Gave it a shot

[Elowick]

Well I gave it a shot, put in some time, got up my anatomy and hiding a little bit in hopes of having at least a little chance out in the world.

Unfortunately I don't think this shard is for me, after dying to PKers several times (and yes, I expected this as a PvP type server) I was set upon by a thief who thought it would be humorous to steal everything in my bag while fighting a skeleton. I don't know exactly how he was doing this, he would literally walk by me, and then teleport on his horse to another location on my screen and then things would go missing from my bag. For example my 58 gold, bandages, dagger, etc. Things that were obviously quite valuable, at least to a new player. So I did what I felt right and asked him to stop as I was a new player, and of course he didn't. I attacked him and he killed me, twice. I hope that gave Gregory a murder count, but I'm not up to speed on how that works anymore.

I think that I had a leg up previously as I had established myself before Renaissance had come out, but as a new player you are just subject to the whims of others with no chance to fight back.

Take care all.

[Budner]

Darwin at work.

[ClowN]

your just going about it the wrong way is all. if you are on a newbie character you really have no business attacking another player on here for any reason. you will die. thats part of the game. if someone is stealing from you, just go farm somewhere else. till you are trained up enough to fight back. i cant help but guess you were trying to farm at the britain grave yard? go somewhere else and you wont have much trouble.

[mrbojangles]

Darwin at work.

[Schtolteheim]

Hi, I'm new to the server as well, and to be honest I've lost far more to trying to take on more monsters than I can handle than PKs so far. The population is not that high, you just have to find an isolated area and recall out if something doesn't seem right. On my first day, I ignored the mass of tamed animals left on the bridge to Mt. Kendall on my miner... I'm sure you can guess how that turned out. It's a big world. If someplace isn't working out for you, move on. Consider anything you take out of your bank expendable and bank often. It's really not that bad. It just takes a bit to get into the mentality of "this is a rough game, and I WILL die and lose my stuff" - hard to get back into after years of carebear mmos.

[Donk]

Sorry to hear about your frustrating experience as a new player to this shard.

My advice, based on what I did in my first weeks of playing UO back in 1998, would be to keep a way to generate money in your bank at all times. This might be a shovel to mine ingots to sell to players, a backup weapon to go farm some more monsters for cash, or something like that. That way whatever happens, even if you lose everything you have, you'll always have a place to start from. I kept my lucky shovel in my main character's bank box on Europa from August 1999 all the way until I stopped playing in 2004, long after I'd acquired millions of gold and was set for life.

Britain sewers are a very underrated place for new players to farm. The rats die relatively easily and they drop a relatively good amount of gold if you kill several of them. They are unguarded so it's possible PKs will show up, but they are so windy and twisty that it's unlikely anybody but the most desperate murderer will. This means you can train your skills and get money while you do it.

In general, this shard replicates what it was like to play back in T2A, and playing back in T2A was pretty harsh, as I'm sure you remember. I hope that you'll reconsider your decision to leave, and instead think of ways to avoid or mitigate situations like this. The first time I stepped outside of Britain I got horribly murdered by a PK. All that did was steel my resolve to one day be the person doing the killing, at at least fighting back. In a weird way, it made me like the game more because I saw the potential open to every player, and the possibilities waiting for me if I kept playing.

That said, please don't think that EVERYBODY on this server is a PK, thief or scammer. There's plenty of people who are, and I have nothing against them, but there's just as many if not more people who will help out somebody in need, donate some cash or equipment, offer a gate to the stranded, things like that. When I first started a very kind and helpful blacksmith made me multiple suits of armour that I used to start killing monsters in, until eventually I had enough cash to pay him for more.

Hoping we see you on the shard in the future.

[Donk]

UO storytime: My real life friend heard about UO and decided he wanted to play. He made an archer called Fenris. He ran up to Britain GY and began attacking a dog. The dog kicked his ass. "A-ha!", reasons Fenris, "These dogs must be pretty tough. If I raise Animal Taming I'll be able to command them and I'll be unstoppable!".

He raises his taming, tames himself 4-5 dogs and heads back to the Brit GY. Before long a PK shows up, he says "All kill!", the PK promptly murders poor Fenris, followed by all of his dogs.

The story had a happy ending though, Fenris kept at it and eventually became a PK himself, terrorising all Brittania with his Archery skill (and no magery or melee)

[Elowick]

Sorry to hear about your frustrating experience as a new player to this shard.

Donk,

That was an extremely well thought out and helpful post. I knew beforehand that I would get a fair share of trolls (see the darwin posts above), but honestly didn't expect anyone to respond on a human (or humane either ) level. It's interesting to me that people will treat new players in this manner at all, don't they realize that they only hurt themselves in the end if they drive new players away?

I did go hunting for hatchets in the graveyard, knowing that I could be PKed... part of the server and rules, hence part of the draw of the shard in the 1st place. I didn't expect to get my bandages stolen, that's just nuts. I also did try to run away, but Gregory on horseback is faster than Elowick on foot. I could not escape him, he just kept following me and taking things out of my pack, which is what really did it for me. If I can't defend myself against these people now (and frankly I'm terrible at PvP), how am I ever going to get ahead? I was mainly relying on the trash that people would drop around the bank for income to buy a weapon and an axe to cut wood with.

Just wanted to say thank you Donk for posting something that actually would make me want to stay, good people.

[Budner]

I'll be honest, your post was so whiney that I doubt I'd miss you as a player on the shard. If you get bummed out because your pixels die, then you're already behind the 8 ball.

But to be HELPFUL, yes go train and things will get better. And don't take getting killed or stolen from to heart. Because my characters will be killing and stealing from you, and I don't need the guilt.

[benny-]

Hey Elowick, unfortunately your story is like many other new players' here. Many have a tough time getting established as many of the pks and thieves here could care less if you're new.

This isn't a bad thing to me. Afterall, it adds a level of excitement to the game that simply isn't there in modern mmo's, however when you're new it sometimes just seems impossible.

While it might seem that 99% of the population here are griefers, believe me, there's plenty of good guys out there....just gotta keep an open eye for them.

There are a number of ways to get started on your own. Many find quieter areas to hunt at (with a little experience you'll quickly learn some spawns are impossible to hunt while some are very safe). Also, many choose quieter trades to get them established, such as fishing or crafting...just some thoughts.

If you'd like to find other decent players to hunt with and give you some protection and help, my guild; C^V and a few others are always willing to recruit new players. If you'd like some info on some of the guilds here, or if you just want some tips on starting out, you can either pm me here, on the forums, or contact me in #C^V in irc, I'd be glad to help you out.

Hope you reconsider SecondAge.

[Lord Cavewight of GL]

Unfortunately I don't think this shard is for me, after dying to PKers several times (and yes, I expected this as a PvP type server) I was set upon by a thief who thought it would be humorous to steal everything in my bag while fighting a skeleton.

The things you have mentioned have been experienced by every single player on this shard.

Whats worst is most of us had these experiences on OSI were the pking and greifing was much worst and had a larger impact as there was more competition for resources.

I promise you if you stick around and work through these issues you will come to love this shard.

[TheEttinKing]

Ive been playing this shard for a while and this stuff still happens to me all the time.

I kinda just sit in my castle nowadays and stare at my loot on occasion ill go out to buy something and thats about it.

[Donk]

In general, this is can be a harsh shard with harsh players to match. T2A gives players a lot of leeway in terms of how they act, and for some people if they CAN do it, they WILL do it. That said, not everybody is a total jerk because they can be. It's not uncommon for PKs to res the people they kill after looting them, and some even offer them a gate to town if it's in a bad dungeon.

My advice is to not sweat the PKs and the thieves, they do exist and if you stick it out you will meet them again, but they don't have a grasp on every inch of the server and if you meet one it's probably down to bad luck.

If you're having trouble making starter cash, consider a profession (or a moneymaking alternate character with a profession) that can earn money without leaving town. Begging is crude but it works, crafting skills can often buy materials from vendors and sell back finished products for more. Any character can go to the sheep farms (there's three in Yew, one in Skara Brae) without leaving the guarded zone, and collect wool which can be turned into cloth and/or bandages to either sell or use yourself. In a pinch there's even the stealing skill, which will get you guardwhacked every so often but lets you steal gold from NPCs in town. A character with animal taming on a second account (UOSA lets you have up to three accounts legally) could tame wild horses and transfer them to your main character to stable. This lets you ride a horse (extremely useful for almost every single type of character) without spending 700-800g on one from a vendor. If you can't find any horses, check out the Magery shop north of Moonglow. Since the teleporter to T2A doesn't let you take your mount along, some players leave their horse stranded in the mage shop until it eventually goes untame and can be reclaimed by another player.

The above advice is extremely cautious, but it's good failsafe if you're really having trouble outside the guardzone. I'd say get yourself 1000-2000 gold as seed money, if you're lucky find a friendly crafter who can make you a weapon and/or armour, and venture out to kill some monsters to build up a pot of money. UO in this era is very incremental, you make some money, train some skills, use those skills to make more money, train more skills with that money, and so on until you're loaded with cash and the odd death is no problem. As I say, check out Britain sewers. If you can kill rats and giant rats you may be able to build up some cash easier than you think.

Edit: Don't forget to check the Guild Recruitment forum, and maybe introduce yourself in the New Player forum. UO is a very social game, even for an MMO, and this shard has plenty of guilds willing to accept new members. A guild can provide you with advice, backup, maybe even items and gold to help you get on your feet. You'll probably have a much less rough time if you have some buddies to help you get started.

If you'd like to find other decent players to hunt with and give you some protection and help, my guild; C^V and a few others are always willing to recruit new players. If you'd like some info on some of the guilds here, or if you just want some tips on starting out, you can either pm me here, on the forums, or contact me in #C^V in irc, I'd be glad to help you out.

Hope you reconsider SecondAge.

^^^ what he said

[tunguska]

I haven't been PK'd once in the past week since I started.

I stick to unpopular graveyards when I hunt. Matter of fact, I haven't even seen 1 PK out in the field yet.

[Arkosh Kovasz]

Ive been playing this shard for a while and this stuff still happens to me all the time.

I kinda just sit in my castle nowadays and stare at my loot on occasion ill go out to buy something and thats about it.

This made me