Emerald Mall
 Emerald Mall
| |
 View of the Emerald Mall from outside | |
| About | |
|---|---|
| Founder |  Ren
|
| Contributors | Ren,  Nofleet
|
| Category | Commercial |
| Underground? | No |
| Fortified? | No |
| Public access? | Yes |
| Public build? | No |
| Size north to south | 250m |
| Size west to east | 250m |
| Transport | |
| Road link? | Yes |
| Nexus link? | Yes - Lime 1 |
| Rail link? | Yes |
| Boat link? | Yes |
| Portal? | Yes |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | X=2687 Y=70 Z=19953 |
| Dimension | Overworld |
| Map Link | |
What is the Emerald Mall?
The Emerald Mall is a public shop that allows anyone to buy or sell almost any item in the game. The design allows the community to help keep the mall stocked, making the mall sustainable and reliable for trade. It has some of the deepest liquidity pools to trade items anywhere on the server. A full list of prices can be found on the Emerald Mall Prices page. The project began in 2021.
Why was it created?
Ren believed the economy of MCO was inefficient and difficult to navigate. He was frustrated with the Diamond Mall because he felt the design made it difficult for new players to find what they were looking for. The shops lacked standardisation and many were always out of stock, creating a bad experience for players. It was also difficult for the average player to get a shop at the Diamond Mall because you need to ask an admin, but not just any admin, you needed to ask the correct admin (which wasn't specified anywhere). Not only this, but you also needed to pay 10 diamonds and have been online over 100 hours. Furthermore, If a new player wants to find a specific item, then they need to visit every floor and memorize which floor stocks which items. Ren felt the entire system needed to be re-engineered from the ground up and so began building in pursuit of making his vision into reality. Despite Ren's criticism of the Diamond Mall, the exterior of the Emerald Mall took inspiration from it, as a way of paying respect to it's history and success.
How was it designed?
The mall was designed with user experience in mind from the beginning. The aim was to build a mall that would be easy and intuitive to use, to allow as many players as possible to benefit from trade.
Pros
- Almost all shops take zero fees.
- Some items have multiple prices available, so the price can automatically change based on supply and demand.
- Built with sustainability in mind. There will always be either items or diamonds in stock, which should help the mall stand the test of time and remain useful for 1, 3, 5 or even 10 years.
- Anyone can restock the mall. This means players can trade items without needing to ask an admin for a shop in the Diamond Mall.
- All shops have an item frame, so you can quickly browse what items are for sale. This is important to some players because it helps communicate information across language barriers.
- The floors are categorised by item type.
- The nexus puts the player directly in front of the lifts.
- The lift system shows an item that represents the floor.
- In many cases the stalls are built from the material they are selling.
- There are deep liquidity pools available to trade items such as spawners and ghast tears.
- The mall was designed with a huge radius surrounding it. This aims to prevent large structures being added nearby, which could increase FPS lag.
- Each floor is small, so players can quickly see every item for sale.
Cons
- Since Ren is the the primary custodian, the mall may become inactive if he isn't around.
- A small amount of shops take a fee such as enchanted golden apples and some of the spawner shops. This is done to build liquidity, until maximum liquidity is achieved. Then the fee is removed.
- The mall doesn't sell enchanted books. This is due to limitations of the lionsshop plugin.
- Most items only have one price available.
- Control over pricing decisions is centralised.
- Most prices are not dynamic, so don't change automatically with fluctuations in supply and demand. This may result in no trade happening if demand or supply alters as time progresses.
- Most items only have one double chest to hold stock, so may not have the quantities required for mega builds.
- Many players experience lag due to the high amount of entities.
- As the server updates, lots of new items become available in new versions. Inevitably if they are added to the mall, it will be more complex to find a specific item, as the number of shops and floors increases. Therefore items beyond 1.21 should likely not be added.
Who donated to it?
The Emerald Mall was a wildly expensive venture with each [Shop] sign costing 5 diamonds. There are approximately 900 shop signs in operation at the mall that cost over 500 diamond blocks to setup. Ren decided to try and raise funds to help pay for the starting liquidity and sign costs. In November 2021 he reached out to his contacts across the server to see if anyone might be interested in making a generous donation of 64 Diamond Blocks in return for 1 copy of Ren's head. Interest was high and many players pledged a donation toward the mall. Without these generous donations the mall may never have been created. Each player that donated was given an exclusive honorary plaque on one of the floors in recognition of their support. The original supporters were: 
SanityBGon, 
Filip0706, 
snthy, 
Selimbits, 
swissm4n, 
GunCat2, 
Hornacious, Nofleet, 
AdoreKitten, 
Anna_28, 
Txkeykeeper, 
hjk321, 
KingServal, 
Aquitted and 
Xanpi3000.
In 2023 Renbucks were created. These also helped raise funds for the Emerald Mall, so anyone who purchased one of these directly supported the project.
| More supporters (previously on signs) |
|---|
|
Who built it?
The mall was constructed by Ren & Nofleet.
The landscape was terraformed by AdoreKitten, 
abamacus, Ren and Nofleet with some assistance from GunCat2, 
JCobbler2012 and 
RainBd.
The railway was constructed by Nofleet, 
Okibdoki, 
Cosmic_potato_04, 
Leo_Belgicus, Txkeykeeper, AdoreKitten, 
Stevits1, JCobbler2012 and Ren.
Materials used: The sea lanterns and glass were purchased from Hornacious's shop. The wool was purchased from swissm4n, 
thesprazzzler and SanityBGon's shop.
What is the Emerald Gallery?
The Emerald Gallery holds a selection of map art from across the server. Anyone can visit the gallery by going to the gallery floor and then walking to the number "1" on the wall at the end of the corridor. The entrance is slightly concealed, but it's just to the right of the number "1" on the wall. Each map also has a [Map] copier sign on the back, which allows you to make a copy if you right click the sign with a map (it doesn't need to be an empty map, you can copy over maps you already have). The black design was chosen to help eliminate all noise and distractions from your mind, to help you fully appreciate the art on display.
The gallery isn't intended to store all maps on the server, just a selection.
What are the Emerald Farms?
The mall is surrounded by a set of large farms and machines that are collectively called the Emerald Farms.
For more info, see: Emerald Mall/Emerald Farms
Can I access the End Portal?
Players can access the public end portal by using the [Lift] sign in the main lobby.
The end portal was found on the 25th August 2021, several hours after the world expansion happened. It was the first end portal to open in the expansion. Ren decided to transform the portal room into an end themed build! Progress was swift and the build was completed on the 31st August 2021. The black wool used was generously donated by 
Jmancino2.
How do I visit?
| Nexus | Nether | Ice Road | Rail | Boat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The mall benefits from quick access through Lime Nexus 1, which is recommended as the quickest travel method for any new player searching for the mall.
|
Primary: There is a tunnel connection to the Nether South Ice Highway, if you make a turning at x:0 y:120 z:2500, you will find the main nether portal at x:350 y:120 z:2500. The road and nether hub was constructed by Nofleet and finished on 12th December 2021.
|
You can also take one of the ice roads surrounding the mall. You can join the main Ice Road at Dragon River Peak City by travelling to the Ice Path. You can choose to travel in a boat on the ice for a fast travel experience!
|
There is a Railway link to Dragon River Peak City. You can join the railway at x:900 z:16950 (map view). | The boat route starts at X:2370 Z:19970 (map).
The locations connected to the Emerald Boat Route are:
The Emerald Boat Route began construction on the the 21st November 2021.
|
What are the rings around the Emerald Mall?
Inner Ring: Emerald Mall.
Ring 1: Flower garden. The fountains were built by Nofleet and the cherry trees by 
ClonLP. (complete)
Ring 2: Market Stalls. These were built by Ren. Originally a few of these were given out to players to run shops, but they are no longer given out to help keep entity count low. (complete)
Ring 3: Biome Showcase. Built by players to show off the different biomes in minecraft. Some are reserved for 1.21 update when new biomes are introduced. (work in progress)
Ring 4: No plans for this ring at the moment. It was previously player plots, but this was discontinued. Only 3 plots were made; pet shop, igloo, shop and 2 player statues. (original perm signs at X:2702 Y:23 Z:19956). Maybe it could be more biomes in distant future, more player statues (all facing mall) or just kept empty. Ideally ring 3 should be full before thinking about ring 4, but if custodians have new plan for ring 4 they can do it. Just ensure the plan doesn't add too much to the entity count or lag. (no plans)
Ring 5: Shulker Mall. Abamacus is the primary custodian making decisions in this ring. (work in progress)
Land beyond ring 5: Land used for Emerald Farms. Abamacus is the primary custodian making decisions here.
Ring 3 Rules (Biomes) [toggle]
Ren/AdoreKitten/abamacus/butternutbamboo can assign biome plots. Ask any if you would like to build one! Make sure you get the player to place a sign agreeing to the rules at cords above.
Access is given at their own discretion. They can say no for any reason. Player reputation should be positive.
Jabcoise has perm to build any biome not already built or assigned. He can add 'Built by Jabcoise' to the biome sign where he builds, but he cannot change biome type, assign biome plots or edit existing plots.
Rules
1) Custodians have full permission to modify any plot.
2) Plots should be themed around biome chosen.
3) Keep plots family friendly. Happy vibes.
4) Keep entity count below 10 please. (entity includes item frame, painting, chest, armor stand, banner, sign etc.)
5) No more than 2 statue (armour stand) max please.
6) Keep the height of build similar to other plots.
7) Hidden room allowed, but don't encourage people to leave signs.
8) No chests left on plot please. No need for chest in biomes.
9) No redstone clocks at all. Any redstone keep at minimum.
10) Do not cross into other plot boundary. Careful with leaves.
11) Ensure plot has plenty of torch to stop mob spawn. Or other method to stop spawn like carpet.
12) If plot is unfinished after 1 year it may be removed/reassigned.Who owns it?
The Emerald Mall is owned by its founder Ren. Only Ren can add custodians and holds veto power over all mall decisions. Ren, abamacus and AdoreKitten collectively own all the diamonds and stock inside the Emerald Mall. I (Ren) fully trust both these players.
There are 2 custodians: abamacus and AdoreKitten. They both have full permissions to edit all blocks in or around the mall. This includes editing shop signs, accessing shop chests, editing any of the rings around the mall, boat route, railway, ice highway, editing the gallery, adding new floors and changing items on shop floors. However the circumference of the mall above ground should never be expanded or increased. Custodians can remove themselves from the position if they wish to by editing this wiki page.
Custodian guidance
This section lays out a many things that Ren considers when running the mall. If anyone is curious to know how Ren thinks, or is considering making a mall, it may be an interesting read.
Goal
The main aim of the mall is to help players trade easily at fair prices.
Important
- Being a custodian is completely voluntary. Please feel free to completely ignore the Emerald Mall and let it exist without any changes or updates, and be happy that I (Ren) am completely happy with this outcome. Additionally custodians can remove themselves from the position if they wish to by editing this wiki page. I'm very confident the economy is resilient and players will make new malls and shops to address any problems the economy may have. The main reason the position exists is so you have access and permission if you did want to make any changes or updates.
- The mall is neutral and any player can use the mall. No restrictions.
Pricing items
- The mall should attempt to find the fair price for items and maintain a shop with zero profit to allow players to trade at a fair price.
- HOWEVER The mall prioritizes item availability over diamond availability, in the interest of focusing on reliability and utility. In an ideal world we would have enough liquidity for both diamonds or items to be available at all times, but the mall typically only has one chest for each item, which usually means we need to pick one. So in a low liquidity environment with the velocity of trade being low for most items, the Emerald Mall chooses item availability. So what does this mean? It means that it is okay or preferable for Emerald Mall shops to be slightly more expensive than other shops on the server (this isn't a profit-motivated decision, as it actually costs us more diamonds to operate this way. At 64 x per diamond, it costs us 53 diamonds to operate that chest, but at 128 x per diamond it only costs us 27 diamonds to operate).
- Try to stick with prices that are proven unless you believe a new price will be sustained for the longer term (i.e., if the server updates to a new version and new farming becomes available, it's likely a new price will be sustainable).
- Having a "good enough" price also reduces the amount of admin the mall needs, which is extremely desirable, as it's highly time consuming to keep up with prices week to week. It's okay to let independent player shops fill in the gaps when a few of the Emerald Mall prices fall out of balance temporarily. This is particularly important during events, which can distort prices. Don't over-maintain. For example a player recently asked if I could change the price of shulkers shells to 1 diamond = 1.5 shulker shells, as they argued that was the current market rate, which was true. But the emerald mall already has prices at 1 diamond = 1 shulker shell and 1 diamond = 2 shulker shell. 1.5 would be an in-between price. In this case, no action was taken, as the price can snap between the better of the two prices. The mall is operating as intended. My general mindset is to favor taking no action, over taking action when it comes to changing a price. It's just a slippery slope into over-maintaining and draining all your time.
- If an item is out of stock for a prolonged period of time, it could indicate the price is too low (and vice versa). So the price could be adjusted if a Mall Custodian believes it is necessary (and profit turned back on if deemed necessary to regenerate any loss, in order to get the chest back to maximum capacity). Please remember that every price is an experiment, so don't worry too much about changing the price! Nobody really knows what the price should be, and the price of items change over time for any number of reasons, so every price is only temporary at best.
- If profit does need to be turned back on at any of the mall shops, consider a profit margin between 25% and 33%, however this will depend on the item, so just use your best judgement.
- Be wary of setting price based on a price that only a very small number of players can sell at. For example:
- Legacy villagers with insane exchange rates, that are private, unobtainable and no new players can access.
- Farms that are extremely complex to setup or operate, that most players cannot use. Or private farms that most players cannot access. You may argue that anyone can build a farm, but that's not the problem I see. The problem is that if one or two players who have exclusive access to an OP farm stop playing, it could drop the price back down to a more normal level (creating more work for custodians).
- If you are not sure if a price should be updated or what a fair price might be, consider:
- Checking prices at other shops on the server. But make sure to test if they have items in stock, to ensure the price is valid.
- Consider asking players to get their opinions.
- Consider setting up multiple stalls at different prices, so trade can continue if the price moves. For example spawners can be sold at 9 diamonds, 12 diamonds, 15 diamonds, 18 diamonds and 27 diamonds. This allows the price to move without mall custodians doing anything.
- Despite the aim being to take zero profit, a few shops may remain in profit mode for a long time. It could take years to reach maximum liquidity (3392 DB) in every god apple and spawner shop. The benefit of generating huge liquidity pools is to provide better price stability for these items. This is mainly only an issue for spawners and god apples. However once any of the spawner or god apple chests reach maximum liquidity (3392 DB), the profit can be turned off for that individual shop. The goal is to have all shops at zero profit in the end. In the interim before that occurs, profits can be taken from these shops to help re-balance any prices. Some spawner shops have already been set up with zero profit to hedge against the possibility of nobody being around to turn off profit on the main spawner shops, ensuring trade can still continue if this occurs. This helps the mall remain antifragile. A shop that still has profit enabled is fragile, but is sometimes necessary.
Other
- Not all items in the game need to be in the mall. Especially derivative items (items that are crafted from raw materials). For example we don't need iron doors, iron bars, cauldrons and iron trapdoors. We only sell iron blocks. We originally did sell these items, but demand is super low and they aren't worth stocking. The shop space is better saved for more important items. However, almost hypocritically I would never remove items like pistons, sticky pistons, beacons and enderchests. Even if they are derivative products, demand for these is greater. So some nuance is required when deciding what to stock and what not to stock. Generally speaking though, my thinking is Redstone Block (raw material with very high demand) > Piston (derivative with medium demand, 3 different common material input to recipe) > Redstone torch (derivative with very weak demand, 2 different common material input to recipe) > Light weighted pressure plate (derivative with very weak demand, only 1 common material input to recipe). Another reason derivatives are problematic is because if the raw material fluctuates in price, then the price of all the derivatives may be affected. But if we don't stock them, we don't have an issue.
- If new items need to be added, and space is difficult to find on the floor that makes sense, consider if the item you want to add is more important than the weakest item on the floor (following the thinking in the point above - the weakest would be the light weighted pressure plate). Usually the weakest items will be derivative items. However some floors like wool and concrete may not have any weak candidates for removal.
- Feel free to add any maps you wish to the Emerald Gallery map collection, but be mindful that we aren't trying to display every map art, just a selection of them.
- Although we do have a map gallery, the mall shouldn't add banners or books. Other places can offer these. I think keeping the scope limited is a good idea.
- I don't think there is room for more lift signs beyond what we currently have without sacrificing design. I don't like the idea of creating a third row, it's complex enough with 22 signs to read. Therefore expanding the item pool in the mall beyond the 1.21 items, should likely not be done. Especially if it involves expanding beyond 22 floors. However existing floors could be tweaked to add new items, as there is still some room available on some floors. The 'shulker access' floor is just a placeholder at the moment and can be re-purposed to add another floor if desired. Especially now we have shulker placing machines on all floors. Additionally the 'enchanted book' lift sign can be re-purposed for a new floor too, it is also just a placeholder currently. So I only see there being at maximum 2 new floors that could be possible. The mall should be simple and intuitive, and expanding beyond 22 floors would go against this goal.
- The circumference of the mall above ground should never be expanded or increased.
- Try to be mindful of the total entity count. No need to leave a sign saying who changed price since very rare price changes. If price does need to be changed, just break the sign and use the reserve diamonds to pay for new shop sign. I like the idea in principal, but we need to keep entities to a minimum. Do not remove item frames, they are important to communicate what is for sale even across a language barrier.
- There is a reserve of DB generated from Renbuck sales under the black market floor. If a player wants to cash in a Renbuck, then the reserve (or DB in god apple and spawner chests) can be used to exchange it back to 16 DB. The reserve can also be used to re-fix any prices that need to change, or provide liquidity for new shops and shop sign costs, such as when the server updates.
Accessing Chests
- If a custodian needs to access a chest which contains a lot of valuable content, consider locking the chest or using /nearestplayer before opening it. This will help prevent any invisible players stealing the content. If you lock the chest, remember to remove the lock after access.
Gallery
photo taken when the mall was still being built
.jpeg)
History
- 2021-September: Construction begins on the 3rd September 2021.
- 2022-January: Anna_28 adds the Emerald Mall nexus on the 3rd January 2022.
- 2022-March: Ren adds colored concrete and colored terracotta to the Emerald Mall.
- 2022-March: abamacus creates the plots around the Emerald Mall and they begin to be assigned to towns, cities or players.
- 2022-April: abamacus creates a fourth ring around the Emerald Mall for future player-ran commercial shops, and dubs it Shulker Mall.
- 2022-December: Ren asks for help in replacing the 10,000 wool blocks with snow, to fix the Emerald Mall Railway.
- 2023-January: The Emerald Mall Railway fix is complete. Players who helped with this include Okibdoki, Cosmic_potato_04, Leo_Belgicus, Txkeykeeper, AdoreKitten, Stevits1, JCobbler2012 and Ren
- 2023-Febuary: Ren begins Emerald Mall V2 , which involves lowering all floors by 1 block to accommodate a [ShopContent] sign under every shop. AdoreKitten,
Magnap and abamacus were influential in this decision. The changes should help the economy function more efficiently by giving market participants better access to information. Prior to this change, only Ren could see the liquidity available in each shop. AdoreKitten helped with this upgrade and all the upgrade finished in February. - 2023-April: Ren assigns AdoreKitten and abamacus as mall custodians, who are able to change prices in Ren absence.
- 2023-June Ren leaves the server
- 2025-March Ren logs in again and re-balances a significant number of prices. He also used much of the profit generated over the last 2 years to set many popular shops to zero profit, in line with original mission of the mall.
- 2025-March Ren does full audit of the Emerald Mall, spending over 10 hours adding all the prices to the wiki page. He also added the total liquidity in each chest (if all items sold out at the BUY price). As of 16th March 2025, there are 128641.16 Diamonds in the Emerald Mall, enabling players to trade every day. That's over 14293.46 Diamond Blocks or 223.33 Stacks of Diamond Blocks or 4.13 Double Chests of Diamond Blocks. Furthermore, data was gathered on how much all the shop signs cost to setup, which came to 4510 diamonds, with over 902 shop signs in operation.
- 2025-March Ren changes the ownership of all diamond / stock in the mall to collective ownership between AdoreKitten and abamacus. Previously Ren owned all the diamonds / stock.
- 2025-July Ren creates new art gallery.
- 2025-August Ren finishes upgrade of Emerald Mall V3 design to make it ready for 1.21. Every new item that will be stocked now has a place. New floors were added to accommodate this including Nether Floor, Aquatic Floor, Shrubs Floor & Mob Drops 2. Some items changed floors too.
- 2026-January Ren adds nametags to most map art in the Emerald Gallery to give credit to the creators.
- 2026-March Ren adds concrete powder, adds zero fee trading for spawners, renovates the emerald lobby and creates a new page for Emerald Mall Prices.
Can I leave a comment?
Absolutely! Anyone is welcome to add a comment here and I enjoy reading them!
< Txkeykeeper> A Complete Revolution for the MCO economy.
<
AviationPro> Future of MCO 31/12/21.
<
DosMiniDoc> coolio, mate absolute unit of a shop 23/12/21
<
Energheat> Very Very Nice Shop ;D 04/11/2021
<
Flamehaze97>Emerald Mall was very helpful with my projects and I loved the abundance and availability of certain materials 8/30/2022
<
Hyperluminous> my 7.5 stacks of white wool have come a long way. 5/12/2024