Victoria 3
Victoria 3 is on sale for up to 70% off!
After all the reveals today with Expansion Pass 2, we have one last thing...
Victoria 3 and selected content is on sale starting today, with discounts of up to 70% off!
Check out the discount's below!
Build a Grand Tomorrow in Victoria 3
https://store.steampowered.com/app/529340/Victoria_3/
Expand your Sphere of Influence
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2411231/Victoria_3_Sphere_of_Influence/
Or, try to keep the princely states in check as the East India Company!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3174360/Victoria_3_Pivot_of_Empire/
With more content also on sale, so check out the full Victoria 3 catalog!
Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #144 - Charters of Commerce & Expansion Pass 2
Happy Monday Victorians!
The time has come! Last week we announced Expansion Pass 2 (well, showed you the logo and a blurry square), thank you for the huge amount of responses, discussion, hype and speculation about what is in the Pass!
Speaking of speculation, we saw a lot of it for different countries based on the logos in the Expansion Pass, for example: Albania, Spain, Russia, Austria and everywhere across the globe! Some people thought the barrel was for brewing, the flag for flag customization and many, many more interesting ideas. Thank you for them all, we had a lot of fun following your discussions!
But today, we shall give you a quick tour of the Expansion Pass: first of all a proper visit to our first upcoming release and the barrel in the Expansion Pass 2 logo! Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to announce Charters of Commerce!
Charters of Commerce
Welcome to Charters of Commerce, a Mechanics pack focused on building trade, companies and negotiating treaties with other nations!
Control world trade through market domination, expand companies to new horizons and strongarm countries into unequal treaties. Use the power of commerce to bend other nations to your will - peacefully or by force. Create monopolies to secure critical industries, keeping foreign investors in check. Ultimately, prove your mettle and produce unique Prestige Goods to make your brands known worldwide!
What’s included in Charters of Commerce?:
- Company Charters - Grant special Charters to Companies, giving them a range of special privileges:
- Trade Charters - lets Companies trade their goods on the World Market
- Investment Charters - allows establishment of regional headquarters that exploit the target's coffers
- Colony Charters - makes it possible for a Company to run a colonial region on their own, turning them into a country in the process
- Industry Charters - grants Companies the ability to expand into producing other goods
- Monopolies - Boost the efficiency of selected buildings and grant your Companies an exclusive right to certain industries, ensuring their dominance
- Diplomatic Treaties - Negotiate fair or unequal arrangements with other countries. Expands upon treaties added in Update 1.9, including Non-Colonization Agreements!
- Prestige Goods - successful Companies can produce higher quality goods, such as Champagne (as an advanced variant of Wine)
Alongside Charters of Commerce, we will be releasing free Update 1.9 that will focus on some of the areas we mentioned back in January with Dev Diary 142. With the full Update including:
- World Market with Autonomous trade - as shown last week in Dev Diary 143
- Diplomatic Treaties - negotiate with other nations to truly make the best deal for you, with new additions such as Transit Rights!
- Frontline and Military Quality of Life Improvements - improving front splitting, teleportation and more
- Blockades - blockade key locations to control access for military or trade purposes
Now, you may be asking “What is a Mechanic Pack”? It is a pack aimed to provide mechanical immersion at a lower price than an Expansion due to lower focus on the narrative content. This allows us to provide a deeper mechanical immersion, while extra flavour will be included in an additional Immersion Pack within the same Expansion Pass 2.
This is a bit of an experiment on our end - as we want to make it possible for you to receive both new mechanics as well as narrative content when purchasing an Expansion Pass (as you would with an Expansion Pack), while also giving you an option to choose only one when buying content separately (Mechanics Pack + Immersion Pack). The choice is all yours!
Charters of Commerce and Update 1.9 will be releasing June 17th, for $19.99 and is available to be wishlisted now! We will delve into upcoming features in the future Dev Diaries and videos, so stay tuned!.
Expansion Pass 2
And so we bid you greetings to the second Expansion Pass for Victoria 3! Adding more to the game through a range of new content for trade, diplomacy, nations and much more!
Expansion Pass 2 includes:
- Trade Ships Bonus Pack Instant Unlock
- Charters of Commerce Mechanics Pack
- National Awakening Immersion Pack
- Songs of the Homeland Music Pack
- Iberian Twilight Immersion Pack
You can see more information on each pack later in the dev diary!
By getting Expansion Pass 2 you will save -20% compared to the price of content being sold separately - and you will also receive Trade Ships Bonus Pack, which will be unlocked immediately upon purchase of the Expansion Pass 2. The whole package is available now for $35.97.
More information can be found on the Steam page for Expansion Pass 2, and we will have dev diaries leading up to each pack!
Trade Ships
For those of you who would like to delve into Expansion Pass 2 right away, we prepared an instant unlock: Trade Ships Bonus Pack. This art pack will become instantly available in the game for all who purchase the Expansion Pass, providing three new trade ship appearances to ply the trade lanes of the world map.
As we want to make these ships feel truly unique, the sails color update to which country you are playing based on their flag, and appear based on cultural heritage or culture. For example, a Marmara would appear as trade ships for Turkish, Greek or Misri primary culture.
You can also have these appear in other ways e.g. if you are a subject of someone who has them, if your Power Bloc leader has them or you are importing clippers from a nation with them!
A Qing Junk, in a dapper yellow
The Marmara in Ottoman Empire colors, with a rather dashing red and white
A Dhow clad in midnight sails
National Awakening
Our next Immersion pack releasing in Q3 2025 is National Awakening - focusing on the century of national struggles in Central Europe and the Balkans. Will Austria survive its internal political and national struggles? And, how will they all fare with the swell of national identities?
Selected key features:
- Austrian Internal Content - will Klemens von Metternich keep the crumbling empire together, or will nationalist forces break it apart? Is there a future for all the different ethnicities under Habsburg's absolute rule, or maybe it’s time for a more federationist state?
- Hungarian Flavour - determine the place of the proud Hungarian nation within or without the empire.
- Powderkeg of Europe - engage with intricate narrative content surrounding the emerging Balkan states, struggling for independence and power.
- New southern states - form Yugoslavia or Illyria, carving out their borders and national outline as you please.
- Historic characters - join a whole cast of bigger-than-life figures who helped shape the outline of Austria and Balkans.
- New 2D art - including new map and UI skin, as well as event images.
Songs of the Homeland
In Q4 2025, immerse yourself in a music pack dedicated to the rise of national identities, modernism and a truly grand tomorrow!
Selected key features:
- Embrace the power of the nation - immerse yourself in sounds of national pride and fervor.
- Modern trends - experience the innovation of emerging modernist music.
- Ambition wins all - lose yourself in the global soundscape of a truly global empire.
Iberian Twilight
And so we come to our last part of Expansion Pass 2, also releasing in Q4 2025. Iberian Twilight lets you ponder at the once mighty powers of the Iberian Peninsula, grappling with the clashing ideals of reform or reaction! Can you restore these sleeping giants to their old glory, or shall they fade away into the darkening night?
Selected key features:
- Spain:
- Carlist Wars - side with the liberals or counter their aspirations through dedicated narrative content.
- Return of a global empire - rebuild your once powerful, world-spanning empire and face both new and old adversaries as you progress on the path to greatness.
- The future calls - modernize your country and institutions, freeing the nation of the shackles of the past.
- Portugal:
- Define who you are - recover from the War of the Two Brothers and define the vision for the future of your nation.
- The ultimate trade powerhouse - reaffirm your position as the world-leading trade power, spanning a commercial empire.
- American ambitions - navigate the diplomatic relations with Brazil, defining your position as a former suzerain of the region.
- Other:
- One Iberia - unite the peninsula under your rule.
- New art - including buildings, unit models and more!
What’s next?
With that we finish the overview of Charters of Commerce and the new Expansion Pass!
The infographic below shows you when each part of the pass will land, with more information about each piece of upcoming content receiving their own dedicated dev diaries.
Before we send you off, last week we announced new bundles coming to Victoria 3; the Starter Edition and Ultimate Bundle for new and seasoned players of Victoria 3! These will replace the previous Grand Edition and old Expansion Pass bundles, and provide the best way to start or complete your collection!
We joined Martin with the Trade Rework dev diary last week, next time we see you in a Dev Diary it will be mid April with Lino and information on Frontline Improvements coming in free Update 1.9! A happy Thursday when we see you next!
Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #143 - Trade Rework: The World Market
Happy Thursday and welcome back! After an extended hiatus, we are now returning to regularly scheduled development diaries, the first of which you are reading right at this moment. Today’s development diary is going to be a pretty hefty one, focusing on the complete overhaul of trade that is coming in the 1.9 free update. Before we start, I want to remind you of the usual caveat that this is a feature in development, so expect some rough-looking interfaces and for all implementation details and balancing to not yet be fully figured out.
We have mentioned on a number of occasions that we are not happy with the way trade works in Victoria 3. It is unreliable, overly fiddly, and inherently inefficient since the introduction of Local Prices and Market Access Price Impact in 1.5. Establishing any kind of long-term trade relationship with another country is almost impossible due to the constantly shifting market conditions, and on top of all this the system exists in a confusing limbo where all trade routes are established and paid for by the government (via convoys) while the profits usually go into the pockets of private owners. Many of these issues are inherent to the way trade routes work, and as such aren’t easily fixable within the confines of the current system - there really isn’t a way to create a reliably profitable trade route with another market when you have no control of the price of the traded good in the other market.
For this reason, we have decided to start over from scratch. The old system is completely gone, and in its place we will have not one but two new systems - one which simulates private, autonomous, profit-driven trade, and another which handles strategic trade deals between nations. Today we’re going to talk only about the former, so while reading all of this, bear in mind that you’re only seeing one half of the coin. Direct trade deals between governments will very much still exist in 1.9, they just won’t be tied into Trade Centers and private profits. But enough with the caveats, let’s get to the point.
World Market & Trade Centers
Enter The World Market. Those of you familiar with Victoria 2 will immediately recognize the name, and might even have assumed from the title of this dev diary that we’re replacing the national market system in Victoria 3 with the global one in its predecessor. This is not so. The World Market in Victoria 3 is not where pops and buildings buy and sell goods, but rather where autonomous trade takes place, and every good traded in the World Market has a World Market Price based on its amount of exports versus imports. You can think of it as existing at a ‘top layer’ above the national markets, though this is not a completely accurate picture as you should soon understand.
The World Market in 1836 in the current build - remember that everything is very much WIP!
So then, how does trade with the World Market work? As with the old trade route system, Trade Centers are still the principal drivers of trade, but the way you interact with them has been turned on its head. Instead of being a building that appears after a trade is created, you now build Trade Centers to create Trade Capacity in States, which allows those States to trade with the World Market. Each Trade Capacity allows for a certain quantity of a good to be imported or exported (the amount varies per good). Imported goods are purchased from the World Market and sold in the State, and so they are profitable when the goods are cheaper in the World Market than the State, with the opposite being true for exports.
There’s a bit more to this, which we’ll get into when we talk about Trade Advantage, but the key thing to remember is that trade uses local state prices, which means it no longer suffers from the inherent inefficiencies of the old system, which was always penalized by Market Access Price Impact. It also means that the location of Trade Centers matters - it’s more profitable to import Luxury Clothes into a state with a large number of wealthy Pops, as an example.
This Trade Center in Brandenburg is making a decent profit importing cheap dyes and liquor while exporting some overproduced goods in the Prussian Market, but still has plenty of free Trade Capacity with which to expand its operation
Trading in Trade Centers happens autonomously, with a number of weekly adjustments based on the ‘Weekly Trades’ value created by the Trade Center, in which they will increase or decrease trade volumes to create profit for themselves. While this process is automatic and autonomous, it’s not completely out of player hands, as you can heavily influence Trade Centers through Tariffs and Subventions, but more on that in a little bit. Unlike in the old system, Trade Centers are not reliant on Convoys or any other government-produced resource. Instead they purchase Merchant Marine, a new type of goods created by Ports (which are no longer government-only buildings). Right now the amount of Merchant Marine consumed by Trade Centers is static per level, but we are looking into making it dependent on geographic distance to trade partners. As an additional note, both Trade Centers and Ports can now be constructed/privatized/owned by Ownership Buildings.
A detailed look at the Brandenburg Trade Center’s imports and exports. You can see the revenue, price difference, relative trade advantage and principal trade partners for each good.
World Market Location
Switching to talk about the World Market itself, you might well ask, ‘So where is the World Market located?’. Conceptually, what we say to this is ‘The world market exists in the sea’. In other words, once you have access to the sea you also have the ability to trade on the World Market, though of course it’s a bit more complicated than that. To explain more in detail, I first have to tell you about something which already exists in the game, but is presently quite hidden: Market Areas. Market Areas are ‘chunks’ of a market, consisting of a number of states that are all connected by land or by straits. To give you an example, the Spanish Market has several market areas: One for Spain itself, one for Cuba, one for Puerto Rico, another for the Philippines and so on. Prussia, conversely, only has a single Market Area which contains not only Prussia but all of the states of the countries in the Zollverein.
In order to trade with the World Market, a Market Area must have at least one Port, at which point a World Market Hub will be established. When there are multiple ports in a Market Area, the Hub is chosen based on factors such as port level and State GDP. Hubs are not completely static, but do not generally move around unless a much more suitable candidate State emerges to eclipse the old Hub State.
As the largest port in Spain, Western Andalusia is also the World Market Hub for its capital Market Area
Landlocked countries, however, are not left out completely in the cold when it comes to the World Market. Asides from being able to utilize national trade deals (which as I said before we’re not covering today) they can also negotiate Transit Rights with a foreign nation in order to be able to trade through their World Market Hubs. For example, Switzerland could negotiate Transit Rights with Austria to be able to trade through Venetia, or with Prussia to be able to trade through one of the German ports. We will return to talk more about World Market Hubs in later development diaries when we cover subjects such as blockades, but for now we should continue. I will add as a final note that one design problem we have currently identified with World Market Hubs and Market Areas is that it doesn’t make too much sense for huge Market Areas (such as Russia) to only have a single Hub, and this is something we are currently exploring solutions for.
While the World Market ‘exists in the sea’, that doesn’t mean that we simply ignore where your exports are going as soon as they get loaded onto a ship. Not all trade partners are equal, and it makes little sense to get the bulk of your Clothes imports from an overseas partner if your demand could be met by a closer source. As such, each Trade Center has a preference weight for every other Trade Center based on factors such as interests, relations, diplomatic agreements and of course geographic distance, and will trade more with higher-weight Trade Centers and less with lower-weight ones.
Placeholder interface for tracking trade going through sea nodes. This will be replaced by a much better interface with better tooltips before 1.9 is released.
Trade Advantage
I have mentioned Trade Advantage at several points during this development diary, so I figure it’s high time I explain it to you. I already explained that there is a World Market Price for each good which is high when imports exceed exports and low when exports exceed imports, and which is compared to the State Price when determining how much profit a Trade Center can extract from its trades. However, this is a bit of a simplification - the World Market Price is the average price for imported/exported goods, while the actual price is modified by a Trade Center’s relative Trade Advantage to its competitors.
Trade Advantage is calculated for each Trade Center, for each good, in each trade direction. As an example, a Trade Center in Lancashire will have a certain amount of Trade Advantage for exporting Fabric, which will be different from its Trade Advantage in exporting Coal, and also different from its Trade Advantage for importing either Fabric or Coal. Trade Advantage is multiplied by the amount of traded units, and then compared to the Trade Advantage of all other Trade Centers trading the same goods in the same direction. The higher a TC’s share of global trade advantage compared to its share of global trade volume, the higher its relative advantage, which in turn translates into a better price. Advantage is a zero-sum game - the average price on imports/exports is always equal to the World Market Price, so any improvement on prices a Trade Center gains always comes at the expense of its competitors.
If that explanation sounds confusing, the key takeaway is that high advantage equals better prices, and in turn, the ability to capture a larger share of global trade. Advantage is gained from a variety of factors, such as Trade Center level, Interests in relevant markets and Trade Agreements. Regional economics also play a role - the higher the Market Area’s share of global production, the higher its export advantage, and vice versa for consumption/import advantage.
This Trade Center in Virginia has high Trade Advantage for exports of Iron, Fabric and Meat, resulting in more favorable prices. Note that the numbers here don’t currently add up due to a bug.
Interacting with the World Market
Changing the focus of the discussion a little bit, something I feel I have not always made clear in the past when we change systems to work in a more autonomous/automatic way is how you are expected to interact with it. Under the old trade route system this was clear enough: you as the player were the sole arbiter of trade for your country, for ill or good. In the new system (and I will remind you again that I am only talking about the World Market here, not country-to-country trade deals which we will cover in a later dev diary) you are expected to make strategic-level decisions to capture global import and export shares.
As an example, playing as Sweden, you have a lot of potential to produce Iron - far more than you could ever use domestically with your limited starting population. A natural course of action then might be to build up your Trade Capacity and try to maximize your Trade Advantage for exporting iron, leading to greater export volumes and in turn creating favorable conditions for expanding your iron production. This maximization of Trade Advantage can be done in a number of ways, for example by signing Trade Agreements with key importers or by squeezing the competition by unequal treaties on them (more on that particular point later, for now it will remain mysteriously unelaborated on).
Another key tool in your strategic trade arsenal is Tariffs and their newly introduced counterpart, Subventions. Tariffs are of course already in the game, but now become much more important as they are the principal way by which you can directly influence the decisions made by your Trade Centers. Where previously, Tariffs for a particular good could only be set to ‘Import Focus’, ‘Export Focus’ or ‘No Focus’, Import and Export Tariff levels are now set separately, meaning that you can throw up tariff barriers in both directions if you’re feeling particularly protectionist about a good.
Your Trade Law now sets your Maximum Tariff/Subvention rate, which each Tariff/Subvention level applies a multiplier to (for example, High Tariffs apply 50% of the maximum rate)
Tariffs, just as before, collect a fee from your Trade Centers for each good of the relevant type exported/imported, and so effectively serve to reduce trade volumes of that good by making it less profitable to trade. Subventions function in the exact opposite way, paying the Trade Center a certain amount of money for each unit traded in the directed direction, and can be used in a variety of ways, such as subsidizing a critical import of military goods, or to muscle out the competition for one of your principal exports.
This almost-a-slider interface for Tariffs and Subventions is 100% placeholder and will be replaced with something better before release, but gives you an idea of the expanded options available
Alright, I think that should suffice to give you an overview of the World Market. I do want to emphasize that this feature is still under development and there are some key questions we have not yet figured out, such as the issues with over-large Market Areas. Before I sign off, I will leave you with a couple screenshots from an end-game World Market in the current build:
That’s all for now! However, we will be back in just a few days, on Monday March 31st, to talk about Expansion Pass 2 and what’s coming next for Victoria 3.
Victoria 3 - New Bundles!
We have some good news to share with you! As we are preparing everything for Victoria 3: Expansion Pass 2 (yes, you’ve read this right!), it’s about time to do some Spring clean-up and reorganize the Victoria 3 portfolio to make it truly evergreen. In this way we want to lower the entry threshold for new players, while rewarding the seasoned veterans by making it easier for them to complete their collection.
Here are the new packages we are going to introduce:
Victoria 3: Starter Edition
The Victoria 3: Starter Edition gives newcomers to the game a robust starting point to begin their exploration. It includes the following content:
- Victoria 3 Base Game
- Sphere of Influence
- Colossus of the South
- American Buildings Pack
Base price: 64.99$ (-24% off compared to the price of content being sold separately)
Victoria 3: Ultimate Bundle
The easiest way to complete your collection - and each DLC you already own will lower the price. It includes the following content:
- Victoria 3 Base Game
- Sphere of Influence
- Pivot of Empire
- Colossus of the South
- American Buildings Pack
- Melodies for the Masses
- Voice of the People
- French Agitators Bonus Pack
- Dawn of Wonder
Base price: dependent on content you already own, with 25% discount added on top!
With the packages above being introduced, we are also removing some of the older ones, which will become obsolete. As soon as Ultimate Bundle and Starter Edition are available, both Grand Edition and Expansion Pass 1 will be retired.
Now, when is this going to happen? Very soon - on March 31! That’s also when we are going to officially announce Expansion Pass 2 and disclose our plans for the upcoming year. Stay tuned!
Steam Spring Sale!
Salutations Victorians!
The Steam Spring Sale has sprung, and so have the savings on Victoria! Grab the base game at 50% off with other paid content being up to 40% off for the next week!
Grab the Base Game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/529340/Victoria_3/
Get one step closer to completing your collection with the Expansion Pass:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32180/Victoria_3_Expansion_Pass/
Pull other's into your nations orbit in Sphere of Influence:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2411231/Victoria_3_Sphere_of_Influence/
Stake a claim on the future of South America in Colossus of the South
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2591240/Victoria_3_Colossus_of_the_South/
As part of the Paradox Steam Spring sale, you can get great deals on other Paradox titles with savings of up to 90% off!!
Check it out here:
https://pdxint.at/4hyCJQl
Steam Real-Time Strategy Fest!
Good Day Victorians!
The Real-Time Strategy Fest has begun and Victoria is taking part! Pick up the base game for 50% off and selected content and the Expansion Pass for up to 40% off until the 27th of January!
Grab the Base Game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/529340/Victoria_3/
Get one step closer to completing your collection with the Expansion Pass:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32180/Victoria_3_Expansion_Pass/
Pull other's into your nations orbit in Sphere of Influence:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2411231/Victoria_3_Sphere_of_Influence/
Stake a claim on the future of the South America in Colossus of the South
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2591240/Victoria_3_Colossus_of_the_South/
Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #142 - 2024 in retrospect
Happy Thursday and welcome back to a brand new year! I hope you’ve all had a nice holiday and a good start to 2025. As I mentioned in the last dev diary, this one is going to be a brief retrospective on the year that’s passed and the updates and DLC that we released in that year. I’ll share my thoughts on what I think we did well, and where we want to improve going forward. I will go over each of the major releases in turn, followed by a summary of my overall thoughts for the whole year.
Our first release of 2024 was Update 1.6 back in March, and I consider it our low point of the year. While the update itself contained a lot of nice improvements, it was released in a pretty rough shape and also (contrary to our expectations at the time) had worse overall performance for a majority of users. This felt, in all honesty, more than a little embarrassing to me since I had stated improved performance to be one of our goals with the update.
The reason this happened is simply that, even though we had made a plethora of performance improvements, other changes (principally AI improvements and changes to migration) degraded performance more than these improvements could make up for. What this made us realize is that our internal tools for monitoring performance were simply inadequate to the task, and our Tech Lead spent a considerable amount of time expanding and improving on something we call ‘The Performance Dashboard’, which now monitors not just overall performance but also provides a plethora of useful breakdowns.
As an example of new functionality added to the dashboard, the new tools contain a heatmap of the most performance-intensive parts of the game (such as updating pop growth and adjusting trade volumes) with a 2-week history that lets us immediately spot if a change to a particular part of the game causes it to become slower so that we can take immediate action. All of this, alongside some extra allocation of programming resources, allowed us to release both updates 1.7 and 1.8 (as always, on average - individual hardware variation unfortunately means performance improvements are never going to be universal) with significant performance improvements despite all the new features those updates introduced.
In addition to general performance monitoring, the Performance Dashboard also tracks more specific data such as the slowest events, which lets us quickly spot when suboptimally written triggers start to impact overall performance. It’s worth noting that something being yellow or red here isn’t inherently bad - it’s okay for a complex event to use up more computing power so long as it all adds up to a reasonable level.
However, I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself now. Returning to update 1.6, it of course wasn’t all bad. On the good side, the update ended up being dubbed ‘The UX Update’ as it contained a lot of UX improvements, ranging from simple quality of life changes to more significant changes such as formation map marker consolidation and the addition of a proper migration map mode. The most significant and well received new UX feature was probably the Pop Census Panel, which allows you to truly dig down into the nitty-gritty details of your population. The Trains Bonus Pack free DLC we released alongside 1.6 of course also merits a mention, as honestly, who doesn’t like free trains?
If 1.6 was our low point of 2024, then Update 1.7 and Sphere of Influence, released in June, was definitely the high point! Both the expansion and the update itself performed extremely well, and were very positively received by the community. In particular I want to mention the Building Ownership Rework, a massive months-long effort to create more complex relationships between Buildings, Pops and Countries. There was some internal debate about whether we should really spend so much of our available development time overhauling the economic core of the game for a diplomacy-oriented expansion, but doing so is what allowed us to implement Foreign Investment as a natural extension of the building construction and autonomous investment systems instead of making it a tacked-on mechanic, and I consider it well worth the time spent.
Power Blocs is another interesting 1.7/Sphere of Influence addition to mention in relation to its community reception. During their initial conception, Power Blocs were intended to be a broader feature that could capture a variety of transnational agreements, but in actual implementation it suffered from this approach of trying to do a little bit of everything and ended up quite underwhelming. Following feedback from QA and beta testers, we refocused the feature into one focusing almost entirely on imperialist projects. This decision is something that we received some criticism and pushback about in the Power Bloc dev diaries, as some in the community felt the feature was now too narrowly focused (though I know at least a few people who came around to it after the update was released). Ultimately I believe we made the right call, as I’d rather we add a feature which does a few things but does them well rather than one which stretches itself thin and just ends up underwhelming.
Something that was more on the mixed side of things was the Great Game Objective. While the objective itself seemed pretty well received, and we saw a very noticeable increase in the number of playthroughs of the countries involved with it, there was (and still is) a perception that playing without the objective locks you out of the content added for those countries. I can only attribute this to poor communication on our part, and that we need to more clearly indicate exactly how objectives change the experience, and the fact that they do not lock away country-specific flavor JEs when not enabled.
The last thing I want to mention for 1.7 is the AI, as it’s an area of the game that was significantly improved in the update, especially on the diplomatic side. The catalyst system and the way it explicitly informs you when and why an AI changes their diplomatic stance towards you is something I am personally very happy with, and is a model for how I want to continue to improve the Victoria 3 AI going forward. I want the AI of Victoria 3 to be both an interesting opponent and an interesting ally, self-interested but largely rational, and for players to be able to understand why it makes the decisions it makes even if it’s not the decisions the player themselves would make. This is an approach which necessitates the kind of transparency offered by the catalyst system as opposed to the opaque black box of hidden dice rolls which preceded it. We of course still have a lot of work to do here, and improving the AI isn’t something that is ever really going to be ‘finished’, so the main takeaway here is really that we don’t just want to make the AI smarter or better at challenging the player, we also want to make it make more sense.
Finally then, we have reached Update 1.8 and Pivot of Empire, the final release for 2024. As I recently posted a dev diary on my thoughts for that specific update, I won’t go too much into detail, but I do want to mention that we have taken a further look at the balance of the India content (particularly the Unstable Raj JE, where we have looked at telemetry for completion rates across the playerbase and found them significantly lower than intended) and concluded that some further balancing is needed from us in 1.9. Specifically, we want to adjust its difficulty level while also improving rewards for completing it successfully, but also look into making failing the JE less of a game-ruining state.
I also want to reiterate that one of the major learnings we have made from 1.8/Pivot of Empire is that we need to focus more on the why of Journal Entries when designing them in the future. That is, why do you want to pursue and complete a Journal Entry - what player fantasy is it fulfilling, what playstyle is it supporting, what rewards does it offer - and to communicate those whys to the player. The reaction of the player to completing a complex and challenging Journal Entry should never be ‘huh, that’s it?’ when presented with the conclusion and rewards.
On a more positive note, something we expected to be positively received but which turned out to be extremely well liked was state/hub renaming. We were already planning to continuously add more renaming functionality to the game, and the massive amount of positive feedback we’ve gotten has only strengthened that ambition.
Lastly in regards to 1.8/Pivot of Empire I want to mention which came as something of a surprise to us was the strong negative reaction to the lack of an Expansion Pass for Pivot of Empire. Again this is something we’ve already talked about, but I do want to mention that there will absolutely be more expansion passes going forward. The reason we didn’t do so already is that we’ve found that Expansion Passes work best for us (in terms of being able to plan and deliver high quality releases) when they start off with a major expansion, rather than ending with one, so that is what we’ll be doing going forward.
To conclude this dev diary, I want to share an internal phrase that’s been going around: ‘2024 is the year that Victoria 3 hit its stride’. It’s no secret that the game had its issues at launch and that we made some mistakes in the initial post-release period, but from update 1.5 onwards, and particularly after 1.7/Sphere of Influence, we’ve seen excellent playerbase growth and greatly improved community sentiment. In summary, 2024 was a very good year for Victoria 3, and I’m very excited to continue building on these successes to add depth, flavor, and excessively in-depth socioeconomic simulation mechanics to this very special game series that is quite unlike anything else I have ever worked on.
That’s all for today! With update 1.9 some time away, we’re now going to take a bit of an extended break to focus solely on the development end of things. Expect us to return sometime early spring with details on the Trade Rework, Frontline Improvements and so much more. See you then!
The Paradox Steam Winter Sale has started!
Good Winter's Day Victorians!
The Paradox Winter Sale has started! In the wintry land of Victoria, you can pick up the base game for 50% off and selected content and the Expansion for up to 40% off!
Complete your collection with the Expansion Pass:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32180/Victoria_3_Expansion_Pass/
Expand your influence, and create a Power Bloc to last the ages in Sphere of Influence:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2411231/Victoria_3_Sphere_of_Influence/
Or why not take a vacation from snowy lands to the warmer climate of South America in Colossus of the South?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2591240/Victoria_3_Colossus_of_the_South/
Do you want other Paradox titles or content? Well maybe you should take a look at this trailer!
You can also pick up other Paradox titles with discounts of up to 90% off, now that is holiday magic!
https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/paradoxinteractive/sale/pdxwintersale24
But! That is not all!
Ubisoft and Paradox Interactive have joined forces to bring you the Anno 1800 & Victoria 3 Bundle, a strategy game bundle with two different approaches to the dynamism of the 19th century. Master trade, exploration and city development in Anno 1800™, or build a global empire in Victoria 3, a deep simulation of Victorian society, economy, politics and culture.
The Anno 1800 & Victoria 3 Bundle includes the base game versions of:
Anno 1800: Build a trade fleet, settle new islands, and strategically establish production chains to lead your economy to prosperity. Developed by Ubisoft Mainz, this entry in the celebrated Anno series of city-building trade games places you at the helm of a commercial venture in the rapidly changing world of 19th-century industrialization.
Victoria 3: This grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive drops you into historically accurate and richly drawn simulation of the world at the dawn of the Victorian age. Lead any of dozens of nations through a century of technological, political and societal change. Build an industrial empire, a center of trade, or a military powerhouse - the world is yours to command.
This bundle is available for a limited time only. If you already own one of the games included in this bundle, the price will be lowered accordingly.
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/48090/Anno_1800__Victoria_3
Introducing the Anno 1800 & Victoria 3 Bundle!
The Anno 1800 & Victoria 3 Bundle includes the base game versions of:
Anno 1800: Build a trade fleet, settle new islands, and strategically establish production chains to lead your economy to prosperity. Developed by Ubisoft Mainz, this entry in the celebrated Anno series of city-building trade games places you at the helm of a commercial venture in the rapidly changing world of 19th-century industrialization.
Victoria 3: This grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive drops you into historically accurate and richly drawn simulation of the world at the dawn of the Victorian age. Lead any of dozens of nations through a century of technological, political and societal change. Build an industrial empire, a center of trade, or a military powerhouse - the world is yours to command.
This bundle is available for a limited time only. If you already own one of the games included in this bundle, the price will be lowered accordingly.
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/48090/Anno_1800__Victoria_3
Pick up your Limited Edition Victoria 3 Plushie today!
Buy! Sell! Build! Invest! For the haughty Platypus Capitalist Plushie, nations and governments are playthings, as it is gold that truly determines the fate of the world. Decked out in violet finery, with monocle, cravat and a pinstriped vest, this master of the weird mammal universe will dominate your gaming space.
Get this Victoria 3 inspired creation for a limited time starting from today!
Get yours here!