Of all the incredible Minecraft mods and mod-makers in the world, there are surprisingly few options for creating economies and businesses through Forge. Bukkit of course has numerous business-related mods, but since Bukkit's untimely death, and Cauldron's death on top of that, Forge server operators don't really have good options for building up an economy. That's where BusinessCraft comes in!
BusinessCraft would be the "one mod to rule them all" as far as business and economics goes. It would be an epic open-source modular mod that adds currency, shopping, banking, and auctions to your Minecraft server, with an API that allows others to build on this awesomeness as well.
Currency
At the heart of your economy is the currency system, which includes two forms of currency by default: coin currency uses copper, silver, gold, and emerald coins, each worth 100 of the lesser coin tier (100 copper = 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold, 100 gold = 1 emerald). Paper currency uses paper and coins, coming in denominations of 0.01, 0.05, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 1000. Alternatively, you can use currencies from other mods, like Artifice Coins, Millenaire deniers, Minecraft Money Mod bills, etc.
To mint currency, you first need to craft a minting table. The minting table comes with permissions, so only certain players can actually use it, preventing mass economic inflation or deflation. There's also an administrative minting table, available in creative mode only, which allows you to assign values to any other items, including mod items (namely currencies from other mods). You can manually mint currency, or fill up the hopper with raw materials, pick which form of currency you want to mint, and power the minting table with RF/ EU/ whatever and let it run automatically until finished.
Currency can be held in either a coin purse or a wallet, to free up inventory space. Wallets can also hold bank cards, which we'll get to shortly. These storage containers can hold however much currency as you're carrying around with you, and the API will allow the wallet to be used by other mods as well (for instance, a car mod might have the wallet hold a driver's license)
The minter of the currency will need to figure out their own method of doling out the monies. You might buy raw materials from other players, or hire them to do work for you, or just give it out all willy-nilly. The choice is entirely yours. Just know that players will need currency to use the rest of this mod! You can also assign types of existing currency to drop from various mobs, using a config file; a skeleton might drop 1-10 copper coins, or a creeper might drop a $5 to $10 bill.
Shopping
Currency is nice and all, but we need something to spend it on, don't we? Players can create shops by crafting various items, which include:
Business Deed: Crafted at a minting table, the business deed unlocks the crafting of shop items for a player. You can sell a business deed, give it away, or just turn it off entirely in the config. A player will need to combine the deed with 1 ink to create a Signed Business Deed. The signed business deed can be held in your hands like a map, and shows the total value of your business, including all merchandise, total revenue earned, etc.
Cash Register: The register isn't just for show or for enhancing RP. Players will fill up virtual shopping carts with goods, which they cannot take ownership of until they pay for those items using the cash register. The cash register can only be crafted by a player with a signed business deed, which links together all of the shop's furniture-like items. You have to buy items in your shopping cart using the business' own cash register.
Shop Shelf: The shop shelf is a piece of furniture that stores and displays the items you want to sell. Each shelf unit can store 12 items, and both displays the item on the shelf and stores a full stack of that item. Shoppers can fill up virtual shopping carts with those items by interacting with the shelf. The shopping cart stays acting for 30 minutes, after which it automatically empties and the shelves are restocked, unless the player uses the cash register to pay for their items in that time.
Bakery Case: An alternative of the shop shelf, the bakery case displays baked goods in a class case. It stores 6 items
Shop Frame: An alternative of the shop shelf, this is essentially an item frame that stores one stack of items
Ticket: Tickets allow players to pay for services. You might use mods to open a movie theater, or an amusement park, or maybe buy a seat on a cruise ship (using Ships Mod or Archimedes).
Receipt: Once a player pays for items in their shopping cart, they're given a receipt showing the owner of the store, the items purchased, the prices of those items, and the date and time of the sale. Receipts can be used for returns, which are handled manually
Menu: Menus allow you to run a restaurant business. You can fill up a menu with as many options as you'd like, with charges for each item. Hand the menu (or a copy of the menu) to a player, let them put check marks next to the items they want, and then run off to make their meals. The menu will work as a bill; the player hands in the menu and you charge based on what the menu has calculated for you
Stocking Container: The stocking container will automatically restock identical items on shelves, cases, and frames. Simply fill up the special chest with items, and whenever an item runs out, the stocking container will automatically replenish it from its stores.
Selling Shops: Tired of running a business? Want to retire to a nice beach biome someplace and kick back porkchops and milk buckets while enjoying your tremendous wealth? The business deed is fully tradable! Simply use it and put another player's name on the deed, and presto, they're the owner. Make sure you trade for currency, of course!
Banking
BusinessCraft allows server administrators to make banks, too, which are all tied together globally. Banks have an unlimited amount of currency. Players can create bank accounts to store their currency, which gain interest over time (interest rates can be set in the config files). Banks can also offer loans, using business deeds as collateral. Those loans need to be repaid in 60 real-time days (configurable), with interest (also configurable), otherwise the bank will claim ownership of the business, and run it until all of its inventory has run out, after which the business will be closed indefinitely. That business will go up for sale instantly, so any player can buy it! The config allows other items to be put up as collateral, too, which the bank will own until the loan is paid. The API allows other mods to add new forms of collateral as well; a property mod might allow houses to be used as collateral, for instance.
The world's banks are all tied together. You can build multiple banks all around the globe, granting players convenient banking access wherever they are. And the system is simple and dynamic, so you get to build the bank yourself, too.
Bank Vault: The bank vault is an optional multiblock structure, which can only be built in creative mode. Players can attempt to break into the bank to steal money from the vault. You can set how much money the vault has in the config file. Use this in conjunction with NPC mods to protect the vault from intruders and set up a fun challenge for your server's denizens! You do NOT need to build bank vaults!
Bank Teller: The bank teller is an NPC who handles bank transactions when interacted with. Players can click on the teller with an empty hand to create a bank account, close a bank account, make deposits and withdrawals, view your bank statement, and take out bank loans. The teller is invincible and does not move; she just stands around, occasionally saying funny lines, waiting for players to deal with her.
Bank Card: Bank cards are a special form of currency which allow you to access your bank account wherever you are. Use a bank card on a register to pay for items using funds in your bank, rather than paying in cash/ coins
Auctions
Auctions work in much the same fashion as they do in most MMO games, like WoW, SWTOR, etc. Players can interact with auctioneer NPCs to sell their items or buy items from others, including mod items and enchanted items.
Auctioneer: A special NPC who allows you to view, list, and buy out auctions
Auction Chest: When you make a purchase, it will arrive in an auction chest. These chests work like ender chests; no other player can access your items. It's used for picking up items you've purchased only
Other Features
Down the road, BusinessCraft can add any number of new features and items, too! Some noteworthy ideas for future features include:
Shop signs, which are dramatically larger than vanilla signs. Some might even be illuminated using power from other mods
A property management system, allowing players to claim, buy, and sell physical property/ land, all with a protection system built in. Residential Deeds would work the same way as Business Deeds
Corporations, allowing business deeds to be used in crafting shares, which players can buy. Shareholders would receive monthly dividends
A stock exchange, working in concert with corporations, complete with a live scrolling stock ticker
Bounties: players can put a bounty on other players, which is paid out automatically when they're captured or killed
Trade Caravans: NPC trade caravans which travel between waypoints set up by server administrators, buying and selling items. The caravan can be ordered to stop at certain waypoints and wait for a determined period of time
Gas Stations: sell liquids (Buildcraft fuel, water, lava, Railcraft Creosote, etc.) and charge by the MB
I'm a professional writer; I don't possess the skills to make this mod on my own. I can't program and I have zero artistic abilities. But I can help design yml-friendly configs, and write all of the text associated with the game, including forum updates, in-game text segments/ dialogs, a wiki, a website, and more. I will also host and build the website (WordPress), complete with forums and all that jazz, help find royalty-free sound effects, and whatever else I can possibly do to help. We can also test out builds on my guild's Minecraft server
Of all the incredible Minecraft mods and mod-makers in the world, there are surprisingly few options for creating economies and businesses through Forge. Bukkit of course has numerous business-related mods, but since Bukkit's untimely death, and Cauldron's death on top of that, Forge server operators don't really have good options for building up an economy. That's where BusinessCraft comes in!
BusinessCraft would be the "one mod to rule them all" as far as business and economics goes. It would be an epic open-source modular mod that adds currency, shopping, banking, and auctions to your Minecraft server, with an API that allows others to build on this awesomeness as well.
Currency
At the heart of your economy is the currency system, which includes two forms of currency by default: coin currency uses copper, silver, gold, and emerald coins, each worth 100 of the lesser coin tier (100 copper = 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold, 100 gold = 1 emerald). Paper currency uses paper and coins, coming in denominations of 0.01, 0.05, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 1000. Alternatively, you can use currencies from other mods, like Artifice Coins, Millenaire deniers, Minecraft Money Mod bills, etc.
To mint currency, you first need to craft a minting table. The minting table comes with permissions, so only certain players can actually use it, preventing mass economic inflation or deflation. There's also an administrative minting table, available in creative mode only, which allows you to assign values to any other items, including mod items (namely currencies from other mods). You can manually mint currency, or fill up the hopper with raw materials, pick which form of currency you want to mint, and power the minting table with RF/ EU/ whatever and let it run automatically until finished.
Currency can be held in either a coin purse or a wallet, to free up inventory space. Wallets can also hold bank cards, which we'll get to shortly. These storage containers can hold however much currency as you're carrying around with you, and the API will allow the wallet to be used by other mods as well (for instance, a car mod might have the wallet hold a driver's license)
The minter of the currency will need to figure out their own method of doling out the monies. You might buy raw materials from other players, or hire them to do work for you, or just give it out all willy-nilly. The choice is entirely yours. Just know that players will need currency to use the rest of this mod! You can also assign types of existing currency to drop from various mobs, using a config file; a skeleton might drop 1-10 copper coins, or a creeper might drop a $5 to $10 bill.
Shopping
Currency is nice and all, but we need something to spend it on, don't we? Players can create shops by crafting various items, which include:
Business Deed: Crafted at a minting table, the business deed unlocks the crafting of shop items for a player. You can sell a business deed, give it away, or just turn it off entirely in the config. A player will need to combine the deed with 1 ink to create a Signed Business Deed. The signed business deed can be held in your hands like a map, and shows the total value of your business, including all merchandise, total revenue earned, etc.
Cash Register: The register isn't just for show or for enhancing RP. Players will fill up virtual shopping carts with goods, which they cannot take ownership of until they pay for those items using the cash register. The cash register can only be crafted by a player with a signed business deed, which links together all of the shop's furniture-like items. You have to buy items in your shopping cart using the business' own cash register.
Shop Shelf: The shop shelf is a piece of furniture that stores and displays the items you want to sell. Each shelf unit can store 12 items, and both displays the item on the shelf and stores a full stack of that item. Shoppers can fill up virtual shopping carts with those items by interacting with the shelf. The shopping cart stays acting for 30 minutes, after which it automatically empties and the shelves are restocked, unless the player uses the cash register to pay for their items in that time.
Bakery Case: An alternative of the shop shelf, the bakery case displays baked goods in a class case. It stores 6 items
Shop Frame: An alternative of the shop shelf, this is essentially an item frame that stores one stack of items
Ticket: Tickets allow players to pay for services. You might use mods to open a movie theater, or an amusement park, or maybe buy a seat on a cruise ship (using Ships Mod or Archimedes).
Receipt: Once a player pays for items in their shopping cart, they're given a receipt showing the owner of the store, the items purchased, the prices of those items, and the date and time of the sale. Receipts can be used for returns, which are handled manually
Menu: Menus allow you to run a restaurant business. You can fill up a menu with as many options as you'd like, with charges for each item. Hand the menu (or a copy of the menu) to a player, let them put check marks next to the items they want, and then run off to make their meals. The menu will work as a bill; the player hands in the menu and you charge based on what the menu has calculated for you
Stocking Container: The stocking container will automatically restock identical items on shelves, cases, and frames. Simply fill up the special chest with items, and whenever an item runs out, the stocking container will automatically replenish it from its stores.
Selling Shops: Tired of running a business? Want to retire to a nice beach biome someplace and kick back porkchops and milk buckets while enjoying your tremendous wealth? The business deed is fully tradable! Simply use it and put another player's name on the deed, and presto, they're the owner. Make sure you trade for currency, of course!
Banking
BusinessCraft allows server administrators to make banks, too, which are all tied together globally. Banks have an unlimited amount of currency. Players can create bank accounts to store their currency, which gain interest over time (interest rates can be set in the config files). Banks can also offer loans, using business deeds as collateral. Those loans need to be repaid in 60 real-time days (configurable), with interest (also configurable), otherwise the bank will claim ownership of the business, and run it until all of its inventory has run out, after which the business will be closed indefinitely. That business will go up for sale instantly, so any player can buy it! The config allows other items to be put up as collateral, too, which the bank will own until the loan is paid. The API allows other mods to add new forms of collateral as well; a property mod might allow houses to be used as collateral, for instance.
The world's banks are all tied together. You can build multiple banks all around the globe, granting players convenient banking access wherever they are. And the system is simple and dynamic, so you get to build the bank yourself, too.
Bank Vault: The bank vault is an optional multiblock structure, which can only be built in creative mode. Players can attempt to break into the bank to steal money from the vault. You can set how much money the vault has in the config file. Use this in conjunction with NPC mods to protect the vault from intruders and set up a fun challenge for your server's denizens! You do NOT need to build bank vaults!
Bank Teller: The bank teller is an NPC who handles bank transactions when interacted with. Players can click on the teller with an empty hand to create a bank account, close a bank account, make deposits and withdrawals, view your bank statement, and take out bank loans. The teller is invincible and does not move; she just stands around, occasionally saying funny lines, waiting for players to deal with her.
Bank Card: Bank cards are a special form of currency which allow you to access your bank account wherever you are. Use a bank card on a register to pay for items using funds in your bank, rather than paying in cash/ coins
Auctions
Auctions work in much the same fashion as they do in most MMO games, like WoW, SWTOR, etc. Players can interact with auctioneer NPCs to sell their items or buy items from others, including mod items and enchanted items.
Auctioneer: A special NPC who allows you to view, list, and buy out auctions
Auction Chest: When you make a purchase, it will arrive in an auction chest. These chests work like ender chests; no other player can access your items. It's used for picking up items you've purchased only
Other Features
Down the road, BusinessCraft can add any number of new features and items, too! Some noteworthy ideas for future features include:
I'm a professional writer; I don't possess the skills to make this mod on my own. I can't program and I have zero artistic abilities. But I can help design yml-friendly configs, and write all of the text associated with the game, including forum updates, in-game text segments/ dialogs, a wiki, a website, and more. I will also host and build the website (WordPress), complete with forums and all that jazz, help find royalty-free sound effects, and whatever else I can possibly do to help. We can also test out builds on my guild's Minecraft server
Tutorial: How to create a server economy with Forge mods