How to make a central market in Eco

So here is the central market. Every player is required to make his shop over there. Laws will prevent you from putting shop anywhere else or you'll have extra taxes.

1. What is a central market and why ?

The idea of a central market appears when an Eco player begins to see the positive impact of having stores near each other. In deed, a downtown area is a popular solution to save transport time between suppliers of manufactured items, save on roads and develop a sense of community. 

A central market is a location on the map where you can find many stores close to each other. But more importantly, players must make it a habit to exchange their resources at this location. The latter is easier said than done.

2. Some ways to make central markets

I have seen many attempts at making central markets from nothing. Here are few popular methods.

Buying lots

In this approach, an admin claims small patch of lands big enough for stores (2x2) or medium-size lands suitable for production (3x3 or 4x4 factories). Lands are then sold to players via a real estate desk. This approach is most popular for servers with cheated currency and land papers from the start. To avoid handing out too many land papers through real estate, a government store can buy land papers in exchange for the same special currency (or token) used to buy lands.

In some cases, one particularly active player may pre-build the market by adding rooms, storage and signs. 

District

As an alternative to claims, government officials can make a visual landmark: market district. This district is best drawn along with a road district. Players are simply invited to make a small store in the market district while a law prevents them to claim in the road district.

A district is useful to clearly show the intended purpose of lands. You can also use laws to prevent players from claiming too much space within the district too. For example, when claiming land, if the number of lands inside the district is over 4 (or 9), then prevent.

Laws

This approach is combined with a district. In short, the government uses laws to encourage or force players to use the central market. For example, a law gives money if a player places a store or claim in the district. The amount is taken back from the player if the store or claim is removed. Tax refund is also possible.

Laws in Eco lead to the best and the worst scenarios. I have seen leaders fail at convincing players to make central markets, so they made coercitive laws such as heavy tax for stores outside the district. Some are further down the Sim City syndrome and make it illegal to put down a store outside the market area. If your idea is that good, then you should not need to impose it.

Finally, handing out a permanent advantage to those who said yes to your idea is the same as permanent punishment for those who simply did not share your dream in the collective sandbox.

3. Natural central markets

In Eco, small clusters of stores naturally develop around spontaneous "downtown" areas. Eco clusters typically contain 3 to 5 players (more with experienced players) with different skills who interact on a regular basis. The size of the cluster depends a lot on how it was made: early organisation usually means more people in a smaller area. 

It is hard to predict where such clusters will form. I have attempted to see patterns for years in big maps with high populations (above 30 active). Obviously, areas that are easy to settle (ex.: flat) and give access to various ressources (close to many biomes) are prime location when you want many players. A lot of clusters end up near or in deserts too (iron magnet in Eco). 

However, it seems obvious to me that human factors are more important than actual map location. What seems to be the decisive factor for these natural clusters is the collaborative level of the players or what I once called Eco's secret tech tree. If you wish to make a central market and the first players getting there are ferocious competitors bent on being the top seller, your central market will never last. On the other hand, you have a good starting point with a cluster made of players who are not locked into a team and managed to claim a reasonable amount of space, have a high frequency of trade and communication, and share community projects and workshops.

In brief, markets in Eco seems to appear naturally when minimal location conditions are met and when players possess or quickly develop a sufficient level of collaboration. The cluster is further bolstered by the advantages of proximity and the bonus bestowed by a clear understanding of non-zero-sum game.

4. Problems with central markets in Eco

Since 2018, I think I have seen two successful central markets in Eco where the number of stores went above 5 in a radius of 50 meters and lasted more than 7 days (one being Guardian Gaming). However, I have seen dozens of attempts, and more.

The first problem is the project often stems from a single player who dreams of a modern, real life shopping mall. Since most players put a store at the same location as their workshop and gathering place, it is hard to convince them to spend claim papers and precious resources to make a single store elsewhere.

If you agree on a location and people are beginning to build: congratulations. Next, as the number of people in the market increases, so does competition and tensions. This game is already very sensitive to competition and individualist behaviors. The main reason is that Eco' populations are very small compared to the thousands of customers you would see in a real-life shopping mall. Note that there are ways to collaborate and lower tensions, but it is very hard for most players, especially if they strongly believe in a simplified supply/demand approach. So in practice, you rarely have more than 5 successful shops at the same location (within a 50 m radius).

Your last problem is transport and distribution of goods. Recipes become more complex with time. Unless your central market offers ample space for crafting and storage, people are not likely to accept to go back and forth between the market and their production center. Citizens far from the market will be at a serious disadvantage as well. 

5. Expert hints to make a central market from scratch

Everything can work in Eco, so I won't say it never works. But the idea of a central market akin to a shopping mall is unlikely to succeed, at least on a new server and without expert collaborators. Still, my first advice would be to communicate with other players as early as possible. If you are an admin, make it a clear objective of your server. Basically, make this project known and get support. As soon as a few players begin to move their claims to a central spot on the map, others will think about joining the adventure.

Once people are on the spot, make sure the project has a good visibility and allow other players to join easily and in a fair manner. I have seen many projects where the admin chose a weird location, claimed half the space for himself and then left scrapes for the remaining players.

While the pre-claimed lands that you sell on day 1 is a valid method, I sometimes feel like I stepped in a small box without a chance to experiment. I am very fond of shared space, joint buildings and little random parks on the corner of the street. So I would recommend a simple market district with a road district that cuts it into sections. Next, you can make a law that limits the amount of claims made by a single person in the market district. 

About space, markets with small boxes seldom work because, I think, players prefer to keep their crafting tables close. Sadly, novice players typically make huge factories and most players of Eco fail at sharing workspace (unless they are locked into a team). These two reasons make it really difficult to design dense market locations. This is one of the reasons I always end up talking about Fab Labs when I find a server I want to succeed.

How about making many central markets instead ?

I was asked about how to make central markets and I tried here. It can work. However, I invite you to drop the shopping mall's vision for Eco. The reason is typical maps in Eco are first filled with players who settle everywhere. But a few days later, small clusters of players survive. The size of the most successful clusters seem to be smaller as well. In a way, one ingredient of their success is they made a central trade area naturally.

Also, there is a tendency in Eco to aim for large projects. Hey everyone, let's all do this ! But this is hard to do, even in real life with people that know each other well. Trying to get everyone onboard is likely to lead you to disappointment. However, talking to the neighbors with whom you already traded with and suggesting small changes toward a more efficient neighborhood has better chances. Once you succeed, I bet other players will be drawn by your success.

Therefore, we may be more successful if we work on infrastructures and means to support several small downtown areas on the map rather than a big single one. I believe this approach is also useful to reduce competition among players with the same crafting skill since each cluster can then have it's own set of specialists.