If you're using the no-frames version, you'll find the links at the bottom of this page

This guide is mainly dedicated to the creation of the character, and it's intended to be an aid for your first steps.
It doesn't cover any aspect in depth, but it will help you to live better in your first days.
Next page will cover some particulary aspect of Ultima Online, but I hope it will be useful for anyone :-)

Ultima Online is to be intended as a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), we can say that you play a role in a virtual world of thousands of players.
It take place in the classic world of Ultima, a world populated by paladins, knights, mages, dragons and other, in no particulary order ;-)
In UO you can meet people from all around the world, and all are the same, black ones, yellow ones, white ones, the color of the skin is the same for everyone, the blood is red for everyone, you can lovely talk with a guy that you probably could hate in the real life, and this is a wonderful thing!

Now for the material stuff: I put these advices together for the newbies, but maybe something could be useful even for the skilled ones. Keep in mind that my preferred character is now SuperCiuk, Grandmaster Alcoholic, a Warrior with great abilities in magery (if you want to call him a tank-mage, well I'm honored, but he's still in the earlier 90's in magery ^__-), so this page covers the first steps of this kind of character.


I divided this guide in chapters, follow the links.

• How to Begin
• Server Selection
• Building your Character
• First Steps
• Fight!
• Death
• Etiquette
• Reputation and Notoriety

1. How to Begin

Finally you put your hands on the UO CD, now if you're smart enough you'll put that CD in the reader and setup your game... ;-)
I suggest you choose the maximum installation, it requires about 500Mb on your hard disk but the game will run smoother, without never access the CD-Rom.
But don't think that you can buy one copy and make dozens of them, because you'll need the registration number to play on OSI servers. You know: 1 Registered Copy = 1 Account.
During the installation you will be asked for a Credit Card number, so be sure to have one before buying UO. Another system is to buy some Game Time from Origin, but if you live outside U.S. they're not so easy to find.
Now you must choose a unique account name and a password, you'll need that to access the OSI server.
When you log on, you have the option to save that password, but I strongly suggest that you type it every time, because if you save it it will be written in the UO.CFG file. It's not the best choice for security reasons.
You're ready to start :-)

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2. Server Selection

The most important thing in the beginning is the choice of the right server. If you live in U.S.A. this is not a problem, but if you are a bit far away (like me for instance, cause I live in Italy, and it's not really close...) you have to choose the lesser lagged (Yeah Origin, I know that the lag is NOT on your servers, but the lag EXISTS, I don't know where it is but it is great!).
Now there are servers in Europe, Japan and Korea, so you can make a better selction.
You can check the ping times and the trace route of the UO servers with this great utility: UOTRACE by Robert Simpson, go check that page and then return here (if the page has changed you can download it from OSI's FTP here).
If you see that your ping is greater than 350ms, or your packet loss is more than 10%, I think that Ultima Online will be unplayable for you, consider to change your I.S.P.
If you have bad ping consider to play during night hours, like all we Italians must do :-(
One thing you must know, if you play at night, is that the servers will shut down for ordinary maintenance at 5AM (local server time), and the complete procedure will last about 2-3 hours (let's say that the backup starts at about 4AM, and the server will be up and running at about 6AM). Any action you'll make from about 4AM to 5AM will not be saved, so it's futile play at these hours unless you want to perform some action for merely practice (think at some risky action you're not sure of, for example).
ATTENTION: now the daily maintenance is no more "daily". It occurs only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, always at 5AM local server time.

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3. Building your Character

Now is the time to build your character.
First, you have 65 points to distribute in Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. If you want to survive in your first days, probably you'll start with a higher strength, and lesser dexterity and intelligence. I started with 44 str/11 dex/10 int, but if you plan to be a pure mage, probably your choice will be different, with higher int and lesser str.
Someone could ask why assign that little point to dex. The reason is simple: if you walk over someone your stamina will drop to zero if you have only 10 points in dex, and you'll be unable to move for a few second. But if you have 1 more point you'll still be able to move.

Now you have 100 points to distribute in your 3 main skills to born with, I suggest that you begin with the more difficult to achieve. So, for example (and this was my final choice), your first skill can be Magery with 50 points (I think magery is the most difficult skill to raise at high levels). In the past my first skill was Hiding, when you were able to hide during combat, but now this is impossible, so I left this skill at lower values. The advantage of magery is that you born with a spellbook that nobody can steal from you, just don't lose it!
Your second skill must be something that can give you a few money in the first days. I choose Tailoring with 30 points, so I started with a bolt of cloth and a sewer kit, made some clothes to sell to vendors, and carve my first victims to make other clothes and sell them again. But your choice can be different, just be sure to have an ability that can give you money, without money you can't do absolutely nothing.
Your third skill can vary depending on your characteristics. I suggest that you DO NOT choose a combat skill, since these are the easiest to achieve, you can stay 10 minutes in a training room and gain 25 points in Swordmanship or another combat skill, then kill some little animals and gain other points. Personally, I choose Lumberjack with 20 points, so I can make some logs for my arrows.

Now a little precisation: every item you born with is newbified. This means that anyone can't steal you these items, BUT ONLY IF YOU KEEP THEM IN THE MAIN BACKPACK!. If you keep them inside a bag and someone steal that bag, say bye bye to your stuff!.

Someone will tell you that is better start to 99 points in the two main skill, leaving just one point to the third. I think there is not a better choice, but only different point of view.
If you select a skill very hard to raise even at the beginning probably you'll start with a normal value (about 20), but if you're an experienced player you'll prefer to start with only two skills, leaving 1 point (or even zero) to the third.

With my actual character I followed this way, starting with 50 points in Magery, 49 in Resisting Spells and 1 in Wrestling (just to born with a nice pair of boxing-glove ^__-). But I think I can regard myself an experienced player, and I continue to consider a better choice, if you're a newbie, that you start with three more balanced skills.

Your character is ready. You must select a city and the fun will begin.

TALKING ABOUT SKILLS:
Probably you already know that there is a cap in the amount of points of the total of your skills. This cap (700 points) is not based on the displayed values, but on lower values that don't rely on bonuses from stats.
Sometime ago I wrote a program that made this calculations for you. Now I fear this program is completely useless, because of the recently introducted Skill Management, but if you want to look at that page you're welcome.

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4. First Steps

You born with 100 gold coins, use them to buy a good weapon, practice weapons that you born with are simply ridiculous, they do not kill a rabbit! But don't throw them away, they're pretty good to raise your skill, faster then normal weapons! If you started with at least 40 in strength you can buy a viking sword or a big crossbow depending on your preferred skill.
Then, after a few minutes in a training room, you can go in the wilderness in search for some action, but be prudent, you can be killed even from a sheep, and please, don't even think to fight with a monster until you bought a good armor.
When you are in town you are in a protected zone: if someone commit a criminal act just say "Guards" and the criminal will be instantly killed by the guards. This is true for you too, so be prudent!
Before adventuring, leave your valuable stuff in the bank box, just in case, you know ;-)
When you move in the wilderness, activate an important macro: AllNames. To do this, open your Option Window (Alt-O) and choose a key to assign this macro on. When you see someone check the color of his name: innocents have Blue Names, murderers Red Names and criminals Grey Names.
In your first days, if you meet a red one don't think twice: RUN!
PKs (Player Killers) are part of the game, so don't be too angry with them, when you'll raise your skill a little, and monster will be hard to find, you'll probably make a party with your friends and go hunting them, it could be a funny alternative.
To safely avoid them in your first days this could be a good tactic: when you hear a sound of footsteps, hide immediately (obviously if you can hide...), before the possible enemy enter your screen. When you see him, activate AllNames macro and if he's a PK remain hidden, eventually double-click on his body to see his characteristics, but do not move, or you'll be revealed. When he's gone, go fast in the opposite direction.

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5. Fight!

Now you are ready for a true fight. An important option you can check at this point is the Notoriety Query in the option window (Alt-O). If you are fighting a monster with some friends, you can unintentionally hit your friend and lose some notoriety, that is so difficult to achieve. Another problem is that you can become grey, and so a possible target to hit. But if you checked the Notoriety Query, a window will appear in this circumstances, asking you to confirm before hitting a blue one. Obviously, if you WANT to hit some blues do not check this option (however this option doesn't work if you are a red one!).
Don't try to fight the worst monsters alone, you'll probably found you dead after a few blows. You can safely fight orcs, ogres (NOT Ogre Lords, a single blow and you're dead!), ratmen, lizardmen, ghouls, skeletons and so on, maybe even trolls. But if you see liches, gargoyles, some gazer, not to mention elementals, dragons or daemons, you have to be a truly skilled warrior to fight them alone, and probably it's not enough!
When fighting, always put your stats window in a corner of the screen (Alt-S and then the minus sign, or click and drag over your character). If your health will go down quickly, maybe is better to run away, unless you have the ability to cast healing on your sick body.
If you are a warrior, put a sword in one hand and a shield in the other (or a halberd, a double-handed axe or what you prefer), and in case of need take some healing potions with you. Be ready to free your hand if your health will dangerously slow down, drink one potion quickly and take up arms again.
If you are absolutely NO LAGGED, try to turn around your enemy repeatedly while fighting, chances are that he shall not be able to hit you, if you well co-ordinate your movements.
Finally, when the enemy shall be almost dead, he'll probably try to flee away. Try to anticipate his movements, putting your body one step before his direction, and double-click again on him: probably he'll stop his run.
If you are an archer fights will be quite more simple, but the tactic is similar: take a little distance from your enemy and start to hit him, and if he's not skilled in magery you'll kill him without take a scratch... obviously if your modem does not hang up in that moment... ;)

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6. Death

The most common thing in Britannia is to die. Luckily, you can live again! :)

When you die you have two choices: resurrect immediately or play as a ghost until you'll be healed from a shrine or from a wandering healer (or from a mage skilled in 8th circles, or again by a skilled healer, but this is a distant possibility for a newbie).
Be careful! If you resurrect immediately you'll lose some points (I could say A LOT of points!) so hardly gained, so consider this choice only if you're a newbie, and don't want to lose your little possessions. But consider that if you have been killed by a monster, and you resurrect immediately, surely you'll die again, since when you res your health points are really a few, you can barely stand up, imagine fight!
If you choose to play as a ghost (strongly suggested), all of your possession will remain with your body, so it's important that you find a healer as soon as possible, to quickly return to your body and take your possessions again.
The best thing you can do is to have only a few possession with you. When you start to have a little treasure in your backpack, don't stay too long in the wilderness. Find the nearest city, go to the bank, and put your money and your plunder in your safe-box.

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7. Etiquette

In a world like Britannia, like in the real world, etiquette is important. So these are my personal rules, feel free to avoid or follow them, it's your choice:

1. Unless you are extremely in need, don't bother people asking to give you anything, try to put a little coins in your safe-box, just in case you got killed.
2. If you see someone fighting a monster, always ask before enter the combat, probably your help is not needed.
3. If you join a fight, after the monster's death, do not take the loot and go away, always split the stuff.
4. If you talk with someone, and he's not replying you, do not insult him, probably he's lagged.
5. If you see a dead human body, don't loot immediately, you could find a new friend when the body-owner come back :-)
6. If you see a ghost, and you know where's a healer, tell to him, you cannot hear him (unless you're skilled in Spirit Speak) but he can hear you.
7. Don't use bugs or exploits to your advantage, you could damage other players.
8. Don't fight if it's evident that your enemy is too weak to fight (unless provoked). Be fair.
9. Help those in need! One day you'll need their help.
10. Always remember you're just playing ;-)

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8. Reputation and Notoriety

Every action you take will have some consequence in how people will treat you (especially NPC but not only). So, if you have acquired some fame, NPCs will have more respect for you, or merchants will lower or raise their prices depending on your actions in the world of Britannia. This is an extremely complicated matter, that Origin started to reprogram in the beginning of 1998. Now the new system is up and running, and I think it's quite good.
Reputation and Notoriety are based on two different scales: Fame and Karma, that will vary depending on you actions.
Fame is always positive, and Karma can be positive or negative, telling other people if you are a good one or a bad one.
These values are internal in the game, you can't see them, but they determine the title that is showed before your name, in function of the following values (Fame horizontally and Karma vertically):

Remember that every time you die you lose 10% of your fame (karma doesn't change)!

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Well, that's enough for now, if you play at Europa and see a yellow and red dressed guy, check his name, if it's SuperCiuk say "hi, I've seen your page", and I'll be happy like a child. See you in Britannia then.
And if you wish to contact me by ICQ my UIN is 3861084.
Fare Thee Well :-)