Here is a list of the patches regarding housing for 1999 and early 2000.
If we are wanting the 1999 system then we should have Newbied Deeds (Actually since April 1999!), Account Based Bans from "I Ban Thee" (May 1999) Co-Owners, and Strong Boxes (November 1999).
Secure house trades, and item decay is after the 2000 cut off.
Here's a list for your reading enjoyment and quick reference:
Treasure maps and more! Jan 19 1999 3:05PM
Houses which gained multiple doors in the same location will be fixed up to have a single door in that space the next time the owner changes the locks.
A trick for placing house add-ons on boats was fixed.
Client patch: improved targeting, removes "rubberbanding" Jan 21 1999 3:04PM
• The "black screen" problem when placing houses should be fixed.
Colored ore, granting karma, and combat changes Feb 2 1999 10:57AM
• Housing and furnishing changes
• The one-room house which ramdomly changed appearance every time you tried to place it no longer does so.
• Holiday trees and ornaments are deleted. Holiday tree deeds are unaffected, but are disabled until the holiday season next year.
• You can no longer deed a locked-down holiday tree.
• You can no longer attempt to pick the lock on a secure container.
• The "large smithy" has been renamed to "large house with patio."
• Significant lockdown changes were made. Lockdown is no longer done with keys. Instead, it is done with spoken commands. These commands work only for the house owner.
o "I wish to lock this down" gives a targeting cursor and does basic lockdown.
o "I wish to release this" gives a targeting cursor and unsecures and releases the object from lockdown.
o "I wish to secure this" gives a targeting cursor and locks down and secures the object if it's a container.
I wish to unsecure this" gives a targeting cursor and only unsecures the container. It does not release it from lockdown.
Thieves Guild, new skills, and more Feb 24 1999 1:06PM
Items
• Trash barrels will be added.
• Owners can add a trash barrel to your house by saying, "I wish to place a trash barrel." It will appear at your feet.
• Placing a barrel obeys the same rules as locking down items in houses: not by the door, not on steps, etc.
• You can only have one trash barrel per house.
• The trash barrel looks like a silvery barrel.
• Owners and friends of the house can put items in the trash barrel. Three minutes after they do so, the item will be deleted. (This means you can change your mind and remove items if you need to).
• The owner of the house can chop up the barrel to get rid of it.
Mini-update with small fixes Feb 26 1999 11:25AM
• House owners and friends will be able to instantly reveal anyone hidden in their house, regardless of skill level, on the grounds that they know their house
Blue PK changes, fishing, and more Mar 28 1999 9:35AM CST
• Detect Hidden
• Friends of a house will be able to detect hidden in the house and instantly reveal everyone.
• Architects will now buy back house deeds.
• When you come near an architect, if you have a house deed in your backpack, the arhcitect will offer to appraise it or buy it.
• If you say "appraise" to the architect, you will get a targeting cursor so you can target the deed you want appraised. The arhictect will tell you what he would pay for that deed.
• Dropping the deed on the architect will sell the deed to him. The money you get will be placed in your bank box automatically.
• A major optimization was done to houses and boats. You will no longer receive the objects that are on or in houses and boats until you step on them.
• You will still be able to see monsters, animals, or players.
• You will still be able to see things that are on the steps.
• This will significantly improve your connection when around buildings that are full of stuff.
• This will also cause a noticeable pause when you step onto the step of a building, as the contents of the building are downloaded to you.
• You will still receive the contents of the last building you set foot in, as long as you are within update range. This means that stepping on and then off and then on the step again will not cause repeated delays.
Mini-Update Published To All Shards Mar 28 1999 9:37AM CST
Flying for nightmares has been removed to prevent a house break-in exploit.
April 14th update Apr 14 1999 11:01AM CST
You will no longer be able to lock things down under your house sign.
• Note: House Deeds purchased after April 16th
• House deeds that are purchased off of npcs will be considered newbie items. If you are a murderer and you die, a house deed will be left on your corpse. If you are not a murderer and you die, the deed will stay on your ghost character. If you set these items down, they will decay rapidly.
Mini-publish fixing monsters spawning in houses May 10 1999 3:16PM CST
• A mini-publish was done to all shards today to correct problems with monsters spawning inside of houses. This will take effect next time the servers go down for daily maintenance
New tinkering menu, pets, auto-stacking, and more. May 25 1999 9:41AM CST
Other
• Monster camps will no longer spawn partially in houses.
• House bans of players will now be by account instead of by character. All current players you have in your ban lists will still be banned, but it will not automatically convert them to account bans--you will need to reban them for their whole account to be banned.
• All house deeds (redeeded, bought, existing, new, whatever) will remain with the ghost when you die, and will not be stealable.
• Interior lockable doors will exist. Use of a house key on a door will allow you to rekey that door and will generate a new key for it.
Mini-Update Sep 1 1999 7:36PM CST
• Characters that are flagged as criminals or aggressors will no longer be able to instantly log out of the game while in their house or in an inn.
• Murderers (reds) who are not flagged as criminals or aggressors will be able to instantly log out of the game while in their house or in an inn.
Sept. 22nd Publish Sep 22 1999 4:27PM CST
Pets
• Pets will only guard the following:
o The owner
o The corpse of the owner
o Items in the house of the owner
o Other pets of the owner
The Ticket System Oct 15 1999 12:02PM CST
• For the next two weeks, all trash barrels in Britannia will now be ticket barrels. Newly placed barrels will also be ticket barrels. To place a ticket barrel in your house, you can say the words, "I wish to place a trash barrel". We have also placed bright purple colored ticket barrels in the following locations on each shard:
• Ticket barrels placed in houses can only be used by the house owner, characters on the house owner’s account, or friends of the house.
• In some cases, house owners taking containers from the ground may find a canceled item exceeds their total encumbrance limit. In this event, destroying the ticket barrel by chopping it will move the item to the ground. You can then place a new ticket barrel.
• Some items are not eligible for the event and will not return any tickets, nor will you be permitted to place them in ticket barrels for the duration of the event. You will be warned that the value of these items is too high and they will be returned to your backpack.
o House, ship, guild and any other deeds
House Age Nov 23 1999 1:11PM CST
Players will now be able to determine whether a house is a "legacy" house or not. Double-clicking the house sign will display one of the following messages in the window:
• If the house was placed after the house placement changes, there will be a message stating, "This house is of Modern Design."
• If the house was placed before the house placement changes, there will be a message stating, "This house is of Classic Design."
We are aware that the system that designates a house as classic or modern has issues that need to be addressed. We are applying resources to this issue and we will be updating you again when we have more information.
Phase II (Lock downs and Secures) Nov 23 1999 2:25PM CST
Lock Down and Secure Containers
As part of Phase II, the number of secure containers and locked down items will be increased for most house types. The numbers are detailed below. The total items column is the maximum number of items that can be stored in each house. Designating a container as secure will take up 125 of your lockdowns, regardless of how many items you actually put in the secure container. Note that containers within a container do not have a weight limit. This allows players to forego secure storage for more lockdowns. Secure containers do not have weight limits.
• All Small Houses have 3 and 425 lock downs for a total of 425 items.
• Brick Houses have 8 secure and 1100 lock downs for a total of 1100 items.
• Large Patio Houses have 8 secures and 1100 lock downs for a total of 1100 items.
• Both Two Story Houses have 10 secures and 1370 lock downs for a total of 1370 items.
• Towers have 15 secures and 2119 lock downs for a total of 2119 items.
• Small Stone Keeps have 18 secures and 2625 lock downs for a total of 2625 items.
• Castles have 28 secures and 4076 lock downs for a total of 4076 items.
These changes, along with the ability to lock down stackable items and the removal of weight restrictions from secure containers and bank boxes, should offer you adequate room to store your most valuable and useful items and decorate your home.
You will also be able to lockdown containers and the items inside of them. These items will not be subject to decay once locked down in the container. Saying "I wish to lock this down" on a container will:
• Count the items that can be locked down inside the container.
• Check the available number of lockdowns you have left for your house.
• If you have enough lockdowns available, the system will lock all items down, including the container, and report success.
• If you do not have enough lockdowns available, the system will report the failure and give the reason.
• Releasing a locked down container will automatically release all of the items in it.
Locked down items can be used in the following manner:
• Only the owner, co-owner, and friends of the house may use or take items from a locked down stack.
Co-owners Nov 23 1999 2:50PM CST
All of the features for co-owners are currently available for testing on the Test Center Shard.
Co-ownership will allow you to select trusted friends and allies to control some of the important functions of a house. This will allow more flexibility for house owners and provide a method for additional storage for those players who share houses.
Selecting Co-owners
• Other characters on the same account as the house owner will be treated as co-owners unless:
o They are already an owner or co-owner of another house.
• You may select up to eight characters to be co-owners:
o A co-owner may not be the owner of a house.
o A co-owner may not be a co-owner of another house.
• To select a co-owner:
o Double click on your house sign.
o Click the "friends" option.
o Select "add a co-owner". A targeting cursor will appear.
o Target and click on the character you wish to make a co-owner.
• Removing a co-owner
o Double click on your house sign.
o Click the "friends" option.
o Select "remove a co-owner".
o A list of co-owners will appear, check the box next to the co-owner you wish to remove.
Co-owner Features
• Co-owners will be able to do everything that an owner can, except:
o Transfer ownership of the house.
o Re-deed a house.
o Add another co-owner.
o Change the house locks.
• Co-owners can also place one secure container, called a "strongbox".
o To place a strongbox the co-owner must say, "I wish to place a strongbox". The strongbox will appear at your feet.
o The strongbox can only be accessed by the co-owner who placed it and the owner of the house.
o A strongbox can hold up to 25 items and has no weight restrictions. Note that the strongbox is a secure container, but items in the box do not count against the total number of lockdowns for that house. These strongboxes are additional storage.
o A strongbox belonging to a co-owner that is removed will become unsecure (and subject to decay) as soon as it is accessed again.
o Other characters on the same account that are being treated as co-owners will NOT be able to place a strongbox.
Holiday Gifts Dec 17 1999 2:18PM CST
• Holiday Tree Deed
o Selecting the Holiday Tree Deed will place a deed in your backpack.
o To place the tree in your house, double-click the deed and target the spot where you want to place it.
o Holiday Trees cannot be placed within three tiles of your front door and cannot be placed outside.
o Holiday Trees do not need to be locked down once Phase III of Clean Up Britannia is published.
CUT OFF HERE PLEASE
Server Publish Jan 24 2000 9:14AM CST
House Placement
A new system has been created to ensure that houses are not placed outside of the house placement rules. The system will do thorough checks when attempting to place a house.
The house placement system includes the following:
• Various checks to ensure the house meets the housing requirements, including whether it is on level ground.
• Provides the ability to preview an area with the deed to see if the area is valid.
o Once a position is chosen, you will be told whether the area is a valid location or not.
o If the area is valid, you will be asked if you wish to place the house.
o If the area is not valid, you will be given a message telling you why not and you will not be able to place the house in that location.
• The following plants will not block the placement of a house:
o All mushrooms
o All small flowers
o Poppies
o Red poppies
o Orfluer flowers
o White flowers
o Foxglove flowers
o Campion Flowers
o Snowdrops
Land Surveying Tool
This tool will allow players to check land without have to buy a house deed, thus allowing multiple people in a group to search different locations. To use the tool:
• Double-click the surveying tool.
• A window will appear listing the different house types. Click the house type you wish to check.
• A small description of the house type and the number of lockdowns it can hold will appear.
• To evaluate the area, click the “E” in the window.
• The house type you selected will appear in front of you. Move the house to the location you want to test and singe-click.
• You will receive a message telling you whether the area can hold that house type.
o If the area is acceptable, a temporary house of the type you selected will appear for approximately 10 seconds to let you see what a house would look like in that location.
o If the area is not acceptable, then you will simply receive a message telling you that the house type will not fit.
Clean Up Britannia (Phase III)
The final phase in the Clean Up Britannia program will be the implementation of item decay in houses. The decay rate will be the same as with items outside.
Once in effect, house item decay will affect all items that are not:
• Placed in a secure container.
• Locked down.
• A house add-on (such as an anvil or a loom).
• Placed by an IGM or GM.
Item Decay on Boats
We will be activating decay for items left on the deck of a boat. These items will decay at the same rate as items left on the ground outside.
Only items left on the deck of a boat will decay, items in the hold of a boat will not be subject to decay.
Server Publish Feb 23 2000 10:22AM CST
…..
Secure House Trading
Secure house trading will allow players to sell or trade items for houses using the trade window.
To trade a house to another player the owner of the house can:
• Click the “transfer” button in the house options menu.
• A targeting cursor will appear. The house owner can then target the person they wish to transfer the house to.
• A trade window will automatically appear.
o The trade window will contain a deed in the current owner’s portion of the window. This deed is not an actual house deed, but will display the name of the house, the house type, and the sextant coordinates of the house’s location.
o The other player may then place gold (or other items) into his portion of the window.
o Once both participants have clicked the gems to agree to the trade, the house will automatically be transferred to the new owner and the deed will delete itself.
o If the transfer is cancelled, the deed deletes itself and all other items are returned to their owner.
• You will not be able to transfer a house to a character that already owns a house using this method.
We will also be making changes to the secure trading window to account for the amount and weight of items used in transfers and to stop any scams associated with the trade window. Information on this enhancement will be forthcoming.
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