Something I had dwelled upon for a good three months or so was a bit of an inspiration, an idea, that was struck up during a conversation with the writer Kephras and myself. The environment of our conversation was none other than his bookstore, a work in progress at the time. I saw all of his works and wondered why I had never created one of my own. And so, the idea was created. I am not a creative being, clever sometimes, but not one to make an abstract event become a story. Thus, my work would have to be nonfiction, yet follow a style such that both the reader and writer can have at least a hint of interest in it. My passion at the time and ongoing was my frontier base. I wanted to make a documentation of sorts, a journal, that detailed the Works, Shenanigans, Struggles, and Joys of running a piece of land that had become an industrial partnership and a new home to friends in the depths of the frontier. Never to make it to written books in-game, the story will be told from this medium, the forums. Each post will be a segment of LB Ind.'s history. I will try my best to keep them in chronological order [I will note if I fail to do so]. So, from the best of my memory, here are the events that I hope will inspire people to try out life outside of town, in the frontier, with a good friend or group.
"One day, you and I, Bren, are going to head waaay out and build a couple farms for ourselves." The idea was set, early August in the 2013th year. We wanted some land to call our own, and a few farms to make some money. Well, what was the problem with town? The thing was at this point a lot of my old "pirate crew" had gone inactive or partly inactive, and on days I would find myself doing nothing more than run back and forth on my old res, doing a whole lot of nothing. BrenJone was almost always around, but that wasn't enough for town. We had our reses and our small crop farms, but none of that ever brought a whole lot of entertainment or profit. We had both been around for a full year at that point, and it seemed neither of us could figure out how to make a successful shop or business. We tried our own individual shops once, and failed miserably. It was time to ditch the town for a while. After some discussion we landed our sights on Smp3 for a wild base, mainly because we figured we would never need its town area. Then it was time to pick a location. Bren wanted two things: an iron farm and a witch farm. So I searched across the livemap until a found one way out southwest. I then excitedly went to pack some things to take with me. Namely, I took some iron armor and sword, some food, boats, cobblestone, and wood. These very basic items would protect me and make for Bren and I our first building. With enthusiasm I hurriedly dashed to the Smp3 frontier waters and set sail, alone. 10 minutes then passed and I realized something. This place was quite distant from the spawn zones... It did make me a little grumpy, but I trudged on through the waters, bashing into small islands and squids constantly. Just under halfway through the journey I reached on the livemap unspawned chunks. For those of you who do not know, unspawned chunks are nothing more than black blots on the map. Whatever I traveled through was new medium and definitely slowed me down. Only about an hour had passed. Another hour finally brought me to a larger landform. I knew I was close, but the witch hut I had seen appeared to be on the coast line. I guessed my geographical ideas were all for naught, for where I was was the mainland. I sailed up and down looking for an inlet to bring me to whatever body of water the hut sat by. After no success I decided to cross the land where it was thinnest. The area was a swamp, which made walking hard but boating harder, so I decided to march through it. I'm sure I nearly died twice, too. Soon enough, however, I reached the blue sea once again. Thus, I completed the journey in two and a half hours, landing north of the hut by about 50 blocks. I went down and examined the hut. It was night, and the whole area seemed very gloomy. I made a cobble staircase to view its interior as it was elevated high off the waters. No inhabitants were around, just a mushroom and a cauldron. It was about then I knew I had to make a hut of my own. Bren would would want a small HQ to arrive at when he would make the journey. One hundred and twenty five blocks north became the cornerstone of the HQ. Then I swiftly began using up my materials because I needed this base done fast. There were mobs all around, especially in the empty village just northeast of me. The building faced east towards that village, and I connected them with a gravel road. After some time the HQ was finished. It had one complete room and a second floor with no roof. Three doors guarded the entrance, and torches decorated the walls. It was a good feeling to have accomplished that. When day approached, I felt confident to check out the adjacent village. Like the hut, it had no inhabitants. I looked for evidence of previous explorers of the region, and there I did find some. In the second smallest house was left some very normal items on the ground. They had not despawned yet since that chunk had not been loaded during my work. It was nothing more than a few saplings, apples, and wheat. I grew curious; had I encountered "native" players? Much to my surprise upon checking the live map, there I saw it. It was another player base about one to one and a half thousand blocks north of us. I anticipated a visit some day. . . But for all that was important, I hoped my next visitor could be none other than my own partner, BrenJone.
[short update tonight] "I have a bed set and some chests placed. Grab some wood and get out here already." How awesome this was! BrenJone finally had all his gear packed (a large load of supplies) and was ready to head out to the base. On that day, Schlaf82 was talking to me in a pm while Bren was getting ready, and he sounded interested in our new plot of space. Bren and I invited him along to explore with us. After all, we had built with him in the past, and so we all trusted each other. Schlaf hurried to gather some basic materials, a pick, some boats, and in time was ready to leave with Bren. I helped direct them to where I cast myself to the ocean and gave them a bearing. They followed my path for a while. . . but veered away into the unloaded chunks over time. The terrain of the ocean was basically still the same. Small islands littered both of our paths. Fast forward two hours and at last they cut across the swamp to reach the new sea. In only a few minutes they managed to reach the shore in sight of our fresh headquarters. They rushed inside to help me finish setting up the interior. All was well. Bren and I discussed our borders. We figured what was ours fell among the village the the witch hut. Schlaf felt like starting up a project of his own, and went over to a mountain just south west of the HQ. There over the next week or so he carved out a castle-like area into the mountaintop. That left Bren and I to explore what was north of us.
