DutchGuard Builder Application

[DutchGuard]

What is your age?
25+

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?
There is so much detail to sink your teeth into when reading the books. The series indulges in seemingly unnecessary details and tangents which do nothing for the plot but exist merely to paint a more complete picture of the ASoIaF universe. As a visual reader, the imagery is some of the most exciting, stimulation, and horrifying I've ever experienced.

What is your favorite build on our server?
I really love White Harbor, I think it's taken large server builds in a whole new direction with additional focus on style cohesion, realism, and character within its regional setting.

Why do you want to join our server?
I don't remember exactly what I put in my original application, but it must have been something like: I like minecraft, I like architecture, I like ASoIaF, me want to join.


I went for a build which is inspired by the Duskendale style. The build is actually two buildings which have been heavily adapted over the years. They were originally built completely separately as dwellings before being converted into mixed-use as the city became more densely populated. A haberdashery and silk weaver now occupy the ground floor and first floor front rooms, receiving the greatest benefit of daylight in order to carry out their meticulous craft, they also use the loft space for storage (and for workers sleeping quarters). They have recently re-plastered their workshop but water ingress from a leaky roof is leaving damp patches everywhere. An ale merchant presides over a small ale tasting room at the rear of the ground floor, and keeps a well stocked cellar by accepting deliveries through the cellar door at the front. The second floor rear rooms are accessed from the back of the building via a stair, here a former hallway has been converted into sleeping quarters, and the private room in the back now sleeps six; the plaster is failing, exposing the lathes, but they do have a furnace to keep them warm in the coming winter.





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

 

[Kulmen]

Rejected, please apply again next year.

 

[otty]

What is your age?
25+

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?
There is so much detail to sink your teeth into when reading the books. The series indulges in seemingly unnecessary details and tangents which do nothing for the plot but exist merely to paint a more complete picture of the ASoIaF universe. As a visual reader, the imagery is some of the most exciting, stimulation, and horrifying I've ever experienced.

What is your favorite build on our server?
I really love White Harbor, I think it's taken large server builds in a whole new direction with additional focus on style cohesion, realism, and character within its regional setting.

Why do you want to join our server?
I don't remember exactly what I put in my original application, but it must have been something like: I like minecraft, I like architecture, I like ASoIaF, me want to join.


I went for a build which is inspired by the Duskendale style. The build is actually two buildings which have been heavily adapted over the years. They were originally built completely separately as dwellings before being converted into mixed-use as the city became more densely populated. A haberdashery and silk weaver now occupy the ground floor and first floor front rooms, receiving the greatest benefit of daylight in order to carry out their meticulous craft, they also use the loft space for storage (and for workers sleeping quarters). They have recently re-plastered their workshop but water ingress from a leaky roof is leaving damp patches everywhere. An ale merchant presides over a small ale tasting room at the rear of the ground floor, and keeps a well stocked cellar by accepting deliveries through the cellar door at the front. The second floor rear rooms are accessed from the back of the building via a stair, here a former hallway has been converted into sleeping quarters, and the private room in the back now sleeps six; the plaster is failing, exposing the lathes, but they do have a furnace to keep them warm in the coming winter.

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

accepted.

Please nuke and redo all ugly projects for us while we sit here and supervise. We expect it all to be completed and ready for the RPG by December this year.

 

[AerioOndos]

you've got to work on your tiles. the way you approach it visible in the last image makes it appear like part of the structures walls are made of stacked tiles. Could you please have a look again at how the duskendale houses and other houses on the server have rooves of *supported* slate rooves, where they have wooden or other blocks set up underneath them.

Also, you've used a thin log as a rafter in the conjoined room. It would make more sense if part of the old frame of the walls was there, rather than a large wooden beam placed across the space.

 

[DutchGuard]

you've got to work on your tiles. the way you approach it visible in the last image makes it appear like part of the structures walls are made of stacked tiles. Could you please have a look again at how the duskendale houses and other houses on the server have rooves of *supported* slate rooves, where they have wooden or other blocks set up underneath them.

Also, you've used a thin log as a rafter in the conjoined room. It would make more sense if part of the old frame of the walls was there, rather than a large wooden beam placed across the space.

I am guilty of these crimes. What is your sentence?

(PS. The wooden beam is a later structural intervention, I was worried the frame wall would be a little cluttered.)

 

[_Simbaa]

I would be interested in becoming your probation leader Dutchguard once youre done with your app. Let none other claim you!

 

[AerioOndos]

I already was treating him like my probbie by giving him advice, I all dibs

 

[DutchGuard]

Oi

That said, a probation might be fun, whether its in an official capacity or not

 

[_Simbaa]

I mean we had former builders who went into probation

 

[Endymion]

Last time a returning builder went through probation we allowed a shortened probation where you can become a full builder after completing 5 houses. If your probation leader agrees you've made enough progress ofcoarse. Personaly I would still encourage to do the full month, since from personal experience probies really gow and start to develope their personal style in the last 2 weeks. But I’ll leave that decision with who will be your probation leader.

 

[Endymion]

Hey Dutch! Nice to see you’ve applied. It’s always great to see people return, especially someone that inspired so many people to come visit our server. Be warned. Since you asked mods to be thorough I will not hold back.
First of all the good:
I like how you’ve structured the houses and added creative cutouts, overhangs... to make the house more detailed. I also like the purpose you gave to the house. It really could be put in DD if it not alread is. The usage of the cobble palette is great, since i’ve tried to establish the grey as the oldest buildings in the town. Conceptually the house is great. In execution i feel it’s abit flawed.

Not everything I point out is bad, but quite some things could be improved upon.

• Use the lighter version of the small brick texture. It blends better with the grey (river) cobblestone. Overall always try to keep the contrast in gradients minimal.
• Make the house 5 wide instead of 4. It will allow you to do better ints.
• When doing supporting beams, try to have them less close together. If you’d make the house 5 wide, you could put a slab in the middle and have 2 stairs on each side. Mirrored to eachother with the stairs outward, so you have 4 equally distributed supports.
• When doing an overhang try using slabs instead and leave the block below semi exposed. It a newer trend we’ve been gravitating towards. In this case I’d remove the overhang, since it cuts the facade in two and breaks the verticality of the house. Making it look even smaller than it already is.
• The wattle looks a bit busy try to keep it a bit more clean.
• The 4-wide roof looks bizar, but i guess that’s to be expected when you make it 4 wide. The dark northern overhang looks very chuncky and blends in with the highest part of the facade. Do the supports in an other type of would than the general facade materials. Also try to repeat the same style of supports in 1 building to keep it simple and easy on the eye.
• There shouldn’t be glass. Glass is only for the very rich in DD.
• Add a fence door on the end of the crane to make it more slimmer and less blocky.
• Beams in ceilings should always strech over the shortest distance.
• When doing a table have atleast 2 places where they connect to the floor for support, rather than 1 floating side. There are also a couple more intresting designs for (vendor)tables. Try to look of inspiration on the server.
• The wet spot and wear on the daub is an intresting idea, but didn’t translate well ingame. Mostlikely just a limitation of portraying irl things with mc blocks.
• Try to have more intresting ints in general, maybe add a loom or other weaving devices.
• Add a half doors to the end of beds. It just looks weird without.
• Try to keep the displayed food to a minimum. They’d store it away.
• Use fences for supports rather than wall blocks. You could also add a fence support below the spruce beam where the wall between the houses was removed.
• Connect carpets. No weird lonely 1 block thatch.
• Add gradient to chimney.
• The 2 profession signs are a bit much. Try to potray the profession better through the ints.
• Some ints pictures are dark. Try to use /nv when taking them next time.

Overall not bad, but defintely room for improvement. If feel this would have been a great house in 2016. Try to look around for more modern style of ints.
For your next challenge make a house with a profession in the Gaunt style. Please include a garden.

 

[DutchGuard]

Thank you for the detailed feedback Endy! A lot of those little preferences I hadn’t picked up on the server yet. I think the 4 wide part definitely did not help that side of the house.

In my opinion, saying it would have been acceptable in 2016 is high praise! I stopped building years before that.

Looking forward to trying out the Gaunt style.

 

[DutchGuard]

Okay here we go, a Gaunt fisherman's home.

 

[Endymion]

Hey dutch
I’ll keep it short since I don’t have much time, but don’t want to keep you waiting unnecissarily long.

First of this house looks actually ok and could be used on the server. I’ll list a couple of things that could still be improved.

Exts:

• Try to add some wear on the building. This could be achieved through strategicly adding jungle on corners and around windows, doors... If you want you could also leave a tiny hole or wattle reparations as extra delails, but this isn’t really necessary.
• Fence supports are usually only done the corners, unless it’s an exceptionaly long building.
• I would put the smoke hole on the top of the roof. It most likely would function better.
• I would add an extra window on the wall of the door to make it look less plain.

Ints:

• Thatch beds usually don’t have a wattle support at the end.
• You could put a thatch carpet on the ground.
• Put the fish cleaning outside.
• Maybe look at the wooden supports for roofs at Gaunt. Exposed thatch is no problem, so you don’t have to cover it up with wooden stairs.
• Interesting fire pit design.
• I feel if you structured the ints a bit better on the otherside you might have been able to put a table aswell.
• I’d store the wood outside, but that’s me being nit-picky.

Garden:

• Try to layout your vegetable patches in away that you maximalise the productivity of them within to provided space.
• Use the rope to hang the fish on.
• Use wet stormlands pebbles rather, than the wet westerlands one.

You’re getting there. For your next and final challenge build a middle class house in the fairmarket style. Add a garden, be care to not over crowd the ints and pay special attention to the ceilings and roof supports. Good luck!

 

[DutchGuard]

Here she is! Belongs to a wealthy Tully merchant, who lives with his elder sister and keeps a small company of staff who sleep in the loft.
He's especially fond of flowers so uses most of his garden space for growing hyacinths. He often hosts small parties in his large front room; he's a real man about town but he refuses all offers of marriage, and fends off suitors who would wed his sister.

 

[Endymion]

Hey Dutch
First of all i want to say this house is already considerably better than your DD one from your first submission. Both in the general layout of the ints, as the facades. I'll give you a quick rundown of things that could yet be improved to make the house more up to the current standard.

Exteriors:

• make the wooden supports simpler. Use stairs and slabs and try to keep a constant gap of 1 block between the supports. This explanation might not make much sense, so i'd advice you to fly around at DD to better understand it. Pretty much every house uses it there.
• While i'm not against the usage of crates in facades, they rarely fit well. In this case i'd opt for only D&W.
• I'm not sure FM uses horizontal stripes of wood like you did on the back, but i'd more it up 1 block so it is even with the floor behind it. This would allow you to do better D&W frames both above and below the wooden accent.
• Try to keep the wood on the facade and roof support different colours. They blend to much. Same goes for window frames.
• When making a crane on the facade, just have a little bit of rope dangling for aesthetic reasons.
• I don't think FM uses fences on the tops of the roof.
• I would do the window on the back and front the same. Or, put the window from the front on the back and a door in the front for the crane.
• I would go for the normal FM chimney style.
• Lastly I would make the brick gradient a little less checkboardy. Small bricks > Big bricks.

Garden: Again I would put the shed against the wall or at the back and maximize crop space.

Interiors:

• Make the doors 3 high, with a slab at the top and a door+shutter. The full block feels weird.
• I couldn't really see the living room, but I would definitely put a big table with multiple chairs. I would also use wattle as the back of the chair rather than a half door, but that is personal taste.
• 1 Block space between ceiling support beams. (Or one and a half if you want the room to feel bigger.)
• Use a double bed.
• I would simplify the internal roofsupport. Love the tiny attic though.
• Full hay blocks are a no imo.

 

[Endymion]

Congrats that was your last challenge. Welcome back to the building team aswell . As previously discussed we allow a shortened probation where you can become a full builder after completing 5 houses. If your probation leader agrees you've made enough progress ofcoarse. Personaly I would still encourage to do the full month, If you want you can always read the probie guide you made, but I feel that won't be necessary.

 

[_Simbaa]

As I said before Dutch, I would be honored to become your probation leader!

 

[DutchGuard]

Thank you once again Endy for the great feedback, and for the approval! It's been a pleasure. I would be perfectly happy to go through the standard one month probation. I should very much like to experience the full promotion process in order to look for ways it can be improved, so far the process has been very rewarding in that regard.