Eco Update 9 Releases 9-9!

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

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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.