Peptic Builder Application

[Peptic]

What is your Minecraft username?
Pept1c

What is your age?
13-16

In what country are you living?
Sweden

Where did you first hear about WesterosCraft?
Youtube

What do you like the most about GoT/ASoIaF?
The castles, all of them look amazing in their own unique way, some seem small yet are so big on the inside. They area all also sort of fantasy, but not completely. And visiting these places on the server has allowed me to visualize them so much more whilst reading the book, I actually felt like I could clearly picture what was going on.

What is your favorite build on our server?
Probably Highgarden. I have always loved the Tyrells but frankly, I was disappointed with the show version of Highgarden. The one on the server is so much more like the one I pictured, rich and luxurious. I haven't completely explored the castle yet, but the parts I have seen are amazing.

Why do you want to join our server?
1. I love building medieval stuff in Minecraft, castles, villages etc. And building them in a world where they actually make sense seems a lot more fun than just randomly building them. 2. I really want to be part of something. The community seems great, everyone I have talked to so far has been very friendly and kind. 3. The MMORPG, I have heard that this might be turned into an MMORPG someday, which seems awesome. And if it does, I wanna contribute to something I know will be great.

Tell us about your build.
I would say this is a low-medium class house built in a traditional medieval European style. The house would hold 3 people, which is a bit low for the time, but many families couldn't afford to feed multiple babies, and death amongst infants was very common back then. There are portraits of the father and mother hanging on the wall, presumably to give them strength and show them mercy. Due to the lack of storage space, the firewood is laying outside. Looking at it, I feel this house could fit into a perhaps a small village near kings landing, it has that loot to it (at least I think it does). This family would most likely be working at perhaps a farm near the house, this would also explain why there is no desk or supplies laying around in general, whatever is needed for their work, is at their work. I chose to position the house near a small river in an open field with trees scattered around as I feel it resembles the terrain seen in many of the southern regions.



Did you follow the application rules?
You know nothing, Jon Snow

 

[Emoticone11]

Hi Peptic,

Thanks for the application, and for being patient with the response!

Overall your house seems like a solid start; it's not up to server standards yet but seems like it could get there with a little bit of work. I'll leave some feedback on some of the most important points, and then start you off with a challenge build in a particular style to work on.

- Avoid log blocks entirely in houses; it just looks very clunky. Instead of framing the house with logs, you want to make the entire house out of the timber frame + daub blocks (on top of the stone foundation).

- The timber frame pattern seems a bit random, which you want to avoid. The pattern should usually be neat and symmetrical. Doing timber frame patterns properly is a bit of an art form itself, so I recommend looking closely at how they're done on our server when you're studying particular styles, and trying to replicate them.

- For a small peasant house like this, I'd recommend just making the floor a mix of dirt and gravel rather than wood. Also, it'd look nice if you use an ash (mycelium) block in front of the furnace.

- Rather minor detail, but for an ordinary house furnace I'd cut down the amount of smoke blocks to just 1 or 2 blocks. A small furnace would not produce that much visible smoke.

Some other resources on our server that I'd like to briefly mention are /warp furnish and /warp gradient; both have some useful tips for learning some aspects of our style.

For the first challenge build, please make a medium-sized house in the style of /warp woodwright. Make sure to pay close attention to details on the exteriors and interiors, and try to synthesize some of the details you pick up into a unique house of your own. Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!

 

[Peptic]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll try to get on the new build asap, taking the feedback into consideration

 

[Peptic]

This house would belong to a middle-class family situated in Woodwright. Like many of the other houses in the town, it has 2 floors and a small garden out front. This family makes their money by selling fruits (although mostly apples) in the small stand near the garden. I tried to replicate the general look of the Woodwright buildings, with the 2 wide fireplace and mostly oak interior. Personally, I feel this build went quite well, but its your choice.

 

[Peptic]

 

[Peptic]

I did some reworking on the top floor/attic after looking around in Woodwright, hopefully this is better.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Peptic,

Great work on this house, it is indeed a huge step up over your first one! Your improvements to the top floor are good too. It seems like interiors are your strong suit, so I don't have as much feedback to give there this time; most of my feedback will be about the exteriors:

- The timber frame patterns still feel too chaotic. I would recommend toning down the "plain white daub" block a bit. Otherwise, just keep studying the patterns at Woodwright or elsewhere; feel free to ask builders in-game if you need help identifying good examples of timber patterns.

- Instead of having the 3 stone blocks in the foundation mixed randomly, you want to have them in a subtle gradient, where you have block1 -> block2 -> block3, and block1 and block3 never directly touch. Start by making the foundation entirely block1 (the primary material), then add continuous "blobs" of block2 wherever the foundation seems too plain, or to represent corrosion. Then within the block2 blobs, you can add some patches of block3 if it needs it. It's a bit hard to explain in words, but there's a nice example at /warp gradient on the server.

- The detail over the window here is a bit clunky. You should just make the half slabs flat rather than having the "bump" in the middle. Also, use oak fences rather than spruce so the wood material is consistent.

- It feels like the overhang here should have a slightly raised roof - i.e., add one more row of timber frame blocks to the top, and then add a sloped roof using half slabs above that perpendicular to the main roof. Let me know if you're unsure what I mean here, and I can create it quickly next time I'm in-game.

- In the previous picture, the red wool half slabs on the stall should also just be flat rather than sagging in the middle. Also, I'd suggest using fence blocks for the stall supports rather than wall blocks.

- Though the interiors look good overall, always make sure to have some form of rafters supporting wooden ceilings; it doesn't seem like you have rafters in the bottom floor. If you look through the houses at Woodwright you'll find plenty of examples of rafters.

For the next challenge build, I'll have you build a middle-class house in the style of /warp whiteharbor. The middle-class houses can generally be found in the southwest quadrant of the city. Because the houses are mostly stone/plaster, make sure to pay close attention to how the gradients are done here - it can be a bit tricky at first. Let me know if you have any questions about anything. Good luck!

 

[Peptic]

Thanks for the response, ill try to get started on next build soon, but ill be spending today with my family, so it might be a little bit delayed. Merry christmas!

 

[Peptic]

Turns out I had some free time, here is my finished house. This house would belong to a baker. On the bottom floor is the kitchen, here I have included an oven made for baking, some herbs to freshen up the bread, a place to knead & mix, and storage for equipment. Behind the kitchen is a dining room with a small table and stools. Above the stools I've decided to hang up some thatch/fur for warmth. In the backyard there is a small farm for wheat & miscellaneous crops or oats. There is also a small privy and shed for firewood out back. On the top floor the kids are sleeping in a loft above some storage, as a baker you would need a lot of flour, yeast etc. In the master bedroom there is a bed, a cabinet and a fireplace. The fur inside the cabinet is supposed to represent maybe some folded clothes. Overall I feel this house would fit in quite well in White Harbor.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Peptic,

Hope you had a merry christmas! I had a look at the new house and it seems nicely done; you're catching on fast! The exteriors in particular are a big improvement this time. Just got some pickier feedback this time:

- Avoid fence windows in general; although there might be some of these lingering at White Harbor, we've pretty much moved past them in our style. For stone windows, it's preferred to use stair blocks or slabs (for small windows), or "arrow slit window" blocks if applicable. For wood, you can use either of those or the timber frame window blocks. In either case, it's also perfectly fine to just have an open block with a shutter in front of it.

- Don't use wheat in personal gardens; wheat farming operates on economies of scale because it needs to be processed and milled before it can be made into anything useful, so it has to be farmed in large quantities. For personal gardens you want to use veggies (e.g. carrots, turnips, cabbage) or herbs (tons of examples at /warp crops).

- For bench or cabinet blocks, such as here, you should cover all sides except for one with half doors or other furniture (since it doesn't make sense for them to have drawers on multiple sides).

- I'd remove the row of alternating stone blocks/slabs here. If you do have stone showing through the second floor (unfortunately unavoidable a lot of the time when you have an overhang), it's best to cover it through careful placement of furniture and wood/thatch carpet blocks.

Otherwise impressive work. For the next challenge build, please make a middle-class or upper-class house in the style of /warp duskendale. As always, let me know if you have any questions about anything, and good luck!

 

[Peptic]

This is my finished Duskendale house, I'd say its upper middle class/low high class. The profession of the residents here would likely be a merchant or customs officer.

 

[Emoticone11]

Very nice work Peptic! The timber pattern on the front is beautifully done, just the right balance of simplicity and complexity. I have a little bit of feedback, but again nothing major:

- For the cellar/kitchen, and more generally whenever you have a stone ceiling in a room, you should always use some sort of arched/vaulted ceiling rather than the rafters you might use for a wood ceiling. The reason being, stone is a fair greater load than wood, and stone arches are a much sturdier structure than horizontal wooden beams.

- The kitchen interiors could also use a bit more layout work; currently it feels pretty empty and "box-like", a look you want to avoid (as you do with the other interiors). Adding some vaulting would definitely help with this.

- I'd suggest adding some railing around the staircase here - either spruce half doors or short wattle fence.

- You should use slabs for the roof on the overhang here rather than stairs; it'll help make it a bit less top-heavy.

- The chimney feels a bit too tall; usually you only want it to extend about 2-4 blocks over the roofline.

For a tentative final challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp fairmarket, including a moderately-sized yard. It's another town style, so I think you'll find it similar to Duskendale in some aspects, but also perhaps a bit more colorful. Make sure to pay close attention to the style, and let me know if you have any questions about my feedback above or the challenge build. Good luck!

 

[Peptic]

Here is the finished build, it is a middle-class house in the style of Fairmarket. For the profession, I chose an "alehouse" (I don't really know what to call it). It features. A counter from which customers can order drinks, a small area outside where they can sit and drink, a storage room where a large cask is stored, A kitchen and living space for the residents of the building, an attic with a pulley used to hoist various crates and barrels up for storage. And spaces to sleep and work. There is also a backyard connected to the storage room, the cart in the yard could be used to transport various barrels of ale. In the yard there is also a small farm of sourleaf and cabbage, these could be used for cooking, or perhaps the sourleaf could be used to "spice up" a drink. Overall I felt I managed to replicate the Fairmarket style rather well, although The interior is a bit cramped at times.

 

[Peptic]

More pictures of the front and counter area.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Peptic,

Great work again! Nice work portraying the profession, and I agree this would fit in Fairmarket very well. I only have a bit of minor feedback:

- I'd generally be cautious when you're using oak and spruce together in interiors, as they can contrast harshly with each other. For example, the halfdoors on the staircase here. It's generally fine to have furniture and structural elements (rafters, floors, ceilings, staircases) be different wood types, but you usually want each of those categories to be consistent.

- The yard doesn't feel like it utilizes space too well with the cabbages and sourleaf. I'd probably extend the veggie plots all the way to the yard border, and also use the short wattle fence block to surround them rather than half doors.

- I'd probably reduce the amount or complexity of the windows in the brick foundation on this side; it just feels like visually a bit too much currently.

Anyways, I'm happy to give you the green light at this point, so consider yourself approved.

To get promoted to builder, ask a moderator in-game next time you catch one online. The next step is to read over the New Builder guide, found here: http://westeroscraft.wikia.com/wiki/Newbie_guide
And also make yourself a probation thread in the probation forum.

You can start building at any open locations on the server - you can find these at /warp build (possibly outdated as people forget to update it sometimes), and also by going to our dynmap and toggling "Open Plot", which is a new feature that we're testing, or otherwise just asking around to see which builds are open. Also, you can ask a mod to set you up with a plot in the Test world.

A probie leader should post on your thread within a week or so, give constructive feedback on your houses for the next month, and help be your entrypoint into the server community in general. As sometimes the probie leaders can be busy IRL, I also highly suggest seeking out feedback from project leaders and other online builders. At the end, you'll be made full builder.

Welcome to the team, I look forward to building with you!