Eco

[Asid]

Version 9.0.2 released!
Thu, 17 September 2020

Version 9.0.2 has been released and fixes the following issues:

•   Linux Client is now available (Including server and - for the first time - singleplayer)
•   IP binding for the webserver is now working correctly
•   Maximum amount to buy in the purchase list now updates correctly
•   The button to choose the type of road in road contracts can be clicked again
•   The last clause of a contract can be moved and removed again

Please note that Linux and Mac clients are not officially supported and may include platform-specific issues that we may not be able to fix in the near future. Don't hesitate to report them nontheless, we will try to get them fixed if resources allow.

A notable major issue with the Linux client is that tesselation for the minimap is not currently working and the minimap is therefore not being displayed correctly. The Mac client still has issues with connecting and the (singleplayer) server and we're working on getting a working client out for that as well.

You can follow progress for both clients and participate in testing (we're especially in need for testers that got a Mac) here: https://github.com/StrangeLoopGames/EcoIssues/issues/18081

[Asid]

Version 9.0.4 released!
Thu, 8 October 2020



Update 9.0.4 has been released and fixes the following issues:

•   Adjusted initial plant distribution and plant capacity calculations.
•   Overcrowding no longer causes plants to die and instead prevents plants from growing.
•   Several improvements to plant simulation. Mass extinction in deserts and jungles should no longer happen.
•   Nutrients in soil were added back. (On a existing world it can take up to five real days for layers to regenerate)
•   Increased initial population of Fireweed and made it growable in Tundra.
•   Updated pipes logic. Loops are no longer allowed and the status tab will now give more useful information about possible issues with pipes.
•   Fixed an issue that caused plants to spawn too close together.
•   Fixed an issue that caused sounds to disappear.
•   Fixed a duplication exploit with the lumber stockpile.
•   Fixed an issue that caused work orders to occasionally halt their progress.
•   Fixed an issue that caused icons to not appear when taking items.
•   Fixed an issue with the modkit that caused sprites to not work.
•   Fixed an issue with the in-game bug reporting system.

[Asid]

Version 9.0.5 released!
Tue, 13 October 2020

Update 9.0.5 has been released and fixes the following issues:

•   MacOS Client is now available with functioning connection.
•   The minimap should now display correctly on Linux and MacOS.
(There may be issues with maps > 1 km² on MacOS due to limit of tesselation level to 16)
•   Some issues with migration from 8.3.3 have been fixed.

[Asid]

Eco Update 9.1 releases on November 3rd!
Wed, 28 October 2020




We’ve got a launch date for Eco 9.1, coming November 3rd!



With Eco 9 a year in development, it came with a long list of new features. With 9.1, we’re iterating on that giant update and moving to a monthly-ish release cycle. Here’s what’s new:

Elections Packages
One main point of feedback we got with the new government system is that citizens wanted to package multiple provisions together in an election, so we’ve added that! In 9.1, drafts for constitutions, laws, districts, titles, and election processes can be proposed in the same election. Constitutions will have the option to reference custom election processes and titles without an amendment. Districts can have special policies attached when they are first created. We are excited to see other ways this can be used to make interesting citizen-run governments in the game.



New Building Forms and Updated Block Art
Update 9.0 introduced our new building system with selectable forms and fill types. Our art team has been hard at work preparing a variety of new building forms that may be used during construction. In addition, we will be introducing visual improvements to existing blocks, for example Reinforced Concrete and Flat Steel



Chef Balance
The addition of labor has made chefs an even more essential part of society. Unfortunately, bakers have not experienced the same level of benefit as other chef specialties. We have upcoming improvements to Baking, Advanced Baking, and Milling specialties so they will be more useful and in demand. Our goal is baking will be a viable alternative to the traditional chef path.



Optimization and Bug Fixes
One of the primary focuses of 9.1 was fixing bugs and finding other ways to improve the user experience. We have been hard at work clearing out our backlog, and the full list of fixes is too large to fit into this announcement. This includes multiple optimizations to help improve performance.

We will include all changes in detail in our upcoming patch notes, but we wanted to provide a brief insight into our next update.

We’re already in the works for 9.2, and 10.0 after that. We’ve recently grown the dev team as well, so our velocity will start to be much faster, so expect more frequent updates. You can follow development and future plans on the Eco Tree on our website, check it out here.



Thanks all and look forward to your feedback!

[Asid]

Eco Update 9.1 is now released!
Tue, 3 November 2020



We're happy to announce the release of Update 9.1 containing lots of improvements and bugfixes. We've been monitoring your feedback on Update 9.0 closely since release and have already begun work on Update 9.2, introducing a few cool new additions to the game and expected to be released in December. Stay tuned for hints in the coming weeks.

You can find all changes in this version in the following changelog. We wish you lots of fun with this release, stay safe!

Features:
•   Elections can now contain multiple provisions. IE: add a law, remove a demographic, and update an election, process, etc in a single election.
•   A special privilege is granted during a new constitution election, allowing any civic object addition to be attached to that election. Allows the founding constitution to configure multiple aspects of government at once.
•   Added new properties to Election Processes to instant-finish with success/fail if the percent of total voters reaches a given value of yes/no.
•   When a world object with attached civic objects is removed, those objects become orphaned, and can be reclaimed by anyone who puts down a matching type. IE, if someone picks up the court to kill the laws, someone else can put down another court and reclaim them.
•   Pollute Air laws can now reference the location of the pollution source
•   Added new building forms for Ashlar Stone, Framed Glass, Reinforced Concrete, Corrugated Steel
•   Art improvements for Flat Steel and Reinforced Concrete
•   Added new roof forms for Hewn Logs, Mortared Stone, Lumber, Corrugated Steel, Flat Steel, and Reinforced Concrete
•   New art for Wooden Elevator Call Post
•   Added new variants for Mortared Stone Doors
•   Stores owned by titles can now sell items
•   Ladders now have an option to climb over the top with a new animation
•   Fishing animations now viewable for other players in third person
•   The Steam Tractor Harvester now has a down/up animation when activating
•   Added "lock" mode for tooltips when "Ctrl" is pressed
•   New icon for Deep Crust when using Rock drill at bedrock
•   Admins can now globally /mute players in chat
•   Admins can now add and remove global map markers


Optimization
•   Optimized texture memory usage, which will help with some GPU crashes when running out of memory
•   Optimized trade tracker to reduce performance degradation over time
•   Optimized stats querying in laws
•   Optimized calculations for accessing storage when multiple containers are in the same area
•   Optimized calculations when entering and leaving a large room
•   Optimized calculations for adjusting text width in UI
•   Optimization for memory use in Linux servers
•   Synced physics with freshly created rubble

Quality of Life:
•   Revising civic objects (laws and such) will keep the old name, unless you change it
•   Election voting doesn't start until 'Start Election' is clicked in the side panel
•   Laws will now execute all sections even if it's the same trigger, unless 'prevent' is reached
•   Anyone can now claim abandoned projects from unowned tables
•   “Collect” button for work orders now updates correctly when changing owners. New owners can see it, but old owners cannot
•   Added option to select payment account for transactions on a public crafting table
•   Pressing escape no longer closes backpack
•   The fishing lure will now be cast towards where the camera is pointing
•   Added additional visual feedback for animal attacks
•   Special accounts rewards (alpha, beta bakers etc) now added to Void Storage on login and don't occupy backpack space
•   Improved global illumination
•   Added drop down menu to select input device for voice chat
•   Voice chat radius is now displayed in settings
•   Creating a world through the client now automatically adjusts crafting cost and time modifiers based on collaboration settings
•   Tool break sound now happens as soon as tool breaks
•   Footstep sounds in first-person are now more precise and volume was tweaked
•   Added more power to Dev Tool to bypass authority
•   Voting through the election website no longer refreshes the page
•   Starting a server is prohibited if Web Server Url is invalid
•   Clarified chat notification for taxes
•   Clarifies description of work clothes to indicate only using tools benefits from calorie reduction
•   Added “Reset to Defaults” button for audio settings
•   Added confirmation popup for reset to defaults button for Audio, Graphics, and Controls
•   Added error notification when trying to place a block in a doorway
•   Added error message to Mint if it can not be used to explain why

Balance
•   Steam Engine now pollutes and requires water
•   Solar Generator now requires water
•   Road Tools now give Basic Engineering experience
•   Bonus hunting experience is now granted for headshots
•   Stove is now crafted by Mechanics
•   Rock Drills now benefit from Mining specialty
•   Huckleberry Extract is now crafted by Milling
•   Flour cost decreased
•   Yeast cost decreased
•   Bear Claw skill requirement decreased
•   Elk Wellington nutrients increased and cost increased
•   Fruit Tart nutrients increased and skill requirement decreased
•   Macaroons cost changed and nutrients increased
•   Pirozhok skill requirement decreased
•   Stuffed Turkey nutrients increased and weight decreased
•   Baked Vegetables calories increased
•   Baked Meat calories increased
•   Flatbread nutrients increased
•   Fruit Muffin nutrients increased and cost decreased
•   Huckleberry Pie nutrients increased
•   Meat Pie nutrients increased
•   Excavator movement speed now fully benefits from roads
•   Decreased experience for Machete & Sickle
•   Adjusted recipe for Hewn Log Chair to match variations
•   Reduced default Hewn Log recipe labor cost
•   Adjusted Coyote Carcass weight to match similar carcasses

User Interface
•   Law notification popups can now be disabled
•   Removed chat notification when adding ingredients to a work order (still appears for work parties)
•   Changed Constitution font to more appropriate style
•   Work Party list is now sorted alphabetically
•   Sorting by price in the economy viewer now always puts blank prices last
•   Minted currencies are now displayed above player credits when viewing account balances
•   Changing the item filter now saves settings when closing the window
•   Stores no longer highlight red in Economy Viewer when they should not
•   Changed highlight colors in title screen to improve readability
•   Minimap colors for property and districts are not as opaque
•   Resources from different work orders are no longer combined into a single work party marker
•   Improvements to election website so it is more clear who won an election
•   Improvements to difficulty settings UI when creating world through the client
•   Improvements to server password UI for ease of use
•   Improvements to control settings UI
•   New status bars in crafting UI
•   Polished the escape menu UI
•   Visual improvements to Work Party UI
•   Improvements to UI for selecting block forms
•   Fixed alignment for nested clauses in contract UI
•   Improved position of election speech textbox when entering election
•   Visual improvements to show/hide animation for dialog boxes
•   Added scroll bar to in-game bug reporting tool
•   Shortcut for Push to Talk is now displayed in voice settings
•   Continue button for rejoining a server from main menu now expands with long server names
•   Text on Ratify button for constitution now fits correctly in button
•   Fixed text overlap in edit property window with very long property names
•   Fixed text overlap in election website when using collapse/expand function
•   Many UI fixes for Mac

Modkit:
•   Added reference assemblies to the modkit for compiling mods. No more extracting them!
•   Fixed issue with chat icon sprites for mods

Bug Fixes
•   Fixed a number of cases of civics objects not having references auto-update when they change.
•   Fixed bug with disappearing civic objects
•   Fixed crash when deleting a civic object that had a draft referenced in another civic
•   Fixed ignore-auth not working for property actions in laws. Now you can ignore-auth on claiming and unclaiming.
•   Fixed property owner not being selectable as context in laws.
•   Fixed exception when quickly changing law triggers
•   Fixed how values update with custom statistics in laws
•   Using a direct tax from the Treasury object now works again
•   Fixed bug with animals getting stuck and teleporting
•   Fixed bug with teleporting animal corpses
•   Fixed crash and exceptions related to animal pathing
•   Fixed animals not knowing how to move on ramps
•   Fixed strange animation with Alligator dying
•   Fixed crash when a store owned by a title had no one assigned to the title
•   Fixed server crash with “Stack Overflow” in specific situations with large mines
•   Fixed exception when leaving and rejoining the same work party
•   Fixed issue with room calculation where an object touching a wall at a 90 degree angle was treated as an open space
•   Fixed ability to pay loans without enough currency
•   Fixed title holders not able to unclaim property owned by the title
•   Tool efficiency talents now work correctly
•   Icons on signs now respect borders
•   Fixed exception when rubble or logs were removed after being shot with an arrow
•   Fixed world object UI not closing when the player moves away, allowing them to be accessed from unlimited distance
•   Fixed salmon being unable to be hit with arrows
•   Fixed strange behavior with picking up a bed while someone is sleeping
•   Fixed bug with property name displaying incorrect color
•   Fixed crash when setting Skill Gain Multiplier to 0
•   Fixed chat message when receiving 0 payment from a work party
•   Ecko Statue is now hidden from Housing Tag
•   Fixed server Discord link in tutorial not linking correctly
•   Reaped and potted plants will no longer have ghost-highlights after removal of the plant.
•   Fixed some laws being able to prevent play despite server disabling this option
•   Fixed footsteps sound occasionally getting stuck
•   Fixed glass plates not merging together when building
•   Fixed craft button for sub-recipes
•   Fixed admin command for assigning titles.
•   Fixed Fast-forward command not allowing fastwording to stop
•   Fixed /AToB admin command to not fail when player A isn't online.
•   Fixed /TargetTo admin command to not fail when the player isn't online.
•   Fixed issues with vehicles duplicating when there is extreme server lag
•   Fixed occupancy for Mortared Stone Signs
•   Fixed Cancel button in server password UI being inactive when “Remember Me” is checked
•   Fixed issue with work party UI not updating immediately
•   Fixed law names not being escaped from code in election website
•   Fixed text wrapping problems with long tooltip titles
•   Fixed issue with resizing objectives window
•   Fixed exception when editing visible layers in minimap
•   Fixed duplicate notifications when using Pick Up law trigger
•   Fixed plow action not working with laws
•   Fied bug when making law with missing strings
•   Fixed transparency issues with potted plants
•   Fixed unowned world objects missing info about who placed it
•   Disallowed players to only have a space as a name
•   Fixed meteor timer showing in welcome text despite being disabled
•   Fixed wrong icon item displaying in tooltip title
•   Forage for Food tutorial now always shows 3 different types of food
•   Fixed stockpile tutorial to accept Saguaro Rib
•   Crafting Tutorial now correctly points to default Hewn Log recipe
•   Fixed bug with being unable to skip the tutorial when tasks are already completed
•   Fixed description for Charred Fireweed and Advanced Smelting Upgrade
•   Server setting Specialty Experience Divisor has been removed from server configs
•   Fixed plural names for Rugs & Mortared Stone variant
•   Various localization & typo fixes

[Asid]

Version 9.1.6 released!
Tue, 24 November 2020

Update 9.1.6 has been released and fixes the following issues:

•   Optimized stockpile calculations to improve performance in crowded areas
•   Fixed possible server crash when modifying titles
•   Fixed collision with Flat Steel wall corner that could prevent movement in areas it shouldn't
•   Fixed ability to jump between ladders
•   Increased default movement speed on ladders and added option to sprint on ladders
•   Modders can now use apostrophes in item names

[Asid]

Version 9.1.8 released!
Mon, 30 November

Update 9.1.8 has been released and fixes the following issues:

•   Fixed an issue that allowed access to inventories of removed objects and vehicles remotely by using a pot.
•   Fixed an issue that created unremovable ghost blocks in stockpiles that persisted during server restart.
•   Fixed an issue that could lead to the loss of items when a storage was removed while being accessed.
•   Fixed a rare crash when removing an elevator call post.
•   Prevented creation of multiple users with same Steam ID / SLG ID.

[Asid]

Developer Blog: A Little Place to Call Home
Sat, 12 December 2020

Residency and Rental properties in Eco.

With the Eco 9.2 and 9.3 Updates, we’re adding new features of residency and rental properties, connecting individual skill gain deeper to the economy.



Residency
In Eco, the quality of your housing (along with your food) determines your skill rate. Previously, housing bonuses were calculated from all the property plots you personally owned. This meant that you couldn’t share residency, and you could have houses that gave you points scattered all over the world. We wanted to address both of these, and so introduced the concept of Residency.



With this addition, you will only gain skill points from a single property which you have chosen as your Residence on the deed. Typically, you’ll want this to be whatever residence gives you the most housing points.

Roommates
You can also have multiple residents on a deed, which means roommates can share the same housing value! Like real life though, the more people you cram into a house the less livable it becomes, and we’ve added an occupancy penalty based on how many people are residents of a given home. Importantly, however, this penalty is not linear; it’s barely punishing at all for the first roommate, slightly more for the second, and then ramps up from there to become very punishing.

This was added to make sharing a home with a single person a very small penalty, making it advantageous to pool your efforts with one person. On the other hand, we don’t want a single house crammed full of hundreds of players, so we made that a high penalty.

Note that the penalty here applies before the caps, meaning furniture will give you less points, but you can still make more rooms and reach the same total points as you would in a house where you’re the sole resident. This makes sense, as more rooms and more furniture makes a house full of a lot of people more accommodating.




Difference in penalty between 2 and 5 residents.

Since the penalty is so light for 2 and 3 person homes, I expect to see a lot of players combining houses, either with their friends or strangers they meet on the server. This can lead to lots of interesting collaborations among players, as they’ll need to more closely interact and communicate compared to solo houses, and they’ll get more bang for their buck (ie, if you have two people in a house you have twice the effort to build it, but only 10% penalty! That’s a big gain in efficiency overall).

You can specifically invite who you want to be roommates by setting an invitation on the deed. This can be specific, like a single user, or it can be a group invite, like a demographic such as ‘New Players’ or ‘Everyone’. You can also set the max occupants, which will limit how many people are allowed to crowd in. Thus, you could setup free public housing in your world by inviting ‘Everyone’ but having a max occupant of 2 or 3. Since players can only be a resident of one property at a time, they’ll space out efficiently, and new citizens could get a great residence right away if the citizens of a world have the resources to provide that sort of thing. This also takes advantage of the asynchronous nature of the game: you can create a residence that invites everyone to join, and then even if someone joins the server while you’re offline they can hop in, so you never have to be online together to set it up.

Also note that the ‘max occupants’ is a Game Value, meaning you can determine it with a plain old number or a calculation, same as the laws system (in fact it’s the exact same code! With our engine getting more mature its becoming easier an easier to add rich features). So you could have the max occupancy depend on the total server population, for example. Similarly, you could have special demographics for the invitation section, perhaps a demographic like ‘Is Eligible for Public Housing’ which looks at the player’s age, skill, wealth, etc.


Example of a ‘Calculated’ Max Occupants value that increasing occupancy allowance as world ages.

Rent
Taking this a step further to connect it to the economy, we’ve also added the ability to charge rent to tenants. Owners of a property can set a specific daily rental fee and/or move-in fee and anyone who becomes a resident will have to pay it. If they stop being able to pay it, they will be evicted (and as I mentioned in my twitter this is one of my fav features, because it’s so un-fun in reality and yet really interesting when implemented in a game, because you see it in a wider system perspective).



Just like the ‘max occupants’ value, rent and move-in can be determined by a Game Value, meaning they can rely on any calculation you like. You can make rent dependent on the renter’s total wealth or skill, or on the amount of total citizens needing residency, or the number of tortoises killed yesterday, whatever you like. Lots of potential for programming this fee to suit a given society.

Like residency, rent respects the asynchronous nature of the game: if the player is invited and can afford rent, they can take residency even if the owner is offline. This should make it very easy for citizens to setup additional houses that they can rent out for reasonable prices, and newer citizens can begin renting them to get immediate skill bonuses. Win-win for both parties. We’ve added visibility to make this easier: you can see any ‘recurring payments’ in the economy viewer now (rent, but also wages will show here), and there’s a new tab showing properties for rent.


The owner can also remove residents at will, unless of course the government gets involved…

Property Law
This being Eco, we’ve of course connected all this with the legal system. All the various actions involved in taking residency and paying rent go through the law system, which can prevent, tax, or modify them as will. For example, when a player leaves residency, an action is generated, and if this is a forced eviction it could fine the landlord or even prevent it.



This should have the effect of creating a big new opportunity in the form of the housing market, and the government can regulate and use it to finance other works as well. More connections in our web of systems!

Resident Rights
We wanted to make sure this feature would still be useful in a low-trust environment, IE you want to make sure your renters don’t trash the place. To aid this, we introduced Resident’s Rights. This is a special set of rights that a citizen will automatically get if they become a resident on a property, even if they’re not listed as an owner or as someone who ‘can modify’ the property. These rights will allow the following:

•   Residents can use any world object on the property even if they don’t own it, accessing its contents and functions, but not pick it up (so you can use the storage on property, but can’t steal it).
•   Residents can place their own world objects, and pick up any world objects that they placed down (so you can move your stuff in).
•   Residents cannot place down or pick up blocks (can’t modify the property, this requires more elevated permissions).




Of course, you’re welcome to also give your renters full access to the property through the usual interface on the deed, but then they’ve got free reign. Resident’s Rights gives the opportunity for a middle ground, that you can allow even for total strangers: you can sell benefits to a citizen without risk of them ruining your property. This makes it a lot easier for that collaboration to happen.

These rights apply to any vehicle on the deed as well, meaning you can easily make rental vehicles with this same system. This can have a huge impact on the transport system, creating a new type of economy-connected collaboration.



The Big Picture
One of the core design philosophies with Eco is building lots of interesting systems, and then connecting them together. The more connections, the more meaningful interactions are built, forming a network of ideas that are all meshed together, looping back on one another (which hints at why our company name is what it is). With the feature of residency connected to the economy (through rent) and government (through property law), this adds a ton more interesting connections that can emerge in rich and collaborative ways, creating many ways for a society to organize and regulate.



Also really exciting to note: most of these features here are all a byproduct of the huge refactor we did to the law system for Eco 9: the ability to have game values everywhere, law integration with game actions, economy integration, etc. Because those features were made in an agnostic way (they were added to the engine itself, not just tied to laws exclusively) we can get really unique new possibilities with very little work, which is why we’re able to add this pretty large feature in a minor update, residency in Eco 9.2 and rent in Eco 9.3. You can expect to see accelerated progress on Eco as these investments we made in our tech start to pay off.

And finally, this is a step to a much wider feature set and expansion of the game we’re calling Eco Infinite, in which there is much gameplay after the meteor as people build public-good projects like universities, museums, research labs, and cultural items, to create a growing utopia. Much more on this later, but residency and property law is one of the first steps.

Thanks for reading all and let us know on the Eco Tree what you think! https://play.eco/#tree

-John K

[Asid]

Happy Holidays! Update 9.1.9
Wed, 23 December 2020

Happy Holidays! We are so thankful to our wonderful community. We are excited for all the new content that will be introduced in the upcoming 9.2 update, but in the meantime we wanted to bring some holiday cheer to Eco.



We’re bringing the festivities to Eco!
The world of Eco is getting some festive decorations, just in time for the Holidays! Elk have a new reindeer skin, complete with candy cane antlers. Spruce trees have been decorated with glowing Christmas lights. The distribution station has been adorned with lights and stockings, and storage crates will now appear as wrapped presents.



New Year, New Hopes
2020 has been a tough year for everyone, and we hope gaming can serve as a way for us to continue to connect and lift our spirits. We humbly thank the Eco community and are eager to keep building a place for everyone to meet, build, and grow together. Thank you for playing, and we wish you all a safe, warm
Happy Holidays!

With love,
The Eco Team

[Asid]

Version 9.2.4 Released!
Thu, February 4, 2021

Update 9.2.4 has been released and fixes the following issues:

•   Fixed crash when using “Resident of District” law condition when residency was set to a property without a plot
•   Fixed crash with experimental rent feature when a resident was unable to afford rent
•   Fixed crash with laws that prevented actions when unable to make a payment
•   Fixed “Object not set” error when trying to add a civic to an election
•   Fixed calculation for housing value for deeds with large number of residents and rooms
•   Improved optimization for claiming/unclaiming large deeds.

[Asid]

Ecosystem swims into Early Access on March 16th 2021
Wed, 17 February 2021



Beta testers wanted
 



Ecosystem is a god-game/simulation hybrid in which players design aspects of their underwater ecosystem - from the terrain composition and where the currents run to the placement of individual species of plant and fish within the world. Once the player has made these choices, the simulation takes over to help the plants and fish grow and evolve over time.

The underlying technology of Ecosystem means that it isn't just a video game version of the laws of ecology with pre-made fish models. The simulation actually determines the creatures in the game: their bodies, how they swim, and how they think and behave. All the creatures in the trailer evolved on their own in the game; none were hand-edited!

Other key features of Ecosystem are:
•   Virtual creatures evolve on their own to adapt to an environment you create - At Ecosystem's heart are evolving virtual lifeforms, who grow from synthetic DNA and live in a physically-simulated ocean. This synthetic DNA encodes everything about a creature, from skeletal structure to skin, from joint-types to mental processes. The genetic code of a creature can mutate, combine, be spliced with other species, and be directly modified by the player.
•   Movement is bound by the laws of physics - To swim, the creatures don’t just play an animation, they move like real sea-life, their limbs actually controlling their success in movement. The strongest swimmers pass their genes onto the next generation.
•   Massive Replayability - The procedural nature of the game means that you will never have the same fish or environment twice, each new Ecosystem will be different from the last.


If you would like to sign-up for beta access you can do so by filling in this form: https://forms.gle/LWqX7uT6F8ko1zTV6

[Asid]

Update 9.3 released! The Tailoring Update
Thu, 15 April 2021

We are happy to announce the release of Eco 9.3. With this update we are introducing some significant optimization improvements, an expansion of the tailoring specialty, and the experimental rent feature
will be fully enabled with some additions to the residency system based on feedback from the community. In addition to these changes, we have a variety of quality life improvements, balance adjustments, and bug fixes listed in detail in the complete patch notes.



With the new rent feature, we had a few goals in mind. Renting a property will be a nice way for new players who are joining an established community to get a nice boost to their initial house bonus to help them catch up. Vehicles can also be rented to help with early transportation needs and to provide new players affordable transport options when joining later in the game. For those who especially enjoy building, they can put their talents to work making nice homes for others while earning a steady income. In addition, rent will play a role in our upcoming Towns & Nations where proximity to your residence will have a much larger impact.

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As part of the tailoring update, tailors will be able to select from different materials to produce their fabric, from the new cotton plant to the cheap but high polluting nylon. There are a variety of new ingredients and crafting stations, as well a new tier 4 carpet building material. We are also adding new clothing outfits, each with a different theme. For now these clothing sets are cosmetic only, but we have more new clothes in the works and we plan to expand on these by adding skill bonuses. Upgrading the avatars to have more customization and new animations will be a big focus for us going forward.

As mentioned, a key focus for us this update was optimization
. We have been hard at work to address Eco’s performance issues, specifically the problem with performance degradation over time. We also have optimizations to a variety of our systems, including chunk rendering and database calculations. There should be noticeable improvements, but optimization will continue to be a priority for us with each update.

Without further ado, let’s get to the full list of changes in Update 9.3:

Features
•   Major tailoring profession rework
•   New Cotton plant which can be found in the Wetlands biome
•   New ingredients: Cotton Boll, Shorn Wool, Nylon, Cotton Thread, Wool Yarn, and Nylon Thread
•   New crafting stations: Loom, Automated Loom, Advanced Tailoring Table, and Spin Melter
•   New Cotton, Wool, and Nylon fabrics which can be used as an alternative to Cloth
•   New Modern Tailoring Upgrade
•   New Tier 4 blocks: Cotton Carpet, Wool Carpet, and Nylon Carpet
•   New clothing outfits for Builder, Farmer, Smith, and Tailor
•   New Gloves clothing slot
•   New Corrugated Steel Door and Corrugated Steel Fence Door
•   Rent feature is now enabled by default
•   Renter’s belongings are now placed in void storage after being evicted from a property
•   New optional control setup for excavator to allow simpler movement
•   Added “Hands” option as a tool selection choice for laws related to plants and construction
•   Bank accounts can now be seized via laws or executive actions
•   Admins can now ban or mute players based on a timer with a reason given
•   Updated icons for tabs in the Economy Viewer

Optimization
•   Multiple client optimizations to help address FPS degradation over time
•   Optimized sound controller to remove leak that was contributing to FPS degradation over time
•   Optimized tree rendering performance
•   Optimized calculations for claiming/unclaiming large deeds
•   Optimized process for loading chunks
•   Optimized database calculations for civics and other periodic ticks
•   Optimizations relating to opening and closing UI windows
•   Optimized performance for servers with a large amount of mods when multiple players were connecting at the same time
•   Optimized minimap when large amount of icons were displayed on map
•   Optimized calculations for animal AI

Modkit
•   Modifications to existing items and recipes changes can now be made with partial hooks without rewriting the original files. This means changes will not be overwritten with each update. For full details, see the readme in the mod folder.
•   Fixed modkit exception while working with block sets

Bug Fixes
•   Added anti-cheat detection and various cheat fixes
•   Fixed bug where vehicles could be stolen
•   Fixed crash with recurring transfers
•   Fixed crash and authorization issues with Plow Field contracts
•   Fixed crash when setting craft resource modifier to an invalid number
•   Fixed crash when making multiple modifications to a Demographic list that occurred in the same Demographic update tick
•   when the citizen’s hours to check was left blank
•   Fixed occasional crash when editing deeds on the Real Estate desk
•   Fixed crash when attempting to pay rent from an invalid bank account
•   Fixed crash when using Hours Played as a condition for maximum residency occupants
•   Fixed bug where tooltips would get stuck refreshing even when the mouse was stationary
•   Fixed bug with stores being listed multiple times in tooltips and the Economy Viewer
•   Fixed bug with election drafts where citizens other than the creator of the draft could start the election
•   Fixed bug with being unable to interact with a fish trap
•   Fixed bug with tools not working correctly when dragging them into the currently selected toolbar slot
•   Fixed bug with server not allowing connections if the meteor timer was set to an extremely large value
•   Fixed ability to rejoin a residency after the invite was no longer active
•   Fixed ability to become a resident of a property after an invited demographic was removed
•   Fixed bug with invited residents being unable to pick up their own objects on their residence when they did not have authorization to the entire deed
•   Fixed bug that allowed creating non-contiguous deeds with the Real Estate Desk
•   Fixed inability to select “Move In” or “Rent” as a condition when drafting a law based on “Pay Rent or Move In Fee”
•   Fixed bug with getting stuck in third person view when pulling a cart with no backpack
•   Bank account source for Elected Titles wages can now be set to the Treasury
•   Housing value pie chart now has correct proportions for different room types
•   Elected Titles no longer have their term extended when the title holders change
•   Laws that prevent pollution will now deactivate any objects currently polluting after passing
•   Taxes now work correctly for the currency exchange
•   Fixed bug with being unable to remove bank account users and title holders when an authorized Bank/Registrar was placed on a non-authorized claim
•   Fixed bug with contracts still showing as invalid after updating a removed bank account
•   Player movement on minimap is less jerky
•   Fixed bug with vehicle deed icons incorrectly displaying in minimap
•   Fixed bug with editing a district map when the district crossed point (0,0)
•   Fixed bug with minimap where icons on the other side of the world would appear incorrectly in 3D mode
•   Fixed graphic issues with minimap after updating the render scale
•   Fixed tooltip for crafting recipes displaying perks for unrelated talents
•   Fixed the displayed max tier when writing a contract to build a room.
•   Fixed bug in Ecopedia where information about the constitution would appear in unrelated entries
•   Fixed bug where the interaction highlight could appear green when aiming a hammer at an unauthorized property
•   Pressing escape button while sleeping no longer causes the world to continue fast forwarding
•   Fixed bug with the hide chat tag button making the cursor flicker
•   Pressing “+” or “-” button quickly on contracts no longer causes numbers to skip
•   Settlement civic objects are no longer visible when the experimental feature is disabled
•   Backer items can no longer be spawned by admins
•   Wind Turbine table texture changed to metal from wood
•   Fishing reel sound now stops when the reel animation stops
•   Improved consistency with tree falling sounds
•   Various typo fixes

Balance
•   Recipes that previously cost Cloth now cost new Fabric tag which includes Cotton Fabric, Wool Fabric, and Nylon Fabric
•   Cloth and Cellulose Fiber default craft time increased to 1 minute from 48 seconds
•   Cloth recipe labor cost increased to 100 from 50
•   Cellulose Fiber recipe labor cost increased to 100 from 20
•   Bearpack recipe moved to Advanced Tailoring Table
•   Industry vehicles now cost Nylon Fabric instead of Cellulose Fiber
•   Compound Bow recipe now costs Fiberglass + Nylon Thread instead of Fiberglass + Steel Bar
•   Basic clothing recipes that previously cost Plant Fibers now cost Fabric
•   Animal mounts and stuffed animals are now produced by Hunting specialty
•   Charcoal recipe craft time reduced to 1 minute from 4 minutes, labor cost reduced to 40 from 80, and experience provided reduced to 1 from 2
•   Updated formula for residency penalty for multiple residents
•   Large Corrugated Steel Door now costs Corrugated Steel instead of Steel Bar
•   Decreased canopy space requirement from Ceiba tree and increased initial spawn percentage
•   Agouti can now get calories from Ceiba trees
•   Labor cost for crafting seeds on the Farmers Table increased to 40 from 20
•   Epoxy, Plastic, and Synthetic Rubber recipes experience provided changed to 1 from 2
•   Fiberglass recipe labor cost increased to 150 from 75
•   New tags Medium Fish and Large Fish to condense fish recipes in the Campfire and Fishery
•   New recipe Fish Stew based on Meaty Stew that uses Charred Fish as an alternative for Charred Meat
•   Shuck Clams and Clean Urchin recipe costs reduced to 2 Clams/Urchins
•   Water Pumps no longer have unnecessary Economy tag

Quality of Life
•   Installed module name is now visible when viewing the module component for a crafting station
•   Auto-run no longer stops when checking inventory or chatting
•   Adjusted radius of Elevator Call Post so it can interact with the Industrial Elevator from all angles
•   Temporary chat notifications no longer appear in non-related chat channels
•   Remove From Office UI now only displays Elected Titles the user has permission to remove
•   Titles and Bank Accounts are now ordered alphabetically in their respective UIs
•   'Public Crafting Stations' tab in Economy Viewer will now show only publicly listed crafting stations instead of all stations accessible to the player
•   Treasury now has a button that displays a list of all government accounts
•   Improved sorting of species world layers in the minimap
•   Improved excavator suspension to prevent tilting up and down while in use
•   Demographics, titles, and elected titles can now be assigned a backup owner for property and bank accounts incase they are removed
•   Adjusted brush size for drawing districts in the minimap
•   Improved behavior of the top notification panel
•   Updated vehicle control UI and removed unused vehicle controls
•   Updated display names for Specialty Upgrades to be more readable
•   Ecopedia images now have their text localized, as well as a collection of other localization updates
•   Fixed ability to swap tools in the repair bench when both tools are of the same type
•   Cancelling a civic draft will now reset the editable title text
•   Updated Network config template to allow changing settings for Web Server URL and Relay Server Address
•   Improved alignment of messages in the notifications panel
•   Improved alignment for long district names in Minimap.
•   Cursor now updates to the interact symbol when hovering over objects in the minimap
•   Clarified error message when hosting a private world with a world name that contains unsupported characters

IMPORTANT NOTE: Cotton will not spawn on already existing worlds, that means that you either need to spawn in cotton seeds via the /give command and plant them or need to start a new world if you want to use cotton. Cotton being absent does not affect progression, though.

[Asid]

Version 9.3.5 released!
Wed, May 26, 2021

Update 9.3.5 has been released and fixes the following issues:


•   Fixed bug with client closing after disconnecting from a server
•   Improved behavior for splitting deeds so the original deed is maintained while a new deed will be created for the split plots
•   Fixed crash when Grant Title was selected as payment for a Work Party
•   Fixed crash when environment statistics were referenced but a specific statistic was not selected
•   Fixed crash when using modded objects that did not have a prefab assigned
•   Fixed bug that could cause trees to go missing when leaving and re-entering an area
•   Fixed bug that could result in "Caused by Actions" civic articles to have the reverse effect
•   Fixed bug where debts could not be forgiven

[Asid]

Update 9.3.6 released!
Thu, July 8, 2021

Update 9.3.6 has been released and addresses the following issues:


•   Fixed a bug with WebUI that could result in severe sever lag with frequent chat requests
•   Improved handling of chat history that will result in smaller file sizes for larger saves
•   Two new sand concentration recipes for the Screening Machine and Sensor Based Belt Sorter
•   Sand Concentrate recipe craft time reduced to 0.7 minutes from 1 minute
•   Glass recipe craft time reduced to 1.2 minutes from 1.5 minutes and Sand cost reduced to 4 from 6
•   Quicklime Glass recipe yield reduced to 1 minute from 2 minutes, Sand cost reduced to 3 from 10, Quicklime cost reduced to 2 from 3, craft time reduced to 1 minute from 2 minutes, and experience provided reduced to 70 from 175
•   Fixed an issue with copying laws that would cause the original law to be changed


We are currently in the final stages of wrapping up Update 9.4 for release, but wanted to quickly address the critical WebUI issue in the meanwhile and included some adjustments to the Glassworking speciality to go along with this. We plan to publish a preview blog for 9.4 in the coming week and are looking forward to share more information about the update with you then.

[Asid]

Outlook after Update 9.4
Mon, August 23, 2021


Hello Citizens!

We hope that you all had a chance to take a look on our newest Update 9.4 and are very thankful for all the feedback and bug reports we have received from you so far, this helps us a lot to improve Eco for you.

During the weekend, we've been closely monitoring all our channels and recognized that one of the most often mentioned feedbacks was about the new control mechanics, especially in regard to carts. We debated the issues brought up and have decided that we will make available an option to choose between the current control mechanics and the ones that you are used to from version 9.3; it is planned to be introduced as soon as it has been developed and tested, likely with one of the first hotfixes - stay tuned for further news about this.

We are also aware of several issues with carts and ramps and that some of you are experiencing issues with plants dying and having a wrong skill gain curve after a world migration to the new Update - we're also investigating these and all other reported issues and will provide you with more information and fixes as soon as they are available.

The first hotfix is already being worked on and will include the awaited fix needed for some mods to be able to update to 9.4. The modding community is very important to us and we want to make sure that you can play with the mods you love as soon as possible!

Thanks a lot for reading and please continue to send us your constructive feedback