New Player Guide

This Guide will walk you through the basics. For Ultima Online Veterans, please see our UO Veteran Guide for server specific differences.

Interface

When you first log in after completing Character Creation, take a moment to look around your screen before diving in. First, Above the game screen itself, you'll find the topbar, your main hub for navigation.

Here's a broad strokes overview of what each one does:

• Paperdoll: Your character. Shows your equipped items and provides submenus for easy navigation throughout your character's options.
• Inventory: Opens up your characters backpack, holding everything you're carrying. Also accessible directly through your Paperdoll by clicking the backpack icon.
• Journal: A running log of everything said and done around you, both in and out of character.
• World Map: Your minimap. Always displays the current Regions Name, Temperature and Safety levels.
• Codex: Your character sheet. Backstory, attributes, conditions, descriptions, and more all live here.
• Abilities: Populates all abilities available to your character based on their background, skills, and currently equipped weapons.
• Craft: The generic crafting menu, covering Survival recipes as well as anything else you're able to make across your known skills.
• Task: Your "quest log". Seek out NPCs to pick up tasks for skill gain and other rewards.
• Commands: A list of available commands, executable by clicking the button or by typing the command name preceded by [ in the speech input.
• FPS: Displays your current frames per second for performance monitoring.
• Connection: View your connection status for troubleshooting.

Click and drag panels anywhere on your screen, resize your game view, reposition your minimap and journal, and arrange freely to suit however you like to play. You can also right-click to close out menus you don't need. Take a moment to click around and get your bearings before moving on.

Controls & Interaction

Movement

Hold down the right mouse button and point in any direction to move.

• Hover your cursor close to your character while holding right-click and you'll walk in that direction.
• Move your cursor further away and your character breaks into a run.
• Running drains Stamina, and certain conditions can affect your movement speed such as Injuries and hobbling.

Alternatively, if you prefer more modern controls, navigate to Options > Experimental and enable WASD Movement.

• Because UO uses a classic isometric view with 8 directions, there are two WASD settings available so you can set your base directions to whichever feels natural, either cardinal or top/down/left/right.

Item Management & Interaction

UO is pretty freeform when it comes to managing items and interactions. Most things will respond to a click or a hover, if only to tell you what it is.

• Single-click or hover over anything to see its name, a quick way to get your bearings in an unfamiliar place.
• Double-click most things to use or activate them: tools, food, drink, doors, job items, and crafting stations. Double-clicking a character opens their paperdoll, or a menu if they're a special NPC.
• Hold ALT/span> to highlight interactable and noteworthy items in your immediate area, useful for a fast sweep of a room without clicking through everything.
• Click and drag to move items, reposition things in your backpack, hand something to another player which will open a trade menu, or drop it in the world.

Communication

In UO, what you say appears above your character's head in the game world and is simultaneously logged in your Journal, which keeps a running record of everything said and done around you. It's worth keeping an eye on, especially in busy scenes where text moves fast.

To speak, simply start typing and your text will appear in the shaded input area at the bottom of your screen. Hit Enter when you're done and it will appear in the world. NOTE: If you are using WASD movement, you will need to press Enter or click inside the text area first before typing, otherwise your keystrokes will be read as movement inputs.

Speech, emotes, shouts, etc. each display differently in the world, and you can customize the color of each type under Options > Speech to make them easier to read at a glance.

Roleplay

Everything your character expresses should be Diegetic, meaning it exists in the world. Spoken words, audible reactions, visible actions. Internal monologue, private thoughts, or anything another character couldn't reasonably hear or see has no place in open speech. Keep it grounded in what's actually happening in the scene.

Out of Character

Not everything can be handled in character, and for those times the simplest solution is Party Chat. Invite the players you need to speak with into a party and talk freely without it bleeding into the roleplay around you.

Additionally, wrapping [[ ]] in normal speech is also acceptable for brief moments.

Chat Commands At a Glance

Action	Chat Formatting	Range & Function
Talk	Your Message.	Nearby players will hear you, provided they're on the same screen as you and within Line of Sight.
Whisper	\your message	Speech will only be heard only by players directly adjacent to you, or those with Observant.
Shout	;your message	Shouting breaks line of sight, meaning your voice carries through walls, doors, and around corners.
Emote	*your action*	Observed by nearby players within line of sight to describe what your character is doing. Emotes are just as in-character as speech, and you're encouraged to use them.
Party	/your message	Anyone currently in your Party will see this regardless of where they are. Messages here are considered out of character.
OOC	[[Your Message]]	Out of character using normal talk, to only be used use in emergency/sparingly. Example: [[Brb]]

Discord

Icebound hosts a Discord server for out of character communication with staff and other players, as well as tools to help connect you with events, roleplay opportunities, and community resources. It's the best place to ask questions, get oriented, and stay plugged into what's happening on the shard.

Crafting

Crafting in Icebound follows standard UO conventions. Double-click the relevant tool to open its crafting menu and see everything you can make with the materials in your inventory. See the full list of crafting skills for an in-depth look at what each skill covers and tools required.

The exception to this is the Survival Skill, which every character starts with 25 points in to ensure nobody is soft-locked at the start of the game. Survival crafting requires no tool, but the items it produces are poor quality and won't last long. It's meant as a means to get on your feet and move toward real crafting skills, or as a fallback in an emergency.

You can access it two ways:

• Type command [craft and hit enter
• Click the Craft button on the hotbar at the top of your screen

This opens a generic crafting menu that populates everything you are currently able to craft across all your known skills, a useful at a glance overview. Anything that requires a physical tool will be noted as such.

You can craft anywhere, but for some skills, a workbench will improve your efficiency and output quality. Workbenches and other infrastructure are unlocked as the community upgrades the settlement, and that takes time and collective effort, so not all workbenches may not be available to you at the start of your journey.

Combat

Combat in Icebound follows standard UO conventions. Press TAB to toggle between Peace and War mode. You'll know you're in War mode by the indicator on your paperdoll, your character taking a combat stance in the world, and your cursor turning red.

Once in War mode, double-click a target to engage, human or animal, and your character will begin auto-swinging based on your equipped weapon and relevant skill. Keep an eye on your Health and monitor your resources: Stamina, Focus, and Ammunition if applicable. Running dry on any of them mid-fight will cost you.

Combat Abilities are unlocked as your skills develop and are accessible from the Abilities Menu on the topbar. Once acquired you can drag them onto your action bar for quick access. Some abilities require specific skill combinations to unlock, and not all of those combinations are strictly combat skills. Abilities generally consume either Focus or Stamina.

A few things to be aware of before you pick a fight:

• The server has stricter rules than a non-RP shard regarding PvP and Permadeath, it's important you understand the Server Rules on this topic at all times, because ignorance of this won't save you from their enforcement.
• Illness, Injury & Death are possible outcomes from losing a fight. How likely this is depends on where you are and what your fighting. You can (mostly) control this risk by monitoring the Region Safety on your Minimap at any given time.

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