Me and Cat have been re-looking through some of the features that the plugins we use offer [mainly Essentials]. I noticed one feature that lets us use signs in various other ways. One of these ways is basic shop funtionality: Buy/Sell/Trade.

We've been giving it quite a lot of thought, and we might implement these as a way to "sell" unwanted items in order to "buy" better ones [like selling 16 netherrack for a netherbrick, etc]. However, this would require us to add the money variable to the game, which could end up overcomplicating things. So we're asking for opinions first before implementing anything.

Another thing to add is that there's also a Trade option that would keep money out of it, but this requires the owner of the Trade sign to occasionally check the sign, as unlike the Buy/Sell items it has a limited inventory.

So, should we leave the server as is, add on all the basic economy features or just use Trade?

One problem with money is we'd literally have to value every single item and block, making it a bit complicated. I think we're fine with just trading.

Edit: Well, then again, trading needs worth too. Eh, I don't think Minecraft should have a monetary system. It just doesn't seem like that type of game.

When I think of "trading," I think of trading one thing of important use for another thing of important use. Those uses give the items their own value outside of trading with other items.
When you add a currency system, the currency itself has no use outside of trading, thus making its value fairly minimal. I don't think a currency system is necessary in this server due to the low value of currency and the size of our MC community.

If the server was a large server (around 20-30+ regular users), everyone would be competing to find valuable items, such as iron and diamond. A currency system would be useful here so people can buy things rather than try to compete in a dig with others or have to go far away just to get something of use.

Sorry, but I'm just extremely disappointed at this. I was excited about it being a vanilla server at first, but then you just keep adding ****. Hell, I'm tempted to set up my own unofficial completely vanilla server for VR. I have a firewall running in the basement, maybe I can get Bukkit to run on that.