Eco [Global survival game]

Fascinating email update from John K:

http://preview.mailerlite.com/w0q2q1/865456053532231668/g5t0/

People generally associate the name of our game Eco with Ecology, but it was chosen because it’s also the root to an equally important pillar of the game, the Economy. The name ‘Eco’ belies the underlying connection of the two that forms the foundation of the game, and you, dear player, must navigate their tangled combination as the core of the gameplay.

A lot of what he talks about in that email is stuff that happened on my server :)

Amazing! It sounds dizzying.

Yes, it was dizzying. I must admit that we had some… plots.

This was an interesting read but dear lord how much work is in this game because… well I already tax my brain at actual work.

If you break it up with a community working together it’s not bad, but there’s a lot to do.

I’m definitely along for the ride here. If ECO doesn’t pan out as a game it seems like those guys can put together a good dissertation on just what can happen there. Are we still considering a Qt3 server?

Tom Mc

one for each day before the meteor hits!

I am planning on it, yes! I’m just waiting on the next update to come out before I set it up. I don’t want to have to apply any major patches once the game has started. I figure that way, we can restart the world every large patch, if people remain interested.

You’re going to have to patch the server. You’re not getting around that. Period.

Yeah I expect that, just not major content

Well, they’ve delayed the vehicle update with no ETA, so the new plan is this - I will start a new server on Friday. if there is enough interest. Who have we got?

I’m still willing to play.

Tom Mc

I’m still in

Same!

Awesome, so with a few other friends from other places, we should have a decent group. Hopefully 10+ people. I can think of 7 right off the top of my head and I think a few more will join. I’ll set it up tomorrow morning!

Here’s a fun question - anyone have a hosting preference? There’s a lot of services that offer servers now and I’m not sure which to choose!

So you probably want to put the collaboration setting to medium or high. We used low, and you saw how easy that made the game.

Does anyone know how much time is needed, ongoing basis, to like make this game worth it, and by that I don’t mean… worth it as in fun or wasting my time, I mean enough hours to make someone not a drag on the community?

How does this compare to ark in time invested vs reward?

I don’t think anyone is ever really a drag on the community. Even if you log in once, claim a bunch of property, and disappear forever, all you’ve really done is block off a little bit of the map for anyone else to use. If you spend five minutes gathering materials and then trade it at a shop for food or credit once a day, you’re still a net positive force.