Nature's Fury - Questions for Siege and Fel housebuilders

[Petra Fyde]

To protect against nature's fury being cast into your house:

1. Do all 4 walls have to be doubled? If not, which ones?

2. Is the wall type used important?

3. Do the walls have to be full height or will half walls work?

4. If half walls will prevent them, can Ashen's kitchen units be used or will the counter tops/sink bridge the gap?

I'm trying to find a way to fury-proof my little shop without turning it into an ugly prison block. Other aesthetically acceptable suggests would be welcome.

The house as it currently, unsafely, is:

ground floor
upper floor
outside

I love my pretty little shop, I don't want to ruin it.

 

[Patty Pickaxe]

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think the windows have to be replaced with solid walls and the south and west walls need to be doubled. Hopefully, Skylark will know. She should be a pro at designing fury-proof houses on Siege!

 

[Petra Fyde]

I hope so. To be truthful, if it can't be done without turning it into an ugly block I'll live with the risk. Standing in the shop as it is makes a picture I enjoy seeing.

Standing in a tiny cell block in the middle of doubled walls doesn't appeal at all.

 

[Patty Pickaxe]

Would you be willing to just double wall the upper floor? That way, you have a place to escape to for safety when the furies come buzzing in. I don't know if you can leave windows on the outside of a double wall. *EDIT* I just realized , after looking at the pictures again, that idea might not work. You need doors to get to the vendors.

 

[Gellor]

I believe the walls that need to get "fortified" are the south and east walls(aka the ones you can see on the screen). However, with all the fun special abilities people have, it wouldn't hurt to do all four.

What I haven't tested is whether you need a gap between the double wall or not. For my prison house, I left a gap between the double wall.

I would highly recommend going to test and seeing if you can get bees in your own house.

It is a targetting and "stacking" issue. On the target issue, one needs to target a wall. You could also try moving those walls on the upper floor in a square or two. On the stacking issue, the bees pop up in a wall and move inward or upward.

 

[Petra Fyde]

The caster stood at the north east corner to throw the darn things in. I won't turn my pretty house into a prison cell. If it can't be done without ruining it I'll do as I did last time someone showed up revealing me in my home. Log off and play another char, on another shard.

 

[Patty Pickaxe]

Understandable, Petra. It is too pretty to turn into a cell.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Thanks for this explanation of what happens Gellor. I've done some experimenting on Test and I *think* I've managed it. I'm a long way from expert though.

I've put a wooden half wall along the east and south sides of the upper floor. Furies cast at the targeted West side using circle of transparency come out on the vendors' balcony, those targeted on the south and east I got either on the lower floor or the roof. I'm hoping I didn't miss anything.

Design wise it has meant the loss of 2 of the balcony doors, which isn't too bad at all. The half walls can't be seen. I also had to re-construct my kitchen of chopped up water trough and Yew hardwood tables.

Now I'm crossing my fingers until a more expert, but friendly, caster of the pests can be found to test it for me.

 

[Skylark SP]

Petra,

What I discovered is that even ugly double walls all around cannot always prevent it - there are issues with the location that is chosen to target for the spell, and "stacking" as mentioned, and the presence of 2nd floor windows seem to make this easier, as well as the type of wall tile material used in the design. For example, at Daan Mor's wedding on Siege, the entire house was double walled on the 1st floor, but we had to deal with furies getting inside throughout the ceremony.

I also refuse to make a fortress so several things I have done that seem to work very well are:

1.) Make "buffer" tiles around the entire perimeter of the house. If the house is to be public, I make the tiles of a type that can't be walked on such as water or I put a solid inner half wall around the edge of the foundation with at least 1 buffer tile between this wall and any building wall inside, and an access controlled gate. This makes it more difficult to target the northern house corners which seem to be most vulnerable to the exploit. It also helps keep regular field spells from penetrating too far into the house. The sacrifice is functional building space.

2.) I try to make a "safe" room in every house that is quickly accessible by teleporter. It is always on an upper floor (3rd or 4th preferably) and is completely enclosed with solid walls and a solid door. My safe rooms have allowed me to survive even dedicated griefer activity (at 2 different houses, 1 public, one private on Siege. At each location, I watched comfortably in my safe room as multiple people spent over 20 solid minutes trying to kill me with furies...they didn't succeed.)

3.) "Wedding cake" style house. Making a graduated tier house, meaning you have a smaller building on top of a larger building with tile space around seems to foil the exploit to get furies into the first floor via the 2nd floor. This type of design can be fun because you can make verandas and such, and make it look very homey and inviting while in reality, you have made it very secure. Drawback - same as #1, you lose a tile or more around depending on the design.

-Skylark

 

[Petra Fyde]

This is going to be very difficult, if not impossible I think. I've tested as well as I'm able and the upper floor seems safe. The plot is only 9 x 10, so losing tiles soon leaves you with no house at all

I'm hoping to have a friendly 'expert' check it out for me.

 

[Skylark SP]

Some examples of my "safe" rooms:

Very tiny plot for one of my holiday vendors one year. The shed on the upper floor which you can just barely see the corner in this pic was only 3X3 tiles. An access controlled teleporter under a goza mat right by the porch entrance took me directly to the upper level for quick escape. It is possible no one was interested in spending a great deal of effort to kill me, but I hid in there several times, and from all evidence it was safe.

Many layers of "buffers" were used in this design. The "safe" room is on the 3rd level and accessible only from access controlled teleporters. I was able to use the porous SE tiles for that safe room only because no attacker could target the area where it sat.

Better view of the design:

This 3rd floor interior is completely safe.

The safety of the house on this tiny public plot was pretty much eliminated when I put the ladder to the 2nd story for aesthetic reasons, but when the 2nd floor was accessible via teleporter only, I believe it was pretty safe.

Variation of the upper level "safe" house (again, you wouldn't want the ladders on a public plot but they would be fine on a private one).

A friend's house, which was decently safe, although completely open.

The bottom line is that any dedicated griefer is probably going to find a way to mess with you in your house if they put a real effort into it, but I try to make the least opportunities for them.

-Skylark

 

[Skylark SP]

Oh...while we are on the subject of unwanted things in your house - you can be attacked through a restricted access teleporter in certain circumstances. One such circumstance is if the attacker is on the floor below and you are both standing on linked teleporter tiles. Just step off the 'porter and you will eliminate this problem.

-Skylark

 

[Petra Fyde]

oki, thanks.

I've tried my best to get the furies into the test center copy. I've also changed that around a bit to maybe make both floors safe. I can't get anything in, but I wouldn't like to rely on that too much Still waiting to hear from my 'expert'.

 

[Skylark SP]

LOL...timing is in your favor, Petra!!

From the UO Herald:

Test Center has been updated with a patch that includes PREVENTION OF NATURE'S FURY FROM BEING CAST IN PRIVATE HOUSES.

Hooray for them finally getting rid of this griefer's delight exploit! People with public houses will have to continue to design around this though.

-Skylark

 

[Petra Fyde]

hehe, aye, just got back on line and saw that. However I'm not 100% sure it applies. Being a shop, it's not a private house, it's a public one. Private houses can't have vendors.

Just re-built my sink and counter tops too! oh well, at least it's only Yew hardwood tables I chopped, not stone ones. I'm about to go through our accounts switching off 'auto cancel vet rewards' in uoa so I can see how many of the new goodies we can claim

 

[Lord Drakelord]

hehe, aye, just got back on line and saw that. However I'm not 100% sure it applies. Being a shop, it's not a private house, it's a public one. Private houses can't have vendors.

Just re-built my sink and counter tops too! oh well, at least it's only Yew hardwood tables I chopped, not stone ones. I'm about to go through our accounts switching off 'auto cancel vet rewards' in uoa so I can see how many of the new goodies we can claim

well you could do your house in private and fine a vendor house that will allow you to place a vendor, free or low rental cost. That way your house could look as you wish.

 

[Patty Pickaxe]

She's been there, done that. It is her dream to own her own shop on Siege. She would rather die to the furies than give up her vendor house!

Petra, I hope you don't mind me speaking for you.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Not at all Patty, you're exactly right

It's *my* shop, I don't have to worry about catching the house owner on line if I want another vendor, I don't have to spend a full day setting them back up again because the house owner switched it between his accounts and forgot to reset all the contracts. That's after I've managed to catch him on line. I did that 4 times with 2 different shops and owners.

I don't have to go home to make the stock I need to replace what's sold, or craft at the bank, with my bank box filled with resources and thieves and pk's lurking, because I have no storage on the premises.

If this fix works as intended I predict a lot of jubilant house redesigning on Siege.

 

[Spree]

I haven't had any furries get in to my house and they have tried. I dont have double walls but i do have chests, water troughs spinning wheels and loom a long my walls.

 

[Patty Pickaxe]

I am redesigning a PUBLIC house on Siege and have created "Fury Proof Rooms". Will these walls work or do I need to use solid walls?

 

[Patty Pickaxe]

I suppose I can find out when someone sending furies my way, but I'd like to know now (before I start decorating) if these rooms will be safe. Anyone know??

 

[Petra Fyde]

my shop alterations have now been confirmed as effective. The half walls, with the already existing balcony to the west, have made the upper floor safe.

 

[Skylark SP]

my shop alterations have now been confirmed as effective. The half walls, with the already existing balcony to the west, have made the upper floor safe.

Hooray! Are pics forthcoming?

-Skylark

 

[Petra Fyde]

well, there aren't major changes, that was the whole idea, to make it safe without destroying the feel of it. The half walls aren't visible.

Before and after of the ground and upper floor, after picture of the whole thing (couldn't upload the before file of that, but it's linked in my earlier post.)

 

[feath]

thats lovely! got a nice open feel to it. perfect!