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Genre: Simulator, Strategy

Victoria 3

Modcon IV! From June 13th to June 15th

[p]Ladies and Gentlemen! My name is Lord R, one of the modders behind Morgenröte and an organizer for ModCon. Paradox has kindly allowed us to use their telegram system to spread the word about our great Exhibition of mods![/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/36033026/9f659dd8669c5bfa6353c559548de78c0b3aecf0.png"][/p][p][/p][p]PDX ModCon is the community owned and organised three-day showcase and celebration of Paradox mods; specifically those of Victoria 3, Imperator: Rome and Crusader Kings III. Over several live streams on YouTube we'll be presenting new trailers and showcases for over 40 mods. We have everything from updates to established mods like Gates of the Bosphorus and Realms of Exether, to the introduction of new projects small and large. [/p][p][/p][p]Besides that we will have live interviews with several mod teams, giveaways, and discussions with some of our community about mod-adjacent subjects. And throughout the event we will be gathering money for the cause that all of our games owe to: the monuments of the world. The World Monuments Fund has been working for sixty years to preserve, protect and rebuild the physical cultural heritage that we all benefit from. Whether that be rebuilding a Yazidi shrine destroyed by conflicts, guiding sustainable tourism to Khmer temples, or setting up an authentic garden in the Palace of Versailles. [/p][p][/p][p]Join us, starting this Friday the 13th! For more information, visit the official ModCon website and join the Discord server.[/p]

Dev Diary #150 - Charters of Commerce & Update 1.9 “Lady Grey” Changelog

[p]
[img src="https://clan.fastly.steamstatic.com/images//40579353/ed1a40ae55ca9c1e3285de61ba2bcd422f3802d4.jpg"][/p][p]Hello Victorians! A very Happy Thursday to you all! [/p][p][/p][p]With Charters of Commerce releasing next week on June 17th, we thought you might like an early look at the changelog and get even more excited a chance to start dissecting the contents before release. Alongside Charters of Commerce is, of course, an accompanying free Update; 1.9 “Lady Grey”. Keeping in our tradition of naming updates after tea, this time with a tea that is a spin on Earl Grey with orange and/or lemon peel in - personally I prefer the original with shortbread biscuits.[/p][p][/p][p]If you crave to see the mechanics pack in action before release, then we have a treat already prepared for you! This series of pre-release streams featuring Martin and Daniel attempting to make the world reliant on Argentinian beef, should satisfy that craving.[/p][p][/p][p]That is not all! Starting tomorrow we will release a series of videos going through major features coming in the pack on our video channels![/p][p][/p][p]The weekend is not only busy on our end, but sees another edition of Modcon, the friendly modder-run event that shares fascinating mods, key advice, interviews and raises money for charity. Starting tomorrow until the 15th, so check out the Victoria 3 segment![/p][p][/p][p]With that all said, welcome to the changelog![/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXebSj8cfEoKWv2wyQl4hykLblCCLHWpfeW8R4W3DbY4FflBku6a7_fLo3O6qqd0S_PkKLDIwYsGB7U2zvtpFVts513JiP5HpmaF5EdwfABlCpnj0HtQFoCXgZOskIOrUCRNluRzrQ?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p]

Features of Charters of Commerce

[p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.fastly.steamstatic.com/images//40579353/7d05f04cf90cf20cdc7f9334d8e82cd481023f1d.jpg"][TAG-50][/p]
  • [p]Added Company Charters: They provide new, different sets of rights to the company in question.[/p]
    • [p]Give your companies a Colonization Charter and profit from colonization bonuses and see the company become a country this way.[/p]
    • [p]Investment Charters allow your company to set up Regional HQs in other countries to extract wealth from them.[/p]
    • [p]Adding the Industry Charter allows a company to expand into a new industry type.[/p]
    • [p]The Monopoly Charter prevents other actors from constructing new levels of the selected industry and provides a hefty discount to buying up more levels.[/p]
    • [p]A country has a number of free Company Charters to hand out among their companies. Things like laws or technologies can change this limit. You can go above the limit for an authority cost.[/p]
  • [p]The Trade Charter will be free to use for everybody and allows your companies to build, buy and run Trade Centers.[/p]
  • [p]Added Prestige Goods: They are luxurious or high quality variants of existing goods, e.g. Champagne replacing Wine. They are produced by companies that are prosperous and improve various aspects like a higher Trade Advantage on the World Market, shifting Pop spending if many Prestige Goods are available or providing a throughput bonus to buildings that consume Prestige Goods. There are about 35 historical Prestige Goods and 15 more generally available ones, unlocked by completion of a Journal Entry.[/p]
  • [p]Added Country Monopolies: Monopolies are not just limited to companies, countries can hold them too. Just like the Monopoly Charter, it prevents other actors in the country from building new levels. Monopolies also increase the market price of affected goods.[/p]
  • [p]Added a number of extra Treaty Articles (see more info on the general system in the free feature section):[/p]
    • [p]No Tariffs on Goods[/p]
      • [p]The country is not allowed to set tariffs on a specific input good when trading with the World Market[/p]
    • [p]No Subventions on Goods[/p]
      • [p]The country is not allowed to set subventions on a specific input good when trading with the World Market[/p]
    • [p]Prohibit trade of good with World Market[/p]
      • [p]The country is not allowed to trade a specific input good with the World Market[/p]
    • [p]Law commitment[/p]
      • [p]The country commits to passing a specific law. As long as they don’t, their side is not fulfilled and the other side of the treaty is inactive[/p]
    • [p]Non-Colonization Agreement[/p]
      • [p]The country is not allowed to colonize a specific strategic region[/p]
    • [p]Grant Monopoly to Foreign Company[/p]
      • [p]Establishes a monopoly for a company in a different country[/p]
  • [p]Added 15 new historical companies to the game, all with custom icons[/p]
  • [p]Charters of Commerce also unlocks the Foreign Investment pacts (now handled in Treaties)[/p]
  • [p]Added a new Power Bloc principle group focused on effects for Companies[/p]
  • [p]Added Character DNA for 26 new historical executives. Executives are a new character role that leaders of companies have. Executives can become Interest Group leaders or even country leaders given the right circumstances. Generic Executives are available for anybody, historical ones come with Charters of Commerce.[/p]
  • [p]Added a new 3D model for Regional Company Headquarters building in all cultures[/p]
  • [p]Added an East India Company DLC coin[/p]
  • [p]Added new key art for the Main Menu showcasing some famous Executives and industry and commerce[/p]
  • [p]Added 5 new Charters of Commerce achievements[/p]
[p][/p]

Achievements

[p][/p][p]To accompany all the new features and content added in Charters of Commerce, we have added 5 new achievements to the game. [/p][p][/p][p]As always, accompanied by some excellent art by our amazing art team - please say which one is your favorite![/p][p][/p][table equalcells="1" colwidth=""][tr][th colspan="2"][p]Achievements coming in Charters of Commerce[/p][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXenZkgEFA41mYL_0KIZwtIYIbFtCZtaBtMn6TzxQB9DAvFNT1Vapa3EYFvOjqT8F5Zf7XbmcmZCak7RVpV0YiMXf8hRc5hVvneZ5Mc2BGj8mUkLscKSJNnhdrx8_oEZtJICeAvr?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]Yes, We Have Bananas![/p][p]Produce prestige good Gros Michel Banana from United Fruit Company and get 25% share of total goods on World Market[/p][/td][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfdjHxhijPoyA1XS66WX2RaD-uO5pcbowkauf3As4CU21bypLazUuEvdYOTRV5gkkQVs94jUoCe57hot9Gpn513o8XSstwdGWPMYQZaY4HFeRMUwJtjW2sumaB9i3kP4rg7vkfA?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]Fordlandia[/p][p]Have an automotive company establish a country via a colony and have a top 10 GDP.[/p][/td][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeAlEGDNRS5hxCVNCbbXZRHavlRD-4eApeLf94zfyOWQt-6lydhrKfpY27B0YdhINTP565L9h53f5WAYolG1tmbDwInAYj-oHJBfiA36x3-npShLiv3-UikJf6M5Jv0B786uT7f?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]Champagne Socialist[/p][p]As a Council Republic, produce more than 100 units of Champagne.[/p][/td][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcrSxfgv9X_pMarKnwdS6zJ_sUzPBWIS3Bmmo10VLm4ItOWU2hIBkQ4qVAIlFV1bSBanEapbT5skZq61l-ypKiMKsQCFg7HfUh0XAtE5qHq5_WwHrjBgttsxZaJNJ-oHByWmArE5g?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]Franchising[/p][p]Establish a Regional HQ and have it own at least 20 levels.[/p][/td][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdp9tOxuDg4O35Lm51ekYpIcM-0RBOLG25TmBDYz4AGn0IP2VXJxuipcMmPjy9hUkmT_-AdquFniT9ZMQjr56XTQtDzCU7uRrgyA2y4E3NIOF0AIylVaFAXUMQxh4Plqdh0BJFr0Q?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][TAG-305][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]Systembolaget[/p][p]As Sweden, have a Country Monopoly on Liquor.[/p][/td][/tr][p][/p][p]Then with free Update 1.9 we also added another 5 achievements to the game too:[/p][p][/p][table equalcells="1" colwidth=""][tr][th colspan="2"][p]Achievements coming in Update 1.9[/p][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfD6ucO-vYpx9Fpco4XNDWtYrTya-5rQnPqfwtthBK3kivcp_pyeK2eYiGB7ahDgHuMjKxGGDjfyjlYRd_NpN5WXLIuW2Q88LckznGDRe5DqiEl8CvYnZQwfUeIHgntlXP1-JKiEA?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]It’s a Blockade[/p][p]Fully blockade a World Market Hub that is connected to at least 100 Trade Centers.[/p][/td][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdg8mA4MV6YKZkodFeczjH59fdXzRn82pz-6FTGF3r2rCycpr9Ia4idAbnWMOwY-BY9_Psf44NE2WwqeJP_wpr4EQ16P7sWVq08hW7F6Ep13LjufIyZxdAeQJgwsehbN66wg7p2zg?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]Swiss Bank Account[/p][p]As Switzerland, make more than 10% of your GDP from money transfer through treaties.[/p][/td][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc8SWiRcfP7A9X0V273E2xxwS3zxn200a9W__XXZYSJrRqVXZF7F0sFMZtcI2oVteMjhOPUK5GK8DinUuX1I7PoonuEKSvxjUAqKTRKUqHc-71Z9fopVxtn_BuBN1zpQwPy60Ib?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]All Quiet on the Western Front[/p][p]Have over a million casualties on a single front.[/p][/td][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdXK7Y8Nwl6CjXbwwxrpixFttfHoy3agZ_9AJPwR60qyhP84TRfHgxkSZRMqZT0LPeYfkRTVPWHXo9K-EiQ86GTIb0L1zCMnyQ1-EJqg9uAkSzSlrU85ThvlTG6qZt_bDK8LlUp?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][TAG-401][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]Wall of Text[/p][p]Have 10 or more articles in a single treaty.[/p][/td][/tr][tr][td][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf0yTIn6GHNLJGED9G4aDwcOncdsRCQxXBYR5n6HVPDp2XU0vebGg2iuRWzaukA49zFUpN6QdrKKVd4knL0zX0UFYiChpwUPJy-JNIFFNQgwhpKYY3XHBPKIY3tcbRDWS1Q0MYg8g?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p][p][/p][/td][td][p]Venice, Vidi, Vici[/p][p]As Venice, have the most Trade Centers in the world.[/p][/td][/tr][p][/p]

Changelog

[p]The following changes have been made to the game compared to 1.8.7:[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeCwgmm3JDFUetH7QIwWomwLnYhXYYDwZlZ2IeoM4o2xIZlhFHy-8Z1QDv1GPBJcbotJexBo-Qh9_UUNuZK9flLTDaEEo0i-ztZdSoyuRHJKxJU8QuiPLNW-AhoaDZJJ1N6T7j1GA?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdvfToi4keO8AvCq_zFoldfX9FebWk_dY7jOAEMhbt8Q6OmKLP7xSOxHtFntTw5mhcUFfCm1at5IjmTMzqdxluKZu4JH5KAYjij_2ilwZvyRWfu6ZOHElUVXUzP_1sdF3M8wM3n?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][TAG-450][/p]

Features

  • [p]Completely reworked the Trade system. The old Trade Routes are gone, and instead there is now a World Market which acts as a top layer above National Markets. Trade Centers will trade autonomously with the World Market, exploiting price differences and Trade Advantage to make a profit. Instead of being automatically created, Trade Centers are now built with Construction Sectors and can be built and owned by Ownership Buildings via the Investment Pool.[/p]
  • [p]Reworked how large parts of the Diplomacy system work by adding Diplomatic Treaties. Set up treaties, equal or unequal, between two countries. Add articles like Alliance, Trade Privileges or Transfer Money and mix and match between them. Other players or the AI will evaluate the whole deal with all components and can suggest changes to it to renegotiate. Alternatively, you can enforce a treaty as a wargoal during peace negotiations.[/p]
  • [p]Removed War Reparations war goal, replaced it with a Transfer Money enforced Treaty article[/p]
  • [p]Reworked Treaty Port, Foreign Investment Rights, Ban Slavery and the Force Nationalization wargoal to use Treaties instead[/p]
  • [p]Reworked front generation algorithm. Fronts that are close, but not directly adjacent to each other are now combined into one big front. They can skip a distance of one state region to do so. This should heavily reduce the amount of front splitting.[/p]
  • [p]Reduced armies shuffling around frontlines by making them more likely to keep their current base camp position[/p]
  • [p]Added a Military Access system. Players can now invade states through neutral countries if they have military access through it secured via a Diplomatic Treaty. This works very similarly to a naval invasion where you determine the armies to be sent to open a new front.[/p]
  • [p]Low supply no longer directly affects unit morale recovery. Instead, it now applies a multiplier to the military formation's organization.[/p]
  • [p]Added bulk editing for formations: Select which formations you want to apply it to and you will see the new bulk editing options. Added functionality for changing mobilization options, merging armies, changing commander orders, mobilizing, demobilizing and raising conscripts of all selected armies at the same time.[/p]
  • [p]Made the British East India Company, Hudson’s Bay Company and Russian American Alaska countries that are related to their respective companies which are now British and Russian respectively. Adjusted their building ownership accordingly.[/p]
  • [p]Added 6 free historical companies[/p]
  • [p]Added a new unique Trade Law for Chinese-culture countries called 'Canton System', which works largely as Isolationism but allows limited trade in Western Guangdong[/p]
  • [p]Added a new 'Blockade' order to Admirals which makes them Blockade any hostile ports connected to the Sea Node they are present in. Blockades reduce World Market Access, Shipping Lane Efficiency and throughput of buildings in the Port hub at a rate depending on the Blockade Strength of the blockading fleet. We also added blockade multiplier effects to two existing admiral traits.[/p]
  • [p]Added event outlines for Journal Entries, which display possible effects for events fired as a result of a Journal Entry completing, failing, or timing out. Event outlines are determined by a triggered_desc system, and so may change depending on various conditions.[/p]
  • [p]After enabling it through a game rule, it is now possible to set a custom RNG seed in the game[/p]
  • [p]Added a new Minority Rights Movement that will draw from less radicalized minorities and attract smaller groups in particular[/p]
  • [p]Added 5 new free achievements[/p]
  • [p]Added the game setting to switch to Vulkan or DX11 as renderer. Default is DX11[/p]

[img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfnopg794Fq-HjOLZ2EYZH4tTedeH4L3iZFbnHYJgc8JqcB519Ue01_cWP6WzTz4VuYERqiDWBIVUD8CfsaaLYbb3cex_A6rOQCXuSV7d80YcjuIqxSwwlhnrXF1v84ecC2pt4PZw?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][TAG-530]

Improvements

  • [p]The "War Machines Industries" building has been renamed to "Automotive Industries". It now produces Cars as its primary good and Tanks and Airplanes as its secondary goods. (based on the "Automotive Industry Rework" mod by indexo4, thank you for the inspiration!)[/p]
  • [p]Added notifications for India to communicate the results of the Indian Home Rule Request Government Reform button (Pivot of Empire)[/p]
  • [p]Companies can now buy building levels that are held by Financial Districts/Manor Houses, if those buildings are of the allowed types for the company[/p]
  • [p]Companies can now be formed from any mix of country-owned & privately held levels and their initial building levels no longer need to be nationalized first[/p]
  • [p]It is now possible to both privatize and nationalize buildings that have full collectivization enabled, so that mixed cooperative ownership economies are fully enabled. Privatizations under full collectivization will result in worker owned levels.[/p]
  • [p]Company HQs no longer employ capitalists under Command Economy and Cooperative Ownership[/p]
  • [p]Many unique companies are now heavily weighted towards establishing their HQ in one or several specific states where they historically resided[/p]
  • [p]Risorgimento annexation events are no longer tied to radical population, but rather active revolutions[/p]
  • [p]Added a new Magnatial ideology for British and Polish landowners, which makes them more inclined in favour of voting laws[/p]
  • [p]Removed all generic technology journal entries except for ones related to art genres. The completion events will now appear as single-fire pulse events instead, triggered by the journal entry's complete conditions.[/p]
  • [p]Templatised modifier values are now based on days instead of months, resulting in more sensible modifier durations[/p]
  • [p]Added a game rule to toggle dynamic naming of states and cities (endonyms vs. exonyms)[/p]
  • [p]Made Railway buildings care about missing Infrastructure rather than Market Access when determining if it should auto-expand[/p]
  • [p]Updated the "An Odious Debt" Journal Entry to tie the current debt value directly to the Journal Entry[/p]
  • [p]London Conference votes are now weighted by the prestige of the country issuing the vote[/p]
  • [p]Added two new variants of the Government Petition event[/p]
  • [p]Red Scare Ark event now has a limit on the number of pops that can be deported (Thanks to EldritchPenguingod on Reddit for reporting this) [/p]
  • [p]Scaled infamy cost for expelling diplomats based on the target country. Expelling Great and Major powers remains at 10 infamy. Minor powers and Unrecognized Major powers go to 7.5 infamy. Insignificant powers and Unrecognized Regional powers go to 5 infamy. Other unrecognized powers go to 2.5 infamy. (Thanks to ShadowJackal on Discord for the idea)[/p]
  • [p]Changed Risorgimento buttons to contribute Activism to applicable movements rather than spawning radicals[/p]
  • [p]Enabled Italian states to annex Italian minor nations if they are the sole Italian unification candidate and have Friendly or above relations with the relevant country[/p]
  • [p]Made it impossible to get the Cosmopolitan achievement just by starting as certain countries. It now requires to start with 3 or fewer accepted cultures.[/p]
  • [p]"War Wounded" Journal Entry and associated events should fire correctly and have been rebalanced[/p]
  • [p]Gold, Rubber and Oil rushes will now happen far less frequently, have had their effects rebalanced, and now have new options to hide future events and apply the chosen effects automatically[/p]
  • [p]The Open Market wargoal is now once again available even if you have Sphere of Influence/Charters of Commerce, as Investment Rights no longer auto-opens markets[/p]
  • [p]The pro-slavery movement now supports Local Police[/p]
  • [p]Many, many events have had their cooldowns drastically increased, to reduce instances of seeing the same event repeatedly[/p]
  • [p]Changed supply routes to end at the current position of the army[/p]
  • [p]All political movements will now use the red ideology icon variant for their core ideology[/p]
  • [p]Added a custom tooltip to option c in spooky_halloween_events.3[/p]
  • [p]Added tooltip to the Readmit the Secessionist States JE to clarify completion conditions[/p]
  • [p]Made Alaska a releasable nation[/p]
  • [p]Removed instances of duplicate Liberal ideologies from the Path to Liberalism completion tooltip[/p]

[img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcRALYyr815EMArsNd0W6BcjbsHIPYv8RdcwYaspYkgSN7myFA4WuZJU-5D0cnrhw9kQ1HlU7c3sntrNGNz2_E95Ib5Qko4q7GYufD4an1VQRHZXku30WHcs-UhNZTD3y7TegBJGw?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"]

AI

  • [p]The AI now has a much better understanding of what is required to form unique companies and is able to pursue specific construction strategies to try and do so[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where the AI wouldn't enact a law even though they should when the supporting movement was having a neutral stance towards a law[/p]
  • [p]Added a missing OR statement which required the AI to have completed Meiji and Russian Serfdom JEs before they'd try to get out of Traditionalism[/p]

[img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdsuRSW5HtiZIWTlbJjZPfobyF7BIW5By8L3R1t1JF7dVoyodt64TPZ4Gm8csQNL4qb76PMsfFIU07FSAJsljFY2H6rf9DQOY46II39YZpifx6M-0F7zpxT9zcob08jD8ze4UBx?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"]

Balance

  • [p]Reduced Company throughput bonuses as it is now easier for Companies to get more building levels[/p]
  • [p]Canal Companies now provide a free company slot as part of their prosperity bonus[/p]
  • [p]Removed the free Company slot from Laissez-Faire economic law[/p]
  • [p]All development buildings (such as Construction Sectors, Railway, Ports etc) now have a base employment level of 1k per level. The cuts to employment were generally in the lowest paying jobs, so universities no longer have one groundskeeper per teacher etc.[/p]
  • [p]Reduced tax rates somewhat to balance against reduced expenses from lower employment in government buildings[/p]
  • [p]Reworked "A Modern Conservative" event into "The Anti-Corn Laws League". The event now spawns a Petit-Bourgeoisie Market Liberal agitator rather than a Landowners Market Liberal agitator, and may strengthen Liberal/Modernizer/Orleanist movements.[/p]
  • [p]Added a baseline drift factor to the Unstable Raj that seeks to drift towards the lower bound of High stability (Pivot of Empire)[/p]
  • [p]Prosperity now goes from 0-100, and companies become prosperous at 100 prosperity, activating their prosperity modifier. They lose prosperous status if it drops below 75 again.[/p]
  • [p]Prosperity now has a target value (based on multiple factors) that it drifts towards over time, with the drift speed based on how many staffed building levels the company has (larger companies gain prosperity faster and lose it slower)[/p]
  • [p]Company productivity is now compared to average productivity of their owned building types, scaled by the number of levels they own in each, when determining impact on prosperity[/p]
  • [p]Added a Construction Efficiency penalty of 20% to unincorporated states[/p]
  • [p]Ports are no longer level capped, and Natural Harbors and equivalent traits now increase port throughput instead of port max level[/p]
  • [p]Gave natural harbour state traits and their flavoured variants a MAPI bonus (thanks to u/rit_cs_student for the suggestion)[/p]
  • [p]Penalties for low organization are now much more severe, with up to 75% penalties to offense/defense[/p]
  • [p]Buildings that are entirely missing an input good will now suffer up to 75% input shortage penalties[/p]
  • [p]Unique companies now generally require fewer building levels to form, with most companies only requiring only 5 levels[/p]
  • [p]Bolstering or suppressing a Movement now also adds a base value to the movement pop attraction, this should make both actions feel much more impactful[/p]
  • [p]Enabled the use of Annex Country diplomatic plays against countries with a rank of Insignificant Power or below[/p]
  • [p]Financial Districts and Company HQs now provide 5 Urbanization per level[/p]
  • [p]Livestock Ranches now have more efficient PMs with higher base profit margins[/p]
  • [p]Grain Farms now have slightly less efficient late-game fertilizer PMs[/p]
  • [p]Pops now prefer to consume non-grain food sources over grain and should generally consume more meat where available[/p]
  • [p]Military buildings now gain and lose input shortages much quicker, since there is an additional lag time on the impact on supply[/p]
  • [p]Military units can now be recruited and PMs requiring a supply of a specific good activated if that good exists in the world market and can theoretically be imported by the relevant state[/p]
  • [p]Modernizer movements now support Proportional/Graduated Taxation and Public Schools[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the malus to abolitionist movement support in slave states for non-USA countries[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the minimum infrastructure value for Paved Roads to appear from 1000 to 500[/p]
  • [p]Replaced and moved around a number of effects on Trade related Power Bloc Principles[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the innovation cap increase on Advanced Research 3 from 10 to 5 (Sphere of Influence)[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the Cohesion restriction for using Regime Change in Ideological Union Power Blocs from 25 to 10 (Sphere of Influence)[/p]
  • [p]Increased the Cohesion cost for using the Subjugation power in Sovereign Empire Power Blocs (Sphere of Influence)[/p]
  • [p]Added a bonus to the Economy of Scale cap to the Transportation 3 principle (Sphere of Influence)[/p]
  • [p]Added a 5% birth rate increase to Religious Convocation Power Blocs (Sphere of Influence)[/p]
  • [p]Reduced authority gain from the Vassalization principles (Sphere of Influence)[/p]
  • [p]Added a throughput penalty to devastation. At maximum devastation, the penalty is 50%.[/p]
  • [p]Made devastation decay a lot slower. It now takes about 3 times as long to recover.[/p]
  • [p]Cultural Minority Movements will now attract radicals more[/p]
  • [p]Changed Equality for All criteria to require average acceptance over 60 for Afro-Americans, rather than base acceptance[/p]
  • [p]If Haiti has a successful revolution, the revolter will now inherit the indemnity payments associated with the Odious Debt Journal Entry[/p]
  • [p]Opium now has a lower base weight for pop consumption, but a much higher chance of becoming an obsession[/p]
  • [p]Decentralised nations will no longer tax their populations[/p]
  • [p]Made Trade Unions, Rural Folk, and Industrialists less likely to form unsustainable parties on their own[/p]
  • [p]Internal Trade and Market Unification Principles no longer give bonuses to company throughput[/p]
  • [p]External Trade Principle now increases Trade Capacity and also increases Trade Advantage when trading with same-power bloc countries[/p]
  • [p]Divine Economics now increases Trade Advantage when trading with same state religion countries[/p]
  • [p]Agitators with the Reformer Ideology are less likely to join the Reactionary Political Movement due to opposing personal ideology[/p]
  • [p]Capped the amount of negative progress gained from loyalists in the "Populist Unrest" and "Spectre Haunting the World" Journal Entries at 3[/p]
  • [p]Added silk potential to Lombardy[/p]
  • [p]Added a level 1 lead mine to the Kanto state[/p]
  • [p]Adjusted Australia's historical building setup to represent the whaling and logging industries[/p]
  • [p]Disabled assimilation for slave pops so that they will no longer assimilate to other cultures[/p]
  • [p]Hanover now retains its Coat of Arms when the personal union breaks[/p]
  • [p]Reduced Aristocrats political strength gain from "A Grain of Power" event[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the liberty desire gained by Princely States upon refusing to establish a new Princely State (Pivot of Empire)[/p]
  • [p]Reduced base Intelligentsia attraction to Radical parties[/p]

[img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeQcHMahbRsl7_m5n1g6jqo_DxrfxKo94kdhaW_mTwFemjqztnQ9NlmGmm4DdopdHndAnUVojMjhnhjX2MijJKCj-u1PYplxLgAnOg6I7oCSRdmckaNjP5qXQmZCB_lvrYp4S_e?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"]

Art

  • [p]Added a bonus paper map that is free for all who sign up for the Newsletter[/p]
  • [p]Created and added several new outfits wearable only by Executives[/p]
  • [p]Added a number of historical Executives DNA[/p]
  • [p]Added a new 3D model representing World Market Hub ports[/p]
  • [p]Added a blockade entity for blockade dioramas[/p]
  • [p]European Industrialists characters can now wear top hats[/p]
  • [p]Updated Convoys icon and Port Building icon to show the new Convoys icon within it[/p]
  • [p]Reworked some military particle effects[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug causing some factory smoke effect to be rotated incorrectly[/p]

[img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd2TjTUp45z9H49iB6p8eZ0hAsauIWJiUpZ67P3-MFShLCJXHeLComqEBbFijvZKBohzhIZqNcxrTIjFv5BmVfP4aSHK5vSL09tGHKW_E4dnF2JTYA6joAugqwbxDyEkJBa3S9d-g?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"]

Audio

  • [p]Fixed a bug where music eventually started looping indefinitely when the Music Density Slider was set to maximum[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where dismissing a message notification sound was not playing on right-click[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where the shimmering sound for principle selection UI had a delayed start[/p]
[p][/p][p][img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXedDSRGpApDuDKfk47QU_x2uYOmFanGWpeyW8Gx2Xhn9JDqM8sykMWImezs7qEqSiwv5e4CyjAEZYG5lEj2gS2YRvY1AeVlTvWmmxcNjka161KRhpL6Z-glWSAzl3KWPehov7Ebxg?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][TAG-980][/p]

Content

  • [p]Added an event and special decision to a British East India Company that successfully averts the Indian Uprising in the Unstable Raj journal entry (Pivot of Empire)[/p]
  • [p]Added a new character ideology called Modernizer[/p]
  • [p]Added new Entrepreneur character traits for Executives and added Executive relevant statistics to existing traits[/p]
  • [p]Added Albert Einstein character template and DNA[/p]
  • [p]Made the "Imperialism of Promise" Journal Entry mutually exclusive with the British Raj (Pivot of Empire)[/p]
  • [p]Added a Journal Entry for annexing the Princely States as an independent or Home Ruled India (Pivot of Empire)[/p]
  • [p]Added Character DNA to 4 existing historical characters[/p]
  • [p]Added Ada Lovelace character and DNA[/p]
  • [p]Added Florence Nightingale DNA, character template and agitator event[/p]
  • [p]Japanese emperors and their heirs are now spawned correctly when the "Honorable Restoration" Journal Entry is completed on the historically appropriate date[/p]
  • [p]Added two new generic election events[/p]
  • [p]Added a decision for Italy to move the capital to Rome following unification[/p]
  • [p]Added historical trade centers based on available 1836 commercial data[/p]
  • [p]An independent Siberia with Cybernetic State government will now take on the name Cyberia (Thanks to AbsolutelyNotMoishe on reddit for the suggestion)[/p]
  • [p]The "Honorable Restoration" Journal Entry completion event will now correctly name the emperor that you will receive[/p]
  • [p]Future historical Japanese emperors are now created as heir when appropriate[/p]
  • [p]Expeditions now name their leader and current location in the journal entry[/p]
  • [p]Updated tutorial localization to reflect the changes to the Trade system[/p]
  • [p]An independent Canada is now dark red[/p]

[img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfstVXOqtH3GeFvd-ehR-qnIvFYSvoEMZ9AISKfCRzChKdGylYcltttT_xw-K4-y0ZNuArtpnRzX7I8pp73cdZ8id0kwtD_jhQLpWd7scMWMiwhwV81Amg3SZrUx_rpqryQSutWGQ?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][TAG-1064]

Interface

  • [p]Added a relevant map mode selector to most left side panels for easier access[/p]
  • [p]Added unique icons for ALL Map Modes[/p]
  • [p]Added a Company details panel with Company Charters and more in-depth info about a Company[/p]
  • [p]Added a Global tab displaying a list of all Companies in the world to the Companies interface[/p]
  • [p]Reworked the Battle Map Marker to show if the Battle is Offensive or Defensive. Moreover, the Push of War progress bar is now displayed on it.[/p]
  • [p]Improved how we present War Goals and what information they convey at a glance[/p]
  • [p]Wargoals now clearly show whether or not they are contested in their tooltips, along with the conditions required to contest them[/p]
  • [p]Added a "Quick Select" menu to the Transfer Units window to make it easier to select and transfer all Units from a specific State or HQ to another Formation[/p]
  • [p]Added pinnable Treaties to the outliner[/p]
  • [p]Reworked the layout of the Goods tooltip[/p]
  • [p]Added subject and overlord diplomatic action tabs to the diplomatic lens[/p]
  • [p]Made the "All map modes" list not open or close the Ledger on click to enable more flexibility in its use[/p]
  • [p]The Diplomatic Play panel's War Goals list has been improved visually to distinguish Enforced Articles better.[/p]
  • [p]The Military Formation tooltip now shows small cards for each Unit type[/p]
  • [p]The Military Unit Type thumbnail image now contains the Offense and Defense value for that Unit Type[/p]
  • [p]The full Military Formation Map Marker is displayed only when highlighted or selected[/p]
  • [p]Cleaned up the layout of the Military Formation tooltip[/p]
  • [p]Made the Mobilization Options on the Formation panel more compact[/p]
  • [p]Advancement Progress is now displayed on the Front Map Marker[/p]
  • [p]The total cost of your Military is now displayed on top of the Military panel[/p]
  • [p]Added "Transfer Units" to the Military Formation right-click menu[/p]
  • [p]Reworked the Military Formations list item to both contain better information and be slightly more compact[/p]
  • [p]Each Law option now shows any Movements supporting or opposing that Law[/p]
  • [p]The Political Movement tooltip now shows which Laws this Movement supports/opposes[/p]
  • [p]The Queued Construction Map Marker has been hidden in the default Map Mode in order to reduce map marker overlap[/p]
  • [p]Added Employment bar to the Construction Lens list items[/p]
  • [p]Added a list of States + Prices to the Goods tooltip for Services, Transportation and Electricity[/p]
  • [p]Changed text boxes so that you can stop writing in them by clicking outside of the text box with the mouse which allows keyboard shortcuts to be used again[/p]
  • [p]Added relevant action buttons and State Traits to the Building fancy tooltip[/p]
  • [p]Improved the enactment button tooltip to better explain the temporary Approval changes for Interest Groups[/p]
  • [p]The Exiled Agitators button now shows the number of valid options, as well as total number of Exiled Agitators[/p]
  • [p]Political Movement Types now have a tooltippable name[/p]
  • [p]Each Law option now shows invitable Exiles that would support that Law[/p]
  • [p]Switch 'Peasants' to be the default metric for number of Pops in a State in the Construction Interaction[/p]
  • [p]Added a more compact Area/Piechart UI type[/p]
  • [p]The size and behavior of Event and Input Shortage Map Markers has been tweaked in order to reduce flickering[/p]
  • [p]Changed the default tooltip mouse mode setting to Timer and Action Lock[/p]
  • [p]Made sure the Building Browser building group filters match the order of the lens tabs for consistency[/p]
  • [p]Improved the layout of the Law fancy tooltip[/p]
  • [p]Exiled Agitators are now sortable[/p]
  • [p]Added "R" as a shortcut for opening your Country details panel[/p]
  • [p]Added tooltip for the Terrain value in the Battle details panel[/p]
  • [p]Changed the default sorting for Companies to Productivity[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug when the guarantee independence panel would not properly show current guarantees[/p]
  • [p]Added a confirmation window when the player declares bankruptcy[/p]
  • [p]Added notifications for company prosperity bonus activating and de-activating[/p]
  • [p]Peasant levies law description now shows the restrictions for unit types available to conscription[/p]
  • [p]Now showing company profits and breakdown into revenue and expenses in the company list and panel[/p]
  • [p]Made the loyalists and radicals trends backtrack 10 years instead of just 1 year[/p]
  • [p]Added a "Zoom closely" mode to the State "Zoom To" button[/p]
  • [p]Added instructions related to multi-selection in the Military Formation Map Marker tooltip[/p]
  • [p]Army and Navy HQ's are differentiated in the HQ Map Marker[/p]
  • [p]Show number of Casualties for each Country on the Front details panel[/p]
  • [p]Tooltips for innovation and literacy no longer use personal pronouns incorrectly.[/p]
  • [p]Added flags and nested tooltips for country names and subject types in the tooltips for decreasing and increasing the autonomy of subjects.[/p]

[img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcLV1_jlFtRkqML6BKz5Rv0rImevxEC01CDdaGE28ZT6DC3b9olRu_cxww6YtVCAyUKj63aR92CpgzH6G1wsNwnnXDHs6K_EnbvRA2awJaMpnL3s9pmf_mkFkx6PcV_IIJH5KJeMg?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"]

Performance

  • [p]Optimized Country war status checks[/p]
  • [p]Additional optimizations were added around Pops and Political Movements[/p]
  • [p]The Liberty Desire calculations were improved[/p]

[img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe7yA1DwpWNcbjYx2J-QsijwUEd6jeKqvW4wX2TfR6jBgULwMy4KnOaueqcQ0zp_-YRG1OaM00_IohxSEntKEJbXBCgeIGsyw9kg_Dq2gphK6tdiivm9QtRYSalWK10nzpXfAdR?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"]

Modding

  • [p]Add new triggers market_trade, market_imports, market_exports, market_trade_reliance, market_imports_reliance, market_exports_reliance, state_trade, state_imports, state_exports, market_production_share, market_consumption_share, import_advantage, export_advantage, relative_import_advantage and relative_export_advantage[/p]
  • [p]Financial Districts and Company HQs now provide 5 Urbanization per level[/p]
  • [p]Scripted Buttons and Decisions now use proper script values for ai_chance, allowing for more advanced AI logic to be scripted in[/p]
  • [p]Added new triggers company_owned_levels, company_employed_levels & company_is_prosperous[/p]
  • [p]Added a new trigger entitled is_company_type[/p]
  • [p]Character Traits can now be given an executive_modifier, which applies to all building levels owned by the executive's company[/p]
  • [p]It is now possible to specify a parent type for law types. Law types with parents inherit all ideological stances from their parent, and cannot be given specific ideological stances themselves.[/p]
  • [p]Made the Character.GetBattle promote const and introduced a non const version Character.AccessBattle[/p]
  • [p]Made the Battle.GetFront promote const and introduced a non const version Battle.AccessFront[/p]
  • [p]Add new trigger world_market_access[/p]
  • [p]Added new effects add_exports, add_imports, remove_exports, remove_imports, set_exports, set_imports[/p]
  • [p]Added state scope link num_world_market_hub_trade_center_levels[/p]
  • [p]Added a new trigger called is_blockaded_by[/p]
  • [p]Added new value links ai_treaty_fairness, ai_treaty_value, ai_market_import_value, ai_market_export_value, ai_market_trade_value[/p]
  • [p]Added new triggers has_potential_supply, world_market_exports, world_market_imports and world_market_delta[/p]
  • [p]Changed the country_average_cultural_acceptance trigger to return the country's acceptance of the culture as a whole if no pops of the culture is present in the country, instead of returning 0[/p]
  • [p]Add new triggers bureaucracy_usage, influence_usage, authority_usage, relative_bureaucracy, relative_influence, relative_authority[/p]
  • [p]Added new links income_transfer_expenses, income_transfer_relative_expenses, num_income_transfer_treaty_articles, num_income_transfers[/p]
  • [p]Added new triggers called state_to_state_trade, state_to_state_exports and state_to_state_imports[/p]
  • [p]Added new triggers called market_to_market_trade, market_to_market_exports and market_to_market_imports[/p]
  • [p]Added a new trigger called is_world_market_hub[/p]
  • [p]Added new text formatting tags ":" and ";" which are used like the "+" and "-" tags, but colors numbers blue/gold instead of green/red[/p]
  • [p]Implemented decentralized_country script lists ( similar to random_country, ordered_country and so on) to iterate through decentralized countries[/p]
  • [p]Added new trigger infrastructure_delta[/p]
  • [p]Added new on_actions on_game_started and on_game_started_after_lobby[/p]
  • [p]Added new trigger has_law_commitment[/p]
  • [p]Added the console command ai_evaluate_trade[/p]
  • [p]Moved scripted tests folder from the common folder to the tools folder[/p]
  • [p]Updated the level parameter in the create_building effect to accept variables[/p]
  • [p]Added "owning_company" which scopes from a country to the company owning that country[/p]
  • [p]Added the remove_owned_country effect for removing the scoped country's ownership of the target country[/p]
  • [p]Updated the "owner" link to be able to scope from a company to the country owning it[/p]
  • [p]Added optional `custom_completion_header`, `custom_failure_header`, `custom_on_completion_header`, and `custom_on_failure_header` properties to journal entries to allow customized flavor for completion and failure states[/p]
  • [p]The `manpower_max` property has been removed from combat unit groups objects[/p]
  • [p]Military production methods now specify a soldiers / officers ratio rather than absolute numbers[/p]
  • [p]The `max_manpower` property has been added to combat unit objects[/p]
  • [p]Added a "cooldown" entry for "scripted buttons" (used by Journal Entries) which can be used to specify how often the button can be used[/p]
  • [p]Renamed trigger `is_naval_invasion_stalled_due_to_orders` to `is_invasion_stalled`, removed trigger `is_active` in invasion scope[/p]
  • [p]Renamed links `naval_invasion_attacker` to `invasion_attacker`, `naval_invasion_defender` to `invasion_defender`[/p]
  • [p]Added link `invasion` from front scope, added link `front` from invasion scope[/p]

[img src="https://lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXer3uKoCnAVCOqfH7EFr0y2sHQnRShbqpBuWdRdJijYpMvfsmALaDNtWhp_IM2_J1vWZXwUp2tfE3bjwcyz30JheucMvHEDnZlHURLt8iEWPBne8PyV_jQ_eq3NAcLv2hayCDM9?key=HZpupyM1m5ik2Qxn_nWFHA"][TAG-1480]

Bugfixes

  • [p]Fixed an issue where British AI would never consent to Indian home rule (Pivot of Empire)[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug that blocked countries that start with the "Slavery Banned" law from completing the "Egalitarian Society" objective[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where a marginalized group could contribute to approval or stall chance[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where Single Party State was not deactivating properly[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug causing Suppress and Bolster to not be fully removed from all political movements in the country when Protected Speech was enacted[/p]
  • [p]Indian revolutions can no longer form countries[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug when the occupation wasn't removed after a peace deal involving a tributary[/p]
  • [p]Fixed Republic or Death Achievement requirements to show the correct Journal Entry name[/p]
  • [p]Adjusted unlocking technology for the Victoria Terminus monument from Pneumatic Tools to Steel-frame Buildings to bring it in line with the event for building it. Additionally removed the condition to not be atheist in order to build it. (thanks to Popleop)[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug preventing subjects that are forced to join wars with their overlord from joining wars when the overlord was swayed, as opposed to being the initiator of a diplomatic play[/p]
  • [p]Fixed acceptance from "little to lose from enemy war goals" being ignored for Offer Support demanding the transfer of a subject, the transfer of a state, the country becoming a subject, or setting up a diplomatic pact[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where Arrange Accident's success/fail probabilities were not being affected by the Home Affairs institution level[/p]
  • [p]Updated the "Mobilize all Armies" button so that it no longer mobilizes armies that can't be mobilized individually[/p]
  • [p]The "Scramble for Africa" Journal Entry now also accounts for subjects[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug that caused the "The Ripper" Journal Entry to not spawn[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where Radical or Liberal revolutions could occasionally spawn with the Council Republic law[/p]
  • [p]Fixed issue where turning Alyaska over to native rule would cause the player to play as a decentralised nation[/p]
  • [p]The Explorer trait now improves the chance of favourable outcomes on expeditions[/p]
  • [p]Fixed Hindustan to not start with locked Military Battalions[/p]
  • [p]The Peasant Movement is now correctly weighted towards rural states when starting a revolution[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where the create_character effect would sometimes display "---" as the character name[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where AI-controlled countries would form certain countries even when it should not be possible[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where Taiping generals could spawn with a null HQ[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where the Protected Speech law would mention suppressing/bolstering Interest Groups rather than Political Movements[/p]
  • [p]Overlord can no longer build in subject's states while at war against them[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue that caused the British East India Company to not put higher value on building certain Plantation buildings as determined by the British Dictate JE (Pivot of Empire)[/p]
  • [p]The Power Bloc railway production methods now work properly with various pieces of content and map graphics (Sphere of Influence)[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where exiled Moderate or Pacifist characters could choose an invalid ideology[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where the London Conference could have no outcome in the case of a tie[/p]
  • [p]Countries can no longer buy Alaska from themselves[/p]
  • [p]The "Hartal!" event will now only target states in India proper[/p]
  • [p]The `JOB_SATISFACTION_PER_PERCENT_HIGHER_STRATA_QUALIFICATION` define, is now applied correctly. (Renamed to `JOB_SATISFACTION_PER_PERCENT_HIGHER_SOL_QUALIFICATION`)[/p]
  • [p]Made the Positivist movement able to fire organically[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where units could be conscripted even when there was no supply of their required goods[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where heirs who become rulers keep their heir status[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where a military formation's organization oscillates around its target value[/p]
  • [p]Fixed government petition auto-invalidating if IG requests a change from the law they hate to one they are neutral about[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue with the Train Robbery event that could result in a NULL_SCOPE in option text[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug when game would crash when trying to create a mod from the launcher[/p]
  • [p]Ursus company now cares about the correct state[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where the default subsidies flag in building groups had no effect[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug that required the player to have an interest in the Scandinavia region instead of Finland if they wanted to create the "Nokia" company[/p]
  • [p]The first option in the event "Spiraling Ascension" now correctly activates the "State Atheism" law[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where the timeouts for both sides of the Opium Wars were misaligned, enabling them to be completed in the wrong order[/p]
  • [p]Fixed incorrect Russian-American Company flag[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue which made the "Spectre Haunting the World" Journal Entry progress too quickly in some situations[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where "The Man Who Would Be King" fired and immediately cancelled[/p]
  • [p]The event "From the Heart of the Sea" now checks that the country in question actually has a navy to station its admiral on[/p]
  • [p]Fixed the auto-cancellation of the emergency decree while at least one condition is still active[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where Russian characters would occasionally wear hats meant for late-game uniforms prior to researching Bolt Action Rifles[/p]
  • [p]Fixed wrong requirements for political movement support in "Cause Without a Rebel" event[/p]
  • [p]Added a cancellation trigger to character_events.5[/p]
  • [p]Fixed nested tooltips in the country literacy tooltip always showing information about the player's country instead of the selected country[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug causing Arrange Accident to not send notifications when it failed to kill the target[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where children would occasionally get epaulettes and other accessories with the child outfit[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where the Resignation/Abdication tooltips had localisation bugs related to revolutions. Our thanks to the Unofficial Hotfix Mod by Ferrous for reporting this.[/p]
  • [p]Made the "Border Crossing" event properly fire its followup event to the relevant country, and fixed its mistargeted infamy gain effect[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where the URL for the Russian general Friedrich von Berg directed you to the wrong Friedrich von Berg[/p]
  • [p]Added some missing trigger localization for requesting your own market[/p]
  • [p]Name of Hudson Bay Company corrected to Hudson’s Bay Company[/p]
  • [p]Fixed some incorrect country display in the German version of two lobby related events (thanks to Steinwallen community)[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue in the German notifications for granted foreign investment rights where the sender country was duplicated instead of mentioning the target country (thanks to Steinwallen community)[/p]
  • [p]Fixed the spellings of Guadalajara in Mexico and Antioquia in Colombia[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a number of double spaces across all languages[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a typo in the Nation Formation concept[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a typo in the "Paraguayan War" Journal Entry[/p]
  • [p]Fixed various other typos[/p]
  • [p]Partisan Interest Group leaders no longer die in the middle of the Divided Monarchist event[/p]
  • [p]"\[Country's] Dignitary Murdered" event now only targets great powers with interest in the region[/p]
  • [p]"General's Misfired Cannon" event can no longer remove country's ruler[/p]
  • [p]"Obstructionism in \[IG]" event should no longer affect Politically Unaligned "IG"[/p]
  • [p]Releasing Sikkim and Bhutan now requires Eastern Himalayas state region[/p]
  • [p]Qualification growth mult modifiers are only applied when the base qualification growth (including add modifiers if any) is positive. This stops positive qualification growth modifiers from causing faster qualification loss. It also stops negative qualification growth modifiers from slowing down qualification loss.[/p]
  • [p]Fixed an issue where Abdication could lead to an heir failing to succeed to the throne[/p]
  • [p]The "Purveyor of Progress" Journal Entry no longer has a hidden requirement that the player own Bombay[/p]
  • [p]The Deccan Riots can no longer select a null scope for their event target[/p]
  • [p]Fixed several improperly configured random_lists in "The Duel", "Rumor Has It", "A Scandal in \\\[state\\]", and "\\\[name\\] Thought".[/p]
  • [p]European heirs will no longer mix top hats with military uniforms[/p]
  • [p]Fixed conflicting clothing for South American generals/politicians[/p]
  • [p]Fixed a bug where the UI was flickering at the game start in the Main Menu[/p]

[p]So we come to the end of this very long dev diary, with a couple last things to mention.[/p][p][/p][p]The Makeship campaign for the Lady Capitalist Plushie has been extended until June 21st, giving you even more time to get your hands on the plushie with the plan![/p][p][/p][p]Then our last reminder, Charters of Commerce, alongside Update 1.9 “Lady Grey”, releases on the 17th of June. So we will see you then, both in the patchnotes and the release stream which (starts at 15:30 CEST) featuring Game Design Lead Lino and multi-class programmer Alex (Bard and Sorcerer).[/p][p][/p][p]
[/p]

Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #149 - Other Changes



Hello Victorians and Happy Thursday!

My name is Tunay (aka Doodlez) and I'm a Game Designer and Rural Folk member on Victoria 3 and I've been tasked with bringing you this Dev Diary.

Today we will be going through some of the changes and additions that didn't fit into the other Dev Diaries as well as some follow-up on some topics we have tackled already.

Let's jump right in with some of the latter in fact.

Bulk Formation Actions


As mentioned by Lino in Dev Diary #145 we were actively working on the ability to change Military Formation Mobilization Options in bulk and not only has this been implemented but the scope has also somewhat escalated and now also includes some other much sought after functionality like the ability to mass merge Formations or set Commander Orders across all Generals.

The blue numbers signalize how many Commanders are set to a specific Order or how many Formations have a specific Mobilization Option activated, very handy!


Blockades


A Blockade is a new type of Commander Order for Admirals that allows them to cut off World Market Access and Supply Lines from being created in Ports adjacent to their designated Sea Node.

Pictured here; the Royal Navy blockading Guangdong Bay


Blockades differ from conventional Convoy Raiding in that they require overwhelming naval supremacy but can inflict massive damage to the target country.
The defending nation does not have to helplessly watch this unfold of course, they can always choose to send their own fleet to engage your navy and try to break the blockade!




Whether you wish to deploy one or the other will depend on your situation, means and of course the make-up of your Fleet in comparison to your enemy! Capital Ships in particular will be able to instill fear and whiplash into anyone contemplating sailing that day on account of being so large and, as I have been told, having lots of guns.


While Capital Ships are great for blockading Ports you may wish to rely on smaller vessels for your raiding business instead


Now, this is all that I have for you on the Navy side of things for today but before we continue I'd like to reaffirm that we will be actively looking into further naval improvements and additions going forwards.

Strategic Objectives


Strategic Objectives are a feature that we introduced way back in Update 1.2 that allowed you to designate a State as a target to advance towards on top of any war goals you may also have. This was however before we introduced Military Formations and has never really meshed well with it and other subsequent changes and additions to warfare to the point that it essentially only worked on one general at a time.

To that end we have decided to not only fix how Strategic Objectives work under the hood to make them feel more responsive but instead took the time to make them into something more. Therefore we have moved them from being something that exists per Front to instead be something that is attached to individual Formations. This felt particularly necessary as Fronts are no longer guaranteed to be contiguous objects either.

This change will give players significantly more control over the behaviour of the Formations in wars where it matters if they want that, while being something that can be safely ignored in rather one-sided affairs or if you simply do not wish to meddle with your Generals advances at all.

You can mix and match Strategic Objectives across several Formations as you please, allowing you to either concentrate their efforts on specific targets or to spread them out across the front


When choosing where to assign a Strategic Objective you will also be shown your wargoals as well as those of your enemy!

The rebel scum is advancing towards Maranhão but we wont let them!


Lastly to accompany this change, Strategic Objectives can now be placed via a new button in the Formation panel or alternatively through a new right-click interaction on the State you wish to target.

Wargoal Tooltips


At times it has felt confusing as to how and why a war goal counts as contested or not, an issue that's only exacerbated by the fact that war goals can have all sorts of conditions between them. To alleviate this problem the war goal tooltips have been updated to now clearly state how a war goal can be pressed.

For now Hedjaz is out of reach but this will change once our invasion force arrives


This will be all things military for this Dev Diary, as always we are looking forward to your feedback!

Company Prosperity


In Dev Diary #147 we mentioned that Company Prosperity is now a target value that a Company drifts towards as well as some smaller changes and additions, like the popularity of our newly added Executives.

The formula has since received another small but noticeable change. Where in the past the base Prosperity was based on the productivity of the Company compared to other Companies, it is now instead based on the Productivity of the Company compared to the global productivity of the types of buildings owned by said Company. In other words, if a Company owns Logging Camps and Rye Farms, its Prosperity from Productivity will be based on how well it compares to the average productivity of all Logging Camps and Rye Farms in the world.

Country Monopolies


As you may recall we added the ability to grant Companies Monopolies on specific building types via our new Company Charters feature, but what if you wanted to be the one doing the monopolizing? Well now you can thanks to our new Country Monopolies feature:

In the name of his majesty the King, I have decided to put the production of all Cheese and Sausage in Prussia under the exclusive domain of the government!


Each Country Monopoly comes with a cost in Authority and in turn blocks Private Investors from constructing new buildings of this type.

It's important to note that a Country Monopoly does not affect the ownership makeup of pre-existing buildings; you will still have to claw those back the old fashioned way by nationalizing them.

Custom RNG Seed


Making its way into update 1.9 is a new game rule:


When activated it allows you to set a custom seed that the random rolls in your game will be based on which should be particularly useful for the modders amongst you or if you simply didn't like the Ideology your Japanese Landowners IG leader spawned with.

I bring all the…


Quality of Life Changes


Next up here are a couple more Quality of Life and UX changes and additions coming with Update 1.9. You will have to wait for the full changelog next week for all of the details but there are a couple that I'd like to highlight today!

Private Investment Log


When hovering over the upcoming Private Construction plan you will now be greeted with a new tooltip that lists some of the most recent investments conducted by your pops including Constructions and Privatizations.

Apparently there is a fortune to be made in the colonies


Colonization


When colonizing a new overseas state you will now also be granted a Port in that state, for a price of course, since otherwise colonization will be halted until you do so. To cut down on busy work we decided to just merge this step into the interaction itself.

A worthwhile investment if you ask me, and now with less clicks than ever before!


Movements


Additionally, in the never ending quest to surface more important information to the highest levels Movements have received a bit of a facelift with the generic Movement Type icons being replaced with the Core Movement Ideology of each movement or a fitting Flag if there is one.
On top of that the tooltip now also clearly lists the Laws that the movement supports or opposes without having to dig further.

The Liberal Movements advocacy for personal freedoms does not seem to apply to enslaved people, as such they are currently very passive


These types of changes are almost always spawned either by our own gameplay experiences or your feedback so please keep it coming! With every update we try to optimize as many tooltips, concepts and other bits of information as possible to deliver you the data you want more directly.

Mapmodes


Something we had been testing in Update 1.8 was assigning a list of contextually relevant map modes to the Budget Panel and for Update 1.9 we have decided to expand this into pretty much all other relevant panels! To this end our wonderful artists have also created icons for every single map mode in the game.

We felt that both of these steps were necessary as we are looking into improving map modes further and as the number of our map modes has increased quite substantially since release and will probably continue to do so in the future.

Clicking the small map mode button to the right will create a list of map modes relevant to the panel at hand, all of them with the new icons created by Ingela


Modding


It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to end my Dev Diary without mentioning at least some of the changes and new tools for modders coming with this update!

Law Variants


You can now assign your new Law a parent based on the other laws in the same category, your new Law will then inherit all ideological stances of its parent law allowing you to easily create variations of existing laws for more flexibility or to cover situations in different countries or regions in a more detailed manner without having to setup completely new Ideologies every time.

We are introducing one such Law Variant in Update 1.9 in the form of the “Canton System” a version of Isolationism that exists in China at game start. Implemented by the Qing dynasty, it greatly reduces the amount of outside trade by forcing it to go through a single port without banning it outright however, unlike regular Isolationism!

The Canton System — while not as extreme — does not come with perks as strong as that of Isolationism either


Creating a new variation is as simple as defining a new “parent” key in the respective law type:



Trade Setup


Those of you creating total conversion mods would probably like to know how to set up historical trade routes now that the old trading system has been replaced, thankfully it's a rather simple affair.

Within your common/history/trade folder you should create a new file allowing you to define imports and exports in each state via the new add_exports and add_imports effects, just make sure you also give the states sufficient Trade Centers when you do so! Note that the numbers in these effects is not the number of goods exported, but rather the amount of Trade Capacity that will be used, so add_exports = 20 on iron will actually result in an exported quantity of 100.



To top things off I have created a handpicked list of some of the most exciting additions coming with this update that I haven't already mentioned:


  • Added new text formatting tags ":" and ";" which are used like the "+" and "-" tags, but colors numbers gold/blue instead of green/red.
  • Added new on actions “on_game_started” and “on_game_started_after_lobby” both of these will fire once the game has begun, the latter will fire after players have chosen their countries which is perfect for when you need access to players specifically.
  • Added "cooldown" for "scripted buttons" (used by Journal Entries) which can be used to specify how often the button can be used. For example: cooldown = { days = 10 }
  • The create_building effect now allows script values to be passed into the “level” property meaning you can finally prune all those if-statements. (I see you)
  • Scripted Buttons and Decisions now use script values to calculate ai_chance instead of scripted modifiers, allowing easier scripting of more advanced AI logic.
  • The max_manpower property from Combat Unit Groups has been moved to Combat Unit Types meaning you can now define different unit sizes for individual unit types if you like!
  • Added optional custom_completion_header, custom_failure_header, custom_on_completion_header, and custom_on_failure_header properties to journal entries to allow customized flavor for completion and failure states.
  • Added event_outcome_completed_desc, event_outcome_failed_desc, event_outcome_timeout_desc properties to journal entries allowing you to show the effects of an event that would fire as a result of a journal entry.
  • Added script lists for decentralized countries like any_decentralized_country, random_decentralized_country, every_decentralized_country etc.
  • Added executive_usage and company_trigger triggers for character templates, allowing you to add new company executives throughout the game
  • save_temporary_scope_as will now properly work in script values, including being passed into localization.


That will be all from me for today. We will be back next week with the Changelog for Update 1.9 and Charters of Commerce!

Until then, Happy Thursday and have a nice day!

Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #148 - Prestige Goods



Hello Victorians,

and a Happy Thursday! Lino, Game Design Lead here, and talking to you today about Prestige Goods. Keep in mind that today is a public holiday in Sweden, so while I’ll be around to answer some burning questions, more answers will have to wait until we’re officially back at work on Monday.

Prestige Goods are going to be part of Charters of Commerce, our upcoming Mechanics Pack which releases on June 17 alongside the free 1.9 Update.

Before we begin: As always, any values, texts, designs, graphics etc. are work in progress and are subject to change.

Well then, let’s take a look at Prestige Goods.

Prestige Goods


Prestige Goods are a feature we have wanted to do for a while. In my internal pitch for Companies I had brought up a different variant of the feature already - at this point almost two years ago. So we are happy to be able to bring them to you now of course.

From this, you can tell already that there is a strong connection between Prestige Goods and Companies. In fact, Prestige Goods can only be produced by Companies. In some cases, they represent particular brands or products these Companies produced, in other cases they are more of a quality label for a type of product. At the end of this Dev Diary I am showcasing a couple of examples if you are curious.

Something worth noting is they are variants of existing goods, not new goods. For example Champagne is a Prestige Good variant of regular Wine. This has a couple of advantages, most importantly the performance is not nearly as affected by this as it would be if we introduced this large number of new goods. They are part of the same buy packages, serve as the same inputs and outputs as regular goods etc., with some differences which I’ll go over later.
Additionally, there can be multiple Prestige Good variants of any given good, for example we are introducing three different Prestige silk versions.

So how are Prestige Goods produced?

Production


Companies can only ever produce one Prestige Good type. A company that is prosperous will be able to produce their assigned Prestige Good.
You might be wondering: what makes certain Prestige Goods truly unique? Well, we made sure to include about 50 historical examples of goods and companies that were iconic for the era - keeping both immersion and replayability in mind.
For example the Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne Company in France will start producing the Prestige Good Saint-Etienne Rifles instead of regular small arms as soon as they hit the prosperity threshold. All company-owned building levels get the new blueprints and get to work on them, while all other weapon manufacturers in the country continue producing boring standard rifles. So while other companies around the world might be able to produce a generic Prestige Small Arms, there can be only one true producer of Saint-Etienne Rifles(TM)!
It doesn't necessarily mean that France has an exclusive right to that good - as country borders can always change.

Unique icon showcasing the production of the new rifles has begun


Once you have at least one Prestige Good variant of a good in the market, we need to show that somehow of course. For that, we can expand the entry of a good and show all Prestige Good variants of this good that are part of the market and can see how high their share is.

Here’s an example for how this entry looks on the World Market, there’s a filter to disable the fold-out entries too


While we wanted to make Prestige Goods somewhat special, we didn’t want to exclude all companies that lacked a good historical example. So, for all other companies that lack a historical Prestige Good, players will get a Journal Entry with the additional requirement of becoming one of the top three producers of the according good to start production of a “generic” kind of Prestige Good, e.g. Prestige Cloth or Prestige Iron rather than a special name and look.

It may not be Haute Couture, but Spanish fashion could still become a thing


Now let’s look at the effects that Prestige Goods have when they are being produced and introduced into your market.

Effects


The effects of Prestige Goods are manifold. In general one can say that they are more desired and of higher quality than their regular good counterparts and the higher the percentage of Prestige Goods, the better it is generally.

For one, of course Prestige Goods increase the prestige of the country where the producing company is located. This behaves like the top-producer Prestige gain for a regular good, but with a significantly higher bonus. So if you are the number one Prestige Wood producer, you can collect a nice Prestige bonus for example.

“The French produce the best wine, clearly! And guns too.”


On the World Market, Prestige Goods provide a trade advantage bonus based on the percentage of goods of that type that are Prestige Goods. This calculation is market area based, so for example if 50% of all iron in France is a form of Prestige Good iron, they receive 50 Trade advantage on exports from France for that particular Prestige Good. But if in one of their colonies the share of Prestige Good iron is only 25%, exports from that colony would only receive a 25% trade advantage bonus, without affecting the exports from France mainland itself.

Note the +85.9 trade advantage from 85.9% of all Small Arms production being a Prestige Good


Buildings consume Prestige Goods as input goods too. Based on the share of Prestige Goods, they are profiting from increased throughput.

Prestigious Swedish Oregrounds Iron helps to increase the throughput of this Tooling Workshop


Now what would be the point of producing prestigious Saint-Étienne Rifles if you couldn’t show them off on the battlefield too?

Prestige Goods also increase Offense, Defense and Morale recovery.

They shoot extra accurate


Pops also heard about the new shiny Prestige Goods - and they want them. As you may know, goods that are consumed by Pops are organized in a couple of need categories, e.g. basic food or luxury drinks.
Within a category, Pops will consume more of a particular good depending how much of it is a Prestige Good. For example if you have a lot of Champagne, say 80% of all wine, but none of the other goods in the luxury drinks category has any Prestige Good, Pops will shift some of their spending from tea and coffee towards wine. If all goods were Prestige Goods, nothing would change about their spending.
Additionally, we also increase the chance of Pops getting obsessed with a particular good, increasing with the percentage of Prestige Goods variants of that good.

Closing thoughts


Alright, that’s our walkthrough for the new Prestige Goods mechanic. I’d like to end today by showcasing some of the fantastic work that our 2D artists have done to make these new Prestige Goods shine.

Some historical ones + all “generic” Prestige Goods made by Ingela


More historical ones made by Kenneth, don’t you want to bite into that River Plate Beef?


That’s it for today. Next week already, Tunay (aka Doodlez) will be writing about some other changes that we made for the 1.9 Update. What exactly that entails, you will have to check out yourself.
Until then, have a happy Thursday and goodbye!


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Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #147 - Everything Companies



Hello Victorians,

Happy Thursday! It’s Lino, Game Design Lead on Victoria 3 and I welcome you back to another Dev Diary!
Today we’re looking at (almost) everything to do with Companies. Most of what I will talk about today is part of Charters of Commerce, which releases on June 17, but we will also talk about some additions and changes for Companies that are coming with the free 1.9 Update alongside the DLC.

Before we begin: As always, any values, texts, designs, graphics etc. are work in progress and are subject to change.

So, one big ambition we had for Companies with this update was to not only expand interactions with them and add functionality to them, but also to make observing them grow a bit easier and more enticing. For that we overhauled the Company interface panel and added a bit of functionality to it. I will be going through these changes later in this Dev Diary, but before then we will talk about all the individual parts that make the whole.

Alright, let’s get into it, starting with Company Charters (of Commerce).

Company Charters


Company Charters are a new way for you to enable your companies to expand their wealth and reach. They all provide new, different sets of rights to the company in question. What those rights are, I will talk about in detail further down. Hand them out to a company you want to see grow and then watch and observe as their line go up!

Hmm… What could these icons stand for? Continue reading to find out!


Every country gets a number of free charters which you will be able to hand out across all your Companies. You can go over the limit, but then each charter will cost you additional authority. For example, if you have five free charters to spend, you can put all of them onto one company, increasing their opportunities by a lot but be left with no charters for your other companies, or you can spread them equally, specializing all companies only a bit in order to see them succeed. The choice is yours!
The number of free charters can come from different sources, e.g. economic system laws, certain technologies and also the rank of a country will increase the limit.
As this free charter functionality is a very late addition in our process, we are not making full use of this yet, but we see potential in adding it as an effect to the completion of certain Journal Entries, events or Power Bloc Principles for example and are also happy to take your feedback for where you believe this could be added. Similarly, modders are also able to use this where they see fit since it is a regular modifier.

Without further ado, here’s the first Charter which we are introducing with Charters of Commerce.

Colonization Charter


While the era of the big company-states started to end in our timeframe, there certainly were ambitions by some to continue the trend.
When you hand out a Colonization Charter to one of your companies, you select the target state to be colonized. Then, a colony will be created which will be supported by your company.
The colony receives a bonus to its colonization speed and upon fully colonizing one state region, this will actually turn the colony into a new country, led by the company you gave the charter to.

“I know a good name - Fordlandia!”


The new country is a charter company type subject of your country and behaves like any other regular country pretty much.
The new country has a connection to your company though of course and receives a bonus to construction of new buildings and throughput. The country gets the same bonuses the company receives for industries that are in the company’s supported building types and a fraction of them for any other buildings. On the other hand, a company country cannot have companies on their own. Of course if they go fully independent they will be able to do so like any other country.
Now you may wonder what that means for the chartered company countries that we have at game start and I will talk about that later in this Dev Diary.

Connected to the company, the new country benefits from the expertise


Trade Charter


The Trade Charter is quite straightforward. It allows the company in question to build, buy and run trade centers.
Once you’ve granted your company a Trade Charter, trade centers are added to the company’s building types, making company-owned Trade Centers profit from the same bonuses the other industries do.
Trade Centers run by a Company additionally have a Trade Advantage bonus for goods that are produced by their building types.

Companies exporting goods they produced


Industry Charter


Similarly to the Trade Charter, the Industry Charter allows your company to expand into a new type of business.
Depending on scripted options, using this charter will allow you to grant your company the rights to expand into a different industry entirely.
When we scripted these options, we looked at historic expansions that the companies have done or have added vertical integration industries that were the most fitting. For example a furniture company likely received logging camps as an additional option if there was no other historic precedent.
Just like with the Trade Charter, the Industry Charter adds the selected option to the building type list of the company, making any company-owned levels benefit from throughput bonus and boosting construction. You can only assign one Industry Charter per company

What to do? Some companies have more than one choice


Investment Charter


You can grant an Investment Charter to companies to bolster their investments in foreign countries. How that works is that companies can establish a Regional Headquarter in any country where they have at least 5 owned levels and you have foreign investment rights.
The Regional HQ, similar to the main Company Headquarter, serves as the place to display ownership of local investments and simultaneously as the place to collect the income of those buildings. It sends the profits to your home country’s investment pool so that capitalists in your country can use that to build even more wealth.
But here’s the catch - the presence of a Regional HQ allows the company to use the foreign country’s investment pool to construct or buy additional building levels, bringing more options of aggressive foreign acquisitions to the table.

“They're turning profits in the name of prophets”


As a side note: Although foreign investment works in subjects etc. without having any DLC, we felt it was best that we also unlocked the full foreign investment pact when owning Charters of Commerce since the Investment Charter becomes a lot more fun when you have access to that. So both DLCs, Sphere of Influence and Charters of Commerce will now unlock foreign investment rights.

Monopoly Charter


Monopoly Charters allow you to choose an industry (or more) of a company to grant them exclusive building rights of that industry. This industry list does include any industry the company has gotten access to via another Charter though, so for example you can use the Industry Charter to unlock logging camps for a company and then subsequently grant the same company a monopoly for logging camps.

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200


So what does the monopoly actually do?
Well, like a proper monopoly should, it increases prices of the produced goods. We modify the selling price in building levels affected by a monopoly. The company’s potential profits are increased by this since they’re selling goods at a higher price. This will in turn of course increase the market price too, according to how much of a good is produced under a company monopoly. An active monopoly will also make it so that companies can purchase buildings of the fitting type for a big discount from other owners. Which other owners? I will talk about that further down this Dev Diary.

Additionally, we have a nice tie-in with the Treaty system that Alex presented last time. As part of a treaty, you will be able to request a country to give monopoly rights to one of your companies, further increasing their profits from ownership in foreign lands.

This brings us to the end of the Charters part, but as I mentioned before we have a couple of things that we will roll out for everybody with the free 1.9 Update that releases alongside Charters of Commerce.

Free 1.9 Update additions


Since the inception of the companies feature, we’d been thinking about a potential expansion of the system, namely characters leading them. With 1.9, we’re laying the groundwork for future work in that regard.

Executives


Introducing Executives, a new role that characters can have. They serve as the head of a company, not only running it, but also being the face of the company towards the outside world.
Executives will come with some new character traits that we are adding which will boost certain aspects of companies, e.g. a free charter to spend or a bonus to throughput in the company’s owned levels. These traits are not done yet, so I cannot show them at this point.
Executives will boost the political power of their affiliated Interest Group, similar to how generals do it at the moment. The amount is dependent on how well the company they are leading is doing. Like other characters, Executives can end up as heads of Interest Groups as well if circumstances line up accordingly.
If a company forms a new country via the Colonization Charter, it is also the Executive who will be head of state of the new country. At least at the start, depending on the country’s laws of course they might have elections that change the ruler for example.
We have a number of historical Executives that can show up in the game to lead your historical companies, fully equipped with custom DNA. For all other Executives we generate a random character as we usually do.

Don’t you want this young Alfred Krupp to give you company?


We hope to expand on this in the future to make Executives have more impact on your political life so that Companies feel even more like an actor within your country, maybe even to the point where granting them too many privileges will actually turn them into a potential danger. But that will require more work in the future.

Interface


Now that I have shown all the individual bits, we can finally take a look at the interface changes we have done. First, here’s a look at the list of companies which remains accessible via the Companies button on the left navigation bar.



You can see, all relevant information is still available, though the positioning may have changed due to the addition of Executives and other information. We can see Prosperity now has a dedicated icon, but apart from that it’s more or less the same.
We do see a second tab in the panel though, which is a global display of Companies, in which you can compare all established companies. You can sort the list by country, names of the companies or the profit they make and can also see how many of their building types they own.



Now, if we look at a specific company’s interface, we will see a lot of changes.



In the first tab we get an overview of the company, the bonuses they provide, their building types, Executive and so on. On the bottom you can see the buttons to assign Company Charters. They can be found there in all tabs of the company interface, so that you don’t have to go back to the Overview tab each time you want to assign one. Depending on which ones are active, we see additional industry types added to the company’s list or an additional widget informing you about which monopolies the company holds.
If you scroll down a bit, you will also find a summary of Regional HQs and colonies that are attached to this company. But for a detailed view we should look at the second tab, Assets.



Here we can see all building levels owned by the Company’s HQ and also attached countries, colonies and Regional HQs and their assets (if they have any).
If you want to see more data on how your company has developed, you should look into the third tab, Statistics.



As the name suggests, this tab features multiple graphs that show you the development of the Company with information about productivity, profit, prosperity, number of building levels and levels of each type, making it the perfect place to see how your assignment of Company Charters affects your Company for example.
I for one really enjoy seeing the numbers grow and we hope you do too.

Next up, we have a couple more changes unrelated to the interface that I’d like to bring to you.

Various changes


People with a keen eye may have seen in my screenshots that the Hudson Bay Company is listed as a British company.
That is because we are making it so that all three historical establishments of company countries (HBC, EIC, Russian-American Company) will start as former colonies with respective ties to their original companies. So the Hudson Bay Company will be a country tied to the Company HQ of the Hudson Bay Company in London for example.
This change included some minor adjustments to owned building levels and sadly the removal of the Great Western Railway from the game start so that Great Britain has space to have the EIC and HBC as historical starting companies. Of course the Great Western Railway is still available if you want to form it at a later stage.

For 1.9, we are also changing the way Prosperity is gained. We are making it so Prosperity has a target value that it is drifting towards instead of a constant upward or downward movement.
The target value is influenced by the current productivity of the company and also the number of staffed building levels the company owns. Additionally the popularity of the Executive leading it can impact the target value too. With a high popularity it increases, low popularity decreases it of course.
Similarly, the speed at which Prosperity drifts towards its target value is affected mostly by the size of the company and a base value.



As the way companies work has changed quite drastically over the years, in particular with 1.8 and 1.9, we are also conducting a small pass over the forming conditions of companies. We are now making it so that forming a company can be done with privately owned buildings that you pay for and also we are generally making the establishment slightly easier by reducing the number of required building levels. This won’t affect all companies and not all affected ones to the same degree, but should make more companies’ establishments viable.

Furthermore, we are of course introducing a new set of historical companies, some of which are going to be free, most of which are going to be part of Charters of Commerce.

I have one last thing that I’d like to talk about today, which is that with 1.9, companies will be able to buy building levels owned by financial districts and manor houses. This is a big change that we had wanted to do for a while and should smooth out some of the behaviour where companies and other private owners are playing a cat and mouse game to profit from throughput bonuses and generally makes companies more competitive.
This does not mean that other private owners can do the same. We will evaluate in the future if we want to add that functionality, but for now we are already happy that we could bring this improvement to you.

Alright, that’s it for today. In two weeks we will be back with our next Dev Diary where I will talk about and walk you through how Prestige Goods work.
Until then, have a nice day!

Victoria 3 is on sale in the Paradox Publisher Sale!

A very spring salutations Victorians!



Welcome to the Paradox Publisher Sale, starting today on the 8th of May! With sales from all of the portfolio of Paradox Products!

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Project Caesar Announcement - May 8th 18:00 CEST!

The march of industry and progress has to start somewhere, and now Paradox Interactive at 18:00 CEST tomorrow will unveil their next Grand Strategy Game, Project Caesar, in a massive showcase:

https://pdxint.at/CaesarAnnouncement

Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #146 - Diplomatic Treaties


Hello Victorians,

My name is Alex, I’m a multiclass programmer and designer on Victoria 3 and today it’s finally time for another Dev Diary on this very happy Thursday!
Today we will be taking a look at Diplomatic Treaties, one of the features arriving with the free 1.9 update on June 17 together with our Mechanics Pack “Charters of Commerce”.

Before we begin though, I should mention that today is a public holiday (ig_tradeunions) for us here in Sweden (and in a lot of other places). This dev diary was as usual written ahead of time, but when it comes to questions, this means I won’t actually be around to answer them when it comes out. Instead, Martin will be around to answer some of your more pressing questions to begin with and I’ll try to answer any remaining important questions on Monday (as we also get tomorrow off as a bridge day).

With all that said, I should also remind you that as always any values, texts, designs, graphics etc. are work in progress and are subject to change!

But now, without further ado, enter Treaties:



Diplomatic Treaties


As part of the changes to the World Market we described in Dev Diary #143 and with Trade Routes as you know them going away, we wanted to introduce a new mechanic that let you actively establish pointed strategic ways of elevating your industries or exploiting other countries through trade. We wanted more ways for you to peacefully (but aggressively) compete against your rivals (and allies) and establish your dominance across the globe.

Initially, this was drafted to be a relatively simple tit-for-tat deal: “you give me grain, I give you coal”. But we of course got thinking and, particularly in the context of how often the community asks for more in-depth diplomacy, we thought: what if we went a step or two (or twenty) further and made it a full-blown system of treaties where you can weigh a bunch of different types of things against each other? Maybe to get Prussia to agree to an alliance you can sweeten the deal by promising to give them a certain amount of weapons every week. Or maybe you can say you’ll pay off Haiti’s debts in exchange for them granting you investment rights.

And well, that’s what we did.

Diplomatic Treaties are a new way for you to interact with other countries diplomatically. They are, in a way, a natural extension of what the diplomatic actions and pacts currently in the game do (more on that later), but instead of just having you propose one thing at a time in a vacuum, you can combine them and have the whole context of what you want be available and weighted together.

Pedro had some aggressive negotiation tactics


In short, the way it works is like this: you decide you want a treaty with another country, so you open the Treaty Draft panel (shown in the animation above). You then select what articles you’d like to have, both offers and requests. When you’re happy you send the proposal to the other country. They can then look at what you have proposed and either accept or reject of course, but they can also choose to negotiate further. Negotiating further lets them tweak the proposal however they want and then send it back to you. This is then repeated until either you agree on a treaty or you decide to just end the process. Assuming you sign the treaty, it is now in effect and remains so until either side withdraws from it.

A big crux on a system like this is of course how the AI handles it. We want to make sure that you can’t just scam the AI, but we also want you to feel you are drafting clever treaties and making use of any advantages you might have. In particular, we also want to feed into the fantasy of you being able to draft clearly unequal treaties with other countries because maybe you are able to remind them that you have big boats and a big army next door. These are all goals we have in mind while working on the balancing of this feature.

Before we go into the details of this a bit more though, I want to specifically address something I know will come up in the comments: are multilateral treaties possible? No. Making this system support multilateral treaties would be on a completely different level of complexity and would be a massive undertaking. If nothing else it would immensely complicate the UX and require a completely different way of tackling AI, drafting and all that. So, unfortunately, it’s not feasible. That is of course not to say that we don’t want multilateral treaties (they would be super cool!) or that a system like that couldn’t in the future build on treaties, but at least for now, it’s not something we are doing.

Enough of that though, let’s dive into the details.

Articles


This is the core part of treaties that actually defines what they do. Articles have a few different classifications. On a fundamental level, articles can be either Mutual or Directional. This mostly just indicates whether the article is something that affects both sides equally or not. A prime example of a mutual article is an Alliance: both sides are involved equally. On the other hand, Transfer Goods is an example of a Directional article: one side (the source) is sending the goods and the other (the target) is receiving them.

The next important aspect of articles is Inputs. Some articles have required inputs and others do not. Again, an Alliance is just an Alliance, you don’t need to define anything else, but for Transfer Goods you need to specify which goods you want to transfer and how many.

Supporting Texas with some good ol’ ammo


Articles can have a number of different inputs depending on what they’re meant to do.

What these inputs are actually used for differs and is up for the article to define.

As for what articles you can expect to be in the game, a lot of them will be things we are moving over from the old diplomatic actions system. This includes of course Alliances and Defensive Pacts, but also e.g. State Transfer and Join Power Bloc and if you own Sphere of Influence, Investment Rights.

For the majority of the articles that have counterparts as diplomatic actions, the corresponding diplomatic actions or pacts will be removed and Treaties will be the new way through which you access them. Do note that not all diplomatic actions have been made into articles, only the ones that made sense, this means that actions like Declare Rivalry or Improve Relations will still work as they used to.

We’ve taken the opportunity to rework Treaty Ports by turning them into an article instead of a consequence of geography. No Treaty, no Treaty Port! (Historical treaties aren’t setup yet, so ignore the date and binding time details)


In addition to those, we also have some completely new articles coming with 1.9. One of them Lino talked about on the previous Dev Diary DD #145: Military Access. That Dev Diary already went into detail on how Military Access works, so let’s talk about the other new article coming with 1.9: Transit Rights.

Who’s gonna play Switzerland as their first run when 1.9 drops?


If Military Access lets you march your troops through another country, Transit Rights lets landlocked countries pass through a country to access the world market. This can be chained through multiple countries if needed. Switzerland stans can calm down.

Ending a Treaty


A Treaty ends when either side withdraws from the treaty. Easy. Of course, if you gave away Angola in exchange for Spain transferring you a certain amount of money every week, you want to make sure they actually follow through and you don’t get scammed. This is where binding periods come in.

When signing a treaty, you also define for how long that treaty will be binding (e.g. 5, 10, 15 years). When the binding duration for the treaty lapses, either side can end the treaty at any point without consequences.

We’re still looking at a few alternatives for how to pick the binding period. This is one, but it could also maybe be a slider?


You can still end a treaty before the binding period ends of course, but then you would be in breach of the treaty and subject to hefty penalties depending on the articles present in the treaty.

(Re)Negotiation


If you made some poor choices and a Treaty is really not good for you, you can attempt to renegotiate the treaty instead of just withdrawing from it. To do so, you select what treaty you want to renegotiate and simply click on the button. This will bring you to a flow similar to the original drafting panel, but instead of having a blank slate, the existing articles will be the baseline. From there you can add or remove articles, change inputs or even change the binding period. When you’re happy, you send the proposal as usual and the other side has the opportunity to respond. If they agree, great, the old treaty is replaced with this new one. If they reject your offer though, the old treaty remains in force as it was.

New Granada is starting to feel like maybe this wasn’t such a good deal after all


It is worth noting though that some articles are not renegotiable. This mostly applies to articles that have some kind of immediate effect upon signing, like transferring a state, because you can’t just undo that simply by changing the terms somewhat.

Non-fulfillment Consequences


Say you are playing as Belgium and you need paper, but don’t feel like actually making it yourself. You could set up a treaty where you give the Netherlands some of your Sulfur and in exchange they give you some of the Paper they produce. They agree to this, but then for whatever reason, say a foreign power annexed their only paper mills, they are not able to produce the Paper they should deliver to you. This would likely lead to a shortage of Paper in the Dutch Market which would mean they are not able to deliver the Paper to you.

In such a case, the Netherlands would be considered to be in non-fulfillment of their part of the Treaty. When that happens, generally one of two things will happen depending on what Article is not being fulfilled: if it’s a serious breach, like not answering the call of an Alliance, that will break the whole treaty and the party at fault will receive all the penalties tied to an early withdrawal if the treaty is still binding.

For less serious breaches though, like with the example above, what happens is that the other side of the treaty will be inactive until the breach is addressed, at which point the treaty resumes as usual. In our example, if the Netherlands stopped delivering Paper because they had a shortage due to not producing it, Belgium would stop delivering Sulfur in return as well. This would then hold until the Paper deliveries resume. If there are any other articles on Belgium’s side (including mutual articles) those are also inactivated for as long as the other side is in non-fulfillment. The side that isn’t fulfilling one of their articles stays active though.

Finally, I’d like to note that not all articles will be non-fulfillable. For some articles like investment rights, you can’t not fulfill it, it just happens anyway.

Obligations


As usual, you can call in obligations to make countries more likely to accept a treaty you propose. When it comes to how you get those obligations we’re making some changes though. Broadly speaking, you will be able to say you consider a certain treaty as essentially a favor to the other side. This will reduce their acceptance of the treaty, but in turn, if the binding period of the treaty lapses and everyone fulfills their parts it will grant you an obligation you can then use as usual.

Signed treaties will take on different names depending on different circumstances. There will also be some historical treaties scripted in with their historical names. Additionally, you will also be able to give your treaties a custom name if you so wish. (shout out to Default Window Line Two)


Modding


As always we have made an active effort to keep this feature as moddable as possible. Many times when thinking about how to solve a certain problem we could see an easy solution which would just work within the assumptions of what we have planned to do with the feature and a more complicated solution where making things work on a more abstract level meant more combinations were possible for modders and as much as possible we chose the latter. As such, I’d like to take a little bit of time to talk about what you can do with this system, primarily centered around modding articles.
A lot of article modding is similar to diplomatic action modding: you can set AI weights, modifiers, effects, costs and so on. What is a bit different here with how articles work, is that you are also able to set if an article should be mutual or directional, but more importantly, you can have the article take any combination of the following inputs (although only one of each):


  • Quantity
  • Goods
  • Building Type
  • Law Type
  • Strategic Region
  • Country
  • State
  • Company


You can then reference these inputs in the immediate effect of the article to do whatever you want that can be done in an effect block.

A little example of how flags and inputs are set in script on articles


There are of course some significant parts of articles that are hard coded, but we tried to make them flexible in that. For instance, most vanilla articles work by setting behavior flags. So Transfer Goods has an is_transfer_goods flag. This then tells the code what behavior it should call and makes it take in the expected inputs that is_transfer_goods requires. There’s also say is_investment_rights, or is_alliance. And the cool thing here is that you can actually to some degree combine these. So if you want to make an article that grants both military access and transit rights at the same time, you can do that. The main limitation here is if you have two flags that look at the same input type, they will have to use the same input. So combining transfer goods with no tariffs would necessarily both target the same input.
Another cool thing you can do is mod the non-fulfillment conditions. You could for instance have a version of Transfer Goods that is only active while the countries are at peace or something and then if that is broken maybe you’d want the treaty to auto-break or maybe you want it to freeze instead. Up to you.

Charters of Commerce


While everything I have described so far will be part of the free 1.9 update, the Mechanics Pack Charters of Commerce will also include a number of new articles exclusive to it:


  • No Tariffs on Goods: The country is not allowed to set tariffs on a specific input good when trading with the World Market
  • No Subventions on Goods: The country is not allowed to set subventions on a specific input good when trading with the World Market
  • Prohibit trade of good with World Market: The country is not allowed to trade a specific input good with the World Market
  • Law commitment: The country commits to passing a specific law. As long as they don’t, their side is not fulfilled and the other side of the treaty is inactive
  • Non-Colonization Agreement: The country is not allowed to colonize a specific strategic region
  • Grant Monopoly to Foreign Company: Tune in to the next dev diary when Lino will talk more about this


Portugal would really like to be left alone with their colonies





I feel like there is something I forgot to mention…hmmm

Just one more thing


There’s one more thing I’d like to show before we end this though. In addition to the flow I’ve already explained above, there’s another way Treaties can be used: Diplomatic Plays.

In 1.9, as part of the free update, we’re adding a new war goal: Enforce Treaty Article. This war goal lets you select between a number of articles that are specifically classified (in script) as enforceable. You can select this war goal multiple times targeting different articles. Then, at the end of the war, all instances of the war goal against the same country will result in a War Reparations Treaty against that country. This treaty, being enforced, cannot be withdrawn from.

What this means is that on a base level you can have war reparations work as they used to, but if you prefer, as part of war reparations you can instead demand getting investment rights in the country in question. Or you can prohibit them from trading weapons and artillery with the world market. Or you could mod some other article we haven’t thought about and do that instead. Or all of the above.

Now you’ll have more ways in which you can make the Prussians pay





Alright, now that was actually all I had to show you today. I hope you are as excited about all this as I have been to tell you about it. It’s been a whole journey to work on it and it’s awesome finally getting to share it with you all. Let me know what you think: are there any article combinations you are particularly excited about? And for the modders out there, have the modding gears started turning already? I’m very much looking forward to seeing what clever treaties you all come up with and hearing about all the backstabbing in MP when 1.9 releases on June 17.

Before that though, Lino will be back in two weeks to tell you some more about what we have been cooking with Companies and Executives. Until then!




Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #145 - Military Improvements



Hello Victorians,

I’m Lino, Game Design Lead on Victoria 3 and I welcome you all to another Dev Diary and wish you a happy Thursday!
Today we’re looking at some Military changes that are arriving with the free 1.9 Update, coming to you on June 17, the same day our Mechanics Pack “Charters of Commerce” releases.

Before we begin: As always, any values, texts, designs, graphics etc. are work in progress and are subject to change!

So, obviously warfare has some issues, which we want to address. To repeat what we have stated before: The ambition for 1.9 is not to majorly expand on warfare, but rather to fix the most egregious persistent issues.
The main areas we had identified before embarking on this quest to improve warfare were:

  1. Too many front splits, which results in having to micro too much
  2. Shuffling of units along a front (usually when two fronts merge), leading to them not being defended while the units were travelling
  3. Formations teleporting home when they don’t have a valid route to get there


There are of course other issues, e.g. our user experience and interface could certainly be improved in some areas, supply should matter more etc., but these three are the cause of most of the warfare feedback posts we see on our forums, discord and other social platforms.
We have read through all your posts and decided on addressing the three points above (and more), based on your extensive feedback. First up is addressing frontlines and their splitting.

Frontline generation



Faced with the problem of having to micro after front-splitting, we sat down to talk about some requirements and possible options.
We knew that it’s impossible to fully avoid front-splitting from happening in general. But that’s okay, that was never our goal. We cared about addressing the resulting issues.
One use-case we really wanted to improve was India. Well, fronts in India. Once the princely states decide they’ve had enough and declare war, we get an insane amount of frontlines generated all across the subcontinent.
This is due to the algorithm of how frontlines are created. It looks at continuous pieces of land that are connected to another continuous piece of land that is owned by your enemy and then spawns a frontline between the two basically.

Well, in the case of India, this will often lead to having 10-15 fronts because the princely states aren’t always located next to each other.

But what if we had a different algorithm? One that resulted in fewer fronts.
Let me introduce our patented “Why not jump?” front generation algorithm:
Instead of requiring fronts to be along a continuous piece of land, we are now telling it to jump for some distance if it would reach another front which it can merge with.
In the current version we have internally, we are looking at covering one state region of a gap. We will be experimenting with a version that instead looks at a specified distance in pixels to cover some of the weirder edge-cases where a state is either very small or very large.

We are quite happy with the results when you apply it to actual use-cases, for example the case of the Indian revolt that I mentioned earlier.

No longer will we have to endure 13 fronts


Now it’s just two instead


This is the biggest visible improvement we have done for this Warfare improvement cycle, but we have a lot more to cover. Next up is the shuffling of army positions.

Front camps



So, we’ve probably all seen armies march to the other end of a front they were assigned to, seemingly just because they felt like it.

Well, in reality this is because armies are assigned to front camps, specific positions along a front to spread them out.

When two fronts merged or a front split, we would re-evaluate the front camps and the armies in them were assigned a new valid front camp. That could mean their new camp was on the other end of the front, meaning they’d pack up their things and start marching.

So we have taken a look at this algorithm as well and made some seemingly small changes which should result in a much smoother gameplay experience though.

We now make it so that as long as an army is positioned in a front camp, which is still valid after a front change, they stay there. The armies were spread out evenly before, so the same distribution should make sense after a split/merge too. This can still lead to armies starting to move, e.g. because it was their front camp that was invalidated (because it’s no longer part of the front for example), but that is a logical reason to move.

It’s hard to showcase this behaviour change in images, but internal test results have been positive about this and we hope you’ll feel the same. There’s much less unintentional shuffling of armies along a front which was the main point of this change.

Next up is another big frustration point.

Teleporting Armies



“Beam me up Scotty!” General Wolseley exclaimed when he found himself unable to attach to a front in India. And sure enough, two minutes later he was drinking tea with the Queen in Buckingham Palace.
At least that is how it sometimes worked out in our game. Until now!

The issue of teleporting armies comes to be when there’s no valid front available for a formation to go to. This can happen for example when a formation is isolated by neutral territory or the front they were moving towards being pushed into unavailable space.
We’ve always had some fallbacks for missing spline connections for example, which allowed armies to simply march through terrain though there wasn’t really a path defined.
And teleportation was our fallback solution for the worse cases.
But now we are refining this particular one into more of an actual feature, which should make it possible for armies to not teleport home again. What we’re doing is to take a lesson from our other titles and implement an exiled army status.
Once an army finds itself in a situation where they would have previously beamed home, now they’ll enter exiled status and have to walk (or ship) home.

Exiled armies have a few special rules:

  • They can march through neutral and enemy territory
  • They are not able to attach themselves to a front, they need to regroup in a friendly HQ first. They will automatically target the nearest HQ (ignoring landlocked HQs unless it’s their home HQ) and go there.
  • They suffer from attrition as if they were present at a front (more attrition in enemy territory than in neutral)
  • Their organization value will drift towards 0 over time


Once an exiled army reaches their target HQ, they lose the exiled status and act like a regular formation again.

As this feature is still in development, I can’t show you too much yet, but here’s a teaser for the icon which will be used across all interface screens to visualize the exiled state


That’s the big three out of the way, but I have more to show today.
Since I just mentioned the army organization value, I think this would be a good time to briefly mention some changes on that front (ha!) before coming back to juicier additions.

Organization, Supply and Morale



Right now, organization is a value whose limit is determined by the commanders in the formation and used by your units. If there are sufficient commanders, it always is at the maximum value and if there suddenly isn’t (because an unfortunate accident happened), well then the organization will drop immediately to the new target value, leaving the army shattered.

What we’re doing now instead is making organization a drifting value, meaning that when an important commander dies, the target is set to say 40 but it will take a while to go down from 100. Enough time for you to hire or promote a new general in their place.

Organization drifting from 100 towards 0 at a rate of 5 per day because the army is exiled (and has too many special units)




Negative effects from low organization also scale a bit differently now. When you have full organization, you suffer no consequences of course. If you go down to 0 you’ll suffer 100% of the penalties. Previously this was set to 25, but it’s working better with 0 and the drifting value.
Another small change we’re doing alongside this is that we’re adding a base command limit of 10. That means that small formations (max 10 units) do not require a commander to have full organization anymore.

Lean, mean killer machine


With regards to supply, we are making some small, but impactful changes too.
Previously supply impacted morale, instead it now affects it via organization. It does so by multiplying the organization target. So if the organization target of a formation is currently 100, but the formation’s supply is only at 50%, the organization target will be set to 50 instead.
This gives supply a lot more teeth than the previously rather harmless effects.

Here we can see the impact of a small supply penalty


Alright, so much for our little tour around these values.

Let’s get back to some meaty stuff again that I’m sure will excite many people.

Military Access



Military Access has been on our wishlist for a long time. It has proven tricky in our military system to define what exactly it actually means and how we can make it work in a way that makes sense for us.

I don’t think I need to explain that much why having a military access system in the game is a good idea, but let’s just say it should allow a lot more countries to conduct war without a naval invasion.

The way this is set up is via a diplomatic pact that two countries establish. It’s one-sided, so for example Belgium could grant military access to Prussia without being granted the same. Additionally, having an alliance with another country will inherently also provide military access.
Note that the example of Prussia marching through Belgium is incidental and not a reference to any particular historical conflict which involved German soldiers marching through Belgium.

Small relevant spoiler for our next Dev Diary :o


What I should explain though is how Prussia can actually make use of the military access rights they just secured.
Let’s imagine we play as Prussia and find ourselves at war with France (silly example I know). Now we’d like to open a second front with them using a route through neutral Belgium’s territory into Champage to get to Paris.
Well, with the press of a few buttons, we’re able to do so.

Incorrectly found in the Navy tab currently. This will be adjusted before release.


Once you press the plan invasion button, you’ll see an interface you may know from Naval Invasions already, which shows all potential invasion targets, via the sea, but also via land.

Note the extra options for states Champagne and Lorraine which are accessible through the military access to Belgium.



When we select Champagne, we see the panel where you select your armies. Once selected, they’ll prepare for a while.

While the 2. Armee defends, the 1. Armee shall advance through Belgium!


These invasions via land will work almost like naval invasions, minus the boats. While preparations are ongoing, a new front is already spawned at the point of invasion so that the defender also has the time to react and send forces to defend. Once prepared, the Prussian attackers will be able to start advancing the new front.

Again, the invasion icon will be fixed before release


France on the other hand will only be able to defend this front and cannot push into Belgium. The conditions to see this front disappear are the same as for naval invasions, so after 3 failed attempts, the front disappears and the attackers return to their HQ.

But what if France wants to fight back and take the fight into Prussia? Well, they can also open a second front via Belgium. When any country uses their military access via a neutral country to invade another country, their enemies will also gain military access to the neutral country.
So keep that in mind when you go around securing these rights.

Next up, some interface improvements we’re doing.

UI Improvements



We have done a number of changes to the UI surrounding military and warfare which I’d like to present to you in this section.

First up, we now use the more compact Mobilization window layout for formations by default. Previously the long list was very ineffective for how much space it was using and required a lot of scrolling.

Lots of small buttons, making better use of the space


We have updated the formation tooltip. It now shows which units are in said formation. Additionally we now expose Offense and Defense stats of units in fitting places.

Updated formation tooltip, including its units and offense/defense value in them


Default unit selection


Also, the cost of war needed to be highlighted a bit more as it’s a pretty important number.
So in the Military tab, you’ll find a summary of your Military expenses now.

“4.56K for Iron bars?! Who approved this?”


Another change we’re doing is to stack all allied/enemy formation markers that are on the same front. This drastically reduces the amount of clutter you see on screen when you’re at war. Your own formations are not affected by this. Hovering over the stack allows you to still see the individual groups that are summed up in it.

Before: Chaos!


After: So fresh, so clean


Showing what’s in a stack


Alright, I have one last feature outlook I want to mention today.
This feature is still very actively in development, but we want to let you know that we are currently working on implementing the possibility to edit mobilization options for your formations in bulk.
This will work by multi selecting any formations you want this to apply to and then have a central editing process which will apply the mobilization options to all selected formations.

Here’s a little outlook (all very much WIP), you can see 3 armies selected, the blue and yellow lines indicating that at least one army has selected the option


Closing thoughts



We are very happy with this set of improvements which ended up a bit bigger than originally expected and we look forward to hearing your feedback once you get your hands on it.
I can’t stress enough that this is not marking the end of military improvements. We will continue addressing issues that aren’t up to par in free updates as we have always done.
We also would like to come back to the naval improvements we have previously teased, but these changes are much larger in scope so we can’t tell you exactly when they are coming at this point.

Also, before I leave you, here's an outlook of further Dev Diaries up until release of the 1.9 Update and Charters of Commerce, which releases on June 17th:

  • May 1st: Diplomatic Treaties
  • May 15th: Company Charters
  • May 29th: Prestige Goods
  • June 5th: Other changes
  • June 12th: Changelog




We will be back with Alex who will walk you through the very exciting Diplomatic Treaties feature in the next Dev Diary on the 1st of May.

Have a good day and see you in the comment section!