Housing (Revised)

What You Need to Know
   Lets just get this out of the way. People are going to want to get into your house. No matter what else you read in this section, that must be remembered at all times. Houses hold loot and people want loot - your loot.

When you place a house, there are several things you have to consider. Where to place it, security, having a roommate, and so on. I'll touch on all of those starting with THE most important.
Security
   Since nearly anyone who has the chance to loot a house does, it is up to you to watchout for yourself. Remember that there is NO SUCH THING as a completely secure house. There are people who just live to sit around and find ways to break into people's houses.

Keys. They are so important I can't stress protecting them enough. With the housing patch, keys may became less important because you can change your locks. However, if you are foolish enough to have a key and rune on you when you die, I guarantee that whoever loots you will beat you to your house before you can change the locks :

  • Keep your key and rune to your house in the bank AT ALL TIMES
  • Tracking - this should be a ritual when entering/leaving your house. You can find hidden people camping outside your house with tracking. If you see anyone on your tracking list and don't know where they are, don't enter your house. Come back without the key to investigate.
  • When you leave your house, always recall to the bank to put your key away. Don't ever think "it'll only take a second" because it's not worth risking your house over. Going to the bank only takes a second.
  • Make a macro for "Last Object" in UO. When you open your door - go in your house and hit that macro. Your door will be the last thing you double clicked on so it will slam behind you without you having to click on it. This is the quickest way to open/close a door and it'll help with people trying to rush your door to barge in.
  • Stealth is a scary skill for house owners. Someone can walk right in behind you into your house. Don't leave your door open a second longer than you have to and use Detect Hidden after the door is closed. Detect works everytime for owners (and soon friends) and you get no skill gain.
  • Banning is your friend. If you're home when someone's in your house, just Detect, attack (so they cannot rehide) and "I ban thee". Simple.
  • You can get into your house without a key if you're the owner. Make the house a public house and the doors unlock. Walk inside, change it back to private and lock the doors with a key you have in a secure chest inside.

I don't do all of those, but if you do all of these things, you will probably NEVER lose keys or have your door rushed. Here are two more steps you can take if you want to be even safer:
Placement
   Placing a house is critical. If you put it in a high traffic area, expect more people to be around your house. BTW, more people around your house is BAD. The old real estate addage is correct : The three most important thing in real estate is location, location, location. Find a good, remote spot for your house.

Good spots are swamps (low spawn), peninsulas, and areas not on a direct line from one town to another. Obviously, all the good spots (if not ALL the spots) are taken at this point, but if you have a choice to buy a placed house - remember what's important.

When you place a house, one master key goes into your bank and one into your pack. The door(s) begin unlocked, so lock them before you leave. I personally don't use master keys - I make a copy for each character and leave the masters in the bank of the creating character for reselling later.
Roommates
   If you have a roommate, you no longer control the security of the house for several reasons. Your roommate may bring a friend over who likes your stuff, he may die with a rune or key (or God help you - BOTH) on him, or who knows what. There's nothing more scary than logging in and getting an ICQ from 12 hours ago saying "SOMEONE'S IN THE HOUSE - ARE YOU ON?!!?" Nothing gets the heart pumping quicker.

I generally hang out with relatively intelligent people. I trust my friends, but I've gotten burned for it. I've had three RL friends cost me a total of four houses - small house, 2 story, a tower and a castle. All because they died with a key (and once a rune) on them.

I'm not trying to scare you away from roommates, but be aware that if your friend makes a mistake - you both pay the price. Trust me, I know.
Tips for PKs
   This is what I do and I think I've explored just about every way of PKing and owning a house. This is the most effective short of having someone waiting at your house to let you in.

I hunt with some friends. Each of us have our own house and a mutual "meeting house". Everyone has runes to the house, but only the owner has a key (in the bank for accessing at Bucs Den).

I know this is a housing section, but here's a quick tip for PKs and Bucs Den:

  • Recall at least 1 1/2 screens away from the bank
  • When you get within a 5-10 second run of the bank, cast recall and have it prepped
  • People who camp at the Buc's Den bank are equivolent to the grey healer campers of last summer. They are scum, hang out in huge numbers to fuck up a red character when he's alone. They are pussies.
  • Don't say something cool to the campers before recalling unless you're 100% SURE that your recall spell has not timed out. The one time you're wrong, you're paralysed, surrounded and dead. It's really not a time to fuck around.
Anyhow, back to dropping off loot. When we need to drop off loot or escape we all recall (5+ screens away) to the meeting house. We all dump our loot into separate piles and go back out. After the night is over, everyone collects their keys and recalls/gates their loot to their personal houses.

Your keys to your main houses remain safe in the meeting house in a secure chest, but since the loot is only there while you're raiding it's not like you're sharing a house or putting risk to your own home.
After Thoughts
   The reason to go through all these precautions (espeically as a PK) is because dying sucks. But what's worse than dying is you seeing someone loot your corspe and say to his friend "a key and a rune! Lets go!".

Protect your house at all costs. ICQ everyone on your list if someone is in your house - ask for help. If I even remotely know someone, I'll come help them defend their house. If you have a lot of shit, there's probably going to be a big war because looters will call for backup too.

All that can be avoided if you just don't take ANY chances with your house, rune or key.