Info, Options & Commands :: GM FAQ

	Homes :: Info, Options & Commands :: Information | House Sign | GM FAQ | Co-Owners & Friends | Placement & Design | Decay Rate | Commands

1. Can a GM help me place my house?
• A GM is not available to help you place a house. We recommend you not buy a house unless you are fairly certain your house will fit in a certain location. Ultima Online, has very limited real estate and as such, finding an open plot can be a chore. We recommend that you not purchase a house unless you are fairly certain the house will fit into the plot of land you have selected. Please do not page a GM in the game to ask for assistance in placing your house, because they are unable to alter the landscape in any way to allow for house placement. We also do not have knowledge of the real estate availability on your particular shard, so cannot help you locate a spot to place your house. Part of the adventure in owning a house can be in finding an available spot to place it. We might suggest that you search areas that are away from the most popular locations, possibly areas such as islands, or more remote locations away from town. We recommend reading the instructions below on how to place a house:
• Placing houses under the new housing guidelines can be a very daunting task. There are several reasons this may be so. However, it is important to understand that the development team has designed these housing changes with several factors in mind. First, the housing changes should promote more realistic and worthwhile ownership for the house owner. As a house owner, you have many features previously unavailable, such as: the ability to change the locks, lock down items, create friends and banish enemies from the house, create a public building or shop, transfer ownership, or even re-deed the house. Secondly, the development team has hoped to improve the aesthetics of the houses in UO by lowering the number of houses in the game. It has become more difficult to place a house, and many locations that were previously legal, are no longer valid locations for the placement of a house.
• To place a house, you must be sure that you have a level open spot for your house that is free of obstructions (including rocks, trees, plants and animals) throughout the entire footprint of the house. There is also a ‘buffer zone’ around the house of five tiles north and south and one tile east and west that cannot contain these objects, other houses, or other dynamic objects such as friends or pets. This buffer zone is to insure that houses are not able to block passage through their placement. The ground where you wish to place your house must be flat, as uneven ground will usually prevent the placement of a house. Houses cannot be placed in a justice region, or any region that is zoned for no housing.
• If you are getting a ‘black screen’ when you try to place your house, it is likely that you are standing too close to the spot that you wish to place your house. If you try standing in a different spot, or a little farther from the spot that you wish to place your house, you should not get the ‘black screen’.
• The housing ‘patches’ that have recently been added to the game dramatically change the nature of housing, and should change the way that we view these valuable items in the game.
• If you have purchased a deed, and are unable to find a spot to place the house, you have several options. You can save the deed, and wait for a spot to become available. You can trade or sell the deed to another player. Or you can sell the deed back to an NPC Vendor, however, these vendors are limited by the amount of money in their account. It is possible that they will not be able to buy your deed at a particular time because they do not have the money to pay you for it.
• The development team is constantly seeking to upgrade UO to make it a more enjoyable adventure for all players. The changes that have taken place in housing are still being evaluated, and it is possible that more changes will be added or refined in the areas of house ownership and placement. Any future changes to housing are not definite, or known at this time. However, the latest information will be posted at the Update Center [http://update.owo.com] as it becomes available.
2. Can a GM change the locks on my house?
• We do not change door locks for players, and you should not page a GM for assistance with this. However, you as a player have the ability to change your locks through the house sign menu. If you have lost your keys, there is no way for a GM to make new keys for you. As the house owner, you can create new keys for yourself. You can do this by transferring ownership of the house to a trusted friend, and having them transfer ownership back to you. When you transfer ownership, the house locks will be changed, and you will be given new keys. You must be sure the person you transfer ownership to is 100% trustworthy, we cannot assist if you trust the security of your house to an untrustworthy player. The simplest way to keep from losing your keys is to make spare keys and keep them in a safe place. You can do this using the tinkering skill and spare keys. Even if you have no experience as a tinker, and do not wish to practice with your main characters, you can make spare keys by creating a newbie tinker with 50 skill, buying blank keys, and making copies of your house keys.
3. Can a GM let me inside my house?
• With the update to housing, home owners now have much more control over their house and have many options available to enter their houses and get new keys should they lose their old ones. When the house is created, a player will receive 2 keys (one in pack and one in bankbox). The new home owner can immediately make a tinker character, and copy their keys. If they lose a key to a PK or thief, they can change their locks and get new keys. Should the new home owner lose BOTH keys, the player can transfer ownership to a trusted friend (even without a key) and the friend can transfer house ownership back to them. This will give them new keys. It is very important to not transfer the house ownership to a player you do not trust implicitly. If this character ends up taking your house, we will not be able to return it to you. Given all these options, GMs do not let players into houses.
4. I need some landscape changed so I can place this house.
• A GM cannot change the landscape in any way, shape, or form. Britannia’s plants, trees, hills, valleys, and buildings placement are predetermined and static. If you have trouble placing a building in a certain location, then please search elsewhere in the land to place your homes.
5. I am a friend of this house and the owner left the game or was banned, can you transfer ownership to me?
• No.
6. I have another character on the same shard, how can I have that character be a friend to my main character’s house?
• The character will automatically become a friend to your house. However, if you own a house with both characters, neither can be listed as a friend of the other’s house.