Completed Project Application - Ashwood by _Simbaa

[_Simbaa]

House Ashwood
( imagine a fancy coat of arm here)



I finally managed to put together some tests I liked so here is my app!

Canon:
They once held the wolfs den (that's it...)

Inspiration:
I didn't have any particular inspiration for the castle unfortunately however I did have some for atleast some of the house tests:

Such as this house ^

Or this one ^

While for the terrain my inspiration will be the area around White Harbour and perhaps bit of these:

My Tests:
I am encouraging you to explore the tests yourself at /warp Simba where you will be able to find a labeled model of the castle along with house tests with small description about them.

here you can see the castle model ^

While here are the wall and keep test, please note that both of the walls will be used in their respective way.

Here are the house tests, please not that each has a small description next to it describing the usage of it.

Land Layout:
I apologize for not providing very detailed layout however I do have my reasons for it, first of all I am planning the do some heavy terraforming around the area. ( rivers, general landscape - adding some elevation etc...) Furthermore knowing my self I would probably be unable to follow a very detailed map layout as in my previous location I make rather spontaneous decision on place about some location placement, such as I did with Westbrook.

Here is the land layout^
Yellow Star - castle
Orange Star - holdfast
Yellow Dots - settlements

Please take in account that there will be pastures/fields/orchards around each settlement along with some industries sprinkled in and outside of the settlements, I do plan on having a Slate quarry along with plenty of charcoal burners and such, However right now I did not decide on their exact location and/or I plan to terraform the area to fit them.

Anyway I hope thats enough and I am looking forward to your feedback!

-Simbaa





​

 

[Knights_of_Ikke]

Hey Simbaa, I saw your tests and everything looks amazing. I just have one slightly little comment. Your castle seems a little large for such an unimportant house which is fine but a small house in the north probably wouldn't have a sept, especially in a sperate building. But, I think it can work either way. I suggest getting someone else's opinion on it.

Also, where is it? I searched all of the map and I can't find the river delta. Could you point out where it is? Thank you.

But all together, I love your tests and look forward to building a house here

 

[_Simbaa]

Hey Simbaa, I saw your tests and everything looks amazing. I just have one slightly little comment. Your castle seems a little large for such an unimportant house which is fine but a small house in the north probably wouldn't have a sept, especially in a sperate building. But, I think it can work either way. I suggest getting someone else's opinion on it.

Also, where is it? I searched all of the map and I can't find the river delta. Could you point out where it is? Thank you.

But all together, I love your tests and look forward to building a house here

To answer all of your questions: I will be terraforming the river in (it does not exist right now) Furthermore the castle is actually very small (the main keep is 10x10, while the "greathall" building is 8 blocks wide). While it is in the North and all... its also pretty close to White Harbour and there is Canon on some houses in the Southern part of North keeping the faith of the seven, besides the sept will be small with its diameter of 7 blocks. Furthermore no or little canon doesnt always mean unimportant, we just lack any information about it.

 

[lord_damascus]

To add to what simbaa said about the faith of the seven. the barrowlands in which ashwood is planned to be build near is know for having barrow knights and knight normally followed the faith of the seven rather the old gods, so a sept seem to be acceptable in this region, also may want to consider having some rooms for knight in service to the ashwood as both Newcastle and waterman have room for serving knights, just some food for thought
-Damascus

 

[Elduwin]

4 days Sim, remember that you have to wait 7 days
Don't start bumping every days or no mod will review it at all

 

[EStoop]

To add to what simbaa said about the faith of the seven. the barrowlands in which ashwood is planned to be build near is know for having barrow knights and knight normally followed the faith of the seven rather the old gods, so a sept seem to be acceptable in this region, also may want to consider having some rooms for knight in service to the ashwood as both Newcastle and waterman have room for serving knights, just some food for thought
-Damascus

House Blackwood is known to follow the Old Gods and also sporting the title of knight. I think it is fair to assume that even though knights are formally associated with the Faith of the Seven, the title is used outside of the religion as well.

 

[_Simbaa]

Bump?

( I have waited 7 days as Eld asked)​

 

[Nuggets - Shygirlstan]

The size is ok.

 

[EStoop]

Quick feedback

The land

• How will you deal with the difference between the open plains of the Barrowlands and the terrain we made for the area around White Harbour? The plans you provided doesn't really seem to take the Barrowlands into account.
• Are the Ashwoods Barrowland lords or are they more akin to the (southernised) Northmen living at the White Knife and the Bite?
• The map is so undetailed that it doesn't really give enough information to get an idea of the plans. I know I, and undoubtly moderators too, would like to see a more detailed map because letting people run wild with terrain rarely turns out positive. There is a reason we make applications.

The castle

• Since the house seems to be a minor house, I'm going to go ahead and say they have little to no need for a great hall, large kitchens, palace extension and 3 to 4 lines of defence (you stated ingame you want to add yet another defence around the dry moat).
  
• I think making the outermost wall wood/timber would make the castle feel less overly defended. I know you stated ingame that you don't want to do this, but I'm giving it as feedback regardless.
• The stables seem to be made of stone, I suggest making them from wood.
• What will the size of the moat be? It's disproportionally large in the model.
• The keep interiors are nice, I like the one room per floor layout.

The style

• The style uses lots of stone. Why? The inspiration for the terrain seems to indicate the area is rich in wood, which is much easier to build with for simple folk.
• Why does the single wooden house in your tests have vertical wood at the bottom, and horizontal wood everywhere else?

 

[_Simbaa]

The Land
- Right now the lands have plenty of forests which Id like to keep perhaps increase their area aswell (ofc ill redo them to look better) and use the hills to the west along the kingsroad as a natural barrier between the plains of barrowland and the more forested area around the bite as it seems that the original forests often end their. However I will gladly accept any opinion from Kor, Emote, Damascus cash or anyone else who has a better knowledge about the northern terrain.
-I hoped that I specified it enough in my app that Ill be aiming more towards southernised Northernmen.
Personally I find it hard to plot straight away on lands that will undergo larger terraforming thats why I only specified the most important areas, however Ill gladly try and submit a more detailed map (which in turn might prove to be inaccurate as the project goes on) if the mods will ask for it

The Castle
- lets start by saying the by the term palace I mean residential area for household, extended family etc. I have no idea why do you think the kitchens will be large, yes there will be "greathall" which will not by any means be big as in the same building with the kitchens and the hall Ill be having food storage and other food processing facilities like pantry, smokehouse etc...
-the castle will have 3 lines of defense, I have decided to drop the idea of a pallisade around the moat. Again I will not make the outerwalls a pallisade as it would interfere alot with my castle plans and aswell as I dont think there would be a lack of stone since I Do plan to have the moat pretty massive as dry moats should be. I am thinking 7 blocks deep and 16ish blocks wide at its widest and point. And digging such a large moat would provided ample of stone for the castle.
-The stables will probably be out of wood, I must have forgotten to change to block

The Style
I decided to use alot of stone as I expected to have quite alot of exposed stone around like there is at the lands around WH, furthermore its a rather long lasting material and would make the house be able to survive more more intense winter. I have also based some of the houses on ironage ones (I think i specified which on their tags next to them)
You are right the horizontal wood at the bottom lacks any sense, thank you for pointing out that mistake, Ill make sure to remove it.

 

[CashBanks]

Hey Simbaa,
As I mentioned in game I really like the overall style and it'll be great to have a new project in the North.

Stoop's made some good points that I think you've more or less addressed, but indeed the big question I'm wondering is the plans for integrating it as a transition area between the forests/marshes of WH and the barrowlands. It might be worth getting @Emotione11 and @Kor_Bro to weigh and get their thoughts on the terra for the area west of the White Knife, after that we might be able to do a more detailed terra map.

But once we've got that figured out you'll have my approval

 

[_Simbaa]

lovely!

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey, so regarding integration with WH: There's a section west of the white knife that @Enah threw together a map for, and I think was considering doing a WH sub-application for eventually. I made a larger area map and stiched together his and your plans:

I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but: I think you should extend your plans to fill in the space between your current plans and the map Enah created. To the south, we ought to keep a buffer zone for now, since people are still talking about a tentative re-painting of the Neck once we actually have someone who's capable of doing so.

As far as terraforming is concerned, I think you have the right vision here:

Right now the lands have plenty of forests which Id like to keep perhaps increase their area aswell (ofc ill redo them to look better) and use the hills to the west along the kingsroad as a natural barrier between the plains of barrowland and the more forested area around the bite as it seems that the original forests often end their.

I fully agree that you should use the hills to the west of your plans as a transition from carniforous and/or birch forests (similar to the terra around WH) to the rocky plains of the barrowlands. (moor update when??)

In addition, you should intersperse the area with a lot of sphagnum bog, especially given the proximity to the Neck. You can take inspiration from the bogs I've done near WH (I overdid the dead trees quite a bit and plan to cut them down), but I encourage you to do your own research. A lot of people basically just mistake bogs with swamps, that's why the current Neck sucks so much.

I do want to see a lot more nuanced mapping of your terra plans as well as structure plans. Here's the map I was working off when doing WH for example, it helps a lot to have the small details mapped out like that when you actually get to terraforming.

 

[_Simbaa]

My New Layout

Yellow - settlments
Red - Castle, holfasts etc...​

So i have decided to increase the area of the project to avoid a clumped up feeling, the bogs wont necessary be the extremely watery ones but rather something like the picture included below. furthermore there will be fields and pastures around the settlements however I have decided not to plot them as It would end up being highly inaccurate and make the map even more messy.

Furthermore there will be other minor settlements, industries, barrows outside the yellow circles however these will be small clusters and given their dependency on the surrounding area (watermill, glassworks, farmsteads, peat gathers etc...) I have decided it will be easier to plot them once atleast some of the terra is done as It will allow me to find the optimal location for them.

 

[Kor_Bro]

Hi Simbaa.
Also regarding the integration with WH and the neck - We/I am currently in the progress of terraforming the coast south of WH, and I think it would make sense to have a somewhat similar coastline on either side of the white knife. I don't know what kind of coast Emot has planned for the area north of WH, but I'd be happy to help out on both sides of the river to make sure it's somewhat cohesive all around.

As Emot mentioned, and as you've added in your most recent post - bogs would be awesome or even salt marshes to the south, but that might be something for the Buffer area, but good to keep in mind.

In any case, I'll be happy to help out if you need any advice or a show n' tell on how we've made the terra around WH.

 

[_Simbaa]

Thanks Kor! Ill gladly accept your help once Ill dive into the coastal areas!

 

[Emoticone11]

I didn't actually have a solid plan for the banks of the White Knife yet. I was imagining rocky forested banks, at least on the area to the north of WH. You think there should be a beach on the banks like you're doing to the south @Kor_Bro ? Do you think there would be enough waves in the mouth of the White Knife to create sandy beaches?

 

[Kor_Bro]

Nope, I had the same thoughts. Rocky forested banks sound fine to me. WH will act as a border between the two types of banks. As for the other side, we'll have to make a transition somewhere along the area Enah has made plans for.

 

[_Simbaa]

Good, so white knife will have rocky forested banks, As soon I a see how they should look like on the otherside of the river Ill be able to confirm if my skills are up to it or not. Also id like to bump @CashBanks as I have updated the plans and got the information/confirmation about the terrain.

 

[CashBanks]

Good, so white knife will have rocky forested banks, As soon I a see how they should look like on the otherside of the river Ill be able to confirm if my skills are up to it or not. Also id like to bump @CashBanks as I have updated the plans and got the information/confirmation about the terrain.

Looks good to me