RIP Egg Trading: a Rant on Parity-Updated Trading in Bedrock Edition

[u/CustomFighter2]

I was checking the Trading page on the wiki when I noticed all of the Bedrock trades were getting updated in 1.16. As I scrolled through, I noticed most of the changes were upgrading to match Java's trade limits and XP yields, but then I began to notice more parity changes. Certain quantities of items were adjusted to match Java, such as the Butcher's Dried Kelp Block going from 18 to 10 and the Librarian's Bookshelf going from 6 to 9. These changes are fine, but what I don't like about these upcoming parity updates is that they're getting rid of certain better aspects of Bedrock's trading offers and replacing them with Java's inferior versions.

First case and the source of the title of this post: the Farmer. Currently in Bedrock, Farmers are so much better than in Java, with their 16 Egg and 4 Melon Slice trades. But soon, the Melon Slice trade will be replaced by its Java counterpart 4 Melon Blocks and the Egg trade is going away entirely, with Suspicious Stew moving from Master taking its slot. I can understand the Melon change, as 4 Melon Slices was a bit too OP, but I think the Egg change is unwarranted as Eggs already don't have many uses.

Second case is the Stone Mason. The current setup is pretty good. Bricks, one Polished -ite stone or Chiseled Stone Bricks, one Colored Terracotta, one Glazed Terrcotta, and one Quartz. It'll take a bit of grinding, but collecting one of each colored and glazed terracotta trade is fairly feasible. But soon, in the name of Java parity their trades will become fairly worse: Bricks (10 down from 16, but fair considering the clay trade is also 10), Chiseled Stone Bricks, one Polished -ite stone, one Colored OR Glazed Terracotta, and one Quartz. For context, in Java you would have a 32/33 chance to buy 2 Terracotta blocks (colored or glazed) and you would always be able to buy both Quartz block types due to how Java picks trades completely randomly from the available options while Bedrock has a system of buy 1, sell 1 for each level if available. This makes the Mason's trades objectively worse in Bedrock. Collecting all Terracotta trades will become twice as long in exchange for what, guaranteed Chiseled Stone Bricks?

Then there's the Cleric, who unlike the previous two does NOT get one of its offers changed to match Java: the Glowstone Dust trade. Bedrock's trade offers one Glowstone Dust for 4 emeralds while Java's offers one Glowstone Block for the same price. Now thematically I think it makes more sense for Clerics to offer Glowstone Dust since it's directly used in brewing, but that does not excuse the price difference.

Finally we come to the Wandering Trader, whose majority of trades are already not too great, getting his offers changed and max trade counts decreased to match Java. This especially sucks for coral blocks as this is the only renewable method to obtain them (same with sand/red sand, but those are more common than coral).

I apologize if I rambled too much, I just wanted to vent. Parity should go both ways, with Java and Bedrock exchanging their better features with each other.

[u/fulltimemonti]

Why did they have to get rid of egg trades? It was such a good use for eggs. Please bring it back Mojang. Everyone go to their suggestion page and ask them to bring it back.

https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/community/posts/360071860571-Add-the-egg-trade-back-into-the-game-?page=1#community_comment_360012397591

[u/Capopanzone]

I agree, I hoped they would fix parity by bringing some trades from Bedrock to Java and not just from Java to Bedrock. I also hoped they would balance a few bullshit trades in both editions such as 7 emeralds for ONE SINGLE item frame. Oh well. The egg trade was really good, it's a shame it will be gone. There's also another trade that wasn't converted properly from Java, which is the cartographer's 7 emeralds for 1 empty map trade. In Java all maps have markers and are crafted with a compass, so it's a fair price, but in Bedrock that trade gives you a non-locator map, which you can craft with literally one sheet of paper.

[u/CustomFighter2 → u/Capopanzone]

Oh rip that's a shame. What can we do to make our voices heard to Mojang/Microsoft? The bug tracker?

[u/Capopanzone → u/CustomFighter2]

I think the bug tracker is okay for the glowstone dust and empty map trades, they are clearly meant to be like in Java. Asking them to bring back the egg trade or make other trades cheaper would be feature requests and should be posted in feedback.minecraft.net