First time dark souls, doesnt understand pvp, help?

im on new game plus, soul level 230. im in the sun covenant, gathering sun medals. wound up with lots of souls. i've read somewhere u can only get invaded by people soul level +-10. so im afraid of levelling up more. what if there's nobody around my level? what if i got to level 700 in ng+6? anyway, im getting summoned here, and i got hosts that died quick, hosts that can hang around, and hosts that can fight harder than me. how does online work really? maybe getting summoned is different from invasion.

Afaik invasions work within the same boundaries as summons, you need to be within 10% of another players level to see their sign or have a risk of invasion (also you cannot be invaded if you defeat the area boss)

I have heard that the current NG+ soft cap for co-op players is 150, as for PvP I never dabble in it, but look for PvP forum topics and usually a soft level cap is thrown around. Choose to avoid it, or sit within it

Cy

Summoning and invading are completely different (outside covenant signs like dragon eye or red soapstone). Yes, there is a +- 10, but there is also Soul Memory that needs to be taken into play (nor NG normal from what I know thus far). The range is 10 lvls and around 50k SM. As for players online, some play solely for PVP, some for fun and the story, experience vs players/mobs will reflect this.

A very useful link here for anything DS2, starting with the online aspect. Most is fairly vague, but more content is added all the time.