What housing changes would you like to see this year?

[XavierArcanus]

1) Auto-abandon of unpaid houses more than 12 months behind on maintenance. This should only be done if escrow will be unlimited and allow for a player to come back three years later and still have their stuff, but not their home. If this is done, then they'll be able to buy a new house pretty easily, because those who aren't using them are constantly recycling their homes back into the pool. All they'll lose is the layout of their stuff, which is a tiny price considering the fact that they haven't played in a significant amount of time.
2) Assuming #1 is done, we should consolidate all of those neighborhoods which will now have a lot of empty houses. As long as I don't lose my address, I don't care which neighborhood instance I'm in, and would much prefer to have some real, breathing neighbors than be in an empty instance.
3) Meaningful content inside of neighborhoods. Something similar to festivals should occur in neighborhoods. Imagine horse races with your neighbors, or dancing around the party tree. Another idea is to have an evil influence arrive in your neighborhood due to the Enemy's machinations. You have to complete some quests to investigate the situation, or else your neighborhood will be dark and dreary and evil creatures would occasionally attack you in the neighborhood common areas. This would all have to scale to level of course.
4) Something better than the current hook system. This has been explained enough by other people.
5) A "dressing room" option for housing items. I'm tired of being disappointed by what an item looks like after it is placed.

[ArtemisNoir]

Along with all of the upgrades already mentioned here I would like to see the option to buy our houses outright. The 7 G we put down for a deluxe, and the monthly maintenance charge, could be viewed as a down payment and mortgage. I am not sure, given the current inflation of the game economy, what would be fair, but I think somewhere in the region of 70 to 100 gold would be reasonable. This would also work well for those in the military, and others who like to take breaks, because they would not need to worry about unlocking their house when they returned and it would also require some commitment from players if they want to hold onto a house in perpetuity, thus perhaps addressing the ghost neighbourhood issue.

[Kami0]

- A "dressing room" option for housing items will be a very good idea,
- A system similar to the cosmetic outfits system and its storage,
- A more dynamic system than the current hook system,
- An evolving house system.
If you do care of your house by putting better house items or by putting items from a set, it will evolve (and the rent too).
An "evolved house" could be only inside until to a limit where you have to change house.
The outside appearance of a house may be another system or a same.

If you don't care of your house (with weekly rent) then it will degrade, fall into ruin (outside appearance) until when you will lose it.
People who will see a house falling apart could report it and when the report counter is high enough, this house will be set for sale.

[hargis1]

-Scrap the whole thing and run an amalgam of SWG and EQ2 housing implementations.

The gold standard has been out there for years, i have no idea other than low priorities why many other games don't blatantly cut and paste here.

[Issachar44]

Assumption: the housing "revamp" will be an expansion of the existing system, not a new system built from the ground up. Also, the improvements will be monetized as much as possible.

If that assumption is valid, here are my suggestions:

FREE IMPROVEMENTS
- stable master in neighborhood center with routes to Bree, Thorin's Hall, Michel Delving, Celondim
- auto-abandon houses with maintenance unpaid for "x" years
- tweak interiors and yards to accommodate additional hooks purchasable from the Store; interior hooks should permit a high density of item placement; it is the homeowner's job to deal with items clipping into each other


MONETIZED IMPROVEMENTS

Enhanced House
- account-wide unlock that modifies any house you own or acquire
- priced around 1995-2495 TP
- adds 1-4 hooks of each type (except huge and enormous yard hooks)
- "attic" (a housing item vault w/ 30 spaces default, upgradeable)
- Travel to Personal House cooldown reduced to 30m
- adds maintenance options such as ability to pay 6 mo in advance

House Exterior Appearances
- applies a pre-set "style" to your current house; specific appearance is based on homestead and house size
- priced around 595 TP
- possible options: Cheery, Fortified, Haunted, Opulent, Unkempt

New Interior Decorations
- Small faux window (150 TP) [shows blurred "day" or "night" image similar to the big window in the Bree mess hall]
- Large faux window (150 TP)
- Wall mirror (150 TP)
- Cluttered furniture (150 TP) [similar to what you see in some of the new Bree interiors]

[C-Hound]

I recently bought my first house, a Deluxe in the Thorin's Hall Homesteads. I'll comment based on my recent impressions/experience, and expectations.

First, it (strongly!) seems that the designers, somehow, inexplicably, tried to "balance" the different areas in a very cludgey way - the Dwarf housing is (in a word) ugly but conveniently located, the elf-housing a feast for the senses but utterly isolated, the Shire and Bree somewhere in the middle. Why not make all equally attractive, convenient and useful, and let pure personal preference rule the rest? (There are reasons, I know, but there are counter-reasons too.)

o It took me a months of checking to wait for a house located where I wanted one to open up, in the snowy area. So many clearly unused but still unavailable houses. Abandoned houses have to be recycled back into the market, somehow. (Has to be addressed, but how? Here is not the place.)

o I almost bought a hobbit hole for the candles alone. Very homey. I was disappointed that the dwarf houses didn't have wall sconces or something. The "magic crystal light" things in the walls just don't work for me. Sim w/ dwarf "fireplace" - more like a utilitarian Soviet coal-heater than a homey hearth. How... spartanly dwarven.

o I never even bothered to look at the Elf housing before I bought. So isolated as to transcend belief! A long trek to Duillond or Needlehole, as if either of those places were a desirable/useful destination. A central stable w/ Swift Travel to the local "main city" Travel Point (Frerin's Court, Celondim, (west) Bree-Town, Michel Delving stables), that would be wonderful. (A ride from those stables to the Housing area - even nicer!) It would also mean that "location" within a neighborhood is not as important, and "undesirable" locations would become less so.

o Tied to that last, having some central "port" to the other "local" neighborhoods would be great. Currently such a pain to go from one to another. Such.

o When I did finally (only recently) drop by elf housing, I was stunned at how much nicer the elf-deluxe was than the dwarf-deluxe. No comparison. As if it were in an entirely different category above the dwarf-version. Double (or more?) the square footage, more rooms, full hallways, more fireplaces, cathedral ceilings, a sweeping stair to a 2nd story room - wow. Just... wow. (No regrets - a useless location is still a dealbreaker imo - but I can easily see why some put up with being located in BFME.) So nice if this were addressed to be more equal, at least functionally (in rooms/amenities) if not stylistically (which would be more difficult). Warm elf-land homes get more and bigger fireplaces than snowy stone dwarf homes??? C'mon...

o For many players, housing "together" (or right next door!) is as important as what type of house. So, considering all of the above, why not allow any location to be built up as the owner wants? No real reason to limit normal/deluxe houses to specific locations, or limit a given location to a fixed style. Modular expansion, from a simple one-room shack to a multi-room mansion would be a nice option. Perhaps TP for the higher-end additions, similar to the way Vaults work? More is better.

(Whether or not the "expansion" is reflected in the outside cosmetics of the house is of secondary importance. It would be nice, naturally, but not a dealbreaker. If given "more rooms" or "no more rooms because of the outside appearance", I think the vast majority would accept stock outside appearances so long as they could expand the interior.)

o The ability to "move" one's household as-is to a different neighborhood (for a fee). If there's an empty lot, and I want to move to the same neighborhood my kin house or friends, or just to a prime location that opens up elsewhere that would be great without having to dump everything and re-purchase from scratch for the same end-result. (In the same Homestead, of course.)

o Similar expandability w/ in-house storage. 1 chest/room is nice, but perhaps paying (gold? TP?) for additional ones? One/room default, and then a 2nd w/ TP? More is better. (Multiplied by more rooms gets better still.) (The old adage holds true here - Give the people what they want. And "everyone" wants more storage.)

o A wardrobe (In one's own house?! What a radical concept!) Expandable even better.

o A "closet" where Decoration Items (only) can be stored, including both indoor and outdoor, and paints, floors, walls, ambient sound, etc. This would encourage both collectors and seasonal redecoration etc. (& expandable would be even better.)

o Access to your Vault in your Home would be so handy. So. (But maybe detract from activity in the social center of the homesteads, admittedly.)


Decorations:
o Very disappointed at rigidity of system. If I want to put 2 chairs near a table, I can't. If I want to put just one chair near a table, I can't unless there happens to be exactly the right type of hooks together near each other. 4 (usable!) chairs or a couple benches around a table - wow, must be dreaming now. Flexibility.

o Short of (or along with) that, lose the categories of furniture/walls/etc. Let smaller stuff be put in larger hooks, let anything be hung on a wall if it could go there.

o Similar w/ wall decorations. More is better. Let me clutter my walls if I want to, please.

o More trophies for walls. Many items are labeled "trophy", yet they are just vendor trash. Disappointing for those minor victories as we level up.

o More Fireplaces. Placeable, selectable, changeable. Animated fire optional.

o Similar w/ windows and/or wall sconces for candles/torches. Light me up! (Actual directional light/glow effect optional.)

o Similar w/ exterior decorations. If I want a forest, let me plant one (within reason, perhaps). If I want items bracketing/lining the path in, or a completely open entry with a row of items in the back, or a circle of items off to the side - why not?! (What good are all those snowmen if you can't have a snowman army, I ask ya?!)

o Exterior paint/color. Maybe(!) not all the colors of the rainbow, but some difference. Whitewashed, flagstoned, light grey, aged blue or earth brown - some variation in the cookie cutters.

o And the front door - forest green, rich blue, deep red, dark brown, aged yellow - c'mon. Even diff styles of door - plank, carved, solid wood, etc etc. Maybe diff details, knobs/knockers/hinges/etc.

o A "Dressing Room" equivalent for all items and options. I have NO idea how some of the walls, paints and furniture will look - it'd be nice to know before buying (esp if they are not over-the-counter, but only available for a king's ransom on the AH.)

(Obviously, this should not be usable for short-term RP events, so either time limited (meh) or (better) somehow limit the user while in that mode.)

o sim, be able to listen to a sample of ambient music before buying.

o Allow furniture to be dyed/"painted".

o Please! Have "Names Off" be default in homesteads for Decoration items. If I want to know what something is, I'll click on it, tyvm, I don't need every table and chair reminding me that they are a "Table" and "Chair" just because I have "Names On" for social interaction.


Fluff/misc -

o Seasonal changes reflected (some?) in homestead scenery.

o Optional(!) pop-up reminder when Rent is nearing due. (User-defined period even better.)

o Even better than fixed paint colors, have a spectrum box (similar to character's hair color) that you can choose from. Mix and match, make your own, lighten/darken. Wow, as if one could mix paint. Maybe a spectrum varying off from a specific color of paint, but something in that direction.

o Animals/pets. I have the "pesky doormouse" - fun! A cat or dog (or etc etc etc) would be better still. Many of those animations already exist as Lvl 0 fluff animals in the environment (or for LM's) - I wouldn't mind some for the house/yard.

o I don't want to start an argument - just my opinion - but I don't think multiple houses is a good idea at all. Would only compound the housing shortage and perception of "unused" houses, imo.


Kin Houses

o More control over kin chests (and more of them) as to who has access to what. Be nice to be able to give X set of kinnies access to one chest, Y set to another, Z set to the majority of chests but not all, etc. etc. And more chests - kins, especially ones that support Crafting, can collect a MESS of items. More is better.

o Items that can give "buffs" to kinnies who visit the house, before going off to quest. Static foods on tables, drinks in kegs or decanters, etc etc. Something small (or scalable) but nifty.

[Finnwick]

Lots of good ideas in this and other threads. Let me add one that I don't believe I've seen elsewhere:

In the name of bringing some much-needed life to the neighborhoods, why not introduce a few NPC neighbors that not only wander the streets (like they do now) but actually have their own dwellings within the neighborhoods. These NPCs could be responsible for delivering quests that in some way impact the neighborhood (help man the neighborhood watch against a band of raiding orcs, clean up trash from last week's festival, catch me X number of fish for an upcoming banquet, help me redecorate my house etc.). Ideally, these events would generate physical changes in the neighborhood visible to all residents. If you decorate the NPC's house one way, this should be visible to the rest of the neighbors until someone else takes on the quest. If you fail to stop the orc raid (or if no one does it for a period of time), there should be some signs of vandalism throughout the neighborhood.

You could even take this one step further by making a bunch of NPC neighbor types each with different quests to give out and then randomly placing a few of them in each neighborhood instance. That way each neighborhood would have its own quirks and personality. These neighbors could also "move out" periodically to be replaced with other NPCs with different quests. This would keep the neighborhood quests at least a little fresh.

[MorenaT]

I think that if people take the easy route, housing will not get fixed. The fundamental, underlying problems with an essentially flawed system will not be fixed. It needs to be RE-THOUGHT OUT!

This. I posted in another thread in suggestions the same subject, but will here as well. In a dev posting, they said it may be appropriate to view housing options in other games and incorporate some. Normally, that would make me cringe, but for housing specifically, it gives me hope they may rework housing, big time.

EQ2 housing is perfect. Imagine having your home in an inn room in the Prancing Pony. Or in a currently unused building down the street. IN Bree. And similar options in other towns around middle earth. No more ghost town neighborhoods! Easy access! More options!

For those unfamiliar with instanced housing like this, you'd go house shopping in town, mousing over the doors to designated buildings (or doors inside Inns). The tooltip would display the buy price. Inn rooms would be the cheapest, and smallest, freestanding homes would be moderate to quite expensive. You could click on the door before purchasing, and chose to "tour" the inside. You'd also see a "visit" option, which lists names of all the other buyers living there who chose to have their home open to the public. if your friend is not on the list but you were invited, you'd just type in their name and enter, assuming you were on the permissions list.

Once you own your room or home, it's yours to decorate as you please, (dare I say no hooks? It can happen!)

There are plenty of larger buildings around too, that could be used as kin halls.

For people who say NAY! I want to keep my yard! Fine. Keep the current housing as well, it can be "The suburbs" I'll give up my yard to actually live in a busy hub, near everything I need.

[CroKat]

What I want to see in LotRO is housing system like in Anarchy Online. Over 10 years old game with sadly outdated graphics but the housing is still the best I saw in some game. No hooks system, you can drag and drop any kind of furniture wherever you want it (you can place your sofa on the ceiling if you so want). There is limit on number of pieces you can have placed at once but that is high enough to decorate to your heart content.

Some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vQmqx8CGMM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G26yzjbWWSU

[Ashenwoods]

Now that we know Turbine is going to finally make some changes to housing, Im curious as to what sorts of changes you would like to see. And lets be honest.. they probably arent going to go to a full revamp to something like EQ2. So what changes do you think they might come up with?

Im hoping for the following, in order of probability:

1. Redesign of the housing structure itself. I have a small hobbit house, and it is frustrating. The fireplace is awkwardly placed in one corner, with no way for me to place a couch or chairs in front of it. If I want a bed, I have to place it in the center of the room, which is just silly. Bottom line: if you dont touch the hookpoint system, at least redo the layout so its more sensible and cozy. There are so many FANTASTIC npc homes out in the world that you can enter, and they are all so much better than the player housing.

2. Redesign of the decorations. Again, if you arent going to touch the hookpoints, at least redo the decorations so there is more flexibility. Smaller decorations, they take up less space, hey even let me have more decorations/furniture in the house.

3. Redo the hookpoint system. Unlikely given the time and resources it would take. But perhaps let us be more flexible with the hookpoints, like letting us move them about and add new ones? But I think we would all be really thrilled if you trashed the hookpoint system entirely and moved to a freeform system.

4. I know this would never happen, but I wish youd just trash the housing instance idea and just let us buy npc housing in the game world itself, ala EQ2. I know that means we would lose our outside yards, but Id love to be able to ride up to hobbiton and click on one of the dwellings there to enter my house! To me, the housing zones are lonely and depressing, I never, ever see ANYONE around. Lets breathe some life back into the starting zones!

So what do YOU guys think is possible this year, and what would you like to see?

A possible solution to the whole hook-point system...is let the player install the hook-points. A house comes with XX number of hooks, and the player can place them where they desire...and possibly buy more hooks at the store...
Turbine income, player flexibility...a win/win situation

The issue of Ghost towns is another problem, not easily solved. A player should not lose their home because they are away from the game for a period of time, but empty neighborhoods is a problem. The best solution I have seen, is after a period of inactivity, the entire home goes into escrow, and if/when you come back, it has to be placed back in a new neighborhood.

[katee13]

The first and most important think for me is surprisingly the hook system :-) It was already written in many posts and I can only agree. It is frustrating not to be able to place for example four chairs around the table, or a bench in front of the fireplace. If it is not possible to remove it, than at least make it more flexible (possibility to change the positions, buy more...)

Furniture functionality. Of course not every piece of furniture needs to do something. However why would someone have fireplace, candles or chandeliers in the house, if they give no light? And how nice would be a kinship meeting with a table full of meals, where you can really eat (a cask of ale, music and dancing... )

Empty homesteads. I would freely give up some part of my huge yard and have instead some NPC neighbors, so I would not feel as the last human in the Middle Earth, when I enter my home town. And maybe a few NPCs with quests (for example the repeating reputations quests) would also lure more players. Someone also needs to take care of the large kinship houses, so why not have the possibility to hire some NPC servants, guards, gardener...

Fixed homesteads. Let the players build their own houses and only choose and pay for a free lot. And if the player does not pay, send the whole house to escrow, so the lot is again free for rent to other players.

Animals. To have a dog or cat around the house, or a small stable for all the obtained horses.

[rougeredmage]

i am glad that the majority of players on this thread wants the same things i do the most common issues been the need for flexability in placing items and transport stable links

[glasshopperaus]

I would like to see the option to own more then 1 house per account...personally I think it should be limited to 1 house per character. Also get rid of the stupid hook system. And envict anyone who hasnt paid their maintenance for over 1 year.

[Limak]

The Housing in Lotro was always more like a "workaround" than a good solution, it needs more life, more customization, like it was in DAoC, some things wont work well like the trader outiside the house because we have a AH, and the superior workbenches also will not bring the change because after the Bree Rebuild you do not need to go far to find a superior workstation, I already read here some very good ideas like daily quests. I aint sure if someone already brought the ideas but to bring more life in there, how about:
-make housing zones part of seasonal events
-make the fishing grounds around the houses special, with stuff you only can get there or maybe fishing rod you can buy in the shop that only works there with a small chance to get shop stuff or things you only get there.
-weekend housing events
-housing race grounds
-housing games, like: go use the doorbell of your friend/neighbour (he will get a mail with your name and your house adress, when he goes to your house and use your doorbell both will get a small reward or a buff)

I also like the idea to get rid of the hooks or like it is in RoM where many furniture has granted you extra room, or the DAoC "copy" of items that could be placed on walls, additional cellar or attic and more than one outside look of walls windows and roof designs, a stable where you can place some of your special horses (after the Warhorses came out it is senseless to collect older horses so you can give them a place to get old and still not be obsolete), and a house for every character would also be fine, so my hobbit could have a hobbit house, my dwarf a dwarf house and so on...maybe a new housing zone in Rohan would be fine too....

[Leri927]

1 -> remove hook system. This system is nearly useless, its really not creative but to be honest place of lot hooks doesnt make sense at all. U should place decoration everywhere u wish. Dont say it is impossible... just see farmer vocation.. there u can spawn graphic object in a limited place.

2 -> New hausing areas: There are some unreachable flets in Caras Galadhon... they should be for sale, same in esteldín... Nearly every region got his no use (i mean part of lanndscape but u cant go in) buildings... like rivendell, bree (now bree has less such)Forochel "capital"... etc. These should be accessed with having kindred standing at the local faction, or with tp unlock.

3 -> Trophies: This would be so simple and would make lot players happy. Simply just need to make trophies from rare creatures (so now hunting them should have value again)larger ones should dropp head like trophy smaller ones stuffed versions of themselves. Atm rare mobs have lost all of their functions in game. Their respawn time should be radically cut down from days to minutes... max hakf hour.. to lvl of respawn time of warbands. They should have their own hausing trophy, and increased chance to dropp purple open world dropped gear, scroll of ages, rare scroll cases (if on their lvl exists such thing)larger bunch of resourches - so not the usual &&&&

4 -> Critters: u added 2 (or 5) Caged Cave-claw, Guard hound, Nanu's Hiding place (small turtle), Chicken coop, Draigoch fireplace. These are really liked by lo of players so suggest to make bigger variety of citter. Should be some some extraordinary rare versions like caged drakelings XD

[Durlon]

Well i really would like to see a housing system like the one from Rift (you may search "rift housing" on youtube). There you can place everything everywhere. You can build your own world ..... but i think it would not fit to Lotro.
The main things i would like to see are:


-Remove the hook system:
The most annoying thing is the hook system. i would be very happy if i could place things wehere i want to.

- House appearance:
It would be nice to select the type of house you want an place it by yourself in the Area. it also would be nice to build it up like hydtbolt.
Or the best thing would be that you place the main biulding and advance it with a tower or a stable a new part with a larger room ...etc...

-New Housing Areas:
Additionally areas to Bree Shire Celondim and Blue Mountains could be Rohan, Gondor, Moria, Lonely Mountain, Mirkwood

so i hope you understand my english im not a native english speaker.

[Gillrain]

House trophies from raids like Dn,Moria,Bg,OD in store/skirmish camp (for example if u done meta deed u can barter housing things)

why ?

getting them with this drop with 12 ppl in raid is miracle i done about 300 BG LT runs and seen it dropped once way to low same with other trophies mistress EGg globsnaga heads unwelcome mat and much more.

[LadyDena]

Better question is: How much are you willing to pay for such changes??

That's a really bass ackward statement, akin to saying : "How much are you willing to pay to continue to be your local store's customer."

Sorry but thats just the *opposite* of how business works. They aren't doing us a favor or being charitable. People are already paying for the development and services of the game. The subscription fees are not there for them to be status quo and just sit around tinkering and nerfing, and they have earned enormous profits from the Turbine store.

The even better question is : How much are they willing to invest to keep their customers here?

[Slurch]

My wishlist:

-Denser hooks for more coziness (or better, a more free-form system)
-Fires lit by default, or else a state-memory. Reduce the "cast time".
-Fix character-bound decorations to be account-bound
-Crafting, or if that's too much to ask, cooking, or a setting for a single craft facility per house, charge gold to change.
-Massive furniture storage.

[Gallandras]

I) Weed out the dead neighborhoods

II) Unlock new part of your home: Cellar, Attic etc.

III) Crafting tables at your home or kinhouse
(kinhouse furniture will have a scaleable bonus depending on how old the kinship is)

IV) Vaultkeeper access while inside your home

Good idea, especially vault keeper access.

[Gallandras]

One of the things that prevents me from going to my house that often is that once you use instant travel there, you have to wait for it to cool down before you can come back, or you have to ride out.

Maybe you could do an instant round-trip. Jump in then jump out with a cool down afterwards.

At the moment I'm in Rohan, but my house is in Bree. It's a nause having to ride to Bree and then catch multiple horses back.

[Pluck]

This. I posted in another thread in suggestions the same subject, but will here as well. In a dev posting, they said it may be appropriate to view housing options in other games and incorporate some. Normally, that would make me cringe, but for housing specifically, it gives me hope they may rework housing, big time.

EQ2 housing is perfect. Imagine having your home in an inn room in the Prancing Pony. Or in a currently unused building down the street. IN Bree. And similar options in other towns around middle earth. No more ghost town neighborhoods! Easy access! More options!

For those unfamiliar with instanced housing like this, you'd go house shopping in town, mousing over the doors to designated buildings (or doors inside Inns). The tooltip would display the buy price. Inn rooms would be the cheapest, and smallest, freestanding homes would be moderate to quite expensive. You could click on the door before purchasing, and chose to "tour" the inside. You'd also see a "visit" option, which lists names of all the other buyers living there who chose to have their home open to the public. if your friend is not on the list but you were invited, you'd just type in their name and enter, assuming you were on the permissions list.

Once you own your room or home, it's yours to decorate as you please, (dare I say no hooks? It can happen!)

There are plenty of larger buildings around too, that could be used as kin halls.

For people who say NAY! I want to keep my yard! Fine. Keep the current housing as well, it can be "The suburbs" I'll give up my yard to actually live in a busy hub, near everything I need.

This, this and this. Absolutely this. EQ had the finest housing system I have ever seen. And that honestly doesnt include the latest systems out there now, like Rifts free-form construction and the similar one coming with Wildstar. Im sure Turbine is seeing the new systems out there and feeling really backwards.

My absolute ideal: As I said in my OP, I would absolutely love to walk up to a house in Hobbiton or Michel Delving, click on the door to see a price, and buy that location. After that, I would enter a design stage where I map out the rooms and tunnels (or at least pick from several layouts). Finally, decorate free-form as in EQ2. Heck, Id pay for that in the store, if it came down to it!

[C-Hound]

This was mentioned in another thread, but not (afaik) here -

The ability to transfer ownership between your own alts, so you can delete the "owner" of the house.

(I think it would be mistake to allow transfer between diff players' alts, as that could create a speculative housing market and lead to land grabs for purely economic reasons - the neighborhoods need to become populated and active, not become a lifeless commodity.)

[Skigorn]

I'm still not holding my breath...While I have been enamored with Middle Earth since I was able to read, and I love most things about LOTRO, I'm so jaded and disappointed about the subject of housing after five years of broken promises and bitter disapointment...I'm very sorry but it is hard for me to have faith they will actually bring about quality changes...

But as the OP asked what changes to housing we would like to see implemented, here are some of my requests.

1. GET RID OF THE HOOK SYSTEM!!! It's idiotic, antiquated, useless and looks horrible.
2. Clean up the dead neighborhoods.
3. Make housing easier to access.
4. Allow us to truly customize the inside and outside of our homes.
5. Make houses more viable. Crafting areas (for a steep in game price of course), stables for our steeds, better storage...there are so many ways to make them useful.

Basically make the changes suggested in this thread and this thread and the various other threads in this forum over the past 5 years - just as the links in my signature point out.

This sums it up for me. If #1 isn't addressed, the housing update will be pretty much a fail. I can see extra chests being offered via the store just like shared storage.

I'd add...
6. Access to our vaults via our house.
7. Ability to hook shields/weapons to our walls. There are some items that would look nice on my wall.
8. Armour dummies. Place armour pieces on a dummy so they can be displayed.
9. Usable items that buff your character. Can be something nominal but Asheron's Call had this and I loved having 4 or 5 items that I could use that would put a buff of some sort on me. This would bring me back to my house often.

TBH I rarely go to my house because there's no reason to. Put crafting abilities or buff items there and I'll actually use my house.

EDIT: I'd also like to buy more than 1 house, maybe make it only permissible to buy one in another racial neighborhood (I'd expect this to be a Lotro Store offering). I love my hobbit hole but I would also like a dwarf house.

[Trilwych]

I don't know if "free-form" decoration is in the works, but I certainly wouldn't mind a grid system, which could prevent some player-side technical issues like clipping and overlap and things like that while keeping the "size" restrictions of our current furniture. Who knows. I'm curious what they'll come up with.

Well, I just wasted my entire weekend playing with Rift's free form player housing (dimensions) and spending all my newbie money. Forget this hook or grid nonsense; I'm liable to abandon both of my LotRO houses at this point if WB-Turbine doesn't try to compete against that.