Our final alpha build before our Steam Early Access launch is now out! That makes this the last opportunity to pick up Alpha build and get the early rewards.
Alpha rewards: Meteor chunk, top-hat and goggles, and Alpha backer chat icon. Alpha is available here: strangeloopgames.com/eco. (Note: Multi-packs come with game keys that *will* gift alpha rewards, even if gifted after Beta) Next up: Beta. At long last after 3 years, our next release is STEAM, February 6th. This build marks our feature-lockoff, and from here on out its polish and bug fixes. Here’s what’s in the final alpha build, 6.4:

Single Player Mode

Added initial support for playing on local worlds. Initially this is a PC only feature, we will be looking at adding support for this on OSX and Linux in the future. You can create and load worlds locally, and play without needing to setup your own server - it does most of the legwork for you. Added a ‘Continue’ option, which will remember the last server you joined or world you loaded. One click gets you back into the game!

Avatar Improvements and updated Water

Player avatars now have more accurate foot placement and new animations including running, jumping and swimming. Torches can now be seen when carried by other players Water is much more splashy

Rotatable Stairs and Popup Control Help

Added a Controls popup that tells you how to interact with things in the world when you look at them for 1 second. Shows what each mouse button and ‘E’ key do.

Skills Revision

Introduced the concept of ‘Specialties’, which are branches of the skill tree that require research Restructured the skill tree to place all Specialties at the root Reorganized the skills window to be easier to navigate Simplified skill costs

Tutorial

New improved tutorial to simplify introduction to Eco.

Improved hammer functionality

You can now rotate some blocks with Q/R, such as stairs Fixed some issues with selection of blocks when wielding a hammer

Improved the end game win sequence.

Changed the way the Laser works: it now destroys the meteor 30 seconds after activating. Since this removes the 9 hour charging time, it instead requires double power. Animated the lasers to turn to their target Made the meteor easier to spot, fixed issues where the meteor was impossible to see.

Terrain blending added

Different terrain materials now blend into nearby other materials in a more stylized way. This removes most hard edges from bordering block types, such as soil next to grass, or sand next to stone. Improved the way that the air pollution, ground pollution, and soil moisture world layers spread Changed the units of the AirPollutionSource and AirPollutionSpread world layers from tons of pollution per 16 square meters to tons of pollution per square meter. Made /help sort and categorize the displayed chat commands.

Character Controller

We’ve replaced the character controller: Character no longer slips and slides around walls in confined spaces. The new controller is more responsive, should feel better when moving around in precarious situations like building the walls and roofs of buildings. Character climbs stairs without requiring jumping. Character no longer slides off of steep slopes, like roofs.

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed bug where laws and government were not saved when hitting save in the server GUI
• Added /dumpcarried command
• Fixed room requirements for the Repair Station
• Reduced stutter due to garbage collection
• Added admin commands /setreputation and /setreputationrelative
• Fixes phantom items in inventory
• Fix bug where the Cause & Effect API would fail when inspecting layer relationships in an area that isn't aligned with the world origin
• Fix some number formatting issues in Cause & Effect
• Fixes a lot of issues when holding logs with shovel, or rubble with pickaxe, etc.
• Fixes some items not appearing in store selection window, including coal and certain seeds.
• If world layers changed dirt in stockpiles to other types, such as grass or desert sand, the stockpile used to lose the dirt item associated with it. Fixes that.
• Fixed a server crash when claiming property with a deed crafted at a workbench
• Removed Stone Roof (migrated to mortared stone roof in a previous release)
• Fixes some server crashes related to crafting projects
• Fixed problems with tooltips that were too tall for the screen
• Fixed problems with tooltips closing even while still being hovered over
• Added tooltips to items showing which skill gives that item, if any
• Fixed not being able to walk after opening the advanced settings in the escape menu.
• Fixed protection on fuel supplies that prevents unauthorized players from removing fuel from them
• Fixed rubble placement against walls
• Fixed occasional crashes when performing trades

We’re pulling out all the stops to make this a great launch, and having your support has been amazing so far. Looking forward to continued support of the game into Beta and beyond, lots more places we want to take it. -JohnK john@strangeloopgames.com The alpha build is available now on our website: www.strangeloopgames.com/eco (All purchasers will get all future updates and a Steam key when we launch on Steam in Feb. 6 2018.)