Patch Feature Request: loan timer

[tormos]

So thanks for all the needless harshness, various posters. As various people rightly conjectured, I was playing as a small duchy and got a lucky full duchy claim on my (smaller) neighbor. The war was long over and I was trying to decide whether I should invest in my economy more with my spare money or save it for paying the loan back. Since keeping 300 gold around for what could have been 3 years for all i knew would have been a massive waste, I ended up spending it only for the loan to fall due the next month. This engendered my rather frustrated post. Glad to hear plenty of other peoples rants about how I'm not playing a single player game right though.

 

[Panzram]

Now sure if it would be fitting: wasn't the big problem for loaners of the age the fact that they could do absolutely nothing if a monarch decided to never return the loan?

In the situations where I've ran into debt I've found this to be the case. I'd support a loan timer, because five years is a long enough time to forget about your debts, but the penalty for not paying the moneylenders back is just a tiny prestige hit, so I can usually just pay them back "when I feel like it".

 

[Hastyr]

So thanks for all the needless harshness, various posters. As various people rightly conjectured, I was playing as a small duchy and got a lucky full duchy claim on my (smaller) neighbor. The war was long over and I was trying to decide whether I should invest in my economy more with my spare money or save it for paying the loan back. Since keeping 300 gold around for what could have been 3 years for all i knew would have been a massive waste, I ended up spending it only for the loan to fall due the next month. This engendered my rather frustrated post. Glad to hear plenty of other peoples rants about how I'm not playing a single player game right though.

I still like your suggestion though.
Even though you are obviously playing the game wrong

 

[tormos]

I was under the impression that not paying the loan back after extending it once incurs a tax malus as well as a prestige hit. I may be wrong as I have yet to actually do so.

 

[Hastyr]

you lose 50 or so prestige if you cant pay, the malus you get is ~20% for 3 years or so I think. Also the first time you cant pay and you had a 'low' interest loan it gets increased to the high increase one and you take a prestige hit.

 

[LordNeidhart]

This. I was thinking of it last night while playing, it sounds quite silly that you can't even check when the loan is due. Nor repay it early actually.
Also, ladies, please. You all are beautiful.

 

[MrWeRD]

How about not getting to the point where you need to borrow in the first place? I've seen moneylender events only as an Islamic ruler, but I'm pretty sure the interest rate for Christian rulers are also sky-high.

Still not as bad as some modern money-lenders. I hear the interest rates for Cash Call Loans can be as high as 140% per month.

 

[vertinox]

It is unfortunate you still do not understand why you are wrong.

The answer that was given is, to use a saying, to treat the disease, not the symptom. If you do not understand why this is not only an answer, but also helpful, then please think about it some more. Besides, you have not answered the OP's question, nor even attempted to do so.

Read the OP's post again:

"I would really like some indicator of when those silly merchants will be wanting their gold back, and if I should spend money on my economy or be saving."

He expressed doubt as to how he should handle his finances. We are giving him some advice. So why are you disturbed by this?

He is asking for a feature to tell him when the gold is due. Not how much gold I should keep around. I mean if if there was an alert telling him he needs to repay the 250 gold loan due on a certain date the answer to how much gold he needs to have is obvious. It's a feature request, not a "how should I play" statement.

 

[yezhanquan]

Also there's no interest on these loans? I wish I lived in the Middle Ages. LOL.

The interest used in the game is simple interest. So, you borrow 200, you pay back 300@ 50% (or 250@ 25% with high Stewardship) after 5 years.

Still not as bad as some modern money-lenders. I hear the interest rates for Cash Call Loans can be as high as 140% per month.

The wonders of compound interest. Anyone can confirm if compound interest is a modern invention, or been around since the Middle Ages?

 

[Arizal]

I see no reason to answer bluntly to a suggestion by prescribing to not do what let the situation happens, but I won't talk anymore of this debate.

I think it is a good idea that, as long as a feature is in the game, it should be apparent and you should indeed be able to see what is coming in the foresable future. Kings at this time were certainly not reminded their loans were due the very day they had to repay them (except if they had bad stewart or were simply incompetent). Anyway, I would like as an option that some counters like this were more visible. I think there is an icon about owed loans, but I may be wrong and anyway they might not be visible enough, especially when you are used to have several icons on the top of the screen.

 

[Prince Michael]

No way you can avoid paying 760g when your chancellor, after 10 years, finally fabricates a claim that is on a duchy, because if you let that chance go by, you're being silly.

That situation happened to me many times, sometimes even with counties because my income was so high and the price stupidly scales with income. It's sometimes just better to take a loan or take no loan at all and be in the negative for a while.

Management of finances has NOTHING to do with it. If you insist on keeping 1000g in your account to weather all eventualities, a rival could overtake your development by spending the same amount. Because uninvested money is dead money.

Exactly. And sometimes you might have to pay war concessions which may come as a surprise. There are countless times when taking the loan may be a good option. So to the OP, I would like to see a debt timer. Because if I have time, I could invest the money. If they are coming next month, I would save the money and pay them back.

I find this thread and the tone of some of the posters very odd and exceptional when considering how helpful and constructing the forum users usually, like 99% of time, are.

 

[UristMcLocal]

I think this is a very good suggestion, perhaps it could be placed as a notification, similar to the 'truces expire in x-days' notification (but for a much longer period of course).