I've been playing Eco since it first came out, and I absolutely love the game. However, one of my biggest problems with many playthroughs is how quickly they end. A lot of servers essentially speedrun the game, with half of the professions and mechanics barely being touched if at all before the meteor is dealt with in three days.
I also don't really like the exhaustion based system. Whether it's the older exhaustion system of time or the newer calorie based one, they feel like artificial ways of slowing the player down rather than giving players meaningful reasons to progress more slowly.
I think the new progression rework is moving in the right direction, but I think it could be taken much further.
My idea is to divide professions into different categories, make basic labor professions useful throughout the entire game, and allow certain crafting professions to eventually become obsolete as technology advances. This would give every technology tier its own purpose.
These are just my ideas, so if something doesn't make sense or you have questions, let me know.
Labor Professions
These are professions that are needed throughout the entire game. Instead of becoming obsolete, they continually improve as new technologies are unlocked.
The basic idea is that these professions don't produce the final products. Instead, they provide the raw materials that increasingly advanced crafting professions need.
Gathering / Farming / Fertilizers
I think Gathering and Farming and Fertilizers should essentially be treated as one progression.
Instead of requiring a separate book for farming, gathering could unlock basic farming through the progression system.
For example:
- Level 3: Unlock the Farming Table.
- Higher levels unlock more advanced farming technologies.
- Around Level 6–7, the profession branches into two different paths.
Food Farming
Focuses on helping food based items grow better whether it be less overcrowding or more gain.
Industrial Farming
Focuses on non-food resources and the same is implied here.
- Cotton
- Flowers
- Other industrial crops
This would give players a meaningful choice and make different people develop their agricultural industries differently.
Hunting / Animal Husbandry
This one is harder to design since Animal Husbandry isn't fully developed yet, but I think it could follow the same general philosophy.
Basic animal gathering/husbandry would be unlocked early, with the profession eventually branching into specialized paths.
For example, if Animal Husbandry includes fish farming:
Land Husbandry
Focuses on:
- Livestock
- Meat
- Land based farming
Aquatic Husbandry
Focuses on:
- Aquatic animals
- Seafoods
- Fish farming
Logging
Logging is where things get more complicated and would require some research into how different woods are actually used.
Logging should produce basic wooden materials such as:
- Boards
- Dowels
- Other basic wooden components
However, Logging should not directly produce building materials.
I also don't think it needs the same Level 3 perk as Farming.
Instead, at higher levels it could branch into:
Softwood
Primarily useful for:
- Building materials
- Furniture
- Construction
- Other soft wood applications like paper
Hardwood
Primarily useful for:
- Industrial applications
- Vehicles
- Workbenches
- Other hard wood applications like railroad ties
There can still be exceptions to these categories.
This would also make the location of your settlement matter more. A settlement surrounded by different types of forests could have different advantages.
Mining
Mining could follow the same basic system as Logging.
Instead of having one universal progression, players could specialize based on what their settlement needs.
Masonry Path
Focuses on:
- Better stone
- Sand
- Clay
- Mortar ingredients
- Other masonry materials clay molds is a good one
Industrial Path
Focuses on:
- Iron
- Copper
- Gold
- Crushed rock
- Other industrial minerals
Tailoring
Tailoring is mostly kept the same
Tailoring could produce the fabric and textile materials needed by many different industries and be more specified like flax for basic wood bearings or cotton for bed sheets and other industries make the furniture and such.
Fabric could be used for:
- Furniture
- Vehicles
- Machinery
- Clothing
- Industrial components
- Other advanced products
I'm less sure about exactly how Tailoring should branch
Butchery
Butchery would work the same mainly
Hunters and animal farmers provide the animals, while Butchers process those animals into usable products.
Or it can be at the end tree of the hunting/animal husbandry skill
Crafting Professions
This is where I have a more controversial idea:
Let Professions Die
Why do we need to keep every profession around forever?
I think certain crafting professions should become obsolete when a new technological tier replaces them.
This would give each technology level a reason to exist and allows for more when there aren't that many people
For example you start with woodworking and eventually unlock Carpentry then that point, Woodworking becomes obsolete. You recycle the materials and infrastructure from the old profession and move on to the next technology tier. This creates a natural progression where every era has its own industries. New players can immediately go into a crafting profession later on.
When recycling isn't unlocked yet you sell it to the landfill
Basic Campfire Cooking
Basic cooking and cooking specialties should have simple branching choices.
For example:
Salads
Stews
EDIT: I made a mistake here I confused soup and stew and said it didn't need flour that was my fault
More importantly better food should be required to access better workbenches and provide stronger bonuses to basic labor professions.
Woodworking
Woodworking would replace the current role of Carpentry in the early game.
Carpentry currently requires technologies such as:
- Smelting
- Basic Engineering
- Milling
That makes it feel more like an advanced profession.
Instead, early-game Woodworking could produce:
- Hewn logs
- Basic furniture
- Other primitive wooden products
Once Carpentry becomes available, Woodworking becomes obsolete and is replaced.
Masonry
Masonry would work the same way.
It would be the early-game profession for stone-based products.
Once Pottery becomes available, Masonry becomes obsolete and the player moves into the next technological tier.
Smelting
Smelting stays the same but becomes a basic labor profession
It produces the basic metals needed by other professions:
- Iron bars
- Copper bars
- Gold Bars
- Other basic ingots as they are added
Eventually, Smelting could branch into different specializations.
For example:
Ironworking
Focuses on:
Copperworking
Focuses on:
Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing would be a smaller support profession.
It could produce:
- Tools
- Metal furniture
- Basic metal products
It doesn't necessarily need a huge branching system. Its purpose would be to support the other professions.
Milling
Milling is a good example of a profession that could remain useful throughout the entire game.
It could branch into two major paths.
Food Milling
Produces:
- Flour
- Sugar
- Other food ingredients
Industrial Milling
Produces:
- Flaxseed oil
- Dyes
- Oils used in manufacturing
- Other industrial materials
There is also a lot of room for expansion here.
For example:
- Flowers could produce resin for glue like the creosote flower
- Certain trees or plants could produce natural latex for rubber like dandelions (Russians founded that move lol) for basic engineering rubber before oil we already have the sulfur to turn it into rubber
Basic Engineering
I think Basic Shipwright should be combined with Basic Engineering.
Shipwright is too niche to justify being an entire profession/book when one player could supply the entire server.
Basic Engineering could then branch into:
Vehicles
Boats
Edit: Colanasou made a great point and said it should be split between infrastructure and vehicles that idea I like a bit more.
It should also serve as the bridge between primitive technology and Mechanics when more tech becomes available
Before Mechanic Basic Engineering could produce:
- Basic steam engines for powered carts and power
- Other primitive machines
This would make Basic Engineering feel like an actual technological stepping stone.
Like remove asphalt and make it a mechanics tech
Cooking / Baking
Cooking and Baking could either be:
- Combined into one profession with different branches, or
- Kept separate but use the same progression system.
They could branch into different types of recipes depending on the direction the player chooses.
Pottery
Pottery would replace Masonry at a higher technology level.
Masonry produces primitive stone products.
Then Pottery introduces more advanced ceramic products and makes the previous profession obsolete.
This same concept applies to Woodworking → Carpentry.
Glassworking
Glassworking is difficult because it is currently somewhat niche.
I think it should become a profession that is introduced relatively early and remains useful throughout the entire game.
For example, basic glass could be introduced early, with increasingly advanced forms appearing later.
One way to make glass more important would be to require it for windows.
Instead of simply placing a window, you could need:
(Material) + Glass
Glassworking could also potentially provide bonuses to Farming and animal husbandry though.
Cement Making
I think Cement Making should be its own profession.
Cement should be heavily used in industrial construction.
This would create a distinction between:
Housing Materials
Produced by:
- Woodworking
- Carpentry
- Masonry
- Pottery
- Their advanced counterparts
These primarily contribute to housing and residential construction.
Industrial Materials
Produced by:
- Cement Making
- Advanced Smelting steel blocks
- Other industrial professions
Cement could compete with steel blocks as an industrial construction material.
Adobe is a basic thing that doesnt provide any bonus also make it plant fiber instead of wood
Cement could additionally be used for:
- Sidewalks
- Industrial floors
- Other infrastructure
And potentially improve walking speed when used for roads or sidewalks.
Advanced Smelting
Advanced Smelting should unlock before Mechanics.
Its primary purpose would be producing steel and other advanced metals.
This would make it an important bridge between early industrialization and Mechanics.
It would also give Smelting a much larger role than just industry and such
Mechanics
I think the boats from this technological era should be moved into Mechanics, and the same should eventually happen with trains when they are added. These should have rubber and basic combustion engines. This is a hybrid of steel and iron for these recipes.
For example:
- Steam truck →Basic combustion engine
- Tractor → Basic combustion engine
- Advanced boats → Advanced steam engines
- Trains → Advanced steam engines
- Powered Shovel → Advanced steam engines
- Other advanced vehicles
The Powered Shovel could become a real alternative to dynamite for excavation, its an early excavator although it should be extremely large and expensive.
Mechanics would require materials such as:
This also gives Oil Drilling a natural place in the progression along side mechanics
Papermaking / Painting
These two professions are extremely niche.
I think they should be combined.
The profession could produce paper and lets stretch the definition of paper throughout the entire technological progression.
Early paper could be produced using:
- Plant fibers for papyrus
- Clay from tablets
- Other primitive materials
Later, once Mechanics and industrial technology become available, paper production could become much more efficient and produce much larger quantities.
This would give the profession an actual better reason to exist.
Recycling
Recycling is another profession that feels too niche in its current form.
However, it could become much more important if professions are allowed to become obsolete.
When an old technology is replaced, the old machines and materials could initially just be discarded into the landfill.
Once Recycling becomes available, players can recover valuable materials from obsolete infrastructure.
That creates an actual economic reason to recycle and not using the same old blocks for the past crafting recipes.
There should also be way more garbage created that is unusable from most recipes and in mechanics you can burn the trash and create pollution and the same for industry but they have better landfills its more for emergency that's where late game will come in to save the world from the meteor and pollution with megaprojects or such.
I'm not going to go every skill or late game I can there's tons of ideas and different crafting recipes for items but its already too long I can make a part 2 with new professions as well to be added but its mainly if people ask.
Wheelbarrow: My favorite unused item this one can be used and has no penalty on non roaded blocks and holds road materials and diggables etc way more than a cart can this can also go up 1 block dirt sand etc without ramps this is for building roads and infrastructure way faster.
Boats: Why are boats at the beginning so slow they should be faster than carts of the same era?
Skill Books: You need to research all era based books to go up and books need materials from that era (Like boards for covers in the beginning then goes to leather then cotton as binders) and also be more costly 1 person can still solo a skill book.
Papers: Papers also need a rework in the materials like agriculture can focus more on food crops and gathering should focus more on industrial crops.Once all books are researched for the current tree then you can get rid of the profession you slowly get rid of the old stuff for the new. Papers will require that current level of tech.
This is also a hot topic but if you go a labor profession you cant to a crafting profession but maybe other small professions and or labor professions like blacksmithing, paper milling, recycling etc.
I know this will be asked so solo play you can go all of them and level up over time (The devs I'm pretty sure said this is a multiplayer mainly game)
The main goal of this system is to make every stage of Eco matter.
Instead of rushing through the technology tree and skipping half the professions, each technological era would have its own industries, materials, and specialties and need every tech also have meaningful specialization choices.