Unless you only play with friends and open stockpiles, you probably noticed trade is important in Eco by Strange Loop Games. This post is all about tips and tricks to manage your store so that you contribute to your community.
At the very base of Eco is a cooperative system where players must exchange resources in order to win together. Stores in Eco should not be readily compared to stores in real life : a better approach is to see them as local resource exchange centers. The more exchanges are done, the healthier the community: extra wealth is even created from successful fair exchanges.
Since we are playing with strangers, we need a secure tool to indicate which exchanges we are willing to make. Players are not always online at the same time and they need a system to make these exchanges even if one player is offline. Stores fulfill these needs and contribute to a smooth resource flow on the server. In fact, if you join a server that has very few or no trade offers, you are either very early or your community has high chance of failure.
No, you don't absolutely need a store. There are multiple game scenarios where you can go from one store to the next without owning a store yourself. But I would advise against it, since you will eventually need some type of exchanges that are not available elsewhere.
A store item is typically build from a workbench and has room requirements. Without help or skills, you can easily make 96 hewn by feeding your workbench 192 wood logs (about 6000 calories). Next, select your hammer and use hewn logs to make a 5x5 floor, 3 blocks tall walls and a 5x5 roof. Leave a hole for the door. You should then have a space of 3x3x3 inside the building. Of course, this is even better if another player with the logging skill has a store with decent prices or your server has a DIY hewn shop.
Store items must interact with containers, so the 5x5 roof is handy to place a stockpile and there is room inside to place 3 chests (40 wood needed for containers). Place the store item, interact with it (press e) and make sure it is linked to the chests and stockpile. Also you want to move containers in the list so that chests are on top. This way, items bought will first go in the chests and won't fill up the stockpile uselessly. It is also best to unselect any campfire, brazier and other fuel containers if you don't want fuel items (ex.: logs) to end up there by mistake.
Transport of resources is one of the most time-consuming activity in Eco. Other players might think twice about trading if you are too far. On the other hand, there are numerous players, especially beginners and competitive players, who will get paranoid or aggressive if you claim land too close. Others just have a plan in mind that requires land (ex.: giant statue garden). This is why most players expect that you will ask permission before claiming too close. However, what is too close and how to do it when people are offline? There is no easy solution to this : communicate as much as you can and ask about the the comfortable distance on the server. Most will say 2 claims to 4 claims and trying to get within 100 meters of few players will work. There might be a downtown area if you are lucky.
Exchange of resources is vital in Eco and stores are the main component to keep resources flowing. Your store can buy and sell items, so it should be seen as an intermediate or node in the exchange patterns on the server. This is particularly true at the beginning when there is no global currency and if you are the only player of your profession. If you and your store don't sell and buy, the node is not working and you are not contributing to the community. In fact, you may well be hurting the game of people around you. This being said, don't panic if this happen : there are numerous scenarios where some players don't sell or buy much. On the other hand, it might be an indication that something is wrong on the server, such as proximity to an independent team.
Figure 1 shows how important a mason can be to a small community (but every skill is useful). Without him, other players struggle to make mortared stone and mortar. Moreover, unique items such as upgrade modules, stone brazier, statues and fireplace are not available without his work.
You can also see in figure 1 that masons can provide other players with wood logs, crops and other items and also that any players can supply stones and sand. These type of unskilled exchanges have an important role in maintaining flow of resources when players do not have something to offer from their profession. The gathering expert in figure 1 serves to illustrate this problem since the mason has no immediate need for crops if he gets his food from a chef. He can buy crops and sell them to the chef, however. The most important thing is that if a player such as the farmer struggle too much, he might leave and the server will experience difficulties later when the cooking skill creates a high demand for crops. Basically, giving a fair chance for players to bring you basic resources is useful.
So the conclusion here is aim to contribute to the flow of resources with your store. You may do it with items directly related to your skills and more.
In real life, is is common to see stores welcome hundreds of customers everyday as part of an economy of millions of people. In Eco, you should consider yourself very lucky if your store has more than 7 customers. At medium collaboration settings, a typical successful game on a random server will have many active players during the first days (about 10 to 30), but regional clusters of 3 to 5 players will eventually emerge and die during the following days. So my advice to you is plan to sell to 3 or 4 different players before upgrading your expectations. This means don't produce 100 stone braziers because you want to corner the business...
The first idea of a store from beginners and novices of Eco is that it serves to buy items that you need and sell items that other players need. However, you can set up other types of store. For example, a DIY or automatic store will sell one items and buy only the corresponding resource using no currency (barter only). This is a practical way to make your skills available without having to supply the resources or worry about being stuck with resources that you don't need : a wood to hewn store is very handy to help players settle and save trees, for example. Barter stores are excellent for tool repair shops. You can also use a store to manage community research by selling scrolls and buying papers and basic resources (ex.: wood and stones). A town hall or bank store will buy resources and crafted items in order to distribute money and get material needed for community projects. Basically, each store has a purpose, which will determine what to sell and what to buy.
Under normal circumstances, you make your first store when there is no global currency. Global currency happens later in the game, since it requires a tier 2 building and specialized work. But this is a good thing : it gives you more control over your prices and helps you get something in exchange for what you made. In other words, it's a useful learning experience of how the flow of resources work in Eco before things get's trickier with global currency. There is just one thing you need to learn fast: buy things before you hope to sell something. This is because each store uses by default the personal currency of their owner. So when I bring you resources, the store gives me your personal currency in exchange. It's only when I have a pebble with your face on it that I can buy things at your store.
Some players argue that creating a currency from the start is necessary to make a good server. I believe the challenges of currency and trade comes from the ability of players to work together. Ironically, cheating laws and currency remove two excellent community projects where players can achieve this objective.
Next, it's time to look at your first skill. Is it a resource harvesting skill such as mining, logging, hunting or gathering? Is it a crafting skill such as carpentry, basic engineering, masonry, campfire cooking?
Every resource harvesting skills now allows to craft some items, so you should sell them as well. And players with crafting skills should definitely sell items. However, remember the principle that your store might only sell to a limited number of people? Please don't go frenzy by making dozens of tables at day 1.
Also, remember that your are one node of a complex system and keep selling items even if you need them yourself. For example, masons need mortar to make mortared stone and they might want to keep it all for future use. But they should also sell mortar simply because they are the best mortar maker on the server. If you go back to figure 1, you will see the basic engineer will be interested in mortar to make roads. Even a miner that makes mortared stone in his little corner of the map might wish to save some time by exchanging rocks for your cheaper mortar. If you can make it, sell it so you create opportunities for resources flow on the server.
The flow of resources is best when every player has a chance to sell things related to their skill. At day 1, every player needs a cart, upgrade modules, campfire food and tier 1 building blocks. Campfire salads should be cheap and bring everyone above 40 XP without loosing further time and hewn logs worth easily 1.85 wood log instead of the 2 logs + calories you would do alone. Some players will ask for furniture right from the start too. Other players need signs and mining equipment. It might be a good idea to buy stone roads. These are items you can put in the buy section of your store. It will allow other players to get the currency they need to buy what you sell.
When you can craft something, it's also a good idea to buy the related basic resources. The reason is that some items are needed in high amount or cost so much in resources that other players cannot sell you enough items of their own profession to pay for them. This is especially true for building blocks. Also, many players have a harvesting skill at the beginning and are best at getting basic resources. So buying the related basic resources is a way for them to get access to your skill and contribute to the flow of resources on the server. Furthermore, you may refer again to figure 1 and think about how the gatherer/farmer can buy from you since you have little need for crops (plant fibers to mortar is costly). Maybe you can buy sand and stones from him so he can get access to building blocks and furniture too ? The fact that no one think about farmers this way is one of the reason the farming profession has always been the hardest to play in Eco (unless you are happy to live without the same level of comfort).
These are basic tips on how to choose the items you sell and buy. The cooperative nature of Eco means you (or rather your skills) are needed by other players and your store should play a part in the flow of resources on the server.
How much should I sell my latrine ? That is the question... To answer this question, you need to work with the relative price of basic resources and the price of crafted items relatively to resources. Is that relatively clear ?
However, this changes rapidly when you put the price of a second resource. For example, your neighbor buys stones at 10 credits and sells wood for 2 credit. This means each time someone sells him a stone, they get 10 credits. This is enough to buy 5 wood logs. On the other hand, your store could sell each wood for 1 credit and buy stones for 1 credit too. This means each time a player brings you 1 stone, he can only buy 1 wood log. Obviously, miners who want wood will go to your neighbor. Hence, your wood is more "costly" because of the relative value of stone vs. wood.
What if you both buy fern campfire salad for 2 credits ? This means your neighbor sells wood (2 credits) and buy salad (2 credits). Each time a chef sells a salad, he gets a wood log. Now that your store sells wood (1 credit) and buy salad (2 credits), a chef is more likely to go to your store to get wood since he gets 2 wood logs for each salad.
These scenarios show the absolute value of items is irrelevant. What is important is their relative value in your store. This ability to set price of some items relative to others is possible because of the control you have on your own currency. This control is totally lost once your store adopts the global currency since your prices are no longer compared to other prices at your store : your prices are now compared to every other store in your world.
Now, in Eco every item is made from basic resources such as stones, ore, plant fibers, wood pulp, crops, animals and wood. Each resource takes time and calories to get, not to mention arrows and tool repair. If you are aiming for fair exchanges, you must take into account the fact that getting one type of ressource is a greater job that another resource, hence the relative price of resources.
Many players lower the price of a resource as a way to indicate they want less of it, most likely because they refer to a real world supply/demand approach. However, in Eco, basic resources takes different amount of time and calories to get. Buying something at a low price means the other players will have to spend more time and calories compared to other players to get credits. It will effectively acts as a time transfer where the player supplying cheap resources is giving free time to the buyer. Everyone has a real life outide Eco and this is only a game, so attempting to steal the time of others will not help for a successful collaboration. That is unless you purposely want to prey on new players who still don't see how relative price works in Eco.
This server was made for new players: we are beginners friendly.
As I write this, a smelter was supplying nails to his 3 carpenter neighbors. However, the relative price of iron ore to wood was 20 times higher than it should be. This means carpenters worked 20 times longer to get the same amount of nails. After spending an entire weekend in a tiresome competition, they all quit abruptly: there was not more trees around their lands and the smelter was getting a sizable base made of lumber from this trick. This part of the world is now dead and the smelter is getting lonely. Unbalance in price of basic resources can kill motivation and drive players out of the game. If you want less of an item, a better solution is to set a maximum amount or make a separate barter store.
Now that we figured the relative price of all basic resources, all we need to do is add them up to get the price of crafted items. We will work with an example where we take advantage of the fast and free XP gain by selling crafted items and buy basic resources. This will be done with mortar and sand. Without any upgrade module on the masonry table, the current recipe is 3 mortar for every sand used.
In this example, the prices at your store can be anything, as long as there is a fair balance between basic resources and the relative price of mortar is about 3 mortar for each sand (3/1). You could, for example, buy sand at 1.2 credits and sell mortar at 0.4 credit (1.2/0.4 = 3). But people rarely do than since you need calories in the recipe and food has a cost. So let's say you estimate calories to worth about 0.002 credit in this fictive world and you need 4 calories per mortar. The cost of each mortar becomes 0.41 credit (round up 0.40 resources + 0.008 for calories). Note that you get rebate on calorie usage as your crafting level rise and calories usually represents a tiny portion of the cost price.
So 0.41 credit is your base cost since other factor might change this, like upgrade modules and profit margin.
Upgrade modules change recipes by altering the relative amount of resources needed per crafted items. A mason can easily get a basic upgrade module 2 which gives a 25% discount on his masonry table. When this happen, the recipe becomes 3 mortar for every 0.75 sand used. Therefore, the ratio of mortar/sand changes from 3/1 to 4/1. This means you can now buy sand at 1.2 credits and sell mortar at 0.30 credits (1.2/0.3 = 4) for resources plus 0.01 for calories (0.31 final price).
Most players also apply a profit margin to crafting. Honestly, I quit this practice after few games, when I realized it caused damage to the motivation of others and slowed down exchange of resources as the margin increases. There are exceptions, but very few. Overall, when everyone sell his stuff for an extra price, it's no more fun to make special projects and we stick with minimalist designs and monochrome buildings. Profits is something I borrowed from the real world, but I just don't see any justification to do it in Eco. It is important to notice it since it's a source of economic inequity and a threat to servers when it is too high and combined to other red flags.
The formula to calculate profit margin uses the price of items sold compared to their base cost.
If we take the previous mortar example, the base cost price of mortar at the beginning is 0.408 credits, which include the cost of calories. I you decide to sell it 0.48 credits, your profit margin is:
(0.48-0.408) / 0.48 = 0.15 ; which is 15 %
You can indicate for each item in the buy section the maximum amount to buy. This is a handy tool to prevent other players from selling too much of something you don't need. If we go back to our mason example, you might want to buy a latrine and a bed from the carpenter, but not hundreds of them. On the other hand, you want to buy as much sand and stone as possible early on. But what if you end up with a lot of unsold mortar and a stockpile full of sand ? In this case, you can limit the amount of sand you buy until you need it. Note that sometimes it's a good thing to stockpile, especially if you want a lot of glass later. You may also limit the amount of sand you dig yourself and focus on another resource or make a separate automatic mortar store set to barter.
This article took examples from a mason store and I though it could be interesting to summarize everything in a final example of store. In a good/healthy community, you can easily find such place within the first day.
The store building was made from 156 building blocks, since no one was interested in a joint building on this server. Here I used 67 hewn logs and 89 mortared stone. It looks slightly better than a single monochrome block of stone and the local logging expert was able to sell hewn made efficiently in exchange for extra basic modules and stone braziers. There are 2 stockpiles on the side and one on the roof. I also have 2 chests and a masonry table inside. This way I can craft items and sell them when people bring me resources, even if I am not online. The building itself stands on 2 claims and the stockpiles on 2 others. Thus the whole thing only requires 4 land claims.
I choose the following prices for basic resources: wood logs (1 credit), stones (0.50 credit) and sand (1.38 credit). Limestone is harder to find at my current location and more time is needed, so the price of limestone is slightly higher (0.7 credits). Basic crops are worth 0.4 to 0.5 credits, but I won't go too much in details for food as calculations are a bit tricky.
I worked with time needed to collect resources rather than local supply/demand.
Now I'll apply the first principle which is : sell things related to your skills. Players need mortared stone and I'll add a bit of mortared sandstone too. I'll keep limestone for statues for now so mortared limestone is not available unless someone ask me to. I will add mortared granite later, but now my plate is full. Next, mortar, basic modules 2, some braziers and a bloomery made with a kiln earlier. This should be a good start, but I'll have to work on more furniture soon.
The previous image shows a store where people won't be able to buy anything if they do not already have my credits. For this, I need to buy something or create contracts. So let's buy things related to other skills. I want good food, a cart, basic wood furniture and many basic upgrade modules 1. The price of crafted things is based on the price of resources used and bonus given by a module 2. I know my chef does not have upgrade modules, so I buy food accordingly. I want to add a bit of stone roads later to help the engineer get more mortar and contribute by adding roads in front of my store. Right now he seems more concerned about finding a wainwright table.
Lastly, I'll buy stones and sand to buy things related to my crafting skill. I added a bit of mortar (with a limit) because some players choose to turn their wood pulp it into mortar and I might need a lot. So when my mortar gets low and falls under the limit of 100, the store will begin to buy it. But just know that tailors and farmers need a lot of wood pulp later.
So this was the final image for my sample mason store. It is meant to be used in a world where there is no global currency. You can easily adapt it to a world with global currency by setting the buy limit of every item to 1. This way you don't really buy them anymore and you keep track of their price. Next, increase the limit on a need-to basis depending on what is happening in your community.
Obviously, Eco is a sandbox game and there are a lot of other ways to set up a personal store. For instance, I plan to pick mining next and split my product between two stores. One store will act as a DIY mortared stone machine: a barter store which will only sell mortared stone and mortar while buying stones, mortar and sand. My other, main store, will sell stones and mortar instead of mortared stone. This setup will be perfect for the new Fab Lab nearby and free a lot of time.
Finally, this is one way to set your store and there are many others. Make a habit to sell a bit of what you can craft or gather with more efficiency than others. Buy things that others can craft best too, even if they are basic things you could get yourself. And be aware of the flow of resources on the server and the fact that many players cannot afford some items except if they are allowed to bring the raw material.
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