Premium home help
Premium home help is an Official GemStone IV Document, and it is protected from editing. As it is a guide originally published in game or on the official play.net website, it may be out of date and can only be updated by a member of staff.
Introduction
Introduction:
Welcome to the Premium Homes system! We hope you'll enjoy playing with the homes as much as we did creating them. The next few pages of this policy guide will explain a few of the features and restrictions on the homes, as well as give you an introduction to using them.
Type HOME HELP for a list of topics.
Claiming a Home
Claiming a home
ONE HOME PER ACCOUNT! You may claim a home with any ONE character on your Premium account. If you wish to have more than one home, please contact billing@simutronics.com about setting up a second Premium account and transferring a character to that account.
CLAIMING A HOME. To claim a home, go to the Town Hall in your area and pay the real estate clerk there the appropriate fee (type ASK CLERK ABOUT HOMES to find out what the fee is that day). To pay the clerk, type GIVE CLERK <amount> where <amount> equals the exact amount in silvers. If you have a bank note, the clerk will notice this and use the note.
After you have paid for the a home, go to a room in which there is a claimable home you like, and type HOME CLAIM. The system will show you a list of available homes and ask you to confirm your claim.
Trading in One Home for Another
You can transfer your home from one character to another on your account by standing in the room of your facade and typing HOME TRANSFER (with the character you want to be the new owner).
Home Types
Homes are divided into several basic categories:
- Urban or Rural - Lower, Middle or Upper Class - Freestanding Structure or Door - Race or Class restrictions (select homes only)
Recognizing a home's category:
Lower Rural: hut or shack, or sagging wooden door. Middle Rural: cabin or cottage, or modest wooden door. Upper Rural: domicile or sturdy wooden door. Lower Urban: hovel or sagging metal door. Middle Urban: home, cottage, or modest metal door. Upper Urban: residence or sturdy metal door.
The type of home you claim will forever determine what the OUTSIDE of that home may look like. Home exteriors must match the neighborhoods in which they have been placed (cabins will only be allowed in rural areas, for example, and shanties will not be allowed in expensive neighborhoods.)
Furniture Types
Each home has several categories of furniture that are used to build the room description when you type LOOK. These categories are:
- Floor - Optional Floor Covering - Wall - Optional Wall Hanging - Large Item #1 (usually a bed) - Large Item #2 (usually a flat surface, such as a desk or table) - Fire/Heat Source - Door (may be hidden from view) - Optional Window (May be hidden from view) - Optional Chairs
NOTE: WHENEVER YOU PURCHASE ONE OF THE ABOVE ITEMS FROM A FURNITURE STORE, YOUR OLD ONE WILL BE TRADED IN.
Purchasing Furniture
To purchase furniture for your home, go to one of the many furniture stores throughout the game and type ORDER to see a list of what is available.
Once you know what you want, type ORDER <#>. The merchant will give you a price and usually offer a trade-in discount on your old piece of furniture of the same category. To confirm the order, type ORDER <#>. Your furniture will be delivered after you have left your home closed, locked and empty for a few minutes.
A REMINDER: WHENEVER YOU PURCHASE A FURNITURE ITEM FROM A STORE, THE MATCHING PIECE IN YOUR HOME WILL BE TRADED IN.
Changing Your Home's Interior Description
- To change the wording of your room description, type HOME CHANGE.
- To change your scent type, type HOME SCENT.
- To hide or unhide your door, window, floor cover or wall hanging, TAP them.
- To change your furniture, visit a merchant and ORDER a replacement piece.
- To switch your two miscellaneous furniture slots, type HOME SWAP.
- To evict someone, SHOW {player} to DOOR.
- To look out the window - if you have one - PEER WINDOW.
- To look out the door (open) or its peephole (closed), PEER DOOR.
Using Chairs in Your Home
Chair syntax is as follows:
- To make more chairs, OPEN {chair}.
- To gather your chairs together, CLOSE {chair}.
- Other verbs:
- PULL CHAIR TO {furniture object}
- PULL CHAIR, PUSH CHAIR, TURN CHAIR
- There are many different results you can get from the verbs.
Experiment a bit!
Attaching Objects to Your Furniture and Wall
The ability to place objects in your home safely is a long term home project. More news on this as it comes closer to implementation.
ITEMS DROPPED ON THE FLOOR OF YOUR HOME ARE TREATED EXACTLY AS ANY OTHER DROPPED ITEM - THEY WILL DISAPPEAR IF YOU LEAVE THE ROOM OR IF THE GAME CRASHES. NEVER, *EVER* DROP ANYTHING YOU WISH TO KEEP!
Using Your Fireplace
The heat source in your home requires fuel. You'll have to stock it yourself. There are merchants around town that will sell you fuel.
Useful Verbs:
LIGHT {heatsource} - Lights the fire. You must have
fuel for this. See STOCK and STACK.
STOCK {heatsource} - Stocks fuel next to your heatsource.
(Used for storage. You'll need
fuel in your hand or hands for this.)
STACK {heatsource} - Stacks fuel inside your heatsource.
(Used to add fuel to your fire.).
STOKE {heatsource} - Shifts the wood and hot coals to
build up the fire.
UNSTACK {heatsrc} - Removes fuel from your fire.
CLEAN {heatsource} - Clean ash and coals out.
Replace {heatsource} above with the name of your fireplace, such as "firepit", "kiln", "brazier", and the like.
Changing Your Home's Exterior Description
To upgrade your home's exterior, visit one of the following shop types according to what your home was ORIGINALLY called, type ORDER, and follow the instructions. If the merchant will not sell to you, you are in the wrong shop for your home type.
Home Class Initial Type Lower Class Rural Huts, Shacks, Bothies Lower Class Rural Doors Sagging Wooden Doors Middle Class Rural Cabins, Most Cottages Middle Class Rural Doors Modest Wooden Doors Upper Class Rural Domiciles Upper Class Rural Doors Sturdy Wooden Doors Lower Class Urban Hovels Lower Class Urban Doors Sagging Metal Doors Middle Class Urban Homes Middle Class Urban Doors Modest Metal Doors Upper Class Urban Residences Upper Class Urban Doors Sturdy Metal Doors
If your home is a freestanding model, you may also visit the appropriate door shop to order a door for your home. You may change your home's appearance as many times as you like, although the merchant will charge you each time you do so.
News
Recent Changes and Upgrades...
03-03-99 The following features were added:
- All characters on your account may now access
your home. The homeowner character must visit
the home once for this ability to take effect.
- After the homeowning character has visited the
home once, thereafter when someone looks at the
home, they will see who owns it.
- Characters will now log into homes from which they
have logged out of. Dead characters will log in
outside the home.
- HOME SAVE now works much better.
- PEER DOOR let you look outside in secret if the
door is closed!
- HOME SWAP will swap the position of your "bed"
and "table" items. If you swap them, when you
purchase a new item at the store, it will replace
the opposite piece. This will enable you to have
two beds or two table items if you wish.
- SHOW <player> to <door> is the new, expanded way
to eject someone from your home. It must be used
twice to evict them completely.
06-26-00 - Updated home help. Home Transfer is nearing
completion, and will allow you to transfer ownership
of your home between characters on your account.
In the meantime if you wish to transfer ownership you
may Assist and a GM can transfer it for you.
09-03-00 - Home transfer is live. Also a bug with the privacy
settings has been corrected, and they should save
and setup properly now. Please report any problems
in the Four Winds catagories on the message boards.
11-02-00 An update on information storage and the checks
allowing other characters on the account to use the
HOME commands is in. If you are having trouble getting
these commands to work, enter the home once with the
owner character to reset the information.
06-01-01 The following additions were made:
- HOME DEED was released.
- Tyramia Hollow and Highpark Estates opened up
in the Ta'Illistim area.
08-05-01 Chairs are now available in most major towns.
...end news.
Home Policies
A few rules:
You must be a Premium customer for 90 consecutive days to claim a home.
One home per account! If you want another account, contact billing@simutronics.com.
You must maintain your Premium subscription to keep your home. If you ever cancel your Premium subscription or your account, your home will be reclaimed immediately. Your 90 day period will start over if you resubscribe.
Normal game policies apply inside of homes! If a home is used to abuse game mechanics, it will be taken away.
And the most important rule: Have fun!
Home Deeds
HOME DEED
Use HOME DEED to sell your home or to claim another home. You have three options for selling your home.
Do not ship your furnishings if you want to:
- Sell your home to the clerk in town. He will pay you a fair price for it and its furnishings.
- Sell or give it to another player for what you can get them to pay for it. If you do this, the other player must claim your home with your deed before 96 hours have elapsed from the time you got your deed.
You must ship your furnishings if you want to:
- Use your deed to claim a home in a new neighborhood. This will preserve all the furnishings you have collected over time and install them in your new home.
Your furnishings always go with your deed.
Here's the process:
Step 1 - Getting the deed to your home
Type HOME DEED CONFIRM to get the deed to your home. Your home will become deserted. For a period of 96 hours, only someone with that exact deed will be able to claim that particular home. So, if you have plans to give it to a loved one or sell it to someone, you must accomplish this within 96 hours.
Step 2 - Selling/Giving your home to the town merchant or to someone else
If you wish to sell your deed, go to the Contracts merchant in your town and sell it. That's it. You're done.
If you wish to sell or give your deed to another person, sell it or give it to them now. Now it's up to that person to do Step 3.
If, rather than sell or give away your deed, you wish to claim another home, go to step 3.
Step 3 - Claiming a new home with your deed
Note: Do not buy a new deed. Use the deed that you got when you used HOME DEED CONFIRM from step 1.
Whether you stay in the same neighborhood or move half-way across Elanith, you must ship your furnishings. Go to the local Cartage Merchant and the merchant will tell you how much it will cost and how long it will take. Following the directions on the sign, order shipment of your furnishings.
The next important step is to WAIT. Wait until your furnishings arrive at the new destination. Then you may go to your new home and, with deed in your right hand, type HOME CLAIM. When your home is successfully claimed, your furnishings will be inside.
Note: Be sure to thoroughly research your new neighborhood before you decide to move there. Some neighborhoods have race and profession restrictions that may prevent you from claiming a home there.