keep using newbie quest reward or exquisite drop?

I made a new character, an elf bushido swordswoman with chivalry. One of her newbie quest rewards (of 8) was the Arms of Armstrong:


For a newbie item that seemed pretty good to me. But the best random drop I received during my quests was:


I know eventually she'll have something much better than either of these, but which would you use and why? I'm attracted to the exquisite sleeves, but I like the fact that the Armstrong Arms are blessed.

On an unrelated question, saying the word "balance" is not showing my bank balance.  I've tried it with both my bank vault open and not open.  All that happens is that everyone sees my character say "balance". What am I doing wrong?

Rock said:

I know eventually she'll have something much better than either of these, but which would you use and why? I'm attracted to the exquisite sleeves, but I like the fact that the Armstrong Arms are blessed.

On an unrelated question, saying the word "balance" is not showing my bank balance.  I've tried it with both my bank vault open and not open.  All that happens is that everyone sees my character say "balance". What am I doing wrong?

"Balance" is the correct word to speak.The New Haven Bank tellers are rather hard of hearing in my experience, try using the western side entrance to enter the Bank behind the tellers.

As far as equipment goes, everything around New Haven does Physical Damage, so other resists are pointless. I'd keep Arms of Armstrong on your elf for the Strength bonus and higher Physical resist until you are ready to leave the island to fight stronger enemies.

Thalon, thanks!  It never occurred to me that I wasn't close enough to a banker.

The character, Shido, has already moved on from New Haven. She went to Ter Mur and accepted the quest granted by the Gargoyle at the city entrance, deliver a Writ to the Holy City.  She died with a one-hit lightning strike just as she was about to give the Writ to the one good NPC there. The Holy City is extremely dangerous for an elf barely in her 50s!  Fortunately I had remembered about item insurance, since she was wearing the exquisite sleeves.

Unfortunately I lost the new newbie award, a rune to The Darkness. I assumed it would lead to a sort of "final boss" fight for New Haven. I actually tried a couple times to use it after completing all the newbie quests, but was told it could not be used where I was. That's why I was going to Ter Mur, to buy 40 Imbuing skill, and then try to use the rune. But "No....", Dummy decided to do the introductory Ter Mur quest first.

Are you a new or returning player?  Which shard do you play?

Sable, returning. Baja is my main shard, although I have characters on a bunch of them. I played heavily from 1999 to early 2005.  I haven't played much since then, and I finally let the accounts expire in 2012.

Rock said:

Thalon, thanks!  It never occurred to me that I wasn't close enough to a banker.

Unfortunately I lost the new newbie award, a rune to The Darkness. I assumed it would lead to a sort of "final boss" fight for New Haven.

The rune does lead to the Black Knight. Or it did once, it's been broken/bugged for years. Funny thing is they have fixed it for Publish 99 on Test Center.

https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/publish-notes/publish-99/

Bug Fixes

• All pets which have been exploited  by releasing or death will have the following stats reset and incur a penalty to their advanced pet training. Strength, intelligence, dexterity, hit points, stamina, mana, base damage, and all resists will be reset to defaults.
• Fixed issue where quest text would get truncated in quest gumps.
• Fixed issue where the New Haven Dark Knight quest could no longer be reached via rune.

The rewards are minor compared to end game loot, but nice while working skill gain.  I always tried to get my characters armor for max Resists before moving out of New Haven. Unless a 100% LRC was higher priority for a Mage or Necro. If you have a GM Tailor or Blacksmith from 2005, making some Exceptional armor for your new elf out of Barbed leather or Valorite would help quite a bit. It'll get you really close to 70 resists and Insurance cost will be dirt cheap while you wait to Imbue or grind higher loot.

Welcome back!  If you ever play Pacific, let me know and I'll do what I can to help your toons out.

 Sable said:

Welcome back!  If you ever play Pacific, let me know and I'll do what I can to help your toons out.

I second the motion. We in Pacific are a friendly helpful group just call on general chat for help, advice etc.

It doesn't help returning players to toss them gear and gold because they will blow through content that they need to do for skill and get bored.  If you want to help new or returning players, play with them in content that is relevant to their skill.

If you give them top notch stuff, Feigr, maybe.  But a simple LRC suit for spell casters is a huge help.  I also usually give armor with 70 physical resist and tell them to see if they notice the difference, letting them know they'll find better stuff through hunting but that it should help them stay alive early on.

You literally just gave them all they need to scrounge up on New Haven island.

Heh, my original mage, Paper, has never reached GM. He acquired a 100% LRC just before I stopped playing.  He is currently gating around Trammel doing escort quests.  Not having to worry about reagents is indeed a big help! BTW, he's a scribe too.  Also an alchemist.  Maybe I should have named him Chemical?

That said, I would suggest new characters do their newbie quests in New Haven and get to 50 with the accelerated skill-gain zones there. Since you can earn 500 gp in less than a minute with all the newbie escort quests, stocking sufficient reagents is not a problem.  After that, an LRC suit would be wonderful.

Many new or returning players get bored of New Haven so I don't think it is a bad thing helping them see more of the world.  Many are on trial accounts as well, so they can only do each escort quest once.  Grinding for reagents isn't exactly a good way to convince people to sub, in my opinion, especially in a two week window.  We'll see how Endless Journeys changes this, however.

Just play with them if you want to help them.  Don't pretend to want to help and just throw stuff at them.

Feigr said:

Just play with them if you want to help them.  Don't pretend to want to help and just throw stuff at them.

Even if they don't want to be hovered over?  Forgive me if I'm not the internet expert you are who knows all things despite having minimal details, but I prefer to judge each situation and new player I meet on a case by case basis.  If they are one of those independent players who would rather just get after it and do their own thing, I keep it short and sweet.  If they are someone who would prefer to sit and chat for an hour and socialize rather than actually hunt, I chat.  And so on and so forth.  Something I do think that is detrimental to UO's open style of play is a holier-than-thou do-it-my-way-or-it-is-wrong attitude.  This attitude sours vets and new players alike!

I think Feigr is just making the point that one can over-help a newbie, which is true. He has probably seen it happen, and it is an important point to him. That said, I think Sable "gets it". She seems to have the experience and discretion to be able to judge what is helpful and what is hurtful.

Sable said:

Feigr said:

Just play with them if you want to help them.  Don't pretend to want to help and just throw stuff at them.

Even if they don't want to be hovered over?  Forgive me if I'm not the internet expert you are who knows all things despite having minimal details, but I prefer to judge each situation and new player I meet on a case by case basis.  If they are one of those independent players who would rather just get after it and do their own thing, I keep it short and sweet.  If they are someone who would prefer to sit and chat for an hour and socialize rather than actually hunt, I chat.  And so on and so forth.  Something I do think that is detrimental to UO's open style of play is a holier-than-thou do-it-my-way-or-it-is-wrong attitude.  This attitude sours vets and new players alike!

I agree.  Talk to them a few, show them the rune library, show them some basic places.  You can see if they are patient enough to play UO.  This is not a game you play a few weeks and you are finished.  You can tell if the person is really interested.  

Find out what type toon they want.  Give them a 70s suit. LRC if needed. Just a plain one.

Last stop take them to New Haven, show them the quest givers for skills they want.  Take them to the undead there.  Introduce them on Gen Chat, make sure they can use gen chat. Tell them to fight a while and report back in chat.  If they seem excited about UO,  offer a better suit if someone else has not found them and hooked them up with a better suit.

For a returning tamer, I grab a good pet and take them to Destard and show them what the new pets can do.  Check their stable for Gems. Help them release and retame the Cus that turned 4 slot.  Then see if they need anything.

I have found that a lot of players will come out of hiding if you introduce a noob or returner in chat and they actually say a few things.  Thats why I leave them in Haven so others can go introduce themselves.

When we learned, we had people to play with.  It's an MMO.  

Feigr said:

When we learned, we had people to play with.  It's an MMO.  

When I learned, I was killed by a cat within the first few minutes.  I learned not to let players stand near me if I had anything valuable in my pack. 

We grouped up against Ogres and Ettins.

The places we played in groups were the lands northeast of Minoc, Wrong or Covetous, then the Lich and fort area outside Delucia. Some players would grab your stuff and run when you died, others would go to the nearest healer and return your stuff.

Some new or returning players do like to tag along.  That is why I encourage them to talk in chat and not be afraid to ask anything.

Had a new player tag along with me for about 2 weeks before they branched off to do new stuff.

Took me 14 years to join a guild, so there are many players that like to play an MMO by themselves most of the time.

The last thing I want to subject a new player to is, "the good old days"

 Gotta agree with not handing out stuff and gold in New haven.  I start a lot of new characters on shards and build them up from scratch and have made some of my best friends meeting other people doing the same thing or legit new players or returning players that are way out of the loop.  Sharing experience and knowledge with the new or returning player is far more important valuable than gold or gear.  Have met a several new players over the years that had been on haven for a week or more and had not a clue what the moongate was to get out of haven, no clue how to use chat, and were starting to get more than a little frustrated.  Spending a hour or a day running around with them showing them things and explaining game basics gave them the knowledge to get on their way to making their own gold and obtaining or making their own gear. 

  Easy enough to put together a 70phys and 70fire with the rest 40s-50s suit from haven loot.  20 LRC pieces are so common that it does not take long to build decent resist 100LRC suit from Earth Els and Ettin Loot.   Not knowing how to put together a good basic suit though is the hard part for someone that does not know the first thing about the armor system.  Hopefully the player wiki will help a bit with that basic knowledge.

Exactly.. I had someone give my melee paladin a Virtue suit and Undead Slayer Radiant Scimitar and like 100 mil on day one.  Had very little to do for a long time.  Got bored and left soon after.  Returned later, determined not to let people give me more than a full spellbook.  Having the best time.

Feigr said:

Exactly.. I had someone give my melee paladin a Virtue suit and Undead Slayer Radiant Scimitar and like 100 mil on day one.  Had very little to do for a long time.  Got bored and left soon after.  Returned later, determined not to let people give me more than a full spellbook.  Having the best time.

Sorry I gave you a mastery spellbook too. (just noticed there is no sad face emote)

You are the type of player which I think feedback from is very important.  Because you are trying to get back into the game and see things from a different set of eyes of that of the developers, 20 years played vets and even the come and go vets.  You represent the people we look to get back.

My question to you is this: other than to spend time doing Haven content, which is very important, what else do you think a new or returning player would benefit from?  I know you had done research, but not a lot do.  A book of information of where to find stuff?  Or is that better for self discovery?  It's a fine line to walk.  

The mastery book wasn't bad, I wasn't aware of the new Mastery system until you explained it a bit and I knew to research.

I'm more into Ultima because of the lack of information.  I think Ultima did do a good job of just giving you enough information.

The things I found a hard time with are;

Full Magery Spellbook because on Chessy it wasn't on Vendor Search for cheap and you can't get it easy on New Haven Island.
The escort timer on New Haven Island is a bit long.  New players should be able to chain escorts.
Reagents and Blank Scrolls need a weight reduction.
New gold system needs to be explained.  It took even me a second to think about why I had 4k in my backpack, but couldn't buy 1k worth of reagents.
No guilds have recruited that I've seen.
Where to go to catch up with gear to get to latest content.

Explaining much else is just going to remove a lot of the mystery.  This game should make you want to pull out a notebook to play it.

Things I think new players that don't know the game should know are;

The map is tilted.  If they say go South, they mean go South West.
Where New Haven Mine is, where the Boglings are, where the reds are on New Haven island.  Where the Moongate is and what it's for.
How to change the chat.
How to figure out the EM schedule and plans.
UOGuide
Blackthorn's Dungeon

The bitter part of me wants people to know how useless non-sampire melee templates and crafters are.