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Let's talk about Villager Trading! - Librarian, Wondering Trader

The latest snapshot/preview includes experimental changes to the wandering trader and librarian trades, which we're introducing to rebalance the villager trade system. Here's a look at what's changed: 

Librarian

Before these changes, players could get any village enchantment from any librarian. A novice librarian could sell the best enchantment in the game! For some players, this felt too random and made trading feel overpowered when compared to using the enchanting table or searching for enchanted books in structures.

With the new rules, librarians from different biomes sell different enchantments, and each village biome has one enchantment that is only sold by master librarians.

Players will have to work towards getting the best trades instead of relying on random chance. We hope this makes librarian trading more interesting and skilful, while also revealing some clues about their history of each village type through the enchantments that are sold there.
 
Wandering Trader

Some players felt that the Wandering Trader had unfair prices and didn't sell many useful items. We have lowered their prices, added more trades and increased the amounts available. The Wandering Trader will also now buy useful items from players, so it's possible to help them on their journey by giving them supplies even if you don't feel like buying anything.

As this is an experiment, we would really appreciate your feedback as work continues and to help us decide on the future direction for villager trades!

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  • 0
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    I like this. This is a move in the right direction but without enchanting changes its not great. Enchanting tables are currently useless, because repeatedly resetting librarians to get the books you want is easier than spending XP to re-roll enchants, but both are tedious. This change removes the tedium of re-rolling librarians but is not enough. However, even without changing enchanting we at least need the ability to locate biomes and a less kidnap-y way to move villagers around. For biome locating, a new compass or dousing rod will be fine, fairly straight forward. For moving villagers, something like using an empty map on a bell gives a village map. Giving that village map to a village cartographer will make villagers move from one village to another. Whether they walk or teleport is a another problem. I would even go as far as not allowing villagers into boats or rail carts.

    I have no idea what should be done to improve enchanting in general, but something like special enchanted books that can be placed inside bookshelves to give guaranteed enchants at the table might be a good idea. These special books can be acquired from master librarians with a book+item where the item can be something normal like ores to boss drops or rare loot from exploration.

    And in general we need ways for the player to learn about all of these mechanics in game. Maybe an achievement for making a village in the jungle and swamp biomes is enough to encourage someone to find these mechanics.

  • 0
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    I really don’t like this change because this makes multiplayer servers harder to have bases and this makes it harder to grind villagers and just makes it really annoying to get around overall. If this change is made there will most likely be mods to change back to the old system because there are so many players that will not like this change. Please don’t do this it will be really annoying.

  • 0
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    Not a fan of the villager updates. Villagers are already extremely tedious to move and work with, and this just makes it even More tedious. Especially with no villages spawning in jungles and swamps, with the two most used enchantments in the game being locked in these locations, it just makes it a grind and does not have much prospect to be fun at all. If this change were to be implemented going forward, I would hope to see the following changes made:
    1. Return the enchantment level of the books back up to maximum. With villages all over the world, keeping enough enchantment levels and having enough emeralds on hand without having to go back and forth constantly is going to be extremely annoying. Needing only to purchase one book instead of many helps with this.
    2. Related, remove the "Too Expensive" limit from the anvil. Its already difficult putting together armor and tool sets without hitting this limit as it is, and its only going to get worse with More book combinations.
    3. Add natural spawning jungle and swamp biomes into the game. Moving villagers is a chore, and not everyone wants to make new builds thousands of blocks away from their spawn base.
    The last thing I could ask is to either leave these changes as experimental, or make a toggleable switch for it when creating a world to use the new or old methods of villager trading. Encouraging exploration in a world is one thing, but this change is encouraging grinding more than anything else

  • 0
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    Though I'm certain users who have difficulty understanding trading will find this helpful, this poses a real challenge for those of us who use trading for late-game exploration, and see trading as a mid-to-early game feature. The fact that we will, in essence, be unable to make villager farms or trading halls is an extreme downgrade to the quality of life of SMPs of any size. Mending is an incredibly OP enchantment, but the use of mending, at least for those of us who play Minecraft in survival with a mindset for building, is to collect material, explore, and prevent our tools (which we likely spent time on given the significant difficulty of obtaining netherite) from breaking. Additionally, the notion that Expert, biome-locked librarians for books such as Sharpness III will only sell Sharpness III is ridiculous. This requires players to combine several sharpness books to reach Sharpness V, significantly increasing the cost of putting it onto a weapon, and perhaps even locking them out of it. It's noted that books may have to be found in other ways--if the purpose of Minecraft is to solely cater to individuals who's play-style is to explore and dungeon crawl, without building, that's fine! But note that, moving forward, the individuals who use survival Minecraft to build structures and farms will be very disappointed. Stating that we can simply use creative is not the point and never was--we should be able to work for what we want, but there's a limit to how much is too much.

  • 0
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    Or something like this. This combine with the earlier mentioned first book trade = sharpness 1, second = sharpness 3, third = sharpness 5 would make this update not only change Villagers in a way that is not nerfing nor buffing them, but also makes it still challenge to get each enchantment.

    Overall, I like the wandering trader changes, I am not super fussed about the zombie villager changes, but the villager changes are not good at all, too much of a nurf of them.

    This is somewhat of a needed change, but in a different way to this. I recommend doing something similar too what I have mentioned (My suggestions and feedback are the ones that have the (Part X/X))

    I would also add a few things, including cherry villager type (or just a new biome variant of villager), add biomes in superflat OR make a way for players to change 9 chunks around them into a different biome.

    E.g. add a beacon power called "change biome" that would add a feature to change 9 chunks in a gird (same as crafting table) around them into what ever biome they choose (out of the main biomes, such as Plains, Swamp, Desert, e.t.c.). Tier 1 beacons could include 2 random OR set biomes, Tier 2 could include 3 extra (on top of the previous 3) random OR set biomes, Tier 3 could include 5 extra random OR set biomes, and Tier 4 (max) could include every main biome type in the game (such as Plains, Swamp, Desert, e.t.c).

    This way superflat players are getting a chance to use villagers to enchant using this system.

    (Part 3/3)

  • 0
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    I have a hard enough time finding a village! I think Minecraft would become a game just for speed running and competitiveness. It would eventually become too predictable and I would only play it in creative mode.

  • 80
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    As a casual player this sounds awful. Removing the fishing rod/trident/crossbow enchants is great and I think the higher level trades could be made slightly rarer because of it, but making us deal with villagers in multiple seperate biomes would be so insanely absurdly annoying. Also the ANVIL HAS TO CHANGE if anything changes with the book levels anyways, the 'Too expensive!' is very frustrating and punishes the player for no good reason. I believe the experiment as it stands would have a severe negative impact on players' enjoyment of the game and of villagers who are already tedious to work with. This is all true for Java + Bedrock. I play them both sometimes.

  • 0
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    I love Minecraft and I don't think this is the right way to go with trades. My friends and I play for fun. Its important we have these enchantments. There I am a no-go. It should be an option forever when creating a new world or server. 

  • 77
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    This is a bad change for the villagers trades. Return everything as it was.

  • 0
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    I don't believe villagers need to be changed in a way to "balance" them out, especially not like this. There are various types of players and not all are explorers that want to go find biomes for the trades or struggle to get equipment or items needed to play as they want to (Redstone, building, mining, etc).

    If villagers do need to be "balanced out" through biomes, it shouldn't be to the villager directly. Instead, players should "give" librarians a book trade by giving them a token or a scroll or something.
    It can be similar to trims where each one is in different location and does different things (but easier than trims since I think those are overcomplicated and very hard to get).
    For example, the taiga biome would have the taiga scroll which would teach the librarian the Efficiency trade. Each scroll is one level so for Efficiency 5, you need 5 scrolls. Without scrolls, librarians can trade items like compasses or name tags.

    If the change is directly to the villagers, as proposed, and they are to be from different areas, then villagers should at least be made much easier to move (e.g. they follow you if you hold emerald or you can tie them with leads).

  • 1
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    These villager trade changes seem great! Villager trading used to be a super over-powered and bland game mechanic, but these changes certainly add balance and interest to this aspect of the game. Biome-specific enchantment trades and replacing lectern rerolling with exploration is a really interesting solution.

    Not being able to get max enchants from villagers is ... maybe not ideal (and many people are likely upset about that), but I feel like it never should have been that way in the first place anyway, so hopefully we'll get used to it. Villagers needed balancing, but it will also make enchanting gear a lot more frustrating, time-consuming and difficult; having to level up many enchants on the anvil will lead to a lot of frustration, especially due to the exponential exp cost which will sink time, and that anvils still have noncommutative experience cost (which, admittedly, does make them seem more magical and mysterious, but it is definitely unintuitive and will lead to a lot of annoyance and waste especially for newer or less technical-inclined players) which when combined with the anvil cost cap (that dreaded "Too Expensive!") will lead to many losing a lot of hard work through enchantment combining when making their tools and especially armour. This change has donated the issue of librarians to the anvil.

    The Wandering Trader changes make them feel less shoe-horned in which is nice, and more as someone who interacts with the world just as you do. Very cool!

  • 0
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    Hate it. Just makes the game Tedious for no reason, when villagers are already notoriously tedious to work with/on. if could be left as an optional toggleable setting in the world's generation menu for those who feel as if it is a good fit for their world.

  • 1
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    If the goal is to restore some of the utility of enchanting tables and looting structures, I can completely see where the update is coming from. I think the RNG of biome generation is a bit prohibitive to some play styles, but I like the idea that each method of finding enchants has give and take. Going through the same methods multiple times is a bit tedious but I get the risk reward aspect of End Cities, Jungle Temples, Strongholds, Ancients Cities,... etc.

    How about making the librarian behave more like a traditional scribe? They were tasked with duplicating pre-written manuscripts. The idea being the trade would involve the original book already needing to be found somehow, and costing emeralds for the librarian to produce a duplicate.

    I think this would:

    • Incentivize using other methods of getting initial enchantments and exploration
    • Prevent the librarian from being exploited early game without some exploration and risk
    • Fit with the precedent of duplicating hard to find items at an expense (the new armor trims added)
    • Work with your current proposed changes without forcing players who want specific enchants needing to invest too much time in a biome they don't like
    • Prevent the need to convey villagers across biomes (a player will in most cases do the most efficient thing rather than the most fun due to the mental perception of "wasting time" if they don't)
    • Make combining low level enchants pay off and provide real progression

    Thank you for your time.

  • 0
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    I am very saddened by the nerf to discounts. Bedrock suffers from exp grinding methods and villagers are the only way to heal tools effectively IMO. These nerfs to villagers discounts only serve to make bedrock worse.

    I wouldn’t mind an overhaul for village trades to make it less random but getting rid of villager re-curing is really annoying.

    Overall I dislike this new rework a lot.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    This change sucks. Villager trading can be OP at times but with this change it makes villagers useless and makes the entire process more tedious than random chance. There is a way to fix it, this is not it.

  • 0
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    As others have pointed it, this system makes max enchants either impossible (for swords and I believe helmets) or categorically absurd to obtain due to anvil xp requirements, and the "too expensive" error.

    Moving, breeding, and rolling villagers has never been fun or easy. Obtaining enchantments has always been a frustrating grind with satisfactory results. This update replaces the "randomness" and "overpowered" villagers with 1000 block trips by boat or mine cart, triple the grind and frustration, and nets half the reward.

    Naturally, this is an extremely anti-player change and I can't tell you who this is beneficial to. The hard-core players are simply faced with an increasingly tedious grind to do what they were going to do anyway. Casual players are faced with the insurmountable summit of figuring out villager breeding, and subjecting themselves to the abhorrent painful lack of options to move them around to biomes that could reasonably be 1000 blocks away.

    As someone who once grinded rerolls for two days and over 1500 lecturns to STILL not have all the books I wanted, I would gladly return to that grind instead of the unimaginable time sinkhole this change would inevitably bring.

  • 0
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    Wandering Trader changes are great. Getting librarians with good books before was a grindy, boring, and luck based system, that made the game much easier. Making the enchantments that villagers sell lower level seems a little harsh after the other changes. Having stronger enchantments be exclusive to master level villagers is a good change and makes the system less luck based and gives more inventive to max out your villagers. The biome based trades encourages exploration which is good, but it makes it very hard to set up a trading hall. Overall I think that the changes are good but will not be received positively because it makes OP setups harder to get.

  • 0
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    I like the different books at different levels, but maxing at lvl 3 will make some items go over the XP limit to create. Also the different villagers giving different enchantments is kinda cool, but will make many maps impossible to collect these enchantments, suck as some skyblocks and flat worlds.

  • 13
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    QUE MIERDA HICIERON!!?!

  • 1
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    I think the changes made by the wandering merchants are very good, but the changes made by the villagers' enchanted books feel unnecessary.
  • 0
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    Thesis: these game "exploits" should not be "rebalanced", because they are actually "natural game balances" that exist because of broken game mechanics... For many, Minecraft (MC) is a game about creativity and building, not grinding RNG for tools. As a long-time MC player and parent, I have less time to play MC and most children players have limited play/screen time. Some might say, play in creative mode, but this can rob the player of satisfaction from their builds, since everything is free. Villager trading, and farms like the raid farms, iron farms, etc. actually allow players a way to "earn" access to large amounts of resources. A Villager trading "rebalance", completely misses the root problem. Building a villager trading hall is no small effort. Players do it because using the enchanting table is a time suck that isn't fun. When I first need a tool, or lose one, I have to stop everything to enchant, dis-enchant, grind for XP, and then repeat to try to get back something decent. Villager trading is an option for those who would rather work and earn a return. Enchanting is what needs help. The foundation may already be in MC, with smithing templates. Perhaps enchantments should be based on "spell templates" that the player discovers in different: biomes, game structures, dimensions, distances, archeological sites, etc. Once you've "discovered" an enchantment, you can use it whenever, but at a cost (xp, lapis, etc.).

  • 1
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    This is a terrible decision. Consider how boots already have a separate tutorial guide on how to get all the enchantments without hitting the "max level" message. With enchantments being capped now people have to combine books which will make it impossible level wise to get fully enchanted boots unless the person decides to fish for the enchantments and then let RNG take over... Wandering trader changes are good. The villager changes are legitimately all bad. Maybe consider giving them a new enchantment, tool or trade that they get per biome not making people's lives harder. Especially feel bad for people in super flat who have to either load up on villagers now or fish for enchantments in the future. Also curing villagers over and over to decrease prices should still be a thing.

  • 1
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    This is an awful change, only result is to make villager trading unfun. It seems like an attack on people whose play styles involve building trading halls and working towards having cheapest trades for all the books. Just like building a farm, this takes effort already and a lot of pre work to get the expensive resources to cure villagers. If this is op, so is every other megafarm that is built. If people don’t want to get enchantments from villagers, just don’t. Just like you can choose to go mining for iron instead of building an iron farm.

  • 0
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    Good Changes overall, this makes it way less RNG and for once-- makes villager trading balanced.
    Also, you should only be able to trade 1 Mending Book until it's restocked, and Mending should cost 50 Emeralds minimum since it's a very powerful enchantment.

    I think other trades should be readjusted as well:
    Enchanted Books in general (except Mending): should only have 3 trades (instead of 12) until it needs to be restocked.
    24 Paper for 1 Emerald: should only have 8 trades until it needs to be restocked.
    11 Glass Pane for 1 Emerald: should only have 4 trades until it needs to be restocked.
    1 Compass for 1 Emerald: should only have 6 trades until it needs to be restocked.
    4 Iron Ingot for 1 Emerald: should only have 6 trades until it needs to be restocked.
    1 Lava Bucket for 1 Emerald: should only have 4 trades until it needs to be restocked.
    32 Sticks for 1 Emerald: should only have 1 trade until it needs to be restocked.
    32 Rotten Flesh for 1 Emerald: should only have 6 trades until it needs to be restocked.
    14 String for 1 Emerald: should only have 8 trades until it needs to be restocked.
    1 Boat for 1 Emerald: should only have 1 trade until it needs to be restocked.
    10 Sweet Berries for 1 Emerald: should only have 6 trades until it needs to be restocked.
    Potato/Wheat/Carrot/Beetroot: should only have 6 trades until it needs to be restocked.
    Stone/Granite/Diorite/Andesite: should only have 8 trades until it needs to be restocked.

    Notice how all of these are trades with easy-to-get materials.

  • 1
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    I for one think that limiting books to biomes is not great. All this does is change the location of where I plan to abuse trading to get endless mending books and potentially breaks all my custom worlds. I think limiting the types can be interesting, but I think it would be better to limit the amount of books a villager can trade in total. Villagers in general are too op and changing the biome where books are obtained does not fix this. So lets say instead, mending or all books can only be grabbed from a trade 3 times before its permanently locked. Then this can force the player to actually look into villager breeding, or exploring for new villages, or other routes to obtaining books such as loot and dungeons. I think its also about time dungeons were overhauled to look much better, have more rewards, and be a challenge. All other changes not related to books are great in my opinion.

  • 0
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    I do not think you need to worry about balance in a sandbox game. Getting geared is already a tedious process that so many dislike, and this change just adds arbitrary grind to an already lengthy and grindy process. Furthermore, it is unintuitive, especially for new players. Mojang has done a fantastic job of making modern systems in the game self explanatory, without having to leave the game to check a wiki page to see how something works.

    I do agree that something should be done about villager trades, but not something that will make the system more grindy and less fun.

    One system change in the past that I think Mojang could learn from is elytra flight. Previously, we used punch bows to hit ourselves to make our elytra gain height. Mojang effectively removed this from the game by not allowing mending with infinity, but in turn we were given rockets; an already existing item was given a new purpose. Going forward, I think the team can "balance" trading in a much more fun way than the changes proposed.

    Finally, one suggestion I would like to make in turn is condensing the amount of enchantments there are in the game. Enchantments like fortune and looting could be combined into 1, punch and knockback, power and sharpness, quick charge and efficiency, etc. There are now so many enchanted books in the game that it is very time consuming to enchant a specific book on the enchantment table now.

    Thank you for your time and commitment to the game. You guys rock.

  • 1
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    As a game company your duty is not teaching players how to play this game by remake the old mechanics but is update it with new things like blocks or new mechanics and animals. 

  • 78
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    Not a good idea at all. Change it back immediately.

  • 36
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    I don’t like the change with the villagers at all but it would be a lot more acceptable to me if villagers were made easier to transfer. Otherwise it just makes it even more tedious to make trading halls and such. Also why would I even worry about curing zombie villagers if i only get one discount. At that point just let villagers die instead of get infected. 

  • 0
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    This is a good change. Ever since the Village and Pillage update, a huge amount of my Minecraft gameplay is spent in a village, grinding away at getting emeralds and good librarian book trades. Frankly, this is not very fun or interesting gameplay - it's just hard to justify anything else when it's so much faster and easier to progress in this manner. Clearly this is a major flaw in the game progression system.

    It also feels unnatural and overpowered for any villager to have to potential for any book trade. Additionally, breaking then replacing a lectern (sometimes hundreds of times) is frustrating, breaks immersion, and is just poor gameplay. To me this is an unambiguously good change that will improve game progression and give back purpose to enchantment tables.

    Trading halls were clearly never intended to be a core gameplay component, and villagers were clearly never intended to be the primary way of obtaining enchantments. When they are the primary way, it introduces clear and significant gameplay issues. This is a classic example of the players not knowing what's best for them. The only other change that should be made in conjunction with this change be made is increasing or removing the anvil "too expensive" level cap.