• Preface

Julia Lionflower here! This month I’m back with an article for all of you who acquired a Nomad’s Camp bundle over the holidays…and have been letting it sit in your backpack undecorated, unattended, and unloved for the last two-ish months. I totally get it. The Nomad’s Camp is a tough house because how does one decorate a house that isn’t quite a house?

So, I’m going to be talking extensively about how I turned my Nomads Camp into…my very own Caravan! “But isn’t that what it’s supposed to be Julia?” Yeah well I can’t be crazy creative with every house. I actually love teleporting into Mirage’s home base. It’s a really nicely designed area (which, as we know, is all thanks to Burdie) and in order to create our own version we’re going to need to be very detail oriented. Of course, if you’ve ever read any of my housing articles before, you should know: I’m all about details.

The Nomad’s Camp is a gorgeously designed house. I love the textures they used for this, the hanging lamps, and the glorious sunset over the water!

• First Things First (aka. Getting Started)(aka. How Not to Get Lost in Your Own House)

So, this house is obviously going to have a lot of different elements to it, so the first thing I’d recommend doing is sitting down and kind of plotting out what you want each tent to be in your market. I honestly do this for every house I design- at least somewhat- so that I can break down what may at first seem really overwhelming. You can do this on a piece of paper or you can try and keep everything sorted in your head (this is what I do because I am lazy I have a super visual memory. Great for decorating and design, not so great for math class.)

*insert tea break here. Guys, staying hydrated is important…also moving your legs.*

My Brainstorming

• First, note the number of tents/areas to decorate: 5 (ish)
• Things a market needs:
  • Cooked food
  • Food ingredients
  • Pets/mounts for sale
  • Gardening
  • Weaponry/Equipment
  • Campsite
  • Smugglers?
  • Antiquities?
  • A black market section?
• Choose from those options according to tent position, proximity to other tents, & tent attributes.

Gathering Supplies

Mirage housing items aren’t the most plentiful thing ever. Here’s a quick rundown on where I got my items:

Bazaar

This is a pretty obvious one, but you honestly never really know what’s going to show up in the Bazaar. I can say pretty confidently that the majority of my items came from here.

Quick Tips | Best Bazaar Finds

1. Arched Counter
2. Tea Set/Ceremonial Tea Set
3. Hanging Lanterns
4. Trio of Sacks
5. Vine Spiral Rug

Faction Vendors

This is a new one with the release of Mirage. At first I was unsure if I was going to pursue any of the badges required for faction vendors, but I decided that the NPC’s that were unavailable in the Ghulture’s Hoard Packs were worth the grind. I chose to earn Sayameez Sergeant and Aggrobah Enforcer and thus be able to buy Raani the Bumbai and Ajax the Fennec Fox.

Ghulture’s Hoard Pack

I actually started to write this article prior to the release of the Ghulture’s Hoard Pack so imagine my wonderment when this gem of a pack was released. Now, you could also say that my excitement over the pack may have been a bit…overzealous. Yeah...I’m pretty sure I violated every single rule that I talked about in my last article However, the drop rate for npcs to populate the camp was actually pretty darn good! I just couldn’t stop trying for more! yes I know about the faction vendors, but that takes effort guys *huff* Things- of course -got much worse with Pack-A-Palooza, but I remain slightly unashamed! I got so many great pieces from this splurge!

Before Ghulture’s Hoard

After Ghulture’s Hoard

Quick Tips | Clearing Out Your Backpack

• Whenever I start a new house I usually dump whatever is in my backpack that might be applicable and start moving things around.
• Some of this stuff may not get used in the final house, but this both creates space in your backpack and allows you to start organizing things.
• Ironically I’ll sometimes pick most of a stash up if the quantity of items I’ve dumped becomes overwhelming…so clearly this isn’t a tried and true method.

• Yellow Tent #1 | Gardening Center

Why I Chose This Tent:

This one is kind of a tough tent because it comes up really fast as you go down the ramp from the world door. There isn’t much room in front of it at all to move around. It does, however, have a fair amount of space to the sides and ample space behind. It was due to this fact I chose it as our Gardening Center.

How To…

It’s All About the Interior:

The garden center was a lot of fun! The front rooms are really simple, just a collection of garden tools available in the bazaar, a set of ornate shelves, crafted wall shelves, and a couple of paintings. My primary objective was to make it appear as if garden tools were on sale in the front of the tent and then pots and plants in the back. The key to making “shop”-like tents goes back to one of the fundamentals of decorating: variation and repetition, as well as grouping items together. A prime example of this is the back of this tent where I grouped all similar items together, as if they were different sections in a real shop.

Right side of the tent

Left side of the front room

Potted plants, a sample water feature, and pots

Wheelbarrows and the awesome market tent

I loved laying out the back room, but it definitely involved a lot of glitching. Here you can find wheelbarrows, an assortment of pots, a water feature with a fish, an enchanted broom (one of my favorite items in housing right now- available via the Ghulture’s Hoard Pack), and the market tent.

• Blue Tent #1 | Fruit, Veg, & Other Food

Why I Chose This Tent:

This tent was a natural fit to be our food market tent due to its proximity to Red Tent #1. There isn’t much space to the sides of this one, but I decided that I would rather have the food displays on the interior, rather than the exterior.

How To…

The Exterior:

Like I said, I didn’t want to do too much on the exterior. I grabbed a couple of easily accessible food carts and positioned a parrot barrel and a fennec fox npc on either side of the tent. Even though the two sides aren’t balanced, the casual realism with the fox seemingly interacting with the parrot on the barrel is one of my favorite parts of this home!

*insert second tea break here…my foot definitely fell asleep right about here*

The Interior:

But the interior is a different story…

Semi in-progress shot of the back and front rooms

WIP jar shelves and canned goods shelves

Hanging wares and one of the jar shelves

I kept the front of this tent pretty simple, because I really wanted the back of the tent to shine. When I started this tent I knew that I really wanted to have a cold storage area, especially because of the desert setting in this house. I always have fun with snow piles and frozen blocks and, despite the cramped space here, this was no exception. I usually start by glitching the frozen blocks into place and then positioning the snow piles (since they’re basically big, snowy rugs).

Quick Tips | My Essential Cold Storage Elements

1. Blocks of ice
2. A snowglobe (optional)
3. Snow piles
4. Baskets of fish and/or other perishables
5. Furniture from the Lydia set (optional)
6. Frozen fish cart
7. Tip of the Polarian Iceberg

Cold storage featuring all the fish a lot of fish baskets

Aerial view of the ice port

Around the back of the tent I was inspired by the Purzzian empire and I’m currently working on the creation of an ice…negotiation?…cultivation?…drop off?…depot…port. All of this stuff- with the exception of the nps -can be bought in the bazaar!

• Red Tent #1 | Restaurant, Cafe, & Bar

Why I Chose This Tent:

So, because I’m predictable actually the first thing I tackled here is a restaurant/kitchen. Why? Because it’s Julia’s favorite thing to decorate Because no market is complete without something cooking (of course)! I chose the wonderful two story red tent for this part of the project for several reasons:

1. I love the idea of having a restaurant & bar/lounge combo separated into two stories.

2. This tent also has an awesome sunken fourth room which is absolutely perfect for the kitchen of a restaurant.

   1. It’s accessible via a long rocky hallway which creates the sense of detachment you need for a restaurant kitchen.

3. It has plentiful space outdoors which would work out great for an outdoor eating area as well!

   The Exterior:

Outdoor seating and cafe

The outdoor seating area of the restaurant features a little desert bar and three tables on top of a wooden platform. I tried to keep to idea that this is a desert setting in my mind at all times while working on the exterior of the tents. As such, the tables needed to be on a stable surface. I also kept my choice of furniture pretty simple to withstand any weather and sand.

The Interior:

Front of the tent and the reservation desk

Seating towards the back of the restaurant

I continued using the tables from outside inside the restaurant as well and I tried to work with the color scheme inside the tent. Every item here is available in the bazaar! (with the exception of the NPCs). Something I did want to talk about really briefly was the incredible lamps that came from the Ghulture’s Hoard pack. You can find those hanging orange ones in the bazaar fairly easily, as well as the beautiful hanging lanterns you can see in the first picture- though those definitely pop up less frequently. The hanging lanterns are easily one of my favorite new items and I have a ton of them for this house. They act as this great unifying factor, because the tents of the house come with lanterns in the same style.

Upstairs lounge

Ah the upstairs lounge. This was a fun project, but a challenging one due to the size and layout of the upstairs area of this tent. Although it may not seem that way the decorating space here is actually pretty tight. I tried to incorporate the seating from Ghulture’s Hoard, however this particular set is a little finicky and definitely required some glitching. Overall, though I like how it turned out! My favorite parts are definitely the coconut drinks on the bar and the djinni bar tender.

Work- in- progress shot of the kitchen

Boy is that kitchen messy! We’re definitely not gonna pass a health inspection This room is still definitely a work in progress, purely because it’s going to require the most work. I really want this kitchen to be big and have a lot of variance in terms of food being prepared.

Quick Tips | The Kitchen

• Something I definitely wanted to push in designing my kitchen was the thought that this restaurant is a way station for all kinds of travelers. As such their facilities should be able to have food of all kinds/food to suit every need (much like the American diner).

• I’m not going to go into too much detail about how I went about getting all the items for this kitchen, but I will note a few special pieces that I used for this:

  – the Mooshu Cooking Hearth: one of my favorite items for the kitchen right now. Look how gorgeous it is!

  – Ceremonial Tea Set: Love the animated quality of this item

  – the Zafarian Sink: This works perfectly with the rocky nature of the walls in this room!

  – the Qhat Chef: Obviously, just purr-fect perfect for this room

• Not to toot my own horn, but Definitely give “The Elements of the Kitchen” a read if you’re new to kitchen building!

   

Part 1 Done! (aka. In Conclusion…for now)

So, that’s part one of my two part Nomad’s Camp guide! Why are there two parts you ask? Because I was getting lost in my own article and I didn’t want the same fate for my readers. I’m all about public safety. Because, this is a pretty big project and I want to help you with your project management! I definitely recommend tackling this house just a few tents at a time, instead of a mad rush to do all of them at once. This is one of the easiest ways to get overwhelmed and end up abandoning a project. Our objective is to give this house some TLC “R…E…S…P…E…C…T”…wait, what? Idk where that came from (aka. tender, loving care), not leave it to the harsh sands of Mirage! Coming up next week are the second slate of tents: Pets & Mounts, Antiques, Weaponry, and…a secret bonus area!

(*Author’s Note: If you’re an avid reader of Adventures of the Spiral you may be wondering whatever happened to Part 2 of my Treetop Getaway article. Well, it’s coming guys. With the release of Mirage I decided to let this house jump the queue.)

Looking for Pt. 2? Head Here to Find it!