Yesterday I gave UWO a try out of sheer desperation for something different.  I knew close to nothing about the game other than the brief synopsis they give on the web site.

During the installation I saw they use GameGuard.  What a piece of junk, borderline virus, "software".  I remember from my Lineage 2 days how useless it was at stopping third party software.  I noticed it hasn't gotten any better either.

Character creation allows you to pick a goofy looking fat dude. LOL!  I couldn't help myself.  I picked maritime as my profession.  I went through all the beginner schools.  Naval combat was different enough from the traditional mmorpg that I enjoyed it a lot.  Adventure doesn't appeal to me so far.  From what the tutorial explains it involves going to a particular spot on the map, use Observe skill and voila.  Trade does seem interesting.  I actually did quite a bit of it during my first day.  It works well with maritime for me since I can just kill any NPC's I pass on a trade route.

What sticks out in my mind most are the weather effects at sea and things that will beleaguered your ships' crew.  During my first voyage out to sea after the beginner schools, I underestimated the amount of food and water needed and how fast time passed.  Suddenly a message pops up that says my crew has scurvy.  That's awesome!  Not too long after I got stuck in a hurricane and it broke my sails.  That was frustrating but at the same time pretty cool.

I have not begun crafting yet.  I don't know where to begin.

PvP seems very limited and only in certain areas.  Not to mention that they sell ships and parts in the cash shop so it's probably pay to win.

I haven't joined a "guild" or whatever UWO calls it.  Is this a solo oriented game or are groups actually useful beyond another chat channel?

For what it's worth, UWO is interesting enough for me to play past the first day, an accomplishment many of the recent so called "AAA" mmorpg's failed to do.

Yeah, the character creation is kinda lousey (the fat guy was my choice in the beta lol). They're all very generic and quite boring.. so I can kinda see why it'd pique your interest.  It's just a shame that in this day we're forced to create such bland characters.. but in the games' defense it is rather old.

Never got into the adventurer myself, either.. and wasn't too keen on maritime. So I picked merchant which seems to be the jack of all trades (pun unintended). Personally, I got really immersed. I just imagined myself being an alcohol trader and sailed the seas just selling booze to all the nations. It was surprisingly fun!

Yeah, and what's cool about the 'events' in-game (such as the high winds) is that it affects everyone in the area. I guess it's just cool seeing everyone pause when a huge storm comes and everyone just stops what they're doing and waits it out. Some don't even make it!

As for companies? I think it's rather important you joined one. The last maritime school final is absolutely brutal and you'll more than likely need all the help you can get... and just think - that's basically the tutorial! I also think it played major factor in why I quit playing. It got very lonely after a while.

As to why I didn't join one? Well, I'm just not that big a fan on F2P games. I like spending a flat fee and knowing I have access to everything.. rather than picking and choosing what playstyle I'm playing at the moment. Plus when you're new to the game you aren't sure what's good and what isn't. But more importantly I couldn't find a decent company.. everyone was either hardcore players or very casual (to the point where very little people signed on).

.. but yeah, I have to agree with your sentiment about the game. I usually pick up an MMO and quit the same day.. this had me hooked for a couple months.

I'm a relative newb myself, but I can clear up a few misconceptions.

- If you're in a storm you need to immediately lower your sails and just wait it out. The 'Repair' skill can be used to heal damage to your ship in the meantime.

- Disasters are generally random (I know of one exception, an area in the Adriatic where I always seem to hit seaweed), and they can be cured by carrying various items that counter them. Like buckets to cure leaking, spare sails etc..

- It's generally recommended that you complete all 3 schools (Adventure, Trade, and Maritime) at each level (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced). Because for one thing, school teaches you a lot. But for another, you are going to need certain levels in each class to buy certain ships. And you are going to need skills from every class to be a complete character. In addition, you'll receive a huge chunk of fame when you complete each advanced school.

Suggestion: Use the job change cards you receive in school to change to the class (Adventure, Trade, Maritime) you are working on in school at the moment. You'll receive a lot more experience that way. And also, you can pick up the three absolutely crucial skills that you must be a member of that class to get. 'Sail Handling" (Adventure), 'Accounts' (Trade), and 'Gunnery' (Maritime). Buy them from the respective Guild Master while you are a member of that class (but you will be given one of these 3 skills with your starting class). All the other skills in the game can be bought by any class. That is, assuming that you meet the prereqs and have a port permit for where the skill is being sold.

One warning: When you complete all 3 advanced schools you will be booted from school chat. And because there's no local or regional chat in UWO, talk about lonely! But if you leave any class school incomplete you can stay in school chat until any one of your class levels reaches 30.

- Adventure class is considered by some to be the toughest to level, and the toughest to understand. But the OP's opinion shouldn't be taken to heart. Because he's still completely ignorant of its dimensions (as all nuggets are). And I'll just leave it at that.

Recommended game information websites:

http://unchartedwaters.wikia.com/wiki/Unofficial_Uncharted_Waters_Wiki
unchartedwaters.olous.com
uwodbmirror.ivyro.net

If your ship has wave resistance 11 or higher, you can sail right through storms without having to stop.  You may end up damaging your sails (and need to use a spare sail when the storm ends) and you may (or may not) lose some sailors if you don't stop.  But wave resistance 11+ means you can keep going right through storms.

A lot of the particular disasters tend to occur in particular areas.  It's not just the seaweed to the west of Greece.  There are a bunch like that.  For example, you'll usually get a magnetic anomaly if you sail between Tierra Del Fuego and the southern tip of South America.

Originally posted by Pynda

I'm a relative newb myself, but I can clear up a few misconceptions.

- If you're in a storm you need to immediately lower your sails and just wait it out. The 'Repair' skill can be used to heal damage to your ship in the meantime.

Yeah I sort of learned that the hard way :)  It is my (limited) understanding that ship parts cannot be repaired though.  So if the hurricane broke my sail, I'm stuck chugging along to the next port despite me having the repair skill.

- Disasters are generally random (I know of one exception, an area in the Adriatic where I always seem to hit seaweed), and they can be cured by carrying various items that counter them. Like buckets to cure leaking, spare sails etc..

Again, something I learned the hard way.

- It's generally recommended that you complete all 3 schools (Adventure, Trade, and Maritime) at each level (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced). Because for one thing, school teaches you a lot. But for another, you are going to need certain levels in each class to buy certain ships. And you are going to need skills from every class to be a complete character. In addition, you'll receive a huge chunk of fame when you complete each advanced school.

I completed all three beginner schools and I'm just starting the intermediate ones.

Suggestion: Use the job change cards you receive in school to change to the class (Adventure, Trade, Maritime) you are working on in school at the moment. You'll receive a lot more experience that way. And also, you can pick up the three absolutely crucial skills that you must be a member of that class to get. 'Sail Handling" (Adventure), 'Accounts' (Trade), and 'Gunnery' (Maritime). Buy them from the respective Guild Master while you are a member of that class (but you will be given one of these 3 skills with your starting class). All the other skills in the game can be bought by any class. That is, assuming that you meet the prereqs and have a port permit for where the skill is being sold.

This is where I'm a little confused.  I thought if you change professions you lose the skills of the previous ones?  I just got my job change cards and I'm a little hesitant to use them before I understand the implications.

One warning: When you complete all 3 advanced schools you will be booted from school chat. And because there's no local or regional chat in UWO, talk about lonely! But if you leave any class school incomplete you can stay in school chat until any one of your class levels reaches 30.

I'm long way from that point so I'll deal with that when I get there.

- Adventure class is considered by some to be the toughest to level, and the toughest to understand. But the OP's opinion shouldn't be taken to heart. Because he's still completely ignorant of its dimensions (as all nuggets are). And I'll just leave it at that.

OK.  Again, just my first impression after 1 day of play.  The way the school explains it and the quests they've given me haven't been all that exciting.  For the time being I'm enjoying maritime and trade a lot more.

Recommended game information websites:

http://unchartedwaters.wikia.com/wiki/Unofficial_Uncharted_Waters_Wiki
unchartedwaters.olous.com
uwodbmirror.ivyro.net

Thanks for the links.

 

A few more general questions while I'm at it.

Where do I begin to start crafting?  I see books on sewing, handicrafts, etc.  Is that what I need to buy?  Does that book cover all recipes or are there multiple levels with more recipes?

Should I be upgrading boats whenever possible?  I'm an Eve veteran and I'm used to being very cautious about not spending too much on a ship that maybe difficult to replace.  The final exam of the maritime intermediate school makes you fight a battle that my poor armed cog cannot win alone.  That leads me to believe I should have a better ship by now.

When fighting NPC ships, are the rewards generally better if you board them then if you kill them with your cannons?

Originally posted by dave6660

Yeah I sort of learned that the hard way :)  It is my (limited) understanding that ship parts cannot be repaired though.  So if the hurricane broke my sail, I'm stuck chugging along to the next port despite me having the repair skill.

...

This is where I'm a little confused.  I thought if you change professions you lose the skills of the previous ones?  I just got my job change cards and I'm a little hesitant to use them before I understand the implications.

...

OK.  Again, just my first impression after 1 day of play.  The way the school explains it and the quests they've given me haven't been all that exciting.  For the time being I'm enjoying maritime and trade a lot more.

 

1)  When your sails are damaged, you can repair them at sea by using the spare sail consumable item.  There aren't any skills to do this, however.

2)  There are two components to a profession.  One is whether it is adventure, trade, or battle type.  You gain double experience of the type that corresponds to your job type.  So if you're going to go mostly adventuring, mostly trading, or mostly battling for a while, you should switch to a job of the corresponding type.

Apart from that, a job is a set of skills that you level faster.  You effectively level a skill twice as fast if it's a favored skill for your job.  You can acquire favored skills without meeting the prerequisites for them.  And you can also level a favored skill up to rank 15, rather than being capped at rank 10.

You should also realize that you can change back to any job that you've previously held, even without a job card.  The downside of not having a card is that it costs 20 times as much to switch as if you had a card.  For the beginner jobs, this is something like 1k versus 20k, so the cost is inconsequential except when you're very new at the game.  For many jobs, it's something like 80k versus 1.6m, so it would be nice to have a card.  There are a handful of jobs where it's something like 600k versus 12m, so you might want to consider going and getting another job card even if you've previously unlocked the job.  For one job, it's 5m versus 100m.

3)  Adventuring school takes a while to get you into adventuring, as you need a lot of skills to do it properly, and someone in beginner school probably doesn't have those skills.  Beginner school has a couple of token discoveries that aren't really representative.  Intermediate school has one discovery that's basically a typical low-level discovery.  Advanced school is more representative of what is out there.  But higher rank discoveries do eventually get harder.

Check my adventuring discovery guide on this forum if you want to know how to do adventuring.  Even if you read it through and don't understand a lot the first time, it will make a handy reference if you want to get into it.  Which you might not if you're not one for exploration.

Originally posted by dave6660

A few more general questions while I'm at it.

Where do I begin to start crafting?  I see books on sewing, handicrafts, etc.  Is that what I need to buy?  Does that book cover all recipes or are there multiple levels with more recipes?

Should I be upgrading boats whenever possible?  I'm an Eve veteran and I'm used to being very cautious about not spending too much on a ship that maybe difficult to replace.  The final exam of the maritime intermediate school makes you fight a battle that my poor armed cog cannot win alone.  That leads me to believe I should have a better ship by now.

When fighting NPC ships, are the rewards generally better if you board them then if you kill them with your cannons?

1)  If you want to craft, then first you need to get the associated skill for what you want to craft.  It's strongly recommended that you use a job that has the crafting skill you're going to use as a favored skill whenever you're going to craft much.  You can get beginner jobs with cooking, sewing, casting, handicrafts, or storage as favored skills.  Alchemy isn't available to you until you're much higher level.

After that, you need to get the book with the recipe that you want to craft.  Each crafting profession has many associated books.  You can store books in your document folder (character -> inventory -> store), so you'll have plenty of room there if you're not an adventurer.  You should realize that unlike most games, you can't memorize recipes, and if you get rid of a recipe book, then you lose the ability to use recipes from it until you reacquire the book.

2)  You never lose a ship unless you sell it.  If your ship is sunk, you lose a bit from its maximum durability, but you'll still have the ship.  So don't worry about buying an expensive ship and then losing it.

Early on, you should replace your ship every few levels.  Eventually, you'll want to spend somewhere around 30m and a few dollars to upgrade a ship.  Once you do that, you'll want to upgrade all of your future ships, too.  That gets expensive, so from that point, you want to replace your ships a lot less often.  As for when you should start doing that, probably sometime when your levels are in the 20s or 30s.  Or perhaps more pointedly, around the time you have 30m or so ducats to spare.

3)  You'll get more experience and fame if you defeat enemy ships by sinking them (i.e., with cannons).  You'll get more items if you defeat them by boarding them.

Originally posted by Quizzical

Originally posted by dave6660

A few more general questions while I'm at it.

Where do I begin to start crafting?  I see books on sewing, handicrafts, etc.  Is that what I need to buy?  Does that book cover all recipes or are there multiple levels with more recipes?

Should I be upgrading boats whenever possible?  I'm an Eve veteran and I'm used to being very cautious about not spending too much on a ship that maybe difficult to replace.  The final exam of the maritime intermediate school makes you fight a battle that my poor armed cog cannot win alone.  That leads me to believe I should have a better ship by now.

When fighting NPC ships, are the rewards generally better if you board them then if you kill them with your cannons?

1)  If you want to craft, then first you need to get the associated skill for what you want to craft.  It's strongly recommended that you use a job that has the crafting skill you're going to use as a favored skill whenever you're going to craft much.  You can get beginner jobs with cooking, sewing, casting, handicrafts, or storage as favored skills.  Alchemy isn't available to you until you're much higher level.

After that, you need to get the book with the recipe that you want to craft.  Each crafting profession has many associated books.  You can store books in your document folder (character -> inventory -> store), so you'll have plenty of room there if you're not an adventurer.  You should realize that unlike most games, you can't memorize recipes, and if you get rid of a recipe book, then you lose the ability to use recipes from it until you reacquire the book.

2)  You never lose a ship unless you sell it.  If your ship is sunk, you lose a bit from its maximum durability, but you'll still have the ship.  So don't worry about buying an expensive ship and then losing it.

Early on, you should replace your ship every few levels.  Eventually, you'll want to spend somewhere around 30m and a few dollars to upgrade a ship.  Once you do that, you'll want to upgrade all of your future ships, too.  That gets expensive, so from that point, you want to replace your ships a lot less often.  As for when you should start doing that, probably sometime when your levels are in the 20s or 30s.  Or perhaps more pointedly, around the time you have 30m or so ducats to spare.

3)  You'll get more experience and fame if you defeat enemy ships by sinking them (i.e., with cannons).  You'll get more items if you defeat them by boarding them.

Excellent explaination.  Thanks.

Hi again! I'll try to elaborate on a couple of things too.

1.) You can't really complete the intermediate maritime final exam solo (unless you want to come back to it much later, I suppose). Don't feel bad about that. I know it's a challenge, but fleet up with a more advanced player. And have the "Repair" skill, and be ready to use it while your other group member does most of the shooting. If you ask on school chat you shouldn't really have much of a problem finding someone. Because the test doesn't take very long. And everyone else will feel sympathetic because they had to do exactly the same thing.

Note: The 'Advanced' maritime final, however, is truly a pain in the ass to complete. Although it is pretty sweet when you do finally get it done.

2.) On the job change cards, use them but don't waste them. That is, I'd suggest going through one whole class level school (intermediate, advanced) before you make a switch. And don't feel you have to choose the "Learner" job title (a mistake I made for a while). You can choose amongst any of the beginner job titles and still stay in school.

And if Quiz wasn't clear, no. You don't lose any skills when you change jobs/classes. It just affects your ability to advance those skills at an accelerated pace.

3.) Make sure you report your "Port Discoveries" (eventually) to the correct NPC. Additionally you'll get a little more experience if you do this reporting while you are currently Adventure class. (I screwed up here again myself; use a 'Port Discovery' NPC near the bottom of this list, not 'Geography'). Use this link to find the correct NPCs.

http://unchartedwaters.olous.com/discoveries-report

GL

Originally posted by Pynda

Hi again! I'll try to elaborate on a couple of things too.

1.) You can't really complete the intermediate maritime final exam solo (unless you want to come back to it much later, I suppose). Don't feel bad about that. I know it's a challenge, but fleet up with a more advanced player. And have the "Repair" skill, and be ready to use it while your other group member does most of the shooting. If you ask on school chat you shouldn't really have much of a problem finding someone. Because the test doesn't take very long. And everyone else will feel sympathetic because they had to do exactly the same thing.

Note: The 'Advanced' maritime final, however, is truly a pain in the ass to complete. Although it is pretty sweet when you do finally get it done.

2.) On the job change cards, use them but don't waste them. That is, I'd suggest going through one whole class level school (intermediate, advanced) before you make a switch. And don't feel you have to choose the "Learner" job title (a mistake I made for a while). You can choose amongst any of the beginner job titles and still stay in school.

And if Quiz wasn't clear, no. You don't lose any skills when you change jobs/classes. It just affects your ability to advance those skills at an accelerated pace.

3.) Make sure you report your "Port Discoveries" (eventually) to the correct NPC. Additionally you'll get a little more experience if you do this reporting while you are currently Adventure class. (I screwed up here again myself; use a 'Port Discovery' NPC near the bottom of this list, not 'Geography'). Use this link to find the correct NPCs.

http://unchartedwaters.olous.com/discoveries-report

1)  You can complete both of those solo.  A lot depends on your ship, though.  If you're still in your starter ship, then yeah, they're going to be basically impossible to solo.  I think I used a trading flute for intermediate and a carrack for advanced, and with those ships, the finals were easy.

2)  I'd recommend that when you get a beginner job card, you use it immediately to unlock the job and clear space in inventory.  It will only cost maybe 20k or so to switch back to the job later.  For intermediate and advanced jobs that will cost you a lot more to switch back later, you might want to wait until you actually want to use the job before you unlock it.

You get three cards of each of the beginner job types in school.  Use the adventuring cards on helmsperson, biologist, and excavator (not necessarily in that order), as those are the three adventure beginner jobs that matter.  (Surveyor is a gimpy version of helmsperson, fisher is only relevant late in the game to people who think rank 17 or so fishing isn't enough, and explorer and adventurer learner are worthless.)  If you happen to pull the quest for additional beginner job cards, you might want to grab it until you've unlocked them all.

3)  The olous link is no good, as it's missing a lot of NPCs.  Try this one:

http://unchartedwaters.wikia.com/wiki/People_to_Report_Discoveries

Thanks for the better link to report discoveries Quizzical (yes, I've found that any of the 3 sites may be wrong or incomplete about one thing or another - best to check them all on something important). And thanks for the info on being able to switch back to an old job without having to use a card. I didn't know that!

That information could really help me if I do decide to make the massive effort required to try and get Intermediate 'Trading Merchant'. Mainly - to get a person with R12 Cooking to help me. I mean, do they even exist heh?. If what you say is true, then at least I'd never have to go through all that again when I changed classes. I'd just have to pay up.

You should realize that while most beginner jobs cost only a nominal fee to switch to without a card if you've previously unlocked them, the intermediate and advanced jobs are more expensive.  The cheapest I'm aware of is 400k, and most are at least 1.4m--and sometimes a lot more than this.  1.4m isn't a big deal if you're only going to switch once a week, but it's not the sort of thing you'd want to do a few times per day.