Abandoned [OLD] Project Application: Ambrose

[Emoticone11]

[OLD FORUM REPOST - 3/13/18]

Note that only the most important information was preserved.

Hello, this is my application to complete Ambrose! I talked with EStoop and it was suggested that CaptScribble join on this application if he could and Stoop himself if he wish, but as always any feedback is welcome. Thank you! Ambrose

Hey Benja, nice to see you taking up the project to finish it.

I have skimmed your app and I have the following feedback:

- Palette change, take a look at the palette at Rhysling. It has a bit more plaster rather than stone, which I think would benefit the castle more. I also think the rough stone base is a bit too large still.
- The roof, although I support a change of roof, the test you made is not the same size as the one that is needed for the castle. I also suggest a somewhat less clunky dormer.
- The courtyard, I agree that the current one appears to be too random, but I fear your proposed layout will too. When I talked to you ingame I actually meant to explain to remove both elevated gardens and make the courtyard one open area, without gardens and such mixed in. Take care to make larger mud patches rather than individual blocks being mod.
- Exterior changes, some of the details on the exterior are indeed a bit clunky, but I'd like to see a facade test first to see how you will deal with it and if it actually improves with those changes. Although it is not quite the same style, I think Hornhill is a good source of inspiration to see how to deal with exteriors.
- Interior changes, no issues here really. The towers seem to have the same issue.

As for the lands, couldn't find a lot of issues with it at first glance, though someone else might.

https://imgur.com/kTuWHmD

As requested by Stoop: The courtyard outline. The courtyard will be wiped out and replaced with training areas for the soldiers as right now the current courtyard limits training, the area by the gatehouse will be changed quite a bit as well, removing the well and cart. The plans have a fighting area and an archery range, both in sight and near the barracks and armory giving easy access to the tools and weapons. The area in front of the sept will be left blank as it's an entrance to the keep and the scale shows that there would be much more room for another training spot, regardless of the large blank area left in the image. The gatehouse entrance will contain 1 cart perhaps for the serfs to haul materials over and carry out or haul materials into the kitchens/barracks or whatever it would apply to. The only potential area of concern would be the stables, again on the aspect of scale on the image compared to in game, there would be an area to be able to move in and out of the stables safely without conflicting with training so I should make that clear. Tomorrow I'll have the rest of the keep issues we discussed in game (hopefully) submitted for you to review. Thank you ! I'll be glad to answer any questions in game so feel free!

Hi I'm here to update the application for Ambrose with the feedback given in-game by EStoop. He's busy right now but I'll leave this here for when he comes back.

Gradient:

https://imgur.com/zzmpET2

*Fixed the plaster showing beneath the archers.
*Added more of a transitioning mix in some spots.

Roseroad:

https://imgur.com/a/HyAok

I'm leaning towards the purple but I'll need a mods approval or surrounding project leaders approval.

Courtyard: Adressed in post above but I should mention I've made tests for an archery range and places for the soldiers to spar head on or against dummies in say 1-2 medium or large sized rings depending on what they're practicing with. Optionally there could be a place to joust but I don't know how necessary that would be.

Roof: Talked in game on fixes that should be applied.
*Added new dormers that were suggested to me.

Feedback has been addressed! Thank you.

Hey Benja,

I gave you some ingame feedback last week, and I thought I pressed hard enough to test some more and try some different designs. However, the fact you posted your updated plans two hours after I told you that, proves that my assumption was wrong. So I'll say it again here; I think you need to test some more and explore more possibilities. The reason for this is not because I dislike the current plans, but I do think they can be improved on.

I made a list of things I think you should take a look at below. I want you to make those tests, select the ones you think gives the best results and update your app with those tests along with an explanation why you chose them.

Facade; How would it look without the extra arches and pillars, how would it look with buttresses rather than the arches and how would it look if the windows did not have those indents from the exterior?
Roof; I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, but the roof on your facade test isn't as wide as the one currently present at Ambrose. Is this intentional? It's pretty influential for the roof's height so I think it's important to have it correctly in the facade test.
Dormers; I think the current dormers could do with a bit of gradient. The large ones seem to be very monotonous in the test.
Palette; If I understand it correctly you are shifting the project's palette from pink reach to grey stone. Is there a particular reason for this? This change in palette would mean you'd have to change the palette on all of the houses at the project as well.
Courtyard; The fighting pit is right in front of the stables and there is no well planned. The courtyard does not need to have 100% of it's surfice utilised. However, I think the courtyard could easily be fixed so I'd like you to focus on the other issues.
Towers; Some of the towers have some illogical furnishings, like the archery training equipment on the gate towers.


I also made a round through the town and lands and noticed the issues below.

Thatch roofs; A lot of the roofs have massive holes in them showing the construction below. This doesn't make sense.
Wooden supports; A lot of the wooden supports have a small oaken log base, then an oaken fence on top and sometimes the narrow oaken log above that. That's not how wood works, either make it oak fence top to bottom or small oak log. I also noticed this at the castle.
Vineyards; There are a lot of vineyards, including the planned lands on the hill of the castle. I suggest to change some of those to another crop.
Roseroad; The purple line seems fine, make sure to make it follow the terrain rather than the exact line drawn on the map.

Also, I'm not sure if you did but as CaptScribble mentioned, make sure that the feedback given in the original Ambrose thread is adressed.


- EStoop

 

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[PART 2]

Okay! I've read over all this and I've got stuff for you to look at ! Props to WhereRMyDragons for aiding me in the facade as well!

Facade:

https://imgur.com/oK99eej

Really proud of this

Roof: Saw what you meant about the roof scale, I fixed it.

https://imgur.com/XBfpoo2

Dormers: Added a gradient!

Pallete: We talked briefly in-game. However, I've noticed how bad the gradients are on the houses and holdfasts so I figure if it'd look better anyways with a grey reach gradient and while I'm at it I can just change the houses and holdfasts along with it.

Courtyard: It could be figured out later yeah, instead of a fighting area we could have that jousting area that was originally in place which might make more sense in the stable area.

Towers: I've checked out the tower furnishings and it shouldn't be hard to fix at all. For the guard towers I've made a test, its simpler than the other one but it is a guard tower after all.

https://imgur.com/03C8GaD

The banners on the front are optional of course.

Thatch Roofs: It looks like instead of having the messy detailing that doesn't make the thatch look so neat went a bit too far. I can easily fix it.

Wooden Supports: I see what you mean about the wooden supports, I can change this easily as well!

Vineyards: I see what you mean with it being so repetitive, as an alternative we can have orchards maybe? It's something that can easily be set as there currently are not any crops in place there.

Roseroad: I agree with the purple line and will have it set according to the terrain!

Thank you!

For the Roseroad I'd propose the following route - of course only for the Ambrose lands, since Dustonbury isn't done yet.

The route is not the direct one, but we should keep in mind that even though this is the Roseroad, those were not planned like highways in medieval times (and Westeros, too). Those main trading routes would develop out of already consiting roads, and those would not go around towns. We should keep this in mind in other locations too.

For the small village in the North and the town South of Ambrose this connection adds a right to exist, because they are currently lacking any bigger roads leading anywhere.

Hello! I've compiled the list of Hamlets, Holdfasts and Villages to tally up what has been finished and what has not been finished! The warps are a little jumbled so I apologize.

Hamlets:

AmbroseH1: WIP *Palette Change; Final Houses; Terraform*

AmbroseH3: Not Started

AmbroseH4: Done but needs Palette change

Holdfasts:

AmbroseHF1: Done but needs Palette change

AmbroseHF3: Done but needs Palette change

Villages:

AmbroseV3: WIP *Palette change; Terraform*

I'd like to change the warps as well.

AmbroseH3 -> AmbroseH2

AmbroseH4 -> AmbroseH3

AmbroseHF3 - > AmbroseHF2

AmbroseV3 -> AmbroseV1

KEEP: I've started doing more on the keep and exteriors (Aside from walls) are nearly finished so if you (Demod or Stoop) want to check things out as far as interiors as well, please do! (Props to Ammika ; TheYoungWolf ; Cedric ; Enah ; for great advice and help on the interiors so far!)

Basically; I want to assure that things are heading in the right direction before I make more extensive progress on the main keep building.

Another thing: I've brought it up to Stoop but, I want to build the keep on my main plot, reterraform the ambrose keep location (Nothing drastic, just touching it up), place it and fit the keep to the terraform and do the yard and surrounding flower crops around the keep!

This is a pretty long post but I needed to cover this, thank you!

Hi I'm here to update the application for Ambrose with the feedback given in-game by EStoop. He's busy right now but I'll leave this here for when he comes back.

Gradient:

https://imgur.com/zzmpET2

*Fixed the plaster showing beneath the archers.
*Added more of a transitioning mix in some spots.

Roseroad:

https://imgur.com/a/HyAok

I'm leaning towards the purple but I'll need a mods approval or surrounding project leaders approval.

Courtyard: Adressed in post above but I should mention I've made tests for an archery range and places for the soldiers to spar head on or against dummies in say 1-2 medium or large sized rings depending on what they're practicing with. Optionally there could be a place to joust but I don't know how necessary that would be.

Roof: Talked in game on fixes that should be applied.
*Added new dormers that were suggested to me.

Feedback has been addressed! Thank you.

Hello. This is a bit of a different post I'm making...

Stoop and I talked over all of the mini projects and to make a long story short: They're labeled as below standard and would ALL need to be redone and at the time of applying I was completely unaware of this. Now here's my dilemma: I wanted to take up Ambrose to finish it, not to have to start all over and have a huge load. I have spoken to my mods and while it makes me sad to do this, I am dropping the project to get a sense of something better to apply for as a first project with tom as a co - op It's not a matter of dropping it due to not wanting the work load, it is because of the large work load for a first project. It goes back to when I applied for Stackhouse without realizing the vast amount of land even for such a small house. So... I hope you all can understand this, truly, and not be judgy or anything [user]13630282[/user] this project would be available so maybe you would want it . Now abandonment means a 4 week wait till applying, but I'm not ready to jump into something else right away, I will use this time to build some hamlets! I request someone lock this thread from further responses unless the moderators feel it necessary to respond to this, thank you.