Future of Pax Dei - A Letter From the Team

Hello Paxians,

Given recent news about the MMO industry, it’s completely understandable that some of you may be wondering what the future holds for Pax Dei. We’ve seen your questions and concerns, and we feel it’s important to address them as directly and transparently as possible, while also sharing where we’re headed.

“Are you going to shut down as other studios have recently?”

No. We still have a small, but very passionate, hard-working team working on Pax Dei, and we intend to continue delivering updates regularly.

Let’s be transparent: yes, we’ve had rough moments. Being an independent studio means we rely on a mix of external investment and, increasingly, revenue from the game itself to pay for the ongoing development of Pax Dei. We’ve had to adjust our team size and limit our scope accordingly.

Since we left Early Access, we’ve been balancing our long-term vision for the game alongside player feedback, and tackling some genuinely tough problems to make sure the game has a stable foundation, technically, operationally, and in terms of the content we’re able to offer.

We understand that progress can sometimes feel slow from the outside. But as long as we have our players' support, our intention is to keep building Pax Dei and delivering on the features we’ve showcased in the past, even if it sometimes takes longer than we, or many players, would like.

“So, how can we support you?”

Support comes in many forms, and not all of them involve paying money. You can support by:

Playing regularly
Inviting friends to join
Leaving thoughtful (and fair) reviews
Sharing feedback and testing new content on the Public Test Shard
Engaging with our posts and updates on Discord and social media
And ultimately, of course, the most direct way to support us, for those who want and are able to, is by purchasing Memberships (plots, Premium, etc.)

All of these matter, especially for a small studio like ours.

“Well, I like the game, but I’m not ready to pay.”

That’s completely fine.

You don’t need a subscription to enjoy Pax Dei. You can join a Clan, contribute to the community, and enjoy the game without your own plot. If you want your own home and play regularly, you can maintain one plot with Grace, which allows you to enjoy the full experience by purchasing the base game alone. Simply being part of the world and its community already helps more than you might think.

“What about the features we’ve been asking for?”

We know this is a sensitive topic, so let’s address some of these features.

Farming & fishing: these features were mentioned before Early Access in interviews and Q&As. Their absence from the game so far is due to two main reasons:

First, both farming and fishing primarily add new content loops to the cooking system, and the current state of cooking is not where we want it to be yet. Introducing new resource loops now would only amplify existing balance issues, which doesn’t make sense at this stage.
Second, both systems require significant development, and we haven’t yet been able to allocate the necessary time to them.
That said, the crafting skills related to cooking and potions are next in line for rebalancing. This means we’re very close to removing the main balancing blocker for these features.

Mounts: we shared an early concept for mounts last year, but the feature is still a long way from being ready. While the overall design is now complete and some technical challenges have already been addressed, there is still significant work ahead.

We need to implement the gameplay systems themselves, improve animations, particularly those related to the rider, and ensure mounts persist correctly across zones. As we’ve mentioned before, we want horses to be more than a simple movement-speed bonus. This means dedicating time from several team members to build meaningful content and systems around them, even for the initial version you’ll see in-game.

Recycling: last summer, recycling was a high priority. Since then, priorities have shifted to address more urgent needs. We know how important recycling is to many of you, and we agree. However, at the moment, we simply don’t have the bandwidth to actively work on it.

That said, we are continuing to refine the design and hope to have something ready to ship later in the year. In the meantime, the upcoming crafting balance changes in the next update aims to significantly reduce crafting waste. You’ll no longer need to grind a small, specific set of items to maximize XP gains, which we believe will greatly reduce the need for recycling in the short term. Our next step on that front will be to look into failed crafts and reduce material costs.

“So what are you working on?”

With the game and the team we have right now, our priority is clear: it makes far more sense to improve, fix, and strengthen what already exists than to keep expanding outward with new zones, biomes, or professions.

For most of this year, our focus will be on making Pax Dei more meaningful rather than simply making it bigger. That means going deeper into existing systems, addressing long-standing friction points, and delivering quality-of-life improvements that make the game more coherent and enjoyable day-to-day. You can already see this direction with XP rebalancing on the PTS, as well as the work we’ve started on Cooking, Jewelcrafting, and Alchemy (with plans to review Fletching as well).

Rather than spreading the team too thin, we want to strengthen the game's foundations so that future additions are built on solid ground.

Building as a foundation: a major pillar of this effort is building. Player feedback has been very clear: the building system is amazing, but its impact is currently mostly aesthetic. We want construction to matter more, not just as decoration, but as a meaningful part of gameplay and social life in Pax Dei.

Building isn’t only about placing structures. It’s about creating places where communities gather, trade, roleplay, and leave a lasting mark on the world. Our goal is to reinforce the building system as the backbone of villages and cities, so future features feel richer and more connected.

Systems that reinforce building: to support this vision, we’re working on several interconnected systems. Alongside ongoing crafting professions rebalancing, we’re introducing mechanics that tie gameplay benefits directly to well-designed structures: systems like Comfort and Rest with crafting bonuses influenced by roofs and layouts. Together, these changes aim to make where and how you build just as important as what you build.

Alliances and permissions: at the same time, we’ve been spending a lot of time designing Alliances. Our goal is to make Alliances meaningful for all types of players, not just PvP-focused groups, but also Clans who want to build villages and cities together. To achieve that, Alliances need purpose beyond PvP flagging alone, which means introducing supporting mechanics before Alliances themselves go live.

A key part of making this work is giving players better control over access and trust. That’s why we’re finally revamping the permission system. Clans will support customizable membership tiers, each tied to specific roles and permissions. Plot and item access will be more granular, including the ability to define Trusted Friends with elevated rights. The new system is also designed to be safer and more forgiving, with clearer presets and stricter deletion rules, making it easier to welcome new members without fear of losing property or progress. We’ll go into more detail once this reaches the Public Test Shard.

Note: the image hereunder is a UI mockup and is subject to change. We will talk more about it once it is functional, but we wanted to show you how granular we want it to be. Here you can see the Plot Permissions section with its two tabs: one for the Plot itself (building, destroying), and one for the items on the Plot (crafters, storages, decorations, etc.).

These are long-term goals, and they are only possible if the underlying systems are strong.

This is the direction we’re committed to: stronger foundations, deeper systems, and a world that becomes more meaningful the more you invest in it.

“This all sounds great. What’s the timeline then?”

As we speak, Verse 5 is growing with new content, including Master Crafting, new emotes, UI updates, and more. This update also includes significant rebalancing of crafting XP across most professions, aimed at making crafting progression much more pleasant overall. This content is currently being tested on the Public Test Shard (Arcadia) and should reach live shards in the coming weeks.

After Verse 5, we’ll be moving to Verse 6 (surprising, right?). Verse 6 will focus on building, the comfort system, and permissions. As part of this planning, we made the difficult decision to move Alliances to later in the year, in Verse 7. This allows us to properly lay the foundations first, rather than introducing Alliances before the supporting systems are ready.

Alongside these major features, we also plan to roll out smaller, nice-to-have features and systems throughout the year. Here’s what’s simmering in our magical cauldron: the much-anticipated duelling system, additional building sets, a cooking and food glow-up, and more improvements for Jewelcrafting and Alchemy, combat improvements and PvE content fixes. We’ll also be adding birds, not just ambient “chirp-chirp” ones, but wildlife that can be hunted and that will be tied directly to fletching. And, of course, a few surprises we’re not ready to reveal just yet.

We remain fully committed to Pax Dei. We’re proud of what we’ve built so far, aware of what still needs work, and grateful for a community that continues to challenge, support, and believe in the project.

Thank you for reading and for sticking with us.
Pax vobiscum,
The Mainframe Team