Dogs Of War Vu

Sim/Strategy/War => Games Discussion => Topic started by: Asid on March 17, 2018, 05:06:58 PM

Title: Eco
Post by: Asid on March 17, 2018, 05:06:58 PM

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/header.jpg?t=1518560381)

Create a civilization capable of stopping a meteor without destroying the ecosystem in the process.


Official Site: Here (http://www.strangeloopgames.com/eco/)
Forum: Here (http://ecoforum.strangeloopgames.com/)
Steam: Here (http://store.steampowered.com/app/382310/Eco/)
YouTube: Here (https://www.youtube.com/user/StrangeLoopGame/search?query=eco)


Single-player, Multi-player, Online Multi-Player, Co-op, Online Co-op


Eco Official Trailer

https://youtu.be/ud_refZuQoA

About

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/extras/Tragedy_of_the_commons.png?t=1518560381)
Enter the world of Eco, a fully simulated ecosystem bustling with thousands of growing plants and animals living their lives. Build, harvest, and take resources from an environment where your every action affects the world around you. An imminent meteor strike threatens global destruction. Can you save the world without destroying it in the process?

Construct buildings and towns, tend to your farm, hunt wildlife, build infrastructure and transportation, craft clothing, build power plants, and research new technologies. Specialize in a craft and trade your goods to other players. Develop your civilization and sculpt your planet.

As your civilization grows, you’ll need to analyze data from the simulation; evaluating the impact you have on your world. Use this data as evidence in proposed laws, restricting harmful activities without disrupting the advancement of technology. Balance your individual needs with the needs of community, all while maintaining the state of the ecosystem. The future of your world is in your hands.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/extras/A_Rich_Simulation.png?t=1518560381)
Every organism in Eco exists as part of a detailed simulation; a disruption in one species can have cascading effects across the planet. Chop down all the trees, and habitats for creatures will be destroyed. Pollute the rivers with mining waste, and your farms will become poisoned and die. The ecosystem supplies the resources you and your community will need to stop the meteor. Manage your pollution, mining waste, hunting, and resource collection to balance your effect on this system.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/extras/Backed_By_Science.png?t=1518560381)
Eco is built on a rich ecological simulation. All the data generated from the interaction of plants, animals, climate, and players can be searched and analyzed using in-game graphs and heat-maps. Use the collected information as scientific evidence support to proposed laws. The ability to successfully debate using scientific evidence is your greatest weapon against the destruction of your world.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/extras/Player_Run_Government.png?t=1518560381)
Establish and maintain your own set of laws and government, which are enforced automatically by the game. Draft a proposal to limit clear-cutting in a protected forest, incentivize green energy solutions over fossil fuels by providing tax subsidies and penalties. Participate in elections for world leadership, allowing you to set tax rates and allocate community money. Use a programmable law system to make dynamic and flexible rules for the community, passing them by vote. Construct a wide variety of governments; from tightly-regulated dictator-states, to tax-and-spend subsidy programs, or even lawless communities relying on trust.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/extras/Learn_and_Specialize.png?t=1518560381)
Your skills increase based on your food and shelter. By consuming a highly nutritious variety of food and building an elaborate home you will rapidly increase your skill points. Skill points can be spent on skills like farming, hunting, trade, engineering, research, and more. Contribute to the greater good while increasing your own personal success.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/extras/A_Community_Driven_Economy.png?t=1518560381)
In the player-run economy, you achieve the most when you specialize and trade both goods and services. Create stores to buy and sell goods you need asynchronously with other players. Setup contracts within the game’s quest-like labor market, soliciting other players to perform specialized work for you in exchange for payment. Build complex crafting machines and charge a fee for players to use them. A thriving economy in Eco can be both a powerful tool for progress, or a dangerous threat to the environment.

To grease the wheels of commerce, you can create your own currencies, backed by fiat or by resources. Manage the value of your currency relative to others by setting exchange rates at asynchronous currency exchanges. Sell items at stores and collect credit from other players. Eco is designed for rich asynchronous play, allowing many players of many disciplines to contribute to one another’s goals at separate or simultaneous times.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/extras/A_World_With_Consequences.png?t=1518560381)
All of the world’s resources originate from its environment, which is affected by your actions. While a meteor looms over head — set to strike the planet in thirty days — a more subtle threat grows from player-interaction with the environment. Without careful attention, ecological destruction can destroy civilization before the meteor even strikes. To ultimately succeed, you and your community will need to use the tools of government and economy to find a balance between progress and protection.


Included Features

•   Online Multiplayer - Collaborate online with a community of players.
•   Local Singleplayer - Build your own world, with the option to invite friends.
•   Dedicated Server Included - Host your own Eco worlds.
•   Over 30 different craft tables, with hundreds of recipes.
•   Hundreds of items, skills, craft tables, and building blocks.
•   A simulated ecosystem with dozens of unique species.
•   With limited carrying capacity, players must create vehicles and networks of roads to transport materials.
•   Create your own backed or fiat currencies, using them as a means of exchange in the economy.
•   Build stores where you can sell your excess items for a profit.
•   Eat varied and nutritious food and build ever larger homes to increase your skills.
•   Create contracts for jobs that you would like players with different skill-specialties to accomplish for you. Take on contracts from other players that need the skills you possess.
•   Design laws using programmable template system to protect your world or increase your profits, enforced by the game if ratified by the population.
•   Run for election and make decisions that affect the globe.
•   View and compile rich data from the simulation and use it to argue for group decisions.
•   Claim land as your own property, and share access rights.
•   Give and remove reputation from other players.
•   Find a balance between progress and protection, between individual needs and those of the group, succeeding or failing together.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_308ff308ae6ea7a316b43b83ffe9566dee61c7c0.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_0ccd8b46d7e24303a99db2be6c674082e80b7081.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_877311b8d26ac596e33697aceba20c0150769a72.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_15f988b99aad1a1a94e244043052de3ed3898c61.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_3cb684a0930f0ccfed264f523d1e7aee8886a6c8.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_9fa6d9f98c312e32bb7a41dc0031914c899c0538.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_49e3f221d97acfe9158c7501f8dfaace17367219.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_2cd54a209ba3dfb5488464e801bf0ddad28a6f78.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_677dd8adc57e298cd8c59659f281e4c78dd073ec.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_e97088a17296409e4393331e5edc601b53f02fb9.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_94d4b579487bef28f4dcc56fbf057affc6327ffb.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_36486749e782274182e31443ff94d9d898124956.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_a645c85c43d0d15fb965c7238a8399a05f4897ab.1920x1080.jpg?t=1518560381)

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on April 03, 2018, 04:22:54 PM

7.3 is here!
29 MARCH   - SHAYDENMAC

We’re 7 weeks out from Early Access launch and the game has been growing fast, especially out of our native United States, which is cool to see considering we haven’t finished localizing yet!

Upcoming Feature

In the immediate future though we have a surprise feature we’re going to sneak in before the vehicle update, and the feature is trash. Really, it’s literally garbage.

Check out the video

https://youtu.be/vUZcUEw8Kk4



For the full change log for 7.3, click here. https://ecoauth.strangeloopgames.com/changelog

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on April 03, 2018, 04:23:29 PM

7.3.1 released!
30 MARCH   - SHAYDENMAC

This is a collection of all the hotfixes done since 7.3 launch, which are:

- fix transparency on most preview meshes
- fix particle systems on some world objects
- fix colors of some blocks on web map
- fix incorrect user count
- misc excavator fixes
- allow admins to ignore auth when using the dev tool to smite things
- fix some pumpjack issues when near the edge of the world
- fix some masking issues on the world object UI
- tweaked the power requirements of some light objects
- fix solid ground component not respecting rotated objects
- fix maxslots issue with singleplayer
- fix some disconnects that could occur when interacting with nothing selected
- broken laws are now automatically removed on server start (such as laws referring to items that no longer exist)
- fix doors having crafting components
- bunch of misc fixes for the webpage with other browsers (edge, firefox)
- glass now properly stacks and has a single form of windows

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on April 21, 2018, 10:32:50 PM

Economy As Gameplay
12 APRIL   - SHAYDENMAC

There's more than meets the eye to the game, Eco, as most of you already know. Strange Loop Games', John Krajewski, really gets into the depth of what this game is all about in his latest blog article.

http://www.doyouthinkthisisagame.com/2018/04/08/economy-as-gameplay/

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 19, 2018, 08:45:02 PM

Moving right along with 7.4 staging
Eco - ShaydenMac

7.4 has passed QA and has been promoted to the Staging branch on Steam. While there still may be a few bugs to work out, if you want to try out the new vehicles a bit early, feel free to do so.

To clarify how our development process works:

•   (bleeding_edge_staging) - Untested, but the most current version of the game. Expect bugs and frequent new versions.
•   (staging) - These builds have passed internal QA, but may still have a few issues.
•   (release) - These are the official releases.

In general, we aim for 2-week release windows.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 19, 2018, 08:48:42 PM

Community Update for 4/30/18
Eco - ShaydenMac

Highlighted comments from our 4/17/18 update:

Certain plants not populating upon world creation; usually crimini mushrooms but can also be more than one type of plant completely missing

“that is one of the most annoying things, having to create a new world over and over and over again because it is missing either some animals or some plants
EDIT: want to say I have only 1 useable out of 2 worlds at absolute best!”

UPDATE: We have fixed this in 7.4. Plants that have not spawned during world generation will now spawn in automatically.


Would like to see more information about Laws: How to’s; Examples.

“Seven votes for "How To Laws" from my small server, would love to have that explained a bit more clearly. I've got a programming background so I think I have a leg up, but for most new players it's gibberish.”

If you’re interested in contributing to our Wiki, we would appreciate your help! https://eco.gamepedia.com/Eco_Wiki  https://eco.gamepedia.com/Eco_Wiki

“Thanks for this initiative! I'm glad to see you quickly took into account the critics about the lack of communication since Steam release. As a server admin and modder, this is a good way of getting updates and ideas other than following the constant flow of messages in the Discord server.”

What the Community Was Talking About Most Last Week

Trending Topics

Bugs or technical issues
•   People are wondering if digging large tunnels can cause crashes or lags. It seems like large underground rooms (tunnels) can cause issues, and segmenting them (using construction materials to turn a large tunnel into smaller rooms) seem to lower lags/freezes/crashes.

UPDATE: Yes, it can cause lag. This is something we have fixed which will be implemented in 7.4 or 7.5 at the latest.

•   “Steam says it cannot run because the app is running after leaving Eco when trying to start the game back up. Task manager does not show Eco.exe running (this is not EcoServer related as multiple instances of the server can run). We’re not sure if this is all on Eco's side or also a Steam issue. It does seem to happen in 'clumps' where several people will have it happen and then several hours will go by before it happens again, so maybe it’s something Steam is doing like an update. The workaround is to simply Restart Steam.”

If anyone has more information on this, please let us know. You can send your information to me directly shay@strangeloopgames.com We always appreciate when the community reports bugs!
•   Save files being corrupted often
UPDATE: This issue has been fixed and will be implemented in 7.4, as well as better backups!

Things People Would Like to Add or Change
•   Woodsfolk and Chefs are forever valuable, but stonemasons and blacksmiths have to waste valuable skill points trying to keep up with the game curve, unable to dedicate themselves to their craft like the other 2.
•   It’s too easy to build the laser once you get the excavator, resulting in not having much time to play with because you blow the meteor up too soon.
•   Would like to see making the excavator and other vehicles sooner or make it like you have to combine all professions to build the laser. For example, a new research just for the laser beam and the cost being a lot of resources like food, wood, stone, etc...
•   The ability to paint concrete
•   Forestry equipment
•   Greenhouses
•   Chainsaws
•   Trains for transport of goods, building materials and people
•   Mining carts with rail system
•   Adding the ability to name storage chests/stockpiles when looking at their inventories
•   Search field to search for recipes at all workstations
•   Insects/bees, beekeeping skill tree
•   People prefer to have Construction skills (Lumber construction, etc) either be free or under the material Specialization (under Wood construction under
•   Hewing, for instance)
•   People are talking about wanting seasons
•   Boats
•   Animal domestication/breeding, animal farms

Sharing the Love!
•   People praise the passionate, driven dev team
•   People praise the overall quality of the game - some people don't even think it's actually Early Access/In development

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 19, 2018, 08:56:39 PM

Beta 7.4.0 has been released!
Eco - ShaydenMac

NETWORKING UPGRADE
•   A large part of the networking code has been overhauled for this release. The server now uses UDP on port 3000 for game traffic by default, and TCP on port 3001 for web traffic by default. If you were forwarding ports to your dedicated servers in the past, you will need to update your rules accordingly, including any rules in firewall programs.
•   In most instances, you should no longer need to port forward when hosting a server. We'd recommend using the steam friends "join game" feature to easily join each other games, instead of needing to find IP address and connect manually.
•   Moved the "MaxSlots" configuration value from the Users.eco config to the Network.eco config

JOIN SCREEN
•   New layout and visual style. Among other things, the new layout allows many more servers to fit on the screen.
•   This screen has been split into 2 tabs - one for only the servers that you are most likely to join (for example, your favorites, LAN servers, and official SLG servers), and the other for browsing for a new server. This allows you to view the first tab without having to query all the servers, which is more expensive.
•   Added many new searching, sorting, and filtering features
•   Improved performance by limiting how many servers are displayed
•   Added a new category on the server browser for 'Test Servers', which for now will link only the official SLG test server for the next version. Players will need to switch to staging to join this build, and a popup will inform them of that if they attempt.

GARBAGE
•   You can now drop any non-carried items into garbage piles
•   If left alone, food items will decompose into nothing
•   If left alone, other items will become trash blocks which will cause minor pollution

VEHICLES
•   Added a modern pickup Truck!
•   Added the hand plough
•   Added a nimble Skid-Steer vehicle
•   Vehicles can now dump in the water

GAMEPLAY
•   Unstuck can now extract players from ditches, correct invalid positions, added a delay to unstuck
•   Added hewn log, lumber, and stone signs for both standing and hanging.
•   You can no longer consume food when full.
•   Candle Stands no longer require solid ground.
•   Zero and low population plants will now be force spawned into worlds without them.
•   After activating the meteor destruct sequence, removing lasers or generators or otherwise breaking the laser setup will now cancel the destruct sequence.

MOD.IO
•   Official integration with mod.io is now ready! https://eco.mod.io/
•   A server can subscribe to, download, and install mods from mod.io

GENERAL SERVER CHANGES
•   Servers with several thousand world objects should notice fewer cases where world objects seem unresponsive.
•   We are now tracking which world objects need to be saved and saving is distributed over time.
•   Saving during shutdown is much faster.
•   Save all now also saves recent block changes
•   Added proper detection and handling of save-game corruption.
•   If a save is corrupt upon starting, it will restore the most recent backup.
•   If a save is corrupt mid-game, it will delete it and resave everything.
•   Made the server start auto-backups by default.
•   Spaced out backups. Now there are by default 6 made for the last hour, 10 for the last day, -7 for the last week, and up to 100 weekly backups. These numbers are configurable in the backup plugin.
•   Made any server errors that are logged also send to all admins via chat.
•   Fixed a crash when commands cannot be parsed
•   Hid many testing chat commands from players
•   Fixed an exception thrown when a mod overrides
•   PlayerDefaults.GetDefaultSkills to be empty.
•   Show a better stack trace in the tooltip if the tooltip errors out.
•   Blacklisted a few characters from usernames, which caused people not to be able to use chat. Namely '<' and '>'. These will now be automatically replaced with '?' the first time a player signs into a server.

GENERAL CLIENT CHANGES
•   Now using a borderless window that remains visible when unfocused
•   Improved client performance a bit in areas with lots of world objects
•   Fixed a bug that sometimes made you press interact twice when reopening a world object UI.
•   Fixed some client / server prediction desyncs
•   Disabled the unfocused fps limiter, it didn't work properly when vsync was enabled.
•   Users can now copy the log file easily when an error occurs. Log file will also be attached when bugs are reported.
•   Disabled single player new/load buttons for osx & linux.
•   Can no longer toggle off all chat channels
•   Sending an empty chat message once again switches you to that channel without sending a message
•   Made Skills UI Show All toggle not invisibly take up the whole bottom bar.
•   Added confirmation when deleting markers
•   Fixed contract pickers displaying contents wrong, and sometimes excepting

https://ecoauth.strangeloopgames.com/changelog

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 19, 2018, 08:57:03 PM

New vehicles are now available in 7.4 release!
Eco - ShaydenMac

Eco 7.4 is released on Steam, featuring the first set of new vehicles we’re adding! Check out this video for a look at them in action!

https://youtu.be/5rUHk6VnfzI

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 19, 2018, 08:59:15 PM

Community Update - 5/15/18
Eco - ShaydenMac



Highlighted comments from our 4/30/18 update:

People prefer to have Construction skills (Lumber construction, etc) either be free or under the material Specialization (under Wood construction under Hewing, for instance)

“Yes, yes, yes! It's amazing how much more fun building becomes when you take these specialties, but it can be hard to justify picking them up
because they don't give any in-game benefit other than stairs.”

“There's a mod that gives it to everyone, but it would indeed be better if it was by default.”

What the Community Has Been Discussing


Trending Topics

Bugs or technical issues

“Opening the Economy Viewer is causing a great deal of lag.”

UPDATE: There are improvements to this in 7.5 and more to come as we fine-tune the issues causing this.

“Things seem to be a lot more stable with statistics off. The web server part of the game is just not stable and accessing it with statistics on will either freeze the server or, in my experience, prevent new players from logging in. Once stats were disabled all issues vanished.”

UPDATE: This is a high priority bug we are currently working on. https://github.com/StrangeLoopGames/EcoIssues/issues/7373

If you have any further information you can give us regarding this, please send it to me at shay@strangeloopgames.com and reference the above-mentioned bug report. Your help is appreciated!

“Many people commented on 7.4 staging server being confusing and updating to the unstable 7.5 without warning.”

UPDATE: We are steadily working on streamlining the process of releasing updates and although we may encounter some bumps at times, there are fewer issues each time.

Things People Would Like to Add or Change
•   More talk of chainsaws!
•   Endgame content. More disaster scenarios or something to justify continuing the world after the meteor hits (or doesn’t hit).
•   The option to see the name of a storage chest (and other things), when you approach it before you click on it.
•   Better water mechanics
•   Dams
•   Hydro-electric generators
•   Powered hand tools; electric drills, jackhammers
•   Archway blocks
•   Ramps should be the same width as a road and doors 1 or 3 blocks wide
•   Train system; ability to transport vehicles
•   More clothing options
•   Another soft cap for housing on top of the ones already there. Soft cap it based on the next closest players (Physically) house score compared to yours. If you shoot off and others don't you don't go up as fast until they make it better. Real world equivalent: Property value is often pulled down if others in the area are lower quality and a single higher quality property will not be as valuable with lots of lower value houses around it.
•   An option for an admin to “pause” the meteor countdown without having to shut down the server
•   Animations for things such as the table saw, etc.
•   A creative mode!

Sharing the Love!
•   People have really been loving Eco’s music and commenting on it. Many would like to see it available outside of the game.
•   The Eco Community let us know they were happy to hear that content/updates would be released closer to a 2 week interval going forward

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 19, 2018, 09:00:12 PM

7.4.5 Released!
Eco - ShaydenMac

•   Fixed a variety of problems that could occur if the master server is unreachable
•   Fixed some chunk issues near world borders and wrapping issues with vehicles
•   Fixed invisible vehicles when someone drives into your view range
•   Fixed stretched animals near world borders
•   Fixed webserver link from using the wrong address
•   Fixed some performance issues with stats and the web server
•   Fixed an issue where server passwords were being double-encrypted on server startup. Server passwords will now show in plain text in the server window but are still encrypted when sent between client and server. Existing server passwords will need to be reset to the desired value.
•   Fixed a bug in client-side predictions that sometimes made blocks appear, disappear then reappear in your carried slot.
•   Added a warning when the server is unresponsive to user status

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 19, 2018, 09:00:27 PM

The upcoming elevator in action!
Eco - ShaydenMac

Here's a look at the upcoming elevator. In this case, it's being used to build a taller structure. Elevators will also be useful in mining and transporting materials from deep below to the surface. Video footage courtesy of our Discord member, GDragon.

https://youtu.be/8gflsIeyXAY

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 19, 2018, 09:00:46 PM

The Steam Tractor
Eco - ShaydenMac

Check out the Steam Tractor and its modules which will be available in the upcoming 8.0 vehicle release!

https://youtu.be/IwUUBZs3f0Y

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 08, 2018, 04:58:01 PM

Garden Under the Sea server announces bi-weekly contest!
22 May - ShaydenMac   

The Eco server, Garden Under the Sea is hosting a bi-weekly build contest.

Garden Under the Sea Eco Server

https://youtu.be/RVrb4ik9Ba8


May's winner will receive an Eco game key! For more details, visit their Discord server here: https://discord.gg/mupXR8x

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 08, 2018, 04:59:04 PM

Modder Spotlight!
23 May - ShaydenMac   

We're spotlighting one of Eco's active modders, Jagganot. He's created a nice batch of mods for Eco that we hope you have fun with!

https://youtu.be/Ew2HhLLcfAY


To see more & download the mods shown in the video, go to buff.ly/2IDbR6h For mod support & model requests, his Discord is buff.ly/2GFW9BH

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 08, 2018, 04:59:48 PM

7.4.6 Released
Eco - ShaydenMac

•   Improved the horizontal overflow behavior of the Contract window, preventing the text in the header column from being squished until it overflows vertically everywhere.
•   Fixed an issue where some contract clauses had way too much vertical whitespace.
•   For LAN and local servers, connect directly by ip address, rather than connecting through the master server. This prevents connection issues when the master server is down.
•   When attempting to connect via the master server, timeout and return to the main menu if the master server does not respond.
•   Fixed client-side lag due to unnecessary property texture updates
•   Fixed Combustion Generators polluting forever when the power grid demand was 0, which was making some servers flood (flooding can produce a lot of client-side lag when your map is open on large servers)
•   Combustion Generators now consume fuel at a constant rate.
•   Power grids only enable combustion generators one at a time as energy demand increases.
•   Power grids with insufficient power now disable the most recently added objects instead of disabling everything.
•   Reduced sea level rising performance impact
•   Reduced client-side lag related to frequently changing pipe outputs
•   Minimap icons load faster on big servers
•   Player names are now always visible
•   Improved map update performance
•   Fixed a performance issue related to opening the chat log
•   Decreased lag due to opening the chat log by having it load 1 message per frame instead of all in 1 frame.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 08, 2018, 05:00:32 PM

Sneak Peek: Electric Machinist Table
1 June - ShaydenMac   

Here's a sneak peek at the new Electric Machinist Table. The modules shown are large, industrial electrical upgrades to the mechanical tools. This object will replace what's currently known as the machine shop.

https://youtu.be/gWdzdDYQ9Bc

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 08, 2018, 05:01:15 PM

Ecostasia: World Tour Highlight Video
5 June - ShaydenMac   

This is just one of the many highlights we came across on our tour of the Ecostasia server. This modern home really caught our eye and we just had to share it with you all!

We will be sharing more of this amazing community's world with you soon!

https://youtu.be/S0Y_57VBWE4

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 08, 2018, 05:01:55 PM

7.4.7 hotfix released
Eco - ShaydenMac

•   Fixed minimap markers
•   Connecting to a server by ip address now also adds it to your recent servers list in the Join screen.
•   Saved servers (eg. recents, favorites) now also save ip address and port. This means that favorites will have a good chance of connecting, even when the master server is inaccessible.
•   On the Join screen, increased how many servers are processed per frame from 1 to 5.
•   Fixed an issue where placing a vehicle didn't set you as the owner.
•   Fixed an issue where you could not pick up vehicles on someone else's property.
•   Fixed non-LAN servers appearing in the LAN section on the Join screen
•   Fixed the 'Owned by' indicator in object windows - It will again say 'Unowned' if unowned, instead of 'Owned by .'
•   Fixed signs displaying run-off text
•   Fixed the text editing box for signs to show markup tags instead of previewing with them, and now it allows multi-line editing.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 08, 2018, 05:03:31 PM

Eco 7.5 Released! 'Human Impact Pre-Release' is live.
Eco - ShaydenMac

Hey all, at Strange Loop we've been working on something big for a major update: scaling up late-game human impact with technology.

The arc of the Eco game is one that starts with humans having a small impact on the environment, and ends with them having a massive impact. During the course of that, citizens will need to create a government that can cope with all that power, and an economy that functions seamlessly within it. If they don't, it's very easy to lead to ecological disaster.



So for this update we're adding a bunch of new late game tech, including some new ways of building and moving things in the world. Check it out below.

New Vehicles

Added the Steam Truck!
http://www.strangeloopgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/steam_truck_flyaround.mp4

Added a modular attachment system for vehicles
Added the plough, harvester, and sowing attachments for the steam tractor

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/7bb36e60fd73ce5b202841fb7da067ac7a1b89fb.png)

New machines and features
Added Elevator for transporting materials and carts vertically!

Added stone, hewn log, and lumber door recipes.

Added wooden standing light, wooden table light, and wooden ceiling light

Added the Assembly Line!

Added cranes! Players can use the crane to build large walls in one click by targeting the corners with the claw

Tons more changes besides those, you can check out the full list here.


Coming next we're going to be polishing up this build and the new user experience, before our official 8.0 Human Impact release. If you have feedback get in touch with us on discord, email, Facebook, etc. Support from the community is what lets us move this fast, and we have lots more to come. Vlog coming up soon as well!



Thanks all and looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this release.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 14, 2018, 11:05:20 PM

Beta 7.6.0 Released!
13 July - ShaydenMac

Beta 7.6.0 Changelog

NEW CONTENT

Distribution Station
•   Added a new Distribution Station object. This is a stockpile where the owner can set a ration of items that every new player can take, which they will be notified of with a World Marker when they enter the game. With this object, citizens and governments can set up items to provide to new players to help them get started/catch up. You'll also be able to see the items provided from the Server Browser.
•   You can set the max 'age' of a player for them to be eligible for items.

Added Chainsaw

Starter Camp
•   The camp comes with a small stockpile and contains starting supplies.
•   The camp also serves as a crafting table that can craft a limited selection of things.

https://youtu.be/mOByF-ZeRoc

Real Estate Desk
•   At the desk, you can examine your deeds, edit their settings, move land and vehicles between deeds, create and delete deeds, and unclaim land and vehicles. You can also buy and sell deeds.
•   Deeds are no longer items that you can carry in your inventory.
•   Replaced "Property Claim Flags" with a "Land Claim Stake" tool and "Land Claim Papers". The Land Claim Stake works similarly to how claim flags used to work - hold it and right click to claim some land. It also has some new features. You can hold it and left click on claimed land to unclaim it. You can also target claimed land with it and press 'E' to open the deed window for that land. The Land Claim Stake uses Land Claim Papers. Each paper represents your right to claim 1 plot of land. Unlocking skills will grant you Land Claim Papers, in the same way it used to grant you Property Claim Flags previously.
•   When you claim land with the Land Claim Stake, the deed that the land is attached to is no longer determined by the deed in your inventory (since you can't have deeds in your inventory). Rather, it is determined by the deeds of nearby plots belonging to you, and . If there are none within range, a new deed is created.
•   The treatment of vehicles versus stationary objects with regards to deeds and authorization has been unified, and the 'Auth' tab of the object window - which has been renamed to the 'Authorization' tab and given an overhaul to improve both clarity and appearance - will appear for both. No more 'Lock' toggle for vehicles - they now have full authorization settings support just like stationary objects (that is, the ability to set them to public, whitelist, or inherit from deed mode).
•   Added an "Unclaim Property" action to stats, which can be referenced in laws.

Robotic Assembly Line
 
https://youtu.be/vAKJaJZCaq8

•   The Robotic Assembly Line is used to craft all internal combustion engine vehicles and other advanced machinery.

IMPROVEMENTS
•   Added calculated exchange rates. Eco will now compare trades of the same item in different currencies to make a rough exchange rate, which can be used by citizens to help understand prices (how to shop and how to set prices). The inner details of how they're calculated is displayed as well, so players can make informed decisions. You can view this in a currency’s ‘Currency Report’. Will be doing more with this exchange rate later.
•   Added intro sequences for food and housing, explaining the concepts with icons and animations.
•   Made it easier to exit water in a few situations like 1 block thick docks.
Third person mode in vehicles now zooms out further and behaves more consistently.
•   Vehicles with tools now attempt to dump into multiple inventories for objects that have multiple inventories.

OPTIMIZATION
•   Made the server browser ping filter go to ‘unlimited’ (previously went to 500ms)
•   Improved client script performance.
•   Eliminated performance impact of using world markers.

MISCELLANEOUS CHANGES
•   Added a key binding to toggle 3rd person (defaults to F5).
•   Changed the nutrient values of almost everything, generally a ~20% increase.
•   Nutrient values now scale more aggressively with higher tier food.
•   Recipe costs changed due to recent farming/collection changes.
•   Removed Campfire Cooking skill - the recipes are now available to everyone.
•   Old Campfire Cooking recipes ingredients have been modified due to no efficiency/speed skills.
•   Removed Basic Crafting skill - the recipes are now available to everyone.
•   Basic Crafting recipes ingredients have been modified due to no efficiency/speed skills.
•   Players now start with reduced land claims and a camp item.
•   Most plants now give less resources.
•   Added seed recipe for mushrooms.
•   Gathered seeds no longer increase with gathering skill.
•   Blast furnaces once again produce tailings.
•   Blast furnaces are now harder to make.
•   Lots of miscellaneous changes to late game recipes.
•   Ingots (all kinds) are more expensive, other recipe costs reduced where appropriate.
•   Ingots now weigh less.
•   Steel now requires coal or charcoal to smelt.

BUG FIXES
•   Fixed an issue where a vehicle with both a fuel supply and storage would behave inconsistently in the linked inventory UI. (The UI displayed the fuel supply and the storage as separate inventories with separate settings, but the server treated both inventories as sharing the same settings. Now the server also treats them as separate inventories).
•   Fixed the fishing line not meeting with the lure correctly.
•   When attempting to join a server by ip address, if you enter an invalid ip, it will now show an error message instead of attempting to connect forever.
•   Single-player server will now close itself if the client crashes.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on September 22, 2018, 12:11:14 AM

7.6.3 Released - July 24th, 2018
25 JULY - JIRRAK


Changelog
•   Modified the colliders on the starter camp and stockpiles to prevent new players from getting stuck
•   Fixed /unclaim crash if a property was already public
•   Fixed bug where currency exchange wasn't checking balances properly
•   Other bug fixes

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on September 22, 2018, 12:12:00 AM

Eco 7.7 is live with a big focus on collaboration and building communities!
6 SEPTEMBER   - KET

We have pushed 7.7 to live and with it come a host of changes.

Some of the highlights include:

Loans & Bonds,
Recommended Servers,
New Intro Story Sequence
Revamped Mini Map UI
New Economy and Law features
Graphics Improvements, and much more!

Check it all out here:
https://www.strangeloopgames.com/eco-7-7-is-live-loans-bonds-recommended-servers-story-sequence-and-more/

The full patch notes are availaible here.
https://ecoauth.strangeloopgames.com/changelog

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on August 31, 2019, 04:58:11 PM

Create a The Design Pillars of Eco
30 Apr @ 9:39pm - WAVES

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/3feda900ce77e3612d6233a4001a19f0278980fb.png)

This week I’d like to dive into the core of Eco’s design a bit, and talk about the principles that guide the design and development of the game. These are things that go way back to the beginning ideas of what Eco would be, and are used to this day to determine what we choose to bring next in the game.

Game Mission

Eco’s design mission is to have players “Solve the Tragedy of the Commons,[en.wikipedia.org]” taking place among real people. That means creating conflicts among people with the same end goals, where a collection of self-interests is not enough to succeed, you need some representation of collective interest.

To implement that, the game exists within the intersection of the game's design pillars: Economy, Ecology and Government.

The role of these pillars in the game is as follows:

Economy
Encompasses the efforts and progress of humans. Manufacturing, creating infrastructure, building, harvesting, performing research, specialization, trade. Collaboration and competition is a big goal of this pillar, to connect players together in productive (as well as adversarial) creation. The features of the economy should be grown to support these features, as well as influences from the other two pillars. Key goals of this pillar are:
1.   Asynchronicity, allowing players to collaborate across time and space,
2.   Discoverability, making it easy for players to find the information they need about how to participate in the economy.
3.   Involvement, incentivizing players to work together, especially between different levels of experience.
4.   Organization, allowing players to organize labor seamlessly through the interests of many parties, with lots of data on progress and economy state.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/8cc53c11617a8442ea693de62007c21407a86c30.png)

Ecology
The substrate of the player experience, this is the ‘reality’ that they are forced to contend with. It is both the source of their solutions and problems. Our emphasis when building the Ecology simulation is a feature-set that both affects and is affected by human actions. That is, resources that are useful to the economy, and systems that are vulnerable to pollution and over-harvesting.

Beyond that, the ecology is a goal in itself, and the beauty of the ecosystem has natural value in the game outside of any human purpose.

Key goals of this pillar are:
1.   Visibility, players should be granted powerful tools (the stats system) to understand how the ecology system works and how players are influencing it.
2.   Impact, simulated features are highly reactive to the actions of players.
3.   Diversity, promoting the usage or more far-spread regions of the world, increasing needs for transport and collaboration, and allowing for myriad complex effects from different biomes.
4.   Existential Threat, the ecology needs to be capable of dying and creating a losing world for players due to their actions.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/37f2eb573bc6cd8fbe7470c4d5d46f31617d5e88.png)

Government
Government in Eco serves as a tool to manage and dictate the relationship between players in the economy, and between the economy and the environment. It needs to be powerful and flexible enough to express a rich variety of governmental structures, and still easy and fun to understand and build (I see these two goals as supportive of each other rather than opposites). Government must be necessary to win the game, allowing players to dictate the interactions that happen with the environment.

Key goals of this pillar are:
1.   Ease of use. All players should be capable of understanding and using the system.
2.   Power. Many different and deep structures of government should be possible with the system.
3.   Created by Players. Government should be both run and constructed by players, allowing them to form it as a solution to their problems in the economy and in interactions with the ecosystem.
4.   Meta-Game Support. Promotes the positive interaction of players in the meta game (active players coming and going, property arrangements, etc). Serves to handle problems that occur not just in the game but in the meta-game.
5.   Transparent. The workings of government should be available and in fact highlighted for all players to see and participate in.
6.   Iterative. The government should be expected to change throughout gameplay, not simply be created once and run forever that way.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/80ec1b9e5be54daba237ebced794a995e64dc790.png)

Community
The second mission of Eco is to build meaningful community, and some features may apply to this even if they don’t directly promote the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ goal. Examples of such features include:
•   Meta-features for finding, hosting, and joining servers.
•   Organization of server works among players
•   Avatar creation and customization of appearance, custom animations for interactions
•   Decorations and cosmetic buildings and clothes.


As we start to roll out our performance update for 8.2, we’re tasking out more features for 9.0, and we’ll be using this guide to flesh out the features and content we want to target. We’ll be putting it into a nice ‘Eco Tree’ that shows those parts visually and conceptually as they grow. The community’s feedback will factor in a lot to these decisions, so do share your feedback on our Discord,[discord.gg] in our Suggestions Github Database,[github.com] and via email john@strangeloopgames.com

Cheers and thanks for your support, looking forward to sharing all the new stuff we’ll be building.

- Team Eco

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on August 31, 2019, 05:00:16 PM

Version 0.8.3.0 released!
28 Aug @ 8:48am - SLG-Dennis


Today we are releasing Update 8.3.0, an update that was entirely focused on internal changes in order to improve performance short and long term.

Performance Improvements:
Our developers have been working hard on countless internal changes for this update in order to increase the performance of Eco on a wide range of different hardware configurations. We have noticeably reduced memory consumption on clients, optimized network code, reduced the frequency of FPS spikes (micro lags) during movement and you should now have a smoother experience playing Eco. Please note that there is still more to come in the 9.X updates, as we do have other optimisations prepared and in mind that require more work and / or breaking changes that are better to be introduced in a major update.

Relay Servers:
For this update we added relay server support for cases where connections between client and server cannot be established in a normal way. This should fix most of the connection issues some players have experienced.

The Network.eco config file for servers has the new option “RelayAdress” where a custom relay server can be configured (available for download as docker image from strangeloopgames/relay-server:latest). If no "RelayAddress" and no "RemoteAddress" is specified for a server then it will auto-discovery the relay server with best ping from a list of official relay servers and use it as fallback for clients who fail to connect the regular way.

Other Improvements:
Added auto-run function. It is disabled by default, but you can go to Key Bindings and assign a button. It works both for the character and for vehicles.

Bugs fixed:
•   Fixed an issue that caused players to fall through rendered ground with their vehicles when above mines.
•   Fixed an issue that caused changed keybindings for the moving keys to not be saved.
•   Fixed an issue that made trees non-interactable or vanish during slicing and collecting.
•   Fixed an issue with the french localization in regards to player currency.
•   Fixed skid steer no longer interacting with tree debris.
•   Fixed several server crashes.
•   Fixed ModKit Issues.

Update 9.0 is actively being worked on in parallel and the first non-public staging versions are soon to be released. Stay tuned for more news on that at a later date.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on December 18, 2019, 02:49:29 AM

Version 0.8.3.1 released!
Tue, 17 December 2019


We have released patch 0.8.3.1 with the following fixes:

Fixes:

•   Using specific markup on signs and vehicle license plates can no longer crash clients around the object, not allowing them to reenter the game.
•   Giving reputation to a player with a unicode name (shown ingame as "?????") will no longer crash the client of the reputation giver.
•   We added a potential fix for leaves and vegetation on Mac and Linux not being displayed, please give us a heads up if it works.


State of Update 9.0:

As you know Update 9.0 has been in development for quite some time now and while we planned to have it released this year, we feel like the Update needs some more time to be what we want it to be. We already started weekend community tests for invited members of the community some weeks ago and want to take time to implement their feedback and fix as many reported bugs as possible before release.

Update 9.0 next to a lot of new features will now also include major balance changes and lots of background changes to improve performance both on client- as well as on server-side, given those two issues were on top of our priority list after all the feedback you - the community - gave us. All of this takes additional time, as we have to clean out some legacy issues in the game to get to a state from where development will be easier and faster with us being able to switch our main focus more onto new content.

In the process of developing this update we also decided to add additional measures to improve performance that weren't planned previously (for example migrating the server to .NET Core 3 in order to natively support linux servers which also leads to linux users being able to play singleplayer natively after one of the minor updates following 9.0) to have a good base for future updates that can then be released with less content per update, but a higher update frequency.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on February 11, 2020, 05:21:20 PM

Version 0.8.3.3 released!
Mon, 10 February 2020

We have released Patch 0.8.3.3 with the following small hotfixes:

Bugfixes
•   Fixed an issue with money transfers not working if some accounts in the list have special symbols in their names.
•   Temporarily removed "Exclusive Full Screen" mode from the game due to it crashing on some user configurations. (Will be reintroduced after Unity has released a fix)

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on February 20, 2020, 03:45:40 PM

Developer Stream on February 21th (2pm PST): Constitutions
Wed, 19 February 2020

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/fde2eed5a4f390393b553f070e8e6a3a27d3a5bc.jpg)

As we are approaching release, the first of a series of livestreams about the upcoming Update 9.0 will start this Friday, 2pm Pacific Time (23:00 Central European Time). We'll be showing everything you need to know about the new Constitutions feature and answering all questions about this feature you may have.


The stream will be broadcasted mainly on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/strangeloopgames), but will also be available on our YouTube channel and Facebook page. Additionally we try to stream it directly here on steam.

For those that are not able to watch the stream live, we'll be uploading an edited version to our YouTube channel on the weekend.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on February 22, 2020, 03:14:01 PM

Developer Blog: Introducing Constitutions in Eco - 9.0 Update
Fri, 21 February 2020

Hey Eco citizens, we’ve been heads-down working on getting Eco 9.0 ready and it’s getting close, REAL close, date to be announced soon! Don't miss todays stream at 2pm PST / 23:00 CEST (in about two hours from the time of publishing this blog). One of the main focuses of this update is the government system.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b1ff5bfbb35236ebe12315cf5a8d57be2605d6f6.jpg)

So to start the hype train up for 9.0 (choo-choo) we’re starting a series of blogs and streams, launched each week on Friday. We have a LOT to share, here’s the tentative blog and demo schedule:

1.   New Government system: Constitution (This blog)
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

We’ll be releasing Eco 9 somewhere in this lineup, and then keep going. So start us off, here’s the details on one of the cornerstones of the new update, the Constitution.


Eco 9: Constitution

Prior to Eco 9, the government was a fill-in-the-blanks affair, you can create very custom laws of course, but the workings of the government – how elections are held, what powers leaders have, how decisions are made – was largely hard-coded. No longer with Eco 9. To start a new government, you’ll need to build a Capitol:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/fc0156f17cbc95b92ee575e842806859f1ad707f.jpg)

By opening up this object you’ll get access to a Constitution:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ed3adbe7e7cf2161f5504a97a02f908a249c7914.png)

In Eco 9, there is no government until a constitution is ratified – this is the first piece that must be created for a government to exist, and it defines how the government will work. So players will not only run their own government, but design it as well.

How does that work? Through the addition of Civic Articles.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/76a6cf7d12e7ae313b09e0063393e0bf9a53a2c6.png)

A Constitution in Eco is basically a list of Civic Articles, and each Article designates how something works in the government. In the example above, this Civic Article defines how laws are created. Row by row, you can see the settings that can be configured. First, what it applies to (laws), then what types of laws, which can be several options:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/047e2cea860a621990cebd647045a8a48b5dd117.png)

You can also set the specific actions which are regulated by this civic article, if you want to get really detailed:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/8ad6031d406bae4205be7509e776b401892af855.png)

The bottom three settings, Executors, Proposers, and Election Process, determine how the law is created or changed.

•   If you’re an Executor, you can add, remove, or change laws at any time. In the example I’ve set myself as this of course (promise I won’t let the power go to my head).
•   If you’re a Proposed, you can start an Election to add, remove, or change laws.
•   That election will be run using the specified Election Process.

Stay tuned for a future blog on how election processes work, but basically they allow you to define all the specifics about how an election works, and you can have many different types of elections in a single world.

So in this example above, laws are either created by me by fiat, or through a Basic Election which can be proposed by Everyone. That ‘Everyone’ tag is an expanded Demographic feature and can be defined by citizens as well. There’s a few that come with every world for convenience. This lets you divided up the populace in various useful ways and use it for anything government related, from Constitutions to laws to taxes and more. I’ll post more on that in a future update.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b64ab0a33df18a713cc7e85949088d0817bf223a.png)

So that’s a single Civic Article, but a typical Constitution will have 8-10, designating powers for all the different government features. So as not to overwhelm, we create a default set of these that work pretty well, with everything requiring elections, and let the founding citizens customize it. Here’s a zoomed out look at a few more default articles:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/6f81fc4dfc6c10cf29576dd531949f7cc242b2c4.png)

I’ll go into how these other government features work in a future update, but I do want to explain how one special civic object works, Amendments. These are created on a separate Amendments object, and represent Civic Articles added after the Constitution is created, allowing citizens to make changes to the government as needed.

Once a Constitution is ratified, you can no longer edit it, thus to make changes you must create amendments. An amendment is just like a civic article, but it can specify existing articles to replace. Say, for example, I went mad with power to enact any law I wanted, and that power needed to be removed. Citizens could create an amendment like so (ignore the in-progress UI art, still finishing that):

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/3e4a2465f79832d15b271b8e3345516987ce8160.png)

This amendment removes the existing Law Changes By Election article I showed above, and replaces it with one that has no executors, meaning the only way to make a change at all is by a Basic Election, and changes proposers from Everyone to Active, which is a subset of players who play frequently. This amendment can then be put forth in an election, and if it passes, it will replace the old one, which will then look like so on the Constitution:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/cac27adb3812117790d9686201fec9cc92a61a6a.png)

It's still in the Constitution, just crossed out and no longer has an effect! If something were to happen to the amendment, however, say it was repealed, then this civic article would come back into effect. Using these tools, citizens have the ability to change their government to better suit a changing society. Anticipating all the challenges a population will face in the future is a monumentally hard task, and citizens that allow for changes to their original decisions, and a defined-process for how to make them, will have a lot more flexibility in adapting and changing the government to suit the current needs.

Of course, it comes with dangers as well: a populace can make ill-advised changes that can create terrible circumstances as well. Designing the government to both stay powerful over the tests of time while also being flexible enough to changing needs will be a major challenge. Much debate should ensue as citizens design their initial governments.


Ratification

Lastly, a tour about Ratification. In order to take effect, a constitution must be ratified, that is, it will be put to vote in a Basic Election. It will not take effect until this election has successfully passed, meaning the constitution must reflect the will of a majority of the people to start. From then on, the Constitution will remain in effect, as long as the building that holds it stands and remains a valid room.

However, there is a safety mechanism to a rule of law that no longer serves the people: citizens can organize to overthrow the government. This is accomplished by building a second capitol which is grander than the first – meaning, it has a higher room value by 50%. The Constitution in this second capitol will then show if it can overthrow the existing one:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/6939dd5dcb1613c922f5e3c34f434ec388777d84.png)

Here, 'Constitution the Sequel' has a higher value than the current government, and can thus overthrow the existing government if it passes the ratification election. This allows citizens a way to finally overcome a government that is too limiting, if none of the measures of change within the existing government (amendments, etc) are proving sufficient.


Government Beginnings

Building a constitution sets the rules for how your growing society will function, and designing the inner-workings can lead to incredibly different styles of government. Over the coming weeks, we’ll give examples of those different kinds of government, and all the parts that can go into creating a diverse set of rules to suit the people’s needs.

This has been something I’ve been excited to get into Eco from the beginnings, and forms a key part of the philosophy of the game, which is that the government is one with the people, they create it, they run it, they are it, and they have no one to blame but themselves if it becomes malignant. By allowing the government to be essentially programmed by its citizens, Eco provides a super valuable tool, and creates an event that, within the context of the game, is historic: the formation of the government. In a world that you invest in, care about, and hope to save, that can be an incredibly powerful moment, and the thoughtful discussions, plans, and forethought among players that goes into that is what Eco is all about.

Stay tuned for more, and follow us on Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook to see the streams I’ll do along with these blogs, where you can ask questions too. Can’t wait to see the governments people design and run with this system when we launch Eco 9.

- John K, Eco Designer, CEO Strange Loop Games

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on March 01, 2020, 01:39:29 PM

Developer Blog: Elections and Elected Titles in Update 9.0
Sun, 1 March 2020

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/d29ba8b4361390909cb9556013e29ec6fffd072f.jpg)

Hi citizens, our Eco 9 series continues with a look at Elections and Elected Titles:

1.   New Government system: Constitution (see above post)
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles (This blog)
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

Elections

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/8d506e95d477718a8b0514cc1e0c2743292defcc.jpg)

Elections are one of the most fundamental parts of a democracy, and with 9.0 we're adding a lot of flexibility for how they can be used (or not used at all, if you’re more into the dictatorship thing). Prior to Eco 9, elections in Eco were only used to elect the World Leader – with 9.0, they can be used to make virtually any civic decision as well as elect player-defined Elected Titles. This means no more single world leader, but potentially a whole slew of different elected leaders, each with different responsibilities. Polling the populace can now be a core way that a world makes decisions.

Elections are tied to Civic Actions, which are things Citizens can do that affect the government, in a way defined by the Constitution (see last week’s blog). An example of some of the civic actions you can perform in the game:

•   Add, change, or remove a civic object (law, civic article, demographic, elected title, election process, etc).
•   Perform an Executive Action (ie, tax all players with time in world > 5 days).
•   Remove a leader from office

Elections are started automatically based on the rules of the Constitution. The constitution sets which actions need an election to pass, and who can propose it. Every civic object contains a handy list of what privileges you get from the constitution at the top, so you can always tell what you’re able to do, in the form of your civic duties:

Here's what your civic duties might look like on a court, for example:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e31077bc91dff9cee759a654809cb07c0d5b23e8.png)

You can see it outlines all the things you can do there, as well as the articles of the constitution that give you that right.

You can also see all your civic duties for every type of civic object in the government menu:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b394d07eb3380cb2291fca6de6ce28fe937aabf1.png)

Then when you edit a law, it will go to election:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/cb419b2c052805dda7e8b05863e7831465d750a6.png)

From there, everyone gets notified in their new notification tab:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/a91337b5cbceba2af83f74f3dff4dc79cf03e4a6.png)

Then voting can happen by visiting any ballot box (or just going to the web ui of the server):

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ad98cacaa80a925c50e92191c1bc3b8f3e8c1ed6.jpg)

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/3ecfee8e64bc252df1457afad7cf9bfc06175715.jpg)
 

On the webpage, you can review the proposal, see the current votes and election details, and participate in discussions about the election.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/08d4c646984ec1ec36e10b06a6c026bbf3b8e8ce.png)

Each election has a forum attached, where you can add graphs and maps arguing for your point of view. Arguments can easily be rooted in actual data from the world, encouraging citizens to formulate and debate using scientific reasoning.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/0aaa4735de3e3cab3866b7993a5d616d260b25e7.png)

Once the election is finished, the law will either pass or fail. If it fails, it can be edited and resubmitted.

Election Processes

So the way each election works is also something that can be determined by citizens. In fact, the election process is simply another civics object that can be changed, either by fiat or election, depending on what’s in the constitution. You can create these at a Board of Elections object:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/4b7d146208cf81f0133321f9467d3a0648906ca6.jpg)

Each Election Process defines a set of properties for how the election works, from basics like who can vote and veto, to advance rules like how often the election may occur.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/222aa74145c380427204ca243959aa25e8deb146.png)

As with every feature in Eco 9, we’ve added popup help text to everything, with the aim to create powerful features that allow for complex societies but are still easily accessed and understood by everyone.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b6a27aee88d3b977a1aeb56334aa2ef432547084.png)

Election Processes let you do cool things like design different tiers of government, creating representatives who are elected and then are permitted to vote on laws (you would create one type of election for choosing representatives, and another for letting them change laws). You can add protections in the form of vetoes that are limited to a subset of leaders, and determine how rapidly you want elections to happen and finish, balancing stability of government with adaptability to changing conditions.

Elected Titles

Before this update, there was only one elected title for everyone to fight over, that of the world leader, and they had tremendous power. This didn’t allow much flexibility in leadership, and would easily lead to a crisis if that leader ‘went rogue’ or left. Now you can create many titles, and divvy up powers for them in many different ways. To add a new Elected Title, you can set them at a Government Office:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e925c6d488295c47b5caf8b333f07077e6d084ba.jpg)

Each position has a big set of properties that can be used to configure how the elected title works. You can pick the Election Process that elects the leader, decide who can run, requirements of candidates, etc. Positions can be held by multiple people, and a variety of privileges can be assigned to the office holders.

Here's a look at the properties that players get to configure:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/6dc1356f4cc6919ffaf78265f4be9af166d6d31b.jpg)

You can see above that each position has special privileges to some government features, like adding global markers (markers in the world that everyone can see), setting tax rates in the treasury for things like sales, fees, and contracts, and creating and managing government bank accounts. Lots of power, which is wise to divy up accordingly.

Elected Titles can be specified anywhere you pick a citizen, and this is how you give special access to the leaders you choose. For example, we can go back to our election process described above and revise it to give this Minister of Finance special veto powers:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/18e7f26e12a95063526533223cd291a21e223bfa.png)

As you can see here, you can select options that are currently in a draft form, or under election, and if/when they become active they will automatically take effect in the new setting (but not before then). This allows you to compose a set of civic objects that reference each other and get them all passed simultaneously, instead of having to wait for them to each pass before you can set the next one.

Once the position is added, you can then start elections and enter them as a candidate from a ballot box:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/94153acd4c0f5248eea48a85ad9074cc35510a53.jpg)

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/80204cba27520e62217581a3756d6e9ff7934a22.png)

Then let the campaign begin! Citizens can vote in the election at a ballot box in the same manner as described above:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/710962e6712983c5b226f62492cff53ecd1f474f.jpg)

The critical difference with elections for positions is that voting is performed using Ranked Choice Voting, which allows citizens to choose the order of preference of candidates, instead of selecting a single candidate. This has a number of positive effects on elections, especially when there are many candidates running: you don’t have to commit solely to the candidate you think will win but can choose your favorite preference and select a separate one as your second/third/fourth/etc choice. Then if your main choice doesn’t win, your vote goes to your next preference.

Connecting it All Together

These three parts of the system: elections, election processes, and elected titles really shine when connected all together and to the rest of the game. One of the most difficult problems of building a society is giving power and flexibility to act quickly in a way isn’t destabilizing. By carefully defining how decisions are made, who makes them, and giving lots of checks and balances that ensure those decisions stay positive for society, you can craft a government that can last the ages and successfully steward your society to success in the race against the meteor, while preserving the ecosystem upon which the populace depends.

There are lots more civic objects that get added to the mix and make this even more powerful including districts, demographics, executive actions, and especially laws.

Stay tuned for future blog posts on them. Public playtests of Eco 9 are starting! Chat to D3nnis3n, our community manager in our Discord server if you’re interested in helping out.

No stream this week, but expect a double feature next week. Chat soon and can’t wait to see what people build with our new systems, and always feel free to send me and the team feedback.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/0df90e84ea440189aa1e9892c2108c3779dbe73e.jpg)

- John K, Eco Designer, CEO Strange Loop Games

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on March 08, 2020, 12:47:13 AM

Developer Blog: Ecopedia
Sat, 7 March 2020

This week we’re going to take a break from Civics to talk about another feature coming up in Eco 9, the Ecopedia.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/44a1cb19a46eab5b371d07f213f82871b3f25004.png)


Jumping around in our schedule a bit, here’s the series so far:
1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System (This blog)
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System
Ecopedia

The game has grown in complexity over the years, and it’s with Eco 9.0 we're putting in a lot of love to assist that learning curve with the Ecopedia.

Eco is a game about ideas, and we wanted to make something special that explains those ideas, so we’ve created a comprehensive guide that explains everything in the game, from ‘Getting Started’ to the major concepts of the game, to getting help on specific objects, to a reference of all the items (both natural and player created) in the game.

This is especially useful for civics, as we’ve added a lot of new parts that can get complex, so having the Ecopedia as support is critical to allowing users to get the most out of it.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/55345603709f6c6083d96a5694bc3f6dd6c41b0c.png)

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/fd315c801f7caa0c706ab169fb713d3694576cf5.png)

In the ‘components’ section, we describe each component in the game and how to operate it, giving examples of the interface:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b0663e4a63bbb0b7ea9984089963d4294d365959.png)

The Reference section shows all the items and objects in the game.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/4a6c7c103188bf9e4a27c42732864f08d7460020.png)

I especially like the selection animation our developer Sergey added when you change pages:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/756370ca2e820ee81c77fe8b7d9cebbb0830d9d1.gif)

In the World Index, you can see all the citizen-created items, a list of each entity in the game, where you can get tooltips to get more details.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/081faf3fa585f7f7907b6024c9e95a6972ab7d72.png)

And on top of that, its really easy to add mods to this. A custom server can simply drop in an XML page and all citizens will get that in their Ecopedia when they connect to the server.

We’ve made getting to these help pages easy, each tooltip that has an associated Ecopedia page will have a button in the tooltip, like in the top right here:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/c7c5064f25e8c63da529a4b7749185fdb3ddfc77.png)

And on each component here:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/0fcb5c1119ee194920166a6727d60cda7dc9292c.png)

With these changes we’ve made it significantly easier to understand the features of Eco, especially the new forthcoming features in the 9.0 update. One thing we’ve heard a lot of feedback on during Early Access is the learning curve of the game, and this should give a big boost towards understanding how all the systems of Eco work together and how citizens can use them to achieve success. It also sets us up for the future as we add more and varied systems, and lets server owners have complex modding cases that can be properly explained to players.

As always catch me and the team in our Discord or email me, always great to hear feedback from players, the community is really the heart of what makes this game awesome and we’re grateful to have such an amazing and supportive one.

- John K, Eco Designer, CEO Strange Loop Games

 

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on March 23, 2020, 02:02:40 PM

Developer Blog: Districts
Sun, 22 March 2020

Hello all, hope youre enjoying your quarantining around the world and getting lots of gaming time in, stay safe and get your socializing in virtually. Our update today is on the new Districts system we’ve added for Eco 9. Here’s the current lineup:

1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts (This blog)
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

Districts

The purpose of districts in Eco is to define specific rules for various areas of the map. We’ve had this for awhile, but with Eco 9 it’s getting a big upgrade. To start, districts are now set in-game and are contained in the new Zoning Office object.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b47e6d2e2dcfba458227159dc5cc8fbadf5a8f12.jpg)

You can now have multiple District Maps, each containing a set of districts defining an area. Each map is totally independent, meaning maps can overlap other maps. In the Zoning Office is this UI:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/afaf3a77c13bd91c50aeb4285bd2c9e4df20b77f.png)

Each Zoning Office lets you define three maps, and as normal civic objects the Constitution defines who can modify them, what kind of election is required, etc. You can see on this map, the Constitution defines that districts can be changed only by election:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/1e3d6c3daccd0d81b8c9ae38803db0f4891227de.png)

(Check out the Constitution blog for more info on how that works).

In this Zoning Office, there are two district maps active, Protected Areas and Claimable Property, and one under election, Logging Regions. Let’s revise the protected areas.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/fbd6d45e65ebdb98a20274b0b186b885693470a0.png)

In the editor that appears, you can paint on the different areas of the map, revising any previous map that was already there. You can add and remove districts and make any changes you want. When you submit, it will go to election (if that’s what the constitution requires):

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/52dd97d7b9d504dac735a8bf8565fb1579a705c6.png)

This election then occurs like any other election, defined by the election process (check out the Elections blog for details on how that works). Once the election passes, it will apply the changes.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/128bbda4c883407048ab5f354afabdccb18eb7c3.png)

Any law that referenced a previous district will be updated to the new district, automatically propagating the change to anything referencing these districts. You can start to see how all these systems work together; since district maps are a regular civics object (like laws, elected titles, demographics, etc), they automatically get all the features like revisions, error testing, reference updating (when they get modified), tracking of state (draft, proposed, active, removed).

So now lets make use of one of these districts, in a law.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/bd0cd751fc5d883aa704e9ca3cf909c1e10e3b1d.png)

We’ll go over in detail how laws work in a later blog, but for now you can get an idea how it works. The trigger (hunting a specific species) with restriction (inside a given protection region) will be prevented.

Tons of flexibility is allowed here, say we want to make a special area where only certain citizens can claim land:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ed61c3a24c2883a019f695637e17813aeb0aa9e3.png)

Only citizens possessing ‘Title 1’ can claim land in this district now. Title 1 could be defined in many ways: it could be an elected position, it could be a title assigned by players, it could be a title gained by completing a work party (see Work Party blog).
Summary

With this new districts feature, the ability for citizens to define the use of land becomes greatly expanded, connected to all the other parts of the civics system. In a game about ecosystems and the resources from land and the pollution put upon them, this can be extremely important for the success of your world. Defining how resources are used, and how citizens may use them, is a key element in finding a harmony with your environment and solving the tragedy of the commons.

Lots more to come, stay tuned for more Eco 9 updates and the release (on a date to be announced).

- John K, Eco Designer, CEO Strange Loop Games

 

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on March 31, 2020, 02:27:57 AM

Developer Blog: Geology Generation and Rock Drill Tool
Mon, 30 March 2020

Hi folks, this week's Eco update will be presented by Eco artist and dev Keegan O'Rourke. We're going to get a close look at all the changes to mining and drilling, which is a way to let you prospect and find new places to mine.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/407e42a9379b7397f36cbbb0d790f43d72b146b7.png)

Here's the Eco 9.0 hype-train of blogs so far:
1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage (This blog)
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

Geology Generation

In Eco as in real life, many of the most important resources for a civilization come from the ground. The largest efforts to extract resources from our planet center around what we can use that is locked underground in rock.

In our 9.0 update, we are improving and expanding our representation of these resources and their use in industry. We have also improved the procedural generation of the world in Eco to better control how and where these resources are located. We are laying the groundwork with 9.0 to keep evolving what mining is in Eco and how it impacts both players and the environment. I think our players will be excited by some of the changes, let's take a look:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b688089e3aa175116b79515292ee5a14d33a3e7c.png)

Prior to 9.0, we had in place a layer system that allowed us to generate different layers of rock in the environment, and assign these layers to different biomes. With this we could begin thematically creating a diverse world of different types of rock and ore located in different places. But biomes can be large, and ore deposits are not all shaped like layers. To combat that, we've created a new ore deposit module in our generation:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/baad694a951bd5a3a14ba8f6284d67872cf1f059.png)

One of the biggest improvements to this is that in 9.0 we have an ‘ore deposit module’ in our world generation system that allows us to insert ore bodies into the layers which have their own definable shape and likelihood of appearing. We can also locate these at any level we want in the layers, and define size ranges for them. With this, we finally are generating a set of earth resources that works much more like the real world. These improvements will have a good impact on how mining feels. Players will likely get a bigger sense of reward for finding a deposit, and have much more to think about when it comes to efficient extraction and the shape of their mines.

Here's a series of cutaways using a new admin command we added to debug ore generation. In the first shot, all the soil has been removed. In the second, the bedrock granite has been removed to reveal bedrock basalt and gold ore. In the third all rock and ore has been removed except copper ore

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ab8176e2096f061913b921e89ffdf42fcb249638.png)
 
(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/f7ca1e95099b9a5e35ff2238cebce3444d592c96.png)

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/a08a7605bf5c6c74a0c1a8778740c3dc5f0917ef.png)

And here is a view from the bottom up, where you can see some of the copper ore deposits that have formed deep below the surface.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/a203b83faeb6cd98b840c33cb39ba038afc8ee3a.png)

Since ore deposits have massively concentrated where resources like metal ore and coal are located, players will have more incentive to create efficient infrastructure to link a successful mine to other parts of their civilization. Mining towns will grow around these deposits, supplying miners with the tools and resources they need to extract the resources.  It also means that players will have to explore for earth resources much more, since where deposits are located in particular biomes will be different for every different world.

Introducing the Drill

To aid in this process and to lay the groundwork for a powerful future mining tool in Eco, we have added a new Rock Drill tool to the game. This tool will let players find out what blocks are beneath them much more quickly than shoveling up all the earth in the way. As players get a feel for where deposits show up in the biomes, they will be able to learn to search intelligently for them using the drill.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/6a0ccfa8e2d3812be72fe85acc28793bbe19fe87.png)

To use the drill, you can aim it in any direction at a landmass and activate it. Based on the tier of the tool, it will inform you what is buried beneath the surface to a given depth. You'll be able to easily mark these positions in space with world markers.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/7f69e688ab32ec57c484cefecab8a3cb3bc19f29.png)

With this addition, exploration and prospecting will become an important first step to every mining operation.

Adding Crushed Ore and Rock

One cool new addition is that because all rock and ore have crushed varieties that fit into other improvements to mineral processing in Eco 9.0, we are also able to use crushed rock and ore to begin to simulate natural erosion of rock and ore in the world.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/382c3fbf5a6bedcd367fe24ff729ffaf204798bf.png)

As part of this update, all of the layers which contain ore and other resources like clay and sand have been revamped and improved with an eye both towards balance and future improvements coming to mining and industry in Eco. Mineral processing has been deeply expanded in 9.0 to more realistically break down rock and ore and create the correct byproducts from the right processes, which will be detailed in another update!

We are in the process of big updates to the balance of different ores with regards to their byproducts, so with all these factors changing we are being generous with ore quantity to start. We are excited that as far as what’s waiting under their feet, players will have a brand new world to explore in 9.0.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/eb9678c51d6b4d8dcadb8ed90f67596898932b3a.jpg)

Our next livestream will take place on Thursday, noon (12:00) PST / 9pm CEST (21:00). I will be showing off all the content of this blog live on our Twitch and Youtube channels as well as on Facebook.

- Keegan O'Rourke, Eco Lead Artist, Strange Loop Games

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on April 08, 2020, 02:11:04 PM

Developer Blog: New Tech Tree
Tue, 7 April 2020

Greetings all Eco citizens! This week’s blog will be presented by Eco dev Todd Glenn who works on game balance and helps with some of the design aspects of Eco. We will be focusing on updates to the technology tree, which is the progression of items in the game that players get through research and technology. We’ve added a ton of content with 9.0 with a few goals in mind: encourage more interaction between the professions, make advances in technological advancement feel more impactful, and expand on our end game content.

Here's an overview of the Eco 9.0 blogs so far:

1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree (This blog)
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

New Craftable Items for Professions

We have a huge collection of new craftable items for each profession, fleshing out the many professions in the game and adding depth and interesting choices to be made for each.

These include:

•   New food recipes for expert chefs
•   Fancy high-end furniture for carpenters and masons
•   End game Tier 4 building materials
•   Advanced tools to aid in large scale resource gathering
•   New crafting ingredients to promote more trade between professions

We will go over all of the new building materials and styles in a dedicated blog, but here is a quick peek at the new content:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/d526412f74f425b688ec3fc8cc22dad8230c6bd4.png)

As technology progresses, we want players to continue to upgrade their homes with higher quality furniture to increase the experience bonus from having a high housing score. We will be adding new lighting objects, fireplaces, and a variety of household appliances. Part of this change will be lowering the experience bonus for more primitive housing objects. Instead there will be plenty of new ways to continue to improve homes at all stages of the game. We are also adding some outdoor features like fountains and statues, though these can be placed indoors as well.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b77222ba041d94d688c43d85b0ef6c1e5d3f4b7d.png)

In addition to the items listed above, we will be adding new crafting tables, animals, and utility objects like the transmission pole. There are too many items to go over each individually, but here is a look at some of the new icons so you can get an idea of some of the new content being added.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e9f074ac4c65dc82d22fa802a6765f4b15da0ccf.png)
 
Tool Improvements

One of the focuses of Eco 9 is increasing your power-progression through the arc of the game. As your civilization gains in technology, your ability to amass large amounts of resources should increase in tandem, as will your environmental impact. To support that, we’ve added new area of effect tools, as well as some altogether new tools.

In our previous blog we showcased the prospecting drill, but another new tool is the machete.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e27ba46f2c1fa5329a4afb2d319f58b163a990a3.png)

The machete is used to quickly clear plants from an area, tearing a hole through the jungle that lets you move about much more easily, but at an environmental cost. Though wild plants provide numerous benefits to an ecosystem, their presence can sometimes be a burden when growing next to a developing town, either by hindering transportation or encroaching on agriculture. The machete allows players to quickly clear all plants with one tool, removing the need to switch between various tools or clearing plants by hand.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/2a60806a38481eea38a7b7934e66d8ec0e628702.png)

The modern hoe, pictured above, is one example of a tool with an area of effect. It tills large rows of fields at once with each swing. These crops can be quickly harvested using another area of effect tool, the modern scythe, which can harvest large sections of field at once. When combined, these tools enable farmers to more easily create the large scale farms needed to supply the extra food required for a well-established society to function.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ef7235e2cc11c7fd3788bd55a104e245e60f1a7a.png)

Advanced bows will be added that are more accurate, fire faster, and do more damage than a traditional wooden bow. The recurve bow, pictured above, has significantly less firing arc. To help accommodate these upgraded bows and to make the hunting specialty more useful, we have increased hunting difficulty when using a wooden bow without specialization.

Crafting Updates

We have several quality of life improvements to our crafting system that allow for a smoother experience when dealing with similar groups of recipes. One of these changes is the option to have “tagged ingredients”:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/64c163a4562bcab14ed87bcd50a13dbc8334057d.png)

In 8.3, recipes that needed stone required the different types of stone to be processed into a generic stone type before they could be used as ingredients. In 9.0, these recipes will simply have a tagged ingredient “Rock” that accepts any type of stone without a need to create a separate work order for each type. Tagged ingredients will appear in a variety of recipes, for example a fruit muffin recipe that can use any type of fruit.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/43a99f82aec897ed0c72136364b97ced116a7782.png)

In addition, some recipes with tagged ingredients have multiple variations that use a specific ingredient to create a similar but distinct product. For example, when crafting Mortared Stone a generic type can quickly be crafted using the Rock tag, or a variation can be selected that accepts a specific type of stone. Previously players had to scroll through a list of all recipes to find the variations, but now they are all contained under one parent recipe.

Skill System Revamp

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/fa90bd66a0d7c83888f4ebb612c1a4d8e10cf877.png)

With our new work party and labor features, players are encouraged to hire skilled laborers to help with large scale crafting projects (see our previous blog on Work Parties). We have updated our skill system with two goals in mind: allow players with the same specialty to collaborate on the same project and encourage more frequent interactions between different specialties.

One of the most significant changes is the introduction of the upgrade module system. Reductions to the amount of ingredients needed for recipes are now caused by having an upgraded crafting table. All work orders performed at an upgraded table will have the same cost reduction, regardless of skill. We will explain upgrades in more detail in the upcoming efficiency redesign blog.

The new bonus for leveling up is that progressively less calories are required when contributing skilled labor. Players of various skill levels will be able to contribute to the same project without changing the amount of resources needed for the project. Almost all recipes will require skilled labor to be performed before they can be crafted, so it will no longer be as easy to be a jack-of-all trades.

Specialty Additions & Changes

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/979dc21fcb5f7ac821660e1ea1641aa0fe0b2734.png)

We will be adding two new endgame specialties capable of using wood or stone to produce the highest quality building material. These specialties, Advanced Masonry and Composites, will help carpenters and masons serve an essential role as society advances to the modern age.

A main function of the Basic Engineer in Eco has always been to help contribute to the transport infrastructure. We are expanding on this role by having them responsible for producing all the different types of roads. In addition, Basic Engineers will receive a calorie reduction when using road tools to allow them to fill the role as the early road builders.

In 8.3, the specialties Logging & Mining had nice benefits for gathering resources, but some players reported the specialties felt lackluster compared to other specialties with unique crafting recipes. Logging will now be responsible for producing hewn logs, which are an essential building material throughout the carpentry profession. Players with Mining will now need to crush and process ore before it can be smelted into metal bars by a smith.

Summary

We hope you enjoyed this look at some of the upcoming updates to the tech tree. We have more updates than could be covered in this blog, but we are very excited for everyone to see and experience the upcoming changes for themselves.

Our next livestream will take place on Friday, noon (12:00) PST / 9pm CEST (21:00). Todd will be showing off all the content of this blog live on our Twitch and Youtube channels as well as on Facebook.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on April 11, 2020, 01:08:53 AM

Eco: Unlearned Lessons
Fri, 10 April 2020

Publication from mmozg.net portal

The russian website mmozg.net released an (extremely) long article where it shows off our game in much detail, trying to answer the following five major questions:

1.   What is Eco?
2.   What was done good?
3.   What was done bad?
4.   What will be improved?
5.   What won't be changed?

The authors did not only investigate and describe the game very in-depth, they also collected a lot of questions from the community and provided answers for them while also gathering and publishing opinions from several of our Eco developers.

In result they created an article that is a very recommendable read for new players, returning players and players actively playing right now that took lots of efforts to delve deep into our game.

Unfortunately we do not have a english translation at the moment, so the article is available in russian only for now.

Read on mmozg.net

(If you speak both languages and would like to help us with a translation, feel free to reach out to us, we'd love to make this article available for everyone!)

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on April 18, 2020, 01:16:51 PM

Developer Blog: Demographics and Wages
Sat, 18 April 2020

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/382310/ss_8c2c2d92d08ce0d40ef3b4832afcb7df054a2cdf.1920x1080.jpg?t=1586979304)

Hello Eco citizens, today I’m going to talk about the super-fun world of Demographics.

I bet you didn’t know that demographics are fun. It sounds like a really boring word, probably. One of my favorite things about Eco though is that it connects things you think are boring to a wider system you’re engaged in, and suddenly they become fun. Taxes, for example, probably one of the least fun things there is, is one of our most interesting features. I once saw a server even implement parking tickets, which to me sounds incredibly fun.

Here's an overview of the Eco 9.0 blogs so far:

1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages (This blog)
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

Demographics and Wages

So what is a demographic anyway? It’s a division of people. IE, ‘People who have played more than 5 hours in the last week’, or ‘People who have more than 500 Eco Bucks currency’ or ‘People who have butchery skill greater than 5’. Turns out these ways of automatically dividing up a populace are really useful for organizing, and we’re expanding a lot on this feature for the 9.0 update. You can setup demographics at the new Census Bureau object:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/5749002ec8b809dc843439ca52f672dc32f3746d.jpg)

Each Census Bureau lets you create up to three demographics:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/912f42d1242c28c0a6c192ce951c0d4f47f4809a.png)

Like all new civics objects, your civic duties and abilities when it comes to demographics are determined by the constitution (see our Constitution blog). In this case, all changes to demographics must be passed via election (see Election blog), so changes are something that citizens must agree on (unless they install a dictatorship of some kind, of course).

Let’s take a look at some things you can do with demographics. Say we want to have a ‘new player bonus’ that goes to citizens just joining a world. First, we can define who is in that group with a demographic:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/501e94918c0bb06dc8f74f94fc31bbe81ce8de82.png)

Here we’ve compared two values: the number of hours played (over the last 0 number of days, which means ALL days), and 10. If hours played is less than 10, they’re a newbie.

From there we can define wages, which is a new addition with 9.0 This will pay them out every civics tick with the value specified. We’ll keep it simple and pay out 10 per hour, counting online hours only:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/113c317eee9ef3fa9758a710d59afdd3ca698671.png)

On a server that has been around for awhile and has a lot of rich players, this can be a good way to give new users a legup. You could do it in a more complex way, too; perhaps incentivizing certain skills that are needed on the world.

Here’s what the demographic looks like when you mouse over:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/9aa4c585e0fdecebfbe4f82e9e285b5d9bf85551.png)

And you can see the list of active demographics in the government viewer under ‘Population’.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/7b4ac773fb303d9ac92f0427c1d022fa616822a9.png)

You can also use this demographic anywhere you specify a person, and it will take that group instead. You could set property rights on a truck to be shared among all newbies, for example, making a village vehicle that newbies can use for a period of time:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ef86a396be1ed4012b94b73994cf57b7f88865b3.png)

You can specify it in laws, perhaps designating a certain district to only allow newbies to claim land (see District blog).

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/8c56c468608193b40f16e38e2d895b91247366c3.png)

You also may have noticed the auto-generated demographics that each world starts with, Active, Admins, and Abandoned. ‘Active’ is defined by server properties, defaulting to players who have played more than .05 hours (3 minutes) in the last two days. ‘Abandoned’ contains citizens who haven’t logged in for several days. These are great for dealing with the usual eb-and-flow of citizens coming in and out of your world, handling what happens to their property when they leave, and giving them special privileges when they’re active. In fact, you can detect via laws when a user enters or leaves a demographic. For example, we could make this law that reclaims all property when a user enters the ‘Abandoned’ demographic:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b57ee5cff566751f61c088c04c0a50675814b9ca.png)

Here the law detects the demographic change event, and reassigns all the property of the abandoned citizen to be owned by ‘Newbies’, the demographic we specified earlier! That means that newbies will be able to get a legup by choosing property from abandoned players, which will be given special permission only to them during their first 10 hours of play. Recycling for the win.

This is of course just one example of how you can design your government in Eco 9, and since we have a dynamic programmable system with lots of connections to the game there are TONS of interesting things that can come out of this, plenty we have not anticipated I’m sure, that’s the fun of it. Will be really interesting to see the kinds of societies players create, and how well they allow them to organize labor and progress to stop the meteor without destroying the ecosystem.

Thanks for following us as always, I’ll do a live stream (John K) this weekend 11am Sunday PST where I’ll demo this for folks that would like to check it out and ask any questions. And as always ping us on discord or me on twitter if you have feedback. Thanks to the awesome community supporting the game as we build out this huge update!

- John K, Eco Designer, CEO Strange Loop Games

 

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on April 29, 2020, 02:24:23 PM

Developer Blog: Upgrade Modules
Tue, April 28, 2020


Greetings Eco citizens! Todd here to present this week's development blog on Eco 9, focusing on the new upgrade module system which will significantly boost your production.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/32123199b0d92582d7d5f1f241127c294ad22890.png)

Here's an overview of the Eco 9.0 blogs so far:
1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign (This blog)
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

When designing upgrades we had two main goals in mind: create demand for a skilled labor market and increase the significance of technological advancements.

What are Upgrade Modules?

In short, upgrade modules are our new system for improving crafting efficiency. Crafting tables will have modules in which upgrades can be plugged-in to reduce the resource cost and crafting time for projects on that table. All work orders started on an upgraded crafting table will have the same cost reductions, regardless of the skill of the citizen who starts the order.

This last point is especially important because it moves the bonus you get off of your skill and onto this module, which means that new players can have much more of an impact if they make use of an upgraded table.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/700e27693b89760f4d219e7f07de71dc642be538.png)
An upgrade module for the tailoring table.

Upgrades and Technological Progression

When designing the benefits for upgrades, we used the concept of mature technology. As new technologies are invented and introduced to the market, there is a period of rapid advancement. As most of the initial flaws in the technology are worked out, improvement is still possible but the marginal benefits of each advancement in technology decreases. Eventually a new technology will be invented, making the old technology obsolete.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ea0a9eb7fd086e6f86f0fb6cfec37b1cab3489de.png)

In Eco, this will be seen in the increased benefits provided by progressively higher levels of upgrades. Upgrades come in five different quality levels, each providing an additional cost reduction. Initially the benefits of upgrades increase rapidly, while higher level upgrades start to have diminishing returns.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/deb8be9cd29850908e0dc6a56074f3e0c604b02e.png)
Mining upgrades of different quality for each era of technology.

Crafting tables accept different tiers of upgrades, each corresponding to a different era of technology. For example, early stone age crafting tables can accept a “Basic Upgrade” while advanced crafting tables, like the Electronics Assembly, require a “Modern Upgrade”.

New Possibilitites for New Players

With our new skill system, our goal is that players will have an alternative route to establish themselves in an existing economy. Previously all experience for crafting went to the citizen who started the project, regardless of who contributed the resources. Now, experience is gained when players add skilled labor, while adding ingredients provides no experience. Experience for the project will be split amongst all citizens who contribute skilled labor, relative to the amount of labor each contributed.

Upgrade modules, along with work parties (see blog), encourage this exchange of labor on a large scale. Citizens who own upgraded crafting tables will have incentive to hire laborers to work on their projects to maximize production. Specialists of all skill levels will be able to contribute to the same project without affecting the crafting time or the amount of resources needed. This will help create a healthy labor market.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/8f3a2f385e39c793583ae376559c90529e0af260.png)
The economy viewer showing work parties available in the world.

Future Plans for Upgrades

Now that we have the core system of upgrades implemented, we have a variety of plans to expand them in the future.

A few of these ideas include:
•   Specific upgrades for different crafting tables (For example, different quality saw blades for a sawmill)
•   Upgrades that can store labor to help automation
•   Upgrades that unlock unique crafting recipes

Summary

We hope you have enjoyed this look at the new upgrade modules. From our initial playtesting, upgrades appear to add a lot to the game. Thanks for reading and we look forward to everyone getting a chance to try them out for themselves.

Our next livestream will take place this Thursday, 11am PST / 20:00 CEST on our Twitch and YouTube channels, on Facebook and on Steam. Save the date!

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 05, 2020, 12:29:17 AM

Developer Blog: Building and the Hammer
Mon, 4 May 2020

Hello everyone! I’m Keegan, an artist, designer, and developer on Eco. My best wishes go out to everyone right now and I hope you are staying safe as best you can. Our team is keeping busy with giving Eco 9.0 the polish it needs and are eager to get it out into the world for all of you to experience! 9.0 has some big updates to building which I’m excited to share with you here.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ce427d16d90ae6a344e75d33420a10c0adef42ba.png)

Here's an overview of the Eco 9.0 blogs so far:

1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles (This blog)
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System


In the previous version of Eco, we added a list of forms to choose from for each building material. This was just the beginning of our plans for player building, and in 9.0 we have greatly expanded this functionality.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/26efff6819db1f6a3a49975290937bace872a197.png)
‘Hammer menu Before’ in current version of Eco.

We have refactored the UI and UX to allow for many more forms per material which are categorized and color coded. This is to support adding much more content, variety, and possibilities to building. Expanding the ways in which players can be creative is a primary goal with building in Eco, and we are by no means done yet with core building features to empower players.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/a0e815c0aa626e5b32fab34aa6387625a6f61150.png)
‘Hammer menu After’ in new version of Eco, 9.0.

The first of these new building features we are adding to Eco with 9.0 is a new function on the hammer: Fill Types. As you can see, fill types can be selected in their own section of the UI when you are selecting a form to build. Fill types allow the player to define starting and end points for larger shapes that fill in with blocks. For instance, to put down a long line of fence blocks, you would select the ‘Fence’ form and then the ‘Line’ fill type. Then in world you would right click once to set the start point of the line, and a second time for the end point.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/a1ec878d638e1d986978659253f32dc836ea68aa.png)
The upgraded Hammer in Eco 9.0 supports building multiple blocks at once.

Fill Types are the first step towards having more robust placement abilities for building in Eco. Before 9.0, players had to place blocks one by one. Now, with Fill Types, players will be able to create bigger structures by laying down swaths of blocks all at once. For now, inventory restrictions still apply so most materials will allow you to place down up to 20 blocks at once. In the future, we look forward to implementing more powerful building tools that take advantage of these new systems and allow material switching on the fly and many more than 20 blocks to be placed at once. The plan right now is to implement those kinds of powers (along with more fill types) with a total revamp of the Crane vehicle. To get a feel for and preview of this power, players in 9.0 can try out building with admin tools and commands on their own server, using the /give devtool and the /fly commands.

If providing creativity is the first priority with the building systems, the second is grounding that creativity in the unique world of Eco and its finite resources. In 9.0, to follow up the massive expansion of the biomes in 8.0, the building materials we focused on first are the ones that come most directly from the environment.


(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/22f1f79af88f84ae1fedc9ba31a453b063e2aa30.png)

The two new building materials are Ashlar Stone, and Composite Lumber. These two materials actually have variations for every type of tree and every type of rock in the game-- so your buildings made from Shale will look different than those made from Granite or Sandstone, and your buildings made from Cedar trees will look different than those made from Spruce. Though we have a long way to go to flesh out the end-game building material content in Eco, I am happy we tackled these materials now so that players will be able to build cities that exhibit and celebrate the sources of their materials.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/3c10aa8c3d0f35df4d3afd8342a3d0c54ce9bc8a.png)

The next steps for Eco as far as materials goes is to continue forward in this same manner with fully modern and industrial materials such as reinforced concrete, glass, and steel. We also will be updating older building materials to have many more forms like the new materials do. While we will prioritize end-game building materials to maximize the possibilities of high tier buildings, we do have plans for early building material improvements as well such as peat roofs and adobe.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e7708988fbf707363584b1aa6c6bad7c0a60938e.png)

One update in 9.0 that will be continued as part of the upgrades to high tier building materials is for asphalt concrete, which previously had no forms but now has several, and a much improved look. We look forward to adding many new forms as we go from here on out, and now that we have the UI and UX to allow this, I am confident Eco’s building system will continue to expand in unique and exciting ways.

- Keegan O’Rourke, Lead Artist Eco, Strange Loop Games

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 14, 2020, 12:01:38 PM

Developer Blog: Labor System
Thu, May 14, 2020

Greetings Eco citizens! Todd here to present this week’s development blog focusing on our new Labor system for crafting. Labor introduces an exciting new layer to the economy which allows for a variety of new interactions between players.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/3ff4774abf154c9e386df4c2424d5d4aa1e0f16b.png)

Here's an overview of the Eco 9.0 blogs so far:
1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System (This blog)
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System
In update 9.0, all crafting projects will require calories to be expended in the form of labor. When designing labor, we had a few key goals in mind:
•   Encourage more collaboration through the new labor market
•   Increase food demand during the modern eras of technology
•   Create a need for dedicated crafters to consume calories

Maintaining Food Demand

One of the design pillars of Eco is to balance the needs of society with the impact on the environment. Part of this is the need to dedicate large areas of cleared land to agriculture. To make this possible, a steady demand for food is needed.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/af93e40bbd0aa890e83706201627befab8e482ed.png)

Prior to the labor mechanic, as technology progressed and specialists became more proficient, the need for calories began to slowly decrease over time. Though resource gathering always consumed resources, many of the major industries had minimal calorie requirements. As a result, the market price for food tended to dip once larger farms were developed.

With the new labor system, progressively larger farms will be needed to supply the calories required for production. Advanced technologies will still increase the efficiency of resources use, but extra labor will be needed to keep up with the increased production.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/2a60806a38481eea38a7b7934e66d8ec0e628702.png)
Farmer using the new AoE Modern Hoe.

The labor market especially benefits farmers, hunters, and chefs. A constant flow of calories will be required to keep the economy running smoothly. To help keep up with this extra demand, we are introducing a variety of new bows and advanced farming tools (see tech tree blog). In addition, we are adding new food recipes for chefs that can accept a larger variety of ingredients.

Labor as a Resource

Crafting in the real world requires work to be performed as part of the production chain. In 8.3, crafting simply required the necessary ingredients and an active crafting table. Some crafting tables had an additional power cost while operating, but otherwise players could operate near limitless crafting tables placed around the globe without needing much interaction. Update 9.0 addresses this by adding labor as an additional cost to recipes to represent the human component.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/46b8f5cb081527256a14459cc202450e6ff5e78f.png)
Crafting UI showing four different types of skilled labor costs.

All citizens can perform the basic labor needed for the early starter recipes to establish themselves. Beyond this, most recipes require skilled labor. To craft these recipes, labor must be provided by a citizen who has specialized in the related skill. More experienced specialists will be able to expend less calories while performing labor and help craft more advanced recipes.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/4c8a8c1c51e788cc8db77ecbddef7951204f14c3.png)
Work order in progress with option to add labor.

Both resources and labor must be added before work on a project will begin. Labor can be added directly from the Crafting UI or by interacting with a placed crafting table. This encourages crafters to stay in closer proximity to crafting tables. While a work order is in progress, players will still be free to explore the world and interact with their surroundings, but work orders will occasionally need more labor added as new resources are acquired.

With this change, small producers will be able to find a role supplying towns with a local supply of resources. Large producers will have incentive to hire other specialists to perform the labor needed to keep their expansion stores stocked with inventory. Both scenarios make it easier for multiple players who share a specialty to contribute to society in their own way.
 
Labor and Collaboration

A major benefit of the labor mechanic is the addition of a labor market to encourage collaboration. Previously, we showcased how players can hire skilled laborers to contribute to their crafting projects (see work parties blog). We also previewed how new players will have an alternate route to progression by gaining experience while providing labor (see upgrade module blog). These are just some of the ways that labor will promote more interaction.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/7012b154ffb8b0109980219ff42962857d56c4cf.png)
Economy Viewer showing different work parties available in the world.

Large scale projects, like researching new technologies and crafting new government buildings, require large amounts of labor and resources to be contributed. For big jobs like these that benefit the public good, there is incentive to have multiple citizens contributing labor to a single project. When collaborating on research projects, a work party can be created so all citizens that contributed will have access to the technology once completed.

Something we want to expand on in Eco in the future is the ability for players to form companies and act as a single corporation. Skilled labor, along with the new wage and work party systems, are important steps in this process. We are excited to see how players will use these new tools while establishing an economy.

Summary

With this blog we will be wrapping up our preview of the new crafting system for 9.0, but we still have plenty of content to showcase in our upcoming blogs. I hope you have enjoyed this look at the new labor system and I look forward to sharing more during this week’s stream.

- Todd Glenn, Developer, Strange Loop Games

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 24, 2020, 01:54:15 PM

Developer Blog: New User Interface
Sun, 24 May 2020

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/382310/ss_96e31d3a6bdc29f88d8c715347c8fd67d4bac527.1920x1080.jpg?t=1589840877)

Hi everyone, my name is Milenko and I am the Art Director of ECO. Since I speak here rarely, before I start talking about UI, I would like to let you know where the art production is at and share a bit of an artist experience from our work so far.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/75326b1cc83e099ff3411f34b8904a8dc6922c9e.jpg)

Here's a list of our Eco Update 9.0 Blogs:

1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI (This blog)
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System


Firstly, the Art team is working really hard at bringing more visual content to the game and we never stop. Many new assets are waiting in the cue to be plugged into the game. However, priority now is working through the latest increment, making it stable and making sure it runs smoothly. So while the engineering team is fixing and polishing the .9 update, the art team is assisting in anything we can help with, putting polish on as much art as possible without causing any issues ourselves and preparing assets for the versions to come.

Game systems are getting more intricate, vision more focused and complex and the game itself is getting more depth than before. As the technology improves, we, the art team, are getting the opportunity to make our game prettier and more appealing to the player. For me personally, making art for ECO is the biggest challenge I have had in my career so far, I am learning a lot and had to change my perspective and opinions about the game art compared to any previous experience I had.

With the world being procedurally generated and the amount of control given to the players, it is very hard for the art team to oversee and control the final look of the game we are creating. It is still possible to a sufficient extent, but the ways to do it are very different from the ones we as artists are used to. So it requires a bit of change in the way we think about how we do things.
Regardless of difficulties, it is a nice challenge and keeps us sharp and on our toes at all times. And that is a good thing.

I will try to write up a specific, longer blog post about art evolution on the game at some point soon. In regards to the User Interface, revisiting everything was a process that took months to bring it to the current stage. It took a lot of sketching, prototyping and many, many new art bits and the ways that they needed to be put together.

With ECO growing as an experience and reaching the stage where it is ready to move into the next phase of development, there was a need to revise most aspects of the existing User Interface so that the game becomes more streamlined, features more clear and obvious, player interactions easier to understand and the game overall easier to use.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/a0a0accddd44b7164d241fbb96099ab1ba7826b9.jpg)

In the course of past months, with a lot of hard work, game design has progressed and evolved and the game-play has become much more intricate with new features and more complexity.
Prior to 9.0, the User interface was mostly in the prototype phase and was often built on the spot in order to make a new feature functional.

So we wanted to make it more organized, prettier and overall more appealing. It meant breaking many old things and rebuilding them from scratch, coming up with the new common themes and overall unifying it as much as possible visually while making it easier for players to use.
In the course of the game development, and with many new features,new, specific, UI groups and functions unique to each other started to become necessary.

Thankfully, the current iteration has become faster and more responsive allowing the player to interact with the world and the game with fewer clicks. We came up with different themes for different interfaces, figured out how they work with each other, figured out the way we want to put them together and tried to make sure they work thematically with each other so the overall look still follows the same theme, and fits with the overall game style. Some animations and movement have also been introduced to help with the experience overall.
Following are some examples of the look for the new interfaces being built:

There is a main on-screen interface which is a redesign of the existing one allowing the player to keep tabs on main aspects of the gameplay.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/c4efa5a9628cf37a3d6a8628b4365454675572ea.jpg)

Mini map got its own category, with minimized, popup and full screen versions, giving the players different options they can use based on their play. It is always visible now and adds to the game a lot.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/9ff9a50067b68c72a49694ee6ed5de8804c2e915.png)

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/216e4628a177e390ab8bd63d9e194375623f550d.png)

There is a massive and complex Ecopedia UI, designed to assist players in understanding many aspects of the game. throughout the rest of the interface it can be accessed and should help in clarifying different game segments.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ed34001f5f32aea5b6926ec56bf95dab00a7d0f6.png)

Laws interface allows players to craft civic and legal aspects of the game, helpful in organizing society and managing players' interactions with the world as well as each other.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/f0abea9db4d56e64d3fd3c6b292cd615f755c9d9.png)

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/f3c521bd977accaf01d429f1d73baf7b94c82375.png)

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/295a90780e4cefdbd8e72daffda0892faeed0d9f.png)

Work parties interface is there for assisting in organizing and following various tasks throughout the game.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/a3a262d0d5779cd327d1fa2f25939ef583943751.png)

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/eb51009ecbb5947361d4950e5e1f5a2c5026e1be.png)

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/4f9bebdc51862be433a60474e53fa5312e998aed.png)

Skills interface is allowing the player to follow their progress and learn about different professions development.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/b4b143c0d50f2cbbcdaa594cf49c189a5c16ae74.png)

Improvements go on and returning players will hopefully find them enhancing their previous experience and new players will find the overall interactions with the game easy and unobtrusive.

Final Note

Of course, everything is still work in progress and the art style, features and visual functionality are developing and evolving together with the game itself. So the current state is an improved and more organised version of the previous one, and as the game development progresses visuals and style will change to adapt to the needs of the project.

The livestream covering this blog will be hosted on Sunday, May 31 at midnight PST / 9am CEST. We're aware this isn't optimal but due to me working from Australia it's the best slot we could get.

- Milenko Tunjic, Art Director, Strange Loop Games

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on June 04, 2020, 01:07:12 AM

Developer Blog: New Audio
Wed, 3 June 2020

Hello, I'm Leonard and I'm the audio director for Eco. I started working with Strange Loop Games in 2011 on Vessel and am happy to be back with the team again.

For version 0.9 we've been hard at work the past half year to improve and expand the audio content while also upgrading the existing audio system. The initial audio system for Eco was built using Unity and this has been entirely replaced by the Audiokinetic Wwise audio system. This new audio system allows us to move a lot faster when adding new content and includes many features not available in the regular Unity audio system.

Here's a list of our Eco Update 9.0 Blogs:
1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio (This blog)
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

As far as new sounds, we've added lots of sounds for animals, vehicles, crafting tables and tool to help make the experience much more immersive. I've recruited Phill Aelony (PhillAelony.com) as a composer to double the amount of music in the game and we’re working to have all the new songs react interactively with the game in the future.

Most of the sounds you hear in Eco 0.9 have been recorded and created by me for the game. I've spent days going to construction sites to record excavators, travelling to the top of a mountain to record icy wind sounds and built synthesis patches with mathematics to simulate the sound of wind turbines. The main goal of the audio is to support your experience in the game and help it come alive.

The following videos give a look into how some of the audio is made in Eco:

Loading Screen Ambience
https://youtu.be/0hMkIzIib04
 
Fishing Rod
https://youtu.be/ronWQKfh-Q4
 
Tools
https://youtu.be/IAYrFJOiZKk
 
Excavator
https://youtu.be/sn5McEzjF-A
 
Steam Truck
https://youtu.be/KgtkPihGDy8
 
Wind Turbine
https://youtu.be/KK8ndfPWSeU
 
Research Table Crafting
https://youtu.be/0VZtmqsRa0o
 
Interactive Music
https://youtu.be/Jbm0ASvNVbA
 

For more information on the audio in Eco, have a look at the upcoming Eco Tree and my Twitter profile @VideoGameAudio with the tag "#EcoGame". I'm also available on the Eco Discord so you can contact me there too.

I'll be doing a live stream this Friday, at noon (12:00) PDT / 9pm (21:00 CEST) and will go into lots more details about the audio, looking forward to seeing you online.

- Leonard Paul, Audio Director, Strange Loop Games

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on June 19, 2020, 02:52:52 PM

Developer Blog: Laws Part I - Using the System
Wed, June 17, 2020

Hey all, John K here to talk about one of the most core systems in eco, the Law system, and how we’re evolving it for Eco 9.

Before we dive into that deeper, here is the overview over our Eco Update 9.0 Blogs:
1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system (This blog)
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio (This blog)
19.   New Hosted Worlds System
From the beginning laws has been one of the driving features of eco, forming the glue between the three pillars of gameplay: economics, ecosystems, and government. It introduces a seldom-seen mechanic in games where the players within a world are designing the rules that govern it, rules that they themselves will be subjected to.

This strange, self-referential loop of laws – that they govern the very people that enact them – creates a new kind of challenge for players: to consider their own needs along side those of the group, of which they are apart. You have to think outside of yourself, take a holistic view of the situation around you, and design a system that will not only help you achieve your goals but be accepted by other citizens. The very act of engaging in this kind of systemic thought is powerful: considering yourself in the context of society, considering the needs and motivations of others and weighing them against your own is a huge part of empathy and building a better world. I believe both the most fun and the most powerful kind of learning happens in these situations, when you are given a challenge that requires a shift in perspective to solve.

And so it shouldn’t be surprising that laws are a major part of our new Eco 9 update, in fact they’ve been essentially entirely rewritten for 9.0, making them fundamental to all actions and stats in the game. What’s more, the foundation for the system has been updated quite a bit, so all future additions will be much easier and faster and more powerful. We’re set for the long-haul with this update for all kinds of crazy stuff we want to do with government, like towns/cities/countries.

If you’re familiar with Eco v8 and prior, you’ll remember laws are created in a webpage hosted by the Eco server. This has been changed to create them in-game, setting them via the new Court object:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/478a46b1f522aa47cb7fd382686af2e947a1c4cb.jpg)


Read on... (https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/382310/view/2384040944547213857)

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on June 26, 2020, 01:56:22 AM

Developer Blog: New Mining System - New Processing Path and Pollution Info
Fri, 26 June 2020

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/382310/ss_96e31d3a6bdc29f88d8c715347c8fd67d4bac527.1920x1080.jpg?t=1592340329)


In a previous Eco Peaks update I showed some of the big updates to world generation for geology and mining coming in update 9.0 for Eco. In this post I’ll present the very closely related updates to mineral processing and pollution in 9.0. Mining and mineral processing is an essential part of the global economy, since it provides the raw materials for many industries. It also raises many questions about land management, pollution, and waste storage. Tailings ponds and stacks are places where products and byproducts of mineral processing are stored long term, and they are some of the biggest structures humans build in the real world. We are excited to continue updating Eco until we have a satisfying representation of this kind of mass extraction and management of earth resources, and the consequences of their byproducts.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/52e11c70cdb186853f2e77579e43257fdf825dd3.jpg)
Underground Mining.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/bf5f61c3cdbb8e0bcbda57bdb7cda73544fb244a.png)
A tailings pond.

Before we go on, he is the overview over our Eco Update 9.0 Blogs so far:

1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system (This blog)
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info (This blog)
15.   New Animal System: Attacking Animals
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio (This blog)
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

In 9.0 we will be adding more detail and realism to the way players process rock and ore, as a foundation for continued updates to tailings and their effects. This will also allow us to develop other industries in Eco like the chemical industry and better represent things like construction and road building materials. Mining and mineral processing ties into a lot of facets of civilization in interesting ways. The impact of these industries will be represented in future updates to pollution and its containment, as well as remediation of polluted materials.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/6587b4e98c2eaaa909aa205997906cbd32207716.jpg)
[Stamp Mills] are an early upgrade to the [Arrastra] crusher, allowing more efficient and timely crushing of rock and ore. Here, two of them are going through a stockpile of [Granite] to make [Crushed Granite], harnessing the power of the nearby [Windmills].

The biggest change from previous versions of Eco is that now to process mined ore, players must first crush and then concentrate ore to get metal concentrates which can be smelted. There is a new suite of world objects which can be used to accomplish these parts of mineral processing. Beginning with Iron Ore from a mine, here is the new layout of machines, products, and byproducts for initial early game mineral processing in 9.0:

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/5ad8fcaf8fb031f5a9ac005b600a2995354087db.png)
From left to right, [Iron Ore] embedded in sandstone from a mine goes through the [Arrastra] which crushes it, producing [Crushed Iron Ore] with [Crushed Sandstone] as a new byproduct. The [Crushed Iron Ore] can then be poured through a [Rocker Box] to concentrate it into [Iron Concentrate], with [Wet Tailings] coming out as a new byproduct. [Iron Concentrate] can then be smelted into [Iron Bars], with [Slag] as a new byproduct.

All the new byproducts have varying levels of usefulness, and will necessitate greater operations to store long term. Future updates to Eco will expand on uses for and effects of byproducts, for instance the potential to re-mine old tailings for more metals. For 9.0, crushed stone and other aggregate like crushed slag can always be used in roads and concrete production.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/c50a86b979f3a0e8e446622940ebaf101d19c6ad.jpg)
An array of advanced [Jaw Crusher] machines, chewing away at [Granite] and [Copper Ore] from a nearby Copper Mine. Froth Floatation Cells sit waiting to concentrate the crushed ore, on the left. Pipes feed the Froth Floatation Cells the water they need to function from a nearby river.

Different ores require different technologies to concentrate effectively. A simple way to think of different kinds of concentration is if they are ‘wet’ or ‘dry’. Some ores like copper and gold need more chemicals and coaxing to separate and concentrate, necessitating a ‘wet’ process.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/22ea8f87a6ca6edeca18e302668e026899f5e62d.png)
In this screenshot you can see an array of mid and end-game mineral processing technology: [Jaw Crushers] for crushing along the top, [Screening Machines], and [Sensor-based Belt Sorters] for dry concentration of iron ore, and [Froth Floatation Cells] for wet processing of all ore types in the middle. On the bottom you can see the tops of [Blast Furnaces], currently our mid and end game smelters.

A big difference between wet and dry concentration is in the byproduct produced. In 9.0 we are adding [Wet Tailings] to broadly represent the tailings produced by wet concentration processes. These tailings present a harder management problem, since they must be contained and prevented from leaking freely into their environment to avoid contamination of soils and water with freed heavy metals and residual chemicals from the processing. For now, this means they will act as a more potent pollutant in the environment and their storage must be taken more seriously. In future updates we will greatly flesh out the mechanics of tailings transport, storage, containment, and remediation or re-use. For instance, Wet Tailings will eventually be pipable, so that large mining operations can simply pipe their Wet Tailings into a nearby containment structure.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/051233e189e32535c67fedb7377ad4cb49e3844c.png)

As we upgrade and deepen the systems in Eco that revolve around extracting and using all types of earth resources, we know there will be lots of balancing and updates needed to make it a satisfying part of the experience-- especially because not many games try to simulate these aspects of the economy and extractive industries! We welcome your feedback as we go, and hope you’ll look forward with us towards an expanding exploration of earth resources, their role in our economy, and their impact on the world.

I'll be covering the contents of this blog in our next livestream this Friday at 11:30am (11:30) PDT / 8:30pm (20:30) CEST, drop by and feel free to ask questions!

- Keegan O'Rourke, Lead Artist, Eco

 

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 28, 2020, 12:21:38 AM

Developer Blog: New Animals in Update 9.0

In this blog post I’ll be sharing information about the new animal species being added to Eco in the 9.0 Update! Several new large animals and many smaller species have been added, putting us much closer to our goal of having the building blocks of an interesting ecosystem present in each biome.

As always, let's start with the overview over our Eco Update 9.0 Blogs:

1.   New Government system: Constitution
2.   New Government system: Elections and Elected Titles
3.   New Government system: Demographics and Wages
4.   New Government system: Laws Part 1: Using the system (This blog)
5.   New Government system: Laws Part 2: Taxes, Ownership, Property, and Wealth
6.   New Government system: Laws Part 3: Tour of different actions, and Executive Actions
7.   New Government system: Districts
8.   New Crafting: Work Parties
9.   New Crafting: Labor System
10.   New Crafting: Modules and Efficiency Redesign
11.   New Crafting: New Tech Tree
12.   New Building System: Hammer and new Building Styles
13.   New Mining System: Mineral Dispersion and Drill Usage
14.   New Mining System: New Processing Path and Pollution Info
15.   New Animals and Predator Mechanics (This blog)
16.   New Ecopedia System
17.   New UI
18.   New Audio
19.   New Hosted Worlds System

In Eco, species have so far been selected to maintain a consistent thematic continental inspiration: The Americas. North American species are prominent in grasslands, and colder biomes like tundra and taiga. The Eco world is its own, and we are certainly not trying to simulate the Americas, but it makes sense when making a game about preserving a fragile and complicated ecosystem to try to look at ecosystems on earth as a whole, rather than mixing and matching random species. In Biomes like the desert, rainforest, and wetlands, the continental inspirations have expanded in 9.0 to Central and South American species. In particular, species are often chosen because they have an interesting or important role in their real world ecosystem.

In the Rainforest biome, the big newcomers are the Agouti and the Jaguar!

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/5bc2d697f03f76ac1472ba82da1b3c45dede0a57.png)

https://youtu.be/5na2dHKWqfk


Read on... (https://steamcommunity.com/games/382310/announcements/detail/4233898398007560234)

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on August 04, 2020, 12:13:47 AM

Eco Update 9 releases 9-9!
Mon, 3 August 2020

After a year in the pipes we’re pleased to announce Eco 9 will be launched on September 9th.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/da236db4528570229c18702ad7219e782f63017c.jpg)

The short list of what’s new:
1.   Performance – Much improved GPU and CPU performance.
2.   Government – Create constitutions, elections, laws, districts in-world.
3.   Work parties – Collaborate on projects and share rewards.
4.   Mining upgrade –Prospecting drills and new processing path for ore.
5.   New animals – Predators with new behaviors.
6.   Crafting upgrade – Labor and flexible ingredients added.
7.   Ecopedia – In-game wiki.
8.   Cloud Worlds hosting service – SLG run hosting service.
9.   New biomes – Wetlands.
10.   New building system – Hammer and material types and shapes upgrade. Bulk actions.
11.   UI upgrade – Full pass on all UI.

And the long list:

Government

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ea76a286ef2c66dd903ef49712960851f5937e32.jpg)

•   Law system moved to ingame with a variety of improvements to help ease of us
•   Vastly expanded options for laws and government types
•   Constitutions that decide the the foundation of how a government is set up
•   New government buildings each with their own function
•   Customizable election processes that can be used for different aspect of government
•   Districts can now overlap and are viewable with new in-game district map
•   Customizable government titles with optional wages
•   Government bank accounts that are exempt from personal wealth calculations
•   Citizens now have the option to overthrow a government

Ecosystem

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e8344baf6ac94a72f3d394e092480cf3e358dc73.png)

•   New animal species and predator behaviour
•   Updated Geology with new ways for ores to spawn in more compact deposits
•   Prospecting drill for locating ore
•   Unique log types for each type of tree
•   Wetlands biome has been reintroduced
•   Adjustments to pollution so avoiding climate change requires more effort from society

Crafting

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/c50a86b979f3a0e8e446622940ebaf101d19c6ad.jpg)

•   New labor system for calorie powered crafting
•   Expanded mineral processing system with additional depth and byproducts
•   Work Parties that enable collaborative work and hiring skilled labor
•   Upgrade modules for crafting efficiency
•   Crafting costs reductions are more trade based
•   Tagged ingredients for recipes that can accept a variety of inputs
•   New crafting recipes, items, and world objects
•   A variety of balance changes to expand on the depth of specialties and encourage more interaction

Building

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/9d5ee7a012525f1f6d2fa25b77cb7a20255b5648.png)
 
•   New tier 4 building materials: Ashlar Stone and Composite Lumber
•   Lots of new building forms for existing materials
•   Different variations of Hewn Logs and Lumber based on the type of wood used
•   Visual update to Asphalt Roads including the ability to have lane lines
•   Improvements to the building system so multiple blocks can be placed at once.

Quality of Life

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e6e31aa5428af2844f50eba5342d915fa91a510b.jpg)

•   A detailed Ecopedia explaining most game concepts and mechanics
•   Expanded lighting system and additional graphic improvements
•   Revamped UI
•   Audio improvements with new interactive music
•   A new minimap that is visible at all times by default
•   Map now has an optional 2D mode and additional filters for information
•   More flexibility with claiming and dividing deeds

Optimization

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/2ca8cfdf1dfebf83b4ed53c805e8735be31871c2.png)

•   Fix for performance degradation over time (“memory leak”)
•   Decreased RAM usage
•   A variety of server optimizations
•   Massive improvements to FPS and overall stability


We’ve been releasing blogs with lots of details on how it all works, check on our past updates for the gritty details and a tour of features. I speak for the team when I say we can’t wait to get this out to the Eco community and see what amazing societies people build. And even still, we’re only at the beginning of where we want to go with Eco.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on September 09, 2020, 11:29:27 PM

Eco Update 9 is Now Released!
Wed, 9 September 2020

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/382310/ss_0eb620bc52197e0c41f9e679c801762e66992806.1920x1080.jpg?t=1599615700)

Today we launch Eco 9, after a year in development! It’s been a great big upgrade to the game and underlying tech with a core underlying goal: to set the stage to build this game to the stars. We’ve spent a ton of work strengthening the technical foundations of the game, tuning and balancing the design, and adding the foundations for new features that will continue to grow the game.
Follow development through the Eco Tree

Eco is our forever game, something we plan to continue growing and expanding indefinitely. As such, the vision of where we’re going is something we really want to share with the community, inviting them to participate in its creation. So with 9.0 we’re also launching the Eco Tree, which is our new interactive hub for presenting the game and connecting the community and devs:

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/extras/EcoTree.gif?t=1599566630)
Check it out at https://play.eco

Here you can see the massive scope of the game, listing our current and future features, the devs working on them, and details on each update they make. We plan to have the whole dev team use this tree to post their updates, and Eco players will be able to join the discussion of features and where we’re going. We’ll also have updates going automatically to our discord, so you can follow us there too.

As the game progresses over the coming months youll see new features become solidified and shaped by player feedback to individual devs. Eco is a game not just about community, but built by one, and like the game we’re all in it together.

Eco 9.0 Launch
For 9.0 itself we have a huge addition of features and improvements.

The short list of what’s new:
1.   Performance – Much improved GPU and CPU performance.
2.   Government – Create constitutions, elections, laws, districts in-world.
3.   Work parties – Collaborate on projects and share rewards.
4.   Mining upgrade –Prospecting drills and new processing path for ore.
5.   New animals – predators with new behaviors.
6.   Crafting upgrade – Labor and flexible ingredients added.
7.   Ecopedia – In-game wiki.
8.   Cloud Worlds hosting service – SLG run hosting service.
9.   New biomes – Wetlands.
10.   New building system – Hammer and material types and shapes upgrade. Bulk actions.
11.   UI upgrade – Full pass on all UI.

And the long list:
Government

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ea76a286ef2c66dd903ef49712960851f5937e32.jpg)

•   Law system moved to ingame with a variety of improvements to help ease of us
•   Vastly expanded options for laws and government types
•   Constitutions that decide the the foundation of how a government is set up
•   New government buildings each with their own function
•   Customizable election processes that can be used for different aspect of government
•   Districts can now overlap and are viewable with new in-game district map
•   Customizable government titles with optional wages
•   Government bank accounts that are exempt from personal wealth calculations
•   Citizens now have the option to overthrow a government

Ecosystem

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e8344baf6ac94a72f3d394e092480cf3e358dc73.png)

•   New animal species and predator behaviour
•   Updated Geology with new ways for ores to spawn in more compact deposits
•   Prospecting drill for locating ore
•   Unique log types for each type of tree
•   Wetlands biome has been reintroduced
•   Adjustments to pollution so avoiding climate change requires more effort from society

Crafting

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/c50a86b979f3a0e8e446622940ebaf101d19c6ad.jpg)

•   New labor system for calorie powered crafting
•   Expanded mineral processing system with additional depth and byproducts
•   Work Parties that enable collaborative work and hiring skilled labor
•   Upgrade modules for crafting efficiency
•   Crafting costs reductions are more trade based
•   Tagged ingredients for recipes that can accept a variety of inputs
•   New crafting recipes, items, and world objects
•   A variety of balance changes to expand on the depth of specialties and encourage more interaction

Building

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/9d5ee7a012525f1f6d2fa25b77cb7a20255b5648.png)

•   New tier 4 building materials: Ashlar Stone and Composite Lumber
•   Lots of new building forms for existing materials
•   Different variations of Hewn Logs and Lumber based on the type of wood used
•   Visual update to Asphalt Roads including the ability to have lane lines
•   Improvements to the building system so multiple blocks can be placed at once.

Quality of Life

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e6e31aa5428af2844f50eba5342d915fa91a510b.jpg)
 
•   A detailed Ecopedia explaining most game concepts and mechanics
•   Expanded lighting system and additional graphic improvements
•   Revamped UI
•   Audio improvements with new interactive music
•   A new minimap that is visible at all times by default
•   Map now has an optional 2D mode and additional filters for information
•   More flexibility with claiming and dividing deeds

Optimization

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/2ca8cfdf1dfebf83b4ed53c805e8735be31871c2.png)
 
•   Fix for performance degradation over time (“memory leak”)
•   Decreased RAM usage
•   A variety of server optimizations
•   Massive improvements to FPS and overall stability

Final Notes
Eco 9 represented a big refactoring of a lot of core tech of Eco, and we’re in a good place to have much more frequent updates. We’re planning to alternate with minor and major monthly updates, with minor updates containing bug fixes and polish and major updates containing new features and systems, and we have lots in store we’re starting on already. Can’t wait to get there with the community.

Important Info for the Update:
- Please make a backup of your old world, in case something goes wrong.
- When migrating old 8.3 worlds you will loose all government related features, e.g. laws, districts and demographics.

Enjoy

- John K, Strange Loop Games Founder + Eco Designer

 

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on September 18, 2020, 12:33:01 AM

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

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on October 09, 2020, 12:06:18 AM

Version 9.0.4 released!
Thu, 8 October 2020

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/382310/ss_0eb620bc52197e0c41f9e679c801762e66992806.1920x1080.jpg?t=1600087429)

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.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on October 14, 2020, 01:23:48 AM

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.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on October 29, 2020, 03:07:35 AM

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

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/382310/ss_0eb620bc52197e0c41f9e679c801762e66992806.1920x1080.jpg?t=1600087429)


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

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/2c5d621f8f08222fc4f4968028817472b5e357bc.png)

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.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/ce2f94cd4aa2d96c3b713f80ddf25f8b2fdb739a.png)

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

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/060c4c132abeef401140ee0ae827aa9935b04b2d.png)

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.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/66ce2ffde4b4b7fbc42d47b1d0b7a383a7044e2d.png)

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.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/e122312e2928c0449c72fc5532ca2db6784cab6f.png)

Thanks all and look forward to your feedback!

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on November 04, 2020, 02:55:42 AM

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

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_0eb620bc52197e0c41f9e679c801762e66992806.1920x1080.jpg)

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

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on November 25, 2020, 04:21:21 AM

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

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on November 30, 2020, 11:57:55 PM

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.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on December 13, 2020, 02:19:30 AM

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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/fc10bf893e3e163fd2063ff14f4340212adfc7f4.png)

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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/3569241097f45470b539966e8931442c355f1c33.png)

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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/5462adb9dd89a559618b89856b828551de823d1c.png)

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/d5ca892d092366479981c642d8e400446afdf1b6.png)
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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/2b014c381497e8109a9ad8d523b85cdb84528d01.png)
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).

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/53aa98123f81c60dfd96c8c2223acd8f3ed76483.png)

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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/f455f8ce108fe0cd4b316998d206fe2a4b982087.png)
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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/dd926fe8b5fb5210b72f65d19a20e832726555c6.png)

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).

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/f85921b572fc4c00b6f31ec2435386c6938d92d2.png)


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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/30f3e1d9f2992a06bcf7eddb938f2522cd7b8762.png)

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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/6ea3c01e02dc5cad874b56d10bc65b541c599f8d.jpg)

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

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on December 24, 2020, 02:20:32 AM

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.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/7a6ee44a4d815ac990a5cb30c26ae6608424f48d.png)

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.

(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/d6b6964845ee224e11fe200e8d21117657f24825.jpg)

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

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on February 04, 2021, 03:27:40 AM

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.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on February 18, 2021, 03:54:39 AM

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

(https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/35860517/40fe2c0315b0967ae69823854833f01faaa3aa95.png)

Beta testers wanted
 
https://youtu.be/diOH8eEhHtk


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

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on April 15, 2021, 11:55:33 PM

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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/2f66787989f2f0b341e214406f5b95344c9679df.jpg)

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.

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/8d8aa1c58a2e5ee50773f64e0183d4d43fa63ba2.pn)g

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.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on May 27, 2021, 12:08:51 AM

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

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on July 08, 2021, 11:21:04 PM

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.

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on August 23, 2021, 11:59:17 PM

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 :)

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on December 20, 2021, 11:53:07 PM

Update 9.4.4 - Happy Holidays!
Mon, 20 December 2021


The Holidays are approaching and we want to take this moment to thank our wonderful community for the incredible support this year, we appreciate it so much! In the past months we've been working hard on upcoming Update 9.5 and are excited to share more about it in the coming year.

(https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/25097638/fffdc4dad275bddf882fa7ec3dfebe55aaf45faa.jpg)

Until then, we've covered Eco in festive decorations again, for you to enjoy the holidays in your games. Elk got back their sweet reindeer appearance, spruce trees light up as christmas trees and the distribution station has been decorated and is ready for you gifting storage crates wrapped as presents to your fellow players in your communities.

We wish you and your families happy holidays and a healthy new year. May your wishes come true!

With love,
The Eco Team

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on January 07, 2022, 11:52:11 PM

Update 9.4.5 Released!
Fri, 7 January 2022

(https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_0eb620bc52197e0c41f9e679c801762e66992806.1920x1080.jpg)

Update 9.4.5 has been released and next to removing the holiday skins includes the following changes:

    Added:
    New emotes: /wave, /sit, /bow, and /salute
    Added:
    Modkit support for custom images for signs and Ecopedia banners
    (More Info: Example Mod & Wiki Documentation)
    Fixed:
    Laws using a progressive percent were unable to accept 0 as the minimum threshold
    Fixed:
    Firing a bow was creating errors in server logs


We were also made aware that we didn't attach the full changelog for the prior Update 9.4.4. We're very sorry for this and here are the full patch notes:

    Added:
    New admin commands to help manage the skill points and levels of other players
    Fixed:
    It was possible to exploit furniture score calculations by placing furniture in the gaps of the wall between rooms
    Fixed:
    Plants would not render on the edges of the screen when rotating the camera in third person
    Fixed:
    Eco client would freeze when failing to get a response from Steam while in the middle of connecting to a server. This now causes a timeout with an error message explaining the problem.
    Fixed:
    Eco client would freeze when failing to connect to a Cloud Worlds when the relay server was unreachable
    Fixed:
    Using "Global Timer" as the value for a law effect would cause an exception
    Fixed:
    There was a situation that could result in some plants dying on a fresh world even when they were in a habitable environment
    Fixed:
    Exiting a UI with the left mouse button would also trigger the tool being held
    Fixed:
    Economy Viewer would show negative values for crafting time remaining on public crafting stations with finished orders
    Fixed:
    Mods downloaded from mods.io were being placed in the incorrect folder
    Fixed:
    There were still cases of rounding errors for currency transactions with fractions of a cent
    Other:
    Various Localization updates and fixes

Title: Re: Eco
Post by: Asid on November 08, 2022, 12:01:36 AM

Version 9.6.4 released!
Mon, 7 November 2022

(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/382310/ss_014720a6c075be4ac7105aecafdf1f07bc0a04c5.jpg)

Hey Citizens,
we have just released Update 9.6.4 with a collection of fixes for issues you've been reporting. At the same time we're working on Update 9.7, for which we'll have news soon as well. Enjoy:

Audio

    Fixed:
    Tools could stop creating sounds after using them for a long time.
    Fixed:
    Tools could stop creating sounds after eating food.
    Fixed:
    Tools could stop creating sounds when switching to it from a torch.



Avatar

    Fixed:
    The avatar of the player could duplicate and exist twice.
    Fixed:
    When scrolling through empty hotbar slots the avatar animations would reload.
    Fixed:
    The held tool would not display on the avatar after login if another tool of the same type is in the hotbar.
    Fixed:
    The camera would rotate around the global z axis in third person view.
    Fixed:
    When using higher FoV players could not look directly below them.
    Fixed:
    When in a tilted vehicle the camera would feel inverted.



Balance

    Changed:
    Hoes, Scythes and Sickles now use a flat 20 calorie cost per use.
    Changed:
    The experience gain from crafting quicklime was reduced from 1.0 to 0.1.
    Changed:
    The icebox now requires only Carpentry level 1 instead of 5 to craft.
    Fixed:
    Cotton seeds would degrade into garbage instead of compost.
    Fixed:
    Spoiled food would degrade into garbage instead of compost.



Civics

    Fixed:
    Elections could sometimes not be started due to the confirmation window not popping up.
    Fixed:
    A "Change Settlement Name" civic action without icon was shown in the multi-selector for civic actions.
    Fixed:
    Removing oneself as manager from bank accounts and appointed titles without selecting another player to remove first was not possible.
    Fixed:
    A player would be assigned a fictious place of residency despite not having taken residence anywhere, yielding wrong results for laws working based on residency.
    Fixed:
    Sometimes your vote could count twice in an election.
    Fixed:
    Work parties could lead to a server crash when attempting to pay a contributor that has left the work party before payment.
    Fixed:
    Choosing an executive action in constitutional articles did not work correctly.
    Fixed:
    A client crash would occur when trying to seize a bank account that has no owner via law, if done via executive action instead a server crash would be caused.
    Fixed:
    Overriding authentication via law to allow property transfer by players that do not own a property did not work.
    Fixed:
    In a law where species were selected, the selected species didn't show in the law editor.
    Fixed:
    The search for law triggers did not yield all the results that were expected to be shown.
    Fixed:
    The mount action law trigger had no icon.



Graphics

    Improved:
    Reduced fog in the distance.
    Fixed:
    When looking through plants the lighting could sometimes be distorted.
    Fixed:
    Several graphical issues in the main menu were fixed.
    Fixed:
    Disconnecting from a server while being underwater would lead to the main menu being tinted in a blue tone.
    Fixed:
    Sunbeams on clouds did not originate from the sun.
    Fixed:
    Harvesting rice did not show the harvest effect.
    Fixed:
    Light around objects and trees could flicker when it is raining.
    Fixed:
    Harvest effects would stop triggering after loading and unloading many chunks.
    Fixed:
    Glass blocks had unnatural tinting depending on the light conditions.



Stores

    Fixed:
    Shop carts would use the bank account of the owner of the property it stands on when setting it up.
    Fixed:
    Stores that were not placed by the owner of the land it was placed on would revert their bank account to the land owners bank account on server restarts.



Tooltips

    Fixed:
    Crafting orders could sometimes show up as complete despite they were not.
    Fixed:
    Tooltips in crafting tables would not highlight resources to open their tooltips.
    Fixed:
    Prior offers of a store that was removed would still be displayed in the item tooltip for "Sell it at".
    Fixed:
    Several minor issues with title tooltips.



UI

    Fixed:
    The newsfeed would display too many notification types, leading to it spamming players.
    Fixed:
    Unauthorized players can no longer try to edit the text on a shopcart just to notice that they cannot save it.
    Fixed:
    When connecting to a hosted server, then cancelling and trying to load a local save the connection info would display that you are trying to connect to the hosted server.
    Fixed:
    Trees would be displayed darker than intended in specific zoom levels on the map.
    Fixed:
    When chatting while the store UI is opened keys pressed would trigger shortcut actions.
    Fixed:
    The interaction area to move the chat was too small.
    Fixed:
    Clicking save on the edit tab of a sign placed on your property would pop up a unnecessary message.
    Fixed:
    Text padding on reference descriptions in Ecopedia was missing.
    Fixed:
    The pie chart for elections on Web UI would display yes votes as no votes and vice versa.
    Fixed:
    Vote buttons would be shown on the Web UI even when not logged in.



World Objects

    Fixed:
    Picking up a log that lies in the zone of a storage would open the storage.
    Fixed:
    When trying to interact with some world objects two times in a row the second time could require the user to click the interaction button two times to function.
    Fixed:
    Closing an UI with left mouse button while holding an item that has a left-click interaction could cause that interaction to fire.
    Fixed:
    Left and right click interactions for world objects like turning on / off or placing something inside didn't work reliably.
    Fixed:
    The highlight for tiny, lumber and large lumber stockpiles was offset to its actual position.
    Fixed:
    Players could be disconnected from the game when placing a government object in the world.
    Fixed:
    A duplication bug involving removing stockpiles and picking up items from the ground.
    Fixed:
    Starter camps could be placed into the boundaries of other starter camps, making them overlap.
    Fixed:
    The highlight for buttons inside an elevator didn't work properly.
    Fixed:
    Clicking on the buttons inside an elevator could open the authorization menu additionally to the expected result.
    Fixed:
    Placing a door was not possible when there is no solid block on ground height in front of it.



Miscellaneous

    Fixed:
    When using a hammer to place blocks towards a highlighted block on a property you have no access to or when placing blocks on a property you are only authorized on through a law that ignored authentication the block would be placed as item and not as block.
    Fixed:
    Worlds would not render correctly on Linux builds and only display a pink screen.
    Fixed:
    When migrating from 0.9.5.4 districts would loose all their contents.
    Fixed:
    Migrating worlds directly from 9.4.6 to 9.6.x would lead to a server crash.



Server Configs

    Added:
    "PercentOfDaysToBeActiveForLongTermDemographic" to Civics.eco to control the percentage of days that a player needs to be active to be part of the demographic "Long Term".
    Fixed:
    The server configuration setting "AllowOverthrow" in Civics.eco did not prevent players from creating laws that prevent placing a capitol.