Housing
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| Gameplay Topics: Conjunctions • Combat • Deeds • Housing • Reputation • Titles • Warband Maneuvers |
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Beginning with the Book 11: Defenders of Eriador content update, players can now live in their own home in Middle-earth! Players can choose from 4 different housing styles - be it a majestic elven home overlooking a waterfall in Ered Luin, an underground dwarven home near Thorin's Hall, a rustic house of Men in Bree-land, or a cozy hobbit-home in the Shire. Kinship Halls provide plenty of space for groups to gather after a long day of adventuring. All homes provide the option of additional storage and can be customized inside and out with hundreds of unique items. A character of any race can purchase a house in any of the homesteads if they are level 15 or higher.
Homesteads
Player housing takes the form of instanced neighborhoods within a homestead. There are four distinct homesteads, one for each of the four playable races of Lord of the Rings Online.
Men of Bree-land
The homestead of men is located in Bree-land, southeast of the Midgewater Marsh. The houses in the Bree-land homestead are rustic wood and stone houses, similar to the cabin-like houses found throughout Bree-land.
- For more information see Bree-land Homesteads
Hobbits of the Shire
The hobbit homestead is in the Southfarthing of the Shire, south of Waymeet. Homes in the hobbit homestead are both smials dug into the sides of hills, and above-ground houses, consistent with hobbit homes found throughout the Shire.
- For more information see Shire Homesteads
Elves of Ered Luin
The elven homestead is in Falathlorn, across the bridge near Duillond in Ered Luin. Elven homes are ornately designed domed houses similar to the elven architecture found throughout Eriador.
- For more information see Falathlorn Homesteads
Dwarves of the Blue Mountains
The homestead of the dwarves is inside a large cavern in Thorin's Gate in Ered Luin, not far from the Stable-master Wíli. Dwarven homes are detailed stonework architecture consistent with dwarven architecture seen in Thorin's Hall.
- For more information see Thorin's Hall Homesteads
Neighborhoods
Each neighborhood consists of 30 houses:
- 16 standard houses
- 10 deluxe houses
- 4 kinship houses.
When all the houses in one neighborhood are sold, a new instance is generated and more houses become available for purchase. There are currently up to 250 neighborhood instances to each homestead.
Along with the player houses, neighborhoods include gathering areas that can be used for meetings and events held by players, and all neighborhoods have vendors such as the Housing Furnisher, Supplier & Provisioner, Healer, and Vault-keeper.
Personal Houses
Personal houses allow players to establish roots in Middle-earth, with their own customizable space. Personal houses are either standard or deluxe houses, offering additional storage in the form of 30-slot chests which can be purchased.
When a character owns a personal house, they will automatically receive the Travel to Personal House skill that returns them to their personal house, which requires 1 Travelling Rations and has a 1 hour cooldown (separate from the other recall cooldowns). Characters owning a house will automatically receive a Passive Skill that grants a 20% discount when purchasing and repairing with the vendors inside the neighborhood in which they own a home.
Standard Houses
Standard houses offer 22 interior decorating hooks, 5 exterior decorating hooks, and have one 30-slot chest available for purchase. Four different varieties of standard houses are available:
- Bree-land Standard House
- Shire Standard House
- Falathlorn Standard House
- Thorin's Hall Standard House
Deluxe Houses
Deluxe houses offer 47 interior decorating hooks, 7 exterior decorating hooks, and up to two 30-slot chests can be purchased. Four different varieties of deluxe houses are available:
Location: This may be very important factor when choosing a personal house as it relates to travelling. Because of the free Map Home to a character's milestone, their home town (at a certain level) and their Kinship house, players may want to live in a different area so it provides them yet another location to port to. So players should take their time considering which homestead in which to purchase a house, and remember to stock up on the required travelling rations.
Maintenance: When a character is near their home, two icons show up on the lower left of the mini-map radar (the compass at the top-right of the screen), one is for Maintenance (such as paying upkeep and unlocking extra storage chests), the second toggles Decoration Mode (for placing and arranging decorations).
The Maintenance panel will display the current Upkeep status (which weeks have been paid for, and which weeks are available to be pre-paid) with the date next payment will be due.
Permissions: Home owners can manage up to 50 permissions for the home. In the "Character Journal" panel in the "House" tab is "Permissions". Players can toggle permissions for Everyone, Kinship, and characters by name, to allow them various levels of access and interaction (i.e. visiting, using the housing chests, paying upkeep, decorating, using decorations, and managing permissions).
Chests: The number of chests available depends on the type of house: the standard house offers only have 1 chest (for the one-time cost of 100s); a deluxe house offers up to 2 chests (the 2nd costs 500s), each chest having 30 slots. Chests can automatically be used by the character owning the house, the 'alt' characters on that same account, and anyone else that the house owner gives permission to use the housing chest(s). Items that are bound to a character can be placed into a housing chest by the housing owner, but quest items cannot be placed into the housing chest.
Mailboxes: Every house has a mailbox right outside the front door. The house owner and all 'alt' characters on the same account as the house owner character can access the mailbox to send and receive items.
Abandoning: If for some reason a player is no longer satisfied with their house, the player can choose to abandon it. The character will not regain the purchase price for an abandoned house. Characters must wait 24 hours before being able to purchase a new house. Players must remove their decorations and items in the housing chest prior to abandoning.
Foreclosure: If a character fails to pay the upkeep when the upkeep fee is due, the house will be foreclosed and the character will lose that house. All decorations and stored items will be placed in Escrow for two weeks. Characters can retrieve items in Escrow by accessing any Vault-keeper and selecting the Escrow option.
Addresses: While each neighborhood instance has the same houses in the same geographical layout, each house has a unique address in the form of the house address combined with the name of the neighborhood instance. For example, every neighborhood instance in the Shire Homesteads has the same type of house at 6 Myrtle Court, but is distinguished by which neighborhood instance it is in. This is used as the address that players can share with friends to identify their house. One character may reside at 6 Myrtle Court in the Derndelf neighborhood, while another character may reside at 6 Myrtle Court in the Turtledown neighborhood. When sharing their address, players commonly just add the neighborhood name at the end, such as "6 Myrtle Court, Turtledown".
Kinship Houses
Kinship houses are the largest of houses, and are designed to be meeting halls for kinships to use for meetings, events, and general socialization. If a character is a member of a kinship that has a kinship house, they will automatically get a new skill to port back to the kinship house called Travel to Kinship House which requires 1 Travelling Rations per use and has a 1 hour cooldown (separate from other recall skill cooldowns).
Only the leader of a kinship that has reached the rank of 7 or higher can purchase a kinship house.
Kinship houses offer 80 interior decorating hooks, 12 exterior decorating hooks, and up to 3 chests can be purchased. Four different varieties of kinship houses are available:
Privileges: If a character is a member of a kinship that has a kinship house, they will automatically receive a discount when purchasing and repairing at the vendors inside that kinship's neighborhood. Additionally, if a character owns a personal house inside the same neighborhood as their kinship's house, then the personal discount and the kinship discount stack, for a combined discount.
Decorating the Kinship House: The leader of the kinship manages the permissions for that house, including who can enter Decoration Mode and decorate the kinship house.
Upkeep & Donations: When granted permission by the kinship leader, characters may pay for the upkeep. In the "Character Journal" in the "House" tab, it will display the upkeep fee costs for a character's personal house as well as the kinship house.
Purchasing A House
Players can purchase only one home per account (per server) and need to be at least level 15. There are no racial restrictions when purchasing a house, so a character of any race can purchase a house in any of the homesteads. (A hobbit can purchase a house in the elven homestead, a dwarf can purchase a house in the hobbit homestead, etc.)
Purchasing a house can be done in one of two ways: characters can visit a Housing Broker just outside of each homestead to access the list of available houses; or characters can enter each neighborhood instance to walk around and see what the different houses look like and where they are located. Inside the instance, if a house is available players can click on the "For Sale" sign in the front yard. The "For Sale" sign will display how much the purchase price is, how much the weekly upkeep fee is, and the number of internal and external decorating hooks are available to the house.
The purchase price depends on what type of house it is. Standard houses cost and average of 1 gold (950s to 1g 150s), while deluxe houses average 7 gold (6g 650s to 8g 50s). There is a weekly upkeep fee which must be paid in order to maintain ownership of the house. Upkeep can be paid several weeks in advance.
The leader of a kinship of rank 7 or higher may purchase a Kinship House for the kinship, as well as a personal house.
The Housing Brokers for each of the homesteads are:
- Nan Henwood for Bree-land Homesteads
- Andy Brockhouse for Shire Homesteads
- Barchiril for Falathlorn Homesteads
- Rúni for Thorin's Hall Homesteads
Decorating
Currently, only Decoration Items can be displayed within a home, so characters can't leave their equipment lying around on the floor. Objects are limited by category (i.e. large wall, small wall, large floor, small floor, large furniture, small furniture, etc.) for placing in pre-determined spaces called decorating hooks. Decoration items placed in the decorating hooks can be rotated in the small window accessed by right-clicking the decorating hook. Decorations can also be crafted from a recipe sold by the neighborhood vendors. Players can even purchase ambient music to be played automatically when characters are inside the home. To apply the decorations, players first enter Decoration Mode by clicking on the small icon on lower left of the mini-map.
Floor and Wall: Players can customize the floor and wall textures and colors by purchasing the appropriate items from the Housing Furnishers inside the homesteads. When in Decoration Mode, players will see a 3D object floating near the door labeled 'Wall Color' or 'Floor Color' which opens a small window when clicked on. Players can then open their inventory and drag the purchased texture or color item for the appropriate area to the slot in the small window. The wall and floor textures and colors and be changed as many times as desired, and the items use for setting the colors and textures are not consumed.
See Category:Furnishings for details of the furnishing items.
- NOTE: The game developers have stated that they are looking at ways to implement a free-form decorating system, which would allow players to place decorations and furniture anywhere inside the house.
Recipes
Several recipes for crafted decoration items are available from the Housing Furnisher NPCs inside the homesteads. Recipes for decoration items are also available from the various Reputation vendors across Middle-earth.
Some recipes require very high standing with the reputation faction in order to purchase the recipe, but not to learn and craft the item. Some decoration items are usable only in a kinship house (such as the Huge and Enormous Yard items).
Cook
Item Cost Location Breakfast Table Decoration Recipe ?? Bree-land Homesteads
Forester
Item Cost Location Log-holder Decoration Recipe ?? Bree-land Homesteads
Jeweller
Item Cost Location Elven Starry Chandelier Recipe 15 
24 
Falathlorn Homesteads
Metalsmith
N/A
Scholar
N/A
Tailor
Woodworker
Housing Quests
- Building the Duillond Homestead [8]
- Building the Bree Homestead [8]
- Homesteads of Eriador [15]
- There's No Place Like Home [15]
- The Taxidermist of Bree [15]
Miscellaneous Information
Gather Areas: Each neighborhood has its own gathering area with a stage and rows of chairs. In the Shire (also has a party tree) & Bree neighborhoods there are areas with tents that allow for role playing of a market area.
Address: To share your location with friends that use the neighborhood, search to find your home, just click the "Add to Favorites" button.
Patch Notes
Book 12 Patch Notes
- Now all characters on your account share in the privileges of home ownership! All characters get the fast travel to personal home skill, and all characters get a discount at the neighborhood vendors. Note: Only the character who purchased the house can abandon it.
- Usable Hooked Items
- Light candles in your home!
- Decoration Rotation – rotate objects!
- Bound-item Support
- Better Housing Ownership Identification
- Owner’s Name displays as you approach their house – never wonder if you’re at the right house again!
Book 13 Patch Notes
- Housing Items inside of Escrow will now persist for two weeks before being cleaned up.
- Dear Skyscream of Brandywine, We made the NPCs near your house a bit less chat spammy. Love, Keth
- Fixed typos in some item decoration tooltips ("Decoration Category: Wall Colour" and "Decoration Category: Floor Colour").
- You can no longer access the housing panel while in monster or session play.
