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Tales of Androgyny

A game about birds, bees, flowers and trees. · By Majalis

The Bank, Debt, and Interest Rates

A topic by Moltar123 created Aug 05, 2021 Views: 1,104 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(+1)

The interest rates are far too high, and it quickly becomes impossible to unscrew yourself given how fast the debt can pile up. I remember having to restart a playthrough because as pleasant as having Puca on my ass (literally), it got annoying having to deal with having to skip through the interaction after the N'th time. I actually remember it getting in the thousands... all this from a small loan of a million dollars 50 GP... and each day, it would accrue thousands more, and I knew I was had. The Yakuza may have absurd interest rates, but man this really takes the cake...

I did some scrounging around to see exactly how debt accumulation is handled. Here is what I found...

public Array<MutationResult> debtTick(int ticks) {
    if (this.debt > 0) {
      float newDebt = this.debt;
      for (int ii = 0; ii < ticks; ii++)
        newDebt *= 1.1F;       
      return modDebt(Integer.valueOf((int)Math.ceil(newDebt) - this.debt));
    }     
    return new Array();
  }


The `ticks` parameter is the number of days (there are 6 'ticks' per day, but this tick doesn't correspond to that tick and is instead the number of days) that have passed. Each time a day has passed, it multiplies your debt by 1.1x, being 10% per day. This comes out to be a ridiculously high 1899878761.258% APY, which is literally impossible to pay off. Below is a simple graph that shows how much debt you would accrue over the span of 1 month of in-game time, which isn't too long given how adventures can go. 


Some events in the game can go on for multiple days; analyzing encounters.json, some go for as long as 3 days, others ~9 days (Harpy marriage), and so this can cause you to either have to reload because of how high the debt has piled up, or just cheat and modify the debt counter yourself. 

I know that this may be intentional, as in it is a trap to enslave naive adventurers taking on a small loan, but it is punishing for the player when you can't even fight your way out of your debt (talking to the banker when you owe results in an immediate game over last I tried), and Puca believes your ass is only worth about 25 GP, which is more or less an insult to injury here. I think that the curve should be adjusted to be far more reasonable, i.e. compound _weekly_ instead of daily, or perhaps set a smaller growth rate that decreases over time.

Developer(+2)

It is intentional, but I'll be adding more options to get out of debt (partial and full relief) and probably toning down how fast it accrues, including maybe offering different interest rates based on... collateral.

(+1)

Maybe also a purist outcome (non-sexual) that involves combat, too? I was like level 20+ and was easily taking down the Demon King and all other powerful enemies, but maybe include a combat-centric approach that involves taking out the corrupt loan shark business? It would be interesting if it had something along the lines of Puca not having any more work and joining the player's party, or maybe taking over the business? Just an idea I want to pitch.