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Housing as it stands at the moment has a lot of problems, including:- Kinships and friends having trouble buying together to form a neighbourhood together. Certain housing types being far more popular, but new instances not opening up as the less popular houses still haven’t sold, leading to people being unable to get the house type they want. ‘Locked’ houses of ex-players that may never be used ever again taking up spaces that current players really want. Most of the Kinship Halls being empty, because the ratio of Kinship Halls to Houses is off. Very limited housing and decorating choices. ‘Cookie-cutter’ builds. No way to ‘upgrade’ to a larger house without losing the money you paid for the original one. Housing Chests not accepting Bound items. With all of the above in mind, I have the following suggestions for a housing revamp. Please bear in mind that this is a holistic view, and most of these suggestions are designed to work together. The key suggestion to this revamp, the one most of the others depend on, is the separation of house and plot. At the moment, each Neighbourhood has thirty houses, all of which are a specific type in a specific location. This is incredibly limiting, firstly because there are only so many of each type, and secondly because many of one type, the Kinship Hall, are standing empty. My suggestion here is to separate the two. Have each area of land a ‘plot’, and have each house built on a ‘plot’. The land a Small house currently stands on will be a Small plot, the land a Deluxe house currently stands on will be a Medium plot, and land a Kinship Hall stands on will be a Large plot. Each plot of land will cost half what the current house type on that plot costs. Having bought their plot, the player can then build the house of their preferred type on it. Kinship Halls will still have to go on Large plots, but other than that there is no restriction. If I player wants to, they can build a Deluxe house on a Large plot, to have more garden space, or if they’re not a keen gardener they can build a Deluxe house on a Small plot. Likewise a Small house can be built on any size plot. Each house type will cost half what a current house of that type costs. What this means in term of costs is that if a player buys (or sticks with) one of the current combinations, that is a Kinship Hall on a Large plot, a Deluxe House on a Medium plot, or a Small House on a Small plot, the price is identical to now. However, if a player wants a Small House on a Medium plot, or a Deluxe House on a Small Plot, or any combination, then the price is automatically adjusted according to their choice. Maintenance is handled in exactly the same way. The plot size contributes one part of the Maintenance cost, and the house size the other, which is payable in a single sum. Current combinations will pay exactly the same amount, new combinations automatically adjust to the players choice. Having implemented this key feature, it then opens up a lot more possibilities. Add an additional house size Add at least one more size of house. Keep the Small as it is, rename the Deluxe a Medium, and add in a new Deluxe that's twice the size. Enlarge the Kinship Hall so it actually feels like a Kinship could make use of it. Prices for the Small, Medium and Kinship Hall should remain as they are now, but the new ‘Deluxe’ player house could cost around the same as a Kinship Hall. Allow for the upgrading of houses You bought the land, you can do what you want with it. You bought it at level 15, and could only afford to put a Small House on it, but now you're level 40 with cash to spare? Upgrade your house to a Medium, or even a Deluxe! There could even be a couple of extra 'buyable' rooms, for a premium, so you can expand again later. Call it having an extension built, up to the limit that the foundations can support. When you upgrade, you pay the price difference from your current house to the new one, perhaps with a small additional fee (planning permission?). Players should not lose all the money they paid before just because they can now afford somewhere bigger. Add more layout options for your house Not have the houses so cookie cutter. A Small House only has two rooms, fine, not much you can do with that, but you could at least choose the orientation. Medium, Deluxe and Kinship Halls, give a few layouts to choose from. Existing houses could be ‘upgraded’ to one of the new layouts using the above system, but as they’re the same size would only incur the ‘planning permission’ cost. Selling Your Plot With more choice becoming available, it is highly likely that people will want to move, particularly if the suggestion below for Kinship Neighbourhoods is implemented, and therefore it should be possible to ‘sell back’ your current house and plot, perhaps for a small fee (agent’s commission?). Now that players have a much greater freedom in where they live, we really need to address the first point on my list of problems, which was Kinships and friends having trouble buying together to form a neighbourhood together. My suggestion for this is to grant the Kinship Leader (if the Kinship is of the appropriate rank) two additional options at a Housing Broker:- Buy an entire Neighbourhood outright If the Kinship Leader chooses this option, they have to pay for all thirty plots of land within that Neighbourhood at the outset. Members of the Kinship are then able to build their house on any vacant plot, at the usual price, and everything then works as normal, the Member pays maintenance on both plot and house. If the Kinship doesn’t have thirty members, the Kinship Leader is able to flag individual plots as open for general sale, allowing anyone to move in. If someone outside the Kinship buys one of the open plots, the money is returned to the Kinship. Everything then works as normal, with the player paying maintenance as normal. Empty plots not flagged as open for general sale will still be reserved for Kinship members only, thus providing space for new recruits if the Kinship expands. Reserve a Neighbourhood for a certain period If the Kinship Leader chooses this option, then they will not have to buy all the plots, only pay a ‘reservation fee’. During the reservation period (one week?), only members of that Kinship can buy there, in the usual way. Once the reservation period is over, anyone can buy in that neighbourhood. This would allow smaller Kinships the option to form a Neighbourhood together without having to scrape together the large amount needed to buy thirty plots first. As a further option, it would be very nice indeed to have Different Sized Neighbourhoods. Keep the standard ‘non-Kinship’ ones to the same thirty-plot layouts as they are now, but introduce a few different sizes for Kinships to buy or reserve. Perhaps a Small (10, 15?), Medium (30 as now, so no change needed) and Large (50), perhaps even a Huge (100, are there Kinships that big in LotRO?). Obviously the ‘Buy Outright’ cost would automatically be reflected in the number of plots, so the ‘reserve’ fee should similarly be scaled. If you wanted to combine those different sizes with a few options for different layouts, even better! Also, again specifically for Kinship Neighbourhoods, the option for a certain amount of decoration space in the ‘common’ areas would be nice, rather than just in houses and gardens. So, now the players have the freedom to live with their friends, with much more housing choices, it’s time to address those other niggling little concerns... ’Locked’ houses of ex-players cluttering up the neighbourhoods Move houses that have been locked for a certain (shortish, one month, two?) period to ‘locked’ neighbourhoods, i.e. ones you can't buy in. This will free up unused houses in active neighbourhoods, without having anyone lose anything. If the person then returns to the game they still have their house and can visit it exactly as before, once the maintenance is paid, but they are no longer 'blocking' others. Allow returning people to 'move' from the locked neighbourhood back into an active one, either by selling back their locked plot and house, thus freeing them up to buy a new one, or directly transferring it to a vacant plot, paying the difference if the new plot costs more than their old one.. Very limited decorating choices. ‘Cookie-cutter’ builds. Get rid of the set decoration hooks, and replace them with 'space'. A Small House has so much space, a Medium a bit more, a Deluxe a lot, and a Kinship Hall the most. The decorations then use up this 'space', larger decorations use up more. Got a lovely floor design and don't want to use up space covering it with rugs? Fine, you've got extra for wall decorations, now you can show off all those fish you caught! Gardens work the same way, so if you don't want one of the Huge yard ornaments outside your Kinship Hall, you can plant extra flowerbeds instead. ‘Space’ should be freeform. Wall ornaments would still have to go on a wall, but you get to choose exactly where, the same for all the other types. Greatly expand the decoration choices, particularly with regard to player-made furniture and items. Add lots more in, and allow them to be dyed or painted, either when made or later, in several places. If I make a chair with cushions, I'd like to be able to individually colour the wood and the material, at the very least, and from a palette not just a few limited choices. Sure, it'll mean a bit of an increase in database size, but infinitesimal compared to the rest of the game, and as each house is instanced and the contents loaded on entry additional lag won't be an issue. Housing Chests not accepting Bound items This should be very simple to fix. Currently one character cannot take decorations bound to another, even if they have permission to decorate, so it’s not exactly a major leap to apply this same logic to Housing Chests and the items inside them. Also, the number of chests available in houses should be increased. They cost a lot to open, so why limit them so much? At least three for a Small house, then two extra for each size above that. Half-empty Neighbourhoods Of course, all this selling back of established houses to move to Kinship Neighbourhoods would leave lots of holes in existing neighbourhoods. This could be a good thing as it would instantly open up the housing options for everyone else, or alternatively a certain time after the patch introducing the above (one month, two?) a database pass could be made, combining semi-empty neighbourhoods into full ones. Houses would remain on the same plots, so superficially nothing would change, except you might find yourself living in a neighbourhood with a different name. I'm not sure how much that could upset people, but I'd imagine at least a few wouldn't like it, so at the very least decent warning should be given. Neighbourhoods that become completely empty could be closed down, if the number of instances available is an issue, or left for future purchase. The ability to place crafting facilities in Kinship Halls If the Kinship has a Grand Master in a profession, they should be able to buy (or make?) a Superior facility for that craft, and place it in the Kinship Hall. Rights to use it could be assigned as visiting, decorating etc are now, or it could be restricted to Kinship only. The ability to 'hire' certain NPCs for the Kinship Hall Being able to hire a Vault Keeper, or crafting suppliers, and have them in the Kinship Hall would be a great combination with the above. Their 'salary' could be added to the Kinship Hall maintenance costs. The combination of these two things could go a long way towards making the Kinship Hall a real hub for Kinship activity. Yes, it could do so at the expense of making the existing facilities emptier, I rarely see more than half a dozen people at them anyway. Finally, a big one for me... House Pets! Small Houses could be allowed one pet, which scampers around inside like small animals currently do in the world, and then one extra pet could be allowed for each size above that. Oh, I would so! love that. In fact, Devs, please add that first! 8-) The ability to have Garden Pets, one, two or three based on the size of the plot, would also be amazing, and would allow for 'bird' pets that hop and flutter around your garden! 8-) |