Tronk

[Nightstar]

All right so, I think I’ve “found” my new base. I wished in the past I had documented more stuff so I realized tonight (thinking about this other thread) that I should probably just do that. I’m a little bit into it so luckily (for you) I have relatively few pics so far.

I added some height today though and did at least get some pics of that.

A couple of months ago I finally reclaimed EVERY THING. Every base, shop, campsite, farm, all of it. It took a couple of weeks here and there to get all of the stuff consolidated from various alts and into a single storage lol. Since then, I’ve been wandering. I started a couple of tentative builds but nothing I was enthusiastic about, and meantime I was wandering worlds and looking at maps too.

A few days ago I was coming over a mountain and just stopped in my tracks, not only was the spot there but I instantly knew that I would need to build a tree right there. TBH the spot is a little closer to some other large bases than I like - I was making my way from a hub to a candidate spot when I came across this. Zero hesitation and sorry not sorry if that’s troublesome later

(There are no other builds within site or probably 500m of this spot right now.)

So, this will sounds weird but the shape of the tree is a sort of a compromise I accept with the planet. The blocks were placed as I meandered along with the actual landscape and The center of the local spiral was preserved as a bit of a garden that I may decorate around later but remains unplotted, for now.

The tree is in a small spiral plain, it has mountains on one side, with a few craters. There’s desert on the other side, with an odd strip of mud On the other sides are two kinds of local forest. I didn’t really take any pictures of the area before I got started, but here’s a small spiral fragment to give you an idea of what I mean:

At this size it’s more of a ring I guess. This one in the pic was a little smaller than the park that got me posting about the build. The park isn’t the most scenic thing but …

Here are a couple of pics taken after I walked out the original ring, and got the center or the spiral blended up and out to the ring I had originally walked out.:

After that I added a couple of layers under the outer ring. Since I had placed the original ring around the terrain at plot height I did it by walking under.

This took me a surprisingly short time. I hadn’t considered this sort of method or pattern before and reaching that point took me … yeah a surprisingly short amount of time. After that I just sort of kicked it around the area for a minute trying to decide if I was still wanting to carry on

The beginnings of “TRONK” for sure.

This is the view from a nearby mountain. It gives a pretty good feel for the shape.

I just want to say at this point that my favorite material in boundless to date has actually been lustrous wood. I’ve probably placed more blocks of this material in every form except deco than any other block. Because honestly “f” deco lustrous thanks. But yeah that aside I realized a bit later that it would be awesome to make this out of ancient timber. But I had stacks and stacks of timber already into the build (I was farming another batch of trunk when I realized this) and ancient doesn’t come in the main color I was using.

Not only am I not willing to do all the chisel changing but just arranging it would take far longer than the time I had spent building with some favorite blocks from reclaim. So TRONK is a tree made of boards.

I already have plans to integrate some other shades and whatnot. However, this tree shall forever be made of planks, methinks. Anyways …

I decided to explore around a bit beneath, and see if there was anything interesting in the area. I mean, besides some cave goats. I cleared a little space over a couple of days, had a look at what sort of caves and other underground stuff is here as well as some interaction with the local crater field.

While I was clearing this out, I decided that the thing to do under the center of the tronk was to add a fresh, green, new tree at the base/heart of the thing in a sort of “supporting” spot. It was an odd shaped thing to sort out as the unplotted park is a dozen plots in a regular shape.

I had an idea for that too and went for it. It took a couple of days and I’ll probably be polishing this for a while, but I think I got in a passable sort of “canopy”! I have an idea for the merger of the base with the floor but first, some shape for the top.

It looks very squat, the foliage starts in the 5th block above the bottom of the plotted area. It also has a little hobbit hole to a natural cave under the park that makes a great little warping spot.

Temporary portals and some working storage.

In that pic you can see how it meets up with the bowl around the garden, being supported above. You can also still see a good amount of soil under here as I haven’t yet blended the outside into the landscape, yet. When the exterior of the base is fully defined I’ll trim that stuff out.

I’m thinking about making some of this stuff down here into something of a root system but for now I’ve decided to finish flooring it in and leave it open while I consider where/how I want to build some of the needed areas.

Storage, workshop, a little hub, who knows what else. Oh yeah,a forge. Because Masochism Really

You can walk to the mantle through here. There’s some water involved though:

Tonight between other things, I added an outer wall on the original contour of the platform.

I was not unhappy with the result!

I was tempted to mess with the outer line but at this point I decided to go ahead and reinforce the original shape completely. I ran up onto the mountain next door, and had a loo. Also not bad!

I wanted a snack, too. Relevant only because it meant I stood still for a minute:

While I was snacking I decided to get something that would help with scale. I had placed the wall without plotting first so here it is rising above the plotmap. At the time of this pic the plotting is two layers deep - the large space underneath, and only where required for the trunk base.

No Grid:

I stopped by the park.

There was weather.

So Anyways …

I decided to add another plot to the upper wall, instead of getting involved with the base because it was already getting late. I mean this was awhile ago too. It’s really late Now

So I was growing the outer wall a bit more, and wow that took a couple of boundless days At one point I turned around and BAM sunrise at the park.

Maybe sunset

More tronk. More. IDK 20ish SS now. More plotting. Relax. Go to the park

So I added two layers to the wall tonight overall. And spent WAY too much time messing with a pond I was trying to integrate at the edge of the space when honestly I think I’ma delete that now.

So in closing I decided to get some pics with a little more distance, so I ran around the neighboring areas, and took a few more pics. At this time the plotting overall is 4 plots thick (high) right at the wall. Depending on where you are at the wall due to terrain there are about 2.5 to 3 plots visible above ground, it varies due to terrain. Still it’s - a chonk.

I mean, I have more but I’m sure you get the point

So there’s some ways to go with this, and a lot isn’t clear right now. But I’ve mostly spent the last few days messing with this in a way that I haven’t been interested in Boundless for a while. If I’m going to play even casually I mean I have to have a workshop and some storage and whatnot so, I guess I’m going to do it here.

Did I mention it has a park?

IDK but, just how much that amuses me is pretty funny, in itself. Still

All right 5 AM I’m out. Probably more later. I never had such a thread about my old build but maybe I’ll keep up on this. Or occasional updates, or something. heh.

[Goblinounours]

[Nightstar]

Wow lol thanks for coming to my TED Talk!

That was like, my 20th hour up so yeah a little forum comedy. I see a couple of typos there but, so be it.

Thanks Kronk, it’s a chonk. Now I have to fill it with all my jonk

Hopefully tonight I’ll get the base flared out to the ground around it.

[Nightstar]

All right I was just fussing around in Boundless, I had to make a pretty specific decision that will definitely affect how this goes but I think I have an acceptable plan. It will waste some of the work I’ve done so far but not a lot, and that’s the way of things with an evolving build …

So I did get the base flared out a bit the other night, and blended in a bit. Highlights in a moment. This pic was from above It’s time to consider entries and exits I think. I went up above it a bit tonight to look at the shape. I’m only sure of one ground level entry point right now, but it’s a start.

I decided not to mess around with much in the way of “randomizing” at this point so instead I cleared the original base to a consistent height and just flared the shape of the tronk.

Pretty straightforward, really. Since the gap between the original wall and the second layer created a channel I decided to add a row of lanterns, tracing the original pattern of the outer wall.

So as you can see in the p;ic the terain around here is somewhat uneven. I’m off of the mountains but even the plain has some “rolling hills”

Expanding the base this way hit the ground at between 65 and 71 altitude. There was some plotting to be done.

There were plenty of holes to fall into, as well.

Almost There! I was having to break some plants one one side now. Also an extra run around, always save your work …

Now whenever I go out for a distant view, the thing renders lantern blocks where the light shines. Even on the closed spaces.

As I hit ground in some spots I went and grabbed some of the local lustrous, a complementary shade, and the layers that cut into the planet are done in native wood. I’ll do some blending later.

That last one shows some blending in nicely on the high side, I think also lol but I’m looking through the screenshots directory while I post this about yesterday’s efforts so for giggles, here’s the muddy desert I posted about before:

There aren’t any mudflats too close to that so I guess it’s just a little freak biome scrap. There is a lot of mud here, after all.

Around this time I went to bed. After a couple of final laps for QC, though. In certain spots where the layer fill created little single-block pockets, I placed some gleam lanterns so the base has some illumination, for now. It doesn’t matter much for now because as soon as it gets a little dark right now, with any distance you see the lanterns shining through the single layer of wood over them.

IMO it still looks pretty nice though

Save your work.

It’s so rough to come back the next day after a long session and find gaping holes. Lost blocks for that matter, too.

So after that I went to bed. I’d start another post but discourse doesn’t like that

TRONK Today. Almost no change in the sanctum view.

So far tonight, I just meandered around. I cleared a few smart stacks of soil from below, and due to the way the base flares into the surround ground right now, I kept breaking through and having to do repairs. It was a little frustrating and there’s enough of it to be done that I had some time to think about it.

The lanterns above are the line around the TRONK itself. Anyways I didn’t take a whole lot of pics of this stuff it was boring and tedious, and I kept having to stop for little repairs, too. The way I blended the flare in at the top doesn’t really make the line clear from the inside/bottom.

After some thinking on this, I’ve decided for now I’m going to cut the base down to a consistent level, and then just do separate top and bottom embellishments to integrate it back in as I also add some roots and other ground features besides a straight 45 degree flare. The shape of the wall is pretty irregular though, the flare did come out pretty well as a basis. Trying to save a few extra “natural” blocks is causing me a huge headache (literally) and closing it all in consistently recovers quite a few cubic meters of plotted space, even if it is just a nice vaulted ceiling, for now

I’m going to get some silk mustard and more dark mustard, but I also have to farm a bit more shadow mustard again to continue.

So yep I got a good amount done yesterday and tonight I really did clean up a lot of soil. But mostly just “thinking about it” and probably an earlier bedtime tonight.

[Nightstar]

All right so it’s been a week!

Lots to do at work this week but I’ve been rushing home and staying up late to play boundless again, so that’s fun for a minute

To cap off another week at the TRONK, as I announced in the “what did you do in boundless today” thread, I’ve installed a little hub. I thickened up the trunk, created an interior space that’s a little less regular and also a much lighter shade of trunk so it’s a bit easier on the eyes.

Mid-week I capped the TRONK off into a stump, and decided to focus solely on the underside, for a bit. There’s a lot going on under this build - it’s roughly 16 x 16 plots, though the shape is irregular. I had a laugh earlier this week trying to think about how many kilometers of wood floor/wall/ceiling I’ve actually laid again this month, 1m at a time

I’m already many past the number of smart stacks of wood that were ever used in Lantern Gardens. And all timber too, I’ve worked in 3 shades of mustard but no other wood styles (trunk/refined/deco). Except some of the older parts, Lantern Gardens was largely made out of refined blocks.

So anyways, On With The Show

I decided to make the TRONK itself into a stump for now. I think I said that but there was work to be done towards this goal as I knew some of what I wanted to do in terms of lightening up the inside and thickening the walls. I also wanted some entrances and exits, right? In time I want this space to be used, even if it’s just as a retail space.

So I started with a 2 block ring (chiselable depth) in a lighter shade, and just sort of traced along outside the crater of the park. Variable thickness heh.

Some irregularities for fun

This first layer adds a bit of color and will help with a gradient of sorts. But it left me with a lot of floor to backfill, to the wall of the TRONK. So the next layer can be raised. I mean, it’s a big floor, and I do intend for it to be used, so I made it good and strong

That should comply with code. I think. There’s a vast open space under here, after all

To The Next Level!!

Silk Mustard now.

With the final floor in place, I cut in some doors, too. Just rough stuff, for now. There are three doors.

That was, I think, mostly a day, maybe 2 sessions.

Next, it was time to work on the rise. This early in the week it was just the ongoing project, I hadn’t made the decision to get stumped yet. I do plan to make this a good bit taller and I wanted some room to move around at the top. I also wanted to square off a couple bits for placing things in the TRONK and generally disconnect the interior shape from the exterior shape.

Besides I already had a couple smart stacks of these blocks in my inventory - from ‘reinforcing’ the floor …

TRONK will be strong now. Ehh, wait what’s that there?

Apparently this build is generating some amazing pressure

IDK but I do know that eventually I’m going to build a “main” workshop in a bough of this tree and for that I’m going to need modern conveniences like, you know, power and stuff. Better get some wiring in. I think. Oh plus also ground fault protection

All right so, uh, yeah plenty of conductivity here. The thing about copper though is that it’s both soft and heavy, and some of those stretches are pretty big. It’s going to get taller so I decided, you know, better reinforce that with something strong and a lot lighter than copper.

Shiny, too!

OK so that’s enough messing around. It’s going to give me some room for a sort of walkway along the thickness at the top, and also I have a couple of “corners” now to put some sort of shop stands or other decoration into. Time to lay a few more kilometers of timber.

I had to make sure the doors were still working

I’m pretty sure that was most or all of the next day. It’s been a week or so and I’m actually scrolling around my screenshots directory writing this

After I had got all of that done, I went back under the TRONK for a bit. Kicking around the caves, and looking at all the work to finish the bottom was a little overwhelming TBH. I had finally just cut deeply into the terrain on most sides of the build to complete the flare at the base of the build but cleaning that up from the bottom was a challenge.

Nonetheless I started walling it in and filling, unplotting and regenerating around some of the edges as I was thinking of how to integrate with the landscape features that got dug out or otherwise affected. Most of them will just be entrances/exits. The ponds and craters to the surface and the caves to, well, the caves

So apparently I wasn’t taking any screenshots for this part of the work but, they would be boring anyways I’m sure. I still see this as the central focus of the build for the time being, the space under the actual TRONK. But this is the dirty work of boundless I was distracting myself quibbling between extending the top, or working further on the base.

I decided to force my focus to the base by capping the TRONK into a stump, so I spent one night doing that. I extended the whole thing up a half plot, leaving room for some “crags” and then topped it up with some of the dark mustard. Bog standard stuff except for the roof I carried the fill pattern, adding some higher rising points along some of the faces.

I don’t know why it seems like it’s always night At the end this adds a bit of an irregular profile, and for now I can consider it … not done but at least “at a stage” and let ideas develop while I work under to restore some of the functionality I miss (besides just machines) from reclaiming my bases.

I took a walk and checked the place out. "The rendering engine sometimes gives me wierd blobby renders of actually hidden blocks so from just a little difference it can be interesting what I’m shown.

I did some pole climbing. Apparently my un-trunkish blasphemy is not to be forgiven

Back downstairs, I got everything walled in, I think there are still some soil blocks up there in the dark but not many, it’s pretty much cleared up. The outer wall of the space follows the base of the flare and it’s all fully cleared and floored now for a plot below that. Vertically the height of the build right now varies from 1 plot high to, I think, 5 plots high. I’m pretty sure 5 plots is the overall vertical height of the build, but I think there’ sonly one small spot where the plots are actually stacked that high right now. Where the hub is located, also directly under a portion of the upper wall of the TRONK.

If you look behind the tree at the edge of the garden you find the tunnel to get down stairs. Or just down, sometimes there are stairs and sometimes not

I posted some pics of this on the screenshots thread heh. Before Lantern:

Even with the light out that was dark so now here it is post-internal-lantern:

Yeah, I’m gonna change that. But for now it’s the only way into the base of the trunk from inside the top. I did the downstairs in the shadow mustard as well, primarily, so it was very dark down there, even with the entire ring of hundreds of lanterns built into the base of the TRONK. I decided to put some foliage in to brighten things up a bit. So I traced the line of lanterns.

After a little test run, I decided to add some on the other side, inside the block where the wall above extends into the ceiling. I liked it so I finished it up.

In that one you can see an idea for a portal that was never opened. After I had the two rows in, I decided to see about leafing in the entire base flare of the TROMK, which forms a sort of arched ceiling here underneath. So far I’ve just put it into one corner, I’m still thinking about it.

So right now I’m just experimenting with integrating into the local caves for some of my needs. I want what I call a “ready room” and a “sorting room” as well as a nice spot to make a Home Beacon for all of my alts to use. I need at least one bulk processing are for light machines and some specialty crafting setups probably before I tackle building a major workshop again. etc …

I did something of a write-up last night after I finally found a spot for my hub and got some portals in. You can find that over here and I’m not going to go over all of the details again. TRONK is now accessible several ways.

“TRONK” at the TNT Megahub:

“2” At the GTG Minorengle Hub:

“Portal 2” at the Ultima Minorengle Hub:

I might reach out for some sign changes

For now that’s where things are with this build. I have easy access in and out and the next step appears to be storage, then heavily used machines.

I have more landscape restoration to do upstairs just to get things looking normal around the base of the TRONK but it’s not a lot. After that I may consider some larger/longer roots, as well as how high I want to go before adding any branches.

So it will continue to be simply prioritizing whichever part catches my fancy at any given moment, for now.

I’m sure nobody was dying for this update, but I hope you enjoyed the pics

[Nightstar]

Potato Life: Goodbye TRONK!

OK so it’s been a minute. I’ve dabbled on this build here and there, but never really gotten anywhere. I love the shape overall, but since I saw some things on Zarastria - I’ve been dissatisfied. I want to start over. I’ve been rolling it around for several weeks. Since I started building at @Naeah’s place.

Then today this happened:

Anyone else tempted?

To completely rebuild their base every so often? I get the urge to just reclaim everything and try out a new build on a different planet. Sometimes I actually do. Am I the only one?

I’m pretty sure now. But I’m going to make an offer - If anyone wants the shell of this - we can schedule a time for me to reclaim. This is a BUTT LOAD of work. I think it’s going to look awesome in ash, at least the actual tree (what there is of it). Not sure though.

The video is a little run around the build showing some of the features and some of the potential. It will be mustard ash mostly. The foliage might not be that attractive but it’s an easy layer to peel back.

If you want to see the build or the area, there’s the portal in the lower/back corner of the TNT Megahub. The sign says TRONK.

As for the video, I titled it as “Potato Life” I have some better hardware than I used to, but running this game at HD and capturing is still a push.

Anyways I’m off to see the video, it was processing while I wrote this. If anyone is interested in saving or using the shell, let me know.

[Ratchel]

I freaking love this…butt I cant help see a giant…ummm…how do I put this politely…it’s a giant brown…sphincter . You know I love ya bro!

This would have been insane when finished.

[cjmarsh]

Pardon the sappy philosophy but a flower is no less beautiful for dying, decaying, and providing the soil to grow a new flower.

[Nightstar]

@Ratchel

brown…sphincter

NGL This made me scroll back up and look at the pic from the sanctum again

Bob, you’re not wrong!!

Also I think the video is a little boring. It’s hard to get around at that FPS. There’s a nod to @QuimbyBoundless there though.

[Nightstar]

The next one will be a bit different, I think I’m going to build a temp workshop and take it slow. I want to make some changes based on exploring my first sovereign.

AAAAAAAnd one for @Ratchel

[Ratchel]

See that’s kind of planet I’d want but all desert, except for little oasis sphincters lol

[Nightstar]

It did turn out pretty cool.

The ashes of TRONK.

I kept the hub as I need some place to mesh up between the 'verse and my sov.

[boundmore]

noooooooo

so, you are going to do something big on your own planet now?

[Nightstar]

I don’t think so. I’m still not enthused to build on a sovereign.

I’m taking a rest, I’ve been trying to build in theme, and it’s stopped me from progress. I have something in mind, I’m not sure if I’ll take a whack at that or not. For a minute I’m going to stick with the parts of the game that are less of a struggle for me, and enjoy the game.

This is getting the job done honestly. When I see a spot, where I want to make a thing, I’ll build again.