EQ2 interior decorating
From Shadow Wind
... yes, I did say "Interior Decorating"...
Contents |
Introduction
Whilst I know this venerable art-form is not quite as complex (or dangerous) as the combat system, I had a little fun doing up my rooms and wanted an excuse to show them off :) This guide is meant to entertain and inspire you & hopefully you'll pick up a few tips along the way. If you don't really care and think decorating is for wusses, what are you doing reading this thread? Hmm?
First impressions are everything.
When your home is empty and ready to be filled, take a moment standing on the zone in spot to plan your layout. You can get furniture in a number of ways.
Carpenter crafts items
Quested furniture
Status items from City Merchant
Use the dressing room function to review your choices. The room should be instantly welcoming and carry the eye through into the space (i.e. No sodding great effigies in front of your your guests noses as they arrive please). Lots of lights can really help warm a room and use carpets in sets to divide the space up.
Keep on top of the paperwork.
You get a lot of books in this game, and they can be a real pain to place. A few tips here... try to get to the same level as the surface you're trying to place it on. Hit c to crouch for low shelves, and build yourself a furniture mountain to climb when you're placing them up high. Gently teasing them into their spot on the shelf tends to work better than getting cross and waggling the mouse around a lot – though it has to be said sometimes you strike luckiest with the latter method too. Incidentally, if you have shelving units with 2 shelves and find it maddening that you cannot place books on the lower shelf... place the unit lower and fill up the top shelf, then simply move the unit up so those books are sitting on the second shelf.
Accented corners can be really effective.
The trick here is not to go too over the top and make it too cluttered (and by the way, get rid of those hundreds of pets! They just look messy and get under your feet!) ;)
Be imaginative with your furniture.
Just because it's called a chair, doesn't mean you have to use it as a chair. Turn stuff round, push it into the wall, stack things on top of each other and see how much you can squish them together.
This brazier is made out a standard fireplace turned backwards and then pushed into the corner of the room until most of it disappears. There are 2 paladin brazers together close to it, and the grill is 3 Faydark chairs stood on top of a troll wooden crate to get them to the right height. To finish it off a simple dresser swallowing up the messy construction work, and garnish with a couple of heritage trophies.
Defy the laws of gravity.
You remember this is a game right? If you want to hang something from the ceiling and there is no hook to hang it on, build a tower of random furniture to the right height, place the item in question on top, then remove the scaffolding from underneath it. Viola! Floaty things.
Another nice trick was shown to me by a guildie (thanks Tinytail). The houses in Freeport have high ceilings with rafters, and using the right combination of rugs you can make a solid mezzanine. You need smaller rugs at the bottom because they seem more solid. Then overlay with a design of your choice and decorate to taste.
To get up and down I have made a floating staircase out of wooden troll boxes (the old favourite again).
Go crazy with a theme.
From pirate camp to desert oasis to dwarven drinking & torture chamber – you can create loads of themes from the furniture items available. I even have a Christmas Grotto (SOE often do seasonal fun quests for furniture and such like).
