PVP and shards/online mode

I have been following SotA for a while but haven't committed to playing yet. There are 2 issues that are unclear to me that cause me to hesitate. I haven't been able to find any clarification on them.

1) PVP isn't required for any story based quests or crafting? Older posts seem to suggest that open/mmo mode is always PVP, but more recent posts seem to suggest that might have tempered some. Having to go into PVP areas to do story quests or to harvest rare resources not available otherwise isn't something I'm interested in. I don't mind group/raid quests or dungeons being in PVP areas. I have seen some information on sharding/instancing but I don't know if it applies everywhere.

2) MMO/Friend/Single online modes. I have seen posts that MMO mode players can't go into single/friend mode (except maybe for short times) and comments that you can switch between any online modes. While I would play mostly in MMO mode, I just want to know which way is correct.

I am not completely against PVP, I do enjoy sometimes. I do not think that most MMOs provide enough deterent/protection to leveling players against over leveled/over geared players. UO at launch was a different internet community that reputation mattered and help was available. PKers now blend into the masses and have little worry about a bad rep, maybe even bragging about it.

There are many pro/anti PVP threads in the PVP forum. I am not trying to start another one, just get clarification of the rules in this game.

 

1) This game is consensual PvP only. They have not yet revealed their specific plans for what PvP is or how it's implemented. But we do know that it is consensual, and the selective multiplayer logic helps on a technical level to support that. You do not have to engage in PvP while doing the main storyline quest, but there may be some of those quests that will "entice" you into doing a few. No other detail has been provided in that regard.

2) There are three online modes and one offline mode:
OPO - open player online
- the default mode
- the most "MMO"-like feeling, your game is not filtered except via the selective multipalyer logic to bring your friends, players of like interest, etc into your game.
FPO - friend player online
- only friends you've explicitly listed will be in your game and everyone else will be filtered out of it
SPO - single palyer onlnie
- you play by yourself in the persistent online world
Offline - a separate offline character that can never go online. It's basically like playing a regular single player RPG without any online component.

They have not detailed how or when you can switch between online modes. There may be cooldowns or specific locations as this is open to exploits in PvP (whch they haven't detailed yet either), they are keeping mum on how switching online modes work until they figure it all out.

 

Thanks for the answer. That's pretty much what I had learned. I'm hoping they release more information on these topics soon.

Another question I had was how long will we be able to upgrade a pledge? I want to get into the game, but I'm not sure I'm ready to commit as much as I would once the other questions are answered (yes, I read the pre-launch timeline).

 

I hope its how UO was at first.

 

I don't remember if they posted an end date to taking pledges, but we've still got a long ways to go. You'll likely be ok if you want to wait for more details about the game to be revealed over the next couple months.