Wilderness here I come!

Yay!

 I've been invited to the next Pax Dei alpha test entitled "Wilderness".  This will be my first time testing the game and I am looking forward to this one.  Part survival, part builder, and an MMORPG - right up my alley!

Some more info on the Pax Dei Wilderness Alpha

What can you expect in this Alpha?

For this second large-scale test, we’re going on an adventure!
 
Our team has been hard at work on every aspect of the game related to challenges, and we now want to test that foundation with our community.

We hope you will have a great time, and we are looking forward to your feedback.

•  Gear up. We have revamped and introduced new statistics for all gear in the game. With hundreds of items for mixing and matching, you will have no lack of choices in crafting your own role.
•  It is dangerous to go alone. Denizens of the world will now present a real challenge. Don’t wander away from home without a party and the proper equipment.
• Master your weapons. We’ve added new spells, combat abilities, and weapon types. Keep an eye on their durability, you don’t want them to break when you need them the most.
• Welcome to Fight Club. Divine peace doesn’t extend to Lyonesse, our new province. Enter here at your own (mortal) peril, if you’re willing to try out our first iteration on PVP.
• Build & craft away. We've made multiple changes to the peaceful aspect of the game as well, be sure to check our release notes for a comprehensive overview.

MMORPG Alphas! MMORPG Betas! Oh my!

 2024 is shaping up to be a big MMORPG year.  Along that line new alphas and betas are coming soon for Throne & Liberty global launch and Pax Dei!

 First, Throne & Liberty has announced their long awaited global beta for April 10th!  More details below:

The upcoming Closed Beta Test will start on April 10 at 1PM PT (8PM UTC) and run until April 17 at 1PM PT (8PM UTC). Selected players will receive their invitation via email on April 2, and will be provided a code via email on April 4 with further instructions on how to participate.

 I've signed up and am hopeful to make the beta.  I have a lot of interest in Throne & Liberty as it seems to be on of the few games really striking for the "massive" portion of MMORPG.  For some folks a PvP fight with 1,000+ players may seem muddled but to me it sounds fun.

 

 Next up is Pax Dei with their next "Wilderness Alpha" phase coming.  Check the news post for more information.  If you end up signing up for alpha access feel free to enter my referral code "heartlessgamer_friends".

We just announced that our upcoming Alpha will start on April 23rd. In this post, we want to explain the delay and provide more details on what our teams have been working on during the past few months, as well as what you can expect to test this time around.

 The team looks to be making good progress with the game; specifically on the RPG side.  The sandbox building side looked to be in pretty good shape from previous alpha testing.  With this new alpha there is a hefty set of changes to animations, skills, and thus combat is changing.  The animations of the prior alphas was not polished so looking to see the changes.

 They also have new dungeons which look much better than the caves of the prior updates.

Pax Dei Early Access

 Continuing the "heartlessgamer playing around with AI" I asked Bing to summarize the news from the past day with Pax Dei's plans for Early Access.

NVIDIA featured Pax Dei gameplay footage during their CES 2024 special address. Mainframe Industries confirmed NVIDIA DLSS 3 will be included in "day one" of Pax Dei's launch. After a successful alpha test in late 2023, the game developers affirmed the highly-anticipated game is to enter early access in the coming Spring ¹. The game is a medieval flavored social sandbox MMO from developers from Blizzard and Remedy Entertainment ². The game will be available on PC and will feature AI accelerated DLSS 3 ². The early access offers are almost finalized with monetization confirmed as a single purchase grants access ¹. There is no specific date for Pax Dei's early access launch, but a second alpha test phase is in motion with sign-ups available on their website ¹.

¹: [KeenGamer](https://www.keengamer.com/articles/news/pax-dei-early-access-features-nvidia-dlss-3-nvidia-ces-2024-address/)
²: [IGN](https://www.ign.com/videos/pax-dei-nvidia-dlss-3-official-trailer-ces-2024)

Source: Conversation with Bing, 1/9/2024
(1) Pax Dei Early Access Features NVIDIA DLSS 3, CES 2024 ... - KeenGamer. https://www.keengamer.com/articles/news/pax-dei-early-access-features-nvidia-dlss-3-nvidia-ces-2024-address/.
(2) Pax Dei Nvidia DLSS 3 - Official Trailer | CES 2024. https://www.ign.com/videos/pax-dei-nvidia-dlss-3-official-trailer-ces-2024.
(3) Pax Dei Is Hosting Its First Alpha Test, Called 'Home Valley,' Starting .... https://www.mmorpg.com/news/pax-dei-is-hosting-its-first-alpha-test-called-home-valley-starting-on-november-14th-2000129436.
(4) RTX 500 and Counting: Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition & Pax Dei .... https://www.nvidia.com/en-my/geforce/news/ces-2024-dlss-ray-tracing-rtx-games-announcements/. 

Pax Dei Alpha This Year?

 It is almost November, but the Pax Dei team is still maintaining that their alpha test is going to happen this year according to this MMORPG.com article.

The Pax Dei team is affirming their plans for alpha this year and has released some stats from the small Friends and Family playtest.

 I also found the numbers from the friends and family test intersting.

Those testers have used over 346,749 building pieces with the top builder having used 25,767.  Since everything in the game is player created, it does make one wonder what 25k pieces added up to. There have been  5,284 deaths by NPC and 1,771 deaths by falling. Dungeons have seen over 180,000 square meters covered, and over 47,200 km explored. Those testers have also killed over 3,500 rabbits.

  The building numbers specifically stand out.  This tells me that building is a big part of the game and not just a secondary pursuit.  Also coming from a game like New World where fall damage is something you laugh off it will be an adjustment to fear falling from great heights again. And the poor, poor rabbits (though not as many as I'd suspected so maybe they are more evasive than your standard MMO rabbit).

 I will continue to watch this one with interest.

Pax Dei

New MMO on the block

Pax Dei is generating a lot of buzz, and in my opinion, it should serve as a warning to games like Ashes of Creation. The first trailer offers a glimpse of combat and the user interface, all from the perspective of the in-game engine. If games like Ashes don't launch soon, titles like Pax Dei may swoop in and steal their audience. The first look of Pax Dei is pretty impressive, and it has convinced me to join the queue for alpha access.

 Not only were the visuals striking, which is to be expected with the Unreal Engine, but I felt like shots were taken at games like Ashes that have been hesitant to show combat and user interface as both were featured in the Pax Dei release trailer.  Granted it is not in depth but it gives me hope the game is further along than just being a set of ideas.

 Also impressive in the video was the support for cross platform.  They showed the game on a tablet which is exciting.  I don't do much gaming on mobile platforms but that is because most games don't offer it as a supported option; the more I see games like this support it the closer I get to jumping into gaming on something other than my big rig.

 I didn't know this game was out there working its way towards an alpha, but after the trailer and some of the interview videos I am firmly in the camp of "excited to see what comes next".  Again, I got the sense Pax Dei is closer to reality than games that suck up a lot of community buzz currently and the MMO market is ripe for some disruption.