My Take Here

This is an idea I've been pondering on for a long time. It has many flaws, and almost all people would disagree with it, but just hear me out.

Currently the Meepcraft economy sits idle, with about 5 groups in which you can make any money at all.

Mining: Mining for gold and diamonds.
Expertise: Building/redstoning/etc.
Infrastructure/building materials: The actual selling of towns/buildings/parts for buildings(Quartz, sandstone)
Minigames: I really don't see how anyone can make any significant amount of money off this.
Stock: Using the stock market(Which in my opinion isn't very profitable, because the Meepcraft economy is so small compared to real life [2 Billion meebles vs. 70 trillion for our world])
Other commerce: Heads, etc

And even with the most quickly profitable groups (Mining/expertise), there is still a large amount of labor required for markets that will never go up and.

Now this is where my post gets a little sketchy. I think that adding a 6th group would be highly beneficial to the Meepcraft economy. Here's what it would be... Food.

Now this here may make you go running away from the thread, but I suggest turning all food (Pig, lamb, cow, chicken) spawners into zombies. You would add a negative saturation bonus(Meaning they would have to eat more for the same result) to Citizens, V.I.P's, and Premiums, a neutral bonus to Exclusives, a positive bonus to Elites and Supreme's, and disregard the need for food to Ults. You could even go as far as to giving a mining fatigue effect, or slowness, to those under 2 hunger points (Though I suggest making it only for Citizens/V.I.P's as Premiums would already be upset they are losing /feed).

You would also make farming much more difficult. The first step would be negating the effects of bonemeal. You could add debuffs to crop yield. Desserts, mesas and cold biomes, for instance, would have a very low yield. Extreme hills would have a medium debuff, and forest and plains would have the lowest debuff. I think adding a significant debuff to anything trying to grow under Y:?(Insert number) would also be a good idea. Increasing the need for irrigation (More water) would help decrease crop yield too. Adding a slight increase when exposed to real sunlight, and a strong debuff when not is also good. I think lessening the amount of saturation received when eating chicken, mutton, bread/carrots,etc would be beneficial for reasons I will discuss. Bread and carrots because of their easiness to make and that they don't fill you up well, and chicken and mutton as a balancer. In order to create a varied economy, you need reason to create different goods. Chickens, being the easiest to breed (Seeds) would give vast amounts of food. Lamb would also be too heavily relied on because now, without sheep spawners, stocks of wool would diminish ( However there could be an increase in spider spawner usage). Which leads me to my last point, regarding a varied economy. I think adding buffs and debuffs to certain foods in certain biomes would have a positive effect. Making it so more foods grow better in plains would be smart, however unlike my previous note this implies to foods specifically. Jungles for melons/cocoa, extreme hills for pumpkins, etc.

(Note: I would like to note that all of this is extremely improbable, however not impossible, and is the reason why we have techs... Also would like to note that if this seems a bit rambly I'm very tired so...)

Now finally I'd like to discuss the advantages of this system. First and foremost, I think this would help builders and towns a-lot. As a large percentage of the land is converted to farmland, and more suitable land it perused over non suitable ones, this would make the cost of a house go up. Currently there sits a problem on Meepcraft where, unless your building a multi-million dollar mansion, your generally going to just break even or actually record negatives. Houses made of quartz, just for the quartz itself, are worth much more than the measly 5k that many go for. I think that less land being used for houses, and more already made land being converted, would very much help a long lost expertise section of Meepcraft, making house prices go up, and maybe actually introducing a much needed housing market. The next point would have to be the increase in the economy. If people need something to do, something profitable to do would be to farm for reason, putting money into the server, and helping those who constantly go online saying I don't know what to do right now! It would also open doors to a whole new section of the economy, and as Meepcraft grows the demand and cost of food would grow with it. I also think it could redefine what it means to live in a "good" town, as a town offering free food and job opportunity in the farming sector would be a better place to live. It would make Meepcraft more realistic, like how our world runs solely on 3 important things, Food, water, and oil.

Now to argue the disadvantages. The main disadvantage would have to be that less citizens would become involved in the server. I don't think that would be very true. Most people joining a server expect to have hunger anyways, so that problem would be avoided. I actually see this as an advantage, as citizens would have a different option when it come to making easy money, and would be much more willing to get rid of the lousy saturation debuff by donating. The only real fit I see happening is with Premiums up to Supreme's. Sure a few may leave, but I can seriously not see many people getting up in arms and quitting over having to eat, especially if you make it clear that it is a viable business opportunity. Now, and this is a bit stretched, but with more Citizens having the incentive to buy Exclusive or above, maybe more money could go into advertising, drawing in more people, increasing home prices and the need for food, and then increasing the amount of money going into the economy. The only real disadvantage would be that commerce may decrease, as slowed down people make building things kind of hard, however that could be much needed as there is already too many houses, and not enough people in them.

Anyways this was like my first post. I'm no economist, so everything I have said could be wrong. I find it was also very sloppy, and I will not be anal-editing(And don't you dare go he-he) because I am tired. Thank you for making it this far, and comment if you disagree, I love a good argument (*Winks*).

 

We try to keep the eco balanced for everyone. Sometimes things go for a few weeks with no change because we try to see how it plays out. Just know we do it this way to be safe as the eco is the main thing holding this together. this has all been noted and we will be reviewing it from time to time. Thank you for taking the time to write this up.

 

https://trello.com/c/2RluxHZE/743-meep-economy

 

We need to concentrate on fixing current issues right now so as great as an idea that this is, it is just not doable at this time.