Just for fun. Can we translate the real laws of thermodynamics in the Eco world ? Turns out the result is pretty interesting to guide server management.
The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system. Nothing is created, everything transforms.
In Eco, we can say the energy put in a server is the total amount of hours spent by players. It's the players who, with time, gather resources and transform them into buildings, roads, research and items. An important aspect of this view is that energy transforms into things that disappear or become permanent crafted items. For instance, we can't take mortared stone and transform it back into time, bridges won't be removed to make lasers and food disappear. Therefore, each day in Eco is a system where players put a given amount of hours to transform the world that cannot revert back to time. The next day, new time/energy must be added to continue transformation. So if a player abandons, he won't be there to put new energy and the result will be a smaller/slower system for the rest of the game.
A strong/wealthy server receives a lot of energy (play time) each day. The only way to insure a high input of energy is to inject more time in the system such as
We can increase the conversion rate from time to items and buildings, so that every hour spent in the game yields more food, structures and items. Alternatively we can say energy is wasted each time someone crafts without an upgrade module 5 or gather resources in an inefficient manner. Thus, making upgrade modules available to all is a priority to reduce energy loss or increasing the efficiency of the server. Inviting unskilled players to pick up rocks and transport wood logs instead of mining and logging themselves is another efficient strategy to reduce waste.
You may see here that the key to a wealthy server is daily engagement of the players which comes from their motivation. Unfairness, unbalance, cheating, economic inequity, nepotism, aggressive environment are all things that make people leave. Security, achievement, sense of control, healthy challenge, special projects, camaraderie, sense of ownership will make them stay. Use mods after a sound analysis of their effects because special abilities and skills may unbalance professions and ruin motivation. New recipes, professions and even stockpile distance and size can reduce the need to collaborate, or else increase the need to collaborate up to a point players cannot keep up in a fun way. Flashy additions are interesting at first, but their effects don't last.
The first law here tells us a lot about money: creating money out of thin air and giving it to players does not create real energy and therefore doesn't directly contributes to work on the server. The best impact is to give players a temporary sense of security and stimulate early exchanges. It's worse impact is to allow some players to buy everything they need without selling items in exchange. Given the cooperative nature of Eco, it is possible these failed exchanges of resources are blocking players from going forward. Therefore, the bulk of money creation is best when linked to energy. For example, a government creates road contracts, buys resources to make public projects, buys resources to fuel research projects, buys upgrade modules to distribute to new players, etc. In all these cases, money appears in the account of players as a direct result of time investment and therefore holds energy and value.
Tax is a mean to divert some energy to the government. Profits and unfair prices are means for players to divert energy for their own benefit. In both cases, it hurts the motivation of players who are left with less than before. This is why a government in Eco must act with diligence to "repair the damage". Put some control in the hands of the players for how this return is made and make it known. For example, you could leave a sign next to a new road to describe why it was build an how much it cost as a reminder of tax usage. Aim for high impact projects that will keep motivation high.
Uneven flow of resources and money means energy is diverted from the system and can create unbalance later. Briefly, money should be linked to tangible resources or time and allowed to flow as much as possible.
The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of any isolated system always increases. When left alone, things tends to fall into chaos.
I like to link this one to collaboration and assume that most players seldom knew each other before the game began. The idea is that players of Eco are constantly pulled toward individual projects and objectives, loosing sight of the community over time. Also, there are inevitable misunderstanding and tensions that drive players apart over 30 days. The idea here is that we must put constant efforts in the system as activities and structures that promote collaboration to bring back people together. There is a popular belief among administrators that you can somehow set things on the server at day 1 and then an "economy" will take over the rest naturally. But servers without frequent feedback or collaboration efforts tend to fall into oblivion within days as the only motivating factors that remain are personal initiatives, making more money, make all research, be the one who destroys the asteroid, and other individual/competitive goals.
There are simple ways to promote collaboration such as an official welcome or have live discussions in Discord while we play. Law makers can make special tours to those who want to know more about law creation (nice job Spouke). World leaders may even make quick surveys about key aspects of the community. They can also have sessions where everyone discovers the guidelines for managing the economy. Some servers have contests for the best town, the funniest sign, draw for special items that do not create unbalance (ex.: ecko statue put outside) and put signs with the name of players to acknowledge their contribution. You can also have open mint day where every player can experience money printing (small amount), truck races, etc.
You can also lead development projects : creating the government buildings, getting gold for the mint, creating a community workshop and creating module upgraders are very efficient projects for this. On top of that, they yield useful features for the server. I always found gold rush interesting and rewarding : a high-spirited server where players celebrate a victory after working together is a great moment for discussing how we will back the money, how we value it and how it will be distributed. It also gives a sense of ownership over the economy/community and you have better chances to find candidates for the government.
The admin and his staff are obvious leaders for these projects but remember this is a cooperative game and each player share the faith of the server and should contribute in some way too.
Discord also allows nice out-game activities. I recently saw my second server with a daily newspaper containing jokes about what happened in the game. It was also my third server where players invited each others to play another game just for one night and bonded in a way that made the main Eco game better once everyone went back. Without sharing too much personal information, having people share random pictures to make the game more social can yield good results.
The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system approaches a constant value as the temperature approaches absolute zero.
For Eco, I would link temperature to the amount of exchanges through trade or direct communication. When your server has no trade or communications in the chat and discord, we can say it is near a temperature of 0. The cooperative nature of Eco requires constant cooperation so a temperature of 0 means activity stops. At this point, you are better off with a solo game and the idea of an active server with a decent-size community is already dead.
Trade-wise, bad store setups are fairly common and new players can use simple rules to have more success. You may also propose target prices for basic resources just to inform new players about the relative values of resources. High margin profits and other means of exploitation tend to give short term advantage over few days at the expense of creating economic inequity, which in turn reduce trade for the rest of the game. For example, an early carpenter who drain a lot of money can cause a crash in the business around since the other players will reduce their spending and even try to save on food and tools. Lastly, distance between players and road infrastructure have a lot of impact on trade.
- Hey man. Not trying to tell you what to do, but there is a nice spot closer if you want to settle. You being 1km away and across the ocean will make it hard.
- No, it's fine. We just have to make roads later
- Does this mean you'll pick basic engineering ? Me miss one right now.
- No loll, I hate doing roads.
Arguments about territory and prices are common in Eco and often polarize opinions. Most problems stem from simple misunderstanding, lack of trust and fatigue. So...yeah, it sounds silly, but a direct vocal communication out of the game could be the solution. Also, you may try to prevent common problems by indicating what is expected in the server's description and routinely ask players how things are and what would make their game better.
In conclusion, if you use the first law and translate energy into the time spend by players each day, it gives a interesting way to look at management of an Eco community and economy. The second law lies on the idea that people will tend to work alone and may even compete unless efforts are made to promote collaboration. The interpretation of the third law outline the number of trades and the level of communication as important indicators of server's health.
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