Vertechs Builder Application

[Vertechs]

20


United States


Popped up on reddit every once-in-a-while. Recent post by u/pizzainacup specifically


LOTR, if that counts



Game of Thrones



Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
All of the above


The Onion Knight; always been loyal to the leaders he believes in, but not completely blind to their mistakes


I'm probably best at terraforming and it is usually my favorite part of a project. I've got no problem building a mountain w/o world edit if the need arises, otherwise, I like to think I've a good eye for realistic terrain and detailing.


Always loved building, sunk a few hundred hours into the hypixel creative servers before that got shut down. In particular, the scale of this project is insane and I would very much like to be a part of it.

https://imgur.com/a/fhVrc2e

YOU KNOW NOTHING, JON SNOW

Approved by Emotione11 on May 19, 2018.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Vertechs,

Thank you for the application! Your house is a pretty good start and seems like it could fit in the North with some adjustments. It's still not quite up to our current style though, so I'll start you off with some feedback and then give you a few challenge builds to help get you up to speed. Here's some of the main things I noticed so far:

• If I were to sum up the main "rule" of our current style, it would be to "keep things simple". In other words, instead of adding detail through random extrusions or stair blocks, we instead try to make buildings interesting through coming up with good spatial layouts ahead of time, integrating the house with its surroundings, etc. If you see the King's Landing sprawl (/warp sprawl) for instance, you'll notice how simple most of the house exteriors are, but how it still looks nice because of the level of planning put in.

• Instead of using hay blocks for the roof, try using our custom thatch blocks (probably dark thatch since it goes better with the dark wood). Also make the roof a little less lumpy (this goes along with the previous point).

• Another thing in our current style is to avoid using log blocks in houses except in very specific cases. They generally just seem a bit clunky/messy when used in houses. Note that this doesn't apply, of course, when specifically making a log cabin (like at /warp wintertown).

• For windows, you should stick to certain shapes: 1x1 windows and 1x2 (vertical) windows usually work best for houses. Remember to have shutters on windows as well, for keeping the warm air in the house.

• For the interiors, the first point also applies- try to keep things simple and realistic. Think of what it would be like to actually live in a medieval house (or look up pictures of it online).

• A more minor point, but when you use cabinet/workbench blocks (like here), try to cover up all but one side of it, as it doesn't make sense to have doors on two sides of a cabinet. The "half door" blocks are very useful for this sort of thing.

• Make sure when using thatch or slate tile rooves to have some sort of rafters inside the house, so that the roof doesn't collapse.

Some resources I'd recommend to help learn the current style are /warp furnish (to get ideas for interiors), /warp gradient (to see how to work with stone), and also just going to /warp kingslanding and studying the houses there in more detail- getting some ideas for how we plan and detail things.

Once you've checked those out, for a challenge build, please make a house in the style of /warp woodwright after studying the style there. Once you're done you can post it as a response in this thread. Good luck, and feel free to ask if you have any questions!

-Emote

 

[Vertechs]

Thanks for reviewing my application so fast, and sorry it took so long to respond!

Heres an album of my attempt at a woodwright house (there might be some duplicates):

https://imgur.com/a/S70XSQP

I think adding the extension off the back was a mistake, doesn't really fit the style and it made the roof look really wonky. But, in the end, I thought added more to the interior than it took from the outside. Though I'd have no problem redoing the build with a more conventional layout.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Vertechs, good work! This house is definitely better than the previous one. I'll get right into some feedback. The list seems longer but I'm also being pickier this time since you're doing better!

• I think the extension in the back isn't necessarily bad, but it's good you recognize that it looks a little weird in this case. IMO if you make some changes to the layout and roof you could pull it off. The most awkward side is this one. If you make the house a "T" shape rather than an "L" shape it won't look as bad. Alternatively, instead of making the extension a gable (v-shape) you could give it a slant roof perpendicular to the main part, using thatch slabs (the extension wouldn't be the same height as the main part in this case though).

• The thatch over the door here is also a little bit awkward- I'd either just keep the thatch roof normal there, or just make a very small peak above the door supported by two wood fence poles on either side of the door. Or you can use wood slabs for the previous idea.

• For the firewood holder, use oak carpet in place of the trapdoor blocks. Or alternatively, make the half doors on the side one block higher, and do the top using upside-down oak plank slabs. This looks best IMO, since there isn't the small "gap" in the corners. Same applies for the shelves inside, try to avoid trapdoor blocks since guests can toggle them.

• Try to make the stone blocks in the gradient a bit less random. I recommend looking over /warp gradient again. The general technique is this: start with one stone block first (a base block) and do the entire walls with this one block. Then finish the house before doing the gradient. If at this point the house looks too "plain" (which it probably will with just one stone block), then find a 2nd block which blends well with the base block. Try to figure out where "wear-and-tear" or damage would occur on the house, or just which areas look plain. Add the 2nd block here in a continuous blob. If some areas still look plain, usually if the area of the 2nd block is large, then find a 3rd block which blends well with the 2nd block, and change the inside of the blob into the 3rd block. This might seem complicated, but it's quite simple once you get the hang of it. Basically the idea is to just do a minimal gradient until the walls don't seem too plain anymore. There's a tutorial of this in visual form at /warp gradient.

• Always avoid mixing light thatch and dark thatch blocks. In general, avoid using blocks next to each other which contrast harshly with each other (other examples: oak wood & spruce wood, light small stone brick and dark cobble, etc.).

• Also try to make the thatch carpets less messy/random- just like with the gradient, try to work with continuous "blobs", or rectangles/circles, rather than noise.

Again, please feel free to ask if you have any questions! For another challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp sweetport (these are the ones with white daub & wattle and bedrock rooves).

P.S. Don't worry about taking a while, feel free to work at your own pace

 

[Vertechs]

Heres an album, I tried to get everything so it might be a bit long:

https://imgur.com/a/ISM6Ifn

I also added some captions to the screenshots, not sure if that helps or if the build should speak for itself more.

Never worked with daub and wattle textures before, so I tried to follow the structure of the other Sweet Port buildings, but it still looks a bit off in places. Also, the room proportions and placement is pretty unrealistic for a real bakery. My headcanon when planning the build was that it used to be tavern/inn before a baker bought it and built the extension for bread making, but I should have planned it out better before locking in the walls.

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Vertechs, great work on this one! Huge improvement! Here are some thoughts (pickier feedback than the previous builds naturally):

- You did very well with the daub & wattle considering you haven't worked with it before. The only part I find a little awkward is on the right side here, though it should only be a matter of minor adjustments. Also, I'd perhaps lower the windows on the sides of the house just one block (if you can), so that they're not right under the roof.

- For the side building here, just try to make the roof linear rather than slightly curved. Also, in this case having the lower daub & wattle on the side building looks strange, so I would make the entire thing stone (or northern wood perhaps). Try to integrate it a little more with the house rather than making it seem like a last-minute addition.

- Move the upside-down stairs on the peak of the roof up one block, so it doesn't seem so thick at the top. (Pictured)

- Also, in the firewood holder, while I get what you're going for I think it would look better just using the firewood block and having it be uniform in size.

- Large stone brick can be a very tricky block to work with and people tend to avoid it except in particular cases. IMO it doesn't work super well for the fireplace here.

- Make sure to cover the sides of cabinets & workbenches with half door blocks, there's ones here and here which are exposed.

- Generally you want to avoid using ladders to get up and down levels, unless you have a loft where people sleep or an attic which is rarely used. Think of all the things the person would have to bring up & down from their kitchen/bedroom on a daily basis. Usually I plot stairs as one of the first parts of the interior and make sure there are stairs to every level (except the attic etc.).

- Avoid using bookshelf blocks except for in the very richest of households. Remember that in Westeros (as well as the real life medieval analogue), less than 1% of people were literate. Most of the nobility were not even fully literate, which is why many of them in IRL medieval times had house stamps rather than signatures.

- While it's not ideal (and you might still see it in older builds), we generally try to avoid using trapdoor blocks for shelves, the reason for this being that guests can toggle them and then you end up with floating firewood or crates...

As always, make sure to ask if any of this was unclear or if you want me to explain further! Overall this house was quite good and you're nearly at current server quality. I think I just want to see a couple more houses before giving the green light. For the next build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp whiteharbor. Good luck!

 

[Vertechs]

Still working on the white harbor build, but in the meantime, I reworked most of the things in the list. I appended some screenshots of the major changes to the end of the album (

https://imgur.com/a/ISM6Ifn

) if you have the time to critique those as well. A ladder into the kitchen doesn't make any sense in retrospect, should have caught that in the planning part, I'll put much more thought into stair placement in future builds!

 

[Emoticone11]

Thanks for the update! The new daub & wattle looks better now, those small side areas are always the trickiest.

All-stone definitely looks best for the extension. I would maybe try all-stone with a slab roof though, like the next one. You can do some subtle foliage in the corner of the extension to make it look less plain (for example a patch of vines going up to the roof).

The stairs are good considering how little space you had to work with. You can also put a half door right next to the oak door on the left here to create a little railing/barrier.

 

[Vertechs]

This time I ended up with two builds. The first one is the bigger one which turned into a tavern instead of a house, and I'm still not happy with the interior. The second is a much smaller house that I think turned out better overall, though its a little too small to fit in with the other white harbor buildings.

https://imgur.com/a/nFM48fT

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Vertechs,

These houses look great! I'm not sure which one I like better, but no worries, I'll give feedback on both The pictures are mixed it seems so I'll just comment on both at the same time.

- Good thinking with the sign hanging off the side of the building, but I'd change the design a little bit since the way the fence attaches is slightly awkward. Maybe try a halfslab design, or the more complicated ones people sometimes make with horizontal chain (two horizontal ones and then a diagonal one below supporting it). It's hard to explain in words so I'd just take a look around White Harbor and see what people have done.

- I usually don't like these sorts of arches above doorways, if anything change the stairs to be just horizontal halfslabs, and change the log wall blocks to be fence blocks.

- Try to work on the vines a little bit- you don't want these to be patchy, instead you want large continuous patches of vines. Think of the way vines typically grow on houses. The other thing is that vines should always connect to the ground somehow, since that's how they get nutrients.

- The stair indents here are unnecessary IMO and it would look better without them.

- The interiors are excellent overall! It's difficult for me to tell because I'm not used to your FOV, but here the proportions might be a little weird since it's one large room with a lower roof. But putting a support post or two in (thin jungle logs) would probably help with this, I'm thinking something like this.

- A couple of the ceilings like here and here could use some better rafters, so they're less flat.

For a tentative final challenge build, please make a middle-class house in the style of /warp fairmarket. Keep in mind the style here is a bit more complicated, but I'm sure you'll have no problems. Good luck!

 

[Vertechs]

I ended up making a pretty small house again, wanted to do something bigger but I will be out of town for a couple weeks after today and I wanted to turn in something before that. If I had a bit more time, I would have raised the roof a couple blocks and maybe raised the middle floor as well, it's very cramped as it is. Also would maybe have gone over the gradients again, don't think I got the big brick placement right. Also sorry about the weird terrain, I had to bury a village.

https://imgur.com/a/scuaouA

 

[Emoticone11]

Hey Vertechs,

Looks pretty good! You're correct, though, when you say that the house is a bit too small. For the FM style you should definitely make it a bit taller. Since you recognized that it's too short though and had a reason for it, it's no problem. Otherwise, I don't see much wrong with the house except for a few small things:

- Try to cover up the slate showing in the back here.

- Food up in the attic doesn't make a whole lot of sense; they would just keep it in a pantry down by the kitchen (or possibly in a root cellar for more rural houses).

- Keep vegetables in seperate patches in the garden rather than mixing carrots/radishes together. Also make it a little less patchy in general (referring to the empty/mud spots in the veggie garden).

Other than that though, you did a great job with this one, so consider yourself approved! Ask a mod in-game to promote you to New Builder if it doesn't do so automatically.

Please make sure to read the New Builder guide here: http://westeroscraft.wikia.com/wiki/Newbie_guide
And also make a probation thread in the probation forum. You can start building at any open locations on the server; a probie leader will post on your thread and continue to give you constructive feedback on your houses until the end of the month, in which case you'll be fully promoted if there are no further problems.

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