Housing Guide
Customizing Your Ultima Online House
Customizing Your House
Creating a custom UO house is simple! First, you will need to find a plot of land to call your own. Next, you will use the House Placement Tool to lay the foundation for your new Custom House. You will now have a "dirt plot" on which you can build your new home.
You may be thinking, "What happens if I already own a house in the great land of Britannia?" Well, good news! You will be able to turn any currently owned house into a customizable foundation. Castles, keeps, and "L"-shaped houses are the exceptions. Worried about storing your items? That's taken care of too — all of the items in your house will be placed into a secure container, called a moving crate, that will be accessible through the sign on your house.
To begin building on your foundation, double-click the house sign and select Customize. This will place you in Edit Mode, where you can build anything from a small hut to a medium-sized manor to a large tower, complete with plenty of yard space to show off your green thumb. While in Edit Mode, other players will not be able to see what you are currently building; all they will see is a dirt plot or the last design that you committed to the land. As you build, your character will turn slightly transparent, as well as gain the ability to walk through the walls, adding unlimited freedom and control while designing your house!
On the left side of the interface, you'll find all the different design elements, such as walls, doors, floors, stairs, teleporters, and enhancement house pieces. You will want to flip through all the buttons to get a feel for what options you have when customizing for the first time.
Once you select which element you would like to start building (let's say you selected floors), the different design tiles available will appear in the middle section of the interface. To place a floor piece, simply click the tile you like best, move your cursor over the area on your plot where you want to place that floor tile, and click again.
If you want to cover the entire area with the same floor tile, or any other piece you have selected, you can click-and-drag with your left mouse button over the area you wish to cover.
Correcting Mistakes
If you place a tile in the wrong spot accidentally, or if you decide that you just don't like the color of a tile, there are two different ways you can change it.
- Erase the tile. To do this, click the Erase button on the interface tool, place your cursor over the tile you wish to get rid of, and then left-click. Notice how the tile highlights red? That indicates that you are in Erase Mode. To exit Erase Mode, press the Esc key on your keyboard.
- Select the new tile that you want to use and place your cursor over the tile you want to replace. This will highlight the tile yellow, which indicates that there is already a tile in that location. Be sure your cursor is over the correct tile before you left-click! The new tile will automatically replace the old tile.
Building Upper Levels
Once you've finished the first floor of your house and you want to start building the second floor, just click on the Second Floor icon on the right hand side of the interface. Similarly, to edit the third floor and the roof, just click on the appropriate floor icon in the same area.
A green square the size of your foundation will appear above the first floor, and your character will pop up to the second level of the house. Now all you have to do is follow the same steps that you did to build the first floor.
Support Rules
There are some extra structural support rules to be aware of when building upper levels. If a tile you place highlights orange, it is in an illegal position. You will not be able to save your house if you have any tiles illegally placed! A tile will turn orange if you try to make a floor or wall piece float, meaning that there is nothing supporting it from below. Placing tiles over the stair openings on upper levels is also considered illegal and will turn tiles orange. So, just keep these support rules in mind when building your house.
Getting Upstairs
You have two options: stairs and teleporters. A teleporter uses only one tile and can be set to move you to any other location inside your house. Simply place a teleporter in one location, and a matching teleporter in the destination location. Stairs function in the traditional manner and will require open floor tiles on the floor above.
Saving Your Design
You can play around with house designs at your leisure and come back to it at any time. While you're working on it, your progress will be saved on the server, even after you leave Edit Mode. Whenever you enter Edit Mode again, your design will be just as you left it, allowing you to pick up right where you left off. Once you've committed a house design, you can begin to work on another design, coming back as many times as you need to get it just right. It won't replace your current house appearance until you commit it, and there's no time limit for how long you can take.
Committing Your Design
Once you are sure you have the house that you want the world to see, or if you just want to test out your new floor plan for usability, you will need to commit your design. Committing your house will take you and your house out of Edit Mode and place you at the foot of your foundation steps. This will also make the house visible to all passersby. To commit your house, click the System button and then click the Commit button.
Moving crates and your items
When you enter Customize Mode, all items (even add-ons) are moved into an invisible moving crate. Once you have completed customizing your home, stand where you want to begin unpacking the crate and select the "relocate moving crate" option on the customize page of the house sign. The crate can be relocated endlessly so it is easy to move around the house as you unpack. If you log out and back in, or re-enter Customize Mode, you will have to relocate the crate again to see it.
Paying for Your Design
In addition to the initial cost of your dirt plot, you will be charged a little bit of gold for each tile you place, but it will not be deducted from your account while you are in Edit Mode. In the lower right corner of the interface, you will see a small pile of gold coins with a number next to it. That number is the running total cost of your customized house. The gold in the total box will be deducted from your account when you commit your house for the world to see. If you do not have enough gold, you will not be allowed to commit your design. If this is the case, you will need to save your design and go out and find enough gold to make your dream a reality.
Customizing with Vendors or Add-ons
If your house is hosting rental vendors, or if you have any secure container-type house add-ons (such as an aquarium, ornate elven chest, wash basin, etc), you will need to redeed those add-ons before customizing.
