What did you do your first day in UO?

[Ransom_of_BiC]

I'm interested to know about other player experiences those first few days in game.

When I began playing, gaining skill was a slow process. I didn't even know how to set a macro on my keyboard, much less things like 8x8 or using any sort of skill gain assistance that so many use. (For my first month or so, I actually opened my spell book and flipped to the page to cast a spell, every time, not realizing I could 'pull' them to my desktop.) Each successful .1 skill gain was delightful and could set the tone for the day.

My first day in UO, I remember walking around pretty lost. It seems like I wandered out of town, and flagged on something, apparently not content to revel in my 'new' player status, and died. I walked around trying to find my way to town for something silly like 2 HOURS.

I finally found a wandering healer and some nice person who gated me back to town. After that, I didn't leave Brit proper for a very long time. I could go to the graveyard to fight and gain skill/money, I could sit and enjoy the chatter at Brit bank, I could work on my skills at the various shops there, and I could watch the 'sales' occurring via spam... the list seemed endless.

I also remember finding a 'garlic' on the ground...I can't tell you how long I sat there trying to eat hte damn thing.

 

[Brosephine]

LOL! Garlic...

I actually had a similar experience. My first character was Esperante Meloi, a swordswoman. My older brother had warned me not to attack anything that was too tough, so what did I do? I went out and got MAULED by a GRIZZLY BEAR.

*sigh*

...I cried for a little bit, running around lost as a ghost. I finally found the healer shop in Brit, and headed for the bank after getting rezzed, where an invasion of lizardmen promptly wtfpwned me.

...I cried again, but at least this time I knew where to get rezzed.

After that, it seemed wise to just stay away from anything that was... not a person. Banksitting FTW! During those days, liches used to spawn regularly at the graveyard. I had no idea what a lich was, but when people came to Brit Bank asking for help to kill it, I decided to go check it out. I found the lich... and died.

I didn't cry this time, but ran back to the healer, excited at the prospect of running around fighting things with other noobs like myself. Thus, Brit Graveyard became my happy stomping ground.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

I ran around in what I guess was Haven. No one could go there at the time, only young characters were there. I got bored of doing escorts so I left and ended up in Britain. I was in Germany at the time and playing on Catskills and it was about 11am in Germany so it was about 3am server time and it was deserted. While wandering around I came across a bunch of armor and weapons and I took them. I felt like a thief until I saw people intentionally dumping stuff they didn't want.

 

[Chelle]

I walked all over Haven clueless trying to talk to NPC's and wondering why they weren't talking back. I figured there had to be a "key" word so Help? and Hello? I spammed for quite some time until someone came up to me at the tailor shop and said they don't actually talk to you.

 

[Panzram]

I started with the T2A expansion way back in the day. Luckily, a friend of mine had already been playing for a few weeks, so he filled me in on some things, but he was still a noob himself. I started in Vesper and just sat around the bank freaking out on all the people. It was total confusion for me. I walked outside the guard zone just long enough to see a giant spider, which scared the hell out of me, ran toward the beach were a blue saw me and went into war mode, which scared me even more, so I ran back to town and spent the rest of my time just wandering around and wondering how long it would be before I too, could acquire a horse. That was a big deal for me at the time. My first horse was one of the happiest days of my early UO experience.

 

[Winfield]

A long time ago when I was much younger ... I first wanted to have a dog. I was in Britain. I had 100 gold. I got a dog and it followed me around! Wonderful! Now, I wanted to keep my dog happy and safe. It soon got hungry. I bought more food. Soon I was out of gold. I tried killing some rats, they hurt me. A hart... I had to run away and the dog followed, but it was getting hungrier by the moment. I looked around for things people may have dropped that I could sell. Nothing -- everyone needed their things. I found I could bake things and sell them. I was running out of time. My dog was really really hungry. I still didn't have any gold to buy any flour. Time ran out! My dog wandered off looking for a better master. I was crushed, a failure. I didn't have a name for my dog, just "a dog". I wonder if it ever survived the years on its own ... it would be old too!

Winfield, Old Man

 

[Demonous]

my first day took place on a new character on my friends account, i spent most of it at Britain bank begging people for gold

now my first death i remember very clearly, i was at the britain graveyard killing skeletons and zombies for money, when all of a sudden i saw some guy killing gypsies near by, i was like oh wow those must give more gold so i decided id try the same thing, i figured all npcs were the same so i attacked the first one i saw, little did i know i just pissed off a wandering healer, it shot me and an energy bolt and i died INSTANTLY ! then i got teleported to the healers shop cause i was still young

 

[Aran]

That was over ten years ago. No idea. Probably wandered.

 

[Helter Skelter]

I got PK'd just outside of brit on the north side of town. I stood there as a ghost as the guy cut my corpse into pieces and laid them out on the road, then took my leather armor that cost me a fortune at the vendor in town to buy.

Just so you know, I am going to find you one day... mark my words, Lord British, I will find you!

 

[Ransom_of_BiC]

I got PK'd just outside of brit on the north side of town. I stood there as a ghost as the guy cut my corpse into pieces and laid them out on the road, then took my leather armor that cost me a fortune at the vendor in town to buy.

Just so you know, I am going to find you one day... mark my words, Lord British, I will find you!

Welp, he lives here in Austin. Every Austinite knows exactly where LB lives (also, he throws some rockstar parties).

 

[Ni-]

A friend of mine got me into the game about 11 years ago, so I knew someone that could give me some hints.

I remember fishing, tailoring, and wandering around Trinsic for a while, getting a newbie's handle of the game. One day we decide to explore some land outside of my sandstone, walled, home.

We headed north to a city by the name of Britian. Along the way, my ADD got the best of me and I decided to kill an eagle for it's feathers. I then realized that the fishing or tailoring profession weren't the best for acquiring feathers from eagles! Being a good friend, my buddy grabs my stuff to give to me when we are able to find a healer for me. Of course, not a minute later, along comes a pair of mounted fellows. Before my friend has a chance to say hello, they proceeded to give him a matching shade of grey on his screen. We then walked the rest of the way to the fort just south of Britian where we were resurected.

It took a bit of time before the realization of my friends pwnage. I later realized that he turned grey from grabbing my stuff for me. Inciting the reception he received from the mounted pair.

He, to this day, still insists that I died to a chicken!

 

[HoHumHarry]

Ni, your story sounds familiar. What was your name? I also wandered around Trinsic, watching people hit the training dummies, apologizing to NPC's for bumping into them.. and reading books off book-shelfs to raise my INT. Int never raised apparently.

 

[HongKongCavalier]

This was March of 1998 for me, but I still remember training my 1st character, a swordsman, on cows, sheep, and hinds south of Minoc while running from those scary looking mongbats, having no idea the animals were probably harder to kill.

I killed a hind or two, then figured those hinds with the antlers couldn't be much harder, and thus got killed for the first time by a great hart.

I hung around Minoc until I could finally defeat a great hart (could have been days or weeks), figuring that would mean I was ready for anything.

I then tried going to Britain on horseback, and quickly found out the roads were owned by PK's (on Atlantic, anyway).

A while later, I worked up enough gold to buy a suit of plate to protect my tender flesh. Feeling like an armored tank, I challenged the first grizzly I saw. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a healer in time to recover the plate armour from my corpse and lost everything.

Finally worked up enough gold to buy yet another suit of plate, and also bought a heavy crossbow, adding archery to my repertoire.

Wandered around a while and discovered the Cove orc camp for the first time, where I was immediately pounced upon by quite possibly every murderer that was logged on at the moment. Not wanting to lose my plate and crossbow, I immediately powered off my computer, desperately hoping that would instantly log me off and save all my hard-earned equipment.

I know you asked about our first day only, but the memories of my early stupidity kept coming.

And if anyone is wondering, powering off the computer when I got attacked didn't work. Still hoping they fix that bug

 

[Ransom_of_BiC]

lol, hong kong. What a great story.

 

[HoHumHarry]

LOL hongkong.. damn pk's used to hide on the bridge between Trinsic and Brit

 

[HongKongCavalier]

LOL hongkong.. damn pk's used to hide on the bridge between Trinsic and Brit

I actually remember getting jumped there by an archer, and running away from the arrow that was about to kill me. I almost made it all the way to Britain with that one arrow following me the whole way, like a guided missile. Almost.

Running away at the first sign of danger was my trademark move back then.

After months of playing and getting murdered daily (usually by some guy named Martin Longbow, who seemed to know whenever I was online), I finally had enough and decided to vent my frustration by murdering a player myself.

I figured the element of surprise and getting the first shot in was half the battle. The plan was to hit my prey once with my heavy crossbow, and finish him off up close with my sword while wearing my latest suit of full plate.

I equipped my crossbow, went into war-mode, clicked my target, and quickly re-equipped my sword after realizing I forgot to bring bolts.

Well, this player must have been a paragon miner. I also didn't count on the other miners actually helping him out, figuring they would all run away in terror as I raised my sword.

After that humiliating death, and thinking the whole shard would laugh every time they saw his name, I deleted my first character.

Wish they had name change tokens back then. It took me months to GM futility and cowardice, and I had to start all over again

 

[Ransom_of_BiC]

LMAO

 

[lorail]

Ah the memories .Well first I was loged in to Moonglow city and found I was sitting in front of a bank. Haveing no idea what to do or even knowing I had a bank account I just stood there. Finaly After watching for a bit I said bank and to my surprize a box opened and in the box was 100 gold at the time I knew I was rich. After grabing my gold I started to wounder around and see what I chould see. Well I went out the west gate, seen some pepole standing there and fighting. Not thinking or knowing better I walked out at that time I seen my first Kal Vas Flam Corp Por and the world was grey. I then found out what the word NEWB ment after that I was much more careful Where I went and and found me a guild to help me learn the game.

 

[Derium of ls]

died to a timberwolf *sigh* pretty much the first thing I did ha. then couldn't get ressed for a bit

 

[N A T A R O O]

I spent what felt like hours in trinsic trying to figure out how to get on the horse and run around like everyone else was. (I was "watching" my sisters character for her and then confiscated it). The person who finally helped me also taught me how to salute. I remember exactly where I was in Trinny.

I spent my entire noobdum in Trinny and it was by far my favorite UO town. I would return to Trinny regularly to bank. I also used to hang out at East Brit bank with Cipherus and some BrD friends for hours chit chatting.

 

[N A T A R O O]

Oh and it never failed... whenever something or someone flagged on me... GOODBYE. GOODBYE. quick! log back in! YOUVE GOT MAIL! You are dead! >_<

 

[Nexus]

I'm interested to know about other player experiences those first few days in game.

Well I was introduced to UO by a buddy, I used to sit and watch him play from time to time, I didn't buy it then because I knew I had at least a year of deployments coming up, this was not long after launch...

Anyways the day comes and I was discharged from the Marine Corps., moved back home set up house and went out and purchased Ultima Online: The Second Age, set up my account logged in and started creating a miner... Accidentally started out in Britain, I had my map close by so started hoofing it to Minoc, you know where all the cool miners hung out.

Along the way I get lost, didn't take me long I had turned Up at the Cross Roads past the swamps instead of Down. Wandering along trying to find my way I stop and ask someone for directions, not knowing what having a Red name ment... OooooOOOoOoOoOo

I was in worse shape now, not only was I dead, but I was lost eventually I managed to get some help from a wandering smurf..he pointed me in the right direction. Getting to Minoc I learned about competition at the mines, the newb miners would actually kill each other for ore. I decided I needed to defend myself, so I took up Fencing as a hobby, and eventually dropped Mining to focus on weapons skills.

I still find it funny when I hear people say they died to rabbits, mongbats, etc. My first death was to a PK.

 

[longshanks]

I downloaded the game and made a char named after my dog. i wanted to play atlantic but having no idea how the interface worked wound up on sonoma... go figure.

i had the music on and it was eerily hypnotic. There is really no good new player guide around and i remember panicking when i bought a horse from the stable and it started to walk away from me and i ran after it to try to mount it...

 

[MalDK]

Went mining west of brit around the road that leads to guard zone.

Later that day, my buddies got online and were up at brit forge doing something. They told me if I held tab and double clicked on them, I could get something cool.

A couple days later, I'd made enough money selling ingots to buy a boat. I stored all my ingots on my boat just across the bridge south of W brit bank. I always ran to my boat and unlocked it to use it. One of these times running to my boat, I noticed someone else on it. He was taking my ingots! So I attacked him. I sat on the boat as a ghost watching him take everything I had earned in about 2 weeks

 

[HoHumHarry]

I managed to get some help from a wandering smurf..he pointed me in the right direction.

I miss being a "wandering smurf"!!

 

[Jordy]

My sister-in-law and her hubby were already playing and she bought the game for me so that I'd play with her. Since I had a "guide" my first couple of days were pretty uneventful. She even crafted some gear for me and gave me like 5k gold (I thought I was RICH!). She had a house already and friended me to it to log in and out.

About three days in, she was working and I decided to log on anyway and see if I could figure some stuff out for myself. As soon as I logged on, I found myself surrounded by giant spiders. A friend of hers had tamed a bunch of giant spiders (had to have been at least a dozen) and took them into her house. I screamed IRL, exited the game and didn't play again for like a week.

 

[Jamlyn]

My brother and I purchased UO on the day it went live. Once we logged in, we were in Jhelom. I worked the keyboard, and my brother worked the mouse. We tried to find a way to get off the island, asking people where the docks were. We eventually got there, and people kept telling us a boat was coming...which it never did!

I remember seeing world messages saying thank you to everyone who entered the world. Telling everyone about tips on how to play, ect. That same day we killed a dog in Jhelom, and it had a "wig" on it.

What an experience!

 

[CatelynTully]

In August of 1998 my brother, who had been in the beta testing of UO, installed the game on my computer and helped me to create a char on Catskills. I remember how crowded and busy the streets of Brit were and how witty the players’ conversations seemed to me. From the very first day it has always been the people who played UO that made it so special.

Every time I logged on and heard that song which played as the intro treasure chest opened, I felt completely enchanted by this game. My char chopped wood with a halberd in the forests around Brit. She made wooden shields and then ran to the armor shop to sell them for 36 gold pieces. I didn’t know anything about recalling and when confronted with a lizardman or mongbat, I would scream out loud and make my char run away.

Eventually, I became a GM swordswoman, thanks to my brother and his friends. We wander along the roads being killed regularly by hords of organized pk’s who were everywhere outside the guarded areas. But we loved every minute of it.

So as the twelve year anniversary of my citizenship in the land of UO approaches, I must admit that it has been a pleasure to be part of this fascinating journey and I look forward to the next decade.