Uthor_Hightower Builder Application

[Uthormadman424]

What is your Minecraft username?
uthormadman424

What is your age?
21-24

In what country are you living?
USA

Where did you first hear about WesterosCraft?
Don't Remember

What do you like the most about GoT/ASoIaF?
The world and complex political systems, I was someone who was always more interested in the politics part of the books/tv show than the magic/fantasy part of it, and I really like the idea of the divisions of Westeros/Essos into these power structures.

What is your favorite build on our server?
Cider Hall or Banefort

Why do you want to join our server?
I have been quietly watching the server and community for 4ish? years now and have always wanted to join in but just have not considered myself a great builder on Minecraft beyond my creative worlds as a teenager, but I decided why not try because I would really like to be apart of something that is so interesting to me



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

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Uthor,

Thanks for the application, and glad to see your interest in joining the team after being a guest for so long!

Nice work with the apphouse, not seeing any issues there. I hope the exercise was a helpful introduction to our block pack and building style. For subsequent challenge builds, you'll be expected to build original houses of your own design, in the style of specific locations on our server. I recommend studying the elements of multiple houses in the style (furniture, timber frame patterns, rafter designs, etc.) and trying to synthesize them into an original creation. After each one I'll give some feedback.

For the first challenge, please make a medium-sized house in the style of /warp woodwright. Let me know if you've got any questions about anything!

 

[Uthormadman424]

Here is my house in the style of Woodwright, it was a really great experience to explore the town and try to gain some things from different builds there. I had a couple of thoughts I wanted to share. I found a chicken coop I wanted to add to the build, but could not get the wood cover ramp to work for me, so it does not have one. I am struggling with rafters both on the first floor and the upstairs, but I gave it my best shot, and I tried to place the grass last because I am figuring out how to prevent the grass from spreading to the dirt but it still did a bit so I apologize for that. Otherwise I think I like the final product, so let me know what you think. Thanks Emote!

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Uthor,

Apologies for the delay, was away on vacation for a few days. Overall really nice job on this house! You've nailed all the major stylistic elements of Woodwright, and I think the house would fit in pretty well as-is. I do have some picky feedback on a couple things:

- The stone gradient is nicely done for the most part, but there are a few areas where you either have some banding (i.e., areas where the stone blocks are placed in a way that creates apparent lines in the gradient, rather than natural-looking texture) or have blocks that contrast too much. You generally want to try to avoid these in order to create smoother gradients. I've tried to mark these instances below:



- Unless there's a compelling reason not to, I'd suggest having the same timber frame pattern on both sides of a basic symmetrical house like this - it just makes more sense that both sides would be structurally the same. I'd say the pattern on this side is the better of the two.

- Although you mentioned you were having trouble with the rafters, I think you did a pretty solid job! My suggestion for how to improve them would be to stagger the beams apart a bit by alternating stairs and slabs. Here's one design that I like to use:

- To get the wood cover ramp to work, make sure you're using the custom oak wood cover block and not the vanilla rail block.

Overall, really good start - for the next challenge build, I'd like to see a middle class house in the style of /warp ghosthill. Let me know if you have any questions about any of the feedback or the challenge style!

 

[Uthormadman424]

Hey Thanks for the feedback Emote, I appreciate it! I completed a house in Ghost Hill, since it was in the town, I thought it would look a bit better if there were other house facades to show it in the town so I did that across the street and behind, besides that I really like a couple of the houses that used the wood cover and chain for the windows, but I must be destined to not use them because I could not get it to work again, so I did not use those in the house. I like the final product, curious to see what you think. Thanks again!

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Uthor,

Nice work again, it's great that you decided to experiment with composition of multiple facades and yards, since that's a pretty important part of build planning. The overall layout and proportions feel really good! Here's some of the feedback I have:

- The gradients (for plaster, in this case) still need a bit of work. I've circled a few areas below where you have some harsh contrast between blocks, creating undesirable lines and visual artifacts in your gradients.



How I usually recommend thinking about gradients is like this: first, you want to plan the palette for your build. Start by selecting a few blocks and arranging them in order of darkness, hue, or texture (more complicated gradients might vary along multiple of these dimensions). For instance, in this case you might have "light stone" > "brownish white plaster" > "plain white daub", in order of increasing brightness. Then, when creating your gradient, two blocks should only touch each other if they're directly next to each other in your list. For instance, "light stone" should never be touching "plain white daub", since they're two steps apart. In this case, you should add "brownish white plaster" in-between to better transition between the two.

- If you have two very different types of blocks or materials in your palette, sometimes it can look better to have a "clean" division between the two rather than trying to form a gradient between the two. For instance, on this house the brick base is a bit messy, and might look better as a single row of bricks indicating the foundation of the house, rather than being blended with the plaster. That said, Ghost Hill does employ both techniques.

- I'd recommend reducing the amount of layer blocks in the roads and walls somewhat, as too many can create a lot of noise/artifacts and contribute to a messier appearance.

Let me know if any of the feedback is still unclear, I'd be happy to explain further or provide visualizations of what I mean. Other than that, you're making good progress. For the next challenge build, I'd like to see a middle-class house in the style of /warp duskendale.

 

[Uthormadman424]

Hey Emote, thanks for taking a look at the house. I definitely thought the Ghost Hill gradient was tougher to execute but I see what you mean and appreciate the feedback. I also agree with the layer blocks, I actually just really had a great time experimenting with them since they aren't something I have come across before in Minecraft, so I get it lol. I will get started on that Duskendale build. Thanks Again!

Uthor

 

[Uthormadman424]

Hey Emote, here is my Duskendale house, it is the one in the middle of the three. Since they were in a row, I built the facades for the houses next to it as well. I really enjoyed building this one, and found that Duskendale has lots of different uses for the same blocks which was really interesting to see. Let me know what you think!

Uthor

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Uthor,

Awesome work with this challenge, you nailed the Duskendale style!

I don't really have any significant feedback to give this time around - I think at this point you'll learn more as a new builder, so I'm happy to approve you.

The next step is to ask a moderator in-game to promote you next time you catch one online. Make sure to read over the New Builder guide, found here: https://westeroscraft.com/wiki/guides/how-to/new-builders-guide
And also make yourself a probation thread in the probation forum.

You can start building at any open locations on the server - you can find these by going to our dynmap and toggling "Open Plot" (if a project lead marked their plots with open plot tags), or otherwise just checking the forums and asking around to see which builds are open. Also, you can ask a mod to set you up with a plot in the Test world where you can practice building.

A probie leader should post on your thread within a week or so, give constructive feedback on your houses for the next month, and help be your entrypoint into the server community in general. As sometimes the probie leaders can be busy IRL, I also highly suggest seeking out feedback from project leaders and other online builders. At the end, you'll be made full builder.

Welcome to the team, I look forward to building with you!

 

[Uthormadman424]

Thanks Emote! I appreciate all your help and feedback!