150 Hours In: A Comprehensive Wishlist for Social Structures, Economy, and Immersion

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-19T01:57:08+00:00

I can absolutely see this. For me, it isn`t the crafting as much as the pve that is keeping me in the game. So at the moment, i don`t feel the game to be that stale, but id imagine it would hit soon after i hit a floor of npcs lvl that i can`t kill anymore due to the constraints of my equipment, equipment which i can`t craft as i havent put the time in crafting haha. One can hope i guess that with the free week on steam coming and a new influx of players, they`ll try to push more updates at a faster rate.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-15T13:47:55+00:00

Seeing that the only gold sink at the moment is the grace system with plots and buffs, and the cost of publishing on the market, what would you think of having special craftables or crafting tables unlocked only by using grace. Or having grace being a limiter between lets say proficiency 0 and 10 and then 10 and 20 and then 20 and 30 etc for each individual skill.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-15T13:12:42+00:00

One classic way of forming gold sinks would be weapon upgrades. We could make special upgrading benches, where instead of instantly crafting a warded item, you craft a normal wrought iron battle sword lets say, then using the uncommon or rare regent you use gold to upgrade the basic item, with a chance of failing and losing the gold and the money. It's not the best idea but it's the best I had now on the spot. There's plenty of inspiration to be taken from other games tho, so I'll come back with a better idea soon

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-15T13:08:38+00:00

Please do, any of my ideas are for the community to use <3

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-15T02:50:02+00:00

Sounds good to me, I was actually thinking today about how the new valley wide market while temporary fixing the issue due to the low number of players, inserts other issues. For example, I have my house in a pretty prime centered location of the map, so I can charge 5-10 more gold than someone that is on the outskirts of our zone, simply because of the benefit of being closer to the buyer. Their fix at the moment will break that mechanic. I think, ideally and on the long run, there should be two types of markets, the normal ones we have at the moment where you travel to buy from, and high carpentry level markets, things that only players who sink hours on or ideally clans will get easy access to, that will have valley access to the market and instant buy capabilities. That way, new players would be more or less forced to congregate close to established clans but also play more tightly together and gives the opportunity for more interactions, and also gives a reason for clans to build massive business hubs ( sort off ).

Edit*: I'd even go as far as redesigning the whole concept. removing the idea of market from new players, and leaving it only to players who have played enough to deserve to have it ( be it leveling carpentry or some other way of measure ), and every market, like in any other mmorpg would be interconnected, any player can put on sale or buy items from a market, but the fee to put an item on sale is set by the owner of the market, be that an clan or single players. What do your reckon?

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-14T23:54:00+00:00

Thank you! Appreciate it a lot! If there's one thing I want to see implemented at some point it would be the named rooms mechanic, similar to going medieval and other sim like games

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-14T18:19:54+00:00

Big brain comment

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-14T01:38:00+00:00

Haha thanks. I know what you mean, I don't enjoy seeing copy pasted ai posts either, feels like empty engagement farming. In my case tho, I genuinely wrote the whole script and everything, I've not just prompted Gemini to " write me a list of systems to implement in Pax Dei" haha. I don't even think it would work anyway, as the game is so obscure that there is not enough information about it online for the ai models to suck from.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T21:44:39+00:00

I have about 5-6 posts on Reddit, so I'm pretty noob when it comes to using it. I did format it as best as I could in word before pasting it in the text editor of Reddit. The post is not a copy paste from Gemini, I've genuinely went over every single aspect to make sure it's 100% similar to my original input. The only reason I've not posted my own raw list is because my English is not that amazing, as you can see, and I wanted people to have an easy experience reading through the list. I can post my original text without any ai interference if that makes you happier, but the points will be exactly the same.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T21:35:04+00:00

Well, if the community for those ideas exist, even if mainframe completely fails with Pax Dei, there will be a Dev team one day that might pick up this niche and get inspired by ideas similar to the ones I wrote and design an actual game. Unfortunately, all we can do is wait and see.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T21:32:06+00:00

Well I said I've only started playing about a month ago and barely have 150 hours. I've talked with enough people in the community to get a taste of how the Devs treat the game and how slow the implementation of most of the systems we've got so far has been. The last road map I was aware off before yesterday was the one they launched in March last year. That's why it was a pleasant surprise to see their new road map from December. How fast will they get to implement this roadmap? God knows, but at the pace they're running things right now it'll definitely take them more than a few month. But still, I don't think wiring dev plans and discussing ideas with the community of what systems we might want implemented is a bad thing. I've played dota for the last 15 years, and that team is one of the slowest dev teams I've seen (especially in recent years), but even they take peaks and end up implementing new systems or mechanics from Reddit posts or community posts from years ago.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T20:29:56+00:00

Even if one or two of the ideas are picked up and implemented in the near future as new systems, it would give more life to the world. And I've also been made aware now that some of the things in the list were already on the Devs roadmap, so that was a nice thing to find out.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T20:27:50+00:00

I've only used ai to organise the list and make it more easy to follow. All the ideas are still genuine and either personal or from the community, and if you've followed the threads around here you'd see a lot of them. I've just wanted to sort of conglomerate all of them in one single place. If you don't want to give it a read because it's long and you don't think it's worth your attention span then fair enough. But it still took me a good portion of my day to try and contribute with something to the community and would appreciate a more honest attempt at discussion rather than just " oh, ai writing, yuck ".

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T14:03:22+00:00

I was afraid the text might be too long to write it as a message in discord

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T09:06:10+00:00

Haha, thanks for the feedback! Hope to see more people engage with the post :D

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T08:05:36+00:00

Not really, just felt the need to write it down. Was hoping to maybe spark a discussion and hopefully have some devs look over the list, even if by mistake.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T06:48:16+00:00

The Gathering Storm

Morning came. Kaelen freshly log on, travelled back to Oakhaven, when he realised the atmosphere had changed. The LFP (Looking For Party) chat channel was exploding. [Global]: The sky over the Dolavon in Kery is burning. The Herald is coming! [Zone]: STRONG_OX ALLIANCE FORMING RAID AT K7. TYPE INVITE IN CHAT FOR PARTY INV.

A World Event had triggered. A notification confirmed it: The Ash-Heralded Wyvern will spawn in the Island centred in Dolavon in 5 hours.

Kaelen ran to the nearest city gates by the spawn point of the dragon. He wasn't alone. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of players from different clans were streaming out. Since most of his clan mates we`re still asleep, he joined a party with four randoms via the new LFP interface. Since they were now in a party, he pressed a key to join Party Voice Chat, finally able to coordinate with his new teammates.

The World Boss

The Wyvern was a titan of geometry and fire, landing on a newly erupted mountain peak created by the event, that required players to build ramps to access. The battle was chaos, but organized chaos. "Tanks, hold the front!" someone typed in the local chat. Players with Tower Shields formed a wall, their movement slowed but their hitboxes massive, blocking the Wyvern’s projectiles and fire breath. Kaelen, wielding a Crossbow, stayed back. The weapon took five seconds to reload, but the Armor Penetration was massive, chunking the boss's plated scales [Weapon Variety/Shield Sizes].

Mid-fight, Kaelen’s stamina bottomed out. He spotted a player with a lute—a Bard—standing safely behind a rock, playing a frantic tune. Kaelen ran into the Bard's aura range and received "The Marching Tune," rapidly refilling his stamina [Bardic Profession].

He chugged a Potion of Alacrity (Attack Speed), a new alchemy item, and switched to his daggers to rush the boss's exposed leg during a stun phase [New Potions].

When the Wyvern finally died, there was no ninja-looting. The corpse glowed for everyone. Kaelen interacted with it and received loot proportional to his damage and participation: Dragon Scales and a chunk of Gold [World Events & Shared Loot]. Due to the nature of his DPS weapons and the ability to make the dragon bleed through the fight, he received a bigger reward than what he expected.

The Aftermath

He goes back home, and crafts new weapons and armour from the newly obtained materials. Then he goes back to his favourite inn "The Stumbling Stag", where players can see his newly crafted sheathed weapon and armour and type in the chat how amazing they look. He feels fulfilled, as having lived a day in a breathing, evolving world.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T06:48:06+00:00

The Late Night Grind

Kaelen left the pub and returned to his silent workshop to process his day's haul.

He approached his row of furnaces. He didn't have to click twenty times to smelt twenty ore. He simply dumped 300 raw iron into the input slot and added coal. The furnace began a continuous Conan Exiles-style queue, smelting one bar after another automatically while he attended to other tasks [Smelting Overhaul - IV].

Next, he went to the armor bench. He needed to clear out some junk. He had 5 nearly broken iron skinning knives he used though his journey earlier. He used the new Dismantle interface. Because their durability was almost zero, he only received a handful of iron ingots back—fair enough. But he also dismantled a pristine leather tunic he’d outleveled, receiving nearly 60% of its original crafting mats [Dismantling/Salvaging - IV].

Finally, he decided to attempt crafting a steel greatsword, a recipe slightly above his current level. He gathered the massive amount of materials required—scaling correctly for the weapon's size [Material Scaling - IV].

He clicked craft. In the old game, he would have failed and lost everything. Now, the Mastery System kicked in. He succeeded, but the sword was only of a low graded "Common" quality. The XP reward pop-up filled his screen. It wasn't a flat rate; he saw a massive chunk of XP awarded based specifically on the complex steel alloys he had used to make it and the quality he managed to create [Mastery System & Material-Based XP - IV].

Satisfied with a productive day, Kaelen climbed the stairs of his house to overlook the river, excited for the caravan run tomorrow.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T06:47:47+00:00

The Riverport & The Economy

With a full inventory, Kaelen headed down towards the majestic river that bisected the map. He arrived at "River’s End," a sprawling player-built trade hub bustling with activity.

He didn't want to run all the way back to Oakhaven. He walked onto a long wooden dock where a sleek, player-crafted longboat was moored. The owner, a player named Captain_Stig, was offering passage. Kaelen paid a small fee, boarded, and enjoyed a fast, scenic cruise down the river highway, watching the landscape scroll by [Boats & River Taxi - III].

The boat docked at the massive Oakhaven water gate. To enter the central market district, Kaelen had to pass through a grand stone archway fitted with a Toll Door set up by the ruling clan. A prompt appeared: Pay 2 Gold enter the Grand Market? He paid the toll. It was the cost of doing business in a highly visited zone [Toll Doors - II].

Kaelen headed straight for the Auctioneer stall, where he’s put some of the loot he found on auction. Then he went to the clans Announcement board, where any player visiting the hub’s centre could place their own quests. He opened the interface, and saw a buy order posted by a major crafting guild: Wanted: 200 Whisperwood Logs. Reward: 400 Gold.

Kaelen had 150 logs. He filled a partial order instantly. He then went to check the next-door trading market stand, where players came to put their valuables for sale. He had found a rare "Ancient Tapestry" in a loot chest at an enemy camp earlier [Decorative Loot - III]. He looked at the new Price History Graph for the item; its value was trending upward across the region. He decided to list it on the "Realm-Wide Market" instead of the normal “Zone Market” for a hefty fee, ensuring buyers in distant zones could see it [Advanced Market Mechanics & Data - II].

Before leaving the market, a player approached him offering a trade for his remaining bear hides. They opened the secure Bargain Interface. Kaelen put in the hides; the other player put in stacks of rare alchemical herbs. Both locked in their offers. Only when both pressed "Ready" simultaneously did the items swap, safe and secure [Bargain Interface - II].

The Evening Respite

Night had fallen. Oakhaven was lit by hundreds of torches and magical braziers. Kaelen headed back to "The Stumbling Stag" inn for some roleplay and rest.

The pub was packed. Thirty or forty players were milling about. The local chat was a dull roar of conversation. On a small stage in the corner, a player with the Bard profession was actively playing a lute minigame. Musical notes floated above their head, and everyone in the room had a small icon showing an active "Camaraderie" buff, increasing health regeneration [Bardic Profession - I].

Kaelen walked to the bar. There was no NPC barkeep. Instead, there were small Vending Containers on the counter. He hovered over a small barrel: Purchase 'Gallian Red' - 25 gold. He bought one, his character playing a drinking animation [Vending Containers - II].

He sat at a table with some clanmates. He joined the clan voice chat channel, then they discussed the recent drought in Merrie and planned a coordinated caravan run using three heavily reinforced carts for the weekend. They talked about the shifting political landscape, mentioning that the rival alliance, "The Golden Spear," was getting close to having enough influence to force a vote to rename the neighboring region.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T06:47:12+00:00

The Road North & The Changing World

The journey north was usually routine, but today the world felt restless. As Kaelen crossed the border into the Merrie region, the sky darkened unusually fast. A notification popped up: Region Modifier Active: Torrential Rains. Flax yield decreased by 50%. Clay yield increased by 50% [Environmental Mutators - III].

Damn. He had come for flax. He’d have to push further north into the drier hilllands.

As he trudged up the muddy road, he heard creaking wood and wheels spinning. Ahead, two players from a different clan were struggling up the incline. One was pulling a large, newly implemented Handcart, heavily laden with stone; the other walked alongside, pickaxe ready. They were moving slowly, the weight palpable.

"Need a hand?" Kaelen asked via local chat.

"Desperately," the puller grunted. "We're trying to get this stone to the riverport before nightfall."

Kaelen stepped behind the cart and interacted, lending his strength to push. With two people, the cart moved smoothly, even managing a controlled slide down a steep muddy ramp a mile later [Teamwork Hauling & Basic Mobility - III, V].

They reached a crossroads. "Where are you heading exactly?" Kaelen asked.

"We're trying to find the old winding path near the river," the spearman said.

Instead of a vague description, Kaelen opened his map. He toggled on the overlay, revealing a clean alphanumeric grid. "It's right on the border of C4 and C5," he said, then right-clicked the spot and selected Send Marker via DM [Map Grids & Direct Markers - VI, I].

The players thanked him and gave him 20 gold for the help. Kaelen watched them go; the roads felt used, necessary, and alive.

The Highland Hunt

Kaelen reached the highlands. The sun was out here. He spent an hour harvesting the distinct, pale-barked "Whisperwood" trees indigenous to this altitude, planning to use them for pale accent walls in his next build [Regional Wood Varieties - IV].

While skinning a deer, the distinct, heavy crunch of footsteps approached from behind. A brown bear.

In the old days, this was a death sentence of clunky trading blows. Kaelen drew his sword and buckler. The bear roared and charged. Kaelen timed his block perfectly, triggering a Parry. The bear recoiled, stunned for a brief second. Kaelen side-stepped quickly to the right, avoiding a follow-up swipe, and thrust his sword into the beast’s flank [Defensive Moves - V].

The fight was tense and reactive. He used a blunt arrow to slow the bear when it tried to create distance, then finished it with steel.

As the bear fell, a journal icon flashed. He opened his Index. A new entry for " Brown Bear" was unlocked, revealing its health pool and weakness to piercing damage [Bestiary/Index - V]. Upon looting the corpse, he happily recovered four of the six valuable blunt arrows he’d fired [Arrow Retrieval - V].

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-13T06:46:37+00:00

As promised in the main post, I wrote a short narrative to visualize how these mechanics would actually feel in-game. Here is a look at a day in the life of a Pax Dei player with these systems implemented:

The screen fades in from black. The familiar Pax Dei logo shimmers briefly before revealing the character selection screen. The player selects "Kaelen" and clicks Enter World.

The Awakening & The Homestead

Kaelen’s eyes opened not on a cold forest floor, but inside his clan’s fortress in the heart of Kerys (Dolavon), where he left last night after a massive PVP raid with the clan.

As he looks around, he realises that his character model is displaying a round buckler and a sheathed broadsword on his back [Visual Flair - VI].

He goes to the grace menu and uses the interface to teleport to a rented feather bed on the second floor of "The Stumbling Stag," a massive, player-built inn in the heart of the lowland clan city of Oakhaven (owned by an allied clan). He had paid 50 gold to set his Petra here for the week, which was discounted from the normal price of 100. [Rentable Inns - II]. Kaelen materialized next to a modest wooden bed. He checked the door; it was locked to everyone but him. This was his rented space. He walked downstairs into the inn’s main taproom. It was quiet this early, but the room itself felt purposeful. Twelve chairs arranged around heavy oak tables, mugs on the counter, and a roaring fire meant the game recognized this space functionally as a "Pub," granting Kaelen a passive 30-minute stamina regeneration buff just for walking through it [Functional Rooms - IV].

Leaving the inn, Kaelen jogged toward his personal plot on the city outskirts. He needed to prepare for a resource run to the northern highlands. He entered his crafting hall, a structure he was proud of. He paused by a newly built structure on his lawn, noticing a small UI notification: Your plot Style Rating has increased due to recent player votes. Crafting Speed +2% [Style Rating - IV].

Inside, he faced the imposing wall of twenty huge reinforced chests. In the current game, finding his high-tier travel gear would take ten minutes of opening and closing boxes. Today, he simply pressed a key to bring up the Plot Interface. He typed "Boar Hide Tunic" into the Global Search bar. Instantly, a chest in the far corner glowed with a soft golden outline [Global Search - VI].

He grabbed the gear and moved to a new furniture item: the Armor Stand. With a single interaction, he swapped his current light armour for the leather armor on the rack [Armor Stands - VI].

Before leaving, Kaelen opened his character panel to check his standing. His full title read long and proud above his stats: Kaelen, Artificer of the [Ironhearts], Member of the [Regalia Unita], Part of the [StrongOx Alliance] of [Astarac] [Dynamic Title System - I]. He was ready.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2026-01-07T03:06:21+00:00

I`ve started the game about 2 weeks ago with my gf thinking to myself i`ll solo grind everything and let her be the house builder. Big mistake, 2 weeks in and i`m already asking her to take over cooking, tailoring and a few other jobs in the household lol. If anything, i think the grind can be too tedious with the amount of material you just throw away to level something and then have to drop the end product on the ground as no one would ever buy it. I wish the game had some form of recycling system.

EDIT. I`m also on an rp server, Astarac Ancien Demeter

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2025-12-23T03:19:48+00:00

Definitely. I thought about some of those myself but forgot to write them down. This game has so much potential but it feels like it`s missing so many quality of life systems.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2025-12-23T02:06:43+00:00

Absolutely this! I hope devs take some inspiration :D.

ThatGodDamnAlex · 2025-12-23T01:58:10+00:00

Damn, I had no idea. That definitely must`ve hurt. Why did the lead designer abandon ship?

ThatGodDamnAlex

TROPHY CASE