Builder Application: Slippy: REJECTED

[Slippy]

PORTFOLIO

Beginner Entries

Follow-up Entries

Apprentice Entries

INFO

Player name :

MF_Slippy

How did you find out about us? :

Via a YouTube stream from Nerd of the Rings.

How old are you? :

23

Where are you from? :

The Netherlands

Are you in our Discord? Do you understand that you must have Discord running at all times when at your computer, and that you must check the forums every few days?:

I always have Discord open on my PC. I am also able to actively check the forums when needed.

Why do you want to help with this project? :

I saw your project showcased on stream and was very impressed by the sheer scale and ambition of it. What really struck me the most was the professional building style adhering so closely to the books and historical accuracy of it. This made me want to participate and contribute where I’m able to.

Which Tolkien-related works have you read, seen or listened to? :

I’ve seen the movies, read the Silmarillion and a little of the trilogy a long time ago. I’ve also been very involved with most LotR videogames and the world’s lore in general. LotR lore has been a close part of my life ever since I was a kid.

Plot ID :

-14: -36

I decided to try a hand at the Arnor ruins style. The direction I went with the build is supposed to showcase (what once was) a small guardhouse with a small, round tower stationed on the corner of it that decayed through time. I tried to make sure there was more rubble and elevated ruins where the small guard tower once stood, and tried to match the vegetation with the elevation of the ruins.

I’m available to hop into Discord to talk through the build in voice, if convenient.

Are there any styles that you excel at? Any styles which you have difficulty with? :

I’d say that I’m open to doing all styles, although some styles interest me more than others. I’d like to help where ever I can though since the more variation in styles I learn, the more versatile my building skillset will be. I’m also still looking to explore what my preferred style might be.
Right now I’m most excited to potentially work on: Lorien/Caras Galadhorn style, Mordor orcs style, Haradrim style, Mirkwood style.

EDIT: Something I might struggle with is the concept of ‘less is more’. I understand how a lot of times being more minimalist actually brings out more character in a build, however I could imagine it’d be a learning process for me to add to a build without actually directly adding any blocks. I guess that’s also why the Arnor build appealed to me; because it’s out of my comfort zone.

Other relevant skills :

Throughout my life my main strengths have been leadership, communication skills, and attention to detail.

[Fruittuitella]

Hey, thanks for applying! Like you said in your application, it would be great to discuss in voice, could you send me a dm so I know who to message?
As for your ruin itself, @Yannig is the ruin expert, so I’m asking him to leave a comment about your ruin as well.

[Yannig]

Hello Slippy, very glad to see you applying for Builder!

I took a look at your ruin in game and it is quite good, I don’t have much to critic other than the fact that I don’t understand why the tower is taller than the other walls. Your choice of palette and of plants looks good so overall this is a nice small build.
I emphasize on the word small because while it can be a good ruin on our main map, it is not enough to truly judge your capacity to follow the guides and to show some details and originality. Because of that, I would like you to do something at least twice the size of this ruin (can be several ruins in one bigger square) and to show me that you can add more features to it like say ponds or vines… I believe you used the Arnor guide for this ruin? You can also use “/warp Tharbad” guide for more variety.

[Fruittuitella]

Alright we’ve discussed your application in voice, we decided that you’d do another ruin, this time specifically Tharbad style, and a Hobbit house to familiarize yourself with different styles. I’d like this Hobbit house to be a post office in the style of Stock. For general post office reference you can also take a look at the one in Hobbiton, and the one in Overhill. Be sure to use both Hobbitguides as well, the one at /warp HobbitGuideFB and the one at /warp Spawn. When you’re done, leave a comment and I’ll check it out.

[Slippy]

I finished the two builds we agreed upon. They are both reviewable in the plot next to my previous builds. I built them on a tile scale of 32x32.

For the Hobbit build I built a post office in Stock-style. I fleshed out the exterior as much as I deemed appropriate and resembled the interior to other post offices. I was in some cases limited by my inability to access paintings, but I made due.

For the Tharbad ruins I made a slight slope with a wall running across. Next to the wall are three frailer buildings and further down the slope is a small swamp river. I tried to resemble the terrain from the Tharbad guide as closely as possible. Although there were no easy guides for bigger structures like the wall I built, I decided to do it anyway to provide myself some challenge. I tried to uphold 1 epoch palette and tried to make the strong decaying structure as realistic as possible by providing enough rubble on the sides and properly transitioning the structure into nature and overgrowth.

Let me know what you guys think after review, thanks!

[Yannig]

Hey again, I will only comment on your Tharbad ruin.

Aaah now you have fallen into my trap ahahah! Doing a bigger ruin reveals more aspects that need to be worked on if you get to apprentice. Prepare for a small novel about your build because I have many things to say but don’t worry I judge it sufficient to get apprentice

You overused rushes in comparison to reeds. This is not something that is written in Tharbad guide but if you look around the city and its outskirts you will notice that rushes grow in pockets in the middle of the summer reeds.

Another issue with these two plants is that you placed some that are only one block tall. They should always be two blocks tall or sometimes three and they should be the only two plants that grow on mud.

Green sedge is not a plant that can grow on a ruined wall, it is generally seen on flat soil near water.
Grass layers are underused on the rampart and it gives a very blocky feeling where it should be smooth because of weathering effects.

There are not enough rubbles around most of your walls (we should see much less stone than that overall) especially around your rampart and I suggest that you go look at Tharbad’s main rampart. You will see that it looks more like a grassy hill.

Mud shouldn’t go above grass like that.

As stated above, the slopes leading to your water bodies is way too steep and it looks like small canyons. Your walls are too tall near water bodies, keep in mind that streams, ponds and lakes work much faster at eroding stone than rain.

Okay phew, that might appear as lots of serious things to fix but I am convinced that we can work on those issues when you get to apprentice. Most of the applicants who build a Tharbad ruin get lots of things wrong but that is simply because this type of ruin requires more work than your average Arnor ruin.

I will let Fruit decide if you need to fix/redo the ruin or if you are good to proceed but this is good enough for an application in my opinion.

[Slippy]

I appreciate all the feedback, Yannig. I was already suspecting to get a lot of feedback since I couldn’t resist to experiment and increase the scale.
The things you said are very interesting and make a lot of sense. It’s definitely a challenge for me to find the right balance between brick and grass/hill when creating a bigger ruin like the rampart. The things you said about the vegetation and water erosion make sense, and I’ll make sure to keep them in mind in the future!

[Fruittuitella]

Alright, we discussed your Hobbit house on Discord, and now that you’ve improved the interior (even though the exterior isn’t up to standard yet, but I told you not to worry about that for now), combined with the fact that you’ve shown a lot of motivation and courage (The wall section for Tharbad, rather than a normal ruin, and the angled Hobbit house) suffices for your promotion to Apprentice. Congrats! Please read the paragraph below to understand what’s expected of you, but don’t hesitate to ask me further questions on Discord.

Being an Apprentice means you are a part of the project, but not a full Builder yet. You have this rank so you can learn and understand how we build. We have high standards and a focus on realism which means that there are things for you to learn. Your duties as an Apprentice should give you good grounding to become a Builder, and, as such, you will begin your first lot of on-server building work assisting current Builders on their builds. This will hopefully allow you to obtain the experience needed to build on your own when you feel you can start on building something on your own. When building as an Apprentice, you are only permitted to build on one building at a time. This not only provides you with good practice for your time as a Builder, but also allows project leaders and Overseers to get a good and clear idea of what your building abilities are. This will allow us to give you better and more bespoke feedback, and prevent any unnecessary problems. Keep in mind that you are only allowed to work on something if you have permission from a project leader via an open plot or confirmation if it’s something else. Finally, as an Apprentice you must always listen to project leaders when they give you feedback, criticisms, and tasks. Ask them if you are unsure of what to build, or how to build it. You have this rank to learn.

In order to eventually obtain Builder, please read the guidelines below: When you build a house in a project and think it is finished, you should post a comment on this application thread with the closest warp and coordinates of your house. Then Builders or Overseers will comment on this thread and give you fair feedback. When you have achieved a standard of building that matches the basic standard of the server, you will be promoted to Builder. This could be on your first build or one further down the line. ArdaCraft is a friendly community that explores the freedom to create and build together. However, when we are dealing with an enormous project like this there are some guidelines we need to follow to make it work. Firstly, always name and date the stuff you build. We have a set of project blocks that we use - you can read about those in the new player guide at ‘/warp spawn’. Secondly, if you are looking for something to help out with, you can type ‘/warp jobs’. This is where you can find all open jobs like building houses or something similar. You will be provided with instructions on how to get to these projects, and what to build once you get there. Thirdly, do not be afraid to ask members for help and get to know us. This is a community project and it’s important to be part of the community! Stay active on Discord and the forums. Make sure to let an Overseer know who you are on Discord so that he can give you the appropriate rank on there. On a final note, please remember that Apprentice is not a permanent rank, so we require a certain level of activity during your progression. Being active fewer than once a month will result in your application being rejected.

[Yannig]

Don’t forget to update this thread with your builds and their coordinates @Slippy

[Slippy]

Will do later today!

[Fruittuitella]

Yeah and don’t forget to dm me when finishing a build, didn’t know you had finished the ruins yet so couldn’t give you a new assignment.

[Slippy]

Ah I figured I could just start work on some new ruins and update my portfolio to keep going
Since there were so many projects opened again recently

[Fruittuitella]

Yeah, gotta update this thread with every build though, so we can keep track. The dm would be helpful so that I can see it earlier, as well as to discuss smaller stuff that’s not required to go on the forums.

[Yannig]

You still haven’t updated this thread mate.

[Slippy]

I did, I edited my main post. Heard from Fruit that in the future he’d rather have me make a new reply so you guys get a notification when I update. Wasn’t aware of this. If you look in my portfolio you can see the two Tharbad plots I worked on. If needed I’ll put the coordinates of it in a new reply later this week, I’ve been busy as discussed with Fruit.

[Fruittuitella]

After a discussion we’ve agreed that it’s better to re-apply in the future, given that you’re quite busy IRL right now. We’ll take your current progress into account if you do, of course.