Eirik's keep and Chapel of St. Brendan the Navigator

Submitted by Lothere on Sun, 02/10/2008 - 14:58.

Eirik's keep and Chapel of St. Brendan the Navigator

Architecture

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... This is amazing, simply

Submitted by Jesska on Sun, 09/14/2008 - 20:31.

... This is amazing, simply put!

I love your building shots, btw, and especially the building drafts/blueprints too. I know it might sound stupid, but do you use any prior CAS/Draft program to lay out the plan for different castles and other buildings, or do you do it gradually in the game?

Nowadays I do almost all

Submitted by Lothere on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 04:16.

Nowadays I do almost all architectural planning before I start building. The first buildings I ever started with a plan were Brede's and Aengus's manors. Those I did by hand on graph paper. Since then -- in perhaps my most egregious use of a program for a purpose other than that for which it was intended, ever -- I draft things in Microsoft Excel.

I can only get away with that because I have done so much castle building by now. I know what works in the game engine and what doesn't.

My latest exercise in building -- part of the village below Nothelm Keep -- did not have a plan. I needed to grow it organically because I had never really built a village before, and I was constrained by the 6x9-square size of the thatched roof object I was using instead of the game roofs.

I don't know if you were around when I pointed this out, but my favorite site for finding castle plans is Lego Castles by Bob Carney. This guy has done an incredible amount of research about castle architecture, and he has plans and photos of every castle he has built (over 120 now) and also includes his Lego plans, which are useful too because he is somewhat constrained by the same grid model we have in the Sims.

Ugh, I know that problem

Submitted by Jesska on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 21:23.

Ugh, I know that problem with roof-objects. I have this awesome download for minarets and a ribbed dome (if you ever do, and a big maybe, chapter of Leila's past or part of spain/france, these might work out for a mosque. They're made by SimArchitect at modthesims2. Only downside is that they only come in white marble), and they never will work in the roofline unless I position them just right. Sigh...

The growing organically thing is pretty true to the process though. I really like how you show the 'recycling' of houses and other buildings as the kingdom expands within the Valley, it makes all of your hard and brilliant work so natural and amazing. It's also another reason why Egelric became one of my first favourites when he was learning to become a builder.

Excel? That's the most resourceful use of a draft program I've heard yet. Again, more awes to you!
Don't worry, I use graph paper mostly too. I have a sort of draft program, but sometimes it doesn't work so well for last minute ideas as good old paper, pencil and T-Square will do.

Bookmarked and gorging my eyes out on the site now! Thanks for the reference and link, I really like how he doesn't just forcus on France and the UK, his research into eastern european hilltop/side castle development is lovely.

Thanks again for answering my silly questions!

I have those domes... and

Submitted by Lothere on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 04:32.

I have those domes... and also some ogee windows and various other vaguely Moorish / Arabian Nights architectural elements that I have been saving up. I would really like to do some chapters in the Holy Land someday, though since the Crusades are ten years out (according to our timeline) I may never get there. And even if I do I am not very optimistic about how realistic I can make 11th century Palestine with the building materials available in the Sims. My fear is precisely that it ends up looking Arabian Nights, version Disney. It would be such a fun building challenge though!

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