Mobin Builder Application

[Mobin]

What is your Minecraft username?
Mobin3000

What is your age?
17-20

In what country are you living?
United States

Where did you first hear about WesterosCraft?
Searched online

What do you like the most about GoT/ASoIaF?
Apart from all the hype of everything going into the Winds of Winter, the thing which keeps me loving asoiaf is how expansive and realistic the world is. Every place has it's backstory, every family has their history, and every action has a reaction.

What is your favorite build on our server?
I checked all the iconic locations when I first arrived, but I have to say when I saw the beginning of Hellholt (or at least the town/castle next to where that warp sign takes you), I was truly blown away. The arena, the city's colors, and the castles were all beautiful, and I felt like I was transported to a medieval fantastical Mediterranean. That and the Dragons on Dragonstone exceeded by expectations with using a blocky medium to make the sculptures look like real stone Dragons (No wonder Melisandre thinks they'll wake)

Why do you want to join our server?
I love immersing myself in asoiaf lore and seeing the locations in the show and art online, but being able to walk in the world really adds another dimension. Having the opportunity to contribute to that experience would be such a great way to express my appreciation for GRRM's story. I don't build a lot on minecraft, so I wouldn't mind starting off with these smallfolk builds, or various places in the town or city.

Tell us about your build.
The Jolly Pumpkin is a best stop on the Kingsroad for weary travelers in the North. building it, I first decided I wanted a wind and watermill to give the inn keeper a way to make their famous flat bread and oakcakes. Being my first time using the texture pack, I decided to keep the pallet simple, with dark cobble (bedrock) as the foundation, spruce logs and oak planks for structure and flooring, and green cobble (cobblestone) as the roof. The Pumpkin comes with an indoor privy, a feast hall fit for 30 guests, and enough meat and mead as any man might ever hunger for. Above the hall are three more floors of private suites (8 beds) for our generous patrons, and additional beds in the attic for those looking to pinch their pennies. Overall, I tried to blend a bit of Nordic with the Medieval styles, perhaps with some Iron Born influence as opposed to a more typical, southern style.

Imgur Album:

https://imgur.com/a/PUeoxQX

Did you follow the application rules?
You know nothin' Jon Snow

Edit: *bump*

 

[Mobin]

*bump*

 

[CashBanks]

Hey Mobin,
Thanks for applying and for your patience while we found the time to review your application, we've had a big rush of builders in the last few weeks and there's a lot of detail in your application to review so it took a bit of time, appreciate you hanging in there though.

There's a lot of really nice elements, you've obviously explored the breadth of our custom blocks and put some thought into how to reflect our building styles, there's just a few things that could be worked on to meet our server standards.

- Overall I like the look and feel of the inn, I can see the effort you've put in to the detail and showing signs that it's occupied and alive.
- Economic class is one of the biggest influences on how a house looks and what it's furnished with. Bookshelves are generally only used in rich high class houses, since books/paper was expensive and very few poor people could read. Storage blocks like baskets, sacs, cabinets are a good way to fill space in rooms.
- We try not to use too much glass in typical houses as it was still a bit of a luxury item in those days so we try to limit it's use to high class/rich houses. Depending on the project's building style you can often just keep the window open with some shutters on the side or use the timber window frames.

- We always try to add roof rafters beneath the exterior roof block to show how the roof is being supported. Here's a cross section of a typical roof and the blocks used.

- and rather than the flat planks, it's nice to use stairs/half slabs to create the effect of rafters like this:

- We generally avoid sticking torch blocks to walls like in classic minecraft, one or two candles will usually be enough. In this case I imagine you were also trying to light up the room for taking screenshots, drinking a potion of nightvision will help with that next time.
- I can see you've used one of our rusted metal stair blocks for chairs around the inn. Stools or slab blocks with half doors are usual way to go.

You're off to a good start and I'm looking forward to seeing what you make next. For your first challenge build, please make a Low Class Farmer's house in the style of /warp hawthornetown and share screenshots of it in this thread. Take note of commonalities between the houses (block mix, shape of roof, size of house, interior blocks, attic spaces, mezzanine platforms) and make a house that would fit into the Hawthorne town.

Take a look at the Applicant Building Guide for some more tips, they'll help a lot.
Basic Building Guide for Applicants | WesterosCraft

Please take your time to study the style in detail, and make sure to ask if you have any questions on the above feedback or the hawthornetown style.

Good luck!

 

[Mobin]

Thanks for the feedback! For this challenge, I decieded to make the outdoor layout a bit unorthodox to avoid being to similar to the other Hawthorne builds. And I might've made this farmer a bit too well off...I guess we'll see.

https://imgur.com/a/JIG17yP

 

[CashBanks]

Thanks for finishing off this house Mobin, you've made a lot of great progress.

Couple of minor notes.

The chimney is looking a little oversized for its position. You could trim a few blocks off it so it has a profile closer to that of the house.


Here's an example at Hawthorne.


A key element of these challenges is mirroring the style and blocks of the particular area. You're on the right track with the interior blocks, there might be a few more you could use with the exterior bricks. I think you'll find that Vivid Monochrome, Monochrome Sandstone and Vivid Dark Sandstone are the main blocks in the Hawthorne gradient. You've might've mixed in some Arbor Light Stone in there as well. Not a huge deal since I know it's tricky to have to swap between the server and singleplayer to build, it can be handy to make notes in the chat window as you go. Another shot of the Hawthorne gradient below:



Would also swap that wooden plank wall with stone for consistency.


Overall though good job. For your next challenge, please build a middle class professional house in the style of /warp gullsgate (the white harbor style outside the main city walls). Houses in large towns will usually have a profession on their on the ground floor and residence upstairs, take a look at the styleguide at the /warp oldstyleguides and the finished houses in the White Harbor area for inspiration, and give the house some kind of profession that would make sense in White Harbor (e.g. carpenter/cooper/blacksmith/boat builder, netmaker etc).

Note in the post which profession you go with.

Good luck!

 

[Mobin]

Thanks Cash!

Next up I used one of your own suggestions to make a middle-class ship maker's home.

https://imgur.com/a/9Nj2xVl

 

[CashBanks]

Hey Mobin,
Thanks for finishing this White Harbor ship wright.
Overall shape is looking really nice and the block palette fits with the White Harbor style.
Just a couple of small notes.

When using these cabinet blocks, we try to make sure that only one side is exposed, you could cover up the side of this one with a half door.


It looks like you might've run out of space in the attic, one more block would give you more flexibility to add wooden stairs/slabs beneath the centre line of bedrock blocks. Working out floor heights can be tricky and it can be a pain to change after you've already done the roof, but i've no doubt you'll be fine with it after you've done a few more houses.


Great progress though, for your (tentatively) last challenge, please build a middle class house in the style of Highgarden, (take a look around /warp hgtown). As with this White Harbor house, it should have a profession/business on the bottom level e.g. carpenter/wine merchant/tailor/blacksmith, and a yard would be great as well.

Thanks!

 

[Mobin]

Thanks for the comments Cash,

This time I decided to make a Jeweler's home. The build might be a bit larger than it needed to, but I was trying to avoid the flat sides you'd see from isolating a condo-style building. Additionally I accidentally made the roof an even width, which made the tops a bit less pointy than they should've been.

Here's the album:

https://imgur.com/a/7RjS8QB

 

[CashBanks]

Thanks Mobin, you've made some great progress. Overall this is looking good, just a couple of small points to keep in mind on future builds.


Chimney's looks a little chonky here, could trim some of those bottom levels off so it has less of a footprint.


When using these drawer blocks it's best to use half doors and cover up all but one side.


It's good to try and avoid floating timber and daub blocks, in real life those vertical wooden beams are thick structural supports for the house that would need to be held up by something. Not a huge deal, you could probably swap those daub blocks in the pic above with wooden stairs or planks.


I like all the interior details you've added in this attic space, just looks like there's a fair amount of unsupported slate roof blocks in this section here. I imagine you were just pressed for space, but there might be room for some half door/stairs along the edge (sorry for the crappy drawing).

I think at this point you'll learn more from being an actual builder, so consider yourself approved!

Please make sure to read the New Builder guide here: http://westeroscraft.wikia.com/wiki/Newbie_guide

The next step is to make a probation thread in the Probation Forum. You can start building at any open locations on the server - you can find a list of 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. You can also toggle open plot markers on the dynmap mc.westeroscraft.com

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 entry point into the server community in general), although as sometimes the probie leaders are busy IRL you may need to be patient while they find the time to respond to you. But message me again if a probie leader hasn't contacted you within two weeks, or if they're taking a while to respond. 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.

I'd suggest you also start thinking about what projects you might like to work on, we encourage new builders to first work on "mini-projects" which are small one off areas of other projects, e.g. a hamlet, mill, quarry, and flagged as open for mini-apps by the project leader. Once you've done a few of these you'll be able to apply for a full project.

Make sure to stay in touch and let us know if you're losing interest, not finding enough work to do, or if there's any issues with the probation.

Welcome aboard and I'll see you in Westeros!

 

[Mobin]

Thanks Cash for helping me through this! Can't wait to start contributing to the mythos. I also just saw your custom creation thread and we need those Myrish Carpets asap. Not to mention how much better all the septs would look with the statues. Are those looking to be implemented anytime?

 

[CashBanks]

Thanks Mobin!

Are those looking to be implemented anytime?

 

[Mobin]

mc.westeroscraft.com

Hey Cash, it doesn't look like my probie page found a probie leader

 

[CashBanks]

Hey Mobin, thanks for reaching out. Sorry I think we’ve had a rush of new builders in the last month. I’ve touched base with some probie leaders to see if they can take a look, you can continue with probation builds in the meantime - project leaders will be able add feedback on any of their plots you finish in the meantime.