returning player seeks account upgrade advice

Hi all. My longtime account was cancelled in 2012, and I'm going to return for at least a month to check things out. All the account restoration stuff is complete (excellent response by staff to help me get it restored), and I just need to pay a subscription fee and log in. The account was at the Mondain's Legacy level, but I understand that everyone will be upgraded to Stygian Abyss level when Endless Journey is released sometime in the Spring. However the most recent upgrade is Time of Legends, apparently adding some single player elements (which I might need on my old shard Baja).

I have two choices right now.

1. subscribe for a month and check things out, playing at Mondain's Legacy level. $12.99
   
2. buy the Time of Legends upgrade for $19.99

I am assuming that buying the upgrade would also include 30 days of playtime. Earlier upgrades did, but I see nothing in the EA store saying that playtime is included with the upgrade. Does anyone know if it does?  Ideally I'd like to spend the extra $7 and test things out for a month with all features enabled. But if no game time is included with the upgrade, then I might as well save the $19.99 until such time I decided to jump in with both feet. Does anyone know if game time is included for existing (but inactive) accounts?

Any general advice for a returnee?

Rock, (formerly Imperterritus VXt, Baja)

No you will have to get a 30-day code as well.  Jump in check the water, if you like what you see, then get the TOL and also the High Sea for the big Ship attacks.  The TOL is for Eodon, that where the BIG Shadowguard is (http://www.uoguide.com/Shadowguard) as well as the Dino's and the Turtle champ.

Drakelord, thank you for the response and advice. I find it strange that a new player would have to buy both the game and 1st month's fee. OTOH, since the Origin store doesn't say game time is included, it would seem you are correct.

Is High Seas is some other kind of upgrade pack? In the past they were always cumulative. Buy an upgrade and get all levels up to that point. Also, the Origin Store doesn't list High Seas in its list of products.

High Seas is technically a "booster" pack, not a full expansion, like Stygian Abyss or Time of Legends. So, in order to get the additional High Seas content, you must buy it separately. There are also a couple of theme packs (Gothic & Rustic) and an item collection (King's Collection) that you can buy separately. EDIT: Looking at the store, I see that King's Collection is now considered a theme pack as well, nice!

This link to the Origin Store should show all of them.

https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/search?searchString=ultima%20online

and this link should take you directly to the High Seas purchase page.

https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/ultima/ultima-online/addon/ultima-online-high-seas-booster

Don't know if you know about Sovereigns, but if you buy them from the Origin Store, you can use them to purchase additional stuff from the In Game store (like a bigger ship for use in High Seas!). You can find the In Game store under the help menu after you log in with a character.

Good luck!

yep what he says above 🙂

Arroth_Thaiel, I must be a blind man.  I went back to the Origin Store, and there is High Seas right next to King's Collection. Are there any other booster packs that add content (capability?) as opposed to items? I already have a 7th character slot (at least I did).

Rock said:

Arroth_Thaiel, I must be a blind man.  I went back to the Origin Store, and there is High Seas right next to King's Collection. Are there any other booster packs that add content (capability?) as opposed to items? I already have a 7th character slot (at least I did).

Don't know what you're considering content exactly, but...

The Rustic theme pack let's you brew your own moonshine, use garden beds for plant growth, and gives access to the Encampment system for commodity and pet brokers (Player run vendors for selling/buying. Basically your own storefront in New Magincia.)

The Gothic theme pack has the chest that lets you send items from your house to your bank and a training dummy that can take your skills to 60.

There is also a storage increase you can buy. I think it is 20% in your bank and house.

EDIT: The Kings collection has items that give you stuff on a weekly basis. Potions, Scrolls of Transcendence and Powder charges for High Seas cannons. It's not much, but it adds up after awhile. Especially if you buy multiple collections.

It would probably be best to wait until you can use Stygian Abyss/Time of Legends, being at Mondains is seriously going to limit being able to check any of the actual new an used content out.

As for High Seas, Rustic/Gothic, and Kings Collection only consider them after you're for sure you will be playing for good again or they may just be overwhelming an not as appealing as the many other great new things to check out such as Mystic, Imbuing, Animal Training, New Loot Items, and too many others too list

I now have bought a one month subscription and looked around some. The layout of my enhanced client screens was a bit garbled -- things on top of things or out of place, etc. But everything is there.  I even have 12 veteran rewards available! That lessens the loss of all my soul stones. Also, my account already has Stygian Abyss stuff enabled, although I don't remember upgrading it. I have email records showing my upgrade to Mondain's Legacy, but nothing for Stygian Abyss.  Weird, but I'll take it.

A lot of the characters I looked at seemed to have boosted skills, such as several had a 100 level of Resisting Spells or Anatomy. I don't remember ever getting resist so high on any of my guys. Do some skills build even while logged out? Note that between 2005 and 2012 I kept my subscription active, but barely logged in. In those 7 years I probably played UO for less than 7 hours. I'm saying this to let you know significant time passed on my active account where some sort of automatic skill increase could be happening. I wouldn't expect any change from 2012 until now, while the account was inactive.

Yeah.  i think all accounts were upgraded with Stygian Abyss sometime ago actually.  I had continued playing but hadn't bought the upgrade and hadn't logged in for a few years and when I got back on I also had the SA content enabled without ever buying it.