Hi Homie,
Very nice work with the updated app, the project feels a lot better planned out now, and well-researched! Here's some feedback that I have after going through the app:
- What's the motivation for using the forest biome for the Rainwood? If it's just to get the grassy dirt texture in certain areas, I'd avoid doing that for a number of reasons - first, minecraft's biome mechanism is going to get drastically altered in the 1.16 migration, so doing this would risk getting messed up in the future. Second, it's likely that after the migration the grassy dirt (along with other biome-specific CTMs) will be re-added as new blocks to compensate for the biome issues, so the forest could be updated then with a WE replace. If you actually desire the forest biome color for leaves and grass in the Rainwood, then a biome change might be more justifiable. Either way though, this would warrant regional discussion, since it would be weird to have one section of the Rainwood be forest biome but the rest be jungle.
- Could you elaborate a bit more on your plans for the terra apart from the modified hills & gorge? Will everything apart from the village and farms be forested? Are you planning to do this forest yourself, or to request an Editor? I would personally recommend the former, since the current Editors seem to have their hands a bit full at the moment.
- The new village layout looks good, feels much more natural now that hill is grassed over and the foliage is added. My only feedback is that I'd reduce the size of the roads a bit and remove the pebble ruts along the edges, which in my opinion feel a bit too overdetailed. This would leave a bit more space that can be filled with yards. Also, instead of having the dirt roads spill out at the gates of the palisades, it would look better and be more realistic to have dirt ramps leading up to the gates (reinforced by wattle fence along the sides).
- There's a couple aesthetic things that I'm not sure about with the castle, although I like the concept. The stone keep feels a bit visually messy at the moment, which I think is a function of some of the ornate architectural elements (the buttresses and scaffolding at the top) combined with the diagonal layout and squat profile of the keep. Basically, it's a lot going on. It's possible that adding a gradient will help improve this, if you can use it to distinguish the buttresses from the keep walls somehow. Otherwise, I'd maybe experiment with dropping the diagonal and doing a grid-aligned keep instead.
- My other issue with the castle design is that the sept similarly feels rather busy (with all the fences and the more organic shape), which isn't inherently an issue, but feels a bit odd squeezed in between the two rows of simple wood cabins - it sort of interrupts my perception of scale in a way, as well as blocking the sightline from the gate to the stone keep. I feel like this could be improved if you move the sept to one of the two sides of the castle, replacing one of the rows of cabins. I do like the concept though. Is there any particular inspiration image that you and
Nikas Kunitz were going for? If you could include that, it would be helpful for trying to figure out the best way to represent it in minecraft.
- The pond by hamlet 5 would need to be quite a bit bigger to support fishing as a means of subsistence. I think the current location there is supposed to be a hunting lodge for the lord; it probably makes sense to keep this as it is, or at least have the hamlet be hunters rather than fishers.
Other than these points I'm pretty happy with the app, and am ready to approve once you address them!