Hello Paxians,
We know many of you want more information about Verse 5 and the upcoming Feudal features, so we'd like to share more details and outline what's coming up.
As we’ve discussed before, we have plans for expanding Pax Dei’s PvP gameplay in new directions. The underlying goal for the game hasn’t changed - we’re making a social sandbox MMO with a player-driven economy, and we’ve always seen PvP as an integral part of the game. Our previous update reworked Lyonesse, making it larger in terms of size and design. We also added the Enchantment resource to give players more reasons to go there. Now it's time to add the ability for players to claim land and build.
Before jumping into the details, here’s a summary of what’s coming:
We’re introducing a new resource: Mournwood, which you can harvest from new Mournel trees that only appear in Lyonesse.
Mournel trees are very rare and will only appear in the world in the evening during regional peak game hours. You will see the spot where a tree is about to appear in the game map of Lyonesse a set amount of time before it spawns.
Mournel trees are very tough and have a ton of health, fully harvesting one will likely take the sustained effort of many players. However, Mournwood is given in stages, a single player can harvest it, even if fully chopping down the tree would take much longer.
Lyonesse will gain 12 new Feudal Shrines that can be claimed by a Clan Elders and the Alderman. Claiming a Feudal Shrine site costs both Gold and Mournwood. The sites have a Mournwood upkeep cost, with storage for up to a week’s worth of upkeep.
Claiming a Feudal Shrine allows you to place three plots at the site, which can be upgraded to host up to 22 plots.
You can set a Feudal Shrine your clan has claimed as your Petra Mea Home point, and you can use a spell that costs 20 Grace to fast travel to it. If you die near a Feudal Shrine your clan has claimed, you can choose to respawn there.
As ever, your feedback on this update is vital and will help us shape Pax Dei going forward.
Mournwood
A new type of tree, Mournels, will start spawning in Lyonesse after the update. Spawn locations are revealed ahead of time on the map, but a Mournel tree will only actually spawn if players are in the area. A notification will be broadcast in Lyonesse to all players in the zone when a tree appears. This means if you want to harvest Mournwood, you should make traveling to and securing the spawn point a priority.
Mournel trees will appear at regular intervals between specific times, depending on the day:
Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - 6 PM-10 PM
Tuesday, Saturday - 5 PM-10 PM
NA shards are set to MT (UTC-7)
EU shards (including Arcadia) are set to CET (UTC+1)
SEA shards are set to SGT (UTC+8)
We've set these to maximize prime gaming times in each region.
Mournel trees come in three sizes, which affects how much you can harvest from a tree and how long it takes to chop one down. Trees are harvested in stages, with the player who makes the final hit at each stage gaining the resources from that stage. Mournel trees are tough to chop, it's wise to come fully buffed with a good quality axe capable of chopping a hardness 3 tree. Taking a tree down alone will take a very long time, fully chopping down a tree is much more likely with a Clan.
As a side note, switching between a tool and the previous weapon you wielded no longer incurs a cooldown, so switching to your primary weapon to defend yourself will now enable you to fight instantly.
Mournwood gathered from Mournels is an inventory item that can be stolen from your corpse if you die in Lyonesse.
Feudal Shrines
Each of the four Provinces surrounding the central Lyonesse Province will have three Feudal Shrines. A Clan Elder or Alderman can claim a Shrine at the cost of 5000 Gold and 200 Mournwood. After claiming a Feudal Shrine, you have 24 hours to load more Mournwood into the fire at the center of the Shrine to retain control. The fire consumes 25 Mournwood each day and you can load up to 7 days worth into the fire in advance. The deposits are final and cannot be withdrawn.
When claimed, a Shrine allows a total of 3 plots to be placed on a perimeter around it. You can upgrade a Shrine and once fully upgraded, you can place up to 22 plots in the area. The upkeep for the Shrine does not increase with upgrades. Anyone in the controlling Clan can place a regular plot using one of their Plot Tokens next to the Shrine, so it’s up to the Clan to coordinate who does this.
If a Clan member is removed from the clan, the plots placed by this player instantly disappear from the site and items on those plots go to the player’s redeeming queue. If a Clan is disbanded, Shrine ownership is relinquished and the plots disappear similarly.
Each Feudal Shrine has a unique name and the Lyonesse map shows the locations of them all. After a Shrine is claimed, the name of the controlling Clan and that Clan’s heraldry are shown on the map.
You will be able to set a Shrine your clan controls as your home location for the hourly free Petra Mea Miracle, and you can also use a 20 Grace spell to fast travel to them. If you die close to a Feudal Shrine your clan controls, you can choose to respawn there.
When it comes to building fortifications, doors on plots in Lyonesse can only be opened by members of the Clan that controls them. Door opening is not replicated across game instances if the world area is instanced at the time, so you will not accidentally open the door to players you can’t see. We will expand the permission system around doors in other areas besides Lyonesse in the future.
Pax vobiscum,
The Mainframe Team
Q&A
Why do I want to have a site in Lyonesse?
Lyonesse is very rich in resources and features XP and gold bonuses for loot. Having a safe haven in Lyonesse will be very beneficial for a Clan.
How can I capture a site from another Clan?
Currently, there is no direct way to capture a site. However, due to upkeep, your Clan can make it hard for a controlling Clan to keep their sites if you launch a concerted effort to capture a large portion of the daily Mournwood spawns. Future updates might include direct means to contest the sites.
Can sites be shared by multiple Clans?
This update is the starting point for Feudal gameplay, and we’re looking to enable multiple Clans to come together to form an Alliance to hold a site together. When we discussed the Alliance features earlier with the player community, there were rightful worries about how we were planning to implement these. As such, we’re keen to see how the sites work with this update and discuss with all of you how best to enable sharing sites between Clans.