Questions from returning player

[Snowleaf]

Hi folks,

I played UO for six or seven years, and have been gone for... four years I think? I have some questions about how the game has changed in the meantime, which I'd be grateful if anyone could answer. My apologies if they've been asked recently, but I went back a few pages and couldn't find my specific concerns addressed.

1) I expect I'll be playing on Europa (I used to be on Atlantic, but I'm English and can no longer keep the crazy hours I had as a teenager plus I like the quieter side of things these days): Is the community there one that's likely to be welcoming to a new player? Would it be an ordeal for me to find a guild/groups for anything?

2) How bad is the inflation these days? It wasn't good when I left, but by then I had castles, millions in the bank, etc. so it wasn't an issue for me. Since I plan on starting over with a new character on a new shard, however (I don't like coming back to high-level stuff I abandoned years ago, takes away a sense of achievement), I'm apprehensive about how this will be from a new player's standpoint.

3) What sort of template would be a good starting point for a character who likely won't be able to afford LRC suits/high resists/artifacts, or whatever passes for decent gear these days, for some time? Every template I come across seems to operate under the assumption that you have access to enough money to twink it out with gear that I would be very surprised to find in my price range any time soon. I'm just looking for a general guideline as to what would be survivable and allow me to earn enough money to make the more twinkish stuff.

Thank you!

 

[Warsong of LS]

Well, I will give it a shot:

1) I do not play on Europa, so I have no answer.

2) Some prices have gotten bad (for example the new rare drops) but it does very from shard to shard.
If you had millions in your bank on your old characters on Atlantic you might want to think about buying a transfer token or 2, then you can just take some or all your characters over to Europa and not be so far behind or have to start fresh.

3) personally if you starting completely fresh, I would go with a pure chivarly/melee character. Do the new player quests in new haven you can get some free blessed armor pieces and other things while you are train. Then once that character is trained up you should have enough gold to buy a good suit. Then you can think about retooling your character with hybrid skills.

 

[Schuyler Bain]

Hi folks,

I played UO for six or seven years, and have been gone for... four years I think? I have some questions about how the game has changed in the meantime, which I'd be grateful if anyone could answer. My apologies if they've been asked recently, but I went back a few pages and couldn't find my specific concerns addressed.

1) I expect I'll be playing on Europa (I used to be on Atlantic, but I'm English and can no longer keep the crazy hours I had as a teenager plus I like the quieter side of things these days): Is the community there one that's likely to be welcoming to a new player? Would it be an ordeal for me to find a guild/groups for anything?

2) How bad is the inflation these days? It wasn't good when I left, but by then I had castles, millions in the bank, etc. so it wasn't an issue for me. Since I plan on starting over with a new character on a new shard, however (I don't like coming back to high-level stuff I abandoned years ago, takes away a sense of achievement), I'm apprehensive about how this will be from a new player's standpoint.

3) What sort of template would be a good starting point for a character who likely won't be able to afford LRC suits/high resists/artifacts, or whatever passes for decent gear these days, for some time? Every template I come across seems to operate under the assumption that you have access to enough money to twink it out with gear that I would be very surprised to find in my price range any time soon. I'm just looking for a general guideline as to what would be survivable and allow me to earn enough money to make the more twinkish stuff.

Thank you!

Come on in... the water is fine!

1) I do not play on Europa, but it seems to be the popular shard for Europeans. You may wish to check out their shard form to get a better feel for the community. (http://vboards.stratics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=51)

2) This is a tough question. The economy as a whole is very inflated, but if varies from shard to shard as to just HOW bad it is. The good news is that there is a ton of ways to make money and the payout has gone up with inflation although not equally. Since you plan to start over you should be pleased to find that normal game play/character building will fill your bank fairly quickly. Not only with the gold you make, but the items you find that are of use to the crafters due to imbuing (more on that in a minute). Don't get me wrong it will not be a cake-walk, but you should do alright since you know the basics of the game and are not COMPLETELY new.

3) Templates are tricky as well. Depending on if you plan to PvP or not I would say you can do fine for PvM. At least make some cash to kit yourself out for PvP down the road. The latest expansion, Stygian Abyss (SA) introduced a lot of content for all play styles. Not least of which is imbuing. Now I do not have a crafter and have not played with imbuing myself, but it basically levels the playing field when it comes to gear. You can work with a local crafter to build a suit and weapons that fit your need for MUCH less cost than buying the named artifacts and such. Providing the resources, or at least some, will lower the cost even more. This will make your reentry much easier than if you were coming back 6 months ago. There are a lot more details do it, but I'll leave that for someone with more knowledge.

Hope that helps - welcome back!

 

[Schuyler Bain]

Well, I will give it a shot:

1) I do not play on Europa, so I have no answer.

2) Some prices have gotten bad (for example the new rare drops) but it does very from shard to shard.
If you had millions in your bank on your old characters on Atlantic you might want to think about buying a transfer token or 2, then you can just take some or all your characters over to Europa and not be so far behind or have to start fresh.

3) personally if you starting completely fresh, I would go with a pure chivarly/melee character. Do the new player quests in new haven you can get some free blessed armor pieces and other things while you are train. Then once that character is trained up you should have enough gold to buy a good suit. Then you can think about retooling your character with hybrid skills.

Both are excellent suggestions!

 

[Snowleaf]

Thank you both for the prompt and helpful answers!

I had a feeling that melee was probably my best bet for starting a new character, so it's nice to have that instinct confirmed. It should be an enjoyable change of pace as well -- the last character I worked on before quitting was a tamer, and while I haven't played her in years, I really don't feel like doing another one just yet!

I'm still doing research on imbuing but it looks like a really great change. It's assuaged a lot of my worries about early gearing up, at any rate.

I'll have to think about transferring my old characters. It's probably not a practical idea for me at this point in time though, as I'm on a tight budget until after my boyfriend's birthday, and I might've blown that budget on reactivation fees + Stygian Abyss. We'll see how hard it is for me to play catchup. I'm content to take it at a leisurely pace, having had a bit too much of the WoW rush rush rush culture in the last few years.

4% left to patch and then I get to poke around a little before sleep!

 

[Schuyler Bain]

Thank you both for the prompt and helpful answers!

I had a feeling that melee was probably my best bet for starting a new character, so it's nice to have that instinct confirmed. It should be an enjoyable change of pace as well -- the last character I worked on before quitting was a tamer, and while I haven't played her in years, I really don't feel like doing another one just yet!

I'm still doing research on imbuing but it looks like a really great change. It's assuaged a lot of my worries about early gearing up, at any rate.

I'll have to think about transferring my old characters. It's probably not a practical idea for me at this point in time though, as I'm on a tight budget until after my boyfriend's birthday, and I might've blown that budget on reactivation fees + Stygian Abyss. We'll see how hard it is for me to play catchup. I'm content to take it at a leisurely pace, having had a bit too much of the WoW rush rush rush culture in the last few years.

4% left to patch and then I get to poke around a little before sleep!

Always happy to help! You may consider, after a month or two, transfering over one character. Load them up with gold, gear and soulstones. You can then speed up the process a bit, but not completely replicate what you had on Atlantic. I moved to a new shard about 6 months ago and I transfered only one character with gold and stuff. It was a nice leg up, but I still had/have plenty of work to do. Just a thought anyway.

Enjoy!

 

[Assia Penryn]

Keep in mind, you can usually find a "Character Transfer Token" for gold, so if you are strapped in RL, you can still make it happen. They can be pretty pricey between 17-20m, however if you were financially secure before you left, it should be reasonable.

I'd invest in one (or two) character transfer tokens, choose the character(s) that would cost more than the transfer to replace as far as power/stat scrolls and then get soulstone fragments and soulstone your other character's skills. Then transfer the soulstones, any remaining gold, items, equipment with your character(s). You can transfer 900 items each time.

Hope that helps and good luck on Europa!

 

[Snowleaf]

Thank you, Assia -- I had actually forgotten that (too much time spent playing games where items are commonly bound to character/account), and it's a great suggestion! I'll see what I can find.