Hey everyone. I just reinstalled UO after about 5 years of inactivity (and from the looks of things, so have several others..) Something about this game calls us back. So far however, I don't like the "new" UO. It is what I have been trying to escape from my past few games...Gear based pvp. UO always appealed to me pvpwise because of the fact that gear was not a huge advantage in pvp. Times have changed!

I want to give the game a chance, in fact I just ordered the 8th age from amazon. So with that, I ask you a slur of newbie questions!

1) How exactly does insurance work? Obviously it seems insured items are not stealable (ug), and corpses are much less lootable. Is it just a money sink to gain a temporary blessed tag?

2) I will probably start a new character, as my only true pvp characters are a warrior and a thief. The thief being useless and the warrior...lacking magery. I am thinking of a ninja type, Any suggestions?

3) I just placed a villa.. something I never would have dreamed of doing back when I used to play, due to lack of space. With the deflux of people, has a large amount of space opened up for housing? the villa was the biggest I could find to fit.. but I only searched for about 10 minutes in fellucca.

4) My Tamer has 3 white wyrms. He is at 94.4 taming skill. These wyrms, no longer listen to me, or care. What skill level do I need to be to control them again? And how do I "bond" with them? What would you suggest for leveling taming these days? Back when i played, i threw a box down, parked myself in a corner, and tamed hellhounds.. doubt that works anymore.

5) There seems to be an overwhelming amount of new abilities for melee classes.. but I am unable to pull any of them out of the scroll on my paperdoll. How do I do this, and which ones would you suggest using? Would these replace magery on a warrior? (I say this because every warrior i have seen since i rejoined is a tank mage, which was rare back 5 years ago, and seems the only way to go!)

6) Are factions still pretty active? I haven't seen much yet, and if so, any good faction guilds on pacific want a new member? ;D

7) Where can I get my hands on some of this high end loot I'm seeing, artifacts and such. They seem the be the only way to get anywhere in pvp(my characters are still using crafted weapons from 5 years ago, exceptional katanas, or spears.. yeah) Are these world drops off high end creatures? Or did UO suddenly gain "raids" such as eq and wow?

8) What are power scrolls exactly, and where can I find them

9) and finally, the big one. What hotkey setup do people use. I am suffering with my old F1-F9 key setup that I used 5 years ago. Coming from games like EQ/WoW, I have changed my key range to around wasd, and 12345qexrc. These keys dont seem possible, considering UO has an everpresent chat window. I just cant bring myself to return to the F keys... but if its required any tips as to what key i should assign what too would be excellent, or your hotkey/interface setups. I like to be the best at what I do, and I cant do that by clicking everything!


I think that would be it for now! Sorry If this seems a bit lazy... but google is failing me with such an old game.

Thanks!^^

Hi there, I to have only recently returned to UO after a 6 year break, so I will try to give you a run down on each as I have discovered them so far. I was very much in your boat when I returned. Saying that there are good and bad things about the new UO, saying that again I would not quit UO again, I really have found the game again and believes it offers so much more than any other MMOG.. and I tried a lot since quitting UO the first time.

p.s. Anyone correct me if any of this is wrong/misleading.. just thinking off the top of my head here at work.

1) Insurance is a perma thing that you can set on any wearable item. You can insure everything from rings, bracelets, clothing, armor, weapons etc....
It cost at present $600 gold per item to insure, this comes directly out of your bank account. Once insured you will not lose it in PvP or PvM, if you die it will auto re-insure BUT only if you have enough money in your bank box. If you don't it wont insure some of the again. Oh saying that I "think" you have to set insurance to auto update. Items need to be in your backpack to insure (eg not wearing). To insure single click on your character and a menu will come up with options.

2) Sorry can't help you with the Ninja thing, never tried it myself . However if you want magery cheap you now get what is called LRC (Lower Reagent Cost) Items, if you got it to 100% it wont cost you any regs to cast. Yes I know no longer does it cost a small country to GM magery lol.

3) Yep land now seems more available, helped because of the new land Malas and a reduced subscriber base. Saying that the subscriber base is on the way up so get in now before its to late

4) If your pets are not responding you need to feed them. To bond an animal you need to have it a) feed it b) put in a stable for a week c) take out of the stable and re-feed it .. it will now be bonded. Make sure you keep feeding it if you have it out for extended periods of time. You want to keep it at "Wonderfully Happy". Taming wise go to www.tamingarchive.com/

5) Sorry unsure here, have not gotten back into PvP yet so not sure of the best chr. When you say pull them out?, do you mean put them into another drop down category?.. if so must make a new category and drag the skills you want into it.

6) Factions are still used as far as I can tell (I gather you don't mean Chaos/Order?), but to the extent I am not sure, would be shard specific. On Oceania it gets limited use but still does get utilised.

7) Artifacts are completely random drops on some of the higher end spawns monsters as far as I can tell. I can't help you to much more there as I have yet to get any drop on me. Saying that I am sure "Paragon" monsters would drop these now and again.. Not sure if you know what a "paragon" is?.. its a version of a monster type that is much much stronger than the normal monster would be. PvP wise you don't need artifacts, some of the normal un-named items have better attributes. Ive heard it said people that are "fully arty equipped" are crap in pvp. A good spawn to start with is "swoops". But you will need a quest to get access... hehe ok wont go on but yeah see if you can join up with a nice big guild on your server that is willing to help out. That is how I learn to this point. Leave PvP at the side of the road at this stage until you learn all the new aspects of the game.

8) Power scrolls drop in Fel I have been told on dungeon "champ spawns". They don't drop in Tram as far as I can tell. Someone please help me out here .

9) I had this same problem as you!!!! ... I was always used to the F key setup. However this doesn't cut it anymore as far as I can tell in PvP. I use the keyboard keys but have the "Alt" key in front of each of them. Takes getting used to but way better over the F Keys. If ONLY UO would introduce the need to press "enter" to chat . p.s. to guild chat you type "\" first, to party chat is "/" then type.

Hope this helps a little , I am sure others can add to it too.

On insurance, you have to set them to auto renew everytime you die. If you don't, the insurance is good for a one shot deal only.

Where you are at in taming, you can still gain from harts and bulls. That's a safe way and you can gm from them.

Thats helps alot! thanks!