When Book 11 launched for Lord of the Rings Online, it added a number of new things into the game: A new raid zone, changes to a couple of the classes, new quests... but if you ask many players what it was they were looking forward to about the update, they probably would have said housing. Today, we present part one of a housing overview, starting with the basics and looking at Bree-land and The Shire.

With the launch of Lord of the Rings Online Book11, and the introduction of housing to the game, a feature that many have been asking for since the game’s launch back in April, I thought that it might be interesting to take a tour of the housing areas.

There are four different areas available in the game, one for each race: Human, Hobbit, Dwarf and Elf. Fortunately, players aren’t restricted in their choice of housing by race as any character can purchase a house in any of the zones. This is how my first foray into the world of housing ended up with my Elven Champion, Stradden, browsing for real estate in Breeland, a Human settlement while my Hobbit Hunter browsed lazily in The Shire.

The housing in each zone is divided up into neighborhoods of 30 homes in total, divided between Kinship Houses (4), Deluxe Houses and Standard Houses. Each neighborhood in a zone is a copy of a shared instance, meaning that every neighborhood is identical to the others but takes a unique quality from the people who move in. At the time of my writing this, there are 36 different neighborhoods to choose from in Breeland with more certain to be on the way.

Read it all here.

Nice impression.. I think it's time for me to resubscribe and check it out :)

You know, I think that is the PERFECT implementation of housing in a MMORPG.

One area, instanced, so you don't have urban sprawl that takes up a good chunk of the "open" lands like it did in UO and SWG.

But, unlike EQ2 or FFXI, it's not just an instanced room, it's an entire neighborhood.

Honestly, I think this is the best implementation of player Housing in MMO history, the Neighborhood idea is simply brilliant.

It's the best of a "open community" style of player housing with the sensibility of instanced housing.

True, it's not exactly player cities or anything like complex, but for just housing it's very smart thinking.

Originally posted by heerobya

You know, I think that is the PERFECT implementation of housing in a MMORPG.

One area, instanced, so you don't have urban sprawl that takes up a good chunk of the "open" lands like it did in UO and SWG.

But, unlike EQ2 or FFXI, it's not just an instanced room, it's an entire neighborhood.

Honestly, I think this is the best implementation of player Housing in MMO history, the Neighborhood idea is simply brilliant.

It's the best of a "open community" style of player housing with the sensibility of instanced housing.

True, it's not exactly player cities or anything like complex, but for just housing it's very smart thinking.

 

in WoW I never saw the point of housing as it was as you said "an instanced room" but this neighbourhood thing sounds great. So I take back my ideas of "no housing in WoW".  Give me WoW housing =D

Well in the old SWG days when you were a Jedi you didn't want to be seen. I had my house in a nice quiet spot right in the canyon close to the Emperors base. Was perfect because only one faction of Imperial ace pilots could use that starport. Made for safe travel. House had a nice view of the lake and the Emperors base from the cliff top.

I miss the choice to put a house in many places with little restrictions.

I'm enjoying my little standard two room house. The neighborhoods are indeed quite beautiful. I have to say Turbine did a great job in this regard. When I'm at my little house, it does feel like home and is an actual part of Middle Earth itself and not just an instanced room like other MMOs.

I'd like to see them do more like allow furniture rotation and the ability to move your hooks (placement slots for decorating) around. It would also be nice if the interior of the hobbit home is more like the way the books describe it. Not sure how the deluxe and kinship models look, but the standard home is just two rooms. It'd be nice if it had been a small tunnel with two attached rooms.

Ah well...all in all good job Turbine and look forward to see what they do in the future. Having a blast running around collecting those harvest tokens and using them to decorate my house. Very cool idea.

PS: More hooks. Especially outside. For everyone. :)

The only drawback is that the upkeep on your home is due each week, and if you fail to pay for a week, all of the items in and around your home are taken away from you forever.

Weekly upkeep:

Standard Home..... 50 - 55 silver ea. week

Deluxe Home......... 150 - 165 silver ea. week

Kinship Home........ 284 - 345 silver ea. week

All of the housing areas are beautiful, with plenty of possibilities for those that RP.

Originally posted by Shohadaku

Well in the old SWG days when you were a Jedi you didn't want to be seen. I had my house in a nice quiet spot right in the canyon close to the Emperors base. Was perfect because only one faction of Imperial ace pilots could use that starport. Made for safe travel. House had a nice view of the lake and the Emperors base from the cliff top.

I miss the choice to put a house in many places with little restrictions.

Nice idea...but then you have clutter and a mess and lots of built/abandoned crap all over the place. That was a major turn off to SWG and ultimately the time I spent exploring Second Life.

Originally posted by Keogh

 The only drawback is that the upkeep on your home is due each week, and if you fail to pay for a week, all of the items in and around your home are taken away from you forever. 

Actually no and no :)  You can prepay up to six weeks' maintenance on a house (you can also set permissions to allow others to pay it for you).  You don't have to log in every Wednesday and pay the taxman.  If you're not making enough to hold on to the house, you'll know it well in advance.

And if you do go into arrears on upkeep, the contents of the house are placed in a Housing Escrow container where you can collect them later.

The real drawback (besides the expense) is that you can't truly customize your home - you can't really "hang your hat" because there's no place to hang it, or any other trophies.  You can't name your home.  All you can do is buy a limited selection of premade decorations and place them in fixed spots.

Once the novelty wears off, I think players are going to insist that Turbine do more.

Originally posted by MChavez

I'm enjoying my little standard two room house. The neighborhoods are indeed quite beautiful. I have to say Turbine did a great job in this regard. When I'm at my little house, it does feel like home and is an actual part of Middle Earth itself and not just an instanced room like other MMOs.

I'd like to see them do more like allow furniture rotation and the ability to move your hooks (placement slots for decorating) around. It would also be nice if the interior of the hobbit home is more like the way the books describe it. Not sure how the deluxe and kinship models look, but the standard home is just two rooms. It'd be nice if it had been a small tunnel with two attached rooms.

Ah well...all in all good job Turbine and look forward to see what they do in the future. Having a blast running around collecting those harvest tokens and using them to decorate my house. Very cool idea.

PS: More hooks. Especially outside. For everyone. :)

I was wanting to try housing until I found this. Now I dont. Free furniture placement is a must, why do I want a house If I cant place My furniture in the place I want to?

I never realized how much I missed player housing, or even how much I missed MMORPGS(Haven't had a gaming computer for 2 1/2 years). Like everyone else has said, if you can't get open housing to work, this is the absolute best alternative with neighborhoods.

I don't think the article addressed this but the neighborhoods are instanced to only those who have a house there right? What about players who want to visit a friends house? Can they still get in?

Originally posted by Clattuc

 

Originally posted by Keogh

 The only drawback is that the upkeep on your home is due each week, and if you fail to pay for a week, all of the items in and around your home are taken away from you forever. 

Actually no and no :)  You can prepay up to six weeks' maintenance on a house (you can also set permissions to allow others to pay it for you).  You don't have to log in every Wednesday and pay the taxman.  If you're not making enough to hold on to the house, you'll know it well in advance.

 

And if you do go into arrears on upkeep, the contents of the house are placed in a Housing Escrow container where you can collect them later.

The real drawback (besides the expense) is that you can't truly customize your home - you can't really "hang your hat" because there's no place to hang it, or any other trophies.  You can't name your home.  All you can do is buy a limited selection of premade decorations and place them in fixed spots.

Once the novelty wears off, I think players are going to insist that Turbine do more.

This is what the website states.

Maintaining

Purchasing your home is a very big step, but it's only the first one! Homes require ongoing investment to keep them in top shape. This upkeep fee will vary depending on the size and type of your home, but regardless of the amount, you'll want to make sure to budget for it, and to make your payments on time! Housing upkeep, like purchase prices, will vary, but here is an average upkeep scenario:

• Standard Personal Home - 50 silver weekly maintenance
• Deluxe Personal Home - 150 silver weekly maintenance
• Kinship Home - 300 silver weekly maintenance

You can manage your upkeep payment through the Housing Management Panel. Here, you can view the weekly payment amount for your house's upkeep, as well as the current amount of upkeep deposited, how far ahead you have paid upkeep (you may pre-pay up to 6 weeks of upkeep), and when the next upkeep will be due. You can make payments here, too, using the "Deposit Upkeep" button.

Foreclosure

Watch out! Failure to pay your upkeep will result in warning notices from the Housing Agency. If you fail to pay your upkeep, your house will go into foreclosure. For most citizens, your home is your single largest asset, so you don't want this to happen. Should your house go into foreclosure, all your belongings will be placed in escrow storage for 1 week. You will be able to access items held in escrow through your local Vault-keeper. After 1 week, all unclaimed items will be donated to local charities.

I see now that you can pre-pay, but are you saying that Turbine is joking about "After 1 week, all unclaimed items will be donated to local charities.", and that your items will be held indefinately?

Originally posted by Laserwolf

I never realized how much I missed player housing, or even how much I missed MMORPGS(Haven't had a gaming computer for 2 1/2 years). Like everyone else has said, if you can't get open housing to work, this is the absolute best alternative with neighborhoods.

I don't think the article addressed this but the neighborhoods are instanced to only those who have a house there right? What about players who want to visit a friends house? Can they still get in?

When you reach the main entrance to the enstanced neighborhood a list of individual neighborhoods will pop up and you select the one you want to visit. Your friend needs to allow you access to visit their private home, but you can wander all over the neighborhood and look inside homes that are still for sale.

Originally posted by Keogh

 

I see now that you can pre-pay, but are you saying that Turbine is joking about "After 1 week, all unclaimed items will be donated to local charities.", and that your items will be held indefinately?

No, I was simply pointing out that the two drawbacks you listed are not true.  You do not have to pay every week, and if you foreclose, your items are not immediately deleted forever.  Other than that, I have no comment.

Nice to see that Turbine learn from the experience with housing in Asheron's Call.

Originally posted by Keogh

 

 

The only drawback is that the upkeep on your home is due each week, and if you fail to pay for a week, all of the items in and around your home are taken away from you forever.

Weekly upkeep:

Standard Home..... 50 - 55 silver ea. week

Deluxe Home......... 150 - 165 silver ea. week

Kinship Home........ 284 - 345 silver ea. week

All of the housing areas are beautiful, with plenty of possibilities for those that RP.

 

Not quite accurate. From the updated Manuial.

Make sure you keep up your weekly payments. (You might even pay a few weeks in advance to be on the safe side.) If you fail to pay upkeep, you lose your house. All your possessions in the house are moved to temporary storage for thirty days. You may recover your possessions through your House tab during this time. After thirty days, any unclaimed possessions are lost.

Yes you can visit a friends house, or even look at homes that are for sale.

 

...in fact any character of any level (even a level too low to buy a house) can enter any neighborhood of any race, regardless of the privacy status of the homes within it; and once in that neighborhood, can visit any home whose permissions allow it, and enjoy all yards (gardens) and public spaces regardless of house privacy settings.

In fact when you get right down to it, other than the extra homing skill, the extra storage chest, and the extra bills to pay, there's surprisingly little reason to actually buy a house even if you love what Turbine did with them.  You can enjoy almost all of it for free.

It seems like a good addition to the game. However, I dont like the idea my house and items go into oblivion (aka "charity") when I cant or dont pay. I rather wish it would just close for the time I dont use it, as housing in EQ2. I dont want to play any MMO without any breaks, and the idea all goes away... I dont like that at all.

Originally posted by heerobya

You know, I think that is the PERFECT implementation of housing in a MMORPG.

One area, instanced, so you don't have urban sprawl that takes up a good chunk of the "open" lands like it did in UO and SWG.

But, unlike EQ2 or FFXI, it's not just an instanced room, it's an entire neighborhood.

Honestly, I think this is the best implementation of player Housing in MMO history, the Neighborhood idea is simply brilliant.

It's the best of a "open community" style of player housing with the sensibility of instanced housing.

True, it's not exactly player cities or anything like complex, but for just housing it's very smart thinking.

 

Nothing new here.  DAoC has already had this system in for quite some time.

So ....

What's the function of the housing? Just visuals, or do the housing actually *do* something?

Why would I want to pay for housing in order to spend ingame time on my own watching static walls - alone.