Welcome... Come on in, Kick off your Shoes, and make yourself at home. This work in progress is to aid the prospective Britannian Home Shopper in finding the accomodations to suit their needs. I've gotten a lot of the same questions regarding houses, so I will try to sum them up here... Once you save up the gold for your house, the job isn't done. First off you need to decide which building you can afford, and which one you want. Unless you have unlimited resources, it might be wise to do some shopping before you buy. Travel to the different towns to get the best price for your house. To buy your house, go to an Architect or Provisioner, and buy away. Once the deed lands in your backpack, it is safe there. House deeds cannot be stolen from you. Even when you die, the deed will stay with you and be in your backpack when you resurrect. (Note: this is also true for 'old' house deeds and deeds that are the result of a re-deeded house). Be aware that you can only build a house (or buy a house from someone else) once every ten days. Should you already have a house placed somewhere then that house will be "condemned". This means that it can no longer be refreshed and will eventually decay unless it is transferred to another players, or is re-deeded. At any given time you can own a maximum of one house and be co-owner to four other houses by using the other four character slots on your account. Building a House Once you get to the spot that you want to place your house, there are a few things to keep in mind. Tents cannot be placed. Old building "shop" types can be placed, but the ovens, forges, etc, no longer appear in them. The game will generate a random building type if you try to place an old shop type house. So it is possible to end up with a thatched roof cottage, or a fieldstone house if you try to place an old type small smithy for instance. Placement of houses enforces a space limit around the newly placed house. (Thanks to Zayin for providing the picture and additional tips) There must be a completely clear 1 tile space all the way around the building. In the picture the green area represents a house, the yellow area the 1 tile space. There must be a 5 tile space in the front and back of the house wherein there are no "dynamic" objects. This means that trees and underbrush are OK, but another house is not. Keep in mind that the 1 tile and 5 tile area overlap each other, as you can see in the picture. The yellow and green area must be free of: Stones. Trees. Animals. Will be moved automatically. People. Will be moved automatically. Houses. Other "on the ground" items. Use the circle of transparency to be sure the area is empty. Items will be moved automatically. All objects which you cannot move through. The red area must be completely free of other buildings. As long as you can walk through an object, like flowers or some grass (see the blocking info), you can place your house on it. Surprisingly, small solid objects that are in the middle of the house (the blue area) do not block house placement. Obviously trees and large brushes will block placement, but you may be able to place over a small rock. If you are placing in front of another building (south of it) you must remember that that buildings "red" area must be respected! And of course the green and yellow area has to be flat (not the red). If you place a house close to water you need two tiles clear towards the water. (Thanks to testy for pointing this out) Characters who are already house owners are not able to place new buildings. You will get a message if you try to build someplace that you are not allowed. If you get a full black screen when you try to place a house then try to move the mouse cursor to the top right-hand corner, this may restore the screen. If that does not help, press Escape. Keep in mind that the spot where you click your mouse is where the steps in front of the house will be. Use the ghosted image of the house to see where you want to place it, then keep your eyes on the spot where the steps of the house are and click on that exact spot to place the house. Once you place your house, the master key will appear in your pack, and another master key in your Safety Deposit Box. Houses are owned by the placer of a new house. The old concept of keyholders being owner has become obsolete. You still need a key to unlock the door though. The next thing that you will want to do is to go inside, and make sure the door is locked, for the larger structures make sure both doors are locked. Double-Click on the key, then select the door to lock / unlock it. Make sure you leave the door in its locked state, unless you want your house to be open to the public ofcourse. To enter your house you do not have to unlock the door before you open it, just make sure you have the key to your house (or a copy) in your backpack and Double-Click the door. It will unlock, swing open and lock again, all in one action. When you step inside quickly Double-Click the door again to close it. Note that anyone (holding a key or not) can open a locked door from the inside. Bigger houses have interior doors as well. As the home-owner you can make these doors lockable if you so desire. To do this just close the door and use the house key (the one to the front door) on it. The interior door will then be fitted with a lock and a set of keys will be generated (one in your backpack and one in your bankbox). If you wish to change the locks on an interior door, just use the frontdoor key on the interior door again. It is not possible to remove a lock from an interior door once you made it lockable, but you can ofcourse opt to leave it unlocked at all times instead. If you want to share your key with others, you will need to visit an NPC tinker, and buy some blank keys, or have someone with sufficient tinker skill create some blank keys. Double-click the blank key, then select the house key, and if your tinkering skill is high enough, you will copy the key. You can now give this copy to anyone you like. Locking Down Items Now that you've built your house you probably want to start decorating it. One of the first things you'll want to do is place a secure container. To do this just place a container somewhere in the house and say "I wish to secure this". You will get a targeting cursor that you can use to select the container you wish to secure with. The container you select will then be secure and locked down. It can no longer be moved around, but will stick where you placed it. A secure container is a special container. Strangers have no way of accessing the contents of the secure container. Only co-owners and friends of the house (see below) have access to the items in a secure container. Currently a secure container has an item limit of 125, but no weight limit. Every secure container you place counts as 125 locked down items towards the limit of your house. See the master building list to find out how many secure containers you can place in your house and what the item limit for each type of house is. All other items you place inside your house can be locked down to prevent others from just picking them up and walking away with them. To lock down an item you have to say "I wish to lock this down" and then target the item you want to lock down. No-one will be able to (re)move that item, except the owner and co-owner. To make an item moveable again you have to say "I wish to release this" and target the item. This works on locked down and secure items. It is possible to lock down a stack of items, for instance a stack of reagents, bottles, scrolls and so on. Only the owner of the house may take items off the stack, but anyone can use the items in the stack. A locked down stack of items counts as 1 item towards the house item and lock down limit. You will also be able to lockdown containers and the items inside of them. These items will not be subject to decay once locked down in the container. Saying "I wish to lock this down" on a container will: Count the items that can be locked down inside the container. Check the available number of lockdowns you have left for your house. If you have enough lockdowns available, the system will lock all items down, including the container, and report success. If you do not have enough lockdowns available, the system will report the failure and give the reason. Releasing a locked down container will automatically release all of the items in it. A complete list of commands a house owner can use can be found in the Commands List. Co-owners and Friends Now that you are the owner you can select other people who you want to be a 'Co-owner' or just a 'Friend of the house'. Selecting Co-owners Other characters on the same account as the house owner will be treated as co-owners unless: They are already an owner or co-owner of another house. You may select up to eight characters to be co-owners: A co-owner may not be the owner of a house. A co-owner may not be a co-owner of another house. To select a co-owner: Double click on your house sign. Click the "friends" option. Select "add a co-owner". A targeting cursor will appear. Target and click on the character you wish to make a co-owner. Removing a co-owner Double click on your house sign. Click the "friends" option. Select "remove a co-owner". A list of co-owners will appear, check the box next to the co-owner you wish to remove. Co-owner Features Co-owners will be able to do everything that an owner can, except: Transfer ownership of the house. Re-deed a house. Add another co-owner. Change the house locks. Co-owners can also place one secure container, called a "strongbox". To place a strongbox the co-owner must say, "I wish to place a strongbox". The strongbox will appear at your feet. The strongbox can only be accessed by the co-owner who placed it and the owner of the house. A strongbox can hold up to 25 items and has no weight restrictions. Note that the strongbox is a secure container, but items in the box do not count against the total number of lockdowns for that house. These strongboxes are additional storage. A strongbox belonging to a co-owner that is removed will become unsecure (and subject to decay) as soon as it is accessed again. Other characters on the same account that are being treated as co-owners will NOT be able to place a strongbox. Friends of the House Friend of the house is defined as Being the house's owner, or Being the house's co-owner, or Being on the house's explicit friends list, or Being a character on the same account as the owner, unless you own a house yourself Functions which previously depended on holding a key will now generally depend on being a friend of the house. Vendors will only be eligible to remain in the house if you are the owner, co-owner or a friend, and will pack up automatically if their owner visits them and is not a friend. Only the owner or co-owner of the house will be able to lock down items. A key is still used an interface, but the action will only succeed if you are the owner of the house. Only friends of the house will be able to rename locked down runes. Owners, co-owners and friends of the house are able to refresh the house by using the front door. Friends of the house (including owners) may defend the house: They may exercise "Texas Law." They may attack non-friends in the house without penalty under the rep system. This only applies to private buildings. They can use keywords to ban and eject people. Saying "I ban thee" will bring up a targeting cursor to ban someone. Saying "Remove thyself" will bring up a targeting cursor to eject someone. The functionality of banning and ejecting is the same as if it were selected from the house menu. Logging into a house will automatically eject you outside the door if you are not a friend of the house. The House Sign The sign on the house is the interface that you need to use if you want to change a house option. The sign may be used from inside or outside the house. Single-clicking the house sign will display the house name. If the house is guarded you will also see [under guard protection]. Double-clicking the sign will bring up a brass plaque with the house name on it. The name of the house will be centered on the sign both horizontally and vertically. Overly long words will linebreak in the middle, overly long names will truncate after five lines. If the user of the sign is a friend (or owner) of the house, the brass sign will have a window attached to it with more options. The window will have an OKAY button that closes it. This button also makes the house sign be whatever the currently selected sign type is. The window will have three tabs, named INFO, FRIENDS, and OPTIONS. Clicking on the tabs between the pages will change the page. Right-clicking will close the window, as usual. The INFO tab will be the front page, and it will have the following: The owner of the house. The number of locked down items, out of the maximum available on the house. The number of secure containers, out of the maximum available on the house. A button to change the house's name. Pressing this button will prompt you to type in a new name. You can cancel typing in a new name by hitting ESCAPE. Having entered a new name, it will become the name of the house. This option may be used by any friend of the house. An indication whether this is house is of classic design (an "old-style" house) or of modern design (a "new-style" house) If the building is public, it will list the number of "visits" the house has had. This is a highly approximate number. The FRIENDS tab will have the following: List of Co-owners will list all the co-owners of the house. Add a Co-owners will bring up a targeting cursor to allow you to add a new co-owner. Remove a Co-owners will list all the co-owners of the house with checkboxes so you can choose one to remove. List of Friends will list all the friends of the house. If there are many friends, the gump should allow paging through them with left and right buttons on the gray bar at the bottom. An OKAY button should take you back to the front page of the house sign gump. Any house friend may access this list. Add a friend will bring up a targeting cursor to allow you to add a new friend. Only house owners may use this option. There is a limit of 50 friends. Remove a friend will list all the friends of the house with checkboxes so you can choose one to remove. Only the house owner may access this command. If there are many friends, the gump should allow paging through them with left and right buttons on the gray bar. Paging back and forth should not affect which box is currently selected. A "remove now!" button will remove the friend from the list, and redisplay the list with the new friends list. An OKAY button will return to the house sign menu without removing anyone. Clear friends list will remove all the friends of the house. Only the house owner may use this button. Ban someone from the house works exactly as "add a friend" does, except it bans. Any house friend may use this command. Banning will also eject the character from the house, to three tiles from the door. You cannot ban a friend of the house. A message explaining what happened is given to the victim. There is a limit of 50 bans. Eject someone from the house will bring up a targeting cursor and allow you to target someone. Any house friend may use this command. The targeted individual will be sent outside the house, 3 tiles from the door. The ejected character must be a player. Friends of the house may not be ejected. A message explaining what happened is given to the victim. View list of banned people will list all the people banned from the house. Any house friend may use this command. If there are many bans, the window allows paging through them. The OKAY button will return to the house menu. Lift a ban will list all the people banned from the house, with checkboxes next to them. Any friend of the house may use this command. If there are many bans, you can page through them. The OKAY button will return to the house menu without affecting the ban list. The "remove now!" button will lift the ban, and redisplay the list. Paging back and forth will not affect which box is selected. The OPTIONS tab will have the following: Transfer ownership will let you transfer ownership to another player by bringing up a targeting cursor. The user must be outside the house when the option is selected. Only the house owner may use this option. The target must not own a house The friends list is cleared off the house when ownership is transferred. The ban list is cleared when ownership is transferred. The locks are automatically changed when ownership is transferred. New master keys are given to the new owner (one in the bank and one in the backpack). The ownership of the house is removed from the old owner Ownership of the house is assigned to the new owner. Demolish house will allow demolishing the house back into a deed. Only the owner may use this option. The option will pull up an "are you sure" gump making it clear that this will delete guilds and vendors. The house will be destroyed. Ownership will be removed from the player. A deed for that type of house will be placed in the bank unless the person is a murderer, in which case it will go in the backpack. Any house add-ons (forges, looms etc.) will vanish. Change locks will allow changing of the house locks. Only the owner may use this option. The front door will be deleted and replaced with a new door (thus making old keys useless) New master keys will be given to the owner (one in the bank and one in the backpack). This option does work if the house is public, but since the door is not lockable, it has no real effect. Declare building public Only the house owner may do this. This choice only appears for private houses. Makes the door always openable and unlockable. Makes the building eligible for vendor placement. Declare building private Only the house owner may do this. This choice only appears for public houses. This option will fail with a message if there are vendors in the house Relocks the front door. Resets the sign to the standard house sign type. Removes the guard region if any Toggle guard protection. This option is disabled while OSI assesses it for game balance impact. Guards are not aggressive towards murderers, but only towards aggressors. Guards are only aggressive towards aggressors. The victim must be standing on the house. The victim must call the guards. Change house sign will allow you to select a new sign for the house. This option may be used by any friend of the house. This option only appears for public houses. It will bring up a page with sign choices. You can flip between two pages of choices by hitting the more choices button. The selected sign will stay selected regardless of paging. The new sign will take effect when the OKAY button is hit on any page of the gump. Selling a House With the current house market, where a place to build is very hard to find, selling a house can be a very profitable thing to do. It can also be a very risky thing to do. With the secure trading of houses you are relatively safe, but please make sure that you are indeed buying the house you are standing at. When the secure trade window opens you have to make sure that the compass coordinates are exactly right (bring a sextant along!) and that the amount of gold mentioned on the bank cheque in the trade window is correct. When you are careful and check this, house trading is as secure as can be. If you think it would be safer to re-deed the house and sell the deed to another player (preferably by using a vendor), you had better think again. With the current restrictions on building a house, you may not be able to place a house on that spot again! If you're not interested in selling your house or deed to another player, but do want to trade it in for cash you can do so at the real estate broker. You can find him in the carpenter shop. Just walk up to him and say "Appraise". He will offer 100% of the deeds value to you. If you accept the offer just drop the deed on him and the money will be transferred to your bank account. You can check the "age" of a house by double-clicking the house sign. You will get either one of the following messages: If the house was placed after the house placement changes, there will be a message stating, "This house is of Modern Design". If the house was placed before the house placement changes, there will be a message stating, "This house is of Classic Design". When buying a house you have to be careful not to buy a house that has been illegaly placed by using an exploit. To determine whether a house has been illegaly placed, do the following: Check the house sign. If it says "of classic design" then this house was placed before the house placement rules came into effect and you will not have a problem. If it says "of modern design" you will have to make sure that the house is built in a valid location. Make sure that all around the house there is a 1 tile path that you can walk on. Also make sure that there is a 5 tile zone in front and back of the house that is free of any solid objects such as rocks, trees and other houses. If you cannot walk around the house, or there is a solid item in the area 5 tiles in front and back of the house, don't buy it. You'd better be safe than sorry. Account Deactivation When you deactivate your Ultima Online account, your account will be in a state of grace for 10 days. Sometime after that 10-day period, a process will pick up your account and set your houses inactive. If you reactivate within the 10 days, it takes your name off that list, so nothing ever happens to your houses.