Resizing your House

By Lady Aalia, February 2009

 

 

If you already own a house, you might well wonder if it would be possible to build a larger one in its stead. The customizable house plots that came with the Age of Shadows, the change in blocking items that Publish 19 and Publish 53 brought, offer many possibilities to make better use of the available space for housing. Here’s how to go about resizing your home, while minimizing the risks involved.

The House resizing command:

• Places a one hour account-bound placement zone where your house used to be (noone else can steal your land during this time)
• Any Character on the account is guaranteed replacement on the same plot for an hour
• Circumvents the normal 7 day delay between demolishes/rebuilds
• The new house can be smaller or larger than the original area, as long as the surrounding area can accommodate the change
• NOTE: This is an actual “demolish” – if you have grandfathered houses, resizing your house will condemn them just like placing a new one would. Also, Items will behave just as though you demolished the house – they will drop to the ground and will be free for grabs by anyone passing by.

 

Assessing the possibilities
First, go to the house sign menu and check that your house is ‘properly placed’ (Look under Information). If your house is improperly placed, you’ll be unable to re-place your original house in case the upgrade fails! If your house is ‘improperly placed’, it might be best not to take any chances with an upgrade attempt. There are a number of ways your house can become ‘improper’ (see the FAQ); so always check just before attempting the upgrade! After checking, take a stroll around your house and see in which direction you might have room to expand.
Keep in mind the rules for placing houses

A good idea is to visit the location of your house on another shard or the test shard. Perhaps someone else has done the work for you and performed the upgrade already! In that case, make a screenshot of the house and print that, or make a careful note about exactly where his house is located. If you find an open plot where your house is on your home shard, use a character on your account that holds the house and “test place”; that will bring up the plot but wont place it unless you hit commit and have the gold in the bank. Do take careful note of the locations of other houses in the area; their sizes and locations may differ from the ones on your shard, and the upgrade may not be possible for your house. The terrain can differ subtly from shard to shard, so what works on one shard may not work on another.

 

Preparation

• Empty your house completely. Saying “I wish to resize my house” while standing under the house sign demolishes your house as though you’d used that option from the house sign and items will behave just as they would if you demolished the house – they will drop to the ground.
• The “I wish to resize my house” command will not work with items in your moving crate. You will receive the message “You cannot resize your house at this time. Please remove all items from the moving crate and try again”.
• Make sure you remove all elven add-ons like the tables or chests that come as deeds as well as any of the Heritage token decorations since they may compromise house placement.
  Water barrels/magic fields/etc will no longer block house placement.
• Moon gates will be destroyed on both ends when placing a house on them and you will receive a message of the placement being blocked at this location.
• In case you have a backup account to place with, make sure it will be able to (2 week trial accounts cannot place houses).
• Remove all Vendors you may own or have rented out, from your house. You can’t demolish or resize a house hosting Vendors.
• Make sure your game window is lined up with the top left corner of your screen, since not having it set that way can cause major problems when trying to place your house.
• Then, get enough gold into your bank to cover the costs for placing the new plot, or replacing your existing home (whichever costs more). Buy a House Placement Tool.
• Make a screenshot of your house and print it, or carefully note its location. If an upgrade turns out to be impossible,  you’ll be able to quickly replace your old home using the printout.
• Make sure the housing server is up and running. You will not be able to use a placement tool if the server is down. (Menu won’t open)
• You may want to consider enlisting the help of a friend. If your friend has a house tool and sufficient funds, and if he is not in the 7 day waiting period, he will be able to stand guard while you attempt the upgrade, and replace your old home if the timer runs out and anyone else shows up. Note that he will not have to confirm placing in order to block other players from placing, so your friend will not condemn his existing home and/or be placed on a 7-day waiting period by blocking placement in your spot. Just make sure he knows that he should not confirm the house placement Gump. The outline of the plot will remain and block placement for 30 seconds and then disappear, if he does not confirm the house placement.

 

Checklist

Just before you will attempt the upgrade, go through the following checklist:

2. Is the moving crate of your house empty?
4. Do you have your House Placing Tool in your pack?
5. Is the housing server up?<
6. Do you have enough gold to cover the upgrade or to replace your old house if need be? Check using the House Placing Tool

 

Performing the actual upgrade

 

After going through the checklist, take your friend to your house, form a party with him, and hide. Have your friend use his House Placement Tool to call up whatever house you currently have, and let him poise the outline exactly over your existing home, so that he is ready to replace it on the instant. Ask him to place the house in case your timer runs out and you tell him to over the party chat. If you have the Tracking skill, use it to detect other people who may be hiding nearby. If people suspect you might try an upgrade (because they saw you empty your house earlier, for example), some of them might camp your house to try and steal the spot. Be paranoid. Stand under the house sign.Type the words “I wish to resize my house” and hit enter when you are ready to place. Use the House Placement Tool and select the choice for the house or plot size that you will attempt to place.

 

The House Placement tool will have a cool down if used too many times in a given time period.

 

 

 

If the new house cannot be placed for some reason, don’t panic! Your friend is still set to block the spot instantly should the need arise, and if you see someone wander into your screen, just ask your friend to do so. Calmly try to place the new house in a slightly different position, or try a slightly smaller plot size. If all else fails, re-place your old home. Using this approach and the proper preparation, upgrading a house becomes a relatively low-risk operation.

Good luck enlarging your real-estate holdings!

 

 

 

 

 

Updated Feb 2009

Lady Aalia