Cities And Housing Archive

You must be a minimum of 500m from an NPC in order to build structures of any type. In Player Cities that have zoning enabled, you must first get zoning rights from the Mayor or a militia member.

If you're getting the system message stating you can't build here, more than likely you just need to move a bit further out from the city or landmark preventing it.

Once you get past the no-build areas, use the deed from your inventory. When you do, the screen will change to what I call the placing grid. You can move the structure around over the landscape in a limited range from where you are standing when you use the deed. Areas that show up green are where you can place your structure. Areas that show up yellow have something temporarily interfering with that area (either a lair or an NPC base usually); removing the interference will open the area up to normal. Areas that show red are no-build for terrain reasons; the larger the structure, the more sensitive it is to imperfections in the terrain.

To rotate a structure, right click with your mouse. To place the structure in a green area, left click with your mouse. For houses, the best way to tell which direction the house is facing is to look for the rampway. It's not always easy to make out, but if you make a mistake you can always redeed the structure and try again.

Hope that helps!

It is also possible that the house you bought can't be built on the planet you are trying to set it down on. What type of house is it and what planet are you trying to place it on?

Another possibility... Do you have lots free? Every structure you place in-game (exception being factional bases) uses lots. House for instance use 1, 2, or 5 lots, depending on the size. Each player has ten lots they can use. So if you have, say, six harvesters placed, you only have four lots and cannot place a large house (which uses 5 lots.) To check your lot status, hit CTRL+C and then click the PERSONAL tab. It will tell you how many lots you have remaining. Compare that to the number of lots required on the deed you are trying to place. If your number i higher, then it is likely one of the issues that Khristen mentioned.

Whree is it that you are trying to place your house, anyway? Telling us that could go a long way towards helping with your issue.