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Lord of the Rings Online: Housing Overview
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.
In order to enter the housing areas, you need only travel to the area. Assuming that you don’t already own a property, I thought it might be helpful to provide you with a map:
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Simply journeying to the area will let you take a look around at the different plots and houses that are available. If you’re adventurous and have the money, you may want to purchase a house of your own. To do this, you have to find the appropriate Housing Broker, a vendor-style NPC located near the entrance to any given housing area:
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Be warned ahead of time that housing isn’t a cheap endeavor for characters of lower levels (you have to be at least level 15 to buy a house in the first place). The least expensive standard house that I saw in this neighborhood was going for a buy price of 1 gold, with an upkeep cost of 50 silver (upkeep costs are on a per week basis). In the same neighborhood, 6 Chestnut Road, a Deluxe House is going for a purchase price of 7 gold, 700 silver with an upkeep of 165 silver and a Kinship House at 9 Chestnut Road is going for 16 gold, 500 silver with an upkeep cost of 330 silver. Something that you will notice right away is that prices vary even within housing categories, meaning that one Standard House may cost more or less than another Standard House. The reason for this becomes obvious as you tour through a neighborhood as, like in real life, some houses come with nicer properties or views than others.
At higher levels, this kind of expense isn’t really a problem, but lower level characters are going to have to really want to dedicate their resources to home ownership if they want a comfortable place for their character to hang their hat.
The image below is the view that you get when you first enter the neighborhood:
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Below, please find an exterior look at some of the houses that are available. The first is a standard house, and, to provide some perspective, next to it you will find a picture of a kinship house:
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I also had the opportunity to poke around a little bit inside of the kinship house, so I thought I'd post some pictures of that as well:
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Finally, if you were curious about the layout of the Bree-land housing area neighborhoods, we have provided a map:
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Next, I logged into my Hobbit character who, because she’s still lower in level, is still hanging around The Shire. You’ll find the Hobbit area settlement near the end of the road going south toward Southfarthing:
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The Hobbit neighborhoods are quiet and quaint. Everything that I’d really come to expect from The Shire, where things just don’t seem as serious as they do in the rest of Turbine’s version of Middle-Earth (I played a game of “Hiders and Seekers” as a quest). Hobbit Holes abound in the rolling hills of these neighborhoods which to my mind were just a touch nicer than those in the Human lands.
Here's a look at the neighborhood, a vista, a standard house, a deluxe house and a kinship house:
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For a peek inside, let's take a little look at the interior of the Deluxe house:
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While in the neighborhood, I stumbled across the Homestead Provisions building. Here, I had access to a Vault Keeper, a Healer and perhaps most importantly, a Housing Furnisher. The Furnisher sells everything from paint for walls and floors, flooring, tables and the like for the inside of houses to trees, shrubs and wheelbarrows to decorate the property outside.
Below, find a map to the Homestead Provisions building (also serving as a map of the neighborhood), as well as a picture!:
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Next time, we'll take a look at the Dwarf and Elf neighborhoods and go into more depth on owning and furnishing your home.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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:
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?
Yes you can visit a friends house, or even look at homes that are for sale.
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.
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.
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.
...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.
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.
Instanced rooms or instanced 'neighbourhoods'.. whats the difference really? Nothing will be gained and I truly see nothing here better then what particular games out there right now offer.
it will truly be a long long while before LotR matches EQ2 in it's customisation and upgrade housing options, and thats a fact.
So far, so... meh.
Like everything else this game offers, its brown, ordinary, and really quite average. Nice for a little while, but past that very very boring. Porridge lite gaming for the newbies who don't know what mmorpgs can truly be.
The sad thing is the average gamer deserves better, but so far they are happy to eat the cr*p they are served.
Oh well..
You know, it's really hard for me to say something has been done better than Ultima ONline. I used to LOVE UO housing. But it got rediculas at times with houses almost stacked up on each other. In all honesty I think LOTRO sounds like they did it right. Seriously, this housing sounds soooo much better than UO and WAY better than EQ2. Instanced neighborhood. . .now that ingenious. I'm still waiting for WoW to do this, I still don't understand why they don't do this. Housing just adds so much more depth to a game. I never really played LOTRO, I've played in the beta. While I thought the game was alright, I never found a reason to unsubscribe from WoW to play lotro. But now I might have to try it out. As long as it's not as retarded and rediculas as Vanguard house prices, then I'll be fine. You give me a game with housing done correctly and I'll give you my money. Housing makes me want to log into my game, decorate, live, and have parties in my house. At least I don't have to quest or grind. 11 / 10 for Turbine on this one.
I got those numbers directly from the housing vendor in-game, not a manual or website. Those are the current in-game prices.
This is what I originally said:
"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."
What I meant to say was, "If your upkeep is not paid on time and your home goes in to forclosure, your personal property will be held in an escrow account for a week before it is deleted".
That's the way I understand what Turbine stated.
Great. Congratulations on your improved understanding!
You can pay 6 weeks in advance. and if you don't pay even when your home goes for closure, you have one month to get your items back. not a week.
sounds like a new money grind to me...
Personally, There is not a game out there that has housing as detailed as UO. Customization of a house in UO is limited to only your imagination.
You walk outside....you are in the game. Not instanced. Monsters will attack you.
You can store your valuables in your house, hang pictures, place table where you want. Place vendors to sell and much more.
I had a small place in EQ2 and it sucked. Instanced house....bleh.
To those worried about the prices/calling it a "money sink":
As a very casual player [~4 hr/week] since launch, and currently at level 33 with my main and low teens for my alts [craft-aholic], the prices are very affordable for the basic house. Even the deluxe house is affordable for weekly rents [though the 7 gold initial price is currently well beyond my means]. There would be no more than an hours grind [and you could just quest without having to grind to make the money].
On the other hand, I don't like that you can't freely place furnishing, trophies, etc. Perhaps those will come in the future expansion that must be purchased [as opposed to the current free upgrades].
What is with the EQ2 biggots? Nothing wrong with EQ2, but to say that EQ2 is better than Lotro is a very disjointed view.
I have played both games and EQ2 has just as many problems as Lotro, if not more. There is no perfect MMO out there, so enjoy the one you like, it is beneath you to come here disparaging Lotro, when your game is no better.
As to the housing addition, I do not see the need. Guild houses are about the only thing that is useful, the rest, who is going to visit you in your house? It just keeps the population out of the cities which is bad.
Not disputing your prices, just the first part. The last paragraph is right out of the updated manual.
Jesus, why does every one respond like some ones attacking them? Christ..
You should know, responding as if someone's attacking you.
I didn't realize houses were already set. I was thinking you buy a deed like in UO or SWG then place it where ever you want in the instanced neighborhood. I like the fact that the houses are already set a hell of a lot better. It really does give it more of a.....realistic feel.
I am also very glad to see house upkeep. Nothing ruined MMORPGs more than insurance and combat-related instancing. Personally, with UO being my first MMORPG, I would rather see houses eject all the belongings outside where anyone can pick them up if upkeep isn't paid. Of course I would also like to see house burglarizing be possible but I have since given up on that even before UO Trammel.
Instanced neighborhoods with set homes to purchase or sell and a tough but fair upkeep system is the best step forward since UO. SWG was great, but I think the lack of placement restrictions and the ease of multiple home ownership really screwed it up. Most of tatooine and other starter planets were nothing but giant ghost towns of 100s of empty homes.
I've been enjoying the new housing, but as a casual player I am kind of irked by having weekly upkeep. Had those numbers been monthly or even bi-weekly (like most people's paycheck) it would have been better received. Turbine has set it up so that you can pay the upkeep in advance by a few weeks, but what about people that go on an extended vacation, or kids that work summer camp?
I really do like the neighborhoods and hopefully Turbine will give us the ability to expand our dwelling at some point. My Small house feels really really small, and the existing hooks only allow for so much placement and not being able to rotate furniture seems like an oversight. I can't even put chairs around a table as there is neither enough space or existing hooks to place them =(
I think this is a problem with Turbin.. sure they release alot of content paches and quickly.. but the downside is they dont have the time to finish things and add in basic functionaly such as rotating furniture, but its a start and im sure they'll add this in a future expansion.
I fully agree with you. In EQ2, your apparment was only locked if you didnt pay, but you didnt loose anything. I really wish they'd make this with LOTRO the same. :/
Not much atm. It's a novelty. People had nothing to do, now they can decorate. It's already wearing off.
It appears this was rushed in to hit the update cutoff. The areas are nice and big, but the hook design is sad. Who wants their bed in the middle of the room? Why can't you put chairs near the table? Why can't you turn adjust anything at all? Why are so many recipes unusable? You can only have one house per account, but your alts can't map to it. It is a long tedious walk/ride to get to and from the housing areas. Very much a timesink. There is really no reason to go to your house aside from laying down decorations. Being invited to view a friend's decorated house ranks right up there with being invited to view pictures of a neighbor's vacation slides.
I hope it has more to offer in the future. Right now, it missed with me, and I loved the idea of having housing in the game.
This was the worst update to date as far as bugs and problems. They are anxious to get PR for book updates coming out regularly, but it would really be better if they would take a bit more time to do things right instead of rushing out unpolished buggy code.
They've done a good job up till these past two updates, but they appear to be slipping downhill. I hope they can turn it around. I'm not playing atm, but I did get a lifetime membership. I hope it's not wasted, but they are really doing some odd things lately.
Just me or is this housing right out of DAOC? I mean wow, looks like a total rip. So who ripped who.
Just take is as Turbine providing young gamers with a life lesson - pay your rent/mortage or lose your home!!!
Plus it reducs clutter, like in SWG there were many abandonded homes. I think it is a good idea.
Well the limited decorating ability and naming your house are big drawbacks. I'll stick with SWG.
Housing had to be introduced, it's almost part of any mmorpg.
But I really feel it was rushed together with book 11. The housing is far incomplete: limited decoration, no way to rotate any decoration, no free decoration spots (only on designated spots), no alt chars zoning possible. In fact the only purpose of housing is to extend the storage space a little. There's absolute no reason for others to come and see your house, other then curiosity.
Well, just hoping housing is going to improve with then next releases.
The game has the IP going for it... but not much on the side of open-world, non-linear game play.
Pfff.
Sounds alright, but does a house do anything or is it just another way to waste cash?
Waste of cash atm.
And you can lose both your house and your items. The items go into escrow for one week, but after a week, they are gone.
Not a big deal for people who do play regularly, but for people who paid lifetime to come and go as you please, its definitely not a good idea to buy a house. I didn't, but my son did. We're not playing atm because frankly once you hit 50, there is little to do (aside from grinding traits just to fill the book - we grinded our key traits as we levelled and mastered our crafts, so not much real point....), but he was worried about his house so he logged in JUST to pay rent. If he hadn't spent 7 gold, he'd just let the house go. I don't want to tie a friend to paying his rent while we're not playing. That is so not cool.
I was so disappointed in housing on LoTRO. I would have love even a kind of EQ2 style housing where you could place only certain Items butyou could put them ANYWHERE you wanted to. LoTRO tried but failed IMO.