Thread: Petition for housing system upgrade

/sign

Make owning a house meaningful and exciting...

/sign

Houses that are locked due to lack of maintenance should have items in the house moved to escrow and then unlocked, ready for resale.

This could reduce the need for new homesteads and revitalise existing ones.

Releasing the furniture from hooks would allow far more creativity. Purchasing more from the store and adding new items to place in houses would greatly improve the interiors and allow more individuality.

I agree with this thread! /sign

/signed

Housing is a fun add on but it needs work.

/signed ...
in an attempt to keep this thread alive in the ever-diminishing hope that some intelligent developer will see it, and bring it to the table next time the folks at Turbine have a 'What Next?' meeting.

/signed

They do have it on their to-do list though, just very low priority and they dont know when it will be done. So yes, they are aware of it.

Originally Posted by Woffen

/signed

They do have it on their to-do list though, just very low priority and they dont know when it will be done. So yes, they are aware of it.

And you know this to be true how??

/Signed

I really would like to see a change on housing

/signed for bump's sake.

Housing ins in major need of an upgrade, its really sad that they havne't done anything with it, then they promised some upgrades finally, then those got back burnered.

/signed.
10charc

/signed.

Come on Turbine get off your bums.

Please...
/signed.

signed as a two house-owner!, so count this double please!

I will sign this one too, this time on Turbine's forums now that I finally have access here too. ;-)

In my opinion, the enhancements asked most would not be that hard to implement, but the roadmap for the changes would be quite long. Here's a few things that seem to be the most wanted features:

1. Free placing of decorations: Will need complete reworking of the house interiors, but will also give a huge boost to the willingness of people to actually get a house in the first place. With the current system, most players just ignore housing completely. I still like making my houses feel like home.

1b. New decoration items: Decorations are very time-efficient to make compared to cosmetic outfits, as the developers don't need to worry about clipping issues, or test how they animate. They just need to sit there and look pretty... Make them store exclusive recipes, or plain items, in any case it's a good way to make more cashflow... I know quite a few graphic artists who could make one decoration per day, and make them look better than the current ones are, so it's not hard at all.

1c. Make the upgrade from "old" houses to "new" houses a store feature: Put a TP price for the upgrade from the old hook-style to the new free placement a buyable feature with TP. I know for a fact that there are a lot of players that would pay the TP immediately to get to actually decorate their houses... Even some who would buy a house if they could.

2. Make the furniture truely usable: If I could sit around a table with my friends, I would invite them to my house. If I could sit in my hunting trophy room in front of the fireplace with my girlfriend, on the same bench (yes, I know, two people on the same bench?!), I would actually use my house. Some candles and the fireplaces are clickable, why not make the benches and chairs that too (it's not that hard to do, even AoC has it, even though it's pure combat game... I could program that feature in a few days, and I am not professional...)? Even make the "new improved furniture" only available with TP, or make them store exclusive recipes...

3. Chest space: Adding more chests, or making the current ones bigger would make the desirability of the houses outweight the price of them by a large margin, even for players that only get a house for the extra space. This would be a "cheap" (very easy to implement) solution to get people to spend some more real money on the game, if the "bigger chests" feature was buyable only with TP. I for one would pay that immediately.

3b. Make the chests able to hold bound items again: The feature was there, and even though I understand the reasoning for removing it (people filling the chests and then deleting the chars), it still downgraded the usability of the house by a lot.

4. Kicking out house owners after they have reached the maximum price to unlock a house: If the people leave their house for months, they are not giving Turbine any income during that time anyway. In most cases the people are not planning to come back, so maintaining resources for them is not a good way for a company that does actual business. Or make it so, that VIP players have no upkeep, and the unpaid time begins only after their subscription runs out.

4. Make the furniture truely usable: If I could sit around a table with my friends, I would invite them to my house. If I could sit in my hunting trophy room in front of the fireplace with my girlfriend, on the same bench (yes, I know, two people on the same bench?!), I would actually use my house. Some candles and the fireplaces are clickable, why not make the benches and chairs that too (it's not that hard to do, even AoC has it, even though it's pure combat game... I could program that feature in a few days, and I am not professional...)?

The fact that there are not that many people who actually care about the housing actually indicates that the housing is badly designed, not that they don't want houses. It only means they don't want houses as they are now (of course there are people who just don't, and they have a right to not want one). Just look at the sheer amount of people who play home in the numerous Facebook games(farmwhatevers), that are not actually even fun, and definitely not good games in any way. And they pay for them... I would even bet on the fact that having good housing system would get new players who don't even want to quest. Player housing is quite a big part of roleplaying to some, and if it was even decent, it would bring more players.

/signed

4 years and no house system revamp despite many petitions for it.

Is anyone really passing on our feedback to the devs?

/Signed.

I would be elated with free placement...we had this in Runes of Magic. I have the deluxe elven house, and I hate how I have this huge entry way with wasted space! I have some fantastic furniture items that I would love to use, but due to the hook placement, they sit in my house box in hopes of a change, unused. It makes me sad when I go to Rivendell and see many of the same furniture items I have placed the way I would place them! "Frodo gets to put that chair and table there but I don't?" Grrr.

/signed

I really hope they start looking into this, otherwise soon housing will be gone...

/signed

would be great.

/signed
LOTRO Housing has been back-burnered for way too long. It's time time Turbine started throwing some resources at a housing redesign/revamp. Right now it's stagnant and dying.

/signed.

Hey, they did do something for housing this expansion. They made the "Summerfest painting" smaller. Not that anyone asked for that.

Of course, I have to ask, why? That painting was cool in it's original size. Now, not so much. Is there next target the "Painting of a Watchful Warg"? "That warg's just a bit too menacing, let's make it smaller!"

And then they can ignore housing for another year (or two, or three, or four....)

Signed. There is so much unused potential.

One of my favorite parts in Middle Earth... but, since I'm coming from Second Life, it's also major let down. Houses need major overhaul, including different houses in different areas - and also, current Kinship houses should be allowed to be bought by individuals - make more extravagant versions as well.

And one more thing - HOUSES SHOULD BE TRADEABLE! This would make life looooot more interesting, to get just THAT house from THAT area you want...

I signed this way back in January of 2009 (Post #10) shortly before I left the game for well over a year. A big part of my leaving was because of Turbine's stubborn stance on housing and fluff in general (as per many discussions with Devs here in the forums). I came back this past summer and was really disheartened by the fact that Turbine had done absolutely nothing to improve the housing - NOTHING. NADA. ZIP. ZILTCH. - in the nearly 4 years since it was introduced into the game even though the vast majority of players agree that it is by far the worse 'feature' (and I use that word generously) in the game and the worst housing of any MMO, past or present. It's truly a shame because it could add so much to LOTRO and would have a HUGE potential for items in the LOTRO Store, but who in their right mind would spend Store Points on items for their house when there is no room to use what's available for free in the game, and no one would see it anyway because no one uses the houses or the communities for anything more than walk-in storage units and for the discount on items and repairs.

Turbine's Devs are some of the most talented in the business. If they were given the go-ahead to improve the housing, possibly even devote an entire expansion to it, I'm sure that they could make this the most awesome MMO housing in the industry and as a result, greatly improve the game, the subscriptions, and the bottom line of the Store. The problem is though, that whoever has the authority to impliment this has their head stuck in a very dark orifice and refuses to acknowledge that the housing in LOTRO just out-and-out suks and chooses to simply ignore everything and anything related to housing here in the forums.

I seriously doubt that they will ever fix the housing in LOTRO choosing instead to just keep adding more useless housing items that only take up more storage space or become vendor trash because there is simply no way to use them with the current limited system of hooks and ghost towns. What a shame.

This shouldn't be difficult to understand, you are loosing $$$$ Turbine. There are certain things that I'd pay TP for to improve housing and others would as well. Here are the things that should be done:

1. Free form placement. This HAS to happen. I have so many housing items that go to waste because I can't place them all. Just make a limit of number of items that can be placed in a house (couple 100 should be good) and a decent number of yard items as well. I want to make my property more forested. This should be FREE to anyone with a house.
2. Introduce paid expansions to the house. Basement, Stable to display horses in the yard, Crafting area of choice (wouldn't mind a small addition to the house with a forge...)
3. Other upgrades to the house that potentially provide buffs. Like a well rested bonus if you are in your house for a certain amount of time that gives rested XP or something...
4. ????
5. Profit!

/signed

1.) ALLOW TO BUY/SELL SPECIFIC HOUSE!!! (typical problem : empty ones near kinship houses)
2.) Make neighborhood alive..
a) More house surroundings (garden, archer area, gym etc.)
b) New hobbies connected with housing

I'm just surprised that so many people ask for these changes and nothing changed yet.

if they yust make for example, a river near housing areas where you can catch special fish, a trainingdummy somewhere near, more crafting supplies or even supplies that can only be bought at housing area...even small things like that would change the total view of housing

/signed

Signed need more updates and bigger houses

maybe reserve certain areas for players to actually MAKE there own houses. ths could also create some new crafts (joiner, stone mason (dwarves get a bonus?), etc etc) and i feel would be very 'lore appropiate' - a ranger making a small log cabin for him/herself in the Chetwood, a Gondorian knight deciding to build himself a brick townhouse in Minas Tirith. By the time we get to Mordor there will be plenty of areas to develop - Osgiliath for one.

Ok I rambling now but you get the idea?

I totally agree with most of the poeple who signed here:

More hooks (or showing space), more places to get houses, more storage places (even if it's with money or points exchange), more rooms (or buyable additional rooms), possible crafting facilities (at least for kin houses), dummies and other training facilities, near the neighborhood

/signed

Urzin, lvl 65 Rune Keeper
Urzo, lvl 63 Hunter
...
and a bunch of alts...

Originally Posted by Urzah33

I totally agree with most of the poeple who signed here:

More hooks (or showing space), more places to get houses, more storage places (even if it's with money or points exchange), more rooms (or buyable additional rooms), possible crafting facilities (at least for kin houses), dummies and other training facilities, near the neighborhood

/signed

Urzin, lvl 65 Rune Keeper
Urzo, lvl 63 Hunter
...
and a bunch of alts...

I agree with lots in this thread. Housing is woefully neglected. Housing is unimportant to players because it is treated unimportantly. That WOULD change if changes were made (if you build it, they will come).

LOTRO players love being able to interact as a community and taking advantage of special rewards. Kill 10 Rats and Raids are all well and good, but us LOTROers do want a rich experience. Flexible house decorating is one obvious and crucial change. Greater ability to modify houses (more rooms) would be awesome. Simple additions like training dummies would liven things up. A minigame in each area would also be a nice diversion. And there should be more housing locations.

I think the limited placement of housing (starter areas) is a sign of how long housing has been neglected. I enjoy my current home next to the waterfall in the Shire (which is sadly too small, but I stay because I like the location). But I would very well move if I could live on a snowy, silent plain in Forochel - totally not convenient, but beautiful. Throw in weather events and creature mobs and it would be wonderful.

Here is a nice fantasy: I go to the Forochel housing area where there are empty plots of land for sale. After choosing my plot, I then can choose from a menu of houses (a variety of Forochel Huts, with other area-specific options purchasable through LOTRO store - eg snowy hobbit home, snowy elf home, snowy man home, snowy dwarf home). I imagine a dialogue similar to that of stable masters with alternate home styles having an unlock button linked to the cash store. After choosing the design style, I am able to choose the size - small, medium, large, kin (as a function of decorating, not separate annoying purchases) - which can be later upgraded if one desires by paying silver.

Maybe it would not be wise (for the amount of work involved) to have a housing area for every region, but I think Forochel and Lothlorien housing would garner excitement. LOTRO Store race-specific Lothlorien style houses would be pretty. With so much migration and turmoil in Middle Earth, I don't think it is lore-breaking to have other race houses in different areas. Perhaps Thorin's would not be amenable to other styled houses, but I think a little extra creativity in housing areas is allowable.

There are potential drawbacks and concerns (and proposed solutions/mitigations):
1. Lots of work - creating so many new housing exteriors, coding when there is currently little interest in housing, etc.
---If you build it, they will come! I think of the SWG housing where so many proudly display their prizes. There is great untapped potential for cash store sales of exclusive house items with no effect on game balance---
2. Low level kin members transporting to high level places.
---When attempting to leave housing area, display stable master window, allowing transport to Thorins, Bree, Michel Delving, and a minimum level requirement to enter the wilds of [Forochel]. There is an added bonus of creating player excitement to play these areas later on.---
3. Current unglamorous technical housing issues need to be fixed.
---I hope those issues could be dealt with as part of a total overhaul. And there really needs to be an overhaul.---

Housing is tied to Kinships. Kinships are tied to raiding/endgame/PVMP i.e. the new content. If they are going to make improvements to endgame and such they are going to need to make improvements to Kinships and the tools needed to run them. And one of these tools is housing. By neglecting housing they have been neglecting Kinships and thus they are not doing all they can to support endgame and new content.

It's all tied together. To improve endgame and raids they need to improve Kinships. To improve Kinships they need to address housing.

/signed (again)

*sigh* this thread was made in '08 and housing is still the same, I believe?

Please give us new options and improvements. I know this is purely a vanity thing in the game but it breaks up the level/gear grind and is enjoyable to have

/signed

Turbine does realize that other MMOs are there don't they? and others soon to be released. I have played most of them at one time or another. I believe LOTRO is on of the better ones but this housing thing is just out of control. We have decorations, trophies, paintings, furniture, etc falling out are you know whats and not near enough place to put even a small fraction of them to display or enjoy it.

I admit I am one of those players that will use and have used the LOTRO store alot, yes for cosmetics and such. I have invested money and time for this entertainment and I dont want to walk away from this game but I will just as I have other MMOs if they fail to see that housing is prime end game content.

Nobody wants to raid every second of everyminute they are loged on and the amount of quest content that could be conected with housing gives maxed out players something else to do. You know like go save this dwarf oh it just so happens that he is a stone masson, and will help you put a basement in your house... oh the guy i just saved his kid is a carpeter and will give me different floorplans for my house... I mean so much stuff can be added in this area.

I have a Kinship house and the five houses near it in the Breeland Homesteads , Ewall Neighborhood, just so I can have fun trying to come up with different themes for the houses. Come on turbine make a reason for endgame players to stick around other than just another dragon to kill!

Like others have mentioned in this thread, yes alot could also be put in the LOTRO store, but I hope they see that is only one area of so many options, but yeah I would pay for it if the options were there.

No hooks, I like that one. And different floor plans. Everything is the same...

/signed

I find myself wanting to personalize my home. It seems important for an RPg imo.
So...no hooks, more housing areas, and different floor plans

/signed

/signed

as turbine knows, people pay money for cool.
upgrade the housing system, you know you'll use it again in your next game!

/signed


I recently came to LOTRO from EQ2. Despite many other problems with EQ2, the game has amazing houses. There are about 20 house styles each with several different floor plans. Each of your alts can own up to 20 houses. There are no hooks, and you can place up to 1000 items in the largest house designs. All items can be rotated, raised and lowered, and scaled in size. Also, each house has a vault that holds 240 items for all hoarders among us. IMO, housing is keeping EQ2 alive and providing SOE with some cash when players choose to buy exclusive furniture through their Station Market. Oh ... I forgot to mention that the Carpentry crafting skill allows players to build hundreds (thousands?) of housing items.

Don't get me wrong ... LOTRO is a fantastic game. It just needs a substantial housing update.

& allow farming craft to plant flowers in the yard (every inch of it) that will eventually bloom into what those flowers should look like instead of the generic look that all fields have. & cross-breeding of the seeds would be nice, & may be sheep/horse or bovine breeding as well, a butterfly farm would be way cool

allow for renovations so that houses would be unique to each individual

make it possible for areas to be turned into crafting area, add crafting skill to woodworker/metalsmith that would enable them to make crafting furniture exclusively for the homes, i read somewhere that crafting in the homestead is impossible & when some1 open the topic up, a jerk responded negatively & ask that person to read the previous posts, well, lotro was p2p b4 & now its f2p & is doing good, so improvement is good.

enable woodworker to craft chicken coops & make them worthwhile by enabling them to be harvested for chicken eggs that cooks can use

enable woodworker to craft beehive stall so we can harvest our own honey instead of buying from supplier

while ur at it, might as well make the crafters make all those ingredients sold by the supplier.

Originally Posted by knnindy

& allow farming craft to plant flowers in the yard (every inch of it) that will eventually bloom into what those flowers should look like instead of the generic look that all fields have. & cross-breeding of the seeds would be nice, & may be sheep/horse or bovine breeding as well, a butterfly farm would be way cool

allow for renovations so that houses would be unique to each individual

make it possible for areas to be turned into crafting area, add crafting skill to woodworker/metalsmith that would enable them to make crafting furniture exclusively for the homes, i read somewhere that crafting in the homestead is impossible & when some1 open the topic up, a jerk responded negatively & ask that person to read the previous posts, well, lotro was p2p b4 & now its f2p & is doing good, so improvement is good.

enable woodworker to craft chicken coops & make them worthwhile by enabling them to be harvested for chicken eggs that cooks can use

enable woodworker to craft beehive stall so we can harvest our own honey instead of buying from supplier

while ur at it, might as well make the crafters make all those ingredients sold by the supplier.

I have thought of the possibility to benefit from the Farmer profession in some real and useful way, and the idea of them being able to make actually useful flowerbeds and gardening for the house would be a great way to introduce the "missing" Farmer's Guild. Make the stuff Guild recipes, and suddenly we have one more profession that people would actually level for other reasons than just feed their Cook (or Scholar with crits from crops) with materials. I know I would switch my Farmer/Cook to Farmer's Guild immediately, or roll another Farmer solely for the guild.

Woodworker is also mostly "useless" Profession, even though they have their limited use for Hunter and Warden weapons. Giving them more use by making them the second profession to be able to make some actually useful housing stuff (they can now, but not even close to what they should be able to) would give people reason to roll more than one/Kinship. Make them Guild recipes too.


About the discussions of rents, I would really like to see the removal of the upkeep completely from the Standard houses, but still keep it as it is on Deluxe houses. The 50s/week is more an annoyance than anything else, and removing it would only make the game another tiny bit more playable. And maybe make extra Standard houses available to every toon on the account but have the extra ones have upkeep. Limit the Deluxe still for only 1/account/server.
This would allow the Hobbit toons to live in the Shire and Dwarves at Thorin's Halls. Instead of that, roleplayers have to make three F2P accounts to get all of their toons the right houses, if they don't want to come up with wild stories (Anonymour Elven Cave-Dweller: "Hello, my name is Mary-Sue and I like to live underground." *lots of screaming from every other Elf around*) of why their Elven Minstrel wants to live underground (or actually even visit)...