How To Make Money And Experience Stuff?

[Adol]

Hey there all, I'm coming up to nearly a month back into the game after 6 years away... and although I've slowly got my characters back up to speed, and earned 2.5 million and a house from literally no possessions, I'm beginning to feel disconnected from the game again.

The first part of the problem is that I've not seen much truly stimulating content; I've wandered about the Samurai lands, which were not open when I left, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot exciting there... and most of the spawn is hard to survive even when using my most advanced character, and what is now a fully trained (but not exceptional) Greater Dragon (I always keep my first tames!). I could join up with larger groups to explore, as I gather there's a fair amount of dungeons I need keys to get into (one based upon the map of Ultima Underworld I see!), but even though I stay in General chat, but it's very rare to see anyone advertise for anything interesting... I've fought Travesty twice with Lord Felix but that's about it. The only time I ever felt "Wow!" was when I came across the Bagball pitch again, near Luna... but even when that was brand new, I never saw a game played of it sadly.

I've been along to every EM event so far since I returned, but even when I get involved at the sharp end, instead of trying to run a hospital, it's hard to see much of what is happening under the press of bodies after the rare drops...

And secondly, prices after so many years of inflationary pressure are now insane; I've been attending Europa Trader's announced IDOCs when ever I can to try and get a foot into the wider market, and replace some of the things I gave away years ago without having to buy them... without much success, although I did get a Black Dye Tub from the last one at least! And I'd like to save money, because I want to save up for a Singing Ball, which I've wanted since I first played in 2001 but have never owned... However, I don't have any idea how to realistically gain the 80 million or so I'm told they go for on Europa now, at least without completely killing my interest in the game.

So basically, at the moment the game kind of feels empty, and I feel lost within it; what interesting or profitable ideas could people give for me please? In the meantime, I'm going to try and locate some of the places I remember way back when... starting with the bottom rooms of Covetous, and a Guest Book I recall seeing is in the bottom of one of the anti-virtue dungeons somewhere...

 

[UOFree]

If you havent upgraded to SA you really wont get much new experience.

Ofcause there is Peerless hunts and champs now but else not really much new. I have not upgraded myself but Im a trader I don't need the hunting and new skills options

 

[Adol]

I have upgraded to Stygian Abyss, yes...

... but tonight's adventure to the bottom of Covetous just got me eaten by an Ancient Wyrm that seems to have replaced the dragons and drakes that used to live down there. It seems Greater Dragons can't kill them

Anyway, I'm currently in my old guild, the SRC, so I may be looking to ally with another guild to find more active events I think...!

 

[Serafi]

The first part of the problem is that I've not seen much truly stimulating content;

I think you may suffer from wowitis, a horrible condition that makes you less able to provide the content yourself. But no need to panic! The condition can be cured

I've wandered about the Samurai lands, which were not open when I left, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot exciting there... and most of the spawn is hard to survive even when using my most advanced character, and what is now a fully trained (but not exceptional) Greater Dragon (I always keep my first tames!).

If you have trouble surviving there it might be due to gear, weapons or skill - or a combination of both. Not saying all monsters there are easy, even should be, but learning how to survive is also a playerskill. Knowing when to run and whatnot. Also, get someone to check your gear - it might not be what you need at this point. If I am online whenever you are I could go through it with you as well.

I could join up with larger groups to explore, as I gather there's a fair amount of dungeons I need keys to get into (one based upon the map of Ultima Underworld I see!), but even though I stay in General chat, but it's very rare to see anyone advertise for anything interesting...

I think most are done via guilds still. It sounds like you would enjoy UO more if you were a member of one. Check around and see if you meet players you like and check their guild tag. Being active seeking out a guild doesn`t hurt either.

I've fought Travesty twice with Lord Felix but that's about it. The only time I ever felt "Wow!" was when I came across the Bagball pitch again, near Luna... but even when that was brand new, I never saw a game played of it sadly.

Then you have more experience fighting Travesty than I have

I've been along to every EM event so far since I returned, but even when I get involved at the sharp end, instead of trying to run a hospital, it's hard to see much of what is happening under the press of bodies after the rare drops...

Theres an EM site which covers the recent events, theres also playermade threads here on the boards that try to keep people up to speed. Even then, it can be difficult to follow whats going on if you can`t attend every time. I am very often as confused as you...

And secondly, prices after so many years of inflationary pressure are now insane; I've been attending Europa Trader's announced IDOCs when ever I can to try and get a foot into the wider market, and replace some of the things I gave away years ago without having to buy them... without much success, although I did get a Black Dye Tub from the last one at least!

IDOC-ing is a playstyle - and you will get far better results if you read up on all the ins and outs of it all. Theres a sticky over at the homes and castles forum that will guide you through it. Don`t just wait for someone else to give you a decaying house - search for them yourself.

And I'd like to save money, because I want to save up for a Singing Ball, which I've wanted since I first played in 2001 but have never owned... However, I don't have any idea how to realistically gain the 80 million or so I'm told they go for on Europa now, at least without completely killing my interest in the game.

Theres plenty of players that never have had even close to that amount of gold - but are still enjoying the game But if that is your ultimate goal, find ways to reach it. It can be through idocing actively, or buying low and selling high - or any other ways you find are fun and worthwhile.

So basically, at the moment the game kind of feels empty, and I feel lost within it; what interesting or profitable ideas could people give for me please?

UO is a sandbox in which you decide what to do at any given time. That means setting up a few goals for yourself not given to you by gamemechanics. "Go to X area and kill Y amount of Z critters" type of thing. If you are roaming the world looking for others to provide that stimulating content, be it GMs,EMs or other players, UO will fail to entertain you - as you will not be able to entertain yourself. You might have to relearn how to play in that sandbox. Try out different things, see what kind of playstyle you enjoy the most, what activities you like doing. What kind of UO player are you, what do you prefer to do with your time? What kind of short-term goals do you want to have?

 

[Zayin666]

I think you may suffer from wowitis, a horrible condition that makes you less able to provide the content yourself. But no need to panic! The condition can be cured

lol

But I think its true... everything was predesigned for you in WoW.. from lvl 1 to 80 and then gearing up for the hardest raid instance.... everything preplanned and just waiting for you to follow the path

 

[Adol]

Firstly, thank you for the replies so far... but I do wish people would stop referring to WoW; it's another game entirely, and not relevant here.

Secondly, I just want to correct what seems to be a misunderstanding; I played for 2 years straight way back when, and had fully completed characters in every slot, and was working on a rares museum when I left... The problem I have is not that I don't know what the game is like on a basic level (sandbox), but that now I'm back I need to re-find a community because there just hasn't been all that much added to the core game which interests me on it's own; I could spend £20 to get two new character slots, and train Imbuing and a Gargoyle, but the former almost everyone already has on their own accounts and is churning out items I can just buy from my gold much easier, and the latter I've not seen anything about that makes me go "Ahah!" except from the idea of an Ultima VI+ roleplaying perspective.

My second adventure last night, to Hythloth turned out to be a disappointment as the promised guest book at the bottom no longer, or never actually existed on Europa. But that's the kind of thing I like to find when soloing. Does anyone have any suggestions for the new lands (Post Age Of Shadows) for fun things to discover?

Cailleach has kindly offered an Alliance with my old guild, so I can keep both our own SRC history and I'll have access to more sociable events... and I'm considering getting into rares trading when I have enough money, but only until I can raise the money for the Singing Ball. I have the Villa near Yew now, and I wanted to sit on the balcony and listen to it sing...

Also, someone else has informed me of the Questing system; I've noticed the marked NPCs in the Enhanced Client, but it was hard to get a sense of which ones led where... but thanks to this webpage, I'm going to tackle as many of these as I can;

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=177265

In particular the Virtue quests; the Virtues themselves may not be complete, but I can at least capture some of that old Ultima flavour it seems!

 

[jack flash uk]

well i have never played WoW so i can advise you only about UO, without delay start imbuing training, if you have a spare char on yr acct delete him/her and start a new char and go to advanced option and "buy" 50 imbuing

i hate crafting till SA came out

now i have 2 full crafter chars

main
Gargoyle
120 smith
120 tailor
100 fletch
100 arms lore
120 imbuing
100 item identification
90 odd mage

assistant crafter
human, with fire beetle

100 alchemy
100 carpenter
100 cooking
100 inscription
100 lumber
100 mining
55 odd music
100 tinkering

these 2 combinations can craft pretty much anything and kept me very busy training for a while

also allowed me to use monster loot to get ingrediants for imbuing and and cfating skills to make suits


best to take yr greater (if trained) to the abyss and tackle the mini champ spawns to get a feel for the game again

this will keep you VERY busy, and happy


if you need some things like a soul forge( to train imbuing) and some residue and gems ( also to train) i can help you

get your head around this and you will see the great possibilites..............



icq 276 556 697

take up SAOR offer of alliance as they seem to be everywhere!

 

[Ommy2k7]

I remember posting a post nearly exactly like the one you posted. Granted mine was i think just after Age of Shadows. (Id taken a break to do my exams) (Ofwhich i failed miserably!). Anyways i spend about a week thinking about weather to return or not and decided to read nearly every Profression board on stratics. Previously id been a mage just running around e-bolting ettins and other pointless creatures, Not really knowing much about the game at all.

In the end i decided to re-activate my acct

I decided to keep my old mage (Omega) on hold for awhile and take up a new character. Id read that mining and lumberjacking was a really good way to make coin. So i started a new character with 50 mining 49 Tinker and 1 camping. Asked someone to gate me to Fire Isle and began to mine - and mine i did. for weeks; making my own ingots and selling them on. After probably about two months worth of mining,(this was before I knew Assist exsisted!) i remember iron being around 6-7gp at that time. Anyways i made my first 500k - 750k (prolly the same value then as your 2.5m is now) from mining. Then i decided to train up my warrior skills.. Fencing, Anat, Healing, Tactics.. And keep mining as a skill id use on the side.. Once id GM'd them skills the char became a fully fledged warrior. I joined guild, went on Hunts, T-maps.. Dungeon Crawls.. loadsa stuff.. It was then i discovered the other templates that were available. Such as Tamers, PVPers, Crafstmen, Bards, Pure Mages, Paladins.. I added Chivalry to my Template and became a Pally/Fencer

During this time, aslong as i was active and doing stuff (not stood around doing squat) my gold piles were rising - granted not exceptionally but still i wasnt poor.

Back then there wasnt really much EM stuff/events that i can remember. Ive always said that when it comes to EM item drops/rares you just have to be in the right place at the right time or buy at the right price at the right time. I personally have never really been interested in amassing rares. Okay there are afew that id like to own - Maybe 3-4 at the most, Id rather get stuck into the game than make a living from just trading with others. Though i suppose that different things light different peoples candles.

As for making gold.. there are 4 main ways i think.

1) Resources
Mining, Lumberjacking, Fletching, Tanning etc. These are -boring- as sin. (trust me ive done it, and no doubt thousands of people will agree with me) But they are Very very rewarding in terms of gold return. Lets face it everyone is going ti need resources for something at some point. Verdict - Id do it. Its the simplist way in my opinion.

2) Hunting
This ones pretty self explanitary. Go out and bash things with ya sword or mace or even better stay invised and get ya honkin dragon eat things for ya. This one i think Everyones done before, and if they say they havent there a liar. Killing monsters and grabbing their gold is fun as hell.. though you get the risk of dying obviously.. (though you get a nice fame title to-boot!) Verdict - Buy a runebook and get killing! Hurrah!

3)Wheeling & Dealing.
This one takes some getting in to. Buying and selling items/things for x amount and selling them for +x amount. you need some money to start out with. My Advice would be to start small.. making small profits then move onto bigger and better things. To be honest id just sell the resources i gather, but thats just me. I myself am not really a trader, i have traded things and one or two true rares but they were given to me by players that have left. So really i wouldnt class myself as an "Del Boy" of UO or anything. Verdict - Id stick to just earning your gold for now, maybe push into trading a little later.

4)Fell.
This is one (After about 9 years of playing in total) ive just started to delve in. Champ Spawns, PvP, Peerless are all brilliant ways to make gold. Though difficult for a beginner you might wanto read about the do's and don'ts before yo try. Verdict? its up to you and what you know. Personally id stick to the first two.


I think what it all boils down too is what -we- do as players. As players of UO we have (and im not sure we all grasp this) an unbelievable amount of freedom compared to other games. I mean.. In what other game can its own players organise a bagball tournament? or.. a PVP Caravan or.. a Rares museum or..i think you get the picture? Okay so there are obvious things we cant do like exploiting - and those who get caught get what they deserve imo. But as players and as characters we can do what the hell we pretty much want. So thinking about it, Its not "How to/do i make Money and Experience".. Its more.. "Im gunna do this to get that".

Another subject is Roleplaying. Okay i know some people loathe RP'ers. I myself have been apart of a RP guild since 2000 and absolutely love it. To me its just like playing the game pre publish 16. (well for the guild im in anyways). Maybe thats another thing you could look at?


I think basically what im trying to say is - UO isnt the game it set out to be and for that it is a failure, But instead its become an absolute Monster interms of Depth/Freedom which no other game even remotely comes close too. If you want to run around the streets of Vesper, starke naked shouting you love green bunnies with a latern in your hand you can! And be damn proud of it! because you cant do it on any other game!

UO is what you make of it. If you want interaction between players there are forums you can post onto (Such as this one) to do that. Organise MASS events and advertise them on said forums. Bringing players together - one example can be the ingame auctions. In away each player is an EM, we have that ability.

Im gunna stop rambling now its far to early and my body is deprived of Coffee and Toast.

So Goodluck and we're all here to help.

Signed -
Lord Omega (Europa)
(Ommy)