Equos Valley [Avalonia Task 3]

[The_Nev]

Equos Valley - The Valley of The Horses

A free build for Avalonia Task 3.

Front by The Nev, on Flickr

The Equos Valley is home to one of the few remaining villages of the Equicius Clan, Vallis. Nestled amongst the rugged cliffs is the river known by locals as the Equos River, the namesake of the valley, and source of one of the valley's landmarks; the Tonitrui Falls. 

Waterfall by The Nev, on Flickr

The other primary landmark is an ancient staircase, carved into the side of the cliffs by the hands of men long past. The stairs serve the village as a useful route to the lush plains upon the plateau where they can foster their herds when feed is scarce among their usual ranges in the plains below.

Cliffs & Stairs by The Nev, on Flickr

The cliffs are rumoured to support other, less wholesome forms of life as well; legends of old tell of trolls that inhabit the cliff-side caves. Although no one has encountered any such creature to the knowledge of the villagers, there are tales of some brave few who ventured out, seeking the trolls, to never return... 

As for the village itself, a strong wall surrounds the buildings within, protecting its inhabitants from any external force. These inhabitats are mostly distanced members of families within the Equicius Clan, although there are a few residents foreign to the clan. The village sustains itself on the breeding of horses, regularly engaging in trade down the river, as well as along the roads to the north and south. The local blacksmith forges shoes for the steeds and tools for the farmers, as well as armour and weapons for the troops that guard the gate. The market serves as a place for villages to buy, sell and barter goods amongst themselves, occasionally even hosting a trader or two from downstream who ventured to the valley to sell their wares.

labelled village by The Nev, on Flickr

River by The Nev, on Flickr

 

Extra views of the whole build:

Wide View by The Nev, on Flickr

Back by The Nev, on Flickr

OOC: Overall I'm pretty happy with this, my first large build. I wanted to draw emphasis to the cliffs and topography of the land, without crowding things with too much busy noise.

[deraven]

For being a fairly simple studs-up build, I think it's lovely and charming.  The waterfall is really nice, and I like the steps in the cliff as well, oh, and the simple cave, too.  The beach/shoreline is also a nice touch.  NPU with the gate into the village and the tooth element for the spire on the meeting hall.  From a quick glance it all looks so simple, but on closer inspection there are all sorts of fun little details to enjoy. Well done!  

[Muakhah]

Looks simple yet very elegant.  I really need to try microscale at some point and builds like this are great for showing what can be done!

[Garmadon]

Very nice micro - I'll echo the others in saying that the simple studs approach works quite nicely here   The waterfall and settlement are great, and I'm liking those stairs as well 

[W Navarre]

Nice work, I like how each building has a purpose. 

[Kai NRG]

This is a really nice micro - as others have mentioned, the simplicity is quite pleasing to the eye!  The buildings in particular look really nice.  Great job showing us that sometimes less is more!

[TheLordOfBricks]

Nice! Great dynamic feeling micro!

[The_Nev]

6 hours ago, deraven said:

For being a fairly simple studs-up build, I think it's lovely and charming.  The waterfall is really nice, and I like the steps in the cliff as well, oh, and the simple cave, too.  The beach/shoreline is also a nice touch.  NPU with the gate into the village and the tooth element for the spire on the meeting hall.  From a quick glance it all looks so simple, but on closer inspection there are all sorts of fun little details to enjoy. Well done!  

 

5 hours ago, Muakhah said:

Looks simple yet very elegant.  I really need to try microscale at some point and builds like this are great for showing what can be done!

 

1 hour ago, Garmadon said:

Very nice micro - I'll echo the others in saying that the simple studs approach works quite nicely here   The waterfall and settlement are great, and I'm liking those stairs as well 

 

49 minutes ago, W Navarre said:

Nice work, I like how each building has a purpose. 

 

48 minutes ago, Kai NRG said:

This is a really nice micro - as others have mentioned, the simplicity is quite pleasing to the eye!  The buildings in particular look really nice.  Great job showing us that sometimes less is more!

 

4 minutes ago, TheLordOfBricks said:

Nice! Great dynamic feeling micro!

 

Thanks for all the compliments - I'm glad you guys like it! I'm really happy that although its quite basic in design it still works well! Also glad that the small details didn't go unnoticed :D

[Henjin_Quilones]

This is a lovely microscale landscape, nothing too fancy but still really nice looking and effective at representing what you want to show. Some great details are the sandy banks of the river in a few places and all of the buildings in the village; the meeting hall is my personal favorite. I have three small critiques: 1. I think representing a path of some kind from the village to the river dock, and probably the north-south road you mentioned, as well as changing the color of the plates under the village itself to dark tan, would make it more realistic; as it is, it seems un-lived-in with its lush green everywhere. I want mud and dirt! 2. The falling water of the waterfall should probably be all trans-clear rather than mixed with trans-light blue due to the nature of falling water; opaque white would even be an option for parts of it to show really oxygenated water. And 3., the stakes of the palisade wall around the village seem too thick to me, unless they chopped down giant redwoods or sequoias; I would recommend trying something with 3L bars in reddish brown, sunk into the ground somewhat, to give a more scale representation. It might have been more effort than it is worth in LDD, but it would be a cool effect. All that said, I am pleased to have you in Avalonia, and this build does a great job of illustrating the home of the Equicii. Keep it up! 

[The_Nev]

9 hours ago, Henjin_Quilones said:

This is a lovely microscale landscape, nothing too fancy but still really nice looking and effective at representing what you want to show. Some great details are the sandy banks of the river in a few places and all of the buildings in the village; the meeting hall is my personal favorite. I have three small critiques: 1. I think representing a path of some kind from the village to the river dock, and probably the north-south road you mentioned, as well as changing the color of the plates under the village itself to dark tan, would make it more realistic; as it is, it seems un-lived-in with its lush green everywhere. I want mud and dirt! 2. The falling water of the waterfall should probably be all trans-clear rather than mixed with trans-light blue due to the nature of falling water; opaque white would even be an option for parts of it to show really oxygenated water. And 3., the stakes of the palisade wall around the village seem too thick to me, unless they chopped down giant redwoods or sequoias; I would recommend trying something with 3L bars in reddish brown, sunk into the ground somewhat, to give a more scale representation. It might have been more effort than it is worth in LDD, but it would be a cool effect. All that said, I am pleased to have you in Avalonia, and this build does a great job of illustrating the home of the Equicii. Keep it up! 

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for the advice on the details. I did originally try putting the village on dark tan plates, but I wasn't happy with how it looked with the roofs in the same colour. I agree completely about the fence, not entirely happy with the scale of it compared to the buildings, I tried using spikes, etc, but they didn't fit together well enough to my liking. That concept with the rods sounds intriguing, but would definitely take some effort in the digital designer.

[en_zoo]

Uhmm I wanna see the clan's horses! Oh wait, they were stole/dispersed.. Next time then maybe Seriously, simple yet effective, like your other builds. I'm in love with the dock and the small cave is awesome A road would be nice. Keep it up!

[The_Nev]

11 hours ago, en_zoo said:

Uhmm I wanna see the clan's horses! Oh wait, they were stole/dispersed.. Next time then maybe Seriously, simple yet effective, like your other builds. I'm in love with the dock and the small cave is awesome A road would be nice. Keep it up!

Thanks! I was going to throw some microscale horses in, but I couldn't figure out anything both small enough and horsey enough. Smallest thing that slightly resembled a horse was the height of a house!

[deraven]

1 hour ago, The_Nev said:

I was going to throw some microscale horses in, but I couldn't figure out anything both small enough and horsey enough. Smallest thing that slightly resembled a horse was the height of a house!

Definitely challenging at this scale!  I would suggest a brown minifig hand, with the wrist pin pointed upward for the head/neck and the hand representing the body/legs.  Nothing else really comes to my mind that would be remotely the right shape or size...

[The_Nev]

5 hours ago, deraven said:

Definitely challenging at this scale!  I would suggest a brown minifig hand, with the wrist pin pointed upward for the head/neck and the hand representing the body/legs.  Nothing else really comes to my mind that would be remotely the right shape or size...

Interesting suggestion, thanks!

[mccoyed]

Love this style of micro. A lot of micros are heavy on details and there's an art to that. I like this clean, simple look a lot more. It's so clean and well-photographed that I thought it was an LDD build!

[de Gothia]

The thing that I like here is the wooden build, most microbuilds are made in stone. 

 

I echo the others, I like the clean take on this moc

[The_Nev]

7 hours ago, mccoyed said:

Love this style of micro. A lot of micros are heavy on details and there's an art to that. I like this clean, simple look a lot more. It's so clean and well-photographed that I thought it was an LDD build!

Thanks! Although I must admit, it is in fact a digital build.

5 hours ago, de Gothia said:

The thing that I like here is the wooden build, most microbuilds are made in stone. 

 

I echo the others, I like the clean take on this moc

Thanks also, glad you like it!

[mccoyed]

Still a pretty dang good digital build. I respect LDD builders because though there are some easier things (piece limitations being way different), it still takes patience and vision and talent.

[The_Nev]

23 hours ago, mccoyed said:

Still a pretty dang good digital build. I respect LDD builders because though there are some easier things (piece limitations being way different), it still takes patience and vision and talent.

Thanks again, then! :D

[soccerkid6]

Great way to show off Equos Valley, the build gives a very clear impression of the landscape and village setups  

I like your rockwork, though having all the cliffs plateau at just about exactly the same height doesn't look very natural. Working in some portions that are a couple bricks higher or lower would probably look better.
Excellent micro buildings inside the palisade, it's good to see you including a well

[Grover]

Love the landscaping and the subtle gradients in the green plates.  The pine trees are great, as is the river.  I love the scale of the small town, too.  My only question is how many people are living in this town?  There would seem to need to be more houses to support the industry there.  Also, medieval towns usually had a number of houses outside the town wall, so you could add in a few houses there.  The villagers usually ran into the walled portion in case of attack, so it's a way to expand without moving the wall.  Well done!  I really like how nice your LDD drawings are.  I really stink at that program, and I appreciate how much effort goes into that design.

[The_Nev]

3 hours ago, soccerkid6 said:

Great way to show off Equos Valley, the build gives a very clear impression of the landscape and village setups  

I like your rockwork, though having all the cliffs plateau at just about exactly the same height doesn't look very natural. Working in some portions that are a couple bricks higher or lower would probably look better.
Excellent micro buildings inside the palisade, it's good to see you including a well

Thanks! It is pretty subtle, but the cliffs are on a gradient from left to right, you can see that the opposite ends are at quite different heights. Having said that, the clifftops would probably look more realistic if they were uneven, rather than smooth.

Just now, Grover said:

Love the landscaping and the subtle gradients in the green plates.  The pine trees are great, as is the river.  I love the scale of the small town, too.  My only question is how many people are living in this town?  There would seem to need to be more houses to support the industry there.  Also, medieval towns usually had a number of houses outside the town wall, so you could add in a few houses there.  The villagers usually ran into the walled portion in case of attack, so it's a way to expand without moving the wall.  Well done!  I really like how nice your LDD drawings are.  I really stink at that program, and I appreciate how much effort goes into that design.

Thanks! I like your idea for expanding the village, and that's some great info, you learn something everyday!