Owning Homes
Each player account is entitled to one home. Your home will require maintenance on a regular basis. The maintenance costs will be deducted from your bank account as gold everytime your refresh your home from anything other than a "Like New" phase. The amount of gold required is determined by two factors. The size of your home and the length of time since it was last refreshed. All homes also decay beyond repair in a thirty day cycle. Should you not have gold in your bank account to cover the maintenance costs, your home will not refresh.

Home owners may purchase a Moving Chest deed from the Realtor npc. Dbl-click this deed while standing in your own home and you can summon a Moving Chest. It is secure and acts just like your bankbox accept that you may only access it in a home that you own by speaking the command, "[summoncrate". To close the chest, speak the command, "[dismisscrate". It can hold an unlimited amount of items and an unlimited weight. It will only last for two days so it is important that you empty it out in a timely manner. Typically, the Moving Crate will be used for moving your home as such; dbl-click the deed while in your home. Pack it up with all of your belongings and then dismiss it. Tear down your home and raise your new home. Step inside your new home and summon the crate. Take out all your belongings and put them into your new home.

Renting Homes
In UOE players may play either role in the rental process, Landlord or Tenant. Additionally, both player homes (or sections of player homes) and formerly static buildings may be rented out so long as Tenants agree to and sign the Rental Contract written by the Landlord. Both forms of rent generate real revenue for the Landlord and cost for the Tenant. Renting may prove to be a viable option for those players who either cannot afford the up-front cost for a larger home or if a player wants an otherwise unavailable location (such as a stake in a vendor mall with good foot traffic). Gold is collected and delivered via bank accounts by the system automatically. Should a Tenant not have enough gold in their account to cover the cost of the next renting cycle, they will be evicted automatically.

In the case of a player who wishes to assume the role of Landlord, purchase a Rental License from the Realtor in Homestead. Then simply say "create rental contract" while standing in a home that you own. Follow the gump prompts once you dbl-click the contract placed in your backpack to establish the terms of the contract. You may specify the square footage, the number of stories, the rent collection period, and the rent amount in gold per period. Then simply have another player sign your contract. It's that simple!

The following commands are usable in this system:

  • "create rental contract": If allowed, players can use this spoken command in their home to begin the setup for renting portions of their home.
  • "check house rent": Players can check to see how long before their rental cycle expires by speaking these words while in their home. At the end of the cycle, if the rent is reocurring, the bank will attempt to take gold automatically. If not reocurring, the bank will pack up the player's belongings and put the home back up for rent.
  • "check storage": While usable by all home owners, this command is especially useful for renters. It will detail how many lockdowns and secures are used by their rental property, and include those figures in how much storage they have available.

Player Cities
Most homes in UOE are rather expensive to purchase. The smallest are still reasonably priced so that everyone who wants to be a homeowner ought to be able to afford it. However, if you wish to live in luxury or better yet, build a Player City, you will need to work for it!

Player communities are a concept that most MMORPGs neglect to support. Some of those that do, require huge amounts of daily upkeep to maintain. Some of these even allow for the risk of almost anyone destroying your work, and countless gaming hours. Other games allow for player housing or Guild Halls but nothing practical can be done with them. They serve no real function. Worse yet, there are some MMORPGs that do not even allow for player housing or communities. As noted in other sections, UOE allows for both the casual and the hardcore gamer to feel satisified with the results of their level of playtime. Even the most casual player will quickly be able to afford a small home and with such, can become a productive member of a thriving Player City, reaping its benefits. While the hardcore gamer can of course negotiate a handsome stipend or income with City leaders (or even become the City Mayor) for the addition of his/her large home.

The UOE staff are firm advocates of rewarding gameplay that adds to the overall improvement of our world as a whole. Establishing and maintaining player communities that do the above will be considered for subjective rewards from staff known in some gaming venues as "blessings". Building an arena and hosting regular PvP tournaments, keeping well stocked vendors in your City, hosting roleplayed events, or just finding a way to establish a lot of consistent foot traffic in your City, are all means by which a community can enhance the gameplay of the playerbase as a whole. There is also a system of objective measurement in place that will reward player communities.

A Player City is loosely reserved for any group of homes that satisfy the following criteria:

  • All homes are basically within screenshot of each other (approximately 13-15 tiles).
  • All homes have nothing but the City Name on their front sign. This MUST match exactly the name on the City Stone if you wish to take advantage of the City Census system bonuses!
  • The Mayor of the City is Friended to each home.

For the sake of Player City recognition, all homes in UOE are grouped into size categories. The number and size of homes that are part of the City determine what rewards the City is entitled to. Homes in a city are attributed City Token values according to size. Each home, regardless of size, is attributed one City Counter.

  • Small(1Tv) - Small Brick, Marble Workshop, Stone Workshop, Wood, Thatched Roof Cottage, Wood & Plaster, Stone & Plaster, Field Stone.
  • Medium(5Tv) - Small Tower, Sandstone.
  • Large(20Tv) - Villa, Large Marble, Large Patio, Two-story Wood and Plaster(L-shaped), Large Brick, Log Cabin.
  • Huge(50Tv) - Keep, Large Tower.
  • Municipal(100Tv) - Castle.

Player Cities are rewarded with Facilities based upon the number and size of the homes included in the Census as noted below.

  • Decorative ( 3 Counters and 3Tv ) - Streetlamps, roads/paths, a Town Stone with your City name, and the like will be placed.
  • Apothecary ( 4 Counters and 8Tv ) - An Apothecary Woodpile will be placed inside the structure from which a City Healer can be spawned, provided the Woodpile has the necessary charges(see Guard House). This Healer will resurrect players for a small fee. The Mayor's Guildmembers and Allies will be charged less than everyone else. Additionally, Rings of Returning can be purchased at a much reduced price simply by dbl-clicking on the npc. This Healer will only sign a short-term contract. Usually about a day or so. Thus, he must be spawned regularly.
  • Stables ( 5 Counters and 13Tv ) - Stables will be placed with an npc vendor who shall share a percentage of his gross income with your Mayor to distribute as he/she sees fit.
  • Guard House ( 6 Counters and 29Tv ) - A Guard House will be placed within your City. Inside it will have a store of wooden planks for maintaining the structure. This pile of wood planks can be "charged" by dbl-clicking wood "boards"(from a Carpenter) and targeting the wood pile. As long as a wood pile has ample charges, a Warlord or Guildmaster of the Guild that owns the Guard House can commission mounted Guards to protect your city from Red characters. The Guards do not insta-kill but rather fight much like any other npc. You will commission 1 Guard for every 100 charges on the wood pile to a maximum of 10 Guards. Guards may only be commissioned once per 24 real-world hours. Anyone may add boards to the wood pile store up to the maximum 1,000 boards at any time.
  • Gate System ( 8 Counters and 46Tv ) - A Moongate will be placed within your City limits with connections to a large network of locales to facilitate consumer traffic. This facility will share revenue with the City Mayor. It will charge the Mayor's Guildmembers and Allies less than the general public.
  • Market ( 10 Counters and 75Tv ) - NPC Vendor(s) will be placed for popular sale items (ie. reagents) with a percentage of gross income going to the Mayor.
  • Money Changer ( 12 Counters and 99Tv ) - A Money Changer will be placed complete with a Banker who shares with the Mayor a percentage of gross income generated from account access fees.
  • Guarded Bank ( 12 Counters and 156Tv ) - A true Bank will replace the Money Changer. It will be designated a Guarded region with insta-kill of Reds and Criminals.
  • Municipality Status ( 15 Counters and 307Tv ) - A Municipality where all citizen homes will become customizable. Additionally, a Guillotine will be placed in a town square. The Guildmaster and Warlords of the Guild that the Mayor belongs to, as well as the Mayor himself, will be able to use this item during daylight hours by dbl-clicking it. They then can target any Red/Murderer character in the area for immediate execution. This facility must be refreshed much like all other City facilities.

City Mayor
Every City must have one and only one Mayor. The citizens must decide in their own way who will be elected as Mayor and have that player contact a High Council member to receive reward facilities as the city grows. The Mayor is also the character that will have access to all of the facility income taxes.

Mayoral Deeds
Any player that wants to become a Mayor will purchase one Municipal Charter from a Banker NPC. This voucher must be presented to a High Council member to obtain a permanent Mayoral Deed. The deed is a Blessed item that the Mayor should never lose track of as it serves several functions. Most facilities have an item or npc that the Mayor can interact with to collect gold and/or cause an event such as spawning City Guards. These items and npcs decay over a 10 day period unless refreshed by the Mayor.

Refreshing Facilities
If the Mayor dbl-clicks without the Mayoral Deed in his/her backpack, he will attempt to bank the gold revenue being stored at the facility. If the Mayor dbl-clicks the facility item/npc while his/her Deed is in his/her backpack, he will attempt to Refresh it. Facilities decay within a 10 real-day cycle so it is wise to refresh facilites weekly at a minimum. If you are having a problem refreshing your facilites, use these tips for Census troubleshooting:

  • The House Sign of every home in your Census reads exactly the same way as the City Name as noted on your City Stone.
  • Make sure you have the Mayoral Deed in your Backpack during the Census taking process.
  • Verify from the website that you have the required Counter and Tv for the facility you are trying to refresh.
  • That you have completed the process within the 10 minute window. If you are not sure, let 10 minutes pass by and the system will reset. Then start again new.

City Census System
Each Player Home that belongs to the City is worth a set Counter and Token value as described above. At any time, the Mayor may dbl-click any house sign to include that house's values in his/her Census taking. Taking a Census is a process that must be completed within 10 minutes time. Make sure, as the Mayor, that you dbl-click the house sign of every home in your City with your Mayoral Deed in your Backpack to include it in your City Census. Then dbl-click every facility item/npc within your city to refresh them. Each item/npc will do a check on the census taking results to see that you have the appropriate Counter and Token value to refresh them or they will continue to decay. The Mayor will be given a message as to whether the refreshing process was successful or not. Anyone may single-click any facility item/npc to display the decay date and time, to help monitor this process.