Welcome to the Homes and Tomes House Rally #6 – Monumental Structures
Tonight we are looking at the truly BIG stuff. Big brings its own set of problems to decorating, but at the same time can add drama, particularly with scratch built structures! Now, with the divorcement of Building Blocks and Tiles from other items, we suddenly have much more latitude to build LARGER than ever!!!
I’m your host Huell Kuerden, and we’ll be looking at some places your jaw should drop at. If you don’t feel miniscule after seeing these places, you must have an ego the size of the universe! While we wll be focusing on scratch-built, we’ll also be touring some pre-made massive homes, as they are a challenge to do in their own right! And now on to the show!
As we take a look at these houses, don’t forget to reward the designers by liking creativity and/or style! It means more people will visit and enjoy their work! And now on to this week of Norrath’s Gold!
Our First Stop is…
The Lost Pyramid (Massive Homes) by Ayrid
Tenebrous TangleHere we have, well, a WHOLE LOTTA BLOCKS! Yikes! A very nice large stepped pyramid! Larger characters can do the hopty-hop to the top, or you can take the ladders and work your way up. You may want to set your display to render higher quality, or you’ll miss stuff!
Once you are on top, fool around by the ladder and see what happens! Really cool! I was expecting alligators at the bottom, but the spears and skeletons work nicely! There is an exit off the East side if you’d like to go in or out!
There is a fork in the access hall whether you’ve fallen from the top or come in from the side. Continue on to the vault door and take the portal to the Royal Tomb. Once you are done, take the port to the fountain at the Upper Island. Be sure to look down at the view! I enjoyed jumping down to the top of the pyramid!
Some notes on materials. The rough stone blocks used here work pretty well, but the rough stone tables can have interesting issues if you rotate them in unusual ways. They can block access, disappear, cause people to float, and all kinds of other interesting things. I’m not arguing against them – they give great effects! Just be prepared to tweak!
Let’s move along now to a pre-built structure – which was used completely atypically!!!
Athlina’s Clockwork Forrest (Massive Homes) for Athlina by Jibbywabba
Thurgadin Grand HallYou pop into a small antechamber – open the door and go halfway down the ramp!
I really like this vista! The ‘Deephaven’ appears totally different from the base Turgadin Hall through the use of mist and landscape plants! I liked the effort to explain plants in a cave by the magical lighting fixture hanging from the ceiling! Continue down the ramp!
I loved the effect of having truly MASSED fireflies and butterflies. It gives the illusion of immense depth, and the movement gives a living quality to the house. The original equipment blue glowing channels also add a nice effect.
Wander a bit! Note the use of Altar backs and hedges to block off undesired areas! Part of having a huge house is re/raid membering you don’t HAVE to use it all!!! Or use it the way was intended!
Next lets move to standard fantasy fare – the Castle!
Castle Drakkell (Massive Homes) by Drakkell
Tenebrous TangleCastles are AWFUL! There is a lot of interesting solid geometry in them, so it can take some real effort to do them properly - probably why they are still uncommon despite being standard fantasy fare!
As you pop in give this a few seconds to load! One thing I did find a bit distracting was the path shimmer. This may have been done sans editor. I DID really like the Grobb Table Steps though! That is a neat effect, and they can be used BIG for impressive stairs! The overall appearance is very Medieval, and I really like the site opposite the zone-in!
There are a series of portals you can use pop around. Go to the bathhouse and look up! You can see (just barely) the hidden Vault in the sky. Again - the sky is there and CAN be used for all kinds of interesting things!
The Icy Dividers also give a neat 'negative' appearance to the other islands when used as windows.
I also really like the flying ship dock. We see all to few of these despite them even being in game! Would be interesting to soup a ship up with some propellers/fans!
Next we'll take a quick look at a work in progress if people would like! We are ahead of schedule for the 1st time!
Head to Massive Homes and go to 'Tower'. This is an attempt to red the Stormwind Tower to something a little less EVIL looking. Intended as a Qeynosian anti-pirate base, and home for a characters RP order.
Note the use of purchased white tiles. They can be sized 2x crafted tiles, and so keep the overall count down. Rough stone tables were used to shore up the tower - the spines of the original equipment tower stick out too far to allow the tower to e built without 'enhancement'.
Head to the top and jump off. If you don't have any featherfall, just be sure to hit the water! Does bring the scale of the thing into perspective!
That's all for tonight's show, and thanks for coming to this episode of Norrath's Gold!!!
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