Been considering starting PF Online. Then I heard it never got out of beta, so I couldn't join. Then I heard it was out of beta, but not popular. Then I head it was ridiculously expensive. Then I heard you couldn't actually do anything. Then I heard a lot of people are still playing and enjoying it. Then I heard it wasn't accepting new accounts. Then I heard there was a new company, but not to join until that was finalized. Etc...
So any real info available?
Can I start a new account?
Is there any point to starting a new account or should I just wait?
Goblin Squad Member
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It's in an open-beta-state. You can sign up for a 15 day trial for no cost at Goblinworks. If you want to stay live after that, it's about 12-15 a month depending on how you choose to pay. If not, you can simply let the character go inactive after 15 days, and try again later, if you want, by paying for 1 month, or (theoretically) by trying a new 15-day trial account if you have a different email address (but that original trial will have about 35k xp by the time it goes inactive, which you'd have to wait for all over again.).
There isn't a large population yet. Depending on when you are in, you might be the only person (or at least the others are not responding in general chat) or there might be 10 or 20 or a hundred. If there's more than that, most of them are keeping their heads down.
There are some basic mobs to fight near the starter shrine, and mats to gather, and you can craft gear in the starter town if you care to put xp into crafting skills. You start with only a little XP, and get 2400 more per day during your trial, or any time you have paid time active.
There is a new company that has shown a commitment to the game (They're currently paying for half the costs of keeping the game active) They've indicated they hope to be finalizing over the summer, but it probably won't change the game much for a few months anyway (it's currently on a skeleton staff, with bug fixes plus a few new features once every couple of months)
Personally, I'd suggest creating an account, logging in to start a character, run around for a few minutes, kill a half dozen goblins (or more if you enjoy it) to get a rough feel, then park it for a few days until it has a few thousand XP so you can more easily run the quests for your preferred roles, and maybe do a little extra training before tackling a more thorough trial. If you start a toon today, by Sunday it will have about 10k xp. You interact with quest givers by right-clicking. Attacking anyone near a thornguard will get you killed, but they have a short memory. Right by the shrine is an extremely basic movement quest to get you started (look for a glowing woman).
There are some basic info docs in linked in the starter app, and you can see the controls at the PFO wiki
Everything is more fun if you have a group of people to work with, especially if they have a little experience. Various alliances have various voice rooms for chatting. If you have Mumble installed, there's an open mumble at golarion.mumble.com see goblinworks post here. Most North America evenings there are at least a couple of people there you can chat with while playing. At random times, there might or might not be anyone visiting.
The Goblinworks forums (link above) are a good place to find people, who can guide you to where they are hanging out. You can read the public areas, but can't post until you have an account (active or trial).
If I get a few people to regularly log on at the same time, are there cooperative missions or tasks that we can do together, just PvP, or just chatting?
Can I only have 1 character or would I have to have and pay for multiple accounts to have more than 1 to try different things?
Are any particular roles or types of character rare and/or more in demand than others?
My brother wants to know if can be played on a phone or tablet, or is it computer only game?
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Goblin Squad Member
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There are no missions the game will make for you .. Those will have to come from what you and your friends want to accomplish.
There are PvE escalations you can take on and build up recipes and expendables and coin.- each escalation you face will be different types of opponents, bandits, goblins, ogres, duergar , elves, skeletons, wolves, humans, elementals etc..
One of you guys should make a company.. and have everyone join it. ( eventually you can attach that company to a settlement)
Get more than 6 players into that company( can use alts to fill the needed spaces), Each account has 3 character slots.. so 6 players in a company with 2 people isn’t that hard to do as it is 2 accounts.
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As you and your friends play and do things in game, craft, kill mobs, etc.. your company gains influence.
The more people you add the higher your influence cap will be ( There are diminishing returns on that.. so after 30-40 characters consider making a second company.. just to have more influence to spend later)
Influence can be used to take over hexes with outpost and holdings. These generate bulk resources you can sell or stock up until the day comes you want to try to take over a settlement.( bulk resources are needed to keep your settlement running)
Influence is also the PvP currency right now.. you can use it to feud other companies , so you can fight them without reputation hits.
Crafting and gathering are also activities you can do.. since all gear is player made. You have to come up with a way to keep yourself in gear. Do enough PvE and escalations to acquire enough coin to buy the gear you need. Or have a few folks focus on crafting and gathering things you will use.
Think of characters as roles, you aren't limited to just one class, you spend xp on the skills you want and can mix and match to your hearts content.
The game is xp over time so one character can learn everything, it would just takes years of xp to have everything mastered on one character.. but in a few months you could be a decently paired cleric and fighter type character or something like that..
Each account only allows 1 character to learn xp at a time, even though you can make 3 on your account.
Currently it is PC only, a new company is hopefully taking over development at the end of July.. so who knows what plans they have for future play options and support. ( no official word who it is so we call them NewCorp right now)
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Goblin Squad Member
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There are regular escalations of mobs running near Thornkeep that are best tackled by 3 or more new players (you can do some of the stuff with one or two, but the final boss will require a lot of hit-and-run activity and might be too tough depending on skill and tactics). As you level up, there are more and more difficult escalations that spread around the map at random. Some of those will fall in territory that other players consider "theirs" so might lead to PvP if you don't ask first.
At the moment, there are really only four roles (Fighter, mage, cleric, rogue), and none is much more heavily in demand, though most people find taking at least some cleric training useful.
Thanks guys.
Think I might give it a stab this weekend.
While Thornguards have short memories, PLAYERS don't. PvP at your own risk. If you explain you are new, someone might let you duel/practice on them.
Also, no PvP is allowed in the 3 hexes that make up Thornguard.
The blue shield hexes are lower level and meant for new players, and veteran players aren't supposed to be killing new players in those hexes. However, once you join a settlement it will be difficult to know that you are new. Generally, veteran players don't kill other players, anyway... It's a very friendly community.
Enjoy!