We are pleased to announce the release of Eco 9.2. A large focus of this update was bug fixing and quality of life improvements, but we have added some new fun features to Eco as we prepare for Update 10. This update introduces the residency feature which we announced in detail in our housing blog. Housing bonuses can now be shared with others by inviting them to become a resident of your property. This is a great way for friends to collaborate together on on a home, and it also sets the foundation for the rent and residency based demographics features that we are currently working on for 9.3.
The new Industrial Elevator is capable of transporting multiple large vehicles at once. As societies in Eco grow, there is a growing need to consume more natural resources and mining for ore is a large part of this. With tools like the Excavator and the Skid Steer, miners are able to output significantly more resources, but have an increased need to transport materials out of the mine. The Industrial Elevator will allow significantly fewer trips to the surface.
With this update we are also adding the Storage Silo for farmers to store their crops, seeds and fertilizer. This is the first of our new specialty storage containers that can store larger stacks of items than a traditional container, but can only accept certain types of items. This should greatly increase the quality of life for farmers as they can neatly organize their inventory in one container. In a future update, silos will be used to help prevent spoilage.

Features

• New residency system for establishing a primary residence and sharing housing bonuses
• Added an Industrial Elevator that is capable of transporting multiple large vehicles in and out of a mine
• Added Storage Silo with greatly increased storage capacity for crops, seeds, and fertilizer
• Added a collection of new modern signs
• Added new building forms for Corrugated Steel
• Added ability able to zoom in and out while in third-person when holding the Alt key
• Implemented new in-game Bug Fixer icon for those who have helped report and fix bugs on GitHub
• When proposing civics, the proposer can now start an election even if they have permission to pass civics without an election
• New experimental rent feature which can be enabled via the server configs
• Boards have an updated icon

Optimization

• Improved optimization for resizing the objectives UI
• Improved optimization for chat storage
• Improve optimization for minimap with large numbers of world markers
• Improved optimization for serializations
• Eco can now take advantage of additional VRAM. Added setting to change max amount of VRAM used, defaulted to max GPU memory.

Balance

• Deeds must now be contiguous to count as one deed
• Decreased CO2 absorption by trees by 25%
• Increased max CO2 produced by animals to 25 PPM from 10 PPM
• Decreased spread rate for all trees
• Increased craft time for smelting Iron Bar, Copper Bar, and Gold Bar on a blast furnace to 18 seconds from 15 seconds
• Steel Bar recipe Coal cost increased and Quicklime is now a static ingredient
• Increased max carry weight for Wood Cart, Skid Steer, and Excavator
• Increase weight of tailings
• Increased weight of Copper Bar and Gold Bar
• Decreased weight of Steel Bar
• Decreased weight of all Rocks, Crushed Rock, Ore, and Crushed Ore
• Decreased weight of Dirt, Sand, and Clay
• Decreased weight of Ashlar Stone
• Reduced movement speed reduction caused by some plants
• Reduced Fur Pelts provided by Small Animals to 1 from 2
• Reduced experience provided by butchering animals
• Increased Rubber Wheel cost of Truck to 6 to match model
• Glass recipe now costs extra Sand and has Crushed Limestone as a static ingredient
• New alternate Glass recipe using Quicklime that has extra output
• Reduced Glass cost of Fiberglass, Framed Glass, Framed Glass Door, Large Windowed Lumber Door, and Advanced Upgrade Lvl 2
• Increased the amount of Limestone available in world generation and adjusted formation patterns

Quality of Life:

• Added Settings button to the main menu
• Transferring property now requires a confirmation from the new owner before the transfer is completed
• Store tooltips now display the currency balance for the account used in that store
• Deeds are now clearly outlined on the map and easier to identify
• Improved camera view when aiming a bow in third person
• The room tier tooltip will now display how many empty corner blocks are affecting the room tier.
• Resizing the Economy Viewer will now save settings when closing and reopening
• Barter trades in Economy Viewer appear separately in the balance column instead of listing a zero account balance
• The top notification panel can now be expanded by pressing the N key
• World markers can now be opened by clicking on the text of the marker
• Pressing escape while renaming an object will now cancel the text instead of opening the escape menu
• Shortcut keys are now disabled while viewing all option menus
• Ballot Box and Executive Office UI now has additional information about available civic actions
• Improved handling of duplicate pop-up notifications so they are consolidated into one notification
• Renamed old keybinding for Crouch to Dive / Sneak
• Improved transition animation when opening up a notification tab
• Icons for laws are less spread out in law notifications
• Improved notification when attempting to submit an incomplete law draft
• Improved button offsets for minimap in windowed and full-screen mode
• Updated description for Farms, Mines, Pollution, and Data tooltips for Ecopedia
• Updates to the map tutorial to reflect new dockable and pop-out mini-map
• Amendments will now appear as added articles when viewing the constitution
• Pressing escape to close a popup dialog no longer activates cursor
• Added localization support for Ecopedia Reference group names
• Added localization support for contract payment information
• Added localization support for pickaxe tooltip
• Added new server config to set the minimum citizen age required to qualify for the Abandoned demographic

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with being unable to join a friends game via Steam
• Fixed bug preventing placing a Large Corrugated Steel Door
• Fixed physics issue with tree trunks and other objects not settling correctly
• Fixed Log cannot be sliced any smaller error when attempting to cut the end of larger tree trunks
• Fixed water from pipes not expanding outwards
• Fixed bug in Economy Viewer where all currencies were displayed as being created by Jimmy
• Fixed server crash when attempting to pick up a vehicle that was prevented by a law
• Fixed Items Crafted law trigger not checking for crafting byproducts, like Tailings
• Fixed Chop Tree law trigger not recognizing the Not Felled condition
• Fixed Dig or Mine law trigger not recognizing Skid Steers and Excavators
• Fixed a number of law triggers to have more accurate item filters and descriptions
• Fixed elected titles losing permissions for bank accounts after changes were made to the title
• Fixed election website not showing voting history on previous elections
• Fixed Default World Currency not being the initial selection for Stores and Crafting Stations
• Contracts with Nested Clauses now correctly check all conditions when Any is selected
• Fixed bug with incorrect yes vote count when viewing active elections
• Fixed animal pathing to respond better to landscape changes
• Fixed animals falling into caves and get stuck
• Fixed bug with teleporting fish
• Deer have improved hitbox detection
• Fixed Tortoise laying down in awkward angles
• Fixed Snapping Turtle strange behavior while turning
• Fixed animals moving incorrectly on ramps
• Turkey Carcass now correctly has Animal tag for item filter
• Old Growth Redwood no longer spread
• Fixed issue with moisture calculation that could result in patches of a biome missing some of the native plants
• Fixed Skid Steer ability to break rocks on unauthorized land
• Fixed issue with avatar being blocked by plants during initial creation
• Fixed bug with posting contracts where changes made to the contract requirements would not always save
• Fixed Pending Elections notifications box resetting to the top position when using the mouse wheel
• Deeds can now be authorized to Titles that deed owner is not a member of
• Meteor cutscene can no longer trigger while sleeping
• Fixed bug where having passengers in a vehicle could remove road speed buffs
• Fixed error when trying to pick up a vehicle with non-empty storage when having enough inventory space to take all the items
• Fixed bug with being launched into the air that could occur when standing above a block that was broken
• Fixed currency duplication bug that could occur when marking a contract as failed
• Fixed issue with Flat Steel Windows and Floors not connecting
• Fixed visual bug with minimap that occurred when editing a deed and using the hotkey to close/reopen the map before saving
• Toolbench now gives correct error message when trying to insert a non-tool for repair
• Fixed issue with rearranging work orders that could result in a permanent map marker until reconnecting
• Tooltip for additional labor required in Crafting UI now correctly rounds to whole numbers
• Fixed tooltip for Work button in Crafting UI occasionally overlapping the Work button
• Tutorial pop-ups can no longer extend past the edges of the screen
• Fixed bug with government buildings occasionally not retaining proposed amendments after being picked up and replaced
• Currency is now created only after it has been minted for the first time instead of after it has been named.
• Fixed error when trying to create a new currency on unowned property
• Fixed bug with occasionally displaying incorrect number of specialties learned in the profession tooltips
• Fixed incorrect room calculation near wold wrap
• Bullrush now properly displays harvest animation
• Rearranging the linked storage containers in the Storage UI will keep the alternating color pattern to distinguish containers
• Fixed strange behavior with dragging items between linked inventories that have different capacities
• Government account description tooltip is no longer hidden by the interface
• Arithmetic for law operations now display with correct format in law tooltip
• Small Mortared Signs now have a stone table texture for the UI
• Fixed margins on popup error notifications
• Fixed inability to switch tools after using the Land Claim Stake to claim while carrying blocks
• Fixed audio bug with passengers hearing an engine sound if leaving a vehicle after the driver
• Fixed issues when migrating servers from version 9.0.5 to version 9.1 and higher
• Fixed bug with currency exchange not respecting buy limits for exchanges
• Fixed number alignment for difficulty settings when creating a world in the client
• Fixed icons on signs sometimes appearing outside the border of the sign
• Fixed bug with item links being broken in chat when a player joined with a similar name
• Fixed music only playing intermittently
• Fixed tax notification when selling something in a store and the taxed account does not have enough funds to pay the tax prior to the transaction
• When using a Fishing Pole, the line will no longer get stuck outside of water.
• Fixed issue with some recipe names appearing as only Recipe in tooltips
• Fixed connection issues when using Thai regional format in Windows
• Various Ecopedia typo fixes