Common Deco Problems & Solutions

[Lady_Rachel]

Greetings all.

I am starting this thread for us all to put in deco problems & solutions on how to solve them.
For instance recently on Origin someone was having problems stacking things on a pedestal.
Stacking has gotten a bit weird since the changes in the Z axis after SA's release.

To stack things now you have to place the top most thing first...say a bow, raise it up, release it, then place the next thing,..say the pedestal.
Lock down the bow again, then lower it on top the pedestal.

Hopefully this thread will be useful to all those new decorators, and those returning to us.
So add in your problems & solutions all. Or if you have a problem, toss it out here and maybe someone will come up with a solution!

 

[aulbrey]

sometimes i find it difficult to place items in certain areas especially under archways. the way i found that works best for these situations is to place a trash barrel then place the item i want to place in the trash barrel. I then chop the trash barrel and the item usually pops into the same place that the trash barrel was from that point i can usually just lock the item down.

 

[Nexus]

Don't forget ladders, they are worth the cost of a heritage token of you don't have one simply for what they allow you to do with Decoration.

Good example....

I placed a South Facing Castle Ladder on the walkway above and one tile SE of where I wanted the Ultima Banners to appear to be when in place, you have to offset by one tile to adjust for the isometric view point of the client. Climb to the highest point on the ladder and you are above the "Edge" of the walkway, one more step puts you suspended over the wall of the facing of the house. I placed a Square Goza here, locked the Ultima Banner down on it, chopped the Goza, then the ladder and used the Deco tool to lower the banners into place.

The One's on the upper floor were done similarly as was the Dragon Head but from the central roof of the keep.

You can also "stack" or suspend items higher than you'd normally be allowed to using this method. Experimenting for a deco idea, I stacked 6 small forges the other day and could have went much higher if I'd wanted too...


Other tips, and yes once again this a common one, but for someone who's not into Deco (and I'm not really), this might not be common knowledge.
Add-on's made from Special Materials (Oak for example it's readily available) can by dyed using Special Dyes, such as Tokuno Dyes, or Plant Dyes. This only works if the Add-on has never been placed, so it's best to do so right after they are made. I have some lovely Ocean Blue forges I created this way.

If you use Vendors for storing BODS at your house, dress them to match the house, a "Stock" Vendor floating around can spoil a design or enhance it. I know I don't have much in the way of Deco up at the house in that pic (just placed it a few days ago), but one of the most commented things from friends is how the Vendors being dressed up actually enhances how the house looks. I find it much better than tucking them away in some corner, they become part of the scenery instead of an eyesore to be ignored. The Metal Dye tubs have facilitated the use of Vendors greatly.


And yes I know my window looks weird, I run UO on Linux....

 

[jgruberman]

So this didn't used to be... I don't think....

But looking at the below pic... if I try to customize the house to place a wall piece to cover up the "planter entrance", the flowers dissappear when I go into customize mode.

The planter walls are composed of short wall pieces, and for the LIFE of me can't figure out why this is happening. I mean... I could remove the planter walls, but then that removes the illusion of the planter.

Any ideas? PLEASE HELP!

http://i53.***********/2yuagrs.png

 

[Deception]

What I did with my planters is raise the plants up higher than the tile itself before customizing. They stay locked down where they are, you just have to lower them once you are done.

 

[EvilPixieWorks]

The trick to decorating non-passable floor tiles.

For more creative house designs, you could choose to use lava or water from the classic tiles, OR the water tiles from the Asian set. Once in place, it is impossible to place any items on these floor tiles. These impassible tiles can also be called raw obstacles.

This does not include swamp floor tiles! Swamp tiles are passable, as they are in the game world. Lava and water are not passable.

With the impassable floor tiles… there ARE items that will decorate them. Here are some examples:

Rare rewards:
Water Rocks, either a single or in 3 with animated water.
Water Pier, with animated water around the bottom.
Bubbling Swamp Tile.

Rocks (semi-rare) Daily spawn.
Granite from mining.

Rubble items:
Larger rocks.
Sea-Weed
Water Lilies (both rubble and grown from seed)

Plus… I’m sure there are other things, but this is just for example. The Primeval Lich spawn can provide a few items, like that large demon statuette that would work great on lava. Those very dark colored rocks of different sizes, burned bone containers, and so on. Unfortunately, we have no FIRE items we can use for lockdown, much like the rubble camp fire… still, the possibilities are endless even if you have never had success placing any items on these 2 sets of floor tiles.

Gaza mats will NOT work!

What I’ve found that works… Say for example you have a lava space of 3x3 and you want a lava bubbling tile in the center. You have your design all set, you are happy… you are ready to start decorating. First, you must go into construction mode and replace the lava floor with any other floor that you can walk on… so you can reach the spot you wish your rare tile. Complete the design, walk out, put down the tile and lock it down. Go back into construction mode. Replace the temporary pathway you made with lava tiles once again. Now when you come out of construction mode… the lava bubbling tile will be set where you want it… and any on passing by will see a 3x3 lava patch, without any gaps or flaws where the rare lava tile sits. The tile will not go into the moving crate!

Warning… to reach the tile once more, to recover it… you will need to replace the path again. Other then that, no problem.

This works also for any of the other situations described above. You want Water Rocks in your pond or river? Same thing. This also works for softening the hard lines around water features with plants. Set the plants, lock them down, replace the water… then raise the plants until you have the décor the way you want it.

As far as vendor placement goes… placing vendors on top of columns or plants, this can be done with out going into construction mode. When you have rented out vendors… going into construction mode is far from convenient. I personally recommend topping columns with a grass tile… and then either Poppies or Champion plants. You can do this with a ladder from the “Heritage Token”. Ladder up… take care decorations and deeds… remove the ladder, no one is the wiser. There is NO need to use house teleporters for this job. More elaborate tall features may need a “castle ladder” from the same menu… and these can only be placed by the owner account.

There are many other little tricks to help with special decorating needs, but a master house designer can't reveal all her tricks. Best of luck and never give up trying to top your personal best.

 

[AtlanticVlad]

Re: The trick to decorating non-passable floor tiles.

Good post though I suggest doing the entire water as another tile and doing all your edges at once I usually use snow for better contrast to make sure I don't miss any corners...

One day Perhaps now that we have character copy I'll gather some proper deco and go do some tutorials on TC I've wanted to do Deco Tutorials for years but never wanted to rip up my houses to do them...

 

[Sysaro Rakshasa]

I am having a problem with deleting a waterfall. I have tried using "clear" and it clears everything EXCEPT the waterfall. So I reverted back, deleted JUST the water fall. Then tried "clear", this time it cleared everything and put the waterfall back. I can't commit anything new now, it just reverts back to my original house. Getting so frustrating now, i dont even want to play the game.
Please HELP!

 

[Petra Fyde]

Not a problem I've come across before. What happens if you replace the waterfall with a different tile on the same spot?

 

[Sysaro Rakshasa]

The tile gets placed, but the waterfall remains. I've tried doors, floors, etc., even tried placing a waterfall over it and it only makes the waterfall thicker.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Sounds like page a GM time, tell them you have a stuck waterfall tile, nothing you've tried in customize, neither delete or place over, works to remove it, can they help please

 

[Barok]

And all a GM will say is file a bug report.

 

[Vessel the Humakti]

Dear All.

Last time, I got "Rustic Theme Pack" and enjoy Distillery. But one point I want to modify the design.

The barrel is vertically piled up. It is not convenience for Britanians!
The barrel should be laid and be preserved.


I want to make my alcohol storage like this. Don't you rhink so?


P.S.
I don't know US Distillery, They put barrel vertically, Pls forget my Post!

 

[Kayne]

Does anyone know if there is a way to put a stone oven on a floor other than the roof or outside? I want the thing in its logical place - the Kitchen but I cant place it anywhere in the house other than the roof.

I could remove some floor tiles and change the design a little but I happen to like it the way it is at the moment.

 

[Barok]

Stone ovens poke through the floor above them so the only solution is to leave a hole in the floor above or use an elven oven.

 

[Kayne]

Somehow I knew you were going to say this, I just tested by doing some customising and I got it where I wanted it but couldnt keep the original look around it. Going to have to cook on the roof

 

[Tazar]

I think you can cut out a couple of tiles on the floor above, place the oven, then through a few tricks, replace the missing floor with Goza Mats (so just the chimney shows on the floor above. If you cover the whole floor with Goza's you can make the floor look good - then using a couple of rubble table/dock pieces, you could turn the chimney into a table on the floor above.

 

[Gheed]

Somehow I knew you were going to say this, I just tested by doing some customising and I got it where I wanted it but couldnt keep the original look around it. Going to have to cook on the roof

Luckily the stone oven is a two tile deed. This means they can be "broken" with the goza trick and each piece locked down. When the pieces are locked down, they will remain placed in deco mode. So leave a hole in the roof, place the oven, break it, and lock each piece down. Go back into cistom mode and replace your missing floor pieces. Come out of custom and use the deco tool to lower your oven in the right place.

You can do cool things with this. In my fishing shack I used this trick to make the oven look like it is built into the wall:

 

[Barok]

Another thing to keep in mind: the game only checks X and Y coordinates, not Z (height), when checking to see if you are close enough to a crafting object. So you can put stuff on upper floors and still craft near it on a different floor.

I did this with a soulforge since it takes up too much space. I put it on a seldom used upper floor, and can still imbue on my ground floor in my crafting corner.

 

[Kayne]

Another thing to keep in mind: the game only checks X and Y coordinates, not Z (height), when checking to see if you are close enough to a crafting object. So you can put stuff on upper floors and still craft near it on a different floor.

I did this with a soulforge since it takes up too much space. I put it on a seldom used upper floor, and can still imbue on my ground floor in my crafting corner.

I cheated with the soulforge and cut it down with the goza trick so its just the anvil section left and that sits nicely next to the forge so it looks like it all fits.

May try the goza trick with the oven and see if I can tweak my fireplace design

Thanks for the help guys

EDIT - Oh sod it I did a customise yesterday for the testing and forgot the lock down soulforge thing and now lost my cut down soulforge. Bugger it need to get a new one now

 

[nynyve]

Re: The trick to decorating non-passable floor tiles.

Decorating Impassible Floor Tiles… an example.

I was able to find a mid-size house on the test shard so I could actually show the multiple steps of this system. What you will see below is an example of building a water feature… but you will have to keep in mind I was only limited to what could easily be found ON the test shard. No rocks, only 1 kind of plant, far from what I would call natural décor and no décor rares. Still… as I always say, you can do just about anything even with limited resources. Making really nice realistic décor… may take a little more.

This is a great tip--but I have another tip for decorating with water tiles.

Don't. Use carpet tiles dyed to the correct color instead. You will need to experiment to get a color you like. Not all carpet tiles dye equally. I found that the mottled yellowish ochre carpet tile works best. I have two reserved dye tubs--one is a darker blue that is a great match for UO water so that I can blend it with water falls, the other is a lighter color that I use most often.

Advantages:
You can walk on them
You don't have to go into custom mode to create water
You can place things on them.
You can choose the color of the water.
You can layer them and raise the layers to create staggered edges. Though once you do this you can't walk on them.
You can submerge objects in them so they are only partially visible.
Like regular water tiles, they do not count against the lockdowns in the house.

Locking scraps of valorite ore on top of the tiles gives a ripple effect. Clumps of dull copper on the shore looks like wet gravel. I can't take credit for these last tricks--I took it from a house I saw on Famous Houses of Britannia Ages ago.

I can post pics of faked water if anyone is interested.

 

[Kayne]

Re: The trick to decorating non-passable floor tiles.

Please do I would be interested in seeing this in action

 

[nynyve]

Using dyed carpets in place of water:

I happen to to like being able to walk on water

 

[Kayne]

Very creative way to obtain that look Nynyve, I don't have either the patience or creativity to attempt that but it definitely looks great

 

[swami]

How do you get a castle ladder? I have a keep and I can't get on the roof. I have seen other keeps with things on the roof so any hints would be appreciated.

 

[nynyve]

How do you get a castle ladder? I have a keep and I can't get on the roof. I have seen other keeps with things on the roof so any hints would be appreciated.

They are available by using a heritage token. You can usually by the tokens from vendors.

Ladders can only be place in unroofed areas.

 

[TheChocolits]

Does anyone know how to place a deeded item that hangs on the wall against something that 'says' it's not against the wall? Like I'm trying to place the 14th anniversary virtue tapestry deed near my staircase and it says "it must be placed next to a wall". I think there was a way to place wall deco deeds without a wall but I can't remember how it was done (seems like my deco skills are still abit rusty since I came back to the game )

 

[TheChocolits]

Does anyone know how to place a deeded item that hangs on the wall against something that 'says' it's not against the wall? Like I'm trying to place the 14th anniversary virtue tapestry deed near my staircase and it says "it must be placed next to a wall". I think there was a way to place wall deco deeds without a wall but I can't remember how it was done (seems like my deco skills are still abit rusty since I came back to the game )

Ok, found the solution to my problem, I basically removed the floor tile above the tile I want to place it on and then cover the removed top tile with goza mat and then placed it on the goza mat (item should be placed against a proper wall of course) which in my case was against a wall on the upper floor and then axe the goza mat, lock and lower the wall item deed to ur preferred height, go back to customize mode and then put back the floor tile above it, but make sure ur wall item deed isn't between the 2 floor levels when u place the floor tile though. Hope it makes sense.

 

[BajaElladan]

Is it possible to place Curtains on outer steps of Castles so they run above doors and down door sides?

 

[Gheed]

Ok, found the solution to my problem, I basically removed the floor tile above the tile I want to place it on and then cover the removed top tile with goza mat and then placed it on the goza mat (item should be placed against a proper wall of course) which in my case was against a wall on the upper floor and then axe the goza mat, lock and lower the wall item deed to ur preferred height, go back to customize mode and then put back the floor tile above it, but make sure ur wall item deed isn't between the 2 floor levels when u place the floor tile though. Hope it makes sense.

I dont think it would have worked in your situauion. But rubble walls make nice "portable walls" if you are in a pinch.

 

[TheChocolits]

I dont think it would have worked in your situauion. But rubble walls make nice "portable walls" if you are in a pinch.

Yes I know the rubble walls would've worked but not exactly where I wanted it to be on, but a more affordable option are the Tall Hedges u get from growing plants for cases that need a 'temp' wall too

Here's what I wanted to make:
(Tapestry behind my spiral stair case)

 

[Kayne]

Generally Chocolits I find that targetting the floor in front of the wall works when it says it must be on the wall.

 

[TheChocolits]

Generally Chocolits I find that targetting the floor in front of the wall works when it says it must be on the wall.

Um, yeah that's how it's supposed to work but unfortunately the staircase isn't considered a 'wall' to the system which is why I had to go the long way around.

 

[startle]

I cheated with the soulforge and cut it down with the goza trick so its just the anvil section left and that sits nicely next to the forge so it looks like it all fits.

Kayne... Could you please post a pic of your "cut-down" Soul Forge? And could you please post a step-by-step procedure for this?

Thx....

 

[startle]

While I'm here, could you please look at the pic and tell me if this type of chest (Finished Wooden Chest) can "stack"? I'd like to be able to stack them 2 high to save some floor space.

If they can be stacked, could someone tell me how to do it pls?

Thx

 

[Ganesh89]

startle, that wont work inside a keep or castle your next floor is in the way meaning your stack would be to high and "poke" through the ceiling to the second floor, that's why you cant do it and that's why for example ovens or soulfourges cant be raised and broken inside of castles/keeps....

 

[Faerunner]

Can a Hearth of the Home Fire be broken with gozas like the stone ovens can? I can't recall.

Edit: Solved part of my problem but still haven't quite covered up the chimney. Gotta love that deco challenge!

Picked up some natural dyes tonight to play with. Any suggestions for things to turn bright green?

 

[kitiara-atlantic]

Is there any way to prevent floor tiles from showing up through a fountain? I thought maybe I could raise the fountain, but that's not possible. :-/

 

[Lady Michelle]

Is there any way to prevent floor tiles from showing up through a fountain? I thought maybe I could raise the fountain, but that's not possible. :-/

View attachment 18659

it is possible to raise the fountain with goza mats i used the mats with the boarders. raise the mats 2 or 3 times just make sure to lay enough down. then keep targeting til the fountain goes in

 

[Logan Anderson]

You

Can a Hearth of the Home Fire be broken with gozas like the stone ovens can? I can't recall.

Edit: Solved part of my problem but still haven't quite covered up the chimney. Gotta love that deco challenge!

Picked up some natural dyes tonight to play with. Any suggestions for things to turn bright green?

The chimneys are a pain to disguise. I usually place a coconut tree in front of it, or another hearth.
You can make a nice pool table using the King's collection tables and bright green!

 

[Ghost of Gramps]

sometimes i find it difficult to place items in certain areas especially under archways. the way i found that works best for these situations is to place a trash barrel then place the item i want to place in the trash barrel. I then chop the trash barrel and the item usually pops into the same place that the trash barrel was from that point i can usually just lock the item down.

That is excellent.

 

[napalm]

im trying to build a rubble house. but how do you get it to show. it only shows if you step onto the house. i like people to see it and not just the ground walking by. thanks

 

[Stinky Pete]

im trying to build a rubble house. but how do you get it to show. it only shows if you step onto the house. i like people to see it and not just the ground walking by. thanks

You can't. There is an option in the client that the user can set if they want to see it.

 

[Rickspanish]

im trying to build a rubble house. but how do you get it to show. it only shows if you step onto the house. i like people to see it and not just the ground walking by. thanks

They changed it years ago to save on lag.

 

[Ghost of Gramps]

Locking down items over a water tile. It can be done. In customization just make one regular floor tile in the body of water tiles where you want an item to be locked down. Exit customization and place your item, like a bunch of fish or a little boat, lock it down, then enter customization again. Remove the regular floor tile and add the water tile. Leave customization and the item you locked down previously should still be there. If your body of water is next to a wall, make sure you add a secret door to access the tile where you will place an item. You can remove it or change it later.

 

[Danpal]

Locking down items over a water tile. It can be done. In customization just make one regular floor tile in the body of water tiles where you want an item to be locked down. Exit customization and place your item, like a bunch of fish or a little boat, lock it down, then enter customization again. Remove the regular floor tile and add the water tile. Leave customization and the item you locked down previously should still be there. If your body of water is next to a wall, make sure you add a secret door to access the tile where you will place an item. You can remove it or change it later.

You can also do it with ladders and gazas.

 

[Tarragon Slayer/MZB]

I would like to place a picnic blanket next to the one in this picture, meaning over the "roof plants". Is that possible, and how, please? I tried placing goza's above the "plants" but that didn't succeed.

 

[Danpal]

Would think the ladder and goza would work need to walk up the ladder target self place goza more forward one step target self place goza might have to do it a few times to get it in the right spot. @Tarragon Slayer/MZB that's how i got water rocks into the water.

 

[Tarragon Slayer/MZB]

Thank you, @Danpal for the tip, but I'm not sure how to do this. First, how do I target myself? And do I place the goza on myself then?

 

[Danpal]

if your in EC walk up a ladder then click the goza then click your self and it should place it under your feet. with a ladder you can place on the top of it then move one more space and place it.

Thank you, @Danpal for the tip, but I'm not sure how to do this. First, how do I target myself? And do I place the goza on myself then?