Telcontar Builder Application

Telcontar

Street Preacher
What is your Minecraft username?
NinjaMango

What is your age?
21-24

In what country are you living?
England

Where did you first hear about WesterosCraft?
Searched online

What do you like the most about GoT/ASoIaF?
It's hard to choose, but if I had to pick one thing, it's the complex and interconnected character arcs which let us see the story from radically different points of view. Also, every ridiculously melodramatic word out of Euron's mouth.

What is your favorite build on our server?
This is by far the hardest question, but I'd say Rousemont is my favourite. I tend to prefer the smaller builds, and this one has a lot of variety and detail packed in. I particularly like the range of colours at Rousemont, with brown and blue slate roofs, red brick, white stone, and darker cobble walls, as well as the vibrant surroundings. There's a lot of different designs, building techniques and structural details like hoardings, external stairs, drainpipes, drawbridge mechanisms, balconies etc which make it very visually interesting. I also particularly like the gradients used on the walls.

Rousemont's interior furnishings and wood panelling are really well made and there are a few details that particularly stood out when I first visited, such as the upper floor filled with benches and chairs from the great hall, which has been cleared for the Lord's desk. Although I've now seen other builds with such details, when I first saw it here it really struck me as a nice way to change up the standard interior layouts.

The surrounding river and surrounding lands are also phenomenal.

Why do you want to join our server?
I love building in Minecraft and I especially like building with a consideration for realism and real-world practicality. I also massively enjoy the world of ASoIaF and I would love to be a part of bringing it to life in Minecraft.

In terms of my skills, I feel that I have a fairly good eye for detail, the ability to think logically when designing a build and the ability to analyse and learn from existing builds. I have experience working in teams on professional projects as well as experience accepting and building on feedback given to me.

I also have a very good understanding of the lore and history of ASoIaF, a broad knowledge and passion of history from the classical to late medieval periods (mainly European and Middle Eastern), a decent understanding of physical geography, strong written language skills and a background in computer programming, although the latter two points are not necessarily relevant to building.

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

CashBanks

A Knight at the Opera
Staff member
Hey Telcontar,
Thanks for applying and for your patience while we found the time to review your application, we've had a big rush of builders in the last few weeks, appreciate you hanging in there though.

Nice work with replicating the application house, as you can hopefully tell we try to put as much detail and signs of life as we can into our houses. Hopefully through this application process you'll see how this approach is carried across our different projects and styles.

You're off to a good start and I'm looking forward to seeing what you make next. For your first challenge build, please make a Low Class Farmer's house in the style of /warp hawthornetown and share screenshots of it in this thread (an easy way to do it is upload them imgur.com and share the link). Take note of commonalities between the houses (block mix, shape of roof, size of house, interior blocks, attic spaces, mezzanine platforms) and make a house that would fit into the Hawthorne town.

Please take your time to study the style in detail, and make sure to ask if you have any questions on the above feedback or the hawthornetown style.

Good luck!
 
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Telcontar

Street Preacher
Hi, thanks for the reply and the challenge!

Here's a low-class farmer's house from Hawthorne town, containing a family of three. Hawthorne uses windows that (I think) are an outdated style now - fencepost rather than timber frame - but I followed the existing style rather than change it. I also saw one house using oak for the underside of the roof, but the majority seem to be jungle wood, so I've gone with that.

Imgur Album
 

CashBanks

A Knight at the Opera
Staff member
Hey Telcontar,
Excellent work with this Hawthorne house. Not only have you nailed the style (and correctly identified some of its slightly outdated elements), but you've added a great amount of detail too. Love the chicken coop, paths around the house, shape of the yard, washing line, all lots of nice little things.

For your next challenge, please build a middle class professional house in the style of /warp hgtown. Houses in large towns will usually have a profession on their on the ground floor and residence upstairs, take a look at the finished houses in the area for inspiration, and give the house some kind of profession that would make sense in Highgarden (e.g. carpenter/wine merchant/tailor/blacksmith) and a yard would be great as well. Take note of the shape of the roof, how we use stairs to create the effect of floorboards and what kind of blocks would suit a middle class house (nothing too lavish).

Looking forward to seeing your work!
 
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Telcontar

Street Preacher
Hi CashBanks, thank you for the feedback!

For the challenge, I've built a cobbler's house containing a family of five (2 adults, 2 children, 1 baby) and two apprentice cobblers. The ground floor contains the shop and cobbler's workshop in front, and a smaller area for the two apprentices' work. The first floor has a sleeping area for the apprentices and a main room containing the kitchen. The attic has a small partitioned area for the two childen, and the main bedroom. The family grows turnips, carrots and sourleaf, and keeps a pig.

I really enjoyed this challenge, although I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to divide and fill the interior, due to its size. I think I've done the gradient ok, but I'd appreciate feedback on it since I'm not convinced I've done it completely correctly. I feel like the kitchen could have done with a bit more storage as well.

Here you go!

Imgur Album
 

CashBanks

A Knight at the Opera
Staff member
Hey Telcontar,
Thanks for the quick turnaround on this house, love your work!

I think at this point you'll learn more from being an actual builder, so consider yourself approved!

Please make sure to read the New Builder guide here: http://westeroscraft.wikia.com/wiki/Newbie_guide

The next step is to make a probation thread in the Probation Forum. You can start building at any open locations on the server - you can find a list of these at /warp build, although it's sometimes outdated, so I would also recommend just asking people in-game and checking the forums for recent project happenings. You can also toggle open plot markers on the dynmap mc.westeroscraft.com

A probie leader should post on your thread within a week or so and continue to give you constructive feedback on your houses for the next month (and help be your entry point into the server community in general), although as sometimes the probie leaders are busy IRL you may need to be patient while they find the time to respond to you. But message me again if a probie leader hasn't contacted you within two weeks, or if they're taking a while to respond. I would also encourage you to seek feedback from project leaders and other builders/mods. At the end, you'll be made full builder assuming everything goes smoothly.

I'd suggest you also start thinking about what projects you might like to work on, we encourage new builders to first work on "mini-projects" which are small one off areas of other projects, e.g. a hamlet, mill, quarry, and flagged as open for mini-apps by the project leader. Once you've done a few of these you'll be able to apply for a full project.

Make sure to stay in touch and let us know if you're losing interest, not finding enough work to do, or if there's any issues with the probation.

Welcome aboard and I'll see you in Westeros!
 
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