Adding my (quite general) perspective as a very recently joined player, since it seems somewhat relevant to the discussion:

I didn't know much about Minecraft servers and what they're usually like, I just stumbled upon ECC when looking for an economy-themed server to play on.
Aside from some confusion about where I could safely store items or how to sell stuff, the first and so far biggest hurdle when actually deciding to continue playing here was the paywall. Stuff like getting ereps and water placement seemed like elementary needs to continue spending hours and investing my time into this server, so it was very quickly apparent that I would need to either fully invest myself into this server with not only time but also some money or just drop it. (a big sign of that was also the fact that almost all active players on the forum have medals for $100+ donated)
Now, what got me hooked on ECC is the hardcore part of the server. Seeing that there's endgame ranks like EcoLegend and items like star tools to work and grind towards is what really made me stick with the server and decide to invest myself. I can donate money to something I can see myself working on in a year or five, I probably wouldn't donate if I thought I would reach endgame in 2-3 months and then possibly get bored and quit 4 months after starting.

I think that keeping the paywall and even keeping the pay2win is okay if new players see that there is something worth grinding towards (doesn't matter to me if someone bought their way up as long as I don't absolutely need to). Likely, focusing on short term rewards would get more players to join and stay for a while but it would also lower the percentage, and possibly amount, of players that donate and stay for longer.
In the case of star tools and star crates, if the market goes down by 33%, it probably doesn't matter too much to new players but if getting the best imaginable endgame gear would seem easily reachable without significant grinding, I think it would start affecting the server's "recruitment rate" a lot. In my opinion, as long as there aren't many other visible endgame goals to grind towards, I think the star tools' prices should be kept high.

This is all from a new player's perspective, I'm sure there's much more than what I can think of that should be considered when making the decision.

EDIT: After re-reading, a lot of this seems to echo what @Ladyvamptress already said earlier

 

Ok, so here’s my two cents on the topic:

The star crate idea is not a bad idea, but I feel it was a little premature. Currently, our great server is severely limited in what we can do with the three main things to do: build a town, sg (which as everyone knows is next to dead), or grinding one way or another (yes there’s VMR, but that’s a different animal).

Grinding is a process: start with basic wooden items, upgrade one to diamond, upgrade them all, enchant an item, max it out, max all tools, buy a star tool, obtain all star tools. The crate literally skips most of the steps, thus making it a worthless process; an item worked for is much more appreciated than one literally given.

Now it’s a good way of making fast, easy money (hell, @Imabankthing can agree that I got three Eff7’s and two star rods in 9 crates) so that’s a benefit (like a mini casino in a way).

In short, it’s implimented, so it should be kept, but taken off sale until other things such as skyblock is implimented.

EDIT: I would even be ok with it if it was raised in price until skyblock is official, then back to the price it is now

 

+1 Agree with the suggestion and some of the other claims made by players.

 

Perfectly said! 100% agreed

 

I like how a good majority wants them completely eliminated from existence.
They are completely destroying the star tool market, and to argue that they're an easier way of getting star tools for builders kinda defeats the entire purpose of, you know, playing ecocitycraft. Skipping to the end with money is literally the most pay2win thing that can be implemented. This, of course, is assuming that a few builders are actually the ones buying them, when it's so far been mostly already rich members that just want to get richer, and in the process they kill the market due to the rapid influx of tools. I don't think star crates have a place on this server at all. It's just printing star tools in an economy where printing cannot exist as the market isn't exactly enormous due to the player count and a few tools can have a massive effect on it, especially considering that the market was more or less balanced to begin with, which is not what ecocitycraft wants or needs for its economy.

 

Just remove it all together, for the actual reasons people already mentioned it.

To provide some data (Might vary a bit, but about right)
Star armor: $500-700k --> $100k
Melon Sword: $900k --> $650k
Eff7: 1000-1200k --> 700k
Nether Star (Spawnshop buying prices): $550 --> $350
(Note: Star tools have fallen over time, nether stars had a big drop the last week or so)
Detailed nether star prices (Buying prices, Colebex based on destroyed sign logs):
- 7 February: $500
- 9 February: $480
- 11 February: $460
- 11 February: $400
- 13 February: $350

And star tools have so high Volatility now (and nether stars very low volume), so even colebex (@Imabankthing) stopped buying them (If another reason, feel free to correct me)

 

I have not seen nstars being priced at 350
Always around 500

 

Firstly, that is common buying prices from spawn shops. Secondly, give me someone buying nether stars at $500.

 

*raises hand*

 

The star tool dealership.

Anyways, one more point to add is the fact that they added the star casino, probably in attempt to bring back the nstar prices. But nobody actually uses that anymore.

 

I suppose I got your proof about nstars being at 500 and also, it seems you’re completely basing your info off of one player, this is just bad statistics. Colebex’s nstar prices have moved around greatly ever since I joined the server and him buying at 350 right now just shows that he specifically is not interested in nstars, this is not a good representation of the whole server.

 

@sinder33 If you read more of Ima’s thread, he states that he changes price to absurd numbers when he plans not to restock anytime soon. Same reason @AdmiralD has been selling his for $700 each for a while now, plans not to sell out, but if someone needs to, they have no choice but to buy off him.

 

+1 They should be removed. If someone wants an easy path to a star tool/item they can always buy features for someone in exchange for ECD/ buy ecodollars direct from the store and use the money to buy a tool off someone with out spawning in large amounts of new tools and causing the price to fall. At the very least star keys should never go on any sale. Recently they were just $30 USD which means you could get a star item worth thousands of nstars for the equivalent of 200-300k depending on how much you value ECD.

 

Being honest i'm not sure removing them even matters at this point. Star tool & nstar prices will soon have dropped so low that even if crates are once again offered in with the sale, they just won't be worth it. I am actually considering stopping buying nstars altogether and have stopped buying star items as of today so I can see the prices dropping further still.

 

To be clear what I am saying is even with the sale, the current star tool, armour & weapon prices mean even if you do get lucky and get one of the higher valued items it still won't be worth it VS buying the ecd (ecd & exp have both been included in recent sales). I don't disagree they should be removed i'm simply saying little to no one will buy them anyway.

 

Star crates have single-handedly killed one of only 2 or 3 actual markets on the server. It's going to take months to recover from this, optimistically, if star crates are removed now. It was an enormous mistake to implement these. Whoever decided to intentionally inflate the star tool market has made one of the biggest mistakes in ECC history.

 

One could place a monthly tax on star tool ownership for players with more than one tool of each type. The server would at the same time offer a star tool buy back program.

The amount of star tools in the economy would decrease and the crates could remain. It's not perfect, collectors would have to deal with the tax, but choose your demon.

 

No. There’s no way to really enforce that because one could just unown the tool... as well as users or aren’t active and people got their tools in the lwc looting have multiple tools and aren’t even active. Nor do they have the tool itself. So you’re saying tax them for something they don’t even have anymore.

 

Do you have a /warp buying at $500?

When a big player market store changes because. he's not planning to restock anytime soon it's not really a good thing. Unless they lack money to buy the items, it's a very bad sign. A player shop always wants to make a profit, but with unstable market and risk involved it might become too risky. The current nether star price has very big spreads, and unstable. When it's stable the spread is somewhere < $50 usually, currently, it's > $100 (Colebex, station17)

I am not really sure if you have your proof that they are $500, but I will look into this information. Yes, in general, its bad statistics to base the information on one player. However, this shop is the leading shop and even I just mentioned one shop doesn't mean its completely based on one player. I am buying Nether stars for $300, for instance, atm (but don't really like using myself as evidence/source when arguing for something). And when the players mentioned actually buy a good amount at a certain price I would say its good statistics.

This is true, even occasionally someone might buy one for fun/gambling etc. However, the problem is the option is there. It limits the star tool market to ever increase much. Since there is unlimited supply at a certain price, it means that the market price should be a decent amount below this point.

This is not true, he have been selling (NOT buying) in the the $300-$400 range

Lastly, I added the data to make the administration (Jamie, Andrew mostly or other players) get an image how the prices have changed because of this. The main point was the star tools prices, something that none so far argued about. I decided to include the nether stars as well, but star tools are the main data I wanted to highlight.