Trying out UO and enjoying it... But...

[AzDraon1]

I am really having a hard time learning how things I am reading in guides work. I am not new to MMO's, but UO is unlike anything I have ever played. First off let me share some stats, this way maybe people can tell me if something sounds really low, or I really need to improve one thing or another.

I am a Paladin and have been training in New Haven for about 6 game play hours (and have read about 30-40 pages and **** trying to understand this game). I will just go ahead with my first questions.

Hit Points reads [+0/+2] 93/93. I get the 93, what is the +0 and +2 represent? Same for my Mana, except its [+0/+3], nothing for stamina.

For Str(83), Dex(31), Int(68). I read something that said go ahead and "Lock" Str until its at 120, so thats what I am doing. How so I increase each of these stats? Simply attacking using melee weapons for Str, Range for Dex, and Magic for Int?

Maximum Stats = 225?? What the heck? I suppose you can ignore this question I am sure I can figure it out if I look hard enough.

Something I have been trying to focus on is my Trade Skills, but everything is telling me to focus on this or that. So I have my mining up at 61%, tailoring at 34%, Tinkering at 50%, Blacksmithing at 50%. But Inscription is 0% but is "Green". Does that mean that I should focus on it because its important to Palidans?

Another thing, I read a lot about Bulk Order Deeds, and they say all you have to do is click on a vendor and its an option. I dont see it ANYWHERE. I see "Paperdoll, Buy, Sell, Train ___". Nothing about "BOD".

I guess that's it for now. I know I will have 1000 more question later. I am in the server Catskills as Draona. I would like to join a friendly guild if possible. Really don't know anyone that plays this game, IRL friends refuse to play it

 

[Thrakkar]

Hit Points reads [+0/+2] 93/93. I get the 93, what is the +0 and +2 represent? Same for my Mana, except its [+0/+3], nothing for stamina.

The values in brackets are the modifiers. Haven't figured out, what the first one means, but the second one are modifiers from items. So if you unequip all items, both +2 and +3 should go to zero.

For Str(83), Dex(31), Int(68). I read something that said go ahead and "Lock" Str until its at 120, so thats what I am doing. How so I increase each of these stats? Simply attacking using melee weapons for Str, Range for Dex, and Magic for Int?

Maximum Stats = 225?? What the heck? I suppose you can ignore this question I am sure I can figure it out if I look hard enough.

First off, stats (and skills) can be locked (lock-icon), means you cannot gain or loose points here. Furthermore they can be set to increase (arrow up icon) or decrease (arrow down icon).

Second, each skill has a primary and secondary stat. Every time you gain in a particular skill, you CAN also gain either in the primary or secondary stat. You can find a list of these stats on these Sites:
Skill Management
Stats - UOGuide, the Ultima Online encyclopedia

Third, the sum of strength, dexterity and intelligence cannot exceed your maximum stats (or stat cap, how it is often called). In your case you have 225 - 83 - 31 - 68 = 43 points left to gain.

I.e.: If you're casting a chivalry spell and you gain a point, you can either gain in strength (primary stat) or intelligence (secondary stat), but only if the stat is set to increase and you still have points left.

Once you've reached your desired stat values, just make sure, you lock the stats, so you don't accidentally loose points by using another skill.

Something I have been trying to focus on is my Trade Skills, but everything is telling me to focus on this or that. So I have my mining up at 61%, tailoring at 34%, Tinkering at 50%, Blacksmithing at 50%. But Inscription is 0% but is "Green". Does that mean that I should focus on it because its important to Palidans?

The color of the icon has nothing to do with anything. It's just green for everyone

Being a paladin only means, that you have the chivalry skill. And that's just up to 100 (or 120) skill points out of 700 (or 720). Basically you will need a few other skills, so you can play your paladin somewhat effectively. I.e. weapons skill, tactics and much more...

You should be aware, that trade skills (just like every other skill too) counts towards your skill cap of 700 points (or up to 720 if you account reaches a certain age). So I would either consider making a pure crafter/trader since you already have mining, tailoring, tinkering and blacksmithing on it. Or you can drop these skills and focus on skills that increase your damage and survivability to play your paladin. A trader/paladin doesn't sound very appealing to me.

Another thing, I read a lot about Bulk Order Deeds, and they say all you have to do is click on a vendor and its an option. I dont see it ANYWHERE. I see "Paperdoll, Buy, Sell, Train ___". Nothing about "BOD".

Not on every vendor. Only tailors (and weavers, i think) can offer you tailer BODs and only smiths (armorsmith, blacksmith, weaponsmith) can offer you smith BODs. On any other vendors you won't see the "Bulk Order Deed Info"-option.

 

[Basara]

Also, check the Craftsman's Data Chest subforum of the UO Craftsman forum here on Stratics, for help and advice on crafting skills.

Do note that most of the stuff is written with the classic client user in mind, so if something is not quite the same with the Enhanced Client that you are using, just ask on UO Craftsman, and someone should be able to help you out.

Thrakkar, as for a Paladin/Trader, I have two 120 Smith/120 Tailor/100 Miner characters, and a third 120 Smith/100 miner - all are paladins capable of fighting the ore elementals that come up from Gargoyle Pickaxe use (and the one that isn't a tailor actually specializes in mining with the garg picks in Ilshenar, deliberately trying to bring up paragon ore elementals), and are capable of harvesting all the leather the tailors need as well (though greater dragons have made the acquisition of Barbed leather a bit more difficult, making it safer to pick on Nightmares and serpentine dragons than hang around in Destard).

That's the beauty of UO - you can play combinations of skills that others don't even consider, and make them work.

 

[Harlequin]

If you have not done so yet, check out the newbie and powergaming tips in the UO Tips thread that's stickied.

http://vboards.stratics.com/uo-players-corner/136673-uo-tips.html


In terms of chosing how to develop your character, UO is freeform. You can mix and match any skills you want.


However, character wise, ultimately, you may want to devote a character purely to just being a crafter because there are synergies between several skills. Eg Armslore give bonuses to crafting weapons and armour (from blacksmithing, bowcraft, carpentry, tinkering and tailoring).

Also, many carpentry items require skills in other crafting skills (eg music to make instruments, smithing to make anvils/forges, tailoring to make training dummies etc)

 

[Reinzeld]

And welcome to UO, also. Love to see new players!

 

[AzDraon1]

Holy Crap, I was not expecting 4 replies! I was hoping for maybe 1 response in a week. Thanks for explaining all that! I feel a little stupid now, but that's ok, live and learn.

So is their a way on my Skills to "unlearn" or "reduce" the skills points I have in a particular skill? I guess since I have worked so hard on my trade skills thus far, I will make this character a money machine. Although I really want to get to the "meat" of the game with some things to fight.

It is a bit late, so I will be sure to check out those websites and forums when I can tomorrow.

Again, thanks for the help!

 

[chester rockwell]

all u gotta do is make the arrows point down and they will drop once u reach ur max skill points.

welcome to uo.....

oh yeah, tell ur lame friends that they should at least try this game.

 

[Basara]

Also note that you have 5 character slots, per shard (server).

You should be able to work up a character in a different slot as a combat character fairly quickly.

It never hurts to have your own crafter to make stuff for your swordsman, your mage, etc.

Just wait till you learn about the Tamer and Bard templates - those you'll be better off not tackling until you get more familiar with the world.

 

[Beer_Cayse]

Man, there's 13 years of history in this game. I played for 11+ and never explored all of it. As you've seen folks will respond to you quickly and make every effort to answer your questions.

Welcome to UO and keep on asking questions! someone will have the answer!

 

[miniciti]

The OP brought back a lot of memories of when I first started. I went all around New Haven and did all the starter quests. Ended up much like him, swords, chivalry, mining, blacksmithy, focus and meditation! I LOL about it now, but the new town still lacks a lot in teaching for new people.
Then, I met a nice person who opened a gate to his house where he promised all sorts of goodies. He must've set all the doors to "owner only" after I entered because I couldn't leave! It wasn't terribly irritating at the time, and I thought it was quite funny how someone could trap me in their house. I didn't have any runes for traveling back to New Haven so I sat there awhile, hoping he would let me out. While browsing the forum, I came upon a post extolling the virtues of the "Help>Stuck" feature. I quickly Help>Stuck myself out of there!!
The next day I met another nice person (this time, I'm much wiser haha) who really sat down and explained a lot of the game to me. They took time to answer my silly questions and took me on a tour of the world. It was a wonderful day in Sosaria that day.
So, my point is, beware of overly helpful people, don't enter any red gates, but always remember the "help>Stuck" feature is your friend! (especially while young).

 

[hawkeye_pike]

I can only recommend one thing:
Don't rush things! Explore the game in little steps. Enjoy that time of exploring. This game is so complex and versatile, that after 10 years you still will find new things to do. the complexity can be overwhealming, but the good thing is that you don't have to understand everything at once. Start with a small portion of the game; trade skills are certainly a good idea.

A little hint: Since the total skill points of a character is limited to 700, in a long term you should try to specialize with your character. Skills can easily be unlearned or - even better - be saved on a Soulstone and be transferred to another character, so nothing is lost. This would only be necessary when you get close to the 700 points total, though.

 

[AzDraon1]

I appreciate all the useful info. It has helped. So I got bored of New Haven and decided it was time to leave. So I went to... no idea... Trammel? Now what? Not sure who I should be looking to talk to, or what I am supposed to do. Some insight please?

EDIT: Oh, I am in Moonglow... I think... What is Trammel then? I don't really understand how to use this map.

EDIT 2: How do I hop onto a ship to sail to another city/location?

EDIT 3: Ok, I made it to Britain... i think... I'm at the Moongate outside of it talking to a... Sincade. He looks to be giving me quest stuff. Are their quests that are like "Go talk to this guy, he will make you better". You know?

EDIT 4: What is this?
http://i53.***********/2mxhc3b.png

 

[TheVampster]

As for the BOD collecting goes, make sure you have some skill points in the skill that the BOD is for. Like having skill points in blackmithing or tailoring. I don't think the NPC's will offer you any BODs unless you do. Filling BOD's is a great way to raise your skills, just have to have the materials for them though (cloth, leather, ingots). Also gives you a chance to get a really rare BOD that someone might buy at a high price. Actually, I'm not sure but you might have to be a certain skill level to get the rarer BODs, like ones that deal with ores besides iron. Getting Dull Copper and Shadow Bods is common after a while. Find some empty BOD books though as soon as possible, it will make your BOD collecting so much easier.

 

[Basara]

I appreciate all the useful info. It has helped. So I got bored of New Haven and decided it was time to leave. So I went to... no idea... Trammel? Now what? Not sure who I should be looking to talk to, or what I am supposed to do. Some insight please?

EDIT: Oh, I am in Moonglow... I think... What is Trammel then? I don't really understand how to use this map.

EDIT 2: How do I hop onto a ship to sail to another city/location?

EDIT 3: Ok, I made it to Britain... i think... I'm at the Moongate outside of it talking to a... Sincade. He looks to be giving me quest stuff. Are their quests that are like "Go talk to this guy, he will make you better". You know?

EDIT 4: What is this?
http://i53.***********/2mxhc3b.png

1. The backstory of the game is as follows:

In the original Ultima games, that were stand-alone, the visitor from another world (your avatar in the game, who would later become "the" Avatar), shattered Mondain's Gem of Immortality, that Mondain was using to control the world.

However, in shattering the gem, the image of the world in the gem was duplicated in the shards of the broken gem. This is why the servers are called "shards". Their history diverges from the true Sosaria, with the shattering of the Gem in Ultima I, with some parallel occurances as time passes. For example, the events with the destroyed city of Magincia, and the Bane Chosen, are variants of what happened between Ultima III and Ultima IV, while the Gargoyles and the Stygian Abyss come from the later Ultima Underworld games (roughly contemporary with Ultima VI & VII, IIRC).

Each Shard, being a piece of gemstone, has multiple facets. Each is a fragment of the original world, or a twisted copy of a fragment.

Trammel & Felucca are the latter, and their names come from the Sosarian moons (and why travel gates are called moongates, as the moons used to influence where gates went to, before we had the menu). Fel was the original facet, but was overrun by evil (too many griefing Player Killers). Trammel was created from a supposedly empty copy of Felucca, to be safe from PKs.
The Lost Lands are actually part of Trammel and Felucca, roughly corresponding to lands lost beneath the sea, discovered in Ultima III and later. The area was created before the developers came up with the "facet for different worlds" concept, for if had it been developed after the Fel/Tram split, it probably would have been a facet.
Ilshenar was a time-lost fragment of the world, that when rediscovered was radically altered from anything remembered (though some of the ruined and abandoned cities bear the names of cities from Ultima III - while the city names in Trammel & Felucca, other than Britain, are mostly from Ultima IV and later).
Malas is also radically different from the world from before the Shattering. Its backstory was that its two cities were abandoned before it was rediscovered by castaways sucked through magical whirlpools and dumped on the shores of Gravewater Lake.
Tokuno is a surviving fragment of the Lands of the Feudal Lords, from Ultima I.
The hidden communities of Heartwood and Sanctuary in Tram & Fel, introduced in Mondain's Legacy, are the mirrors of locations that the elves of Sosaria retreated to between Ultima III and Ultima IV (the non-human races disappeared, except as NPCs (and rare even then), around that time, as the races were too derivative of Tolkien & others).
Ter Mur is the Underworld of the Ultima Underworld games.

2. Boats are placed by clicking the deed, and are steered by either issuing voice commands, dropping a map with waypoints marked onto the pilot (some sea maps are already sold from point A to point B), or (for the new ships and rowboat) manual steering using the mouse pointer.

3. I didn't take part in the quest involving that guy at Britain gate - someone else might be able to explain.

4. The Statue commemorates an invasion of Britain by the inhabitants of Despise. The fact that an event was also going on, involving limited time loot, was occuring in recently-opened Tokuno at the time, led to the monsters running roughshod over Britain. The "Security Consultant" is the Lizardman on the statue, and could be bribed to have the invasion retreat, instead of being fought back (the other numbers are the stats for those fighting to free the city). The wording is slightly different on different shards, depending on how many times the enemy was routed (some say that the enemy "Had their way" with the city).

That was the event that started the ball rolling with simultaneous events to where one could choose for the easy, quick gain of special loot, or a harder fight against an enemy to "do the right thing".

 

[Cryltaur]

Sincade is a new quest where you turn in the Armor of Virtue to receive a copy of the Book of Truth. Yes, there are a few NPC's scattered throughout the realms that will offer various quests.