New Player Guide - Getting Around
Click here for a larger map of the new player town, New Haven.
Have you looked in your backpack? Everybody has one - press alt-i to open it up. One of the things that will stand out is the bright orange New Player Help Button. If you're ever in need of assistance, double click it to request help from a fellow player. There are designated new player helpers around, ready to provide guidance or assistance. Select the option that best suits your need and someone will get in contact with you.
But you don't need help just yet, you need to look around a little bit first. You'll want to head southeast, which is to the lower right - directions are diagonal in Ultima Online. Point your mouse in that direction and hold down the right mouse button to start walking. In a second or two you'll see this bluish gate:
Gates are teleporters that transport you to designated locations. This one is important because you'll probably be using it a lot. It leads to Kalandor Dungeon, also known as the New Player Dungeon. Walk into the gate and in about a second you'll find yourself within the dungeon.
Now what? Who are these folks and why is that llama looking at me so funny? The llama you can never be sure about, but the folks aren't exactly folks; they're non-player characters (NPCs). One good way to tell is by their name color - yellow names indicate invulnerable people which are almost always NPCs or ABCUO staff members. The lady in pink is the dungeon greeter; if you single left-click on her it'll bring up a context menu with options of things she can help you with.
Anyway, let's leave them for now and walk north a bit. You'll see a bunch of metal chests lined up against the wall. These are the donation chests - veteran players have donated things specifically for new players to use, to give them a little bit of a head start. (When you become a veteran player yourself, you can give to the next generation of players by using the [donate command on any of your extra equipment.) Double click a chest to open it, and use the left mouse button to drag and drop the most choice items into your backpack, which you already had open because you pressed alt-i.
Besides hoarding stuff, perhaps you want to use some of it. To equip your new items, first open your paperdoll (the image of yourself) by pressing alt-p. Then drag and drop a weapon, shield, or piece of armor onto yourself.
We'll test out your new equipment later. But while we're opening up windows, let's get the rest of them open. Here are the other most useful ones:
- alt-s: Character Status window
- alt-k: Skill list
- alt-j: Journal
- alt-r: Overhead view (or radar)
Go ahead and open those all up and move them to convenient locations on your screen.
The world is pretty big, and you'll want to be able to get around as quickly as possible. So far we've walked around a little, and stepped into a moongate. Let's look at the other ways you can travel.
Walk south, back to the dungeon entrance where you came in. If you single-click on Sarah the greeter, you'll get a context menu - take the "buy" option. This brings up a list of things she has for sale. What you're looking to purchase is a horse, so go ahead and double-click the horse and press "accept. Double-click your horse and test your new wheels; while mounted, you move twice as fast as on foot, and this is a big advantage when running from the bad guys, or traveling from one place to another. All mounts move at the same speed.
Unfortunately, horses are living creatures, and life is not eternal as we all know. If you should somehow lose your mount, you can always buy another. However there are several alternatives to purchasing a mount:
- The magery spell Summon Creature can be used to call forth an animal you can ride.
- You can use the ninjitsu spell Animal Form to transform yourself into a fleet-footed creature.
- If you have high animal-related skills (animal taming, animal lore, and veterinary) you will want to have bonded pets. When a bonded pet dies, it becomes a ghost and can be resurrected. Read more about this in the animal taming section of the skill guide.
- When your account reaches the 90 day mark, you gain the power to use ethereal mounts. These are not actual creatures, but rather ghostlike things which work as mounts. They appear as a statuette in your backpack, and when double-clicked take the form of a mount. Being non-creatures they cannot die, so this is effectively a mount that you can carry around with you and never dies. If you can't wait the necessary 90 days to use an ethereal, you can also purchase an ethereal mount in the ABC Prize Room, but it will not be cheap.
So now you can move around quickly with either two legs or four, but that still doesn't beat getting from one place to another instantly. Take the dark grey moongate out of the dungeon and back to New Haven.
The building just northwest of the dungeon gate is the bank. Any time you're near a banker, you can open your bankbox by saying the magic word: "bank". Each player has one bankbox, and the same bankbox is accessible anywhere you see a banker. There is no safer place for your items than in the bankbox. So before you run off and do anything foolish, drag and drop your most valuable things into your bank box for safe keeping.
Head south for a few screens and you'll soon see a blue moongate. This is one of many public moongates that provide access to most of the major destinations in the world. Step into the gate, choose your destination from the menu, and you'll be instantly transported.
Not all of the destinations are safe for new players. If you find yourself in an uncomfortable spot, step back into the gate and go to either the New Player Dungeon or the New Haven to get your bearings.
There is one more method of travel that we won't go into detail here, but you will eventually find essential: recalling and gating. Using the magery spell Mark, you can mark or bind a runestone to your location. Once the rune is marked, you can use either the magery spell Recall or the chivalry spell Sacred Journey to travel to that marked spot almost instantly. Runes can be stored in books of 16, and veteran players tend to carry around a bunch of runebooks in their backpack.
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