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.

[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]

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

[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).

[TesalionLortus]

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).

Not sure if I get what you mean. Shouldn't it work without issues, in theory? And they made this update to enable the space to use modern techniques to begin with. I did notice and reported a fountain bug in the Feast Hall, yeah, because the water was reflecting purple for some reason, but that's just like a bug to fix?

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).

They bother me less than other things, but if we're talking perfection - true! Just doesn't make sense for this mess to be there, I guess. Doesn't matter they're elves, the leaves belong on the grass Or, at the very least, they should be scattered more, yep.


Another terrible bad apple that's super jarring to me is that they skewed/resized entire model/texture of the upper ornamental part of the archway - for the new wider archways. So like, they didn't create a new one with the right proportions but took a shortcut and did not respect proper ratio. The space is refreshed but this object is such a bad, pixelated, fake looking thing the old space just didn't have. I'm not sure why was that needed. Could have used something else for a wider archway or just combine the old ornament x 2, would feel better and like it belongs.

Please please SSG... consider correcting these imperfections to make it look truly great and graphically pleasant.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

Great video! I happen to like the new Last Homely House, everyone has their own opinion but the new green floors in main first room is nice along with grass spots.

[TesalionLortus]

I do wonder how the green floor would look with the reflection that the old floor had.

While I do wonder that too, technically it's probably a sense of "realness" that bothers me behind that weirdly green floor. Like, it feels a little bit like modern dance floor or something like that, a more modern material colored with modern technique, kind of. More so than believable shiny marble/stone with this color.

As for the overall impression, if they only eased out on the green a bit and made the space lighted enough -so the white is seen/plus some reflections,- then, with these trees, it would remind me a bit of King's Vantage from Spellforce 3. But more warmth with more objects, carpets and some calm elven aura. With a bit more nobility than now

[Elaelin]

The video is amazing. Thank you for sharing this with us.

For me it is the "furniture store" look of the new house. Too many copies of the same items everywhere you look. Go ahead and count the number of benches, bookcases, statues and carpets that are copied multiple times. The colors and the stairs are not my favorite, but I guess they could be acceptable if the oversaturation of duplicate furniture items is reduced. The leaves falling in unnatural locations all over the place makes little sense. The trees look more like they belong in Lothlorien than Rivendell.

It feels as if someone different or less familiar with the game made the changes to the house. It is not up to the usual standards that we normally see in the landscape. LOTRO has always excelled in landscape and general scenery in the past. This remodel feels different and more off the shelf than custom design. In some ways it feels like Yondershire, which was pretty, but too overcrowded and loud. For Yondershire, the design is acceptable because that is not one of the iconic locations in game. Many people will probably never go there. The Last House is a location where everyone in game eventually ends up. It should be one of the most attractive and appealing locations in the game. It is an iconic location that deserves special treatment and attention from SSG. Hopefully, the Shire, Thorin's Hall, Lothlorien and other special locations will not meet the same remodeling fate as the Last House. More is not always better when it is the same items copied over and over again just to fill empty spaces.