New Skill: Dendrology (Trees)

Suggestions
1

TLDR: Growing Trees

So i had a long drive for work and was just daydreaming about growing our own trees, and cross-cultivating them.

Wouldn’t it be great to plant seedlings/seeds and grow trees straight from the ground? And then, when they are mature either cut them for wood or pollinate them for new seeds? Mixing tree traits and colors for preference or rare species?

Phase 1: Planting and growing trees.
We could find seeds on exoplanets, or refine/extract seeds from foliage

We could just grow our favorite trees for decoration (requires farming traits/epic), harvest them for our favorite colors, or terraform whole swaths of planets. Obviously we could buy or sell seeds for coin.

15 Likes
2

Phase 2: Cross Cultivation - Because complexity is fun!

TLDR: New Tree Color Variants

In a second update we could begin to cross cultivate domesticated trees. The seeds would have the traits of the parent it was harvested from. Some sample traits could be:

  • Wood type
  • Wood color
  • Foliage type
  • Foliage color
  • Height
  • Width
  • Branch shape (straight or bendy)
  • Foliage shape (flat, bulbous, or spiky tree tops)

Cross cultivation could occur once the tree reaches maturity and enters a “pollinating” state. At this point in time, you would:

  1. Harvest pollen from the tree. The pollen would carry the traits of the parent tree. Traits could be listed in the tooltip.
  2. Collect pollen from the tree (1-5 pieces) and use it to pollinate another. (Or sell pollen!)
  3. During pollination, an algorithm would determine the seedling traits as a randomized result from the parent tree and the pollen.
  4. For example: If Parent A has Waxy Foliage and Parent B has Lush Foliage - the seedling has a 50/50 chance of waxy or lush. Also, if Parent A has Red foliage, and parent B has Green foliage - the color is determined similar to Goo placed on different colored gleam - Seedling color moves one shade/tone along the spectrum.

This process would allow us to cultivate rare color combinations, or even new colors that aren’t available anywhere (even on exos). Someone may even be the first to create a certain color combo and be able to sell their rare seedlings or pollen for profits.

10 Likes
3

Phase 3: Bonsai, shrubbery, and home grown deco plants - Because super complex is the name of the game!

TLDR: Mini Tree Deco Plants

Let’s say i have a bunch of seedlings, and i want to decorate. Maybe i can plant the seedlings and restrict height to create shrubbery or plant in a bowl/pot to grow a miniature version of that tree. Similar traits, only smaller, and placeable on any solid surface.

Shrubbery may be simplest form. Plant outside - but place a trellis or block above to restrict the growth height. Use clippers or tools (crafted in workbench, requires toolcrafting) to cut shrubs into a desired shape. - Which leads to:

Topiaries - Shrubbery that has been clippered into any number of pre-determined shapes. Using the clippers on a shrub opens a panel where you can select from geometric shapes or more complicated things like dolphins, unicorns, dragons, etc.

Bonsai - Most complex of deco plants. Seedlings can be planted in a pot (wood/stone/brick/marble/gleam etc.). They then go through their normal growth stages, but at each stage there are some things that we can do, or that might randomly happen. For example:

  1. We could perform a mini-game type of interaction to change the bonsai’s shape. Maybe similar to the forging interface. We could apply copper/iron wiring (crafted in workbench) to adjust the shape/curve of the bonsai. Younger plants might have a higher “elasticity” value (like vigor) and if you bend too much you break the plant and destroy the seedling.
  2. We could add potions, salves, or fertilizer (crafted in mixer) to increase elasticity or variables like size, growth time, general plant health (measured by time between maintenance checks).
  3. The bonsai may get sick, infested with bugs (does boundless have insects?), or might have root rot or mold. We may need to apply pesticides or fungicides - which may reduce the health of the tree, reduce elasticity, or add an additional growth check to the cycle meaning extra maintenance or care.
  4. Once the bonsai reaches maturity it does not enter pollinating state, but a final interaction with the clippers sets it to “decorative” mode and then it no longer requires care.

Deco plants would require the farming epic and generate a whole new economy and require creating new craftables for trait categories like tools, tech, deco, farming, and brewing. And, serving no practical use, would add a good amount of prestige. :slight_smile:

Can you tell i love farming/horticulture?
Like, share, and comment below! Let’s discuss #Dendrology.

Also - Shameless Plug - Check out my foliage shop “Fronds” at DK’s Mall in Legendville - Stall C55. Been stocking foliage, shrooms, plants and grass from the recent exo planets!

12 Likes
4

omg yes please :smiley:

3 Likes
5

Yes I think this is where the game could really shine. Imagine being able to make your own hybrid species. Once you get something really cool you just keep harvesting the seeds for that tree and you’ll have an unlimited amount of something that no one else necessarily has. You can plant them keep them yourself or you could actually sell them. The same idea could be applied to just about anything in the game it would definitely give us a lot more to do. Please don’t make it anywhere near is complicated as the goo farming is

4 Likes
6

I don’t get it. Everyone says the game is grindy or it takes too long to do something, but then people want to introduce these sort of features, which fits the complaints.

I’m not bothered either way by this suggested feature but I’m just confused at times :upside_down_face:

7

I hear you. But, personally, I like the complexity. May not speak to everyone, but I’d love to have my own branded tree colors.

Walk through a great city and say… “oh yea! That ninja blossom tree was cultivated by Shinobi and donated to legendville in 2019.”

4 Likes
8

I think it’s a great idea :+1:t3:

Some players think they need to move away from the MMO aspects of the game (which is fine), but I think they need to lean into the MMO x1000. Even adding some light rpg elements, but not so much that it takes away from the sandbox feel.

7 Likes
9

Wouldn’t someone who works with trees be considered working in Arboriculture?
Dendrology is the scientific study of trees. :stuck_out_tongue:

That ‘nitpicking’ from me aside, I’d love more ways to work with trees, and possibly even cross-breed them.
I’ll admit, I liked doing that in the Forestry mod Minecraft has. øwø;
Especially fruit trees

2 Likes
10

I thought about that actually, lol. I figured the term “Arboriculture” might be too unfamiliar to people. So then i thought… why not call the skill Dendrology - study of trees - that you need in order to practice Arboriculture and call yourself an Arboriculturist :slight_smile:

Kinda like it’s called “food crafting” but i might call myself a cook.

11

Would love to farm more!

1 Like
12

Welcome to the forums!

I also really enjoy farming. But with the seed returns on some crops you need a massive build to earn enough coin to survive. A farmer’s life is just not sustainable in and of itself.

Which is why i keep thinking about mixing and pollinating.
Trees would be an obvious choice because rare wood colors would sell well i think. But also plants like the Rosetta nox, mushrooms, flowers, leaves, and beans… So much potential in this area!

13

Currently trees are a construct in the game like a lake or a hill. They do not grow. So for this to happen a new tree would have to be created along the lines of the crops system.

1 Like
14

Yes, this is true. And trees would be a little more than re-skinning our current crops. They’d have to grow taller, and perhaps wider. So some of that math would have to be tweaked.

15

And this is the issue. Currently the crop occupies one block in every state from seed to mature. So nothing around it has to accommodate changes to the crop. If a tree gets taller or wider then how does it interact with items that might already occupy the adjacent blocks?

16

The simplest way would be for it to just not grow if anything occupies the adjacent space.
If the area around the sapling is occupied it just stops maturing.

Tree farmers would just have to build their farms appropriately

1 Like
17

Or grows around things that may be in the way given there is space to either side!

1 Like
18

Pollenating the tress would be the better choice and sells them. As for the rest we would need to do the same as tree’s with them to sell better than now. That’s just an opinion. As of now I would use them for decorating purposes.

1 Like
19

i do want blue ancient trees like the ones found by that desert on raxxa