Arcanum: Poor Mans Palace? Or Big Fat Sack of Gold?

What do you guys think Arcanums economy will be like? Like Diablo where you have a billion bucks and a truck load of power house weapons? Or like...uh... a game where you actually have to think about buying that new sword? (cant think of any titles)

I ended the demo with about 1000 bucks, but I hadnt bought the leathers. It will be intresting, in the full game to see how Troika handles this. Realisticly, the Victorian times lived in poverty, with only small groups or 'batches' of rich people aka tycoons and royalty. Child slavery was at its peak during this time. (Parents sold their kids... maybe thats why there are no kiddies in Arcanum)

Of course Arcanum isnt a realistic game, so I doubt there will be any resemblence, but still, I REALLY dont want to see another monty haul RPG (via all RPGs I can think of)

 

I think that how much of a money struggle you have will very much depend on your type of character, since you can make loads of money easily as a techie and im sure money would not be a problem if you were a thief type. :smile:

 

What BadBuck said.
Basically, if you spend a few CPs to be able to overcome the 'money problem' then money won't be a problem for you. If you don't put some CPs into that, then you probably won't be getting the best equipment.

- Stravaig

 

There are a handful of ways of making money a small to trivial problem. It is easy to become the richest person in Shrouded Hills in the demo, but once you get outside to a bigger city, there are more ways to spend money.

In the Beta, I was still concerned about money. But from the few screen shots that I have seen, I sort of infer that money will be a non-issue sometime in the game.

-gustavef

 

As a guess, money will probably be hard to come by for pure fighters and certain types of mages as these types of characters don't inherently generate cash like thieves, gamblers, inventors and the like.

 

a character i can see will have money problems is the diplomat, who is neither a thief, thechie, or a good gambler.

as supplying 5 other NPC with armor, weapons, and other items can be hard to do.

i doubt that the lonewolf fighter will be bothered with money in the long run, aside from a potion consuming character that must buy them instead of create them.

 

I already posted this another forum, but Im going to re-use it.

I think a mage could be the wealthiest 'class' to play.

1) A 'real' mage is not a fighter. They do not go head long into battle. They do not really need armor or weapons. Most of their power and defense comes from spells.

2) They do not need to buy healing potions. There is such thing as healing spells.

3) The only thing they might consider buying is some fat juice. Even so, they can choose to camp out or spend 5 bucks at the inn.

I can see a reason for a Fighter/Mage being more broke then Gary Colemen, but a real and pure mage needs nothing more then his.... brain... or wherever magick comes from. And maybe a gnarled staff & robe just for looks.

Ive never seen gandualf or merlin step foot in a pawn shop.

 

agreed Beelzebub, to some degree anyway.

if they want NPC running around, they will probably need coin to spend on them.

on the other hand mages makes great merchants, and gamblers.

but those who will get the most money is thechies and thieves, and in the end they can probably buy cheap stuff and make it good for most things that covers a characters needs(armor, weapons, items etc).

 

For the most part every type of character will rely on loot for a primary source of income. And for the diplomat that has lots of followers can haul back more loot in one trip then the lone characters. So I think it will balance out.

Also Diplomats will be able to get more money for quests.

In most CRPGs I don't find that I buy that much from vendors. Alot of my cash would be spent on special items (ie like 2000 for the car in Fallout 2).

The Techie may buy the odd componet from time to time.

The high end magic items will be "found" or rewards.

Fighters may trade up a weapon or armour, but that is a one time cost.

But there is nothing that anyone NEEDs to buy. Most of the good stuff is made or is looted. This is more of a fault of all CRPGs. The character does not realy have any expensises in the game. Or at least no ongoing expensise. (You may have to repair an object but only when it is mis-used.)

-gustavef

 

The realy good part of character generation in Arcanium is that anyone can take any skill.

And in comes the Tech-Diplomat, with some schematics to generate money and a load of followers to do the fighting.And as a good merchant he has good Haggling skill to get the most of what he sells. :wink:

 

I disagree. You can be a frugal techie and make lots of wealth.

Yes, but a tech character can make his own weapons and armor out of the stuff he finds laying around. There's parts all over some locations.

Even in shrouded hills, you can find some nice raw materials for what you need early on.

You don't need to buy it, just scrounge around and build it yourself.

Ahhh.. But the tech character can make healing salves, Healing Jackets, and other things to cure and heal himself with Herbology and Electricity fields.

Most of the plants can be found by scrounging around the crash site or a random encounter area.

Can't techies make that too? :smile:


Basically, the point of this is that either tech or magick can make a lot of wealth if you're inclined to do it. I think tech might have an edge because they're tradesmen. They can make stuff to sell.

 

To answer Monkey's concerns that the Diplomat will be the hardest character to have money with, I have one answer: Haggle. (Or Bargain. I have suddenly forgot what they call it, so I shall call it Haggle.)

With Haggle and even a simple Apprenticeship in it, you're getting goods under cost. The more Haggle you get, the more under cost. And you eventually start getting into the occasional "sell it for more than you can buy it" situation.

Wonderful!

Oh, and Proverb: Tech also requires the most money to maintain, since you won't always get into the "sell it for more than you can buy the parts for" situation, not to mention you'll end up using a lot of what you buy for yourself. Sure, you can, but with some notable exceptions (herbology and the heal brew, explosives and the grenades), it almost seems more trouble than it's worth to try. And as you're looking for all the parts, you end up using poor Mead-Mug as a mule, if you have him at all.

-Thenomain (NMI)


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Thenomain on 2001-05-23 01:22 ]</font>

 

It was Haggle
You are correct.

 

no character that spends CP will have a really hard time with cash imo, aside for the gambler with no skill in it.

or people giving their cash to robbers all the time :smile:

 

Bah, I kill the robbers take their clothes and weapons and money then sell it

 

So, a half-orc 'beat with an ugly stick' techie focusing only on smithy and mechanical is going to be rolling in money simply because he can build things?

I've been favouring techies in the demo and most of them are short on cash because I won't spend a point in haggle or gamble and am unconcerned with raising CH or BE. I have yet to make a techie who can make a profit buying steel & iron from shopkeepers and making/selling the resultant pure ore, same with dwarven gauntlets and balanced swords (515 for a hilt alone -vs- 100+ resale value?).

Making blanket statements based solely on a character's 'class' tendencies presents a false impression because its only a small part of the equation. Race, reputation, what schematics you choose, BE, CH, tech/magick tendencies, alignment can all be at play in purchase and sales prices.

 

yes i think the point has been made about 'some' of the creations being non-profitable. but to be honest there are some that can make you a very large profit. and you will not need to make very many of the non-profitable ones in order to survive imo.

 

I make a profit buying the stuff needed to make flintlock pistols and then selling them

 

Sure, some allow for wealth creation (whole lot of little Adam Smiths running about). But you have to intentionally shape a character to take advantage of that. Claiming a techie (with no qualifiers) will have it easy financially is not supportable, based on the demo.

 

IT has to depend on what you do, and how much xp you make before trying to, I always find it easy when selling guns (sold a revolver for nearly 2000)