Razordawn Builder Application

[Razordawn]

What is your age?
21-24

In what country are you living?
Latvia

Where did you first hear about WesterosCraft?
Youtube

What do you like the most about GoT/ASoIaF?
The mix of the realism and fantasy (scale of things in the books, the plot itself, with magic slowly returning into a gritty, dark, low fantasy world), and the moral ambiguity and complexity of characters (e.g. Jaime's 'dishonourable honour' and Cersei's genuine care and love for her children, all despite them both being murdering incestuous asshats)

What is your favorite build on our server?
Hands down King's Landing because of the sheer scale and detail, but Highgarden and the Reach in general have amazing atmospheres

Why do you want to join our server?
I've been fascinated by this project for years and I want something to keep me sane throughout the school year. I'm half-decently read on medieval architecture and I like to think I'm good at building historically plausible designs and making them feel lived in. I'm also reasonably good with making heightmaps in World Machine.

Tell us about your build.
A farmer's house somewhere in the Reach, the family consists of two parents and a son, and would be working in nearby fields. I mainly chose materials that I saw in Reach houses on the server and tried to base the front yard off of medieval single farmstead yards (as well as just stuff I saw walking around the server) and add the basic things that a medieval household would need - a garden, storage areas, a woodshed and an outhouse. As the inhabitants are farmers, there is no dedicated work area. For the background, I mocked up a basic hill terrain in World Machine and then scattered random trees and houses to make the area feel inhabited.

Imgur Album:

https://imgur.com/a/r2z2RXn

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

 

[Razordawn]

Bump

 

[SeapunkPeaches]

Hey Razordawn, sorry for the wait.

Your house looks like a nice ambiguously 'Reach style' house. There are some details that we've stopped practicing in our newer styles. I'll quickly list them below.

1) Fence block windows - we now have a timber window frame block which works perfectly with timber daub blocks. Use these instead.

2) Thatch roof overhang - these are now mostly used on bigger houses. You'll rarely find them on small cottages like this one. Simply removing the thatch that hangs above the triangular side of the house would fix this issue.

3) Mixing different wood textures on a small surface - for the wood parts, choose either the horizontal or the vertical planks, not both. This just helps with the simpler look we prefer.

4) Attic - smaller houses like this one usually don't have an attic. Also, try to avoid using trapdoors where they don't belong, like in house ceilings. However, your attic looks nice, so no big deal.

The yard looks nice, although a bit empty. No worries though, you'll quickly learn how to fill them up.

For your first challenge, please build a house in the style of /warp woodwright. It's very similar to the style you built, so think of it as polishing what you already know. Pay special attention to the timber patterns and the stone gradients.

Good luck!

 

[Razordawn]

Thanks for the feedback! Here's my attempt at the challenge:

https://imgur.com/a/92tiHkD

I've still gone for a generic farmer/labourer house with just a handful of inhabitants, but slightly higher class than the previous one. I tried to make the timber framing patterns make more sense and tried to put in a little more detail into the backyard.

 

[SeapunkPeaches]

Hey Razor!

Wow, this is a really good house, great job! I have absolutely no complaints, only a couple of tips that could perfect it even more.

1) Perhaps add a small mud patch in the yard, it can break the monotony of the gravel and dirt mix.

2) The loft seems to have a lot of storage blocks, you could tone those down a bit.

Overall, a perfect first challenge. For your second challenge, please build a high class house in the style of /warp Duskendale. Maybe something similar to the houses around the sept? You decide - I'm sure it'll be just as good as this one.

Good luck!

 

[Razordawn]

Here's my attempt!

https://imgur.com/a/Cijv5S4

This build features two things I struggle with, aka detailing with gradients/block transitions and upper class interior so this was definitely a bit of a challenge. In my head, the house belongs to a decently wealthy merchant so, in addition to houses around Duskendale, I based it off of medieval and medieval-core merchant houses in Germany, Riga and Tallinn where, in parallel to having warehouse access, merchants would still keep moving some items through their home (reason for pulley system and storage area on the top floor). The merchant has a wife and a daughter, and a few household servants, along with a secretary-type-person-thing who does not live in the house but comes in to handle paperwork. As in a real build the house would sit in a row between other houses, you can see some of the interior walls in the second screenshot, just pretend those aren't there and are instead really nice textured brick.

 

[SeapunkPeaches]

Hey Razor,

good job. The gradient is well done, although maybe a bit too simple for a flat facade like this. No worries though, since this is a pretty unique and rare style.
It seems like you missed one of the rafter blocks in the dining room ceiling, using a slab instead of a stair. Other than that I have no issues with this

For your next challenge, please build a house in the style of /warp beresford.

Good luck!

 

[Razordawn]

I will not unsee that slab ever again :c Here's my crack at Beresford though! -

https://imgur.com/a/oFhGvdT

The last few pics are of my initial practice house which I didn't end up liking from the outside but did kinda like the interior of so I decided to throw it in anyway. I decided to do these on an angle because I saw a ton of cool angled interior space uses at the warp and because I didn't want to keep building plain squares. The house is home to a family of 3-4 and keeps 1-2 goats.

 

[SeapunkPeaches]

Hey Razor!

I honestly have no critique for this, great job! I think you're more than ready to start building on the server, welcome to the team Remember to start your probation thread and post your house warps and coordinations there so your future probation leader can go through them. Also remember that this is just the beginning of your learning process, so make sure to listen to feedback and keep exploring the server to perfect your skills. I've no doubts that you will .

Good luck!