I'm noticing some vendors in the 1.9 don't provide xp with their trades. Farmer and Jeweler in particular. I just wanted to bring it up and ask whether this is intentional or not. Most of the other vendors still give xp upon a trade transaction I think.

• wool
• glass (cheaper than 9 diamonds and emerald ore plz)
• clay
• paper for emeralds
• melons/pumpkins for emeralds
• feathers
• some low level enchantment books

And how about if I simply took my existing mats on the 1.8 server, and made a brand new base on the world surface specifically to have it transferred to 1.9? In my mind that's the smartest use of the resources we've accumulated.

When you say no items, do pistons and hoppers count? And what if my "base" were to be made up of a stack of said blocks that fit perfectly in a single chunk? If we're going this route I want to know what I can get away with, cause my redstone devices will be what I miss from my 1.8 base. #noshame

I'd like neighbors but the risks are simply too great. But I think it'd be really cool is if the 1.8.9 legacy players (I guess that's what we are now lol) founded a big base/village, far from spawn. A place throw up a few personal buildings and interact with others. Maybe even in a specific quadrant so we're all relatively close with our bases. I'd imagine it'd have a governance similar to the Wild Wild West, which could be fun.

I say we all begin 1.9 at the same starting line. Give players a single player file of their place if you have to, but to create a new server just to have paying players keep their base changes the dynamics. It's SMP - don't expect anything to be permanent.

@CraftyMyner this would require a complete re-design of the VIP+ system. It would have to be smart enough to allow players to renew halfway into their vip+ as well as player who have expired. Whats to stop a normal VIP for buing VIP+ at a lesser rate. The whole Point of VIP+ is that it's a monthly contribution, used to support the server. I could make it so that if you renew within x amount of days of expiring, it would be a lesser rate, but if you wait too long, you will have to pay the full price.

How about separating the two ranked benefits and flip-flopping the price tier?

Suggestion:

1. VIP+ monthly at $10 with all current benefits. No permanent access to VIP. Once expired, you're a normie again.

2. VIP is permanent access to the lounge, so it would make sense to raise the price - maybe like $35.

This would increase spending to $45 initial to receive both benefits and then $10 monthly thereafter, which accomplishes the idea of paying less for renewing VIP+ rank. Also, the price rank may have more casual (or frugal) players to opt to pay a smaller amount to see what VIP lounge is all about before paying for permanent access.

You may need to rename the ranks, but given the diminishing returns from VIP to VIP+, I get what EBerk91 is saying.

While I like the idea of starting new, this kinda makes me sad in that our community is probably going to be split between the servers. Not that the answers will affect my decision, I had two general questions:

1. Will the anticipated reduction in lag/efficiency in data control translate to a larger map (250K x 250k or even 1M x 1M)?

2. What do you think of players that move to the new server getting something to show their history with Crafty Mynes and a consolation item for starting new again? Like a unique, named trophy or something that we can put in our new base.

Good questions. I'd be interested in seeing the results. Also wondering the top regular players who have joined and stayed on this server the longest!