Gawain777 Builder Application

[Gawain777]

What is your Minecraft username?
Gawain777

What is your age?
21-24

In what country are you living?
United States

Where did you first hear about WesterosCraft?
From a friend

What do you like the most about GoT/ASoIaF?
I really appreciate the more eldritch elements in the series, and the deep and complex back-lore GRRM has labored into its creation. The Children of the Forest, the Others, the First Men, the Great Empire of the Dawn, etc., he's a master at blending the lines between weird fiction, fantasy, and court politics.

What is your favorite build on our server?
Duskendale. I really like the gradienting on the walls and the great layout has helped it really come together as a standout to me while exploring.

Why do you want to join our server?
I've always wanted to try my hand at helping recreate parts of GRRM's world. I'm decent with nature & like to build castles, I suppose? I put several images of some additional concepts I made in the images section, including a stream, Oldtown & Eastwatch concepts which hopefully display my skillsets better than words would.

Imgur Album:

https://imgur.com/a/TByMW6h

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

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Gawain,

Glad to see your interest in becoming a builder after having seen you around on the server a bunch recently! You definitely have a pretty good grasp of our building style already, so I think it shouldn't take too long to catch you up to speed with the more subtle aspects.

The apphouse looks good as expected; no issues there. I'll give a bit of quick feedback on the other builds you made, before starting you off with a challenge build in a specific location.

- I'm not a huge fan of the flowstone in the snow rooves in the Eastwatch test, although I know it's supposed to represent snowy thatch. This particular thing won't be an issue anymore since the impending block update is adding snowy thatch blocks, of course. In general though, I don't recommend trying to stretch block uses far from what the block visually represents; although our mind can "fill in" the intended purpose, it doesn't necessarily work aesthetically. It's sort of like an impressionistic painting where it looks good from far away, but not up close.

- Otherwise nicely done with those tests! It seems like you have a good grasp on gradients already.

- The Oldtown-style houses look good; the only thing I'd change here is the timber frame patterns. It's best to avoid the long horizontal CTM rows with the "open" timber frame, since it's not really structurally sound. Also, I'm not really keen on the timber frame blocks being used diagonally like here (but again, it's a case where I know what you're trying to go for, but it's limited by the constraints of the RP).

- I'd also suggest making the vines a bit less patchy in the Oldtown houses. You want to avoid having "singleton" vines, or vines that only touch on the corner. Ideally each vine block should be directly adjacent to at least one other vine block, and this should form a continuous covering that connects with ground (since the vines need nutrients to grow).

- The stream looks great!

For a first challenge build, please make a medium-sized house in the style of /warp duskendale, with a yard attached. This house should be original but draw on the distinctive elements of the Duskendale style. Please let me know if you have any questions about anything. Good luck!

 

[Gawain777]

All fair points and I will be sure to keep that in mind for the future. My internet upload speed is literally dinosaur paced due to the powers that be so I cannot do an imgur album currently, and will instead spam this thread with images, forgive me. I made a row with a few houses and did the interior of the middle one, minus the attic which would have some more beds cluttered around a stove much like the middle floor.

EDIT: Adjusted details on the building a bit based on feedback from Aeks and Aino in voice.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Gawain,

Really great work on this house! You've done very well with the Duskendale style, and with a pretty adventurous layout as well. The only feedback I really have is a few picky things:

- I wouldn't mix both northern wood and bedrock/basalt brick as roof materials in the same building; it's fine (though not always necessary) to mix the latter two blocks to have a bit of texture gradient, but wood and stone doesn't really make sense.

- The wattle fence along the peaks of the rooves isn't really in the Duskendale style. I'd also avoid it in general on wood/brick rooves, since it's supposed to represent a particular thatching technique where cabers are woven through the thatch and criss-crossed at the peak of the roof.

- I'd also tone down the wattle fence on the walls of the building a bit; this makes sense when it's supposed to indicate a state of disrepair where the wattle under the plaster is exposed, like in Flea Bottom, but this house seems to be more mid-class.

Otherwise I'll try to fast track this app, since it seems like you have a solid grasp on this style of building already. (you were previously a builder on Arda as well, right?) For a tentative final challenge, I'd like to see a small farmstead in the style of /warp beresford. At a minimum it should have a peasant house and barn (or possibly a combined house/barn), some vegetable and herb gardens, and animal pens. You're also encouraged to add any other details you find in researching medieval farmsteads for inspiration, if you so choose. Good luck!

 

[Gawain777]

For a tentative final challenge, I'd like to see a small farmstead in the style of /warp beresford. At a minimum it should have a peasant house and barn (or possibly a combined house/barn), some vegetable and herb gardens, and animal pens. You're also encouraged to add any other details you find in researching medieval farmsteads for inspiration, if you so choose. Good luck!

Will this do?

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Gawain,

Very nice work on this challenge! As before, you've gotten the style down very well and I only have feedback to give on a couple minor things:

- Generally avoid using trapdoor blocks for anything other than trapdoors, since they can be messed up by being toggled and the texture is also a bit dated (one of the original Doku ones we never changed). It seems like all of the uses you have can be replaced by another block - half door blocks for wall sidings and chairs, and a shutter block for the chicken coop entry.

- The fences on the side of the roof on the 45 degree building (not the two fences on the ends, those are fine, but the ones along the ridge) are a bit excessive and make it seem messy; I think those could be removed.

- In the road gradient, I think the transition from dirt to the dry stormlands pebbles feels a bit too sudden. I'd probably remove that and just stick with the wet stormlands pebbles. It's a small road anyways, so there's not a need for that many different blocks.

Otherwise, I think you'll learn a lot more as a new builder at this point, 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!