The importance of crafting tools is obvious to new players of Eco. Understanding all the benefits of a good house may take a while, but is compensated by a novice stage later where players pick carpentry first and rush to make a big 40+ XP house at day 1. In all cases, making your house and workshop in Eco is fun. This is where you can be creative and take up challenges such as learning the intricate furniture system or discovering too late that your new machine requires water pipes to work.

However, the main problem with houses and workshops is the sheer amount of resources needed to make them. Rushing to make a wood mansion destroys whole forests, which then prevent players from settling close and reach the minimal population density. A lot of time is required to get all the items from different players. Finally, there is a plague on Eco servers where afflicted players will try to convince you furniture should be sold twice their value "because I won't sell much" (what would be Eco without drama).

It adds up to a lot of effort and time when each player attempts to make these projects alone.

The thing is, there are other options to try.

Theories about interdependence guide a lot of my decisions in Eco. In short, I can choose to:

• Win at the expense of others (negative interdependence): adopting a competitive stance, hoarding, dumping, high profit margins, being a furniture provider (ok, ok, last time).
  
  
• Win alone (individualism): the basic stance in Eco where you do your things alone with minimal exchanges (do your "job" kid and give me food so I can do the rest).
  
  
• Adopt a structure where my win is only possible when others win too (positive interdependence or collaboration).

The cooperative nature of skills and the asteroid in Eco clearly show negative interdependence is never a good approach if we aim for a healthy server.

For the remaining approaches, I like to see individualism and positive interdependence as two extremes of a slider. Individualism is the basic stage. Moving away from this means choosing options with more positive interdependence. But doing so also means some level of sharing and being dependent on the actions of others. In other words, you no longer control the project.



So the following options start at the left side of the slider and go towards the right.

• Option 1: Build alone
  
• Option 2: Find a friend and share together
  
• Option 3: Rent your house and workshop
  
• Option 4: Make a community house and fablab

Making things alone is a natural option in the sense that it brings you the most control over a project and doesn't require to trust any of the weird people jumping everywhere. This is especially useful when you begin the game and need a safe space to learn.

Making a big base with a friend is an easy way to try option 2. But you can also just share a workshop or a house with a stranger too: discuss a design and then propose to bring half of the material. This is a good way to know your neighbours' attitude before you reach technological eras with much higher stakes.

Perhaps the best of option 2 is to unlock the advantages of sharing and save resources (think of sharing as a secret technology to discover). For instance, I use a 45 XP layer design for my house and save roughly 20% of the cost for each floor I add above the first (template available in my playbook[sites.google.com]). I spread the total cost equally between each player, so the more I share, the more I save.

Becoming the resident of a big house increases your XP multiplier immediately and leave you time to focus on other projects. For workshops, each table needs authorisation and the owner can add a small fee for usage. Making structures available this way is a perfect solution to welcome late players, especially when the server lacks a crucial skill and you want them to focus as soon as possible on what is missing.

- Honestly, how often does your research table stays idle ? Make it available please.
- No, it's my preciousssss.

About renting and usage fee, it is risky to fall on the competitive side. There is often value (ex.: crafting points) in making a big project. Renting a house or opening your workshop brings some trust and can help get more support in the future. Basically, make sure money is not the only value to compute when determining the price. For my 45 XP house layer design, I usually calculate the total cost of the building and divide it by the number of resident over the scale of 7 to 10 days (until upgrading). The resulting rent is about 90 wood logs per day or lower.

Community-level projects is the most advanced option. This is where a town invests in the project and launch contracts to build it. If you combine a house for everyone in town with a wealth tax, there is not need to put a rent (wealth tax available in my playbook[sites.google.com]). Community workshops gives something very similar to real life fablabs[fablab.org] and are open to all citizens. You may still add a usage fee per minute to account for fuel and repairs.

Interestingly, it is possible to add architecture points to the land where you join as resident. In addition, a single community house next to a town hall makes it easy for visitors to leave their points compared to scattered locations all around town.

Saving resources and land when you share a house or workshop is great. What comes next is then more wood around, more space for people close, reduced loss of time when making exchanges, making it easy to save prime growth locations, less roads needed, etc. Basically, options 2 to 4 can lead to a cascade of small benefits that make a significant global difference.

Positive interdependence require a certain level of trust, but this is by far the "thing" with the most value in this game. Also the structure "win only when others win too" means people now have a practical reason to care. I don't want the owner of my house or workshop to leave and they don't want me to leave the game too.

Adding industrial items on your lawn erase the outdoor bonus of the house. Sharing a house or a workshop is a solution to split land usage and fix this problem.

Similar to the windmill problem, having a community house for all citizens means they can now switch their land to culture if needed.

The answer is no if you want to gain all the advantages that the sharing options offer. However, you loose total control over your projects once you share.

The balance between the benefits of positive interdependence and loss of control is something you have to find for yourself. The answer lies in the position that you feel the most comfortable with the players currently on your server.

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.