But, but... Since EMC doesn't have a build in calculator this could be much harder to some players than you think
One problem: chest shops are a plug-in, not an EMC unique feature. The programming for the plug-in would have to be altered and fiddled with.
I'm not too sure about that. Just look at this post by Aikar. Your guess is as good as mine of course, but it seems to me as if the shop signs are actually custom coded.
Whether or not the code is custom doesn't matter, the code would still have to be altered in the end anyway.
Yes it does matter a lot. In one case, Aikar just has to modify some of the code he wrote a while ago. In the other case, he has to understand and modify someone else's code, in a different style and structure he may or may not understand.
Something tells me that if the code for this was so foreign and difficult to understand, he would have changed it or gone to a different plugin long before making Empires.
You're correct that going to a different plug-in is a better solution in the worst case. Even with well-written and beautifully coded programs, there is still a learning curve to figure out where things are and get your bearings. Generally it takes 2-3 times as long, and even longer if the code is poorly written. That has to be balanced against the time savings which come from not having to make the software in the first place.
