Completed Application Thread: House Varner Redo by Jakethesnake

Emoticone11

The Dark Lord Sauron
Staff member
Got a chance to give these two a look. Overall it's looking really nice so far, it feels like you have a strong vision behind you this time, and the terra so far is excellent. Plotting-wise everything seems very well put together, though I'm not a fan of the 45-degree houses and would suggest changing the angles to something that works better in minecraft. Style-wise it feels very nice and quaint. My only concern is that the dark roof style (dark thatch & northern wood) feels pretty out of place given that all of the surrounding builds use lighter materials. Do you have a particular justification for this choice of roof materials? I tried doing a quick swap of a few houses, and most of the ones that currently use dark thatch also look quite nice with light thatch as well.
 

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
Yes, I do have a justification for the dark thatch roofing. Thatch is only that yellowish colour when it is new, and realistically, not every single one of these houses is going to have a freshly thatched roof at the exact same moment. So I have decided to use dark thatch to represent houses that have seen more years. Additionally, the northern wood is being used for 2 reasons, 1 being it looks good, and I think if a place has access to the right materials, then the block works there, and 2 because Varner's house colours are white and black, I've taken this stylistic liberty to give Varner a little uniqueness.
 

Emoticone11

The Dark Lord Sauron
Staff member
Yes, I do have a justification for the dark thatch roofing. Thatch is only that yellowish colour when it is new, and realistically, not every single one of these houses is going to have a freshly thatched roof at the exact same moment. So I have decided to use dark thatch to represent houses that have seen more years.
I've always interpreted the light vs. dark thatch variation as representing differences in materials - dried straw and rushes used for thatching tends to be a bit lighter than reeds and sedges, AFAIK. Aside from that, we have the two variants because they tend to work well respectively with the lighter palettes of the southern regions, and the darker palettes of the northern regions.

Using different colors to show aging is an interesting idea, but I'm not really sure it works well without a range of thatch colors from 'fresh' to 'aged' to 'moldy and overgrown' (unfortunately not something we can really implement at this stage). Keep in mind that thatch rooves would be regularly added to with a "spar coating" as well, so although some thatch rooves might be older than others, it probably wouldn't end up as extreme as the difference between the light and dark thatch blocks appears. Also, using dark thatch to represent older thatch rooves would mean that we'd realistically have to follow the same logic everywhere that currently uses only light thatch.

Other than that, I'm not necessarily opposed to some vernacular architecture, but I'm adamant that we try to plan styles on a regional or subregional basis (using shared cultures, geography, etc. as a standard) and have some degree of cohesion between projects, rather than every project trying to do its own thing and have a unique style (to the extent that project borders are somewhat arbitrary with respect to cultural and geographical regions). I'm just having a hard time currently seeing where some aspects of the style fit with the surrounding projects (Ambrose, New Barrel, and Bitterbridge to the south, and Hamell and Peckledon to the north), or what cultural/geographical factors would cause the Varner style to differ so significantly from its neighbors.
 

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
Reeds and Sedges are quite common in Varner, given the amount of forest, and rivers around, so they already have access to darker materials. Ambrose and Hamell are separated by giant hills, with only a canyon connecting Hamell and Varner, which I plan to have a very turbulent river in. Peckledon is an extremely Italianate build, which is also separated by lower hills and a huge distance between the two areas. Though I am working on a transitionary style (help would be appreciated). Varner will never blend with New Barrel, due to the significant age gap between the two projects. I've already used slate and wood rooves in Varner's main village, which ties it regionally to Bitterbridge a little bit.

Dark thatch is used in the KL redo, in some of the poorest parts of the city. If the thatch colouration is from different material then it doesn't make sense that poor people are building with a material they don't readily have access to.
 
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JJLyric

Playwright
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he/him
Hello! I had a mini break on and off and thought it would be nice to start of again with a small winery mini :D
It consists of a storage room and a workshop space witch houses everything needed for the wine to be made.
^Images of Winery. You can find it at /warp JJ
Thanks you vis for letting me use a val from your winery (the one in the corner)
 
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JJLyric

Playwright
Pronouns
he/him
I tried many options including wool slate terrain set any other purple and pink blocks and cant find a good solution. Powder has been used before in hh I believe. If you guys don't fell like it fits I could put it in a grape empty state? idk though
 

AerioOndos

Donkey Lord
Staff member
Pronouns
they/them
Isn't elderflower wine produced by steeping elderflower in a solution of sugar and water, sometimes lemon, with the elderflower acting as a substitute for yeast. And then that becomes a bubbly light alcoholic drink?
 

Jakethesnake8_8

Firemage
Pronouns
he/him
Isn't elderflower wine produced by steeping elderflower in a solution of sugar and water, sometimes lemon, with the elderflower acting as a substitute for yeast. And then that becomes a bubbly light alcoholic drink?
It's elderberries actually. The elderberries are mashed and the juice collected, then put in a container of water, and heated while sugar is added. I believe yeast is added as well.