Topic

Staff Topic

How to Test the New Houses

OK! Now you can test some parts of the new housing system. We're concentrating here on furniture and decoration (later releases will add the ability to craft new furniture, expand houses, cultivate land and use imagination to grow your yard and home street).

To try it out, get in the game type "/home" in local chat (it is deliberately hard to do right now so that people don't get confused and think this is *the* permanent switchover — this house is just for your testing and customizations will eventually be reset). When you're at home, there will be a new button which takes you back to the regular game world.

Once you go inside, you'll see the new furniture tab by your inventory and a "decorate" button at the top-right of the game. Go crazy. Upgrading furniture is all free right now (in the future, some upgrades will be subscriber-only and some will cost credits).

You can't get any more furniture for now and you also can't give, trade or sell furniture until the next release (or maybe the one after that). However, you can bring your stuff over to the new house and not worry about it getting lost when we reset (we'll keep it all safe) — it is just the furniture customizations that you'll lose.

To move furniture around and place items on furniture, you need to be in "decoration mode", which will hide your avatar and allow you to use the arrow keys to pan around your house.

You'll be switched to decoration mode automatically when you drag something out of your furniture bag, but you can also hit the "decorate" button in the top right of the game window.

To change wallpaper, ceilings and floors, hit the "swatches" button which appears in the top bar when you're in decoration mode. You can stamp the patterns on or drag them into place. For wallpapers you can either to a single segment or the whole wall at once.

Finally, though the land outside your house is fixed for now (you can't expand it or add/remove resources yet) you do have a customizable signpost outside: you can use that to add up to five signs pointing to the home streets of people from your friends list.

Any questions? Thoughts? ;)

See also:  Blog post  •  Video Demo

Note: If you don't see any furniture (or just your trophies) inside your furniture bag when you enter your house, type "/home" again.

Note 2: You can type "/home" from wherever you are in the world, including other people's houses.

Note 3: We will give plenty of notice before the real switchover to the new housing system and, if you own a regular in-world house at that time, all of the items inside it will be moved over automatically. You don't have to move everything yourself.

Note 4: Many questions and answers have been summarized in this (unofficial!) FAQ

Posted 12 years ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • geeki, there already is that option. whatever you place in your house in decoration mode is "glued"
    Posted 12 years ago by Electric Wizard Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "also it would be cool if the bed were bouncy when i jump/walk on it"
    omg yes!
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I apologize if this has already been answered, but how, exactly, will all of our stuff be moved/what will it all look like when The Switch happens and we first walk into our new houses? Will it all be in boxes for us to unload, or will the stuff get transferred to our new houses in the places that they were in our old houses?
    Posted 12 years ago by ZwitterionAlchemist Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ZwitterionAlchemist: probably in boxes
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Hoping the all styles of furniture will eventually be consistent across an entire line of furniture so you could have a completely themed hous"
    Yes

    In a similar vein -- could there be sort of pre-set style templates that let you change all the decor at once? Provided you have all the necessary bits of furniture, maybe.
    Posted 12 years ago by Satu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This is such an awesome idea! 
    I'm a little gutted about the need to credits to pay for it but at the end of the day I guess it's not a massive problem, considering we don't pay for the game and you're always looking for ways to improve.

    My only main concern, in all honesty, is my garden. I love gardening and tending my crops, trees and my animals. When the switch over happens am I really only going to have 4 crop plots?? (the option to have both herb and crop is pretty cool btw) Will it cost me credits, currants or hard work to expand?? 

    Would it be possible at all as well to have a little update, when you go to your house after being offline or when you're exploring the world to have a little note that pops up in the conversation box to tell you who's in/been in your house?

    It's definitely got lot's of potential. Thanks for letting us test it out :) 
    Posted 12 years ago by Eleni Carly Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sorry I posted it twice.
    Posted 12 years ago by Eleni Carly Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Fantastic development TS, thank you for the test run! :)

    However my one concern now is if the credit upgraded furniture indeed becomes tradeable..
    I think it will distort the existing economy, as happens in essentially every other MMO.
    Becoming rich will be as simple as upgrading furniture with credits, then selling it an insane prices - I like how presently credits have no effect on gameplay (the clothing system is great!), so i'd really hate to see Octopus Sofas on auction for 500,000+ currants after the release.
    Posted 12 years ago by Navocado Subscriber! | Permalink
  • how long will we have to wait for the change?
    Posted 12 years ago by Posie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • One thing I see coming up as an issue is the public streets. It is very easy to have someone go from street post to street post searching for items and taking what they want.
    Posted 12 years ago by Durk Daring Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Staff... you missed "Aero wallpaper" in the wallpaper list :P
    Posted 12 years ago by Aero Subscriber! | Permalink
  • What if i leave my stuff in the testing home and then we move will i get it back?
    Posted 12 years ago by Thepurpleskys Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Could the picture frames be customized to add shots we take from the game?  Sorry if someone else asked!
    Posted 12 years ago by meridith Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think this is a very good start, and I'm sure you are already overwhelmed with all the responses...sooo many great ideas from the players, and soooo glad it sounds like you've already had many of them, but they are just in future releases to come.

    I wanted to first say that if this is the 'starter home'...WOW...way better than the cardboard box Meadow home or icky apartment that I was envisioning...the exterior of cottage is absolutely too cute for words (though I will likely change it when we have the option, but it's a very nice starter home).

    I actually was playing with the changes early on, and have managed to move my crops plots and one tree plot.  Is there a way to get this fixed?  It's just off kilter, not in a cool location like LT's attic plots.  So, thanks for that, if it can be fixed...don't make a big deal of it, I'm sure at next update, it will get reset, so that's fine too if I need to wait.

    I have to agree a solely crafting, completely free or credits only system for the upgrades/changes is something that I'm not a fan of - I'd like the option to have some of the upgrade/change choices be for currants (see exceptionally long post here in this thread, about my detailed thoughts).  To me, design and decoration IS my game play...it's the thing I look for in games are the option for me to express my creativity...and I like to have the option to work for/earn those changes, not just have to pay RL money for them. 

    I think most of the issues had been mentioned already, and most of the requested upgrades (windows, personalized pictures, etc) have also been mentioned.

    I have noticed that when I place anything in the house, it seems to be locked down.  Maybe because if I move it, it automatically goes into decorate mode. In some cases, I want to leave drinks on the table that my friends can pick up when they come to visit, but right now they seem to be locked down.  Love love love the lock down feature for most decorative items (especially the pickle, dolls, an other items), but for some items, I do want them to be accessible.  I suspect this is some sort of bug, or maybe it's something I'm not doing right.

    Since we can jump on everything, which is pretty cool...there are some things that I don't get to jump on since I end up jumping on the thing that is higher than them.  Will we get an option to turn on/off the 'jump on feature' for items?  And while someone might not like people jumping on their table (comment above), some people don't mind, and it might be part of the travel flow in that house.

    Recommend once we get real inventory, that we're not able to change styles without a warning that you are overwriting/deleting the current style of the item.  I'm like others who thought if I purchase 3 upgrades to a single item (for example, the red bar stool, the coral stool and the rook egg/sponge stool), I'd be able to cycle through those upgrades because I already owned it for that item.  Especially where RL money is concerned, people need to know they are throwing away the previous upgrade and thereby lose those credits.  They either need to apply the second upgrade to a different item, or realize they are throwing the money in the trash.

    Love the attic storage option, even if it was an 'undocumented feature'.

    Have to agree with all those that say 5 on a signpost isn't enough.  I get for viewing of the signpost, you might only get 5 names, but really want either the option to have a drop down list of all my friends when clicking on the post itself, with the 5 being just my in 'game bffs', or the options to have multiple signposts with some sort of theme to them...also looking forward to how group halls/streets will work in the future...hoping maybe we can rebuild the 'neighborhood' feel with those.

    Looking forward to seeing what the future holds.  This is a really good start.  Thanks for all the hard work!
    Posted 12 years ago by ~Pink Flamingo~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I LOVE THE NEW TEST HOUSES! SO COOLL!!!!!!!!
    Posted 12 years ago by Atomic-Glitter-Bomb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1111111 to Prophecy's post.
    Posted 12 years ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Now that we have pretty houses and a street to grow our animals, it would be cool, if we had a storage box embedded in the outside of the house that only owners could open. That way we could use our street to storage stuff and craft things while keeping the house clean ;)
    It could work only for hard materials and messy stuff, like wood, ingots, rocks, etc, etc... or just for everything...
    Posted 12 years ago by arizoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Oh, one more question - are the things on our personal street only supposed to be changeable by us?  I get that people may come by and harvest trees or mine the rocks, but can others change what is on our street?  I thought I read something to that affect previously in this thread, but I'm not sure if I mis-understood.  I would like those items to be locked down like the changes in my house (so if I put out a fruit tree, only I can poison it and change it)....after all, it is supposed to be my personal street, and would be a way for me to actually design a 'public'-ish street in game for others to see/enjoy...I'm assuming that would a be a still to come option, since we can't design our yards yet either...
    Posted 12 years ago by ~Pink Flamingo~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • May have already been posted but  I wish we could walk behind some items in the new house. I really want to stand behind a counter bartender style!:):):)
    Posted 12 years ago by Muncey Mango Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Like the fact you can grow BOTH herbs and veggies in your garden!
    Posted 12 years ago by Bubbalou Subscriber! | Permalink
  • So I was wondering once the move is complete, can we place some of our livestock(pigs, chickens, etc) in the front of our homes with their feeders?
    Posted 12 years ago by Mowglii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Not really liking the whole "return to world" mechanics - without map access in our home/home street.  I hope there are plans to change this.  I don't want to always go back where I came from - and then have to TP out somewhere else again.  The whole thing seems cumbersome and introduces an unnecessary step.

    It would be better if we could "anchor" our homes to a location in UR (one that we have an affinity for) and that "return to world" takes us there as a constant starting point.

    For noobs without TP skills, it seems like this new mechanic will be a non-starter.
    Posted 12 years ago by Sooriyan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'd like map access from my street too, but if I want to go somewhere entirely different in the world it won't kill me to return to my last in-world street and TP from there; if I hadn't gone home first, that's what I would have had to do anyway. I'd much prefer that to always getting dumped to one chosen exit street, which is no more likely to be where I want to go next than wherever I just was.

    When I was a newbie with no TP skills, I had to walk halfway across the world to go home, and then when I wanted to go somewhere else next, I had to walk there too.  Being able to pop into your house and out again, and return to/still be in shimla mirch or wherever, is hardly a non-starter.  I think for beginning players it will be great. 
    Posted 12 years ago by oscarette Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well, since you've chosen to argue my points, rather than simply state your preferences, I'll address that, Oscarette.

    If I'm out walking the ancestral lands, and I want to go home before the time has expired, then when I "return to world" I'm put back in the ancestral lands - whether I want to be there or not - and it starts the clock on another trip to AL.  Then, I am forced to immediately TP somewhere else because there's nothing else I can do there - no animals, no vendors, no shrines.  Or, if, heaven forbid, I wish to leave my house before the AL cooldown, then I'm whisked off to Andra, Kajuu, Besara or Tamila. 

    I have to burn energy or credits to go somewhere else.  To get around the problem, obviously I will be using my TP skills to create scripts for the places I want to go.

    A newbie cannot TP anywhere, so, given the same scenario - or any scenario in which they are far from Transportation - like the mines, or even the AL, then the newbie will have to WALK a long way just to get to a point where they can Subway out.  If they were attached to a street with transportation - then a "return to world" would allow them a choice of where to go.  They'll get bounced around like a ping pong ball.

    I chose a region not just for the house, but for the location.  GM is central and allows me to walk to most of what I want and need.

    Now, I just see an endless series of TP's and little walking around.
    Posted 12 years ago by Sooriyan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ok .. sorry guys if this has already been covered, I've tried to read through everything but my eyes fell out of my head and onto the keyboard NO JOKE >_> so uh yeah.. if someone could answer this please...

    Will we ever be able to build our houses UP to have second / third / fourth ?? levels or floors?  Or will we only ever be expanding outward? / left right?

    Also again - in case you missed this comment earlier - please add bog styles and more matching elements to the items we can use.. not sure if this is planned for the future or not.. I'd like snowflake wallpaper to go with a sno-cone-bear-chair and kitty stools and my yeti bed and yeti fur rug... <3

    And as someone else said: Doors please.  If nothing else, if we could please paint them?

    Also, just 1 more - will we ever be able to have more than 1 bed or big sofa in our house at one time?

    OK I think that's all for now, thanks for all the hard work and the great job you guys have done.  I too LOVE the cottage from the outside, SO cute.. omg.. I would love a house like that IRL. <3  :: big loves ::

    I love the sign posts and that we have a tree spot or two on our own little street, AND a rock.. very sweet. <3  Obviously a lot of thought and design has gone into all of this and your hard work shows.
    Posted 12 years ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, the answer to both bolded questions is yes.
    Posted 12 years ago by Scarlett Bearsdale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I assume there'll be ways to still have homely little marsh hobbles, right? i moved to shimla because it was pretty (also cheap) not just for herb gardens :/
    Posted 12 years ago by Priestess Mint Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Auren, all your questions have already been asked and answered. (Basically: YES -all that is coming.) There is a FAQ post a little way down the forum where Millie has collected most of the salient points so far.

    Edited now that I'm not posting from the telephone -- here's the link:
    www.glitch.com/forum/genera...
    Posted 12 years ago by oscarette Subscriber! | Permalink
  •  ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪, like oscarette said, all of your questions have already been answered, including if you watch the  Video Demo  you will see multiple floors. Basically all of those feature requests are already either "have been planned" or "are very likely to happen".
    Posted 12 years ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Will we be able to expand our streets? Say add more patches for trees or rocks for mining? I would really like to know that. And if we can is there a limit to how much we can expand it? Thx for reading this.
    Posted 12 years ago by Linksfiresword Subscriber! | Permalink
  • How come friends I give keys to can't go to my house and visit when I am not at home?
    Posted 12 years ago by Penelope Garcia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Did anyone mention how awesome it is to be able to go to our homes without using a teleport or energy. I really really really really hope that doesn't change.  It makes life so much better. :)

    This is just the best game ever.  I LOBE it!
    Posted 12 years ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • re: locks on items placed in decoration mode, is this feature intended to work for all items? Testing seems to indicate it only works with certain items, and only when placed on certain furniture/surfaces, but I know there's some bugginess, so I was wondering whether this is intentional.
    Posted 12 years ago by Lx’s Ghost Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Linksfiresword - Yes that has already been answered. It is part of cultivating your land where you will be able to create more resources and customize the components you mentioned. Everything technically has a limit, but in this case you probably don't have to worry about a limit.
    Posted 12 years ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Since furniture comes in many sizes, and each upgrade is purchased separately for each item, it would be nice to be able to preview furniture upgrades in place before buying.  This feature was very useful for the floor and wall swatches, because they often looked rather different in bulk in place vs in the swatches.

    It's a real pain to be losing mood and energy while in decoration mode.  Those of us who have to have everything exactly so are going to be capturing all the necromania trophies without intending to while tweaking our houses.  Since this feature is rather outside of real game time, and does not provide mood, energy or xp, it should also not subtract energy and mood.
    Posted 12 years ago by KhaKhonsu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Mereret - place the basic item in your room before upgrading.  Upgrade once it's in place, and it will preview there - you'll probably have to move the pop-up window aside, but you can see how any item will look.  The /zoom command can also be helpful for this.   I agree, some items look quite different from what you expect, especially the scale of some larger pieces!

    They've already said they will be addressing the mood loss - Millie's compilation thread will have the link for you.
    Posted 12 years ago by oscarette Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The test system says that the cost will be in credits.  You can only get that by paying real world money, right?  If this whole new feature is a way of making this a pay game instead of a free game, you will definitely lose me as a player.  I hope that most upgrades will be available to buy with currants.
    Posted 12 years ago by KhaKhonsu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wondering if there will be a feature/button to reset the entire house (ie return all items to inventory)?  In goofing around with different looks, it would have been nice to send it all back to my bags to start over.

    It would be helpful if the swatches - walls, floor, ceilings provided the name of the swatch like the furniture items when selecting it. Right now, after you buy it, you don't have a clue what it is called, which would make it hard to tell someone what you used while decorating...it's the dark gray ceiling...or was it the middle gray one?!...
    Posted 12 years ago by Uniquely Prime Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Mereret, this is only a partial test.  The devs have said repeatedly in this very forum thread that there will be many free options in the real release.   
    Posted 12 years ago by oscarette Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hi, first off GREAT JOB!  I did alittle experiement this morning with my friend and her new house (I am on her sign post).  I had her go there ahead of me and place various objects while in decorate mode.  With both of us present this is what we found.

    I could not pick up her drink off the coffee table nor the one piece of sparkly off the shelf but, I was able to get the bear off the bed and a full bag of sparkly out of her attic.

    I dropped one of my bags on her floor and she was unable to pick it up.  So, pretty random right now but I thought this may be of some help to you.

    I've only been in the game for two months but this has been the one negative issue I have heard about repeatedly,   people ummm "borrowing" from other houses.

    Thanks Tina
    Posted 12 years ago by tina turnertron Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sorry Running Man, I didn't intend that as an ad hominem attack, so my apologies if it read that way.  I just don't see that this will be so different from what we have now.  As I'm reading it, we'll get infinite free trips home, but otherwise our in-world travel stays exactly the same - plus for many people it frees up a teleport point, which we can set to a good strategic location.   If you want to go home in the middle of an AL visit today, you already do have to TP to groddle using your energy or tokens, so it won't cost you any more in the future to do that on your in-world return instead.  It adds five seconds to re-enter the world before you move again, yes, but carries no other cost.  And a newbie in the mines or AL today already has to walk a very long way to get anywhere - I must have spent hours as a young glitch trudging through Muufo - so being able to duck home and drop some loot, using virtually no time or energy, seems to me like nothing but an advantage for someone who can't teleport.  
    Posted 12 years ago by oscarette Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "When the switch over happens am I really only going to have 4 crop plots??"
    No.

    "What if i leave my stuff in the testing home and then we move will i get it back?"
    No.

    "It is very easy to have someone go from street post to street post searching for items and taking what they want."
    They are public streets, so yes.

    "once we get real inventory, that we're not able to change styles without a warning that you are overwriting/deleting the current style of the item"
    yup!

    "Have to agree with all those that say 5 on a signpost isn't enough"
    Choose carefully!

    "it would be cool, if we had a storage box embedded in the outside of the house that only owners could open"
    Cabinets are coming

    "after all, it is supposed to be my personal street"
    it's mostly a public street. you can choose where patches, rocks, gardens, etc go, but not at the tree level

    "I wish we could walk behind some items in the new house."
    ...you can!

    "can we place some of our livestock(pigs, chickens, etc) in the front of our homes with their feeders?"
    yup. just use a pig/whatever stick. but beware that people could pig-nap them!

    "Not really liking the whole "return to world" mechanics"
    I'm sorry you feel that way, but we're very unlikely to change it. Your AL example just makes no sense - you would have had to either walk or TP out of AL, and you still do. The new housing system does not change that at all.

    "it would be nice to be able to preview furniture upgrades in place before buying."
    that happens when you click on an upgrade options right now
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Edited to not be alarmist: nothing to worry about, nothing to see here.  [original question, so that the staff response below is in context: Bees!  sorry to play upon your frayed nerves as you work on a weekend, but am I reading your last post correctly, that if we leave our stuff in the tester house and then move (not actually sure if the OP means sell our current in-world house, or is referring to the New Things to Come) - no, we will NOT get it back?]  THANKS BEES! FOR CLARIFYING MY EXEGETICAL DIFFICULTIES.  :)   
    Posted 12 years ago by oscarette Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm unable to comprehend the whole thread, so I only tried to read the staff replies... sorry. Here's my two cents.

    1) This already looks awesome. :D
    2) Could we be able to add interior walls into rooms, or just new rooms, without making additional floors? I dislike floors, but I'd like to separate my bedroom from my living room/office. :)
    3) Chairs can't face the desks atm. And having chairless desks looks a bit pointless when you think about it. :P Though a lone desk with a quill, a piece of paper and a flap of No-No (:P) looks great still. Well, maybe the piece of paper could look a bit better, it doesn't compose in a seamlessly into this atm, but anyway... I'd like to be able to put a chair against the desk, not a universally oriented stool. :)
    4) Why is it designed that stackable items put on shelves merge? I tried to use some rubies as my Zilloween decorations, it would've looked awesome... But only one ruby (vision-wise) just doesn't do the trick...
    Posted 12 years ago by Asthner Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm sorry you feel that way, but we're very unlikely to change it. Your AL example just makes no sense - you would have had to either walk or TP out of AL, and you still do. The new housing system does not change that at all.

    It does change it, because no matter where I want to go, I first have go to the last place I was in the world.  I can't go directly to the new place unless I have a script or a saved TP.  You don't give us access to a map on our streets (or houses if you have a mansion), like we're used to having.  It's most certainly an extra step (or two in my example)  I don't see what's so hard to understand about that.
    Posted 12 years ago by Sooriyan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • oscarette: nope, the opposite - anything you leave in your tester house, you will get it back with the exception of the crops/herbs/trees and perhaps animals
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Just coming back in to say, now that I've explored a little bit more around the new housing...
    1. Please add a "back" option to the signposts... because if you're trying to get back home and someone hasn't added you to their signpost you have to use / home to get back home.. not a HUGE deal but a deal... especially if it's supposed to be a neighbourhood that encourages wandering around and exploring each other's areas yk?
    and
    2. I remember hearing that "rock summoning" would be a skill at some point, can we use that in the future to change what rock/s we have in front of our house?  *^_^*  /hopeful

    Edit - ok looks like everything's been covered that I was wondering about.. Check here (thanks to Global helpers for the linkagy goodness) http://www.glitch.com/forum/general/17386/
    Posted 12 years ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "no matter where I want to go, I first have go to the last place I was in the world"
    just like no matter where you go, you have to start from where you currently are.

    "I can't go directly to the new place unless I have a script or a saved TP"
    Which is exactly how it works now. You can't go somewhere unless you...go somewhere
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "No matter where you go, there you are!"
    Posted 12 years ago by Aoi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Only Bees! Can Be Everywhere (TM)

    Is it possible Bees! studied philosophy, too? These most recent answers are kind of zen.
    Posted 12 years ago by Stuv Subscriber! | Permalink
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