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Can this game be played solo or with two players? When learning a game for the first time I tend to play with my wife a bit first and stumble along at a casual pace learning as I go. Grouping once I've gotten an idea of the mechanics.
How prevalent is PVP? I don't like PVP at all, and if there are ways for players to just outright attack me anywhere... I doubt I'll have a long career in this game.
How does the environment get populated? Is it a timed respawn kind of thing, or instanced quests that repopulate with each group?
Goblin Squad Member
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Not good for solo play. One can solo adventure, a little, as a harvester or just taking on small goblin groups. But to get better equipment you will need to interact with vendors. This is intended to be settlement vs settlement conflict further down the line (armies vs armies, scouts, …
So you can solo, but that is not really where the game is going. It is intended to be social game once the economy is built by the initial and later characters.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The game can be played solo or duo, but not too long. Several weeks before you plateau probably. A group can likely get you ahead faster, but I know a lot of people want to learn at their own pace.
My main suggestion if you want to learn at your own pace: spend your XP slowly and hold a lot in reserve. Figure out what you think you want to do, and trickle XP into that. You might realize you want to go another direction entirely.
PvP hasn't been prevalent because there's pretty drastic in-game penalties (Reputation loss) and the looting rules haven't been implemented. The Reputation loss *will* be eased in the next round of Alpha, so there might be more killings. It likely won't be everywhere. There are patrolled hexes around all of the starter towns, and along major roads; the NPC guards haven't been set up to patrol these areas though, so we'll see.
A lot of people have come in being pretty anti-PvP, and come to tentative grips with it. How it actually works in game... We don't know and the penalties will likely be tweaked up and down so there is some player killing, but not excessive amounts. Enough that we wear armor most of the time, anyway.
The environment is populated with period respawns of mobs, not instanced quests, at least for now. One world; we're all competing or cooperating on killing the critters.
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Well I asked about the PVP thing because I tried playing rust. Turns out when I started it I didn't realize that if you were logged off your character was just sleeping and could be murdered/looted. This was my first PVP experience ever, and... it has soured me on any of it. I'm not competitive in the least. I hate it to the point I can't watch sports. This might not be the game for me.
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To be honest, it was this game, Dungeons and Dragons Online, or Neverwinter. I tried Neverwinter, and I liked the instanced quests, and the ability to solo or duo with some challenge. But the lag was terrible and made most of the game unplayable. I haven't tried DDO or PFO yet, but I'm thinking DDO is going to be closer to what I want. Instanced quests able to be completed by a group or solo (I will group, but some days I just want to turn my brain off. I tend to get into a hyperfocused state of mind when grouping in PVE and it exhausts me.). No chance of PVP murder or kills in any area unless formally challenged and accepted (some sort of accept/deny button at least.) And something close to tabletop in terms of character creation.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Solo adventure is easy enough provided you use sense. I am in the Aussie time zone and have a settlement that is craft oriented and the majority of the other players seem to be intending to eventually get involved some time after EE so I spent a lot of time solo.
Solo/duo crafting is a bit trickier but can be done. I run two characters and have managed to make pretty much all Tier 1 +3 weapons and +3 armor. At Tier 2, I have a miner that can mine Tier 2 ores and a smelter that can make Tier 2 dwarven steel but it would be a few more weeks before I could start making T2 weapons and armor as I would need to level up weapon and armor smithing as well.
The real problem with being obsessively solo is you need to be a member of a settlement to train past level 7 or so in any skill. This forced co-operation is not really "sand-boxy" and a bit irksome but its part of the core design of the game so no point complaining.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Can this game be played solo or with two players? When learning a game for the first time I tend to play with my wife a bit first and stumble along at a casual pace learning as I go. Grouping once I've gotten an idea of the mechanics.
If you're typically competent in other MMOs, you should do fine. I can solo even the harder Goblin Ghouls Escalations (timed myself the other night and dropped one from 100% to 93.4% in one hour).
That said, I strongly encourage you to group early and often. Not least because of your next concern...
How prevalent is PVP? I don't like PVP at all, and if there are ways for players to just outright attack me anywhere... I doubt I'll have a long career in this game.
You will be killed by other players against your will.
That said, you will likely experience less random PvP in PFO than you would in a game like Darkfall, which Ryan recently described as being "overwhelmed" by random PvP.
Join up with a community that supports your playstyle and you'll have fun :)
How does the environment get populated? Is it a timed respawn kind of thing, or instanced quests that repopulate with each group?
No instancing (yet).
Mobs respawn, but are "shy" so they try not to respawn while a player is nearby.
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Keep 'em coming :)
This is a great community, and tons of friendly folks actually want to give you helpful answers.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm going to suggest spending some time in DDO first. We are just finishing the Alpha stage for PFO and there's a good deal more to add. These games are entirely different from each other. DDO is a dungeon based game and a pretty good one at that. FPO on the other hand is a sandbox with settlement conflict at it's center.
I'm so sorry to hear that Rust was your first PvP experience. That's just not a good way to start.
When you get a chance, read up on PFO here on this forum and the Dev Blogs at Goblinworks to get a better idea of what this game will be like.
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Goblin Squad Member
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DDO will suit you much better at the moment, imo. In fact, I may give that a go again. Been a while.
I think in the future soloing will be a very valid gameplay style in PFO, and a lot more fun then currently since the world is still pretty barebone right now. Why do I think soloing will be a valid gameplay style? Because GW wants this game to be a success.
Sometimes it looks as if people think that solo gameplay is the same thing as "avoiding the social construct of a game".
However, the social construct of what I think PFO will be, is on more levels, *and* higher levels then the old "group up and kill mobs, or harvest together" of a typical Themepark MMO.
I want to be able to solo harvest, but I also want to be part of a Settlement; see it grow, help it grow. I want to log in and see familiar faces in my town: but I do not necessarily want to be in a group with them for 3 hours, harvesting. Some enemy company is attacking one of our PoI's? I will very likely join the Posse that will be sent out to stop them. But that is not the same as requiring players to contstantly group up together for every activity. Just being in my own town that I helped develop is fun. There will be gatherings, events. There will be danger and setbacks. That is what attracts me. Not having to do *every activity* in a group. Even participating on out-of-game forums is being part of the social construct. Me working the Auctionhouse is being part of the social construct, and I will certainly be doing that alone.
I hope GW gets this. You can be social in a MMO, and like solo-*play*. The first is on a different level then the second.
Anyway, I think DDO, with years of development behind its teeth and with its handcrafted, instanced environments and many, many PvE game systems to make these adventures even more fun, is the better choice for you. It is actually a fantastic game if you are ok with the fact that the world is divided in group-instances.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I second the recommendation that you check out the blogs on Goblinworks. There are some specific ones that would clarify the direction the game is heading. It is very important to realize that at its heart, this is a cooperative game (settlement building) with competition between groups (settlement warfare). Some individuals will specialize in PVE and even potentially solo activity but you will be unable to avoid the other aspects eventually. In Alpha it is possible, but that it is not the target game play.
I think we all here want to encourage people to try this game, and be enthusiastic about it, but if your aversion to competitive play extends to the inability to watch sports, then I don't see you being happy with PFO.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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If the thing you like about DDO was repeating the dungeons to get shiny gear that let you do harder dungeons, you unequivocally will not satisfy that particular itch in PFO anytime soon.
If repeating the same content was a price that you were happy to pay to see a marginal increase of a number of your character sheet meaning you were more powerful, you might be satisfied by PFO.
There are lots of other axes that you might like or dislike Neverwinter and/or DDO; can you describe what you liked and didn't like as precisely as you can?
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After trying DDO and after what people have said here, I think I'll be sticking there.
As to others who keep asking me what I liked and didn't like, it boils down to a few things.
1.) Little to no PVP whatsoever. If there is PVP it is purely optional and has a "challenge" system so to speak. Something to ensure that if one party isn't interested, they don't have to enter PVP.
2.) I prefer instanced quests and character building close to some kind of tabletop system. My very first gaming experiences were Fallout, Fallout 2, and Temple of Elemental Evil. So I prefer some kind of character creation system based on that.
3.) While repeating quests can get tiresome, I prefer that over a game where I can't play alone or with only my wife. I WILL group with people, but I find in many MMOs most groups aren't accommodating to new players or under-geared players who don't have all the best toys. But this is coming from someone who tried WoW and disliked the community.
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Goblin Squad Member
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3.) While repeating quests can get tiresome, I prefer that over a game where I can't play alone or with only my wife.
I want to reiterate that you will be able to solo or duo. Eventually, your options will be limited if you don't join a Player Settlement, but you can easily get several months of play-time in to familiarize yourself with the game systems and the community. Once you join a Player Settlement, I expect the grouping situation will pretty much solve itself.
I also want to reiterate that PFO is absolutely an "Open PvP" game, which means you can - and almost certainly will - get killed by other players against your will. However, PFO is also quite committed to ensuring that it isn't "overwhelmed" by random PvP. You'll have a lot of opportunities to mitigate your risk of unwanted PvP, and the game systems are designed to make other players weigh the benefits of killing you. In short, you almost certainly won't get killed over and over by bored high-level characters you can't touch who are only doing it because they're bored and they don't have any reason not to.
I hope you reconsider and check out PFO during Early Enrollment.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I also want to reiterate that PFO is absolutely an "Open PvP" game, which means you can - and almost certainly will - get killed by other players against your will. However, PFO is also quite committed to ensuring that it isn't "overwhelmed" by random PvP.
To build on what Nihimon wrote, there will be no difference whether we get killed by a red ogre or a player-bandit. Our stuff will be lost unless it's threaded, and we'll resurrect at the appropriate spot with a little decay on the threads.
The team is dedicated to preventing an excess of random violence, so we'll just have to view it as another type of mob, that will be of the high-risk category. We'll be careful to avoid getting close to mobs with too many red and purple critters, and we'll be careful to get too close to strangers in the wilderness.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Also for what its worth, I strongly dislike PvP as well but the PvP in PFO feels different than most other MMOs I have played in the past. Most players I have come across in PFO that have attacked me in game have been very respectful. While I dislike PvP in most cases, I absolutely love the added layer PvP adds to the game in PFO.
In PFO, PvP seems to be more to add a sense of realism in the game and is there for those who enjoy role playing evil aligned characters. In my opinion the PvP aspect of PFO makes it closer to the talble top version of itself where my characters can be walking around and get jumped by a group of bandits.
That said, I was able to solo for several months before my wife and I decided to play in a group of two and I am also part of a guild that supports PvE which makes the experience more enjoyable. If you ever do reconsider I can tell you there are many players here who would love to help you have a positive experience even with the PvP.
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It's not a matter about respect. I had panic attacks trying to play League of Legends once. PVP is not something I can handle. Even if that PVP is with a friendly group, I'd still just rather not get involved with it at all. And the difference between PVP and NPCs boils down to "I know I lost to a person." versus "man that's a hard dungeon."
Edit: and that game of League was with people I've known for years and still hang out with to this day in real life.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm not competitive in the least. I hate it to the point I can't watch sports. This might not be the game for me... I had panic attacks trying to play League of Legends once. PVP is not something I can handle. Even if that PVP is with a friendly group, I'd still just rather not get involved with it at all.
It sounds like you know yourself, and your tolerance for confrontations with other players, pretty well. I hate to see PFO lose a potential player, but I have to agree that this might not be the game for you.
That's okay! No game is perfectly suited for every player, and no player is perfectly suited for every game. I hope you find the perfect game for you and your wife.
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Goblin Squad Member
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It's not a matter about respect. I had panic attacks trying to play League of Legends once. PVP is not something I can handle. Even if that PVP is with a friendly group, I'd still just rather not get involved with it at all. And the difference between PVP and NPCs boils down to "I know I lost to a person." versus "man that's a hard dungeon."
Edit: and that game of League was with people I've known for years and still hang out with to this day in real life.
I like your honesty. I am sortoff in the same spot, exept that I have high hopes for the Economic and Political PvP in PFO. This game must be a Traders/Crafters/Transporters heaven. I hope PvP will happen on a much higher level too and that is where I want to contribute most.
The direct confrontation between players is off course the core of all this. Without, the whole thing falls apart. I just feel that there are roles to fill that involve little direct combat and a lot of trading, crafting and transporting.
I also do not mind PvP and dieing when part of a large force. Though I expect to travel light into the battlefield because I do hate losing stuff.
As to losing stuff when transporting goods: I hope this can be a calculated risk, which would include a good SAD system(Stand and Deliver, basically paying a Road toll to the bandits instead of fighting them and getting killed).
I guess Transport in PFO is still the great unknown. It looks like Transport will be the realm for large organized groups with heavily guarded caravans: companies hauling goods from their PoI to the Settlement and such. But I am wondering if there is a place here for the lone runner, the courier, using either Fast Travel or his legs to transport a few highly valuable assets to a town where it could make a nifty profit (or even "on order" runs).
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm will try out the Peddler role. Walking around with lightweight wares and odd stuff, selling that and news to whomever I meet or where I go. Mainly to camps and such in the wilderness.
I imagine I'll have to pay protection money a lot, but also be well known I all camps and making enough friends to avoid some conflicts, having powerful friends to be protected from others, and being good fighter to bite hard enough against random murderers.
I'm not sure it is viable, but it also will work as a basis for a travelling Bard later on...
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As an update: To those who urged me to try DDO.. I'm loving it so far and my Mechanic Rogue is doing well Solo. I can use the stealth mechanics so far to get through quests without much fighting, and crossbows take care of things when I do have to fight.
I might try PFO in the future, but I don't see myself spending all that much money to do so. I wish they had a demo or a way to kind of pay for a limited trial without being on a subscription or putting alot upfront for things I might not use later.
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Goblin Squad Member
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As an update: To those who urged me to try DDO.. I'm loving it so far and my Mechanic Rogue is doing well Solo. I can use the stealth mechanics so far to get through quests without much fighting, and crossbows take care of things when I do have to fight.
I might try PFO in the future, but I don't see myself spending all that much money to do so. I wish they had a demo or a way to kind of pay for a limited trial without being on a subscription or putting alot upfront for things I might not use later.
Their sort of is at present as stacks of people have free alpha invites - but they will expire with EE once the first stage of the game proper starts.
As far as group play goes I am finding the opposite at present. I mainly end up solo or occasionally organise to team up with the one or two people I know in RL. Most people recently are either not playing at all waiting for EE (the settlements were dead for a few weeks) or are logging in with prearranged parties. The only place I found you could reliably get a random party together was Thornkeep.
Not to matter you seem to ahve found your place for now :D
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Goblin Squad Member
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Their sort of is at present as stacks of people have free alpha invites - but they will expire with EE once the first stage of the game proper starts.
All the invites vanished with the open access last month. There is no way to get in now unless you have some kind of permanent account.
