May 16, 2021

Developer Blog: Eco Infinite and UX focus

Eco - SLG-Dennis

Hey all, we’re starting our weekly updates again and have tons of work to show on Eco. Over the past year we’ve had the good fortune to double the size of the team, which means lots more in the works. We’re working on a lot of features in parallel, so you’ll see progress on a lot of these then suddenly they’re all the in game at once. As discussed in our last update, we’re focusing on a couple things with current dev:

A pack of features we call ‘Eco Infinite’, which expands the game to support thriving communities that don’t end at the meteor, but can go indefinitely with interesting/challenging gameplay and social connections.
UX upgrade, making everything cleaner, smoother, and better; especially for new users.
Performance! Switching the engine over to Unity’s ECS system + burst compiler which will give a giant speed up for animals, landscape generation, everything.

Here’s the deets on some of the latest.

9.4 Update

Here’s updates coming right around the corner (next several weeks) in 9.4:

World Generation

Eco dev Jason has setup an easy way to view the world youre going to generate, now you can tweak the parameters and the seed and hit ‘generate’ and see a preview of the world, without having to do a full generate. This will let server hosters get that perfect world they want for building a society.

Realistic Power Generation

Also coming in 9.4: One of our longest standing issues has been fixed by our dev Marcus: waterwheels will now actually require flowing water (rivers, not lakes), windmills will require a cleared space around them, and solar generators will require sunlight. No more solar generators in your mines (shame on you in the first place if you did this). Now they will generate variable power based on their location in the world. And the waterwheel will get a significant boost if you put it in a waterfall:

Solar generator with some blocks slightly obscuring the sunlight and dropping its power supply:

And with a fully clear sun view:

10.0 Updates

Here’s updates coming further down the pipe in Eco 10:

Boats

Long in hibernation, boats are getting lots of love lately and will be shipping in Eco 10 (date TBD). Check out this demo from dev Quadbro of a couple of the new boats, including the barge:

Boats are going to really transform transport in the game, and will influence the location of towns and cities to have advantages along ports. Citizens will need to setup inland towns to mine minerals, and then a transportation network to move them to coastal port town, where they can be loaded onto boats and transported around the world. Part of the beauty of adding features at this point in the engine is one new feature will have infinite repercussions as all the systems of the game are intertwined; adding one new type of vehicle will influence the economics of the whole system.

And of course creating boats will be a significant endeavor with lots of demands on the economy and government (and ecosystem for resources) as well. Here’s the new shipyard object we’ve concepted out and are building:

And then lots of connecting parts for ports, like this selection of moorage points:

Prepare to see a big change in the world when theses make it into the game, port towns and seafaring will make the global economy run with much more depth.

Storage Systems

With the focus on transport of materials that boats bring, we’re also boosting up the focus on storage and containment, with specific types of storage to store specific types of goods. Check out the concepts from dev Rob and Milenko for the new objects on their way in (release TBD):

Wooden Liquid Storage Tank

Steel Liquid Storage Tank

Warehouse Storage Shelves

Each of these will specialize in storing different types of goods, and as you setup port towns and transport you'll need to use these to manage your supplies.

Lots more in the works, stay tuned for updates on the Towns and Countries change, performance boosts, avatars, stores, chat, and tons more. Feel free to send us feedback in the comments or on our discord: https://discord.gg/eco

- John K

Apr 15, 2021

Update 9.3 released! The Tailoring Update

Eco - SLG-Dennis

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

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

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.

Mar 25, 2021

Developer Blog: Eco Infinite

Eco - SLG-Dennis

Hey Eco citizens, in this post I wanted to talk about some of the changes in the pipe with a new additional direction to the game we’re calling Eco Infinite.

‘Eco Infinite’ will be adding gameplay and things to do Post Meteor, building up support for long term servers with goals and challenges to solve, and in the process aiming to create very tight-knit meaningful communities of players. Seeing the worlds that streamers and players are creating and the depth of the societies there has inspired us to extend the game to support long-lasting communities that don’t break up after the meteor is destroyed. We want these worlds and the relationships that get built in them to continue post-meteor, with lots of rich challenges still in store.

So what’s there going to be post-meteor? Plenty, with the underlying theme of building a utopia. This means continuing to improve the lives of citizens through housing and food systems, but also brand new systems that will come over the next several releases like settlements (a blog on this here), education, culture, and tourism, all while living in harmony with the ecosystem. We’ll also be adding special support for events for players to take part in, like trials, debates, town meetings, and lectures. The more opportunities for collaboration the better, and progress will be unbounded. Achievements will track your progress, both personal and world achievements, and these may unlock aesthetics.

More detailed designs will be announced for these as they start to get prototyped out, and our existing priorities will run in tandem with these which the team continues to work on (quality of life issues like making stores easier to use, performance, boats, tailoring, avatars, garbage, much more). These Eco Infinite items are big ticket items and will take some time to implement, most we will be adding as ‘experimental’ features in an earlier release which players can enable to try out and give us feedback.

Community Tools

Some of the first changes coming in 9.4 will be simple tools to allow running communities better:

- Max Active Players. By setting this optional value, players looking for servers can filter by how big of a community they’d like to play with. Once you reach that level of active players, it will stop being advertised; but then if players later become inactive the server will get a special boost to server rankings in the browser, and eventually achievements for users who come in to support a server that has a player leave. This is to address a common case where players leave a server and new players are needed mid-game, giving the chance for new immigrants to jump in and have a valuable role in the community there. We expect this feature to help a lot with keeping long term servers supported, and setting goals for community size.

- Exhaustion Limits. Setting an optional ‘Exhaustion Timer’ on servers will make players who are playing past a given time limit unable to expend calories (they become exhausted) until the next day. This will allow servers to keep a relatively even playing field, avoiding a common problem case we see where some players can put in an hour a two a day, but others are putting in 10 hours a day and leaving the rest in the dust. Players who do set a desired play-length per day will be matched with servers that have a similar exhaustion limit. This is an opt-in feature for both the server and the player, and we expect most servers will still be unlimited, but it represents another tool in the belt for users to build the type of communities they want.

Achievements

Also coming soon is Achievements. We will be doing something interesting with these: achievements earned on any server will give you steam rewards, but achievements earned on special ‘merited’ servers will be transferrable between servers. We’ll be designing ways for dedicated community members to get the merited status with the approval of moderators, and this will be the beginnings of a ‘metaverse’ within Eco, where aspects of your character will be transferrable between worlds (optional per server to enable this). To start it will be aesthetic features like achievements you’ve earned which show up as icons on your avatar and allow you to craft fancy skins and rewards and such, but later will be all kinds of things.

We’ll also be introducing World Progress Achievements, to go in tandem with Eco Infinite. These will be milestones for your world to achieve, like economic progress, cultural development, well run government, biodiverse ecosystem, etc that will trigger server-wide achievements, and any player who has been active through the previous week or so will gain the achievement on their character. The progress levels will be unbounded, thus there will always be another milestone to achieve (hence the ‘infinite’ in Eco Infinite).

These features are our long term goals, while short term we have ‘Quality of Life’ improvements prioritized (bug fixes, performance, balance improvements). 9.3 is coming out any day, and will include rent and tailoring improvements. 9.4 is shaping up to be a balance patch with extra server tools.

As anyone who has taken a peak at the Eco Tree has noticed, we have super ambitious plans for the games, we’re still at very early days compared to where we want to take it, and the support of our community as we build towards that is how we get there. Over the past several months we’ve seen a huge boost in new players, 2 years after our Early Access release and driven by streamers and word of mouth, and that’s given us the resources to double down on development, grow the team and start to ‘reach for the stars’ (if you get my drift). Feedback from the community is incredibly useful as we do this so don’t hesitate to reach out via e-mail or on Discord to me or the team. Building Eco is like playing Eco: it’s a community effort.

Cheers

-John K, CEO Strange Loop.