Beginner Guide (work in progress)
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:06 pm
Hi there,
I recently came back to Ultima online, I used to play it around the year 2000 when it was very popular and you could hardly move anywhere without bumping into a player house. (There were player houses nearly everywhere, it was ridiculous.)
I like the game mechanics generally, it is very definitely a sandbox game which I liked even before sandbox games became stylish, and I thought I would start writing quick tips on how to play the game.
Kindly remember, I am effectively brand new at the game again, a significant amount has changed, however I am looking forward to playing this game again.
If you have any questions regarding how to play the game then ask. If I don't know, I am sure I could find it out. Remember, this is a new player guide. No high level player questions, also high level players are welcome to answer questions that players may ask.
Bear in mind, this is a very very basic guide as I'm discovering again how to play the game. So expect to see posts on how to walk, use the interface, etc.
How to walk around:
With your mouse, hold down the right click mouse button and drag it around your character in the direction you want to go. Keep the right mouse button held down and drag the mouse cursor. The further away your mouse cursor is from your character, the faster you will move.
When I'm walking, its like lag happens and my character moves back a bit and then forward:
Okay with walking in the game, a few things I've found.
a) you often cant move through mobs, so mobs can block your walking. Sometimes and I think its strength based, you can shove them out of the way, however often if you cant move in a particular direction, check a tree or mob isn't blocking your intended path.
b) On your portrait, (you have a small portrait of yourself and a much larger portrait which is called a paperdoll), so we are looking at the character portrait, a small picture showing your face) there are three bars next to it, these three bars are above each other and have different colors, red, blue and yellow.
The yellow bar represents your fatigue and if you are fighting a mob, if it goes down to zero, you wont be able to move, (such as if you are losing the fight) unless the yellow bars gains a point on it. When this yellow bar is at zero and we try to walk, it will look like lag is occurring and the character wont seem to move. Its not lag, its simply fatigue is at zero, which means the player cannot move. Wait a little, or keeping right clicking to move yet be aware of this.
How to activate war/peace mode:
Basically the player fights in war mode. When in war mode, if the mob is aggressive, we will start fighting it if it gets within striking range. If we want to initiate fighting the mob, then we can double left click it and walk towards it.
An easy way to set this war/peace toggle button to our hotbar is to click along the menu bar that appears along the bottom of the screen when playing the game, the item on that bar which says actions. Then when the actions menu appears, click right arrow until we get to menu items. Scroll down that until you find the war/peace button and left click hold down and drag that button to your F1 hotbar square. Now we can easily keypress F1 to activate war/peace mode without having to move cursor over the button on the bottom menu bar and clicking it.
How to use bandages:
Bandages in the game are very useful, so lets learn how to use them. And yes, we can use them while in battle.
Lets start by learning how to use them.
Open your backpack. This can be done by double left clicking your portrait. (small face of you with those three colored bars next to them.) Doing this will bring up a much larger portrait, which is called your paperdoll. On the lower right, near the feet of the character, there is a backpack symbol. Double left click on the backpack symbol to open your backpack.
In the backpack, you will see the bandages, mouse over them and it will say bandages.
To use a bandage, you double left click on the bandages and it will ask who do you want to heal? Then you left click once on your small portrait. It will start applying the bandages and depending on your skill will heal some hp on your character.
How to put bandages on the hotbar:
The hotbar is the bar that has F1 to F12 on it. We have already added the war/peace symbol to F1 to make it a keypress to move in and out of that mode for easy use.
Now we are going to add the bandages to another hotbar key, lets put the bandages in F10 slot on the hotbar. With the backpack open, left click hold down and drag the bandages into the F10 slot on the hotbar.
Now when we press F10 on the keyboard it will ask us who do we want to apply the bandages to. We can select ourselves or friends in our party, or our pets.
I personally like key shortcuts when doing common routines in the game, makes it much easier to play the game and still keep mouse cursor for targeting etc.
(This method can also be used to put any useable item from our backpack onto the hotbar.)
How to put self heal on the hotbar:
Even better than putting the bandages on the hotbar which is fine for healing others in our party or pets, is a hotkey button specifically for self bandage/healing.
So lets do that. Mouse to the bottom menu bar and click actions. This will bring up the actions menu. Click right arrow to items/ abilities and click and drag the button called bandage self into the hotbar menu. Lets put it in F9 hotbar key. Now whenever we press F9 it will automatically apply bandages to ourself without us having to self target. Wonderful eh?
How to make bandages:
I find bandages are quite useful and a yt video I was watching the player was using them very frequently. So we are going to look at making bandages, so we have a steady supply of them to use on us and our friends in party.
Basically we make them like this.
Skinning knife, skin a sheep, this gives wool
Take wool to tailor shop in town, double left click wool, select spinning wheel. This will put balls of yarn in backpack.
Double left click balls of yarn and select loom. Now a message will appear, which may seem enigmatic, however it basically means double left click more balls of yarn in our backpack, select loom until it places a bolt of cloth in our backpack.
Double left click the scissors in our backpack and then select bolts of cloth. (be careful, it will cut up all the bolts of cloth we have if they are in the selected stack). This will them give us cut cloth.
Now double left click the scissors again and select the cut cloth. This will then give us bandages. Viola, we now know how to make bandages for those healing situations.
(items required for making bandages, can be purchased from vendor npcs: scissors from tailor, skinning knife)
One of the hardest things I have found in coming back to this game is finding out this stuff I just mentioned.
I currently play on mugen shard if anyone is interested in partying as group and my character name is my forum name. I really like the game mechanics as I said so I will likely be playing here a while.
See you online.
God bless.
I recently came back to Ultima online, I used to play it around the year 2000 when it was very popular and you could hardly move anywhere without bumping into a player house. (There were player houses nearly everywhere, it was ridiculous.)
I like the game mechanics generally, it is very definitely a sandbox game which I liked even before sandbox games became stylish, and I thought I would start writing quick tips on how to play the game.
Kindly remember, I am effectively brand new at the game again, a significant amount has changed, however I am looking forward to playing this game again.
If you have any questions regarding how to play the game then ask. If I don't know, I am sure I could find it out. Remember, this is a new player guide. No high level player questions, also high level players are welcome to answer questions that players may ask.
Bear in mind, this is a very very basic guide as I'm discovering again how to play the game. So expect to see posts on how to walk, use the interface, etc.
How to walk around:
With your mouse, hold down the right click mouse button and drag it around your character in the direction you want to go. Keep the right mouse button held down and drag the mouse cursor. The further away your mouse cursor is from your character, the faster you will move.
When I'm walking, its like lag happens and my character moves back a bit and then forward:
Okay with walking in the game, a few things I've found.
a) you often cant move through mobs, so mobs can block your walking. Sometimes and I think its strength based, you can shove them out of the way, however often if you cant move in a particular direction, check a tree or mob isn't blocking your intended path.
b) On your portrait, (you have a small portrait of yourself and a much larger portrait which is called a paperdoll), so we are looking at the character portrait, a small picture showing your face) there are three bars next to it, these three bars are above each other and have different colors, red, blue and yellow.
The yellow bar represents your fatigue and if you are fighting a mob, if it goes down to zero, you wont be able to move, (such as if you are losing the fight) unless the yellow bars gains a point on it. When this yellow bar is at zero and we try to walk, it will look like lag is occurring and the character wont seem to move. Its not lag, its simply fatigue is at zero, which means the player cannot move. Wait a little, or keeping right clicking to move yet be aware of this.
How to activate war/peace mode:
Basically the player fights in war mode. When in war mode, if the mob is aggressive, we will start fighting it if it gets within striking range. If we want to initiate fighting the mob, then we can double left click it and walk towards it.
An easy way to set this war/peace toggle button to our hotbar is to click along the menu bar that appears along the bottom of the screen when playing the game, the item on that bar which says actions. Then when the actions menu appears, click right arrow until we get to menu items. Scroll down that until you find the war/peace button and left click hold down and drag that button to your F1 hotbar square. Now we can easily keypress F1 to activate war/peace mode without having to move cursor over the button on the bottom menu bar and clicking it.
How to use bandages:
Bandages in the game are very useful, so lets learn how to use them. And yes, we can use them while in battle.
Lets start by learning how to use them.
Open your backpack. This can be done by double left clicking your portrait. (small face of you with those three colored bars next to them.) Doing this will bring up a much larger portrait, which is called your paperdoll. On the lower right, near the feet of the character, there is a backpack symbol. Double left click on the backpack symbol to open your backpack.
In the backpack, you will see the bandages, mouse over them and it will say bandages.
To use a bandage, you double left click on the bandages and it will ask who do you want to heal? Then you left click once on your small portrait. It will start applying the bandages and depending on your skill will heal some hp on your character.
How to put bandages on the hotbar:
The hotbar is the bar that has F1 to F12 on it. We have already added the war/peace symbol to F1 to make it a keypress to move in and out of that mode for easy use.
Now we are going to add the bandages to another hotbar key, lets put the bandages in F10 slot on the hotbar. With the backpack open, left click hold down and drag the bandages into the F10 slot on the hotbar.
Now when we press F10 on the keyboard it will ask us who do we want to apply the bandages to. We can select ourselves or friends in our party, or our pets.
I personally like key shortcuts when doing common routines in the game, makes it much easier to play the game and still keep mouse cursor for targeting etc.
(This method can also be used to put any useable item from our backpack onto the hotbar.)
How to put self heal on the hotbar:
Even better than putting the bandages on the hotbar which is fine for healing others in our party or pets, is a hotkey button specifically for self bandage/healing.
So lets do that. Mouse to the bottom menu bar and click actions. This will bring up the actions menu. Click right arrow to items/ abilities and click and drag the button called bandage self into the hotbar menu. Lets put it in F9 hotbar key. Now whenever we press F9 it will automatically apply bandages to ourself without us having to self target. Wonderful eh?
How to make bandages:
I find bandages are quite useful and a yt video I was watching the player was using them very frequently. So we are going to look at making bandages, so we have a steady supply of them to use on us and our friends in party.
Basically we make them like this.
Skinning knife, skin a sheep, this gives wool
Take wool to tailor shop in town, double left click wool, select spinning wheel. This will put balls of yarn in backpack.
Double left click balls of yarn and select loom. Now a message will appear, which may seem enigmatic, however it basically means double left click more balls of yarn in our backpack, select loom until it places a bolt of cloth in our backpack.
Double left click the scissors in our backpack and then select bolts of cloth. (be careful, it will cut up all the bolts of cloth we have if they are in the selected stack). This will them give us cut cloth.
Now double left click the scissors again and select the cut cloth. This will then give us bandages. Viola, we now know how to make bandages for those healing situations.
(items required for making bandages, can be purchased from vendor npcs: scissors from tailor, skinning knife)
One of the hardest things I have found in coming back to this game is finding out this stuff I just mentioned.
I currently play on mugen shard if anyone is interested in partying as group and my character name is my forum name. I really like the game mechanics as I said so I will likely be playing here a while.
See you online.
God bless.