The problem I see here is that many new users mine to get to Resident.

With the mining prices dropped, the effort, tools and time spent to mine is simply no longer worth it. So they turn to farming.

Pumpkin farming yields the most money, they do that. This drop in price means that pumpkin farming simply no longer yields the money needed for residency and so players will be stuck on the endless cycle of Builderness.

Going one level up, the main money making method for Residents is pumpkin farming. The ownership of a town is a huge thing on ECC, and the main way for users to get it is pumpkin farming. Not only has the income from pumpkin farming dropped, but the prices have all gone up... again. This would mean that much fewer people get the ownership of a town.

Please consider re-increasing the price.

 

When we think about changing prices, we don't just think about the Builders who want Resident. We need balance.
There never should be one method that's better than all others. That makes everyone start doing that, and just that... We need more people doing the other things as well: If in real life, the only way to make money was to farm pumpkins, what would the people who can't farm/hate farming pumpkins do? Would they suffer as they watched everyone else get rich fast? Of course. Nobody wants to be left out in that kind of stuff just because they can't/don't want to farm pumpkins.

And people can get Resident quickly just fine. Mining makes about $3-5k an hour I'd assume (To be honest, haven't checked prices since they changed. Just a guesstimate) So spending 5-7 hours to get Resident isn't that bad. We don't want Resident to be something you get in the first hour. You must work for it.

Same with Mayor. You shouldn't get mayor in a matter of hours. It should take a while, not be something in the first day easily. (Unless you donated of course. Getting Mayor in the first day doesn't seem wrong for donators :p That's not part of our economy, though. So that's a little off topic.)
To be honest. What does seem slightly unbalanced right now is farming compared to mining. I'll explain in more detail later when I'm not busy.

Ignore that, waiting for McMMO to have it's effect on the economy. I believe this could be invalid soon.

 

Spoiler

(spoilered for long quote)

I completely agree with the fact that Resident should take time to get, that it should show some commitment to the server. But I'll take a few real examples. Recently (today, in fact) a player applied for Residency with the correct amount, having joined yesterday. I noticed about 5 people online saying, "that was fast", or things along those lines.

A while ago, a player jokingly asked for donations to achieve his long-time goal of Residency (about 2 months so). Most people who responded, responded with things like "taking you a long time to get residency" etc. The point I'm trying to make here is that not everyone can

Scratch that.

Regarding a post about you in the Farming prices thread regarding the huge amount of pumpkin farms in towns, well, many towns also have public mines. Go out into the wild, and you'll see about 500 or so mines. Farms as well, but you can't grief a mine. The main problem regarding the balance between farming and mining, is, well, there is none. They're two completely different things.

Pros of farming

• Easy, simple
• No chance of death
• Guaranteed (or, at least, controllable) results, and therefore guaranteed income

Cons of farming

• Expensive

Pros of mining

• Items worth more than farmable items

Cons of mining

• Absolutely NO guarantee of finding ANYTHING
• You might get killed by mobs/fall into lava

But back onto the topic.

Pumpkin farming isn't really a method better than all others since it is basically the only exception to the easy rule, it's a HUGE bane to item durability, then there's retilling, etc. It's quite hard work compared to some money making methods, such as the lotto. This is sort of off topic, but in response to your example,

Well, life isn't fair. If the only way to make money in real life WAS farm pumpkins, then you'd be an idiot to put your hatred of farming over your very existence on earth. Besides, it's not the only way to make money so it's kinda invalid.

Pumpkin farming, also, is VERY expensive. You don't need money to mine, just tools. You need a lot of money to get a plot big enough to make a profitable pumpkin farm and you need a lot of tools to do it efficiently. The reduction in price could easily see huge pumpkin farms become white elephants.

 

Mining can be expensive, too, if you want to do it well and make a good profit like farming. Mining requires tools (more tools, actually) - and to be efficient, you'd need enchanted tools, which are costly. Then you need food, armor, weapons, wood, and coal. Sure, you can mine out the materials you need for tools, but you need tools to start. Mining with diamond is the most efficient (non-enchantment), but diamonds require some luck while mining.

 

About you saying that there are lots of mines as well as pumpkin farms: Mining is just one method of making money. What about melon/wheat/reed farms? Why don't we see those? It's not that we need one other method, it's that we need any and all possible methods to be worth it and balanced with others.

Your mining to farming examples are mostly true. But you don't mention a few things: Once your farm is set up, all the money has been spent: There is no more money to spend than you already have spent other than tools. Once you make all the money you spent back, it's pure profit.
Mining also costs tools just like farming, but it also costs food, wood, coal, and many other things. It's something you invest on. You spend money to make profit. Farming isn't at all like that costing much less money to keep going.
You can also repair tools with a donation feature. Not everyone can donate, but you need to balance the price both for those who can and can't donate so that it's fair both ways. In the case of farming, this completely gets rid of the investment factor of farming. It's just pure profit. Mining still requires investing.
Enchanted tools that can't be repaired also cost lots of money. It's the more risky part of the investment. Spending large amounts of money to make large amounts of money. This can apply to both farming and mining.

One of the points I'm trying to make here is that farming isn't really that expensive after it's all set up: That's the main problem here. New users can't just jump right into farming, it costs money, and they don't have it. This gives long time users an advantage in making money just because they already have money. This isn't fair. People should just be able to jump right into it and make just as much as those long time users.
Mining you can jump into it your first day. Mine for an hour, and your set. By then you should have a full set of diamond tools.
This brings back my point that: People who can't farm shouldn't have to be upset just because they can't farm pumpkins for tons of profit like everyone else. There needs to be more balance in that.
This is my main issue I have with McMMO, otherwise I enjoy the plugin. Those who have been here a while get an advantage in making profit. However, this isn't nearly as bad. It can take weeks even months just for a few seconds more on your Super Breaker. This means that you need to work very hard just to break 2 more obsidian every 5 minutes. It's not like farming, where you spend a week and you make 1k+ more than everyone else for life. This is why I'm fine with McMMO and completely for it, but not the before prices. The prices are fine now, but before, pumpkins were too much.

Making money in the lottery isn't a good way to make money at all...too many risks in it. I've personally had 95% of a lottery's pot before. I lost almost every cent I owned. Once you have lost the lottery, you've lost much of your money, down the drain. Not a very reliable way of making money.
Lottery is also completely different. It doesn't inflate/deflate the Economy. It's not the server giving us the money. (Unless Andrew throws $1 into it...) Lottery isn't a good example for this topic.

Yes, pumpkin farming is not the only way to make money, but when it's better than others, there is a problem. Sure, a real economy isn't 100% balanced...But our economy is completely different. Getting money directly from the source that makes it. At the moment, this is how our economy works. Money isn't flowing around between peoples balances as much as real life.
Real life economies also have their own problems. These problems shouldn't be there, but they are. Just because a real economy has it's problems, doesn't mean ours should have problems, too. We want a balanced economy, not a imbalanced one.
Real life economies can't really be perfect. There are too many things out there that make it nearly impossible to have an economy with 0 problems forever. But our server is easier to balance our economy. We should take advantage of that and try to balance it as much as possible.
Also, some people actually can't do things in real life. Not everyone can lift 1,000 pounds themselves. Not everyone can swim. There are a lot of things not everyone can do. These jobs are looking for the people who can do them. I'm not saying that people will hate pumpkin farming and not do it just for that. I'm saying that there are those who can't do it at all. That's why we need more methods that are just as profitable. The more there is, the better. It leads to a more balanced economy.

McMMO will also make both farming and mining completely different. Double drops and the such. McMMO hasn't taken full effect yet, as it's still fairly new to the server. But once people being level 1000 herbalism/mining is normal, we will start seeing changes in the economy. The amount of materials, and people selling them. As well as people making more money from farming. In other words: The more you pumpkin farm, the more money you make from it. If the prices went up, then once people start getting levels 1000, it would just go down again. It's not imbalanced right now anyway, so it's best it stays the way it is.

Sorry for super long rant like post. Just want to say my opinion on this. I also don't like being wrong...>.>
Not mad if that's what it seems like I am. I'm just stating my opinions on why it should stay the way it is.