Enable Green Thumb for Mossy Cobble/Stonebrick

Intro

Herbalism has two Green Thumb skills. The first replants wheat automatically if you have the seeds in your inventory. The second, which is currently disabled, allows you to use a seed to turn Cobblestone and Stonebrick into the Mossy versions. This skill is based on your MCMMO level, with each 100 skill levels in Herbalism granting a further 10% chance of success (capping at 100% at 1000 herbalism).

It is currently disabled for fear that it will generate free money. I aim here to show that although one can certainly make money with the skill, it is by no means "free money" and compares with other methods of making money on the server.

First, Mossy Cobble and Mossy Stonebrick have /sell prices of $3 and $5 respectively. Neither of these occur in any great quantity in their natural state, and so must either be crafted/created from gathered stone or purchased from the spawn shop.

Now, in order for the Mossy stones to be created, the blocks must first be collected, then placed, then Green Thumbed with a wheat seed, and then finally broken.

METHOD

I will use assume a row of 100 blocks through these calculations for ease of use.

Collecting

We've got to collect the raw materials in order to begin making Mossy stone. There are a couple options:

Easiest/fastest: Buy Stonebrick direct from the server store, $0.40 each.

Cheapest: Mining - mine the stone and craft it into Stonebrick. This should take approximately 16 seconds per 100 blocks: 12 seconds break time for 100 blocks @ Eff V (See "Breakin" below) plus getting to your quarry, return, crafting, and storage time, or about 16 seconds/100 blocks when averaged over a full inventory.

A third option would be to trade for the stone, but it can frequently be hard to buy mass quantities at low prices (as for most players it isn't worth the hassle to make a few cents per block over server price). There can also be significant times involved in shuffling around thousands of blocks.

Placing

100 blocks: approximately 37 seconds.

I know from wheat farming that I can reliably place 1008 blocks in 5 minutes 15 seconds at 20 TPS with low server population, or 3.2 blocks per second. This is at or near the server block-place limit, because for every row of 32 one or two will despawn and have to be replaced on the return pass (this is not lag, as I am talking about perfect TPS). Thus each row of 100 blocks will take 32 seconds to place. This does not include inventory management or proper alignment or mistakes. Keeping in mind we must move into position and manage our inventory, we can add on another couple seconds to the time.

Green Thumbin'

100 blocks: 37 seconds (1000 Herb.) up to 100 seconds+ (500 Herb.)

Green thumbing is a placement just like laying down the blocks, so we can assume that it will take another 37 seconds to run back down the row and Green Thumb every block. This assumes a 100% success rate and 1000 Herbalism, which only two people on the server have. Only 11 people on the server have Herbalism skills over 500. Green Thumb failures increase the time significantly - going from a 100% chance to a 50% chance does not double the time necessary to perform the action. One must stop, turn around use the skill again, proceed, stop, retry, etc, etc. This can as much as triple or even quadruple the time necessary for the row.

Block Breakin'

100 blocks: 15 seconds with an Eff5 Diamond pick.

According to the Minecraft wiki a Diamond pick breaks Stonebrick in 0.3 seconds. Cobblestone takes 0.4 seconds, and is only worth $3 once turned into Mossy. Thus we can focus on Stonebrick, as Cobblestone is obviously a poor choice: it takes longer to break and is worth less. Efficiency 5 decreases break time by 250%, which on Stonebrick results in a break-time of 0.12 seconds or 12 seconds for 100 blocks. Including collection and /sell hand, the process should take about 15 seconds if done perfectly.

Profit!!

Thus assuming 20 TPS (i.e., no lag whatsoever), zero mistakes, zero setup, and infinite free Stonebrick which magically replenishes itself in your inventory, we can hope to manufacture 100 Mossy Stonebrick in approximately one and a half minutes (89 seconds) at 1000 Herbalism. At 500 Herbalism, the same process will take upward of 160 seconds. We must also bear in mind that each Green Thumb costs one wheat seed, with a value of $0.50 (the time needed for collection of these seeds is not included here).

However, Stonebrick is not magically replenishing nor free. If we buy from the server store, we must take an additional $0.40 off per block. That gives us a maximum possible profit of $16.6k/hr at 1000 Herbalism. If we collect the Stone ourselves instead of buying it at the server store, this gives us a profit of $15.4k/hr at 1000 Herbalism.

As mentioned, there are only two people on the server with 1000 Herbalism. If you have 500 (only 11 people on the server have a Herbalism skill over 500), you can expect to make less than $10k/hr. Anything below 500 Herbalism simply isn't profitable compared to farming or mining.

The above figures represent maximum possible income/hr. That means no chatting, no mistakes, no lag, and flawless transitions. This is extremely difficult to maintain - chatting alone can reduce your income by 20-40%, and nobody does every single run perfectly. Every one percent decrease in efficiency on a farm capable of $20k/hr results in a $200/hr loss. Replace a couple missing blocks, reply to a message, get a tool repaired, take a toilet break, and you've just cut your income by 20%. A player can realistically expect to achieve 80% of the maximum rate on a given lag-free session. Throw lag into the mix and 60% is far more realistic.

Conclusion

Taking everything into account, a player with 1000 Herbalism and an Efficiency 5 diamond pick playing off-peak at 20 TPS can hope to make approximately $13-14k/hr excluding tool repairs and the time needed to secure wheat seeds.

Lets take a look at other sources of income:

Wheat can earn $18k/hr at maximum efficiency or $14.5k/hr realistically.
Reed can earn $17k/hr at maximum efficiency or $13.6k/hr realistically.
Pumpkins can earn $18k/hr at maximum efficiency or $14.5k/hr realistically.
Nether Wart can earn $19k/hr at maximum efficiency or $15.2k/hr realistically.

Melons aren't really worth discussing as they earn significantly less than other crops.

Mining earns anywhere from $12-20k/hr depending on luck and exp sales.
Experience grinding earns approximately $15k/hr.

As you can see, although Green Thumb can earn money, it is in no way overpowered. Nor is it "free money", as it requires far more work than most forms of income generation.

So why enable it?

As it stands, Herbalism provides almost nothing at any level. The wheat replanting skill is okay, but even with MCMMOBonusPlus (99.6% chance to replant), it's still better money/hr to just auto-harvest (and I am speaking from experience here). I don't think enabling Green Thumb will provide a new source of income (as it is not worth the effort compared to other methods of money generation and there is almost nobody capable of doing it properly), but rather it will give players access to some uncommon blocks which are rarely used due to their cost (go and check out the Mossy prices in the spawn shop!). Not only does this give Herbalism users something to do with their skill, but it also encourages player-player trading and gives wider access to more exotic building materials.

 

I was including MCMMOBonusPlus, which I have. It's 66.63% at 1000 without, 99.63% with.