Hello, builders and architects! Been a long time, but now I've got something new to show! It's been in the works for months. Enjoy! A few years ago, I revamped the beloved tavern of the Vagabond Knights here on AB, The Eency Weency Spider. I've returned to it again to give it a great new look and expand the tavern's amenities. The Main Bar Here is how it looked after it's previous revamp: And now... voila! I really like the look of the Kromzek set of house items, and quickly decided that it was a good fit for The Spider's rough and tumble atmosphere. I redecked the floor with darker lumber as well, to both darken the tavern a bit and provide that satisfying wood sound as folks mill about. : ) This sign displays the bar's policy of not allowing evils and undead of any kind into the tavern, especially not vampires! It's custom made from two Freeport text signs, a couple of paintings facing eachother, and two alluring steel lanterns for the bits holding it up. And on the back you can find a handy wooden stake for enforcing said policy! Behind the bar is the tempermental Brewmatic 5000, plenty of hooch, and dispensers for tea, coffee, and hot cocoa. I knew as soon as I saw this version of the Darklight Wood Plaque, it was going into the new design. Perfect! The pillow loft was an element of Brosha's design from the days before I took up designing and maintaining this roleplay tavern. It's a favorite feature among the players who visit, and I really went all out this time, making sure you could sit quite a few folks up there, and also making the loft wrap around a bit so you can get a good view of everyone below. Another view of the loft. What's that glowy thing, you ask? More on that later... Kitchen Here's the kitchen as it was when I designed it last time. I had trouble making this kitchen look right. The room back there is impossibly long and awkward. This room tripped me up more than any other, and was the very last to be redesigned. I decided to change the shape of the room. Elevated the floor and paved it with stone to make it distinct from the rest of the tavern. The player who cooks for us on tavern nights is Serrest, and he makes the very best cheese soup in all of Qeynos, and quite possibly beyond! I made sure to represent that here in this open hearth with a bubbling pot of soup over the fire. The artwork over the hearth is a round Paineel table turned on it's side, a suggestion courtesy of Horrifica of Freeport server, I believe. Thanks! It looks fantastic. Decided Kromzek would be good to cotinue in here with, and also shorted the length of the kitchen with a false wall, which allowed me to back the dishwashing sink with the back of a Kromzek single bed. Steam rises from the water and dinnerware is scattered about. Initially, this was an open stove, of course, but someone told me they'd been pretending it was a sink, so I altered it to fit. To allow for more detail in the tavern, I've closed off the basement. But thanks to prestige housing, the basement will be built in it's own zone! The portal to it is embedded in the trapdoor. Thanks to Jazabelle for recommending I close the gaps to either side of the door. It does look better when it's closed! Casino and Billiards Room Informative and inviting signage, as well as a shrine to the the lord of luck, Bristlebane! At last! A ready-to-place pool table! Woohoo! In the previous version of the tavern, I built this aquarium out in the nook next to the attic stairs. I really liked it, and wanted to improve on the idea. So, for the casino, I decided to go all out! Doesn't show in these stills, of course, but the combination of misty tiles in front and an animated water surfaace in the back makes for a pretty convincing aquarium effect. Thanks to Winky for providing the Velious wizard spire model I was missing! Over 6000 tokens, and I missed my chance to spend them! I'm very irked about that, by the way! : ( Instead of snow flakes standing in for bubbles, I went with the house item version of the Alchemist "weapon". Improved aquarium accomplished! ...Oh, yeah. And there's a casino and some junk. Every tavern needs places where a pair of patrons can go for a quiet chat. Ever since we got the exterior view deck, I've pondered how I was going to use it with this tavern, as the actual tavern is located at 4 Bayle court, but the exterior view is the house next door! I decided on high hedges and a barrier to zooming out too easily. I think the view is vague enough to make suspending disbelief simple. This is lovely to visit when it's night! *crickets* *crickets* *owl hoot* ...*moar crickets!* Love that chandelier!
Top Floor Bar and Stage Years ago, I went with a sort of "Cheers" style bar with stools all around. Players ended up using this bar for special occasions... So I had to shoehorn in a tiny stage. I ended up realizing that most of the action was outside the bar, so I redecked the floor in wood all the way across the tavern, cut the bar down to a fraction of it's size and slid it to one end of the floor, opening up the rest for seating and entertainment! The rugs I wallpapered the angled ceiling with set this room apart from the others, and kinda match the patterns in the now unobstructed stained glass skylight. The shark fits in with the pirate-ish, nautical theme of the guild. The stage is now much larger, so large I could safely situate the piano on it and still leave plenty of room! PSTPRD Mk II So, in the second floor nook, there's THIS THING! I call it the Perfectly Safe Tavern Patron Relocator Device. ...Mark II. It enables visitors and staff to visit other areas that would be otherwise inaccessible, such as... Rooftop Veranda This furthers the illusion that the exterior is actually at the correct address. This area is also very enjoyable at night. You can zoom out and pan around quite a bit before spotting holes in the geometry. In first-person view, it's perfect. Comes complete with a deluxe firework launcher! Guaraunteed to almost never burn your house down! Oooooooh.... Ahhhhh... ??????? And now the grand finale. The teleporter takes to... Hrm, what's this? Changing rooms? Stacks of fresh towels... That couldn't mean... Oh my goodness, it must be! That's right. Swimming Pool! *gasp and boggle* This is built within the deepest and widest section of the moat around the Mage Tower in the breakout area. The water is perfectly swimmable, and the sounds are just right, day or night. Big thanks to Jazabelle who went over this tavern with a fine toothed comb and pointed out a glaringly obvious flaw that occured after the Qeynos update went live. I just did not see this huge chunk of stone work sticking through one of the swimming pool courtyard's walls! Fixed it with some careful planning to keep it all perfectly hexagonal. Originally, the diving board took up 11 items. Thanks to the building blocks, I reduced that to 5! Yay building blocks! Cannonballs are enthusiasticly encouraged. The Qeynos Claymore is an important symbol to the Vagabond Knights, as they often hold special ceremonies out at the Qeynos Claymore in North Qeynos, so I felt this fit here nicely. Yup. VK heraldry on the bottom of that pool. When it suddenly occured to me to do this with a guild heraldry tapestry, I just about hurt my face grinning. Swimming pool accomplished! YESSSSSSSSSS! *fistpump* Please visit! It's fun to explore and walk around in. There's the Housing Leaderboards version under Tock at 4 Bayle Court, which you can also find titled "The Spider" in the Large Homes category here on Antonia Bayle. You can also visit the roleplay venue version under the name TheSpider at the same address every Tuesday night at around 7PM CST. Guaranteed to be a good time! Please click the star when you visit! Every like is appreciated! Bring your friends! Drag your guildmates along! Fun for the entire family! Thanks for reading, and I hope you've enjoyed this tour of the newest look for Antonia Bayle server's longest continually running weekly roleplay event! Six years and still going strong!
Just came for a visit and thought this was great! I loved the swimming pool area, especially the diving board and the PSTPRD Mk II was really neat
Hi, visisted it this morning before work and camped in it as I had to go and looked at the rest today after work, Beautiful job on the rework and I love a lot of things. The pool is wonderfull and I love the chandelier. The bar overall looks nice and comfy and the top is an extra. I will have to return during night for the fire works. And No! I did not press the red button =) Greetings Mu!
Thanks for all the kind words, friends! It's been a week, and votes will now begin falling off. If you've already visited and clicked the star for this work, please do so again!
Thanks for all the visits and likes, folks. The Spider can now be found listed in the Hall of Fame! Woohoo! One down, nine to go!
Tock, congratulations on the Hall of Fame achievement. I've been meaning to reply to this thread, but I *blush* keep forgetting! Awesome job with The Spider. I really like this version, and you kept the furniture themed throughout. The Kromzek furniture looks better than I expected--I'm personally not a fan of the Kromzek style, but you made it work. I love the pool! Swimming around in it forced me to contemplate creating a house with a swimming pool *grin* Overall, I just have to say that this version of The Spider works well, and was greeted with quite a bit of happiness on my part. As nice as the old Spider was, it was in dire need of an update. Yay!
Beautiful work! I love the swimming pool and the firework launcher on the rooftop area made me laugh out loud. Great stuff
