Welcome to Lake Austin!
I just returned also.
I would go with the old standard warrior template for hunting and maybe put some mining on it to make some gold. Ingots are always in need. I'm sure leather is too.
Your character starts in New Haven, but if you go South West of the town you will run into the moongate. If you choose the Malas facet and goto Luna, that is where most of the player base hangs out or banks etc. As far as I know, not really any other towns or cities are populated with players like Luna usually is. I never see anybody in Britain. But that's a another story why.
You want to have some Chivalry to Sacred Journey/Recall around plus it is good to have paladin skills (Chivalry) on a warrior template. You need a Chivalry book (you can buy one off of the Luna guards in the Malas facet) and need to tithe/donate gold to any shrine (there is one upstairs in Luna) so you can use the pally skills. Marking your own runes is going to take Magery though and some Mark scrolls (and reagents which can get expensive).
This is probably the best time to return to UO.
LA has a lot of friendly players that are willing to help, especially newer or returning players. Like Basara said, there are a few good Rune Libraries and vendor shops. But don't be afraid to ask for help. There is a general chat channel along with a trade channel I believe now.
There is plenty of housing space, so you don't have to worry about that. Location wise, not sure what you want, a heavy traffic spot vs. a nice quiet spot. I always choose quiet. But if you have a out of the way vendors you are going to need to drop runes in towns every so often until you get a buyer base.
As far as the newer expansion, I haven't got that far yet, just still trying to get back into the swing of things because I pretty much started over, but with the help of some old friends it has made my return a lot easier. But it seems like you have missed out on a few expansions besides the newer one. If you are playing, you have them all except Stygian Abyss. You really don't need the newer expansion starting out in my opinion. I'm not really sold on it yet.
Hope you have fun and not too much trouble returning, but with the community of LA on your side, you shouldn't have too many worries.
