------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Creative Highlight of the Week 22nd of September A Castle Keep By Chandler107 -+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+- I appreciate that getting rid of the fences is aesthetically nice; but honestly one of things I look forwards to with the plot worlds is actually knowing who built it. Getting rid of the fences has deprived me of this joy, so thanks faceless admin on creative. Hey there guys! This was actually what I planned to do last week, but imgur was being a pain and not letting me upload images. I figured it wasn't worth doing a Creative Highlight without the visual aspect, so I decided to put it off a week. This build caught my attention as it's one of the few well detailed castles on the server that incorporates diagonal lines into it. Crazy, I know. At B1 level, without WE for pattern replication it's always astounding to see someone go above and beyond it making the exact same tower 8 times, and the walls between them. This was the most uneven road I've ever been on. Must be hell on the wagons So, what I enjoyed about the build. As long time readers will know, I have a fascination with walls in a built, and the walls here are what initially drew my eye. They're just arranged in such an interesting pattern to the eye, and not one that you see in MC too often. Looking at this plot in general you wouldn't get the sense that this was a flat grass square to being with, which is another sign of a great build. Upon entering the build through the front entrance (pictured above), you're greeting by two massive arches. You enter the keep through the under the hill, which was an interesting choice I though; although I'm sure this is at least in part bc the hill is too steep for a normal ascent. The pathway up is via two narrow spiral staircases, and aside from the detail inside the interior is roughly what you would expect from a castle (dining room, bedrooms, library, etc). They also planted a bunch of trees around the build, which is another sure-fire way into my heart <3 <3 <3 Quick fire notes: It's actually kinda weird how there's so much detailing put into this build, even while it feels semi realistic at the same time. Real keeps have basic flat grey walls for the most part. The outside (Wrong word, but I mean ones that only connect to the wall, instead of being a part of it) towers were an actual defensive strategy historically, so points to the builder there. Doing so cut down on blind spots on the wall proper. The throne actually reminds me of an egg for some reason. Probably bc it's made of marble. Interesting thing to note: there's actually exactly the right amount of chairs at the dining table as there are beds. Apparently the guards dine with the lord here This bed is actually bigger than the lord's bed in the loft. Someone doesn't feel the need to compensate apparently Where I run into issue with this build, is that it's not ergonomic. It was further highlighted to me as I was working on the keep in my build (/warp Skycile #ShamelessPlug). My personal philosophy is function first then form will follow, and here there's plenty of things that don't add up. There's no way to get up onto the wall, or into the towers, for such a grand keep the stairways are so small and tight, the 5 soldier beds indicate a small amount of soldiers that would never be able to defend a keep this size, heck they could barely get one person per tower. Although I'm sure this final point could be countered by arguing that there's surrounding serfs and towns to supplement this. Of course, like with many of these highlights, there are simple fixes to issues such as this. Adding staircases and thinking about what/how you're building would help add another simple layer of realism to this great build. Something that I always do when I build is imagine if I have to use this area in real life. Would this roof feel too low? This path too narrow? Is this area useful? That last point in particular, as every building costs time and material so you have to be economical. If this doesn't work for you, then you could always imagine that you're designing a level in a video game (rather, a different one). Does this are make sense? Is it easy for the player to walk through? I can safely say that I used creative mode to get this screenshot I would imagine that this builder would've addressed the issues I talked about, but they were eager to be promoted and move on the greater more impressive projects. Lord knows what else they built on the server. What do you think? As always, I appreciate your feedback on these. What went well? What didn't? What would you like to see more of? Comment below, even if it's just to say that you enjoyed the build. It's honestly so hard finding a nice angle with no builds in the background
<3 Trees and Walls <3 Also guys, I feel that these are starting to get a bit similar between weeks. I was honestly hoping to get some feedback by now, although this is partially my fault for not advertising ingame that I write these (Imod, I'm in the wrong timezone and don't get out of bed when I should). So is there anything you all want to see in these? I was thinking that I could: Focus on smaller details around the build. Small things like wall decals or roads that you could in turn use in your builds. The block palette, and how I would something in the build like the towers or the walls. A bit of history. So I could research something like European castles and say which ones this is similar to so you could all impress your crush with this fancy knowledge (It didn't work for me, but maybe it will for you) However all this stuff will be v. time consuming on my part. These already take me about an hour as I get some fair bad writers block. Mainly due to the fact that it feels like I'm writing to an empty audience. All of those ideas would mean that I would have to set aside at least 2 or 3 hours to write these. Worth it if there's demand, as it's also a useful skill for me to develop. So yeah, let me know if there's anything you would like to see in future Creative Highlights (I'll keep Survival Snapshots the same no offence)
Final thing. If you peeps could occasionally suggest to people/link people to this it would be a great help (in particular newer players) It works for the server bc it helps showcase the awesome talent available on SC, as well as bring people onto the forums, an maybe onto Survival /or Creative. They see cool builds, and maybe they want to hang around to meet these people or build like them. Community creation and growth is a great thing. It also works for me bc I'm narcissistic and asleep while most of you are on.
This was actually my first build on Shadecrest. I started building this back in early 2013, and I didn't have any prior experience other than building modern homes on xbox. If I remember correctly this detail style was very popular at the time, although many builders would look down on it now. This was also my first medieval build, so I was very new to the concepts of building castles and large walls to surround them. After building the walls, I realized that I would have a hard time fitting most of the interior work, so like you said in your analysis, everything is very cramped. Pieman told me I needed to build some custom trees, so I built one and then surrounded everything else with generic minecraft trees. This build eventually got me promoted and to this day I think it's what really got me into building. Also I was the one to put the fences around some of the plots, so my bad. I thought they would be a good idea at the time, but they quickly turned out to be a mistake. I think if you do /plot info you can still see the names however.
Oh wow really? God, my first build on SC was nowhere near this well built. I would imagine that there are very few people on creative these days who would look down on this style I also always enjoy listening to the thought process that people go through when designing builds; for me at least I'm always thinking about the interior as I built the exterior, but with you it sounds like you don't (not complaining, just different schools of thought). I didn't know there was a command to That should help in the future. I did try to use prism, but that's a 50/50 chance these days.