UO Second Age

First I suppose I should introduce myself...my name is Greven, I played UO on Origin's shards (Great Lakes) for about 5 years until Trammel was introduced and the game went to sh*t. I then played on a player run shard that was slightly modified and full of VERY good PvP on and off for a few years. This is my first time back in 4 or 5 years, and it seems like a great shard - UO the way it was supposed to be. All that aside, I have a TON of questions. I'll try to keep this first post short but I'm sure I'll be asking more and more questions as the thread moves along. I have searched the forums quite a bit already and found some answers, but I always like more feedback. Thanks in advance for any help.

First off, how "dangerous" is this shard? A lot of PK's? A lot of theives? Where should I NOT be as a new player? Secondly, I'm trying to figure out where this shard is placed as far as the UO timeframe goes...if that makes sense. I'm trying to figure out what kind of template I want to create, but I'm not sure what is actually applicable. Are there bonuses for magery if you have inscription, axes if you have lumberjacking, things like that? Or is this placed before those? I spoke to someone in-game and they said the original tank mage template is the most popular/best PvP template which makes me think this shard is placed before those types of bonuses were available. Do most people use 7x templates, or is there some really good PvPer's using some good 4x/5x hybrid templates? I would like to use a hybrid template but I'm not sure how well it would work on this shard... As of now I started my first character with the standard 50 magery / 50 resist, but I haven't decided what I'm gonna do yet. Again, I like to play with some interesting templates, but if they simply don't work here I can always win with a cookie-cutter 7x too

Oh, and is there any market for boards on the shard? I was thinking of chopping wood for some initial money (since I hate asking for handouts) and then turning the character into an axer (assuming there is a lumberjack bonus).

Thanks again for any help!

Ok so here the questions come...

Does DEX effect hiding/stealth?

Can you stealth on an ethreal mount? What are those costing on this shard?

How does "insta-hit" work? (and insta-cast I believe I saw...)

Been awhile...thanks again for any help

Alright I've found that inscription and lumberjacking don't have any bonuses...does the poison mage exist here? If I remember correctly having poisoning on your mage increased DP casting...maybe that came along with the inscrip./lumber. bonuses...

check out the wiki above, maybe some of your questions will be answered in there.
there is no poison mage...

Yeah I've been macroing and reading the forum for the last three hours or better and have figured just about everything out. I still haven't found how insta-hit works here, just discussions on how it has worked or should work...and I'm also still not sure how DEX affects stealth, I think I'll check stratics and hopefully it works the same here.

I also just kind of want to get some peoples' feedback on how people are on the shard...if it's PvP heavy, good economy, etc. Trying to figure out if a 4x/5x hybrid template (played meticulously) would work, given the era. The last shard I played on (which was a good long while ago) was similar to this one. It was possible to play (and win with) a "hybrid" template if you were a very skilled PvPer. I think I might just create one a bit down the road when I'm settled in and have money and just see how it goes...the nice thing about those templates is they're easy to convert to just about anything else.

here is intra hit http://wiki.uosecondage.com/index.php?title=Insta_Hit
dex doesnt affect stealth either. basically for every 10 pts of stealth you get 1 step. and you have to wait 10 seconds b/n each time to can attempt to stealth again.

ive been here nearly a year and i still done have a pile of gold over 60k. im getting close. but ill prob burn that on regs soon. its only this last month or two ive actually started making profit instead of it been constant revenue. mind you i have little doubt there would be some players in the millions. but not many.
the pvp aspect is upto you. there are those that play specifically for that. i like a bit of everything.

the most popular pvp temp is the tank mage...
but dexxer templates have their uses too...

I've been on this shard for hmm a month or so (I don't really play much a couple of times a week for 2-3hours maybe).

There are PKs that make rounds around the dungeons and graveyards looking for a fight, but it's not a big deal. Either periodically drop of your loot or try and find alternative places to hunt. There's a few good places with mid to higher ranged monsters with virtually no PKs.
There's thieves around to, not a big deal as long as you know how to keep your stuff safe. All common sesnse really .

So generally I'd say it's no more or less safe then your classic UO in the T2A era, it's DIFFERENT that's for sure, but not more dangerous. Just use common sense and play it safe at first and you'll be fine.