Each component of this town model is rooted in three core principles for Eco. Here is a summary:

This principle has roots in the psychology concepts of motivation and engagement. In short, a town must be a fun place where players develop a sense of belonging and trust. Giving them goals, responsibilities and control goes a long way.

This principles is linked to another psychology concept called positive interdependence. While you can make a game where everyone does their own base alone (individualist), Eco is more fun when they are links between players (interdependence). However, too many servers suffer from cases of negative interdependence, which is when someone wins at the expense of others. An engineer attempting to make a furtune with overpriced steam trucks is a common example.

Therefore, positive interdependence is reached when the success of a player in a given project is only possible if other players succeed too. Sharing a home is a good example: for my house bonus to rise, the house bonus of my partner must rise too. Therefore the fate of partners is of great interest, which naturally brings support and caring.

This principle is mandatory for any collaborative project in Eco and in the real life. The simple idea of making a town brings so many decisions and options that settlements fail before they are even build. To collaborate, you need an efficient way to share goals and decide which one you want to pursue together. Simple and fair mechanisms that allow your citizens to contribute are essential too.

Putting these principles together, you probably see where this model is going. The dream town is made of components (often buildings) with clear goals and means to contribute. Citizens get benefits from these components if others benefit too. Lastly, spreading management tasks of these components between citizens gives them each a purpose and more control over an aspect of their town.

Back in the days when towns, countries and federations were not part of this game, there was still a grouping pattern of players on maps.

Indeed, players gathered in clusters of about 3-5 players, which was roughly the number of players required at medium settings to win the game (with a bit of outside help). Going above this range is possible, of course, but requires an increasing amount of collaborative skills and energy. Collaboration is very hard in online and asynchronous contexts too. Basically, I suggest you discuss with some players to form a group of about 5 persons. Finding partners is ideally done during session 0 before the game begins.

This is not a guide about the way to simcity a town, but please note this model propose buildings your players will want to be close too. Make sure they are located in a central area.

A research centre is a location with a government store and at least two research tables. One belongs to the leader in charge, the other is public. Later on, you can replace the private one for a laboratory. The store buys and sells research papers at the same price. It also sells scrolls.

One player is in charge of this store and set research priorities according to a clear plan (much of it discussed during session 0). This player is also in a unique position to monitor technological progress in your town to avoid common pitfalls like production rush without upgrade modules and parallel research.

One can do a lot of good with a research centre by providing opportunities to make money, subsidise costly books and even making deals with other towns to further speed the research efforts.

As with other components, this one requires mastery of work parties to work to it's full potential.

Note the research table is the most costly early crafting station of the game and is useful for all players. This alone warrants an effort to share it. Next, research is a major source of waste (parallel research), competition and unequality. High quality servers like "Le Village" before V.11 even had server-wide rules to prevent private research.

The presence of a research station remains a strong indicator of server's success.

This is a building with a lot of storage. A store buys and sell basic resources at the same price (ex.: wood, ore, stones). This project is a perfect opportunity to discuss the price of basic resources and agree on minimal prices to avoid dumping and exploitation. You may also add a few crafted items to the store, especially those required for public projects.

🚫 Resist the temptation of making a general store with every item in the game: it is very hard to sustain and removes the fun of trading on our own.

Early on, this component helps distribute money and act as a reference for prices, especially for new players. It is also a great way to help those who struggle with storage space. Later, these resources can be used to reduce the effects of shortages and accelerate projects.

The player responsible for this component is in a key position to notice the first signs of shortage, influence prices and make deals with other towns.

The urban planning component is about a person rather than a building. This leader gather ideas from different players and bring them into a single vision. Once everyone agrees with the objective of a project, contracts and buy orders are made to clearly show how to contribute.

The early work of this person can have a huge impact on the game by choosing efficient road paths and protecting vital growth areas. This is easily done with districts and laws. Next they can work with other players to give them the task of making buildings and roads.

⚠️I cannot stress enough the importance of delegating work here. Otherwise, this leader becomes a community leech : always making nice buildings using free items from the government stockpiles.

The office of this player is likely the central resource hub or some location where they can buy the materials required for projects. They are also good with doodling pictures and sharing them with other players to reach consensus.

Later projects includes city-wide mechanic power, aqueduct and electricity generation. I have seen urban planner work on seaports infrastructure too.

🥰 My personal favourite and the first co-op building I made in 2018 with a total stranger.

This component is a building that offers a small number of crafting tables (or more if you go full socialist). The tables are open to all the citizens (free with a fee for fuel). Next, a large parking lot allows players to bring their carts for storage space.

The general idea here is not to prevent your citizens from having their own workshop, but to provide strategic tools for a lean production infrastructure. I have seen it do wonders with competing mechanics: the fablab offered a project for them to work together. It is also a major help to new players who arrive later and players who struggle.

Unless a player is a novice aiming for monopoly, they seldom use their crafting tables all the time. In fact, some tables operate only in short burst and can easily be shared. Others offer very specific items (ex.: seeds for decoration, specific colour tone for furniture) and are perfect candidate for work party contracts. Finally, some tables are in very high demand for short periods and the fablab is a central space to put them (ex.: carpentry for hewn logs).

The potential of a fablab is much higher when citizens master the use of work parties. Bonus points when your citizens reach the expert stage and open their private crafting tables too.

Lastly, a fablab is the perfect spot to add mechanic power generation for the town. You may put it next to a waterfall or simply add a tall wind tower on top of it.

The last of the buildings, but perhaps the most iconic one for positive interdependence is the community hotel. The idea is to make a single location where citizens can (not mandatory) become resident. The players who join this project can still use their creativity to (re)make the building at each era.

🥰 Imagine a place where new players can find a home and become active citizens instantly instead of wasting their first day(s).

The player in charge can make a list of materials needed and make sure to spread labour evenly (ex.: in case you have two carpenters or two masons). The rush for housing points often create shortages and this house funnels the resources in a way that everyone gets partial points for a rapidly growing house instead of getting no points with scattered unfinished houses everywhere.

The community house is a great solution to the novice wood mansions on day 1 where a single player makes a huge house without using upgrade modules and prevents players nearby to make their own. Here, players can prioritize upgrade modules in the fablab and get a house at half the cost. Not to mention the savings on materials when grouping rooms.

✏️ I wrote a full guide about this, but here is a shorter version to complete the list of components for a dream town.

The last and most crucial component of all is the money cycle. These buildings are likely to require money to build, improve and maintain. Subsidising research is also costly. Like in real life, the more projects you wish to make, the more tax you need to raise. This is why, as a community, you need to discuss which component you want to make for your town and their relative size/cost. I personally aim for cheap versions of all, then improve.

A simple trick I use to create a money cycle is to pick the currency of the first mayor/mayoress, then adopt it as if it was minted currency (Chief's currency trick). If wood logs cost 1 credit, I make a starting pool of about 2000 credits per player. Next, I make a store that buys the materials needed to build the town hall. This trick has a problem: one player has unlimited funds. But there are creative solutions to try here.

Once the town is officially made and has all the government tables, I add a progressive taxation law which is also a powerful balancing tool for social and economic equity. This law annoyed and deterred every single competitive players I met. In times of overenthusiastic trading, this law acted as a signal to tell me I wasn't creating enough opportunities at my store for my neighbours. Other potential sources of income come from rent (Community hotel), personal storage (private stockpile under the fablab or chest at the research station), power usage (tax on crafting with specific tables).

Make sure your town reach a steady balance between getting money and spending it. Don't put too much or too few credits in circulation either (this is hard). Some mayors behave as if the treasury is a high score to beat while their citizens eat charred tomatoes and other mayors spend so much on different projects that not a single one works.

🥰 I like how this primitive economy with a role-play twist (using chief's credits) has the potential to bring trust and speed up early projects. Later in the game, the introduction of a minted currency is the perfect time to re-discuss the price of basic resources, mess with the bank system, etc.

This six component model for a town had it's share of success for many years now. While some components changed, the core principles did not.

Please consider with your players which component you want to try and their order of priority. Also consider making a slightly bigger town hall[sites.google.com] at first and install the research centre, stockpiles in the basement and a small room big enough for 4 crafting tables. This gives you 3 components right away.

When applying this model, make sure you remember that this is a game: over seriousness and complexity defeats the purpose. Still, component leaders (or ministers) need to understand they have a responsibility to serve the group and not themselves.

So perhaps, the seventh and most important component is you and your players, because this dream model is made for a collaborative game. Players looking for a competitive or individualist scenario could seek the lock and load model instead.

I am a player of Eco since 2018 and evolved in a variety on contexts: competitive, collaborative, communist (weird label), heavily modded, etc. I now only settle on vanilla worlds with medium settings and heavy emphasis on collaboration. I am a professional in the field of collaborative learning and a bit less novice everyday in quality management and writing in English.