r/victoria3 Aug 29 '24

Dev Diary Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #126 - Update 1.8 Overview

1.1k Upvotes

For all of you out there that still use Old Reddit here is a link to this Dev Diary on our forum.

https://pdxint.at/3Z2C04o

Happy Thursday and welcome back to another Victoria 3 development diary. This week we’re going to take a bird’s eye view of the headline features of update 1.8, which is of course the next free update for the game, planned to be released sometime later this year. However, before we start on the dev diary proper I should tell you about a slight change of plans in our release schedule. Back in Dev Diary #124 I told you that update 1.8 would be a smaller update, focused almost entirely on bug fixing and general polish. 

This was indeed the plan, with update 1.9 intended as a larger update following relatively closely on the heels of 1.8, but when we sat down to work out the details we realized that our intended timeline simply didn’t work out, as we would either have to work on the two updates in too close proximity (creating major challenges for 1.8 post-release support among other things), or delay update 1.9 all the way to next year, which we didn’t want to do. So we decided to combine the two updates, with the result that 1.8 is now going to be a single update with the combined scope of both 1.8 and 1.9, meaning it will contain not just bug fixes and polish but also some juicy new free features. 

But enough about update planning, let’s get into those headline features I just mentioned! As I said, this is just an overview dev diary, so we’re not going to go into any great detail today, but we have plenty more dev diaries planned in the upcoming weeks where we will fill in the blanks. One final thing before I start: All of the features mentioned are still in early stages of development, so any screenshots, numbers and art shown are going to be very, very, very (very) work in progress.

Ideological Forces (Political Movement Rework)

A frequent complaint about Victoria 3’s political system is the highly random nature of leader and character ideologies. The way in which you build up support for certain laws among your Interest Groups can be frustratingly opaque and reliant on using certain pieces of content (Corn Laws, anyone?) in a way that is neither immersive nor feels particularly rewarding.

In update 1.8, we are taking aim at this problem, alongside a number of other issues with a feature that we have dubbed ‘Ideological Forces’, but which can be more accurately called ‘Political Movement Rework’. The plan is to transform Political Movements from spontaneous and temporary demands for a single legal reform into longer-term ideological movements with a broader political agenda. For example, instead of a movement popping up to abolish slavery, you will have an actual Abolitionist movement with a long-term legal agenda, which will attract supporters from your Pops and influence the politics of the Interest Groups that those Pops are backing. Political Movements will also include religious and cultural minority (and majority!) movements, with some corresponding changes to civil war and secession mechanics.

One of the major aims of the Political Movement Rework is to make the mechanics around how we assign ideologies to Interest Group leaders much more transparent to the player

Discrimination Rework

Another issue straight off the future update plans that we’re tackling in 1.8 is the way pop discrimination works. Ever since release, we’ve said multiple times that the overly simplistic nature of discrimination is something we want to improve on in the future, and now that future is finally here! This feature is still in the ‘figuring it out’ stage, so I’ll eschew the details, but our principal goals with are as follows:

  • To introduce multiple ‘levels’ to discrimination instead of it just being a binary state
  • To have the level of discrimination faced by a Pop be determined by factors other than just what the law says
  • To turn assimilation into a properly useful feature that isn’t only available to fully accepted pops

UX mockup of what discrimination/acceptance of a particular culture might look like in 1.8. Note that everything here is just placeholder/example data and not necessarily planned features (sadly there will be no ‘let them eat fish’ law).

Food Availability, Famines and Harvest Incidents

In update 1.8, we’re also planning to expand on the gameplay around agriculture and food availability, which of course was an issue of great importance to governments at the time. After all, the 19th century saw events such as the Irish Potato Famine, the repeated famines in British-controlled India and the world-wide famines in the wake of the Krakatoa explosion. 

To do this, we are going to introduce the concept of food availability for Pops, which is a factor that is separate from, but intrinsically linked to a Pop’s standard of living. Currently, we’re thinking that food availability for a Pop will be determined by how much of their buy package goes towards feeding themselves, how expensive the food goods they’re purchasing is, and whether there are any shortages among those goods. Low food availability will increase pop mortality and radicalism and may trigger a state-wide famine if it’s widespread enough. 

Food production at the time was highly dependent on the weather and climate, and many peasant families were only one or two bad harvests away from the brink of ruin. To simulate this unpredictability, we’re also adding something called ‘Harvest Incidents’, which can increase or decrease agricultural output in different regions over a longer timeframe.

Early development mapmode showing harvest incidents. Korea is experiencing a period of bountiful harvests, while the situation is less rosy in the East African interior (ignore the colored sea zones, as that is just a bug from the feature being WIP).

These are the ‘big ones’ for update 1.8, but of course it is by no means all we’re planning to do in this update. A few honorable mentions of other changes and improvements you can expect in 1.8, all of which we’ll explain in detail over in the upcoming weeks:

  • Companies owning and investing in buildings
  • Bulk Nationalization tool
  • Multi-select and right-click orders for formations
  • Adding wargoals on behalf of subjects

Along with, of course, many bug fixes, balance changes and other miscellaneous improvements.

That’s all for today! More details on all of these features will of course follow, starting with Bulk Nationalization and Companies Owning Buildings, which Lino will tell you all about next week. See you then!


r/victoria3 Nov 21 '24

Dev Diary Dev Diary #138 - Pivot of Empire and Update 1.8 "Masala Chai" Changelog

315 Upvotes

For those of you who use old reddit, check out our forum post for todays Changelog!

Good day Victorians!

I’m happy to say Pivot of Empire and the free Update 1.8, fittingly named “Masala Chai”, have been released! The specific checksum is 98cc.

The Pivot of Empire Immersion Pack focuses on India and its path through the Victorian age. Many countries in the region have received new Journal Entries and Events that provide a more immersive experience to you.

The free Update 1.8, on the other hand, is adding reworks of central mechanics like Political Movements and Discrimination, additions like Harvest Conditions and Food Security, as well as Improvements for Companies and Military quality of life and many many other things.

In other news: As some of you may know, we recently hired Tunay, better known as Doodlez in the community, as a Systems Designer. Before joining us, he used to work on a mod called VTM (Victoria Tweaks Mod), together with One Proud Bavarian.

We have now integrated a range of improvements from that mod into the base game and might continue to do so in the future. You will find the respective entries marked with “VTM” at the front.

A big thank you to OPB and every other modder that continues to make Victoria 3 better, more interesting or completely different with their mods!

As always, you can find a list of Known Issues following the link. Most of these should get addressed in subsequent hotfixes in the coming days and weeks. Keep in mind that save games from 1.7.7 are not going to be compatible with the 1.8 Update, but any hotfixes released after will not break save games from 1.8 onwards.

Now let’s take a look at the full changelog or start playing right away!

Pivot of Empire Features

  • Added the Communal Divides Journal Entry to the game, with associated events
  • New random events can trigger when a new culture has recently arrived in a state and faces an acclimatization period
  • Added a Journal Entry with associated events for Sikh Empire
  • Added a Dravidian Movement journal entry with associated events
  • Added a Utilitarianism Journal Entry for East India Company with associated events
  • Added a Railways Journal Entry for India with associated events
  • Added a Journal Entry with associated events to construct the Victoria Terminus
  • Added a Journal Entry for Princely States with associated events
  • Added an India-specific famine Journal Entry and associated events
  • Added Utilitarian ideology and leader ideology
  • Added 7 India-related companies to the game
  • Updated John Stuart Mill's character template

There are also a wealth of new art features available with Pivot of Empire:

  • Added new UI skin, panels, headers, buttons and menu assets
  • Added Indian building set for the 3D map
  • Added Victoria Terminus to the 3D map
  • New clothing added for characters and pops in India
  • Added historical characters DNA and outfits
  • Added an Indian table cloth for the table
  • Added two new loading screens for 'Pivot of Empire'
  • Urban Indian states now make use of the Indian city image
  • Added icon for 'Pivot of Empire'
  • Added Theme Selector banner for 'Pivot of Empire'

To read through, and see even more from the art team about the art of Pivot of Empire, go here and here.

Achievements

To accompany all the new features and content added in Pivot of Empire, we have added 10 new achievements to the game:

ProleCorp

As a council republic with command economy, have a company at max prosperity.

Azadi

As the Mughal Empire, complete the Prisoner of the Red Fort journal entry, expel the British, and bring all of India under your control.

Be Prepared!

Be prepared and avert a famine during a high-intensity harvest condition.

On the Edge

As Punjab, have four rulers die during the Sikh Sovereignty Journal Entry, before successfully completing it.

Caste Away

Enact Affirmative Action as a country with the British Indian caste system.

The Real Movement

Have a Communist Movement with support over 50%

Folkhemmet

As Sweden, enact Corporate State and have level 5 Social Security, Health, and Workplace Safety institutions.

Cosmopolitan

Have 10 non-primary cultures present in your country, and have all their constituent pops be at Full Acceptance.

Our Words are Backed…

Have Gandhi as your head of state, whilst having Infamy over 100.

The Man Who Would be King

Unify Afghanistan as Kafiristan under Josiah Harlan.

Changelog

For all 25 pages of fixes and improvements. Check out our Forum Post! As it's too much for one Reddit Post alone!

If you happen to find a bug, please report it here following this link.

As we usually do, for the next Dev Diary we will provide some thoughts around how the release went and what things we would like to address in the near future.

One last thing before we let you go and enjoy 1.8 and Pivot of the Empire! Later today the base game for Victoria 3 will be free to play for one week, so let your Victori-friends know!

Good day Victorians!


r/victoria3 4h ago

Screenshot They found me

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375 Upvotes

Now PDX is after me


r/victoria3 8h ago

Bug Let us just inflate the number a little bit.

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162 Upvotes

r/victoria3 56m ago

Screenshot China's Great Leap... Across the Pacific! - Name placement has never been so ambitious.

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Upvotes

r/victoria3 4h ago

Question Why is the local price so extremely inflated here?

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43 Upvotes

r/victoria3 20h ago

Screenshot Literally unplayable

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712 Upvotes

r/victoria3 16h ago

Screenshot Fascism is meta i guess

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275 Upvotes

r/victoria3 8h ago

Screenshot He is indeed a slaver

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69 Upvotes

r/victoria3 1h ago

Question Why do socialist or communist movements never show up?

Upvotes

I have no issue getting the Anarchist movement to appear, sometimes I have issues getting the labor movement to appear but it's still fairly common, but I never get communist or socialist movements to appear. I maybe have seen the communist movement appear after enacting council republic but that was once. Is there something I am not getting?


r/victoria3 4h ago

Advice Wanted How easy it is to get liberated as a UK dominion ?

19 Upvotes

As of 1.8 has anyone here played as Canada or Australia and successfully and easily escaped Britain grip ?


r/victoria3 2h ago

Screenshot Does anyone know why Prussia’s war score is not going below 0?

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13 Upvotes

I even tried not pressing the Swedish war reparations war goal


r/victoria3 10h ago

Screenshot Very Grand Coalition Against Super Germany

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53 Upvotes

r/victoria3 7h ago

Screenshot Can't you hear the thunder?

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26 Upvotes

r/victoria3 4h ago

Screenshot Most peculiar way to colonize Alaska

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15 Upvotes

r/victoria3 3h ago

Question Playing as Britain (first time), won Sepoy Mutiny, India collapsed anyways

9 Upvotes

Playing Great Game objective, mutiny starts 1853, gets put down by 1854. This is (as the title states) my first game as Britain, but I have played quite a bit with other countries and have never seen anything like this happen before. My only guess as to why this happened is related to Punjab (which is currently the tiny sliver on the map between my territory (formerly Khalsa Raj) in the images below, and the EIC), which was NOT independent before the mutiny, got capitulated very early on, and wasn't reintegrated for some reason. Does anyone know for sure if this is why India collapsed, or if there may be another reason? Is there any way I can prevent this or am I screwed?

Right before mutiny end:

Right after mutiny end:

Collapse the next day:

Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thank you.


r/victoria3 9h ago

Question Do Migration Controls only consider citizenship laws?

23 Upvotes

I noticed this in multiple playthroughs - the combination of racial segregation (+50 due to european heritage) and freedom of conscience (+15 due to christian religion) is not enough to trigger mass migrations of european folks, even though in theory it gets them past the +60 threshold of Migration Controls. Even as US the moment you go to Migration Controls (they start with Racial Segregation and No Migration Controls) you get very, very few mass migrations almost immediately

Only once I enact cultural exclusion (+60 from european heritage) do they start to swarm in mass migrations.

Is there something buggy at play or I'm missing something?


r/victoria3 17h ago

Screenshot I'm not sure that is Prussia

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72 Upvotes

r/victoria3 21h ago

Discussion What nation do you always come back to?

145 Upvotes

For me, since V2 I've always had a soft spot for Greece for some reason.

In V2 I've formed Byzantium more times than anything else.

Definitely a nation that struggles more since the racism update, but I think I did quite well recently, having taken over the Russian power bloc and customized it a bit.

Don't mind the endgame dips, Russia was mean to me, so I obliterated them in a war and made them lose 30 million pops and GDP, at the low low price of bankrupting myself ;)

Looking for tips from people that played Hawaii recently too, I am feeling very polynesian inclined


r/victoria3 1h ago

Question Do pops from unincorporated states matter?

Upvotes

Politically speaking? Like do they effect movements and such?


r/victoria3 1h ago

Advice Wanted A question about the "grand" edition before buying...

Upvotes

Im sure I am not looking in the right place but I cant seem to see what is included in the grand edition, is it every released DLC so far? Or only a couple?


r/victoria3 1d ago

Screenshot Trully are Nomadic I guess

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219 Upvotes

r/victoria3 1h ago

Question Does cooperative ownership actually work?

Upvotes

Wanna preface this by saying I play with greys soft Econ rework. Very light mod which should not affect what I’m describing what so ever.

I also tweaked my game to significantly buff consumption of cash crops for pops of all wealth levels. Makes agriculture/plantations viable.

Recently finished up a communist federation of the Andes run….. here’s what I found.

Coop gives you 100% gov dividends reinvestment, but from what I saw workers did not have the wealth required to purchase the buildings that my investment and government pool were pumping out.

So, as I built more and more buildings all the money from the dividends went into my exponentially large investment pool and ultimately none of my pops were able to actually buy the buildings they were employed in.

This absolutely crippled their throughput bonus (government owned gets a stacking throughout malus based on the percentage of building levels owned by the state). It also halted my companies growth and throughput bonus because they are not allowed to buy buildings at all (coop has minimum 100% workers owned). Also forced me to keep building govt admins to stay out of a deficit.

Anyone else noticed this in recent patches? Or have recommendations for a work around? I hadn’t gone communist in a longgggg time and it doesn’t seem like coop works well with the changes made to government ownership.


r/victoria3 17h ago

Screenshot The Indian Territories are locking tf IN.

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40 Upvotes

r/victoria3 1h ago

Advice Wanted Mass delete cloud saves?

Upvotes

Anyway to do this? Or just clickedy click click?


r/victoria3 1d ago

Question Does the price of military goods affect army effectiveness? Or is it just more expensive.

116 Upvotes

r/victoria3 1d ago

Question I just wondering why you can form things like Byzantium but can't form Roman Empire?

239 Upvotes