Im thinking of buying Ultima Online, however before i do i would like to ask the people of this forum a few questions. Before i ask away i will state a few things about me that might help you in your answers. First thing is that im a casual player. Game time might only be 1 to 3 hours a night if that. The only MMOG's i have played are FFXI for a year and WoW for a year and a half.

1. As a brand new player will i be able to start a character and level him up without being overwhelmed by the players who have been playing for 5 or 10 years. What i mean is, considering everyone else has been playing the game for years will i just being ignored by them or pk'ed by them just becase im a newb? Is it still possible to start UO this late in its life and be successfull in it?

2. Roughly how much time does a person have to invest into a character to make him good. When i played FFXI, the level 50+ grind is what forced me to quit that game. As i am casual player i dont expect to be super uber dragon slayer but i would like to not die from the first flea bite that i recieve.

3. What is the economy like and how does it work. How will money be earned in UO? Is it easy to be financialy viable in this game? When i played i had no problems making money from crafting and dungeon running. I always had 1000+ gold in WoW. However when i played FFXI i could barely support my myself financialy. I certainly couldnt afford the +1 of any armour in that game.

4. How dificult is the crafting in this game? I hated crafting in FFXI as it was to difficult and time consuming for me to do. However in WoW i was a very successful alchemist.

5. Is housing affordable? Is it worthwhile? I dont want to own a mansion or anything like that but maybe a little cottage out in the boondocks. Will housing take me year to save up for?

6. I read that you can own and sail ships. What influence apon the game does ships have? Will i have to have one? Will only certain places be accessible to a ship? Are there different types of ships?

7. Are busy servers better then empty ones? Will i need a busy server to find people to group with for dungeons and stuff? Or is a empty serer better so i can get a housing plot? Any recomendations for a server?

8. Can i solo? Or am i forced to group? The way WoW was set up was perfect for my playstyle for grouping and solo content.

9. Im not looking for a extremely hard game to play however i dont want it to be to easy either. How does UO rate? How comparable in difficulty is UO to the MMOG's i have played already.

10. How is death handled? Is there a penalty?
I would like to thank anyone who chooses to respond to this post. Any answers would be greatly apreciated.