So I just joined this server, and I'm fairly inexperienced at UO overall. Can anyone give me some advice on not completely sucking at it?
Pick up ALL the skills you can...there is no skill cap and macroing is allowed (for the most part) so get an LRC suit and EasyUO and go crazy. Animal Taming seems to be (as with normal shards) the way to go so use your skill ball to raise it to 75 right off the bat (little pointer...DON'T set it as one of your initial skills as it'll be a waste). Other than that insure your crap, make sure auto-insure is set to on, and stay the hell away from the pvp areas until you're fully prepped.
-SV
Do you know of any places with easier monsters where I can train to bring my combat level up?
All your combat skills should be trained to GM (or higher if you get ahold of the powerscrolls) on the training ele's in Insula. Just park yourself there and go get a sammich and come back in an hour and you'll be good to go. They will not attack back and there's no rules against AFKing so it definitely helps. Also fyi you can train your pets on the green dragon slightly north of the training eles.
-SV