Erebor Kinship Houses and Kinship Status.

[SinordLoresearcher]

Hello,

After viewing the kinship houses in Bullroarer, I have a few questions and notes to make.

1. Why can the Rohirric Mead Halls be purchased by kinless players, but not the Erebor Kinship Halls? I thought that the kinship requirement was done away with several updates ago.

2. As I recall, the Belfalas Kinship (Island) Halls and the Rohirric Mead Halls in the previous premium areas both cost 894 mithril coins, while the new Erebor Kinship Hall costs 1596! What's with the massive difference? I understand that the amount of housing decorations in each successive kinship hall grows each time, but that is a gigantic price spike in comparison to the others.

3. Are kinship houses always unobtainable in Bullroarer due to the Kinship level status requirement? None of us can test them to find out more about them.

4. The entrance portal to the new housing area in the Dwelling-halls of Erebor is blocked by a gate, preventing entry.

Thank you.

[Laurelinarien]

Let's hope the prices are a work in progress... coz 800+ for the Geode house is steep, especially considering the ambience files aren't as noticeable in it.

But overall (and despite the chosen shade of green for those stones), I appreciate the work Scenario and Co. have put in it. Erebor does capture the massive homesteads Dwarves are known for (and kudos on making Firepits available outside of the most expensive option).

[SinordLoresearcher]

Let's hope the prices are a work in progress... coz 800+ for the Geode house is steep, especially considering the ambience files aren't as noticeable in it.

But overall (and despite the chosen shade of green for those stones), I appreciate the work Scenario and Co. have put in it. Erebor does capture the massive homesteads Dwarves are known for (and kudos on making Firepits available outside of the most expensive option).

I agree! I really appreciate the work done in this new housing area... I've always hoped they would do Erebor Housing, and they certainly didn't disappoint!

Still, I wouldn't mind actually being able to get a kin hall for my kinship, especially since we have both the Belfalas and Kingstead Meadows halls.

[Strider5548]

I am curious, if Erebor kinship houses are available does that mean we need to abandon our existing kin halls to get one?

[WeirdJedi]

I've heard them say it over-and-over that they would like to provide some sort of "secondary housing option" for like buying a second non-premium house for the account or having a second kinship house available. However, this has been talked about for years... dating back to even before Rohan Housing. There was this point in the middle of the Casual Stroll through Housing stream where I believe he said that it is something they are still toying with and hoping some day will come to live. In any case, it does not sound like we will have that option when Erebor Housing comes out.

As for the original posters question: Mead Halls are not kinship halls. This has both pros and cons.

[cbfan14]

Let's hope the prices are a work in progress... coz 800+ for the Geode house is steep, especially considering the ambience files aren't as noticeable in it.

But overall (and despite the chosen shade of green for those stones), I appreciate the work Scenario and Co. have put in it. Erebor does capture the massive homesteads Dwarves are known for (and kudos on making Firepits available outside of the most expensive option).

Agreed, 840 MC is too expensive for the Geode house. For that same price, you could get a kin island in Belfalas, or the large Rohan houses with either the waterfall cave or the tower. All of these options give you way more housing hooks than what the Geode house provides; the yard for the geode house is so small that the enormous yard decorations take up nearly the whole yard.
The price for the geode house should honestly be more around 400-500 MC.

[Laurelinarien]

All of these options give you way more housing hooks than what the Geode house provides; the yard for the geode house is so small that the enormous yard decorations take up nearly the whole yard.
The price for the geode house should honestly be more around 400-500 MC.

That's an excellent point yes, you do run out of yard really fast.. that being said one of my issues in general with yards is that items feel disconnected and it's hard to make them "interact" the way we do indoors due to all the movement / ranges restrictions. I'm glad Erebor yards are better in that sense... but I'm sad once again there's only 1 special house per layer and this time it's not a deluxe one. Hard to justify the price.

[Happybudgy]

From current Bullroarer offering:

- Fun Neighborhood Features:

Full suite of town services/travel options!


Intriguing. The rationale players were always given when they kept asking for town services and crafting amenities was: that will deplete the towns/crafting areas from players.

And now see what the Erebor neighborhood brings along: full crafting amenities, auction house, and so forth.

The rationale of depleted towns is no longer valid? Or are the Erebor neighborhoods to be considered the new player hubs?

What brought forth this change in rationale?

[Uroc]

I think prices are little bit too high but if you maybe have plan to earn money on houses and cosmetics and less on microtransactions for pay to win or pay for advantage (whatever you want to call it) which will in the future lead to less grind and better gameplay, I'm all for it.

But opinion on houses: I think kinship house is really nice. I like its yard very much. I also like deluxe house but I found kin house very very nice.

[wrath247]

Let's hope the prices are a work in progress... coz 800+ for the Geode house is steep, especially considering the ambience files aren't as noticeable in it.

But overall (and despite the chosen shade of green for those stones), I appreciate the work Scenario and Co. have put in it. Erebor does capture the massive homesteads Dwarves are known for (and kudos on making Firepits available outside of the most expensive option).

Uhm...pls tell me there's a vid of this, cos 800+ is exceedingly getting to EA levels of pricing....because Rohan as is is mostly empty on my server because of the high pricing...

But to give credit to designing team, Erebor housing is goat when it comes to the layers and designs.

[Happybudgy]

Uhm...pls tell me there's a vid of this, cos 800+ is exceedingly getting to EA levels of pricing....

Erebor kinhouse is 1695MC on Bullroarer.

[wrath247]

Erebor kinhouse is 1695MC on Bullroarer.

Ah.

Well.

Damn. I get moving the move for more cosmetic/housing, but if that's the legit price I doubt most would be able to even purchase it -_- much less the base house which is approx $64....

I'm afraid to even ask how much deluxe is lol considering I was planning to buy 1 for each of my dwarf characters

[Happybudgy]

Ah.

Well.

Damn. I get moving the move for more cosmetic/housing, but if that's the legit price I doubt most would be able to even purchase it -_- much less the base house which is approx $64....

I'm afraid to even ask how much deluxe is lol considering I was planning to buy 1 for each of my dwarf characters

A deluxe in Erebor is around 588MC, iirc. And I was a tad off with the kinhouse price, it's 1596MC.

The $64 you mention is the price for a meadhall in Rohan.

[wrath247]

A deluxe in Erebor is around 588MC, iirc.

The $64 you mention is the price for a meadhall in Rohan.

Oh that was the Geode base house...which makes even less sense. Though I guess the argument can be made that since it has more hook (right?) than the meadhall it warrants the price + the unique location of it. That said if its 588MC for the deluxe house, that's more or less $53 without any sale or bonus if i'm doing the math right.

In which case they run into the same issue with Rohan, the prices are way too steep and it'll just result in the neighborhoods being empty. Gondor was probably the perfect balance. Personally I'd price the base at $20, then deluxe $30-$35 and then kinship $45-50.

How much is the normal base house?

[WeirdJedi]

I'd prefer it if they were more affordable myself. The Gondorian Stately Houses were pretty much a perfect amount. 1000 lotro points for the Middle-Earth Essentials or $10 Starter Bundle for 6 Housing Writs is nice. When Rohan Housing came out, I would have paid that much just for a barn. I decided that 2500 lotro points is about my limit on buying a new house. I would have even taken something akin to the residential area in Erebor only slightly bigger to fit things inside, even if it meant no yard slots. These 400MC+ houses is beyond anything I can afford.

[Happybudgy]

Oh that was the Geode base house...which makes even less sense. Though I guess the argument can be made that since it has more hook (right?) than the meadhall it warrants the price + the unique location of it. That said if its 588MC for the deluxe house, that's more or less $53 without any sale or bonus if i'm doing the math right.

In which case they run into the same issue with Rohan, the prices are way too steep and it'll just result in the neighborhoods being empty. Gondor was probably the perfect balance. Personally I'd price the base at $20, then deluxe $30-$35 and then kinship $45-50.

How much is the normal base house?

In Erebor, around 338MC.

[Laurelinarien]

Throwing this here about the pricing:





Stately: +300MC
Deluxe: +500MC
Geode: +800 MC
Kinhouse: around 1500 MC

[RubenRybnick]

From current Bullroarer offering:

- Fun Neighborhood Features:

Full suite of town services/travel options!


Intriguing. The rationale players were always given when they kept asking for town services and crafting amenities was: that will deplete the towns/crafting areas from players.

And now see what the Erebor neighborhood brings along: full crafting amenities, auction house, and so forth.

The rationale of depleted towns is no longer valid? Or are the Erebor neighborhoods to be considered the new player hubs?

What brought forth this change in rationale?

Not really true/new.

Belfalas housing has everything except crafting facilities.
Rohan neighborhoods have already all of those (offering the same things as Erebor)

About the prices :

I agree with others that the Kin house price should be under 1000MC like any other premium kin house.

For the Geode one, I can understand that it's a bit tricky. If the Geode one is between Base and Deluxe house, we'll end-up with empty neighborhoods everywhere except for the Geode houses. I think that the right price for this house should me more in line with a deluxe house.

[cbfan14]

Not really true/new.

Belfalas housing has everything except crafting facilities.
Rohan neighborhoods have already all of those (offering the same things as Erebor)

About the prices :

I agree with others that the Kin house price should be under 1000MC like any other premium kin house.

For the Geode one, I can understand that it's a bit tricky. If the Geode one is between Base and Deluxe house, we'll end-up with empty neighborhoods everywhere except for the Geode houses.

The thing about the Geode house is that it's the same size as the base house (the Erebor regular house, and by extension the Geode house, have the least amount of interior space out of all the different premium houses), which is only around 300 MC

I can see the Geode being maybe around the same price or higher as the Erebor deluxe house, but it's current price of 840 MC is waay too expensive given its current size. If they really want it to be at that price point, then they need to make the house bigger. Maybe they could expand the interior by creating a cave system, with perhaps a small cave area for additional decorations, that connects the 2 current interior geode cave spots?

[wrath247]

Throwing this here about the pricing:





Stately: +300MC
Deluxe: +500MC
Geode: +800 MC
Kinhouse: around 1500 MC

So basically

State: $34+
Deluxe $44+
Geode: $63+
Kinhouse: $100+


Right.....Who is in charge of pricing? Seriously...this was literally the same problem with Rohan and for some reason, the guys behind the pricing thought pricing it up higher was a good thing? The state and Deluxe are kinda ok-ish within reasonable-ish price values at least by LOTRO standards (which itself is too high as is). The only issue I could see with having those prices, is that ppl will outright only wait for LP sales to buy them, and unlike Gondor housing, will likely be more barren because of it.

And who would actually spend $100 of irl cash on some housing cosmetic in a video game? Not including Star Citizen cos that's an outright scam (and says alot already that this is starting to feel like it).

Please. Listen to basic economics and know that this not only reduces the long-term income but greatly continues to make anyone who wants to try this game and do housing feel like LOTRO is just a subsidiary of EA.

The houses so far look amazing, but with these prices i doubt it'll ever be as populated as the first premium house neighborhood.

[IcarusLSC]

Whatever makes most money, please spend time on the servers not silly housing.

[Happybudgy]

The company's reasoning and defence for the pricing of the kinhouse is: it is a kinhouse.

The meadhall in Rohan was a regular house. It's large enough to be a kinhouse, except it wasn't.

That made no sense to many of us.

How many players wanted a kinhouse in Rohan? They didn't get it. Do we now know why?
One reason is: if you now want a kinhouse in Erebor, you don't have to give up your Rohan meadhall.

A second reason is: because of the Erebor housing project.

There is a cultivated desire for new kinhouses, and now you can have one, as a kin, for more than double the price of the meadhall.
And of course players who run their own, private kin can have one too.
You can even have multiples on one account.

Did you notice that Meadhalls, (which btw sell for 894MC, while the cave house sells for 747MC - see the respective Wiki), once sold out, do not seem to spawn new neighborhoods?
Thus, there are quite a few players who may want a meadhall and can't get one. Some of them may be very happy to now be able to obtain an Erebor kinhouse.

With regard to the price: because it's a kinhouse, kins may approach its purchase as a kin-effort, as they did in Belfalas.

You have to be fast though, because there is only one per neighborhood. Not 4 as in the 'old style' neighborhoods and in Belfalas.
Unless, of course, Erebor neighborhoods just keep spawning when all kinhouses are sold out.

Incredibly smart marketing.

I am glad that I find the Erebor neighborhood doomy and gloomy.

Thus, I just bought 3 new kinhouses beside the 2 elf-kinhouses that I already had. Two of the new kinhouses are in the Bree neighborhood,
and one is in the Hobbit neighborhood. I am having a blast, with in game gold.

[Happybudgy]

Not really true/new.

Belfalas housing has everything except crafting facilities.
Rohan neighborhoods have already all of those (offering the same things as Erebor)

About the prices :

I agree with others that the Kin house price should be under 1000MC like any other premium kin house.

For the Geode one, I can understand that it's a bit tricky. If the Geode one is between Base and Deluxe house, we'll end-up with empty neighborhoods everywhere except for the Geode houses. I think that the right price for this house should me more in line with a deluxe house.

Rohan came out just over a year ago. Rohan has no farming plot, Erebor does.

[Happybudgy]

Whatever makes most money, please spend time on the servers not silly housing.

Maybe Erebor housing will be so profitable that they can improve the servers?

Or am I now engaging in to much wishful thinking?

[RubenRybnick]

Whatever makes most money, please spend time on the servers not silly housing.

You understand that the guys spending time on housing are not the same spending time on the servers, right ?

Rohan came out just over a year ago. Rohan has no farming plot, Erebor does.

+ you can have crafting stations since Belfalas. What a recent change !

The company's reasoning and defence for the pricing of the kinhouse is: it is a kinhouse.

The meadhall in Rohan was a regular house. It's large enough to be a kinhouse, except it wasn't.

That made no sense to many of us.

How many players wanted a kinhouse in Rohan? They didn't get it. Do we now know why?
One reason is: if you now want a kinhouse in Erebor, you don't have to give up your Rohan meadhall.

A second reason is: because of the Erebor housing project.

There is a cultivated desire for new kinhouses, and now you can have one, as a kin, for more than double the price of the meadhall.
And of course players who run their own, private kin can have one too.
You can even have multiples on one account.

Did you notice that Meadhalls once sold out, do not spawn new neighborhoods?

All of this has been explained countless time since 2 years. (Yeah, Rohan housing was on bullroarer in february 2020, I did an interview back then with devs).
Here you're just making assumptions.