Do-It-Yourself buildings are the direct result of a core value shared by many players of Eco by Strange Loop Games and a great way to support the growth of a server. However, their use conflict with popular (mis-)conceptions about economy and profits. That is probably why you don't see them often.
I just like to write this since it's the most important thing to consider each time you make a decision in this game : Eco has a cooperative structure. This means you have players who share a common goal and depend on each others to achieve that goal. Dependence means we have more chance of success when everyone is well.
Despite this, many players try to apply to Eco real-world concepts that generally stem from competitive-based societies with uneven distribution of riches among billions of "players". This expert trick is about something suited for the unique context of Eco.
DIY is a core value for players and Fab Labs
Easy question here: do you prefer to get basic resources for others or use these resources to build machines and design buildings yourself ? Since Eco is a sandbox game, I usually met people who seek to craft, design and build things.
In Eco, players bring basic resources to others, but it is mostly a mean to get crafted items, a bit of money or complete a common project. In other words, I believe the standard Eco player likes to craft things on its own most of the time...or at least sell wood for a carpenter as long as he doesn't sell overpriced latrines in exchange. So crafting things on your own should be seen as a motivating factor and denying other players to do so a harmful action.
Infrastructure is costly in Eco
I remember the days when we could take the hewing skill, dig a hole in the ground and quickly get a 82% reduction in material of future hewn. In my opinion, the new crafting system from 9.0 gave more value to early collaboration and is a great addition to the game. On the other hand, crafting infrastructures now cost more and we need to be smarter than before. An easy solution is to share workspace rather than struggle individually for days in our little scattered workshops. As an example, see how an early joint building allowed two players to save time, resources and gain more workspace from the start.
Crafting skills in Eco have no more value than the calories needed
Having a crafting skill has high value, but mostly because it gives personal control over it's use and prevent us from getting robbed by greedy players. It has little value when it comes to crafting items for other players who already have basic resources.
For example, if I want a wolf statue in real life, I will pay for the stone, but also for the considerable amount of time from the artist. I might even pay extra for his skills. So if I bring a stone to a sculptor, he will give me a rebate on the final price, but it will only be a fraction of it. In other word, the crafting part in real life has a lot of value and it should reflect in the price.
Things are different in Eco as making a statue only requires the click of a button and few calories. Furthermore, the calorie cost goes down as the skill of the mason increases. Also, the crafting equipment doesn't break and need replacement. Profit is not needed to pay for insurances, taxes, rent, holidays, etc. Lastly there is no big difference in infrastructure requirement between early specialists (carpenter, mason, farmer, butcher, tailor or engineer) so no reason for making others pay for your infrastructure. Moreover, infrastructure cost is even less of a concern if you share workspace with others. So basically, when people are bringing materials to your store, the crafting effort resides in the click of two buttons (alt+click) and some calories. Additionnal costs may be added such as fuel and tailing disposal.
The basic cost of calories is about 0.0015 credits (wood logs = 1 credit) whether you forage food alone or get the best price from a campfire chef at the beginning. In this context, the price of limestones could be 0.7. So a wolf statue made without upgrade modules by a novice mason is about 80 stones (56 credits for resources) plus 40 calories (0.06 credits for calories) for a total of 56.06 credit. You can see how little (less than 0.2%) can be the value of crafting.
Another thing worth mentioning about crafting is that it yields XP. So crafting something for others when they bring basic resources brings value for the specialist. You also get XP when you add your work to a work party, which is an interesting advantage in the case of Fab Labs.
What are Fab Labs ?
In real life, Fab Labs are community spaces where users find tools, knowledge and collaborators to complete projects. Most examples of projects available on the web are related to crafting and repairing objects but the potential of Fab Labs is far greater. The community/free/open aspects are important to distinguish Fab Labs from private workspaces.
In Eco, a Fab Lab is a community building were you can find public worktables. The whole system takes advantage of the fact that many players can use the same crafting table, but the game keeps track of the private storage linked to it. This means players can start an order, link it to their personal storage (ex.: wood cart) and no one will mess with their resources and products.
Here are the specific characteristics of Fab Labs in Eco:
- Building containing different kind of worktables
- Every worktable is open to all players for free*
- Every worktable is named in a way that clearly shows it's public status (ex.: public_masonry_table)
- There is a secure and easy system to bring a lot of resources to the worktables (ex.: parking for carts outside)
- There is a contract board nearby
- There is a sign explaining how the Fab Lab works, including typical price for calories.
* Worktables should be as much open and free as possible in the spirit of Fab Labs. However, you may add a fee for worktables which use fuel or electricity made with fuel. You may also restrict usage to people who are active or players with a minimal positive reputation to reduce risks of trolling.
The land is ideally shared between two managers and public access is granted via authorization at each worktable. I once made a Fab Lab where players had the opportunity to dig a stockpile space in the basement and keep it for their personal use : it's a nice touch for the most active users. You may also add chests for some players to use as well : just make sure you unselect them at each table so your own craft do not empty these storage spaces.
Figure 1. Tier 1 Fab Lab made in Arduin. The building is one block above the road to prevent players from entering with their cart.
How does a Fab Lab works in Eco ?
1. Read the instructions on the sign
2. Bring basic resources in a vehicle and leave it in the parking lot
3. Interact with a worktable and link it to the vehicle (storage tab)
4. Start an order on the worktable
5. Start a work party on the contract board where you ask for specialists to add their work
6. Adjust the price of the work party to compensate specialists for calories. If there is no global currency, you can use the currency of the nearby chef's store.
7. A specialist will notice the new work party contract, accept it at the contract board and add his work to the worktable.
I usually calculate the ratio of food price / calories at the nearest chef's store and put it on the sign. Worlds with a chance of survival will have cheap food with a balanced diet.
You may even start multiple orders on different worktables and group them in a single work party. For instance, wood logs and plant fibers could turn into a windmill if you group orders from a carpentry and tailoring tables. This is why your Fab Lab is more and more interesting with crafting table and skill diversity, just like in the real world.
Why would specialists accept a contract in a Fab Lab ?
To be honest, I had some trouble making this work on many servers. This is particularly difficult if you find yourself with players who believe "economy" is about selling things or don't know how to use contract boards. I also landed in a world where the admins stormed in the chat to say it was unethical to use the chef's credits for contracts.
This will mess with his coins. I have a degree in economy and I know these things.
However, when this works (because it can), specialists contribute because it gives birth to a different and collaborative dynamic, where they still get XP without the trouble to get different resources. There is less pressure to maintain a large inventory at their store and other players have more freedom on the exact essence of wood or stone they use in the recipe. In all fairness, specialists can still make money by selling the basic resources needed in the recipes. Basic engineers have complex requirements early on and need a lot of XP to get to modules 4, so they are often keen to contribute. If the chef's currency is used, the money obtained from a contract is easily converted to food for calories. The higher the crafting skill of specialists, the more food they save for other projects.
Heroes and players who like to help often became strong supporter of the Fab Lab. This was especially true on servers with high collaboration settings.
Some expert benefits of Fab Labs
A work party allows reputation to be given as reward so we can easily track players' contribution to the community. For example, +1 waterwheel for research, +2 poor farmer's house hewn project or +1 crafting my plant pots.
Eco is a lot about balancing resources exchanges between many players and sometimes you just have nothing to offer to a specialist or their workshop is too far. It is also complicated to get upgrade modules in some worlds. Custom production at a Fab Lab helps to fill the gap in these type of contexts and keep players active (and motivated).
Once few people understand the benefits of a Fab Lab, the next step is to upgrade it to tier 2. Your mechanics won't have the burden to make the factory alone and everyone can share the fun to craft machines. Every time I reached that goal with a community, new people understood the sheer amount if iron needed for industrial projects and joined the effort instead of complaining about the price of everything and leave the server.
One important aspect of this game is to work together. However, this is easier said than done and any advanced player of Eco will tell you that learning to work with strangers is the most challenging task. One way to unlock Eco's secret tech tree is to launch community projects that bring people together as early as possible. A Fab Lab is one of the best early project for this and helps to create a downtown area : everyone wants to live next to it.
I believe being an expert in Eco is not about how fast you work or how much you know about recipes but rather how well you can help a community grow and communicate. Fab Labs are easy to setup and call the bluff on the true worth of crafting skills. The contract board gives everyone a chance to contribute. Also, once it becomes clear the true value of things lies in resource gathering, there is little reason to feel competitive about players who picked the same crafting skills. New specialists can now feel welcomed and can quickly put their skills to use at the Fab Lab. In fact, they can now arrive days after start and still have a chance to contribute rather than work for established players. Lastly, it's too early to call it yet, but I begin to believe Fab Labs could be a tool to sort true collaborators from individualist and competitive players as soon as day 1.
In conclusion, Fab Labs are community buildings made to satisfy the common need to design and craft things ourselves. It is a great early project to bring people together, it creates a more fluid ressource flow and it challenges the idea that crafted items should be sold with a high profit margin. It is by far my best tool to contribute to a community and know a bit more about my neighbors. I strongly believe it helped some players stay longer on servers and reduced economic inequity.
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