Homely House update

[Elebraen]

Very nice! I really REALLY like the new council room. Did the devs have Further Adventure plans to use that room?

[Flaxie]

Went to take a look. Well, I guess I will be avoiding going back unless forced to go there.

The glare off the new surfaces made my eyes tear up, and was very painful. What little I could see
as I squinted, nearly blinded, looked pretty. It was a shame I couldn't look straight at it. The few
rooms they left alone were fine, they gave me a chance to ease my eyes and wipe away the tears.
They also proved that it wasn't an inadvertent change in my settings.

[PreemptiveRegret]

Went to take a look. Well, I guess I will be avoiding going back unless forced to go there.

The glare off the new surfaces made my eyes tear up, and was very painful. What little I could see
as I squinted, nearly blinded, looked pretty. It was a shame I couldn't look straight at it. The few
rooms they left alone were fine, they gave me a chance to ease my eyes and wipe away the tears.
They also proved that it wasn't an inadvertent change in my settings.

You can turn off or adjust the shine under Advanced Graphics. Or continue to cry hyperbolically, lol.

[Cambruyn]

You can turn off or adjust the shine under Advanced Graphics. Or continue to cry hyperbolically, lol.

Well, this one does deserve the lol.. lol

There's a lot to say about the various departments at SSG, but whoever's in charge of the lore and worls design remains absolutely top notch.
Should they ever replace folk to actually work on the technical side of the game, don't ever replace these folk please.

[Valather89]

The next Further Adventures is tentatively titled 'Watching the Wing', which makes me think we might get to do something with Gwaihir or some other of the Great Eagles... and I doubt the Eagles are going to comfortably enter the Last Homely House.

I think they revamped it mostly because it's now the place where all the paths lead. It used to be Bree-town at level 15, but with "Before the Shadow" all the leveling paths converge in Rivendell at level 30-35. And boy, as a completionist I spent a huge amount of time in that place when doing the second half of Volume I of the Epic Story and some of the other quests. So I'm glad they updated it, and it's absolutely beautiful.

[Elebraen]

The next Further Adventures is tentatively titled 'Watching the Wing', which makes me think we might get to do something with Gwaihir or some other of the Great Eagles... and I doubt the Eagles are going to comfortably enter the Last Homely House.

I think they revamped it mostly because it's now the place where all the paths lead. It used to be Bree-town at level 15, but with "Before the Shadow" all the leveling paths converge in Rivendell at level 30-35. And boy, as a completionist I spent a huge amount of time in that place when doing the second half of Volume I of the Epic Story and some of the other quests. So I'm glad they updated it, and it's absolutely beautiful.

Did they do more than add a new council room? I don't have before and after pictures of the homely house. I noticed a lot of leaves on the floor, but I don't remember if those were there before or not.

I can't do surface reflections on this PC, but I normally have them turned off anyway Advanced Graphics > Lighting > Surface Reflections > disabled. I turn off Post Processing effects too because of the Glow Mapping and Overbright Bloom Filter that can make some blinding light effects.

I might mention that Elrond's Library is just "Room" now for a label. Pity the newcomer to the game who has to find Elrond in his library.

[Flaxie]

Did they do more than add a new council room? I don't have before and after pictures of the homely house. I noticed a lot of leaves on the floor, but I don't remember if those were there before or not.

I can't do surface reflections on this PC, but I normally have them turned off anyway Advanced Graphics > Lighting > Surface Reflections > disabled. I turn off Post Processing effects too because of the Glow Mapping and Overbright Bloom Filter that can make some blinding light effects.

I might mention that Elrond's Library is just "Room" now for a label. Pity the newcomer to the game who has to find Elrond in his library.

Thanks for telling me what to look for, I'll see if there's anything I can change that will help. I've always wondered what the heck Post Processing is.
Still don't know, but will definitely see if it helps. (If it's not already off, haven't looked yet.)

Just a word to the less kind individuals, it's called "Advanced" Graphics for a reason. Since I am anything but "advanced" with computer stuff,
I tend to leave things like that alone for the most part.



edit: I tried. Nothig I did helped. Turned stuff on, turned stuff off. Found out why some stuff was greyed out and tried turning them on/off.
Nothing I did in Advanced Graphics helped. Some of it made things worse, so I put them back. Guess I had already worked on it before
to fix old problems, and this stuff was just them adding insult to injury.

[TesalionLortus]

It's gorgeous. I only wish they added less in-your-face-green (so maybe white, reflective) floor upon entry, moved these two statues from right before the doors, repainted the stairs they used to be matching fabulous white steps (rather than old withered stone) and taken down these clearly skewed/with disturbed aspect ratio ornamental decos from the wider versions of arches (you can look at the thinner versions of the archways and the decos there are clearly proper aspect ratio). None of this would change the impression of the space being more beautiful but would be a nice final polish because some things are certainly distracting and don't match now. Come on, it's Elrond's place, it should be perfect, not left unpolished

[Tralfazz]

I turn off Post Processing effects too because of the Glow Mapping and Overbright Bloom Filter that can make some blinding light effects.

I understand that Post-Processing Effects might produce some lighting effects which you don't enjoy. However, be aware that disabling Post-Processing Effects entirely negatively impacts the appearance of many surfaces, especially water. If you think it's the Glow Mapping and Overbright Bloom Filter, you ought to be able to disable those features individually while leaving Post-Processing Effects enabled.

Post-Processing Effects also requires quite a bit of "horsepower" and so can negatively impact frame rates or generate what many players refer to as "lag" so that can be a good reason to disable it, at least while planning to engage in a lot of combat. If your computer can manage it and you can tolerate its negative impacts (if any), I'd encourage you to leave it enabled in order to better enjoy the game visuals.

[Elebraen]

Thanks for telling me what to look for, I'll see if there's anything I can change that will help. I've always wondered what the heck Post Processing is.
Still don't know, but will definitely see if it helps. (If it's not already off, haven't looked yet.)

Just a word to the less kind individuals, it's called "Advanced" Graphics for a reason. Since I am anything but "advanced" with computer stuff,
I tend to leave things like that alone for the most part.



edit: I tried. Nothig I did helped. Turned stuff on, turned stuff off. Found out why some stuff was greyed out and tried turning them on/off.
Nothing I did in Advanced Graphics helped. Some of it made things worse, so I put them back. Guess I had already worked on it before
to fix old problems, and this stuff was just them adding insult to injury.

Yes, I played around with my advanced settings, too, just to see if they would make any difference in the Homely House rooms, but to no effect. Some things are just embedded in the landscape settings, I think, like the extremely thick fog at Swanfleet or Misthallow that I can't seem to turn down either. But keep it in mind for other troubling areas. You might also try turning Graphics > Ambient Light all the way down if a room is overly bright, or turn it all the way up if it's overly dark. Turning down Graphics > Gamma will also darken the area overall.

But looking more closely, I do think the trees in the entrance hall are new. I don't recall thinking that I would need to sweep the autumn leaves off of the floor that got blown in by the wind.

[Elebraen]

I understand that Post-Processing Effects might produce some lighting effects which you don't enjoy. However, be aware that disabling Post-Processing Effects entirely negatively impacts the appearance of many surfaces, especially water. If you think it's the Glow Mapping and Overbright Bloom Filter, you ought to be able to disable those features individually while leaving Post-Processing Effects enabled.

Post-Processing Effects also requires quite a bit of "horsepower" and so can negatively impact frame rates or generate what many players refer to as "lag" so that can be a good reason to disable it, at least while planning to engage in a lot of combat. If your computer can manage it and you can tolerate its negative impacts (if any), I'd encourage you to leave it enabled in order to better enjoy the game visuals.

I agree with you that Post-Processing Effects makes pretty water, reflections of clouds and mountains on the water. But when it comes to having a smooth gameplay experience, I like it better off, especially in the high level areas where they were already designing landscapes for 4K because that level of detail is a huge horsepower hog. I have a 4K computer with a fairly high end graphics card but I don't normally play this game on it because of the tiny UI layout. And I think it's the floor in Minas Tirith that shines like polished glass because of the Post-Processing Effects and it drives me crazy. There's so much irrelevant detail in that picture that it's harder for me to focus on the relevant things. And that's why I recommended turning it off. That's how I dealt with the polished glass floor reflections of Minas Tirith. Sometimes it's just a case of "too much visual information" that is a lot more distracting to my gameplay than the non-reflective surfaces are. I turn the frills way down for the same reason unless I'm specifically there for the visual screenshot, not to play.

[TesalionLortus]

But when it comes to having a smooth gameplay experience, I like it better off, especially in the high level areas where they were already designing landscapes for 4K because that level of detail is a huge horsepower hog.

Sure, the level of detail on more recent content (coupled with the engine) can tank your FPS in this game with AA at medium range or maxed (not just in-game AA, but externally forced), and that's all cool when we have details or more density for all the extra assets in the scene. But I guess they're kinda over-focusing on these detail aspects in particular but ignoring others, at least so far, so it's far fetched to say they're thinking of 4k when the game's texture sharpness is still at 2007 levels I stopped one of the frames on Scenario's recent stroll and started to wonder "hey, did they retexture this asset or added some new affects to it that made the stonework looks... less impressive, less real and muddy now?" Took me a while to figure out "ah right, it's the vanilla level of sharpness, it actually looks this bad in the "base" game, especially on higher resolutions, I forgot" LOL

[TiralaLeldo]

Very nice! I really REALLY like the new council room. Did the devs have Further Adventure plans to use that room?

Really love the update to Rivendell!

I've seen a lot of people ask about the new room, suggesting it's a council room or some kind of antechamber - but I immediately recognized it from the books. It's Elrond's Hall, where they all feast together after Frodo is healed.

"The hall of Elrond's house was filled with fair folk.... Elrond, as was his custom, sat in a great chair at the end of the long table upon the dais; and next to him on the one side sat Glorfindel, on the other side sat Gandalf.... In the middle of the table, against the woven cloths upon the wall, there was a chair under a canopy, and there sat a lady fair to look upon...."

And it's oriented correctly to the Hall of Fire across the big atrium:

"At length the feast came to an end. Elrond and Arwen rose and went down the hall, and the company followed them in due order. The doors were thrown open, and they went across a wide passage and through other doors, and came into a further hall. In it were no tables, but a bright fire was burning in a great hearth between the carven pillars upon either side."

It always bothered me that they had left out this space - the first time I got to Rivendell in game, I wondered where the feast hall was - so glad to see it added! And of course, I hope they'll use it for an instance or quest eventually.

Both quotes are from the Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 1 - Many Meetings.

[LadyLakes]

I really love the new look they really made it very beautiful.

[Elebraen]

Really love the update to Rivendell!

I've seen a lot of people ask about the new room, suggesting it's a council room or some kind of antechamber - but I immediately recognized it from the books. It's Elrond's Hall, where they all feast together after Frodo is healed.

"The hall of Elrond's house was filled with fair folk.... Elrond, as was his custom, sat in a great chair at the end of the long table upon the dais; and next to him on the one side sat Glorfindel, on the other side sat Gandalf.... In the middle of the table, against the woven cloths upon the wall, there was a chair under a canopy, and there sat a lady fair to look upon...."

And it's oriented correctly to the Hall of Fire across the big atrium:

"At length the feast came to an end. Elrond and Arwen rose and went down the hall, and the company followed them in due order. The doors were thrown open, and they went across a wide passage and through other doors, and came into a further hall. In it were no tables, but a bright fire was burning in a great hearth between the carven pillars upon either side."

It always bothered me that they had left out this space - the first time I got to Rivendell in game, I wondered where the feast hall was - so glad to see it added! And of course, I hope they'll use it for an instance or quest eventually.

Both quotes are from the Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 1 - Many Meetings.

I would have thought the room directly across from what I called the council room was the feasting hall. It's a lot larger than the council room is, and it has the raised dias with benches and seats on it and a hanging tapesty and a couple of big tables in it for feasts. There's no raised dias in the council room area, nor enough space really to stick one there even using a different camera angle. And the reason I call it a council room is because I'm already thinking to use it that way. Where did the council meeting take place? The back porch has beautiful waterfalls for a scenery backdrop but no seating for a meeting.

[Elebraen]

Sure, the level of detail on more recent content (coupled with the engine) can tank your FPS in this game with AA at medium range or maxed (not just in-game AA, but externally forced), and that's all cool when we have details or more density for all the extra assets in the scene. But I guess they're kinda over-focusing on these detail aspects in particular but ignoring others, at least so far, so it's far fetched to say they're thinking of 4k when the game's texture sharpness is still at 2007 levels I stopped one of the frames on Scenario's recent stroll and started to wonder "hey, did they retexture this asset or added some new affects to it that made the stonework looks... less impressive, less real and muddy now?" Took me a while to figure out "ah right, it's the vanilla level of sharpness, it actually looks this bad in the "base" game, especially on higher resolutions, I forgot" LOL

*grin* I know exactly what you mean. I've been illustrating this game with the 2007 characters, and no amount of 4K is going to smooth out a jagged edge. But I think I look more for the consistency than the 4K resolution detail. Is that much detail warranted? Sometimes it's needed. Most times I can get the illustrated message across without it.

Right now, I can't get past the illustrated sensation that Elrond's entrance hall is very unkempt. He's untidy. His floor is a mess. I expect to see elves with brooms any minute now sweeping up leaves. If that untidiness is what the illustrator was trying to convey about Elrond's character, he certainly succeeded with me. So I'll say for myself that I'm not in awe of the entrance hall just because it's a clash to me, a level of untidyness that I would not expect to find in Elrond's house.

[TesalionLortus]

*grin* I know exactly what you mean. I've been illustrating this game with the 2007 characters, and no amount of 4K is going to smooth out a jagged edge. But I think I look more for the consistency than the 4K resolution detail. Is that much detail warranted? Sometimes it's needed. Most times I can get the illustrated message across without it.

Yeah, but the thing is the actual details of lotro textures wouldn't really create more jagged edges if sharpness was higher (so then, why not have these details?) - because this game's AA is actually pretty good here vs some of the newer games that don't even have one lol and rely on you being able to run x2 your own resolution which is FPS tanking

Right now, I can't get past the illustrated sensation that Elrond's entrance hall is very unkempt. He's untidy. His floor is a mess. I expect to see elves with brooms any minute now sweeping up leaves. If that untidiness is what the illustrator was trying to convey about Elrond's character, he certainly succeeded with me. So I'll say for myself that I'm not in awe of the entrance hall just because it's a clash to me, a level of untidyness that I would not expect to find in Elrond's house.

Personally, I'm not that grumpy with those leaves (because it's sort of open space, a hole in roof) but there is certainly something about clutter and overdoing where not necessary that's these devs like biggest design fault... perhaps? Sometimes?

[wispsong]

I know beauty is in the eyes of the beholder but lots of comments in this thread surprise me. As stated in the Bullroarer thread, the new Lonely House looks far to busy, even chaotic as opposed to the old serene and peaceful look.

So I'm there to give a more detailed perception report.
First thing I see entering is the trees and other surroundings of the statue and that is beautiful and accents this item. Then I notice the floor with the leaves and ...it belongs to Lothlorien, not this house. The arch in front of the statue is to much and the carpet/floor color changes hurt my eye. The little alcoves to the sides are beautiful (when will we get such items for our house). Overall, the courtyard has to many assets. Sometimes too little is better than too much. There is too much in too many colors in the yard. The stairs are out of place, the ramps fit it far better.

Hall of Fire again to many colors for the carpets, and ugly stairs. The small set of stairs at the entry are beautiful and elvish. The room across looks nice. The Hall of Rest is overfilled, barely any space to walk and Elrond's library has the same problem.

The main problems I see is overuse of different colors in the same room, ugly stairs, leaves in the courtyard, to many assets. The simple elegance is gone and has been replaced with chaos. Yes, parts of the house look better and is beautiful but the overall view and feeling has shifted to worse. Of cause it is just my opinion.

I would really love to use the courtyard items in my house. We still have not enough statues, bigger flower boxes, trees, bushes we can place indoors.

[TiralaLeldo]

I would have thought the room directly across from what I called the council room was the feasting hall. It's a lot larger than the council room is, and it has the raised dias with benches and seats on it and a hanging tapesty and a couple of big tables in it for feasts. There's no raised dias in the council room area, nor enough space really to stick one there even using a different camera angle. And the reason I call it a council room is because I'm already thinking to use it that way. Where did the council meeting take place? The back porch has beautiful waterfalls for a scenery backdrop but no seating for a meeting.

The Council of Elrond happened on the porch. "Gandalf led them to the porch where Frodo had found his friends the evening before.... Elrond was there, and several others were seated in silence about him." And of the porch when Frodo met Merry and Pippin there in the previous chapter: "He found his friends sitting in a porch on the side of the house looking east." The porch is labeled East Porch in game - https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/East_Porch.

The new Hall of Elrond has a dais already - the table in the back is raised up on two steps. (from Wiktionary - Dais "A raised platform in a room for a high table, a seat of honour, a throne, or other dignified occupancy....") And overhead is the canopy under which Arwen sat during the feast (quote in my earlier post). The room across from it is already identified in game as the Hall of Fire (https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/The_Hall_of_Fire) though according to the book, it shouldn't have tables in it (but of course any interpretation is going to make some changes!)

[TesalionLortus]

The main problems I see is overuse of different colors in the same room, ugly stairs, leaves in the courtyard, to many assets. The simple elegance is gone and has been replaced with chaos. Yes, parts of the house look better and is beautiful but the overall view and feeling has shifted to worse. Of cause it is just my opinion.

They are amazing designers on this team but "overuse" and "lack of restraint" are really key words for me, especially nowadays when their "we can put in more assets today because engine improved" translates to over-cluttered and same asset saturation (or mismatching assets, that's even worse and not as subtle at all). While they're much more efficient at actually creating new spaces from scratch, apparently. Sure some things may be just minor and not as crucial, others may be more crucial, but put all of these together and sometimes you're short of perfection and balance that otherwise you could have had. Which is a shame. And none of this concerns geographical design - just some structures, buildings, interiors and such, I think.

Saying that the space is lovely now (and I do think that it's lovely and the old one was certainly very empty and dull) is all nice but not reason enough to stop at that and ignore everyone else who had something more to say offering their well-constructed thoughts. Like, we love this game, we're people with refined tastes who want it to feel wholly good and right. Changing a few things people notice/pointed out won't change the fact it feels lovely in the eyes of all those people who just say it's lovely but may elevate it even more by getting rid of some flaws more stylistically attentive people notice and feel distracted by. Don't think anything in there changed since I saw it on beta previews, sadly. So I guess it's the case of "maybe if we have the time and if we remember about it... maybe someday" I mean, with the House, it wasn't even Scenario who did that (who is known to lurk here hihi), so there is a chance the person who did doesn't even come across anything we say :P

[Elaelin]

They are amazing designers on this team but "overuse" and "lack of restraint" are really key words for me, especially nowadays when their "we can put in more assets today because engine improved" translates to over-cluttered and same asset saturation (or mismatching assets, that's even worse and not as subtle at all). While they're much more efficient at actually creating new spaces from scratch, apparently. Sure some things may be just minor and not as crucial, others may be more crucial, but put all of these together and sometimes you're short of perfection and balance that otherwise you could have had. Which is a shame. And none of this concerns geographical design - just some structures, buildings, interiors and such, I think.

Saying that the space is lovely now (and I do think that it's lovely and the old one was certainly very empty and dull) is all nice but not reason enough to stop at that and ignore everyone else who had something more to say offering their well-constructed thoughts. Like, we love this game, we're people with refined tastes who want it to feel wholly good and right. Changing a few things people notice/pointed out won't change the fact it feels lovely in the eyes of all those people who just say it's lovely but may elevate it even more by getting rid of some flaws more stylistically attentive people notice and feel distracted by. Don't think anything in there changed since I saw it on beta previews, sadly. So I guess it's the case of "maybe if we have the time and if we remember about it... maybe someday" I mean, with the House, it wasn't even Scenario who did that (who is known to lurk here hihi), so there is a chance the person who did doesn't even come across anything we say :P

I agree that the old house was due for a facelift. As I mentioned in my other post, there is a bit too much copy and paste of the same items. When I first noticed the red book cases with the vases on top, I thought nice touch. I continued on with my tour of the new and improved house and saw the same nice book cases again. At one point, those book cases appeared to be around every corner. I know there were other items copied over and over again but the red color made those book cases stand out a bit more than the other copied furniture items. I started seeing enough of them that I tried to count them all to see just how many were pasted in every empty spot. The leaves on the floor don't match the trees and they really belong in Lothlorien. Again, there are too many leaves on just the floor. By contrast, the new conference room which is a nice addition for I am assuming the role play community is empty and plain. That is a room that could use a bit of the new color theme and style. It feels like you ran out of open housing hooks when it was time to decorate the conference room.

Removing a few items or changing some of the items to remove the copied and pasted look would not harm the overall look of the house and would bring back a small bit of elegance. Sometimes, more is not always better.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

I like the new Last Homely House, they did a great job with it, didn't see anything I didn't like except I kinda wish Bilbo's room and scholar's guild hall was opened up too instead of still closed off by portal, other then that wonder job and love all the colors to the place.

Edit: there is one small issue and its with the Shiny reflection on floor in places you can see where the reflection is missing and can tell it is a floating layer of reflection, also its over the rugs and looks really odd to have rugs with mirror reflection.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

Went to take a look. Well, I guess I will be avoiding going back unless forced to go there.

The glare off the new surfaces made my eyes tear up, and was very painful. What little I could see
as I squinted, nearly blinded, looked pretty. It was a shame I couldn't look straight at it. The few
rooms they left alone were fine, they gave me a chance to ease my eyes and wipe away the tears.
They also proved that it wasn't an inadvertent change in my settings.

There might be something in your setting causing this, I never saw anything close to blinding there and my graphics are mostly ultra high.

[Neinda]

There might be something in your setting causing this, I never saw anything close to blinding there and my graphics are mostly ultra high.

If anyone knows the setting please share it. When I go in the Hall of Fire it is like all the windows are wide open and light is flooding the floors. The ceiling looks great but the floors and walls are way too bright. This is odd because I don't see any glare in the entry area or anywhere else in the house. If someone knows a setting I can change to fix that please share it.

[TesalionLortus]

If anyone knows the setting please share it. When I go in the Hall of Fire it is like all the windows are wide open and light is flooding the floors. The ceiling looks great but the floors and walls are way too bright. This is odd because I don't see any glare in the entry area or anywhere else in the house. If someone knows a setting I can change to fix that please share it.

Could you post a screenshot?