LotRO Player Housing in Book 11
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar will be getting its next content patch, Book 11, in November. While there are many aspects of it that are interesting - the addition of the Balrog, and new pets for the Loremaster class - the one that really grabs my attention is Player and Kinship Housing. This is something I really enjoyed in DAoC, and always missed in WoW - it's been "coming soon" since WoW was released.
There's an article on Book 11 on TenTonHammer, from which I quote:
"...not only will player housing be available, but Kinship housing as well. In my mind, I could hear LotRO fans everywhere cheering with glee; player housing is amazingly appropriate for the gameplay style of LotRO and I imagine a vast majority of the LotRO players will be interested in any sort of housing available to them, Kinship and player alike. "We've established a place where people love to be," Steefel said. "Now we're trying to give the players a chance to live there."Cody "Micajah" Bye listens intently to the words of Steefel, smiling at the executive's enthusiasm and good humor. Houses are also pretty damn cool.
In the scheme that the Turbine developers have devised for housing, there will be four unique neighborhood types for housing. Each of these neighborhood types will be based upon race. While we were oogling the information, Steefel wanted to make sure to emphasize a certain point, saying that "it's important to note that these are neighborhoods and not just places for houses." On top of that, Steefel stated that you'll be able to decorate your house. From the concept art that Steefel showed us, we noticed that each of the houses will have their own racial stylings involved. For example, Elven houses will be flowing, epic, and grand, sporting amazing all sorts of filigree. On the other hand, Hobbit houses will be much shorter and rounder, looking more like the inside of a ship (with the porthole type windows).
According to Steefel there will be hundreds of cool items that you can decorate your house with, ranging from the standard sets of furniture to Elvish welcome mats (that actually say "Welcome" in Sindarin). With the rabid fanbase that LotRO has already developed, all of these items will certainly have their place in the gameplay for RPers and non-RPers alike; it should be a fascinating journey to watch houses spring up all across Middle Earth.
Here's the list of changes for Book 11 on the official LotRO forums, and here's the list of known issues, most of which are with Housing. In a way, it's nice to see issues with it, because it means that it's got enough features to also have bugs, and that attention is definitely being paid to it.
Amd here are some screenshots.
I'm looking forward hugely to this.
Posted by Drew Shiel at October 11, 2007 12:11 PM
