Any way to do "testing" furnishing?

Eric_Prince · March 2020

There are may beautiful houses, and I have a ton of ideas what to make of them. But sometimes I wonder: would that alinor wall match this particular grayish stone? Or not? Will I be able to create perfect wall with those things I have or do I need to reconsider?

Of course I can just buy or craft things (quite expensive things!) and try. But I really don't want to spend hundreds of thousands just to make sure I was wrong. So I wish there was some sort of "test furnishing" option. So I could place things and see how they are looking BEFORE I buy/craft and actially place them.

VaranisArano · March 2020

The only way I know of is to be on PC and have access to the PTS where you can have access to crafting or purchasing furnishings to decorate houses without having to spend money on the Live servers. That's not exactly the most helpful solution, I know. It would be nice to have better in-game options.

Sengra · March 2020

I have the PTS and just wanted to take a look at the windmill but the luxury vendor in Coldharbour is nowhere to be found? Why? That's the only reason I have this second client installed ... to preview furnishings.

Mix · March 2020

Yeah I love testing housing stuff on the PTS. I've never actually looked for Lux guy on the PTS though, surprised he isn't on the same timer as Live though...

Only issue I have with PTS is when the EU server gets copied the template character 1. doesn't have my hoard of furnishings and 2. lacks achievements to buy those ones for testing BUT NA gets copied pretty often

VaranisArano · March 2020

Sengra wrote: »

I have the PTS and just wanted to take a look at the windmill but the luxury vendor in Coldharbour is nowhere to be found? Why? That's the only reason I have this second client installed ... to preview furnishings.

The PTS is not synced up with the Live server. Even when they port over a new copy of PC/NA or EU as they do periodically, its often a week or three behind the Live server. It was rather disorienting the one time I accidently logged into the PTS and couldn't find new guildmates or stuff I'd just bought

That does mean that its not ideal for testing time limited stuff like the luxury vendor. If you want to test limited time crown store houses, you may have to pay attention to when they are available on the PTS for specific testing.

I found that the PTS is best used for testing crafted furnishings and crown store furnishings. I can't recall if the PTS ported over guild vendor listings, but if it does, you may be able to find past furnishings from the luxury vendor on sale. With the delay in porting over, that won't help with this week's stuff.

If you really need to check this week's luxury furnishings, your best bet is to ask around on the forums or in game for someone on your Live server who owns whatever item/house you want to view if they'd be willing to let you preview the item.

Eric_Prince · March 2020

Thanks for the tip! Maybe you guys can explain how things work on PTS? Will I have unlimited money to buy everything or what? Just want to know details before I'll start downloading the client.

VaranisArano · March 2020

Eric_Prince wrote: »

Thanks for the tip! Maybe you guys can explain how things work on PTS? Will I have unlimited money to buy everything or what? Just want to know details before I'll start downloading the client.

PTS works in a couple of ways. One important thing to note is that progress is wiped periodically so don't expect anything you do on the PTS to stick around for the long term. Its a testing server so it's frequently updated with new things to test. Quest progress and house builds are going to come and go.

1. You can use your existing characters if you have some on whichever Live server the PTS is copying at the moment. It periodically swaps between PC/NA and PC/EU. These are (slighted older) copies of your existing characters so you don't have to worry about changing them on the Live servers.

2. You can make a new level 1 or a Template character. At character creation, there's a drop down menu option for a template character. This will give you a max CP character who will also have tons of boxes that give access to all the gear sets, unlimited crafting recipes and supplies, etc. Pretty much everything you could need to test everything.

3. You'll also get a replenishing, IIRC, supply of crowns, but more importantly, everything in the crown store will only cost 1 crown. So its a great way to play around with crown furnishings, DLC, or just to upgrade your character to a full inventory to hold all their stuff. (I don't remember about template characters and gold, sorry.)

Hope that helps!

Danikat · March 2020

Eric_Prince wrote: »

Thanks for the tip! Maybe you guys can explain how things work on PTS? Will I have unlimited money to buy everything or what? Just want to know details before I'll start downloading the client.

First thing to say is it's important to rememember that your PTS account is totally and completely unrelated to your live account. Even when the server you play on is copied over so all your live characters, items houses are there it's a seperate copy and nothing you do will transfer back to the live server. So you can safely delete characters and make new ones, sell or delete items you'd normally keep, buy things you don't want etc. and none of it will have any impact (good or bad) on your actual account.

The other thing to remember is the PTS is periodically wiped and reset, usually when they switch from a copy of NA to EU or back to NA. So nothing you do there is permanent - if you want to save it you'll have to take screenshots or video - but it can also be useful for letting you start over again.

If you're experimenting with housing the crown store is probably the simplest option. Everything on the PTS store costs 1 crown and every day your crown balance resets to 5,500, so you can buy whatever you want without worrying about the cost.

You'll also have the option to create a template character (create a character as you would normally and look for a little drop-down box in the top left corner with template options) who starts with a whole bunch of useful stuff, including a crate of housing deeds which unlocks all the base houses and a bunch of furnishing plans and materials (and template characters have all skill lines fully trained and hundreds of skill points to spend). If I remember correctly template characters are also given a lot of gold, or have a way of getting it. I can't check right now and haven't needed to try in a while so I don't remember the details.

There are some limitations, as mentioned above. Most limited time houses and some newer permanent ones aren't available to buy and the luxury furnishing vendor isn't there. There's also no way to get achievement furnishings unless you've completed the achievement on whichever server is currently copied (they alternate between EU and NA).

So if you want to experiment with specific furnishings it may not be possible, depending on what it is, but if you want to play around with general ideas for decorating a house then, as long as it's available to buy, it can be a good option. I've found it useful sometimes even if I can't do exactly what I'd like to do. For example Moonsugar Meadow isn't available on the PTS but I can go into another house with empty space and try out making my own buildings from furnishings, which in this case has convinced me I probably don't have the time or patience to really do anything interesting and should probably stick to houses which are less of a blank slate.

Scion_of_Yggdrasil · March 2020

This thread may have saved my life. lol

Eric_Prince · March 2020

Thanks guys! You really helped a lot!