Last summer, the devs of sandbox MMO Pax Dei asked players for “patience” regarding an alpha date and promised more info about the PvE and PvP experience “in the coming months.” Now, studio Mainframe Industries has teased a bit about the game’s combat by way of explaining how it’s developed throughout the pre-alpha period.
“Combat and RPG systems have been getting a lot of attention over the last few months,” the team explained this morning. “While it will still take some time before all of this makes it into the game, we have now progressed enough to share a clear vision of where we’re headed.”
That vision includes the notion that a sandbox should have tanks, healers, DPS characters, a threat management system, health, endurance, and death, but not classes. Instead, player roles derive from gear, much of which is crafted explicitly to stop you from being a tankmage archer with no drawbacks.
“For example, a tank build could involve combining a full plate armor including the Thunderous Visage, able to trigger an enemy or increase its aggro; along with the Soothing Choker, a medallion that can cast a Lull spell – always useful to avoid aggroing a full room in one pull. You can also opt for more hybrid combos: the tank pictured above could swap their plate legs for leather pants with a Heal Spell and equip the Hypnotic Band, a ring with a Mesmerizing spell. Alternatively, a Healer would benefit from the Soothing Choker mentioned above to reduce their aggro when they’re on a healing spree. The choice is yours.”
Meanwhile, Mainframe emphasizes that the long-term plan for the game is to minimize loot drops and focus on resource drops that play into the endgame crafting system. And you’ll care a lot about that crafted gear, as the game is throwing it back to the days of Ultima Online and EverQuest when it comes to death mechanics in that your gear will stay on your corpse until you hoof it back to your body to retrieve it.
And yes, that means corpse-looting in PvP, though the studio promises consensual-only PvP limited to what it’s calling contested provinces.
