What's needed here are actual numbers. Without numbers, any sort of discussion is meaningless as it just devolves into "Wahh, less money, I want more!". So, given the current pricing of melons, pumpkins, wheat, and reeds -- what is the maximum income possible for each crop given the most efficient/fastest possible farm and fully optimized harvesting? I'd like to hear what Baccardi makes per hour now on pumpkins, as we can comfortably assume she has the most optimized pumpkin setup.

For myself, I feel comfortable discussing reeds as I'm certain my setup is the server's largest. Given the current pricing ($0.20 per reed) my theoretical maximum on what is probably a near perfect setup is around $12k/hr. In practice it's more like $10.5k-11k/hr with no chatting and full concentration.

Given that pumpkins could do something like $20-22k an hour at $1.00 each, we can probably assume they can still pull in $15-16.5k/hr at $0.75 each (derived by simply multiplying the old rate by .75). People claimed $24k/hr at $1.00 pricing, but I'm not sure of the legitimacy of that claim. If it's true, pumpkins ought to still be capable of $18k/hr.

I'd like to hear some numbers on melon and wheat setups. Numbers for melons ought to be quoted for Eff V / Silk on either a 200x200 multi-layer or a heavily stacked chunk-aligned farm (a la Baccardi, though I am not sure if anybody owns one). Wheat should also be on an auto-harvesting chunk-aligned farm with high herbalism to account for the Green Thumb ability.

Only when we have these numbers can we really start to discuss farming prices. As it stands, reeds ought to come up. The argument can be made that pumpkins require an investment and so ought to be more profitable, but you won't see anything close to my numbers on reeds without an equal investment: I have over $200k in my farm, and it's impossible to make money without fly/speed. And surely now wheat equals or surpasses pumpkins, with no donation features required.

As I said, until we have solid numbers it's impossible to discuss this in an intelligent and informed manner. We also need input on what admin sees as the correct balance in farming income. There really ought to be more transparency in general, to be honest. Although ninety percent of player input will inevitably be "I used to make more money and now I make less and I want more, so give me more!", a few people--informed people--have legitimate input which should be taken into consideration in an open and transparent manner.

Edit: I've been away on tour for a couple weeks and apparently I misread the price of reeds, which are still $0.30. Given that price, reeds now stand at just below pumpkins at max theoretical income ($16k/hr for reeds and $16.5k-18k/hr for pumpkins). This is balanced and fair, in my opinion, as pumpkin farmers still command higher income from the added disadvantage of tool use. Of course it's difficult to test with the server as it is at the moment.

I'd still like numbers on wheat and melons!

 

My brain has explodenated. But you are right. There can be no conclusive action until there is conclusive proof. I have the problem with concentration. My mind wanders a lot. I forgt what I am doing and en up doing something else. Perhaps AndrewKM can go on the test server
And use Bacardi's farms to test which is better. Or just have bacardi do it.

 

pumpkins should not go up. It makes way to much money which inflates the economy which is bad

 

I think that pumpkins should stay at $1 and melons should be $0.15 per slice or $2.50 per block. (As a reward for having silk touch) :D :D :D :D

 

I just wanted to say pumpkins at 1 each, unless you have e-repair, made the same amount of money quicker and with tools easier to get.

 

People are arguing about how melons are harder to farm than pumpkins because you need Eff V and Silk Touch. First of all, Eff V and Eff IV break melons at the same rate (or very similar). Second of all, after 1.3, Silk Touch prices have dropped down to 15-20K for an Eff IV Silk Touch. So melon farming takes a maximum investment of 25K (if you need unbreaking with your axe). To make good money with pumpkin farming, however, you need an Eff 5 (Unbr 3), which can cost anywhere from 25-300K. And with pumpkin farming, you need a much larger farm than melons because the growth rates are the same, but you will be breaking pumpkins twice as fast as melons. So, basically:

Melons:
Investment: 20-30K, large farm
Profit: 15-20K/hour

Pumpkins:
Investment: 25-300K, huge farm
Profit: 15K/hour

So at the current prices of pumpkins and melons, melons are far superior to pumpkins in terms of profit and investment.

 

Dpatt, from what I have been told Eff V allows breaking of melons at walking speed while Eff IV does not. That seems like a significant increase. Correct me if I am wrong? I don't farm melons.

 

What you heard is incorrect. You can't break melons at walking speed.

 

pumpkins should be 1$ each, everything else is being lowered to 15k an hour and pumpkins with an eff 5 ( which now costs alot and is rare since 1.3) it was 15k an hour

 

i dont see why they should, wheat has gone down, sugar can has pumpkins are no diffrent,atm i don think any farm makes more money than the others, i think it has been balenced perfextly and its just people wanting to use their farms to make over priced crops, but some one will make the statsisitics and prove me worng! hopefuly a mod will lock this like the 100s of other suggestions.

 

Talking of statistics; are there statistics on how many of which block or item are sold to the server and how many are bought from the server store (or, to put it differently, for what sort of blocks/items the server acts as a sink and for what sort as a source)?

 

Schwungrad,

Even if the logs are kept and sorted for those sales, I doubt the numbers have ever been compiled. And if they have, they've never been released to my knowledge. Would be an insane amount of work, either in manually compiling it or in coding something to go through the logs for you.

That said I'm a big fan of statistics and would love to see those numbers.

 

The big issue with the change in price structure is more so in the culture of ECC. Determining a new way to be as profitable as some members were pre-pumpkin nerf is difficult because many members didn't use any other method to making their Ecos.

That being said, I was never much for the monotony of farming and myself haven't been bothered too much by the change in price but, I have noticed that my prior methods of mining have greatly diminished with the drop in player to player value of many materials. I would like to see a couple minor tweaks in the server value of materials gathered during mining. Something like a .15 increase in redstone dust, coal, lapis. I think another option for preventing too dramatic a fluctuations is to add a /sell hand with server value for emeralds, emerald blocks, diamonds, and diamond blocks. Can anybody say U.S. govt. Milk? Just a thought on the /sell hand availability of the most precious materials that can be mined but I do think it would balance the market in terms of these tremendous price changes.

 

If a server price is added to diamonds, this is what will happen:
1. Users sell all their diamonds to the server.
2. Severe diamond shortage, diamond prices rise above server price.
3. Diamonds are sold to other players instead of the server, just like it is now.

Adding a server value to diamonds won't make a difference because they are in high demand, but I like your idea of adding a server price to emeralds because they serve no purpose.