Do you guys test out your builds in creative first ?

[Marko90s]

I'm not posting any pictures of my builds so I'm not sure if this is the right forum... But I just wanna ask - HOW do you guys make such amazing builds in this game? I saw lots of starter houses or small projects here that look waaaaay better than everything I've ever built (although I'm relatively new to this game)... But same goes for Minecraft which I am actually experienced in. I saw some builds on Youtube and I'm surprised those guys are not architects in real life. I always play around in creative first because I don't wanna spend hours gathering materials and then end up hating it... So I was wondering, do you guys do the same? My builds are always either too boxy, or the roof looks horrible, or the colors don't match, etc... And yes - I am familiar with depth, chiseling, etc... But somehow it just never works out. Why is everyone else so good? How do you go about planning your builds? Do you plan the interior first and then build around it or vice versa? Please tell me your thought process because I really wanna get better at building in this game! Thanks!

[lawn]

For me, I keep a graph notebook around with me, and when I get an idea I can do a quick sketch and ensure the sizing will work. Then I do a rough test in creative to figure out the colors and flow of the build. Then if the blk pallet isn't too impossible to gather, I can make it in survival. As for interior vs exterior first, it depends on the idea I'm excited for. If it's furniture, I start with interior; if it's a building style I want to try, exterior first.

          

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums!

3 hours ago, Marko90s said:

How do you go about planning your builds? Do you plan the interior first and then build around it or vice versa?

I kinda just...make it up as I go along. I'll have a general style in mind when I start building, but for VS a lot of my choices end up being based on the materials I have available near my base. For example, building a Spanish-style villa probably isn't going to work if there's nothing but basalt, slate, and shale for miles around. A foreboding castle would probably be a better choice.

Typically I'll build the exterior shell first, then finish the interior. However, during this process I also try to make sure that the design makes sense. That is, a kitchen area will be near a dining/general hangout area, as well as have convenient access to a cellar to make retrieving cooking ingredients simple. If there's a fireplace and the climate is colder, it might be ideal to put the fireplace in the middle of the structure and build the living spaces around it. The design won't actually provide extra warmth, but it'll feel like it realistically could. Likewise, if building in a hot environment, having large windows and doorways will help the building look like an inviting place to cool off, rather than a stuffy structure that retains heat.

3 hours ago, Marko90s said:

My builds are always either too boxy, or the roof looks horrible, or the colors don't match, etc... And yes - I am familiar with depth, chiseling, etc... But somehow it just never works out. Why is everyone else so good?

Never let comparing yourself to others become a habit. It's quite a destructive one. It's fine to look at the work of others to draw inspiration and learn how to do stuff, same as it's good to examine your own work to see where improvements could be made. There will, however, always be someone else with more skill, not to mention that you yourself will have your own individual style. The world would be boring if everyone were the same!

Mistakes will happen, yes, but that's just part of the learning process. A mistake is only a failure, I think, if one doesn't learn from said mistake.

[Nathan Flaminio]

I build for neccessity first. Everything was Rammed Earth, small with only what we needed at the time. Then expanded as we progressed. I found two giant Walnut trees that became the first floor of our "home" after being well into the Bronze Age. Still, everything stayed very basic/blocky. 

It wasn't until we got to the current endgame that we really started building for aesthetics, rather than neccessity. Still, nothing was really planned out. Just picked a location, and what the building was going to be used for, and got to building. 

I can understand someone's desire to build something that looks nice, but i'm more about functionality. You can always go back and change things later. 

[Shoom]

For my first build, which is my main house, I started out following a starter house build tutorial on YouTube for Minecraft but since these are two fundamentally different games the house quickly started mutating to facilitate my needs, you need a lot more space in Vintage Story, and the blocks available to you look completely different from the other game.

Over time as I found new blocks I redid parts of the house, I built several extensions, when I was bored in winter just trying to pass the time I started chiseling corners and stuff. When I started out I felt your frustration too, 100% I never really played Minecraft, I had no prior experience, I followed more tutorials, looked at images for inspiration, both real-world and other Vintage Story/Minecraft builds, I built a small folder for inspiration. Trial and error, I've basically torn down and rebuilt my entire house 3 times at this point, using different wood types, different stone, dirt, daub, anything I could find as I progressed and "unlocked" new blocks, as well when new things were released.

I've attached a shoddy picture of a overly crammed together evolution of said house, the result of 2 real-world years of on and off gameplay, trial and error, hopefully it can inspire and encourage you and anyone else that feel like they might be struggling with build motivation. (once 1.22 releases I will have to rebuild it again because of the changes to windmill behavior)

So in summation, just play the game and try to survive and explore, build a basic starter house, with time as you progress in the game and find new blocks, make changes to the house, try out new blocks, expand the house when the need arises, look for inspiration online and have fun! 

Edited February 14 by Shoom

[EnbyKaiju]

I don't do full builds in creative, but I do test building techniques & material palettes. Usually if I see something cool in the real world, or when watching a movie and think that might be fun to try down the line I'll mock-up the basic principles in creative and go from there. It really helps since the worlds I tend to like to build on most are where it's 90% ocean, so there's a lot of time dedicated to finding materials, so I have to be sure that the thing I want actually works first. It also lets me play with mods to decide if I want to bring them into the game or not.

As a result my creative world is a mish-mash of ideas taken from all-over. I'm really looking forward to pushing forward with my Japanese castle town build in the next update, so as a result I've got part-built things that will give me a place to start that and give me an overall idea of scale I'll need to be working with. e.g. how big do I want the castle? What are the best ways to do streets & walls? Does this lighthouse work vs this one? Can I stick to the Edo period style, or do I need to move up to the Meiji period to give me what I need for this idea?

A bonus of doing it this way I've found is that I can get a general idea of the space I need, both internal and external. So when I get around to building it in the actual game I can have a lot more freedom of layouts, and enjoy working all the pieces together.

In the end Vintage Story is played how you want to play it. But take it at your pace. Everything will look blocky to start with, it's a block game, but it's where you take it afterwards that matters. Shoom made a very good point too; focus on the survival, and as you go just keep tinkering until it all feels right. VS is a long-term game, not meant to be rushed, allow yourself that time to make something that feels right to you. And if it doesn't work out? You just learned something for the next build.

Have fun with it all, and don't try and compare yourself to others. We all play, and create art, in our own ways //content.invisioncic.com/r268468/emoticons/smile.png