New Player Perspectives

[Borluc]

Hi there. I used to play UO back when it was still all about archer sets and tank mages. I've recently come back to see how things have changed and I thought you guys might want a little info on how it all looks from my angle with regards to Siege.

First, its actually pretty hard to find where the online community is. The official boards are dead for Siege, which gives players the impression that the server is too. After that, I figured I'd try Stratics and I found an old forum that is closed down. Only after following the link there did I find a pulse here on these forums. I'm a pretty determined person, so I was able to find it, but someone with a passing interest in Siege might dismiss it due to the lack of life.

Next, when I am in Brit there is NO one around. I mean, on small player servers I've seen more people mucking about. That, again, leaves new players feeling like the world is dead (fancy brit bank btw).

Well, Ill continue this after I'm home.

So I guess I was wondering if you guys actively promote the server. Its a shame that so many left UO with a bitter taste in their mouth. I probably should have just started a character on Siege all those years ago instead of hopping around themeparks waiting for the next sandbox. I think this attitude is why Siege isn't a hugely popular server. Its a sandbox still with a dangerous world that presents a challenge. So many people are looking for that exact thing.

So where do people hang out these days? Are there places where new people congregate to find friends and people to adventure with? Whats the server population like compared to the other shards?

Any advice on my character? I started out with mining magery and blacksmithing just because I didn't know what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, I can't even equip the pickaxe to mine because my str is too low lol. Wish the 7 day delete thing was gone by now. Any way to get around it? I'm surprised that its still 1 character only on Siege. Doesn't make much sense at this point in time. That is the one thing that pulls me towards Chessy or Catskills. I prefer the Siege mechanics, but Id like to have another character to craft.

Anyway, any advice would be great. Thanks for listening to the ramble.

 

[Czarina]

People dont really gather anywhere. You can find a gaggle around my shop on new mag on occasion or at guild houses and such. But we generaly dont hang out in towns due to thieves and alot of people are factions or red. so you go to town to find pvp hehe.

You should use a shovel untill you can use a pickaxe. Mining will raise your strength good.

As for a starting template. You should play something that you enjoy immensly. I prefer a crafter but my alt account i love my necro mage. Honestly id stick out mining as you can bring in some starting gold selling the ingots. If you prefer crafting templates tho I have a few questions:

1) Do you prefer full add on crafter?
2) resource gatherer?
3) Crafter for stuff that sells?

Depending on the answer to those you have a multitude of templates to go with assuming you dont have soulstones.

Template 1 add on crafter
120 tailor
120 blacksmith
100 tinker
100 carpentry
100 Magery
100 cooking
60 Music
40 Meditate

Template 2 Resource Gatherer
100 Mining
100 Tinker
100 Lumberjack
100 Fletching
100-120 Magery
Meditate and Eval
(this way you can farm leather as well)

Now my favorite crafting template
Template 3 Make me rich template
120 Imbue
120 Tailor
120 Blacksmith
100 Mining
100 Tinker
120 Magery
40 Meditate as a filler or on occasion i used to use 40 Hide.

These are just rough templates and can always be tweaked on what you like. Imbue, Tailor, Mining, Inscription, and on occasion Alchemy is where alot of your gold will flow. If you like to do BoDs then make sure to have 120 tailor and 120 Blacksmith. Fletching can make you good gold selling arrows/bolts if you dont mind farming feathers in large bulk.

My best advice tho is to just go with what you enjoy! Tis a game and if you dont enjoy playing it then its not a game any longer. Best of luck and hope to see you on siege sometime! Assuming this patch ever works and i can log in lol

 

[Symma]

Not sure which official board you're refering to but this board is far from dead... Just look at the recent post about EMs hehe. There use to be more traffic on the Siege forum back when PvPers brought smack talk here with the attached JPGs of their ingame pwnage....

And the other shard forums aren't exactly buzzing 24/7...

Bank sitting always is highly over rated lol, even on safe shards. On siege people like to keep busy when they are on. At least I do anyway. Always got treasure maps to do, resources to collect to sell to others and tame stuff if I need to

And to all newbies who read this, GENERAL CHAT is your friend

 

[Carharrt]

General Chat is a good thing

 

[Tjalle]

1) Do you prefer full add on crafter?
3) Crafter for stuff that sells?

Depending on the answer to those you have a multitude of templates to go with assuming you dont have soulstones.

Template 1 add on crafter
120 tailor
120 blacksmith
100 tinker
100 carpentry
100 Magery
100 cooking
60 Music
40 Meditate

Now my favorite crafting template
Template 3 Make me rich template
120 Imbue
120 Tailor
120 Blacksmith
100 Mining
100 Tinker
120 Magery
40 Meditate as a filler or on occasion i used to use 40 Hide.

These are just rough templates and can always be tweaked on what you like. Imbue, Tailor, Mining, Inscription, and on occasion Alchemy is where alot of your gold will flow. If you like to do BoDs then make sure to have 120 tailor and 120 Blacksmith. Fletching can make you good gold selling arrows/bolts if you dont mind farming feathers in large bulk.

My best advice tho is to just go with what you enjoy! Tis a game and if you dont enjoy playing it then its not a game any longer. Best of luck and hope to see you on siege sometime! Assuming this patch ever works and i can log in lol

On template one I´d choose Arms Lore over cooking. Number three can work without AL cuz you can imbue the extra DI/resists needed.

There´s also a guild here named NEW who welcomes new players to the shard and equip them with basic stuff and gives them a place to train and meet/hang with other new people. Just ask for an emissary in general chat. You use the comma "," to talk in GC.

Have fun and welcome back to UO.

 

[Czarina]

For template 1 i left out arms lore because that template is geared towards being able to craft add ons. Arms lore has no impact on anything except durability and damage increase of armor and weapons.

 

[Borluc]

Thanks for the informative responses! The heads up on "," = general chat was invaluable. UO didn't have it when I played before.

As an oldschool uo player I have no idea what "addons" are in game now. Im really not sure if I want to go full crafter. In fact, I was considering taking poisoning and alchemy along with some melee combat skills. I've always liked playing a warrior, even in uo where it was a disadvantage, and it seems like they have some tools to compete now. Also its appealing because its all new to me. Back in the day, you could manage to out play people who were more skilled towards pvp if you played better. Is that still a possibility? I ask because I refuse to pay for two accounts, but I'd like to experience the game in more depth than just combat.

Symma, the official boards I referred to were those run by EA. Lots of posts for the Siege shard forum are from 2011 and before. I agree bank sitting is not really important but it sure adds to the atmosphere and the feeling of a living world. Sounds like fun doing treasure maps. I never really pursued that. That really highlights another reason I like UO. You can play one way and never really experience other aspects of the game until it tickles your fancy. Ugg....how far mmos have fallen. Just quit SWTOR. Now my buddy wants to hype me on GW2. Im really watching ArchAge, if they ever have a US release.

Czarina, thanks for the write up. I'm curious about the Human advantages vs. the Elf ones. I read them but its not very specific. Permanent night sight, + mana (good for weapon abilities too right?), and a greater chance to get rare resources sounds really appealing.

 

[Afterglow]

No need to pay for two accounts, there is something called soulstones. You can transfer your skill to one of those and transfer it back on your char later.
Either you buy those from the uo store with real money, get them as veteran player reward (each active [payed] account year gives you rewards to chose from) or buy them with in-game gold and find someone seeling them. Very handy to play various builts with one account/char.
I'd suggest you to make a char on test center and play around a little what feels best for you. Also there are combat moves now, something new to you too I suppose.
About Human vs. Elf it depends how you want to play your char, I chose human over elf for crafting purpose as humans got "jack of all trades" and "strong back", just for example. Look it up here http://www.uoguide.com/Humans or http://www.uoguide.com/Elves
Just ask in the chat or post again here if you got questions

 

[UncleSham]

you can have both.
make your fighter if thats the style you truly enjoy . theres many crafters who you can buy from for now . keep your eyes open for soulstones (figure 2.3 to 3 mil each or 10 bucks at uogamecodes.)
and plan your future crafter .

you mentioned mining to make money . bah ! it takes too long to get rich punching a mountain . you want starting funds ? go pick on some sheep .raise your fighting a little and get the wool . take it to any town tailor shop and turn it into cloth .(no skill needed)
bolts of cloth sell for 300 gp here cause npcs dont sell it and noone wants to bother . sell em at 250 and youll rake in the cash . hell ,give a shout out on general chat . if im on , ill buy em =)

if you need help making the basic suits and jewelery at first , ask in general chat . its cheap to make.
id do it free if im on.

 

[Tjalle]

you mentioned mining to make money . bah ! it takes too long to get rich punching a mountain . you want starting funds ? go pick on some sheep .raise your fighting a little and get the wool . take it to any town tailor shop and turn it into cloth .(no skill needed)
bolts of cloth sell for 300 gp here cause npcs dont sell it and noone wants to bother . sell em at 250 and youll rake in the cash . hell ,give a shout out on general chat . if im on , ill buy em =)

We could use more miners selling ingots...

 

[UncleSham]

really ... ok i guess i just dont see that many people asking to buy em . perhaps its my personal view of mining . i just cant stare at a mountain for that long.

if we had someone willing to take the time to make em it would be good and it does build strength rapidlly ... it just seemed to me he wanted a warrior build.

Borluc if you truly dont mind mining , go for it . but get yourself a soulstone for it soon . warrior builds are pretty cramped lately .

 

[Tjalle]

Perhaps a mining Sampire?

120 Weapon
120 Bushido
120 Parry
100 Necro
90 Tact
100 Mining
50-70 Chiv (depending on account age)

 

[Borluc]

Soul stones are a great idea for uo. I just refuse to buy something for that much rl cash when I'm also paying a sub. I figured uo would be down to around 5 per month by now. I was surprised to see that they had raised the sub cost.

I'm going to just do my thing I thing. For now, mining is fine with me. I still do some fighting, but not much since my skills are low. Lukcily I can heal myself. Not that I'm going to do this any time soon, but whats the viability of poisoning? It seems like a chance to lethal poison someone is pretty nice. I remember when you could do that in the old days and it was pretty much lights out. Is lethal still hard to cure?

I might even use my ingots to tinker or blacksmith a bit. I tend to be able to get quite a bit of ingots in a short period of time. I also like the idea of getting a gargoyle pickaxe and digging up elementals to kill. Sounds fun. They really fleshed out the trade skills and im happy for it. We will see how long I play here and where it takes me. For now, I just wish I saw more people around. I've see a total of 5 people in 2 days.

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice.

 

[Tjalle]

We will see how long I play here and where it takes me. For now, I just wish I saw more people around. I've see a total of 5 people in 2 days.

Well, in order for Siege´s population to actually grow we need people like you to actually stick around.

Right now it´s sort of a Catch 22. We have a low population so we need new players. But most players that come here doesn´t stick around because of the low population.

Had every new/returning player that came to Siege for the last 3 years actually stuck around and not leave cuz of a "dead server" then we would´ve been one of the most populated shards in UO.

Oh, and about the poisoning. They beefed that skill up a few publishes ago so I believe it´s kinda good atm. Although with the coming publish they will increase the success % of curing it with pots a bit.

 

[Borluc]

Yeah I've been aware of that problem since playing on player shards, some of which were great works of effort and dedication. People have to get over the instant gratification kick and work at something. Its funny, but I'm actually really happy I can fight in the brit graveyard now that I have 30 swords lol.

Another ? I read somewhere that on Siege you have to have another skill besides lockpicking to avoid traps. True? Is lockpicking profitable in dungeons? Any other uses?

Btw if ingots are in demand and you are all a bunch of stuffy rich vets, who wants to buy my 4k ingots for 10 per? lol Ohh! and where do I buy a house here?

 

[QueenZen]

Just go buy a house placement tool from the architect etc. npcs, and find ya some land to place! The house placement tool, may even be a bit cheaper to buy, in Moonglow atm, if them faction vendors are still up and selling regs there, atm.

BTW ingots can also make cannons and cannonballs etc.[ if ya have High Seas booster] & if ever want to do those. *but cannons are a combo skill blacksmithing and carpentry*

When ya get to GM mining, don't forget other things that may sell that get mined up, granite for one in all colors, ingots, gems, saltpeter if high sea'd, and heck even sand !

 

[Raptor85]

Just go buy a house placement tool from the architect etc. npcs, and find ya some land to place! The house placement tool, may even be a bit cheaper to buy, in Moonglow atm, if them faction vendors are still up and selling regs there, atm.

BTW ingots can also make cannons and cannonballs etc.[ if ya have High Seas booster] & if ever want to do those. *but cannons are a combo skill blacksmithing and carpentry*

When ya get to GM mining, don't forget other things that may sell that get mined up, granite for one in all colors, ingots, gems, saltpeter if high sea'd, and heck even sand !

don't forget you need tailoring and alchemy for the powder charges (pretty much GM level w/ tali too, it fails too muc h for how expensive it is at lower levels.)

I haven't found granite to really be worth mining, want for stone furniture is few and far between so i'd only mine it if you want it for yourself, the gems are your best bet as you can save up a bunch and save a fortune when imbueing (lots of failures + 8+ gems per try, at 100-400 gp per gem adds up fast)

For traps, you're thinking of the "remove traps" skill, which is the proper way to untrap chests but was made pointles when they allowed telekinesis to just set the trap off from a distance. Telekinesis does not set off traps here though (it still works otherwise, for stuff like flipping switches from far away, etc). Still, saying that, i'd still consider remove trap to be a useless skill, especially since you need detect hidden as well to even train it. Just get 70 fire resist, make sure you ahve more than 100 hp, and throw open the lid