Approved Western gift "continuation project" by Johan

JohanKR850

Royal Messenger
Western gift
By Johan


The gift is very large and underdeveloped. So far the only projects which has built in the gift is Shadow tower Hoarfrost hill, Queenscrown and Moles town. And i would like to complete the western most quarter of the gift.

I earlier posted a long thread about this so will just repost it here
Well i kinda had a plan to do some more gift lands at some point. And an overall plan on how we could approach it all.
The gift is divided (in the terraforming part) in to two areas, on each side of the kings road. The first one and most progressed is the western side, I did some of it in my Hoarfrost hill project, and you (Endy) and Maj did some in the shadow tower project. It borders the Norrey lands which is currently being done Aeks. This western part ends at the Bay of ice, and is increasingly forested and mountainous. Eastern side has received 0% love :( and is described as a land consisting of large rolling plains that reaches the Shivering sea.
Then there is the new gift and old gift. The old gift is 100% abandoned, while the new gift is still populated. But we can assume its not fully populated, I suggest its a third part abandoned buildings/hamlets. This is all canon you can find here https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Gift and in a search of ice and fire.

I think we should approach it in four phases.

West side:
The gift marked with blue ill take care of. I know the area and has already done a lot of work there. It borders the green line. The green line is the canon forest, og the west side. It will be a "tie up project" a term i just invented, for doing the small patches of land between already finished lands.

Mid west:
This area is dominated by forest and hills. It should be done as part of the Nightfort project server build.

East mid:
Rolling hills and such, good farmland too i assume. This should be done as part of Rimegate and Longbarrow.

East coast:
Part of the Eastwatch project. Rolling hills again.
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So this also includes i wont be doing any major terraforming at queensgate. But i will repay my snowy terra debt through the mid west part. This way we will soon be able to cross off a very large patch of northern snow lands as fully completed and connected :D Instead of having many done patches of divided lands.

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Let me know what you guys think of the plan.

So here i am again, with some updated maps but roughly the same plan and purpose.

The goal is to fill up the "empty spaces" in between the developed gift lands of the west. All the builds will be ruined with the exception of one hamlet to the south.
I will open up plots and speciel builds (+ a mini if anyone should want to make the inhabited hamlet). That way new builders have another style they can build, and even try working with snow.

The house style will be that of Hoarfrost hill. To make it melt in with the mountain clan lands there will also be one or two beehive keeps. We can assume that the people who life in the Northern mountains are all of the same culture, be they gift dwellers or Norrey clansmen.

Skærmbillede 2020-12-21 kl. 23.00.57.pngSkærmbillede 2020-12-21 kl. 23.01.17.png

Now it's time for the maps!

The first one here is of the lands i mean to take on. The green indicates lands i will take care of.
Skærmbillede 2020-12-21 kl. 20.42.25-kopi.png

This one shows the locations (not totally precise :D) of the ruins. [Edit: Just added road network]

Skærmbillede 2020-12-21 kl. 21.16.37.png

Legend:
  • The leftmost dot along the coast: A small ruined settlement just two to three houses.
  • The uppermost dot along the coast: Ruined hamlet of five to seven houses including a ruined beehive.
  • Star: A first men stone cricle.
  • The lower dot: An inhabited hamlet three to six houses serving the Shadow Tower. Living of shepherding, lifestock, gathering, hunting and growing stuff in yards. Open for application as mini. Can maybe include small beehive keep.
  • Dot up to the right: An abandoned quarry. Back in the day it supplied stone for the nearby castles of the watch. Four to eight houses.
The two settlements along the coast got abandoned when West watch was abandoned. The quarry was abandoned when there was no longer a demand for stone.
Also i thought that maybe the inhabited hamlet could be a studdery? Breeding horses in high altitude could prove useful when you also use the horses for ranging in the Frostfangs and such.

The terrain will across the board be open stretches of plains, with small clusterings of woods.

This next map is why im doing this.

Skærmbillede 2020-12-22 kl. 21.02.15.png

Once this immersion built is done, all of these lands will be completed, in a somewhat unisome style. The Mountain clans of Wull, Knott and Norrey will be connected with lands of the nights watch castles of West watch by the bridge, Shadow tower, Sentinelstand, Greyguard, Stonedoor and Hoarfrost Hill. And if that can't provide satisfaction for a man i don't know what can.
 
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DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
Staff member
Pronouns
he/him
Great work putting these plans together Johan! More initiatives like this across Westeros will need to become more common as areas become more and more developed. My hope is that borders drawn on the dynmap can help us spot the gaps. Make sure you also connect these different areas by road where appropriate, as this will be the main pathfinding mechanism for future explorers.

I should think this can be qualified as an immersion build and only needs one mod approval.
 

AerioOndos

Donkey Lord
Staff member
Pronouns
they/them
Hey hey just some stuff.
Are they giant Clochans (beehives) or are they brochs (largest drystone Atlantic roundhouses)
Brochs actually have vertical walls with interior chambers and supports whereas Clochans have an arch/vault created by putting the exact right pieces of unmortared shingle.
Here’s a structural image of a Broch, which I think might also have a souterrain entrance to its livestock segment.
85CE06A2-9EA1-4BD4-B819-588543CC00AF.jpeg
10D9F9B6-BD9B-47B8-870F-AD668B31801E.jpeg
If looking for Broch info, check out the Caithness Broch project.
 

Joseidon1

Poet
I would like to apply for the mini. As the style is already set on /warp hoarfrostvillage, I didn't include style tests for houses. The hamlet is located in a valley south of the Shadow tower. It survives mostly on sheepherding, some plants in the yards and hunting. The town includes a small broch/beehive keep, which is used as a fortified barn in case some wildings raid here (and before the new gift happened other mountain clans). The lowest floor includes a sheep stable like the tower at hoarfrostvillage. It is represented as a black circle on the map and a test picture is included (The rest of the test in at the center of my plot). The valley west of the broch is supposed to be a grassing area for the sheeps. The hamlet itself consists of four houses. The easternmost house is supposed to be a hunter. The other three houses are sheperds (and gatherers).
The test for the keep will be rebuild similarly at the site to make the ground level part work (That's also why the ground level snow is not that nice).
 

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JohanKR850

Royal Messenger
Hey Jose!

Thanks for applying for this mini. We talked in game about the beehive and made som changes. If you have World Edit you are welcome to add some vegetation such as small trees and bushes. If you don't have WE then set some wool markers for me. I suggest you add another barn or two by the pastures. Again if you have World Edit, you are welcome to fix a few snow goofs around the area, i can show you where and how. Remember add some immersive details. It's a bit tricky in the snow but suggest you take a look at /warp knottham3, /warp hoarfrostvillage or some of the norrey settlements.

I approve. You will still need one more approval from Lem.

Also, if you wan't to use this mini as one of the two needed mini's before doing a project, you will need to open up the house plots, so you can learn to give feedback.
 
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JohanKR850

Royal Messenger
Hello Joseidon. Here is some feedback. Most of it is stuff that is general to snowy projects, so you might learn something for future builds.

For wood in the north try to stick to jungle and spruce. If the walls are spruce it will get bland to also use spruce for furniture, so for a secondary colour use jungle. This also applies for outdoor use. Oak can be, used but try to stick to jungle and spruce.

Skærmbillede 2021-02-25 kl. 21.03.22.pngSkærmbillede 2021-02-25 kl. 21.03.17.png

Make sure to cover all flat areas with snow, or make it steeper (into a cliff). In this case i would just steepen it at the egde of the broch.
Also in the red circles you see some completely flat areas that has no snow, places like that needs to be checked and covered in snow.

Skærmbillede 2021-02-25 kl. 21.00.56.png

I suggest you make the blocks under doors into muddy snow.

Skærmbillede 2021-02-25 kl. 21.01.10.png

We also straightened the edges of the pastures together. It might need to be straightened more, but i will take a look at it myself. But in future builds remember that pastures must not be too blobby.

Good job on all of it! This is a good build. Take care of these issues and i will post approve.

- Johan
 

JohanKR850

Royal Messenger
Hello everyone!

It has been quite a while, but like a white walker I have come back from the dead. I have been checking this project through and everything seems to be in order. I added all but one of the paths from my original map, because it was in excess (but I doubt you will even notice).
Since I started a long time ago, Cash has begun a mega build on the gift, so I don’t know if he wants somethings done for continuity.

But anyways I submit this for your post-approval, so the projects of the northwest corner can be tied together once and for all.

lemonbear
DutchGuard

Cheers, Johan.
 

DutchGuard

Shadowbinder
Staff member
Pronouns
he/him
Hey Johan, good to see you back!

I had a look at the area and everything looks great. You've done a wonderful job of infilling the gaps between existing builds which has brought a lot more life to the area (ironic because of how desolate the landscape is). I just removed some leftover tags but couldn't find anything else unfinished.

You have my post-approval (even though I didn't approve it in the first place ;))