Being attacked by a thief? Find out who he is!
Potions’ and elixirs’ effects in different combats
Artifacts with the "Artifact shop" status
Faction skills, parameters, and players
Dynamics of character development
Estates
Author: панацея
I was looking for a house in our favorite game - LordsWM. In order to get the best one possible, I have made an estate analysis. I am pretty sure, it will be interesting for those of you, who is looking for a house as well, and for those, who is generally interested in LWM's news.
So...
As we can see, there are 971 houses total. 88 of them are kind of free (Owned by blocked heroes or by The Empire herself). It may sound funny, but the houses that are owned by blocked players are still working and earning money for their owners. It is possible, of course, that soon we will have a large house sale or a massive house destruction. Any of these scenarios will bring opportunities for players and lower rank houses.
The table above, is a rating of players that own 4+ houses.
Just to give a better clue about cash flow in the game, the table below shows total cash flow based on recent house purchases. Of course, it doesn't provide the view of the whole situation, but I found it stunning anyway.
Changes in average house prices
In order to calculate average house prices I have used the last market deals that involve them. I did not take into consideration ”fishy” prices that were much lower than others (most likely they were balanced by artifact trading). The reduction in average prices in 2011-2012 is explained by two game servers coming together. Prices on lordswm.com were a bit lower than on heroeswm.ru. I have to point out at the fact that usually houses stay in hands of their first or second owner after they are sold on auctions by Empire. Just about 30% are undergoing a further trade (this is the main factor in price rise).
The prices have risen significantly from the time houses were introduced in 2009 (average price 1 mln) to our days (average price 4-5 mln). In my opinion this has happened due to money generated by players. Most of the events payback, and sometimes even make a profit. War guilds and salary allow players to save up for castle upgrades, Thief's Guild and Tactic's Guild. Which means that if a hero does not change faction and just does everything that is possible in the game, he will constantly generate profit and save up more and more money.
Conclusion:
Estate's payback period is really long, so the house income is very convenient for those who takes long breaks in the game. For example if someone goes to a military camp or a long working trip etc. We can question whether it is legal because player is generating money without playing.
House is pretty much just an investment, like in a real life. It saves your character from inflation as well as giving you a certain ”status”.
Increasing house's inventory is, no doubt, a great feature for merchants. But not many payers use it. To be honest, I, personally, would love to see houses rather participating in events and wars. If you think about it, the whole game is based around wars (sadly mostly against bots) and only after wars comes trading system.
In my opinion it will be a great idea to turn a house into a castle (like in the original Heroes of Might and Magic). This will bring us another type of exciting battles (something like Clan Wars). If you have a house, be prepared to defend it. Build towers, catapults and defend your estate. Not prepared? Then hire someone who is! Own a bunch of houses? Be ready to spend a lot of money to protect them. And if you loose too many times, you can say ”Bye” to your Sweet Home.
I mean seriously, there are battles everywhere, armies get destroyed for 150 gold, while large, expensive houses are empty...
