EB Community Castle Build: Discussion Thread

[Erdbeereis]

I really like that layout Thrash!

It's easy to understand and a good size I think.

[Sandy]

It's great that you went through the effort of creating that layout, Trash, but to me it seems a bit bland. There's an awfully big empty space in the middle, and too many separate wall sections. I don't like the idea of four symmetrical towers, either, since this isn't Taj Mahal we're building here. This is a medieval castle, and none of the castles I've seen in pictures and in real-life are that symmetrical.

My suggestion would be a U-shaped castle, with a courtyard behind the gate, and all the rooms in three sides around the yard, with their roofs in different altitudes. That way there could be several towers of varying heights on top of the castle. There could be an outer wall and an outer gate circling the structure, if you want it.

I'll try to make a picture to showcase what I mean....

Edited October 14, 2008 by Sandy

[metalandi]

That looks very good to me, thrash! I don't really think it would look empty in the end. Thnk about, that in the middle there still can be added a lot, and that the sides feature a lot of different things.

[Stash2Sixx]

Trash, I like the map. My only concern is what you made might be too big. Don't get me wrong, I rather build big than small, but I'm concerned with filling the castle with structures. I would rather have a a smaller castle with QUALITY inside as oppossed to a castle made of QUANTITY.

I also somewhat agree with what Sandy said. We don't want 4 symmetrical towers. But I don't think that will happen.

As for walls, I think that 12 2/3 high should be the standard though, but that's just me. 6 bricks (lower floor) + 1/3 (1st floor roof plate) + 6 bricks (upper floor) + 1/3 (2nd floor roof plate). I should be able to get a picture of a first floor up in the stables forum tonight, I'll see if I can add a little bit of a second floor so we can discuss options.

[Sandy]

Okay, these might seem a tad silly, but I made a miniature castle as a reference of what I've envisioned the castle would look like. It's not in scale or anything like that, I'm no architect...

Mind you that this is only my opinion and view, it's up to the majority to decide.

Edited October 14, 2008 by Sandy

[metalandi]

Hmm i kind alike it, but i think for what we want to do it isn't qute right. It looks kinda too harry potter-ish to me, if you know what i mean. But that's not meant negatively. But i had in thoughts, we would build a castle that holds more on traditional forms, but that's just my opinon.

[Sandy]

It looks kinda too harry potter-ish to me, if you know what i mean.

Would you say that if the roof-tops weren't sand green? But I get what you mean, that style is just what I personally prefer.

The point of that model however was to show what I meant with the U-shaped castle and asymmetric towers, that's all.

[Thrash]

Here’s an updated version of the castle layout. I think Sandy has a good idea with the U-shape, so that’s why I got rid of the front two towers and angled the walls on the front. Also, it let us cut out a few of the 16x16 spaces, since we probably had a few too many before.

I think that 30, 31, 33, and 34 can be where all of the royalty lives, and then 32 can be the King’s chamber with the throne and everything.

Also, as you can see on the Legend, the walls to the center part will be twice as tall as the outside walls.

What do you guys think of this one?

~Thrash

[Guss]

that's a nice shape Sandy, but how will we share the building of the different inner castle sections ?

considering that the blacksmith is on the outer wall, it seems that it will be a very very huge castle that you thought Oo or maybe change everything and make the blacksmith more in the middle section, with something above it.

EDIT : Thrash, you posted while I was posting , grunt ^^ I think that your new layout is nice, but the ones in charge to build the middle section will have to be well organized for the roof ^^

Edited October 14, 2008 by Guss

[Pickerel]

Would you say that if the roof-tops weren't sand green? But I get what you mean, that style is just what I personally prefer.

The point of that model however was to show what I meant with the U-shaped castle and asymmetric towers, that's all.

I like your castle! It reminds me of Castle Neuschwanstein!

I think this would be hard to incorporate the whole 16x16 base thing though, with the irregular towers and arches.

I like your idea Thrash, but I think it should be multiple floors and be a bit more irregular.

Perhaps somewhere in between Thrash and Sandy's castle plans?

EDIT: I like Thrash's new plan a lot better, but still think it needs irregular towers and perhaps the central area needs to be two stories.

Edited October 14, 2008 by Pickerel

[Erdbeereis]

Now we're getting somewhere!

I really like Thrash's design but I'm wondering what else we can make to fill up all of those spaces, since there are 34 of them.

[Pickerel]

I've got some ideas on rooms, but not enough to fill 34 rooms. Maybe we should scale it down. Perhaps the Castle Community Build Commander's words on

the layout?

Here are my ideas:

Garden

Barracks

Wizard's Astronomy Tower

Dungeon

Solar

Kitchen

Blacksmith

Stable

Armory (for storing weapons)

Grand Hall

Fletcher

Chapel

Gatehouses

Dovecote

King's Room

Guest Room

Servant's Quarters

Carpentry

We might want to shrink this down a bit...

[Erdbeereis]

That list looks quite nice! But I'll have to look up what some of those are.

I agree that we might want to scale it down slightly so it won't become too difficult to fill.

[metalandi]

That sounds like a good list. But you missed something important.. a prison!

[Teddy]

Dear all,

I like the way this is heading.

As some food for thought I sought some layouts of existing castles.

One of Beaumaris in Wales and one of the Muiderslot in the Netherlands.

This are castles in the "open field" with a partial or complete moath.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Neuschwanstein.

Not because I don't think it is beautyfull.

But because it is not "really" a castle.

It's a 19th century palace inspired by the middle-ages.

I could retype everything, but here is the wiki link here

Kind regards,

Teddy

Edited October 14, 2008 by Teddy

[Thrash]

Here are a few things that we all need to consider moving forward:

What is the ultimate goal for this project?

A couple possibilities would be to somehow bring all of the winning entries together and set up the entire castle, maybe at a convention.

Another option would be to create instructions for each winning entry and then have someone with tons of bricks assemble each part and put them all together.

Another option would just be to make an index of all of the winning entries so that someone could take a virtual tour of our castle. This last option would be the least awesome, but still pretty cool.

Also, this is important because people need to know whether they can take apart their buildings once they’ve created them and made instructions. I think it would be best if we could take them apart so as not to tie up all our bricks and prevent us from making more entries…

What sorts of buildings do we want in the castle?

This could either end up being a small little castle with a few components (blacksmith, stable, dungeon) or a giant walled city including a lot of civilian structures like a tavern, adventurers guild, apothecary, and some houses. It would be much easier to decide on a size and layout if we first knew what exactly we all wanted to include.

If we just want it to be a castle with a few components, should we make a town outside the walls?

Personally, I think that we should just make it be a walled city, but this is a cool idea if you guys aren’t up for that.

~Thrash

[Pickerel]

I've got some ideas on rooms, but not enough to fill 34 rooms. Maybe we should scale it down. Perhaps the Castle Community Build Commander's words on

the layout?

Here are my ideas:

Garden

Barracks

Wizard's Astronomy Tower

Dungeon

Solar

Kitchen

Blacksmith

Stable

Armory (for storing weapons)

Grand Hall

Fletcher

Chapel

Gatehouses

Dovecote

King's Room

Guest Room

Servant's Quarters

Carpentry

We might want to shrink this down a bit...

That sounds like a good list. But you missed something important.. a prison!

Bah! Prisons/ dungeons what's the difference!

Dear all,

I like the way this is heading.

As some food for thought I sought some layouts of existing castles.

One of Beaumaris in Wales and one of the Muiderslot in the Netherlands.

This are castles in the "open field" with a partial or complete moath.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Neuschwanstein.

Not because I don't think it is beautyfull.

But because it is not "really" a castle.

It's a 19th century palace inspired by the middle-ages.

I could retype everything, but here is the wiki link here

Kind regards,

Teddy

I've always thought Neuschwanstein was a "real" castle. Oh well, it's nice as a palace too.

Here are a few things that we all need to consider moving forward:

What is the ultimate goal for this project?

A couple possibilities would be to somehow bring all of the winning entries together and set up the entire castle, maybe at a convention.

Another option would be to create instructions for each winning entry and then have someone with tons of bricks assemble each part and put them all together.

Another option would just be to make an index of all of the winning entries so that someone could take a virtual tour of our castle. This last option would be the least awesome, but still pretty cool.

Also, this is important because people need to know whether they can take apart their buildings once they’ve created them and made instructions. I think it would be best if we could take them apart so as not to tie up all our bricks and prevent us from making more entries…

What sorts of buildings do we want in the castle?

This could either end up being a small little castle with a few components (blacksmith, stable, dungeon) or a giant walled city including a lot of civilian structures like a tavern, adventurers guild, apothecary, and some houses. It would be much easier to decide on a size and layout if we first knew what exactly we all wanted to include.

If we just want it to be a castle with a few components, should we make a town outside the walls?

Personally, I think that we should just make it be a walled city, but this is a cool idea if you guys aren’t up for that.

~Thrash

I think the walled city sounds pretty neat! It really would be "Community Medieval Town Build," but that's not that big of a deal. We would need to have lots of civilian houses, but since multiple people would enter there would be quite a few.

The overall point of this, in my opinion, is to have a friendly competition between a few members for various places in a castle. Then somehow, by photo compilation or member with a lot of bricks to build all the winning entries using provided instructions.

About the taking apart thing, I think you should be required to make photo instructions before taking a creation apart if it's a winning entry.

I like the apothecary idea.

Does anyone like the idea of a harbor or a gatehouse being in the categories?

Pickerel

[I Scream Clone]

I think the walled city sounds pretty neat! It really would be "Community Medieval Town Build," but that's not that big of a deal. We would need to have lots of civilian houses, but since multiple people would enter there would be quite a few.

The overall point of this, in my opinion, is to have a friendly competition between a few members for various places in a castle. Then somehow, by photo compilation or member with a lot of bricks to build all the winning entries using provided instructions.

About the taking apart thing, I think you should be required to make photo instructions before taking a creation apart if it's a winning entry.

I like the apothecary idea.

Does anyone like the idea of a harbor or a gatehouse being in the categories?

Pickerel

Got the point in one hit pickerel! Its all about fun and cooperation. There will always be an option for a member or two to maybe build and display the whole thing, but for now lets make the best damn MOC's around

What i will do hopefully today is post a couple of floorplans (the ones above and maybe others in a poll topic) then we may be able to divie up the projects a little better.

Cheers.

[Dragonator]

Hi guys. Everything is moving along great here, and I just want to add a few suggestions of my own.

Firstly, I like the idea of a floor plan, much like the second one that thrash posted. However, we should not be limiting height etc, I mean, 12 studs is a pretty small castle. What I am think is perhaps splitting everyone up into 'teams', with each team working on a large section of wall. That way, the height and any other things can be discussed amongst the smaller groups, and we wont have to have everything looking uniform. Taking thrash's second layout as an idea, we could have two teams of at least 6 people who together build the whole central keep, one person for each numbered baseplate. Then, we vote for which team's build we like the best. Does that sound good to the rest of you? I'm thinking if we do it this way then we will be able to incorporate random towers and turrets etc and have a lot more freedom to work in, as well as being able to pool ideas with fellow group members. This same thing could also apply to sections of the outer wall.

Another bonus of doing it this way is that we would not have to have a uniform way of connecting each module except where different groups' sections attach to one another. The people within each group would be able to devise their own method of attaching to one another's sections that is relevant to what they are building. Also, this way not every section will have to be the same size and we can also easily incorporate KimT's idea for having the wall in a few studs on certain baseplates to incorporate rounded towers etc.

Lastly, smaller groups would be good because they could get on with things faster, rather than having to discuss every decision with 30 other members. The only things that would have to be discussed collectively would be the height at which each group wants their group's project to attach to other groups' projects, and of course the overall shape of the model, which is what each group's project will be based off anyway.

So, what do you all think of that for an idea? I would be very happy to help with organising groups etc if you all think this could possibly work. At the moment I'm just making it as a suggestion, because as things are, it looks like we're going to spend the next 4 months trying to figure out what people should build. The idea in this is to have fun, so lets try and get all the getting started stuff sorted so we can get building!

Edited October 15, 2008 by Dragonator

[Guss]

A couple possibilities would be to somehow bring all of the winning entries together and set up the entire castle, maybe at a convention.

I think this option will be hard to do.. we all live way too far from each others.

another option would be to create instructions for each winning entry and then have someone with tons of bricks assemble each part and put them all together.

I think that's the best option, but we'll have to find someone with tons of bricks , there must be someone like this here ^^

[Dragonator]

Sorry for the double post, bt after reading the other thread, I've had another idea. As we all know, not all our collections are the same size. Some of us have huge numbers of bricks, with some people who could probably build this castle all on their own, whilst others have very small resources. What I am thinking, is that if we split up into teams, then it will be easier for us to figure out who builds what. For example, one person may only have enough bricks to build a small section, and so this would give the opportunity for someone with a larger number of bricks to build something a little bigger. Basically, no matter how big or small you can build things, everyone would be able to build something to contribute to the overall model. Let us take for example a part of the keep. One person has decided they are going to build an entire tower and roof section, whilst another person just wants to build a bedroom for the king. These two could work together in their group to build these two things together, so they can fit in with each other easily, for example, the bedroom person may not have many grey bricks, so they build an interior with paneled walls and the other guy builds the exterior walls. Then when they are finished the two can slot together.

Basically, I think that we will be able to get a lot more creativity if we work in smaller groups which can discuss matters and make decisions together to get their part of the castle finished.

Right, that's enough from me for the moment, I want to know what you think.

[Guss]

you didn't make a double post, my post is here to save you !

I think it's a great Idea, I don't have a ton of grey bricks , or bricks that fit nice to a castle, so I think that the idea of building the interior of another creation is a nice idea !

[I Scream Clone]

I love the idea of smaller builds Draggy, I will await other opinions and this will probably be phase 2.

Im leaning towards KimT, you and myself to lead modules if you are keen on this let me know

Cheers

ISC

[Dragonator]

I love the idea of smaller builds Draggy, I will await other opinions and this will probably be phase 2.

Im leaning towards KimT, you and myself to lead modules if you are keen on this let me know

Cheers

ISC

Yep, I'm keen. This ties in well with my idea too, as we have a 'team leader' so to speak who organises the people in the team and then each team can work on their sections. Then perhaps if ideas need to be discussed between the groups then it could be done by the team leaders, meaning that decisions can be made faster. I think this way we can all get on with building and also share our ideas together with the people it will affect, ie, the ones in your group.

Oh and as for setting everything up together at the end, I'm sure this can be done with photo editing software somehow. That or we enslave Hinck to build every module for us and set it up. He has enough bricks for it.

[I Scream Clone]

snip.... I'm sure this can be done with photo editing software somehow. That or we enslave Hinck to build every module for us and set it up. He has enough bricks for it.

So everyone happy for Hinckley to build the Dungeon then