Victoria 3 News

Greetings Victorians and Happy Thursday!

This will be the first part of the Art of Pivot of Empire showcasing the 2D art made for the Immersion Pack, while part two, focusing on the 3D art, will be released in a couple of weeks. Like the previous Immersion Pack, a brand new interface skin and paper map have been lovingly crafted with a decidedly Indian flavor. Along with the new skins, we have 8 brand new event illustrations and many more icons to support the new features coming in Pivot of Empire. For both the UI reskin and the paper map, the artists have drawn inspiration from traditional Indian architecture, classical Indian paintings, and commonly used colors such as turquoise and saffron. Without further ado, let’s jump straight into the first topic - the new interface skin!

[h2]UI Skin[/h2]
There is so much inspiration to draw from the Indian culture with their rich and extremely long history. Instead of focusing only on one time period exclusively, we take elements from Indian art, architecture and ornaments throughout their entire history (up until 1936 of course) which adds the cultural touch that makes this interface unique. Inspired by the plethora of highly detailed stone carvings and historical monuments from India, we decided to use white stone as a base material for the interface. The ornate and heavier material is also quite different from previous interface skins. To contrast the off-white stone color, we balanced the warm tone with a turquoise fresco look on the headers.

We explored a combination of different materials, frames and colors.

This was a rock solid choice, I must say

There are several key motifs that we use for the interface skin, as well as the paper map (we will talk more about that later): flowery and plant patterns, mandala configurations and animals. Elephants have been a key element in many Indian art throughout history and there has been no better time than now to add elephants into the interface of Victoria 3! Another common animal featured in Indian art is the graceful peacock -we have incorporated these two creatures into the UI panels, combined with the other motifs mentioned. (Try to find out how many elephants are in the UI skin as well as the papermap!)

I think these animals are ‘relephant’ to the theme

Floral and plant patterns surround the elephant and the peacock.

[h2]Papermap Skin[/h2]
The paper map draws inspiration from many of the same sources as the interface skin but with a deeper focus on Indian paintings. Several key elements of Indian paintings are a flat look with limited perspective and a soft, almost watercolor like painting style. Like the papermap from Voice of The People, the illustrations depict key events and slice of life moments in history, but with a focus on India. The art team worked with the Narrative designers to come up with interesting moments on Indian nationalism, the relationship between India and Great Britain and general life in India in the Victorian age. It was truly not an easy task to narrow it down!



[Can you identify these key historical moments?]

A key element is the changing of the languages of text on the paper map UI skin when it makes sense. The last time we did it was in the Voice of The People, where we changed the names of the oceans and seas (and a few other elements) to French. This time is no exception, where we used the Hindi script for the text. There was much discussion between Narrative Design and Art on which Indian language to use. English was a strong contender since it was prominently used in British East India as well as today. Ultimately we settled on Hindi as it is the main language of India today and not using English adds more immersion to the map.

A simple change like this adds so much more immersion to the visuals!

We are also adding mountains and forests in the style of landscape art in classical Indian paintings. A new addition is the illustrations of key cities around the world in the Victorian Age, again, inspired by Indian art. The key cities also have some culture variation on them so you won’t see London represented by an Indian style city!

Cities, mountain ranges and forests dot the landmasses.

[h2]Event Illustrations[/h2]
If you haven’t noticed already, the 2D artists work very closely with the Narrative Designers on many aspects in Victoria 3. The event illustrations are no exception. Once the designers have come up with the theme of an event image as well as provide some references, the concept artist will start researching and finding even more references. He/she will also most likely have more questions for the Narrative designers and this will facilitate the next step, which is to brainstorm and provide thumbnail sketches.

Early sketches to determine the final composition

The Art Director will work together with me to provide feedback and decide on the final composition. In the example above (which is the Indian urban scene) we wanted to have a greater sense of scale since other illustrations are more zoomed in. Other urban scenes that were done previously were also quite up close and personal, showing more of the people on the ground. By taking a more zoomed out approach, we would also be able to show off the urban density and the masses.

Final Indian city illustration with the mood and tone we want to achieve.

As a general rule of thumb, we always try to come up with illustrations that can work for multiple events to increase the visibility of the beautiful new art. Overall themes for the event illustrations include the relationship between the Indians and the British, the cultural divide and tensions amongst the Indian population and the general life in India (rural and urban) during the Victorian age.

What new instructions from the British overlords this time?

Tensions are at an all time high.

A romanticized look at life in India in the 19th century

[h2]Icons[/h2]
With new features comes new icons. (of course existing features will also have new icons such as new laws and new companies) For this section, I would like to show the general process of designing a new icon set for the Acceptance feature coming in 1.8.

There are 5 tiers of Acceptance with (V) being Full Acceptance and (I) as Violent Hostility. With that in mind, here are three general principles for the Acceptance tier icons

1. The icons will show things/situations getting worse gradually
   
2. We want to use colors to represent each tier as well, with cool colors representing tiers (V) and (IV) and having a gradual shift towards red which represents tier (I).
   
3. As with general icon design principles, the silhouettes must be clear.
   

We explored various icon styles with the intention of adding more flavor to the tiers. For instances where the tier icons are displayed really tiny, we always have the numerical icons with the same color styles as mentioned above.

A more illustrative style perhaps or something a little more graphical

More exploration gave rise to the idea of continuity and consistent story telling between the 5 tier icons. Each icon will be represented by two characters ‘Tophat guy- a straightforward and iconic representation of the ideal citizen who has made it in life in the Victorian era’ and ‘Character 2’ - which changes every tier.

Exploring multiple variants. Truly horrible to have a person caged like an animal in Tier I

For Full Acceptance (V), we can see that ‘Tophat guy’ is shaking hands with ‘Character 2’ which is represented as a typical worker. For Second class citizen (IV) we can see the relationship has sort of soured and ‘Character 2’ is facing away from ‘Tophat guy’ who's giving him a thumbs down. While the ‘thumbs down’ sign can be hard to see, the pose makes the silhouette more distinct. For tiers (III) to (I), we can see a recurring theme and how ‘Tophat guy’ treats ‘Character 2’ worse and worse. In fact, ‘Character 2’ even loses any sense of identity and is just a silhouette of a person with no other distinct features.

[Final tier icons with the simplified variants as well as the Acceptance frame]

Icons were also created for Famines and Harvest conditions which is another new feature. However, no new style was needed and we reference the State trait icons to make the new Harvest conditions icons. Core principles for the Harvest Condition icons include a primary or dominant color and of course, distinct silhouettes!

Famine and Harvest Condition icons

The 2D art team have also created icons for existing features like Laws, Ideologies, new Buildings, new companies and new Achievements (which will be shown in a future Dev Diary.

Just some of the new icons for existing features.

And this wraps up this week’s Dev Diary! I hope you enjoyed the insights into what goes on with the creation of the 2D art for the Pivot of Empire pack! Next week we have Vicka detailing even more exciting narrative content coming for the game!

Hello Victorians, sorry for the...sanguine on the images today. Don't know what could be happening there.

We have a small additon today bringing a new game rule, as shown below.

[h2]Additions[/h2]

• Added new game rule to enable or disable fantastical/supernatural content. If this game rule is enabled, there is now a new character with some new events that can make an appearance during the real life months of October and November.
  

Have fun finding this character during this spooky time. Oh, Happy Halloween today as well.

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There will soon be a rollback to 1.7.6, available through the Beta selection menu as normal for our patches.

And as a bit of information: You can change game rules mid-game by clicking switch country then changing the game rules in the select screen!

Happy Friday, and welcome to our third and final Dev Diary for the Anniversary week! Before we get into the meat of the diary, we have an infographic showing the progress of free updates since release, visually shown in the look back at free updates video at the start of this week:


That entre is followed up with a delightful smattering of statistics from the game, can you see the difference in how many yellow Prussia’s there have been since last time?


That is all from me, Community Manager Pelly, I hope you enjoy the Dev Diary proper from Hansi and Victoria!

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Welcome, map affectionados, to this week’s map bonanza. I am Lufhansi, narrative designer and main map man on Victoria 3, and I will be your host for this evening.
As you might expect, Pivot of Empire’s narrative content for India will be accompanied by relevant map work, including new and reworked state regions, cultures, and countries for the Indian subcontinent. In addition to miscellaneous other, exciting additions that will be detailed further down. As always we got some ground to cover, so without wasting more of your time, let’s get into it:





[h2]South Asia[/h2]
If you find yourself thinking that India has too many tags already, this update may not be the one for you. To help illustrate the immense complexity of 19th century India, for Pivot of Empire we have added over 30 new tags to the 1836 startdate, as well as multiple new formables and releasables that these new nations can aspire towards, all with distinct identities and new flags. Former abstractions, like Orissa and Bundelkhand have been replaced by new princely states, and in Gujarat, Baroda is now simply the most important Gujarati state instead of the only one. The fan favourites of Garwhal and Manipur have made their debut, along with a slew of other states and nations, ranging from the the decentralised tribes along the Assam-Burma border in the north-east, to the British crown colony of Ceylon and the Sultanate of the Maldives in the south-west.


In the northwest, the Sikh Empire, now known as the Khalsa Raj, faces a somewhat different position compared to previous patches. In addition to grappling with the internal intrigues of the Lahore court—historically a source of weakness for the empire during its critical struggle against the British—it must also contend with a new, powerful vassal: the ambitious Gulab Singh of Jammu, who in 1836 finds himself preoccupied with suppressing a revolt in the newly conquered region of Ladakh.


Other exciting additions include the rump state of Satara, led by the last Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire, and the once-mighty Mughal Empire, now reduced to the confines of the city of Delhi. Although the Mughals controlling more than their own palace grounds isn't entirely historically accurate, their newfound autonomy allows them to serve as a vehicle for narrative content.



India’s state regions have also been reworked and redrawn where deemed appropriate. We have tried to strike a balance between administrative borders fitting for the 19th century, and cultural borders better reflecting the ethno-linguistic makeup of the subcontinent, all the while trying to not divide the map into too many unwieldy state regions for gameplay-purposes. Notable changes include a new East/West split for Bengal, mirroring a similar division in Punjab, along with the addition of new state regions such as the Ceded Districts and Arakan, and a reshaping/redefinition of most pre-existing state regions.




We have also added a selection of new cultures to India to showcase the extraordinary diversity of the subcontinent, such as Hindustani, Chhattisgarhi, Naga, Deccani, Pathan, Lushai, and many more.


In a similar vein, India’s hub and spline system has been reworked from the ground up, which has seen the elimination of a lot of anachronisms and misplaced hubs. So to the valiant forum member that has championed the good cause of Jamshedpur for years now, you can now rest easy, knowing that we have finally fixed its location.

And should that not be enough, well good news, because with 1.8, Victoria 3 will now have:

[h2]Dynamic Renaming[/h2]


That’s right, it’s finally here. And what a version of it you will get! Most current dynamic naming in-game is decided by the owner’s cultures, the above examples being Turkish and Greek, but there are exceptions to this. For example, moving your capital to Edo as Japan will now rename the city to Tokyo, and the city of Bismarck, North Dakota, will be named Edwinton until the Iron Chancellor has actually made a name for himself, just to name a few.



And should none of the picks we have made be to your liking, then fear not! For hub and state names are now fully customizable in-game. Of course, we fully expect you all to be sensible and measured in your application of this newfound power.



For modders, it goes without saying that this is an incredibly flexible system, and we hope you will have a lot of fun with it going forward.

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Hello. This is Victoria, Narrative Design Lead of Victoria 3, and today I will be covering the free narrative content and political setup changes which are coming in Update 1.8. The paid content that will be coming in Pivot of Empire will be covered in a later dev diary.

[h2]Indian Political Setup[/h2]


Upon beginning the game as the East India Company, one may notice that the interest groups one must contend with are not those that they have become accustomed to. The EIC has been given a full suite of custom interest groups, designed to accurately represent the unique situation that finds itself in.

The most notable of these new interest groups is the East India Company interest group, representing European colonial interests within India. It has received a set of all-new ideologies and traits for this purpose, transforming it into a representation of the ideology, mindset, and interests of the British colonial administration. Upon the establishment of the British Raj, it will be renamed to the “Government of India”, but its ideology will stay essentially the same.



The new Colonialist ideology has been implemented in various places both new and old, with the East India Company as only one example. It is also used to make the Industrialists in colonial administrations support resource extraction rather than independent economic development. Their instrument in doing so is the new Extraction Economy law, which increases the efficacy of agriculture and resource industries whilst crippling the investment pool.

Most notably, Extraction Economy harms the native landowning classes’ ability to reinvest, representing the historical effects of the British Indian land ownership structure. The “Zamindari” system of land ownership was predicated upon the use of Indian landowners as tax collection agents for the British administration, under the expectation that the landowners could use their revenue for internal improvements. In reality, very few internal improvements were actually made, and Indian agriculture remained largely stagnant. Landowners’ estates were constantly partitioned, with chunks being sold at auction in order to make up for shortfalls in tax collection.



Whilst the Zamindari system was not the only system of land ownership put in place by the British administration, it was the dominant form in the Bengal presidency, and thus the most economically impactful. The other major land ownership system, the “Ryotwari system”, in which taxes were collected directly from individual peasants, is represented by persistent modifiers on southern Indian states which permit for greater self-ownership of agricultural buildings in these states.

Pictured: This land ownership setup allows for peasants in southern India to receive dividends from their plots, marginally increasing their base quality of life.

In order to represent the power structure of colonial India, British India will have one of two modifiers, depending upon whether the Company or Crown is in command. These modifiers greatly increase the political strength of bureaucrats and depress the influence of the Indian aristocracy, as well as making it nigh-impossible to create a legitimate government without the designated ruling IG in command. British India also has a custom rule for selecting its government - the leader of the Industrialists will necessarily become the next ruler of the country upon the death or removal of the previous one.



With the Industrialists transformed into a colonial bureaucratic nightmare, who will advocate for economically modernising India? Whilst the East India Company represents European colonial interests, the economic interests of the native Indian bourgeoisie are represented by the Bhadralok interest group. “Bhadralok” is a Bengali term which translates to “gentlemen”, and represents the moneyed upper classes which initially rose to prominence through collaboration with the EIC during their conquest of India. Whilst the majority of European capitalists gravitate towards the EIC, Indian capitalists will join the Bhadraloks instead.

Once it achieves independence, of course, India’s Industrialists will return to their normal role as the Indian industrial upper classes, and the Bhadraloks will once more represent exclusively the petit-bourgeoisie.

The Bhadraloks start with two ideologies that differ from the standard petit-bourgeoisie, Sovereignist and Modernizer. Fans of Colossus of the South may note that Modernizer is used for the Brazilian PB past a certain point - its use has been expanded to the PB across the Indian subcontinent.



The Sovereignist ideology replaces Patriotic, making the Indian PB support a lessening of discrimination and restrictions upon political expression. If India is to achieve independence, however, this ideology will immediately switch back to the default Patriotic. The Bhadraloks will not support a discriminatory British police state, but this does not mean that they oppose a discriminatory Indian police state. This ideology switching is used throughout India content, such as with the new Minoritarian Traditionalist ideology.

Pictured: I am pleased to introduce something we have been missing since release - hypocrisy mechanics.

The Minoritarian Traditionalist ideology prevents leaders from supporting State Religion if the country’s state religion does not match their personal religion. If the country’s religion ever switches to their personal religion, however, they will stop supporting secularism and immediately begin supporting State Religion again. These ideology switches are handled in on_actions, as well as various cases throughout the narrative content.

There are many other changes to pop attraction values and traits, but to go over the changes to every interest group in depth would, unfortunately, put me over the per-post image limit.

Finally, here is the new East India Company law setup.



Whilst the EIC possesses the Oligarchy and Caste Not Enforced laws, the institution of the British Raj following the Indian Uprising will lead to the enactment of Autocracy and Caste System Codified. This represents the centralisation of power in the Raj, and the efforts made by the colonial administrators of the 1860s to codify the Indian caste system into the modern, nationwide varna system.

[h2]The Indian Uprising[/h2]



In the year 1857, years of mismanagement by the British East India Company spiralled into an uprising which briefly rendered a third of the Indian subcontinent ungovernable. This uprising has been referred to as the Sepoy Mutiny by various British sources, and various names from the First War of Independence to the Great Rebellion by Indian writers. For the remainder of this diary, I will refer to it as the Indian Uprising.

The Indian Uprising was previously represented by the Avert Mutiny journal entry, which would spawn the Mughal Empire as a revolt if the EIC failed to complete various journal entries. In 1.8, this journal entry has been completely reworked.



The new Unstable Raj journal entry is available upon game start for the East India Company. All Princely States will have a more concise version of this journal entry, for the purpose of tracking the level of unrest in the EIC.

The stability of each Presidency within the East India Company is tracked with its own progress bar, which increases or decreases depending on various conditions. These conditions include taxation, the liberty desire of princely states within a given region, the presence of Utilitarian administrators [more on this in a future diary], state turmoil, and more.



What is a Presidency? Historically, they were the highest-level administrative units of colonial India. In-game, their borders are determined by the various Indian strategic regions. The Presidency concept details precisely which regions equate to which Presidency.




A major event chain which will affect the stability of the Presidencies deals with the cartridges issued to Indian sepoys. After researching Rifling, a rumour will begin to spread throughout the ranks of the Company’s soldiers about the nature of the cartridge grease. If mismanaged, this event chain can lead to a sharp decrease in the stability of the Presidencies.



If the stability of any Presidency drops too low for a period of 100 months, or if 25 years elapse without completing the Consolidate Colonial Rule journal entry and raising the Standard of Living of India to the requisite level, India will explode into rebellion.

Pictured: The Consolidate Colonial Rule journal entry has also been amended, removing the time limit and making some other quality of life changes.

The precise character of this rebellion depends upon which regions are most afflicted with unrest, as well as the Liberty Desire of various Princely States. If unrest is concentrated in the Bengal Presidency, the main drama of the rebellion will revolve around Delhi, and the bid of the mutinying sepoys to restore the Mughal Empire. Each Presidency possesses a major revolter - the Mughals in Bengal, Satara and the Chhatrapati of the Maratha Confederacy in Bombay, and the rebellious princely state of Kurnool in Madras.

With all of these factors, the Indian Uprising can possess endless permutations, from something similar to the bounds of the historical uprising…


…to a distributed revolt across multiple regions, encompassing various Princely States…



…to an apocalyptic collapse of British authority across the subcontinent.



If a Princely State possesses high liberty desire when the Uprising breaks out, it will have an opportunity to either join the Marathas or the Mughals, or try to forge its own path. Pledging fealty to either the Mughals or Marathas will make a princely state a vassal of the Emperor or Chhatrapati.



Once the shape of the uprising has been determined, a war will break out between a coalition of revolters and the British. In order to preserve itself, the East India Company must put down every revolter and restore their order to India.



If the British win, as they did historically, the British government will step in to reform the administration of India to ensure that this does not happen again. The East India Company will be reorganised into the British Raj, and much of its autonomy will be stripped from it.



However, what if the Indian Uprising is triumphant, and the British are driven from the subcontinent?



After losing to the revolters, the East India Company will be able to retreat to one of the three Presidencies, abandoning its holdings in all other regions. Alternatively, it may abandon India completely. Some possible outcomes from this event are below.


Once the British are gone, or reduced to a rump state hanging on to whatever they could hold against the revolt, the Indian contenders may shift to managing their newly acquired empires.

[h2]Interest Group Priority Cultures[/h2]

Astute observers may note that, in the above screenshot, the leaders of the EIC and Presidency Armies are European, whilst the leaders of every other interest group are Indian. Prior to 1.8, interest groups were only able to select leaders of primary cultures. This is no longer the case. Interest groups can now be assigned priority cultures, which will force characters of an interest group to have certain cultures, given a set of conditions.

Pictured: Leaders of the Industrialists interest group in India can only be British, Scottish, or Irish for as long as British rule persists.

This has enabled us to flavour the East India Company [Industrialists] and Presidency Armies [Armed Forces] interest groups as European, whilst the other interest groups represent various classes amongst the native Indian population.

[h2]New Subject Tracks[/h2]



In 1.8, two new subject types have been added, and the existing ones reconfigured into three separate “tracks”. Dominions now belong to a different track than puppets, and all tracks have two steps. Rather than needing to promote from a puppet to a dominion to a protectorate, puppets now directly promote to Protectorate.

Chartered Companies are a new subject type, which possess all of the autonomy of a Protectorate whilst paying a higher share of their income to their overlord. Examples of Chartered Companies include the Hudson Bay Company, East India Company, Russian-American Company, and chartered companies which may be established through African colonial administrations.


Pictured: All subject types as of 1.8.

In terms of narrative, Dominions and Colonies represent colonial governments of various types, whilst Protectorates and Puppets represent native-ruled states that nonetheless lack political autonomy. Tributaries and Vassals have remained unchanged.

Pictured: Colonies can now have subjects of their own, which means the Princely States stay safely connected to the Raj. Also visible here is a selection of new flags that we’ve added.

[h2]Corporate States[/h2]



Pivot of Empire and Update 1.8 are largely centred around the British East India Company, a massive corporation that acts as a state. We have also added a Corporate State law. These two things are completely unrelated.

Corporate State is a new Governance Principles law added in 1.8, designed to represent states such as the Federal State of Austria, Fiume, the Italian Social Republic, and Ireland, as well as the end goals of various late-19th century and early 20th-century political movements. The Corporate State law focuses around institutionalised class collaboration as the basis of the state. In this conception of society, different classes and professions can be likened to vital organs within a single body, all serving different yet equally important functions.

Corporate State is primarily supported by Corporatists and Fascists. It also serves as a “midpoint” for various ideologies, being more favoured than their least favourite governance principles, but inferior to their preferred governance principles. The enactment of Corporate State serves as an endgame to a fascist playthrough, much as Council Republic serves as the endgame to a communist playthrough.

Whilst enacting Corporate State, one may choose which groups that its corporatist structure will benefit, permanently improving the clout of the player’s choice of interest group for as long as the law is active.



In order to represent the historical fondness that certain strains of fascism have possessed for state-supervised workers’ cooperatives, the Corporate State law enables the Cooperative Ownership law. Enacting Cooperative Ownership under a Corporate State will empower the petit-bourgeoisie through funnelling dividends to Shopkeepers, benefiting the state’s most favoured demographic.

The journal entry formerly known as the Path to Fascism has also been completely reworked in 1.8, now mirroring the Spectre Haunting the World journal entry. If the growth of the fascist movement cannot be contained, they will launch a march on your capital, possibly seizing power in the same way that Mussolini did in 1922.



[h2]The London Conference[/h2]



The modern borders of Belgium and the Netherlands were only settled upon in 1839, through a process which involved every European great power. The historical result of the London Conference was the Treaty of London of 1839, a document which provided for the independence and neutrality of Belgium.

The London Conference journal entry will appear for European great powers in 1838-1839, and will permit each power to vote upon a desired settlement between the Netherlands and the newly independent Belgium. This conference can have various outcomes depending on how the Great Powers vote.

Pictured: Two of the possible outcomes.

There is more free content included in 1.8, but I have unfortunately exhausted the limit of images one can fit in a single forum post. The remainder awaits its discovery once the update is released.

And that is all. Thank you for reading. Next week, Kenneth will cover the new 2D art for Pivot of Empire.

Hello and happy Thursday! Welcome to the first narrative design dev diary! Today we will be going through the British Indian Caste System and Social Hierarchies, hosted by Em. But first a word from Shubham!

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Hey Everyone, my name is Shubham. I am a narrative designer and history nerd from India, and I had the pleasure of working on the upcoming Pivot of Empire immersion pack! There are a lot of cool new systems, Journal Entries, events, and art coming your way, and honestly, I am very excited by all of them. But as dev diaries can’t be book-length, I will try to focus on some of the really big points.

The first and foremost is the Caste System, which is accompanied by the discrimination rework and also introduces social hierarchies. Em will get into this later, but I’ll focus on the history of the subject and what we tried to capture with its implementation.

You will see that the Caste System is labeled the British Indian Caste System in the game. This is because the modern understanding of Caste, within and without India, is very much a colonial creation.

Before the Indian subcontinent was consolidated under British Colonial rule, the Hindu identity was fragmented. So, while casteism was very much practiced then, it had greater variance and malleability. It was also not legally enforced to the same extent across the nation. Partly because there was no singular power that could enforce it but partly because different places had different beliefs around its relevance. However, after colonization, in an effort to streamline administration, the British conducted a census that tried to give a fixed value to caste. As this process happened, caste became codified and simplified. It became based solely on the Varna system and no longer allowed for any change in status. The Varna system recognizes only four castes and a fifth ‘outcaste.’ It also gives social roles to each tier.

The Brahmins are ‘meant’ to be teachers and priests. The Kshatriyas are warriors and leaders. The Vaishyas are merchants and traders. The Shudras are peasants. The outcastes are offered no name and are simply considered untouchable. The Portuguese later used the term Dalit to describe them, and that became their caste name.

However, as understood by the British, this Varna system ignored Jati, which is also a part of caste. Jati ranges in the hundreds, if not thousands. This resulted in a rigid system that deepened social divides and made social mobility nearly impossible. A lot of effort was made to capture this complex reality in-game.

We also considered using different labels for the tiers in the caste system. As Dalits are the most oppressed by this system, we thought to make it a two-tier system consisting of ‘Savarna and Avarna’ (those belonging to Varna Castes and those outside it). However, this erased the oppression faced by Shudras by other higher castes. Not to mention the role every tier of caste played in oppressing those immediately ‘beneath’ them.

We wanted to capture some of the nuance and complexity of the Hindu identities in that time period, as well as the oppressive, contradictory, and self-cannibalizing nature of the caste system.

The other topic that I want to discuss is the Indian independence movement. The Indian Independence movement had many leaders and many different factions. Furthermore, nearly all of them didn’t initially demand independence.

At first, as the exploitation of resources and people continued under British Raj, discontent pushed those with the privilege (money, land, education) to demand better laws and governance. Many leaders at this time were happy to let the British Empire rule so long as they were allowed to govern themselves with more dignity. It was only when these efforts repeatedly failed that the people were radicalized into starting a revolution. The game captures this through the journal entries around Home Rule and the Indian Independence.

But as you will see, many factions affect your ability to complete either Journal Entry. This is because they were not always aligned, even when various leaders agreed that independence was the only way forward. Indeed, the divisions sowed by the British and resultant from the complex history of the subcontinent made it so that factions were fighting each other just as much as they were fighting the British.

Three figures really capture this tension: Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League and the founding father of Pakistan; Mohandas Gandhi, key leader of the Indian National Congress and the founding father of India; and Periyar, founder of the self-respect movement and leader of the Dravidian movement.

Gandhi initially believed that to be truly free, India needed to return to its Hindu roots and reject all British imposition. This scared Jinnah, who thought that this line of thinking would be terrible for India’s Muslim minority. Despite being quite secular himself, Jinnah would often find himself campaigning for the needs of Muslims lest Gandhi and the rest of the INC forget about them. This often put the two parties and the two leaders at loggerheads, a matter that would eventually result in the partition.

If returning to Hindu roots upset Jinnah, it also worried people like Periyar. He had initially been part of the INC. As a low-caste man, he feared the INC leading India as most of the leadership was high-caste and often callous towards the needs of the lower-caste people. Thus, Periyar and Jinnah usually tried to negotiate, argue, and even cooperate with the British even if it weakened Gandhi and the INC’s stance. To Jinnah and Periyar, it was an opportunity to be heard.

Historically, Gandhi did become more cognizant of the needs of the lower caste and Muslim people. But as he and the INC also had to earn the support of the staunch conservative Hindus, such as the Hindu Mahasabha, it was always a compromised position. If you try to build an independent India in the game, you will hopefully feel how the game pushes and pulls at you.

Okay, lastly, I want to talk about the Sikh Empire. The Sikh Empire was in a precarious position in 1836. They have the Afghans on one side and the British to the south. Their leader, Ranjit Singh, established the first Sikh Empire but with one too many heirs. When he passes away, a series of successions occur that are violent and sometimes comical. Integrating the narrative of the Sikh Empire was a lot of fun as often it felt like writing a season of Game of Thrones. I hope you have a good time going through these events, as they are as ridiculous as they are compelling.

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Hello! I’m Em, one of the game designers on Victoria 3 that specializes in narrative. This is my first dev diary and I’m excited to share a bit more about what to expect with 1.8 and Pivot of Empire! Today I'll primarily be walking you through a couple things we’ve been working on, namely Social Hierarchies, the British Indian Caste System, and a new law group associated with the Caste System.

The British Indian Caste System has been designed alongside the Cultural and Religious Acceptance Rework that Lino spoke about a few weeks back. To represent this, we're introducing mechanics for Social Hierarchies and Social Classes to the game. The British Indian Caste System is a Social Hierarchy that makes use of Social Classes in order to represent its effects.

screenshot of Social Hierarchy concept

screenshot of Social Class concept

Previously, Pops were distributed by Profession into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Strata. This was fairly rigid, and meant that the previous system couldn't enable culture or country-specific Strata. Academics could only ever be in the Middle Strata. Clerks could only ever be in the Lower Strata. Social Hierarchies are being introduced to address some of that previous one-dimensionality where the social ranking of Professions might differ in different parts of the world and allow for the implementation of the British Indian Caste System.

To understand a little better, let’s take a look at what this has looked like. Here is how the distribution of Pops by Profession across Lower, Middle, and Upper Strata has appeared previously:

screenshot of overview tab in Population panel where you can see the Lower, Middle, and Upper Strata

Clerks, Laborers, Machinists, Peasants, Servicemen, and Slaves are Lower Strata. Academics, Bureaucrats, Clergymen, Engineers, Farmers, Officers, and Shopkeepers are Middle Strata. Aristocrats and Capitalists are Upper Strata.

Pops are still distributed as they have been by Profession above. But now, in the Base Hierarchy they will be distributed into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Classes:

screenshot of Classes tab in Society panel where you can see Lower Class, Middle Class, Upper Class are Social Classes and are part of a Social Hierarchy called the Base Hierarchy

Pops part of the Base Hierarchy are assigned a Social Class based on their Professions as they had been before. Every Pop has a Social Class, and that Social Class belongs to a Strata. Social Classes can be defined based on a combination of pop type, primary culture, and/or religion. Social Class information will appear in the Society panel. Social Hierarchies are intended to affect all kinds of Pops, with moddability in mind, and can be linked to a law group.

This brings us to the British Indian Caste System. Since Shubham’s given a bit of the historical and cultural context, I'll dive in with what this looks like in the game!

screenshot of Classes tab in Society panel for a country that has the British Indian Caste System where Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, and Dalits are Social Classes

The British Indian Caste System recategorizes a Pops’ Strata differently from the Base Hierarchy. The British Indian Caste System specifically encompasses all Pops that are Hindu and have the South Asian Heritage cultural trait. Other Pops that are not Hindu and do not have the South Asian Heritage cultural trait will default to the existing Lower, Middle, and Upper Social Classes of the Base Hierarchy.

So where is the British Indian Caste System found? How is it set? The Caste System will be set from game start on the British East India Company and the Princely States.

Otherwise, it will appear with the following criteria:

• A country is a subject of Great Britain
  
• A country’s primary culture has the South Asian Heritage cultural trait
  
• More than fifty percent of the population is Hindu.
  

If the percentage of Pops in a country with the British Indian Caste System drops to ten percent or below, the Caste System disappears and is fully replaced with the Base Hierarchy.

screenshot of Social Hierarchy activated

Tied to the Caste System is the Caste Hegemony Law Group that will appear under Power Structure. This law group is specific to the British Indian Caste System. As such, the law group only appears and applies to countries where the British Indian Caste System is active. This will be the first time a law group is regional or culturally specific.

screenshot of Power Structure laws

There are four laws in the Caste Hegemony law group: Caste System Enforced, Caste System Codified, Caste System Not Enforced, and Affirmative Action. The new laws affect the flow of social mobility via Qualification Gain, Acceptance, and/or Education Access. Where the Caste System Enforced and Caste System Codified laws are more a reflection of 19th century British Raj, the Affirmative Action law is designed to be a reflection of early days of Reservation laws in the early 20th century.

All countries that start with the Caste System or gain it from Pop criteria will activate with Caste Not Enforced.

WIP screenshot of Caste Hegemony Law Group, list of effects subject to change

Effects in this law group primarily only apply to Pops that are part of the Caste System. For example in the WIP screenshot above, the Upper Strata for Pops in the Caste System, the Brahmins, have a minimum Acceptance value of 80. This minimum Acceptance value does not apply across the board to all Upper Strata Pops, such as Capitalists and Aristocrats that are not in the Caste System. It will only apply to Brahmins.

WIP screenshot of Acceptance Status for a Pop that are Brahmins

Other laws in the law group will have more Acceptance and Qualification Growth effects that are specifically applied to Pops in the Caste System. Here is the Caste System Codified law as an example of other types of effects you can expect–

WIP screenshot of Caste System Codified effects, subject to change. We’re actively working on improving readability and balancing the effects of these laws.

Here, there are effects on Landowners political strength and a Bureaucracy Population Cost Multiplier, as well as effects on Acceptance and Qualification Growth. Under the Caste System Codified law, Qualification Growth will be vastly restricted between castes, limiting the mobility between classes to varying degrees depending on the law in effect.

WIP screenshot of Acceptance Status for a Pop that are Shudras

If you are playing as the British East India Company and the British Raj forms via the Indian Uprising Journal Entry, Caste System Codified will be activated if Caste System Enforced or Caste System Codified isn’t already part of your laws.

The British Indian Caste System and the Caste Hegemony Law Group (as well as the Indian Uprising Journal Entry rework) will be free as part of the 1.8 update!

That is all for today, however, we said in the Pivot of Empire diary on Tuesday that we would have two dev diaries this week. We actually are having three! So tune in tomorrow for some more about maps, culture and more by Hansi!