Under Review Lonmouth by MDMeaux

DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
Staff member
Pronouns
he/him
Hey MDM, I'm so glad you went ahead with the application. I think your reasoning and backstory is sound.

Tests: You've made excellent use of the close-studding in your tests, and I love the simplicity and tonality of the palettes you have chosen.

Royal Apartments: I would suggest adding royal apartments to the Lonmouth castle, for when royalty visits.

Kingsroad: It would make more sense if the Kingsroad served as the road through Lonmouth, and would better justify your proposed toll-bridge.
Here is the current route (Red), and how I propose to adjust it to get closer to Lonmouth (proposed new route in Yellow):

1600598011074.png
Would it be possible, then, to move the bridge north, downriver? I don't want to have to divert the road too far south.

Terraforming: I'm glad you have made consideration for a future Kingswood update, but I think your terraforming plans are a bit lacking. The headwaters of the Wendwater are still pretty vanilla, and need to be remade to meet current standards. I think this responsibility falls within the scope of Lonmouth because you have placed settlements around these headwaters. Otherwise these settlements would potentially need to be wiped in a future Wendwater update.

I think you should also have plans to re-terra the the weird lake-thingy.
As it is currently quite amorphous and poorly defined, it would great to see it re-vitalized. Something like Long Lake in New York state would be appropriate.

1600599280815.png

I would personally suggest making these (below) the project boundaries. This way there is no dead space between Lonmouth and Felwood, you will have some space to re-terra the headwaters while leaving the forest north of the Wendwater untouched for a Kingswood update. The eastern border would be the Kingsroad.

1600599625272.png
 

mdmeaux

Envoy
Royal Apartments: I would suggest adding royal apartments to the Lonmouth castle, for when royalty visits.
I had considered this, but I'm not sold on it. My thinking is that when royalty came to stay (which I wouldn't have thought would be very often), they would stay in the Lord's chambers while the Lord and other residents of the castle would stay in the less nice rooms. I wouldn't have thought the castle would have a dedicated Royal suite which would end being unused most of the time. I'm sure there are descriptions in the books of royalty staying at the castles of lesser nobles, but none immediately come to mind; If anyone can think of a bit in one of the books where GRRM describes where the King stays when he visits nobles, it would be great to get some context on this matter.

Kingsroad: It would make more sense if the Kingsroad served as the road through Lonmouth, and would better justify your proposed toll-bridge.
Here is the current route (Red), and how I propose to adjust it to get closer to Lonmouth (proposed new route in Yellow):
This is a great idea! There are a few canon issues to consider, however. First, there is this about Aegon's conquest: " Lords Errol, Fell and Buckler, bannermen of Argilac the Arrogant, surprised the advance elements of Orys's host as they were crossing the Wendwater, cutting down more than a thousand men before retreating back into the trees. Rhaenys unleashed Meraxes and set the forest ablaze, killing Lord Errol.[2] " The forest around the bridge, presumably on the south side of the river, would probably have grown back since the conquest, although I would imagine the trees would be younger than the rest of the Kingswood. There's also the Battle of Wendwater Bridge, which I would assume is on the bridge where the Kingsroad crosses the Wendwater. If the Lonmouth bridge is the Kingsroad bridge, that shouldn't be too much of an issue (although I would probably make it wider), and I think it would be a really nice feature, but the history is something to keep in mind.

Terraforming: I'm glad you have made consideration for a future Kingswood update, but I think your terraforming plans are a bit lacking. The headwaters of the Wendwater are still pretty vanilla, and need to be remade to meet current standards. I think this responsibility falls within the scope of Lonmouth because you have placed settlements around these headwaters. Otherwise these settlements would potentially need to be wiped in a future Wendwater update.

I think you should also have plans to re-terra the the weird lake-thingy.
As it is currently quite amorphous and poorly defined, it would great to see it re-vitalized. Something like Long Lake in New York state would be appropriate.#

Maybe this wasn't clear in the app, but I was planning to re-terra all of the vanilla-y bits of the Wendwater between Felwood and the (current) Kingswood bridge anyway, including the lake. I agree about the NY lake, that's definitely something I'll use as a reference.
I would personally suggest making these (below) the project boundaries. This way there is no dead space between Lonmouth and Felwood, you will have some space to re-terra the headwaters while leaving the forest north of the Wendwater untouched for a Kingswood update. The eastern border would be the Kingsroad.
This is essentially what I have gone for, apologies if my plans were a bit misleading, but I was planning on extending the development along the river to the south as far as the Felwood border, and I can definitely put some more fields all the way along the lake. I could definitely extend the borders further inland from the river as well, maybe with 1-2 little hamlets and some more fields, although I had envisioned most of that area still being forest. I could still leave the forested areas with a placeholder ground if that would help down the road for making the Kingswood woodland consistent, even if these particular bits of forest are owned by House Lonmouth, but I would also be happy to do these forests myself so as to not leave the project somewhat 'unfinished'. If we could sort out a *rough* style for the Kingswood as well as a list of Schemsets, ground mixes and scripts, even if we don't plan the entire Kingswood project just yet, that would be brilliant, and I would be more than happy to help out with the testing, and it would mean I could do the Lonmouth forests in a fitting manner.
 

DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
Staff member
Pronouns
he/him
My suggestion for the Royal Apartments was based on the proximity to the Kingswood, Kingsroad, and the proposed role of Lonmouth as Royal Forest Wardens. I agree that the monarch might just use the lords apartments, but was just suggesting it as it could be a unique feature. Just something to consider.

As for the Kingsroad,
The battle during Aegon's conquest mentions a crossing of the Wendwater, which could reasonably be anywhere if the water was shallow enough to ford. This actually seems more likely as fording a river makes you must more vulnerable to attack than crossing a bridge. In any case, this event happened 500 years before the time of our server so it more than possible that the old bridge, if there was one at this crossing, no longer exists.

The Battle of the Wendwater is an odd one. Daemon III Blackfyre landed on Massey's Hook with the Golden Company, to take back the Iron Throne. The most direct route would be along the southern shore of the Blackwater Rush towards the Red Keep, involving the crossing of the Wendwater at some point. It would be very strange if Daemon went as far south as the Kingsroad to cross the river, and makes more sense if the bridge was further north. In fact, we already have a bridge built in the likely place, near /warp wendwater.

These assumptions in mind, I think it is unlikely that the proposed bridge at Lonmouth was involved in either of these events.

Terraforming,
Great! I'm glad you had those areas in mind for the terraforming, thanks for clarifying.
I think for now if you just leave the areas with green placeholder blocks that might be for the best until we decide on an appropriate set of schematics for the Kingswood. I'm imagining ancient oak, yew, birch, chestnut, and beech trees.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mdmeaux

Elduwin

Skinchanger
Staff member
Hey MDM
As we've discussed in game, I'm overall confident in your plans.
I'd suggest to change the facade of the tower though.

Also, I'd like you to make a test for the forest, because I really think you should include the forest south of the river / south of Lonmouth (between Lonmouth and Felwood) in your project, and not leave them to an hypothetical redo of Kingswood. They would be a transition between coniferous forests at Felwood and further south in the Stormlands, and the deciduous forests we'll find in the Kingswood.
The river test would benefit from more work as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mdmeaux

mdmeaux

Envoy
Hey MDM
As we've discussed in game, I'm overall confident in your plans.
I'd suggest to change the facade of the tower though.

Also, I'd like you to make a test for the forest, because I really think you should include the forest south of the river / south of Lonmouth (between Lonmouth and Felwood) in your project, and not leave them to an hypothetical redo of Kingswood. They would be a transition between coniferous forests at Felwood and further south in the Stormlands, and the deciduous forests we'll find in the Kingswood.
The river test would benefit from more work as well.
We went over most of this in game, but here are the changes:

New facade (also the wall to the right has been raised a bit):
2020-09-24_11.28.37.png

Forest/river test 1:
2020-09-24_11.28.51.jpg
The changes I would make to the forest from the above are as follows:
- Using the MixedForest schemset instead of the the LovelyForest for most of the trees
- Forest would be more dense
- 2 block tall plants (nettles, bracken, ferns etc)
- Few more bushes
- Some traps here and there
- Patches of redwood trees, increasing in frequency and size as you get closer to Felwood
- No bits of purple wool
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ric and DutchGuard

DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
Staff member
Pronouns
he/him
Great update MDM! Though I have to say I much prefer the fully close-studded keep top floor, the mixing with the horizontal CTM “X“ D&W wouldn’t structurally make much sense. The version to the right is better.
 

mdmeaux

Envoy
Great update MDM! Though I have to say I much prefer the fully close-studded keep top floor, the mixing with the horizontal CTM “X“ D&W wouldn’t structurally make much sense. The version to the right is better.
I'm happy to go with either, Eld said he preferred the mix of close studding and Xs but I can go back to the full close studding or the squares.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Elduwin

DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
Staff member
Pronouns
he/him
I've made the borders for Lonmouth, check it out when you get the chance MDM. They are a little bigger than I first proposed but hopefully still ok.
The ends further away from the middle just need attention terraforming-wise as they are part of the southern Kingswood. So when you figure out a good forest mix you can apply that to these areas. Maybe some small minis in these areas would be appropriate.

Hope you get some mod attention for this app!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Elduwin and mdmeaux

mdmeaux

Envoy
OK, I may have underestimated how full-on university would be, even with everything online, and I don't think I have the time at the moment to start a project. If it's possible, I'd like to postpone this application until the start of December, when I have quite a long Christmas break when I could start working on it. From previous experience, I have found that I generally need to be able to focus more on the start of a project when laying down the foundations and doing the big picture terraforming, and I don't think I'd be able to do that at the moment. Once the groundwork is in place, it's a lot easier to pop online when I have some time and work on the smaller features. I don't know if there's a precedent or anything for doing this on this server, and if I have to re-apply again later I'd be willing to do so, and if someone else decides to apply for this project over the next couple of months I'd understand.

As for the expanded borders, that should be completely fine, and I can work on some extended plans if necessary.

-MDM
 

mdmeaux

Envoy
I haven't been around much recently, so I thought I should probably just clarify this:
I don't think I'll be following up on this application or project for the foreseeable future, as I don't have the time or the motivation to start a new project at the moment and so I don't know if I would be able to do it justice. For that reason, I feel I should officially withdraw this application. Maybe in the future I'll reapply for this project, or decide to do another one instead, but for now, I will not be pursuing this.

If anyone decides to apply for this project in future, please don't feel like this is a competing application or anything, but feel free to use any of my tests/plans if you want.

- MDM
 

DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
Staff member
Pronouns
he/him
I haven't been around much recently, so I thought I should probably just clarify this:
I don't think I'll be following up on this application or project for the foreseeable future, as I don't have the time or the motivation to start a new project at the moment and so I don't know if I would be able to do it justice. For that reason, I feel I should officially withdraw this application. Maybe in the future I'll reapply for this project, or decide to do another one instead, but for now, I will not be pursuing this.

If anyone decides to apply for this project in future, please don't feel like this is a competing application or anything, but feel free to use any of my tests/plans if you want.

- MDM
Thank you for the update MDM.

My thoughts regarding Lonmouth moving forward are that it be relocated or included as part of a future Kingswood megabuild, and not applied for individually owing to its being surrounded by the Kingswood forest in its current placement.