Let’s start off with some big news: we’re moving to weekly Archmage Rises updates! You can expect a weekly drip of new features and Archmage information every Saturday from now on.
Additionally, we’ll have bonus posts on this website sharing about studio news and more of the nitty-gritty of running a studio.
This week, let’s talk about wealth management.
Building wealth faster; building wealth longer
2 common problems in games:
Whenever you’re ready to buy something, you have to grind to purchase it. In most games, this is merely a nuisance- that item will still be there after a few hours of grinding. That’s not great, but in Archmage Rises the problem can be even worse- that item might get sold, that merchant might travel to who-knows-where, or that town might get destroyed. Spending time grinding might mean you completely miss out on that dream item staring you in the face.
When you reach a high level of wealth, there’s nothing to do. Great- you’ve got more gold to add to your coffers. But you have no use for it, and nothing else to do. What if instead of letting that gold rot in your inventory, you were able to re-invest it and move towards a win condition?
Introducing: the Financial House.
You can get a lot of money immediately…
When you go to a Financial House as a patron, you can take out loans. The amount you can take out is dependent on your overall wealth (not just your current gold, but the net value of all your belongings), and the interest rate is based on your relationship with the lender.
Each Financial House will let you take out one loan between 5,000g and 200,000g. Within a year, you must pay it off- if you don’t, you’ll get a bounty put on your head.
Why grind now so you can buy that book later? Instead, take out a loan, buy that book, and use that newfound spell to pay off that loan even faster. Why wait to get a great mage tower? Let’s take out a few loans and make ourselves a great home right now. Why let your hometown stay at risk from invaders until you can raise more funding? Take out a good loan or two and make sure your hometown stays secure while you travel the world.
If you don’t like the interest rate, try casting Charm on that moneylender so they’ll give you a better one. Or if you know you won’t be able to pay off the loan, use the money to power yourself up to handle the bounty hunters who will surely be after you. Or if you simply don’t want to pay off the loan, you could wipe out the town to wipe out your debt.
Alternatively, if you’re interested in the long game…
…you can get less money slowly and steadily.
Rather than letting your gold sit unused in your inventory, why not build your own Financial House?
(That’s right- you can also build buildings in towns. We’ll discuss that more in a future post.)
Now you’re not the one taking out loans- your Financial House is giving them out, and making interest. You get a piece of that interest every month, increasing your overall wealth without having to go out and grind for it. So you can reduce the grind long-term, and increase your wealth exponentially over time by building even more Financial Houses.
We also have a win condition based on wealth- if you manage to get 3 royals indebted to you for over 500,000g, you win Archmage Rises (note that hitting a win condition doesn’t stop you from playing- it just means that you’ve hit a goal, and can end on that satisfaction if you’d like).
I still need to build up my wealth to pay off loans or build Financial Houses; any help there?
Absolutely; Animal Traders will be very helpful for you.
You’ve got a limited inventory- you can only take so many items from a dungeon to a town to sell them and increase your wealth. But if you take a pack animal with you, you can increase your inventory space and make fewer trips. Just make sure your pack animal doesn’t meet an unfortunate fate.
Time is your most valuable asset in Archmage Rises, so save yourself a few trips and build up your wealth more quickly. Or, if needbe, use the quicker income to pay off that loan you took out to purchase your trusty pack animal in the first place.
Next week, we’ll be talking about seafaring- ships, captains, and making your way between islands.
Let us know if you have any questions in the meantime, and we’ll either answer them in the comments or in next week’s post.
See you then.