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.