Custom Housing
Description
One of the most unique and exiting parts of Ultima Online and it's sandbox environment is it's housing and custom housing features. Houses can be placed or purchased by players and everything inside of it is safe from other players unless specifically granted the permissions. Custom houses can be designed and prebuilt houses can be placed already done. Houses cost gold and you must have 1200 skill points gained on the account to place a house, this is to prevent alternate accounts from hoarding houses.
Getting a House
There are two ways to get a house. You may build your own or purchase one from another player.
Building a Home
To build a house, you must first purchase a House Placement Tool from an NPC Architect (Usually located around Carpenters). They cost under 1000 gold. Some characters choose to always carry one since they are Blessed, in case a good spot turns up on their adventures.
Note: The NPC Architect sells classic house deeds as well as the house placement tool. These deeds are not blessed, so look out for opportunist thieves in the area! Classic houses can also be placed with the house placement tool but they cost more. If you do choose to place a classic house with the housing placement tool and then decide to demolish the house, you will get back a deed, rather than the cost of the placement. In contrast, with a custom house, you will get back the cost of the plot.
Once you've got enough gold in your bank, you need to find a location to place a home. Finding a spot can be difficult because of the heavy population on the server but houses do decay over time when players go inactive. Search for your spot!
When you are at your spot, select the house size/style and target the ground where the steps would go. Either the house will appear or it will tell you something is blocking. New housing requires no blocking objects under or within 1 tile of the foundation. The house must also be 5 tiles away from any other player house from front and behind.
If you see the house appear, simply click the confirmation button and congratulations! If not, keep trying. Placing houses can be tricky!
Buying a Home
Some players choose to sell their old homes and buy new ones. Some players find houses just to resell them to other players. Whatever the case, you can purchase houses from other players. One of the main advantages of buying a house from another player is that you don't have to go through the tedious process of placing one yourself. For buying large plots such as 18x18's, you'll almost always likely buy one from another player unless you witness one "fall".
Finding a house to purchase can often be done from the forums in the buying/selling section. These threads will often include the location, a description, the size and images. Once you've settled on a price with the seller, you must both travel to the location of the house and stand under the sign of the house. The seller must open the house sign and begin the transaction. A Neon glacial blue deed will appear in the trade window with the house information. Simply place your check in the trade and click the check. Congratulations! The house now belongs to you.
Home Security
In the security menu of the house sign, you can give other players certain privileges in your house. There's three levels of security:
- Owners (all characters of your account)
- Co-owners
- Friends
Friends can do the following:
- Ban other players, lift a ban
- Access secure containers, doors and teleporters with the access level set to 'friends' or 'anyone'
Co-owners can do the following:
- Inherit Permissions from Friends
- Lock down items, and release items locked down by themselves
- Release locked-down items or secure containers, even those placed by other players
- Access secure containers, doors and teleporters with the access level set to 'co-owners', 'friends' or 'anyone'
- Place house add-ons
- Rename the house
Owners can do the following:
- Inherit Permissions from Co-Owners
- Make other players a co-owner of the house, or remove them from the co-owners list
- Place secure containers
- Set the security level on doors and teleporters
- Access secure containers, doors and teleporters with the access level set to 'owner', 'co-owners', 'friends' or 'anyone'
- Remove house add-ons
- Place barkeeps and write out vendor contracts
- Trade the house to another player
- Demolish the house
- Change the house foundation style, hanger and sign
- Customize the house (if the house is of the customizable type)
- Change the house to Public or Private
- Secure containers
Locking Items Down
Secure containers differ from those that are locked down in that you can easily remove items from them without having to "release" them first. Secure containers provide secure storage without locking down the objects that stored within them. Locking items down
Once an item is locked down in your house, it becomes securely locked in that location. Locked down items cannot be moved by anyone and do not decay. This lets you decorate your house with the peace of mind that ruffians or petty chair thieves will not be able to wreck or steal your furniture, and that your decorations won't simply vanish after being left unattended.
House Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| I Ban Thee | Friends, co-owners and owners of a house can issue this command. It will bring up a targeting cursor to ban and eject someone. Friends and owners cannot be banned. |
| Remove Thyself | Friends, co-owners and owners of a house can issue this command. It will bring up a targeting cursor to eject someone. Friends and owners cannot be ejected. |
| I Wish To Lock This Down | Locks an item down in your house. Only the owner and co-owners can issue this command. |
| I Wish To Release This | Removes lockdown and secure status on an item. Only the owner and co-owners can issue this command. |
| I Wish To Secure This | Locks down a container in your house and makes it secure. Only the owner and co-owners can issue this command. |
| I Wish To Place A Trash Barrel | Will place a trash barrel inside a house, at the position where you are standing. Only the owner or co-owner |
House Types
Classic
Note: Classic houses have slightly different placing rules than custom houses. You will not always be able to replace a Tower with a 16x14 for example. Take care if you want to try and swap them!
| Name | Image | Size | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Stone and Plaster House Also available as Wood, Brick, Field Stone, Stone and Plaster, Wood and Plaster, & Thatched-Roof Cottage |
 |
7x7 | 63800 Deed 64505 Tool |
| Small Stone Workshop |  |
7x7 | 80,600 Deed 123,000 Tool |
| Small Marble Workshop |  |
7x7 | 83,000 Deed 123,000 Tool |
| Small Stone Tower |  |
8x7 | 100,500 Deed 171,500 Tool |
| Sandstone House with Patio |  |
12x8 | 90,900 Deed 189,900 Tool |
| Two Story Log Cabin |  |
8x13 | 119800 Deed 198,800 Tool |
| Two Story Villa |  |
11x11 | 156500 Deed 266,500 Tool |
| Marble House with Patio |  |
14x13 | 164500 Deed 392,000 Tool |
| Brick House |  |
14x14 | 164500 Deed 294,500 Tool |
| Two-Story Wood and Plaster |  |
14x14 | 192400 Deed 392,500 Tool |
| Large House with Patio | |
15x14 | 172800 Deed 249,250 Tool |
| Tower Has the same storage as a large custom house. |
 |
16x14 | 612200 Deed 873,200 Tool |
| Small Stone Keep |  |
24x24 | ? Deed 1,325,200 Tool |
| Castle |  |
31x31 | ? Deed 2,122,800 Tool |
Custom
The following screenshots are taken from the House Placement tool:
Two Story
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Two Story 1
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Two Story 2
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Two Story 3
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Two Story 4
Three Story
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Three Story 1
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Three Story 2
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Three Story 3
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Three Story 4
Max Storage
Plots that have 2,437 storage and 1,218 lockdowns are commonly referred to as "max storage" plots, despite the fact that small keeps, castles and 30x30 plots have more storage! As a quick reference, if you add the length and width and it totals 30 or more, then the property is a "max storage" plot. For example, a 15x15 would be 15+15 as length+width which is exactly 30 and therefore has the "max storage" amount of 2,437 storage.
30x30
30x30 plots are a custom added feature on Ultima Online Forever. Aside from the donation tier cave and island houses, these are the largest houses a player can obtain. While they have a footprint 1 tile smaller than castles, there are sometimes obstructing items within castle courtyards that could block the placement of a 30x30. It is best to talk to an experienced house placer or GameMaster before attempting a 30x30 placement.
Being such large properties, they also offer fantastic opportunities for interesting designs. If you tour the lands, you will find several beautifully designed 30x30 plots, many of which were created by the talented Lady Faytality
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Oriental Delight
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Summer Villa
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Formidable Fort
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Pirate Town
FAQ
Why can I not place a house?
To place a house you must have a minimum of 1200 skill points Show Real on your account. That means you must have at least 1200 skill points across your entire account show real which requires you to have at least 2 chars on your account. You also must have a minimum of 24 hours IN GAME. We do not make exceptions to this rule all players must meet this requirement.
Ensure also that you are trying to place on valid terrain and that you have enough gold available in your bank if you are using the house placement tool. You can check this by viewing the "Bank Balance" entry when you use the house placement tool. If you used "deposit" to store all your gold, the house placement tool will not be able access the gold. Create a check first, store it in your bank and then re-open the house placement tool.
I have a classic house, do I really need to carry a key around?
No, you don't - Rejoice! While you are given a key by default when placing or trading a classic house, you don't need to use them. Classic houses have been updated to allow you to use the same security features as containers. To make use of this, first unlock the door by double-clicking the key and selecting the door. From within the house, type "I wish to secure this" and select the door. You will now be able to select the access level. You can now put the key away and still get access to the house, as long as you meet the required access level.
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Unlock door
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Door unlocked
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Securing door
I'm a hoarder, I need more storage!
If you find yourself constantly running out of storage, you could:
- Buy Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying and stop being a packrat ;)
- Buy a larger house
- Buy a second or third house
- Buy a storage increase deed!
That first one is obviously a bit of a joke but you may want to assess what you are storing. It is all too easy to get carried away storing, for example, weak or average weapons that you will simply never use.
The second and third are fairly self explanatory. If you need a larger property, you may want to browse the Selling forum.
The fourth perhaps does need a little more explanation! There is a special "house storage increase deed" on the Unique Home Wares Vendor in West Britain that allows you to increase the storage on your property by 50%. It costs 500,000 gold and can be applied up to 10 times. Be aware however that if you drop the house, all the upgrades are lost!
