# Economy

## Altitude features a dynamic in-game economy that uses virtual currency to allow for easier trading between players.

## What is the Economy?

Altitude uses a combination of simple player shops and dynamic NPC merchants to create a truly one-of-a-kind experience for our players. Shops and Merchants allow you to exchange items for virtual currency, and vice-versa. The spawn of each server has some items that can be bought or sold by talking to the various merchants, but player shops are the backbone of the system. These shops are created and run by our players, and they allow those players to determine and set their own prices for their goods.

The virtual currency on Altitude has no value outside of the server, nor any item in-game representing it. Each player has a number representing how much in-game currency they have. You can check this any time with /bal.

## Player Shops

Altitude allows players to create chest shops, which other players can either buy or sell items to. It’s a really simple task to create your shops. There’s no complex commands or multi-line sign setups - everything is done using a GUI.

To get started, grab a sign and place it on a container (does not work on double chests). Write [shop] on the first line and you’re ready to go. Exit the sign interface and the GUI will open. With these simple steps you will have successfully created your first shop! Right click the sign to manage the shop. From there you can control the shop balance, item, item amount and price.

## Shop Balance

Every shop will have its own balance. The balance is used to for making changes in the shop management GUI, paying players if they sell items to the shop and receiving money when players buy items from the shop.

## Economist's Tips

To get the most of the in-game economy, keep these tips in mind!

- Use the spawn merchants to buy and sell as a last resort! These merchants have intentionally worse prices to allow for player markets to emerge for those same items.
- Build multiple, smaller farms for different types of items to sell rather than one massive farm that only generates one type of item. You’ll earn more money because of the dynamic prices!
- Keep track of the points you have with each merchant! Knowing how many points you have will allow you to time your buying and selling for the biggest potential profit!
- Remember that player shops have flat prices, while the spawn merchants have dynamic prices.
- Try not to buy or sell when your points are at the worst levels! You will get a huge penalty for having such an extreme amount of points and the transaction will likely not be worth it.

## Spawn Merchants

Every merchant at spawn buys and sells certain types of items. You can interact and trade with them similar to how you would trade emeralds with a regular villager. Each of these merchants are located around each of the server spawn, which you can conveniently get to by doing /spawn!

These merchants buy and sell directly from the server, not from other players. Prices from these merchants are typically quite high for buying, and quite low for selling. This means that they should be used as a last resort for some quick cash or some quick materials; player shops will generally be a much better value, especially because the prices are static.

## The Point System

The prices offered by the merchants at spawn are dynamic in nature. This means that they change based on the amount and type of items that you've bought or sold recently. Every merchant at spawn keeps track of how many items you’ve traded with it using ‘points’. The amount of points you currently have with each merchant is shown in the trading screen. To understand the point system, all you need to know is:

- Positive points = higher buy prices, higher sell prices
- Negative points = lower buy prices, lower sell prices
- Points decay naturally over time. The decay is faster if you are online

For most players, this dynamic point system won’t affect you much at all. As long as you aren’t buying or selling huge quantities of items, you won’t notice a large change in the prices as you use the spawn merchants.

However, players can take advantage of the point system to make the most amount of profit possible if they are so inclined. To do this, you need to understand the multipliers that affect prices at different price levels. You can see your current price multipliers and points at each merchant by doing /villagerui points.

There are different thresholds for each price multiplier to take effect. Between -500 and 500 points, prices will be unaltered. Once your points go above or below that range, prices will become more and more extreme. You can see where these thresholds are based on your current points here:

## Useful Commands

- /bal - Check your current balance
- /pay <player> <amount> - Pay other players
- /shop - Click on settings, from there you can change notification settings
- /villagerui points <villagerType> - Allows you to check your current points with each spawn merchant, or any specific one. Also shows your current buy/sell price multipliers for those merchants
- /villagerui buy/sell <item_name> - Tells you if a spawn merchant buys or sells that item, and where that merchant is located