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Howl redesign contest voting!

Redesign contest voting  

94 members have voted

  1. 1. choose your favourite!

    • Keep current starter deed
      10
    • Howl Entry 1
      38
    • Howl Entry 2
      27
    • Howl Entry 3
      19


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Entry 1

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Spoiler

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We all wanted to stray away from something too difficult or intimidating. Hence we wanted a very humble and relaxed feel to the Howl. In order to accomplish that, we wanted to sort of blend in with nature, hence trees and hedges. No gaudy or extreme buildings - just a simple but tasteful design.

 

For the token area, no one can argue with the beautiful rainbow boats there, but to make those boats make sense, we wanted to expand so the traders can go down there, together with the bartender. It would make it look like a little trade center of sorts. That way the boats look like they could belong to the merchant stalls (not that you can buy them there, but just design wise, it gives the boats a reason for being there). Also wanted to trade that marble under the boats into gravel – as to fit the rest of the design (ie. NOT gaudy).

 

We also wanted to keep the well where it is, since it is pretty and makes sense right there.

 

The fantastic epic portal would go where there are three epic portals in the plan – a few tiles south of the token. We think this makes for a very scenic area for the portal. An oak on each side helps create a “frame” around the portal and brings in that element of nature that we kinda wanted to refer to with the pagan-like worshipping site (see below).

 

With the religious representation, we wanted to take into account that there are several gods, with no necessary order to them – hence we found a circle design would be highly suitable. We wanted to make it more pagan than Christian (with their churches and cathedrals often found around Wurm). Meaning, we wanted it to be more about worshipping nature - hence the outside altars. The epic gates look like a very natural, “Stonehenge” kind of design that we find fitting for this purpose.

 

Despite the tall walls we still wanted to keep an open look for the deed, hence we suggest unfinished palisade gates where there are openings in the fences (marked with regular epic gates in the plan (note: this does not apply to the altar area – here we did intend for the epic gates to be epic gates)).

 

The town centre has the workshop area, which could in theory be divided into two buildings. I realized we might have permissions issues otherwise (since spinning wheel, if added, would require we disable picking up inside the building, while I imagine a blacksmithing area would enable picking up items?).

 

The inn was designed as more of a barracks design – with a dining hall, kitchen and storage room in the bottom, and sleeping quarters on the top (beds are marked by coffins, also meant for beige tapestries but they seem broken in deed planner).


The 4 corner buildings could host more beds if wanted/needed – or just be empty. They are there mainly for design purposes – to frame the city.

 

There is room to spawn some animals in the little town area – I imagine some horses would make sense.

 

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Howl Entry 2

 

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Spoiler

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Project Oracle:  A New Beginning

First and foremost we wanted The Howl to be about new beginnings.  Independence is the oldest server in the Freedom Cluster, and has been called “home” by many players for many years.  The Howl has always been a quaint little hillside from which to begin a journey, but has lacked function and personality.  Unfortunately, in the past, the permissions system wasn’t as robust as it is now, and could not very-well accommodate a fresh beginning for new players.  

Times have changed, but The Howl has not.  With this project we set out to design a new starting point that could help electrify the blood of newcomers, whilst still appealing to the curiosity of veteran adventurers within Inde and abroad.  Our design maintains the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape while showcasing some of the more impressive features of current-day Wurm.  It goes even further to cater to the inquisitive minds and inexperience of new players.  From a community workshop, to an elegant yet rustic inn; from a role-play, trader equipped tavern, to a somber memorial for our beloved Oracle; from a nature-enclosed prayer circle, to the tall ancient forest--this design has the makings for a classic, yet impressive deed.

Independence is a respected and experienced server.  The Howl should portray these qualities right out-of-the-gate.  This is an opportunity for the venerable king to have a new beginning.  We hope you enjoy our design as much as we do.

 

Quick Overview:


Wolfsbane Tavern - A roleplay decorated tavern with chairs, tables, fireplace, a bar with stools, a ‘bartender’ npc behind the bar, and a trader npc upstairs.


Thatched Roof Inn – An inn with beds, chests, a bridge to Divine Grove, two bridges to Iron Fires Workshop, and decorated with fireplaces and various other objects.  There is a mailbox outside of the inn.


Iron Fires Workshop – A functional workshop with forges, ovens, smelters, floor looms, practice dolls, bsbs, and large crates.  The workshop has a cat-walk on the second floor and is to be decorated with flags and various other containers and objects.


Divine Grove – An outside prayer circle connected to the Thatched Roof Inn by bridge.  The prayer circle is designed for the three original white-light deities: Fo, Magranon, and Vynora.  The overall domain should be Vynora.  Player deity altars can be added if desired.


Oracle Overwatch – A monument to the beloved Oracle.  Encircled with tall hedges, and decorated with small fruit trees and benches.


Huge Epic Portal – A huge epic portal close to the token.


Beast Yard – A 6x5 enchanted pin for new players to breed/groom/contain their animals.


Fruitvale – Fruit trees and grape bushes next to the Beast Yard that serve for harvesting fruits.


Timber Hills – An area of wild trees that encompasses the eastern half of the deed.  This is here to maintain the natural look of the region, whilst providing an area for new players to botanize and forage.


The deed is designed to have various signs planted to denote what the specific areas are used for to help new players find their way.  The entire deed will be trimmed to lawn, with the only “grass” areas being trees which won’t be toggled for cutting.

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Howl Entry 3

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Spoiler

 

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As I hope you see, I wanted to do a medieval town thing, but the houswall-limit was hard, so I didnt really achieve what I wanted to. A small cramped town with a looming castle. Well, it ended a lot more modest. Medieval meets street cafe. On the bright side, newbies won't get confused where to leave the deed.

Well there is a GM Keep, where the poor guys can hide from demanding players and throw stones at them if they show up, a temple with the 3 main gods, a traderbuilding for 2 traders disguised as a smithy and a tailorshop, an inn and a farm house and thats it I think.

Oh that garden thing on top: I could provide the scorpion hota-statue, I still have one lying around as a lenghty loan. If you disband the deed I want it back though, heh. A deer would be  a lot better, but I dont have one.
If the porticullis on the highway should pose a problem for passerbyes, I could remove them. Somehow.

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How long will the voting period last?  Is this being done in stages, like after one period of voting the 2 least favorable are eliminated, giving people the opportunity to recast their votes for the remaining 2?  What kind of rules are there?

Edited by Slickshot

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6 hours ago, Slickshot said:

How long will the voting period last?  Is this being done in stages, like after one period of voting the 2 least favorable are eliminated, giving people the opportunity to recast their votes for the remaining 2?  What kind of rules are there?

I am wandering the same as well. 

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25 minutes ago, Zachariah said:

I am wandering the same as well. 

Well it would make sense to clear the lower 2 choices after a period of time and start a final round to give people the option to vote for 1 of 2 designs.  Makes sense as more votes are used and not thrown away that way.

Edited by Slickshot

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I argue the image galleries arent obvious enough :S Maybe hide the images in a spoiler instead? I noticed there was some confusion about how to see more pictures of designs.

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10 hours ago, Journeya said:

I argue the image galleries arent obvious enough :S Maybe hide the images in a spoiler instead? I noticed there was some confusion about how to see more pictures of designs.

Yeah several people said the layout didn't make sense to them.  Not to mention we didn't get to choose which of our screenshots was used as our main image (psychology would say that initial perception is important).

Edited by Slickshot
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I agree completely.  I felt there should have been more guidelines on presentation too - I thought most of the written descriptions were excellent, but when the graphics are of difference sizes and compositions, it's impossible not to be unconsciously impacted in your choice.  That's why magazines (remember them?) put millions into glossy cover art.   Remember there are no losers - and everyone did a good job.  :ph34r:

 

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Just adding the note from the news that relates to this:

 

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Design a starter deed

I forgot to give an end date to the competition last week, so it will run until the 28th, and will be announced on the 29th in the news.

 

Edited by Journeya

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There are only 3 choices or do nothing.  Not sure why there would need to be another vote.  I'm sure whoever wins will be glad to get started working on the project and getting all the help they can for it.  It will be nice to see them get finished as well.

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On 2016-04-15 at 0:58 AM, Slickshot said:

 Is this being done in stages, like after one period of voting the 2 least favorable are eliminated, giving people the opportunity to recast their votes for the remaining 2?  What kind of rules are there?

why?

there is 3 entries to cast vote on

you see when day come who the winner is and who came 2nd and 3rd 

at least its clear to me so dont understand why there should be need for more after the voting- day is up??

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1 hour ago, Maiya said:

why?

there is 3 entries to cast vote on

you see when day come who the winner is and who came 2nd and 3rd 

at least its clear to me so dont understand why there should be need for more after the voting- day is up??

The idea behind that works like this:  say 80 people from Inde cast a vote for the 4 diff choices.  At the end two of those choices are going to be the favorites, while the remaining two are not.  If another round took place then the people who voted for the least favorite choices would have another chance to vote for one of the two favorites.  

 

Take the current poll for example:  Option 1 has 44% of the votes while Option 2 (runner up) has 28%.  Neither one of these numbers is over 50%, so neither one has the real majority.  IF the final contest was only between the two favorites then you'd see a true majority reached of over 50%.  That's the logic behind a second round, to make sure the majority of people are satisfied with the winning design.  It doesn't really matter now, because Retro already announced the deadline, but you wanted the explanation so there it is. :)

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I have been lurking and watching this potential project with interest. My deed (Muddyfeet's Boatworks - Kyrmius) is just down the hill from The Howl, however I will be turning over the deed to inhabitants of Indy sometime this summer and departing the server, so my vote is "Abstain from voting" as I feel it's unfair of me to vote considering my soon departure.

Edited by geode
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Let me be the first to congratulate Howl Entry 1.  Is obvious this is the winner as voting has all but stagnated. Poll has been up for 10 days and seems to have run its course.

So grats to you on your fine design.

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How soon will we see the new design in reality?  I'm excited to walk through it!  Might even have to create another alt! ;-)

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Not sure why the first entry won this..it looks very boring to me worse then the original Howl

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2 hours ago, Flylo said:

Not sure why the first entry won this..it looks very boring to me worse then the original Howl

Oh yeah?  Which would you have chosen?

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On 4/25/2016 at 5:39 AM, Magykal said:

How soon will we see the new design in reality?  I'm excited to walk through it!  Might even have to create another alt! ;-)

Retro is going through some things IRL and he said that it will be ready to start construction soon. 

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So to bump an old thread. I am proud to announce that the N. Indy Alliance have finished building it (with the help of Logi, last minute who helped us with a few things beyond our power). I recommend everyone go take a look at it. It truly is am amazing piece of work. 

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An aerial for you all sneakers that check this subforum (hoping to convince retro to use something like this in the weekly news post ;) )

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How to make your own road-hearts;

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The "center" one can be paved corner in either of the lower corners. Repeat as many times as wished, with whichever paving materials you wish. Do take note that it requires at least two different paving styles to look "proper" though. Connect up to your regular roadwork by paving the corners at the opposite side of your heart with the main roadwork material. (As an example, there are cobble stone corners at the bottom of the lowest heart, and on top of the top one.)

 

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Also, pls debs gib red roadwork material. pls.

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