Total newb

I just started and I'm almost completely lost.

-How do i get off the ship?

-How do i fight something? I tried to fight a rat on the ship, but just stood there with my sword in hand, how do i start attacking?

-Is there and easier way to move around other than the arrow keys?

Complete the ship quests and then talk to the captain. Some things aren't attackable. Maybe the rat wasn't attackable. If you are on a quest to kill the rat, make sure you have a weapon equipped. Then you can stand near the rat and click on it to attack. If you click on your "k" button to open the window listing your skills, you can drag the melee attack and ranged buttons to your hotbar and use those also. Melee looks like crossed swords, ranged looks like a target. If you target the rat and click on those you should attack if you are the appropriate distance.

I use arrow keys to move around.

Thank you, Katz. I feel like a total idiot.

If you do the quests you get from the crew I think you get put ashore.

You should have a row or two of icons at the bottom of the screen, "Hot bars."
Click on the rat so it gets an arrow pointing down at it, you might have to get the quest to kill it first, and click on the icons to do your attacks.
If you don't have the icons then <Shift-0> to <Shift-9> might open the hotbars.

You can use the mouse to aim and the middle mouse button to start/stop moving.

You shouldn't! Things are often not obvious in the game and there are many people who love helping. What server are you on? I'm on Halls of Fate and if you are on that server I would be happy to answer questions if I can.

w,a,d,s,q and e also are movement keys as default.
If you click on the EQII logo in the bottom left corner of the screen you get a menu, chose Options and then Controls and you can change what key or button does what, I disable the middle button for starting and stopping and set it as move forward instead so that I don't have to klick it again to stop.

The Wiki has a lot of useful information, if you can find it (sometimes you need to know what something is called before you can find it.)
http://eq2.wikia.com
or point to "Community" on the menubar on the Everquest II homepage and click on "Wiki"

Maj'dul

And thank you as well, Hexalobular.

Can change movement keys to whatever you want in options.

Welcome to the game, newb! And remember, we were all newbs once! So don't feel bad at all! And we are here to help!

Thanx again to all who replied. I didn't have much time to really dig in to it yesterday, but I think I'm getting the hang of things now.

Its been so long since I last played a game like this, and it was the Playstation version of EQ. (Not free)

One more question, for now,

Are there any mounts that don't cost Platinum?

In the starter zones (Halas for example) there are a series of quests you can do that award you a horse. This page has a link to the quests if you scroll down.
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Mounts

Looks like i still have some leveling to do first. Thank you.

If you just want a mount as soon as possible without having to do much work for it look into the Moonlight Enhantments
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Moonlight_Enchantments
Every month on the 20th and 21st, so you have until midnight to catch it this month.
Five special zones with special quests for tokens that you can use at merchants in the zones to buy (amongst other things) temporary mounts, they last a day and can be used 20 times,
The merchant in the zone with an entrance in Antonica sell "flying carpets" they only glide but in some places that's almost as good as flying and you can buy as many as you want.
In the zone connected to Greater Faydark you can buy unicorn mounts, there are two and you can get one of each.
Some of the zones have repetable guests for building up your supply of tokens.

Most starting zones have a quest that gives you a mount about lvl 15 or so, but its part of a chain of quests, so you cant just jump to the mount quest and ignore the previous quests. But if you are leveling, you will likely be doing them anyways.

How do i get to the Great Shelf? I cant find anything that will tell me or a way to run there.

Nevermind

Falcon,

Feel free to look me up on the Maj'dul server. I might be able to help too.

I'm on Asterra, or just PM me your toons name from here.

Never feel stupid. We have all been new and learning at some point or another. I recall always rolling need in another MMO, because the icon was a pair of dice and I thought it meant "Roll". Two weeks later, when I learned what I had been doing, I couldn't help wondering how many people thought I was a jerk.

You can also move forward with holding down right mouse and pressing left.

Can also run forward constanty with the Num Lock-button (you can change this to what you prefer)

Do you still not prefer the W,A,S,D movement you can change buttons in options,

PM me if you need any help on Maj'dul!