Hey Citizens,
we have just released Maintenance Update 11.1.12 with the following changes:

• Fixed: A server crash that could happen when a secession election ended successfully.
  
• Fixed: A citizen of a higher-tier settlement that placed the foundation of a lower-tier settlement would lose the citizenship of the newly placed draft settlement when moving their homestead, also losing the draft Mayor title - this led to the settlement becoming unconfigurable. Instead, the player can now keep the citizenship of the draft settlement as long as the homestead was moved within its theoretical influence.

• Fixed: Authorized users on a table could change the repair bounty settings, allowing them to set the price the owner pays for a repair bounty and fulfill it for that price.
  
• Fixed: An exploit that allowed to retain an outdoor room despite industrial objects being present by placing the outdoor objects on top of the industrial objects.
  
• Fixed: Authorized citizens were unable to consume items stored inside a storage object.

• Fixed: The crafting UI didn't display set crafting fees to the player.
  
• Fixed: Item tooltips didn't display the names of stores buying or selling the item.
  
• Fixed: The reputation tooltip did no longer display its contents when a reputation message exceeding 80 characters was present.

• Fixed: Server achievements didn't persist through server restarts anymore.
  
• Fixed: Marketplace purchases could fail on servers with specific currency denominators.
  
• Improved: Introduced simple culling for lights, improving FPS in crowded towns.

• Changed: Rebalanced defaults for "WeightCultureByPercentOfNeighboringPlotsChildSettlement" and "WeightCultureByPercentOfNeighboringPlotsSiblingSettlement" in Settlements.eco to make annexation of properties at borders much harder. Administrators that want to apply these changes need to update their Settlements.eco file.

WorldGenerator.template.eco

• Added: "MaxGenerationHeight" config variable, determining the maximum height terrain will have after world generation - defaults to 120.
  
• Added: "MaxBuildHeight" config variable, determining up to which height players can place blocks. Changes take effect even after world generation, but this variable cannot be reduced below a value once it has been set. The value underlies limits depending on the world size and must be set with care - defaults to 160.
  
• Removed: "WorldHeight" config variable, as it has been split into the above.

Hello Eco Citizens!

The journey towards Eco 1.0 continues, and the team is incredibly excited about the progress we're making. We know you're all eager to hear what's cooking, so we wanted to share a few key features and improvements we've been working on recently.

For a long time, we (and many of you!) have felt the constraints of the rigid placement grid. Remember trying to make a room feel just right, only to be forced into unnatural alignment against a wall? We're thrilled to announce the upcoming ability to place most objects freely, independent of the world grid. This opens up enormous possibilities for interior design, workshop organization, and general world decoration.


We're finally enabling placement on top of other surfaces, like tables. Imagine setting a table with tools, decorative items, or even food.


You'll also gain significantly more control over object rotation, allowing for truly nuanced and personalized arrangements.


We've already been blown away by the incredible scenes players have crafted even with the old limitations. We genuinely cannot wait to see the astounding creativity you'll unleash with this newfound freedom!

Now that you can place objects directly on surfaces, you can also mark these placed objects for sale. You’ll be able to visually stock a store and have customers interact and purchase directly from the objects themselves. It’ll even automatically display pricetags on placed items that are marked for sale.


Placing food on tables also allows a new gameplay feature, Dinner Parties! Yes, you'll soon be able to lay out a proper feast. This isn't just about aesthetics; it's about fostering community and culture. Host elaborate dinner parties for your neighbours, share a simple meal with a friend, or organize grand diplomatic banquets for citizens across the globe.



While we'll dive into the specifics in a dedicated future post, we can tease that these gatherings are more than just role-playing opportunities. Sharing food and participating in these social events will carry tangible cultural significance within the game, with multipliers when you bring together people from neighboring settlements, adding another layer to Eco's societal simulation. Stay tuned for more details!

We've also embarked on the development of a long-requested feature: Animal Husbandry! Here's a sneak peek at some of the new assets:






This is just the beginning of bringing domesticated animals to Eco, offering new pathways for sustainable food production and resource management. This will be in a later update, after the others mentioned above.

These are just a few highlights of what we've been working on as we push towards Eco 1.0. Our goal is to make the world of Eco richer, more interactive, and provide you, the players, with even more tools to build, collaborate, and shape your environment and society.

We're incredibly grateful for your continued support and passion for Eco. Keep an eye out for more updates, and as always, happy building!

Best, The Strange Loop Games Team

Hey Citizens,
we have just released Maintenance Update 11.1.11 with the following changes:

• Added: The unpreventable trigger "Settlement Founded", allowing to create laws that act on the founding of a settlement.
  
• Changed: Tree Debris is now available as a selectable block for the "Drop or Pickup Block" trigger, before it was only selectable by choosing "Any".
  
• Fixed: Assigning two titles as the holder of the respective other one created a loop that led to a server crash, it is no longer possible to do that.

• Changed: Modules can no longer be removed from a crafting table when there are queued crafting projects.
  
• Changed: The tooltip of pump jacks no longer shows the value of the oil layer at the players current position when the oil layer is configured to be hidden until the respective specialty was discovered.
  
• Fixed: Consolidating a storage that contained multiple identical steam tractor modules would link the durability between them.
  
• Fixed: Power generators did not consume part durability.
  
• Fixed: Skill Books and Skill Scrolls stored in a vehicle that was transferred to a different owner could still be used by the prior owner without having authorization to do so.

• Changed: The icon of the player on the map now stays smaller when zooming.
  
• Fixed: Players could get stuck when connecting to a server indefinitely if their username triggered the profanity filter of that server. The game will now correctly present an error message in that case and cancel the connection attempt.
  
• Fixed: An issue that could lead to platform invites (Discord, Steam) not working, showing a "Disconnected" error instead of establishing the connection. Note that establishing connection via invites can take a bit longer than direct joining, please allow it some time.
  
• Fixed: The client could be disconnected from the server with an exception when mounting a vehicle while construction placement is active.
  
• Fixed: The chat allowed the usage of some HTML tags that were not intended to be usable, leading to display and performance issues with the chat for everyone on the server. Only the tags listed on the text markup section of the wiki are now usable in the chat. (Known issue: If you paste invalid HTML code into the chat, you will no longer be able to see what you type in chat until reconnecting, this will be fixed in a separate update)
  
• Fixed: Multiple display issues like overlapping UI elements when using aspect ratios other than 16:9.
  
• Fixed: Twitch drops that provide blueprints no longer cause an empty box to appear in the void storage that cannot be removed and led to the void storage icon being permanently present. This fix is not retroactive and only applies once a new world is joined.
  
• Fixed: Copying the ID from a tooltip tended to copy a number that wasn't equal to the ID shown in the tooltip.
  
• Fixed: In places a number of Eco credits is displayed, the unit separators were not functioning correctly.
  
• Improved: Some small optimizations improving FPS for players on larger servers.

• Fixed: Some issues that prevented establishing a connection to the voice chat servers.
  
• Fixed: After a voice chat got cut off due to leaving the audible distance, it was possible that the connection to the voice chat servers was lost and voice chat hence not being possible until a game restart.
  
• Fixed: After clicking the icon to mute a player it was not possible to click it again without reopening the UI.
  
• Fixed: Spatial audio wasn't working correctly.
  
• Fixed: The Voice Input Device dropdown could show incorrect devices.
  
• Fixed: Input and Output volumes were wrongly set after the last Vivox update, they will reset to the default values with this Eco update.

• Improved: The server settings for the voice chat that priorly had no effect are now functional and listed as "Added" below.

Balance.template.eco

• Changed: "FuelMultiplier" config variable, determining the fuel yield per unit, now correctly increases effective fuel consumption for values below 1 and decreases it for values above 1 as its description notes.

Civics.template.eco

• Changed: "RecurringTransferFrequencyInMinutes" config variable, determining the frequency of reccuring transfers, now defaults to 60 to be in line with the information shown in in-game UI's.

Voice.template.eco

• Added: "AudibleDistance" config variable, determining the maximum distance away from a speaker that a listener can hear the speaker. - defaults to 32.
  
• Added: "ConversationalDistance" config variable, determining the range within which a speaker’s audio remains at its original volume, and beyond which the loudness of the voice chat starts to fade out when heard - defaults to 3.
  
• Added: "AudioFadeModel" config variable, determining the formula or curve that controls the shape of how the audio fades between the Conversational Distance and the Audible Distance - accepts InverseByDistance (Fades voice quickly at first, buts slows down as you get further from conversational distance), LinearByDistance (Fades voice slowly at first, but speeds up as you get further from conversational distance) and ExponentialByDistance (Voice within conversational distance is louder, but fades quickly beyond it) and defaults to ExponentialByDistance.
  
• Added: "AudioFadeIntensityByDistance" config variable, determining the amplitude of the curve to make the attenuation of the voice chat loudness more or less extreme - defaults 1.
  
• Developers Note:
  

  When customizing distance values, consider the following guidelines:
  
  ConversationalDistance is the distance from the listener at which a speaker’s voice is heard at its original volume. This must be an integer in the range 0 <= ConversationalDistance <= AudibleDistance. Consider this to be the expected close-by conversational distance. The ConversationalDistance sounds the most realistic when it's half the height of a typical speaking entity in your game.
  
  When using the default AudioFadeModel value, if you want voice chat to naturally fade to near zero loudness at the edge of the AudibleDistance so it doesn't sound like it's being abruptly cut off, then set the AudibleDistance to a minimum of: 32 × ConversationalDistance ÷ AudioFadeIntensityByDistance.
  
  When using the ExponentialByDistance AudioFadeModel, it's recommended that you keep the ConversationalDistance value at 1 or greater and adjust the value of the AudioFadeIntensityByDistance property based on the following formula: AudioFadeIntensityByDistance = 3 ÷ (1 + 1.75 × log10(ConversationalDistance))

Hey Citizens,
we have just released Maintenance Update 11.1.10 with the following changes:

• Changed: Elevators now lose ten times less durability than before when used.
  
• Changed: Industrial Mill is now crafted at the Electric Machinist table.
  
• Changed: Cyan Powder recipe now requires Milling and is made on an Industrial Mill.
  
• Changed: Processed Flour recipe now creates Cereal Germ as a byproduct.
  
• Fixed: Industrial Mill did not consume fuel as intended.

• Fixed: It was possible to place objects underwater that weren't intended to be placed there.
  
• Fixed: A templating issue when a item had both a parent and multiple crafting stations in the techtree, relevant for modders.
  
• Fixed: A spelling error in VehicleScoopHandlerComponent, relevant for modders - make sure to update any override files for vehicles.
  
• Fixed: An issue with items that require a blueprint and are crafted on multiple crafting tables, relevant for modders - make sure to update any override files for recipes.

In celebration of this year's season of the "Un monde incroyaux" roleplay server, this update also adds the Banana Rug and the Banana Shirt to the marketplace, one free blueprint of both again being available as a Twitch drop from February 28 to March 28. For more details, check out our twitch drop page.

Hey Citizens,
we have just released Maintenance Update 11.1.9 with the following changes:

• Fixed: Icons for crafting recipes sometimes disappeared.
  
• Fixed: Icons for crafting recipes sometimes showed an identical smaller icon next to them.
  
• Fixed: Icons could become invisible in storages when moved very quickly.

Vivox, used for the Voice Chat in Eco, has received a major update which should address most of the issues that were reported to us over time. Please let us know about any new issues the update itself could have potentially caused on our bug tracker.


Stats.template.eco

• Added: "BlockBulkActions" config variable that allows disabling the recording of bulk actions, which can reduce crashes caused by a bug in LiteDB that can happen on larger servers, but may lead to some data no longer being available for civic features - defaults to false. (Thanks to @padmanek)

Hey Citizens,
we have just released Maintenance Update 11.1.8 with the following changes:

• Fixed: The driving animation for the canoe didn't work correctly when there was two players in it.
  
• Fixed: Paddle movements when driving a canoe were not correctly synchronized with the view of other players.
  
• Fixed: Standing on dynamite during the explosion could lead to the VFX and SFX effects not playing.
  
• Fixed: Some objects, like dynamite, wrongly cast a shadow for their bounding box.

• Fixed: It was no longer possible to hold the e key to pick up mining rubble.
  
• Fixed: Pressing the enter key multiple times in quick succession to confirm a transaction could lead to the client being disconnected from the server with a "Failed to process a request" error.
  
• Fixed: Deleting a store category could sometimes lead to nearby store categories being deleted as well.
  
• Fixed: Some vehicles could get picked up when trying to take out the last stored item when the player has left the vehicle just a short moment ago.
  
• Fixed: Repairable items could still be stacked to average their durability when using shift drag.

• Fixed: An explosion affecting a trash bag on the ground led to the corruption of the trash bag inventory, making it impossible to remove the trash bag.
  
• Fixed: Currency exchange listings that were created after another player had viewed the exchange listings once didn't function correctly.
  
• Fixed: The wanted list in the store only checked if any of the set requirements is true to allow the player to sell the item, which could lead to the player being presented with an error when trying to do so as for example the durability requirement was fulfilled but not the one for integrity. It now checks that all requirements are met before allowing the player to sell the item.
  
• Fixed: The minimum and maximum durability and integrity weren't shown in the wanted list of the store.
  
• Fixed: Items consumed to repair another item in the tool bench weren't removed from the slot until the table was closed and reopened.
  
• Fixed: Using a pickaxe could lead to mining effects being shown for nearby players also holding a pickaxe, despite not using it.
  
• Fixed: The tooltip for currency exchanges displayed exchange rates in reverse.
  
• Fixed: The tooltip for the culture value of a settlement deed could wrongly note that the deed is not placed in a settlement, despite that not being possible.
  
• Improved: All executive actions will now show a confirmation, also showing when the executive action failed due to missing jurisdiction.

Difficulty.template.eco

• Changed: "FuelMultiplier" config variable was renamed to "FuelEfficiencyMultiplier" and now increases the runtime fuel yields when the value is increased and the other way round.

Additionally, this update enables marketplace credit shares for settlements: All active citizens of a settlement will now receive a credit share if a fellow citizen purchases a marketplace item.

Hey Citizens,
we have just released Maintenance Update 11.1.7 with the following changes:

• Fixed: When an election to fill multiple slots of the same office would end with a player having the most votes and some players with less votes being tied between each other, the player having the most votes did not receive the office.
  
• Fixed: Executive orders trying to seize a vehicle were failing without showing a reason, seizing a vehicle is now possible when the owner is a citizen of the settlement.
  
• Fixed: The jurisdiction for the law triggers "Create Work Order" and "Add Labour to Work Order" was not correctly limited to crafting tables located within settlement influence, but also affected all citizens of the settlement no matter where the crafting table was located.
  
• Fixed: It was possible to transfer money to the treasury of a settlement that hasn't been founded yet, leading to the money being stuck there until the settlement is founded.
  
• Fixed: Removing a claim stake whose attached deed contributes to culture led to a server crash.
  
• Fixed: In work parties it was possible to grant access to titles the player wasn't a manager of, allowing players to gain membership of any title.
  
• Fixed: Civic objects that were disabled due to no longer being within influence of a settlement didn't update their status when only being moved back to the influence instead of being picked up and replaced there.

• Fixed: When repairable parts were supposed to be replaced through a repair bounty they instead averaged their durability.
  
• Fixed: In the store, durability configurations applied to integrity, e.g. a tool with reduced integrity but full durability wasn't listed if its integrity was below the configured durability value.
  
• Fixed: Adding light sources to outdoor rooms wouldn't provide housing points until the deed was updated by resizing the deed, changing a building block or adding a different furniture item.
  
• Fixed: It was possible to buy objects that had active work orders on them.
  
• Fixed: It was possible to buy the foundation of a unfounded settlement with ratified constitution, leading to the proceeds of the sale being transferred to the unfounded settlement's treasury which due to the ownership change of the settlement foundation will be destroyed during the purchasing process, the money hence being removed from the world.

• Fixed: Trying to join a server through a Discord or Steam invite could fail with an error claiming that the requested server was not found.
  
• Fixed: Removing a crafting table with active craft orders for marketplace items with the devtool didn't refund the used blueprints.
  
• Fixed: A tree would only count to no longer be present on the world for statistic purposes when all its logs and the stump were removed - it is now considered to be no longer present when it was felled.
  
• Fixed: Vehicles were getting picked up when trying to take out the last stored item when holding the hammer.
  
• Fixed: A player causing an animation effect by using a tool on an object could lead to the same animation effect being played at a different user holding the same tool and looking at a similar object in the vincinity despite they were not using their tool.
  
• Fixed: Country foundations were not correctly uncovering themselves after founding.

• Improved: Readability of the bank account history. (Thanks to @Thibault-Brocheton)
  
• Fixed: When moving a minimized category in the store UI around, all categories would expand again.
  
• Fixed: When trying to list a picture in a store (which is not possible), a blank listing appeared.
  
• Fixed: When a settlement issued an injunction against a law of a child settlement, all child settlements were separately notified about the injunction even when they weren't affected by it.
  
• Fixed: The sidebar notifcation about a settlement being disabled due to its foundation having been disabled for too long wasn't formatted correctly.

• Fixed: A potential cause for a server crash when restarting a server while overloaded.
  
• Fixed: The configured ending date for holidays was not recognized correctly.
  
• Fixed: The QA command /unclaimabandoned sometimes used by admins only removed deeds, but not the respective claim stakes, potentially leading to savegame corruption.

Settlements.template.eco

• Added: "BasePlotsOnOutpostClaimStake" config variable, determining the amount of claims an outpost claimstake inherently comes with - defaults to 16.

Additionally, to celebrate the launch of the new viking-themed Dimworld Eco RP roleplay season, we have created the Norse steel axe perfectly suited for all the vikings out there. It is now available in the Eco Marketplace and for limited time until February 3 one blueprint of it is also available as a free Twitch Drop.

Hey Citizens,
we have just released Hotfix 11.1.6 to address the following issues:

• Fixed: Worlds with a distribution station that contained specific items couldn't be loaded anymore after they were shut down.
  
• Fixed: Dynamite could be picked up after it was ignited, leading to the dynamite being preserved and the explosion still happening.

Additionally, the ingame news have been temporarily disabled due to maintenance on related backend services, it will be re-enabled once that is finished in a future Update next year. For the meanwhile you can find relevant news here on Steam and on our discord.

With the year nearing its end, we'd like to thank you for your support this year and wish you happy holidays - stay tuned for what's coming to Eco next year and have a great time!

Hey Citizens,
we have just released Hotfix 11.1.5 to address the following issues:

• Fixed: Claim papers and stakes would convert to their generic versions instead of being removed when the player that led to their creation left the settlement.
  
• Fixed: When trying to create a bank account after having reached the limit of 20 bank accounts the player was disconnected from the server with an error message.
  
• Fixed: It was unintentionally possible to list pictures for sale in stores.

• Fixed: Claims wouldn't be highlighted with supported items & tools when switching to them from a hammer.
  
• Fixed: When placing specific items, their shadow placement wouldn't disappear despite the item no longer being held.
  
• Fixed: Occupancy of the Small Shipyard was wrong, leading to placement potentially being blocked due to vehicles that weren't near the object.
  
• Fixed: Some tools like the remote detonator couldn't be used while in fly mode.

• Fixed: When clicking the "Yes" button on the store transaction confirmation popup twice in quick succession the player would get disconnected from the server with an error message.
  
• Fixed: Items with persistent data were missing the link to reset their data in the tooltip.

• Fixed: Some hair and hat combinations led to avatars being invisible and not editable.
  
• Fixed: A rare server crash related to water filters that could happen under specific circumstances.
  
• Fixed: Another potential cause for a server crash that could occur when using explosives near bedrock.
  
• Fixed: Picking up a printing press that contained a picture would disconnect the player from the server with an error message.
  
• Fixed: In rare occasions the camera could be set to observation mode (view of own character) after reconnecting to a server.
  
• Fixed: Toilet lids wanted to see the sky and started to fly.

Hey Citizens,
we have just released Hotfix 11.1.4 to address the following issues:

• Fixed: The avatar creation screen appearing on the first start of Eco displayed a white background and couldn't be skipped.
  
• Fixed: Several items, mostly of housing type, could no longer be stacked. (No items were lost, any items missing will be in your void storage)
  
• Fixed: Crafting projects didn't recognize stored items if their durability / freshness was below 90%.
  
• Fixed: Players authorized on vehicles instead of their deeds could not move items from the vehicle storage.