Cat54 Builder Application

[Cat54]

Too old


Canada


I first heard about you guys when those pictures of King's Landing blew up long, long ago... I've been visiting the server every once in a while since then and just realized how sweet working on it would be.


Game of Thrones and Planescape are really the only forms of fantasy I can stand.



Game of Thrones



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


I love Bronn because he's probably the smartest guy in Westeros. What makes him great isn't that he's book smart like Tyrion, or experienced like Tywin, or an amazing fighter like Jamie (though he sure can fight.) Bronn is pragmatic, and he seems to be the only character in the series ready to admit that he's not the smartest or best person in the room, and make decisions accordingly. We don't see Bronn fail, because he knows not to take on any challenges he could fail. (And he's also a hilarious, lovable asshole.)


I'm a professional artist working in games, and sadly most of these art skills don't translate to Minecraft, where a table is two cubes put together. I'd nevertheless be happy to share what little is applicable (if I can even find anything).

My portfolio can be found at: https://www.artstation.com/fhurtubise


I love how you guys make entire cities come together through teamwork. I like working on little details and planning out a couple small houses here and there.

I usually spend my days working on super detailed but meaningless and inconsequential stuff. Building on a Minecraft project is a great way to unwind. At work, making a table for a game can take up to one week, while placing one down in Minecraft takes ten seconds. Being able to do a lot more, a lot faster, is really fun, and ultimately gives a great sense of achievement.

https://imgur.com/a/1fEwo0A

YOU KNOW NOTHING, JON SNOW

Approved by Emotione11 on May 20, 2019.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Cat, thank you for your application! I'm happy to see your interest in our server, particularly from a professional artist. That would make two professional artists on our server who are "too old", the other being @carci

Anyways, these houses are pretty damn good. I barely have any significant feedback, so I'll just be picky.

- If you have roof overhangs on the gables, try to use upside-down stairs underneath so it doesn't make those hard 90-degree angles.

- Although you have nice rafters in some of the rooms, other rooms seem to lack rafters and just have flat ceilings, such as here. Try to avoid flat ceilings in general (sometimes they're acceptable, such as in proportionally small & cramped rooms, but usually not). In standard rooms like that it's usually easy to just replace the full block ceiling with rows of upside-down stair blocks.

- The oak planks / spruce planks contrast is pretty harsh, which is especially apparent in the floor here. In these cases, it's better to go with oak and jungle, or jungle and spruce.

For the first (and hopefully final) challenge build, please make a tavern in the style of White Harbor. Good luck!

 

[Cat54]

Thank you so much for the tips! I appreciate the feedback, especially as it's much harder to figure out little details like this than glaring mistakes. I went ahead and implemented the changes, and I'll be careful not to be lazy with the rafters in the future.

https://imgur.com/a/aCTlsb2

Here is the completed inn. I expected to hate White Harbor's building style as it's so sterile, but it ended up being a surprisingly fun build to do, especially the part about researching medieval inns!

 

[Augurex]

Yeah, emot, sterile!

Cat, you are an amazing builder! See you around Westeros

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Cat,

Again, great work, I'm glad you had fun with the WH style! Trying to make houses in that clean style without them seeming too lifeless or sterile is indeed a nice challenge.

You pulled it off well, though I do have a couple tips (well, for the interior that is, the exterior seems fine imo). First, don't be afraid to sub-divide spacious interiors into multiple rooms, even for taverns and stuff like that. Secondly, when you have a large room with tables, try to be mindful of where the tables are placed and how it fits with the "flow" of the room and with the other details around them. For instance, here's a tavern in WH which has a similar floorplan to yours, but pulls this off a bit better (note the other details as well, which help "glue" the room together):

Ideally, you want to add a cramped, lively feel and a bit of eclecticism, without it seeming messy of course. If you want an example of a WH tavern which pulls this off really well, I highly recommend you do /warp mermansgate and locate this building and check the interiors:

Anyways, getting that kind of feel for interiors just comes with experience. You did a wonderful job though, 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. Do note that there's limited places to build right now (unfortunately we've had an influx of new builders, but no such influx of projects), but we're working very hard to get more places open asap.

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), 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.

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

 

[Cat54]

Thanks so much for the reply, and for being so quick in handling this application. The feedback is great, and I hope people continue being as amazingly helpful as you have been in this thread. Interiors are probably what caused me the most pain so far (in my very limited building experience), so I'm looking forward to doing more so I can pick up a good mental library of useful practices and techniques.

I have a couple small questions on things that aren't covered by the newbie guide, but I figure I'll save them for my probation thread or ask someone on the server.