It is easy to enter combat in Ultima Online - it is less easy to win. To enter combat, you must first go into War mode. The default macro for toggling in and out of war mode is ALT + C, or you can press the War/Peace button on your paperdoll. Now your equiped weapon is at the ready. To attack someone or something, double-click them. Be careful not to double-click any person or creature that you do not with to attack if you are in War mode! You can also toggle between War and Peace mode quickly by pressing the tab key.
Any time you are attacked, you counter-attack automatically, whether or not you're in War mode.
Depending on what facet you are on, some targets may not be able to be attacked.
While in War mode, moving your cursor over another player or NPC, animal or monster causes that target to be highlighted in a color indicating how attacking it affects your Reputation. The highlight is one of five colors: red, gray blue, green or orange. Orange and green highlights indicate guild affiliation. If a character hightlights green to you, they are in your guild. If they highlight orange, then they are in a guild that is at war with your guild. The color of a character's status bar also changes according to the rules above. For more information on Reputation, click here.
There is a slight delay of a few seconds in how fast you can toggle in and out of War mode.
Practicing
Some of the larger cities have established combat training areas, where
you can hone your combat skills. There are practice dummies for
hand-to-hand practice, and archery butts (targets) for bow and crossbow
practice.
Note: Practicing in this manner
only allows you to gain to 25.0 in the skill you are practicing. After
that, you'll have to find something more challenging to practice
against.
Note that you do not have to be in War mode to practice on inanimate
objects. You may also safely spar with other players outside of towns
and guarded regions if you are in the same guild with them.
Weapon Switching
The EquipLastWeapon macro command allows you to switch quickly between
two weapons, or between a weapon and your bare hands. If you have a
one-handed weapon and a shield equipped and your last weapon happens to
be a two-handed weapon, EquipLastWeapon will also unequip your shield
so that you can hold the two-handed weapon. However, executing the
macro again will just re-equip the one-handed weapon and not the shield.
You can also quickly switch between an empty hand and your last weapon, which is handy for drinking potions.
For more information on how to set-up a macro, please click here.
