February 2018

Continuing in Eco with the Combat Wombats

stargrace February 28, 2018 No Comments

The Combat Wombats have set up a dedicated Eco server, we even have a group on steam for those on-server so we can post important announcements and server changes. Scopique has been adding a few mods to the server and even working on some projects of his own that will hopefully improve the quality of life as time goes on. Meanwhile, we haven’t destroyed the planet too much, yet. I think a lot of that is due to the dedication of Arkenor, who has created a sanctuary for our rice fields along with a doomsday bank of all types of seeds. He also repopulated the trees that we all cut down our first day. Having a player like this on your Eco server is incredibly fortuitous and I hope he knows how much he is appreciated.

It’s not just Arkenor though that makes this server a place where we can live for days to come. There’s Moumix who built roads so we can stop trampling the grounds, Scopique who built a kiln and created our town hall (which is amazing, might I add), arislyn who is a cooking fiend and tries to fill all of our stomachs with delicious foods, Hampooj the tailor who outfitted me with an awesome backpack that reduces my calories spent, CakedCrusader who is a jack of all trades and helps out by placing a lot of contracts for bits and bobs, and of course the rest of our Eco players who provide in their own ways, Werit, Phoenix, and Stropp. I believe we have one or two others who haven’t made it onto the server yet but who do plan on playing. If you’re interested, drop one of the core Combat Wombats a message (myself, Scopique, or Arislyn) and we’ll see about getting you set up.

Someone asked in discord today if the game had staying power – well, it IS in early access, so there’s some features missing and it’s not as robust a game as I hope it will become over time, but there’s still a lot to do and I’m enjoying myself quite a bit. Of course it’s only the first week and we’ll have to see how things go as time goes on, but I think it has incredible potential and I’m happy to hang in there while it progresses.

That being said – yesterday I FINALLY researched my lumber book, one of the final books I need to specialize down the carpenter line. It will cost me 50(!) points to train so I’m working on stocking up my store, making my house more of a home, and filling out contract requests while I wait for those points to tick. I have 32 of them right now so I’ll probably get it either late today, or early tomorrow, depending. I also picked up tailoring, which means I can make some pretty items for my home. The more specialties you select the more costly they become, so we’ll see what I end up with.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

A Day of Eco

stargrace February 25, 2018 No Comments

Yesterday (no surprise) I spent most of my time in Eco, along with my husband and some friends. We’ve picked some crafting paths to go down so that we can get a bit of everything, and unfortunately for me, I went carpenter because I had no idea what I was doing. I say unfortunately because this is one path that uses a lot of trees, and I feel like I’m hurting the ecosystem much more than I would like. I am trying to pick trees that need to be thinned out and not absolutely destroy an entire forest by reducing my resources and increases my yields, but all of that takes skill points, and skill points take time. You can increase the amount of skills you gain daily by eating better food, and by having a fancy home. I’m working on both of those, but it’s very slow paced. Slow isn’t a bad thing in this case, it gives me time to learn the game and get used to everything.

I’ve progressed from making logs for houses to making latrines and iceboxes, along tables, chairs, and beds. Scopique is doing masonry, Arislyn is doing farming & cooking, and Hampooj is doing hunting which includes butcher and I believe he may also take up tailoring. There’s still a lot of skills we don’t have, like engineering, but I know we’ll get there.

The game is pretty complex and involved – a lot more than I initially thought. It is still in early access so not everything is working as it should at release (like laws and government) but I have come across only a small handful of minor bugs and nothing major. Every so often my carpenter table will tell me it’s not in a house any longer even though I haven’t changed anything, but I can pick it up and place it down again without any issues which solves the bug.

Now that we have a dedicated server set up, we’re also keen to see if anyone else is interested in playing with us. We’d like to stick to people we know for now as we’re just getting established, so if you’re interested be sure to drop one of us a ping and we’ll see what we can do. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Lets Save the World

stargrace February 24, 2018 1 Comment

Browsing through steam yesterday I noticed a game called “Eco” that had entered early access a few days earlier. Initially it was the bright and colourful graphics that caught my eye, then I watched the video which was pretty simplistic, but it seemed to be a game that was a combination of minecraft and wurm online, two games I enjoy a huge amount.

There’s single player, co-op, and multiplayer. The premises of the game is that a meteor is going to crash into the world (the timing of which you can control in settings) and your goal is to save the world – and develop your civilization far enough along that you can destroy the meteor, and also keep the ecosystem of the planet intact. You start out building rustic wooden houses and progress to factories and machines, I think in one video I even saw lasers taking down the meteor.

Everything you do has an impact on the ecosystem. Even where I’m building my single wooden house is already changing, the animals, the ground, the plants surrounding the area. I’m not very far into things yet, but I’m hoping other members of the combat wombat team get together and we get a server going where we can work as a team to save the planet. There’s crafting, harvesting, farming, building, hunting, and everything that makes these games a lot of fun for me. Character creation is lacking, but the game is also in early access. I didn’t run into any major bugs in my first round of game play, but to be honest all I’ve done so far is pick some tomato plants and chop a few trees, setting up the basics to my brand new house.

That being said, if these types of games appeal to you, I’d highly suggest checking it out. You can always refund the game on steam if it’s not your cup of tea, but I’m hoping this is one we all decide to stick with for some time. We’ll just have to see!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you fund yourself (oh, and expect a lot more Eco posts in the future. The game is complex. There’s government, shops, currency, and so much more to it that I haven’t even mentioned).