Merch Gwyar's Blog

I think you should get a balance in your house.I think you should remove the room that is cut off in the minimap and move it next (wat I asume is) your fighting room. Therefore you have a square shape. Then all the downstairs rooms that aren't in the square should be removed. Therefore you can move them upstairs so you have a repeat of downstairs. Then if you ever need to add more rooms you could add wings down left and right side leading north with nothing above them.I have the workshop close to the entrance but out of the way so when I am hosting parties it is not the main attraction.That's just my personal opinion that is kinder on your wallet than the method I use :) = Audio =Edit: Use this program to show your current house so we know what we are working with :P

That is a really snazzy programme, but my work computer only has Flash 6, so it won't work. I'll use it when I get home to show you.Thanks for your thoughts thus far.

That is a really snazzy programme, but my work computer only has Flash 6, so it won't work. I'll use it when I get home to show you.Thanks for your thoughts thus far.

Okay, playing RuneScape at work, disgraceful :D = Audio =

I've always had it in the back of my mind to write an archtecture guide for the site. While I'm away this weekend and don't have all my drawing tools to hand, I'll summarise the main points, then think about your design...“A house is a machine for living in.” Le CorbusierIn RS that's even more true than real life. In a runescape house you will do lots of repetitive tasks, so consider the things you will do often and make sure there isn't an annoying amount of walking involved.Most unplanned houses end up as a slightly mediterranian layout, with a central courtyard surrounded by rooms added on an ad hoc basis. If you want an Edwardian Mansion, a Castle, a bugalow or even a small village, you can make all these things, but it requires planning, or a lot of expensive demolition. Dare to be different!Space next to the garden portal is at a premium. Work out which rooms you will run to often, and have them close at hand. Bigger gardens have more space round them, consider 1, 2, 3 and 4 garden layouts.If you have an impressive house, show it off! Long routes to 'fun' rooms (combat, games and throne) can be good.Don't compromise now at the expense of later demolition. "I cant afford it now" is a reason to do it but right later on, not to do it wrong now!Most expensive isn't always best. Choose the plants/games/combat options/wall style and so on that you actually like, not the ones that are 'the top level' ones.Consider when you will stop training construction (popular choices are 50, 75, 93 and 99) and consider your current house a work-in-progress or even a disposable temporary building until then.---Looking at Merch's current layout... downstairs bedrooms? I'd put these upstairs (one you never need to visit, the other is just for appearence-changing) and bring the study and chapel downstairs, when you get the levels, you'll often want to use your altar and make tele-tablets in the study.Put the workshop near the dinnig room, and the dining room near the portal. In a big house, your butler will be hard to find, so you'll often use the bell in the dining room to summon the servant to get planks, then go to the workshop to make flatpacks. Servants get trapped by everything, so minimise the obstacles between bell and workbench.2 staircases is a luxury, you'll have to have 4 rooms that are either skill halls or quest halls. Luxury rooms are fine, but is this what you most want to use your spare rooms on? Consider a big garden, double combat rooms, double games rooms, and other luxury options.Cook's parlour? A socialist luxury room, I like it... but it's not necessary. If it's a luxury, why not go the whole hog and build the servant their own detatched bungalow?What would your ideal house be like, and when will you stop levelling up construction?

z0mg! double post :mad:and i say to use all therooms that youll use a lot (portal chamber, altar, workshop, and the glory tele just close to the main portal :D

As requested by Audio, here's the mapping using the software on ... ermmm... a rival site as I don't know if we're allowed to mention or not...Downstairs:

Upstairs:

Okay, playing RuneScape at work, disgraceful :D = Audio =

Dinnerhour. :D

Most unplanned houses end up as a slightly mediterranian layout, with a central courtyard surrounded by rooms added on an ad hoc basis. If you want an Edwardian Mansion, a Castle, a bugalow or even a small village, you can make all these things, but it requires planning, or a lot of expensive demolition. Dare to be different!

The design seems almost accidentally 17th century to me. There was very little planning involved, as you can probably tell, except on a room by room basis involving rotation. However, when I stand in the courtyard, it recalls places like Boscobel House. Having looked at my layout in detail, I think that it's certainly different! LOL

Space next to the garden portal is at a premium. Work out which rooms you will run to often, and have them close at hand. Bigger gardens have more space round them, consider 1, 2, 3 and 4 garden layouts.

Ok, I've been having a tat following these suggestions, using the house planner that Audio found, but I've found myself in the quagmire again.Downstairs:My thoughts here are that the left-hand side is perfect. 90% of the time I'm entering my house in order to use a portal or to pray, so having them all downstairs and in the same area really works. But that's where my delight in my new design ends. I don't like the blank space between the chapel and the combat room, as I love the enclosed courtyard look, but I can't work out what to put there. The workshop might work, providing a run through from combat room to pray, if needful for combatants, but it strands it all a long way from the dining room. I do see the sense in your suggestion about having the dining room near to the workshop. I also have to work out if I'm looking at a house that would make sense in reality or in Runescape reality. I'm thinking specifically here of the workshop, with all that sawdust and sparks, right next to where people are eating. Health and safety...If the above was downstairs, then the upstairs would look like this... sort of...Yes, a complete mess and also a potentially expensive one, as I've included the costume room. One up here would mean that the one downstairs could be deleted, but the furniture in there is top of the range, purchased at bankrupting expense. I would have to give it some serious thought before I made it a (long-term) goal to move that. Also, there is a lot of repetition of rooms, not to mention the fact that you can't walk through, unless I removed the portal chambers up here once they'd been built downstairs. I did consider a series of bedrooms, but the shape of bedrooms doesn't lend itself to that. They are corner rooms, with L-shaped access.

If you have an impressive house, show it off! Long routes to 'fun' rooms (combat, games and throne) can be good.

Good tip, but I think it would seriously involve tearing my house down and starting again. (Mind you, if the portal rooms and costume rooms do end up on the chopping block, then this could be a possibility anyway.)

Don't compromise now at the expense of later demolition. "I cant afford it now" is a reason to do it but right later on, not to do it wrong now!

Wise words indeed. I'm so not used to ever having substantial gp in Runescape, that it never occurs to me that one day I will. After all, many of my skills are high enough to start bringing money in and I have bought some of my 'must-have' purchases now, like the dragonhide and the mystic blue robes. If I could determine a long-term plan of my house, then I could take it slowly, demolishing and re-building it room by room as a long-term project.

Consider when you will stop training construction (popular choices are 50, 75, 93 and 99) and consider your current house a work-in-progress or even a disposable temporary building until then.

I have actually finished. I've looked at the rooms beyond level 50 and there's nothing that I really want, so, in the rooms that I have already, I know that I can buy flatpacks off higher levelled players to furnish them as I might want.

Looking at Merch's current layout... downstairs bedrooms? I'd put these upstairs (one you never need to visit, the other is just for appearence-changing) and bring the study and chapel downstairs, when you get the levels, you'll often want to use your altar and make tele-tablets in the study.

Oh! I'd forgotten about the study when I was experimenting earlier. Would that fit in the gap between combat room and chapel? It's another L-shape, isn't it? I could stick that where the kitchen is... which further complicates things... LOL

2 staircases is a luxury, you'll have to have 4 rooms that are either skill halls or quest halls. Luxury rooms are fine, but is this what you most want to use your spare rooms on? Consider a big garden, double combat rooms, double games rooms, and other luxury options.

I'd want the staircase to be where the portal chambers and chapel are, simply because the quest hall is a portal chamber in its own right - the mounted glory ensures that. The way that my house is currently set out, I'd also need it at the other end, as half of the upstairs would be unaccessible else. Removing one set of stairs does preclude totally rearranging upstairs, but it's worth having on the drawing board.

Cook's parlour? A socialist luxury room, I like it... but it's not necessary. If it's a luxury, why not go the whole hog and build the servant their own detatched bungalow?

Rumbled... *waves a little red flag and sings Billy Bragg songs* It was built partly to assuage my guilt at having a maid and partly so that Molly (my maid at the time, I've since excruciatingly had to fire her, as I could afford a cook (who also runs to the lumberyard, bless her)) had somewhere to entertain her friends, when I was out doing stuff. Can you imagine being trapped alone in that house? You'd go insane! I also built her a bookcase for the same reason, though she appears to have just bought copies of all of my books instead of adding her own. I don't know why.

What would your ideal house be like, and when will you stop levelling up construction?

Types of room-wise, I'm there already; style - enclosed courtyard; convenience - easy access to portal chambers and chapel.Thank you for all your tips and thoughts on this.

z0mg! double post :mad:and i say to use all therooms that youll use a lot (portal chamber, altar, workshop, and the glory tele just close to the main portal :D

I've deleted one of Teacuptime's copies for him now. :D You're right, but my current design is as far from that ideal as you can get; whereas my new design is, at least, in the ballpark of this!Thank you all for taking the time to share your view on this so far. You've given me much food for thought.

I was looking through your plans and had an evaluation of them.Unless there is a need for the multiple Portal Chamber's then I do not see much need for upstairs. I therefore devised thisEvery room you have is still there just in a much more effecient and cost effective way.Then upstairs you have:Two tower like structures containing the bedroom. It may not be to you taste but I always put cost before asthetics and then find a way around :s = Audio =

You've got some good ideas there and the one with the towers is especially intriguing. I'm going to look up if there are any rules on how high you can go. You obviously couldn't place three storeys of stairs in one spot, but you could do it next door. It would be like 12th century castle living quarters. :)However, if that's a no-no, then we're back to the enclosed courtyard design. I still do like the idea of two storeys all the way around. I like your placement of the study and chapel. I wouldn't need repetition of the portal chambers, so once they are built downstairs, I could rip them out upstairs. A possibility is to put the combat and games rooms up there, along with bedrooms, which would open out those premium spots near to the entrance portal for chapel, portal chambers and study. The tower idea is truly intriguing though.

You've got some good ideas there and the one with the towers is especially intriguing. I'm going to look up if there are any rules on how high you can go. You obviously couldn't place three storeys of stairs in one spot, but you could do it next door. It would be like 12th century castle living quarters. :)However, if that's a no-no, then we're back to the enclosed courtyard design. I still do like the idea of two storeys all the way around. I like your placement of the study and chapel. I wouldn't need repetition of the portal chambers, so once they are built downstairs, I could rip them out upstairs. A possibility is to put the combat and games rooms up there, along with bedrooms, which would open out those premium spots near to the entrance portal for chapel, portal chambers and study. The tower idea is truly intriguing though.

I told you I powned :P = Audio =

Sorry to be the bringer of bad tidings...The hight limit is 1 basement, 1 ground floor, 1 upstairs floor only - so towers are out. Doddsy's idea won't work because stairs going up have to be matched by stairs going down above them. You could only build such bedroom towers by making a temporary skill/quest hall next to where you wanted the bedroom, then deleting it. These rooms would be unreachable from then on, so no costume changes with the dresser!Merch's new plan is nice, but that floating upstairs parlour isn't allowed, upstairs rooms have to be on top of downstairs rooms, fill the gap below and you are good to go though.

I told you I powned :P = Audio =

Cariad, the modern vernacular is 'pwned' not 'powned'. Please get up-to-date: Urban Dictionary*grin* PWNED!

Sorry to be the bringer of bad tidings...The hight limit is 1 basement, 1 ground floor, 1 upstairs floor only - so towers are out.

Noooo... I had plans. Oh well, I'll cross that off the options list. Thank you for letting us know.

Doddsy's idea won't work because stairs going up have to be matched by stairs going down above them. You could only build such bedroom towers by making a temporary skill/quest hall next to where you wanted the bedroom, then deleting it. These rooms would be unreachable from then on, so no costume changes with the dresser!

So there are still possibilities, but less attractive ones by the second. I still favour the two storeys around an enclosed courtyard look.

Merch's new plan is nice, but that floating upstairs parlour isn't allowed, upstairs rooms have to be on top of downstairs rooms, fill the gap below and you are good to go though.

Ok, thanks for that. Other ideas are swimming through my mind. I'm thinking of a maisonette look, where all the proper living quarters are upstairs (kitchen, dining room etc), while the useful rooms are downstairs (portal chambers, chapel etc). It's occurred to me that I don't need to have the workshop by the dining room if I have other ways of trapping the cook in it, for example, ensuring that there are no interlinking room access points, which provides me with doors that can be shut.