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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 do like the idea of this update making it more of a challenge to get these enchanted books but I feel like we need an alternative since most people have relied on villagers for enchantments for so long so an update to the current enchanting system seems necessary to somewhat balance this out

  • 0
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    Do not combine or link specific books to them. it's going to be such a boring system.

  • 0
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    I like that the new villagers are more consistent, but i do not like the forbiddance involved with nerfing curing. The alternatives for getting emeralds are too boring (trading sticks/crops, fighting minutes long bosses), and they need to fix that before they nerf the crazy alternatives people developed to avoid them. They are a symptom of a deeper problem

  • 0
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    I personally dislike the new change with librarians is not good as moving villagers to places like swamps will be almost impossible especially to early game players who may want certain enchants. Early game players won't have tons of iron for minecarts and may be stuck to boats or tunnels while the villagers run around with it impossible to actually get them in to them and then it is slow and will take forever to move villagers back and forth into certain locations as biombes can be thousands of blocks away. Perhaps making this just a toggle on world creation or changing it so that it is easier to move villagers to these biombes and back. Perhaps add swamp or jungle villages next update or just find an alternative to this choice instead.

    Also, if players believe villagers are making it too easy to get books you want then they should just not use them or ignore book trades. People complain about things like this without realising they are completely optional and minecraft allows them to do whatever they want and play by their own rules. Its the same as people complaining about the elytra making it too easy to explore. If they don't like it then they shouldn't use it as it is not needed. This applies to basically everything in the game.

  • 0
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    The books from master librarians should be the maximum level because of anvil problems, or you could alternatively update the anvil. Maybe you could get around this by making it so that combining two books of the same enchantment wont increase the experience cost (so that they can actually be used on items without being too expensive).

  • 1
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    I actually kind of like the idea of biome specific trades... but not for ALL OF THEM.
    It'd be cool if you could only get frost walker in a cold biome, or fire resistance in the desert(or even nether), but mending, unbreaking, efficiency... I see no reason why they should be biome specific.
    I think MOST enchantments should remain generic, with a few exceptions, not making them all biome specific

  • 0
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    I like the Wandering Trader rebalance, but as for librarian trades, no longer being able to get max level books of certain enchantments (Protection especially, not to mention Fortune and Unbreaking) without combining them in an anvil feels like it will make things incredibly tedious. If you have to level a villager to Master rank just to get the book, it surely should at least be the maximum level of the enchantment. My other issue with the revamped Librarian trades is that certain books are locked behind Jungle and Swamp villagers - especially Mending. If you're going to go through with making books exclusive to those types of villagers, then it is time to finally implement actual Jungle and Swamp villages, as well. Having to hunt for zombie villagers in those biomes just to trade for a handful of books would be absurd, and everyone has been asking for the villages to match the villagers for years anyway. Both or neither, ideally.

    I also have mixed feelings on the changes to curing zombie villagers - it was nice to be able to get one emerald items, but I can acknowledge that it was a bit OP.

    Also love the diamond ore buffs for deepslate caves!

    I'm running out of characters, so I'll just say that I'm largely pleased with the rest of the updates as well. I'm always thrilled to see new features being tested, and also happy that our feedback is usually taken into account. Good luck and good work, everyone.

  • 0
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    I'm all for nerfing zombie curing and I'm also all for ditching trident and crossbow enchants for librarians. My issues are eliminating top level enchants for master traders and making the trades biome specific. I would suggest not implementing biome specific villagers in places where villages don't naturally spawn. It seems completely un-intuitive for new players and an annoyance for us veterans. Obviously this wouldn't be an issue if you had naturally spawning jungle and swamp villages, which would be awesome! As far as top level enchantments like efficiency V and the like. I don't see a point in nerfing them through master level traders, especially if we have to go galavanting around our world just to get them. That, to me, seems a little too harsh. Thanks for listening.

  • 1
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    This makes the game harder than it has to be. I like the simplicity of the current one. If you were to make this change make xp requirements to add these enchantments to your tools lower. Because while the current system is "broken" you do need TONS of xp to even use the enchantments, that's why I see no problem with the current system. But if I need to go through the trouble of finding and/or breeding villagers in a specific biome just so I can get a book, the least you could do is make the xp requirements way lower.

  • 0
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    I do not mind the change to Librarians, I do mind the 2 big nerfs to them, and 1 problem.  

    I would offer that removing enchants and making it so they can only be obtained threw random process's is one bad nerf. Maybe make it so the Fletcher, and Fisher villagers have these enchants? Or give us some way of getting them that isn't just randomly grinding, as this makes fixing the random grinding for enchant villagers a half measure, and not a full one. 

    The 2nd big nerf is in the book levels. I honestly do not have a good solution for this one, I do agree it needs some kind of change, but as it is making max enchanted items can be a bit hard with combining books, this will full on make some enchants impossible and be an over all nerf to the game. I guess tweaking the max enchanting level could help fix this problem, or just give the higher level enchant as a reward for getting a villager to max level.

    the Problem I see is that we are missing a few villages, making it so that you can not naturally find some of these things in the world, you need to go out of your way and build them up. This feels a bit wrong, and unnatural.

    over all I think it is a interesting change that will improve the game if done right. 

  • 0
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    Two things must happen to ensure that this change adds to gameplay and not detracts. 

    1st: remove the "too expensive" on anvils - most players have an exp farm that can give the player a lot of exp & so I don't see a reason to prevent players from enchanting an item just because it's "too expensive", when the player can easily get a whole load of levels in a wide variety of ways. 

    2nd: increase the durability of anvils - currently you can damage an anvil x3 before it get destroyed, making anvil a painful gameplay experience as they are expensive to craft & have a low durability meaning that you have to constantly craft more anvils. This will especially become frustrating when the game encourages the usage of the anvil to combine books together (villagers not selling most max enchants)

    Minor problems:

    1: the feature of biome specific enchants is an interesting features encouraging exploration. However, one issue that I see is that such information is not available to the player in-game, making players have to go to external website to find such information which in my opinion isn't good gameplay. Maybe a way to inform the player of such things in-game, would make this a better gameplay feature.

    2: Because librarian villagers have a reduce amount of potential enchanted book trades, due to the biome specific feature, many enchanted book trades have a big possibility of repeating in one villager trade: for example a villager might have two mending trades. This shouldn't occur. 

  • 1
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    I think it's very good change, this game is way to easy through many years. Villagers are way to op and I hope this change will prevent it. As for the superflat worlds, players take the challenge themselves so I wouldn't change anything about that, they decide themselves so that it would be harder for them and they would not have access to many things.

  • 1
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    How about imposing the idea of the block the villager is standing on! So, therefore, the player still needs to travel the world (which I suppose is one of the goals) but also be able to bring back the ground block of the biome for a villager to stand on, while also allowing and providing those type of biome trades therefore, people can still have a trading hall rather than traders all around the world. Win-win for everyone.

  • 0
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    I like the direction of the change. I like the reduction of the RNG and the effectiveness of repeated curing. People will do whatever is most effective, and currently, repetedly breaking and placing workstations, torturing and confining to 1x1 trading halls is the most effective thing. This is not fun, and it leads to horrible living conditions for these creatures. I don't like how the biomes come into play tho, which is worsened by the fact that some of those villages don't generate naturally.

    What if the prices were not affected by curing, but instead by the living conditions of the villager? Stuff like space to walk, having a roof, light, confortable blocks like carpets and wool, a bed, a workstation, crafting bench and furnace, access to food, line of sight with other villagers, or even better, access to get to them (with a limit on how much blocks affect this value to prevent a room full of torches from being more effective than a reasonable room). I think this would lead to people building nice enviroments for villagers, if the reward is good enough. I would happily do this for a 50% to 75% discount.

    It would be nice to have emerald value restored by preventing raid farms and making the easier trades like paper have a very limited stock.

  • 1
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    I mostly agree with this, but if the enchants provided aren't max level, then the punishment for using "worked" books needs to be removed
    If the books need to be combined in an anvil, then the too expensive limit doesn't make sense, and the cost shouldn't increase each time

  • 0
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    I like the idea of dividing the librarians by biome, but it doesn't solve the problem of being able to get max level enchantments just by placing and removing one block (at least the "normal" ones), which is one the most boring things in the game.

    I think it would be better if a villager only sold basic enchantments when novices, and leveled up that same enchantment by raising their own level. For example, novice junglers could only offer Feather falling I, Projectile protection I, Power I and Unbreaking I, but  a villager with Power I guarantees to sell Power V when he becomes master. This would end the tedious reroll and make it more harder to get all the enchantments.

    About the wandering trader, it needs to offer some items that can only be obtained that way. I've always wanted a flower that changes the color of the grass around it to that of another biome, maybe the same with water. One flower for each different grass color and you would need to find many wandering traders.

  • 0
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    the update with the villagers really changes the gameplay but I hope that in the future you will develop new villages in the jungle and swamps

  • 0
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    Not a big fan of this. I don't think the casual player makes a villager trading area. It's become part of the game for me to have a villager trading hall and design it. This just means I need more villagers. I need to put more work in to getting all the trades that I want.

  • 3
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    me parece un cambio muy desequilibrado pasamos de tener cualquier encantamiento en 15 o 30 minutos a días posiblemente con el cambio que hubo una armadura y herramientas perfectas tienen una dificultad cercana a un beacon de netherite 

  • 0
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    First, the state of the current game.
    I don’t enjoy the gambling aspect of enchantment tables at all. Early game, whatever I get is fine, ideally it gives me something good, but it is what it is. Late game, I don’t want to be relying on the gambling system of the enchantment table. Seeing one enchant is not good enough when there are several enchants required on each piece of equipment. I enjoy collecting resources and building, I don’t enjoy RNG aspects in Minecraft.

    Villager trading is terrible as it is now. It also relies too much on RNG for my tastes. Sometimes you get lucky right away, giving access to the best enchantments instantly. Other times, it’s placing a lecture over and over again for hours. However, the payoff for this is consistency after the fact. Currently, this is the only way to get consistent enchants.

    The idea of having biome specific trades actually isn’t bad. I do like those aspects. But, I do have two problems with it. First, villagers after all the work of getting particular biomes and training them to master, don’t give max level enchants. The anvil system punishes anything other than max level enchants, so this just makes everything but the mending and silk touch books garbage. Make them max enchants or don’t punish via anvils.

    Second, mending villagers are currently crucial to players who don’t want to farm tools. End cities aren’t hard to find, but beating all the others players to an end city to get the most valuable limited item is pain.

  • 52
    Registered User commented
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    I think this is a TERRIBLE change. Villagers have never been OP since it's very tedious to set up a trading hall. Instead make other stuff like enchanting and exploration be more, or at least as good as villager trades.

  • 1
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     - The librarian changes don't fix the real problem: Enchantments ARE overpowered and the enchantment table mechaninc is boring and not engaging.

    - The village biome trading idea is a really good one, i do like that one, it will be fun. Would be cool that there flow ideas to make all villagers use that mechanic. New items, weapons, artifacts, watever, as long as is engaging.

    - Wandering trader changes seem ok.

    - All villagers need a rebalance, and PLEASE avoid making the game a forced grind, there is already an awfull grind just to get netherite and those armor decorations, grind is just a waste of time.

    After 10 years of playing minecraft i have seen it everything and forcing me to play more(and specially doing the same exact thing over and over and over and over again) rather than what it's actually reasonable is just awfull.

    There is a reason why so many people(including myself) decide to make farms and wait the night to get what they want, doing the actuall stuff is time consuming, REPETITIVE and boring.

  • 0
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    I (kindof)LOVE THESE CHANGES!! //minecrafter

    It makes you want and NEED to explore to find biomes(which is what the whole trails and tales update is about).  And it makes you need a reliable infrastructure(that's dope!) that can take you to those biomes and villages! You Could have A giant base somewhere in the world. Or make a more "inhabited" world with lots of small thriving communities of villages. We are for the moment seeing a transition to a minecraft where it  is harder to get op stuff (and obtaining it more interesting and complex) and I love how you devs change already implemented stuff rather than adding to the already quite complex system of minecraft (from the point of a beginner).

  • 0
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    if you implement this you also need to remove the "too expansive" limit from anvils and add a way for us to move villagers without having to go to the nether

    you could add horse drawn carriages, making a "boat-like" entity that you can attach to a horse and can move 2 villagers or 2 double chests, to balance them you could make it so it can only "climb" stairs and slabs, incentivizing building roads and bridges and making exploration useful

  • 1
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    It seems to me that the change is unnecessary and for those who say that the repair was very easy to achieve, they should also think about how it is to obtain the emeralds to buy the book. I would like the exchange with the villagers to continue the same, what if I support is the I change to the wandering merchants since the only thing they served me for in my world was to obtain ropes from their flames

  • 36
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    I think this change would make the game too hard for casual players like myself if we want to enchant our equipment as well

  • 0
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    I think this may be a worthwhile change. However, you should make it so 2 villagers breeding always produces the same "biome" of villager. This would keep the idea of finding different villages with different cultures, while still making trading halls possible. As for the wandering trader, I think it's great that you're addressing the issue of them having garbage items at garbage prices.

  • 0
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    A jungle and a swamp village is a must if these changes are kept, as well anvils max out when combining books but exp levels go well above 500, but an anvil maxes out above 30 levels, anvil should be changed to accommodate these changes

  • 0
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    There are two problems with this new balance.
    * Villagers are notorious hard to transport
    * Two of the villages don't exist and need to be made by a player.

    I think a better method is using an existing item, the villager bell, to enhance villager trading.
    Create a unique bell for each type of village. This wll be great for lore and cool to see a different one for each village. This would also require the missing village variants, swamp and jungle, to be added to the game.

    Keep the lower enchantments available for all librarians but keep the master level enchantments locked to biome specific. By acquiring the different bells, you can unlock the specific biome master traders. This will solve the villager transport issue.

    Since biome specific mechanics playing is being introduced, the cartographer and wandering traders needs to be updated to sell maps with different biome village locations.

  • 0
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    After a day to reflect on this, I'm against adjusting villager trading overall still. I understand what's trying to be achieved, but I don't feel the end result is helpful at all.

    I think the problem I'm spotting is the same thing that's affected other game changes. A thing is viewed as "too easy", and then it is revamped to be "harder", but "harder" so far has ended up equaling "more tedious" and "more time". There is a tension here between the time investment a solo player needs to make to build up certain things, and the time investment a build might take on a server with others providing resources or build time. This seems to favor server play heavily, and disfavors solo play intensely.

    From a solo player perspective, as a busy mom with limited time to play, yes, obtaining villagers with high level book trades is "easy" in the sense that it's a do in place workstation spamming affair, it nonetheless takes a fair amount of time to grind out all the villagers for a full library in a villager trading hall. The proposed changes merely move around how this is done and obtained, and likely will significantly increase the time it takes to accomplish a trading hall in solo play. 

    This ignores the REAL problem, which is that the enchanting table doesn't work well for advanced players. I am fine with the zombie villager curing being fixed; that definitely needs changing, and should be done IMHO.