The developers of the sandbox MMO Pax Dei from Mainframe Industries have published answers to frequently asked questions ahead of the upcoming alpha testing. We translated them into Russian.
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What is the purpose of alpha testing? What features can we test?
The purpose of this alpha test is to get feedback on some of the main features of the game, as well as test the server’s capacity. Therefore, for our first large-scale public alpha test, we will focus on the main outline of peaceful gameplay. In this build you will receive:
- Explore a huge world. We recently doubled the size of the world to include four provinces covering almost 300 km² (116 mi²). There are more than twenty valleys where you can choose the ideal place to live.
- Find rich resources. Gather or hunt vast amounts of resources, set up multiple crafting shops, and unlock a variety of recipes to craft equipment, weapons, and potions to help you on your adventures.
- Build your home. From dozens of building parts you can assemble the perfect house on your site.
- Gather your friends. Team up as a clan to share vaults, crafters, or plots, making it much easier to work together on large projects.
- Try your hand at adventure. In various camps, caves and dungeons you can find many enemies and rare creatures. Be careful! Some places can be dangerous and death can have consequences.
- Detect bugs of all shapes and types. Yes, that’s why we call her “Alpha”.
will the test begin? And when will it end?
The alpha test will begin on November 14th, which is when the shards will be open to the public. The first letters of invitation will be sent out on the same day.
We currently plan to complete testing on November 28th. If the situation changes, we will be sure to inform you as soon as possible.
Why is the testing period so short?
Alpha testing will last about two weeks, which is enough time for our experts to receive the necessary feedback both on the functions available for testing and on the server capacity. After testing, our development team will take some time to process all the feedback and make the necessary changes and improvements for the next phase.
Please note that other tests may be conducted before release – under NDA or not, so stay tuned.
Registration and selection
I registered for the test a few months ago, when will I be selected?
We plan to invite players in stages, so not everyone will receive an invitation at the same time. Additionally, we appreciate the community’s enthusiasm for Pax Dei, but unfortunately, due to limited server capacity, we will not be able to invite everyone to the test.
What are the selection criteria?
First of all, you must create a Pax Dei account and complete all the steps in the Alpha section. Make sure your profile is completely completed to have a chance of being selected.
Next we’ll look at your settings – we want the game to be available on a wide variety of machines and graphics cards. Therefore, we will select different profiles depending on their settings. This means that even if you don’t have the latest graphics card, you may be selected, but having the best hardware does not guarantee that you will be selected.
Last but not least, since Pax Dei is a social sandbox MMO, we believe it is extremely important to observe and receive feedback from groups of players, both small and large. Clans form the basis of the social structure of the Pax Dei.
However, we understand that variety is an essential aspect of any MMO. We are also glad to hear the opinions of those who prefer complete autonomy and strive to carve out their own niche in the world.
In short, we will be inviting both groups with a friend token and individuals without one.
Linking a Discord account to a Pax Dei account, having an Elder role, or having a lvl2 role in a public Discord will not be a determining criterion for selection.
Bribing developers won’t help either.
Is there another way to get into the test?
Several content creators will have access to the test and will offer keys to their audience in limited quantities for the duration of the test. A full list of content creators hosting giveaways can be found in the dedicated Discord section.
I entered the same friends token as my friends, but did not receive an invitation. How so?
This can be caused by several reasons, but the main ones are the following:
- You added/changed your friends token after November 12th, when we conducted an export to select this wave of test participants.
- You do not meet the minimum requirements we require for this test (for example, a Windows PC with DirectX 12 support).
- We have reached the limit on the number of invited testers.
Since Pax Dei is an inherently social game, we do our best to invite friends together, but unfortunately, places are limited. So from time to time we have to make difficult choices.
Do I have a better chance of being selected if I have a powerful car?
No! We will do our best to invite a wide range of computer specifications to help us obtain data to determine the minimum and required specifications. However, having a powerful machine will not reduce your chances of being selected; your feedback and the data that we receive from you while testing the game are important to us!
Please note that we want you to have the best experience possible during Pax Dei’s alpha testing. Although our game can run on smaller configurations, we strongly recommend using the following specifications to run correctly:
- Windows 10 and DirectX 12;
- RAM: 16GB;
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 2070 or Radeon RX 5500 XT;
- 70GB of free space, preferably SSD.
How do I know if I have been selected to take the test?
If you pass our selection, you will receive an email from us with instructions – the sender will be [email protected] . If you are not sure that the email you received is legitimate, or have deleted it, you can always check your account management page: if you have qualified, in the “Access to Alpha” section (https://account.playpaxdei.com/early -access) a new section will appear with all the instructions and information necessary to join Alpha!
Please note that if you are the winner of a content creator’s giveaway, you will not receive a confirmation email. You will only receive a key directly from the content creator, which you will need to enter in your account management.
Is there in-game support available during testing?
Unfortunately, at this stage, our ability to provide in-game support will be extremely limited. We will only provide support for account related issues through our dedicated support site (https://support.playpaxdei.com/) – the link can be found in the top right corner of the navigation bar on playpaxdei.com and on the account management page.
I’m not playing from Europe, will I experience lag?
Although most of our team works in European studios, we do not forget about our community from other countries.
In this alpha test, one shard will be located in the US (East Coast). We understand that this may not be optimal for some testers who may experience higher latencies than others.
We plan to create additional shards in the future, which should improve the gaming experience for everyone.
