Bovine Builder Application

Bovine

Playwright
Pronouns
he/him
17


Canada


I first heard of Westeroscraft on the Westeroscraft walks Youtube channel.


I like Lotr however Asoiaf is by far my favourite fantasy series.



Game of Thrones
Clash of Kings
Storm of Swords
Feast for Crows
Dance of Dragons
All of the above




Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
All of the above



Ser Davos Seaworth is my favorite character because in a world of backstabbing and plots he stands as a symbol of justice and loyalty, and he comes from humble beginnings to becoming the hand of the of the king of the one true king.


I'll be honest I don't think I bring many skills to the table that aren't already here, iv never used world edit, and haven't done a lot of building in the past couple of years.


All of the above beings said I'm a quick learner who really loves the Asoiaf world. All of you have done an amazing job in creating everything on the server and after seeing Westeroscraft Walks I decided to buy a new Minecraft account (got locked out of old one) just to walk around on the server myself. I have been visiting the server often and now feel like getting involved in the building and honing my skills.

Thanks for Your Consideration! :)






YOU KNOW NOTHING, JON SNOW
 
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Enah

Skinchanger
Hey bovine this is very good for an app! I’ll get on either tonight or tomorrow evening to critique and stuff. But this looks promising so far!
 

Enah

Skinchanger
Ok sorry I got distracted yesterday by Shameless and the Witcher 3 lol.

Right, so this is a very promising application! Just a few critiques however

1, your gradient (stone mix) on the "vale" cottage is very messy, the darker/heavier stones should be more at the bottom with the lighter ones at the top, and to avoid what we call "checkerboards" as in the stones form a sort of checkered pattern.

2, the reach bakery has an interestingly shaped roof, but, you are almost there in how they're typically built on the server. a quick trip to fairmarket or hgtown can definitely help and perhaps be better than trying to explain in a post.

3, the chest on a shelf (while personally i enjoy them) is actually a death trap to the bed's occupants!

4, the bergfried you built is actually fairly good in quality, and could even have been built on the server not that long ago! The dark northern cobble and the logs are a bit dated. logs are mostly for trees or in rare instances really big rooms (as in roof timbers) and the cobble, well it just clashes with the stormlands/sandstone

5 glass was very expensive, even to a lord or landed gentry. typically it would be used to showcase ones' wealth, often even irl the wealthy merchants would have removable windows so they could safeguard them from being stolen or worse damaged! but on the server, a tower house wouldnt have glass as you have done, they'd be behind maybe the arrowslits or only in the finest room and even then probably way up high.

6, you've got a good sense for scale, however with the tower the walls should be thicker 2 blocks to give it a good sturdy feeling and it allows you to have nicer rooms inside and can be used to house that glass ;D (check out some of the more modern castles and stuff, most use double thick walls)

7, the daub pattern needs a bit of work, but it's not that far off, just needs to be organized better and to try to be symmetrical and aesthetic

8, windows again. the reach bakery has 2x2 windows, we actually try to avoid those types as they tend to look modern and even though medieval houses DO have them and frequently so, they jsut translate poorly in minecraft

9 torches for lighting in anything except a very grand or large building doesnt make sense. a house would have candles, maybe a lantern. the poor might be lucky to get a rush (a fast burning sort of candle, think like a really slow match or a sparkless sparkler) or tallow candles, while the more well off woul;d have beeswax and even canon has that there are scented beeswax candles. peasants would maybe have one source of light, but torches are impractical for anyone living in anything but a castle.

10, flooring inside a ground floor room should typically be dirt/gravel mixed with light thatch, which would keep the floor less muddy or gross. wood and stone floors are usually more upper class/noble/merchants sort of thing, since they cost more and take more maintenance to keep, well, maintained.


this is the biggest critiques and suggestions, but please don;t let this dissuade you! the application is the first stages towards becoming a builder and is the beginner's course for our server's standards. so, im going to issue you a challenge or so, each progressing in difficulty and ingenuity. please build me a house in the style of white harbour, can be city or sprawl, wood or stone and of lower class status. good luck! if you need help with what is what class jsut ask around while in game!
 

Bovine

Playwright
Pronouns
he/him
Thanks for the feedback! I'll take it all into account.

Should I make a new post for the challenge or leave it as a reply for this post?
 

Bovine

Playwright
Pronouns
he/him
whoops it has been some time but my schedule is cleared up and I built the white harbor building found here:

 

thecoddfish

Emissary
Staff member
Hey Bovine, glad to see you're back!

Things I like:
- Good house shape, no obvious errors
- Logical interiors
- Nice attempt at rafters (more on that later)

Things that need improvement:
- The White Harbor style uses black slate, not blue slate - easy mistake to make, considering our black slate is unfortunately blue-ish
- Rafters could be improved by having some northern slabs beneath the full slate blocks, between the existing rafters - would make it seem more supported
- Too many barrels/crates - why would anybody need so many?

Your next challenge is to build a house in the style of Duskendale. I want you to focus particularly on creating logical, class-appropriate interiors (think about cooking, heating, eating, bedding +/- a profession i.e. blacksmith, carpenter, weaver etc), choosing the right blocks for the town and putting the house into context with a road and yard (bonus points if you plot out surrounding houses in wool to show how your house would fit in).

My advice to you (which I give to all potential applicants) is to go into Duskendale and find 5 houses that you particularly admire. Take screenshots of those 5 houses (interiors and exteriors) and then use them as reference/inspiration when you create your own challenge house in singleplayer. You're welcome to build in a flat world if this makes it easier for you.
 

Bovine

Playwright
Pronouns
he/him
Hey Bovine, glad to see you're back!

Things I like:
- Good house shape, no obvious errors
- Logical interiors
- Nice attempt at rafters (more on that later)

Things that need improvement:
- The White Harbor style uses black slate, not blue slate - easy mistake to make, considering our black slate is unfortunately blue-ish
- Rafters could be improved by having some northern slabs beneath the full slate blocks, between the existing rafters - would make it seem more supported
- Too many barrels/crates - why would anybody need so many?

Your next challenge is to build a house in the style of Duskendale. I want you to focus particularly on creating logical, class-appropriate interiors (think about cooking, heating, eating, bedding +/- a profession i.e. blacksmith, carpenter, weaver etc), choosing the right blocks for the town and putting the house into context with a road and yard (bonus points if you plot out surrounding houses in wool to show how your house would fit in).

My advice to you (which I give to all potential applicants) is to go into Duskendale and find 5 houses that you particularly admire. Take screenshots of those 5 houses (interiors and exteriors) and then use them as reference/inspiration when you create your own challenge house in singleplayer. You're welcome to build in a flat world if this makes it easier for you.
here is my Duskendale build it is a butcher's shop and home includes a stand where the butchers can sell their wares. in the backyard that I have turned into a workstation has a smoker.

my own criticisms not a lot of natural light is this realistic? also, I had trouble with spacing out the rooms making furnishing difficult any tips?

 

thecoddfish

Emissary
Staff member
Hey Bovine, sorry for not getting back to you faster - I've been somewhat busy irl. Great work on the Duskendale house!

Things I like:
- Great overall shape and structure

Things that need improvement:
- The balcony seems a little unusually placed, and the amount of leaf blocks on it are overkill
- The brick and wattle needs more patterning, rather than just being one row of patterns on the facade and the rest being the plain block
- Interiors and yard are a little sparse
- Use some mud/soil blocks for the cabbage, rather than plain dirt
- Noble beds are too fancy for anything less than high class
- The roof needs rafters beneath it
- The big collection of crates don't serve any real purpose

With these in mind, your next challenge is a carpenter in the style of Bandallon. Focus especially on creating class appropriate but interesting interiors, making a nice carpenter's workshop/yard (ask around on the server for inspiration) and working on the daub and wattle patterning. As a rule of thumb, use the bordered daub blocks to frame the plain blocks in squares and rectangles - you'll see this done on most houses.

Good luck.
 

Bovine

Playwright
Pronouns
he/him
Hey Bovine, sorry for not getting back to you faster - I've been somewhat busy irl. Great work on the Duskendale house!

Things I like:
- Great overall shape and structure

Things that need improvement:
- The balcony seems a little unusually placed, and the amount of leaf blocks on it are overkill
- The brick and wattle needs more patterning, rather than just being one row of patterns on the facade and the rest being the plain block
- Interiors and yard are a little sparse
- Use some mud/soil blocks for the cabbage, rather than plain dirt
- Noble beds are too fancy for anything less than high class
- The roof needs rafters beneath it
- The big collection of crates don't serve any real purpose

With these in mind, your next challenge is a carpenter in the style of Bandallon. Focus especially on creating class appropriate but interesting interiors, making a nice carpenter's workshop/yard (ask around on the server for inspiration) and working on the daub and wattle patterning. As a rule of thumb, use the bordered daub blocks to frame the plain blocks in squares and rectangles - you'll see this done on most houses.

Good luck.

here it is ! (its no problem about you being busy I completely understand.)


Do you think I may have used too much of the same type of wood?
 

Bovine

Playwright
Pronouns
he/him
Hey Bovine, all that's coming up for me when I click the link is a photo of the balcony from the last build.
@thecoddfish huh that's so strange, not sure what I did to get that too happen
here's the real link

 
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thecoddfish

Emissary
Staff member
Sorry, must have missed the reply.

I think there are some positives but still areas for improvement.

Things that I like:
  • Reasonable house shapes (the one with the brown roof is a little bit short for having such a tall roof though)
  • Solid grasp of the fundamentals (rafters, staircases etc)

Things that need improvement:
  • The shape of the porch roof is unusual, stick to simple, realistic shapes
  • No horizontal 1x2 windows, they're a bad look
  • Glass windows are too expensive for a house that has simple dirt floors. Reserve glass for richer houses (high class and above)
  • Some of the interiors need to make more sense. For example, the bed layout in the 7th picture doesn't really make any sense (and the window doesn't fit into the interior layout either).
  • The carpenter's workshop is a little bit clean and simplistic, and could do with some more signs of active work. There are lots of good examples of carpenters on the server, you just need to ask around and people should do their best to help you (mention my name if it helps!). I recommend trying to show something simple like a kitchen table in construction, perhaps using halfdoor and slab blocks, rather than just stacking up drawer blocks.
  • I think there are too many drawer blocks being used all around the place. They are a relatively complex piece of carpentry, and I can count 18 of them around the house. Use different blocks for similar purposes (instead of a drawer for a bedside table, use a barrel or crate or just simply don't have one).
  • The garden needs some fern blocks on the grass to create depth. You'll notice this is one of the consistent techniques we use on the server. You could have done with a shed for the wood pile too, rather than leaving it out to be potentially rained on
Your next challenge is a house in the style of Fairmarket. Take your time with this build, and focus on making something that would fit right into the town. Think about the little details that make a house feel alive, rather than resorting to overusing blocks like the drawer blocks.

Good luck
 

Bovine

Playwright
Pronouns
he/him
Sorry, must have missed the reply.

I think there are some positives but still areas for improvement.

Things that I like:
  • Reasonable house shapes (the one with the brown roof is a little bit short for having such a tall roof though)
  • Solid grasp of the fundamentals (rafters, staircases etc)

Things that need improvement:
  • The shape of the porch roof is unusual, stick to simple, realistic shapes
  • No horizontal 1x2 windows, they're a bad look
  • Glass windows are too expensive for a house that has simple dirt floors. Reserve glass for richer houses (high class and above)
  • Some of the interiors need to make more sense. For example, the bed layout in the 7th picture doesn't really make any sense (and the window doesn't fit into the interior layout either).
  • The carpenter's workshop is a little bit clean and simplistic, and could do with some more signs of active work. There are lots of good examples of carpenters on the server, you just need to ask around and people should do their best to help you (mention my name if it helps!). I recommend trying to show something simple like a kitchen table in construction, perhaps using halfdoor and slab blocks, rather than just stacking up drawer blocks.
  • I think there are too many drawer blocks being used all around the place. They are a relatively complex piece of carpentry, and I can count 18 of them around the house. Use different blocks for similar purposes (instead of a drawer for a bedside table, use a barrel or crate or just simply don't have one).
  • The garden needs some fern blocks on the grass to create depth. You'll notice this is one of the consistent techniques we use on the server. You could have done with a shed for the wood pile too, rather than leaving it out to be potentially rained on
Your next challenge is a house in the style of Fairmarket. Take your time with this build, and focus on making something that would fit right into the town. Think about the little details that make a house feel alive, rather than resorting to overusing blocks like the drawer blocks.

Good luck
@thecoddfish https://imgur.com/a/N1PMwHr
took a while but here it is. I actually had a lot of trouble with this maybe I make them to large?
 

thecoddfish

Emissary
Staff member
Sorry I've been so inactive recently.

I like what you've done. Only think I can really say is that the interiors are on the richer side of things (the fancy beds are too elaborate by comparison to the rest of the house), and the monochrome sandstone wall blocks on the facade are too light by comparison to the monochrome dark and vivid dark sandstone. You did a good job with the basics of structure (proportions, logical interiors, patterning etc) so I'm happy to approve you at this stage.

The next step is to contact a mod in-game to promote you to New Builder. Please make sure to read the New Builder guide here: http://westeroscraft.wikia.com/wiki/Newbie_guide
And also make a probation thread in the probation forum. You can start building at any open locations on the server - you can find these at /warp build, although it's sometimes outdated, so I would also recommend just asking people in-game and checking the forums for recent project happenings.

A probie leader should post on your thread within a week or so and continue to give you constructive feedback on your houses for the next month (and help be your entry point into the server community in general), although as sometimes the probie leaders are busy IRL, I would also encourage you to seek feedback from project leaders and other builders/mods. At the end, you'll be made full builder assuming everything goes smoothly.

All the best!