Paying offline players

[Chief149]

So the inspiration for this idea comes from the fact that 1.5 will allow for players to make semi-automatic shops. Shops that don't require the shop owner to be online.

When 1.5 comes out, partially automated shops will be possible.

Here's how:

1) Shop owner sets up a "books" chest with a hopper on top (maybe even supplies books to customers).
2) Shop owner also has many signs for item pricing
3) Players write a list of stuff they want in a book, and drop it into the shops ordering system (the hopper on top of a locked chest.
4) When shop owner is online, he/she gets the books out and fullfills the requests by giving each customer a chest filled with the items they wanted as well as their book. The chest for the customer would have a sign with their name on it or something, but the chest would be password locked.
5) When the customer pays the requested amount to the shop owner, then the shop owner PMs the customer the password to their chest.

The above is how I personally would conduct a shop if I were to build one.

Now for the suggestion:

What if we could pay players that weren't online? The idea is this: If you pay someone who is not online, then they receive the money as well as a message in their server mailbox saying they were paid X dollars from player Y. The /pay command would be used, but it would work with players that are offline as well as online.

So now if you make a shop like the steps I described above, a customer could leave a book listing the requested items. Then the shopkeeper prepares the items into a password protected chest, and PMs the player (in game, in game mail, forums, whatever) the price of the items. Then the customer pays the shop owner at whatever time he/she comes into the game. The shop owner will receive a notification if he is online (as the system currently does), but if he/she's offline then the shop owner will receive a mail message via the in-game mail thingy. When the shop owner logs on and sees the mail message notifying him or her that payment was received, then the shop owner simply sends a message in game, or on the forums with the password to that customer's chest located in the shop owner's shop. The customer just needs to go and get the items out using the sent password.

So yeah, 1.5 combined with being able to pay offline players would potentially reduce, if not completely rid of, the need for chest or player sign shops, and it would only require a little tweaking of whatever plugin handles transfer of money via the /pay command.


Concerns I thought of while typing this:

The "HE SCAMMED BE! BAN HIM MODERATOR BAN HIM!"
     It's simple, when you send another player money, press F3 to get a picture of the minecraft screen. It'll be proof you sent the money. If you have proof then it can be dealt with.

The "I accidentally sent the wrong player money. Can I have it back?"
     Two things. If the player you are paying hasn't logged on in the past eh, maybe 2 weeks, then the /pay command shouldn't let you pay that player (this prevents accidental payment to inactive players or something). Secondly, the command can require that you verify the payment before it is sent, and you then have to type a command like /pay verify after doing /pay chief 500000 to pay someone for something that costs 500,000 credits.
     Thirdly, the command would only allow you to pay players if you know their full name (doesn't it already do this or can you get away with typing part of a player's name?). So I couldn't do something like /pay chief 500000, but instead I'd have to do /pay chief149 500000. The name would need to be typed out exactly or no go.

The "I can't think of any more dilemmas"
     If you have any other problem statements that goes with this suggestion, then discuss below.

[RuthlessTomato]

You answered all my thoughts on this in the end. It looks great.

[Chief149]

Of course truely automated shops will not be possible until hoppers come along, or something to allow us to make our chests public, but only for items to be placed and not removed (for the books portion of things).

[RuthlessTomato]

Of course truely automated shops will not be possible until hoppers come along, or something to allow us to make our chests public, but only for items to be placed and not removed (for the books portion of things).

What about the lwc magnet thing? They might be able to add that back.

[Xeadin]

If LWC manages to fix the duplication bug, it might be considered.

[RuthlessTomato]

If LWC manages to fix the duplication bug, it might be considered.

theres a dupe bug? I could probably see wjat i could do about it(coding wise) if i knew what it was.

[Xeadin]

If LWC manages to fix the duplication bug, it might be considered.

theres a dupe bug? I could probably see wjat i could do about it(coding wise) if i knew what it was.

It looks like hoppers might replace LWC's magnet feature, so I wouldn't be too worried about it at this point.

[☣2crzy4uall☣]

Also I found a design for completely automated chest shop with hoppers, put gold/iron/diamond/ whatever in, and it dispenses an item

[hammysandwhich]

I love this idea! Anyone want to build a supermarket with me? =p

[CazualxGrenade]

In the first few lines, it's F2 to take a screenie. :p

[Wyboth]

I like this idea even without the automated shops. Just ask Ivy2112 about how difficult it was trying to trade a pickaxe when we live on opposite sides of the planet.

[Chief149]

I heard a rumor that hoppers may be disabled.

This isn't true, right?

[Nick3306]

I heard a rumor that hoppers may be disabled.

This isn't true, right?

This isn't a definite answer but more than likely they will not be disabled. So don't celebrate too quickly iron farmers.

[Chief149]

I don't need hoppers to run an iron farm. I just make the minecraft window really small while I program in Visual Studio, and every few minutes I click minecraft and type into local chat. Then every certain amount of time I go to the collection room, kill the golems and get the iron.

No hoppers needed.


But, they would be great for a semi-automated shop idea I've had.

[ivy2112]

I like this idea even without the automated shops. Just ask Ivy2112 about how difficult it was trying to trade a pickaxe when we live on opposite sides of the planet.

Yea it took about a week untill we saw each other online, I was 6am online and I take a guess that wyboth was 5pm online for his time.