eco-game-notes

Documentation of the changes i made to the default eco game to make it more enjoyable.

Chat Commands

There are quite a few chat commands in eco.
The most helpful ones i found are:

• /openserverui: Opens a server gui to tweak server settings (host only command)
• /mark: Creates a waypoint marker at the current player position (very useful to find back home ;) )

Plant Growth

Plants in eco can take multiple real-life days until they're fully grown. (Smaller plants like Beans are fully grown after 19 hours, but large trees can take up to 6 days until they're fully grown)

I divided the plant growth time by 10, so every plant is done in less than 1 real-life day. This can be accomplished easily by going to your eco installation folder and from there into Eco_Data/Server/Mods/AutoGen/Plant.
Each file in this folder is a plant available in eco.
Search for the line this.MaturityAgeDays = x.xf; - MaturityAgeDays is the variable that defines how many real-life days a plant needs to be fully grown (1.0f = 24 hours, 0.5f = 12 hours, etc...)
I just divided each of these values by 10, e.g. for Beans: this.MaturityAgeDays = 0.8f / 10.0f;.

To speed up this process i used Notepad++'s Search and replace in files... function

• with (this.MaturityAgeDays.*)(;) as search regex
• and \1 / 10.0f\2 as replace

Mining Skill

When you reach Mining Level 6 you can choose between 2 Talents:

• SweepingHands: Picking up rocks also attempts to pick up similar rocks in an area
• LuckyBreak: Mining rocks no longer has a chance to create large chunks

However i felt the game would be far more enjoyable if one could get both perks at once (no more large rock pieces + auto pickup).
This can be easily accomplished by editing the 2 skill files:

• Eco_Data/Server/Mods/AutoGen/Benefit/LuckyBreak.cs
• Eco_Data/Server/Mods/AutoGen/Benefit/SweepingHands.cs

Both initialize the set of talents you will get in the TalentGroup, e.g. for SweepingHands.cs:

Talents = new Type[] {
  typeof(MiningSweepingHandsTalent),
};

Simply replace this section in both files with

Talents = new Type[] {
  typeof(MiningSweepingHandsTalent),
  typeof(MiningLuckyBreakTalent),
};

Now you'll get both perks regardless of which one you pick :)

Experience Multiplier

You can change the experience settings in your servers config (Eco_Data/Server/Configs/Difficulty.eco). For my single-player playthrough i went with

{
  "CollaborationPreset": "NoCollaboration",
  "UnlearnRefundRate": 0.5,
  "SpecialtyCostMultiplier": 0.1,
  "SkillGainMultiplier": 15.0,
  "SpecialtyExperienceDivisor": 20.0,
  "SpecialtyExperiencePerLevel": 25.0,
  "PlayerExperiencePerSpecialtyExperience": 0.001
}

Altough these settings will probably be way too high for a multiplayer server.

External Mods

Additionally i can recommend the following mods:

• Industrial Elevator An Elevator that is large enough to transport a vehicle up and down - a good replacement for ramps thats available in midgame.
• JD Garbage Man Adds the ability to recycle some materials, including tailings which helps in keeping pollution down.
  This mod is a bit game-breaking, because it removes the challange of having to deal with tailings - i would only recommend it for single-player playthroughs.
  NOTE: The perks don't work for the skills, i would recommend not getting the skills this mod provides.
• Big Shovel Adds new shovels that allow you to pick up 10 pieces of dirt instead of just one.
• JD Storage Chest Adds new storage chests that can also store blocks.
  The recipe involving iron is broken, it also just gives the wood version of the chest.