As written by RedOrDead and Numerous others whose names are listed at the bottom. Free Idoc Locations were removed as were irrelevant posts and comments.
RedOrDead
As of today I will share what i find when trawling the lands in Europa. It won't be comprehensive - there are islands with houses, not just Ice and Moonglow and I won't incude Fel (I don't go there and yes, I am a wimp).
I want to promote IDOC as a profession.
Most Europa houses fall between 16.00 and 18.00 GMT but not all - but it is up to you to either sit or find out the exact time. The change from greatly worn to idoc occurs on the Europa shard between 8.30 and 11 am GMT - if you want to pinpoint the fall time you have to actually monitor when it changes (of course you can do this at any stage see the FAQ which is in the next post.
The full FAQ can be found on Homes and Castles but these are the most helpful.
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From Lyconis:
Finding an IDOC
This is one of the questions I get asked by almost everyone.
1. Walk around and check for house signs
2. Share IDOCs with other friends/IDOCers. I normally don't share all of my IDOCs but a few that I might not be able to get to or don't appear to be promising. This can be a start of a bond to start an IDOC hunting group.
3. Learning the Land. UOAM is very helpful with this log houses with UOAM so you know where houses are, searching certain areas.
Side note when hunting for an IDOC, I tend to stay away from high population of housing areas. As scripts can detect these house in 1/10th of the time you can. I hope players that do that get banned!
Decay Times
Some of these may vary. Vendors and OSI owned houses.
Like New (unsure a couple of hours)
Slightly Worn - 1 day
Somewhat Worn - 1 day
Fairly Worn - 1 day
Greatly Worn - 1 day
In Danger of Collapsing 7-10 hours
Abbreviations I use (as rune books are somewhat limited in display space)
ID: In Danger of Collapsing
GW : Greatly Worn
FW : Fairly Worn
SO : Somewhat Worn
SL : Slightly Worn
LN : Like New
OL : Open Land (useful for sharing)
RP : Replaced
RF : Refreshed
Placement Tactics
1. Knowing the size of the house (UOAM is useful for this)
2. Last Target Macros. You can use Last Target on the steps of the house before it falls. Be warned you will be called a "scripter" or "cheater" if you stay awake and do this.
3. Other houses can make exact placement illegal. Custom Houses and steps are quite weird to say the least keep 6 paces from steps!
4. Especially with larger houses. Keep the targeting reticule out of the play screen and in the black area this will reduce lag, and if used with Last Target Macros house placing will go faster.
5. Experience The more you do it the better you get. The first castle or keep you sit at you most likely won't get, unless of course there aren't any players there. Be prepared to fail. There will be more experienced players and scripters, an experience player can beat any lame script any day.
Looting Tactics
Depends on your play style.
I prefer the method grab and stash, then sort the loot afterwards.
My IDOC characters have two pack animals (one llama, one horse) and one pack beetle. Pet summoning balls are very useful for the house that eats pets (see oddities).
If you don't have the available space at your house, keeping a "private" room allocated for a quick dump is useful. After you grab all the items you can safely sort through them at your house. This does require a lot of time I do not recommend people doing it if they won't put the time in, as you will just let a little piece of UO history die off.
Camping the IDOC
I prefer characters with Hiding and Stealth. When I'm out scouting for IDOCs I'll run to houses with players in them especially if they have pack animals. There are many of times I've ran around looking for IDOCs and landed some nice scores due to people standing around waiting for the house to fall.
Oddities
Keep your beetles, pack horses out of the house. Houses have a tendency to EAT animals when they collapse. Of course if you don't like someone or they're rude don't tell them this, and watch as there animal disappears for good!
Vendors
This part may be very inaccurate its been a while since I've bothered sitting at a house with vendors that was OSI owned.
Houses with vendors that are rented out (not owned by the home owners account) will eventually change the ownership of the house to OSI. This is a precaution set up so if a player has all there items on a vendor and all there gold they won't loose it do to the home owners inactivity.
The gold has to run out on the vendor and then it will be moved to the moving crate. After a few days (not sure) the vendors items will be moved into the moving crate. After the items are moved into the moving crate theres a possibility the house will fall.
The timings on this seems quite random I have yet to figure it out. I've heard many a theory. I believe after the vendors items have been put into the moving crate there is a 48 hour period that the house will fall. The IDOC cycle (SW, IDOC, etc) seems to go out of the normal order of things. I've seen a house go to slightly worn in the morning and in the early afternoon it fell (never did notice the state of the house when it fell). Houses with vendors I tend not to bother reading the house state sign.
Of course not all OSI owned houses are vendor owned some are from banned players etc.
edit 2007.02.13
I just thought of something reading another thread about house placement timers.
Not sure if this part is still the current.... If you do not own a home and try to place a home it will automatically be placed (no confirmation on gump, this sometimes changes) and a 7 day timer will go into effect. If you demolish this house and try to replace you will not be able to place a house in the same spot for 7 days! (every now and then you get lucky and the code gets changed for this and allows you to replace if you do not own a house but don't risk it!).
Also another timing thing. If you own two houses on the same account and want to demolish them for whatever reasons, there is a 15 minute timer between collapsing houses!
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From Sarsmi:
It takes me a few hours to scout one facet, you don't have to read the house signs just mouse over them to see if there are three or four lines of text (the decay status if it is decaying would be the additional fourth line of text).
Decay stages are
slightly worn 24-32 hours
somewhat worn 24-32 hours
fairly worn 24-32 hours
greatly worn 24-32 hours
in danger of collapsing 6 hours 52 minutes, plus any server down time during this phase
Basically when I find a decaying house I mark a rune and lable the rune with a number. In notepad I write down when I found the house and what stage it is at like this:
15 slight fri nite
16 some fri nite
17 some fri nite
18 slight fri nite
When houses become greatly worn (usually in the evening or early morning hours, after being fairly worn for over a day), I give them a day to go through the stage, then around 2 AM I check all my greatly worn houses untill their signs change to 'in danger of collapsing'. Almost all houses fall in the morning between 9-11 AM CST, as these houses are from closed accounts and they all begin to decay at the same time (when billing updates and notices that the account has not been paid for for three months).
So now when I check the houses I can note in my notepad what times they change - this tells me when in the morning I am going to camp them.
15 slight fri nite
16 some fri nite | IDOC bet 2:43-2:47
17 some fri nite | IDOC bet 3:14-3:20
18 slight fri nite
I will camp 16 first, around 9:40 and it will probably fall around 9:50-9:55. Then I will camp 17 at 3:10 and it will probably fall around 3:25. On shards that don't have a server down time occuring during their idoc phase (for example, Europa), I would start camping #16 at 9:30 or so, and #17 around 10:00
If you are camping in fel you may want to get a partner in case you have to deal with pks. If you camp in tram then there will be a lot of competition, probably at least one or two people who will try to place then grab all the boxes to lock down on their new plot before you can.
You can put down water barrels to prevent house placing - the best time to do this is right before the house is due to fall, which is one of the reasons that its important to know when it is going. You can find barrels in a couple buildings in britain, and also the brit stables. Just use a full pitcher on a barrel then use the empty pitcher on it again and then pick it up.
Read the rares forum and be up to date on what is good to grab, sales wise. Go for the rose of trinsic before you go for that special dye tub, and try to figure out where the owner would have put their good stuff. Usually a lot of chests in one area are going to be weapons/armor/jewelry and may or may not be decent, a gold metal box off by its lonesome with 50 items inside could be where they keep their rares/valuables.
Get in the habit of looking through boxes and containers swiftly. If you see a white robe mouse over to see if it is a vet robe, or a 'green' tagged robe. If you see a blaze robe mouse over to see if it is a vet robe or an AoS robe (125k or more on most shards). Custom houses can sometimes have things in the moving crate - these items will all end up being dropped in the very middle of the floor inside their gold boxes, along with items that redeed. When moving crate items drop, they will pile on top of each other, all on the same z axis coordinate. Which means if you see a single gold box, move it to another tile and you may see another gold box, and another. Keep doing this untill the tile is free of items.
If you see a lot of tokuno items such as no daichi or tetsubo or whatever, mouse over quick to see if they are regular looted tokuno items or ToTs.
Vendors will drop and leave behind backpacks with all their wares plus any gold they were holding. Look at any vendor inventory to see what the owner prices things at and how full or empty the vendor is - you can get a couple million this way just by looting the vendor check.
A good idea for scouting is to make a set of runebooks specifically to get you from one long stretch of houseless land to another. I finally got around to doing this on fel baja a few months ago, and it knocked my scouting time down by 2 hours! Initially it is annoying, and you will find that you can easily fill up 4-5 runebooks with runes, and it can be confusing if you just label them with a number. I think I have 12 runes starting me off, all marked trinsic - sheer repetition is the only way I know where each of these runes go.
Since my route starts at trin gate, the first place I have marked is the end of that short river, as you can go north after that to check the houses then have to run back south. Etc. Mark em where you think they will be needed, IE if you have to double back on an area, and name them something memorable! I ended up marking a set for Fel Europa last month, and I did much better this time. Trin elbow, for an elbow shaped clearing, elephant nose, for that elephant shaped nose out by vesper, etc. Whatever will help you remember.
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And from Stompyeob a template:
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the temp i had on an idocer that i made (i since went back to using my tamer for nostalgic reasons.
gm ninja
110 mage
110 eval
gm med
gm hiding
80 stealth
gm tracking
I found 125 strength a must and + strength jewels, and some may wonder why i had tracking on it but its great to find out who else is sitting your falls.
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From Voluptuous from the FAQ on Homes and Castles:
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TWO KEYBOARDS ARE BETTER THAN ONE: It is a great thing if you can form a little IDOC group of trusted friends. You can share areas to scout or take turns, or have a member in your group that plays late in the night to time the houses for you. My little group of friends are sporadic about the scouting, when we can camp, etc. It's casual. Some other groups are well-organized looting machines that can make a lot of money doing IDOCs on every shard. Don't get me wrong, thou, one can solo IDOCs just fine as well....it's just a bit more work to scout.
SKILLS: As mentioned before the skills Hiding, Stealth are very useful, as is pumping up your STR to maximum to hold more loot, and I GM'd tracking as well so I always know who I'm up against. Some magery to mark your own runes is nice, as well as killing the odd monster that wants to spoil your fun.
The PLAYER'S BACKPACK: Sending bags, your trusty IDOC runebook, and NOT MUCH ELSE! You may want some regs, maybe a hatchet to axe air-born addons, and a placing tool if the spot is desirable.
THE STIGMA: Campers have it rough...we are not the most-loved "profession" in the game. We rank somewhere below murderers but slightly above scam artists. Don't let it bother you, it's something we do because we love the gamble. We are not vultures looking for easy pickings, it's a LOT of work and many hours dedicated to finding and watching decays. I like to point out to those that shun me that they might not own that server birth rare they just bought if some camper didn't save it from decaying out of the game by picking it up.
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Look at that last paragraph. It IS a LOT of work. And some have already made their feelings very clear that I am breaking the code.
I am not going to do this forever - but I will give you locations for several weeks. I want more people to be caught by the bug (I don't mean the scripting bug). It is enjoyable, frustrating and rewarding.
I am not retiring - I will be there - I was at the small tower but I was an observer.
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Ok tactics.
Some are there for the loot, some are there to place a house, and some are there for both.
You have to decide what you are there for.
Nicest is what happened at the small tower today. It fell, and loot was left for picking up. As far as I am aware (I wasn't there all the time) nobody placed.
People rooted through the loot and loaded their packies (think about your packies and whether you need more stable slots - bonded animals can be summoned).
However many idocers have a House free account so they can place. The housing rules allow you to place, then drop the house once you have finished with it. So some idocers will place a small plot in order to be able to load chests on to it, sort through the loot then drop the house.
Perfectly legal. And they will be able to place again immediately.
Some idocers are more interested in the plot because it is a max or tower. They are not so interested in the loot though they can load stuff onto their plot once placed. A lot of professional idocers will use trial accounts or new accounts from expansion packs to enable them to hold multiple house plots to sell. I have one account that is permanently paid for (cc) and is house free - I also find plots by trawling the lands (not idocs).
My partner and I will probably have one other house free account to place with.
Professional idocers will have multiple house free accounts at any one time.
Stopping house placing
OK - this is a sensitive issue which has been discussed on UO Hall. Barrels and field spells
Filled barrels whether filled with one jug of water or by the water exploit (20 jugs instantly) will stop placement. Yopu can hide the barrel with a beetle, or in a corner which nobody will see unless they have transparency circle on or under the steps. Barrel placing is a fine art.
Some who want to place will put barrels so there is a gap for them to place a small blocker. Fine art as I said.
Field spells are often cast too as they are supposed to stop placement.
Blockers
In the days when you could get 15-20 mill for a tower or a max blockers were a legitimate tactic for idocers. A placer may not have placed to the footprint of the faller and an enterprising idocer could place a small blocker to stop the max being placed.
This is still a legitmate tactic for castles and forts. The going price for a blocker is 1 million. But with the fall of house prices and the fact that only the maxes sell now blockers aren't really done anymore unless
its a castle
its a fort
its in a desirable location
you really want to annoy the main placer and placed 12 hours after they could have maxed their plot and moved barrels to do so 'lol'
Forget the last.
To place you need to know the footprint of the faller, you need to check for barrels and MOST IMPORTANT you really need to know the time of the fall at least to within 20 mins
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Houses owned by OSI
Houses are owned by OSI either because there are rented vendors - explained in the FAQ, or because the account is pending investigation.
OSI houses go through the same cycle as ordinary houses but when they drop is just luck. You can time them and pop along when it 'should' fall but I don't bother usually.
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Lets look at trawling for IDOCs.
This is really really hard work. Some people use UOAM combined with UOAssist. Both are legal. UO Assist is worth the one off 15$ payment per account but you are able to trial it for free for 15 days I think.
UOAM is free, though you can make a contribution.
So how do they help you?
With both you can make a file to track housing - UOAM, using UOAssist will give you a visual display of housing which will be permanent and will build up as you trawl. You can see what I mean by going to UO Action2 - you don't have to be registered to look.
Check out the housing auctions with pictures - I am sure you will find one showing what I mean.
So how do I do that, you ask. You have to have a paid up UO Assist linked to your account and UOAM.
Step 1: Fire up UOAM after you have logged into your account.
Step 2: Right click on the UOAM map
and a drop down list will appear
Step 3: Click on 'Map' which bring up another drop down
Step 4: Click on 'Additional settings' (last choice) and a window pops up with tabs
Step 5: Click on 'Files' Tab and click on 'Add....' button
Step 6: A prompt comes up for the File name - you could call it TramHouses or 'Mining spots'
Step 7: It will create that file in UOAM directory and it will appear in the list of files with a tick by it to show it is active - Close the window
Step 8: Do steps 2-4 and click on UO Assist. There is a drop down box labeled 'Log houses to this file: - drop the box and choose the file name - you can stop logging at any time by choosing <not logging> from the drop down.
This (for me) is invaluable. But I know that some don't use it. For me its a visual check on houses I have run past.
UO assist can be found at Tugsoft
UO AutoMap can be found here on stratics
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NOXIN LB
I'm going to explain the process I used to use when doing Tram ruleset IDOCs. (rather succesfully I might add)
The first and most important thing you need is patience, the second is a method to gather the loot quickly and efficiently. My own method of doing this was simply to use a new account. the night before the IDOC stage I would scout the area directly near the collapsing house and attempt to place the largest plot I could as close as I could, many times there were spaces directly next to them.
To the right is the best location for a loot dump plot. followed by above, then left and finally below.
I would then purchase 20-30 wooden boxes and secure them along the edge of the plot in a row for easy access from outside the plot.
Then as the time of collapse approached, I would walk on and off the plot to see the contents, and camp between the edge of my plot and the collapsing house.
Upon collapse, grab chests and throw them inside the secured boxes, while you cannot take items out from outside, you can put them in, and often you can walk away with those really heavy chests people generally ignore in favour of lighter, more easily managed ones.
Once everything has been gathered you simply sort through the chests in your own time, or simply leave them until later if you have more that day. Once you have sorted them, you remove everything you want to keep and demolish the plot. This allows the placing character to place another one later, even if the housing tool tells you that you can't it simple wont give you the placement confimation window but will still place.
If there was no space for a plot nearby then it was back to basic packhorses.
The trick with packhorses is to make a UOA macro to open all 5 packs. (You should be on foot in order to maximize storae capacity)
You should also have all 5 packs open at the time of collapse ready to simply drag and drop, should they close accidently then your macro can reopen them in 3-4 seconds. You should always stand outside of the house when using packhorses, as when it collapses the packs will close on you.
Where you locate yourself is a paramount importance. If you feel someone is going to attempt to place or you yourself are going to then you should be standing where the house sign of that house will be as everythign will be thrown under there when it is placed.
If you dont suspect placement attempts then stand on the outside edges of the house where you can either grab a display item of significant value or a large collection of chests. Personally I'd say forget the displayed items, they'll be scripted if it's a busy location as permenantly dragging the same item over and overis a very simple script.
For Fel based IDOCs it all depends on your ability. If you aren't a PvPer you can still walk away with a significant amount of loot. You need 2 accounts or a friend, ghost the IDOC and watch, at the immediate time of collapse, you recall in with your character, prefereably with hiding and magery and with protection cast. grab what you can and hit your recall home macro, repeat this process.
If you have some ability then you can use the storage plot method above combined with a domination approach, and simply kill everyone who turns up, it's a good idea to time this killing to within a hour of drop, as angry people will often go seeking help, and although this generates fun and games it increases your chances of loosing. Remember the fact that the smart ones will be using the above method and not looking for more help as it lowers their take.
I personally took control of about 80% of the IDOCs I did in Fel with just myself and Wildcat, not because I'm particually amazing at PvP (although I am wot?!) but because they simply aren't all that popular and the majority of IDOCers who do Trammel ones rarely check for Fel based. When it came time for me to move onto other things there were roughly 3 people doing Fel IDOCs.
Most of the time IDOCs with other people meant fights, which means no standing around for an hour waiting for the drop, you have entertainment come to you right up until the time of falling.
On the occasions when there would be a significant amount of people, then I wouldn't even care about the loot anymore because the whole scenario provided some good fights and interesting times, and the potential of a nice reward at the end.
A Fel IDOC is in general not as good as a Trammel one loot wise, but then you don't share with anyone else and occasionally find a gem of a house.
In the month or so I was doing them, the highlights were probably placing my own keep, a house FULL of potted trees and plants, neon hair dye bottles, playing cards, an item bless deed and all sorts of other "old skool" rares and valuables. Trammel ones will generally contain newer valuables such as artifacts and minors etc.
In total I made roughly 300 million in a month doing IDOCs, some days you'd walk away with nothing, but others you'd snag 15-20 million from a single house. It's certainly one of the most effective ways to generate wealth in the game, and as others have said you also end up with a great collection of nostalgic keepsakes for yourself.
My favourite IDOC ever has to have been the script miner's house I found and had to myself, containing roughly 1000 of every gem and over 8 million iron ingots. You wouldn't believe how long it took to smelt and send them all to the bank.
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RedOrDead
Timing
Right, JF is right - I am not as expert as some who are reading this thread but I will do my best. JF referred to Whispering Green. He is Bobar and I think that is his stratics nick too but I will check later.
Remember the small tower that fell on Friday? I gave an approximate fall time between 16.00 and 17.00. I think it fell around 16.30 - yes?
How I came up with that approximate time was by the following steps:
Step 1: I had that small tower as GW in my rune book. I recalled to it at 8.30 am on Friday and it was GW - I recalled again at 9.00 - still gw and again about 9.30 and still GW.
But when I recalled to it at 9.58 it was idoc.
Step 2: So I add on 7 hours to 9.30 to give an approximate time of between 16.30 and 17.00 but probably nearer 16.30.
The better you can pinpoint the change time the more sure you can be of the fall time
Now at the moment I cannot pinpoint the change on weekdays but I can at weekends - if I am around and if I am dedicated - which some of the time I am not as real life like washing clothes, housework and shopping get in the way.
Here are some quotes from other posted replies to the timing question which are in the public domain on Stratics.
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From Sarsmi around June 2006 in reply to a query on a house fall timing - Baja shard
It probably turned fairly worn around 7:30 PM on the 10th, it'll be fairly for about 28 hours on average and go greatly around 11:30 PM on the 11th, then it will be greatly for 28 hours on average and turn idoc around 3:30-5:30 AM on the 13th. Then it will fall 7 hours after that. So around 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM on the 13th. You really don't need to keep a close eye on all the stages, but if you do want to nail the fall time down then go hide at the house checking the sign regularly, around 3 AM on the 13th and be prepared to hang out for a bit. Then add 6 hours and 52 minutes plus server down time (about 7:10 usually) to the time it turns idoc, and there you go. =)
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From Statman around Nov 2006 on UO Hall
So, the trick becomes knowing when a house is going to fall as close as possible. This requires catching the decay status as close as possible to a status change, e.g. from Fairly to Greatly worn. Then, if you know how long from the new decay status to house fall, you can be ready and beat a scripter everytime.
I shouldnt be giving out my hard work, but for those who are interested, here are the times from a status change to house fall. Results based on 300 houses one a single shard.
Turned fairly to house fall: 2.987 +- 0.004 days
Turned greatly to house fall: 1.499 +- 0.024 days ++
Turned idoc to house fall: 0.297 +- 0.001 days
++ Much of this data was collected during dates that spanned daylight savings, which I believe is responsible for the larger error.
These times are very accurate. Matter of fact, I was stunned by their accuracy. They are so accurate, that I can go to work and feel confident that if I make it home 5 minutes before these times that I will get some goodies!
The times also cross server reboot/maintenance. I think that server reboot isnt a big deal because all housing is controlled from a single server. So, regardless of the actual shard downtime, the house server continues to tick away. Unless of course they are doing maintenance on it.
Notice the units of days at the end of the value +- sd Yes, 0.297 days is 7 hours 7 minutes. The info printed for decay times by EA and Stratics is wrong. At least based on my 300 houses of data. The above values work damn near perfect. I havent tried this on other shards, but since the housing for all shards is tracked using a single dedicated server, I think it should not vary much if at all.
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Now it may be that Europa varies. But the 7 hours + or - is, on the whole, accurate.
Warnings
All the time periods for decay stages are affected by shard downtime. So if Europa goes missing it can affect the timings.
Sitting (or camping) a house can lead to terminal boredom and lack of concentration. I don't recommend it. A strategy is to recall in and out and hope you get something when it falls.
Although the majority of houses on Europa seem to fall in the time period I have given not all do. Some fall in the evening or even around middnight or early hours.
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How to calculate Statman's timings:
He is working in days (24 hours). 0.297*24 = 7.128 (7 hours) and 60 mins * .128 = 7.6 minutes so 7 hours 7 minutes (8 minutes if you round up)
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Steps to Loot
1. Checking the House Contents
Before the house falls check it out if you can. If the house is open to the public or partly open to the public, go round it. Make a note of where items are. Make an educated guess as to what may be in the chests. Hover your mouse over the chests to see how many items are in there and what the weight is.
Check out the décor. Is there a tasty item that you would really, really like to have?
Even houses that are only partially available to the public can be checked over as often you can see into the ‘private’ rooms.
There is supposed to be a way to get into private houses, but I don’t know it or if it is legitimate or not.
2. House Fall
The first time you see a big house fall and dump all its loot on the ground is a shock. You will freeze for a few seconds and feel quite confused. This is common. It happens to most people.
Knowing the approximate time of fall helps because you will be ready for it and you won’t have been sitting (camping) too long. You will be fresh.
There are two things that can happen once the house has fallen. Somebody can place a house or nobody places a house.
3. Nobody places a house.
This may be because they can’t; filled barrels and field spells are used to stop placement so that the loot is more available and spread out. Or it may be because its not worth it – small plot, not much loot.
It is much nicer if this happens. Contrary to rumour I don’t participate in barrel placing (far too incompetent) or field spells unless others are doing field spells – it alleviates the boredom. One set of idocers, if they haven’t got a house placer free will place barrels and lots of them.
So the loot is scattered and you are free to rummage.
4. A House is placed
The house may be the exact same footprint as the faller or it may be smaller. Where the house lands any loot within its footprint will go under the sign. That is why you will see sitters positioned under the sign of a faller.
Some of that loot will be ‘locked down’ under the sign. Only the house owner can get at that loot. But most loot should be free to be picked up.
Control+Shift and right clicking the mouse is your friend. Try it anywhere for practice. You can then grab a box or bell or whatever into your backpack or your packie.
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Loot Part 2
This is about tips and strategies for gathering loot whether under the sign of the newly placed house or strewn about the ground.
UHaul or Rent-a-packie
Loot is heavy. You can maximise the amount you can run off with if:
you minimise to essentials what you are carrying
you utilise packies and/or beetles
There are 2 schools of thought on packies. Buy as you go is one method; bond and keep is another. I have no opinions but can offer these pros and cons.
Rent as you go packies can be abandoned; bonded packies can be summoned if bonded.
Beetles take 3 control slots but you can ride them; packies take 1 slot and you can't
Ethies take 1 slot while you can ride them but quickly dismount them then they take 0 slots and appear in your backpack
One idocer has 5 packies which he summons: to do this he has to follow the stable rules:
Stable slots and taming skill (from the Tamers forum FAQ):
below 160, two pets may be stabled.
between 160 and 199.9, three pets may be stabled.
between 200 and 239.9, four pets may be stabled.
at or above 240, five pets may be stabled.
If you go for this you can ride an ethie and have summoning balls for your pets but you must have 240 or more tamer skill. The advantage is that you can haul off more stuff.
Bonded packies/beetles need to be fed and commanded. Packies etc have an unfortunate tendancy to go after spawn. It doesn't happen often but can and you should be aware of it. Beetles eat meat - if you load it with 560 ribs of beef picked up at an idoc its gone into its stomach not its backpack.
Before you go sit an idoc remember to check your beetle and your own backpack - do a clearout. Some may laugh at this, but I have gone with a semi full beetle before now and had to hastily recall to dump the stuff somewhere safe.
Also check you got room in your bank to send stuff back to it.
Loads
You should be aware how much you and your packie can carry. More strength you have the better - stat powerscrolls/jewelry etc. Beetles and packies can carry up to 1600+ stone - roughly equal to 1500 boards and 15k of regs and 15k of ingots. Also max item carry is 125 items. If you exceed this whatever does this will drop to ground.
Essential equipment
Runebook - runes for fallers, rune to get back to base - runes might be separate or in rune book - depends on your style
Summoning balls
Bag(s) of sending
LRC suit or charged up runebook
hatchet for getting rid of goza mats and troughs and smashing chests/cupboards (if you want to spread contents on ground)
spare backpack (?)
Unreachable loot
Some loot seems to be unreachable - it seems to get stuck in the sky. If you try to grab it you will be told you cannot reach it. Think house - think you are on the ground floor and the stuff is on the first or second floor. Position yourself underneath it as if you were in the house and reach for it. Takes a little practice and hard to explain. Spatial thing.
Crap loot under the house sign
Yes, loads of plants and benches etc. You keep pulling them even though you should be right clicking to eliminate pulling them. Well if you put your spare backpack on the ground or use a chest/backpack already there put all the crap stuff in it.
Crap loot that may not be crap
Some loot looks crap and you don't give it a second glance - be careful, you may be throwing a saleable item. Old labels can be saleable. Visit the rares forum - you will get more idea there than I have room to list.
I will let you into a secret - I threw 40 million gold onto the ground (well my partner rescued it, thank goodness) but I left it to rot. A set of books, doom stealable but with a unique label, and because of the label it sold for 40 million. I now am very very careful to check labels.
I think there may be a loot part 3 to come and definitely an expanation of housing and how it works for idoc. Also you got the loot - what do i do with it now?? So 3 more posts to come - in next couple days
Edit on crap crap loot
Ok fell into a trap here. Loot is in the eye of the beholder. When I first started the polish gang used to dump all the 'crap' loot they got around their shop. We used to recycle it. Sometimes we found a tasty item they had missed.
Let's look at the ocean:
there are sharks and they get all the good stuff, but they are not bothered if some of the lesser stuff goes to the pilot fish who clean them up. The Polish gang acted like that. They got most of the really good stuff (umm maybe illegally in some cases) but they made sure that the pilot fish got some of the mediocre stuff as well. They did not take all of it.
Crap stuff can still bbe sold or recycled. One idocer (not on this shard) makes a habit of collecting all the leftovers and either recycling or selling in her/his shop. May not make a fortune but beats crafting it.
Edited: the idocer summons 5 packies - he has to follow the stabling rules for that
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Loot Part 3
Grabbing that item you really want
So you have looked round the house before it falls and there is this really tasty item. When the house is about to fall position yourself by the item with your mouse pointer highlighting it. click and hold - when the house drops drag to backpack.
If it is REALLY tasty you will have competition.
Positioning yourself
If the house is private or you don't want to sit in it and you are not placing position yourself along the west wall or the back wall. Think how houses are spatially positioned in the gameworld if they have more than the ground floor plot. Loot will fall from the first and second floors to the back and to the west.
The plot
Don't think a plot has no loot. If it is open to the public and there is no loot there then it probably hasn't unless the owner has customised and left loot in the moving crate.
Private plots may very well have loot. Just because you cannot see it does not mean it isn't there.
Noises......
If certain items are turned on they omit noises....... you can sometimes guess what might be in a private plot from listening......
Rummaging
Loot falls in heaps. Well worth a rummage and digging deep into a pile to see if anything has been hidden. Move those benches; check out that pile of plants; check out what used to be a cotton bale fontain; dig under those goza mats.
Its too heavy and I am not going to let go
Tricky... you can hide and hang on. You can call friends to bring a packie and friend it.....you can leap frog it but it will probably get stolen. You can call friends and go into a huggle effectively making sure the 'thing' is hidden....
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What to do with the loot
Well if you are just starting anything you grab is a prize, a momento, and you will want to keep it.
However if you do idocing on a regular basis you will want to off load loot. Sarsmi, don't get me wrong, but I don't think many people would want to hoard 100 black dye tubs
Recycling
So you got this chest of crap weapons and armour - why do people hoard such stuff????
You can smelt/cut it up for ingots and leather/cloth. UOAssist has a nifty feature (if you have subscribed) to set a recycle bag in which you can put all this set a macro for smelt and a macro for scissors within UO assist and it will do it in a blink of an eye.
Those jewels and crap jewelry can be sold to NPCs - again look to UOAssist to set a selling bag. Well mostly anything can be sold to NPCs and apparantly Haven NPCs buy a lot of stuff that ordinary NPCs don't.
NPCs have different buying prices too - if you are really dedicated you can call around and find the best buy price but I think we could guess Luna and Britain may be where to go.
Look out for strange labels, double blessed items, event items etc
These can be sold to players. Check out the rares forum on stratics regularly. Check out the FAQ on both the rares forum and the Cross Sharding Forum.
Even if you don't want to register check out
www.uo-auction2.com
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What to do with your loot Part 2
Auction it
If you have some nice pieces you can auction them. There are two ways to do this.
UO Auction
For some reason I can't quite fathom the only two shards that really use this facility are Great Lakes and Europa. Its a great way of buying and selling all sorts of stuff.
You do have to register but that is quite painless - may take a day or two for the mods to check you out but once done, its done.
It works very well. Most people honour their sales and buys. I have had a handful of no shows and I have traded hundreds of times on UO Auction over the years.
You must have a valid email though it could be a dedicated hotmail account - that's fine. ICQ really is the most convenient way to trade though you CANNOT insist that is the only way to trade.
Go have a look at
www.uo-auction2.com - Here
You can sell mostly anything on uo auction but DO READ THE RULES!
Leto's Auction
Leto's auction is held every Wednesday at 19.00 GMT (20.00 CET) and lasts approximately 90 mins. People who want to auction stuff contact Leto and hand over their goods in a bag with a book describing who you are, what you selling and any reserve price. This is geared to high end items and rares. He rarely auctions weapons and armour other than the dooms and the marties.
Leto has done this for 2-3 years. There is no commission. And it is a great way of selling off high end items.
Its worth going along for the experience - to see traders vying against each other (usually paying too much as well ) and to get the atmosphere of a very well run auction!
A Shop or a rented vendor
You can open a shop ------- my friend Topplotter has promised that he will post about running an idoc loot shop at the weekend!
But you can start small - either have one vendor on your own house or rent a vendor if you think you can keep it well supplied in an on-going shop.
I have even found a 'weekend vendor' which only gets stocked at the weekend - doh - but that is expalined and obvious in the vendor name.
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Houses and placing
This is almost as contentious as telling you the codes.
Have a house free account - what I mean here is don't use your main account with your characters' main house to plot!
1. You can place and demolish as much as you like. Well, you can place once, demolish once and place again then a 15 minute time limit kicks in before you can demolish again.
2. You get back the plot fee if you demolish
3. Obviously you have to have the gold in the bank to place the plot
4. You can transfer to another account your newly placed house and immediately place again.
5. Just ignore any yellow warning gumps
6. Very very occasionally your house free account gets bugged and you do have to wait out the 7 days - happened to me twice in 3 years
7. If you use
www.uo-auction2.com to trade houses they have very strict rules about house trades. Please read the rules and understand them - houses are a no-tolerance zone. If you don't trade you get banned.
8. You can use a trial account (15 days does not give you much time to trade) to place houses
9. You can use a young to place houses
10. You can use a new account given with an expansion pack to place houses - often you are given 30-45 days free.
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Placing new houses on fallers
Okkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
1. Knowing the time of the fall is a big advantage - your level of intense concentration is limited.
2. Many swear by (using legitimate) macros either by the UO last target or by assigning a key and running a macro in UOAssist. Remember that there are many plot sizes. You may need to make an individual macro for the faller(s) of the day.
You can test this on Test Centre - placing there does not affect any house on production shards on the account used.
3. House placing can be stopped (in Trammel/Malas) by: filled barrels and field spells
4. It helps if you have:
a fast computer
a fast ping
no other programmes accessing the internet running
5. Having said that I reckon knowing the time of fall helps the most.
6. Don't dispair if you haven't any of 4 - you can still place if you are lucky - I have done it.
Blockers
Blockers are a legitimate strategy if a placer does not place exactly the footprint of the faller. They are only really useful for big plots (18*18, keep or castle).
However if KR takes off, housing will be at a premium and blockers will come into their own as a legitimate revenue earner.
A blocker means that the footprint of the faller cannot be replicated. It needs trading. The going price for a blocker is 1 million or more (though this is when there is a premium for the location and depends on the market).
Blockers may come back into their own after KR.
Speculation
Some idocers go in for speculation.
There are a few that have a number of accounts that they use to speculate on the market.
Those of you who have been round the lands looking at house signs may have noticed the 'For sale or trade ....xxx million' houses - those are owned by the same speulator althoug the house owner names may vary.
Ronsard is another speculator - he holds houses waiting for fallers next door so that he can maximise to a castle or keep.
So is Vinny the Rat.
(I can give locations of these houses so you can see why they have done this)
Its legitimate and a valid way of pursuing a return on your investment .
Placing for loot
If you have a house free account you can place for placing loot.
I have mixed feelings on this - I have done it but......
I tend to sympathise with people who say this is unfair. There are pros and cons.
Pros:
You can pull heavy chests on to the plot and secure
You can friend
Stuff gets locked under the sign if it is within the footprint (its a bug supposedly...)
You can sell it on
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TopHousePlotter
Idocing and running a Shop goes hand in hand
--------------------------------------------
Well the best way to compete as a Idocer is to run a shop hand in hand with Idocing!! This normally means running a second account as u will probably have your own house on your first account. (Secret) Me and red or dead have a second account each- it works well !!!!with 2 players as red or dead can place at fallers- great for grabbing all the loot!!! and heavy chests- shes always free on her second account to place - also she can place and sell the max 18x18s and towers bringing more gold onto out pot!! and i run/own the big 18x18 shop just outside the east gate of luna city on europa-on my own second account.
shop location
-------------
Okies so u need a shop- well if u going to have a shop make sure its a max secure-- so u looking at 13x17 - 14x16 - 15x15 -16x14 -17x13 or bigger. The reason u need a max is that sometime u get sooooo much loot that it makes sense to have the max storage u can.
Next were in the world to have the shop??- well if u can id say if its on a roadside its got to be a plus point - shops inside luna city are mega but few and far between and normally aint max secure and normally silly silly gold to buy too , so look for a max plot next to a road if poss - saying that our own shop isnt on a road but it is on the fringe of luna city in the clump of houses outside the east gate of luna city!! - if u go visit luna, go just outside all the gates of luna city and u will finds quite a few big shops on the fringes... again this would be a good place to start a shop
Shop layout
-----------
Keep it simple!! single or 2 floors work well....aka Hemis- BlueWolf -and our own shop IdocHunters Shop.
Put vendors in front of tables with items on the tables that they are selling- also name the vendors accurate with what they are selling!! ie 'smith bods' or 'tailor bods' or 'rares'- its soo frustrating if u are a buyer when u go to a shop and the vendors are not even named and its not obvoius to what they are selling either.
Shop general chests (A MUST)
-----------------------------
Okies u need a PLACE or room were u can stack and store all loot like regs and leather- stuff that is stackable etc to save storege!!
Loot drop off room ( A MUST)
------------------
Next u NEED A DROP OFF ROOM this as got to be private to u and your idoc freinds only.u only need a small space with say a dozen chests in it ..when u collect loot u can quick drop loot off the new unsorted loot into this room better in the chests u will have in there - but- if u maxed out, then if its private room u can drop it on the floor and sort it out after the idocs for that day have finished!
Place chests next to each vendor
--------------------------------
Obvoius reallly but when u sort the new loot out u can put it in the vendors chest - ready to put in the vendor when u get time/ or when there is room- rember a vendor can only hold 125 items so if u idoc regular they soon fill up!!
Vendor costs are sooooo much??
--------------------------------
WELL they can be expensive!! but normally they run themselves as the free loot u are getting form idocs always offset any costs the vendors incurr - Remember the loot is free so try sell cheap and keep the turnover quick- (ie)new loot in- quick sell cheap- make room for fresh loot etc etc....
I find myself THAT u are best to sell your best loot at uo-auction2 or go to a public ingame auction like Letos on europa -to sell the more expensive stuff with no high vendor costs!!- also if u get some really good server berth stuff then i would suggest using the rares forum on stratics.com for a good private sale!!
Make sure u check prices and boxes u have in vendor
----------------------------------------------------
This is a big mistake for all shop owners...if u miss-price a item for peanuts ie u forget to price it up in the first place- u can end up selling a rare hooded shroud for 8 gold instead of 8 millo's as u forgot to price it up properly- so always check prices on items when u put them in the vendor!!
Also if u use boxes in your vendor - make sure after u restock it that the box as not become bugged - ie ive heard many i tale of peeps buying full boxes of rares or gems for peanuts due to a bugged item in the vendor chest- just simply click on ya chests to make sure they are not for sale when u have refilled em!!
See our Shop layout
--------------------
I kinda feel we have got a good system ,, so go and see it - go just outside the east gate of Luna city on europa and u will find our IdocHunters Shop on the fringe of the city- LOCATION IS Malas: 93.16N 12.35W
We got a good open floor with 30 vendors selling anything and everthing- we got a private bit were we sort and dump loot inside the doors that u cant get inside and on the top floor we have chests were we dump the good stuff for auction and the comm stuff ready for deeding!! it works really well and to be fair we've made a mint - but be prepared to sell everything u idoc!! even stuff for 1000g as it soon adds up, and always keep a eye on prices and try to undercut the big malls as they will buy your stuff to restock there big malls!!
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Edited by Lord_Light (03/05/07 03:59 PM)
Post Extras:
RedOrDead
Sage
Reged: 04/03/04
Posts: 604
Re: How to fill water barrels [Re: Lord_Light]
#7128364 - 03/09/07 12:33 PM Edit Reply Quote
from uo hall:
also did you know that you can fill a pitcher mulitple times? you do this buy finding a ripple(white line out on a body of water) and click on to fill you water pitcher, you can fill it up 32 times.
Post Extras:
RedOrDead
Sage
Reged: 04/03/04
Posts: 604
Re: How to place a house via macro [Re: RedOrDead]
#7153051 - 03/25/07 10:31 AM Edit Reply Quote
I have edited this a bit and tested it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. first setup a uo macro for wait for target and last target under options on your paperdoll
2. set a hot key for that,
3. then make a uoa macro using your house tool and select the house you want
to place but dont target anything while making the macro
Note: if you do target that's ok you can delete those lines from the UOA macro
4. next set the same hot key you did for the uo macro for the uoa macro
make sure you select the pass thru to uo on uoa macro key,
5. goto the idoc you want to place at manually,
6. open your house tool, select the house your looking for, target where you
want.
7. Now you just setup your last target location in your paperdoll macro options
8. Now just keep hitting your hot key you made earlyer over and over till house
falls and wow you just placed a house lol
(oh and i forgot to add having several computers and a loving family thats likes the game also helps alot)
Shadowspirit March 24th 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can test this without affecting any houses on your account on TEST Centre Shard.
Warning: do not try it on a production shard if you hold a house on the account
Edited by RedOrDead (03/25/07 10:35 AM)
Post Extras:
jack flash uk
Sage
Reged: 10/21/06
Posts: 678
Loc: Hiding in Wildcat and Noxins s... Re: How to place a house via macro [Re: RedOrDead]
#7153444 - 03/25/07 05:33 PM Edit Reply Quote
you were warned to stop idoc posts yet you still continue
you admit is was only to attack my player jack flash
hopefully now players have got a good idea of the tyupr of human being you are
and more importantly firebird and lord light will intervene
you just can't let it go can you laura???
Post Extras:
TopHousePlotter
Certifiable
Reged: 06/03/05
Posts: 1547
Re: How to place a house via macro [Re: RedOrDead]
#7153568 - 03/25/07 06:46 PM Edit Reply Quote
WOW Thats a real gem to know about RedorDead a macro for placing ?? and thank you Shadow spirit for sharing this important information !!
And its a must to be added to the awesome Idocing Guide - so all idocers can be on the same level if they choose to be.
So thats how some idocer placers are so quick they just keeping tapping 1 hot key constantly while us normal folk have to keep refreshing the house tool menu....jeepers... no wonder i get beat so many times....1 hot key placing macro....jeepers whatever next.....it really works too.
Edited by TopHousePlotter (03/25/07 06:58 PM)
Post Extras:
gwen_alcestis
Sage
Reged: 05/07/05
Posts: 596
Re: How to place a house via macro [Re: TopHousePlotter]
#7154467 - 03/26/07 05:14 AM Edit Reply Quote
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jeepers... no wonder i get beat so many times....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So now you can stop randomly accusing people of being scripters i guess
Post Extras:
TopHousePlotter
Certifiable
Reged: 06/03/05
Posts: 1547
Re: How to place a house via macro [Re: gwen_alcestis]
#7154612 - 03/26/07 09:08 AM Edit Reply Quote
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jeepers... no wonder i get beat so many times....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So now you can stop randomly accusing people of being scripters i guess
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just nice to know why some peeps were so quick- 1 button hot key is bound to be quicker than reloading the house tool- i personally have never called anyone a scripter in game...though ive seen many others accuse peeps- indeed im so quick with the house tool ive often been called a scripter ingame myself....which ive always found funny...lol....
sorry but scripting still takes place??? so whats your point??
1. unattended scripting for house placement- places houses while away at work?
2. the blatant picking up and running away of silly heavy weight chests-
3. ''wish list'' scripting- were the fallen loot seems to vanish into thin air??
(and more than me have posted and seen this happen)
Edited by TopHousePlotter (03/26/07 09:12 AM)
Post Extras:
Stumpyeob
UO Moderator
Babbling Loonie
Reged: 06/18/05
Posts: 2667
Loc: Hiding at your falling house Re: How to place a house via macro [Re: TopHousePlotter]
#7302128 - 06/29/07 04:41 AM Edit Reply Quote
Mods, you can delete this if you want but I'm an idocer from Oceania and Baja who is trying to get an IDOCers forum up and running on Stratics but I need stratics idocers to post that they want it right Here
Thanks
(Btw i have sent many an idocing noob to this guide, its great)
Post Extras:
Azmira Zalof
Seasoned Veteran
Reged: 02/23/04
Posts: 393
Re: How to place a house via macro [Re: jack flash uk]
#7302401 - 06/29/07 10:06 AM Edit Reply Quote
What does that mean?
Post Extras:
RedOrDead
Sage
Reged: 04/03/04
Posts: 604
Using WaterBarrels [Re: Azmira Zalof]
#7388688 - 08/26/07 03:54 PM Edit Reply Quote
from Larissa:
What do i need to get to Insta fill a water barrel full in a blink of an eye?
There are waves on the water across the land...little white spots on the water, get an empty pitcher, double-click it and target one of these waves. It will fill the pitcher....keep doing that and pretty soon you will have a pitcher with 8675746567578483489 gallons of water in it. I use these to do the trans powder quests, instead of carrying 8 pitchers with me, I just fill up one pitcher 8 times, it's very handy....unfortunatly this is how you max fill a water barrel instantly.
How do i statck multi water barrel and fill them on top of each other?
stand in a spot, click on your super water pitcher and click on an empty barrel, it will instantly fill and drop on the spot you are standing...if you do it again, another barrel will fall in the same spot, thus resulting in stacked water barrels.
What do i need to get to Insta fill a water barrel full in a blink of an eye?
Read answer to #1
How can i empty a full water barrel ( about 25 picthers ) in 2 seconds?
This one is tricky...I know that you can set a UOA Macro to Target barrel, target self, then wait so many seconds, rinse repeat..not sure how FAST it can go but it's pretty fast.
Do empty water barrels block house placement?
I would assume they do, though I've never actually tried placing a house on top of a water barrel... They do at themoment - Aug 2007
Are there any other items than water barrels that block placment?
Since water barrels are a "fixed" item, meaning you just can't pick it up and move it, it blocks placement, other then trees and bumps in the ground I beleive those are the only things other then casting fields which is a big no no that will block placement.
Are there Any other great barrel Legal "exploits" that im forgetting to ask about?
I don't think so.
Hope that helps.
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