Do you ever explore the interesting buildings of Atlantic?

[EvilPixieWorks]

It may be a little more then it should be… but some house owners really do go all out to design and decorate their houses. The custom house options have been around several years now, not that UO started with them. They came along with the Age of Shadows… if memory serves. Some before… but mostly since that time, we have gotten all kinds of interesting decorations to dress up our houses.

How about you? Do you love designing and decorating houses in our world?

It may take a few attempts to really find the best original design for yourself. Considering the size of your plot, how many floors you wish to use, the area your house is in… and a few other factors. Most importantly, I would say the theme is most important. It seems there really isn’t a limit, these days.

Personally, I’ve designed several houses all over the shard… without limit to house size and using several themes. The Red & Purple Pixies of the Yew Wood may be most recognized, however I’ve designed other malls, a full size Abby north of Skara Brea, a small vendor house at Chinatown… and 2 houses just outside Luna (a.k.a. Lagtown).

This one… just for fun… is the personal house of a friend and it has limited access to the public. “The Dark Castle of the Ancient World”, the sister of “The Hanging Gardens of the Ancient World”. Both sit just in reach of the west city wall.

I went with a ruined theme… however only 2 levels are actually decorated. I built both houses (18x18) at the same time and concentrated more on the vendor mall. I believe it was after theses houses were built, we sponsored a décor contest where the winner has a totally ruined house, not too far away from the Trinny public moon gate. This is one of my very favorite houses on the shard and it still stands and it's far from being a massive 18x18. It just proves you can do anything with any size house. Keep away from the BIG-BOX designs!!! However… a few rare big boxes on the outside, can be quite nice on the inside.

So what about you? Have you found interesting houses you wish to share?

OR… I’d really love to invite you to spend a few hours a day to get away from bank-sitting and explore the work some people put into their houses. Make a runebook. Share them.

 

[Faeryl]

House designing/decorating is one of my favourite things to do in-game. I'll often take some time to just wander around and explore different houses. Sometimes even on other shards.

All the eclectic styles and themes are wonderful for providing inspiration when I hit a creative wall, and I've seen some cute ideas that I'd never have thought of myself

 

[Roland']

If you havnt seen tazar's 6+ house in one with teletiles to hold em together you havnt seen anything. some of these houses are 6? stories high.

 

[Draken-Korin]

No.

 

[Lord Raven]

I enjoy house design and decorating too. At one time, I had 7 accounts mainly 'cause I kept building new houses. At one time, I had so much surplus deco stuff I had a storage house just to hold it all. Of course that house was fully decorated as well.

I do tend to use the "box" design and I admit I've never figured out how to place those dang roof pieces. But, I go all out to decorate the inside of the houses and each has it's own theme.

Currently I have three houses and if you're interested in a tour, start at Hanse's Hostel in Malas, head North towards Luna and the second house on your left (west) is Pirate's Lair. That's my Pirate/Vendor house. That house has a teleporter on the front porch which will take you to my crafters house in malas. And that house has two teleporters, one back to the Pirate's Lair and another to my "main" house in Minoc.

Visitors are always welcome!

 

[EvilPixieWorks]

I do tend to use the "box" design and I admit I've never figured out how to place those dang roof pieces.

Number one issue I hear about house design is the roof system.

It's really not all that hard to overcome. You also have to keep in mind we actually don’t have all the tiles offered to the game designers in our construction menu. Overcoming that… there is a second issue. You have to realize that all town buildings, with a roof, actually have the roof running 1 tile beyond the exterior walls. When you are dealing with a smaller plot… this is very challenging. To have the best roofline… you need to take advance of the space inside the box. Sacrifice a little.

Still… with a little practice… you can get results. Bigger issue I’ve always had is the lack of choice of stairways and ladders. Thankfully the heritage tokens gave us one. I really don’t like teleporters and try to stay away from them as much as I can. And as far as splitting the staircases, even though it's kind of “exploit-ie” and allowed… it's far too much work.

Here. Check this out.

This is a sample of my main house, inside the Red & Purple town… just as an accent, this large roof area hides a little work area. My house always seems to be a mess for the same reasons of new goodies… no place to put them. hehe. Never the less… the total design is a house on top of a dungeon. The house leaves a lot of free space for roof tiles. They always must have a little support so you can make the span, as if in real life. The designer NPC town buildings don’t have these rules, I’m sure. The small line of roof on the top floor hides a ladder pathway.

Now… if you want ADVANCED roofing, here is another example.

This is from my favorite house “CONDEMEND – Enter at your own risk.” By “Himself”, not to far away from the Trinny Moongate. This kind of roofing is something I have tried to learn and seam to have no luck. hehe. I love this ruined design… and to truly make it work, you have to have a ruined roof. This design… even has a few pitfalls designed into it to surprise the explorer. Got to love it.

Id also say to anyone really wanting to get practice and not wanting to destroy their own house over and over again… at the first sign of a new test shard, you should sign in and find a new plot to play with. If you are really lucky, you can find a spot for the exact size house you have and you can play with that test plot, make your notes, take your pictures… and translate them over. I did this a few times for friends. Not every house has to be 18x18 and so many on test do nothing with them.

 

[Lord Raven]

I checked out that condemned house. It is pretty cool.

Here is a link to my Facebook album of my UO houses... and my Farmville farms. rolleyes:

Fantasy Homes, Farms and CAD drawings. | Facebook

 

[iLLegal Means]

I go into any home that is open to the public to have a look see... and it amazes me the time and skill some players put into bulding and decorating their home...

There is a home near the Swamp above Trinsic in Trammel that is truely awesome... it's a Library (I think the owner is William).. but if you get a chance to go inside it, I think you will be truely amazed at the time and skill it took build it.

And I've been in some homes with pianos, TV sets, washing machine and dryers, and I've even seen some bathroom complete with what appears toilets and bath tub... I find it unbelieveable the things made from simple UO items to look like Typical daily appliances...