Looking for a guide on building my own place..

[Mac]

Howdy folks,

So I placed a nice lot in a great spot 17x15....a dozen steps to water, trees right outside and mining half a screen away. I've never built my own home before, and am quite confused after attempting to use the tool. Is there an actual guide somewhere to explain how to use the tool?

Is there someplace where info such as....my neighbors home covers a small portion of my SE corner, how do I see how I'm building there (circle of trans doesn't open the sight up very well). How about.....you should start buiding in the NE, SE, NW, NE corner...you should place floors first...or is it walls first?

Ya'll getting what I'm laying down, lol. Yeah, I want to build A nice place, but have played with it some and don't see how some of ya build the fantastic places I see on ATL. I don't expect to match yours, but there's no reason I cant build a respectable place....except myself.

Mac

 

[Barry Gibb]

Is there an actual guide somewhere to explain how to use the tool?

http://uo2.stratics.com/homes-and-decorations/the-homeowners-guide/custom-house-building

You access the house customization from the house sign, no tool required.

There is a House Decorating Tool you will want to purchase from an NPC Architect (I think, same NPC that you can get the House Placement Tool from). This tool allows you to raise, lower, and turn locked down/ secure objects in your house.

Once you start customizing, you will quickly find out that floors must be supported by walls. It never hurts to play around with the customizing options. You may also go to Test Center to try things out. You may place a house on Test Center without condemning your other house.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Kayhynn]

I can create a video guide(s) if it will help. I've never really considered the other housing - unless I'm in Luna.

What kind of house are you looking to design as that will give me something to work from.

 

[Mac]

Thanks both of you for answering so quickly.

Barry, yeah, I've read that guide. It helped me with some of the basics, but it doesn't tell me the best way to go about it. Like my original post said, where do I actually...physically... start? With floors or walls? In which corner? In the middle and work my way out? Now...I know everyone does it differently, but if you were taking a newbie under your wing (which ya kinda are, lol), where would you tell them to start?

Kayhynn, what a generous offer. I cannot ask you to take all the time required to make a video, it's too much. It's very much appreciated, but too much.

Sincerely, and with great respect and appreciation,

Mac

 

[Barry Gibb]

where would you tell them to start?

Start from the ground up.

1. Place your walls to make rooms on the bottom floor.
   
2. Add floor tiles on the second floor, above the "rooms" you just created one the bottom floor.
3. Repeat 1. and 2.
4. Place other non-wall/non-floor tiles as needed (don't forget to place stairs or teleporter tiles).

You may be over thinking it. It is really quite simple. Every item in the customization menu cost 500 gp to build when you "Commit" your design. You only get charged once per item. If you change your design and "Commit" again, you only need to cover the difference between the old and new designs (you will be refunded if the new design is less). You can "Commit" as many times as you like, there is no harm in trying things out.

Take a tour of other houses on your shard, other shards, or through the posts in this forum. Take a screen shot of that house and try to recreate the parts you want for yours. Here are some more detailed questions you should think about (share them if you would like):

• Do you have a floor plan in mind?
  
• How do you want it to look?
  
• What do you want to be able to do at home (blacksmith, tailoring, imbuing, etc...)?
  
• Do you have a theme in mind (e.g. a hunting lodge, a formidable keep, an evil wizard tower, etc...)?

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Kayhynn]

And the way you start is different depending on how you want your house to look. For me, I start designing the first floor first.

If I want an elegant "basement" style house, it's done one way. If I want something else, it's done another. If its' an illusion house, another.

As for advice on how to start. Floors first, walls--create rooms with walls, then just play with it.

 

[Mac]

You guys are great, thanks a lot.

You're right Barry, I have a tendency to overthink things when playing. When I'm creating a new toon, I know what I want, how I'm gonna build the skills, when to change training targets, etc. Probably doing it now too, lol.

Kayhynn, I know basically what I want, what I want it to look like, etc. Ground floor will have a patio, for a few vendors (gotta figure out just how to do them, I want them to be part of the scenery, not just something stuck on the patio to sell stuff ( can a vendor sit at table?). There will be a water feature, small bridge crossing it. Inside will be the stuff for crafting, at least the manual labor crafts, BS, TINKER, CARP, a small stable, etc. Somehow I want to hide my soul forge down there also. Second floor, will hold things for alchemist, scribe, artificer, tailor, etc.

Third floor will be the living quarters...and I must have a deck to sit outside and have my morning coffee, lol.

I've seen a few that I like the looks of. On ATL, next to the bull pen, there is a stone villa type place that I like the looks of, there's a couple on Dagger as well.

Wish me luck, and if you have any pointers, please do not hesitate to tell me.

Thanks folks,
Mac

 

[Kayhynn]

HEre's one of my old houses: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.342517485824319.77441.131449923597744&type=3

I eventually removed the section that covered the bottom area and turned it into a vendor area instead and still had top areas for vendors.

 

[Barry Gibb]

Somehow I want to hide my soul forge down there also.

A trick I learned about soulforges, is that you can use them while standing at any floor above or below the forge. This means you can turn it into a roof decoration, and still do all of your imbuing/unraveling/reforging in your blacksmith area on a lower floor (as long as the soulforge is on the tiles vertically above or below that area). This makes incorporating a soulforge in the design much easier.

An alternative is to acquire a smaller version: http://www.uoguide.com/Small_Soul_Forge.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[BrianFreud]

It's really easy to overthink this. The simplest way to do it is to just focus on getting the basic walls in place. Ignore the dirt on the first floor, and just place outer walls to get a basic outline of your first floor done. Then move to the 2nd floor and do the same, and just add any random floor tile to get a floor down (if you're like me, you'll prob end up trying a bunch of different floor tiles later anyhow). Do that all the way up. Then decide if you're going to have a roof, as that'll affect your walls layout on the 4th floor.

Once you get that basic shell done, figure out how you'll move between floors - stairs, teleporters, etc - and where to place them.

Now commit and move around in this shell of a house. Try going into all the odd corners, etc. You'll find places that need tweaking. Do those.

Then work on the inner layout. Again, don't get too fancy with arches and whatever; just get the basic floorplans done. Commit and test.

Once you've got all that, now I just go through and start adding the flourishes, like arches, water, floor tiles, etc. Focus on one floor at a time, and one "thing" at a time. Keep kicking at it til you're happy, then move on to the next thing.

And when you're done, and have committed, go through and test everything, look at everything with and without circle trans, make sure you've not missed something. Then deco.

 

[Mac]

Thanks folks, got my place up over the weekend. Just followed what y'all said and tried not to overthink it, lol. It worked! I have a nice place to live.

Mac

Thanks again.

 

[Barry Gibb]

Thanks folks, got my place up over the weekend. Just followed what y'all said and tried not to overthink it, lol. It worked! I have a nice place to live.

Please post some screen shots or let us know the coordinates/facet/shard. I curious to see the final design.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Mac]

Ok, well, it's not well decorated yet, but it's on ATL located :


the house:


1st floor:


2nd floor:


and the 3rd floor:


There is no roof, I wanted to leave it wide open.

let me know what ya think and how I can improve this.

Mac

 

[Barry Gibb]

There is no roof, I wanted to leave it wide open.

let me know what ya think and how I can improve this.

Most of my houses do not use the roof tiles, I prefer an open rooftop plan. I really like the fireplace/fountains on the top level.

The one suggestion I have to offer is in regards to you soulforge. It just looks so out of place, I think because of its color. You may want one made of regular wood/undyed for the lower level. Your current color would look good as a garden centerpiece on the top level (SE Corner area, vertically above its current position). You could surround it with grown flowers and such. This would free up a lot of space on the first level.

Oh one more suggestion, post pictures when you get ti decorated too.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Mac]

Yeah, not real happy with the SF and the look, but it was a gift. Maybe I'll see if someone wants to trade or something,lol.

Mac