So, I got to thinking about emeralds and villagers, and that villagers won't spawn due to exploitation. Here is what I came up with:

Mojang had the right idea about villagers and trading, but I think their execution is poor. Emeralds are not the only thing villagers would be interested in. If I was a villager, I would want iron, gold, diamond, and emeralds.

If the villagers traded each of these items, it could trade for things of comparable value. It could be the same items, but maybe stacked more. Wheat, wool, bread, leather, and heck, even other items. An emerald could be worth 2 diamonds, for example. Vise versa. Still, keep it random, but this would solve the exploit problem.

Obviously, this would need to be made as a bukkit plug in. I don't know of one that exists right now. It doesn't sound like a complicated coding project, but if I made it, would you guys consider using it on the server? I think it would be neat to have villagers on the server to trade with.

So, I got to thinking about emeralds and villagers, and that villagers won't spawn due to exploitation. Here is what I came up with:

Mojang had the right idea about villagers and trading, but I think their execution is poor. Emeralds are not the only thing villagers would be interested in. If I was a villager, I would want iron, gold, diamond, and emeralds.

If the villagers traded each of these items, it could trade for things of comparable value. It could be the same items, but maybe stacked more. Wheat, wool, bread, leather, and heck, even other items. An emerald could be worth 2 diamonds, for example. Vise versa. Still, keep it random, but this would solve the exploit problem.

Obviously, this would need to be made as a bukkit plug in. I don't know of one that exists right now. It doesn't sound like a complicated coding project, but if I made it, would you guys consider using it on the server? I think it would be neat to have villagers on the server to trade with.

I definitely agree with the statement that the villagers were poorly executed.  The trade values of emeralds are much more than the items you recieve in return such as cookies, wheat, etc.  As far as a plugin, I have seen a couple that reference customizable NPC shop creation, which seems much more realistic than chest shops in my opinion.  I only wonder how you keep them in a static location without blocking them, as they move around alot.  With multiple NPC's in an area such as a market, this would make it more difficult to find the shop you are looking for.

yeah i like that its knid of like EE1 or EE3 but just with villagers. I think thatt would be cool.
(EE stands for equivilent Exchange)