But words are cheap. So what is next on the server to help people settle and easily become active citizens ? What is there to prevent exploitation by established players and give a vision of the cooperative level required to win?
In Eco, I have seen two popular welcome structures. The first is free research. This is when the admin (mostly) research the first skills and distribute scrolls for free or at a very low price. This generous gesture, however, comes with many disadvantages such as removing a good pretext for early collaboration between players and allowing newcomers to claim huge lands, then leave and block active citizens. Land papers are also prime tools for griefters. Experimented servers have one or more collaborative research structures instead, which is a must have for your welcome wagon.
The second popular structure is distribution of currency at login. This can work when used properly (not too much!). However, this solution typically comes late in the life of your server (tier 2 era) or you need to cheat to make the mint and laws from the start. Free money in Eco is also a missed opportunity to fund community infrastructures, which can really change the quality of life of the citizens and the game in general. A lot of free money to new players is also an incentive for predatory behaviors and passive revenue tricks from established players.
When a player is given 1000 credits after login, check if their first attempt is to set the price of basic resources in the 0.01 credits range...
You might wonder why I haven't mentioned distribution stations already, since it's the most obvious welcome structure of the game. The previous examples are far more common, probably because they are easier to implement. The thing is almost every distribution station I have seen ends up filled with more tree seeds, dirt and stone tools than useful items. It's quite discouraging in fact to join a server when the most obvious welcome structure is filled with garbage.
Ideally, the best welcome wagon in Eco doesn't require cheating and appears early. We also might look for a structure that promotes the culture of cooperation and is simple to make. Lastly, to welcome someone is to create a confortable and hopeful environment. In Eco that would be to give an easy access to food, lodging and means to craft efficiently.
The distribution station is intuitive and comes with a unique mechanism tailored for new players. However, what you put inside should means "welcome" and helps new players to rapidly become active members of the economy. Items such as a cart, a sign, campfire salads, the latest model of upgrade modules and later, iron tools and furniture can go a long way for new players. Upgrade modules are particularly effective and powerful items to welcome new players and reduce economic inequity in general.
The problem with distribution stations is what comes next: how do we fill it with items ? In my opinion, your best option is to link it to a community store that buys the most pertinent items from the active players. Hence, you need someone in your community with the responsibility to maintain the station. Why bother with this when you can just hand out money to new players? This way we introduce money in the system by linking it to real effort from the players. It is also handy tool to influence the prices on the server and gives useful hints to the new players (An upgrade module? What is this?)
I wrote an article about handling research in a collaborative way. Briefly, the first player who picks logging on the server can easily setup a research hut on one claim using 98 hewn logs (or less) and a research table. Allow everyone to use the table. The building can be further improved to a 170 blocks building with 2 research tables and a community store to distribute the scrolls.
If there is no minted currency, I suggest you set the store to no currency (barter) in order to avoid mixing community research with your own credits. You can simply buy basic resources in exchange for the scrolls and use them to improve the building or make new research pages and further fuel research. Make contracts instead of doing this yourself. Which reminds me that you should add a contract board nearby if you want to use the work party feature for collaborative research.
These stores are simple contraptions made of a store set to no currency (barter). Players sell raw resources (ex.: logs) and buy the crafted good. The barter option in this case prevents a player from dropping tons of ingredients just to make money. The DIY (do-it-yourself) implies the ratio of resources/crafted items is adjusted so there is no profit margin (just include cost of calories and fuel). A crafting station is linked to the store.
A DIY setup works very well for basic building blocks, campfire food, stone roads and carts. It requires a limited investment and almost no maintenance afterward. Some exceptionally cooperative communities follow with tier 2 and 3 building blocks or similar DIY setup using open crafting tables.
Novice and competitive players are likely to complain about the DIY stealing their profit. Just keep in mind this is a cooperative game. If new people are seen as preys to make profits on basic items, then there is no welcome. As an alternative, you can restrict access to the DIY to new people by setting who can use the store (ex. demographic based on custom variable, time played, etc.).
We are new players-friendly. We started the server a few hours before just for ourselves and set the stores... you can now feed our high profit margin economy every step of the way.
There are different kinds of module upgrader, but in short it's a store that buys and sells upgrade modules (and other items needed in the recipes if need be). It works well with a government store. In this case, buy a limited amount of level 1 modules (ex.: 10), a bit more level 2 (ex.: 15) and so on until you have a good reserve of level 4 modules. Otherwise a solution is many barter store to craft modules individually.
The basic community workshop is a square building of 5 blocks high inside and build on a 2x2 claim. You can find inside every kind of crafting tables from the basic era. Access to the tables is also set to every active player or a custom demographic. Lastly, a contract board nearby allow users to recruit established players for their crafting skills while they bring the basic resources (or include those in the contract).
The rationale behind public workshops is to give new players an immediate access to means of production. Users are likely to settle close too which reduces overall waste due to transport on the server.
Community workshop take many shapes and use. I have been making them since 2018, which is before modules were implemented in Eco. I must say they are still difficult to make when players expect to play in a competitive way, but modules now help a lot. I called fully opened community workshops "Fablabs".
I just finished playing on a good server where two players were giving tours of the city to new players. They would take the new guy in their truck and show them around. My efficient barter tool repair shop, the Trojan dog monument, the hotel, the city dump and the party beach were part of this original tour where the players could ask questions about local rules and tricks to join the community.
Either cheap or free, this is a building where new players can become residents and immediately get a boost for their XP. Don't underestimate the effect of giving early on good food and XP to newcomers, especially if they are newbs who would otherwise settle at the other end of the world and eat raw food. This way, they get close, feel welcome and understand the value of investing on XP.
Of course, all these ideas require some investment, which is hard in vanilla mode but rewarding in terms of bringing people together and develop trust. Here are some solutions, but please share your ideas : I am actively seeking better ones.
In some scenarios, an admin or close friend accepts to sacrifice his currency. This is similar to a global currency in the sense that many citizens agree to switch to the player's currency for their store. The player is expected to limit buying for himself or don't use his currency at all at his store, hence the sacrifice.
The Lord's currency requires a lot of trust (and skills) but gives an equally powerful tool to the community. You can use it to fund early constructions and welcome contraptions such as the distribution station (it's store). Once a minted currency becomes available, just allow people to exchange their old credits for the new money.
The barter DIY stores described previously works very well early on with food, hewn, mortared stone, roads and carts. With a bit of creativity, bartering make excellent setups for the basic community library, and module upgraders.
The early contraptions accept wood, crops, stones, animals or even plant fibers as payment: so everyone can pay. Efficient DIY stores are very easy to set up and need little maintenance.
I used this but I don't think it would have work if I haven't met expert players on the first day. It requires again a player's currency sacrifice but not necessarily complete adhesion by every store like the Lord's currency trick. The idea is to make a town district where players settle only if they have the settling currency. For example 100 credits are required per claimed area in downtown district, up to a maximum (ex. 9). The credits are given back if the player unclaims/claim while figuring out it's exact location spot on the map.
The trick is the only store giving away these settling credits is a community store, which accepts raw resources and campfire food in order to make the community buildings. Furthermore, the store can trade back these raw resources in exchange for items found in the distribution station and contracts to build community buildings. Being resident of the district brings access to the community workshop, research and module upgrader made from the resources of the settling store. In this case, the welcome hotel would ask for the settling currency too.
This setup requires basic laws, but 2-3 dedicated players can easily set a town hall within 1 hour, 2 at most.
In this scenario, the admin quickly make a store and buy resources to make an early project (ex.: Town hall, research center and a DIY shop). Once it is done, you can vote a single use law that will record the amount of credits from the admin in a local variable from each citizen. The law then seize all the money. You may at this point add an honorific title (medal) for the players through this local variable and a demographic.
This trick allows a temporary sacrifice of the currency. If the community is good, it might last only few hours. The admin get back his currency and can use it normally once the seizing law is passed. Later, when the common currency is available, you make a law that give to each contributor an amount of currency based on their early contribution, which is the amount of credits recorded earlier in their local variable.
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