AmingoW Builder Application

[AmingoW]

What is your Minecraft username?
AmingoW

What is your age?
17-20

In what country are you living?
United Kingdom

Where did you first hear about WesterosCraft?
Searched online

What do you like the most about GoT/ASoIaF?
In the 3rd Daenarys chapter in a storm of swords when she conquers astapor.

What is your favorite build on our server?
Kings Landing because of how compact the buildings are and how big the red keep and sept are.

Why do you want to join our server?
Because I really enjoy the idea of building Westeros in Minecraft and want to help out as much as possible.



Did you follow the application rules?
You know nothing, Jon Snow

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey AmingoW,

Thanks for your application! Glad to see your interest in helping out with the project.

Nice work with the apphouse! Not really seeing any issues with it. Hope the exercise was helpful for learning our server's building style. For subsequent challenge builds, you'll be expected to build original houses of your own design, in the style of specific locations on our server. However, I recommend thinking of it similarly to the application house - except now, instead of simply replicating a house, you should try to replicate particular elements of multiple houses, and synthesize them into an original creation. After each one I'll give some feedback.

BTW, just a minor tip, I noticed you used a string block to support the wood carpet here. If you use the custom wood carpet blocks (the one in the WesterosDeco panel), you don't have to do this - the carpets should float on their own.

For the first challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp tortown. Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!

 

[AmingoW]

Hello,

I didn't realise that there was another oak wood carpet sorry about that.

I have finished my challenge now hope you like it.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey AmingoW,

Nice work with the Tor house, overall it seems like you're getting the style down quickly! The interiors especially are looking great. I'll jump right into feedback:

- The palette looks pretty decent, but when doing houses with plaster you always want to avoid making it look too "splotchy", i.e. when you have a bunch of small random spots of plaster. Instead, try to make a single connected plaster surface, and fade it into stone only on the edges where the plaster would get chipped or eroded. Also, the gradient on this side is a bit too messy. I'd recommend cutting out the "large brick sandstone" block, which IIRC isn't used in the Tor at all.

- Does the house have a second floor, or is that space filled in? I think most of the houses of that size in the Tor town have a second storey.

- Avoid using the vanilla trapdoor block in general (except as an actual trapdoor), since the texture is rather outdated. In the cases I can see in your interiors, you can either use oak carpet or oak half doors to accomplish the same purpose.

- Try not to overuse the lantern blocks; they'd likely just have one that they carry around if it's dark.

For the next challenge build, please make a medium-sized house in the style of /warp duskendale. Please include a sizeable yard as well. Let me know if you have any questions, either about my feedback or the challenge build. Good luck!

 

[AmingoW]

I have finished the new challenge hope you like it.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Amingo,

Thanks for the update! While looking around Duskendale, I noticed that your submission looks much too similar to this house. While you changed a couple things, the exterior structure is more or less the same.

While we start off the builder app with copying a single house, for subsequent challenge builds you ultimately need to look at the big picture and blend multiple examples into a new original creation. Try not to memorize the structure of one house, but instead find a bunch of houses for inspiration and then try to build based on their "essence".

I do have a couple other points of feedback, mostly on the interiors which are different from the original:

- Most of the rooms feel too long, which causes the proportions to be a bit off, especially with the relatively low ceiling. If this is the case, you usually want to sub-divide into multiple rooms. Otherwise, you can play around with vertical supports (i.e., with fences) to help balance the space out a bit more.

- Never have flat ceilings, you always want to have some form of rafters. I recommend taking more time to look at examples of how rafters are done at Duskendale.

- Always use half doors to cover up the sides of cabinet blocks, bench blocks, and other such blocks - it doesn't make sense for them to open up on multiple sides.

With the above things in mind, I'd like you to redo the Duskendale challenge - this time please make sure to study multiple examples of houses and integrate them, rather than just memorizing the details of one house. Let me know if you have any questions.

P.S. Could you set your FOV to Normal when taking the screenshots? I find it a bit hard to assess things in FOV other than the one I'm used to.

 

[AmingoW]

Hello,

I did mostly use a lot of that house in my last build but now I have had a bit more of a look around the town and put together this.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Amingo,

Nice work, this house feels a lot better, and also more original this time. I'll jump right to feedback:

- Overall the timber pattern is pretty good, but feels a bit messy in some spots, particularly on this side. You want the "plain brown daub" block to generally be framed by the other timber blocks, rather than exposed on the very sides of the facade. On both the front and back of the house, the patterns feel too dense towards the center, where you have a lot of the "X" variant. Using some of the vertical timber blocks instead might help. Let me know if this is unclear and I can try to illustrate when I get a chance.

- Instead of having the roof flatten out slightly on the top, the slope of the roof should just be a straight line. So, instead of doing "block, stair -> block, stair -> stair -> block, wall", it should be "block, stair -> block, stair -> block, stair -> block, wall".

Don't really see any issues with the interiors. For future builds though, please make sure to take enough pictures to show all sides of the house, and all interior rooms.

For the next challenge build, please make a medium-sized house in the style of /warp OAtown. Let me know if you have any questions about my feedback or the challenge style. Good luck!

 

[AmingoW]

Hello,

Thanks for your feedback I was really unsure what to do with the different frame blocks. Hopefully, it doesn't look too bad this time.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Amingo,

Overall good work with this house; it's pretty well-rounded and gets down most of the elements of the OA style. This side is particularly well-done. My feedback this time:

- In general the exteriors feel a bit too plain. For some sides, if the house is supposed to be up against other houses, this might not be a problem (but make sure you don't have windows there either then). Otherwise, you want to add architectural details and other immersive details to that side to make it interesting. Here's a nice infographic we made showing all the things that go into a good build. You have a decent shape and proportions down, but it still needs a bit more "personality" and "surroundings/life".

- The stone foundation seems to be just a random mix of blocks. Instead of doing this, you want to have a smooth gradient between one color/texture stone and another. I would start by making the entire stone foundation out of the "light grey stone" block. Then add some cobblestone around the base of the house, and other areas where the brick would get weathered. Then towards the top of the foundation you can add some of the "faint light grey stone" block. Never have the cobblestone and faint light grey stone touching; make sure there's always light grey stone between them. I'm not sure if you've seen /warp gradient on the server, but it's a useful tutorial for doing gradients.

- There's a couple minor mistakes with the timber pattern. You want to avoid long horizontal rows of the "open" timber frame block (without the crosshatch), since timber bears weight vertically. I'd also probably break up the long horizontal row of the "X" timber block in this case as well.

- The interiors seem pretty good, but this room feels a bit too sparse and empty; also the way the rafters change direction without any wall or support underneath is a bit odd.

Please let me know if you have any questions or want me to illustrate any of my feedback; I know it was a bit wordier this time. Also in general, please make sure to take enough screenshots of the interiors - there should be at least one showing every distinct room. For the next challenge build, please make a rural farmhouse in the style of /warp gaunt, with a sizeable yard. Good luck!

 

[AmingoW]

Hey,

Thanks for the feedback and sorry for the long delay just been busy.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Amingo,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you - this week's been a bit of a whirlwind.

Overall you did a very nice job on this house! I only have a couple points of feedback to give this time:

- The "hip" on the roof (that is, the part where the roof turns sideways at the top of the front/back facades) is a bit too extreme; at Gaunt the hipped parts of the rooves are 3-blocks wide at most. The side profile of the house looks a bit awkward as a result. Let me know if you don't understand what I mean, and I can make a quick example in-game next time I get a chance.

- For a shorter barn-like farmhouse, I wouldn't have a horizontal ceiling/rafters. I'd just make the whole building one space (possibly with a low half door divider though, like you have), and have rafters under the thatch. If it seems too empty, you can also add horizontal beams spaced out a couple blocks, using wood wall blocks for instance.

- For this type of house, it also makes sense to have the hearth in a central location, rather than pressed up into a corner.

For the next challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp fairmarket, with a yard. Let me know if you have any questions about anything. Good luck!

 

[AmingoW]

Hi,

Again sorry for the very long delay.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Amingo,

No worries about the delay, and thanks for your patience through the app process.

I'd say that you pulled off this house very well! It's a really good balance of detail and simplicity. I just have a couple of minor points:

- You should cover the kitchen bench block in this picture with a half door on the side.

- In the same picture, it looks like you have a flat ceiling - make sure for any ceiling larger in area than a couple blocks, you have some sort of rafter structure or support.

Otherwise, you've done a great job, so consider yourself approved!

To get promoted to builder, ask a moderator in-game next time you catch one online. The next step is to read over the New Builder guide, found here: https://westeroscraft.com/wiki/guides/new-builders-guide
And also make yourself 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 (possibly outdated as people forget to update it sometimes), and also by going to our dynmap and toggling "Open Plot" (if a project lead marked their plots with open plot tags), or otherwise just checking the forums and asking around to see which builds are open. Also, you can ask a mod to set you up with a plot in the Test world where you can practice building.

A probie leader should post on your thread within a week or so, give constructive feedback on your houses for the next month, and help be your entrypoint into the server community in general. As sometimes the probie leaders can be busy IRL, I also highly suggest seeking out feedback from project leaders and other online builders. At the end, you'll be made full builder.

Welcome to the team, I look forward to building with you!