is a scam. I can see this already! <-- You only know it's a scam when the publisher stops patching, doesn't deliver content and shuts down the servers.

4. The game will get a subscription model. I don't like it and when it comes then I quit!
<-- It's not 100% yet whether a subscription model will come yet. The Devs said they are thinking about this option.

5. The game has bought UE5 assets from the shop. <-- Make a proof video of which sets exactly have been bought. Just because you buy assets doesn't mean it has to be absolutely bad and will be a scam. A good combination of both can work, right?!

6. If the Devs delete my plot I will quit the game! <-- The requirements to delete a plot are very fair. Anyone can log into the game and make a quick tweak. If not of course it´s your own fault. Just do something.

7. The developers take too long for new content and patches. <-- The studio is very, very small, and everyone should have been aware of that. Besides, content and improvements just take time. If they come fast and are not good then you will cry too, right?!

8. I have constant PC crashes and disconnection <-- Strangely, on my PC everything always runs with every game. I haven't had a crash after almost 100 hours in Pax Dei. Buy yourself better hardware, many companies just build cheap junk, that's a fact.
The studio can't do anything for your cheap junk hardware. If you have problems with good hardware then update all your drivers correctly. Maybe there are other problems. Get smart on the Pax Dei Discord or write a ticket. Sometimes the problem lies behind the screen.

9. There's not enough solo content in the game. <-- The game was never designed to be a full solo game. Nevertheless, it's possible to play the game solo. In addition here's the thing: The studio is listening to the community and will soon deliver more solo content.

10. There is no trading system yet that’s why I quit now! <-- The Devs are working on a trading system and it will come into play soon. You already want to trade now? As I´ve mentioned above, find yourself players and guilds and trade Mats for Mats now. What’s the problem? If you still want to quit then quit and then check back in later if it fits or not.

--> These are now the first 10 things that have come to my mind which I see and read over and over again. As I said I don’t know everyone. You are welcome to go ahead with the list.
Personally I like playing Pax Dei at the moment and I think that game has potential. We should just give the Devs some time and then we’ll see!
And folks, stop with these many questionable, sometimes stupid, and childish comments here, please. We're not in kindergarten, are we?

Greetings goes out to everyone! Yes, also to the Haters, also to the Screamers, and yep, also to the liars!

PEACE

[KapyongFY]

Gday all,
I happen to like exploring, gathering, crafting in large beautiful worlds - having a great time in Pax Dei, but I can see there's not much to do after building my home. Very few people on my server, little chance of group dungeoneering.

I think it was a mistake to EA at this stage - an MMO needs a critical mass of players to survive, and right now there is not enough, and it's falling.

Each patch with new features will bring a burst of some players to check it out, then it'll fade away again.

At release 1.0 they might wipe, which will annoy those with large built plots; or they won't wipe, annoying those looking for somewhere to build. Lose-lose.

Would have been better to release a complete game with a virgin world to attract as many as possible at the same time so as to reach the MMO critical mass.

[KapyongFY]

BTW -
I'd hardly call it a small team, IIRC they said 60 core team, maybe 100 total ?

Compare -

Embers Adrift : 6 core team, 10 total

LOTRO : 600+ total (I counted the credits)

[Menzagitat]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Kapyong:

Gday all,
I happen to like exploring, gathering, crafting in large beautiful worlds - having a great time in Pax Dei, but I can see there's not much to do after building my home. Very few people on my server, little chance of group dungeoneering.

I think it was a mistake to EA at this stage - an MMO needs a critical mass of players to survive, and right now there is not enough, and it's falling.

Each patch with new features will bring a burst of some players to check it out, then it'll fade away again.

At release 1.0 they might wipe, which will annoy those with large built plots; or they won't wipe, annoying those looking for somewhere to build. Lose-lose.

Would have been better to release a complete game with a virgin world to attract as many as possible at the same time so as to reach the MMO critical mass.

Those large buildings were build by streamers and their followers in a short time.
They don't feel they lost time, they wait for reasons to play and the final wipe was announced before release. Also intermediate wipes were mentioned as possible, due to map rework, or character wipes due to skill rework.
Losing buildings has more impact onto solo players, who in my opinion should not try to play the game at this stage even if it is possible. The game is supposed to be fun at 1.0.

The critical mass should come alive when they add markets and better combat and some content, whatever they plan to add and don't tell us.
The current emptiness was predictable already when they decided back in January to release with only the building part, without the other features.

[Menzagitat]

I see on Steamdb that the player count has reached comparable number with Mortal Online 2. Maybe it has 50% more given that some people play the non-Steam launcher.
But those players distributed on many servers is a bad thing.
I really want to know what somebody in the dev team was thinking when he decided the game features.

Devs know what they work on. If that is just a normal update, without markets and something more (better combat) then ... I don't know.
I wanted to give some suggestions but I removed them because none was good.

Maybe being more open and face the reality and tell us exactly a detailed roadmap until 1.0 and reasoning would help.
I want to see discussions about how planned game mechanics will work.

At least people should have a clear image about how the game will be at 1.0.

[Balmung]

I simply will wait an see what happens while they develop the game further to it's full release. Then we will see more and more where the journey is going. Right now, I don't really care. All this speculation, all these haters and naysayers are just making it all exhausting.

Pax Dei isn't the only game on the market, there are enough other games to play until Pax Dei is ready and playing a few games here and there to see what has changed is enough.

You don't have to make a living out of Pax Dei now, especially not before it's clear that you'll end up with a good MMO that you really want to play extensively in the long term and invest your own not endless lifetime in. Know one know yet, included the developers, if Pax Dei will be in the end a good MMO, we can all only hope that all comes right together and forms a good MMO.

Personally, I can't complain, if I go purely by playing time, I've already had more fun with PxD than with NewWorld. However, NewWorld may have been more fun at times, but the fun was over very quickly towards the endgame. I've stopped playing PxD more and more every day for weeks now, but I still play for a few hours (~3-5h) every now and then, advance the crafting, rebuild something here and there, etc. With New World it ended rather abruptly. And from my personal experience, I can say that I tend to return to games more likely if I don't end so abruptly.

A lot need to be changed, but there are also some things I already like about PxD + the vision of the game itself. Also I don't expect the perfect MMO for me, I gave that thinking up a long time ago and realized that playing games always means that I, as a player, have to adapt to the game in order to have the most fun with it and not be constantly complaining because it's not the way I want it to be. At the end we play what a game developer made and how he thinks his game is fun to play. Games are not made for us, but for everyone, and everyone has different opinions. It's absolute impossible to create a game that everyone likes in every aspect.

[LucasR]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Kapyong:

"I think it was a mistake to EA at this stage"

Absolutely, this massive mistake might end up being their downfall unfortunately.