The Last Homely House Remodel Comparison

[Narufind]

As most of you are aware The Last Homely House was recently updated. On the eve of the update I captured as much video as I could of the old version and I've finally found the time capture and synchronize video of the remodel.

[Aeroniel]

Wow! what an awesome comparison you've created!

I so much love the new house, and your video certainly documents why - for me, the old house was too cold and sterile to be an elven home - so much hard, shiny marble. In the new house, the greenery and vegetation gives it a proper elven feel and the rugs warm up the cold floors.

Your video does such an excellent job documenting the before-and-after -- thank you for making it

[TesalionLortus]

Great work! The video illustrates what went wrong and where. For example, you might easily notice that the new stairs are far less splendorous than old ramp (worn ugly stone steps, like... is there no maintenance in Elrond's halls? plus don't fit the rest of the style) and yeah, that the place became less noble overall with saturation of certain design choices/colors.

for me, the old house was too cold and sterile to be an elven home - so much hard, shiny marble. In the new house, the greenery and vegetation gives it a proper elven feel and the rugs warm up the cold floors.

I have no idea why the elven (Tolkien's elves!) space cannot feel splendorous and noble with shiny marble? That's exactly what made the Elrond's house distinct before. Rivendell was no "wood elves" style. Especially the green floor upon entry in the new one feels a bit ridiculous, like they're planning an elven disco party. No sense of noble presence there. Feels more like something that you could have bumped into in any random house of Lothlorien, if we talk style. The place could have been more decorated and warmed up, yeah, but without taking away the marble and shine.

[wispsong]

Great work! The video illustrates what went wrong and where. For example, you might easily notice that the new stairs are far less splendorous than old ramp (worn ugly stone steps, like... is there no maintenance in Elrond's halls? plus don't fit the rest of the style) and yeah, that the place became less noble overall with saturation of certain design choices/colors.




I have no idea why the elven (Tolkien's elves!) space cannot feel splendorous and noble with shiny marble? That's exactly what made the Elrond's house distinct before. Rivendell was no "wood elves" style. Especially the green floor upon entry in the new one feels a bit ridiculous, like they're planning an elven disco party. No sense of noble presence there. Feels more like something that you could have bumped into in any random house of Lothlorien, if we talk style. The place could have been more decorated and warmed up, yeah, but without taking away the marble and shine.

I agree with you. After checking it out again, for me it's the floor with the color mess and the stairs. If this would go back to old the other additions might actually look good and give the space a full but elegant look.

[TesalionLortus]

I agree with you. After checking it out again, for me it's the floor with the color mess and the stairs. If this would go back to old the other additions might actually look good and give the space a full but elegant look.

That could be nice, yes. Fingers crossed, I would love it if SSG actually did that... it's really just a small tweak and wouldn't change any warmth, but just make it more balanced and elegant

What I find ironic is that the update was motivated by the space being limited in terms of lightning, so they had to redo it to make the new, modern lightning stuff work, but... they erased all sense of shiny and reflective spaces that it had before, and added all that extra lusterless color... sooo... where is the logic here? In theory, with more modern reflections (think of something like MT throne room) it could have felt even better and more splendorous than before, albeit with more detail and warm color through tapestries and plants. There was no need to get rid of the white and marble. I like the new Library but it became so... ugly dark/green for lightning? Like one of those Angmarim spaces, lol. So actually worse looking than before, in terms of lightning. How do they even read books in there? ;P It's bad for eyes

[Aeroniel]

Great work! The video illustrates what went wrong and where. ..... No sense of noble presence there. Feels more like something that you could have bumped into in any random house of Lothlorien, if we talk style. The place could have been more decorated and warmed up, yeah, but without taking away the marble and shine.

LOL, well, we obviously have different opinions! I don't think they "went wrong" in any aspect. Since it is called The Last HOMELY House, it should be homely - ie cozy, inviting, warm (in the British English sense of the word 'homely'), not noble and grand and splendiferous. In my opinion, of course!

[TesalionLortus]

Since it is called The Last HOMELY House, it should be homely - ie cozy, inviting, warm (in the British English sense of the word 'homely'), not noble and grand and splendiferous. In my opinion, of course!

Tastes are tastes but you forget this was also an outright last stronghold of the elves, at its conception (and where armies for the last alliance had mastered and where noble kings/elves resided), and even back then it was called homely. That it's homely and has some warmth doesn't really mean there can be no noble splendor of the long lost era (Lindon, Eregion), especially in this setting. And the homely in particular most likely refers to how friendly it was for outsiders/travelers (or refugees, given the context of when it was created) rather than what kind of style they had inside their house. As in, something can be cozy, inviting, warm without looking outright like an outlandish stage for a cozy play or dinner, in a modern sense.

[Narufind]

Wow! what an awesome comparison you've created!

I so much love the new house, and your video certainly documents why - for me, the old house was too cold and sterile to be an elven home - so much hard, shiny marble. In the new house, the greenery and vegetation gives it a proper elven feel and the rugs warm up the cold floors.

Your video does such an excellent job documenting the before-and-after -- thank you for making it

I'm glad that you enjoyed it! It was very sparsely decorated before, it definitely feels more lived in now.

Great work! The video illustrates what went wrong and where. For example, you might easily notice that the new stairs are far less splendorous than old ramp (worn ugly stone steps, like... is there no maintenance in Elrond's halls? plus don't fit the rest of the style) and yeah, that the place became less noble overall with saturation of certain design choices/colors.

I have no idea why the elven (Tolkien's elves!) space cannot feel splendorous and noble with shiny marble? That's exactly what made the Elrond's house distinct before. Rivendell was no "wood elves" style. Especially the green floor upon entry in the new one feels a bit ridiculous, like they're planning an elven disco party. No sense of noble presence there. Feels more like something that you could have bumped into in any random house of Lothlorien, if we talk style. The place could have been more decorated and warmed up, yeah, but without taking away the marble and shine.

I agree with you. After checking it out again, for me it's the floor with the color mess and the stairs. If this would go back to old the other additions might actually look good and give the space a full but elegant look.

I do wonder how the green floor would look with the reflection that the old floor had. I will note that it would cause issues with the new fountain (as can be seen in the Feast Hall with surface reflections on [I actually disabled them in there because of this and the poorly aligned reflection surface]), if they could solve the limitation of 1 reflective plane it would open up a lot of freedom in using reflective surfaces (hopefully not overuse), many places already in game would benefit (most notably anywhere with water at multiple heights).
It's also odd that they clean up the leaves in the grassy areas but not the stone floors (they should be on both or just the grass IMO). I do think a cleaner texture would be better for the stairs, there's a few examples in the house that would work (e.g. in the new hallways or the round features in the corners).