Hi there! My name's Ramiro and I'm from Argentina.
UO was my first mmorpg and I've been playing it since 1998 and still love it, but I've always played on freeshards so this morning I woke up and thought "I just can't die without playing on OSI".
I'm going on vacation for a week and I guess will start playing immediately afterwards, so here I am asking you some questions before getting started :grin:

First of all, I've never played UO post-AoS (well, actually I tried but I didn't last long), but I guess it's just a matter of time until I get used to it.
I'm a hardcore pvper but I was told post-aos PvP is really item-based, and I'm not sure I really like that, so maybe that's the reason I didn't last long.
By the other side I don't dislike PvM either, so I think I'm going to give "monster-bashing" a chance if post-AoS PvP doesn't suit me.

Anyway, here are my questions:

1. What shard has got the most active "factioners"? (I really like the factions concept but I heard there aren't many "active" people on them)
2. This one may sound a little stupid but.. I can't quite get the whole Sosaria thing. To my knowledge the UO world was called Britannia, so... what happened to that?
3. Would I have trouble playing with a 200-250 ms latency? It never really bothered me while playing on freeshards (well, atleast I could handle it) but I tought it would be convenient to ask.

Well... That pretty much sums it all. Thanks for your kindness :grin:

P.S: I apologize for my lack of proper English and I'd really appreciate if anyone could point out my mistakes. Thank you

well welcome back to the good side of UO! For future reference, freeshards are not allowed to be discussed, what you have stated is not against the rules, but any deeper discussions will not be allowed. Ok, with that out of the way.

A way to go and find out what shards are the most faction-active, is to go to UO.com and check out the faction area, and just see what shards have the most points, members, factions up, and there you have it. They rank the top points owners, and top faction points leaders there.

The way pvp is nowadays is VERY item dependant. You will see alot of the same cookie cutter suits, with very small variations between them. It can get pretty pricey to be able to compete with the bigger guilds, so it is kind of expensive to get started, but once you have your gear, you can fine tune your skills and be able to compete.

you can go to your command prompt, and just start checking pings for shards if you type this
ping (shardname).owo.com
and just try to find the lowest one. I ping on average at 100ish and I am still able to play just fine, and I know people ping higher, so 200 may not be that bad.

Once again, welcome back to the game. If you have anymore questions shoot em out! We have a large knowledge base at this site!!

Hail! First off your English is much better than many USA players, so don't worry about it. My answers to your questions:

1) I'm not really sure shich shards have the most active factions. I play Napa Valley and factions are more or less dead there. If you visit www.uo.com, click the "MyUO" link at the left and then "Factions" in the dropdown, you should be able to get a fairly good idea of where the most faction activity is.

2) Sosaria was the name of the world before the lands of Lord British were established. After Mondain was defeated (first by British's hand, by Akalabeth lore and then by the Hero, in the Ultimas) and Lord British established his kingdom, the world in general became "Britannia" to some though that's technically only the name for the continent of "The Lands of Lord British". The world's name itself is still technically "Sosaria". The intro movie for UO kinda throws you off.

3) Your PvP is definitely going to suffer with that high of a ping. I won't say it'll be impossible. Some people will say that but I play Mugen (a Japanese shard, and I'm in Texas) and while I'm not really to be feared, I find I still can PvP and have fun.

Hope you enjoy the EA shards. Can't really call them OSI shards anymore, or even really "EA" since much of it is now EA/Mythic. About as confusing as Sosaria/Britannia.

And while the King is gone, he is not forgotten.

Hands everyone a bag of cookies and a big pitcher of cold milk ...

have nothing to say about factions and pvp since I don't fight, but did want to welcome you to the light side of UO

Welcome to UO and UO Forums. Hope you find them both a very pleasant place to be .

Vepl

Welcome back to UO

Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to the Forums. By the way, don't cry for me Argentina....

Thank you all
I'm leaving in 2 hours so see you all in 6 days. Hopefully I'll start playing the same day. :grin:

Welcome to the forums, enjoy your stay