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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  • It is all Astoundingly good and such!! Could we be able to flip the Icons for aesthetic purpose as well??
    Posted 12 years ago by Vogon Blarg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Um WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing!!!! My house will be like.....MY HOUSE!

    (boo on credits! give us something to spend our currants on! pls, ty)
    Posted 12 years ago by Eye Wonder Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Trophies that I've put on the shelf and no longer want there - how do you remove them? Dragging them back to the inventory says 'Verb not enabled' - does that mean it will be in future?"

    Are you dragging to your main pack or furniture bag?
    "Also, will we be able to select (or change) the default house style? Say if we wanted a forest-style house rather than meadow-style, we can reset that?"

    yup, future release
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I had the fiddly bit near the door, too, but re-loading fixed it. (It was kind of an odd white triangle that didn't fit.)
    Posted 12 years ago by Kiachan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "can not change ceiling and floor."

    did you hit 'save' ("buy for x credits" or "get it for free") at the top after previewing them?
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This will be so much fun when we have to craft the furniture, buy things with real credits, and can get new rooms with imagination... Great concept and a wonderful work in progress!
    Posted 12 years ago by Ximenez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Back to the furniture bag; at least that's the bag that's displayed as open. My inventory is full, and it's a trophy though, so I wouldn't have thought that you should be able to put it in there anyway =)

    I'm very excited about all this!
    Posted 12 years ago by arcturus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Innie, are you remembering to "purchase" the upgraded walls/floor? I had that exact issue with it reverting until I realized I wasn't confirming that I wanted to "buy" the different looks.
    Posted 12 years ago by Kiachan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Can chairs be turned so that they're not all facing to the right (like using an arrow key while placing it)?
    Posted 12 years ago by sgjo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I've reloaded several times, and still no furniture except trophies.  Do I need to file a bug report to get furniture :(
    Posted 12 years ago by Splendora Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @sgjo that's the 'flip' option =)
    Posted 12 years ago by arcturus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with Ely Phant, flippable icons would be AWESOME!

    Also, argyle wallpaper. Please.
    Posted 12 years ago by Abby Cadabra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Do we have to pay taxes on both houses? And, when are we getting lawnmowers? Riding lawnmowers! No more walking to the maibox....yes! Pah-leeze?!
    Posted 12 years ago by bayBi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • sgjo: click and choose "flip"

    Splendora: type "/home" again
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • bayBi glch: sooooooon
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • flippable icons *would* be cool. good idea!
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Is outdoor furniture a possibility in the future?
    Posted 12 years ago by arcturus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ty, arcturus!!
    Posted 12 years ago by sgjo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well, crud!! I don't know where to find the flip option lol
    Posted 12 years ago by sgjo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 on flippable icons!

    Also, the zoom feature is really helpful while decorating...you get a nice feel for how everything fits together.
    Posted 12 years ago by Cadmium Blue Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Will our new furnishings be 'safe' from carry-off'ers?
    Posted 12 years ago by bayBi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Having problem with rugs. Once pattern selected it can not be changed on the other rugs still in furniture. Also, rugs don't seem to want to be added once one rug on floor.
    Posted 12 years ago by Ruby Specklebottom Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ahhahaha...nm...I was grabbing not clicking - found it and tysvm!!
    Posted 12 years ago by sgjo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @sgjo decorate mode, click on item, Flip =)
    Posted 12 years ago by arcturus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ahh..just got in and love it.  Havent read all 4 pages yet.... Please tell me we get to use the attic?!?  lol  I LOVE hardwood floors!!!  Whoop! :)
    Posted 12 years ago by im4noles2 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Loving the new house. Thanks to all involved.
    I have a wish though can we have a little potting shed in garden where we can have more storeage for Seed, Crops and Herbs.
    Also with emtional bear we I know we can Hug ,Kiss and moon would love to see the action of blow a raspberry.
    Posted 12 years ago by Swoooo Swoooodles Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Is outdoor furniture a possibility in the future?" - yup

    "I don't know where to find the flip option lol" - in decorate mode, click on a piece of furniture in your house (not in your bag)

    "Will our new furnishings be 'safe' from carry-off'ers?" - yup, only you can move/take them

    Ruby Specklebottom: not sure what you mean
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • potting shed in garden - perhaps! or perhaps even more things!
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wheeee! This is going to be the best ever!

    Massive thanks Bees! for the prompt responses too =)
    Posted 12 years ago by arcturus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Having a problem with Butterfly milkers in the new home. I placed 4 out at the left edge of my yard, and one slipped off the edge, into nothingness! I adjusted the remaining ones (looking for the missing one) and two more slipped away!

    Not that butterfly milkers are hard to come by, but... is there a wormhole in my yard?!
    Posted 12 years ago by Stuv Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I am soooooooo jealous. All of my friends are in "their" homes and "their" home streets. I am in my office. I wanna go home. I think I feel the flu coming on very quickly.

    ps. Stuv - the wormhole is an upgrade - did you buy one?
    Posted 12 years ago by Kookaburra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The doubled amount of trophies (take it out, and put it back) that you have in your bag and the ones that are hidden, e.g. my Cubi Trophy. Are known bugs?

    I know yard extensions aren't coming yet - but will the plot amounts transfer over in a similar style to what I see now? Or  will that stay till the reset?
    Posted 12 years ago by Rook Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Bugs so far -

    1. If you go to your house from Voyage Violet and let the instance expire, then the "return to the world" button doesn't work, you have to teleport out

    2. One of my squid side tables inexplicably has it's real surface (the one you stand on an lamps sit on) well above the apparent surface on the graphic.  Another squid side table has it's surface at a regular height.

    3. Just lots of weird things happening with furniture seeming to appear twice in my inventory (drag one out it works, drag the other one out and it moves the first instead of bringing out a new one) and with the images not updating as they should (an item that looks like one thing in my inventory looks like another in the room)
    Posted 12 years ago by Humbabella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Stuv: ahh, that's a bug. i think i know what happened
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It would be nice if you could hang pictures on the walls over the doors...
    Posted 12 years ago by Yggdrasil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Any clues to our new storage options yet? I don't want to carry my hoarder tendencies to my new house and clutter up the new prettiness!
    Posted 12 years ago by MaryLiLamb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Rook: It'll be up to you what plots you want in your yard
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Humbabella:
    1) we'll fix that
    2) weird!
    3) we're looking into this

    Yggdrasil: It would be nice! we'll think about that

    MaryLiLamb: not in this release
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • As the ability to expand our homes and gardens comes later will we all have the same starter home (like in the trial)  or will it be based on our current home?
    Posted 12 years ago by IrenicRhonda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • While I was decorating my shelves with NORMAL inventory items, ie jumping on the shelves and dropping a gem here, a firefly jar there, I tried to pick some up afterwards and they had the "drop" verb enabled instead of the "pick up" verb.
    Due to that bug, I tried to drag them back into my inventory, but it went right into Decorate mode, even though these items weren't furniture. Is that normal? It was exceptionally clunky and it happened when I tried to pick up all of my normal items. It would make storing things on the floor really annoying. 
    Posted 12 years ago by EE Cummings Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Transport bug?   Checked out the new furniture options for a few minutes, then returned to world - for an instant I was [correctly] returned to Toxic Moon, where I'd logged on; then the game asked "why are you still here?" and bumped me to Elysian Slope!  (Party is still going on, so that wasn't it.  And I entered the party last night from Nandak Intention, not Groddle at all.) 
    Posted 12 years ago by oscarette Subscriber! | Permalink
  • IrenicRhonda: not finalized, but it's likely you'll get a refund on your current home and then get a starter home based on some other factors

    EE Cummings: sounds like several bugs. we'll look into it
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • oscarette: sounds like a bug. we'll take a look
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Before I do more testing tomorrow, I'll just add my vote for the sitting option
    Need to feel comfy, otherwise it's never a house ;)
    Posted 12 years ago by Lemo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Lemo: change into a bathrobe and slippers first!
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Why are the furniture options duplicated in furniture menu? Are they placeholders for the quantity of each that we are allowed? ie, why show 3 counters?
    Posted 12 years ago by MaryLiLamb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • 4. Icons do not sit nicely on shelves, but appear to be on the wall behind them because they are set back from the walkable part of the floor (this made sense when we didn't have three "rows" to put things on, but may need to change)

    Image of the weird table: http://imgur.com/b5Gri
    Posted 12 years ago by Humbabella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Moar Feedback: after spending a number of minutes trying to line up my shelves juuuuuuuust right, I realized an optional "snapto" grid such as in photoshop would help players like me, who are just not all that steady handed and can't make straight lines with rulers.  

    But oh I can try, I can try   :)
    Posted 12 years ago by Saucelah Subscriber! | Permalink
  • MaryLiLamb: note sure what you mean. screenshot?
    Posted 12 years ago by Bees! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nice update. I like these features. There have been a couple of bugs for me so far. I followed my friends signposts into their friends streets but i eventually got stuck when i entered someones street with a signpost with no names on it. Had to /home to get back. There should be someway to backtrack the sign posts in this situation. Some trophies I have would not show up (cubimal), and others would not let me place them(bubble and others). Other than that, this is great. I'm looking forward to the upgrade to imagination and housing expansions. Thanks for the test drive!
    Posted 12 years ago by Herb Herbally Subscriber! | Permalink
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