About Housing
This is a sticky subject which we will tackle in different parts.
First, and to get it out of the way, a lot of new players coming to the shard ask how the housing situation is, and if large plots of land are available, etc. The answer is always: There are plenty of spots for smalls, some even close to towns or interesting locations. For larger houses (large bricks, patios [aka smithys], two story houses), you might find a spot in remote locations. It is highly unlikely you will find a spot for any of the big stuff (castles, keeps and towers). HOWEVER, the real estate market is quite healthy and reasonable. It is not uncommon to be able to buy a non-prime large home for anywhere between 50-100k over deed cost. If you compare this to how things were in OSI back in the day...well, you can't even compare it. For reference on recent housing sale and current listings, you might want to check out the Housing sub-forum in the Trading Post.
With THAT out of the way, let's move forward. There are 6 "types" of houses, smalls (in different styles but they all measure 7x7 tiles and are just a box), large bricks and patios (14x14 or 15x14), two story houses (also called L-Shapes for obvious reasons), towers, keeps and castles. For more information on costs and such, chech out the housing section of the wiki. House deeds are noobie and may not be stolen from you by a thief or looted from your corpse if you die, as long as they are kept in the top level of your pack (this means not inside another container that's inside your backpack). This does not apply to Murderers, noobied items are not protected on Reds. You can also "sell" back the deeds at NPC carpentry shops for full price. This is why they are often used as currency. While we're on the topic of house deeds, it is important to mention that being noobied, house deeds have an accelerated rate of decay. Translated to plain English: If you leave a house deed on the floor of your house while you change characters, it will no longer be there when you log back on. Never, EVER put a house deed on the floor (especially of a house). Always put it inside a bag (then take it out and leave it in the top most layer of your backpack).
So, you own a house now, congratulations! But you still have some work left to do to keep it safe!! Hicha wrote a GREAT guide which I will copy/paste here with some updated information (highlighted in blue) and complementing it with some other information from Derrick's guide to housing (highlighted in red):
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Ultima Online:T2A House Security 101
Because seeing your loot on someone's elses vendor isn't fun!
A house is one of the greatest things to own in Ultima Online; it is your personal piece of the server to do whatever you wish with, whether it be decorating, macroing in, or loot storage. But one of the key things players always seem to overlook is security. Hopefully this document will shed some light on security tips, and ways you can prevent your goods from ending up in someone else's hands.
This guide is broken down into the following categories:
- 1. Public versus Private
2. Keys
3. Locking Your Doors
4. Friends and Co-Owners
5. Hidden Players in your house
6. Bans
7. Table Barriers
8. Improved Table Barrier Security
9. Additional Notes
10. Frequently Asked Questions
1. Public versus Private
By default, newly placed houses are private. If your house is public, you can make it private through your house sign menu. Double-click your house sign, choose "Options" and click the button next to "Declare this building to be private." By implementing table barriers, you can essentially keep a portion of your house public, while the rest remains private or "secure." We'll get more into this later.
2. Keys
When initially placing your house, a key will appear in your backpack. This key will lock the front door as well as any interior doors of your new home. You can make copies of the key to give to friends or co-owners of the house by Double-clicking a blank key and targeting the original (some tinker skill may be required.) Keys are not blessed and can be stolen from your pack; keeping a key and a rune to your house in your pack is a pure invite for house looters (these should ALWAYS stay in your bank). If you have lost interior house keys, you can create new ones by using the front door key (master key) on the interior doors.
If you lose your key or its stolen, you can change the house locks and retrieve a new key by Double-clicking the house sign, choose "Options" and click "Change the house locks." A copy of the new key will also be placed in your bank, and any old keys will no longer work. The holder of a house key does not infer ownership of the house. The character who owns the house is displayed to friends of the house on the house sign.
3. Locking Your Doors
To lock your door(s), simply double-click your key, then target your door. On houses that have two front doors, you will need to lock *both* doors (it is possible to have one door locked, and one door unlocked.)
To lock interior doors, double-click your key, then select the interior door. A new key will be generated for the interior door; this way you can micro manage your home, make copies to allow certain people access to certain rooms, or as an additional fail safe to prevent a thief who has breached your first barrier any access from your valuables.
3b. Secure and locked down containers
All houses are allowed at least one secure container. A secure container can hold a maximum of 125 items and/or 400 stones. Secures can only be accessed by friends of the house so things in this container are safe from being looted as long as your house friends don't turn on you. Secures can only be created by the owner of the house, not co-owners or friends (but they can be released by coowners). To secure a container in a house say "I wish to secure this". To unsecure the container say "I wish to unsecure this" or "I wish to release this". Secures count against the maximum number of lockdowns a house has, but their contents do not.
Locked down containers are accessible to anyone who can get close enough to reach into them. Locked down containers can be locked with a key, but they will be pickable by anyone with sufficient skill. Locked down containers count as one lockdown against the maximum number of lockdowns a house is allowed, the contents of the container does not count towards that maximum. Locked down containers hold 125 items with unlimited weight. To lock down a container or any other object in the house say "i wish to lock this down". To release the object say "I wish to release this"
4. Friends and Co-Owners
Friends and co-owners of your house have access to secure and locked down containers. Co-owners can also unlock and lockdown items within your house, they may also move your trash barrel if you implement a table barrier. Friends and co-owners should be trustworthy; you are essentially giving them access to your goods.
5. Hidden Players in your house
House owners, co-owners and friends are able to instantly reveal anyone hidden in the house with the Detect Hidden skill, regardless of skill level. Targeting any single location within your home will reveal the hidden player, even if they are outside on the patio, or on the second floor. Whenever you enter your home, the first thing you should do is make sure the doors close behind you (and are locked), followed by using the Detect Hidden skill. You can either make a macro or this, or open up your skills menu, select the Detect Hidden skill and drag it off your skill menu.
6. Bans
So you've found the intruder in your home, now what? Quickly ban them of course! Saying the command "i ban thee" will bring up a target cursor. Select the intruder to be banned and target them, they will quickly be removed from your home and placed outside near the door. Bans are account-based; a ban will not only ban that player, but any subsequent characters he may have on that same account. Bans may be removed by opening your house menu and choose "Friends."
7. Table Barriers
Table barriers provide a second level of security to your home in case your house key is stolen or looted. A thief who acquires your house key and knows where you live is guaranteed to pay a visit to your house and see what he can take before you make it back to ban him or rekey the house. Table barriers are created by placing impassible objects side-by-side in rows or columns to separate areas of your home you wish to provide the extra protection. Regular tables work the best, avoid using small items like crates as they can create rez vulnerabilities. A trash barrel is usually used as the entrance, since they can be quickly moved out of the way and back into place. You can place a trash barrel by saying "i wish to place a trash barrel." Due to a (not-so) recent patch, you will have to destroy the old trash barrel before being able to place a new one.
Basic entry is as follows:
- 1. Enter your home
2. Make sure door shuts behind you
3. Use Detect Hidden and target yourself
4. Approach the trash barrel and stand directly in front of it
5. Double-click an axe or other chopping weapon and target the barrel to destroy it
6. Take a step forward to where the trash barrel used to be
7. Say "i wish to place a trash barrel"
8. Use Detect Hidden and target yourself (doing it twice doesn't hurt!)
Here are a few examples of table barriers:
By implementing table barriers, we can declare our home public, but still keep a portion of the house private. By using a combination of Detect Hidden and quick placement of the trash barrel, we can essentially remove the need to even carry a key around with us since the table barrier is protecting our private areas for us.
The key to table barriers is to always place the impassible items either N, S, W, or E of each other, never diagonal, and connect them to walls in your home. The reasoning behind this is because an intruder can sneak a ghost in past your wall, then have a second character come in and rez the ghost by using the corner. To rez a ghost, the ghost must be within the surrounding 9 tiles of the rezzer; blocking diagonal corners moves the ghost away from the rez zone.
8. Improved Table Barrier Security
So now that you understand the basic table barrier concept, lets increase the security it provides a bit further.
Although an intruder cannot get past a table barrier, they still may be able to loot items if they are placed directly on the other side of the barrier. This also applies to characters you might have macroing away within your home; if they are standing directly next to the table barrier, an intruder who has managed to get past the door could kill the macroing character and loot all of his/her belongings from the other side of the table.
To prevent this, we'll take advantage of the Z-axis. If we raise the tables up by using a single item and locking them down, an intruder can no longer loot items on the other side of the table (you can still open corpses or chests next to the wall, but the intruder cannot remove items from them.) They can still loot items placed next to the trash barrel, but at least we've extended the amount of safe storage in our home, especially if we have a small house.
*** Note: It has been brought up that devious players can modify their UO client and still be able to loot/steal items placed near the table barrier, bypassing the Z-axis security. It is recommended to always keep items 1 tile away from the barrier, or 2 tiles away from any spot reachable by an intruder (intruder -> table -> tile -> item) ***
9. Additional Notes
1. Always keep a character logged out in your home. If you die in the wilderness and lose your key or have it stolen and the intruder knows where you live (especially if you had a rune to your house with you), you can guarantee that the thief or looter will quickly be visiting your home to see what they can loot. Being able to switch characters and ban any unwanted intruders is a huge plus while you work on changing the house keys or rezzing your character.
2. By keeping the width between the table barrier and front door down to single tiles, you can actually run back and forth along the barrier a few times. If someone is hidden, you'll get the system message about "pushing something invisible aside" which is a clear sign of an intruder. This is great if you're paranoid and need more verification that nobody is in your home.
3. Always double-check to make sure both front doors are locked whenever you change the house locks. It is a good idea to quickly unlock and relock them just to be sure.
10. Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Will Detect Hidden reveal ghosts within your home?
Answer: Unfortunately, no. The good news is that if you've implemented your table barrier correctly, there's no way the ghost can be rezzed anyway. If the ghosts logs out while inside your home, they will automatically be placed outside upon login if your house is private or they are not friended/co-owned.
Question: What if the ghost follows me in, and stands on top of when I place the trash barrel?
Answer: You cannot resurrect a player who is standing on an object, such as a table or barrel.
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Additionaly to that, what I personally do at my main home (a keep, but works with any 2+ story house) is to have a spare table in a secure on the table barrier, hold it on my cursor and close my client. When I log back in, the table will be on the tile where I used to be, and I'll be on the second floor. This is considerably more tedious, but it means I NEVER move my table barrier and never moving your table barrier means that you never forget to put it back up. Friends will still be able to do the same trick and "jump" a floor.
