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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  • Another question: The chair and bed and sofa furniture are nice, but my Glitch has no interaction with them whatsoever, well, aside from standing over them. Will furniture have accompanying animations associated with them in the future? Like  actually showing my glitch sitting on a chair, or sleeping on the bed?
    Posted 12 years ago by roderick ordonez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ooops... someone just answered my question... : )
    Posted 12 years ago by roderick ordonez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • LOVING the test house so far. Art *EVERYWHERE*. I love the art. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. They're all beautiful pieces, and I love the variety.

    It makes me really sad, though, too. Everything is labeled with a credit cost right now. Is this always going to be how it is? Cause honestly, I don't want to spend real money to have in-game nice things. The clothing is one thing, but having clothing AND house decor both cost real money is upsetting. I don't want Glitch to be another game like that--filled with money sinks just to generate income. :( If SOME of the features cost credits, that would be okay, but I hope there are flexible options.
    Posted 12 years ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Items can me made to float against the wall by placing them on a shelf, changing the shelf style, and then moving the shelf. This is really cool for decorating, but probably not intended behavior...

    I used the "Basic Black Wall Shelf", placed items onto it, then changed style to "Small Basic Black Wall Shelf".  This left the items floating somewhat above the shelf.  I them moved the shelf and the items stayed up on the wall, and persist that way after reloading.
    Posted 12 years ago by Syruss Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Any way to update the loading screen for our houses?  Mine is currently showing my glitch in an outfit that I only used briefly for Zilloween... not even THIS Zilloween, but one several (glitch) years ago.
    Posted 12 years ago by Syruss Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Tonight I had an awful experience.  I had someone coming on to my street and stealing my stuff (food for my pigs, etc.)  I kicked her off after explaining to her that it was for the pigs.  She kept coming back, I kept kicking her.  I finally thought of blocking her.

    Well, blocking didnt stop her, either.  I spent most of my night kicking her to keep her out.....

    I left my street (you know, the one that says Innie's Home Street, owned by Innie) for all of 30 minutes. Came back to 2 of my pigs missing, and my trees killed.

    I would like to make one request.......Please allow us to block people from our streets.  These streets arent full on public streets.  We can kick them off which shows you meant to give us control of our areas, we just cant keep them out.  I ended up blocking her, and all of her friends to see if I could stop this cycle. 

    I now feel like I have to clean up my friends list, and ask everyone to keep me off their street signs.

    However, if I could just keep people that are harassing me personally off my street by blocking them, it would make the game much more enjoyable.  What reason would they want to be on my street anyway?  I have them blocked! The only reason to be on a street that is owned by someone that has you blocked is to harass them.

    Thank you.
    Posted 12 years ago by Innie✿, Obviously Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Innie -- that sucks. :( Sorry that happened.
    Posted 12 years ago by emdot Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wow Innie, thanks for the heads up..  I assumed that it was protected. :(

    So I just went and collected all of the stuff I dropped on my street.  I hope my piggies don't starve before tomorrow morning.  Doesn't seem right to me..  I really feel we shouldn't have to block people from our home street to be able to play the game without being ripped off.

    I guess I thought the only people that could remove items were designated friends.. Either with a key or or on my sign.  Even though players could "hop" in FS, they could not removed placed items.
    Posted 12 years ago by Princess Fi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Iηᾔḯε™: blocking people should stop them from visiting your home street. that's a bug!
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Small question reguarding our new house only - when our new houses reset. I understand our stuff will be safe, but will it be boxed/inventoried/stored or will it just be sat in heaps in our newly imagined spaces, I aready have a heap of stuff in my place, wanting to add to it, but would like it all to be in a box when I come to redo for real. If I know it will be a pile I'll reduce whats out on display until after reset.

    Also will it be possible in future to have a private room that not even key holders can enter?

    Thank you for the fantastic summery most helpful :D

    Bees! stirling work answering all our many questions and some

    ((hugs))
    Posted 12 years ago by Faereluth Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Faereluth: probably in a box, but impossible to say right now.

    (super) private room - perhaps!
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would like very much to see the walls separating rooms be available with doors at different levels, or access through floors via ladders etc.
    Posted 12 years ago by Moehr Ossum Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just read some of the forum  opinions and they are most interesting.  All my friends have the same "house" - a  "creekstone"  round rock  cottage, with an  upper dormer on one side,and a chimney on the other side all skirted in a plank type wood.  I hear some speak of water type houses with a request for mermaids............. are they different types of houses?  TYMerci

    TomC: Thank you for answering my question- you said there will be other styles of houses and customization for the exterior.  Right now do we ALL have the same model house the one with the stone front?? I guess I dream of what seem to bee describing as sea side type of home and wondered if it was available yet???  
    You have the patience of Job answering and re-answering all these queries I am impressed.
    Have a great day I know I will thanks to Glitch.
    Merci
    Posted 12 years ago by Pekeaholic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Pekeahoic, at this stage all exteriors are the same, but the sea theme is an inside customization that you will find in Decorator Mode :)
    Posted 12 years ago by ~Annie~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • TY Anne216 much appreciated
    Posted 12 years ago by Pekeaholic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I am intrigued by the silhouette of the turnip or radish on the sign for our crop patches. Does this mean new crops?
    Posted 12 years ago by Empyreal Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would LOBE to have a shed in my garden for machines and gardening stuff :D pleeaase?!
    Posted 12 years ago by Calathiel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I decided to move a table and was surprised and delighted that the items I had placed atop it moved with it! That's what I call efficiency!
    On an unrelated note, has Bees! been getting any sleep at all?! So many questions, so many answers!
    Posted 12 years ago by Mollie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm happy to hear that blocking someone should keep him off a housing street, but I'm not willing to block everyone in the game in order to keep my street secure.  I see two options:  1) let me make an access list for my street, with complete privacy being an option, or 2) let me choose to teleport directly into and out of my own home, with or without using the map, bypassing the public street outside.  I favor option 1, since those streets would be great for parties, and since I can trust my friends not to kill my trees or take my pig feeders.  I suggest option 2 because, in an extreme case, a new housing street can be filled with enough items to cause the street's "owner" to severely lag or even crash upon entry, with little to no effect on any other player.  The ability to return to your house quickly and easily should not hinge upon the good will of others. 
    Posted 12 years ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Empyreal, the radish and turnip have been around for quite a long time, but just haven't been available yet.
    Posted 12 years ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Abby Cadabra wrote: "Can people just walk into my street/house and take things? Can they poison my trees? Pee on my couches?" Short answer: street, yes. House, no. Think of your street as a public place that you just happen to have some control over. Whatever happens there is fair game, so treat it the way you would any other public place in Ur. Your house privacy is the same as ever, only keyholders and people you allow in can get in.* Please note that all items placed in Decoration mode, whether from Furniture or Inventory, cannot be picked up by any players except yourself.

    I can't find this quote in the staff replies, but there are soooooo many. :)

    If the last bit is correct, my Glitchmas yeti is buggy. My other dolls lock to guests and keyholders, but yeti allows pickup option.

    Also, I am a keyholder to a house I share with a group. Block and Fuel makers are set up on the street outside. Their messages say they can only be disassembled by the owner or keyholders, but they do not allow keyholders to do so. House entry works though.
    Posted 12 years ago by JW Subscriber! | Permalink
  • why can't animals transfer from your test house to your new house when the change happens? I'm holding an animal so I don't have to lose him and it's really annoying because he keeps escaping and I have to buy more piggy bait, but besides that this change is really cool! thanks!
    Posted 12 years ago by Posie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Posie insead of piggy bait use an animal youth potion to change it back to a piglet, that way it wont escape and you can easily keep it in your bag or place the hog tied piggy in a bag in your closet/cupboard at your old home to keep it from escaping. Just be aware that it could escape from the bag if you remove it from your closet/cupboard
    Posted 12 years ago by Faereluth Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Bees!! YES, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
    Posted 12 years ago by Innie✿, Obviously Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Abby Cadabra wrote: "Can people just walk into my street/house and take things? Can they poison my trees? Pee on my couches?" Short answer: street, yes. House, no. Think of your street as a public place that you just happen to have some control over. Whatever happens there is fair game, so treat it the way you would any other public place in Ur. Your house privacy is the same as ever, only keyholders and people you allow in can get in.* Please note that all items placed in Decoration mode, whether from Furniture or Inventory, cannot be picked up by any players except yourself. That is not entirely true. 

    All of your inventory is not safe inside your house.  Cubimals, food, and bags can be picked up by others (or at least in my house). These are items I placed while in decoration mode, and people have been able to pick them up.
    Posted 12 years ago by Innie✿, Obviously Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sorry to hear the problems Innie.  Let us know if you need any help. 

    I was wondering when that kind of thing might start happening.  Except for a  couple of RL friends, I don't allow anyone in my Glitchy house (they know I know where they live, <evil laugh>).  But I was looking forward to the public sharing area that is our new streets.    While I believe the street is a public sharing area, there should be a couple of limits to prevent harassment like this.

    I think tree killing, by anyone but the owner, shouldn't be allow on our streets.  Water/Pet/Harvest all you want, but go kill trees in the world (if you have to be that kind of jerk). 

    The same with stealing the animals.  Squeeze/Nibble/Milk to your heart's content, but you can't steal them away from their owner's street.

    Mining of course is public since the rocks respawn. 

    Items can be placed and picked up by everyone. 

    I do like the animal sticks are locked to the street's owner.  I think meat collectors/milkers/feeders should also be locked to the street owner, but anyone should be able to collect/add from/to them (since we can also have private collectors/feeders in our houses which let's us have all the fruits of our animals labors).

    If you want to give away collectors/feeders/milkers you put them in a bag and put the bag on the street, bags being pickup-able. :)

    I think that's it.  Still it's being an awesome test! Great work to Bees! You are the best!!!! :)
    Posted 12 years ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i love having a test home!! its like having 2 homes except you can have herbs and produce and you get to customize it with any furniture you like also,nothing costs credits (good thing cause i dont have any more)
    Posted 12 years ago by cristel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "My other dolls lock to guests and keyholders, but yeti allows pickup option."
    If you put it on furniture, it's locked. If you put it on the floor, others can take it.
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Could we have a Fireplace........would be great to chill out by after a hard day in the mines :)
    Posted 12 years ago by 2020smoke Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Just tested the following out:

    * Most inventory items I placed on shelves could be taken by keyholders including, but not restricted to: bags, senor funpickle, and musicblocks.

    * I can now place the blockmaker and fuelmaker side-by-side by moving them using decorate mode
    Posted 12 years ago by Mal'akh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Bees! Yeti didn't lock when it was on the bed or the couch or the bench.
    Funpickle on a chair locked if dropped when in deco mode as indicated.
    I will keep trying with Yeti. I'm pretty sure I tested him on the same shelf as the doll too, but he still didn't lock down.

    retrying: on couch-locked, on bed or bench (hard to tell which it thinks it is on)- not locked, on table-not locked, doll shelf does work 
    Posted 12 years ago by JW Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I suggested this in another thread, but for the sake of dev's attention... :D

    I think the street owner should be able to determine what TYPE of tree is planted in patches in the public street. Visitors to the street should be able to pet, harvest, and water, but NOT poison, clear, and then plant a tree type DIFFERENT from the one put there by the street owner.

    This would be a compromise conguent with the semi-public nature of this kind of street.
    Posted 12 years ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Almost died decorating. A warning would be good.

    Re letting people give, sell or trade upgrades purchased with credits: doesn't bother me when people beg for stuff like food, but will bother me if people start begging for stuff purchased with credits. Yeh, can block people if they start begging for what is in effect real money, but what about people using stuff bought for real money to get ahead in the game? What about people using stuff bought with real money as game contest prizes? Mixing the game economy with the real economy like this would open a big can of worms, imo.

    Don't mean to sound negative. Enjoy this game and like the new stuff very much.
    Posted 12 years ago by Ginnis Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Do you think one day along the line it might be possible to have ur best friend put his house on your street?. I know we can " link " to a friends house.

    But I really enjoyed how I walked by my friends houses on my street. 
    Posted 12 years ago by MonkeyPantz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Locking patches to a type of tree by the owner might be a good compromise, except... Problems would be if the poisoner did not replant. Better to just lock poisoning out altogether. Poisoner jerks can poison trees out in the world all they want, just not on people's streets.
    Posted 12 years ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I had a cool dream last night where I was on my Glitch street, and there were other buildings there.  Like I had a shrine with my icons in it, and a building with block/fuel-making machines.

    Yes, I dream about Glitch sometimes...
    Posted 12 years ago by FaerieInGrey Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think there is a point that we all need to be adults about... TS have given us a test which is more than we expected and yet there is still moaning about the front street being available for other people to steal from.  Why don't we allow TS to do their stuff and then go from there.  They have always said that the street was accessible from everyone, and, although the houses are small, they are only a test.
    Surely the whole point of this  is to test if using furniture works.... well does it or not, surely that is the point of this test.  Not saying ideas are not good, and important, but I think somewhere down the line the whole point of a test is being missed.
    And must say all of this is in my humble opinion :)
    Posted 12 years ago by Latajea Subscriber! | Permalink
  • my thoughts on the new housing systems:
    -for wallpapers, i think there should be free basic color wallpaper and all the patterned and designed wallpaper should cost credits mostly with maybe the exception of the current fish themed free wallpaper option in testing.
    -I like the computers! non subscribers should be able to get one with credits....or free even! maybe make a more modern looking computer available for non subscribers and a not so nice one for free(i.e broken computer)?
    -You should improve decorating by making furniture stack if its the same and have arrows on the side of the screen so users can navigate  the space with the mouse and arent limited to the arrow keys.
    Posted 12 years ago by Riddleguy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't understand why /home doesn't take us INTO our houses. The current mechanic, where we land on our street, just adds extra make-work steps.

    Keyholders go straight into houses, not to the street. Why shouldn't I, as the owner, just arrive in my home?
    Posted 12 years ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • /street to go to our street
    /home to go into the house
    /garden to go right to the garden.

    :)
    Posted 12 years ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • omg first of all yall have uhh outdone yourselfs AGAIN!! I HAVE A ATTIC!! Are we gonna get outdoor furniture? Like a gondala? Or a tent? My spice tree might get hot! Thanks so much for this tho! Mwah!
    Posted 12 years ago by Ἀρτέμιδος Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Just as the "/leave" command dumps you right back to the exact spot you were standing when you typed "/home," the "/home" command should work in a parallel way and dump you back to wherever you were in your home territory (be that street or house or backyard) when you typed "/leave".

    I'm sure someone has already suggested this but I just wanted to add my voice in support.
    Posted 12 years ago by Sirentist Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Feedback thus far.  I love my new house, love the customization, and love the the street out front.

    Can't wait to do more with it.  Thank You guys for the hard work you have done!

    There really isn't anything to say about the design that anyone else hasn't already mentioned.  So just saying I love it so far.
    Posted 12 years ago by Thursday Soleil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Not sure if this has been mentioned, kinda lost in this thread, but... It would be extremely useful (at least to me) if the the verb used for items locked to me and the verb used for the items anyone can take would be different.
    So, wetter or not I'm in decoration mode, if I want to put a doll on a chair it would say 'place' and if I put it on the ground it would just say drop. I'm really confused about what others can pick up or not when decorating
    Posted 12 years ago by WeavingTheWeb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • In the future, can there be a display case for items (like cubimals for instance) where keyholders and guests may view but not take?
    Posted 12 years ago by Ari Cloud Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Latajea: part of the point of letting players test new features is to hear our opinions and ideas.  Believe me, it is just as annoying to some of us to see the endless stream of "stop complaining" comments as it is to others to see what is perceived as "whining."

    A question for the developers: why can't we see the map from inside our homes?
    Posted 12 years ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ari Cloud, that is already a feature in terms of items being dropped on furniture while in Decorate mode are locked from anyone picking them up. There are still some bugs but this is the intention as stated by staff.

    glum, by default the map displays where you are, but all of the new houses are in a mote called "Homes" (Ur is a mote, too) so it would probably require extra programming to get a world map of mote Ur displayed in mote Home. Not sure if there will be other motes in the future; if so, that could complicate things further.
    Posted 12 years ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I am hoping to be able to play a computer farming sort of a game on the computer in my new house like the Bureaucrocs are playing ;)
    Posted 12 years ago by Fogwoman Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would love to see the option to have tint-able wallpaper, ceilings, and floors. That is: have a basic pixmap (maybe with a little alpha transparency texture?) with a color palette or color mixer to allow for a wide variety of colors without being necessarily limited to a few pre-determined ones. I’m not a Flash coder, though, so I have no idea how difficult this would be to achieve.

    Other than that, all the suggestions I’ve come up with so far have already been articulated by other players. I’m very impressed with this preview and can’t wait to see more!
    Posted 12 years ago by Sevardin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like @WebWeavers "place" vs. "drop" verb idea. And @Sirentist's idea about being returned to where one was when leaving home.
    Posted 12 years ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
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