Making the smithy L-shaped like its exterior: shop, workshop and storeroom

The props in the 148 smithy were fine, but when I actually looked at it, the interior design was exactly the same as the guild. It doesn't have to be a single room, and the exterior is L-shaped, so I decided to make the inside L-shaped too. Reusing the basic structure is fine, but my rule is that the same layout shouldn't repeat within one village.

Looking at the village smithy from above, the west wing by the door runs long north-south, with an east wing attached to it, forming an L (the door is on the south). I divided the spaces to follow the exterior, and gave each space its own floor, walls and ceiling so it doesn't overlap with the guild (flat hall + gallery, flat ceiling, wooden floor).

What I built

The workshop is the horizontal stroke of the L (16 × 6.4 m). The floor is stone slabs (the same slab material as the plaza dais), all three wall tiers are stone, and the third tier has arched windows. There's no ceiling, so the underside of the gable roof and trusses every 3.2 m are exposed, with the ridge at about 11.6 m. The forge, stone brazier, anvil, Bran and the workbenches are here.

The shop is the vertical stroke and also the entrance (8 × 6.4 m). It has a wide plank floor and a flat ceiling at 7.2 m. Weapon racks on the west side, a sales counter and display cupboard on the east side.

The storeroom is at the east end (3.2 × 6.4 m). It has a wooden floor raised 0.24 m and is separated from the workshop only by a low stone wall + railing. You step up one level through the two middle sections.

The partition between the shop and the workshop is wide open for 4.8 m in the middle of the first tier. Above it is a thick lintel, and the second and third tiers are solid stone wall. The route goes door → shop → opening → Bran in front of the anvil, a walk of about 10 m with a turn.

As soon as you walk in, you can see the workshop through the opening, with firelight spilling out. I made each of the 9 outer walls and 2 partitions its own wall-hiding group, so the partitions also get hidden when they block the character.

Paths connect from the arrival point to the talk spot, the door, the west end of the workshop, the corner of the shop and the raised storeroom, and the village ↔ smithy door transitions and the conversation with Bran work. This felt good enough, so the smithy interior is final as is.

Rabbit hole: the path from the shop to the workshop was cut off

The pathfinding route broke between the shop and the workshop. Brackets hung in the 1.2 m between the posts (bottom end at 1.36 m) were blocking the passage, and the bottom of the lintel (2.09 m) caught on the pathfinding character height (2 m). I removed the inner posts in the opening so there are posts only at both ends, and raised the bottom of the lintel to 2.4 m.

Rabbit hole: the paths to the east side of the workshop and the storeroom were cut off too

The gap between the quenching tub and bucket and the workbench on the south wall was blocked. I moved the quenching tub and bucket to the west of the anvil and widened the storeroom entrance to two sections.

Rabbit hole: the roof flipped into a V

Instead of a peak, the roof sagged into a V. I'd placed the roof modules with the eave (low end) and the high end facing the wrong way. I changed the south panels to 180° and the north panels to 0°, and put the ridge pieces on the high ends.

Next up

• From a camera outside the south side of the shop, the outside of the workshop wing (roof, stone walls) looks like a cross-section
• The storeroom props are sparse, and there's no smoke or light-shaft effect under the workshop roof. If I add them, I'll look at how they'd look first and then decide
• The tavern needs a layout that doesn't overlap with the guild or the smithy