Item/Rank/Feature: Melons Name of item/rank/feature that you wish to discuss about. Data Value: 103 Data value of the item. Please click here for a list of item data values. (This is non-applicable for Ranks and Features). Current Price: $1.75 Current pricing of the item. Type: /worth <itemname> ingame, to find the price of the item. Suggested Price: $2 Suggested pricing for the item. Brief Description: The item is obtained mainly using the melon sword. A brief description of how this item/rank/feature is obtained. Open Discussion: After seeing the announcement that they were being nerfed, I thought it was rather ridiculous. Melon swords cost usually about 350k, and now with the nerf they make about the same money as a pumpkin axe. This drop would cause the value of nether stars to lower, therefore discouraging people to vote. Present your case as to why this item/rank/feature would need to face nerfs or buffs.
Melons should be $2 because that's basically the only way that you make a lot of money these days and we have to WORK HARD to get our melons swords to get that kind of money. And after a long time of just destroying melons to get a full inventory, we only get 3k.
It's ridiculous how the economy is turning out at the moment like mining and nether stars they are all dropping in price which is not good also the sword is worth 350k which is a lot to someone me which it is but now that melons are being nerfed that's going to drop in price and soon everyone is going to have one which will just defeat the object of gaining the 1k nether stars.
Although the economy is beginning to fill up with melons, they should be worth the 1000 nether stars that the sword costs. Nerfing the price of melons is somewhat ridiculous as the sword itself would become worth very little. I strongly recommend reconsidering the price of melons.
I have a melon sword and just built a 200x200 melon farm so this negatively impacts me as well, BUT ... I can speculate from Andrew's post that $2 melons were putting too much money into the economy. He has done a good job of keeping inflation under control on this server. From what I have heard of other economy servers that did not adjust prices, out of control inflation ruins the experience. I would rather have a 12.5% decrease in melon prices than have prices get out of control for everything else. Remember, more money on the server increases the prices for everything! On a hardcore economy server, ranks should be challenging to achieve. If money goes out of control, rank prices will have to be adjusted upwards (resident $25,000, President $250,000, etc. for example) and other features will similarly have to be increased. Without knowing the precise numbers and circumstances, we have to trust that Andrew and Co. know what they are doing on this.
I believe everything was starting to stabilize if this stays like this it will just be more difficult to get stuff because people are to stubborn to lower prices (well allot of them at least) donations and items have been selling for about the same for the last few months. it really isn't that much more money than pumpkin farming if it makes the same amount as pumpkin farming then there is no reason to get a melon sword. and it would hurt the economy more than help it.
We are both speculating because we don't have the actual numbers. I don't think Andrew just willy-nilly decided to lower the price, there had to have been a reason. And I am guessing from his post that the reason is that there is too much money flowing into the economy as more players are obtaining melon swords (which will only continue to increase). So even if prices have stabilized in the short-term recently, as more people get melon swords, $2 melons will start pumping more and more money into the economy (leading to greater inflation).
I doubt after the lower prices that many people will still be getting melon swords. I have no clue why the price was lowered and I can't even think of a good reason at all. A tool worth 6-10k makes nearly as much as one worth 300-350k, and possibly more if the person farms pumpkins with fly. Not to mention pumpkins give much more mcmmo exp. Not many people will be buying melon swords if they make just as much as a 6-10k tool. I also think this will cause the netherstar prices to decrease, which in turn would lead to less people voting. Additionally, this hurts the farm owners, since their farms are worth much less now. Money keeps getting harder and harder to earn on this server and this will discourage new players from staying. I 100% agree that melon prices should go back to at least $2.
You know what prevents your income stream from collapsing when demand shifts and prices drop? Diversification. Assume this means that Andrewkm as the consumer. If he doesn't want as much of the money created in the server to come from melons, that means that his reduced demand as the consumer is reflected by a lower price he's willing to pay and should be necessarily followed by a shift in supply. For farms with multiple options, that's just fine. They can switch to another income stream, being diversified. Personally, I'd like to see the melon decrease coupled with a small price increase in nether wart. A user with fly and a Fort 3 pick could then make as much as pumpkins and melons with their respective tools and fly. If all three were evened out, there would be a much greater variety and increased demand in the tools services, to make Fort3 picks, Pumpkin axes, and melon swords all worth the 8-10k they should be as a tool. Perhaps it'd be good to couple this melon price drop with the ability for users to treat swords as tools for the purposes of enchanting items at an anvil. Pumpkin Axes are worth as much as Melon Swords in the NStar shop, so if the prices are on par now the tools should be on par and that should be the real suggestion, not raising the price back up.
That would hurt all melon sword owners beyond belief. I have a sword worth 350k. If it is lowered to 8-10k like you said, thats 340k down the drain. And I'm just one of the people affected by this. You gotta think about all us melon sword owners and how much negative affect that would be by lowering the price to what you suggested.
First, melons still make more than pumpkins, the spread just isn't as big as it used to be. The price of melons was only decreased 12.5%. Second, yes the decrease will also decrease the price of netherstars and also the price in user-to-user melon sword sales. I don't think it will decrease the amount of people buying melon swords in the long run. Those people will just get melon swords cheaper. Yes, this hurts farm owners, including myself since I just built a 200x200 melon farm. But again, I fail to see how this is a bad thing as it decreases inflation. It should be hard to earn money. The easier that it is to earn money, the easier it is to get ranks, towns, features, etc. Eventually, the server would have to increase the price for ranks and towns. And for people that buy donation features, the price will start to go up for that as well. In fact, the price of everything will go up. That is the balance that Andrew has to strike and I think he has done a pretty good job of that since the time I joined the server.
I farm pumpkins on my way to a melon sword and the nerf is insane, there are only about 80 melon swords I believe out there, maybe when like 500 are out there then the price is reasonable. And the inflation, the price really didn't inflate at all, people just farmed melons which I understand why you say there is inflation but the melon sword is just so difficult to get so farming by hand would take hours and wouldn't make as much as you think. I understand but this needs to happen. +1
Melon swords cost 350k and should be for the elite class. Only 40 of the players who own melonswords are actually active and farm with them. I dont think they bring in even half of what pumpkin farming does and having them at 2$ was perfectly fine +1
Melon sword nerf ---> Nether star price decrease ---> Voting profit decrease ---> Voting decrease ---> Less players ---> Donation Decrease!