re: Pax Dei - Alpha Testing starts soon

There's another streamer with a decent following who is making a city. LINK

I found a good spot with lots of different resources around me (clay, gneiss, iron ore, hogs, trees, flax, reeds, apples, etc) so I've been working on a lot of the more traditional crafting paths (carpentry, clothing, leatherworking, blacksmithing, etc). Over the weekend I started working on armorsmithing and weaponsmithing (chest and legs of basic chain, iron broadsword, iron axe for cutting bigger trees). I even built a house (but am having trouble completing the roof).

I'm enjoying the slower pace of this game, the ability to do everything on my own and the gorgeous graphics.

The game still has some issues.
-Sometimes the big trees will "fall" in such a way that they are stuck above your character's head (meaning you have to move around to try to find a spot where you can "chop" upward, if it's even possible).
-Running it through Steam causes the launcher processes to not close completely out (you have to end-task on it in task manager).
-There's no definitive path for crafting in a specific focus, much less making a specific item. If I want to focus on clothing, I will either need to first focus on things like blacksmithing and carpentry (leatherworking too, I think) in order to build a spindle, a loom, etc. Recipes for making specific things are hidden behind levels walls (in a focus) and/or in the first time you successfully make some item (which may or may not be related to whatever you are focusing on). Many were the times when I got a new recipe I wanted to make (a simple hauberk, for example) but it needed a crafted resource I hadn't unlocked yet (thus, not even knowing what I needed to make in order to unlock it).
-Combat, at least at this level, is just hack/slash.
-If you are swimming and run out of stamina, it begins taking your health (serious WTF there)
-There's as yet no easy way to edit your plot (moving a chair, for example). Currently you have to delete whatever it is then place it again (which means it, or the resources to make it, takes up room in your inventory).
-Putting down foundation stones are ground level does not remove the foliage.
-There's no terrain editing feature for your plot. How can I have a medieval Batcave if I can't make a cave!?!
-Sometimes when you have your construction hammer equipped, the graphics stutter as you move around.
-Fishing should be available early on (if it's available at all, I haven't discovered anything involving it yet and have not seen any fish in the waters).

Sidenote: The world needs to be quite a bit larger or there needs to be some sort of inactivity timer on plots. When I set up my plot a week ago there were only a couple others within sight. Now there is one across the river, one to the left and above me, one behind me, another to the right of that one, etc. While some of those are active or semi-active, some have still not progressed beyond their firepit and carpentry table (everyone gets to claim 2 plots in this alpha, so many of these may have been abandoned after the player moved to some other locale they prefer even more).

All that said, this is still alpha testing. This is far from a finished game so there's absolutely no reason to think any/all of these issues are going to remain once it gets into beta testing (whenever that may be). It's definitely going to be more of a niche appeal than mass appeal style of game. Thus far they haven't discussed how they plan for the game to pay for itself (so that may end up being a deal breaker for some, depending on what they do).