30 replies to this topic

[Big Poppa]

Anyone have any nice pic references of medieval cottages? Sure I google for mine but the more variation I have to work with, the better. The last thing I want is for every building in the game to look 99% the same as the one you just saw.

Edited by Big Poppa, 11 October 2008 - 03:38 PM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Cottages designs you asked, well there is the normal timber/lumber cottage... called Hirsi Mökki here in Finland. I häve few quick google images...

[Yovaneth]

Weald and Downland Museum
The Black and White Trail

Off-topic but possibly useful to you:

The Castles of Wales

Just one minor point (beg, beg). The timbers should not be black but a dark oxblood red. Look at the building on the right on the homepage of the Weald and Downland Museum; it shows the correct colour for the mediaeval compound used to preserve the timbers. The timbers only turned black when the house owners stopped applying preservative to them.

I lived in a mediaeval building from 1970-1977; The Old Grammar School in Ashbourne, Derbyshire built in 1598. To this day I still feel guilty about two acts committed as a teenager; I managed to break one of the original Elizabethan panes of glass with a tennis ball and I carved my initials very deeply in the front wall.

-Y-

[Big Poppa]

Nice links. Thx. I only live about 15 mins from Leominster as it happens. I will take the timber colour into consideration when making the black and white style homes

Being that alot of travel areas and farms are gonna be made, I want to make them all a little different in style. I sure aint gonna just reuse the same house rendered at a different angle like bg did quite alot.

Edited by Big Poppa, 11 October 2008 - 03:36 PM.

[Yovaneth]

Nice links. Thx. I only live about 15 mins from Leominster as it happens. I will take the timber colour into consideration when making the black and white style homes

Ah! Then a swift trip up the A49 to Ludlow or down the A4119 to Weobley will get you all the pics you'll ever need. The last time I was down that way was a year ago; I'd just flown in to Southampton to pick up a new motorcycle in Poole. I chose to ride cross-country to Monmouth and then up the Black and White Trail to Leominster. From there, I turned left to Rheadr and finally north again up the western edge of the Marches and so to Mona's Isle. I was in no rush - I stayed overnight in Cerrig-Y-Druddion as the next ferry home didn't leave Holyhead until the following day. </off-topic>

-Y-

[Jazhara7]

In Germany they actually used black preservative at times.

Also, Fachwerk (that's what's it's called) intended to be seen were often decorated with carvings and paintings, and decorative, non-supporting beams built into the structure. Fachwerk not intended to be seen was obviously rather bland, as it would be covered anyway.

Here is a particularly beautiful example. (Also note the overhanging of the different stories, this being a house in the city.

Also, please take some time to think about what materials are available in the area the cottage is in. For example, here in Germany, roofs made of reed were common in the Northern area along the coast, where there's lots of flat land, and many swamps. Reed was plenty there, so people put it on their roofs. In the Slate Mountains, you won't find that though, but rather find roofs done with slate [to this day. Slate is an expensive material for roofs in most areas, since it has to be transported from the Slate mountains. But in in the slate mountains itself, you'll find houses covered *entirely* (Not just the roof, but also the walls) in slate. Heck, I think I saw a barn that was decked in slate there, which is a luxury *no* one would think of outside the slate mountains. Only it's not a luxury in the slate mountains - why pay money to have roof tiles baked from clay or made from wood when slate is readily available everywhere around you?)]. In other areas you'll find baked tiles (do some research on that too. My favourite ones have to be the ones called "Nuns and Monks" - basically tiles that are the shape of half a longish pipe. You put them on the roof by laying two on their backs curve, and putting third on top of them so it covers the edges of the two others, its own edges fitting inside the curves of the other two. Now guess how they got the name "Nuns and Monks" ). Yet other areas, mostly in areas of woods, I guess, would be wooden tiles.

Timber Framing

Some information of Framework elements also from Medieval times at the German Framework Road website (In English!)

And whatever you do *PLEASE* don't put straw on the roof the way you see in Hollywood movies. NWN makes the mistake, though the setting is the completely wrong time for straw roofs if there ever was one.

What's also interesting to note is how different barns loo from area to area. In Upper Franconia (which lies in the north of Bavaria), where much of my family lives, I've always noted that Barns commonly use blackened wood. here's a picture of that, though I recall my father telling me they are not black from the start. Also, here in Hesse, the barns don't look that way.


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Edited by Jazhara7, 10 October 2008 - 03:37 PM.

[Big Poppa]

Some really detailed info there. Cheers
Here's just a random little farm area.

Edited by Big Poppa, 11 October 2008 - 04:06 AM.

[leahnkain]

The area looks sweet.

[Big Poppa]

Progress of that area.

[Big Poppa]

Bit of a random ruin. Quite fun to make actually.

[Aliya]

Nice. Maybe you will make Durlag's Tower?

[Big Poppa]

Another. Same ilk. Ruined watch towers.

[leahnkain]

I like this one very much.

[Aliya]

I do, I do!

[Big Poppa]

You gotta love the way this game looks. The iwd series is clearly my main influence to date but I admit that alot of my ideas will be coming from this game.
http://image.com.com...1_screen012.jpg
http://image.com.com...1_screen002.jpg
http://image.com.com...1_screen013.jpg
http://image.com.com...1_screen018.jpg
http://image.com.com...8_screen002.jpg
http://image.com.com...8_screen004.jpg

If only the aged engine we have to work with could have those cool fog effects

[Aliya]

Kinda like Diablo III... D

[leahnkain]

I love the images you posted. It would look great in the BG engine. Recently I have noticed your maps have really improved, far better than what I do. I really like the colors you use. Your night maps are great. they really set the mood.

[Big Poppa]

Yeah. I posted a while back that you get better with practice. The candlekeep area and its interiors are good, but they were the learning curve. The newer areas have a nicer lighting and I have learnt tricks along the way that work etc. The old stuff is still real usable though

[Kellen]

The old stuff is still fantastic.

Those screenies are from Diablo 3, aye?

[Big Poppa]

The old stuff is still fantastic.

Those screenies are from Diablo 3, aye?

Oh yeah, the old stuff is still good and I'm happy with it.
Those are diablo 3 yes.