This is the "tiling" class I taught on Test Copy (before it was Beta) on tiling with the layout editor. Note, the bolded section in the middle is also obsolete with the most current layout editor, AS LONG AS you use the Diff button instead of New From Diff. If you use New From Diff, the instructions are still applicable. If you use the Diff button, you can skip the bolded section AND the end section, since your editor will automatically fill in the correct UIDs of items in the crate.

Keep in mind this was written in 2011, so while it doesn't tell you exactly what to do, it should give you an idea of what's needed to tile.:

You say to the guild, "Alright, first up.... everyone, I want you to make sure you have your layout editor open."

You say to the guild, "Let me know when you have it up."

You say to the guild, "*monotone* Everyone open your books to page 143, and look at the first paragraph..."

You say to the guild, "Good!"

You say to the guild, "Alright. First thing everyone's going to do is look at the right side of your layout editor."

You say to the guild, "I don't mean all of the controls. I mean further right than that."

You say to the guild, "The veeery right side of the window."

You say to the guild, "Looking at it? Good. Now grab it with your mouse pointer and draaaaaaaag it right even further."

You say to the guild, "Well, Daani cheated!"

You say to the guild, "everyone ELSE drag it until the scrollbar disappears ;)"

You say to the guild, "You should see that the last column is called "UID""

You say to the guild, "Very good. Now, this is when things get a little complex."

You say to the guild, "Let's step away from Norrath for a moment, and pretend we're at a biiiiiig fancy (but not too fancy, because people are wearing nametags) party."

You say to the guild, "At this biiiiiiig party, there are several people named Bob. Strangely enough, every single Bob is identical!"

You say to the guild, "Luckily for us, they're not related. And they all have different last names."

You say to the guild, "So it's easy for us to tell who Bob Smith is, versus Bob Orville."

You say to the guild, "That's exactly what the UID is."

You say to the guild, "It tells the game, "Hey, THIS Grassy Square tile is NOT the same as THAT Grassy Square tile!""

You say to the guild, "To go back to our party, Bob Smith is over by the punchbowl. Bob Orville had to visit the men's room."

You say to the guild, "We can't just switch Bob Smith and Bob Orville around, because Bob Smith is pouring punch into his cup, and Bob Orville... well. We don't want him standing next to the punchbowl, that's for sure."

You say to the guild, "So the UID is what keeps your game from mixing items up in the layouts."

You say to the guild, "It's what keeps your "Go up the stairs" teleporter at the bottom of the stairs, and your "Go down the stairs" teleporter at the top of your stairs."

You say to the guild, "It is also assigned to each item EACH TIME YOU PUT IT IN YOUR HOUSE."

You say to the guild, "That means, when you place an item from your bags into the house, it gets assigned a UID."

You say to the guild, "If you right click the item and send it to the moving crate, it STILL has the same UID."

You say to the guild, "If you right click the item and move it to a new location, it has the same UID."

You say to the guild, "But if you pick up the item.... well, it's not actually Bob Smith. It's Jane Smith, and she just got a divorce from Bob Smith."

You say to the guild, "So her last name changes."

You say to the guild, "Because she sure doesn't want to be associated with THAT jerk anymore!"

You say to the guild, "And when you place the item back in your house, she's marrying someone else. Maybe she marries a John Doe."

You say to the guild, "So now her last name is Doe."

You say to the guild, "And the tile has a brand new UID!"

You say to the guild, "I think of UIDs as the last names of items, if you haven't yet caught that."

You say to the guild, "The catch is that every single "person" in a house has a different "last name.""

Gracey says to the guild, "and the last name changes if you pick it up"

You say to the guild, "Yep!"

You say to the guild, "You can never ever have two of the same UID in a house, or it really confuses the game. It can't figure out which item you mean. It's like having two Bob Smiths. Every time you call, "Hey Bob Smith!" they both turn around."

You say to the guild, "So, everyone think they understand UIDs and their importance?"

Kallus says to the guild, "and the newest guest always has the highest numbered last name"

Zula says to the guild, "when you say person you mean item?"

You say to the guild, "Yep!"

You say to the guild, "To both the comment and question."

You say to the guild, "And that's useful information to know, about the newest item in a house having the highest UID. You can sort by UID and figure out the order items were placed in the house."

You say to the guild, "Alright, with that in mind...."

You say to the guild, "The layout editor does NOT know what an item's UID is unless the layout itself tells the editor. That means, when you open a layout in the layout editor, all of the items have the correct UIDs."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "so, when i save a layout, and open it in the editor, how do all the UIDs for items that were already placed in a previous session get assigned?"

You say to the guild, "They're already there in the layout."

You say to the guild, "The game assigned them."

You say to the guild, "And the editor can read that information in the layout file and spit it out in an easy to understand method for us."

Zula says to the guild, "when they were 1st placed ?"

You say to the guild, "Mainly, by sticking it in the UID column ;)"

You say to the guild, "yep."

You say to the guild, "From the moment you place an item in a house, it has a number attached to it."

You say to the guild, "That number WILL NOT EVER CHANGE unless you PICK UP the item."

You say to the guild, "It is a number assigned by the game server."

You say to the guild, "NOT by the layout."

You say to the guild, "NOT by the layout editor."

You say to the guild, "That number does not ever change."

You say to the guild, "That's why your teleport pads no longer get mixed up."

You say to the guild, "And why your player written books stay in the order you place them."

You say to the guild, "Every single player written book that was written in a Stonehide Leather Notebook has the same ItemID. The game doesn't care about the book's title. It positions items by their ItemID and UID."

Daani says to the guild, "well permanently until you pick the item up"

You say to the guild, "Yep. It only changes if you remove the items from the housing world, and put them back."

Andala says to the guild, "do they go away when you crate them?"

You say to the guild, "nope."

You say to the guild, "The crate is bascially just a thing that makes an item intangible and invisible."

You say to the guild, "The crate still preserves the item's location even when it's in the crate."

You say to the guild, "The item's just not visible anymore."

Andala says to the guild, "when you pick it up and place it again it gets another randomly assigned semi permanent ID?"

Passionate says to the guild, "because it's part of that "housing world""

You say to the guild, "Yes."

You say to the guild, "And it's not random."

You say to the guild, "It's chronological."

You say to the guild, "But it's chronological across the entire server."

Passionate says to the guild, "like grassy square <1> grassy square<2>"

You say to the guild, "So when you're placing items, you may notice you have an item with a UID of 47663197"

You say to the guild, "And you may notice that the next item you placed has a UID of 47663200."

You say to the guild, "That's because someone else in the game (or several someones) placed three other items before you placed yours."

Kallus will curse Jazabellex when his numbers are so far apart... she's at it again!.

Passionate says to the guild, "oh ...so it's world wide not in your house only"

You say to the guild, "Yes, it's world wide."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "surely with all the house items constantly being placed across a server, the UIDs would now be counting up into the trillions? i'd have thought they'd need to recycle numbers now and then."

You say to the guild, "But all houses occupy the same "world" in the sense that they all allow us to do the same things -- take items, place them, move them around, etc."

You say to the guild, "They may recycle numbers, I don't know. All I know is that even though I'm in my own home, the numbers jump sometimes."

Passionate can definitely feel her brains moving towards the nearest exit in her head ....

You say to the guild, "Sometimes I have perfectly chronological numbers."

You say to the guild, "I have every number between 47663197 and 47663200."

You say to the guild, "And other times I jump from 47663197 to 47663200."

You say to the guild, "The times it jumps tend to be the times when the server is busier."

You say to the guild, "And the times I get ...hmmm. can't think of the word. Not chronological. Sequential!"

You say to the guild, "When I get 'em sequential, it's at times when the server is almost dead."

You say to the guild, "So perhaps it's not worldwide, maybe it's only per each house type. Either way, it's NOT just in a single house."

You say to the guild, "To be honest though.... none of this matters for actually using the UIDs ;)"

You say to the guild, "What matters is that all house items have a UID. Each UID is unique. That's why it's a Unique ID."

You say to the guild, "And each UID is persistent, until the moment you PICK UP the item. When it leaves the housing world, it loses the UID."

You say to the guild, "When it is replaced back in the housing world, it gains it again."

You say to the guild, "But it gains a different one."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "or at least a new one."

You say to the guild, "Yes. I said that badly, sorry."

You say to the guild, "When it is replaced back in the housing world, it gains a new UID."

You say to the guild, "There, that's what I meant to say."

You say to the guild, "Okay. So. Now that we all understand that all items have UIDs and what their use is (helpign the server differentiate between items) let's examine WHY we need to know that."

You say to the guild, "Over here, I have a pretty (ugly) garden."

You say to the guild, "Over here, I have a stack of grassy squares."

You say to the guild, "Both my garden and my stack of squares use grassy squares."

You say to the guild, "I've decided, "Hey, I want to tile more of this room in squares, but I'm really not feeling like doing it by hand."

You say to the guild, "Actually, I've decided I want to tile the OTHER room in squares."

Gracey says to the guild, "so you are moving them to preserve the UID's..."

You say to the guild, "Yep."

You say to the guild, "I could have just picked them up in my bags, come over here, and dropped them all."

You say to the guild, "But that would have changed the UIDs."

You say to the guild, "So."

You say to the guild, "I'm a bit of a garden freak in EQ2. I love my gardens."

You say to the guild, "I have my pretty (ugly) garden in the other room."

You say to the guild, "And I've decided I need a garden in this room too."

You say to the guild, "Both gardens use grassy squares."

You say to the guild, "I have this stack here, and the three in my pretty (ugly) garden over there."

You say to the guild, "Each grassy square has a UID assigned to it."

You say to the guild, "But.... I'm not going to be shifting them around by hand. I'm lazy, and the editor comes with a tool that makes it really easy to tile things."

You say to the guild, "It's the tile editor tool!"

You say to the guild, "Er, tile area tool."

You say to the guild, "So now I want everyone to go to their editors."

You say to the guild, "Click Tools, navigate down to Create objects, and click Tile area."

You say to the guild, "It should pop open a window named "Tile an Area" with a lot of scarrrrrrrrry boxes."

You say to the guild, "Okay! So now you're looking at the scary window. And you're panicking."

You say to the guild, "And you want to /quit desktop RIGHT NOW and never touch the editor again."

You say to the guild, "Or at least close the scary box so it's not staring at you.... BUT YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO!"

Zula says to the guild, "no just close that window lol"

You say to the guild, "But you're NOT ALLOWED TO! *stamps foot*"

You say to the guild, "You have to leave it open, 'cause I said, and I'm the teacher."

Kahlef says to the guild, "But... but..."

You say to the guild, "So. Instead of looking at all of the scary boxes and panicking.... lets look at ONE row of boxes at a time."

You say to the guild, "The very first row is a dropdown menu."

You say to the guild, "If you open it up, it has three options."

You say to the guild, "The XY Plane, which is a very fancy mathematical way of just saying "The floor""

You say to the guild, "Luckily, Jesdyr took pity on us poor not-mathematical people, and put (floor) there so we know what the heck he's talking about."

You say to the guild, "Then below that says the XZ Plane. Jesdyr has kindly informed us that what he ACTUALLY meant by that was (North/South wall)"

You say to the guild, "And what THAT means is, if I want to tile a wall with tiles...."

You say to the guild, "And the wall is either to the North or to the South, I pick that option."

You say to the guild, "In this case, it would either be the wall where the guild hall doors are..."

Andala says to the guild, "what if its inbetween the cardinal points like NW or SE?"

You say to the guild, "Or the wall opposite the doors where the Qeynos Claymore is set up."

You say to the guild, "You would have to rotate the wall you made."

You say to the guild, "Which is a lesson for another time."

You say to the guild, "For now we're just going to work on cardinal points."

You say to the guild, "Or at least, it's a lesson for after we get through using the tool on the floor ;)"

You say to the guild, "So then! Obviously the final option is for walls that are to the East or West."

You say to the guild, "Honestly? We could care less about walls right now."

You say to the guild, "We're trying to build a GARDEN! We need a grassy floor, not some dumb grassy walls!"

You say to the guild, "So..... we're going to leave the editor on the floor option."

You say to the guild, "and now, the first box isn't so scary anymore!"

You say to the guild, "So let's move on to the second line."

You say to the guild, "It says "Start point" on i t."

You say to the guild, "Hmm.... if I had to guess.... I'd say that's the point our editor will start tiling from."

You say to the guild, "But...."

You say to the guild, "When you pick a point to put a tile on, it's the CENTER of the tile that winds up there."

You say to the guild, "So this start point is obviously the CENTER of the first tile that the editor is going to start with."

You say to the guild, "We have to take that into account when picking our start point."

You say to the guild, "In this case, I'm going to pick...."

You say to the guild, "Right here."

Your location is -7.61, 0.23, 2.37. Your orientation is 48.82, 0.00, 0.00

You say to the guild, "Which is -7.6, 0.23, 2.4"

You say to the guild, "I rounded a little because I like pretty numbers, but you get the idea."

Andala says to the guild, "question?"

You say to the guild, "Yes?"

Andala says to the guild, "if you had placed your first tile where you wanted it and used the same/diff thing in the editor"

Andala says to the guild, "would it be giving you the center point location of that tile you could then use?"

You say to the guild, "Yep!"

You say to the guild, "In fact, that's such a good idea.... let's do it!"

You say to the guild, "I'm going to save my "with" layout now."

House layout save successful

You say to the guild, "After first moving the tile where I want it, of course."

You say to the guild, "Now that I have my with saved, I'm going to pack it in the crate."

You say to the guild, "And save without."

House layout save successful

You say to the guild, "And then I am going to New From Diff in the layout editor."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "say, Jaz. how did you ever come up with naming your difference files "with" and "without"?"

Kahlef coughs.

You say to the guild, "Gee Tock, I think it was from Rakuno, who got it from you!"

Tockvisits says to the guild, "LOL"

Kahlef whistles innocently.

Tockvisits highfives Kahlef.

Kahlef highfives back.

Starting layout changes.

Loading house layout complete!

You say to the guild, "So, I have a layout file with my position for this tile in it. I'm going to copy that position over into the evil Tile an Area box."

You say to the guild, "now you'll notice..."

You say to the guild, "I started in the Northeast corner of the room."

You say to the guild, "That's because the editor tiles from North to South."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "always?"

Jazabellex stands North and points South.

You say to the guild, "And east to west..."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "even if you set the end point to be in the opposite directly?"

Jazabellex stands East and points West.

Tockvisits says to the guild, "direction?"

You say to the guild, "UNLESS you tell it otherwise."

You say to the guild, "This is the default direction it goes."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "ah ha, hence the (optional) there."

You say to the guild, "Oh, we're not even there yet."

You say to the guild, "We're completely ignoring that."

You say to the guild, "In fact, Jesdyr was here yesterday, and you know what he said?"

Tockvisits says to the guild, "that's good to know. North to South, East to West."

You say to the guild, "DO NOT FILL OUT THAT LINE."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "ha ha, okay. "

You say to the guild, "Actually, he said that about the Start Rotations line, too."

You say to the guild, "Start Rotations is for a feature that isn't finished yet."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "yeah, was jsut about to ponder that line."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "good to know. much less confusing now."

You say to the guild, "So we've managed to make 4 rows unscary so far."

You say to the guild, "Okay, so now we're on the line called "Item Name.""

You say to the guild, "Geeeeeeeeeeeeee I wonder what I should put there?"

You say to the guild, "Quick, someone who's not Tock, Gracey, or Rakuno, tell me what to put there!"

Passionate says to the guild, "<crickets>"

Andala says to the guild, "er the name of the item as displayed in the editor?"

Kallus says to the guild, "grasy square"

You say to the guild, "YES!"

You say to the guild, "Thanks guys! I never would have figured it out if it weren't for you, then we'd be stuck here alllll night while I tried out different things :("

You say to the guild, "Okay, but to be completely serious, you can put ANYTHING YOU WANT right there."

You say to the guild, "The game and the editor don't CARE what you call your items."

Andala says to the guild, "which is why it says na (not applicable)?"

You say to the guild, "You can decide to call all of your Grassy Squares Bob, and it would still say, "Okay! I can put Bob right there for you, don't worry about it!""

You say to the guild, "Yes."

Kahlef ponders about filling that line with "Cheese".

You say to the guild, "I like to put in the name as it appears in the editor."

You say to the guild, "But it isn't necessary."

You say to the guild, "I could just as easily put in Garden Floor"

You say to the guild, "And it would work."

You say to the guild, "However...... the next part is VERY important."

Andala says to the guild, "that UID thing"

Daani says to the guild, "ok, so that little magnifying glass next to thename? don't click it."

You say to the guild, "Nope! Close. But not quite."

You say to the guild, "If you look at your editor, there is a column all the way to the left called "ItemID""

Gracey SO wants to click the magnifying glass now.

Kallus says to the guild, "3136362027"

Tockvisits says to the guild, "i did click it. brought up a list of 'standard items' but i have no idea how to edit that list."

You say to the guild, "Strangely enough..... that's what you put under Item ID."

Daani says to the guild, "oh, mine ended up crashing my editor lol"

You say to the guild, "So, here's a puzzle for you guys."

You say to the guild, "I just opened my layout editor."

You say to the guild, "I have not opened a layout."

You say to the guild, "I went to the Tile an Area tool...."

You say to the guild, "And I need to find out what the itemID is for the Grassy Squares!"

You say to the guild, "How can I do that?"

Daani says to the guild, "click the magnifying glass and hope you don't crash? :)"

You say to the guild, "(Hint: I already did it once.)"

You say to the guild, "Bzzzt!"

Kahlef says to the guild, "Ask Jazabelle for th item ID?"

You say to the guild, "BZZZZZZZZT and no cheese or booze for you for a week!"

Daani says to the guild, "do a save from diff?"

Tockvisits says to the guild, "um... link it and copy the link out of game into text editor?"

You say to the guild, "DING!"

Kahlef says to the guild, "NUUUUUUUUU!!"

You say to the guild, "Daani wins!"

You say to the guild, "Do a New From Diff for one of the items."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "aw... Daani always wins... /grumble"

You say to the guild, "So that you have the information in the layout editor."

You say to the guild, "Now... I did a New From Diff, and I have a single grassy square in my layout file."

You say to the guild, "The ItemID is listed as 692760726."

You say to the guild, "That's a kind of long number."

You say to the guild, "And I've always hated typing numbers."

You say to the guild, "So instead.... I'm going to go to the ItemID box."

You say to the guild, "And I'm going to double click it!"

You say to the guild, "That selects the number for me."

You say to the guild, "Then I am going to ctrl+c to copy it."

You say to the guild, "And I am going to go to the Tile an Area box."

You say to the guild, "I am going to erase the 1 that is there."

You say to the guild, "And I am going to ctrl+v"

You say to the guild, "So now, my amazingly long number is copied perfectly into the Tile an Area window."

You say to the guild, "With absolutely no mistakes!"

You say to the guild, "Now I look at Item Scale."

You say to the guild, "Guess what that is!"

Daani looks around.

Daani says to the guild, "um, 3?"

You say to the guild, "*waits* No? Obviously, that box is the item scale."

Daani says to the guild, "oh, hehe"

You say to the guild, "Oh, you all misunderstood me."

You say to the guild, "Anyway! That number is actually 4.1 for this tile."

You say to the guild, "which... I like the size of this tile."

You say to the guild, "So I'm going to set the Item Scale to 4.1, so ALL of my tiles are this size."

You say to the guild, "Oh gosh, almost done! Only four boxes to go."

You say to the guild, "So now, we look at the "Number of tiles""

You say to the guild, "And we look at the X"

You say to the guild, "And we panic a little bit, because what the HECK does that mean?!"

You say to the guild, "....and then we look at the Layout Editor's main window."

You say to the guild, "And we look at the top row, where it tells us what each column is."

You say to the guild, "And we see that X is E/W!"

You say to the guild, "So.... putting those two things together... that means...."

You say to the guild, "Number of tiles X is the number of tiles in the East - West direction we want to have."

You say to the guild, "I have 13 tiles in my stack."

You say to the guild, "I kind of only want to use 12, because I can make a rectangle with 12. I can't really make one with 13."

You say to the guild, "Okay! So.... I need to pick a number of tiles to go in the east-west direction."

You say to the guild, "And I have 12 tiles."

You say to the guild, "I kind of like the idea of having 4 tiles going this way."

You say to the guild, "So I'll put in 4 for the Number of tiles X."

You say to the guild, "And I look at the Number of tiles Y box...... and I bet someone can tell me what the Number of tiles Y box should be."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "7!"

Zula says to the guild, "3"

Tockvisits says to the guild, "2?"

You say to the guild, "Tock fails class. Tock must now go repeat the introductory course "opening a layout file.""

Kallus says to the guild, "votes 3"

You say to the guild, "Zula however, passes with honors."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "uh, i suck at this."

Tockvisits sighs at Jazabellex.

Daani comforts Tockvisits.

You say to the guild, "The Y box is how many tiles in the North South direction you want."

You say to the guild, "Just like the number of tiles in the East West."

You say to the guild, "And since I had 12 tiles..."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "i'll never be a famous decorator now!"

Tockvisits grumbles under his breath.

You say to the guild, "And I wanted 4 tiles one way...."

Daani says to the guild, "and we said math would never be useful after high school!"

You say to the guild, "That means (simple math guys!) 3 tiles the other. Which you all told me, except Tock, so obviously everyone but Tock is going to become incredible."

Tockvisits cries at Jazabellex.

You say to the guild, "Oooh oooh now we come to the FUN boxes!!"

You say to the guild, "Okay."

You say to the guild, "I have tiles at scale 4.1"

You say to the guild, "I want them to be RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER."

You say to the guild, "How far apart do they have to be?"

Daani says to the guild, "ooh ooh I know! 8.2"

Gracey says to the guild, "with no lines?"

You say to the guild, "Right. Right next to each other with no lines."

Tockvisits scratches his head.

You say to the guild, "Daani wins a lollipop!"

You say to the guild, "And since tiles are square..."

Tockvisits glares menacingly at Daani!

Tockvisits says, "teacher's pet."

You say to the guild, "I want to put in 8.2 in BOTH boxes."

You say to the guild, "So that each tile is 8.2 from the one next to it in the North/South direction"

You say to the guild, "And each tile is 8.2 away from the one in the East/West direction."

Andala says to the guild, "I don't quite understand"

Andala says to the guild, "if we are measuring from the center"

Tockvisits says to the guild, "interesting that we're given the option of setting them to something different.... wonder what i could do with that..."

Andala says to the guild, "does the scale you choose assume from the center? I would have guessed half scale"

Daani says to the guild, "remember Gracey's lesson? that we move tiles 2 times the scale"

You say to the guild, "Tock, it's for tiling if you're not using tiles. Say... dividers or stone blocks."

Gracey says to the guild, "this is the part you missed out earlier...."

You say to the guild, "Andala wasn't here for Gracey's lesson."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "we're measuring from the center of one tile, to the center of the adjacent tile."

Daani says to the guild, "oh sorry"

Andala looks sad.

You say to the guild, "Andala, the length of one tile is actually 2x the scale."

You say to the guild, "As I told you before, a tile of scale 0.5 has a length of 1."

You say to the guild, "In order to get a tile with a length of 1 sitting next to a tile with a length of 1, we have to MOVE the tile a distance of 1"

You say to the guild, "But that tile is only scale 0.5"

You say to the guild, "which means that to put a tile next to another tile with no seam..."

You say to the guild, "We have to multiply the scale by 2."

Tockvisits:Tockvisits\/a says to the guild, "the tile's scale is effectly set to be it's radius, from center to edge?"

You say to the guild, "Yes."

You say to the guild, "Exactly."

Tockvisits cheers!

Tockvisits says to the guild, "I know stuff!"

You say to the guild, "Sorry, I try to avoid any technical terms ;)"

You say to the guild, "Although a radius would be a circle, so.... ;p"

You say to the guild, "Okay. So that's why we set the tile spacing to 8.2."

You say to the guild, "Since we're working with squares, it's the same on both sides."

You say to the guild, "If we were working with dividers, it might be different. But we're not!"

You say to the guild, "So... I've filled out the Tile an Area window."

You say to the guild, "The next thing to do is hit Create."

You say to the guild, "But before I do that... I want everyone to fill out their window."

You say to the guild, "I don't care what you put in for your Start Point. Pick your /loc if you want."

You say to the guild, "For item name, pick whatever you want as well."

You say to the guild, "For item ID, use 692760726"

You say to the guild, "For item scale, put 4.1"

You say to the guild, "Number of tiles, X is 4, Y is 3."

You say to the guild, "Tile spacing, both are 8.2"

You say to the guild, "Now.... hit create."

You say to the guild, "And watch magic happen."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "numbers!"

You say to the guild, "Now.... everyone look over at the UID column."

The rest of the instructions are obsolete with version 1.6.6.3 and above of the layout editor. Instead of following the instructions below, you would:

1. Place all of the tiles you want the game to use as your floor (or ceiling or wall) into the moving crate of the house.
2. Save a layout with those items in the moving crate. I call it ninekiller.
3. Go to Tools > Replace Tmp UIDs.
4. Select your ninekiller layout.
5. Hit go.
6. Save the resulting layout in the layout editor. It now has the correct UIDs.
7. Load the layout in-game.

The following instructions are the old instructions for any version of the layout editor before 1.6.6.3.

You say to the guild, "Those are some pretty UIDs aren't they?"

You say to the guild, "98001, 98002, 98003...."

Andala says to the guild, "nice and sequential"

You say to the guild, "Why, it's almost like... the layout editor MADE THEM UP!"

You say to the guild, "That's right guys."

You say to the guild, "The layout editor made those up."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "shifty editor... trying to tricks us."

You say to the guild, "Why? Why didn't it use the UIDs of the items we want to use for our floor?"

You say to the guild, "Because we have no way of telling the layout editor WHICH items we want to use for our floor."

You say to the guild, "Well we do."

You say to the guild, "But it takes extra work."

Andala says to the guild, "because the editor uses the same item id since its the same item type?"

You say to the guild, "ItemID is something we told it."

You say to the guild, "When you use the tile area tool, the UIDs will ALWAYS start with 98001."

Andala says to the guild, "but it assigned them to all the tiles why? because we created an Object?"

Andala says to the guild, "something the editor now sees as one thing"

You say to the guild, "No. ItemID is always the same. ALWAYS."

You say to the guild, "Every single grassy square in existence has an ItemID of 692760726"

You say to the guild, "ALL of them."

You say to the guild, "That's how the game knows it's a grassy square."

You say to the guild, "ItemIDs are how the game says "grassy square.""

You say to the guild, "Remember, a game is all math."

You say to the guild, "All numbers."

You say to the guild, "And in computer-land, Grassy Square = 692760726"

You say to the guild, "Which is why all of the Grassy Squares have 692760726 in their ItemID column."

Andala says to the guild, "you'd think they'd all still have mac addresses of something.."

Andala says to the guild, "but I guess we can use what the editor gives us"

You say to the guild, "The editor is taking that number from the game."

You say to the guild, "In the game world, 692760726 = Grassy Square."

Andala says to the guild, "the id's it makes up, I mean"

You say to the guild, "Ahh."

You say to the guild, "Well, we're getting to the UIDs now."

You say to the guild, "So, we wanted to tile a floor."

You say to the guild, "We told it to tile a floor."

You say to the guild, "But the editor didn't have any tiles to tile with."

You say to the guild, "So it made up imaginary tiles."

You say to the guild, "And gave them imaginary UIDs."

You say to the guild, "Which.... actually works fine, if you don't care where the game gets the tiles from."

You say to the guild, "If I were to save the layout RIGHT NOW, and use it in-game..."

You say to the guild, "It would work."

You say to the guild, "In fact..."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "or if your tiles are the only ones of their type in the house."

You say to the guild, "everyone come stand by me."

You say to the guild, "On the tile."

You say to the guild, "and now I'll click the Working macro to load my layout with the imaginary tiles..."

Starting layout changes.

Loading house layout complete!

You say to the guild, "Huh"

You say to the guild, "I guess I only had 12 tiles, not 16."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "yup, some got cannabalized."

You say to the guild, "well, that ruins the explanation."

You say to the guild, "Pretend I had 16."

You say to the guild, "Hehe"

You say to the guild, "If I had had 16 tiles, there would probably still be some tiles left in that pile Gracey moved for me."

You say to the guild, "and it would have stolen some from my pretty (ugly) garden."

You say to the guild, "Because the game says, "Hey, you want me to put these items here? NO PROBLEM! Let me just grab any tile that has the right ItemID and stick it in the spot for you!""

Andala says to the guild, "how do you tile several room with the same tiles?"

You say to the guild, "That's where UIDs come in."

You say to the guild, "I want to tile the room. But I want to keep the game from stealing tiles from somewhere else."

You say to the guild, "So... what I am going to do, incredibly smart person that I am.... is put ALL of the tiles I want to use in a layout file using New From Diff."

You say to the guild, "It doesn't matter what their locations are. they can be messily stacked, neatly stacked, in another room..."

You say to the guild, "All that matters is that I have them IN a layout file, WITH their UIDs."

You say to the guild, "So to start, I'm going to stack my tiles again."

Starting layout changes.

Loading house layout complete!

You say to the guild, "And I moved one tile over to my pretty (ugly) garden, for demonstration..."

You say to the guild, "Now, I want to use these tiles here in the doorway."

You say to the guild, "So I'm going to save my With layout."

House layout save successful

You say to the guild, "I'm going to pack them alllllll into the moving crate."

House layout save successful

You say to the guild, "and I'm going to click my Without macro."

You say to the guild, "Then I'm going to go to my layout editor and hit New From Diff."

You say to the guild, "Then I'm going to save my Working file and load it, because I want to be able to see where my stuff goes."

Starting layout changes.

Loading house layout complete!

You say to the guild, "Now, I have a layout file with all of these tiles in it."

You say to the guild, "And I have my tiles sitting out here."

You say to the guild, "I'm going to go to the Tools > Create objects > Tile area."

You say to the guild, "And I'm going to just hit Create again, because the layout editor remembered all of my info from last time. EXCEPT! I'm going to cut down my tiles from 12 to 9."

You say to the guild, "Since I only have 12 tiles..."

You say to the guild, "So that means my Number of tiles X is now going to be 3 instead of 4."

You say to the guild, "then I hit create..."

You say to the guild, "And now I have a layout file with TWO sets of 9 tiles in it."

You say to the guild, "One set has REAL UIDs, but the wrong locations."

You say to the guild, "The other set, created by the edtior, has FAKE UIDs, but the RIGHT locations."

You say to the guild, "So.... I'm going to do something really fun."

You say to the guild, "I'm going to go to the first item at the wrong location but with the right UID."

You say to the guild, "And I'm going to copy it's UID."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "Ctrl X, C, and V are your friends. cut, copy, paste"

You say to the guild, "then I'm going to go to the first item at the right location with the wrong UID."

You say to the guild, "And I'm going to paste over that wrong UID."

You say to the guild, "Now suddenly, I have a single item with the right UID and the right location!"

You say to the guild, "But what about that other item, with the wrong location and right UID?"

You say to the guild, "I need to click the "crate" checkbox on that item."

Andala says to the guild, "help"

You say to the guild, "Hm?"

Andala says to the guild, "the first tiling we created...were those the bad locations or good ones?"

Andala says to the guild, "it looked like good location but wrong tiles"

You say to the guild, "Bad."

You say to the guild, "The first tiling we created had very very pretty UIDs. 98001, 98002, etc."

You say to the guild, "This is because the layout editor made up the ids."

You say to the guild, "real UIDs look something more like..."

Andala says to the guild, "I'm not understanding what you mean by bad and good locations then"

You say to the guild, "47663177"

You say to the guild, "Okay."

Andala says to the guild, "I understand the fake uids"

You say to the guild, "When I did a new from diff..."

You say to the guild, "I put all of these tiles in the crate."

You say to the guild, "And they have the UIDs I want."

You say to the guild, "But their location is RIGHT HERE."

You say to the guild, "And this doesn't let us tile the room."

You say to the guild, "When we used the layout editor to create a tiled room..."

You say to the guild, "it tiled them all."

You say to the guild, "But it gave them fake uids."

You say to the guild, "We want it to have the locations the layout editor told us is the right spot for our tiles."

You say to the guild, "But we also want it to have the UIDs we got from when they were stacked here."

You say to the guild, "So the GOOD location is the location that was created by the editor."

You say to the guild, "That means the good location is the one with the fake UID."

Andala says to the guild, "so we need the get the locations from the problem first tiling and match those with the second set of uids in your stack so those are moved to the locations from the first try"

You say to the guild, "And we want to put a real UID in the fake UIDs spot."

You say to the guild, "Perfect. yes."

Andala says to the guild, "so do we always have to do this twice to use the fake id for it to work?"

You say to the guild, "So we copy-paste the real UIDs over the fake UIDs. And we click the checkbox for the crate on each item that originally had the real UID."

You say to the guild, "For right now, yes. Jesdyr is working on a way so that we don't have to."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "you only need the generated tiling layout and the UIDs from the tiles you actually want to use."

You say to the guild, "But until he comes out with a new layout editor, we have to do it this way."

You say to the guild, "Let me fill it in real quick."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "i'm not understanding. do what twice?"

You say to the guild, "You have to have the items in the editor twice. Once are the items created by the editor."

You say to the guild, "Twice are the real items you get with new from diff."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "i just delete the lines i get the real UIDs from after i paste them into the lines i want them in. if you crate them, the layout is being told both to insert them into the tile layout and put them in the crate."

You say to the guild, "I'm not done yet ;)"

You say to the guild, "Although yes, you could just select the line and hit delete after you're done copying."

You say to the guild, "But I like to leave them in the file just in case I copied the wrong thing."

You say to the guild, "That's where the crate comes in."

You say to the guild, "I now have all of my original items from New From Diff crated."

You say to the guild, "And the items created by the layout editor now share UIDs with them."

You say to the guild, "I navigate up to the top of the window...."

Tockvisits says to the guild, "ah, you use the del crates button after you're done, huh. "

You say to the guild, "and hit "del crates""

You say to the guild, "Yep!"

Tockvisits says to the guild, "sneaky"

You say to the guild, "then I save the file."

You say to the guild, "And I load it."

Starting layout changes.

Loading house layout complete!

Andala says to the guild, "save the file as....? random name?"

You say to the guild, "Tadaaa! Now we have a grassy floor with no risk of stealing tiles from other places."

You say to the guild, "Save File as working."

You say to the guild, "Just like New From Diff."

Housing Scavenger Hunt 2014 FAQ

Updated 08 April, 2014

Q: May I submit more than one home to the HSH?
A: Not this time around. Last time we had 50 people and over 75 homes in the hunt. We'd like to cap it at 60 people and 60 homes this year. So pick your favorite home and submit it!


Q: Last time, you allowed guild halls in the HSH. Will you allow them this year?
A: That depends on how many submissions we receive. The more homes we receive, the less likely it is that we'll accept guild halls as submissions. You're welcome to request that we include it, but we may decide not to. Currently, it's looking like guild halls will be included.


Q: Do I have to build a new home, or can I use an existing home?
A: You can do either! You have a couple of weeks if you want to build a new one, or you can use one that exists already. It's entirely up to you.


Q: Does my home have to have a specific theme?
A: It does not. Pick your favorite home. It can be anything from a single-person cottage, to a bar, to a castle, to an island of snowglobes... whatever you feel your best work is!


Q: Can I submit a home that I decorated, but that doesn't belong to me?
A: You can, but only if the homeowner doesn't mind. The HSH lasts for a month (to give people the time to figure out riddles and run through the various homes), so the homeowner needs to be willing to allow visitors for that amount of time. Additionally, as you can only submit one home, whether it belongs to you or not, you may prefer to encourage the homeowner to submit the home, and you can then submit one of your own.


Q: By what date do I need to submit my home?
A: Please have all home submissions in by Sunday, April 20th.


Q: If I submit a home, am I still allowed to participate in the scavenger hunt?
A: Yes you are! As long as you promise not to start the scavenger hunt until the hunt begins.


Q: When is the Hunt happening?
A: We're looking at early May. We need time to organize it. I organized it in two weeks last time, and I was practically in tears by the time it was all over. Never again!


Q: Can I submit a home that’s already on the Leaderboards?
A: Yes, but please keep in mind that you will have to pull your house down off the leaderboards in order to place the clue.


Q: Do I have to put my home up on the Leaderboards?
A: It’s preferred! For one, it allows goodies easy access into Neriak. For another, it allows people to vote on your home, to show their appreciation for what you've done!


Q: I’m from another server and I want to rebuild my home on AB. How does it work?
A: Post in this thread, and create a character on Antonia Bayle. We’ll get you in contact with a carpenter who can help you reproduce your item list. You'll need to save a layout of your home so that you can create a manifest of what you’ll need, and so that you can load it once you’re on Antonia Bayle. Please make sure your home doesn't include SC items (unless you’re willing to buy them yourself for your AB home) or too many rare/quested items. Remember, people on AB are going to have to help you obtain your items, so try to make it as easy as possible!


Q: I’m from another server. Can I just build a brand new home on AB?
A: Of course! Feel free to build a completely new home. You have a couple of months! Members both of Homes and Tomes and the larger Antonia Bayle community are just waiting to help you get started with gathering items.


Q: I’m from another server and don’t have any character slots, but I’d like to participate. What should I do?
A: Create a new account, and create a character on AB with that, of course! You can also buy a character slot on the Marketplace and use that. But the new account is free, and the character slot is $10.


Q: The other HSH had a theme--Helping an Erudite Find Her Voice. What's this year's theme?
A: Shhh! It's a secret! (That means we haven't actually figured that out yet...)


Q: Do I have to write the clue?
A: No, that's my job. All you have to do is describe to me where you want the clue to go, and to make sure that I have trustee on the house so that I can place the clue where it will go.


Q: How do I prepare my house for your clue?
A: Leave your house as it is! Just be sure to give me (Jazabelle) trustee to your home, so that the clue can be placed when the time is right.


Q: Where should the clue go?
A: My advice is to pick your favorite spot in the house, and have the clue go there. That way, that spot in your house is sure to receive traffic.


Q: How will you give out prizes?
A: Once a week, prizes will go out to those who have completed the hunt. Prizes will be assigned via a random number generator, and there will be a large assortment of prizes. Your prize will be a surprise!


Q: I want to donate some prizes. What do I do?
A: Send a message to Jazabelle, either via the SOE message boards, in-game mail, or an in-game tell. Include what sorts of items you'd be interested in donating. From there, you'll receive instructions on how to donate items. Please offer only rare or hard to obtain items. No regular Mastercrafted house items, etc!


Q: What happens if I donate a prize and no one receives it?
A: If you donate a prize and it isn't used as a reward, one of two things will happen. Either you'll be sent the prize back, or the prize will be saved and used as a prize for future events run by Homes and Tomes.


Q: So what are the prizes this year?
A: We're still receiving prizes, and will be right up until the event starts. If you want to see what the prize list looks like, you're welcome to click here.

Planning the Housing Scavenger Hunt 2014

Back in February 2011, before the Housing Leaderboards existed, I ran a “Housing Scavenger Hunt” (HSH). For the most part, it was simply an excuse for people to tour homes while following a player run quest by answering riddles.

In a few months, the HSH will be happening again. I've learned a lot from the prior event, and this time, there will be some differences. Homes and Tomes will be hosting this event.

However, for this event to be successful, we will need people to submit their homes. Because Homes and Tomes is on Antonia Bayle, the HSH will take place on Antonia Bayle. But that doesn't stop other servers from participating!

If you are ON Antonia Bayle and you would like to:

• Help people from other servers replicate their homes on AB, please post in this thread.
• Submit a home for the scavenger hunt, please post in this thread. Do not post the character name nor the home address. After posting in this thread, please PM Jazabelle with the name of the character who owns the home and the address of the home, as well as where in the home you would like the clue to be. If you don’t know yet, that’s fine!
• Donate prizes, post here, along with what sorts of prizes you have available for donation.
• Participate in competing in the scavenger hunt--hang tight! It won’t be happening for a few months. This is all planning right now.

If you are NOT on Antonia Bayle and you would like to:

• Submit a home for the scavenger hunt, please post here. We will get you in contact with someone who can help you fulfill your manifest of items for you home.
• Participate in competing in the scavenger hunt--hang tight! It won’t be happening for a few months. This is all planning right now. However, if you want to make a character on AB early, feel free. You’ll need one in order to do the HSH.

If you’re interested in seeing what the prior Housing Scavenger Hunt was like, please click here.



FAQ

Please click here for the FAQ.

How To: Commission a Decorator

The following post is also sold on the broker on Antonia Bayle in a book (as long as I remember to keep it stocked).

---

To begin with, please remember that your decorator is a player, just like you. While decorators enjoy decorating, often to the exclusion of all other aspects of the game, that does not mean they are a second-class gamer.

Please also remember that you are hiring someone in a GAME, and real life may come up to bite your decorator in the rear. Try to be understanding.

If you approach a decorator right before or during an in-game holiday or event (check the in-game calendar for holiday dates), you’re unlikely to be able to hire them. Most decorators spend the holidays stocking up on furniture and materials.

1. DETERMINE THE SCOPE

Before you approach your decorator, determine the scope of what you want done. Do you just want one room? A section of a room? Half a house? An entire house?

Which house do you want decorated?

How elaborately do you want it decorated? Do you just want furniture in the existing house? Do you want the walls of the house “skinned” (covered over with tiles, dividers, or other items to create false walls directly in front of the existing walls, so that you can have the walls look different from how they currently look)? Or do you want an entire house built from scratch?

If you want a house built from scratch out of building blocks, how big of a house do you want? Small? Medium? Large? A castle?

Are you having a home built? A bar? An orphanage? A medical center? Be sure you know what the theme of the home you’re commissioning is before you approach your decorator.

2. PAYMENT

You don’t have to know an exact amount you want to pay your decorator. You and the decorator can come to an agreement. But you should still have an idea of your maximum price you’re willing to pay. Your decorator will know the minimum price they’re willing to decorate for, and the two of you can haggle from there.

Remember that the price you pay will depend on how large a project you want, as well as how experienced the decorator is. As a rule of thumb, the more experienced a decorator, the pricier their minimum price will be. This makes sense--they’re a desired commodity. You aren’t the only one who wants to hire them, and so their price will be high enough to make decorating your home worth their while.

If you aren’t sure what a good maximum price would be, think about how much you can make in an hour of gameplay. Then think about the fact that the average home takes at least a week of gameplay, if not more. (A smaller house will, of course, take less time. And a larger house will take longer.)

Also consider whether you’re comfortable paying everything up front, or whether you’d prefer to pay half at the start and half at the end. Make sure your decorator addresses WHEN you are to pay them. Keep in mind that in addition to your fee, most decorators request that you also cover fuel costs for any items they have to make, or commission costs for any furniture they have to commission. Find out beforehand whether you’re expected to cover these costs, or whether the decorator will take it out of their fee.

Never, ever, EVER insist that the decorator is to receive the payment after they’ve decorated. Too many decorators have been burned by people refusing to pay after they’ve done the work, or claiming “It isn’t quite what I wanted,” and then refusing to pay the agreed upon amount.

If a home isn’t quite what you wanted, TALK TO THE DECORATOR and see if they can make it closer to what your vision is.

3. HIRING YOUR DECORATOR

There are a multitude of ways to choose a decorator. You can visit homes on the Leaderboards, find a style you like, and go about contacting the homeowner to find out who decorated their home. From there, you can contact the decorator directly (assuming they still play).

You can browse the Homeshow forums (http://bit.ly/eq2homeshow) for decorating styles you like, and send a Private Message to the decorators there.

You can post in the Homeshow forums or in the Homeshow channel (/join Homeshow if you're on Antonia Bayle, or /join Antonia_Bayle.Homeshow if you're on another server, barring Nagafen), requesting the services of a decorator, and laying out the scope of your project. I don’t advise this route, as very few decorators are willing to step up unless you’re offering a large chunk of platinum. It’s much harder for decorators to say no when you approach them directly, especially when you’re praising a home they’ve already built.

Much better are the first two options--talking directly to the decorator of your choice via in-game or the message boards. This has the added benefit of ensuring that you like the decorator’s style of decorating.

4. TALK TO THE DECORATOR

Your decorator may have ground rules when decorating. Some decorators don’t like having housepets out while they work. Others insist that the homeowner not touch ANYTHING until they’re done. Still others don’t mind you adding items, as long as you’re willing to allow the decorator to move them around.

Talk to your decorator. Converse with them to find out what they find acceptable and not. Yes, it’s your home, but why make it difficult for the decorator? While you’re paying them, they’re still taking THEIR playtime to do something for YOU. So treat them with courtesy, and try to create the appropriate decorating environment for them. If you want to add things after they’re done, that’s your prerogative; it’s your home. But while the decorator is decorating, it’s THEIR home.

Try not to offer too much advice, or too many opinions, either. Yes, it’s your home, but if you’re constantly telling your decorator how they should decorate, you might as well decorate the home yourself. A request here and there doesn’t bother decorators. When every little thing has to be changed, it does.

5. DO A WALKTHROUGH

Walk through your house or zone with your decorator, and discuss with them what you want each room to be, and any ideas you have for how each room should be decorated.

If you’re having the decorator build an entire house from scratch, still map out ideas.

It’s always helpful if you have pictures of things you want the house to look like. Do a Google search, and come up with some images that are similar to what you want, so that you can direct your decorator to them. This will allow them to have a clear picture of what you’re interested in having your home (or whatever you’re having the zone decorated as) look like.

6. GET IT IN WRITING

Whatever you decide, get it in writing. Have the decorator create a player written book with all of the details you discussed, including:

• Pricing
• Estimated decorating time
• Whether you’re paying before or half before, half after
• Whether you’re covering the fuel cost separate from the fee
• What you want the zone to look like
• If you’ve already paid for the work, make sure the decorator includes that you’ve PAID IN FULL on the house.

Have the decorator give you a copy, and have them keep a copy. That way both of you will have everything you need to know right in front of you.

How To: Take Housing Commissions

Original post up at the Homes and Tomes Information Desk.

This information is for sale in a book on the broker on Antonia Bayle (as long as I remember to keep it stocked).

---

Always remember when accepting a commission that YOU are building a home for SOMEONE ELSE.

That means that what you build may not match their vision of what they want, and they may ask you to change aspects of what you have already built. DO NOT BE OFFENDED BY THIS. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and while what you built may be wonderful, it may not be what the homeowner wants.

But also remember that you are just as much of a player and are equal in status to the individual who is commissioning you. The fact that you are working for them does not make you inferior to them in any way. Do not feel guilty if you need to take breaks from the commission to do other things in the game. Just because you have accepted a commission does not mean that all of your time must be spent working on the commission.

On the flip side, always be polite to your homeowner. A big part of receiving future commissions is the reputation you build. A decorator who is a pleasure to work with is more likely to receive commissions than one who is a prima donna, no matter what their decorating skill level.


1. FIND OUT THE SCOPE
The very first thing you should do when someone approaches you about a commission is to find out the scope of the project.

Does the homeowner want just a room built? Just a feature in a room? An entire home decorated? An entire home built from scratch?

Knowing the scope of the project will help you to determine how much you should charge the homeowner for your work.


2. AGREE ON A PRICE
After you have found out the scope of the project, you should agree on a price and payment plan for your work with the homeowner.

Are you including the fuel cost in your fee, or is the fuel cost an additional fee that they must cover? This is something you should think of before you discuss payment with the homeowner, and that you should tell them up front.

Will you be charging them per room you build? Or will you charge them a flat rate based on the estimated amount of time you think it will take you?

Are you charging them in Krono? Station Marketplace items? Platinum? A combination?

Is the homeowner expected to pay you everything up front? Or will you accept half now, half at completion?

No matter what payment option you go with, it is suggested that you bank the payment until after the completion of the home. If for some reason you must end the commission early, before you have completed the scope of the project, this will allow you to refund the homeowner.

If you have done some decorating, but not all, you are within your rights to retain some of the payment. You have done work, after all.


3. INFORM THE HOMEOWNER
Often, we as decorators find ourselves busy during the 1st through the 7th of each month, as well as the 20th and 21st. We put our projects on hold in order to stock up on City Festival and Moonlight Enchantments items. If a holiday makes an appearance, we may be even busier collecting the once-a-year items holidays offer. MAKE SURE YOUR HOMEOWNER KNOWS THIS BEFOREHAND.

It may be necessary to remind them that you are a player in addition to being a decorator, and that you will be stocking up on items during those times of the month, so that they do not look at their home and wonder why it has been a week since any work has been done.

If for some reason you are unable to work on a project for an extended period of time, communicate with the homeowner and let them know what is going on. Even if it is something as simple as, “I have been having a hard time on your project and will be taking a weeklong break to work on other things and clear my head. The project will resume in a week’s time.”

Do you have problems with other people changing things as you are building? Let the homeowner know in advance. It is often a good idea to inform them of things such as, “I understand that this is your home, and you may wish to make changes or add details. Please refrain from doing so until I am finished with your project.”


4. DO A WALKTHROUGH
There are two walkthroughs you should do before you start on any project.

The first walkthrough is a tour of your own work, if the homeowner has not seen any of it yet. This will ensure that the homeowner likes your style before agreeing to the project. There is nothing worse than agreeing to a project, beginning to build to the homeowner’s specifications, and then for them to say, “I am sorry, but your style does not suit what I am looking for.”

The second walkthrough is of the house zone you are planning on building in. The homeowner should give you a tour of the zone, noting any specific ideas for the home that they have. TAKE COPIOUS NOTES! Forgetting an important feature that the client requested is always a pain!


5. GET IT IN WRITING
It is always a good idea to create a player written notebook with the scope of the project, the price you are charging, the payment plan the homeowner will be using, any details about the project that the homeowner has given you, and any information you wish the homeowner to remember.

Make two copies. Keep one copy for your own records. Give the second copy to the homeowner. This will allow them to reference your information easily, and will act as a reminder that you are a player with your own game to play (as long as you include that reminder in the book you give them).



IF YOU FOLLOW THESE FIVE STEPS, YOU SHOULD HAVE VERY FEW PROBLEMS WITH YOUR COMMISSIONS.

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EXAMPLE NOTEBOOK

Jazabelle's project for Jadirah

SCOPE
A copy of the Qeynosian Riverfront Property (created by Jazabelle), modified to fit on a Tenebrous Island Refuge. A shed for tinkering will be added on, and the entire island will be landscaped.

PRICE
3000 platinum for the Qeynosian Riverfront Property.
1000 platinum for the landscaping and shed.
Fuel costs included in the prices.
Total: 4000 platinum
HALF PAID UP FRONT. Other half to be paid upon completion of the project.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
I will be busy on the 1-7 and 20-21 of each month. If any holidays occur during the time I am working on your home, I will be taking time to do the holiday quests for furniture and the like.

I will not be able to work on your home 100% of the time I am online. I too have a game to play, and while I love decorating, sometimes I feel the need to do other things.

I understand that your home is an extension of you in game, and I will do my utmost to complete it in a timely manner.

It is likely it will take me anywhere from a week to several months to complete your project. I apologize about the time, however, as we discussed, I am not able to play as often as I would like. This impacts how quickly your home will be built.

If for any reason I find myself unable to work on your home for an extended period of time, I will do my utmost to give you warning in advance.

As we discussed, I prefer not to have anyone else working on a project when I am. You are welcome to make any changes or additions to the home once I have completed the project. Until then, please refrain from adding or changing anything without first discussing it with me.

DETAILS WE DISCUSSED
The kitchen should have two large ovens, an old fashioned stove, and pan racks. This is the kitchen of someone who /loves/ to cook.

The shed should be a tinkerer's dream. It needs to be sturdy. It also needs to be /messy/. This is a tinkerer who constantly wanders off in the middle of projects to work on other projects.

There should be some sort of support structure at the edge of the island, for someone to hang over the side.

Cogworts 2013 Judging

In a fit of over-achievement (kind of like the gnomes in question), the Homes and Tomes Judges decided to judge the dorm rooms of the Cogworts School of Tinkering and Mechanomagic Builds a Better Mousetrap Contest several days early!

Eureeka’s Dorm Room (Antonia Bayle, Small Homes)

“The creativity was great. The computer and microwave really caught my eye and the rat traps were wonderful as well.” - Judge 1

“Well thought out and executed. Traps were highly complex and very Gnomelike! Very elaborate designs on the traps. Job well done!” - Judge 2

“This is an exceptional entry into the Cogworts 2013 competition. The documentation was well-written and humorous, describing each of the working parts of the machine and exceeded the requirement. The dorm room had a very pleasing layout, including a kitchen, well-appointed bathroom and even futon rails. The documentation was easy to find and had a continuous ether theme throughout. I liked the thesis tying it all together and the diary was very, very good. There was a lot of attention to detail in all aspects of the dorm room. Each of the machines seemed to be very plausible for working in Norrath, especially after reading the notebooks.” - Judge 3

“A very well put together dorm. Strong use of a consistent theme (ether energy), and an impressive assortment of contraptions. Each device is unique, utilizing an array of mechanical, electrical, and elemental forces to trap the pesky vermin. The devices also preserve said vermin (more or less) without any messy cleanup. The addition of a thesis paper concerning the ether energy system was icing on the cake.” - Judge 4

Gnonny’s Dorm Room (Antonia Bayle, Small Homes)

“Enjoyed the magazine ordered dorm pieces, very creative in that aspect. Journal kept was funny to read and kept in line with the project. Great use of space, considering item count and what needed to be done.” - Judge 1

“Loved loved loved the candy monster! Though I’d have to say that it would be non lethal, as it would be eaten before it could do anything :)” - Judge 2

“The layout of the dorm room was very pleasing. The living area had all the amenities. I liked the loft bed with the desk underneath and the bathroom was interesting. The windows with a view was also a nice touch. The overall theme was Better Homes and Sprockets which tied it all together. The notebooks were thorough and fun to read. I found the mousetraps to be very plausible in Norrath. I would like to have seen more working parts and more steps in the documentation, but it was very well done. Congratulations on your thoughtful interpretation of a gnome dorm room.” - Judge 3

“Very creative dorm! Each trap is distinct and unlike the last, with very creative ways of dealing with the rodent. From drowning, to electrocuting, to shredding, to being chased by a giant freakin’ candy robot, this dorm has it all. I liked that the additional two devices shared a theme, and that they’re both initialized by triggers beside the bed. Those gnomes sure do love their creature comforts.” - Judge 4

Nikoll’s Dorm Room (Antonia Bayle, Small Homes)

“Most of the rat traps were very complex builds and very cool to look at.” - Judge 1

“Wanted to give points for DOMINO, but did not see a full steps guide. Otherwise, it was a very well thought out Gnome workshop.” - Judge 2

“The gnome completed the steps for each mousetrap. There were tinkered creations here and there! All of the mousetraps could plausibly be used to catch mice in Norrath. I only wish I could be as good as the contestants.” - Judge 3

“The coffee grinder/brewer is a fantastically detailed piece of equipment, and looks the part too. Small details like the spinning cog as part of the door controls are a nice touch. The traps are particularly evil in this dorm. Launching the rat into a spiky wall, or burning it alive, these traps don’t fail to deliver.” - Judge 4

PRIZES

Judging was very close on this contest. Because the rest of our contestants were eaten by the rats they were attempting to trap, or were blown up by their creations, we’ve decided to offer the following prizes:

EUREEKA wins the GRAND PRIZE of a fully decorated home designed and decorated by the members of Homes and Tomes.

GNONNY and NIKOLL each win a Tinkerer’s Bedroom Essentials AND a Tinkerer’s Shop Essentials, to be gifted to the character of their choice!

Unfortunately, the sheer detail these gnomes put forth explaining their machines precludes a single tome holding the contents of their work. However, once their dorm rooms reach the Hall of Fame, the dorm rooms will be taken down briefly so that each gnome may pop on in and copy the books for themselves. When the dorm rooms enter the Hall of Fame again, the second trophy shall be placed in the home of the gnome’s choice.

The Chapel Maze to Anashti Sul 2013

Somewhere hidden amongst Freeport's streets
A temple to the Forgotten sleeps.
Every Nights of the Dead it awakes,
Mortal life it forever forsakes.
If for prizes death you would cheat,
Proceed to Jazabelle's to partake!


When: October 14 - November 22, 2013

Where: Jazabelle's Lavastorm home in Freeport on the Antonia Bayle server. Alternatively, you may visit The Chapel to Anashti Sul on the Leaderboards, under Massive homes.

Why?: Because Nights of the Dead is awesome, but sometimes you need to take a break from grinding for the house items! So instead you can run a maze and answer a riddle for prizes (I know, I know, not that different...).

Prizes?: Yep! Prizes will be awarded on the 23rd of November. Details can be found in the book inside the chapel.

Other servers offering prizes:
Possibly! It depends on whether other people are willing to hand out prizes on other servers.

Other NotD fun:
The MazeMansion from 2011 is open again, and offering prizes to anyone who completes it!

The Peaceful Crypt from 2012 is open again and offering prizes to anyone who completes it!

This year's maze is The Restless Crypt.

Yes, the Restless Crypt does look rather similar to the Peaceful Crypt. However, the route to run and the riddle at the end are quite different. Happy mazerunning!
You are welcome to run whichever of the three mazes you wish, but if you have run mazes in prior years, be warned that you will only receive token prizes for running a maze you have already run. You will receive a full prize for running a maze you have not yet run.

(For those interested in seeing a photo album of the construction of the zones, click here. Don't worry, there are no spoilers.)


Riddlemasters:

1. Kiosha
2. Tiercen
3. Senya
4. Lealani
5. Malicce