Withdrawn Project Application: House Slate by Witherack

[witherack]

Hello everyone, I finally got my app done. I'm new to this so please let me know if I have missed anything. Here's the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BC1jg7GygHaOcc6oaRDXJdWwuZYhTDRUxe2fLix8QWA/view

 

[bwod_30]

Great app! Really sounds like fun one.

 

[DutchGuard]

Hey wither great to see you've applied.

My only critique at this point is that the ruins for House Towers seem pretty small for a House that was once a threat to House Stark. At the moment it's more or less a hillfort. I wouldn't worry about it being between two giant castles because it might honestly predate both of them. Timelines are pretty hazy that far back, but the ruins are at least 1000 years old, likely older. Anyway, our map is not to scale so things feeling a little too close together is kind of inevitable. Make cool stuff, don't worry about the density,

I would look to something like the ruins of Urquhart Castle, which was once one of Scotland's largest.





I would love to see some remains of curtain walls, a gatehouse, and you can even just reuse the tower test you've made as part of the ruins.

 

[EverlastEvil]

Don’t forget to include your resume when applying for projects...

 

[AerioOndos]

I completely agree with Dutch when it comes to towers. The houses that the Kings of Winter destroyed wouldn't have been push overs or they would never have been mentioned in the history books.
I am also not sure about your gradients and think that they could use a bit more variation using the other blocks blocks of the northern palette, namely bedrock and potentially cobblestone/river cobble.

Also I'd say its unlikely that the Slates do truly support the Boltons. They little choice but to work for the new Wardens of the North, they likely lost their main fighting force in the Red Wedding and otherwise have no army to support them in resistance against one of the Houses with the largest remaining army, the perpetrators of the Red Wedding (Frey-Bolton).
This leads onto another question. If the slates are so close to Winterfell, why didn't they send men to help drive out the Ironborn? Is there some lack of love between the two houses or too much? Did House Slate send pretty much all their levies to the Riverlands? Were they just unable to get the news in time? Or are they not as powerful and trusted a house as Tallhart?

 

[Gealrüable]

Concerning the ruins of house Towers.....if the castle was destroyed 500 years ago or more (and since then abandoned) most likely only a few mounds would be left. I live close to a castle that was sacked by a small army 400 years ago, all that is left is a small hill. If you didn't know where to look you wouldn't even find it unnatural.

To make it interesting, you could say one tower was maintained as an outpost for a while, until it got abandoned as well, with surrounding mounds hinting at a once majestic castle. Leaving only one tower intact is a common practice among peasants, which would take the stone for their own houses.

 

[witherack]

Alright firstly I can def add cobble onto the gradients. Tbh we need some more North blocks (maybe even like a light stone type thing). Not putting bedrock at the bases of the builds is more a personal preference, I can change that if you like. Regarding the ruins of House Towers, I can certainly change the plans to make it bigger, spreading it over the ridge its positioned on. Thanks for that image and plans Dutch, looks class. One would assume that the slates were significantly drained by the war on the south and had no or not many levies left, because otherwise I agree it would be really weird if they didnt send help as theyre right there next to it.

 

[witherack]

I have expanded the plans onto the neighbouring hill across the ridge. The yellow would be barely any remains (like the curtain wall I had around my first test) and the orange would be things you can tell are building. If you don't like the layout that's fine I am always open to changes. On the higher hill (with the new stuff) you may notice there is a weirwood. A weirwood sticking out the ruin would look pretty cool imo and I doubt when they conquered it the Starks chopped down or burnt the weirwood cause theyre kinda sacred. The square thing there in that inner castle bit would be a second tower type ruin like the first one. For the wall on the side next to the weirwood I have tried to get it so it fits with the slopes. If this design gets the go ahead then I would make those bits into steeper cliffs as that would look cool. Just lmk what you think nothing is set in stone.

 

[witherack]

oh yeah btw i forgot the most important thing in my project app imma have a bear den somewhere. its an absolute essential

 

[witherack]

Slight update + bump cause its been a week, I've worked on my new layout and on incorporating bedrock and cobblestone into the builds. I need to finish off the crypts, redo trees and ground mix and do just a wee bit of tidying up but its pretty much done. (btw big thanks to guilix)

 

[Guilix]

I took some screenshots of wither's ruin so here i post them

 

[witherack]

Btw ruin is finished (barring redoing trees) so good opportunity to bump the thread. I know a lot of you are busy (exam season sadly) and thats completely fine but I would appreciate a mod bump not like you have to look over everything or something, but just tell me whether im going in the right direction.

 

[Endymion]

Hey, I have had a look at the app and it's a pretty decent app. I'll give some feedback in the form of bullet points:

• The first thing I noticed was that the map is quite unclear. Would it be possible to make the map a bit neater? Maybe add a legend to it and number the hamlets. Adding a more zoomed-out map with the general location would also help.
• The houses are nice but could use some more refinement to make them more interesting. Maybe experiment with different wood palettes.
• The ruins you made are really nice. I don't really have anything you should improve on it.
• I would remove the watchtower across the river.
• Lastly, try to find a more interesting design for the castle of house Slate. It doesn't need to be much. It could just be a nice towerhouse, but the current form is a bit lackluster.

There is definitely a good basis for a project there, but you need to refine your tests a bit more and get more creative when it comes to the castle/ keep.

 

[witherack]

Thanks for the feedback Endy! I'll redo the map, work on different house variants and take another crack at the castle.