I don't get it.
If you don't log in within 6 months, why should you get to keep your house? You left the game that long, I think it's fair to say your house should be available to other responsible players who actually pay their upkeep and regularly log into the game.
If you come back after 6 months to a year and you start complaining on the forums how your house was taken, you deserved it.
The servers can only spawn so much space to store all the data.
Why should a house become a lifetime trophy when the player will not play for their entire lifetime?
I mean really, at what point will that house become available? When the servers close down and LOTRO is finished?
if their upkeep is paid, they keep their house. if is not, they foreclose. that's what that vendor is for, so you can get your stuff from a foreclosed house.
So someone who gets called up on active duty for a year deserves to lose their house because they're unable to play at that time even though they play consistently when not on active duty?
And how is someone 'crying on the forums' about losing their home any different from those 'crying on the forums' about Turbine not foreclosing on homes?
if their upkeep is paid, they keep their house. if is not, they foreclose. that's what that vendor is for, so you can get your stuff from a foreclosed house.
what's the problem?
The problem is is that people that haven't played since houses were introduced still have a house sitting somewhere in a neighborhood that says "Closed due to failure to pay upkeep" and said house cannot be purchased by anyone else, so it sits there...empty...and will remain that way until Turbine fixes things or until they shut the servers down when (or if) we reach Mordor.
Based on Turbines lack of interest in doing anything with housing since they introduced it in 2007, I am leaning towards the latter.
So someone who gets called up on active duty for a year deserves to lose their house because they're unable to play at that time even though they play consistently when not on active duty?
And how is someone 'crying on the forums' about losing their home any different from those 'crying on the forums' about Turbine not foreclosing on homes?
Perhaps Turbine should set something up where those that are in the military and are serving active duty overseas or something can call up and place a "hold" on their account until they return. That way, when they return, it will be like they never left.
But to hold up entire neighborhoods of housing just because 1% of them might be houses used by active military personnel is senseless.
So someone who gets called up on active duty for a year deserves to lose their house because they're unable to play at that time even though they play consistently when not on active duty?
And how is someone 'crying on the forums' about losing their home any different from those 'crying on the forums' about Turbine not foreclosing on homes?
YEAH! Active Duty! Last thing I want after coming home from getting shot at is to find my lord of the rings online house on 3 chestnut road has been taken by Teabaggins! I GOTTA HAVE MY PRIORITIES IN LIFE. YEAH, PATRIOTISM! AMERICA AND A1 SAUCE! LOL! FOOTBALL!
if their upkeep is paid, they keep their house. if is not, they foreclose. that's what that vendor is for, so you can get your stuff from a foreclosed house.
what's the problem?
Actually, it doesn't. An unpaid house remains "locked" to the owner. IF/When they come back, they simply need to pay escrow and the house will open to them again. Regardless of whether they come back or not, the house is Not coming back to the market until They actually abandon it.
YEAH! Active Duty! Last thing I want after coming home from getting shot at is to find my lord of the rings online house on 3 chestnut road has been taken by Teabaggins! I GOTTA HAVE MY PRIORITIES IN LIFE. YEAH, PATRIOTISM! AMERICA AND A1 SAUCE! LOL! FOOTBALL!
*shrug* Whether it makes sense or not, this is the... accepted reason for this mechanic. For what it's worth, we did have quite a few threads of people in the military that lost their IG homes...
YEAH! Active Duty! Last thing I want after coming home from getting shot at is to find my lord of the rings online house on 3 chestnut road has been taken by Teabaggins! I GOTTA HAVE MY PRIORITIES IN LIFE. YEAH, PATRIOTISM! AMERICA AND A1 SAUCE! LOL! FOOTBALL!
You can mock what I said in your childish manner all you want but I've seen plenty of posts by returning service men and women thanking Turbine because everything was how they left it (with the exception of having to unlock the house). And what does America have to do with anything, every country has military folks doing their duties whether it's helping victims of natural disaster or going off to war. I'm not talking one country over another, I just made a blanket statement about what I've seen posted on these forums as recently as last month.
Elderban, thank you for being level-headed and actually offering up some logical discussion instead of mockery, and I like your idea. Another thing is for a player to make accommodations with a friend or friends to pay the house upkeep for them while they are away.
I understand both sides and only try to point out various arguments (arguments in the sense of debate, not fighting); it's a habit of mine. It's possible now that the game is F2P and they can see how many players with houses return that they may adjust how they deal with seemingly abandoned houses. I guess we have to wait and see.
It's refreshing to see the forums slowly returning to very, very, -very- old arguments after the initial F2P flurry. It's like finding that cozy sweater.
FWIW, I agree with OP. Neighborhoods that were already lifeless are now creepily lifeless since the buildings can't be turned over to active players. Here's a thought. When enough houses in a neighborhood get locked, two or three of them should catch fire, ruffians should be pulling copper out of another few, and one lone guy should be peering out the window of another one, a la "Night of the Living Dead." I'd visit that neighborhood.
You can mock what I said in your childish manner all you want but I've seen plenty of posts by returning service men and women thanking Turbine because everything was how they left it (with the exception of having to unlock the house). And what does America have to do with anything, every country has military folks doing their duties whether it's helping victims of natural disaster or going off to war. I'm not talking one country over another, I just made a blanket statement about what I've seen posted on these forums as recently as last month.
Elderban, thank you for being level-headed and actually offering up some logical discussion instead of mockery, and I like your idea. Another thing is for a player to make accommodations with a friend or friends to pay the house upkeep for them while they are away.
I understand both sides and only try to point out various arguments (arguments in the sense of debate, not fighting); it's a habit of mine. It's possible now that the game is F2P and they can see how many players with houses return that they may adjust how they deal with seemingly abandoned houses. I guess we have to wait and see.
Calm down spaz.
I'm simply saying that regardless of the reason (lol military) The game has a mechanic that is not working. What does being in the military have to do with it? Lot's of people stop playing for various reasons. Pulling the "but they served their country! derka deeeer!" card is pretty weird.
All they need to do is add a auto pay feature. Any one that wants to keep there house while they are away just has to click the box, and money will automatically be taken from the character listed as house owner each pay period.
Once they add this add foreclosures back to houses.
It's refreshing to see the forums slowly returning to very, very, -very- old arguments after the initial F2P flurry. It's like finding that cozy sweater.
FWIW, I agree with OP. Neighborhoods that were already lifeless are now creepily lifeless since the buildings can't be turned over to active players. Here's a thought. When enough houses in a neighborhood get locked, two or three of them should catch fire, ruffians should be pulling copper out of another few, and one lone guy should be peering out the window of another one, a la "Night of the Living Dead." I'd visit that neighborhood.
Exactly. I was going to "rent" (you never own them, people) a house in a neighborhood that only had one available, so I thought it would an active one. Most houses were shutdown but claimed.
I'm simply saying that regardless of the reason (lol military) The game has a mechanic that is not working. What does being in the military have to do with it? Lot's of people stop playing for various reasons. Pulling the "but they served their country! derka deeeer!" card is pretty weird.
/sigh
Time to go into "Listen here young punk" mode
Clearly you weren't around when this decision was made. I was, as were many others. Fact is, there were a number of posts from military members complaining at losing their homes due to being on active duty. This was during the height of the Iraq conflict mind you, when going overseas for a "few months" could turn into "a few years". There were factions that disputed it then, and have done so since, but Turbine, at the time, chose to do it this way, primarily in honor of the duty the military was doing. I honestly believe if it hadn't been so many vocal military members, it may not have happened. But there it is, and we're probably stuck with it.
And seriously. Learn some respect for the military. It's your very freedom to post **** like that that they fight to protect.
All they need to do is add a auto pay feature. Any one that wants to keep there house while they are away just has to click the box, and money will automatically be taken from the character listed as house owner each pay period.
Once they add this add foreclosures back to houses.
Now that's a nifty idea, I like it. I've taken various months-long breaks from the game and this would have been handy; though I was able to log in and pay, many others aren't so fortunate.
There were factions that disputed it then, and have done so since, but Turbine, at the time, chose to do it this way, primarily in honor of the duty the military was doing.
I think you are mistaken, sir. I've been around for quite a while on these boards, and while I can recall people using your talking points in these threads, I don't recall *ever* seeing Turbine saying they added the foreclosure/escrow functionality to honor our military. While it may do so as a matter of course, it was not A leading to B.
I think you are mistaken, sir. I've been around for quite a while on these boards, and while I can recall people using your talking points in these threads, I don't recall *ever* seeing Turbine saying they added the foreclosure/escrow functionality to honor our military. While it may do so as a matter of course, it was not A leading to B.
Fair enough, you are probably right. Sadly, those posts seem to be long gone, so there's no way to verify it. My main point ultimately being though, I think we're pretty well stuck with it, and it seemed it was mostly military asking for it. Or so it seemed. But, my memory ain't what she used to be
And just to clarify, since I'm the one who brought it up, I'm just using military active duty as one example of reasons people can't play for a certain period of time; and because I have seen threads of returning military personnel happy that their stuff wasn't taken completely away. What one person doesn't seem to comprehend is that this game is a fun escape used by many for many reasons, but that's not what this thread is about; it was just an example I chose.
There are many OTR drivers who also play LOTRO; some have laptops they can take with them to play while others do not. Of course, most OTR drivers shouldn't be gone for months on end but you never know. Some people have computer problems and are unable to log on until they can afford to get it fixed or replaced. There's a myriad of reasons someone may not be able to log in and they'd be upset to come back and see all the money (well, not quite all because you do get a bit of the money back) spent wasted.
So far the options for preservation I rather like are:
Working it out with a friend or friends to pay while you are away, which has it's own downside because it would be their money.
Setting up an automatic deduction that can be toggled on or off so if you are going to be away, you turn it on and your own money is deducted.
Turbine setting up some sort of option for service men and women (of ALL countries) so that if they are called up, they can still have their houses (locked or unlocked) when they return and want to play.
Ha! Are you kidding me. I think military personnel have a few OTHER things on their mind other than whether their LotRO in game house is preserved. Give me a break. And I'm sure after they've watched their comrades being shot or blown up, they'll be quite devastated to learn that their LotRO house was foreclosed on, and now they need to get their things out of escrow and purchase a new one (which would probably be completely paid for and furnished by their friends and strangers in game to honor their service).
I agree that houses should be foreclosed on after a period of time. That one exceedingly TINY slice of military players that might have their houses foreclosed on is no reason to keep houses vacant and unused forever. Foreclose on the properties and put their items into escrow indefinitely until they return. Send E-mails out at 2 months prior, 1 month, 1 week, and then daily that their house is going to be foreclosed on if they don't log-in and pay upkeep. Give people the option out of game to simply log into their Turbine account and request an extension (not even pay upkeep, just click a button 'YEP I'm still here. I'm still interested. Please give me an automatic 6 month extension').
Housing neighborhoods FULL of absent owner properties is just stupid.
There was a hue and cry about this. I do not remember if military service actually factored into the equasion--I do not think it did.
Again, as memory serves me, I think one arguement against foreclosure was that lifers (like me) contended that they should be able to come back after a break and have their stuff there.
Just go to another neighborhood. On the other hand, it is no nevermind to me.
But, who cares? There are plenty of houses.
Oh, and a personal aside, to no one in particular, mocking people who serve their nation, be that nation the US, the Brits, the Germans, whomever, makes one like like a 1234567788999000,
Just my 2 cents
101! Oh! and while I am at it...2RGJ!
"Next the a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won." Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
There was a hue and cry about this. I do not remember if military service actually factored into the equasion--I do not think it did.
Again, as memory serves me, I think one arguement against foreclosure was that lifers (like me) contended that they should be able to come back after a break and have their stuff there.
You are remembering incorrectly. They have never foreclosed the houses, because, as you mentioned, the lifetime subs.
However, you certainly are correct that there's been much hue and cry about this since housing was introduced.
You know, there is another solution to this which might make things a little better, but still preserve the locked houses for their current owners.
NPCs.
From what I've seen, a lot of players complain that their neighborhoods are "dead", because they are filled with locked properties, so they seem like ghost towns. Well, one solution to that would be for NPCs to spawn at any house locked for an extended amount of time. These NPCs would just wander around the property, maybe sleep in a hammock or start a little garden there, and could be talked to briefly if approached (probably saying something to the effect of them being Caretakers for the property, or long-lost cousins of the owner). When the owner returns and unlocks the property, the NPCs disappear.
In this way, active players would be helped in two ways:
1) Their neighborhoods would have some activity, even if it is just NPCs for the most part, and thus not seem so barren.
2) If, while looking to buy a home, you see lots of spawned NPCs, you would have a clear indication that this neighborhood doesn't have many active players, or has none at all. that would give them a fair warning not to buy in that neighborhood, if they wanted to own a home in an active neighborhood.
I am completely against taking away locked homes from old players, and now that the game is F2P, those players could return at any time to unlock those houses, making the idea of just taking them away a really bad one. Turbine wants to entice the old players to come back, and taking away those player's old houses would not be very welcoming, now would it?
You know, there is another solution to this which might make things a little better, but still preserve the locked houses for their current owners.
NPCs.
From what I've seen, a lot of players complain that their neighborhoods are "dead", because they are filled with locked properties, so they seem like ghost towns. Well, one solution to that would be for NPCs to spawn at any house locked for an extended amount of time. These NPCs would just wander around the property, maybe sleep in a hammock or start a little garden there, and could be talked to briefly if approached (probably saying something to the effect of them being Caretakers for the property, or long-lost cousins of the owner). When the owner returns and unlocks the property, the NPCs disappear.
I'm on the 'I wish houses would actually foreclose' wagon, with restrictions.
The way I see it is, if you suddenly stop playing, and you're gone for an extended (6months+) period of time, your house gets foreclosed. Every item in that house goes into escrow, and escrow never gets deleted, so that nothing is lost.
But, perhaps this should only be for those that simply stop playing and abandon the game. Perhaps those that know they will be gone a long time (such as those in the military) can somehow 'mothball' their homes or set up an auto-pay system.
I really don't see how people can raise hell over losing their house if they don't play for, like, a year. If they quit, and walk away from the game, and don't play for a year or more...do they really have a huge attachment to that house, anyway? I'm not talking about people that have to quit or are unable to play for various reasons, I'm only talking about those that simply quit, and may or may not ever come back.
Neighborhoods are always going to be more or less empty. Overall, we don't spend much time in them, and what time we do spend, is spent either at the vendors (where we might indeed see someone) or in our own homes (where we will see no one unless we invited them in). So the whole 'empty neighborhoods' argument is a fallacy. But having SO MANY neighborhoods that are completely dead because not a single tenant is actually playing...makes it rather irritating to find a house to purchase.
You know, there is another solution to this which might make things a little better, but still preserve the locked houses for their current owners.
NPCs.
hahaha, that's a cool idea.
Personally, I never worry about whether there are other players in the neighborhood because I generally don't use it, and since the addition of shared storage I rarely return home, though I do have one parked at the neighborhood vault. But I can see how other players would like that more social atmosphere but I'm not sure foreclosing on homes would change anything. People have to be willing to hang out in the neighborhoods for them to be lively. Maybe some of those Ales & Tales and other gatherings can take place in neighborhoods on that stage. Just because people own homes, doesn't mean you'll ever see them.
I don't get it.
If you don't log in within 6 months, why should you get to keep your house? You left the game that long, I think it's fair to say your house should be available to other responsible players who actually pay their upkeep and regularly log into the game.
If you come back after 6 months to a year and you start complaining on the forums how your house was taken, you deserved it.
The servers can only spawn so much space to store all the data.
Why should a house become a lifetime trophy when the player will not play for their entire lifetime?
I mean really, at what point will that house become available? When the servers close down and LOTRO is finished?
Turbine please reconsider this.
Why does it matter to you?
Everyone with enough money can buy a house. Once again, EVERYONE with enough money can buy a house. Nobody will be turned away as the system stands now. When neighborhoods fill up more are opened so that everybody who wants to can buy a house. There was a specific deluxe house I wanted in Bree so I waited until a new neighborhood opened up and I bought it. Until Turbine states that they will no longer open up new neighborhoods, you got it, everyone can buy a house.
I've read arguments that houses should be stripped from players because the neighborhoods are ghost towns. That argument holds about as much water as a rusty sieve. If every single house in every single neighborhood was owned by an active accounts the neighborhoods would still be ghost towns. There is no incentive for players to stay in their neighborhoods. Players ride/port there to drop things off or pick things up, they quickly visit the vendors to repair, restock or bank and then they ride/port out. I've bought three homes in three different neighborhoods when those neighborhoods were new and the homes used by active players. In two and a half years I can count on two hands the number of players I've seen in my neighborhoods. Until Turbine gives us a reason to spend time in our neighborhoods they will be little more than a pit stop and thus ghost towns.
In my opinion the advantages of the current house ownership system outweigh any benefit of changing it. If Turbine ever completely reworks the housing system and makes neighborhoods a hub of activity then that would be the time to review the home ownership system. But as Turbine hasn't touched player housing in the past three years I wouldn't advise holding one's breath.
Half of being clever is making certain you are not being stupid.
You are remembering incorrectly. They have never foreclosed the houses, because, as you mentioned, the lifetime subs.
However, you certainly are correct that there's been much hue and cry about this since housing was introduced.
No hes not remembering incorrectly, I'm a lifetime member and founder and myself amd a few friends lost our homes and all of our stuff that had apparently gone into escrow for 2 weeks. Just because some of us have lifetime memberships does not mean we have to play 24/7.
This had happened to too many people and Turbine changed it to what it is now.
I do not agree with the OP since I play these games for fun not as a virtual responsibility.
But not everyone can buy the house on 4 Roaring Road, can they?
Each property looks different, has different square acreage, has varying placement of the outside walls. Some property has snow on the ground with light snow falling, others are near some bright blue crystals with rocky ground.
Some are near a waterfall, while others are right next to the entrance.
Owning a home is about status. It's about choosing YOUR home. The one that fits you. The one you can customize. I don't care if my neighborhood is a ghost town. I just want the house that I want.
The deluxe house I want out of all 250+ housing instances Turbine says they have isn't available.
Out of the 6 or so neighborhoods I can access that have deluxe housing available, in almost all of them the lot I want is locked due to non payment of upkeep.
So...that's why I care.
And another thing, if the big uproar is that players lose their stuff if the house is foreclosed, then think about this.
Currently a house can be locked indefinitely, unlocked as soon as the owner logs in after 3 years and pays his fee not to exceed the price of the home.
But if you abandon your house, and all your stuff goes into the escrow broker, you have 14 days to claim it or else it decays and is unrecoverable.
Why? Why not foreclose and keep the stuff on the escrow broker Turbine? You're already wasting server space leaving all their **** displayed on the lot, wouldn't it be less space to just store it all as data only within an NPC? Compound that across every neighborhood, every server, every player.
Think how much space you would save, while at the same time opening up lots to players that actively play.
I would never deny someone who is fighting overseas the right to be able to return to find his pixel game house as he left it.
In Ultima online the landscape was littered with houses for years upon years after players had left the game. If you are tricksy you can force the housing instance to start a new instance and get the houses you and your kin want together.
I agree with the op, it makes no sense to indefinitly have houses closed and unavailable. Just imagine all the F2P players buying the cheap houses(cause they are at the goldlimit anyway), then leaving and never returning because they are not attached to the game. We could easily go from 250 neighborhoods to 2500 in another 3 years, and to what purpose?
Im one of those that returned after over a year and found my home untouched, yay! I loved my neighborhood. But wait, my neighborhood was gone, the kinhouse of the funny RP guild next door was closed, so was my next neighbor and actually 90% of my neighborhood. So what did i do? I abandoned my house and got me the same in another instance, because while my house was still there and untouched, my neighborhood was gone. And what is the house worth without the neighborhood anyway? Just a port, some shared storage and some cosmetics no one is ever going to see. You can get a identical one pretty much any time you want, and if you still care about your neighborhood after being gone for over a year... well chances are its gone, thats why we want the change because a new neighborhood is better than a ghost town.
So i propose the following:
1. Houses of free and premium players that don't have paid rent for more then 2 months get put back on market and stuff goes into escrow indefinitly.
2. VIP homes get closed, but not put on market.
3. If considered necessary create a new instance for a returnee where he gets the exact same house in the exact same spot upon paying his fines(but a different instance obviously).
The military person serving their country has several options in that case:
1. Keep your sub active, if LTA problem does not arise.
2. Explain situation to kin or friends, give them the money and have them pay for your home, let sub lapse.
3. Ask(ingame) neighbors to care for your building, they get to use the building in exchange or something.
4. Have a family member or friend create a F2P account and care for the house.
This would be the first step to make housing more interesting and has to come before anything else in regards to housing. Without real person neighbors all you have is an empty instance all to your own, and no amount of changes to housing would ever make your neighborhood anything but a ghost town if 90% of the houses in it are locked.
Im aware my proposal doesn't address LTAs, but really while they might be part of the current problem, the future problem will be F2P/Premium houses of people who never put much time into the game and never intend to return. Atleast stop the ghost towns from growing and spreading. Because yes im one of the hopeful ones that expects housing to be awesome one day, and like i said, neighborhoods without neighbors are worthless, might aswell give everyone their own instance of a neighborhood.
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Re: Foreclose on player homes already!!!
Originally Posted by guguzza
I would never deny someone who is fighting overseas the right to be able to return to find his pixel game house as he left it.
What? Since when is this a right?
Houses should foreclose no matter what after a certain period of non payment. People who expect to not play for an extended time and still come back to their house need to get over it. People need to stop feeling like these little LOTRO houses are their personal property. They're not. And I'll say it, I don't care if the reason is that they're in the military. They need to get over it too. If they're really concerned about their little pixel house they can arrange for friends to pay for it in their absence.
Housing serves a purpose for people who are active in the game. It served no purpose for people who are not in game. Right now housing just doesn't work and this is a big reason for it. There has to be another way. People who are not actively playing need to stop being selfish and just get themselves a new house when they get back.
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Re: Foreclose on player homes already!!!
So far the only real reason I've seen to change this was because people want a certain house location. Sorry, but you can wait for a new 'Hood' to open up like the rest of us.
As to the, "Hoods feel empty" argument, I don't buy it. Even when they first cam out and I bought into one of the first ones. It filled up quick. I only saw, at most, three other people in the hood the whole time I had a home there. And it was an 'active' hood. I know this because the day our kin moved it's kin house, and the four of us that had homes there moved to the Shire on the same day, it took less than a day for the other kin in the hood to buy the homes we abandoned.
Taking away peoples home will not make more player show up in your hood. :/ As player spend most of there time playing and not hanging in the hood.
If you want more people in your hood, run events.
If want a certain location, wait for it.
****Bogarts! We hates Bogarts!****
Best Mod quote EVER = "Closing the thread, as the OP has quit the forums." - Patience
I'm simply saying that regardless of the reason (lol military) The game has a mechanic that is not working. What does being in the military have to do with it? Lot's of people stop playing for various reasons. Pulling the "but they served their country! derka deeeer!" card is pretty weird.
Not weird at all really... Actually a perfectly good example where foreclosing on a house might not be "fair".
BTW the game mechanic is working perfectly as intended.
But not everyone can buy the house on 4 Roaring Road, can they?
Each property looks different, has different square acreage, has varying placement of the outside walls. Some property has snow on the ground with light snow falling, others are near some bright blue crystals with rocky ground.
Some are near a waterfall, while others are right next to the entrance.
Owning a home is about status. It's about choosing YOUR home. The one that fits you. The one you can customize. I don't care if my neighborhood is a ghost town. I just want the house that I want.
The deluxe house I want out of all 250+ housing instances Turbine says they have isn't available.
Out of the 6 or so neighborhoods I can access that have deluxe housing available, in almost all of them the lot I want is locked due to non payment of upkeep.
So...that's why I care.
And another thing, if the big uproar is that players lose their stuff if the house is foreclosed, then think about this.
Currently a house can be locked indefinitely, unlocked as soon as the owner logs in after 3 years and pays his fee not to exceed the price of the home.
But if you abandon your house, and all your stuff goes into the escrow broker, you have 14 days to claim it or else it decays and is unrecoverable.
Why? Why not foreclose and keep the stuff on the escrow broker Turbine? You're already wasting server space leaving all their **** displayed on the lot, wouldn't it be less space to just store it all as data only within an NPC? Compound that across every neighborhood, every server, every player.
Think how much space you would save, while at the same time opening up lots to players that actively play.
Makes sense to me.
Some times in life there are things we want and can not have...
Not sure this topic will get much traction. Ever since they changed the foreclosure policy there have been numerous threads raising ALL the issues raised in this thread.
My guess is Turbine will re-visit housing at some point (might be a LONG time). They were stuck. How can they take away houses from Lifetime accounts if they are going to really honor the lifetime commitment. If they cannot take away houses from lifers, how would it be fair to do to monthly subscribers? And so on down the line.
The compromise was to make the cost to re-activate long dead houses to be so much that if people did come back and want a house, they would abandon the one they owed on, and buy a new one. Trouble is the number who have not returned.
F2P does raise some new issues. If I am F2P, play enough to buy a house, then decide not to ever come back, you have a dead house. Multiply by that by a few 100 per server and you have a lot of dead real estate.
I cannot believe Turbine will just turn a blind eye and just create more Housing instances, but like I said, the change might be long in coming.
But not everyone can buy the house on 4 Roaring Road, can they?
To a degree, yes they can.
As I stated in my other post, there was a particular deluxe house I wanted in the Bree homestead. Its located close to the vendors and most importantly it's back yard has a steam running past it with two large boulders just begging to be fished from. That home was taken in all the neighborhoods. So I simply waited until a new neighborhood opened up. Three opened at the same time so I chose the name I liked best and bought my virtual dream home.
Here's a question in return. If Turbine stole the homes of every player who's stepped away from the game for six months, including lifetime members who were told they could do just that, could everyone buy that particular home you like? Of course not. Each address is finite. Whether Turbine repossesses homes or not, not everyone will get the exact house they want without waiting for new neighborhoods to open up.
Originally Posted by Halcyon8
Why? Why not foreclose and keep the stuff on the escrow broker Turbine? You're already wasting server space leaving all their **** displayed on the lot, wouldn't it be less space to just store it all as data only within an NPC? Compound that across every neighborhood, every server, every player.
Think how much space you would save, while at the same time opening up lots to players that actively play.
IF Turbine placed not only all of a home's belongs but also the cost of the home and the cost of the chests into permanent escrow then I could live with that compromise. But I would place the expiration date at no less than one year. Many players do try out other games and come back. And others come back after long periods for other reasons. Lifetime members, especially, should be given a greater leeway if not be exempt. Part of the enticement for buying a lifetime membership was the luxury of being able to step away from the game for long periods of time and come back to our accounts just as we left them. To change that after shelling out all that money for lifetime accounts may not be criminal but it would certainly be wrong and earn Turbine a lot of animosity towards their company and any future games.
Half of being clever is making certain you are not being stupid.
Turbine does need to address this sometime. A player/kinship that does pay its rent should have its house foreclosed. But loosing house and its contents is not going to encourage players to return. SO there should be a refund of the house price less 6 weeks of rent and all items ther were in the house place in escrow waiting for the player to return.
I know in my neighborhood, more than half are closed for non-payment. I'd like to have some neighbors that where actually playing. And the number of required neighborhoods could be reduced.
I took a hiatus from the game and my houses required to come out of hock, I would have much preferred having return haveing access to my items in escrow and bought new houses when I returned vs having to pay up to 80% of the house just to get my stuff out ot the chests. Plus that would have allow someone to buy my house while I was out.
When housing upkeep is overdue, instead of foreclosing on your personal or kinship house, we "lock" the house. While your house is locked, you are denied the benefits of home ownership, including entry, access to storage, decorations, travel skill, and vendor discounts. However, your house and all the items it contains will be held for you indefinitely. You can unlock your house at any time by paying a restoral fee via the housing maintenance UI.
Prior to this, houses used to be TAKEN AWAY if you failed to pay your upkeep and were foreclosed on, lifetime sub or not, tossing all of your goods into escrow that also disappeared after ~2 weeks.
Turbine changed this a few patches later to NEVER take away houses, only to lock them.
Last edited by Stilgaard; Oct 01 2010 at 10:00 AM.
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Originally Posted by Halcyon8
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