/u/SF-UberMan
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 | I just watched ibxtoycat's Minecraft currency video and I must say, it is quite insightful, what with the proposal of the free market as the best solution for a currency suitable for Minecraft multiplayer servers. He rightfully notes that wheat is far too common to be used as a currency and controlling the supply requires extreme levels of control, which is easier said than done a lot of the time; Nether stars on the other hand are far harder to counterfeit, but creating that stuff on scale is much harder than with wheat. And ever since amethyst showed up back in the days of Caves & Cliffs, it has seen so little use and thus is treated as little more than a novelty. I mean, yes, the spyglass is somewhat useful in theory, but in practice it becomes kinda useless underground and in tunnels, where tight corners negate any advantage that the spyglass might give you. Now, what might these two topics have to do with each other? Simple: I am proposing the use of amethyst as a currency for multiplayer servers. Why might that be, you might ask? First, amethyst shards and by extension amethyst blocks can only be obtained renewably using budding amethyst, which is non-renewable and cannot be moved or obtained even with pistons or Silk Touch. Thus, you need to actually snag an entire amethyst geode in order to actually counterfeit amethyst shards, which means amethyst shards are far harder to counterfeit than like say wheat and take more time to produce as growth of amethyst shards cannot be sped up with bone meal or for that matter any other method, and you can be damn sure that amethyst geodes that have already been discovered by other players will be heavily defended for obvious reasons. Second, obtaining amethyst shards renewably does not require you to enter the Nether or anything like that, meaning that it is much more reasonably obtainable than say Nether stars. This means that you don't need to break your back as much farming amethyst as opposed to farming Nether stars for instance. Plus, although you have to make sure your amethyst production facility has to remain where it was discovered, amethyst geodes fairly common and do not require you to go to the Nether and risk life and limb fighting the Wither over and over unlike Nether stars, not to mention the need for trapping systems to ensure it does not run amok. This helps reduce monopolies as players attempting to monopolise amethyst production would have to control or destroy all amethyst geodes in the entire world, which will be more than enough to make most people just throw in the towel altogether due to the effort not being worth it. Plus, amethyst shards can still be used for more purposes than Nether stars even if devalued, although they are still beaten by diamonds, which is especially pertinent for PvP where you may need calibrated sculk sensors to warn you about intruders breaking into your bases or spyglasses for your team members. Now, what might be wrong with ibxtoycat's solution, you may ask? Well, the problem with the free market is that much of the time players can and will still choose the wrong item to use as a currency, like say wheat and emeralds (thanks to villagers), which are far too easy to get and require a lot of draconian surveillance to ensure no one counterfeits that stuff, or Nether stars, which are much harder to counterfeit but also far harder to scale for banks. Thus, I believe that amethyst shards and by extension amethyst blocks as a currency strike a near-perfect balance between scarcity and ease of scaling, with 1 amethyst block being equivalent to 4 amethyst shards in terms of value, as amethyst is much harder to counterfeit than say wheat or emeralds and can only be renewably produced in specific locations due to budding amethyst being outright unmovable or unobtainable in Survival, but are also easier to scale than even rarer items like Nether stars and far less risky to obtain as well. So, with all that said and done, how workable would amethyst be as a multiplayer server-exclusive currency on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means completely unworkable and 10 means perfect for the job? And what do you guys use as currency on multiplayer servers, be they PvE or PvP? Edit: I forgot one more key trait: Amethyst production rates are always going to be limited by design, because the key limiting factor is budding amethyst, which itself is non-renewable. You cannot mass produce amethyst as easily as you would say wheat, resin or poisonous potatoes without having to travel far and wide to find, capture and hold multiple amethyst geodes all at once, which means more resources having to be invested to protect them from others and/or getting to them. Edit 2: I know at least one key use where this could work better than in other cases: Rental of land in Minecraft over time. If players fail to pay sufficient rent in amethyst, they get evicted. Edit 3: Another key use could be payment in amethyst in exchange for being able to access certain privileges without getting penalised. This includes restricted area permits, currency for casinos, rides on theme parks, etc. Edit 4: Apparently, I just discovered that written books are objectively the perfect multiplayer currency instead. I should have known. submitted by /u/SF-UberMan [link] [comments] |
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