Homes
One of the biggest benefits to being an estate holder is the ability to own a private home for your characters.
Acquiring a Home
You must have credited Premium status for a minimum of 90 days.
By Claim
The most basic way to purchase a home is to visit the office of permits in any city's town hall and type ASK CLERK ABOUT HOMES. You then pay the fee that the clerk states, then GIVE CLERK <amount>. Now locate a vacant home plot within an appropriate housing area, and enter HOME CLAIM to move in.
By Deed
Homes may also be acquired by purchasing a deed from another player. Much of the above process still applies, however instead of claiming a home through HOME CLAIM you use the deed to gain ownership.
If you are purchasing a home by deed, or wish to convert your home to a deed for sale, make sure to follow the procedure shown in game by typing HOME HELP 12. Once a home is converted into a deed, if it is not redeemed at a clerk within 12 hours, the deed will be worthless.
Typing HOME and HOME HELP in game will provide the full syntax and more information.
To avoid problems with the home, make sure that when you claim a home you actually go inside it. If you do not, the home will still show as being abandoned and possibly could affect your ability to customize.
Housing Areas and Home Types
Homes are generally segregated within discrete areas of Elanthia created especially for residential use. There are many home sites available throughout all five provinces. On the Ranik Maps, housing areas are indicated by a square colored in with pale blue (
).
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)
To determine whether a home area is restricted by class or race, enter HOME LOOK.
The category a home belongs to is indicated by the description of its exterior:
- 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, house, cottage, or modest metal door.
- Upper Urban: residence or sturdy metal door.
A home's price is not affected by its category. The type of home determines what the outside of that home may look like. In order to change the exterior you must do so at a home shop appropriate to your home's type. Note that if you move your home to a different location, everything inside it will move with you but the exterior will remain behind.
Occasionally, special homes become available by auction or raffle, or as a prize for an in-game event. In the past these have included treehouses and houseboats.
Access to the Home
Each premium account may now have one home for every character on that account.
Entry and Exit
To enter a home, you must first UNLOCK <home> to unlock the door. No key is required. Then OPEN <home>, and GO <home> to enter. For <home> use the one-word type-name for your home, e.g. HOUSE, COTTAGE, SHACK, DOOR, HOME etc. If more than one such home type is present in the area, you might have to use an ordinal modifier e.g. UNLOCK SECOND HOUSE. It is a quirk of the game engine that each time the game is reset after a crash or other system shutdown, the listing order of homes in an area is reversed. This means that sometimes you might have to use the ordinal modifier and other times you won't.
Entering and exiting a home breaks groups, so everyone who wishes to enter must do so on their own. Once inside, LOCK DOOR then CLOSE DOOR to prevent others from coming in. GO DOOR to exit, and CLOSE and LOCK <home> after leaving. Your home will close and lock itself after a few minutes if you forget to do so yourself.
When the door is open you may PEER through it to observe the area outside. If you have a window, you may peer through that as well. CLOSE WINDOW to prevent people outside from peering into your home. OPEN WINDOW if you have nothing to hide.
In order to reduce load on the game servers, the home system was coded so that the rooms are only actually running in the game engine when the home is opened. When vacant, the homes are removed from the game and packed away as data in a save state (see HOME SAVE below). Opening and closing a home too frequently within a short period of time will incur a long roundtime so that this process does not itself overly tax the server.
Guests
When the door is open, anyone may enter. Other characters are forbidden from entering a home when it is locked. You may, however, grant special guest privileges to one other character by typing HOME GUEST <player>. This allows your designated guest to unlock and enter your home on their own. Your friend must be with you inside the home when you name them as your official guest. To remove these privileges enter HOME GUEST CLEAR.
If a visitor becomes unruly, you can kick them out by typing SHOW <player> TO DOOR. The first time will give a warning. The second time will remove the player from your home and prevent them from returning for a few hours.
Furnishings and Home Environment
There are many ways to customize the appearance of your home and the objects within it. HOME CHANGE can be used to rearrange the appearance of your furnishings. When you get everything just the way you like it, typing HOME SAVE will store the various appearance and environmental settings so they will remain that way for the next time you visit.
Furniture
Furniture and other home furnishings are available in shops across Elanthia, and fit into the following categories:
- Tables
- Couches or Beds
- Chairs (set of four)
- Rugs
- Fireplaces
- Storage items (chest, cabinet, closet, trunk, or woodbin)
- Armor Stands (holds three pieces of armor)
- Weapon Racks (will hold four weapons)
- Flooring
- Windows
- Exterior decorative items
- Doors
- Walls
- Pets
A house will only allow one piece of each type. Items are replaced by purchasing a different one of the same type. Once placed in the home, furniture can be rearranged to suit your tastes through the HOME command.
Storage Within the Home
An additional benefit to home ownership is that you can safely store a small number of items inside. Each storage slot may only be filled with items that are completely empty. Labels make things count as having something inside it, so items with attached labels may not be stored within a home.
- Tables can hold two items.
- Beds hold two items on top, and one underneath.
- Walls may be hung with one appropriate item such as a mirror, plaque, or painting.
- Storage trunks or closets generally allow four items within, and one placed on top. Woodbins will only hold combustible wood items for the fireplace such as logs.
- Armor stands hold three pieces of armor.
- Weapon racks will store two weapons.
Only the principal homeowner (or another character on the Premium account) can place or remove items as described here. Guests and other visitors cannot remove or add items within a home. Be advised however that anything left on the floor of a home is considered fair game for the janitor.
Pets
Pets are available at pet stores, some of which have rotating stock or only appear during festivals or similar events.
Once you have purchased a pet, it is delivered to your house. Pets give random messaging specific to the animal unless you POKE them, which causes them to fall asleep until poked again. They are also interactive and respond to such verbs as RUB, HUG, KISS, SCRATCH and others.
A pet's gender can be changed once by TAPping it. There is a timer on changing your pets gender, and not all pets can have their gender changed.
Appearance
There are other ways to control the appearance when you LOOK inside your home. Certain standard home elements such as the door or rug may be TAPped to toggle concealing or revealing them.
Scents
You can add a scent message to the LOOK of your home, but it won't be detectable by SMELL or SNIFF. Typing HOME SCENT when inside your home will give all the options available, of which there are many. You can choose from dozens of different aromas, and set the intensity as well.
Dancing
Dancing within a home may be turned on or off via TAP FLOOR.