Pax Dei, Mainframe Industries' Upcoming Cloud Native MMO, Is A Sandbox Where Everything Is Built By

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Pax Dei, Mainframe Industries' Upcoming Cloud Native MMO, Is A Sandbox Where Everything Is Built By Players | MMORPG.com

Mainframe Industries finally officially announced Pax Dei, its upcoming cloud-native MMORPG that aims to bring a massive world for players to fully live within and build. The MMO combines traditional genre elements with a sandbox style where everything, including the villages and trade hubs, are player built.

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Slapshot1188

INteresting. I think this is the part that most interests me:

"As so many MMOs lean into the single-player path nowadays, needing to cater to an audience that doesn’t necessarily want to interact with the first “M” in “MMO,” Pax Dei is building a social sandbox where everything is player driven. Given some of the key developers have a history working on what is likely the biggest and most realistic social sandbox in MMORPGs, EVE Online, that DNA is felt throughout everything that was shown to me during my demo."

but we will see. Words are cheep and delivering on MMO promises is hard. Signing up for the Alpha though.

Tiller

This seems to ambitious to be true.

Scot

Is this where we belong? Maybe, it looks incredible and is making all the right noises about Social. But we have been here so many times before, let us wait and see.

One issue of concern, I assume that "cloud native" was chosen to facilitate cross server play on any device? If not maybe someone who is up on this sort of thing can steer us straight? So we are going to have the usual UI and control issues with something that can work on any device and the added issue of latency. That could be the games Achilles heel, once again we shall see.

Sarla

Tiller said:

This seems to ambitious to be true.

That was my first thoughts too "yep another one of those..".

Dattelis

Sarla said:

Tiller said:

This seems to ambitious to be true.

That was my first thoughts too "yep another one of those..".

Yeah, I believe this was the tag line that Everquest Next used. RIP Everquest Next.

Mendel

Scot said:

Is this where we belong? Maybe, it looks incredible and is making all the right noises about Social. But we have been here so many times before, let us wait and see.

One issue of concern, I assume that "cloud native" was chosen to facilitate cross server play on any device? If not maybe someone who is up on this sort of thing can steer us straight? So we are going to have the usual UI and control issues with something that can work on any device and the added issue of latency. That could be the games Achilles heel, once again we shall see.

I thought that they implied that "cloud native" was playing the game on any device from PC to Console to Mobile.  That probably means another least common denominator approach to the client side.  That could indeed be an Achilles heel for them, especially if the controls are vastly different from device to device.

The images shown did look fantastic; they've clearly invested in skilled artists.  The open world with everything is built by players has been promised before.  I hope they will make a better building system than most survival titles (hint: bezier curves for curved surfaces).

The basic premise promises a lot.  Whether it turns out to be just another survival game with a land rush and constant murders, we will see.

Groqstrong

Slapshot1188 said:

INteresting. I think this is the part that most interests me:



"As so many MMOs lean into the single-player path nowadays, needing to cater to an audience that doesn’t necessarily want to interact with the first “M” in “MMO,” Pax Dei is building a social sandbox where everything is player driven. Given some of the key developers have a history working on what is likely the biggest and most realistic social sandbox in MMORPGs, EVE Online, that DNA is felt throughout everything that was shown to me during my demo."



but we will see. Words are cheep and delivering on MMO promises is hard. Signing up for the Alpha though.

I like that point too. But like you said words are cheap and its a major undertaking to deliver player driven everything. To me screams Zerg Guilds could have all the power. One can argue that you can make a counter zerg which sounds good in theory, but in practice players take the path of least resistance from what i've seen.

The game shows promise so we'll see.

lotrlore

Groqstrong said:

Slapshot1188 said:

INteresting. I think this is the part that most interests me:



"As so many MMOs lean into the single-player path nowadays, needing to cater to an audience that doesn’t necessarily want to interact with the first “M” in “MMO,” Pax Dei is building a social sandbox where everything is player driven. Given some of the key developers have a history working on what is likely the biggest and most realistic social sandbox in MMORPGs, EVE Online, that DNA is felt throughout everything that was shown to me during my demo."



but we will see. Words are cheep and delivering on MMO promises is hard. Signing up for the Alpha though.

I like that point too. But like you said words are cheap and its a major undertaking to deliver player driven everything. To me screams Zerg Guilds could have all the power. One can argue that you can make a counter zerg which sounds good in theory, but in practice players take the path of least resistance from what i've seen.

The game shows promise so we'll see.

Definitely something I was concerned about as I thought about this more over the weekend. But my hope is the fact that both the map being so huge and the idea that players - every player - will effectively need to depend on one another could mitigate this.

That said, don't join a streamer's server, lol. I'm thinking of all the zergs in New World when that first launched.

OG_Solareus

maybe the world will be large enough players can create hidden remote cities..

cheyane

I suppose a powerful guild who gains an early foothold will rule. Not sure how they intend to prevent that.

Groqstrong

lotrlore said:

Groqstrong said:

Slapshot1188 said:

INteresting. I think this is the part that most interests me:





"As so many MMOs lean into the single-player path nowadays, needing to cater to an audience that doesn’t necessarily want to interact with the first “M” in “MMO,” Pax Dei is building a social sandbox where everything is player driven. Given some of the key developers have a history working on what is likely the biggest and most realistic social sandbox in MMORPGs, EVE Online, that DNA is felt throughout everything that was shown to me during my demo."





but we will see. Words are cheep and delivering on MMO promises is hard. Signing up for the Alpha though.

I like that point too. But like you said words are cheap and its a major undertaking to deliver player driven everything. To me screams Zerg Guilds could have all the power. One can argue that you can make a counter zerg which sounds good in theory, but in practice players take the path of least resistance from what i've seen.



The game shows promise so we'll
That said, don't join a streamer's server, lol. I'm thinking of all the zergs in New World when that first launched.

For real. Crowfall was worse, zerg guilds made zerg alliances

cameltosis

They are certainly saying a lot of the right words to get me excited.

Sandbox

Community-focused

Emergent Gameplay

True MMO scale

We've never had a AAA sandbox MMORPG. Ever. I dont think anyone has even begun developing such a thing, let alone launch, so this could be great for the genre! The sandbox design paradigm has never had the investment it deserves, but it has way more potential than themeparks!

That said:

Cloud-native

UE5

Big red flags there. Cloud-native tends to mean either cross-platform (which means the game will be dumbed down so it can run on mobile and console) or metaverse, neither of which interest me.

UE5.....I just can't see how this engine will be able to support the stated goals. If they genuinely make a "true mmo scale" game, UE5 will likely fall flat on its face.

lotrlore

cameltosis said:

They are certainly saying a lot of the right words to get me excited.

Sandbox

Community-focused

Emergent Gameplay

True MMO scale

We've never had a AAA sandbox MMORPG. Ever. I dont think anyone has even begun developing such a thing, let alone launch, so this could be great for the genre! The sandbox design paradigm has never had the investment it deserves, but it has way more potential than themeparks!

That said:

Cloud-native

UE5

Big red flags there. Cloud-native tends to mean either cross-platform (which means the game will be dumbed down so it can run on mobile and console) or metaverse, neither of which interest me.

UE5.....I just can't see how this engine will be able to support the stated goals. If they genuinely make a "true mmo scale" game, UE5 will likely fall flat on its face.

The way they were describing Cloud Native didn't give me the sense they aren't dumbing anything down, rather they are making sure the full experience is playable on any screen. It certainly, from a visual sense, doesn't look like they are scaling anything back to allow for phones to run it natively. To me this just means, and by the way they described it to us reinforced this, was that Cloud Native just means it's being built with cloud platforms in mind. So things like Shadow, GFN, Xbox Game Cloud, etc. 

That said - it's still really, really, early. We'll find out at some point for sure.

Quizzical

Action combat in a mobile game with streaming latency sounds like a bad combination.  A hands-off demo means that you can't feel the latency.

Mendel

Quizzical said:

Action combat in a mobile game with streaming latency sounds like a bad combination.  A hands-off demo means that you can't feel the latency.

I'd call a hands-off demo a 'presentation'.  EQ:Next had several presentations, which I'm certain were nothing more than a movie with a developer sitting at a keyboard doing predetermined, scripted actions to mimic playing, i.e., lip-syncing.  You see this kind of activity all the time on social media, usually with dancing.

Slapshot1188

Mendel said:

Quizzical said:

Action combat in a mobile game with streaming latency sounds like a bad combination.  A hands-off demo means that you can't feel the latency.

I'd call a hands-off demo a 'presentation'.  EQ:Next had several presentations, which I'm certain were nothing more than a movie with a developer sitting at a keyboard doing predetermined, scripted actions to mimic playing, i.e., lip-syncing.  You see this kind of activity all the time on social media, usually with dancing.

CoE had plenty of "presentations".  They even had a so called hands-on demo of things like the Silvermine Dungeon and the Jousting yet somehow those did not reflect the actual condition of the game... 

It's a shame but today we can't trust what a developer says.. what they show.. or even what we see.  What a sorry state of affairs.

Iselin

Sounds more like a social experiment than a game. An experiment that relies heavily on players playing the game "right" to make it work and honestly, from what I see in the multiplayer games I currently play, I have very little confidence in the outcome of any game that is heavily reliant on interpersonal player behavior.

20 years ago? Maybe. But today not so much.

I think I'll just stock up on popcorn and watch this play out from the sidelines.

Quizzical

lotrlore said:

cameltosis said:

They are certainly saying a lot of the right words to get me excited.

Sandbox

Community-focused

Emergent Gameplay

True MMO scale

We've never had a AAA sandbox MMORPG. Ever. I dont think anyone has even begun developing such a thing, let alone launch, so this could be great for the genre! The sandbox design paradigm has never had the investment it deserves, but it has way more potential than themeparks!

That said:

Cloud-native

UE5

Big red flags there. Cloud-native tends to mean either cross-platform (which means the game will be dumbed down so it can run on mobile and console) or metaverse, neither of which interest me.

UE5.....I just can't see how this engine will be able to support the stated goals. If they genuinely make a "true mmo scale" game, UE5 will likely fall flat on its face.

The way they were describing Cloud Native didn't give me the sense they aren't dumbing anything down, rather they are making sure the full experience is playable on any screen. It certainly, from a visual sense, doesn't look like they are scaling anything back to allow for phones to run it natively. To me this just means, and by the way they described it to us reinforced this, was that Cloud Native just means it's being built with cloud platforms in mind. So things like Shadow, GFN, Xbox Game Cloud, etc. 

That said - it's still really, really, early. We'll find out at some point for sure.

Allowing a game to run on a cell phone isn't solely or even primarily about processing power.  Your input options are rather limited on a random cell phone without some special controller or some such attached.  That doesn't mean that you can't make a good game with limited input options, but it does limit what you can do.

DigDuggy

Something to casually follow.  I like building and such, so I'm definitely, somewhat interested.  I don't let myself get too excited anymore.

OG_Solareus

Dude ! I just realized, we got to build everything, so we will start in a pitch black area and contiously ram particles together to start the big bang xD.

Greatness

Iselin said:

Sounds more like a social experiment than a game. An experiment that relies heavily on players playing the game "right" to make it work and honestly, from what I see in the multiplayer games I currently play, I have very little confidence in the outcome of any game that is heavily reliant on interpersonal player behavior.

20 years ago? Maybe. But today not so much.

I think I'll just stock up on popcorn and watch this play out from the sidelines.

Unpopular opinion and my personal feelings hoping not to project on anyone:
Buzz word "sandbox" means less need from developers to create a story/NPC/living world.

OG_Solareus

Greatness said:

Iselin said:

Sounds more like a social experiment than a game. An experiment that relies heavily on players playing the game "right" to make it work and honestly, from what I see in the multiplayer games I currently play, I have very little confidence in the outcome of any game that is heavily reliant on interpersonal player behavior.

20 years ago? Maybe. But today not so much.

I think I'll just stock up on popcorn and watch this play out from the sidelines.

Unpopular opinion and my personal feelings hoping not to project on anyone:

Buzz word "sandbox" means less need from developers to create a story/NPC/living world.

is it so horrible people need to use their imagination to immerse themselves into a game. The notion that ever pixel needs to be planned out by the developer is kind of linear. Imagination is what drives mmo imho. imagination of what lays before me makes me play most mmos. I would hate to play an mmo where I say, I need this and go here get the things take 5 turns and then shake the spagetti twice to get the tear of the dinglbah. woops, just used my imagination again...

Theocritus

I am guessing other players can easily destroy anything we build, like in most player driven games......

Angrakhan

Cloud Native typically refers to the client is run in a browser that's acting as some sort of dumb terminal for a VM actually running the software.  While it allows you to play really advanced games on a cheap hand held or mobile device it also tends to be laggy especially if you're playing mobile. Also, better keep an eye on your data usage if you're playing on cellular. All those pixels don't come free.

Valdheim

Alpha sign-up was a bit painful but I just got it done.
Very curious about this project even though I also think that it sounds to ambitious to be true.
I very much love the art style they are going for.