Housing decoration align function not working in some houses.

MoonlightShadow

I had posted earlier about the Riven King's Throne not being sittable. So I decided to do some more research and give some more details. I am in Boldertree Refuge and trying the place the throne in the first open-room space.

After some fiddling around with it, I believe I have a cause. I took the throne and placed it back in my inventory. Then I went to place the item, but I did not do anything other than move the mouse around until the throne glowed green. No push / pull, or anything else. And I was able to place their throne and sit in it. It was not where I wanted, but it was working.

Then I picked it back up again and put it back in inventory. I again tried to place the throne. Using the above trick I got it to where it glows green. Then I used the push / pull feature without moving the chair anywhere. I would go one "tick" up (pull) and then immediately go one "tick" back down (push) to the original position. Then I would do one "tick" down, then back up to the original position. I found that about 2/3 of the time, it broke the chair and it was no longer usable (stayed glowing yellow). So push/pull was messing it up somehow.

I then decided to test another element. I tried to use the in-game align. Again, using the trick above, I was able to wiggle the mouse until the throne glowed green. I then moved the throne to where I wanted it, and pressed the align button. It glowed yellow, and nothing I did would make it glow green again.

So, I decided to take the throne to another house (Sugar Bowl Suite). There the throne was able to align properly using the align function and was fully usable.

I took the throne to the Flaming Nix Deluxe Garret. Tried to place the throne, and could not place it where it was usable. I was able to use my trick of placing the item from inventory by just wiggling the mouse around until it finally glowed green. But again the push / pull would make it unusable even if you push one tick and then immediately pulled it back one tick. Align would not work either. It made the chair glow yellow, and I could not arrange it in any way that would make it usable. I placed it back in inventory, then was able to use my mouse wiggle trick to make it glow green again. Then moved the throne to where I wanted it and pressed align. It stayed glowing yellow and was unusable.

To be thorough, I next took the throne to Autumn's-Gate. I was able to place the chair using the align button and it worked properly.

My tentative conclusion:

1. In certain houses, the align feature does not work properly for chairs. I can repeatedly trigger this error at will in the Boldertree Refuge and Flaming Nix Deluxe Garret. Every time.
2. In other houses the align feature works as expected.
3. Is it possible that the texturing of the floor is messing up the align feature? Smooth-floored places such as the Sugar Bowl Suite work fine. Rougher texture floor (stone and brick) found in the two houses that I can repeatedly cause the error suggests the interaction between the flooring and the align feature may be the issue.
4. Yes I did turn off addons and only used the in-game features.
5. This has been tested over the span of multiple logins, so reloading ui will not fix the issue.
6. This has been tested with multiple characters. Consistent results regardless of character.
7. I tried other chairs / seats / thrones besides just the Riven King's Throne. The problem was consistent regardless of type of chair.

katanagirl1

I’m guessing #3 is the culprit.

I had trouble placing rugs on certain floors before with surface drag (before precision editor was a thing). I would have to raise the rug slightly to be able to see it properly. I also have to do the same with Redguard braziers in my Thieves Oasis or part of the fixture is inside the wall.

Haven’t tried it since or the way you have, though.

MoonlightShadow

I have had that issue as well. Some items, when you use the align button, the middle of the item aligns with the floor, rather than the base of the item. Usually those items are not interactable, so it does not make much of a difference. You can just push / pull them to where they look good, and move on. Items that require precision because of interaction parameters seems to be the issue. I did not try placing things like crafting stations to see if I can repeat it with a different class of furniture. I just used chairs. I suspect, based on your post, that I will have the same problem regardless of what class of interactable furniture is used. I guess that is something to try next .

MoonlightShadow

Just tried several forms of lighting (Brazers, candlesticks, lightposts, ect). The align function worked properly on those. Went back to trying my chairs. They would not align. So it seems that the problem is just chairs. I have not tried a crafting station yet.

MoonlightShadow

Just tried my enchanting station. It also aligned properly. Took out my trusty chair. Still no luck. Sometimes it will align the first time you try after pulling it out of your inventory, but subsequent attempts will fail. I will describe how I was able to make the align function work one-time only, then failure after that.

Sometimes Works:

1. Have the item in inventory.
2. Leave the Flaming Nix for another location.
3. Return to the Flaming Nix.
4. Go to place the chair. Wiggle the mouse around until it is able to be properly placed. Press align even though it is aligned properly.
5. Now move the chair to a different location. Press align. Sometimes this align attempt will work properly, more often, it is broken.
6. Any subsequent align attempts will fail.
7. Place the item back into inventory.
8. Try to place item again. By moving the mouse around will eventually find a place where it can be placed as sitable only if you do not use any other editing functions.
9. EDIT: After further testing, a person can use the rotate function and still use the mouse to find the "sweet spot" but any tilt / pan changes or use of the align button will mean you have to place the item back into inventory to start over.

Precision Mode Test:

1. Place the item from inventory. Use the mouse to find a place where you can drop the seat and have it be usable. Place the item.
2. Select precision edit on the seat.
3. The seat can be moved around and remains usable, using *only* the precision edit movement tools.
4. Using align while in precision edit mode will again break the seat.
5. After the seat is broken (glowing yellow). The only way to make it usable again is to place it back into inventory. Then use the mouse moving trick to again find a place where it is usable.


Possible Work-Around:

1. Have the item in inventory.
2. Go to place the item, but immediately use only the mouse to move the item around to find the spot where it will align properly (glow green). Place the item where ever it is usable.
3. Target the item and choose precision edit. You may now safely use the buttons to move the item to the desired position and rotation.
4. *WARNING* any use of the align button will make the seating item unusable. You will have to place the item into inventory and start again. Use the precision edit movement buttons only.

For reference, my main test subject are: Riven King's Throne; Argonian Chair, Woven; and Velothi Seat, Meditation. Main testing has been done in the Flaming Nix house. Main issue is the align function and chairs. As stated previously, most houses do not have this issue. So far, I have only identified the Flaming Nix and the Boldertree Refuge as having this issue. I have not exhaustively tested my other houses.

EDIT: It appears the problem also occurs in Antiquarian’s Alpine Gallery.