For heaven’s sake, don’t choose New Haven. It’s a bit broken at the moment (it was very broken at the beginning, now you won’t fall through the level that easily, but I still have to manually delete all the invisible walls, etc.), if you got in it, try using the Maps section to get out, or send me a message / email. Now we are getting to another thing - travel. To travel between towns, use the Moongates, in the Maps section you have also a moongate location map for each town. That will enable you to travel to any other moongate. I recommend choosing Brittain - the capitol, and then use a moon gate to travel to Tokuno Islands - Makoto-Jima. It’s a beautiful town, small and extremely orientable (no pun intended), it contains everything you need, all the types of traders, etc. On a different note - never use the Felucca faceset, unless you know what you are doing. It’s a deadly copy of the Trammel faceset.
First steps - a Controls how-to:
The controlling scheme is a bit non-traditional. You can move on the in-game map by holding the right mouse button, which is similar to Diablo. But that is where the similarities end. By right mouse button clicking on various menus you can close them. By clicking the left mouse button (and usually waiting for a bit) you can open various context menus (not unlike those when using a right mouse click in Windows), or you can hold the left mouse button to drag things (menus, or items). This way, you can drag items from your character into your backpack, then from the backpack to the ground, or directly from your character onto the ground, or vice-versa (you also need to be close enough to the place in the game world). You can use some items by double clicking them. The client also has a “legacy” movement scheme from the time it was still running under DOS (yes, Ultima Online, and EverQuest were the first really good MMO games that ran under DOS. Also I’ve met some people who actually didn’t know what DOS was / is - it’s was basically an operating system before Windowses came. ;) ), so you can move by using the keyboard arrows. It’s hardly ideal, so it is not recommended, and it is very slow in comparison. Several menu screens should appear when you get in-game. You can actually move the in-game world screen window by dragging it by holding the left mouse button on it’s edges. To see a character up close and personal, with some menus on your character, left-click on your character in the world screen, wait a while, and in the context menu that pops out select Open Paperdoll. Then you can get inside your inventory by double clicking the backpack on the paperdoll in the lower right corner. Each player starts the game with your own book (a journal if you wish), you can open it by double left clicking it, and then you can write into the newly shown book window. You will also get a dagger, which you can use as a weapon, as a tool for training (for example to train in an additional type of combat - by training different combat weapon types you will get more attribute points), or as an utility tool. By double clicking it your cursor changes into a target cursor, then select what do you wish to do with it. If you for example use it on a dead body (a boar for an example), you can skin it and butcher it for meat. Then you can cook the meat (however you need a frying pan and a heat source nearby for that), and shear the hide, alter it and make an armor or boots from it. (By the way - Ultima Online - Especially mine, is the most complex fantasy MMO game that I’ve ever seen). The next item, which every player gets, is a candle. If you move it to your hand and use it by double clicking (you can also use it from the inventory screen, but you have to have a free left hand), you can lit it and use it as a weak light source. There is a day-night cycle in the game, some dungeons can be even pitch black, so I recommend having somebody as a torch or lantern bearer in the party. Light sources are held in the non-weapon hand. You can open context menus by left clicking also on other characters and if you select open paperdoll on them, you can see how the look like from up close (works on humanoid NPCs and non-transfomed players). You can also select buy and sell in context menus for traders, or train when used on a trainer, after which they will ask you for a sum of gold, which you need to drag onto them. If you give them less money, they will train you anyway, but for less gain. I recommend not using trainers at all and train your character solo, because if you “buy” your skills, you will not get any attribute gain from it!!!! Together with the paperdoll other menus probably popped up. In the upper left you should see an interface with buttons. The first button on there is a map / compass. It shows where you are in 2D (but not far). Doubleclicking enlarges it. The second button is a paperdoll. The third one is inventory (player’s backpack), I also wrote about that one. The fourth one is a journal - it’s basically a log of what have you seen, heard, etc. It opens up in a medieval scroll-like window, if you do not know how to scrolls it, then use the blurb on the right. The chat button makes it possible to chat with the whole server population, after you choose your chat name (which is permanent and for every character on your account). For chatting in the near vicinity only, push enter on the keyboard, write something down (it will show up in the lower left corner of the in-game world screen) and then push enter again - the text will show up above your character’s head, and it will also move with your character. It is yellow by default. You can set the chat color in the options menu, others will also see the change. Then you have the help button, by using which you can for example report something to an administrator of the server. Then you have the “?” button, which contains some FAQ. On your paperdoll, you also have additional buttons - Help - the same button as the one on the upper interface, options (I recommend finding the chat text color setting, because otherwise other players will see what you say in yellow. Please also select a color that will contrast with it’s surroundings. There are too many things for me to describe in the options menu. Then there is the log out button (beware though - after you log out, your character will still be in the game world for about 10 minutes! I recommend logging out when sleeping in a bed, that’s what the sleep system is for. Then there is the Quests button, the skills button, which will open a window with a list of skills (some of whose you can use directly by clicking on the blue gem besides them, also a lot of people do not know that you can drag them by using the left mouse button, and create a quick button thanks to that outside of the list. The resulting quick button is activated by double clicking. To the right of each skill name you can select a skill lock - if the skill is supposed to raise over time and use (and arrow pointing upwards), lower (an arrow pointing downwards) or stay the same (a symbol of a lock), then there is the Guild button, with which you can create a guild or get access to guild options, Peace - when clicked, changes to War, basically a “fight mode”, in which you can double click to attack (make sure that you do not hit an NPC, like an trader for example, or another player, or your own horse, etc!), and status, which opens or switches a character status window. Before we go through the status window, let’s look at the rest of the paperdoll - on the left side, this window has five squares. Those show (and you can manipulate them as with) tiny equipment, so that you wouldn’t have to pixelhunt for them. For example rings. They DO appear on you character on the paperdoll, but it’s literally a single pixel there, which is crazy (but possible) to manipulate. So instead they can be accessed from the side squares. In the lower left corner of your paperdoll, you have two scrolls. The first one will tell you a little bit about your account and the second one is the party management screen (you can invite people to your party there, after which they have to type /accept in order to get into the party). In the lower right corner of your paperdoll (the part with the visual depiction of your character) is your backpack and more to the right of that is a purple rectangle - which opens the weapon skills (martial “spell” book) - each weapon type has two special abilities (like disarm) to use with the given weapon. You can also drag the two icons to create a quick button for that weapon ability - also the quick buttons will change accordingly to the weapon currently equipment (so you don’t have to drag a new one for each weapon). A spear, for example, will have different battle abilities than a crossbow. The last button is the Avatar’s (big A, because that is the hero from the original Ultima series, so-called from the fourth installment onwards) symbol above your character’s head in the paperdoll. By double clicking there, you can get into the Virtue menu, which after clicking includes their description. This server currently does not have an Avatar (a player that represents all the virtues). For very useful keyboard shortcuts I would like to mention TAB, which switches, or activates (when held) the battle mode, and the left Alt, which highlights all the NPCs around you and also items on the ground (you can also then manipulate the item names as if they were the items themselves. That’s necessary when items such as rings and earrings are dropped onto the ground, because otherwise that would be a terrible pixelhunt). So. Now for the character status screen - it was two different forms, the complex one and a simple one. You can switch between them by clicking on the minimalize icon in the lower right corner of the complex status screen, or you can get into the complex status screen by clicking the status button on the paperdoll. In the upper left in the complex status window you have a blue gem, clicking it will make a golden “L” shape pop up, which shows various states the character is going throughm like poison, stun, etc. Under this blue gem there are the attribute locks - if the attribute should be raised (up arrow), lowered (down arrow) or stay unchanged (a lock symbol). I recommend having every attribute and every skill with the arrow pointing upwards - the other settings are only useful on other servers, on which you are limited on how many points combined you can have in attributes or skills, a limitation this server doesn not have. And it can also be used for a bushido versus parrying problem - bushido makes it possible to parry enemy attacks using your weapon, and parrying enables you to block enemy attacks by using your shield - on normal servers, their percentages subtract from each other in the server equalizations (somebody who has 100 points in bushido and 100 points in parrying has a 0% to block the enemy attack, no matter if he uses a shield or a weapon to parry) - and that is where it comes to use on other servers (lowering the one you don’t want and then locking it on 0, depending on if you want to use shields to parry, or weapons), however on my server you don’t have to, because I have modified the formulas in such a way that it wouldn’t do this kind of bullshit. :) I will now go over the things in the status window column by column, row by row, from up to down, from left to right: Strength, dexterity, intelligence, health, stamina (if you carry too much weight over your weight limit for too long, you won’t be able to run and eventually you won’t even be able to walk), magical energy, the maximum of the combined attribute points, luck, weight capacity, attack damage, money, the amount of followers (for example tamed animals directly following you), physical resistance, fire resistance, cold resistance, poison resistance, and ”energy” resistance (=electricity resistance. They probably didn’t want to use the term electricity in a game that’s essentially based off medieval times I guess). The last window that will probably constantly pop up on you and annoy you is the needs window. I recommend dragging it to somewhere and looking at it. It contains three constantly degrading character stats (hunger - how sated you are, thirst and the need for <strike>speed</strike> I mean sleep) and three stats that are good to constantly keep looking at (health, stamina, mana). That’s for the basic controls. Ugh.
Where to head first:
You will get some money at the start. I recommend covering your character’s basic needs first, if possible - get a few loaves of bread, you can buy those on many places, also buy some drinking bottles / jars, etc., you don’t eat those when you use them, if you drink from them, you will be left with their empty variants, which you can refill with liquids by double clicking their empty variants and choosing the liquid source. Buy like two jars or something. As far as sleep goes - you can sleep at the inns, or you can buy a bedroll at the provisioner. Take care to use the bedroll near the city, in areas guarded by the guards - you can of course also sleep outside, but you should make a camp by using the camping skill (you need to for example use a sword on a tree to get some sticks, then put them on the ground, use them to lit them by double clicking), thanks to which (the bedroll) you can log out of the game without your character staying inside the game for another ten minutes. The bedroll will be transferred into your inventory on use/log off (something I’ve coded in, because it seriously pissed me off that you essentially loose the bedroll if you use it like that because it stays on the ground - well, it no longer does thanks to me). Go around the town, find out where everyone and everything is (where a blacksmith is for example, because your items degrade by use, so you will have to get them repaired from NPCs or player blacksmiths, etc.). If you die, you will have to find an ankh, or a healer, both of these will open up a prompt asking you if you want to be resurrected. If you want others too see you as a ghost (when dead), go into war mode. After a resurrection you have to go back for your items (player corpses stay permanently, unlike on other servers, where for example by default the player corpses last for 7 minutes and then they disappear into thin air, usually seconds before you can get to it. On my server, they are permanent, unless the player takes all the items back. Also, after a resurrection, you will have ONE point of health (so if anybody and anything so much as a breaths on you, you will die again). If you die in a really bad place, or if the monsters are too strong for you in the place you died at and you cannot recover your body (because you will simply die again immediately if you try to get it back), ask for help from another player, or an administrator, he will move it for you a little bit, or even through a teleport. ;) If you buy yourself an animal / tame it (you can even ride deer, which you can’t ride on other servers ... on my server a basic rule for rideables - if it looks like it could maybe perhaps with a lot of imagination be ridden, it can), take good care of it. If you log out of the game while the animal is following you, he will stay in the game and eventually goes wild, unless you are ridding it (then it logs out with your character). You have to put it in the stables otherwise. You also have to feed it, and various animals eat various things. Even golems have to eat (I think I’ve set them to eat metals, like gold for example). Don’t take your animals into dangerous situations (beyond the city gates) unless instead of being tamed it is bonded, because it will die quickly. But if a bonded pet dies (you can bond a tamed animal by either buying a pet bond deed from some NPC, or by having it following you for a long, long, long time), he will become a ghost and you can resurrect the pet at a healer (or a veterinary). In other words - only take bonded (not tamed) pets beyond the town areas to dangerous areas. When exploring the town, find yourself a training place. It has training dummies and training targets. By double clicking (you don’t have to be in war mode) on the figurine or the target you will use it. This way, you can train for free up to around 30 (or was it 25?) in the given fighting style (different weapons use different fighting styles) and in contrast to the NPC training, this raises your attributes. You can use Razor in the game folder to record your actions (that’s called a macro) and then put it on a loop, letting the character train. Why do I allow this? Because nobody becomes a hero right away, it needs a lot of sweat. But not as much as on the old Midkemia server, where you will spent your first 4 years (real life years...) in-game by hunting birds, because you won’t be able to kill anything stronger. Bleigh. Also, when raising skills - you need for the action to be a challenge to your character, if you have a 100% to success, you won’t get better at the skill you are using, like when making a bow for example. Weapons degrade by use and when they reach zero, you will have to repair them. To train by using the training targets you will need arrows or bolts, which you will have to either buy, or ask a player crafter to make them for you. My own player character is a carpenter / bowyer, so if you get me bird feathers from birds, I will create arrows or bolts for you (for a provision - I will keep some of them). I also recommend training fighting for crafters. To gain attributes. Craftsmen should buy crafting tools then, different types of craftsmen use different tools to create different items, ... from a smith’s hammer and tongs to taxidermy kits. Don’t think that if you start playing as a bowyer you will be able to craft bows right away. Same goes for a carpenter and beds. You will have to start making planks and crates, and progressively move from simple items to more complex ones to craft. I also have to tell you that what you see in the crafting menus is basically only a half of the items you can craft, (and it’s still a lot of items) because you need recipes for the other half of items. Your first dungeon should be the Brittain’s sewers, with big rats and big bullfrogs. But don’t go through them to the end, which leads to a swamp - the swamp is a deadly area, many of it’s inhabitants are poisonous, so even through your character could end up winning a battle barely scratched, the poison is capable of killing you rather quickly afterwards .... then the choice of where to go is upon you.
Sorting out the skills:
I would like to add a better way of sorting the skills than the default one, together with their brief description, because the default sorting sucks - this way, you have a better way to choose what skills to have. I recommend sorting them the same way in the game - click Skills on the paperdoll, the skills menu has a Create New Group button, use it to create additional sections, you can name them and by clicking and dragging the skills you can move them (don’t try dragging the blue usage gem, drag the name instead) into a different section. The default sections are very unpractical, because pretty much everything is in the Miscellaneous section. After you are done, remember to log off and exit the game properly for the changes to save. My client constantly glitches and renames the first section as Miscellaneous, so I’ve solved that by simply having the first section (Miscellaneous) empty. Here is my setting for skills and their sections, and a brief description for each skill. The game always sorts skills in a group alphabetically, so I will do the same here.
Miscellaneous:
Empty
Crafter:
Alchemy - Its subskill is Glassblowing - and it enables you to create potions, explosive concoctions, and poisons, even in kegs. Glassblowing enables you to create containers, decorative items and some rather powerful magical items out of sands. TO learn glassblowing you have to reach 100 points in Alchemy and then buy a glassblowing book in Ver Lor Reg on Ilshenar. There is a lot of resources available for Alchemy, glassblowing has three types of glass available - standard glass (from sand), (jade and obsidian - for those of you that spent too much time playing Minecraft - Obsidian is a type of glass, and it’s very brittle, yet rivals Diamond in sharpness) - I still have to make some changes for these two resources. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are magical shops around.
Blacksmithy - With this skill you can create ingots (metal bricks) out of ore and then mold those into using a forge and an anvil into items. It’s both the most productive and the hardest to learn skill in the game. Learning to make swords and plate mails isn’t easy in any shape or form, but it is worth the effort. It also enables you to modify or melt metal items back into ingots. Mining the metal ores is a different, standalone skill though! There are twelve types of metals available on my shard, beginning with the standard iron, dull copper, copper, bronze, gold, ... Blacksmithy includes the creation of scale armors out of monster scales and metal scales (which there are 55 types of). To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are blacksmith shops around.
Bowcraft & Fletching - The creation of various types of bows, crossbows, arrows, bolts and darts (for a fukiya dart flute) from various kinds of wood, which is gathered using the Lumberjacking skill. Beware - birds’ feathers can be a surprisingly rare commodity sometimes! The amount of wood types is written in the Lumberjacking skill description. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are bowyer shops around.
Carpentry - The subskill for it being Masonry - As Carpentry goes - making planks out of logs and then making items out of planks, including hundreds of decorative items (but also typically useful in some manner), starting with bardic stands, and ending with cabinets and bookcases. It also includes combat items, like staves, wooden shields and if you have the specific receipt, also a full set of elven magical wooden armor. The amount of wood types is written in the Lumberjacking skill description. Masony enables you to craft items from stone, like tables and chairs. There are six types of stones in the game (a candidate for extension, if you ask me) and ten types of gems. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are carpentry shops around.
Cartography - Drawing maps and with some more skill points also deciphering treasure maps. Players do not have a proper map available when playing the game, only a compass with their immediate surroundings (on the web you can find town maps, moongate maps and continental maps), the cartographer can create and sell various kinds of maps to the players. The main profit however stems from the deciphering of treasure maps and by the subsequent finding of treasures. The more you advance in the skill, the bigger maps you can draw and the more complex treasure maps you can decipher. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are magical shops around.
Cooking - There really is a lot of resources in the game for the purpose of cooking and being eaten. 5 types of meat, 12 types of fruits, 10 types of vegetables, 3 types of cereals, 1 type that’s used only for animals like horses (guess what it is...), honey, cheese, three types of eggs and 54 types of drinkable liquids. And those are just resources, not half-products like flour or finished products like cake. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are kitchen shops around.
Inscription - The ability to copy books, to copy and create magical scrolls and later also magical books. The player created magical books can be stronger than the common ones. There are 4 types of coloured books in the game. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are magical shops around.
Tailoring - By using a dagger or scissors you can cut the wool from the sheep (or use the plant equivalent), then you can use the wool on a spinning wheel, then use the resulting string on a loom to make cloth, cut the cloth using scissors and you can tailor wearable items from it. This also includes leather workings, to make boots for example. There are only two types of cloth in the game (but they are easily dyeable and can have some rather exotic colors), and 6 types of leather (another candidate for expansion). Bone carving is a part of this skill, you can even craft a full set of bone armor. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are tailoring and leatherworking shops around.
Tinkering - With the subskill being Golemcrafting and Jewelrycrafting - A smith primarily molds the metal, while a tinker tinkers with it further and is capable of creating more complex items. For example he can craft tools for other crafters, but there are also a few combat items (asian nunchaks, cleavers, ...). This skill also enables a carpenter to add locks and keys to chests and boxes. The highlight of this skill is the creation of golems. Jewelrycrafting isn’t technically a subskill, but it is a direct part of Tinkering - you can create various rings, bracelets, earrings, amulets, etc. Their magical versions are very useful. For the amount of gem types, check the Carpentry skill description. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are blacksmithing and tinkering shops around.
Fighter:
Archery - This skill encompasses the usage of various kinds of bows, crosswbows, throwing weapons and the fukiya dart flute.
Fencing - Daggers, spears, lances, kamas, pitchforks, tekagi, etc.
Mace Fighting - Staves, maces, flails, hammers, clubs, sceptres, sledgehammers, wands, combat fans, and more.
Parrying - Parrying with shields. Bushido (in the Spellcaster section) also serves for parrying with two-handed weapons.
Swordmanship - Swords, axes, scythes, pickaxes, halberds, scimitars, katanas, sickles ... it should’ve been labeled Bladed weapons, instead of swordmanship.
Tactics - “Hey, you stand here before that dragon, flail your hands around, while I will shoot him with arrows from back here.” - Tactics modifies the base damage dealt to an enemy by a player, it also affects the usage of special abilities (the purple button near the left leg of you character at your paperdoll). You can train this by hitting an enemy with any weapon or without one.
Wrestling - Fighting with your fists. The only combat skill that doesn’t need Tactics for its special combat abilities (the purple button near the left leg of you character at your paperdoll). This includes bashing the enemy with your spellbook, with a lamp, and ... I just found out that it also includes using a fishing pole on an enemy.
To train this skill or acquire items conforming to combat skills, there usually are warrior guilds and such around.
Spellcaster:
PS: With the exception of Bushido and Ninjitsu, you shouldn’t use metals on your spellcasters - they ruin spells. :)
Bushido - I consider this a magical school, because it works pretty much identically to the other magical schools. You have a spellbook and you cast spells from it. Contrary to other spellcasting skills it can be used to parry with a two-handed weapon. The spells are usually offensive and melee in range. It consumes mana. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there is a Master of Bushido near the bowyer shop in Tokuno Zento.
Chivalry - The magical school of clerics, priests and paladins. Expect the same types of spells as in other RPG games with those classes. It uses mana and the so-called tithing points, which you get by donating money to the ankhs. The more karma you have, the stronger your spells are. By the way the LRC set (Lower Reagent Cost) actually also affects tithing points. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are Keepers of Chivalry in various towns (like in Luna on the Malas faceset, or in Tokuno Zento on the training grounds).
Magery - The most traditional type of an magical school, which results in a typical mage character. Includes various classical spells, like fireballs, food creation and throwing lightning. To cast spells, you need ingredients, in a typical mainstream Ultima fashion, for example the mandrake root. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are magical shops around.
Necromancy - The dark side of magical spells. Not unlike magery, but with a dark twist. It enables the player to create zombies from corpses, curse enemies and change the form of both the enemy and the caster (to become a wraith, a lich or a vampire). Like magery, it uses ingredients, but different, darker types - bat wings, nox stones, ... that kind of things. The lower your karma is, the stronger the spells are. It is recommended to lower the karma and then lock it on the ankh. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are Necromancers in Umbra (on the Malas faceset).
Ninjitsu - A very interesting kind of magic - like Bushido, it uses up only mana, however it doesn’t have just combat spells, there are a few non-combat ones as well, my most favorite is the Animal form, with which the game gives you a very big menu of what to turn into (the stronger the animal, the more skill is needed to cast the animal form, so changing into rabbids and rats is way different from changing into an asian dragon). To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there is a Master of Ninjitsu near the bowyer shop in Tokuno Zento.
Spellweaving - The druidic magic, or the magic of the nature. The interesting part for this magic is, that it needs an arcane circle to start working. Do you wish to summon a fey? Or turn natural forces against somebody? To change into an Ent? Charm someone to do your bidding? Then Spelweaving is the magic for you! Call right now and you will get a .... I should stop with that. :D To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there is a Druid in various towns, including Brittain, Heartwood and Tokuno Zento. The wears a green garb and uses a wild staff.
Loremaster:
Anatomy - The knowledge about the construction of living bodies. Passively raises the damage dealt in combat, the amount of healing oneself or other and it enables you to find out the strength and dexterity of other people. If you have over 100, then it also adds a bonus to dodging. It also does another thing for healing - the ability to cure poisons and a chance to resuscitate a friend. It’s possible to raise the skill passively by hitting enemies, or actively by using it to find out the strength and dexterity of other beings. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are healers and warriors in various towns.
Animal Lore - Affects how much you can control an animal and also how good you are at healing animals by using the veterinary skill. If used directly, it will show you the information about your animal - his state, stats, attributes, skills, resistances, elemental attacks (if it has such an attack) and ... what does it eat. If you do not feed your animal frequently, it will run away from you. You can only use this on your own tamed animal, you can only use this skill on other non-tamed animals if you have more than 100 points in it, and if you have more than 110, then you can use it on monsters too. The skill can be raised by directly using it on a tamed animal, or passively by healing animals with the veterinarian skill. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are ranchers, rangers, veterinarians and stables in various towns.
Arms Lore - Shows you some weapon properties (like the durability), which became useless when (many years ago) mouse over tooltips were added into the game. Then the skill was modified to also add a new function to compensate - when used on an exceptional weapon or armor, it adds +1% to attack or +1% to a random resistance of weapons and armors respectively for every 20 points in the skill. It doesn’t screw up other enchanting / upgrading, it stacks with everything. You can train it by actively using it on weapons and armors, or passively when crafting them. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are warriors, weaponsmiths, and armorers in various towns.
Evaluating Intelligence - Has three basic functions - it will show you how much mana and intelligence the target has, it pasivelly raises the damage and duration of spells and it also works as a defensive skill for close combat. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are magical shops around.
Forensic Evaluation - If you want to be a detective ... there are three ways to use this. If you use it on dead bodies, when successful, you will get information about the demise of the target (the more skill you have, the more detailed text appears). The second way to use it is to target a picklocked chest, which will tell you who was the thief that did it. The third way is to use it on a living person - it will tell you if the character is a thief, or not. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are healers, and judges in various towns.
Item Identification - A long time ago, this was used to identify magical items, but now you can see all the item stats in the mouse-over tooltip. It will also show you the value of an item. I should probably do something with this skill ... To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are merchants, gamblers, jewelers, and gypsies in various towns.
Taste Identification - By using this you can identify potions and poisons. If you are not sure if a food is poisoned or not (i.e. a player gives it to you), you can check it by using this. Poisons are potentially very deadly. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are cooks, and bakers in various towns.
Bard:
Camping - Makes it possible for a player to leave the game, without his character being in the game for another 10 minutes. Party members can also do that. Training this will raise your attributes by an humongous amount. Use a bladed weapon, that isn’t an axe (by doubleclicking on the weapon and then selecting the tree) on a tree to gather branches, in order to have some kindling. Put the kindling on the ground and make a fire by doubleclicking it. It also serves as a source of heat, so you can for example use a pot to cook some ribs. After creating a campfire, you have to wait a while to set up camp. Then the area is safe for some time. Also hiding in your camp is easier than hiding elsewhere. Then you can use the result to use a bedroll - if you select no when using a bedroll, you will be able to sleep on it, if you select yes, it will log you out of the game safely with you character disappearing right away (instead of timeouting for 10 minutes). You cannot create a camp in some areas. Beware - logging off by using this way may lead to connection drop between the client and the server, which doesn’t mean much by itself, however your recent window positions and skill changes in the skill windows (sectioning off, etc.) will not be saved, so I recommend saving those manually by logging out of the game properly, closing the game, opening the game, relogging and then using the bedroll to safely log out without loosing any client-saved settings. I’ve added this as a bardic skill because I didn’t know where else to put it, and for me it seems for a bard to be normal to sing around a campfire to others. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are gypsies in various towns.
Discordance - You can play so badly it weakens the enemy. This causes the target to loose some of its attributes and skills temporarily. The effect lasts for the duration in which the target sees the bard, if it is less than 8 squares, until the effects wear off, and until the bard lives. For some monsters the bard mustn’t move, for example when used on dragons. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are bards in their guilds and carpenters (for musical instruments) in various towns.
Musicianship - The most basic bardic skill. Without this skill, other bardic skill have no chance of success. (with the exception of camping, which belongs to this section only due to reasons provided in its description). It’s also needed for the crafting of musical instruments. You can raise it directly by using a musical instrument, or in combination of using a musical instrument and other bardic skills. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are bards in their guilds and carpenters (for musical instruments) in various towns.
Peacemaking - Or peacing for short stops enemies from attacking you. A requirement for the animal tamer, who is trying to tame an aggressive beast. You can use this on yourself to stop all fighting in an are, which can sometimes save your hide. When using on an enemy player, it makes him lose his target. Also useful for treasure hunting. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are bards in their guilds and carpenters (for musical instruments) in various towns.
Provocation - I love his one, it’s a funny one. You can make two enemies attack each other. The effect lasts until one of them drops dead. If they are of the same type, the victorious one will usually be one hit from death. :D One of the most useful skills in the game. But if you fail, they will target you instead. Also the effect gets interrupted if you are too far. If an musical instrument has the -slayer stat, it adds +20% to the success of the used skill on the given type of an enemy (Scorpionslayer = scorpions), but minus 20% when used on any other target type. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are bards in their guilds and carpenters (for musical instruments) in various towns.
Thief:
Detecting Hidden - Works both actively and passively. Passively for 4 squares, actively you can choose an area, the farther the area, the lower the chance for detection. It can detect both a hiding / stealthed player, and an invisible one. It can also detect traps in dungeons, secret chests and traps inside containers. Complements lockpicking and trap removal. When used in an house where you are the owner, or a friend of the owner, it has a 100% success rate. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are thieves in various towns.
Hiding - This has the same property as the previous skill - if used in a house where you are the owner or a friend of an owner, you have a 100% success rate. Basically this enables you to hide. You can even use items, manipulate with your inventory, but you mustn’t say anything or move. To move when hiding, use the stealth skill. You should use this when snooping into somebody’s backpack. Also some Ninja skills require this skill, and their smoke bombs do so as well. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are thieves, rangers, and gypsies in various towns.
Lockpicking - Useful when there is a locked chest at the end of the dungeon, with loot. True, a mage can open locked things with an unlocking spell, however he cannot open higher level chests. There is also a contrasting limitation - you cannot use this skill to open magically locked containers. You need lockpicks (sometimes called skeleton keys) to use this skill. Beware, locked things tend to be trapped as well. However traps can be completely negated by the usage of an telekinesis spell. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are thieves, and tinkerers in various towns.
Poisoning - Enables the player to poison food, drinks and weapons. With a higher skill level, it also adds to the poison resistance. Another perk of a higher skill level poisoning comes from adding bonuses to the Poison and Poison Field spells. For combat abilities that deal with poison this skill replaces the Tactics skill, namely for the Infectious Strike and the Serpent Arrow. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are thief guildmasters in various towns.
Remove Traps - Most of the spawned chests have traps in them. Potentially deadly traps. In other words - a thief in a party is a needed addition to the group. When this skill fails, the traps can spring. Gloves worn on hands actually lower the chance of success in trap removal. To learn this skill, you have to learn how to lockpick and detect hidden first. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are thieves, and tinkerers in various towns.
Snooping - Makes it possible to look into the inventory of other beings, namely players, NPCs and pack animals. This in itself does not count as a crime. , but it isn’t far from it (it is the base for stealing, respectively), and using it lowers karma. It is activated automatically when you try to open a backpack of a different being. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are thieves in various towns.
Stealing - Can be used only after using Snooping. The stolen item has to be under your level of skill divided by 10 in weight. Blessed and insured items cannot be stolen. Also you can only steal on the Felucca continent. Hiding and stealth complements this skill. It is possible not to be caught (however stealing an item interrupts hiding, stealth, and invisibility), but after being caught you will become a criminal, and the guards will be going after you (and players too). To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are thieves and thief guildmasters in various towns.
Stealth - The skill of moving without being seen and without sound. First, you have to hide properly by using the hiding skill. Then you can use this to walk while hidden. You shouldn’t run, however with a high enough skill you actually can. Beware heavy armors! Also you can exploit the moongates, which will hide you after teleporting through them in order to gain this skill. The better you are at stealth, the more steps you can do while hidden. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are thief guildmasters in various towns.
Ranger:
Animal Taming - A very hard skill, but it is worth it. Animals and other beings which you can tame have their own attributes and skills, which you can train them in the same way as your character does. Additionally, on pretty much every animal or monster that it looks like it could be ridden, even very, very remotely, it actually can be (a pig, a deer, hart, a gorilla, a giant snake, a giant bat, ...!). Other servers have 1-4 new rideable animals, whereas I have ... much, MUCH more. See the Changes from OSI section and read it for yourself. This skill is complemented by the Animal Lore skill, which gives you detailed information about your animal. You have to feed your animals, otherwise they will run away. With what do you ask? You can find out by using the Animal Lore skill. Attention, please! If you log out, your tamed animals won’t log out with you! They will stay in the game world! And they will run away, because they won’t be fed! Either log off when mounting the animal (in that case the tamed animal does logoff with you), or stable it in stables. If you really like your animals - if they die, they are dead permanently. However if you Bond then, they will be immortal, because after dying they will become ghosts in the same way a player dies. You can resurrect the ghost in an pet equivalent of a healer, etc. You can buy a bond deed in ... I don’t actually remember where. You can also get the bonded status with the tamed animal by spending enough time with the animal, but I don’t remember how exactly does that work. Taming takes a while. To see what commands you can issue to your pet, see the Useful Commands section. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are stablemasters in various towns.
Herding - You can herd animals. In comparison to taming them, this doesn’t count towards a follower cap. This can be useful for example for a tailor in Yew, where there are tons of sheep, which he can then herd into a single place and then get a lot of wool repeatedly. Also useful when you want to get a taming target into a more safe area. Or you can herd a bunch of dragons to your friend’s door. :D Contrary to taming the animals, herded animals won’t go through the moongates with you. You can actually combine this with the skill of hiding and stealth in order to herd aggressive and dangerous beings. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are ranchers, ranger guildmasters, and shepherds in various towns.
Tracking - Enables you to track hidden beings, NPCs and players. It won’t reveal them however (for that there is a different skill that complements this one - detecting hidden). Extremely useful for PvP (well, exclusively duels on my server). Choose what to track and if you are successful, the game will show you which way the creature went. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are rangers in various towns. (I think)
Veterinary - You can use bandages to nonmagically heal your pet. With higher levels, you can also cure poison, or try resuscitating the animal, but only if it is a bonded animal (check the animal taming section for that). The Healing and Anatomy skills actually have no effect on this skill. Instead of anatomy, the Animal Lore skill is used instead. Animal lore also dictates if you can cure poisons and resuscitate. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are stablemasters, and veterinarians in various towns.
Sage :
Focus - Sometimes nicknamed to a Warrior’s meditation. Raises the amount of both stamina and mana regeneration. The interesting fact is that you do not have to train it. It has a chance of getting raised each time a mana or a stamina point is regenerated, so you just have to use spells and run. Nothing more, nothing less. There is one stark difference to meditation, which is that this skill works no matter what armor you have on.
Healing - Nonmagical healing by using bandages. You can heal yourself, another player, or a human/elven NPC. It is complemented by Anatomy, which raises the amount of healed health and also later enables you to cure poisons and try a medieval version of a cardiopulmunary resuscitation. You cannot do this on animals and monsters. Bandages take time to work. You can also stop bleeding, if you know how to stop a poison. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are healers in various towns.
Meditation - Raises the rate of mana regeneration in both a passive and an active form. In an active form (when used directly), if you aren’t interrupted, the character will have twice the rate of mana regeneration for a limited time, during which it mustn’t do actions. It doesn’t work with heavy armors. There are also two ways of training it - by actively using it, or passively - each time a mana point is regenerated, there is a chance for meditation to be raised, so you just have to keep your mana under maximum. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are magical shops around.
Resisting Spells - It doesn’t directly reflect spells, nor does it lower their damage, it only lowers the amount of the attribute and skill “drainage”, or it does make the spell last less time. With greater skill levels it also adds elemental resistances. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are magical shops around.
Spirit Speak - A long time ago it only enabled you to talk with the ghosts of dead players (when then said anything with a battle mode turned on), now it serves primarily to heal the players. You can heal directly from your mana, or by draining the soul from a nearby corpse (the corpse will get greyed out). Talking with dead players must be turned on by using it directly, unless the player has over 100 points in it, then it becomes passive. This skill also complements Necromancy as the equivalent of what Intelligence Evaluation is for Magery, instead raising the damage and duration of necromantic spells. You can train it by actively using it, or pasivelly by using necromancy. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there usually are magical shops around.
Gatherer:
Begging - I‘ve sorted this skill in here, because at first I wasn‘t sure where to put it, and then I‘ve realized that it actually belongs here technically-wise. By begging the player can get either money, or from certain NPCs also items. By doing this, your karma gets lowered. This skill has an interesting exception to every other skill, which is that is isn‘t bound to any attribute, so when raising it, your strength, dexterity, and intelligence will stay the same. Also can be useful for necromants, because the power of their magic is derived from their negative karma, you just have to beg for a few nights and then you will become a Villain with a big V. You can train it by actively using it. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are beggars, and gypsies in various towns.
Fishing - Enables you to fish. You can do so completely without a boat, however you will get some more interesting catches if you do ride onto the wide sea. Sometimes you will also catch something that isn‘t a fish, like boots for example. There are 6 types of fishes on the server, with them also have differently coloured variants. Beware the sea monsters (tentacles) when fishing on a boat, if you do not know what will happen next if you encounter such a creature, google up tentacle hentai. With a special fishing net you can also „catch“ a boss, which (if you have 110+ in animal taming) you can actually tame and ride (both of which cannot be done on any other server, the script gave me a lot of headache to make). Sometimes you can also fish up a treasure map, or a message in a bottle. To use the skill, you need water and a fishing rod. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are fishermen in various towns.
Lumberjacking - Chopping down trees and getting wood. At first, you will get low quality non-typed wood, but as you go through the skill poins, you will get more types of wood (there are 11 in total), for example pine wood, oak wood, ... the skill also works as a combat skill when using axes in combat, because it adds bonuses to your attack. It is also possible to get other resources sometimes, like bark, brillant amber, and such. You can train this skill by either chopping down trees, or enemies. :) Kácení stromů a získávání dřeva. Zprvu dostanete „obyčejné“ dřevo, postupem v dovednosti můžete začít získávat další typy dřev (je jich celkem 11), například z borovice, dubu, ... také funguje jako bojová dovednost, přidávající bonusy k boji se sekerami. Je možné získat i další suroviny, jako například kůru, brilantní jantar, apod. Cvičí se buď kácením stromů, nebo kácením nepřátel sekerami. :) To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are people in the wood business in various towns.
Mining - Mining is used to mine metallic ore, stone and sands by using a pickaxe and a spade. I won‘t name all the types of metals, because I would spoil the game for some people which are happy to discover new things, however I can tell you that there are 12 of them. The more skillpoins you have in this skill, the more chances you have to get better types of metals. The Prospector‘s Tool can be used to find out the type of a special ore in the are, and also to raise the quality of such vein. If you have this skill at its maximum, you can also get gems. To train this skill or acquire items conforming to this skill, there are miners in various towns.
Beekeeping - An unofficial skill (it has no points) - find a beekeeper and then you can start a beehive. Make sure it has not only plenty of flowers nearby, it also needs plenty of water! Otherwise they will either leave, or die out. By using this skill you can create honey and wax. Also having a lot of bees inside a beehive isn’t necessarily a good thing, because then their needs are higher also, and they will leave if there isn’t enough water and flowers around. Also they can get diseased, have parasites, etc., this is solved by applying various potions. To acquire items conforming to this skill, there are beekeepers in various towns.
