Abandoned Project application: House Rankenfell
- Thread starter GrayJedi
- Start date
-
The Spring 2023 edition of The Rookery is now out! Take a look to see the latest builds, guides, progress and development updates on the upcoming 1.18.2 switch. You can read it here:
https://indd.adobe.com/view/f943da18-ed77-4d55-845d-fee9bfa14247
I forgot to include the inspiration for my castle in the app,which is the Farleigh Hungerford Castle -chapel
and Goldentooth's castle due to the fact that they are so close to each other.(region-wise)
and Goldentooth's castle due to the fact that they are so close to each other.(region-wise)
Spikespiegel
Emissary
_Simbaa
Printmaker
I would recommend organizing the brick wattle into some sort of consistent pattern that makes sense, right now it seems bit random.
For the castle:
Why are there cabbages on the archery targets?
The red slate overhang seems very strange and old-school with the red slate slabs "hanging down" of the red slate stairs, id recommend either getting rid of the overhang or removing the slabs and leaving just the stairs there, lastly you could have it supported by wood (fence, slabs etc...) throughout the entire overhang rather then every 2nd block
The mound the castle stands on - was it taken from the location? or did you create it artificially on your test plot? it could look very out of place if the castle would get "pasted" onto the location.
otherwise good luck!
Edit:
I inserted the entire layout of your insp. right now you based your castle pretty much only on the T,U,V and N areas. which might be part of the reason the castle atm looks bit lacking.
For the castle:
Why are there cabbages on the archery targets?
The red slate overhang seems very strange and old-school with the red slate slabs "hanging down" of the red slate stairs, id recommend either getting rid of the overhang or removing the slabs and leaving just the stairs there, lastly you could have it supported by wood (fence, slabs etc...) throughout the entire overhang rather then every 2nd block
The mound the castle stands on - was it taken from the location? or did you create it artificially on your test plot? it could look very out of place if the castle would get "pasted" onto the location.
the castle does not really live up to your idea of being quite defensive, its walls are very low in large areas, it looks more like a fortified mansion than a castle, sitting on a very insignificant hill. having only layer of defense (gate), lacking towers in some places to oversee the entire perimeter of the castle walls, and lacking any sort of keep or burgfried. Lastly you kinda took only the chapel area of your inspiration and "converted" it into a castle, which is pretty much highlights the facts why your castle seems bit incomplete, lacking some key features and defensive measures, I also think you might struggle including key facilities in the interior of the castle ( like granary, armory, solider & servant accommodations, carpenter, smith etc...) unless you plan to create vast dungeon since from the outside right now it looks like that 90% of the buildings are allocated to the needs of the nobility with its balconies and other luxuries. remember a castle was made primarily for defense.
otherwise good luck!
Edit:
I inserted the entire layout of your insp. right now you based your castle pretty much only on the T,U,V and N areas. which might be part of the reason the castle atm looks bit lacking.
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Hi Simba thanks for the feedback 
-First of all, you are right the brick wattle didn’t really make any sense I just wanted to break the color on the front wall a bit, so I removed it.
-The cabbages were a bit of an old-school representation of a dummy’s head but I switched it with a helmet too. Also I removed the extra slate slabs hanging from the slate stairs and instead put some wooden fences for support.
-The mound the castle stands on is artificial but I plan to voxel that thing smoothly into the area, meaning I will not just paste it, extend it by a little and that’s it. I will voxel a suitable area to paste the castle and edit it precisely and smoothly to match the outsides of each side of the castle the way I have planned.
-The reason that some areas are left without a tower whereas other have is because the ones I left “un-towered” will have a lot steeper terrain outside their walls making them practically 100% safe from attacks as attackers would choose the flatter areas to commence an attack.
What I mean is
See the upper side does need the towers because the terrain below them outside the walls will be flatter and easy to attack where as
You see that there is no need for a super tall tower to see an attack but just the need of some defensive walls for soldiers. That’s why the nobility- yard is placed there because the ground beneath the walls is going to be very steep making them 100% safe.
Therefore the perimeter that has to be protected (and with vision) is in fact protected. If this is a problem I could add a tower for protection on the steeper side though.
(***)-It is true that it looks more than a fortified mansion rather than a castle. This is because I saw on the list of available projects that Rankenfell is of lesser importance but in my opinion it has to be fortified. Due to the fact that its status is “Lord (3)” in the post and the fact that there is almost nothing mentioned about it, I gathered that it is of lesser importance. Therefore the “mansion” I made is enough for the nobility to live there(with some extra buildings to match it) but due to the fact that it is located on a border and near a location that extracts gold (Goldentooth) with great importance, it has to be fortified.
As for the interiors, I did mention that the interiors are not finished and will be taken care of later. However, solider and servant accommodations have been taken into account and so is the blacksmith (small one). The granary, armory and a small jail will be included underground (which I will not build until I paste the castle because I cant paste the underground too)but I did not plan for a carpenter to be honest. I will include the carpenter within the inner south wall.
-And about the 2D plan, I do understand that there is a lot left out and I took into account only certain parts of it and mostly the chapel model and its surroundings .But conscientiously, that was my intention. As stated above its not exactly 100% a castle but more of a fortified keep-mansion with castle facilities even though its listed as a castle for the reasons mentioned above.(***)
Thanks
-First of all, you are right the brick wattle didn’t really make any sense I just wanted to break the color on the front wall a bit, so I removed it.
-The cabbages were a bit of an old-school representation of a dummy’s head but I switched it with a helmet too. Also I removed the extra slate slabs hanging from the slate stairs and instead put some wooden fences for support.
-The mound the castle stands on is artificial but I plan to voxel that thing smoothly into the area, meaning I will not just paste it, extend it by a little and that’s it. I will voxel a suitable area to paste the castle and edit it precisely and smoothly to match the outsides of each side of the castle the way I have planned.
-The reason that some areas are left without a tower whereas other have is because the ones I left “un-towered” will have a lot steeper terrain outside their walls making them practically 100% safe from attacks as attackers would choose the flatter areas to commence an attack.
What I mean is
See the upper side does need the towers because the terrain below them outside the walls will be flatter and easy to attack where as
You see that there is no need for a super tall tower to see an attack but just the need of some defensive walls for soldiers. That’s why the nobility- yard is placed there because the ground beneath the walls is going to be very steep making them 100% safe.
Therefore the perimeter that has to be protected (and with vision) is in fact protected. If this is a problem I could add a tower for protection on the steeper side though.
(***)-It is true that it looks more than a fortified mansion rather than a castle. This is because I saw on the list of available projects that Rankenfell is of lesser importance but in my opinion it has to be fortified. Due to the fact that its status is “Lord (3)” in the post and the fact that there is almost nothing mentioned about it, I gathered that it is of lesser importance. Therefore the “mansion” I made is enough for the nobility to live there(with some extra buildings to match it) but due to the fact that it is located on a border and near a location that extracts gold (Goldentooth) with great importance, it has to be fortified.
As for the interiors, I did mention that the interiors are not finished and will be taken care of later. However, solider and servant accommodations have been taken into account and so is the blacksmith (small one). The granary, armory and a small jail will be included underground (which I will not build until I paste the castle because I cant paste the underground too)but I did not plan for a carpenter to be honest. I will include the carpenter within the inner south wall.
-And about the 2D plan, I do understand that there is a lot left out and I took into account only certain parts of it and mostly the chapel model and its surroundings .But conscientiously, that was my intention. As stated above its not exactly 100% a castle but more of a fortified keep-mansion with castle facilities even though its listed as a castle for the reasons mentioned above.(***)
Thanks
_Simbaa
Printmaker
Hello again,
I am glad that you fixed some of the issues, however I want to emphasize some of the previous issues again and perhaps give you a little more reasoning on why I think they are still a problem, and also upon taking a closer look at your castle I noticed few other minor thing I'd like to point out aswell.
1.
Furthermore even if you will pull it off without it looking poorly, I am still concerned about the safety of the castle, as the slope you have there right now is around 50-60° steep and 8 blocks tall, topped with a 4-meter high wall which I definitely think is pretty inadequate considering that just behind the wall is the residence of the lord with no additional defenses in place. Even castles perched on cliffs like this one had their walls scaled, and i am pretty sure that the castle on the picture has a slope that is steeper and higher then yours.
2
I am not really sure about the reasoning behind this. You said that the house is located at the borders between westerlands and riverlands and therefore it needs to be fortified due to its very vulnerable location, however you are trying to make it into a mansion, which is the exact opposite. Furthermore if we look at it from the geopolitical side, most border castles were strong and heavily fortified castles and oftentimes commissioned by the king or a major lord himself (eg. Edward 1 in his conquest of Wales, or the Castle Kašperk built to protect a major trading route) therefore it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that Rankenfell castle could have been perhaps built as one of these castles? putting defensive measures in front of the luxuries.
3 some things I noticed while flying through your castle:
Right now the interiors of the tower would periodically flood with water during rains, put a roof on that staircase
(my comment in the picture is not regarding your castle)
This part seems way too heavy for the very thing pillars it is supported by.
What exactly is the purpose of these "decorations"? Right now it seems that they are undermining the structural integrity of the building, not to how big of a weakness it would become during sieges, having a plain wall with a good gradient would be a better option in my opinion, or have some support that actually make sense.
Anyway thats it!
Good Luck with your app!
-Simbaa
I am glad that you fixed some of the issues, however I want to emphasize some of the previous issues again and perhaps give you a little more reasoning on why I think they are still a problem, and also upon taking a closer look at your castle I noticed few other minor thing I'd like to point out aswell.
1.
You are telling us that this side of the wall will be 100% safe, because of the steepness of the slope, however if you are trying to make the slope steep, i am very worried that you will have a hard time making it look natural, since as you said, you will be blending the mound into the terrain around that castle, and it will look very awkward to have on 3 sides of the castle nice and smooth slope and on the 4th side a rapid slope.
Furthermore even if you will pull it off without it looking poorly, I am still concerned about the safety of the castle, as the slope you have there right now is around 50-60° steep and 8 blocks tall, topped with a 4-meter high wall which I definitely think is pretty inadequate considering that just behind the wall is the residence of the lord with no additional defenses in place. Even castles perched on cliffs like this one had their walls scaled, and i am pretty sure that the castle on the picture has a slope that is steeper and higher then yours.
2
I am not really sure about the reasoning behind this. You said that the house is located at the borders between westerlands and riverlands and therefore it needs to be fortified due to its very vulnerable location, however you are trying to make it into a mansion, which is the exact opposite. Furthermore if we look at it from the geopolitical side, most border castles were strong and heavily fortified castles and oftentimes commissioned by the king or a major lord himself (eg. Edward 1 in his conquest of Wales, or the Castle Kašperk built to protect a major trading route) therefore it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that Rankenfell castle could have been perhaps built as one of these castles? putting defensive measures in front of the luxuries.
3 some things I noticed while flying through your castle:
Right now the interiors of the tower would periodically flood with water during rains, put a roof on that staircase
(my comment in the picture is not regarding your castle)
This part seems way too heavy for the very thing pillars it is supported by.
What exactly is the purpose of these "decorations"? Right now it seems that they are undermining the structural integrity of the building, not to how big of a weakness it would become during sieges, having a plain wall with a good gradient would be a better option in my opinion, or have some support that actually make sense.
Anyway thats it!
Good Luck with your app!
-Simbaa
Hi simba thanks again for the feedback: D
1.
Regarding this matter, what I’m trying to explain is that this mound is not the final form, its not even its starting form. I just made it that way to illustrate the steepness each side is going to have after editing. The steep side will be edited with steepness and more blocks beneath it to make it seem 100% (it won’t be just 8 blocks). Obviously I can’t practice the whole voxel editing thing in the plot because what I have in mind is much more complex and needs more space.
Here you can see that even the road I have in mind to make shows that the mound won’t be just 8 blocks high.
Here is a photo of a similar approach on Goldentooth. It’s quite similar to what I will try to make but in the end the transition will be smoother.Note! it wont be like that ,not that steep not this height,it will be adjusted accordingly,thats just the model i took the idea from..
2.
Well aside from the fortification I thought that a 100% castle structure for this location would be too much as it is of lesser importance .
You can see in this photo
That there in nothing mentioned about it, no royalty and not even region. If it was a 100% castle then sure there would be something mentioned in the books, even a location. That’s why I chose this approach (fortified mansion) which I might be wrong. If it was more important then the commissioner of the structure would convert it into a proper castle but instead this seemed more fitting for its importance. You mention that most border castles would be commissioned by someone of great importance and fame (king or major lord), the fact that even the wiki page says lord: unknown made me think it otherwise. If it was someone important that built this (or owned through conquest at least) the structure would be 100% castle.
3.
In this smaller tower I have this sort of moving trapdoor where they can open and close so it won’t flood but in the larger tower
You are right it would flood easily so I changed it.
Furthermore
I added some strong wood support on the slate of the yard
https://imgur.com/a/AdCoDF3
And also I removed the decorations (just wanted to break the pattern) on the outer wall and instead I made plain wall with some gradient
https://imgur.com/a/31WCbse
However I did add some walls for decoration and logic purposes (too tall to stand with a plain wall like so)
Thanks
1.
Regarding this matter, what I’m trying to explain is that this mound is not the final form, its not even its starting form. I just made it that way to illustrate the steepness each side is going to have after editing. The steep side will be edited with steepness and more blocks beneath it to make it seem 100% (it won’t be just 8 blocks). Obviously I can’t practice the whole voxel editing thing in the plot because what I have in mind is much more complex and needs more space.
Here you can see that even the road I have in mind to make shows that the mound won’t be just 8 blocks high.
Here is a photo of a similar approach on Goldentooth. It’s quite similar to what I will try to make but in the end the transition will be smoother.Note! it wont be like that ,not that steep not this height,it will be adjusted accordingly,thats just the model i took the idea from..
2.
Well aside from the fortification I thought that a 100% castle structure for this location would be too much as it is of lesser importance .
You can see in this photo
That there in nothing mentioned about it, no royalty and not even region. If it was a 100% castle then sure there would be something mentioned in the books, even a location. That’s why I chose this approach (fortified mansion) which I might be wrong. If it was more important then the commissioner of the structure would convert it into a proper castle but instead this seemed more fitting for its importance. You mention that most border castles would be commissioned by someone of great importance and fame (king or major lord), the fact that even the wiki page says lord: unknown made me think it otherwise. If it was someone important that built this (or owned through conquest at least) the structure would be 100% castle.
3.
In this smaller tower I have this sort of moving trapdoor where they can open and close so it won’t flood but in the larger tower
You are right it would flood easily so I changed it.
Furthermore
I added some strong wood support on the slate of the yard
https://imgur.com/a/AdCoDF3
And also I removed the decorations (just wanted to break the pattern) on the outer wall and instead I made plain wall with some gradient
https://imgur.com/a/31WCbse
However I did add some walls for decoration and logic purposes (too tall to stand with a plain wall like so)
Thanks
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Enah
Skinchanger
Ok, so, going over the plans and inspiration and the lands. I think a manor is just too ostentatious for the region without it being one designed to be fortified heavily, what with the Goldentooth literally it's neighbour and therefore in a very very vulnerable spot on the map. I would look into places like Lychester or Acornhall for inspiration there, small but noble houses with not so imposing keeps. I also am not a huge fan of your hill, but if you did a motte castle it could work better. Arundel castle has a fabulous norman round shell keep and so does York in it's Clifford's Tower. A smaller castle without the trappings of the upper nobility could do wel there, focusing more on the defense and rural aspects over the niceties of "noble" life.
Now, on to the lands, I feel you could tackle both sides of the road, I measured the land you have shown fromt he ford to the river in one straight line which is roughly 560 n-s. That's fairly small and I'd be afraid of you having a cramped over-filled area. You're nobles would not be supported by the proposed population, nor even be able to be fed properly by them. Let alone the paintings upon paintings. But I feel with a larger area you could take advantage of the surrounding empty landscape, while still having a small enough project that it won't overwhelm you.
Now, on to the lands, I feel you could tackle both sides of the road, I measured the land you have shown fromt he ford to the river in one straight line which is roughly 560 n-s. That's fairly small and I'd be afraid of you having a cramped over-filled area. You're nobles would not be supported by the proposed population, nor even be able to be fed properly by them. Let alone the paintings upon paintings. But I feel with a larger area you could take advantage of the surrounding empty landscape, while still having a small enough project that it won't overwhelm you.
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- Pronouns
- she/her
I approve this project with the stipulation that the approving mods get to approve the plotting of your lands and hamlets before you proceed with building.
Here is a very basic look on the main hamlet and its surroundings (again,its very basic , a lot might change upon application of the builds)
After conversing with other builders I have decided that there should be one more hamlet in Rankenfell to supply the rest of the region with bricks as some of the houses have bricks on them. So, a clay digging/smelting -brick making hamlet would make it feasible to build a brick house in the region.
Here is the location.
Here is the location.
- Pronouns
- he/him
Hi, I want to apply for the clay digging hamlet.
The mini includes:
- a clay digging site
- 2 brick kilns
- a workshop where the bricks are formed
- 4 houses for workers
It is a poor hamlet, so the workers' homes have just thatch roofs,
but there's one middle-class house owned by the foreman.
There would be 3 open plots for builders, the rest is almost finished.
GrayJedi already gave me the opportunity to build most of the mini beforehand on his test plot.
To see the test go to /warp luk
I added some NOTE-blocks on the test for further description.
Gray also finished the terrain, so that the test could easily be pasted into the map.
The warp for the actual location is /warp rk5.
My short resume:
- I built the big Inn at /warp rk2
- I built the Granary + Docks at /warp rk3
Best regards,
Luk_emAn
The mini includes:
- a clay digging site
- 2 brick kilns
- a workshop where the bricks are formed
- 4 houses for workers
It is a poor hamlet, so the workers' homes have just thatch roofs,
but there's one middle-class house owned by the foreman.
There would be 3 open plots for builders, the rest is almost finished.
GrayJedi already gave me the opportunity to build most of the mini beforehand on his test plot.
To see the test go to /warp luk
I added some NOTE-blocks on the test for further description.
Gray also finished the terrain, so that the test could easily be pasted into the map.
The warp for the actual location is /warp rk5.
My short resume:
- I built the big Inn at /warp rk2
- I built the Granary + Docks at /warp rk3
Best regards,
Luk_emAn
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