Housing

Overview

The only houses currently available to players on Valhalla are static homes. House deeds are not available to be placed by either GMs or players. Static homes can be purchased from their house sign. If a house is available, simply double-click the house sign with the gold in your pack and you will become the owner of the house if you have a free slot for that housing type. If you decide later that you wish to sell the house back simply sell the home using the sign's menu and your gold will be returned minus a 10% processing fee.

Housing Types

There are five types of homes you can own on Valhalla: shops, rooms/apartments, town house, cottage and estate.

Shops [cost: 5,000 gold; maximum lockdowns: 50]: Shops are buildings with player vendors in or around them (an employee contract can be bought at any decorator vendor). You may own the shop, decorate the shop and in all ways have ownership of the shop. However, you may not have the NPC vendor removed and you may not lock the front doors. And in most cases you will not have a lockdown area outside the home. If the front door of a shop with a player vendor is found locked, the front doors will be removed and the lockdown area will be modified to restrict those doors from being locked again. Shops will be foreclosed if a vendor is not present and stocked.

Many shops have an internal lockable area, either a gate-locked counter, an upstairs room or a gate at the top of the second floor. If you purchase a shop and do not have a lockable area please page a gm and they will try and help you.

• vendors will only work in areas where you are able to lockdown. If you place a vendor outside this area, it will not work due to union regulations.

Rooms and Apartments [cost: 10,000 gold; maximum lockdowns: 50]: Some buildings and shops have a room available for purchase. You can identify a room by the housing sign outside the room. Apartments are the same except they are typically a whole housing space (some with an upstairs) arranged in a row of townhouses. These rooms and apartments are meant for your second or third characters. Rooms and apartments are your personal housing space and do not require (but is allowed) to have vendors.

Due to the nature of the house sign lockdown area, you might be able to lock down things on the first floor if you have a room on the second floor or higher. One or two things or a vendor is fine if you're not invading another person's space but don't clutter the place up.

Cottage [cost: above 10,000 gold but below 500,000 gold]: Usually a small house but can be of any size for that price. Cottages have a maximum of 250 lockdowns.

Town House [cost: above 10,000 gold]: A house within a specified town's limits. Most town houses tend to cost up to 500,000 gold.

Note: You may require a GM if you bought a house within a town when there were only 4 houses per account allowed. The GM will move the house into the correct housing slot so you can buy another type of house.

Estate [cost: above 10,000 gold]: This is every other type of house. A home is your personal house where you own the entire house and possibly an area around the home including docks, fenced in areas or open areas. Not all houses have this extra area - please do not page to have this change.

Some large houses may require a second sign. These houses are typically referred to as split houses. You must buy the prime sign before you can buy any additional signs linked to the house, such as a second half of the house or a dock sign. Docks are typically limited to 50 lockdowns and split signs are limited to half the house price (many split houses will have a cheaper second sign which can not be increased any higher - for example, costing 15K and setting it to a maximum of 100 lock downs for that sign). Both signs added together will never go above the maximum allowed. When you sell the house, you are expected to sell all signs.

Guild halls [cost: varied]: Guild halls are available for guilds with more than 8 active members. An active member must have logged in within the last 60 days. Only the guild leader may purchase a guild hall. Once you have enough members, simply page under housing that you wish to purchase a guild hall and a GM will allow you buy one. If you go under 8 active members ( accounts ) you will be given 30 days, to recruit.

Rules for Owning

You may own ONE estate house.
You may own ONE cottage.
You may own ONE townhouse.
You may own TWO houses 10,000 gold and under. If you buy a designated vendor house for 5,000 gold, you must have a vendor there at all times.

Rules for Purchasing

Buying a house is a first-come, first-served basis.

• Please do not purchase a home that has a reserved sign on it even if it has a for sale sign. These signs can often by found on the main doors.

• Some homes may have an attached fence and gate around it. If the gate does not display as **LOCKED** when you buy the home, the gate is not part of the house purchase and will not be lockable. Please do not page a GM to have this changed.

• If your home does not already have a stable or farm area, it is by design. Not all homes have stables or attached farm land. Please do not page a gm and request this to be changed.

• We will not add teleports to access the roof.

• Some houses may have a separate dock that will have to be purchased separately. This is considered part of the main house and you may adjust the house values between the dock and the main house but you can not exceed the total allowed per account.

• If you purchase a home and your vendor will not work on the front stoop then it is because your home does not have a lock down area outside the home. Please do not page a GM to have this changed.

• If you click the sign but cannot buy a house due to 'having too many houses' and you know you do not have that type of house, please page a GM to check your housing slots.

Reserving a House

You can reserve a house for 2 weeks for a small fee of 1,000gp. If the house is available, use the sign and say no to buying the house. You will be given the option of reserving the house. Any character on your account can buy the house after it is reserved for you.

You can only reserve one house at a time. If you find another house that you would like to reserve instead, use the sign, say no to buying it and then reserve it. The reservation will switch to the new house.

House Lockdowns

Your house price determines how many lockdowns and secures you can have at that house. All apartments, rooms and vendor houses are limited to 50 lockdowns and 5 secures. The only exception to this is Impalenth where apartments are allowed 100 lockdowns and 10 secures. A typical house will usually have around 350 lockdowns. Expensive houses may have up to 600 lockdowns.

Guide for Lockdowns
10,000 gold and under: 50 lockdowns, 5 secures.
under 65,000 gold: 150 lockdowns, 10 secures.
under 100,000 gold: 200 lockdowns, 15 secures.
under 300,000 gold: 250 lockdowns, 20 secures.
under 400,000 gold: 300 lockdowns, 25 secures.
under 500,000 gold: 350 lockdowns, 30 secures.
under 700,000 gold: 400 lockdowns, 35 secures.
under 800,000 gold: 450 lockdowns, 40 secures.
under 900,000 gold: 500 lockdowns, 45 secures.
under 1,000,000 gold: 550 lockdowns, 50 secures.
under 1,500,000 gold: 600 lockdowns, 55 secures.
under 2,000,000 gold: 650 lockdowns, 60 secures.
under 2,500,000 gold: 700 lockdowns and 65 secures. under 3,000,000 gold: 750 lockdowns, 70 secures.
over 3,000,000 gold: 800 lockdowns, 75 secures.

When you buy a house, you may not get the full lockdown amount. Houses that cost under 300,000 will receive the full lockdown amount right away. Houses over this amount will get 50% of the lockdowns listed above (rounded down). You may purchase a Add 50 Lockdowns Ticket (available from the Architect) to increase your lockdowns.

If you have a roof and you can access it by stairs then it's available to decorate. If you have purchased a house with no tele, one will not be added. House boundaries have been extended to cover house areas. If your boundary extends to the road, walkway, water, etc. Do not lock anything down on those areas or your boundaries will be changed.

Asterial is home to dragons. Some dragons will be on the roof as they use to be.

House Sign

The commmands below can be accessed through the house sign.

Friends

You may have up to 8 friends on a sign. Friends may decorate the house using commands and/or the decoration tool and purchase items for you with the renovation tool. Friends may not remove items purchased with the renovation tool. To remove a friend, select the friend to be removed and use ESC when given the cursor or select another person to replace that friend slot.

Rename this house

Renames the house as seen on the house sign.

Change signs

Provides a personalized sign choice for your house.

Change the locks

Changes all locks in your house to a blank key. All doors are on the same key. Separate doors/locks will not be provided. If you have additional signs, each sign has its own key.

Change owners

Transfers the house with all its contents to a new person if they have an empty slot.

Remove trespassers

Looks through your house for players and monsters, hidden or not, and gives you a chance to remove them. You will first be presented with a cursor and you may target a person or monster to have them thrown out of your house. If you do not use the cursor (cancel by pressing ESC), you will cycle through a list of everyone in the house and be given a choice to eject them. The second choice is good for finding hidden players.

Emergency eject

This is a panic command that will throw everyone out (players, friends of the house, monsters and even pets) at once, no questions asked.

Check all lockdowns

Checks all items if they are secured or locked down. Due to item placement in the house, some items tend to get checked twice. If they are not secured or locked down, a text bubble will appear above the item.

Refresh this house

Refreshes your house for 90 days. See Refreshing and Foreclosure below for more information.

House Commands

You can speak these commands while inside your house. House commands are not case sensitive. All have an equivalent on the house sign or decorator's tool.

Command	Effect
I wish to lock this down	Locks down OR releases the item
I wish to release this	Locks down OR releases the item
I wish to secure this	Secures OR unsecures the item
I wish to unsecure this	Secures OR unsecures the item
I wish to make this public	Makes a secured container available for all to access
I wish to raise this	Raises an item as high as the ceiling
I wish to lower this	Lowers an item as low as the floor
I wish to refresh this house	Refreshes the house for 90 days
I wish to refresh my house	Refreshes the house for 90 days
Everyone get out	Cycles through who is in the house and forcibly removes them
Get out now	Immediately throws everyone in the house outside
Check my lockdowns	Checks if any items are not locked down or secured

Foreclosure

All houses must be continually refreshed or they will enter foreclosure. Only the house owner can refresh a house by using the speech command or the sign. If a house has not been refreshed for 90 days, the house will enter foreclosure. To see if a house has entered foreclosure, check the sign. If it has been more than 90 days, a foreclosure button will appear under house status. Any person may request the house enter foreclosure if the owner does not get back in time to reclaim it. A mover will come into the house, clean it up and put the house back on the market again. Because these movers tend to do a fast job cleaning the house, they tend to not want to move larger items such as deeds and will simply throw them out.

If the owner returns to find their house in foreclosure, they must pay a 5% of the house cost to remove it from foreclosure. Failure to do this will allow others to request foreclosure.

Housing-specific Items

All items can be found for sale on the architect npc vendor.

Decorator's Tool

This handy little tool will allow you and your friends to move, lock down, secure, release and rotate items around in your house. Simply use the tool and target what you want to move. The item must be in your house or in your backpack. If it is in your backpack, it will drop to the ground ready to move.

If an item can be locked down, secured or rotated, the button will appear on the decorator's tool. If the button does not appear, the command is not available to that item.

You may freely move any item around your house provided it is within the house boundaries and on the same floor. You can not move it higher than the current floor it is on (ie, you can not move it onto the next floor).

You can not move doors or the house sign around with the decorator's tool.

Older deeded items (such as fireplaces, ovens, looms, etc) will not move. Release the item back to its deed and place the item down again.

Renovation Tool

A fun tool that will allow you to add in renovations to your house for a small fee such as additional walls, specific single items and large areascapes. All renovations require lockdowns and a fee (viewing is free). When you are ready to buy the item, the amount of lockdowns and the price is displayed. Renovated items stay with the house for as long as you own it. Once you sell the house or the house goes into foreclosure, all renovations will be removed. Renovated items are subject to the same rules when moving with the decorator's tool - they can only be raised up to the ceiling of the current floor so make sure it is on the flooring level that you want.

You must use the renovation tool to destroy an item. The decorator's tool will not unlock a renovated item due to accidental removal of the item.

Friends of the house may add renovations but they are not allowed to destroy renovated items.

Add 50 Lockdowns Ticket

When you are ready to add more lockdowns to your house, you may purchase this ticket from the architect. One ticket will add 50 lockdowns and 5 secures to your house. The house price determines the maximum lockdowns you can buy for your house. This ticket will not work on houses priced at 10,000 gold and less.

Housing Deregistration Ticket

NO LONGER SOLD

If you require more lockdowns to your country house, you may deregister your apartment/vendor house(s). Each deregistration will allow you to gain another 50 lockdowns and 5 secures to your country house. This is the only time where you can go above the maximum allowed of 600 lockdowns. This offer excludes any houses in towns, apartments and vendor houses.

This is permanent deregistration. You can not ask to have it reversed at a later date.

If you sell your country house and buy another, the deregistration affects the new house.

Decorating Your House

Once you buy your house, you will want furniture and knick-knacks. You can buy all sorts of neat things to dress up your house from NPC Decorators, NPC Bakers and Player Carpenters. The NPC Decorators have a lot of items that can not be crafted by players like decorative weapon racks, decorative shields, spider webs and more. There are many other places to find cool stuff for your house such as treasure chests, fishing up messages in a bottle, quest prizes and special event monsters. Player vendors are also a good source of items and decorations.

You will want to limit how much stuff you keep at your house. Limit "top level" items such as containers, furniture and decorations. We have noticed that when we have a lot of stuff around (top level), we have trouble logging in at times. It is a good idea to be about a screen away from a house when logging off or you may crash when logging in.

We will not be providing GM special decoration items for a lot of reasons.

• It opens up the discussion of favoritism.
• It is a pain in the butt for the staff.
• We want to save some of this stuff for quest gifts.

One request ... if you are planning on decorating your roof, please do it nicely. Please don't use roofs for storage areas - it is just unattractive. This is for roofs that already have teleports.

If you are planning a roof top garden, the roof must be flat, no surrounding ground area and the size will be limited. If your roof is 20 x 20, you will have a plantable area 10 x 10, if it's 14 x 18, the plantable area will be 7 x 9. You cannot have plantable areas on apartments or vendors.

Decorating Tips

House signs specify who the owner is and only the owner or a friend of the house can lock or unlock items. When you buy a house, change the house sign so others will know it has been bought.

Be careful setting things down! If you forget about it, it will decay and you will lose it forever.

If you are dying furniture, dye it in your pack until you are happy with the color then go ahead and place it and lock or secure it.

To change the facing of most items, simply double click the item.

To make an area within your house property plantable, buy a scarecrow from the farmer and place it where you want to plant your seeds. You may now plant seeds in a 10x10 area around the scarecrow. You will have to keep the scarecrow there at all times unless you want to attract crows who will gobble up your plants.

Farmers carry seeds that will create plants. When you use a flower seed, you'll be able to choose from a few different types of flowers that you can plant. Once you have chosen your flower, you will get a targeting cursor. The cursor will only work if you aim at a proper container, plantable mud or yourself (which will appear at your feet). Each flower takes 1 lockdown.

To remove a flower, unlock it as any other item (I wish to lock this down or I wish to release this). You will not receive a flower seed back - after all, you ripped the plant up by the roots and now it's dead.

Mailbox

Mailboxes are made by crafting a wooden chest in the color and size of your choice. You may make a metal chest but only the larger chests come out in the ore color as the strongbox is only one color.

Drop the box on your vendor and he or she will prompt you how to advertise the box. Type in: <your name>'s Mailbox. He will ask you how much to charge for the item. Either put in 0, cancel hit enter with nothing in the line and he will return the box to you, renamed! Make sure it is locked then secure it outside of your house. If you raise it and put a lit torch under it, it looks like a mailbox on a post (plus it will glow at night).

• this method of naming an item can be used for most containers.

Another option is to just rename the container: Mailbox and have the vendor return it to you. Then own the mailbox.

Warnings

In order to protect your chests from being burgled, make sure you purchase/make a lockable container (it will have a key inside). Secure them to the spot (see Decorating Commands), take the key out and lock the chest then place the key on a ring and keep it with you. You can not lock the key inside the top-level of the chest. A secured chest means that only the owner and friends of the house may take items outside. If you want the chest to be accessible to all, you can make it public.