Exterior house decoration

Discussion in 'Housing & Lots' started by Lord Melvek, Dec 22, 2013.

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  1. Lord Melvek

    Lord Melvek Avatar

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    We need more ideas for exterior house decorations.

    First, I would love to have access to a large variety of trees for my lot. And when I say trees I'm talking about real trees in the ground and not a pot of plant. This would be a nice concept for exterior decoration.

    We need many kinds that we can grow or dig out from the forest or even buy from the add-on store. Each kind of trees should be available per region/climate so we do not end with a nortern village with a mix of pine and palm trees.

    I know we will have weather in the game but i didnt´t read anything about seasons yet. So natually, if we have seasons in place, my maple tree will go from green to red to almost nothing except leaves on the ground and covered in snow during winter.
     
  2. High Baron O`Sullivan

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  3. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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    Great! My dog needs somewhere to go off of my property! ;)
     
  4. Lord Melvek

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    The decoration tool must be able to change the height of the trees.
     
  5. Mystic

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    With permission from Lord Melvek to keep things on the forum clean, I've modified the title to include all ideas for exterior house deco ideas.

    That being said, I'd love to see things like water wells. :D
    [​IMG]
     
  6. Mystic

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    Cherry Blossoms <3

    [​IMG]
     
  7. Ao Soliwilos

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    It would be nice with both water wells and trees. I think it might be easier for them to make some trees in different heights than giving us a tool to resize them with.

    How about a gazebo?

    Fish pond with a small bridge?
     
  8. Mystic

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    I'm kinda itching with ideas now if I had a city lot and a smaller house to put on it *bites nails*
     
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  9. Lord Melvek

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    Aye I'm thinking the same thing Mystic. No need to have the biggest house per lot size. I could get myself that Knight keep on town or city lot, 5 story basement and plenty of room for exterior decoration.
     
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  10. Sir Bradley White

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  11. Lord Melvek

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    Vine yard for your own wine and vine on walls!
     
  12. Lord Melvek

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    For evil characters we need black or dead trees, spider webs, dead rotten gardens and dead field without any grass. Just plain dirt, rock and gravel. Rusted gates with dead or poisonous vines.
     
  13. Beaumaris

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    I really like the ideas above for trees, wishing well, vines, and coi pond.
     
  14. Lord Melvek

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    We need different kind of gargoyles for our keeps and towers
    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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    Excellent! I will add we also need lions too.
     
  16. Lord Melvek

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    Aye check this out!
    [​IMG]
     
  17. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    The Ultima games used a variety of fountains, statues, (including lions) and trees and bushes. I think a hedge-maze garden would be fun if we could design the shape of the maze ourselves. I'd like to point out that a lattice roof over the garden area may be an important option for those who don't want others to spy the path from a high camera angle.
    Also, I just realized, a city lot could fit 3 or 4 village basements underneath it in the various corners of it's lot. I would love to see having the option to have separate, disjointed basements in various areas of a larger lot. I was first imagining a giant garden replacing a house in a city lot, with several entrances scattered throughout the maze to various types of basements. But there's no reason the same couldn't be done within a baron's home or Lord of the Manor house, having various secret doors and rooms..
    That of course, leads to the idea of a locked shed or outhouse exterior decor, which actually functions as a basement entrance as well.
     
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  18. redfish

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    If we're talking about exterior decoration, we should include various ways trees would have been used decoratively.

    Besides hedgerows, there are a lot of different forms of topiary, including ones that look good even without a lot of yard space; for instance, nestled against the wall for ornamentation.

    A column topiary is one shaped in a column, long or short, sometimes wider and sometimes thinner, and they would be used for a hedgerows. But several could also be arranged in a spaced row nestled against a wall to ornament the wall, like I suggested, or on the other side of a path, to mark the path's edge. The following pic is of one in a pot, and it certainly can be used in an ornamented pot, but if its against the wall, it would also work planted directly in the ground,

    [​IMG]

    Then there are a few other types of designs, and two that were common in the medieval garden.

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    These are from an exhibit at the NY met museum on medieval gardens. In the first photo, the first two shapes are as a standard, and the last is an estrade. The second photo is of another standard form. Both types of topiary could be used to decorate a path or an entrance.

    Plus, in the Middle Ages, another form of training trees was perfected called espalier, where the growth of branches were controlled with a fence, a wall, or trellis, to shape them in a decorative form,

    [​IMG] [​IMG][​IMG]

    Often these were fruit trees, like the pear and apple trees shown above. A lot of topiaries also had fruit on them, or other parts that could be used for culinary purposes, so had a double use in addition to their use for ornamentation. Myrtle, and bay laurel, for instance, could be used for a variety of purposes; both for their leaves and fruit.

    I hope the devs will also figure out a way to include placeable acloves, both interior and exterior. They probably present a problem, because they need a space carved out for them, but they serve a number of uses, including for benches, fountains, statuary, and even for topiary or other types of greenery,

    [​IMG] [​IMG][​IMG] [​IMG]

    Besides set in alcoves, there are other ways to put fountains on the wall, with a wall mount, that makes it look like an alcove, but with a flat back, or simply with a spout and a basin,

    A lot of times, these were drinking fountains, or used to collect water.


    Ultima IX had a lot of nice assets for fountainheads :)
     
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  19. redfish

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    The first photograph is I think the same as the second example of espalier I referenced, you can see here the wires that are being used to shape the branches.

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    That's a pear tree. Some graphical charts for reference,

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    This is how it looks when made into a fence,

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    On this subject, there's another pruning method called pollarding and coppicing that should be mentioned. Coppicing cuts the trees to ground level, so the branches grow from the ground level, and pollarding is similar, except it starts from a longer trunk and is not at ground level.
    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Here's a page with some photos of pollarded trees, and also some that were pleached. Pleaching is interleaving the branches together so they can be connected, like in a hedge.

    Pleaching and espalier can be combined to produce interesting designs, like arches. Here's a Telegraph article with an image gallery.

    [​IMG]
     
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  20. redfish

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    Here's an example of a medieval-era fountain that's not in a full carved alcove, but still has an area inset for it in the stone brick -- this is in Rhodes --

    [​IMG]

    And a fancier well than the example from someone else abovein the middle of a palace courtyard in Siena, Italy, and one in a castle in Rome,

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    And a well in a cloister in Urbino,

    [​IMG]
     
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