OOC: Halfling 8.0 Build Idea Thread

[NotEvilAtAll 10906]

So, us wee folks have a plot of land to do prebuilding on until October 10^th. I’ve already started to do some suggestions on the build plot with colored wool, but I’m fresh out of ideas. I should probably wait for the other builders to log online and see what they think before I suggest anything more, so I’ma go and do brainstorming instead.

So, you know the drill. Flood all the builder folks with suggestions until they physically can’t build them all by October 10^th.

 

We have three clearings (unless we want more, that is). I’ve only done wool suggestion work on the first clearing.

For the yellow clearing, I think we should do kinda overgrown sorta stuff, tie into how it’s completely surrounded by trees.

For the red clearing, we can make use of it’s sloped terrain to do farms and burrows alternating like in my forum profile picture.

For the blue clearing, we can have the village entrance, tavern, and other important bits since it’s closest to the main roads. Also we can cram a few burrows in there for important fellas.

 

I want more ideas though.

SO GIMMIE IDEAS AHHHH

And feedback too. That’s also appreciated.

[Jentos 9422]

Look up Newfoundland viking hovels and settlements. 

 

[Hobbs_Burrows 497]

As someone who has built Halfling villages before, I will offer some general advice which would be wise to follow as the village is built. This won’t be in any real order, just things in the order that I think of them.

 

I think the most important thing is to have an area which can be described as the hub of the village. This is where almost all gatherings generally take place – as in reality very little time is spent inside one’s burrow which effectively becomes merely a safe place to store personals and entertain guests in private. The two most important elements to this hub are the inn and the storage burrow, which should be located very close to each other. A nice bonus is an area to gather outside in this hub, such as some seating underneath a tent. This hub should be located either centrally or at the entrance of the village, it depends on what works best for the land. 

 

For a Halfling village, less is often more. It is tempting to pre-build an expanse of burrows or cram as many as you can into an environment which appears like a slum. But don’t underestimate the value in allowing the community to organically grow. A village which has been built gradually by its citizens is often more fondly remembered.

 

Slightly following on from my previous reference to slum-like dwellings, I think it is important to retain an open, countryside feeling. Halflings like to have space away from neighbours rather than be crammed in. I don’t think it’s aesthetically pleasing to walk down every road in the village and not be able to enjoy the sights of the village because dirt blocks your view from all the burrows crammed right up to the road. This applies to trees, which should be kept to a minimum within the village in order to retain an open feeling.

 

Conversely, it is often appealing for the village to be surrounded by trees to promote the feeling of seclusion and peace.

 

Avoid allowing people to construct their own lavish burrows thus neglecting the actual village. Remember the first iteration of Dunshire, where people were let loose with creative mode, without a plan, and built luxurious burrows for themselves without even an inn or storage burrow. Burrows are always of secondary importance to the hub of the village.

 

Have lots of hidden secrets and easter eggs throughout the village, and use the underground space nicely.

 

A water feature, be it a river or a lake, is a village staple.

 

Farms are a tricky one to balance. On the one hand, we are an agricultural race and it feels right to have bountiful, sweeping fields of crops and farm land. On the other hand, these things take up a lot of space. In Branborough, we had large wheat fields a short walk away outside the village, and had some very small fenced off farms dotted throughout the village. In Dunshire, farms were on top of some burrows. So there are solutions. It really depends on the plot, but I would suggest not placing huge priority on farm space.

 

Let people contribute, but make sure one person has the overarching vision of the village to act as the driving force. Too many cooks will spoil the broth, and leave you with a mish-mash of peoples individual thoughts and fancies.

 

And finally, enjoy it and don’t stress. Halfling builds always turn out to be the best on the server. And even if things aren’t quite right once built, you can always change it and improve it. 

[NotEvilAtAll 10906]

52 minutes ago, Hobbs_Burrows said:

As someone who has built Halfling villages before, I will offer some general advice which would be wise to follow as the village is built. This won’t be in any real order, just things in the order that I think of them.

 

I think the most important thing is to have an area which can be described as the hub of the village. This is where almost all gatherings generally take place – as in reality very little time is spent inside one’s burrow which effectively becomes merely a safe place to store personals and entertain guests in private. The two most important elements to this hub are the inn and the storage burrow, which should be located very close to each other. A nice bonus is an area to gather outside in this hub, such as some seating underneath a tent. This hub should be located either centrally or at the entrance of the village, it depends on what works best for the land. 

 

For a Halfling village, less is often more. It is tempting to pre-build an expanse of burrows or cram as many as you can into an environment which appears like a slum. But don’t underestimate the value in allowing the community to organically grow. A village which has been built gradually by its citizens is often more fondly remembered.

 

Slightly following on from my previous reference to slum-like dwellings, I think it is important to retain an open, countryside feeling. Halflings like to have space away from neighbours rather than be crammed in. I don’t think it’s aesthetically pleasing to walk down every road in the village and not be able to enjoy the sights of the village because dirt blocks your view from all the burrows crammed right up to the road. This applies to trees, which should be kept to a minimum within the village in order to retain an open feeling.

 

Conversely, it is often appealing for the village to be surrounded by trees to promote the feeling of seclusion and peace.

 

Avoid allowing people to construct their own lavish burrows thus neglecting the actual village. Remember the first iteration of Dunshire, where people were let loose with creative mode, without a plan, and built luxurious burrows for themselves without even an inn or storage burrow. Burrows are always of secondary importance to the hub of the village.

 

Have lots of hidden secrets and easter eggs throughout the village, and use the underground space nicely.

 

A water feature, be it a river or a lake, is a village staple.

 

Farms are a tricky one to balance. On the one hand, we are an agricultural race and it feels right to have bountiful, sweeping fields of crops and farm land. On the other hand, these things take up a lot of space. In Branborough, we had large wheat fields a short walk away outside the village, and had some very small fenced off farms dotted throughout the village. In Dunshire, farms were on top of some burrows. So there are solutions. It really depends on the plot, but I would suggest not placing huge priority on farm space.

 

Let people contribute, but make sure one person has the overarching vision of the village to act as the driving force. Too many cooks will spoil the broth, and leave you with a mish-mash of peoples individual thoughts and fancies.

 

And finally, enjoy it and don’t stress. Halfling builds always turn out to be the best on the server. And even if things aren’t quite right once built, you can always change it and improve it. 

This is some good advice. I’ll take it to heart. We have the space in 8.0 to not cram ourselves in like a slum, so we might as well make sure we do that!

 

For the central hub, I’m thinking of a tavern right next to the storage burrow (perhaps mixed with a sort of market thing, for exchanges between Elves and Halflings since the Elves will be relying on us to make a lot of their food) and then 3-4 good burrows or so.

 

For the farms, I’ll try and see if we can mix them up with burrows, give it a nice countryside feeling. We have a clearing we can devote just to that, with rows of burrows and crops alternating as the path meanders down to the sea.

 

The village will be completely surrounded by very large 100 block tall trees, since it’s in a large forest. Should help us feel properly small compared to the world if the trees tower above us so much.

 

And I’ll try to make sure that we all have a good grasp on the big picture of the village, though it might be hard with multiple builders all with their own ideas. We should be able to stick to a general theme, at least.

[SoulReapingWolf 2281]

Would love to see a windmill, some silos and maybe a bakery. You guys are known for your farming & food making. So it makes sense to have some buildings related to that. 

Dunno if you are interested but you could also have some stables for ponies and a small lumberyard as well. 

But I also love @Hobbs_Burrows idea of incorporating water into your village. I love water features and could also see a small place for halflings to hold fishing competitions or just simply sitting and spending endless hours fishing.

[SoulReapingWolf 2281]

Maybe with the change of ecosystem you guys are building in there could be a slight change in the types of burrows as well. Maybe you make one or two burrows out of tree stumps as that slight change.

[NotEvilAtAll 10906]

3 hours ago, SoulReapingWolf said:

Would love to see a windmill, some silos and maybe a bakery. You guys are known for your farming & food making. So it makes sense to have some buildings related to that. 

Dunno if you are interested but you could also have some stables for ponies and a small lumberyard as well. 

But I also love @Hobbs_Burrows idea of incorporating water into your village. I love water features and could also see a small place for halflings to hold fishing competitions or just simply sitting and spending endless hours fishing.

I think we might try and attach a stables to the tavern somehow. Shouldn’t be too difficult since it’ll likely be built as an above-ground building like the Green Dragon Inn is in LOTR.

 

Windmill is planned as well, to be used for item storage. I don’t know if we’ll have a bakery, but if one of the builders wants to make a burrow that doubles as a bakery, they totally can. We’ll have a lot of farms at the very least, and with plenty of space to make burrows larger than 1-2 rooms, most burrows will have a decent sized kitchen.

 

As for water features, I haven’t laid out much other than a small stream that @Kaiser suggested. I think we could put a small lake in the middle of the smallest clearing if we want to, however.

2 hours ago, SoulReapingWolf said:

Maybe with the change of ecosystem you guys are building in there could be a slight change in the types of burrows as well. Maybe you make one or two burrows out of tree stumps as that slight change.

Already have one tree burrow planned to be prebuilt. There’ll probably be more made once 8.0 is up and we start inhabiting the place. We have a big ol’ section of trees that’ll be left untouched in our prebuilding so we have a lot of options.