We seriously need a new shop/trading plugin.

[ManIAc]

I'm totally hijacking this thread, and I'm not even sorry!
Since we're using chests, it's easy to make many different trades in one chest, but should everything be strictly 1-to-1 trading? (i.e. one block-type for X minerals) In that case, it could all be based off a simple vertical layout.
Since there's 3 rows, it could be something like: Top cell = Wanting/Selling, Middle = Enum to define selling/buying for that row, Bottom = Cost. Either that, or simply have it anything on top, is traded for the thing on the bottom.
Problems with this: Where to store excess stuff to sell/emeralds? So I would perhaps limit it to 2-3 different trades per chest. What do you think?
Also, a substitute for emerald should be found, when defining price, as not everyone will have emerald to start out with, so they wouldn't be able to define their price without it.

[Pr0ph3cy7]

Should the currency be emeralds? That would make a very slow start, as there isn't much emeralds around atm. is there?

Do we really want to use only emeralds? If I recall correctly, emeralds are even more rare than diamonds, which means one may receive more of an item than they wished to buy or isn't able to buy the near-exact amount they want.

Although emerald does make a good currency, might it be worth it to throw the other valuable ores in there?

Emerald>Diamond>Gold>Iron>Gold Nuggets

- or any of the above.

[Eion_Kilant_739]

Come on now people, do we really want currency? Now I think it will work if we prevent admins or moderators from cloning Emeralds, but I and others will find it useless if we can't trade useful stuff for useful stuff.

Say I'm in need of sticky pistons, an Enderchest, and/or 43 blocks of obsidain. I create three trading [thing]s and offer 3 diamonds for every sticky piston (and I only want 6), offer a diamond block for an Enderchest, and 9 gold blocks for the 43 blocks of Obsidain. That would be useful.

[ManIAc]

The way I will probably end up making it, will support any type of trade, as long as it's 1-to-1. If the person wants to use emeralds, then they can go ahead and do that.
The only problem as I see it, is to "define" trades without having to leave the blocks you want, in the chest, (So if you wanted pistons, you would have to leave a piston for the plugin to know, that that is what you want to recieve), but then again, that might make things a bit more interesting, as it would make shops a bit more "expensive" to make, which I don't think sound like a bad idea.

EDIT: Also I have decided to make chests hold 1 trade each. I was going for either 2-3 in the beginning, but I think it makes it confusing that some chests have more trades. Then it's easier both for me, when I'm coding it, and for the players, to make sense of what is being traded.

[chinichi]

Should the currency be emeralds? That would make a very slow start, as there isn't much emeralds around atm. is there?

Do we really want to use only emeralds? If I recall correctly, emeralds are even more rare than diamonds, which means one may receive more of an item than they wished to buy or isn't able to buy the near-exact amount they want.

Although emerald does make a good currency, might it be worth it to throw the other valuable ores in there?

Emerald>Diamond>Gold>Iron>Gold Nuggets

- or any of the above.

keep in mind that NPC villagers can trade emeralds for items.

like Iron Pick for 2 Emeralds

on a sidenote , i was going to open a NPC shop at new-new-newspawn
it basically has different npcs , caged in a shop windows where you can trade stuff.

[ManIAc]

Which would solve idea emerald currency issue. Only problem, as I see it, is that some NPC trades are really ridicules, and might cause a huge inflation in the currency, as the NPC's are pretty much an infinite source of emeralds.

I'll stick with being able to trade everything for now. Would be easy to convert if something else is decided.

[The Chosen One]

Three options.

1. Make it use some mineral item as currency. Personally, I see this as having the disadvantage of meaning that the economy will revolve around that item.
2. Be bold and have it use a super-rare or otherwise impossible-to-get item as currency and distribute a certain amount to people. Examples might be music discs, XP potions, technical blocks, etc.
3. Use a barter-centric system like we did before. This is fairly hard to mess up.

Also, I think the idea of using the chest GUI is, to be honest, a bad idea. Text-based might be a little more tedious to do, but it's also easier for people to understand. Modifying how the chest grid system works is bound to not work.

[chinichi]

Three options.

1. Make it use some mineral item as currency. Personally, I see this as having the disadvantage of meaning that the economy will revolve around that item.
2. Be bold and have it use a super-rare or otherwise impossible-to-get item as currency and distribute a certain amount to people. Examples might be music discs, XP potions, technical blocks, etc.
3. Use a barter-centric system like we did before. This is fairly hard to mess up.

Also, I think the idea of using the chest GUI is, to be honest, a bad idea. Text-based might be a little more tedious to do, but it's also easier for people to understand. Modifying how the chest grid system works is bound to not work.

discs are really easy to get , all you need is a skeleton and creeper.

[Bloody]

Bitcoins anyone? :>
Making a plugin that receives/checks bitcoin transactions should be doable though I suspect the bitcoin currency and how to handle it is too complicated for most, especially the younger, players.

[ManIAc]

Using real money might not be the best idea. There will be too much stealing. But the idea is good.

Also, I think the idea of using the chest GUI is, to be honest, a bad idea. Text-based might be a little more tedious to do, but it's also easier for people to understand. Modifying how the chest grid system works is bound to not work.

The design I'm currently working in, will be very easy to work with, once it's done. It will support shift-clicking items into the chest when buying stuff. On top of that, I'm working on making it absolutely foolproof, but we'll see how that goes. The only thing that people will have to learn, is where to put the items initially, and the plugin even tells you that, and explains what you have done wrong.
I played a bit around with the idea of making an ingame tutorial to it as well.. But we'll see about that.
It's currently at a bit of standstill, as I'm moving to my own apartment this weekend, so I have been busy packing. But once I'm settled in, I'm starting development again.

[ManIAc]

Worked a bit more on it today, as I had some free time. You can now add shops and access shops. Next part is the actual transactions.
This is the case of adding and shopping in a shop:
Create chest, (single or double, doesn't matter), write /adshop add. Next interaction, (left or right-click), with a chest will try to add it as a shop, (checks itemplacement in the chest), tells you what you did wrong, like placing the items at a wrong spot in the chest. (Will tell you where to place them, depending on the chest size)
Now that the chest is added, you can shop in it. If anyone besides the owner tries to interact with the chest, they are prompted to turn on shopping-mode, (/adshop shop), in order to use the chest, and turn it off again with the same command.

Next on my agenda:
Make transactions possible, and making them foolproof by bypassing looting from the chest altogether, and instead making the shop transfer it's items to you, if you have deposited enough currency.
Add fail-safe so the user can't turn off shopping mode, while having a shop open.
Also make the player able to refund within X amount of time of the purchase, if he miss-clicked.

[chinichi]

Day 23:
Ate a peanut butter sandwich.
Still haven't found cure for cancer.
Successfully programmed shop plugin for minecraft.

[ManIAc]

Just thought I would let you know that I'm actually working on it, and giving you a chance to comment and discuss if you want something changed.

EDIT: I have realized that making the buyer-end of this plugin also chest based, is a stupid idea, and will probably end up being more of a hassle for the one buying, so I'm making it text based instead, and the seller part will be chest-based instead.

[chinichi]

would it be possible to add a clientside addon.
not required to use the shop, but to merely simplyfy it.

If you ask i can provide the GUI for it.

[ManIAc]

would it be possible to add a clientside addon.
not required to use the shop, but to merely simplyfy it.

If you ask i can provide the GUI for it.

Well that would require modding the actual files in the jar, wouldn't it? Or using some kind of mod-loader?
I can't see how you would make this easier than it is, though. You simply punch the chest that contains what you want, and then write "/adshop buy X" replacing X with the amount you want. Everything else is automatic.