So here I find myself, a day-off work and I decide to spend it continuing my struggle to redesign what was my evil mage tower (which I will be moving to Felucca). But I've got "designer's block" and thought I would ramble on the forum for a bit. And consider this fair warning - will probably be long and winding post.
I've been fairly inactive in UO for the past five years, but I've never hesitated to keep at least two of my accounts permanently active. I just couldn't stand the idea of letting my houses decay!
So now that I'm back and exploring all the new content I figured it's time for a redesign of what was previously my "evil mage house". It was starting to look like an episode of hoarders, with xmas gifts, resources, chests and crap stacked on every open floor tile. Hard to keep that evil aura when you have xmas stockings hung by the chimney with care.
As I continue to struggle with my design (three weeks and counting), I became curious about how other people go about redesigning their home? What are you motives? When does it become time for a change?
Generally once I get a house I'm happy with (which takes anywhere from a few months to a year of design and tweaking) I stick with it. Until there is that one day when inspiration or necessity hits me to try something else (like when the elf expansion introduced new tilesets).
1st Step - what kind of rooms do I need? Rune library, crafts room? smithy? etc. There is no guarantee I will fit all this into a house, but it's a start.
2nd Step - look at the wall tiles that are available, pick one and begin (I have my favorites though I try to use other wall tiles to challenge myself sometimes).
3rd Step - the layout. For me, this never goes as planned. I just start plunking down walls and floor tiles and see what happens. Yes I have a basic idea when I start and style (which is to make the houes as big and open as I can), but for the most part as I start putting things down, I accidentally stumble across a look. That's when inspiration hits me and I go back and start re-building based on that new design element I accidentally discovered....but even then the process is ever evolving. I do find that staircases play an extremely important part - it's like the anchor of my design.
If I get stuck at any point I will grudgingly run around my shard or other shards trying to get inspired by either in game designs (I love the hedgemaze) or player designs No I have never used another houses design, but I have taken elements and either incorporated them or improved upon them (at least I think it's an improvement). But at the end of the day, I always try and do something different then anyone else - which is tricky as there is some serious talent out there.
One thing I find though, is I definitely have a style - a common theme if you will, that no matter how hard I try, I can't get away from.
1) Favorite wall tiles - I love the dark "AoS" tile set, the classic "tower/keep/castle" grey from the old classic days (all the wonderful curving and diagnol pieces leave so much flexibility - and challenge). And of course, I've been roleplaying elves and drow since I started this game so I was in heaven when the elf expansion came out with all the tree roof pieces (which I use as hedges), and the elegant wall tiles.
2) Basic layout - try though I may, I just can't bring myself to waste space by using the roof tiles - though I love them dearly, I can't get past the idea that I'm losing an entire floor of space to roof tiles. So no matter what happens, I always use a design that gives me almost maximum floor tiles on every floor of the house. That's what I'm struggling with now, is using a design that doesn't care about maximizing floor tiles.
3) Practicality. I've never been a fan of the homes that just pile every keepsake into a museum/storage facility style. I pick a few pieces and make sure they have a nice spot in the home. So every home has some practicality but with a theme. I.e. yes everyone needs a forge, but no I'm not just going to plop one into the livingroom - that forge needs to be in a dedicated smithy - either a basement with an opening or some airy room facing out to the freshair - not the roof? Who is going to haul all those ingots up four flights of stairs?
4) Symmetry - I don't know what this says about me, but I just can't get away from making my houses symmetrical. With my current design I'm trying to get away from that (as it really is quite limiting for design), but I find I just keep going back to symmetry.
5) And lastly overall feel of the house. I want my house to stand out and be different. I see lots of well designed cozy homes (well, a few - I won't say a lot), so I stay away from that and try to do things other people aren't doing.
So, what's your process? What's your style? And no, you can't get the last 15 minutes of your life back - you were warned
P.S. I really hope it didn't take you 15 minutes to read that - try it again without moving your lips while you read
I've been fairly inactive in UO for the past five years, but I've never hesitated to keep at least two of my accounts permanently active. I just couldn't stand the idea of letting my houses decay!
So now that I'm back and exploring all the new content I figured it's time for a redesign of what was previously my "evil mage house". It was starting to look like an episode of hoarders, with xmas gifts, resources, chests and crap stacked on every open floor tile. Hard to keep that evil aura when you have xmas stockings hung by the chimney with care.
As I continue to struggle with my design (three weeks and counting), I became curious about how other people go about redesigning their home? What are you motives? When does it become time for a change?
Generally once I get a house I'm happy with (which takes anywhere from a few months to a year of design and tweaking) I stick with it. Until there is that one day when inspiration or necessity hits me to try something else (like when the elf expansion introduced new tilesets).
1st Step - what kind of rooms do I need? Rune library, crafts room? smithy? etc. There is no guarantee I will fit all this into a house, but it's a start.
2nd Step - look at the wall tiles that are available, pick one and begin (I have my favorites though I try to use other wall tiles to challenge myself sometimes).
3rd Step - the layout. For me, this never goes as planned. I just start plunking down walls and floor tiles and see what happens. Yes I have a basic idea when I start and style (which is to make the houes as big and open as I can), but for the most part as I start putting things down, I accidentally stumble across a look. That's when inspiration hits me and I go back and start re-building based on that new design element I accidentally discovered....but even then the process is ever evolving. I do find that staircases play an extremely important part - it's like the anchor of my design.
If I get stuck at any point I will grudgingly run around my shard or other shards trying to get inspired by either in game designs (I love the hedgemaze) or player designs No I have never used another houses design, but I have taken elements and either incorporated them or improved upon them (at least I think it's an improvement). But at the end of the day, I always try and do something different then anyone else - which is tricky as there is some serious talent out there.
One thing I find though, is I definitely have a style - a common theme if you will, that no matter how hard I try, I can't get away from.
1) Favorite wall tiles - I love the dark "AoS" tile set, the classic "tower/keep/castle" grey from the old classic days (all the wonderful curving and diagnol pieces leave so much flexibility - and challenge). And of course, I've been roleplaying elves and drow since I started this game so I was in heaven when the elf expansion came out with all the tree roof pieces (which I use as hedges), and the elegant wall tiles.
2) Basic layout - try though I may, I just can't bring myself to waste space by using the roof tiles - though I love them dearly, I can't get past the idea that I'm losing an entire floor of space to roof tiles. So no matter what happens, I always use a design that gives me almost maximum floor tiles on every floor of the house. That's what I'm struggling with now, is using a design that doesn't care about maximizing floor tiles.
3) Practicality. I've never been a fan of the homes that just pile every keepsake into a museum/storage facility style. I pick a few pieces and make sure they have a nice spot in the home. So every home has some practicality but with a theme. I.e. yes everyone needs a forge, but no I'm not just going to plop one into the livingroom - that forge needs to be in a dedicated smithy - either a basement with an opening or some airy room facing out to the freshair - not the roof? Who is going to haul all those ingots up four flights of stairs?
4) Symmetry - I don't know what this says about me, but I just can't get away from making my houses symmetrical. With my current design I'm trying to get away from that (as it really is quite limiting for design), but I find I just keep going back to symmetry.
5) And lastly overall feel of the house. I want my house to stand out and be different. I see lots of well designed cozy homes (well, a few - I won't say a lot), so I stay away from that and try to do things other people aren't doing.
So, what's your process? What's your style? And no, you can't get the last 15 minutes of your life back - you were warned
P.S. I really hope it didn't take you 15 minutes to read that - try it again without moving your lips while you read