Completed Application Thread: House Varner Redo by Jakethesnake

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
Not much to say, just stick to grey reach palette and if you have any ideas about the layout feel free to contact me in-game or on discord!

On a separate note, the village of Kerseyford has been opened and is nearing completion. This is the closest village to Newbarrel and in my own little headcanon, the Varners and Fossoways of Newbarrel were feuding at one stage, and so there was a holdfast at the top of the village. Once they buried the hatchet, the holdfast was repurposed into a sept, with a new shrine to the warrior being built later on. Additionally, Kerseyford guards the only ford which carts can travel across. This has been exploited by villagers who have set up a flourishing goods market and houses a tax collector for merchants crossing into Varner lands. This subsequently helps create a more well-off area in and around Kerseyford. There are still a few plots left, so feel free to build there at /warp kerseyford and read all the signs!

2021-11-30_23.22.13.png
 

Nikas Kunitz

Herald
Not much to say, just stick to grey reach palette and if you have any ideas about the layout feel free to contact me in-game or on discord!

On a separate note, the village of Kerseyford has been opened and is nearing completion. This is the closest village to Newbarrel and in my own little headcanon, the Varners and Fossoways of Newbarrel were feuding at one stage, and so there was a holdfast at the top of the village. Once they buried the hatchet, the holdfast was repurposed into a sept, with a new shrine to the warrior being built later on. Additionally, Kerseyford guards the only ford which carts can travel across. This has been exploited by villagers who have set up a flourishing goods market and houses a tax collector for merchants crossing into Varner lands. This subsequently helps create a more well-off area in and around Kerseyford. There are still a few plots left, so feel free to build there at /warp kerseyford and read all the signs!

View attachment 11651
Lovely.
 

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
Nice start tobi! I have a few notes for you.

1. tone down the pebbles in the pathways
I went a bit overboard on the pebbles around Delham, so that's on me for setting a poor example.

2. the gradient
There are a few spots where the gradient jumps between blocks, so from small smooth stone to cobblestone or small stone bricks to river cobble.

3. the sept
Currently the sept looks quite outdated compared to other septs on the server. I'd recommend looking at small septs in Luk's megabuild.

4. interior layout
I really like the layout of having the kitchen on the bottom floor and refectory above so good job!

5. the lychyard
The lychyard is really nicely detailed!
 
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Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
Really good work Guil! Here are my notes

1. masonry
I really like some of the detailing you've done with the masonry, adding filled in arches, and using different stone materials to make the building pop. Good work

2. the tower
This one goes for tobi too, I'd like the tower to feel a bit more like small towers at Varner castle. Here's an example.
2021-12-20_15.07.18.png

3. detailing
You've got some really cute details in the yard, that make it feel very Varner-like

I'll give you both a few days to work on these changes before I make a decision. Good luck to both of you!
 
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Guillaaard

Herald
hello !

so Jake and me were working on the transition problem with Hamell, and we come up with a solution in the village and holdfast of Belleglen, north west of Elderbrook, and we are waiting for a go ahead from the mods to continue it as it's an experimental proposition for the transition.

so as the problem of the palette, I did a pink reach palette with yellow accent, as if using a local stone ( the terra is a mix of reach terrainset and westerland terrainset) which is a lot more logical than doing a grey one on top of white and yellow. creating a local substyle feel more real and historically plausible than a weird mix of stones.
then, as the style, we made a style test above, and we are waiting approval before continuing on this way.
for this style, the main inspiration was a mix of hamell and varner, with varner still being the most important, and another external real life inspiration, a Dordogne castle which is itself in a steep valley, and resembling Bourgogne castles, which are french style architecture bordering italy, as what is now the Reach and Varner and the Westerland and Hamell.
( I devellop thoses choices more deeply there : https://forum.westeroscraft.com/thr...discussions-and-inspirations.3210/#post-25641)

thanks for reading, have a nice day !
 

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
After lots of work and feedback, I'm very happy with what you've come up with! We'll just wait on a mod to approve before opening the hamlet, as this is a different style that I feel requires approval. But overall, amazing work Guil! I think your work does a great job of paying homage to Sapp's work, and is a great updated rendition of that hamlet.
 

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
Ah, where to start. I've basically had to change the palette of half of Varner to make this transition work. It doesn't make sense to have 1 hamlet be the sole transitionary area, so everything north of and including Elderbrook has been changed to pink reach. The justification for this is that the Reach terrainset is white, so getting grey stone from white rock isn't really logical. This also allows us to gradient buildings into the more yellow stone of the Westerlands, because trying to blend grey Reach and Westerlands is a nightmare. Guil's hamlet is situated in an old quarry, where the white and yellow stone is taken from. I have included an overgrown quarry near Varner's castle which has a darker stone (Eastern Islands, and Reach Alt). This is shows a change in material from the more yellow-y hues of Reach terrainset and Westerlands terrainset to the colder tones of Reach Alt and Eastern Islands terrainsets. With this, I will also be updating the castle's gradient to reflect this better.

In Guil's hamlet, in order to avoid an abundance of materials being used, whitewash timber, and dark thatch will not be used here. Light thatch or brown slate will be the predominant roof materials, with a lot of oak and brown timbers being used to help blend with the Westerlands. Guil and I have really had to bend ourselves into a pretzel shape to make this work, so please be kind because a lot, and I mean a lot, of work has gone into making this work :p

That's all from me, cya
 

Azulejo

Bloodmage
Staff member
You both (and whoever else helped with this) are doing a huge effort in order to make this happen as good as it can be and being as cohesive as possible. You all can be sure it's paying off! I'm hopping this becomes a model on how to transition northern Reach into southern Westernlands, and that's no minor achievement. Keep up with the good ideas :D.​
 

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
There are plots still open at /warp pendleton and /warp belleglen. Please check out the styles of these hamlets properly before building here and follow all rules and regulations. One more hamlet is planned for Varner, and that will be Aino's hamlet. The location will remain relatively the same but Aino has expressed a desire to update plotting.
 

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
Small update, about 2/3 of the project is complete/nearing completion. It's just a matter of people taking up plots. I want to get this portion done and dusted before I move on to open Aino's hamlet and the remaining 1/3.

I will allow anyone to take these tasks in the near-complete hamlets to speed things up for me.
So, things I need people to finish:

- 3 yards in Elderbrook (not the Inn, this is being done by Ravish)
- A barn in Elderbrook
- 4 plots in Pendleton
- 2 plots in Belleglen

I've also been working on slowly updating the rivers a little bit to reflect fluvial erosion. I've been adding cut banks, and adding sand to the inner corners of meanders to show more material being deposited here. I've also decreased the very braided look of a lot of the flatter rivers after consulting a few people on the server.

In order to finish this portion, I have my hills which finish quite abruptly along the Redding border. After I complete Varner, I plan on teaming up with Guillard and Ric to foster Redding and potentially Ivy hall as well. Our plan was to add these two projects to Varner as part of a 3-project mega build, but I will finish Varner completely before going onto larger pursuits. However, I'm in a bit of a catch-22 to finish Varner, I need to terraform the other side of the hills, but to terraform the other side of the hills would require fostering Redding. The solution I have come up with is to blend the terrain as best I can into the pre-existing terra and then go back to it if we go ahead with the megaproject.

- Jake
 

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
Hey all! Since I've now finished Skerry (woop-woop), I was wondering if it would be possible to annex Redding (just Redding). It’s half the size of Varner, and I have some plans for the area that I mentioned above which would work best while Varner is in a WIP state. The current state of Varner is about 85% completion, with only plots and grass mixes to be completed. I plan on adding a line of hills on the north border of Redding, which would direct the water through Varner as opposed to through Redding lands. This would be beneficial to make sure Hamell and Varner follow proper geomorphology. I understand if you’d prefer me to get closer to completion before annexing Redding. I would however, like to work on the hills that border Redding while Varner is still in progress. It saves me the time of smoothing them quickly and messily and then covering them with grass only to change that afterwards.

- Jake