Auscarbone Builder Application

Auscarbone

Auscarbone

Messenger
17


Australia


A friend of mine, who is an avid Minecraft builder, suggested I download the launcher and have a look around. The instance I saw the complexity of the design and scale, I became hooked. The incredible detail (the blood and bones and the bottom of the Moon Door caught my attention) also showed how much effort has been put into creating this vast recreation.


I enjoy the in-depth universes of Tolkien, however I also recently read 'Red Rising' and thoroughly enjoyed it.



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



Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7


My favourite character would have to be Daenerys Targaryen, as I have enjoyed watching her mature throughout both the books and seasons; from a young girl sold into marriage, into a competent general and leader. However, Sansa's resilience is also inspiring.


I prefer and enjoy rustic builds, however I am also quite competent in gothic-style architecture (churches etc.)


Building Essos, especially Vaes Dothrak, with its differing buildings and stolen statues from across the continent. Old Valyria would also be especially interesting to build, with its massive ruins and destroyed mines. Saying that however, the chance of building the Titan Of Braavos would be absolutely incredible. Additionally, although building Asshai would be a massive project (as it is stated it is larger than Kings Landing) I would love to construct the massive walls out of the greasy black stone. I understand currently the server is only focusing on Westeros, you can only hope for the future though :)


The link is below, I used inspiration from the emerging Highgarden area. Also I do understand I built it on a flat world (sorry!) and I will ensure for my future challenges I build with terrain.


YOU KNOW NOTHING, JON SNOW!

Approved by Emotione11 on Apr 8, 2019.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Emoticone11

Emoticone11

The Dark Lord Sauron
Staff member
Hey Auscarbone,

Thanks for the application! Your house seems like a pretty good start, you've picked up on a number of important elements of our style. There's still a little work that needs to be done to bring it up to server standards. I'll jump right into giving some feedback on the house, and then get you started with some challenge builds to get you familiar with various styles.

- For small rural houses like this, I would highly recommend going with a "gable-less" style for the roof, i.e. getting rid of the overhang on the front and back. Otherwise, the roof seems way too big and top-heavy given the size of the house, which is especially apparent when looking at it from the side. Also, the "points" on the end of the roof are typically only done in the North.

- It's a little unclear what's going on with the baskets in the right side of this picture, it looks like one of the baskets is embedded into the wall? Don't do that, also it doesn't really make sense to have a torch on a flammable basket either.

- A few comments regarding torches and candles in general: you shouldn't really use torches at all in ordinary houses, torches were more permanent fixtures that would mainly be used in castles, or in the streets of a town or city. Secondly, never place candles sideways on walls, since the wax would just melt and the candle would fall off. They should always be put on top of furniture or candle-holders (i.e. fence).

- As a general principle, try to avoid placing blocks of the same material together which contrast badly with each other (whether stone, wood, etc.). There are two examples of this in your interiors. First, instead of using oak fence on top of the spruce loft, try using jungle instead (or just spruce, since presumably the railing would be made out of the same material used to make the loft). Secondly, never mix dark thatch and light thatch. Just use one of them or the other.

- Replace the spruce door in the middle of the image here with two "half door" blocks.

- Make sure to not have grass in the interiors of a house, replace it with a dirt/gravel mix. I think you can disable the automatic grass spread using a gamerule command, but otherwise try to replace it just before taking your pictures.

Other than those things, I think you're headed in the right direction! For the first challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp whiteharbor. The middle-class styles can generally be found in the southwest part of the city. Feel free to ask if you have any questions on the above feedback, or the WH style. Good luck!
 
Auscarbone

Auscarbone

Messenger
Great! Thanks for the feedback, it is much appreciated. Just to clarify, I should be using my discretion to determine whether an overhang makes the roof too ‘heavy’ or not in relation to the house itself, and therefore most low-class houses will be gable-less. Also, sorry for forgetting to disable grass-spread. I’ll be getting right to the challenge!
 
Emoticone11

Emoticone11

The Dark Lord Sauron
Staff member
Regarding overhang, it is mostly discretion, although you should also defer to the particular style you’re building at. A general rule of thumb is: if you can see a house full-on from the side, you shouldn’t use overhangs on the front/back. If not, then it’s up to you. That’s why a lot of town and city builds like Fairmarket have overhangs, because most houses are side-to-side, it never looks too top-heavy.
 
Emoticone11

Emoticone11

The Dark Lord Sauron
Staff member
Hey Auscarbone,

Good work, the WH house is a nice improvement! I'll mainly give feedback on that one, since it was the challenge build I gave and some of the other styles you did were a bit outdated, but I'll give a couple comments on those.

- The exterior seems pretty solid, I don't have much feedback there. The gradient could be slightly better (just a bit less noise, make sure each block type has one directly adjacent neighbor) - that mostly just comes with experience though.

- Although I get the idea for the thing on the roof here, it looks kinda weird and clunky; it'd be hard to tell what it is if I didn't see the backstory.

- The fireplace here seems a bit too complicated, with the furnace block and stairs and wall block and everything. I'd go for a simpler design.

- In the same image, you have a cabinet block which has more than one side exposed. You always want to cover all sides except for one with other blocks (such as half doors), as it doesn't make sense to have cabinet/drawer blocks with openings on multiple sides.

- Overall the WH house is very solid! You've done a good job representing the chandler profession.

- Didn't notice anything massively wrong with any of the other houses, mostly just outdated practices: using trapdoors as shelves in the Salt Shore house, the logs and messy thatch roof in the Weeping Town house, etc.

For the next challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp wickenden. As before, feel free to ask if you have any questions on anything. Good luck!
 
Auscarbone

Auscarbone

Messenger
Great! Thanks again for your speedy reply and feedback. Also I was just wondering if you could give me a short list of more recent builds so I can practise on those instead of these somewhat outdated ones. Thanks!
 
Auscarbone

Auscarbone

Messenger
From now on all the builds I do I'll just put on Flickr and not notify on here (cause of had heaps of time and been building a lot). So just remember to scroll down for my challenge builds!
 
Emoticone11

Emoticone11

The Dark Lord Sauron
Staff member
Hey Auscar,

Thanks for being patient! Your house(s) look very excellent, I still have some points of feedback to give but I think you're very nearly there.

- Avoid making "patchy" vines. The way I usually describe this is that vine blocks should pretty much always have at least one adjacent neighbor. See the image on the left here for an example pattern that satisfies this. Secondly, make sure that each vine pattern connects to soil somehow, as that's how the vines get nutrients. So no floating vines. Think of how vines/ivy would actually grow on houses.

- Don't use trapdoors blocks at all in houses (except for the case of an actual trapdoor), since the blocks can randomly be toggled by guests, and the texture is pretty ugly. For the overhang here, use either half door blocks or vertical plank blocks at the top. For shelves and stuff, use carpet blocks.

- The yard in the wickenden house feels a bit messy, with all the different materials in the ground mix and crates lying around. Also some blocks seem unnecessary, like there's a hay bale but they don't actually have any animal pens. The yard space should be divided into uniform crop areas and/or pens, currently you have a couple cabbages and some other vegetable mixed randomly. Also there's a random firewood block in the cabbage area, even though there's a big storage of firewood inside. (Your yard for the next house you made is mostly better and doesn't have these same issues)

- Try your best to avoid stone showing up in a wood floor in multi-level buildings, like in this image. Typically this is done easily enough just using wood carpets, and smart placement of furniture.

- For the firewood holder here, my advice is to avoid "curvey" structures like the wood top, and to make something rigid with straight lines. So, something like this (just imagine it inside the house). This applies to other things in general. Also, why are they keeping a dead goose in with the firewood?

Anyways, don't be discouraged by all of this! ^^ I'm being rather pickier this time. For a tentative final challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp fairmarket. Keep in mind the style there is a little bit more complicated, so be sure to take your time learning it. I don't anticipate you having any trouble, but if you have any questions ask away. Good luck!
 
Emoticone11

Emoticone11

The Dark Lord Sauron
Staff member
Hey Auscar,

Lovely work! I only really have one bit of feedback this time: the little tree outside in the yard, use log fences rather than wood plank fences, and also don't mix leaf types (e.g. birch/oak).

Apart from that, you've done a wonderful job with this one, so consider yourself approved!

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 entrypoint into the server community in general), in which case you'll be fully promoted if there are no further problems.

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