@FishW
I've seen this thread yesterday. What does it proof after all?

With all these emeralds they could easily take over most trades, buy books and stuff from players and trade them at higher price. The thing is: no one will pay.

I don't even know why I'm complaining here about how on the edge of the cliff our 'economy' is, after all, it's vanilla! Not a government ruled society...

I dont think you fully understand what inflation is, nor what it does. Adding something [emeralds] into corculation decreases its value. Once inflation reached a certain point, the item becomes nearly valueless [dirt]. Inorder to preserve the value of certain items [diamonds and emeralde] need to either be limited in quantity, or have trades be more costly. If actions are not taken appropriately, those items will become severly unimportant. And seeing this , i fear inflation may already be affecting emeralds.

Inflation has affected Emeralds vastly that is a clear to see fact, I am more concerned with diamond inflation given the Emerald to diamond trade.
In Vanilla minecraft, resources will always become less scarce the longer the map exists as the rate of production outweighs the rate of destruction but it's happened particularly fast in 1.9 so we have locked the trades pending review.

@R4iscool1 Gold had value in 1.8 because Gapples, it's pointless to own lots of gold here now since you can't craft them anymore.

Crapples and pots are still very useful. Gold is very expensive from the spawn villagers. Maybe i don't mine enough(ever).

@bSan420 It has happened.

Every day there is less people willing to trade emeralds. Diamonds seem to have become players's most used currency, which makes them pretty much unvaluable, as we can't do much with them.

We need more emeralds circulating at server... the logic is easy

More emeralds = more trades
More trades = better items
Better items = easier success
Easier success = more bases/life and possibilities on wilderness

Emeralds are very easy to make. First you start with farming. Then you need..... CRAPPLES AND POTS!!!
Make yourself some villagers.

#thegoldstandard

Let me bring in my own opinion.
Yes, it's true that there is an emerald inlflation. We once had a giant semi-auto carrot farm located at the Citadel. When replanted, 1 full harvest was still worth more then 3 stacks of emeralds at spawn, about 1 stack of diamonds when exchanged at the jeweler.
But just limiting the traders can not be the solution for that problem. It totaly destroys that what we used to call the "server economy", since now it happens that sb just traded at spawn until the trader blocked, giving the rest of the server no chance to trade a single emerald. Also, at least the jeweler's diamond/emerald trade should be limitless, since this is the only thing that gives emeralds a real value.
If we want to fight inflation, then we should just increase the exchange rates of several items. Yet, 48 carrots are worth 1 diamond, which makes them very lucrative. If we would increase it to, for example 48 carrots for 1 emerald, people would be less likely to use them, and would tend to use their own limited traders.

There are vanilla villagers that trade at the same rate. You would only be hurting people without access. That is actually how 1.8 was now that i think about it.

@jdakandeek There are vanilla villagers that trade at the same rate. You would only be hurting people without access. That is actually how 1.8 was now that i think about it.

What I want to say is, before the traders were blocked, there was no use having your own traders, since you could sell your stuff at spawn for a better price and in bulk. But if you change the exchange rate, making it less lucrative, but letting the traders unlimited, people would have to decide, wether they use their own limited villagers or sell their stuff in bulk at spawn, but for a bad price.
And seriously, getting your own villagers is really easy.

@jdakandeek Crapples and pots are still very useful. Gold is very expensive from the spawn villagers. Maybe i don't mine enough(ever).

They are Okay but nothing compared to what a proper Gapple and there is a lot less required to make those things too.

@Sofatroll Let me bring in my own opinion.
Yes, it's true that there is an emerald inlflation. We once had a giant semi-auto carrot farm located at the Citadel. When replanted, 1 full harvest was still worth more then 3 stacks of emeralds at spawn, about 1 stack of diamonds when exchanged at the jeweler.
But just limiting the traders can not be the solution for that problem. It totaly destroys that what we used to call the "server economy", since now it happens that sb just traded at spawn until the trader blocked, giving the rest of the server no chance to trade a single emerald. Also, at least the jeweler's diamond/emerald trade should be limitless, since this is the only thing that gives emeralds a real value.
If we want to fight inflation, then we should just increase the exchange rates of several items. Yet, 48 carrots are worth 1 diamond, which makes them very lucrative. If we would increase it to, for example 48 carrots for 1 emerald, people would be less likely to use them, and would tend to use their own limited traders.

We are considering this however the trades will stay locked until we make our decisions and deliberate over what to do possibly past this.
Emeralds are supposed to have value from natural villager trades, we are under no obligation to make it worthwhile for players.

@Sofatroll What I want to say is, before the traders were blocked, there was no use having your own traders, since you could sell your stuff at spawn for a better price and in bulk. But if you change the exchange rate, making it less lucrative, but letting the traders unlimited, people would have to decide, wether they use their own limited villagers or sell their stuff in bulk at spawn, but for a bad price.
And seriously, getting your own villagers is really easy.

Or we could just make them use their own villagers altogether, providing a more survival experience ?

Roughly speaking, comparing that "economy" I hope we can achieve here, with a real economy, the trades at spawn are like exportations. You sell them carrots and they give you emeralds to improve the way you work and get them even more carrots. (again in my shit opinion)
More emeralds = more books we can buy and sell
In that way everyone has an better/equal chance to advance in game.

Now think about Vanilla without villagers at all.

I don't know why I'm arguing for it here, I'm almost changing my mind to "every man for himself" and staying 24/7 at spawn to make sure no one will get a single emerald...

I have read through this and the consensus is emeralds are the problem. Personally i feel that emeralds are not the problem at all. Emeralds are not as valuable if you keep it vanilla. When you give them value is where you mess up. Currently emeralds are only overpowered due to diamond trade. That's the biggest reason people are making huge farms and gaining power. If you remove the diamond trade you will solve the problem. That's my personal input. Doing this has negatives as well. Like all the people that have already abused the system and have a double chest full of diamond blocks. There are ways to fix that.

@mithraculus Hey all, my first post.

I'll just say that gaining wealth is very easy due to the villagers at spawn. Build a large farm and wealth will soon follow. Any changes that staff may make, will have a dramatic impact on the server community. I see positives and negatives no matter how the staff handles this situation. I look forward to seeing what happens.

Personally, i would remove the villagers altogether. It allows people to become over powered very quickly with them in the game. It would also make a lot of our goods lose value and hence much cheaper for trade. The economy will stabilize no matter the changes. Hell, make craftycoins the new diamond and control the economy as you choose.

Replacing diamonds with craftycoins would never work, they are made for the casino thats in the works. i feel like that would kill the server economy completely because you would be replacing a valuable and extremely useful material with something that is comparatively valueless and without a practical use at this time

Just a thought,

If the trades are locked don't you have to trade something else to unlock them? Get 2 farms that grow separate crops and then you have unlimited emeralds, unless y'all locked all the trades and there are no ways to Unlock them. As for the emeralds to diamond, there are other trades you can do that will unlock this trade. So locking the trades doesn't stop the economy, it just makes it harder to inflate.

Changing our currency to craftycoins may work.

1. You get an limited amount of craftycoins per month, no more than that, only less
2. Craftycoins don't disappear as emeralds do (unless we build a casino). Once you've paid a villager with Emeralds, they are gone forever, the villager won't be fowarding them to other trades. That amount of money is out of circulation.
3. Craftycoins have no other use, hence their value is low. Which makes us the ones to set it's value.
4. As we vote and new players join the server, the amount of coins per player/day on server will stay on an average, which I think that must follow our inflation.

I'll try to change my trades to craftycoins this week, let's see who is willing to pay.

@bSan420 Changing our currency to craftycoins may work.

1. You get an limited amount of craftycoins per month, no more than that, only less
2. Craftycoins don't disappear as emeralds do (unless we build a casino). Once you've paid a villager with Emeralds, they are gone forever, the villager won't be fowarding them to other trades. That amount of money is out of circulation.
3. Craftycoins have no other use, hence their value is low. Which makes us the ones to set it's value.
4. As we vote and new players join the server, the amount of coins per player/day on server will stay on an average, which I think that must follow our inflation.

I'll try to change my trades to craftycoins this week, let's see who is willing to pay.

Wouldn't that mean old-time players who play daily or vote daily would be much more richer? There's no other way to increase your CraftyCoins unless you vote or trade. It would be good for players who have voted a lot but bad for new players.