NikEijg Builder Application

[NikEijg]

What is your Minecraft username?
NikEijg

What is your age?
13-16

In what country are you living?
Netherlands

Where did you first hear about WesterosCraft?
Searched online

What do you like the most about GoT/ASoIaF?
If you are talking about a scene then I really enjoyed the Chaos is a ladder scene, I believe its show only but its great.
If you are talking about the writing style then I really like that the whole world has a background. It could really exist. Almost all the characters have a backstory but most of them don't really stand out as most people in the real world don't as well.

What is your favorite build on our server?
Highgarden by far, it has this kind of majesty, I don't really know how to explain it. But its just so beautiful as a whole.

Why do you want to join our server?
Because I'm looking to find a server where I can learn from others, and where they're building something that I'm passionate about. And I have been around on the server for like two years as a nobuild and I have only grown my excitement for the server and the series as a whole. I don't think that I bring new skills into the team, except maybe for some extra hands. Non the less I would be delighted to be able to build on the server.



Did you follow the application rules?
"You know nothing, Jon Snow" I suppose.

 

[NikEijg]

I just realised that there is missing one screenshot, please forgive me.

 

[NikEijg]

One week bump

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey NikEijg,

Thanks for your application and your patience! Glad to see your interest in helping out with the project.

Nice work with the apphouse! Not really seeing any issues with it. Hope the exercise was helpful for learning our server's building style. For subsequent challenge builds, you'll be expected to build original houses of your own design, in the style of specific locations on our server. However, I recommend thinking of it similarly to the application house - except now, instead of simply replicating a house, you should try to replicate particular elements of multiple houses, and synthesize them into an original creation. After each one I'll give some feedback.

Just a quick piece of feedback about some of the details around the apphouse (glad to see you adding those immersive details!): try to avoid adding unecessary noise/messiness, such as the forest path blocks mixed randomly with normal dirt/gravel. It's better to stick with just one type of block for the paths. Also, for the firewood shed, you might want to use wood plank fence blocks for the supports rather than the chunky wall blocks.

For the first challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp tortown. Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!

 

[NikEijg]

Hello,
I've finished the challenge.
I'm not to sure about the gradient and the interior but the rest went pretty well, if I say so myself.

 

[NikEijg]

Since I could only put 10, here are the rest

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey NikEijg,

Nice work overall! I think this facade turned out pretty well. I do agree with your self-assessment; the layout of the house is pretty good, but stylistically a lot of parts are just too messy. Let me get to more specific feedback:

- The gradient definitely needs work. You want to avoid randomly mixing different blocks together too much; instead focus on getting a smooth transition from one color or texture to another. Avoid having blocks directly touching if they contrast too much in either darkness, color, or texture. There's a good tutorial for this at /warp gradient on the server. Also, for a house this size, you only really need 3 or 4 stone blocks in the palette. I'm counting 7 currently.

- Some rooms in the interior are good, like this one, but the upper floor is way too messy. First, avoid placing random thatch carpet, where you have single blocks scattered around the room. Instead add thatch carpet in a single connected "blob". Second, I'd rework the fence ceiling supports; having the fences go at an angle currently is a bit awkward. If the ceiling being a weird shape is preventing this, I'd play around with simplifying the rafters first before doing any additional supports.

- The vines on the exterior are also a bit too messy. Like the other points, you want to avoid random singular vine blocks (aka "patchy vines") and instead go for larger connected surfaces. Also make sure that there's a "path" for the vines to connect to the ground, since they need to be rooted in order to get nutrients.

- Avoid using the vanilla trapdoor blocks in general except as an actual trapdoor; the texture is rather outdated.

For the next challenge build, please make a medium-sized house in the style of /warp woodwright. Include a sizeable yard with it as well. Let me know if you have any questions about my feedback or the challenge style. Good luck!

 

[NikEijg]

Hi,

I finally have completed the challenge. It took so long due to my own stupidity and manual launcher building.

I'm not so sure about this build. But I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I also took a look at warp Gradient, I can only hope this one is better.
And I put the plants and thatch in a ''Blob''.

Thanks for the feedback and I hope to hear back from you.

NikEijg

https://imgur.com/a/1yJNmQ9

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey NikEijg,

Glad to hear you got the launcher working! Overall I think the house you made looks pretty nice, I like that you're getting creative during the planning stage and making interesting layouts. You've also nailed the stone gradient on this one.

However, the house doesn't really fit into the Woodwright style at all; the style of roof is completely different, and the house proportions are also a bit off from the typical Woodwright house (it's a bit too tall and thin). Make sure to stay faithful to specific stylistic details like those when doing challenge builds. Some other specific feedback:

- The roof feels very top-heavy, especially with the ornate details along the gables. This might work for a larger house, but for a smaller house like this, I'd suggest just keeping things simple - potentially even using a "no-overhang" style, as many of the houses in Woodwright do. I also don't think the dark spruce wood works very well with the lighter Reach palette.

- The way that the thatch-roof section of the house "juts out" on this side seems a little odd. I'd probably recommend pushing that section back a bit and making it flush/parallel with the rest of the house.

- The vines here are on the right track, though the path they follow feels a bit unnatural. Here's a sloppy edit showing how I would suggest doing it.

- With the garden wall, you'd be better just having it follow a straight (possibly diagonal) line rather than having it follow a random curvy path. You want to avoid what we sometimes call "bubble yards".

For the next challenge build, I'd like to see a medium-size house in the style of /warp OAtown. Let me know if you have any questions about my feedback, and I can try to illustrate when I get a chance. Good luck!

 

[NikEijg]

Hey,

I finished the challenge, I realise it's bin four months so I appolegize for that.

I mostly strugled with the interior and the fact that I think the building look's a little boring.
This style is kinda diffucult for me is what I'm saying.

I hope its good enough,

https://imgur.com/a/AJ0LO5R

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey NikEijg,

No worries about the delay; feel free to work on the app whenever you have time. Great work with this house; I actually think with this side especially you hit a good level of detail - it's not boring, but it's not overwhelming either. The interiors look strong as well, I only have very minor feedback there.

- I'd remove the buttons on the exteriors, as they don't really add much aesthetically and seem a bit messy.

- I think the roof on this side would probably look better with an overhang; it's worth playing around with anyways.

- Don't use the trapdoor blocks for anything other than trapdoors/hatches, due to both the texture being a bit ugly, as well as the block being easily toggle-able by anyone. This applies to both exteriors (e.g. the shelf with the cage) and interiors (e.g. the trapdoors used in the rafters).

- Avoid using the "forest path" blocks in interiors (or even in yards and settlement roads I'd say), as the height difference and shading from smooth lighting adds an element of messiness that's usually not necessary. The blocks are mainly for use in roads or paths where it's important to distinguish the road from its surroundings (e.g., a forest where otherwise the path would blend with the dirt blocks); outside of this application it's possible to overuse them.

- A fairly minor detail, but avoid putting solid objects on top of open/filled crate blocks, e.g., the candle on top of berries and the pewter flagon on top of carrots here.

For the next challenge, please build a small farmstead in the style of /warp gaunt - 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. I encourage you to do some research into medieval farmsteads for inspiration as well. Let me know if you have any questions about anything. Good luck!

 

[NikEijg]

Hi,

Quick question: What block would you reccomend instead for the trapdoor?

 

[JJLyric]

You can use half doors or for windows shutters.

 

[NikEijg]

You can use half doors or for windows shutters.

Thanks

 

[NikEijg]

Hello,

Since I have vaccation at the moment I was able to finish this one pretty quickly.

I am pretty happy overal, I've tried to do some landscaping as well in this one.
The house looks pretty nice I think, however it kinda looks like gaunt but it doesn't at the same time for me.
I tried redesigning it several times and this was the most gaunt house that I made. It has livingquarters, a small barn, and a place to store hay.
Around are some fields en tree's, designing the trees was hard but I think they look good enough.

I also struggeld with the paths, but that was mostly because the dirt turned into grass very quickly.

I hope it wil suffice and please give me feedback, it helps me greatly,

https://imgur.com/a/lOpaOt5

 

[NikEijg]

One week bump

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey NikEijg,

Sorry about the wait. Regarding the question about the trapdoor supporting the cage, I'd either just use a wood slab for a shelf, or possibly adjust it so the cage is hanging (using rope/chain).

Overall this build looks pretty good, especially in terms of layout and landscaping. I agree with your assessment that some parts of the houses look like Gaunt, but other aspects don't really match the style. Here's some specific feedback:

- The main thing detracting from the houses, I think, is the half door gables that extend up past the thatch, e.g. here. It just looks very odd and is not in the Gaunt style at all; I recommend studying the rooves at Gaunt a bit more. Note how the houses that use half doors in the exteriors don't extend past the roofline.

- The fences on top of the rooves are also only used in certain special cases at Gaunt, namely when you have a thatch wall block for the peak of the roof.

- I probably wouldn't use spruce for some of the door frames in the barns (e.g. here), since it contrasts a bit harshly with the oak wood. And presumably these structural elements would be made out of the same type of wood that's used to construct the rest of the building.

- The interiors look pretty good, although there's a few minor details which look a bit messy. For example, I wouldn't use the log wall under the hopper here; just use a fence or wall block of the same wood type as the hopper.

- Some of the gradients also seem a bit messy - this includes both the mud/thatch in the farms, and the stone gradients. Remember to avoid mixing blocks purely randomly in a noisy way. For the former example, it's better to have smoother "blobs" that reflect where water would collect and/or animals would trample to form mud, and transition those blobs smoothly with the dirt. Here's an example of what I mean. Similarly with stone, make sure you have smooth transitions from one stone texture to another (as shown in /warp gradient).

- This area on the other hand feels a bit plain; I recommend looking at some of the techniques Gaunt uses with foliage and road gradients to help "glue" the houses to the surroundings.

- As a matter of realism, wheat probably wouldn't be grown on an individual farmstead, but rather in larger fields that are shared and rotated between farmers. Wheat farming has "economies of scale" due to the way it's processed, meaning it's not really efficient to farm it in small quantities like you would with vegetables or herbs. For the farmstead, you should have some veggie fields instead.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this feedback and I can try to explain further. For the next challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp duskendale, along with a yard. Good luck!