Victoria 3 News

Hi, Aron here. I’m one of the User Experience (UX) designers on Vicky 3 and I would like to give you an overview of our UX focus we have had in the Sphere of Influence expansion and the accompanying free update. I will start with the UX focus for our new features followed by the more general improvements.

[h2]Subject Improvements[/h2]
In this feature we have broadened the agency you have over your Subjects as an Overlord significantly. You can read more in-depth about the feature here. Naturally, we have put the majority of the interactions under the Diplomacy panel to have a clear central place to look for them, but also to make this panel more interactable. Previously, it has been more of an informational panel than a place where you interact, but that we are here to change!



However, many of these actions are things you want to be able to do on the go which led us to work a lot with our context menus such as our right-click menus. One of the most used right-click menus in the game is the Country & State right-click menu, but it is also one of the largest. Unsurprisingly enough, it is the right-click menu we wanted to put even more things into now as we have added ways for you to interact with your Subject and your Overlord. This sparked some rethinking of how we can make the right-click menus more compact while still retaining the intuitivity.

End result,

• The common actions such as “Go-to country”, “Pin country to Outliner”, and “Zoom-to country” have been moved to the headers with simple icon buttons, following the standard we already have set up for them in other panels.
  
• Actions that go under the same category such as Diplomatic Actions, Subject Actions, Overlord Actions, and Bloc Member Actions get to live under their own drop-down menu.
  

Before:The current chonky Country right-click menu in 1.6.

After: Right-clicking Hannover as Great Britain now gives a heavily compacted right-click menu with your Overlord Actions and Diplomatic Actions neatly grouped under their respective drop-down menu.

Opening the Overlord Actions drop-down gives you the full list of potential actions.

Similarly, right-clicking one of your own States neatly stores all Decrees under its own drop-down menu. Also notice the smaller round buttons for go-to, zoom-to and pin/unpin next to the Country and State headers.

This might be more of a technical improvement on the development side of things, but it definitely benefits us all in the end. The Subject, Overlord, and Bloc Member Actions all fall under the same umbrella as Diplomatic Actions and it was clear early on during development of this expansion that we were in dire need to get their tooltips sorted out with a clear pattern with all of these new actions coming in. Both to make it easier to work with them and to benefit the end result for us players. We have two versions of tooltips, fancy custom tooltips (Cooltips) and regular tooltips, that might not be obvious to you as a player, but if you are implementing them, there is a very clear difference in what you can do with them. The regular tooltip gives us very little flexibility to what you can do since it is basically only a long text string that we build with line breaks while the Cooltip essentially is another UI panel where we have full flexibility to do whatever the GUI system can do (everything!). In other words, me as a UX designer can do a lot of cool changes directly in a Cooltip without much of a hassle while it is much more of a struggle editing regular tooltips, generally speaking. You would mainly see the difference in-game by looking at the tooltip headers and the structure of the tooltip. Most of the time, a Cooltip has an icon in the top left corner with a larger header and a type concept in the top right corner, while the regular tooltip has no icon and only a regular text header. If the tooltip feels a bit nicer and a bit more structured, it is most likely a Cooltip, even though we do have some nice regular tooltips out there as well of course.

We took the time to move all of the above Diplomatic Actions over to a Cooltip, meaning we (especially I) get more direct agency over these tooltips, what they contain and how they are structured. The Diplomatic Actions are still very text heavy tooltips, but I will bring this up again later when we talk about Power Blocs and you will see more of the neat power of Cooltips.

The “Guarantee Independence” Diplomatic Action as a typical regular tooltip with a normal header, a breaking line followed by the rest of the tooltip content. In this case, most of it is coming from code making it difficult for me as a UX designer to change anything on the go.

The same action as a typical Cooltip with an icon and a larger header that easily can be made contextual. In this case, we are hovering the button for an ongoing “Guaranteeing Independence” action and it gives us the action prompt of “Stop doing this” rather than just the name of the action. In the Cooltip, I can be the one adding this contextual header, while in a regular tooltip I could not and I would have to steal precious time from one of our programmers. This goes for all you modders out there as well, go crazy!

In a similar fashion, we have worked on the confirmation popups for the Diplomatic Actions to be consistent with the tooltips and clearly show the difference of starting and stopping an action.

The confirmation popup for “Stop Guarantee Independence”.

[h2]Lobbies[/h2]
Political Lobbies are a quite straightforward feature from a UX perspective (read more about Lobbies here).

While you probably will encounter Lobbies more often in Events and Journal entries, or by seeing their reactions to various diplomatic actions, they also have an info panel when selected.

The new Lobby info panel..

In the Lobby info panel, you can see each Interest Group that supports the Lobby along with their Approval (since it is directly impacted by the Lobby’s overall Appeasement).

Most importantly, you can also see all actions that would affect this Lobby’s Appeasement. While the Lobbies that are in the game currently are somewhat straightforward (Pro-Lobbies encourage you to do friendly actions towards their favored Country). This is something we have the potential to greatly expand upon in the future and make it more involved.

An Interest Groups’ support of this Lobby.

You can also see why a certain Interest Group is supporting this Lobby. While it might be unlikely that you can force an Interest Group out of a Lobby due to their reasons, it does mean it is easier to tell why Lobbies form in the first place.

We also wanted players to be able to see Lobbies outside their own Country. While this may not affect your decisions as often as your own Lobbies, it is still nice to see the people of other Countries reacting to your benevolent power projection. As such we use the map mode in the Political Lens to show your Lobbies, along with any Lobbies from other Countries that concern your Country.

Map markers for your Lobbies targeting other countries and other countries Lobbies targeting you in either a pro or anti way.

Lobbies in Foreign Countries appear in their respective Countries’ Info Panel.

[h2]Building Ownership Revision & Foreign Investment[/h2]
When we started development of the Building Ownership Revision & Foreign investment (read more about the feature specifics here), we had to create several early prototypes to see if this is feasible to communicate in a good and intuitive way before giving this feature the green light. Buildings are such a fundamental piece of our game and making any major changes to them must be made with care. The prototypes showed that the struggle will definitely be to illustrate who owns what of a specific building and how much, but also the opposite perspective, when looking at a Financial District for example, which buildings the Financial District owns and how much of each building, from which country, and so on. This is also where we have spent the most time to ensure it is properly communicated to the player.

We ended up with a combination of ways of illustrating this division of a building’s ownership. Some more clear than others, but our hope is that the combination of all of them will make it intuitive.

To visually represent the combination of ownership of a specific building, we used a horizontal bar divided by ownership:

• The icon on the bar will represent one of the following:
  
• Owning Country
  
• Owning Pop Type
  
• Owning Building
  

The color of the bar represents where the ownership is:

• Orange: Your government
  
• Light Blue: Your pops
  
• Gray/white: Local population or government
  
• Yellow: Foreign investors that are not you
  
• We have tried using colors that work best for most color blindnesses.
  

If you look at the horizontal bar in the middle, you can see the representation of different ownership based on the instructions above. Also note that you can filter this whole list on “Owner” in the filters to the left. Filters being: All | Nationally Owned | Privately Owned | Foreignly Owned.

Similarly, we use the same kind of horizontal bar for Financial Districts and Manor Houses that owns other buildings, but then it is divided by the buildings it owns:

• The icon on the bar will represent the building it owns.
  
• The color is from the country of the building it owns.
  

Note the Manor Houses with their red horizontal bars indicating that all buildings they own are buildings in Great Britain as Great Britain's map color is red.

These specific patterns might not be intuitive to start with when you do not know them and have no one explaining them to you, but the intention is for it to become a subconscious thing that you learn as you play. In the end, you will probably not notice when and how this helps you see the different ownerships since you have been exposed to them through the whole game and gradually learnt them, all the while you now only glance at the bar and instantly know what owns what (insert Praying Patrick meme here).

We have also experimented with putting some visualization of ownership on the map, working with arrows pointing from the owned building to the owning building. While doing so, we ended up adding visualization to input and output of Goods to a building as well. It all resulted in a big mix of arrows pointing and animating in all kinds of directions on the map. It felt a tad bit overwhelming at first, so we tweaked and toned it down slightly, and after playing with it for a while many of us felt we could not play without it.

In the example of looking at the Tooling Workshop in Burgundy above you can see all of the following on the map:

• Ownership arrows are yellow and they go from the building’s State to the owning Building (Manor House or Financial District).
  
• Ownership arrows are red if the owning building is a Government building and the arrows then go from your Capital State to the building instead.
  
• Input Goods arrows are orange.
  
• Output Goods arrows are green.
  
• Arrows are thick if in the same state, a bit thinner if in a neighboring state, and very thin and transparent if further away.
  

For Financial Districts, you get a visual representation on the map of where in the world it has invested its money by looking at the animating yellow arrows.

Arrows for Input and Output of Goods animating to or out from the selected building, and oh yes, you can cycle through the associated buildings more easily now as all buildings that have anything to do with the selected building show up as map markers on the map and you can click them.

This Financial District owns a whole bunch of stuff for sure! Indicated by all the animated arrows going to this Financial District. The specific number of building levels owned by this Financial District are shown as a number on each of the owned buildings on the map with the accumulated total being the total level of the Financial District (25 in this case).

[h2]Power Blocs[/h2]
One new left side menu button, a whole new panel, several new popups, and several new large scale visualizations on the map. This feature is grand. Trying to tie it all together UX wise has been a lovely challenge. You can read the specifics about Power Blocs here, but also a shout out to the awesome Art we have seen from the Art team especially for this feature as Max is telling you all about in the Art of Sphere of Influence.

Being in a Power Bloc is a grand thing. We want you to experience that and clearly feel how it is affecting you in all its pros and cons (mostly pros). Since Power Blocs are such grand things, we have worked a lot with the visual representation of them on the map, giving you full customizability of your Power Bloc if you happen to form one or be the leader of one, to give each Power Bloc its true unique feeling and look. This is of course mirrored in the mechanics as the different Central Identity Pillars are profoundly different from each other in what they do and unlock. Add the Principles to the mix and the options are quite varied, and I need to make tooltips that fits all this variation! As you may imagine, all the possible versions of a Power Bloc have been a challenge to present in a way that does not mean custom solutions for each version. One way we have tackled this is early structuring of game concepts and being consistent in the use of them. An example of this is the way we have structured the Central Identity Pillar’s cooltip into segments based on the game concepts of: Power Bloc, All Bloc Members, Bloc Leader, and Non-leader Bloc Members. This structure is then reused in all other identities’ cooltips with a segment potentially being removed if there are no effects for that specific game concept / group in that Identity.

The cooltip for the Central Identity Pillar “Military Treaty”.

The cooltip for the Central Identity Pillar “Religious Convocation”. To tie this back to how neat Cooltips are, if you look at the Primary Principle Groups in the above cooltips, you get to see the true power of the Cooltips as we have the ability to put larger icons, boxes, and basically whatever we feel like into the tooltip itself. This would not be possible in a regular tooltip that is text only.

As a more general thing for update 1.7, we have worked a lot with making sure most of the new concepts and values we have added have icons associated with them for better recognizability and coherence. New concepts like Leverage, Cohesion, and Power Bloc Members all get their unique icon as you can see below.

The WIP list of all Power Blocs at the start of the game. Each Power Bloc rocking its own style.

[h2]General Improvements for 1.7[/h2]
Those icons work as a perfect segway to the more general UX improvements coming in the free update 1.7 accompanying the expansion. First out, the Outliner. In 1.6 we were sooo done with the old chonky outliner and replaced it with something new and fresh. As always when you replace anything with something new, there are a lot of edges to smooth out and the outliner was no exception. In 1.7, we have taken another pass and delved into more of these edges and details. Among many smaller tweaks, the outliner has been compacted even more with additional dropdown menus. Both ongoing diplomatic actions and the list of players (in multiplayer) are now under their own dropdown menus if there are more than one at any time. Some of the already existing dropdowns such as Interest Groups have also been changed to be closed by default.

The outliner with some ongoing diplomatic actions under a dropdown menu.

Next up, in association with the Foreign Investment feature, we have taken a pass on the construction queue. One thing we noticed during early playtesting was the lack of feedback when foreign investment is happening and where it is happening. This was both from the perspective of you doing the foreign investment and others investing in you. We then took the liberty to split the construction queue up into clearer parts. A national queue and a foreign queue, the national queue includes everything you or your pops are building both domestically and abroad while the foreign queue includes everything other Countries or their pops are building in your Country. We added filters to your national queue for both the location (domestic or abroad) and funding (where does the money come from).

Your national queue with the filters open.

In a second tab of the Construction panel, you find all foreign queues in your country grouped by country.

Apart from these larger general UX improvements, we have been working hard with tweaking the UI and UX based on your feedback from the forums and discord, so please do not be shy and keep the feedback coming. We might not be responding to it all, but we for sure are collecting and reading all of it. For now, I hope you enjoyed getting a small glimpse from a UX perspective of Victoria 3’s first major expansion. You will have to wait for the patch notes to see all of the UX and UI improvements in detail. Take care until then or come back next week to delve deeper into the Power Bloc feature with our lead game designer Lino!

Good day Victorians!

Victoria 3 is on sale!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/529340/Victoria_3/

The Endless Replayability Fest is on until the 23rd of May, with Victoria 3 participating. Alongside other Paradox games also taking part!

You can find selected items up to:
[h2]Base Game[/h2]
Victoria 3 76% off
Victoria 3: Grand Edition 40% off

[h2]Immersion Pack[/h2]
Victoria 3: Voice of the People 40% off

[h2]Region Pack[/h2]
Victoria 3: Colossus of the South 20% off

[h2]Art & Music Packs[/h2]
Victoria 3: Dawn of Wonder 20% off
Victoria 3: Melody of the Masses 20% off

[h2]Overview[/h2]
Hello again Victorians, this dev diary will cover the visual elements coming alongside the Sphere of Influence Expansion Pack. With this pack a lot of effort has been put into putting the grandeur and influence of the newly added Power Blocs on visual display. In addition, a lot of new outfits, characters and illustrations have been made for major events added with the pack alongside a few brand new building types.

Sphere of Influence will release on Jun 24, 2024



[h2]Power Blocs[/h2]
With the major addition of Power Blocs to the game a lot of new visual elements have been added to emphasize their impact and importance, ranging from clothing assets of politicians in the Power Bloc to customizable statues and emblems for the Power Bloc itself as well as a brand new map mode and much more.

The pattern chosen in the emblem customization also represents your Power Bloc on the map

The capital city of a Power Bloc is where the pulses signifying their influence emanates from

The more cohesion, the more complete the puzzle will be

When a player creates a new Power Bloc they will be able to create and customize their own Emblem and Statues, these visual elements will represent your Power Bloc in both interface and in the cities.

Your influence will spread like tentacles over the world

Emblems consist of 7 (including colors and pattern options for the map) different component categories with a variety of different assets within, you can combine these assets in any way you see fit to create an emblem worthy of representing your own Power Bloc in any interface.

The interface for the Emblem customization allows for a lot of variation

Statues consist of 5 different 3D component categories allowing you to compose your own statue monument that can be built in each of your cities to give modifiers aligned with the Identity of your Power Bloc.

Are we the classy baddies?

The leaders and politicians that are part of your Power Bloc will also receive new assets to showcase their unity and influence. Based on what Central Identity Pillar you’ve chosen for your Power Bloc, important characters now wear assets that further showcase their commitment and allegiance with the Power Bloc, ranging from ornate sabers to the fanciest of capes. In addition to the characters, the vehicles within a Power Bloc will also spawn new models on roads or seas depending on your Central Identity Pillar.

Alignment with a sovereign empire grants characters a beautiful ornate saber



Trade union grants various different crowns and earrings as well as a new ship for your trade routes

Different necklaces for the central identity pillars



Religious Union grants some lovely capes and a very ornate carriage for your roads

Ornate cape you say? Hold my top hat and monocle

Military Treaty Power Blocs can soar above the battlefield by mobilizing hot air balloons bearing the emblem of your Power Bloc proudly.

Power blocs really bring some class to the roads, especially the Ideological Union

For the Central Identity Pillars we’ve created a variety of new icons, cementing their importance. In addition there’s also a large variety of new icons made for the principles your Power Bloc can align with.

Central Identity icons

The principles of a Power Bloc vary a whole lot

In order for you to get an overview of the countries and rulers in your Power Bloc we’ve made a new interface screen that shows the axis of the most powerful ones. Within this screen we’ve also made new ranking icons to signify your Power Blocs’ standing among the others and for the top 3 there’s also shiny new effects ranging from bronze to gold.

The rulers of your Power Bloc can all compare beards

These effects also appear on the Power Blocs’ emblems when you switch to the new Power Bloc mapmode to signify the top 3 ranking ones. In addition, this new mapmode features the visualization of Power Blocs’ using the pattern and colors chosen for the emblems. You can also get an insight into a specific Power Blocs’ influence by switching to another mapmode that utilizes a new pulse shader, showing just how far your Power Blocs’ reach is and where it originates from. In addition there’s another new visualization of the cohesion levels of your Power Bloc allowing you to get an overview of the puzzle that is keeping the entire bloc aligned.

Stay golden at #1

See the silver lining at #2

Nobody wants to be stuck in the bronze age at #3





Even your emblems will really shine if your Power Bloc reaches the highest rankings

[h2]The Great Game[/h2]
For the objectives of The Great Game we have created a large number of new event images covering different aspects of the rivalry, alongside of the events we have also created a variety of historical character DNAs’ and new outfits related to all of it. We’ve also created a new animated main menu image depicting some of the involved parties, setting the tone for the narrative of the pack as a whole and some other miscellaneous in-game assets that helps the narrative.

New menu screen featuring a lot of the players of the great game

Cossacks on the prowl

Ancient persian thrones look quite comfortable

A beautiful day at the market!

Alexander III is appearing a lot

Reza Shah Pahlavi





New military uniforms for Russia and Britain

Cossack outfits

New great coats for the people!

New late-era uniforms

Fancy Vivandiere outfits!



New historical characters

[h2]Community Collaboration[/h2]
Aside from the paid characters added with The Great Game we’re also adding a ton of free historical character appearances. These were created by Timothy "Galactic Cactus" Hicks, who made and later donated the Americas Character DNA mod to us for inclusion in the base game for Update 1.5. The 85 characters he provided for the free update alongside Sphere of Influence (full list in the upcoming changelog) were created in collaboration with him as a contractor. We hope that this sort of collaboration is something we can do more of in the future and will be creating some guidelines and benchmarks for interested community members.

Just a few of the newly added DNAs

[h2]New Buildings and Ownerships[/h2]
With the free update coming alongside the pack comes two new building types, Manor Houses and Financial Districts both serving a function when it comes to ownership of other buildings (which you can read more about in DD #110), these two new buildings both have unique looks for each visual culture in the game.

All the financial districts are quite detailed and vary between cultures



Manor houses class up any rural area

The icons for the new buildings

[h2]Subject Improvements, Lobbies and Diplomacy Interface [/h2]
A lot of new interface assets have been made to accommodate the new features and functions of the Subject Improvements, the new Lobbies as well as the Diplomacy improvements.

Get an overview of all your (hopefully) loyal subjects

[h2]New Companies[/h2]
We’re also adding some new companies and their emblems with Sphere of Influence ranging from big oil companies to legendary ale.

Here are some of the newly added company emblems

[h2]New Paper Map[/h2]
Another addition is also a new Paper Map added with Sphere of Influence. This map is inspired by the more minimalistic maps from the era, lending itself well to those seeking clarity combined with a new (old) coat of paint.



[h2]Achievement Icons[/h2]
Last but not least are a variety of new achievement icons, some depicting the exact thing you need to achieve, some that might give you a vague hint and some that contain pop culture references that you might guess.

There are so many easter eggs among these new achievement icons

[h2]Summary[/h2]
So with Sphere of Influence a lot of new visual elements have been added to both interface and map. We’ve put a lot of effort into making Power Blocs feel like they have a presence in all aspects of the games’ visuals, really tried to ensure that there’s a lot of new visual elements for The Great Game and also added some nice details while also collaborating with the community.

Next weeks’ Dev Diary will be detailing the many UX improvements coming with the Sphere of Influence update.

Hello. This is Victoria, and today I will be covering the remainder of the Great Game-themed narrative content which is coming in Sphere of Influence and its accompanying update.

To avoid any confusion, I would like to clarify that none of the narrative content shown in this diary, nor the last diary, is gated behind the Great Game objective. The Great Game objective provides objective subgoals which grant points for certain journal entries and a score tracker which interfaces with much of this content for a more focused experience–it is not required to experience this content. All content within this diary, unless specified otherwise, is available both in sandbox mode or during the course of any objective.

[h2]Afghanistan[/h2]

Afghanistan in 1836 is far from a united land. The slow collapse of the Durrani Empire has left it in a state of civil war for decades, with the primary claimants to the throne forming fiefdoms centred in Herat, Kabul, and Kandahar. In addition to this unfortunate internal situation, the Afghan states find themselves menaced by Persia’s expansionist ambitions from the West, the encroaching British East India Company from the East, and Russian influence from the North.



All Afghan states start with the Afghan Reunification Journal Entry active. Whilst the primary contenders for reunifying Afghanistan are Herat, Kandahar, and Kabul, the minor khanates of Maimana and Kunduz also have this available, allowing for the formation of an Afghanistan under an Uzbek Khan.



This journal entry allows all Afghan contenders to appeal to either Russia or Britain for military and diplomatic support in reunifying Afghanistan. If the relevant Great Power approves the contender’s request, they will be more inclined to support said contenders in diplomatic plays, and the contender will receive military bonuses in return for an obligation.



Once unified, a freshly formed Afghanistan may choose to either pursue additional claims on Pashtun and Tajik homelands, at the cost of infamy, or stop its expansion whilst it’s ahead.



Afghanistan’s unification content will be available to all players in the free update accompanying the release of Sphere of Influence.

[h2]Persia[/h2]

Persia in 1836 is a country swelling with expansionist ambitions. The newly enthroned Mohammad Shah has consolidated his power, and wishes to annex the Principality of Herat as part of a grand ambition that would unify the Persian-speaking populace of Afghanistan with Persia and extend Persian influence throughout Central Asia.



In Sphere of Influence, these expansionist ambitions are represented through the Eastern Frontier Journal Entry. This journal entry provides the tools needed to realise Persia’s expansionist interests, with buttons for approaching either Russia or Britain, as well as gaining claims on the remainder of Central Asia under certain conditions..



If Persia occupies Herat, Britain will be warned, and will have the opportunity to demand that Persia withdraw from the region. If Britain sends the demand and Persia chooses to back down, this will represent a major humiliation setback in its expansionist ambitions. If Persia refuses to back down, Britain will become much more hostile towards Persia, and represent a major impediment to its future efforts.



While expanding North and East, Persia will encounter the massive slave markets of Turkmenia and Uzbekistan, and be faced with the need to either free the slaves or allow them to remain in captivity.



Additionally, Persia will have the opportunity to restore the great city of Merv, formerly one of the largest cities in the world before its desolation by Tolui Khan.



If Persia is successfully able to complete this Journal Entry, it is almost certain to become a major power in its own right–one that may be able to become recognised, expel both Russia and Britain from Central Asia, and force an end to the Great Game.



The above content for Persia is available for all owners of the Sphere of Influence expansion pack.

[h2]Korea[/h2]

Korea, despite being far from Central Asia, was not untouched by the Great Game. In the mid-to-late nineteenth century, it began feeling the effects of European influence, causing unrest among the intellectual class and the peasantry. The philosophy of Donghak, or Eastern Learning, was intended to present a path to establishing a democratic and egalitarian society in Korea whilst simultaneously refusing encroachment by foreign powers.



To represent Korea’s isolation from the world during this period of the Joseon Dynasty, Korea has been given the Isolationism law at game start. Once this law is replaced by a different trade law, a sufficient degree of turmoil builds up, and the effects of foreign influence begin to be felt in Korea, a new journal entry will appear. The Donghak Movement journal entry represents the hybrid religious-political peasant movements that occurred in Korea around the late 19th century. Whilst it is active, revolutions involving the Rural Folk will be greatly strengthened.



There are two paths to removing the threat of a peasant rebellion–reducing the amount of radicals in Korea to a manageable level, or completing the demands that the movement offers the government. Whilst the Donghak movement is active, they may issue a petition to the government, demanding that Korea go back into isolation, permit religious tolerance, and reduce the power of the Yangban. Accepting the petition will please the Rural Folk and decrease the threat of imminent revolution, but failing to meet its demands within the time allotted will make the situation endlessly worse.



If a movement involving the Rural Folk becomes revolutionary, the Journal Entry will fail, and massively escalate both the radicalism of the movement and the progress of the revolution. What would formerly have been mere civil unrest will transform into a near-guaranteed civil war–one which could run the risk of a foreign intervention which would be disastrous for Korea.



If Korea has a civil war whilst a subject of China, China will be inclined to come to the defence of its loyal government–but a modernised Japan may also be inclined to intervene, and be much less predictable in its allegiance.



As a bonus, Korea has also had several events pertaining to the Joseon monarchy added, allowing for the appearance of characters such as Gojong and the Empress Myeongseong.



This content for Korea is available for all players who own the Sphere of Influence expansion pack.

[h2]The Caucasus[/h2]

In Sphere of Influence, both of Russia’s opponents in the Caucasian War–Circassia and the Caucasian Imamate–receive journal entries to represent their role in the conflict. In the case of Circassia, this journal entry is completed by expelling the Russians from Kuban and achieving the borders claimed by the Circassian parliament.



Upon either the expiration of the truce between Circassia and Russia–or Russia’s escalation of the war using its Caucasian War journal entry–Circassia receives an event representing the historical Parliament of Independence in 1861. This event offers the opportunity to either focus on modernising the military in preparation for a Russian invasion, or appealing to foreign powers for recognition and support.



Foreign powers with an interest in the Caucasus region will receive the option to offer recognition to Circassia upon the conclusion of its war with Russia, as well as becoming more inclined to support it in a defensive war.



The Caucasian Imamate has also received a journal entry covering its struggle for independence. Its attached modifier grants the Imamate benefits in terms of morale and defence on states it owns.



Once Circassia’s starting leaders have died, the Imamate may use this journal entry to dispatch a leader to Circassia, fostering a formal alliance between both states.



If the Imamate and Circassia reverse the course of their wars and expel Russian influence from the North Caucasus, the Russian government will no longer have the ability to exert influence within the region. It will be forced to either try to maintain its administration through a storm of radicalism, or pull out from the region. Depending on the social technologies that Russia has unlocked, the collapse of the Caucasus may take the form of the restoration of some of its traditional kingdoms, the appearance of modern nation-states, or the establishment of a unified Transcaucasia.

Pictured: The third option is unlocked by the Nationalism technology, and the fourth by Pan-Nationalism.

Pictured: The result of the first option.

Content for the Caucasian Imamate and Circassia is available to those who own the Sphere of Influence expansion pack.

[h2]Earning Recognition[/h2]

The “Earning Recognition” Journal Entry permits an unrecognised major power to work towards the status of recognised nation. This journal entry replaces the currently existing Force Recognition wargoal–whilst defeating the Great Powers in wars still benefits an unrecognised nation immensely, it is not a one-and-done path to being regarded as an equal.



Conditions which benefit the cause of recognition include defeating Great or Major powers in wars, having high vital statistics such as GDP per capita, standard of living, and literacy, enacting voting rights, and using the new Request Embassy diplomatic action on Great Powers.



The Request Embassy Diplomatic Action is unique to this journal entry, and permits for requesting embassies in Great Powers. Each Great Power that is willing to accept an embassy will raise the progress towards Recognised status by 10%.



Conditions which harm the cause of recognition include having poor vital economic indicators, being defeated in a war, and having certain regressive laws that demonstrate one’s nation to be an unreliable business partner.



Earning Recognition will be available to all players as a part of the free update 1.7.

And that is all. Thank you for reading. Next week, Max will cover the new art of Sphere of Influence.

Hello. This is Victoria, and today I will be covering much of the Great Game-themed narrative content which is coming in Sphere of Influence. This will be the first dev diary covering narrative content, with the second covering minor nations in the Great Game and other related content.



Throughout the nineteenth century, Russia and Britain competed with one another for influence in Asia. This period of rivalry was known colloquially as the Great Game, beginning in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and expanding over time to include struggles for influence in areas as far away as Korea and China.

The new Great Game objective diverges from the more sandbox-oriented objectives by serving as a guided tour of this period in history. Whilst much of the content involved in the Great Game is available to owners of Sphere of Influence during every playthrough, the Great Game objective contains objective subgoals designed to guide the player through this content and represent the progress of the Great Game as a whole.

To ensure the best experience, the Great Game objective is only available for the six historical participants specified below—Russia, Britain, Persia, Kabul, Herat, and Kandahar.



Upon launching the Great Game, the first thing one will see is a list of objective subgoals, along with the subgoal which represents the core of the Great Game. The Great Game objective mixes country-specific and generic objectives—whilst both Britain and Russia have the objective of securing influence over Persia or creating an Afghan protectorate, they also have country-specific objectives which will be covered later in the diary.



The Great Game core subgoal is where the progress of each nation in the Great Game is tracked. Completing each subgoal will benefit the nation that completes it, pushing the bar to the right or the left. The bar will also drift in one direction or another each year, according to differences in national prestige and market GDP.

As can be seen here, there are three currently unopened questions in the Great Game—the fate of the Caucasian states, and the struggle for influence over Afghanistan and Persia. These are victories to be had. Both Britain and Russia have made advances before the game’s start, with Britain benefiting from their successful expedition through the Hindu Kush and into Bukhara in 1831, and Russia benefiting from enforcing the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828. In the Great Game, Victories represent conflicts within which both powers vie against one another, and advances represent more technical, military, or diplomatic achievements.



When the journal entry concludes, the position of the bar will determine whether the Great Game has a victor, or whether neither power was able to gain supremacy. The power that wins the Great Game will receive a prestige and Power Bloc cohesion bonus, and the nation which is defeated will be humiliated in the eyes of the world.




Of course, the Great Game does not always have a winner. Contrary to the views of the imperial administrators vying over the territories of Central Asia, the people which reside there have agendas of their own. If, whilst playing as a Central Asian or Persian power, one pushes both Britain and Russia out of the region, the Great Game will be forced to a close with both Great Powers being humbled.

[h2]Generic Content​[/h2]

Whilst both Britain and Russia have their unique national priorities, the core of the Great Game lies in the battle for leverage over Central Asia. Both Great Powers have generic subgoals for acquiring influence in this region.

[h3]Afghanistan[/h3]

In Afghanistan, for example, one may establish a protectorate over all the nations in the region—but the process does not stop there. The power which successfully establishes a protectorate over Afghanistan must keep it for ten years, without any Afghan states slipping out of their grasp.



At the game’s start, Afghanistan’s borders are quite different from what they were at the end of the period. This is owed to the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1895, in which Russia and Britain jointly decided upon the borders of the Afghan state. Once Afghanistan unifies, a journal entry modelling this will appear for both Britain and Russia, along with an objective subgoal for those playing the Great Game.



The Pamir Delimitation journal entry represents the negotiations between Britain and Russia to determine the borders of Afghanistan. Depending on the borders of Afghanistan at the beginning of the process, the journal entry will present a variety of different proposals, permitting the Great Powers to grant or claim a varying amount of land.

Pictured: Britain has decided that Afghanistan’s southeastern border should be drawn along the Indus River, whilst Russia has decided upon giving it some territory in the North.

Once both Great Powers have agreed to a treaty, it is presented to Afghanistan, which has the option to accept or refuse. If Afghanistan refuses, the Great Powers will need to do another round of negotiation, this time with additional coercive measures available to them.




If Afghanistan continues to refuse or the Great Powers fail to come to a deal, negotiations will break down, and overlapping claims will almost guarantee future wars in the region.

Pictured: Some of the shapes that a post-Pamir Delimitation Afghanistan may take. Some of these may prove more viable than others.


[h3]Persia[/h3]

The requirements for successfully completing the subgoal to secure influence over Persia is similar to Afghanistan, with the caveat that the territorial integrity of Persia must be maintained, at least to some extent. The fluid borders and expansionist ambitions of Persia, which will be shown in more detail next week, mean that Persia may take many shapes over the course of a game.



[h3]Himalayan Exploration[/h3]

Throughout the late nineteenth centuries, European explorers constantly attempted to penetrate through the Himalayan Mountains, to chart the Tibetan Plateau and determine the best routes for a military expedition into the interior of China. Sphere of Influence adds a new expedition into the Himalayas, with ramifications for the Great Game if successfully completed.



Whilst your explorers survey the roof of the world, they may come across many things, from mountains higher than any seen before, or fascinating wildlife.



In addition to the risk of losing life or limb to both frostbite and the wildlife’s claws, any European expeditions trespassing into this region will run the risk of causing diplomatic incidents with China. It is best to tread cautiously, lest the expedition be sent back humiliated—or not come back at all.



[h2]Country-Specific Content[/h2]

In the Great Game objective, the majority of objectives are country-specific. In many cases, these objectives are linked to journal entries that are available for a country in any playthrough, with the objectives serving as a way to point out specific journal entries and grant the player points in the Great Game for completing them.

[h3]The Caucasian War[/h3]

For example, in Russia, the “Secure the Persian Border” objective is tied to a new journal entry that is available for Russia at the game’s start.



The Caucasian War is a conflict that has been raging for some time at the beginning of the game, beginning with the Russian attempt to annex Circassia in the mid-eighteenth century. In 1836, the Caucasian Imamate and Circassia continue to resist Russian domination of the region, making much of the region effectively ungovernable. Russian control of the South Caucasus is exerted primarily through the Georgian Military Highway—a route constantly threatened by the unrest in the North Caucasus. If Russia loses control of the North Caucasus, it is certain to lead to the loss of the South as well.



Whilst the Caucasian War journal entry is active, events will intermittently fire, covering various situations related to the war. The options in these events often increase devastation in the region, which will make things more difficult for the Imamate and Circassia, at the cost of spilling out into Russian-controlled regions as well.




Once Russia has either successfully researched certain technologies or reached the end of its starting truce, the war may be escalated into a full-scale conflict, which permits the use of ordinary diplomatic plays against these nations.



Upon escalating the war, the Russian armed forces in the Caucasus will present the historical Milyutin memorandum to the government. Accepting this memorandum will please the command of the armed forces, but lead to the historical outcome of the Caucasian War—the devastation of the region, depopulation, and the forceful expulsion of much of the Circassian population to the Ottoman Empire.



Circassia and the Caucasian Imamate also have content related to the conflict, which will be shown off in the next dev diary.

The rest of the Caucasian War requires the Sphere of Influence DLC, but the content pertaining to the Milyutin memorandum and brutal depopulation of the Caucasus does not. Whilst this is a gruesome event in history, it is also not something which can in good conscience be overlooked.

[h3]Kazakhstan[/h3]

As of 1836, the Kazakh steppes have been under the Russian Empire for several decades. The power of the Khan has recently been abolished, and the Kazakh zhuzes placed under the command of various Russian-appointed agha-sultans. However, this system of administration is beginning to fray. Early in the game, Russia will receive an event notifying them of the rise of Kenesary Kasymuli, a Kazakh aristocrat who has come to spearhead Kazakh resistance against Russian rule.



When this event occurs, a new unresolved victory appears in the Great Game central subgoal, and a new subgoal, along with its corresponding Journal Entry, appears.



The Pacification of the Steppes journal entry is completed by slowly and peacefully annexing the Kazakh protectorates, and fails if the Kazakh protectorates’ liberty desire rises too high, or if ten years pass without successfully achieving this goal.



Whilst the journal entry is active, events pertaining to Kenesary’s rebels will fire, possibly interfering with the liberty desire of Russia’s Kazakh subjects.



In addition to firing events for Russia, Kenesary will also fire events for the Kazakh zhuzes and the Central Asian khanates, giving them a chance to side with Kenesary when he eventually launches his final play for control of Kazakhstan.



If Russian rule is sufficiently disrupted, and Liberty Desire reaches too high a value, Kenesary will seize control of the Uly Zhuz and launch his independence war against Russia, along with the allies that he’s collected along the way.



If Russia can successfully crush the revolt, they will gain progress in the Great Game—but it has far more to lose than to gain. Whilst Britain is not necessarily aiding Kenesary, his victory will represent a coup for Britain, as Russia now has much more work to do to reach Afghanistan.



If Russia succeeds, it will have an opportunity to menace the other Central Asian Khanates, and, upon researching Civilising Mission, unlock a new journal entry—the Conquest of Turkestan.




[h2]Other Russian Subgoals[/h2]

Throughout the course of a game, Russia will periodically unlock additional subgoals which will advance its position in the Great Game. These subgoals represent various historical aims of Russia, and are exclusive to the Great Game objective.

The Codify the Chinese Border subgoal represents the Russian Empire’s desire for the various territorial concessions in Central Asia and Outer Manchuria signed away by the Qing Empire in the mid-nineteenth century. The acquisition of Outer Manchuria was instrumental to the ability for the Russian Empire to project power into the Pacific Ocean, a situation which eventually led to British concerns over the integrity of their Pacific colonies and their later alliance with Japan.

To complete this subgoal, Russia must both acquire these territories from China, and force China to abandon claims on the territory. If a non-player China has been weakened by the Opium Wars and other calamities, the options to sign the Treaty of Aigun, Beijing Treaty, and Chuguchak Protocol provided by the Ruler of the East Journal Entry are a perfect way to see this goal through whilst minimising both the risk of war and the negative implications of a revanchist China on the border.



The Acquire Manchurian Concessions subgoal also relates to the relations between China and Russia, and is triggered by the Russian acquisition and incorporation of a state in Outer Manchuria. This subgoal encourages Russia to acquire a treaty port in Manchuria, and construct the historical Chinese Eastern Railway, which served as the furthest Eastern branch of the trans-Siberian railway until the opening of the Amur River Line in 1916.



With the Russian acquisition of Outer Manchuria also comes ambitions to secure a protectorate over Korea. Korea was considered to present a risk in the hands of a foreign power as a staging point for the decapitation of Russia’s Far Eastern naval assets. Historically, the Russian Empire contended diplomatically with Japan for influence in Korea following the first Sino-Japanese war, a period which would meet its climax with a Japanese-sponsored coup killing the Queen of Korea and forcing the King to flee to the Russian embassy.

This period of heightened tensions between the modernising Empire of Japan and Russia would cool for a brief period with the establishment of several agreements that would establish a balance of power in Korea. These agreements would come to an end following the end of the Russo-Japanese war, and the later Japanese conquest of Korea. The Secure a Korean Protectorate subgoal represents an alternate route—the ambition of both Nicholas II and factions within his government to establish full Russian control of Korea.



[h2]British Subgoals[/h2]

In the 1830s, British citizens and ships played a role in assisting Circassia against Russia. Whilst Britain was historically unwilling to escalate its involvement in Circassia beyond occasional shipments of weapons or volunteers dispatched by private citizens, it considered exerting influence into the Black Sea to be in its national interest.

The Disrupt the Russian Caucasus subgoal represents the various initiatives amongst British civil and political society to assist Circassia, and react to what they saw as the threat of Russia taking control of the Ottoman Empire if it could consolidate its territories in the Caucasus.



The Expand British India subgoal represents the desire to expand the territories controlled by the East India Company into Burma and modern-day Pakistan. A strong East India Company, or British Raj, may serve as a valuable counterweight to Russian influence in the region, and a centre from which Britain may project power into the remainder of Asia.



The Contest the Russian Pamirs subgoal represents an abortive attempt in 1902 by Britain to seize control of the Pamir Mountains and establish an independent buffer state through a deeply unsubtle method—a direct military incursion with cooperation from Afghanistan.

Whilst this proposition was historically rejected by the British government before materialising, the acquisition of Tajikistan by Russia will present Britain the opportunity to launch the proposed invasion. If Britain can manage to seize Tajikistan or establish a new Tajik state in its power bloc, it will gain a decisive advantage in the Great Game.



The final unique subgoal for Britain is to counter Russian Pacific Influence. This represents the historical Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902, which was formed in reaction to the strengthening of the Russian presence in its Far Eastern territories. This subgoal is triggered by Russia developing naval bases in Outer Manchuria, heralding an incoming threat to the British fleet in the Pacific.



Next week, I will cover the content for minor nations involved with the Great Game, as well as how sandbox mode works with the new content. And that is all. Thank you for reading.