Player Housing Rules

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silverdragonams
Head DM
Posts: 3891
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:33 pm

Player Housing Rules

Post by silverdragonams »

1. Definition of types of housing.

A Private Residence is housing purchased by one or 2 PCs for the main purpose of having a living space and storage. No matter how many "guest rooms" or how many people share the house, it is still a private residence unless the group is recognized by the team as a guild. No more than two PCs can own a private residence, and only the owners can request updates to or sell the property.

Public areas are built by PC's or guilds for the benefit of the whole server. These areas can have a maximum of one locked door for a small private office. A small number of p-chests (normally for the purpose of display) and a biomerchant may be allowed at the teams discretion. Examples of public areas would include things such as (but not limited to) player built temples, taverns, and schools. Note this does not include player run shops. If your PC is financially benefiting from the area, then its a residence.

A Guild Hall is, obviously, housing belonging to a team recognized guild.


2. Size

Private residences can be no larger than 3 areas at 6x6 or 36 tiles each. Public areas and guild halls can be larger but you are still encouraged to keep them as small as possible.

3. Updates

Only the owners of a property can request an update. All player housing may be updated a maximum of once or twice per year. To request an update PM the team with your email address to receive a current copy of your property. All changes must be done using this copy. Not doing so risks losing any items you have stored in your chests.

After three updates the owner may request minor changes that can be done by a builder directly in the Hala or Ysgard modules. These changes include things like adding p-chests, renaming objects, and changing the locks on doors.

If the property is transferred to new owners, the remaining updates are inherited. The new owners do not start over with three updates.

4. Restrictions

- No player may have more than 1 PC with access to the same player housing. This includes Guilds and chests in Public areas.

- Only Hala natives may purchase housing. This includes characters created on Hala and those naturalized by a DM.

- Hostile creatures can not be placed in player housing (excluding combat dummies and archery targets).

- Crafting plants may only be placed in exterior areas accessible to everyone.

- Private Housing will not be placed in dungeon areas, nor will we allow doors or portals that go directly to these areas.

- Houses that are placed in existing areas can have a small garden that will be placed by the builder importing the property, but fenced in areas inaccessible to other players are not allowed. You may include private or public exterior areas with your property, but this will count towards the cost of the property and size limit above.

- No custom items will be included with player housing with 3 exceptions:
  • a. Any keys required to access your property and chests must be included with the erf submitted to the team. Keys do not have to necessarily be a "key" item, but they may not be an equip-able item, and they may not have any properties added to them.

    b. Guild items may be submitted with the approval of your DM sponsor.

    c. Books written by PCs may be submitted to the team for approval any time. If you are including them in a player housing request, please send them separately from the rest of the property, or include the text only in a PM to the Hala Team account.
- No custom scripts will be included in player housing. There are some basic scripts located here http://wiki.avlis.org/Nighthawk4_Housing_Files (note we do not use the piggy bank so do not include that in your house). If you would like something in your property that requires a custom script, pm the Hala Team account with your request prior to submission. If approved, we will write it for you.

- Do not use excessive numbers of placeables that include heartbeat scripts. Many of these placeables are included in the custom lighting (candles, fire bowls, etc) from the CEP hak.

- All treasure scripts must be removed from any placeable that is usable. All "On death" scripts must be removed from doors. Any placeable that is not used for a specific purpose (it doesn't have an "on use" script" or isn't meant to be read or opened) should be set to "Static"

- Do not leave any keys in a chest or on the floor. Your keys will be delivered to you on payment for the property.

- Keys and guild items must be marked plot, but not undropable.

- Player housing may only use the haks we have available. The current haks as well as the order in which they should be placed in the module is located here: http://wiki.ysgard.org/index.php?title= ... r_Builders.

-Do not put any items in any containers. The only containers allowed to spawn a supply of items are beverage containers (ale kegs, wine casks etc.) Please make sure these are clearly marked both in the area and in the housing spreadsheet. Include what kind of beverage you want in your instructions and we will add it for you.

-Portals can be included in player housing as an entrance/exit to the property. They can also be made plot and locked so long as the portal goes directly into the interior of your house. This will cost the same as a plot/locked/key only door.

-These rules can and will be bent in special circumstances, and many existing player houses are grandfathered with regards to some of these rules. Just because someone else has something, do not expect to get it yourself. We will gladly consider any special requests before you submit your property. Any dishonesty or attempt to sneak something past the team will result in a permanent ban from player housing and possibly Hala. In this case it is far better to ask permission first than ask for forgiveness later.

5. NPCs

Private residences may include simple NPCs such as pets and butlers. The cost foe each of these NPCs is 50,000 gold. These NPCs can have a CR no higher than 1/8. They can not have any feats, skills or special abilities and may be no higher than a level 1 commoner (or animal, or whatever race is appropriate). They can not have items other than basic clothing. Any hide or creature weapons must be removed.

Conversations for NPC's start at 5,000 gold.


More advanced NPC's may be purchased for Guild Halls or Public Areas. Pricing guidelines follow:
Levels 1-10 = 100,000 per level. Levels 11-20 200,000 per level Levels 21+ 500,000 per level.

Example: Level 15 Warrior NPC = 10 levels at 100,000/lvl = 1,000,000 + 200,000 per level for 5 levels = 1,000,000 = 2,000,000 for a level 15 NPC with no gear.

NOTE: Mages and Cleric NPCs may cost more depending on the spell selection that the group is looking for on this NPC.

This is to be used for the purchase of guards and such for any institute wanting to purchase them. These NPCs will have always have a default faction of defender if they are guards and commoners if they are pets or non-combatants.

Also. Weapons and armor costs extra. If they want to arm their guards they must purchase the armor and the weapons.

Weapons and armor purchased may be done so at a rate of Toolset Value X 2 for +1 equivalent items (same as the merchants on Hala), Toolset value X 4 for +2 items. Further powered items will be discussed by the team on a case by case basis. These items will be designated plot no drop on the NPC so that there can be no chance of them being removed or otherwise exploited.

It is up to the teams discretion to deny any or all parts of this ruling.

6. Cost

To figure the approximate cost of the property, download the Avlis Housing Spreadsheet located here: http://wiki.avlis.org/Nighthawk4_Housing_Files. To encourage you to keep the file size of the property small, this cost will be adjusted by the size of the uncompressed (un-.rar'd) erf you submit. If the erf is more than 1mb, the cost of the property will increase. If it is less than 1mb, it will decrease. The cost for any NPCs or special requests that have been approved will then be added to this total.

Note: the following is included in the cost "furnishings" (so don't add them to your spreadsheet separately)
Doors that have not been altered from their pallet version (are not locked, plot, and have no transition)
Placeables other than those specifically asked for on the spreadsheet (for example, you are charged for ale kegs, crafting placeables, p-chests etc, but not a sign you have made readable or a candle you can turn on and off)


7. Naming standards

All objects must be named so that it is easily identifiable. "house key" is bad. "Mystic Hollow Key" is better.
All areas, items, doors with transitions, and p-chests must have a unique tag. We use the following convention:

2 or 3 letters identifying you as the builder _ identify the area _ identify the object

On all Areas and Items (keys) the tag and resref must be identical (case sensitive). In this case, it is also limited to 16 characters.

Examples:

Areas
sd_trickhouse_1f
sd_trickhouse_2f

Doors
sd_trickshouse_1f_to_2f
sd_trickshouse_exit

p-chests
sd_trickshouse_1fchest1
sd_trickshouse_2fchest2

Keys
sd_th_doorkey
sd_th_chest1key


8. Housing Submission

You must build your own house or find someone to build it for you. There is stock housing available as well, but the team will not build custom housing for players.

To submit a house send your request to the Hala Team account preferably prior to building it. If your character is already a Hala native a DM will contact you to provide assistance and answer questions. They will give you an email address where you may send the housing files when you are finished.


9. Housing Removal
If you intend to retire a character with housing and do not intend to remort or transfer the property to another player, please let us know so we can move the property to storage. Banned players will automatically have their properties moved out.

If it is deemed by the team that the Characters associated with the house are no longer actively Hala Natives (by definition this means people who play primarily on Hala), said character will lose their housing rights on Hala until such time as they return to active play on the Hala/Ysgard servers.

What this means to you, as a player is this... if it is deemed by the team that your character no longer resides on Hala your player housing and any specific adjoining areas associated with said house will be removed from the mod and ERF'd. All p-chests in that area will be moved to a new location where they can be accessed OOC'ly.

If at any time your character returns to active play on the Hala/ysgard servers you may put in a request to have the areas placed back into the server. If the team agrees that you have returned, your player housing will be restored.


10. Transfer of Housing
You may sell or give your private housing to another PC so long as that PC is a native of Hala and that PC does not belong to you. Written notice of the transfer must be sent to the Hala Team account prior to turning over the property. There will be an inspection of the property by a DM, and the new owner will then be required to pay for new keys and changing out the locks on p-chests and doors before the property becomes theirs. Without this notice, the new owner can not request any changes, and risks having the property considered abandoned.

NOTICE:
The team reserves the right to make changes to your property at any time for any reason. Some of these reasons include, but are not limited to:
IC events
A change in hala content or tilesets
Attempts to reduce area and module size
Discovery of an exploit on the property

While this may sound harsh, please understand that it is under very rare circumstances that we actually do this, and it is even more rare for us to do it without contacting you first (unless we have reason to believe you are no longer playing on Hala).



Tips for building:

- Don't invest in a McMansion.
A 6x6 area is actually quite a bit of room. If you really think you want your character to own a gigantic house, consider how much time you are going to waste walking across that house just to get to various chests and things. I can guarantee most of that extra space you will never use and never miss, so why pay for it?

-Lose the clutter.
You are not directly charged for most placeables, but placeables add to the file size of your house, which adds to the final cost.
Did you know that placeables cause you lag?
1. Your video card has to render each one. The more you have the more strain on your card.
2. The game engine has to calculate the walking path around each placeable. The more you have the longer that will take and the more likely you are to get stuck or bump into things.
Its tempting to set every table with dishes and food, have a zillion flowers in your garden, and a whole gallery of pictures on the walls but consider a basic principle of RL interior design and art when you are building: Having stuff piled up everywhere looks bad. Your eyes don't rest on any one object so it all becomes background. Instead it is better to have some clean and empty areas accented with groups of placeables that act as focal points to draw attention.

-All that glitters is bad for the eyes.
Visual effects and animated placeables can add a lot to an area, but only in small doses. All placeables cause some lag, but that goes double for these. Again, going back to basic design principles: When it comes to "bling" there is a fine line between tasteful and tacky.

-Ensure your security.
It is against the rules to break into player housing but sometimes it does happen, usually by mistake. To make sure your house and storage stays secure put the AutoClose or AutoCloseLock script on all doors. If you don't, chances are good we will do it for you. Also, its a good idea to create an entryway in your house. This is a small room between a door that anyone can enter, and the plot/locked door that goes into the house proper. Here you can put a sign identifying it as your house and a doorbell. This way there can be no mistaking it as private property.

-Plan ahead
Consider the fact that as your character changes your property may need to change. The most common need for a change in player housing is that players come and go. Sad but true. So, what do you do when you built a guest room for Bob, complete with a door named "Bob's room" and a chest named "Bob's Chest"; but Bob quit playing and now Tim wants to use the room? The best practice is to give everything that needs a unique name a name that does not include proper names. Even though naming objects after your friends seems like a good way to make them feel at home, in the long run its better to use "Guest Room 1 Chest" than "Bob's Chest"

This also includes the use of you own name! If you name your property after your character, what happens if you want to sell it? To avoid needing to have it changed, just give it a unique name of its own. Some examples already in use include "Tranquility", "Serenity", "Home of the Wandering Dragon", and "Arboreal House". Of course if you don't intend to ever transfer the property then the name doesn't matter.
Last edited by silverdragonams on Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
silverdragonams
Head DM
Posts: 3891
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:33 pm

Post by silverdragonams »

Addendum To Pricing

Since we have diverged somewhat from what Avlis has available (though their spreadsheet will still give you a good estimate), a breakdown of housing costs follows:


Space
Areas cost 5,000 per tile, plus 5,000 for each area after the first. (These are areas as they are divided in the toolset.

Storage
Standard P-Chest - 120,000

Display P-Chest - 200,000
Anyone can look inside, only the person with a key can add or remove items.

Text based p-chest/donation box - 40,000
These work much like p-merchants. They start with limited capacity but unlimited pages. Can be upgraded to unlimited capacity for about 1 million gold.

NPCs
Standard NPCs - 50,000
1hp npc for pets, butlers etc. Additional charge for conversation.

Guards - See above

P-Merchants - 120,000
P-merchants start with 1 menu page and limited capacity. They can be upgraded to unlimited space for about 2 million gold.

Other Placeables
Crafting Placeables - 25,000

Crafting Plants - By special permission only.

Combat Dummies/Archery Targets - 2,500

Ale Kegs - 5,000

Additional Keys after the first - 500
This is not for copies of the same key, but for having different keys for different items (such as a door key and a chest key, and a guest room key, etc)

Plot/Locked Doors - 40,000
silverdragonams
Head DM
Posts: 3891
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:33 pm

Post by silverdragonams »

I've updated the rules above as follows:

All player housing may be updated a maximum of once or twice per year.

With a smaller player base, it makes sense to allow more updates. The usual rules still apply.

You will need to do them yourself or ask someone to do them for you. Do not expect someone on the team to make changes for you.

Make your changes and submit them all at once. Anyone who pesters the team with multiple minor changes over the course of the year will find all updates denied permanently.
Characters:
[url=http://wiki.ysgard.org/index.php?title=Sarakin_Fyne]Sarakin Fyne[/url]

www.anotherworlddesign.etsy.com
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