I came in with a small clan but they all quit on the second day. Now I'm playing solo but I'm enjoying the gathering/crafting building, so I'm staying throughout the alpha to see how far I can get by myself. My only gripe is the time sink and knowing I won't have time to test everything. Golden Company has been so helpful in-game. Great group of people!
I love the crafting system and the grind to the game so far. I dont want to run through content in a few days and then drop the game. I have over 40 hours in and what Ive built up so far I feel very proud of. Compared to other games where I can build up a camp in 1 day.
I agree i feel like i accomplish and i can see my self settling my self and defending my self from dangers that pax dei has to offer weather it be pvp or pve this is my type of game
I think spending weeks farming, gathering things, and watching your village or castle grow day by day-this is exactly what me and my group wanted. We started on EVE Online at its release as Alpha testers, spent 15 years on it, and our characters continued to progress, our empires continued to grow. That's what we want, not a game where you spend 60 euros to get end-game armor in three days and a gigantic base in 48 hours. We want to grind like crazy, farm until our hands bleed, and build our empires with the sweat of our brows so that one day we can risk everything and potentially lose it all.We are all already depressed to see this Alpha end too quickly. Release the early game and do four patches a day, but please devs let us play.
Why can't we have a game where players like you and players like me can coexist. I don't want anything handed to me , but I want options outside of just grinding. No reason why you cant build your empire and I cant go around and pick off one of your members every now and then based off skill and not just time spent on high end items.
@@theLastTruthBender Well, first of all, you're on an Alpha 2 which in my opinion will definitely be well rebalanced for the early release, and secondly, the trading potential and player market and the economy are going to be essential in this game, the potential is huge, with cities, shops, likely to be quickly deployed in early access by players. A solo player can perfectly well not build anything and sell, for example, a lot of skins to a large guild in exchange for equipment, or fiber, etc. There are surely going to be other solo activities offered since the devs have highlighted it several times in their interviews. What's certain, a bit like in EVE, is that a solo player can definitely kill a player who is farming solo, and can perfectly skill up their combat abilities, and do trading to gear up. There will likely be guilds of assassins or bandits who will quickly organize in the early stages, and if I compare it to EVE, you can have a huge empire, but you're never safe during a solo trip from encountering 2 or 3 pirate players in a PVP zone and losing everything. I'm not at all worried about this style of players, they will find their niche.
It needs vehicules (i doubt theyd make the water hurt you if boats werent on the horizon), farming, a trade system, a proper combat system and better, more intuitive UI troughout. But as you said, lots of potential! Especially for emergent gameplay
36hrs of gamelay in: Visuals 5/5 Mechanics 3/5 Depth of content 4/5 Combat 2/5 But of course this was not a game meant to be appreciated after only 36hrs
Thanks Eltarii -- I moved when they opened the new servers. No resource problems on the new one and I got to fight some boars. I'm not sweating this Alpha but so far haven't had anything beyond the initial server issues as roadblocks. Given some feedback and am composing some suggestions. Personally as a hardcore crafter I loved it except for some UI issues. I'm not a hardcore combat person but enjoyed what I got to fiddle with. My only big gripe is INVENTORY needs work.
Your channel has helped me to understand the game better. So many things that people are complaining about are just from lack of knowledge about the game. You mentioned magic spells in an earlier video and I had no idea! I hope there is a real info push in their pre-launch marketing.
Thanks so much - I appreciate that you're talking a bit faster to get into the good info you provide. If you're interested in feedback, it does seem like I have to watch 2 min of each video though before you get into the actual content so now I am just skipping ahead to your excellent info!
@1:21 I am watching, and I see my plot! 🤣Totally agree Eltari, this game holds a lot of promise! I didn't get to spend as much time in it as I wanted to working a 40 hour a week job, but for the time a spent in game, it was a lot of fun! It's an Alpha, you're right there's going to be bugs, it's a fluid situation! I can't wait to see what Mainframe is able to do with Pax Dei and getting it polished! ✌
Thanks for the vid, mate! We are so on the same page on the development of the game and also the future. Can't ait to see what EA brings to the table. 🙏
me and a few randoms for the pax dei discord ended up on Agartha...shocked to find the buildings the GC had. loving the game. I am not a PVP guy but I LIVE to collect and process. double digit blacksmithing and weapon smithing with 20/30+ levels in mining and wood chopping. very excited for the game to find more popularity and make some slight tweaks to the aspects of the game that have people less than thrilled. I am pro grind but I think a way to smelt down materials to reuse (with some net loss of materials of course) would be great. 85 useless pikes. smelt, take half the iron back and try again. or all the wood for carpentry. the endless long poles etc, let me throw them into a kiln, even if its less of a return of charcoal it will be something.
Thank you for this information, I agree that they should extend it. I can’t even get to the point of decent weapons & armor to try the combat system presently.
I 100% agree with your "the game needs a time/resource sink" argument and how it plays into the longevity of the game in response to the complaints about everything taking too much time to do. I personally do not mind if something takes a long time to achieve, **as long as the journey getting there is fun and feels rewarding**. Herein lies the problem. At the moment, the progression in crafting professions is not fun-- it's frustrating. Trivial crafts giving you 0 EXP is not fun. Crafting failures giving you 0 EXP is not fun. You can spend hours farming resources, then waiting a few more hours for them to be processed, then failing the craft attempt because the dice didn't roll in your favour. This is possibly the most unfun, frustrating, takes-me-out-of-the-game experience I've ever had in gaming. I literally wasted those hours, NOTHING was gained. "Just level up your profession level before attempting the important, expensive item" would be a good argument except the way the game is now, a lot of professions go from the previous recipe being Trivial to the next available recipe being Hard/Very hard. As you gain no EXP from Trivial crafts, this is literally impossible. I would much rather have to wait/craft twice the amount of time/resources currently required to do things in exchange for failing a recipe only half the amount of times--- even if the total amount of time required to accomplish this is the same as it currently is. Bashing your head against a wall (Hard/Very hard recipe attempt RNG) just does not feel as good as taking twice the time to farm items and being more successful in the crafting attempts. Because 1) RNG is out of your control and 2) at least when you're farming/hunting for resources you are actually interacting with the game, not sitting at a crafting station, so it's much more engaging. I seriously hope they make some significant tweaks for this specifically, otherwise I fear they will lose out on a LOT of potential mostly solo/small group of players. Currently if you are not working with 10+ other people at all times, the game simply does not respect your time and effort. I respect the devs' vision of having to rely on others to do most things and how it will play in the social aspect of the game and the economy, but I think it is currently a bit too punishing. I will be praying they address this in the near future and find a way to make this aspect of the game feel more enjoyable. ~ Dawn
100% agree, crafting needs to provide better value than something or nothing if you fail. In the past you would get XP by failing, get some resources back, fail some more and then be good. From the flip side though, being a higher level crafter Mastery and Trivial is great now that they are guaranteed to succeed every time. I wouldn't expect the system to be completely done by EA but based on the interviews and all other things considered, as more recipes are added for more granularity in leveling as well as more ways to level as a component producer as opposed to just end product (i.e. armor, weapon etc.) I can see the system will get to a good spot eventually. The feedback is important to give to make sure they know! But i have confidence we will get there eventually!
Respectfully, all of these Pax Videos should have a disclaimer that Eltarii is a member of the Friends & Family Internal Testing Group, and that he has been selected by the developers as the sole content creator to share/roll out content in the Alpha state of the game for the developers. It's great sure, but there is little to no balance here. It's hype hype, and downplaying legit concerns.
Hello! They chose this channel to do the interviews but they have not dictated to me what to say on any content I am producing. I genuinely love the game. It is also important to note that many other content creators have been given keys too! While I was granted access to the Friends and Family Testing Group that shouldn't mean I am biased in one way or another. I would venture to say if anything the bugs/balance issues are more present to us. The reason I am positive is because seeing those bugs and how the team at Mainframe responds to them demonstrates that they really want to make a good game. And for that I am hyped. Im actually going to do a Feedback Livestream where we will white board ALL our thoughts on feedback as a community! I hope you can join too!!
Then how is it going that crafting is worse than in A1? Talked with some other testers and they complained about this aspect of the game. Being only positive I think it is missing the mark.
@@Diegomir7 it's not worse, a big complaint from A1 was that you could be over 20 levels above a craft and still fail multiple times in a row. Now trivial/mastered crafts are guaranteed. Getting a guaranteed craft is huge! The grind up until that point is rough but once you get there you are 100% guaranteed to successfully craft. That is better as it pays off for all the loss grinding. The grind needs more depth but that will come with more items being added as well as professions etc. I wouldn't call my outlook as positive as it is hopeful. Hope that clarifies.
I really enjoy the game so far. Yes, it takes a while but if you want the game to be any good then you should write down some notes and submit them. It would really help them out to make things better for everyone in the future
They should just make the new population a persistent Alpha. Unless they grant players gear/spells/whatever to specifically test combat (whether PVE or PVP), the majority of the Alpha 2 players aren't going to get geared up beyond killing boars.
Where is your guild's city located? I know you mentioned Agartha server, near Lyonesse. Would love to tour the town before Alpha is complete, if possible.
I built my plot right on some clay. Noticed it wasn't respawning. Looked up and down the river I was on, and saw all the plots.... That moment I realized what we had done to the clay spawns😲. Love alpha tests. No other part of development is as much fun as these stages! Some tweaking needed for sure. Like Straw. Why does that take so long to process from flax. that needs a x10 batch craft, and quicker craft time.
As a current solo alpha tester I agree that a week is definitely not enough time to get out there and test everything they want tested. However, the time it takes to craft isn’t a problem imo. An mmo is inherently meant to have a grind and in a persistent world created by the players time sinks make the progression meaningful.
Overall I have enjoyed the alpha ... and I'm not a huge crafting/survival game fan but plan on playing this with my clan .... would be nice to see some more mmo elements like currency/economy so towns could set up shopkeeps adding to the community and it would help out small clans being able to buy resources from other clans .... and adding more pvp features like letting consenting clans declare war on each other and have open pvp anywhere... but overall it's solid
A lot of potential, but also needs a lot of changes. In the alpha/beta they should relax the time it takes to craft, gear especially for battling in PVP. Going out in your undies PVPing against people that spent 15 hrs straight playing that have gear isn't much fun. I've dealt with time sinks in other games, Darkfall was a giant time sink in the beginning. But you were able to get minimal gear fairly soon. To get the full PVP experience and to show the DEV's what may or may not need to be fixed in the PVP area. If they want PVP as a big part of the game, they need to get a lot of people pvping and getting that feedback on a larger scale. Just to note about the Clay issues. My friends and I only found a few areas it even spawned. I wondered a large portion of the map where NOBODY else was around, explored everywhere. Never found another clay spawn. So, I'm not sure claiming people laying down plots near or on clay spawns holds water. But that is something they need to change in the future. I love playing games like this, but as an adult with RL time sinks. I don't have the time to put into games like I did before adulting became real. I guess it depends on the kind of audience the DEV's are trying to bring in to play the game.
If we can get on more week then oh for sure we can easily get more into combat and give feedback but yea it's like you said we are just to busy trying to make everything
The only thing I found irritating about the crafting was when you failed a craft is spit the resources out on the ground i think it should go back in you inventory 🤔
Yes, exactly, that is how I feel; I really was following the game a lot but for now I am intensely disappointed about Pax Dei's combat. I thought that they at least make the sword blows have a true visual impact if it meets the rag doll of the mob, like the rag doll gets pushed back or reacts in any clear form to the attacks. I maybe even expected them to have a very small amount of hitstun in form of an interrupt on the heavy attacks that breaks or interrupts the attack animation of the enemy if landed in the right moment... So that there is at least a small mechanic on the basic heavy attacks that is timing sensitive... I really hope that this is at least the aim of the devs... Do you know smth about these aspects and if this is what the devs desire to implement, Eltari?
So far it's been horrible. Should have gone with a smaller population, like 25,000 instead of 100K. WAY TOO MANY people trying to download, update, patch and reinstall at the same time has only added to the frustration level resulting in minimal experience time. As for people being able to build on nodes, that explains a lot. Just adding / moving nodes doesn't solve the problem. Players will do it again, possibly as an exploit to deny resources to competitors. The Pro Move here would be to make it impossible to build on resources nodes, just like you can't build in certain other places in the game. So, A for effort and a big, fat F- for not seeing the obvious pitfalls of such a mechanic in the first place. Honestly, I hope all the Friends and Family stuff gets wiped, too. It's already an incredible advantage in a game that is sure to be ultra-competitive. It's nice that you F and F guys can scoop all the Relics while letting the new players be your cannon fodder. Not like they can tackle such sites themselves, as you so aptly pointed out a week is not enough to get up to the same standard of kit and skills as the F and F guys have had months to acquire. Noble intentions aside, it's kind of sketchy.
One important thing to consider is that at launch (be it Alpha, EA or release), everyone will be starting from scratch. This means that there's no support system for new players-no cities, no trade or economy, etc-that other games provide via NPCs. For anyone who doesn't want to heavily engage with the crafting/gathering loop, this will be a major turn-off. I hope that they'll recognize this and check back with the game after a month or two instead of doing the typical gamer thing of bashing the game in every forum for years without ever giving it a second chance.
PLEASE do not listen to the whiners. DO NOT Water down difficulty because of the WoW culture mentality that wants max lvl in everything within a weekend. Game looks GREAT so far. Thank you for your hard work.
Personally, it's not the length of time for crafting. It's crafting 100s of the same spear over and over because the jumps between different recipes is insane for some professions. Also weapon/armorsmithing specifically is hopefully just still in early stages.. cause the progress through crafting is a hot mess. It's not engaging IMO, I've given feedback discord and in-game. Biggest thing overall is just inventory and stacking needs to be changed, alot. Still playing/testing and hopeful for where it goes.
I agree that progression should take a long time. But it shouldn't take a long time to do fun things. Sitting and crafting for the first 10 plus hours of gameplay is frankly just boring and will drive away a lot of new players from the game. There needs to be a way for new players and casual players to get in and have fun! Even if they don't plan to ever reach the top tier of players in the game.
It isn't the time sync, it is the complexity and unnecessary levels to the crafting. 3 types of fabric with course and rough, makes the tailoring so confusing. Don't even get me started on the leather working, that is a nightmare to understand. I came from Mortal Online 2. Pax Dei has nothing on time sync to MO2. When you spend 3 weeks to read a book to get a skill to level 70, and then have to grind out 30 more levels (not including the books and weeks reading them to learn the lore or materials), Pax Dei is childs play. I think what people were upset about is, they had an alpha, and one week to test to get to Combat and PVP. We couldn't even do the POI until last two days. I couldn't even fight a low level boar solo until a few days in when I had a Iron Chopping axe. I had a solid group, and 90% stopped because they couldn't even fight simple boars in the forest solo. So no one could get to test what they wanted. You and your community had 4 whole months to get ahead of everyone running around in plate and seeing POI. Most were lucky to get to chainmail. You didn't have to start fresh like the rest of the alpha 2 testers, which you should have. You should have started fresh just like everyone else. The F&F Server should be separate and different from Alpha/Beta servers and should def not be similar in layout/style and resource location as the EA/Launch servers will be. You and your community had a +100 head start for the alpha, so you aren't going to understand or can not even relate to the struggles of us coming in with no prior knowledge. You will also have a HUGE advantage come EA/Launch with knowledge and experience. This is why game companies should never have "content creators" and their community be their testers. Alpha at least should have have had rates bumped to get everyone to a high level fast to test out the combat and PVP. We went to the PVP zone, saw two people and they ran. So yeah, didn't get to test out Combat or PVP really at all. And when you cannot cancel out actions and you try to move, but it has to finish your action, terrible. Casting a heal then told to get out of burning fire circle, and almost dying before you can get out because you have a 5 second animation you cannot stop? The animation is great, but the lack of canceling your actions? yeah, that is terrible combat. My guild leader has a World First Title in WOW PVP, he was extremely disappointed in the combat is putting it mildly.
1 Week was not nearly enough. 2-3 weeks seems more reasonable. With that add the following: - issues with resources not spawning -> lost progress - issues with installation/patching -> lost progress or people not even getting into the game - issues with lag/packet loss/latency -> lost progress first few days Shit happens of course, but I am mildly dissapointed.
This Alpha should be extended by at least 2 days. Yes, it's "Alpha" and crap hits the fan almost every few hours. BUT, too many people can't get in to play long enough to provide what could be considered meaningful feedback. Friends and Family being the exception due to their access. Also, I see real issues with balancing resource availability ( ie, spawn rate ), production times at various crafting stations, and end use. I like that you can repair items but eventually items just get worn out and must be replaced entirely. "Nothing Lasts Forever". But all of this is going to need careful balancing with regards to the viability of a truly player driven economy and market place. EVE ONLINE has had horrible issues with this over the years, redistributing resources and making blueprints require more materials. Don't go down this road with PAX DEI.
I appreciate the insights you've shared in your videos, but it appears that there might be a certain bias stemming from the exclusivity of your access to the game's later content through the Friends and Family program. Respectfully, it seems like your perspective, along with that of a few others, might be skewed by this privileged access. While those in the Alpha phase may offer a more objective viewpoint since they haven't been immersed in the game for months, their experiences at the game's outset are crucial indicators of its initial appeal. When players join a game and find that it doesn't immediately meet their expectations, it presents a significant challenge that the game developers must address to prevent potential failure. I agree with the sentiment expressed by many commenters that Early Access should be delayed if critical game systems require fixing. Otherwise, the game risks failing to retain the attention of new players, especially when there are alternative games on the horizon like Dune, Conan Exiles, and Ark Survival, which offer greater accessibility. While it's admirable to uphold certain concepts and principles, disregarding the feedback provided during the current Alpha phase could lead to the game's downfall. The excessive grind present in the game, despite being appealing to some players (including myself), may prove overwhelming for the average gamer if not appropriately balanced.
Game has potential, but it's far away from being early access ready. Too many very important key features are missing. Also I'm afraid Eltarii might not be aware of a lot of the glaring issues this game has in it's current state, because he is effectively experiencing this game in a bubble. His experience of the game, where he is part of a dedicated, passionate group or clan he can play with, is very different from the experience 90% of the people playing this game currently have. I've made characters on several different servers, I walked around a lot, I did some building and progressing on my own, and from everything I have seen... I would say more than 70% of the players checking out this Alpha test are either solo, or a small group of 2-3 people. Mostly solo though. And the game is backbreakingly grindy as a solo player. Some may enjoy this, but I'd say most people would get far more enjoyment out of it if they had a large clan they can join. "But Purple. You CAN join a clan!!". Yeah good luck with that. I have tried for some time, and finding a group of players that are a good fit for you is very difficult. The in-game clan finder is very lackluster. It gives you a randomized, big list of clans that currently recruit people, but you barely get any information. All you get is the clan name, the name of the leader, and how many members they are. It doesn't tell you what region or subregion they are in, so you can't even go and take a look at what hey have built first. All you can really do is message the clan leader, but you have no idea of that dude is even online. You can send him a message ingame, but won't get any sort of confirmation if the message was sent, if he is online or any of that. One afternoon I spent over an hour sending ingame Tells to clan leaders to pry them for some information, and in 90% of the cases, I never get an answer. Trying to find a clan on the official discord is a similar struggle. The list of recruiting clans isn't very large, most of them fail to provide you with crucial information in their post (what server, EU or US? etc.) And there is also the big issue of "buying the cat in the bag" when it comes to discord advertisement. Some people may make it sound like their clan and base is the Promised Land, but when you finally join their clan discord and make the long trek over to where they have built, you often find a ghost town, barely any activity, can't tell what is more dead.. their clan discord or the ingame block-shaped fort they clobbered together. And you quickly find yourself in the very awkward position of making a quiet exit and hoping the dude never messages you again. For me, the ideal scenario would be to just hop into the game, starting playing, start building, having fun... and eventually you start interacting with your direct neighbours, random people that settled close to you, forming some friendships and before you know it... you band together into a small town. But that is hardly the experience a solo player currently has in the Alpha. Thanks to a lack of proximity voice chat, you never really "socialize" with anyone. Most people are more annoyed than happy when you walk into their plot and start writing in chat to them, as most people nowadays just don't like pausing their gameplay to write back to you. Talking is just so more convenient. Speaking of neighbours, I had 20 of those on day one.. all of them solos, just scattered around. By day two, it was down to only a handful of active neighbours, and now on day three, it seems my neighbourhood is a collection of campfires, kilns and furnaces all long abandoned. Pax Dei has a long way to go to become something great, and they've gotta start making big improvements on the social parts of the game. Proximity Voice Chat, a better Clan Finder, a lot more social features to help players connect and organize naturally.
I wonder why you did not let them know that to queue up a bunch means you need 20-plus smelters, which will require 40 plus kilns to supply them with the charcoal 100 each to smelt for 1 hour to net you 10 ingots or the fact that creatures are scarce and without a pvp solution to solve others gathering the same resources you want it leaves you in an unsolvable loop. Yes it is an Alpha, but they are going EA right after and the game is not ready for that at all. The game will tank.
the only part about this game that sucks the most ... Solo play is not possible... how can you go fight those big groups of emenys .. then you cant kill a pack of wolfs solo without getting almost killed.
I love the game, but think the "timesinks" feel too artificial currently with no real concept behind it (e.g. making 100 weapons just to throw them away). Additionally it is stupid that you do not even get slightly xp for crafting stuff that is already green (e.g. within a tier) even if it is less maybe (xp should rely on the input material). I'm totally fine with slow progression, but I think they should rather look into Albion Online for example. So you specialize far more on a certain item of a profession and not only professions itself. For me there could be even far more specialization or speration for certain professions (e.g. smelter, char coal burner etc.). I also think the game should not be designed with solo even in mind. Look into a pretty underrated social game like "ECO". I never had a better experience in social interaction because you where just automatically looking for other people etc. And this game needs to give this old school pressure to people to realize: It might make sense to team up and socialize.
the game is going to die like all other games of this genre like Last Oasis, Atlas, and such. The server i was on for example, after day 2 it wasnt clay for our server, you couldnt find any animals anymore because there was too many land claims so we couldnt get leather to progress, which is also really really slow unless you have a group. I guess that will all change when the game goes live and you have to sub for your land claim.
I was sponsored for the interviews but have not been paid to review the game or told what to say. I am not a paid reviewer but I understand why it might seem like I am. I have over 700 hours of in game time and have felt combat change from last year to the end of A2. My opinions are from the hundreds of hours not a check though!
What? 4 days of crafting to lose a pvp combat and lose those 4 days? Who the f*** is going to play that? Are they insane? We are in 2024, where mmo should be modern and not hard-core games of the past.
Also this might not be the game for you … they want to make the game have life … pvp is a must player conflict is needed if not this game will only be a farming berry game it needs a purpose and i believe the devs are delivering i love how they aren’t coping other games in some aspects specially combat …..its fine to me
They may go towards some sort of area/resource control type of world. It's hard for a solo player, or rather almost impossible. The solution there is to join a guild with huge resources and get gear for free. There are always "insane" players that like to craft and give gear away so the smart ones can go and kill stuff.
Only complaint I have is combat, because its very basic and desyncy atm, but they haven't worked on it extensively yet probably. Crafting is great, no lifers would be crying in a week that there's no content.
They need to extend it by 2 days, too many people weren't able to play for the first 2 days.
give 2 weeks more :)
I came in with a small clan but they all quit on the second day. Now I'm playing solo but I'm enjoying the gathering/crafting building, so I'm staying throughout the alpha to see how far I can get by myself. My only gripe is the time sink and knowing I won't have time to test everything. Golden Company has been so helpful in-game. Great group of people!
My goal is to finish my little house and crafting yard.... and pants. I need pants. 😅
I love the crafting system and the grind to the game so far. I dont want to run through content in a few days and then drop the game. I have over 40 hours in and what Ive built up so far I feel very proud of. Compared to other games where I can build up a camp in 1 day.
I agree i feel like i accomplish and i can see my self settling my self and defending my self from dangers that pax dei has to offer weather it be pvp or pve this is my type of game
@@imperialorc1 I absolutely agree, this is my type of game. I’m depressed to see it end Tuesday lol
@@0000bengals congrats on playing i been spectating others play haha looks so much fun!
I think spending weeks farming, gathering things, and watching your village or castle grow day by day-this is exactly what me and my group wanted. We started on EVE Online at its release as Alpha testers, spent 15 years on it, and our characters continued to progress, our empires continued to grow. That's what we want, not a game where you spend 60 euros to get end-game armor in three days and a gigantic base in 48 hours. We want to grind like crazy, farm until our hands bleed, and build our empires with the sweat of our brows so that one day we can risk everything and potentially lose it all.We are all already depressed to see this Alpha end too quickly. Release the early game and do four patches a day, but please devs let us play.
Why can't we have a game where players like you and players like me can coexist. I don't want anything handed to me , but I want options outside of just grinding. No reason why you cant build your empire and I cant go around and pick off one of your members every now and then based off skill and not just time spent on high end items.
@@theLastTruthBender Well, first of all, you're on an Alpha 2 which in my opinion will definitely be well rebalanced for the early release, and secondly, the trading potential and player market and the economy are going to be essential in this game, the potential is huge, with cities, shops, likely to be quickly deployed in early access by players. A solo player can perfectly well not build anything and sell, for example, a lot of skins to a large guild in exchange for equipment, or fiber, etc. There are surely going to be other solo activities offered since the devs have highlighted it several times in their interviews. What's certain, a bit like in EVE, is that a solo player can definitely kill a player who is farming solo, and can perfectly skill up their combat abilities, and do trading to gear up. There will likely be guilds of assassins or bandits who will quickly organize in the early stages, and if I compare it to EVE, you can have a huge empire, but you're never safe during a solo trip from encountering 2 or 3 pirate players in a PVP zone and losing everything. I'm not at all worried about this style of players, they will find their niche.
This game has insane potential but such a long way to go. We need a couple more betas and give them the feedback they deserve.
It needs vehicules (i doubt theyd make the water hurt you if boats werent on the horizon), farming, a trade system, a proper combat system and better, more intuitive UI troughout. But as you said, lots of potential! Especially for emergent gameplay
I agree- We lost SO much time already with updates & installer issues. The EU primetime has been hit especially badly - a slow update every evening.
36hrs of gamelay in:
Visuals 5/5
Mechanics 3/5
Depth of content 4/5
Combat 2/5
But of course this was not a game meant to be appreciated after only 36hrs
also an alpha^^
Thanks Eltarii -- I moved when they opened the new servers. No resource problems on the new one and I got to fight some boars. I'm not sweating this Alpha but so far haven't had anything beyond the initial server issues as roadblocks. Given some feedback and am composing some suggestions. Personally as a hardcore crafter I loved it except for some UI issues. I'm not a hardcore combat person but enjoyed what I got to fiddle with. My only big gripe is INVENTORY needs work.
Your channel has helped me to understand the game better. So many things that people are complaining about are just from lack of knowledge about the game. You mentioned magic spells in an earlier video and I had no idea! I hope there is a real info push in their pre-launch marketing.
Thanks so much - I appreciate that you're talking a bit faster to get into the good info you provide. If you're interested in feedback, it does seem like I have to watch 2 min of each video though before you get into the actual content so now I am just skipping ahead to your excellent info!
@1:21 I am watching, and I see my plot! 🤣Totally agree Eltari, this game holds a lot of promise! I didn't get to spend as much time in it as I wanted to working a 40 hour a week job, but for the time a spent in game, it was a lot of fun! It's an Alpha, you're right there's going to be bugs, it's a fluid situation! I can't wait to see what Mainframe is able to do with Pax Dei and getting it polished! ✌
Thanks for the vid, mate! We are so on the same page on the development of the game and also the future. Can't ait to see what EA brings to the table.
🙏
me and a few randoms for the pax dei discord ended up on Agartha...shocked to find the buildings the GC had. loving the game. I am not a PVP guy but I LIVE to collect and process. double digit blacksmithing and weapon smithing with 20/30+ levels in mining and wood chopping. very excited for the game to find more popularity and make some slight tweaks to the aspects of the game that have people less than thrilled. I am pro grind but I think a way to smelt down materials to reuse (with some net loss of materials of course) would be great. 85 useless pikes. smelt, take half the iron back and try again. or all the wood for carpentry. the endless long poles etc, let me throw them into a kiln, even if its less of a return of charcoal it will be something.
When you have a lot of your clan in the game for months and they don't do wipes, you can get impressive builds.
Most players got 7 days.
This game is great! When I logged in I saw your city and was impressed with it!!
Thank you for this information, I agree that they should extend it. I can’t even get to the point of decent weapons & armor to try the combat system presently.
I 100% agree with your "the game needs a time/resource sink" argument and how it plays into the longevity of the game in response to the complaints about everything taking too much time to do. I personally do not mind if something takes a long time to achieve, **as long as the journey getting there is fun and feels rewarding**. Herein lies the problem.
At the moment, the progression in crafting professions is not fun-- it's frustrating. Trivial crafts giving you 0 EXP is not fun. Crafting failures giving you 0 EXP is not fun. You can spend hours farming resources, then waiting a few more hours for them to be processed, then failing the craft attempt because the dice didn't roll in your favour. This is possibly the most unfun, frustrating, takes-me-out-of-the-game experience I've ever had in gaming. I literally wasted those hours, NOTHING was gained. "Just level up your profession level before attempting the important, expensive item" would be a good argument except the way the game is now, a lot of professions go from the previous recipe being Trivial to the next available recipe being Hard/Very hard. As you gain no EXP from Trivial crafts, this is literally impossible.
I would much rather have to wait/craft twice the amount of time/resources currently required to do things in exchange for failing a recipe only half the amount of times--- even if the total amount of time required to accomplish this is the same as it currently is. Bashing your head against a wall (Hard/Very hard recipe attempt RNG) just does not feel as good as taking twice the time to farm items and being more successful in the crafting attempts. Because 1) RNG is out of your control and 2) at least when you're farming/hunting for resources you are actually interacting with the game, not sitting at a crafting station, so it's much more engaging.
I seriously hope they make some significant tweaks for this specifically, otherwise I fear they will lose out on a LOT of potential mostly solo/small group of players. Currently if you are not working with 10+ other people at all times, the game simply does not respect your time and effort. I respect the devs' vision of having to rely on others to do most things and how it will play in the social aspect of the game and the economy, but I think it is currently a bit too punishing.
I will be praying they address this in the near future and find a way to make this aspect of the game feel more enjoyable.
~ Dawn
100% agree, crafting needs to provide better value than something or nothing if you fail. In the past you would get XP by failing, get some resources back, fail some more and then be good. From the flip side though, being a higher level crafter Mastery and Trivial is great now that they are guaranteed to succeed every time.
I wouldn't expect the system to be completely done by EA but based on the interviews and all other things considered, as more recipes are added for more granularity in leveling as well as more ways to level as a component producer as opposed to just end product (i.e. armor, weapon etc.) I can see the system will get to a good spot eventually.
The feedback is important to give to make sure they know! But i have confidence we will get there eventually!
Respectfully, all of these Pax Videos should have a disclaimer that Eltarii is a member of the Friends & Family Internal Testing Group, and that he has been selected by the developers as the sole content creator to share/roll out content in the Alpha state of the game for the developers. It's great sure, but there is little to no balance here. It's hype hype, and downplaying legit concerns.
Hello! They chose this channel to do the interviews but they have not dictated to me what to say on any content I am producing. I genuinely love the game.
It is also important to note that many other content creators have been given keys too!
While I was granted access to the Friends and Family Testing Group that shouldn't mean I am biased in one way or another. I would venture to say if anything the bugs/balance issues are more present to us.
The reason I am positive is because seeing those bugs and how the team at Mainframe responds to them demonstrates that they really want to make a good game. And for that I am hyped.
Im actually going to do a Feedback Livestream where we will white board ALL our thoughts on feedback as a community! I hope you can join too!!
Then how is it going that crafting is worse than in A1? Talked with some other testers and they complained about this aspect of the game. Being only positive I think it is missing the mark.
@@Diegomir7 it's not worse, a big complaint from A1 was that you could be over 20 levels above a craft and still fail multiple times in a row. Now trivial/mastered crafts are guaranteed. Getting a guaranteed craft is huge! The grind up until that point is rough but once you get there you are 100% guaranteed to successfully craft. That is better as it pays off for all the loss grinding.
The grind needs more depth but that will come with more items being added as well as professions etc. I wouldn't call my outlook as positive as it is hopeful.
Hope that clarifies.
I really enjoy the game so far. Yes, it takes a while but if you want the game to be any good then you should write down some notes and submit them. It would really help them out to make things better for everyone in the future
I’ve been really enjoying the alpha test
They should just make the new population a persistent Alpha. Unless they grant players gear/spells/whatever to specifically test combat (whether PVE or PVP), the majority of the Alpha 2 players aren't going to get geared up beyond killing boars.
Where is your guild's city located? I know you mentioned Agartha server, near Lyonesse. Would love to tour the town before Alpha is complete, if possible.
Hey! Gravas in Ancien! Can't miss us if you spawn in there!
@@eltarii Thank you sir! I'll drop by.
Maybe Adventurer's instead of Consumers
Hi Eltarii, i just discovered your channel. Is these series a weekly thing or more loose every couple of weeks?
Hello! They are every week! And welcome!!
@@eltarii Can't wait! I'm one of the many starving for some Pax Dei content after the Alpha 2 finished ofcourse ;)
I built my plot right on some clay. Noticed it wasn't respawning. Looked up and down the river I was on, and saw all the plots.... That moment I realized what we had done to the clay spawns😲. Love alpha tests. No other part of development is as much fun as these stages! Some tweaking needed for sure. Like Straw. Why does that take so long to process from flax. that needs a x10 batch craft, and quicker craft time.
As a current solo alpha tester I agree that a week is definitely not enough time to get out there and test everything they want tested. However, the time it takes to craft isn’t a problem imo. An mmo is inherently meant to have a grind and in a persistent world created by the players time sinks make the progression meaningful.
NAKED BAR FIGHT!!
Overall I have enjoyed the alpha ... and I'm not a huge crafting/survival game fan but plan on playing this with my clan .... would be nice to see some more mmo elements like currency/economy so towns could set up shopkeeps adding to the community and it would help out small clans being able to buy resources from other clans .... and adding more pvp features like letting consenting clans declare war on each other and have open pvp anywhere... but overall it's solid
Good news! All of these are confirmed features being worked on!! Haha :-)
@eltarii I hope so! Because there's a solid foundation here even at this stage it's enjoyable
A lot of potential, but also needs a lot of changes. In the alpha/beta they should relax the time it takes to craft, gear especially for battling in PVP. Going out in your undies PVPing against people that spent 15 hrs straight playing that have gear isn't much fun. I've dealt with time sinks in other games, Darkfall was a giant time sink in the beginning. But you were able to get minimal gear fairly soon. To get the full PVP experience and to show the DEV's what may or may not need to be fixed in the PVP area. If they want PVP as a big part of the game, they need to get a lot of people pvping and getting that feedback on a larger scale.
Just to note about the Clay issues. My friends and I only found a few areas it even spawned. I wondered a large portion of the map where NOBODY else was around, explored everywhere. Never found another clay spawn. So, I'm not sure claiming people laying down plots near or on clay spawns holds water. But that is something they need to change in the future. I love playing games like this, but as an adult with RL time sinks. I don't have the time to put into games like I did before adulting became real. I guess it depends on the kind of audience the DEV's are trying to bring in to play the game.
If we can get on more week then oh for sure we can easily get more into combat and give feedback but yea it's like you said we are just to busy trying to make everything
The crafting has to be looked at though. Trivial crafts should produce xp at least
The time sink needs to go, specifically refinement times like loom / furnace / kiln / tanning and whatnot, its insane.
The only thing I found irritating about the crafting was when you failed a craft is spit the resources out on the ground i think it should go back in you inventory 🤔
Oddly enough, sometimes it does but other times it doesn't. I think its a known bug at this point and its supposed to go into your inventory haha
@eltarii most likely, I reported it when I first noticed it happening
It would be nice if you could make a video about the lessons learned while trying to organize a small town/community.
My issues is the lighting one of the big ones
I got so much fun in this game!😆😆
Couldn't even attempt to play, I like to play with inverted controls.
Yuck
Yes, exactly, that is how I feel; I really was following the game a lot but for now I am intensely disappointed about Pax Dei's combat. I thought that they at least make the sword blows have a true visual impact if it meets the rag doll of the mob, like the rag doll gets pushed back or reacts in any clear form to the attacks. I maybe even expected them to have a very small amount of hitstun in form of an interrupt on the heavy attacks that breaks or interrupts the attack animation of the enemy if landed in the right moment... So that there is at least a small mechanic on the basic heavy attacks that is timing sensitive... I really hope that this is at least the aim of the devs... Do you know smth about these aspects and if this is what the devs desire to implement, Eltari?
Played about ten hours and bailed, pretty brutal for the solo player.
So far it's been horrible. Should have gone with a smaller population, like 25,000 instead of 100K. WAY TOO MANY people trying to download, update, patch and reinstall at the same time has only added to the frustration level resulting in minimal experience time. As for people being able to build on nodes, that explains a lot. Just adding / moving nodes doesn't solve the problem. Players will do it again, possibly as an exploit to deny resources to competitors. The Pro Move here would be to make it impossible to build on resources nodes, just like you can't build in certain other places in the game. So, A for effort and a big, fat F- for not seeing the obvious pitfalls of such a mechanic in the first place. Honestly, I hope all the Friends and Family stuff gets wiped, too. It's already an incredible advantage in a game that is sure to be ultra-competitive. It's nice that you F and F guys can scoop all the Relics while letting the new players be your cannon fodder. Not like they can tackle such sites themselves, as you so aptly pointed out a week is not enough to get up to the same standard of kit and skills as the F and F guys have had months to acquire. Noble intentions aside, it's kind of sketchy.
One important thing to consider is that at launch (be it Alpha, EA or release), everyone will be starting from scratch. This means that there's no support system for new players-no cities, no trade or economy, etc-that other games provide via NPCs. For anyone who doesn't want to heavily engage with the crafting/gathering loop, this will be a major turn-off. I hope that they'll recognize this and check back with the game after a month or two instead of doing the typical gamer thing of bashing the game in every forum for years without ever giving it a second chance.
Is there somewhere official other than discord to post thoughts from a solo no lifer experience?
The main issue for is being a left handed gamer and key board mapping to adapt for playing
I think that key mapping is a work in progress feature that almost made it into Alpha 2 but most likely will be in for EA!
PLEASE do not listen to the whiners. DO NOT Water down difficulty because of the WoW culture mentality that wants max lvl in everything within a weekend. Game looks GREAT so far. Thank you for your hard work.
who will do pvp in full loot when it takes you massiv time to get your items crafted? :D
Personally, it's not the length of time for crafting. It's crafting 100s of the same spear over and over because the jumps between different recipes is insane for some professions. Also weapon/armorsmithing specifically is hopefully just still in early stages.. cause the progress through crafting is a hot mess. It's not engaging IMO, I've given feedback discord and in-game. Biggest thing overall is just inventory and stacking needs to be changed, alot.
Still playing/testing and hopeful for where it goes.
I agree that progression should take a long time. But it shouldn't take a long time to do fun things. Sitting and crafting for the first 10 plus hours of gameplay is frankly just boring and will drive away a lot of new players from the game. There needs to be a way for new players and casual players to get in and have fun! Even if they don't plan to ever reach the top tier of players in the game.
It isn't the time sync, it is the complexity and unnecessary levels to the crafting. 3 types of fabric with course and rough, makes the tailoring so confusing. Don't even get me started on the leather working, that is a nightmare to understand. I came from Mortal Online 2. Pax Dei has nothing on time sync to MO2. When you spend 3 weeks to read a book to get a skill to level 70, and then have to grind out 30 more levels (not including the books and weeks reading them to learn the lore or materials), Pax Dei is childs play.
I think what people were upset about is, they had an alpha, and one week to test to get to Combat and PVP. We couldn't even do the POI until last two days. I couldn't even fight a low level boar solo until a few days in when I had a Iron Chopping axe. I had a solid group, and 90% stopped because they couldn't even fight simple boars in the forest solo. So no one could get to test what they wanted.
You and your community had 4 whole months to get ahead of everyone running around in plate and seeing POI. Most were lucky to get to chainmail. You didn't have to start fresh like the rest of the alpha 2 testers, which you should have. You should have started fresh just like everyone else. The F&F Server should be separate and different from Alpha/Beta servers and should def not be similar in layout/style and resource location as the EA/Launch servers will be.
You and your community had a +100 head start for the alpha, so you aren't going to understand or can not even relate to the struggles of us coming in with no prior knowledge. You will also have a HUGE advantage come EA/Launch with knowledge and experience. This is why game companies should never have "content creators" and their community be their testers.
Alpha at least should have have had rates bumped to get everyone to a high level fast to test out the combat and PVP. We went to the PVP zone, saw two people and they ran. So yeah, didn't get to test out Combat or PVP really at all. And when you cannot cancel out actions and you try to move, but it has to finish your action, terrible. Casting a heal then told to get out of burning fire circle, and almost dying before you can get out because you have a 5 second animation you cannot stop? The animation is great, but the lack of canceling your actions? yeah, that is terrible combat. My guild leader has a World First Title in WOW PVP, he was extremely disappointed in the combat is putting it mildly.
1 Week was not nearly enough. 2-3 weeks seems more reasonable.
With that add the following:
- issues with resources not spawning -> lost progress
- issues with installation/patching -> lost progress or people not even getting into the game
- issues with lag/packet loss/latency -> lost progress first few days
Shit happens of course, but I am mildly dissapointed.
This Alpha should be extended by at least 2 days. Yes, it's "Alpha" and crap hits the fan almost every few hours. BUT, too many people can't get in to play long enough to provide what could be considered meaningful feedback. Friends and Family being the exception due to their access. Also, I see real issues with balancing resource availability ( ie, spawn rate ), production times at various crafting stations, and end use. I like that you can repair items but eventually items just get worn out and must be replaced entirely. "Nothing Lasts Forever". But all of this is going to need careful balancing with regards to the viability of a truly player driven economy and market place. EVE ONLINE has had horrible issues with this over the years, redistributing resources and making blueprints require more materials. Don't go down this road with PAX DEI.
I appreciate the insights you've shared in your videos, but it appears that there might be a certain bias stemming from the exclusivity of your access to the game's later content through the Friends and Family program. Respectfully, it seems like your perspective, along with that of a few others, might be skewed by this privileged access. While those in the Alpha phase may offer a more objective viewpoint since they haven't been immersed in the game for months, their experiences at the game's outset are crucial indicators of its initial appeal.
When players join a game and find that it doesn't immediately meet their expectations, it presents a significant challenge that the game developers must address to prevent potential failure. I agree with the sentiment expressed by many commenters that Early Access should be delayed if critical game systems require fixing. Otherwise, the game risks failing to retain the attention of new players, especially when there are alternative games on the horizon like Dune, Conan Exiles, and Ark Survival, which offer greater accessibility.
While it's admirable to uphold certain concepts and principles, disregarding the feedback provided during the current Alpha phase could lead to the game's downfall. The excessive grind present in the game, despite being appealing to some players (including myself), may prove overwhelming for the average gamer if not appropriately balanced.
We need more time, a couple more months. And don't close the alpha version at all.
Game has potential, but it's far away from being early access ready. Too many very important key features are missing.
Also I'm afraid Eltarii might not be aware of a lot of the glaring issues this game has in it's current state, because he is effectively experiencing this game in a bubble. His experience of the game, where he is part of a dedicated, passionate group or clan he can play with, is very different from the experience 90% of the people playing this game currently have. I've made characters on several different servers, I walked around a lot, I did some building and progressing on my own, and from everything I have seen... I would say more than 70% of the players checking out this Alpha test are either solo, or a small group of 2-3 people. Mostly solo though. And the game is backbreakingly grindy as a solo player. Some may enjoy this, but I'd say most people would get far more enjoyment out of it if they had a large clan they can join.
"But Purple. You CAN join a clan!!". Yeah good luck with that. I have tried for some time, and finding a group of players that are a good fit for you is very difficult. The in-game clan finder is very lackluster. It gives you a randomized, big list of clans that currently recruit people, but you barely get any information. All you get is the clan name, the name of the leader, and how many members they are. It doesn't tell you what region or subregion they are in, so you can't even go and take a look at what hey have built first. All you can really do is message the clan leader, but you have no idea of that dude is even online. You can send him a message ingame, but won't get any sort of confirmation if the message was sent, if he is online or any of that. One afternoon I spent over an hour sending ingame Tells to clan leaders to pry them for some information, and in 90% of the cases, I never get an answer.
Trying to find a clan on the official discord is a similar struggle. The list of recruiting clans isn't very large, most of them fail to provide you with crucial information in their post (what server, EU or US? etc.) And there is also the big issue of "buying the cat in the bag" when it comes to discord advertisement. Some people may make it sound like their clan and base is the Promised Land, but when you finally join their clan discord and make the long trek over to where they have built, you often find a ghost town, barely any activity, can't tell what is more dead.. their clan discord or the ingame block-shaped fort they clobbered together. And you quickly find yourself in the very awkward position of making a quiet exit and hoping the dude never messages you again.
For me, the ideal scenario would be to just hop into the game, starting playing, start building, having fun... and eventually you start interacting with your direct neighbours, random people that settled close to you, forming some friendships and before you know it... you band together into a small town. But that is hardly the experience a solo player currently has in the Alpha. Thanks to a lack of proximity voice chat, you never really "socialize" with anyone. Most people are more annoyed than happy when you walk into their plot and start writing in chat to them, as most people nowadays just don't like pausing their gameplay to write back to you. Talking is just so more convenient. Speaking of neighbours, I had 20 of those on day one.. all of them solos, just scattered around. By day two, it was down to only a handful of active neighbours, and now on day three, it seems my neighbourhood is a collection of campfires, kilns and furnaces all long abandoned.
Pax Dei has a long way to go to become something great, and they've gotta start making big improvements on the social parts of the game. Proximity Voice Chat, a better Clan Finder, a lot more social features to help players connect and organize naturally.
none of the stuff you showing in your video can be made in the alpha.... why is that ?
I wonder why you did not let them know that to queue up a bunch means you need 20-plus smelters, which will require 40 plus kilns to supply them with the charcoal 100 each to smelt for 1 hour to net you 10 ingots or the fact that creatures are scarce and without a pvp solution to solve others gathering the same resources you want it leaves you in an unsolvable loop. Yes it is an Alpha, but they are going EA right after and the game is not ready for that at all. The game will tank.
Gorgeous, but extremely tedious and boring.
the only part about this game that sucks the most ... Solo play is not possible... how can you go fight those big groups of emenys .. then you cant kill a pack of wolfs solo without getting almost killed.
I love the game, but think the "timesinks" feel too artificial currently with no real concept behind it (e.g. making 100 weapons just to throw them away). Additionally it is stupid that you do not even get slightly xp for crafting stuff that is already green (e.g. within a tier) even if it is less maybe (xp should rely on the input material). I'm totally fine with slow progression, but I think they should rather look into Albion Online for example. So you specialize far more on a certain item of a profession and not only professions itself. For me there could be even far more specialization or speration for certain professions (e.g. smelter, char coal burner etc.). I also think the game should not be designed with solo even in mind. Look into a pretty underrated social game like "ECO". I never had a better experience in social interaction because you where just automatically looking for other people etc. And this game needs to give this old school pressure to people to realize: It might make sense to team up and socialize.
1. Get rid of the stupid gambling mechanic.
the game is going to die like all other games of this genre like Last Oasis, Atlas, and such. The server i was on for example, after day 2 it wasnt clay for our server, you couldnt find any animals anymore because there was too many land claims so we couldnt get leather to progress, which is also really really slow unless you have a group. I guess that will all change when the game goes live and you have to sub for your land claim.
The combat is horrible they need to work it for real
Please do not make it easier at all to craft
"its getting better" uh no its not, its completely garbage. you are a paid reviewer.
I was sponsored for the interviews but have not been paid to review the game or told what to say. I am not a paid reviewer but I understand why it might seem like I am.
I have over 700 hours of in game time and have felt combat change from last year to the end of A2. My opinions are from the hundreds of hours not a check though!
What? 4 days of crafting to lose a pvp combat and lose those 4 days? Who the f*** is going to play that? Are they insane? We are in 2024, where mmo should be modern and not hard-core games of the past.
You do not have to pvp.
Also this might not be the game for you … they want to make the game have life … pvp is a must player conflict is needed if not this game will only be a farming berry game it needs a purpose and i believe the devs are delivering i love how they aren’t coping other games in some aspects specially combat …..its fine to me
@Chef-Bret yes, because this alpha test was to specifically test the pvp. So yes, it was to do pvp.
They may go towards some sort of area/resource control type of world. It's hard for a solo player, or rather almost impossible. The solution there is to join a guild with huge resources and get gear for free. There are always "insane" players that like to craft and give gear away so the smart ones can go and kill stuff.
@@Isamma848 this game doesn't look good for casual players either.
Only complaint I have is combat, because its very basic and desyncy atm, but they haven't worked on it extensively yet probably. Crafting is great, no lifers would be crying in a week that there's no content.