The future of ECO

Originally posted by Astral: You know what I find funny in the market, the official servers seem to not allow their own skins.
Which makes you think why am I paying for something that only works on custom servers?
At least that's my experience in SLG-Giant Panda.

Just as with all other settings, the official servers aim to provide a basic variety of different options for marketplace settings so players can choose on their own what they prefer. Here's an overview:

Coast Redwood: Marketplace enabled, Trading Marketplace items enabled, Using Marketplace items without owning them enabled
Dusky Robin: Marketplace enabled, Trading Marketplace items disabled, Using Marketplace items without owning them disabled
Dusky Robin: Marketplace disabled, Trading Marketplace items disabled, Using Marketplace items without owning them disabled
Sea Otter: Marketplace enabled, Trading Marketplace items disabled, Using Marketplace items without owning them disabled
White Tiger: Marketplace enabled, Trading Marketplace items disabled, Using Marketplace items without owning them enabled

Originally posted by Py_Thony: constructions authorized on the high seas

This should not be the case. There is a config option that can be enabled to allow this, intended for servers that prefer the pre-boat experience, but that isn't enabled by default. Maybe you are playing on a server that has this option enabled?

Originally posted by Py_Thony: But as of version 10 there have been no changes regarding the role of water in the ecosystem or related to overall terraforming.

You can vote on water physics and (suggest) other features you'd like to see on https://feedback.play.eco. There is also one for elevator stops. Unfortunately neither are currently planned.

Originally posted by Cain: still no trains years later insane

Trains have always been communicated to be very unlikely to be added during Early Access. They are still up for vote and planned for some time after the release: https://eco.canny.io/admin/feedback/feature-suggestions/p/trains

Originally posted by Afrozzi: But years ago there already was already a vote presented to early backers to decide the most desired features, with trains presented as an option. Trains won. Was that completely ignored or just forgotten?

That was a poll to gauge player interest for internal purposes at a early development stage about different, already planned features and did not in any way decide order of development nor was intended to do so - the feature scope was already determined, the poll helped us with internal decision making. When looking at implementation of different items from that poll you will notice that they have been all implemented out of order in a way we deemed fitting for the needs of the game, taking care about different interests to keep a balance about the different design goals of the game. Eco wouldn't work at all with just boats and trains, but no economic features that were voted rather low.

It is why I noted that trains are still a planned feature (in opposite to other features on the suggestion tracker, which also has the purpose to gauge interest but does not mean any specific feature will be implemented at all or next; even though we intend to implement most of the top-voted suggestions at some point) - already back then it was communicated that trains are unlikely to happen in Early Access by my predecessors, and by me since 2018. The desire for trains is understandable, but they are a major feature that requires notable changes to the gameplay to be of actual value to the gameplay, as the mass transportation they were intended for is currently simply not necessary. (If talking about actual trains as on the top of the list back then, not minecarts)

Originally posted by Afrozzi: Then there was the interactive road map, "Eco Tree" that existed for years. That was removed because of a "bug" with the introduction of the new microtransactions back-end system. We were told it would be back soon, whatever happened to that?

That is still coming back, but as mentioned before has low priority compared to other tasks our web developer needs to handle first.

Originally posted by Afrozzi: Mostly recently we were told that full release would come late 2024/early 2025. Is that still the plan?

Yes, though I already communicated last year that the exact date is unlikely to be possible to hold. There is however only few (~ 2-3) minor updates missing before the final major one that introduces Animal Husbandry.