Victoria 3 News

Hello and welcome to another Victoria 3 Dev Diary!
I’m Lino, a Game Design Lead on the project and today I will take you through one of the big features of the Sphere of Influence expansion: Power Blocs.

As Martin wrote last week, Power Blocs are multinational associations that are led by a Great or Major Power. They can take many different shapes, some of which I will showcase today. With your skills playing Victoria 3 (or rather: your skills picking Great Britain), you too should be able to lead one in no time, I’m sure!

Display of the most powerful members of a Power Bloc under Great Britain’s rule

But let’s get into the details, starting with some general aspects.

[h2]General[/h2]
With Power Blocs, we are providing new and different opportunities for you to take control of one of these powerful empires, to assemble and customize your own Bloc, shape its effects on members to your liking and guide its expansion and struggle with other Power Blocs for domination over the region.

A country can only be part of one Power Bloc at the same time. That does not mean that a country is locked into a Power Bloc forever though. There are ways for them to leave and join another Bloc, if the conditions align or even for a Power Bloc to be completely dismantled.

Great Powers will generally have an easier time leading a Power Bloc than Major Powers, due to their higher budget of Influence which is part of the upkeep cost for Power Blocs.
Additionally there is a Cohesion penalty being applied to Major Powers leading a Power Bloc to reflect that they don’t quite have the authority or respect of others.
This fact and some other things we’ll get into later, should make the fight for the top of the Prestige leaderboards more rewarding and fun.

There will be some Power Blocs established at game start already, e.g. the Zollverein and the British Empire. You can start playing as Great Britain and you will already have a Power Bloc ready to go if you desire to do so.
But also playing as a regular member of any Power Bloc will feel different than being outside of them. While there are good reasons why you may not want to join any Power Bloc, there is also potential for powerful effects and cooperation with other members of the same Bloc.

Some of the Power Blocs at game start

I hear you have managed to cut off Austria’s leash and were able to unite Italy. Very impressive. Now you are ready to create your own new Power Bloc. Let’s look at that process, which starts with the customization.

[h2]Customization[/h2]
When you form your Power Bloc, you can customize a few aesthetic things to make it look as pretty or crazy or as historic as possible - whatever floats your boat!
It starts with a name of course, I see you have called it “Venetian League”? Excellent choice.
It continues with the emblem. We’ve added a number of options for you to choose from to decorate your crest. For the color selection we have added support for a traditional color picker so that you have the full freedom to express yourself, be it pink, green or Prussian yellow blue.
You can also see that there is a selection for a Map pattern. This pattern will be displayed in the map modes that deal with Power Blocs and its color will be the same as your chosen primary color as you may have seen from the historic Power Blocs screenshot.

WIP Mockup of the Customization window for your emblem

In the next tab you can find the Statue customization window. Here you can shape the looks of the fantastic monuments which countries of your Power Bloc can build.
There’s a variety of pedestals, statues and accessories to choose from to demonstrate your Power Bloc’s might to the world.

Countries in a Power Bloc will be able to build them and profit from their effects, which can be something like Influence, Authority or similar effects, based on how you want to shape your Power Bloc. Of course the Game Rule for Monument effects will be expanded to include Statues if you desire to disable their effects, and build them just for their looks.

WIP Mockup for the customization window

One of the many majestic statues on the map

Another addition that will bring Power Blocs more into the 3D world is a set of new vehicles, depending on the style of your Bloc.
You will also find that parts of the clothing of country leaders in the Power Bloc will change. So for example you may see sabres, medals or sashes being worn by them.
Which accessories are going to be worn and which vehicle will drive on your roads are based on what Central Identity Pillar you pick for your Power Bloc. We will share more information on these assets in one of our upcoming Dev Diaries, dedicated to cosmetics - stay tuned!

This fancy cape could be worn by your country leader too

When you want to get from A to B while showing off

Speaking of Central Identity Pillars, let’s have a look at them to see what might interest you for the Venetian League.

[h2]Central Identity Pillar[/h2]
Power Blocs revolve around a central set of values. These can range from bringing as many subjects as possible into their “glorious” empire (looking at you Great Britain and Russia), to a Bloc whose leader is interested in spreading their own religion throughout the world.

Identity Pillars change a few aspects of your Power Bloc:

• They provide a special ability to Power Bloc leaders, e.g. the Trade League Identity making everybody part of a customs union under the leader, or the Sovereign Empire letting the leader turn a member into a subject of theirs under certain conditions
  
• They define some “rules” for your Bloc, e.g. how Cohesion is gained (which we’ll talk about later)
  
• They can unlock groups of Principles which is what I’ll talk about next
  
• They define the rate at which you get Principle Mandates, which allows you to enact these Principles
  

WIP Selection of Identities

When forming a Power Bloc, you will have to pick one of these Identities before moving on to the next step. Trade League it is? Great choice.

[h2]Principles[/h2]
Next up, you will have to choose your starting Principle. While Identities provide a central idea and a sort of rule set for your Power Bloc, Principles can provide more practical expressions of that.
Principles come in groups of three levels, generally providing different effects per level to all members of your Bloc. Some are beneficial for everybody, while others are particularly favoring you, their great leader.
The effects from Principles of higher tiers are always added to the lower ones. So if you have the tier 3 Principle of Defensive Cooperation unlocked, you also get the effects of tier 1 and 2.

WIP Selection screen, on release there are going to be more Principles to choose from

A WIP example of the three levels of the Defensive Cooperation Principle Group

Identities have one or more Primary Principle Groups which indicate a deeper connection to the Identity than most of the other Principle Groups.
You will be required to choose one of the Primary ones to form the Venetian League. Every additional Principle you pick at a later stage will grant a bonus to your Power Bloc’s Cohesion, which can be impactful. You can exchange it later on if you’d like, but you may have a very hard time doing so.

By having countries remain in your Bloc, you will unlock the potential to upgrade existing Principles or pick new ones with entirely different effects.
Each member of your Power Bloc contributes a number of points towards a Principle Mandate. The higher their rank, the higher their contribution.



Each Mandate allows you to either pick a new Tier 1 Principle if you have an open slot, upgrade one of your established Principles by one Tier, or switch a Principle of any Tier to a different Tier 1 Principle.

Principles Overview section

With the fancy customized look, the Central Identity Pillar and the first Principle picked, it is finally time to form the Venetian League.
Now all that’s left to do is send invitations. If at least one other country accepts, your very own Power Bloc is officially formed. Congratulations!

But how do you get other countries like the minors in the Austrian Bloc to join your Bloc and ensure they’re staying there so that you get more Principle Mandates?

[h2]Leverage[/h2]
That’s what Leverage is for. Raising your Leverage to overtake Austria might be a challenge, but it might also be worth it since you’re weakening their Bloc at the same time as strengthening your own.

There’s a couple of factors that contribute to Power Blocs building up Leverage on a country, such as:

• At least one of the Power Bloc's members having an active interest in the country (a hard requirement for gaining Leverage)
  
• Positive relations and certain other pacts like Alliance or Trade Agreement
  
• Siding with target in Diplomatic Plays
  
• Lobbies for or against your country
  
• Economic dependence (which we’ll cover in more detail in a future Dev Diary, but which includes e.g. trade routes between the countries)
  

By default, Leverage will trend towards 0. So that means if you want to keep the Leverage you have on a country, say Switzerland, active or even increase it, you will need to engage with them in some form or another.

Keep in mind that conducting Diplomacy is harder for you, now that you’re part of a Power Bloc. Countries in other Power Blocs will feel intimidated and are less likely to agree to your proposals.
That would have been a good reason for you to stay neutral. Oh well, too late now!

There’s actually two values for Leverage. One that continuously builds up over time if you meet the requirements and another one, which is called Active Leverage that is the result of your own Leverage minus the next highest Bloc’s Leverage.
So for example, if you have built up 100 Leverage in Switzerland and the pesky Austrian Bloc has 80 Leverage on them, your active Leverage is only 20.

WIP Animation for Leverage map mode


If you manage to get enough active Leverage, you can invite Switzerland to your Bloc. The active Leverage your Bloc has on them determines their likelihood of joining your Bloc if you ask them nicely. Their good friends came gladly after all.
But what if they decline? Well, you can always apply a slightly firmer grip if they need it and threaten war with them to force them into your Bloc. This will cause an amount of Infamy though, depending on how much Active Leverage you have on them.

Even after integrating Switzerland into your Bloc, Leverage needs to be kept up. Otherwise it opens the door to another Power Bloc doing the same as you have done and convincing them to leave your Bloc and join theirs instead.

It looks like you have learned how to get more countries into your Bloc. It is prospering and growing it seems. But I feel you may have forgotten about something you had better keep in mind.

[h2]Cohesion[/h2]
Cohesion is the measurement of how well the countries in your Power Bloc fit together. More than anything else it looks at the Identity to determine the target value which it will then trend towards.

There are some other things in the game that can generate or drain Cohesion though, e.g Principles providing a benefit or reducing it, actions that leaders or members can take, events etc.

Similarly to Legitimacy, the Cohesion value will be in one of five brackets, each having different effects on your Power Bloc. They are mostly around the gain of Leverage on members of your Bloc, but can even halt the progress of Principle Mandate generation.

WIP display of the Cohesion bar

Now the main problem that you are facing, is that Leverage gain on members in your own Bloc is affected by Cohesion which makes it harder to keep them around.

Most countries that you add to your Bloc will also reduce your Cohesion. The more countries you have, the higher the speed of unlocking the next Principle Mandate, but the more difficult it will also be to keep control over your member countries, potentially leading to them being pulled into a competing Power Bloc.

Kicking a less powerful member out might be worth it in order to restore balance. Similarly helpful could be picking a more generous Principle as your next one.

When you have found a way to stabilize your Bloc to comfortable levels, you should look for the next potential target to acquire.
Finding the balance between how many countries you can support to keep under your reign and where you invest your diplomatic resources is going to be key if you are leading a Power Bloc.
Maybe you should stick to Bavaria and Denmark as your next targets, on the other hand the contributions of a Great Power like France would bring might be worth it…

[h2]Power Struggle[/h2]
So you managed to get France to join your Venetian League? Congratulations!
I’d like to point your attention towards France’s Prestige. Since it is more than 20% higher than yours, they have automatically initiated a Power Struggle. If they succeed in keeping that score up for a full year, they will assume leadership of the Venetian League, demoting you to a regular member. France might even want to rename your Power Bloc afterwards. Mon Dieu!

Let’s hope Power Blocs find a better end under your leadership once Sphere of Influence releases in May.

When that happens, note that there is going to be a core version of Power Blocs that is going to launch with the free update for all players, even if you didn’t purchase Sphere of Influence.
The free version allows you to pick the Trade League Identity, making it possible to recreate shared markets, whose functionality we’ve moved from a diplomatic pact into the Power Bloc feature. It also replicates the Sphering mechanics from Victoria 2 in a more natural way than subjugation or negotiating for Customs Union pacts, though of course Power Blocs take this even further with more mechanics and depth.
Part of the expansion for Power Blocs is all customization and the vast majority of advanced mechanics and effects like the other Central Identity Pillars, Principles and Statues.

That’s it for today. Next week, I’m going to tell you more about the changes to Building Ownership and what that enables you to do - Foreign Investment!

Overview for all upcoming Dev Diaries:

Salutations Victorians!

The Paradox Spring Sale starts today!

Pick up the Victoria 3 base game for 50% and select downloadable content for up to 50% off! With other Paradox titles also available for up to 75% off!

Steam Sale here: https://pdxint.at/3TAByHw

Hello and welcome to the first Development Diary for the 1.7 update and Sphere of Influence expansion for Victoria 3. This Dev Diary is meant to give you a broad overview of the major Expansion and update features, which we’ll naturally go over in much greater detail in the next few weeks. As mentioned previously, all of this is scheduled to release on May 6th and you can pre-order Sphere of Influence right now.

[h2]Power Blocs (Sphere of Influence)[/h2]
Power Blocs are multinational associations that can be formed by high-ranking countries, and which take a variety of forms based on their Identity and Principles. Power Bloc Identities are set when they are formed, while Principles can be added and removed over time. Power Blocs are highly customizable in other ways, such as choosing their name and customizing their emblem, as well as creating custom statues to reflect the glory and reach of your Bloc.

A Power Bloc might take the form of a single Great Power and countries under its influence, a multilateral military alliance between several Major/Great Powers, or an economic cooperation with numerous countries in a unified market.

Power Blocs have Leverage on countries outside the Bloc (including members of other Blocs) and can use that Leverage to entice and cajole them into the Power Bloc. Being part of a Power Bloc comes with both benefits and obligations, and members are at risk of having their internal politics meddled with by the leader of the Bloc.

[h2]Interest Group Lobbies (Sphere of Influence)[/h2]
In Sphere of Influence, Interest Groups can now join Lobbies with specific foreign policy agendas centered around other countries. These Lobbies form organically as the result of a new system of Diplomatic Catalysts: A lobby friendly to Great Britain might form after the signing of an alliance with them, while a lobby hostile to Austria might spring up after being defeated by them in a war, all depending on a variety of diplomatic and political conditions at the time the Catalyst occurred.

Lobbies will try to promote or counter the interests of foreign powers and will help or hinder your diplomatic efforts based on whether your goals align with their own. Lobbies that are friendly to a specific foreign power can smooth the way for diplomatic agreement that would otherwise not be possible, but will oppose hostile actions and undermine any war efforts against that power, while unfriendly lobbies will try to hinder diplomatic efforts with the country of their ire but may create an opportunity for a key alliance with their rival instead.

In addition to appearing as due to Diplomatic Catalysts, Political Lobbies can also form as a result of certain events, like Social Democrats feeling the need to prove their opposition to Communism

[h2]Foreign Investment (Sphere of Influence)[/h2]
Foreign Investment makes it possible for both governments and autonomous private investors to construct building levels in other countries and enjoy the profits generated. To construct in another country, you need to have certain diplomatic pacts in place, or otherwise be part of a Power Bloc that allows such construction. If you do not own Sphere of Influence you will still be able to do Foreign Investment in your subjects.

[h2]The Great Game (Sphere of Influence)[/h2]
The Great Game is a major new content addition adding a new Objective and new Journal Entries focused on the historical Great Game that played out between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. The Objective can be played as either Russia/Britain or one of the other involved powers such as Persia, and which country you select changes the conditions required to ‘win’ the Great Game. The new Objective ties directly into numerous new Journal Entries such as Persia’s ambition to restore its hegemony over Afghanistan, most of which will be present even if the Objective isn’t selected and so will also drive AI behavior in the region.

As one of the Afghanistani minors, your most immediate priority will be to reunify Afghanistan and either restore the Durrani Empire or create something new

[h2]Subject Interactions (Sphere of Influence)[/h2]
Subject Interactions are a new group of Diplomatic Actions that can be done either by an overlord against their subjects, or by a subject against their overlord. These include actions such as Increasing or Decreasing Autonomy, changing the level of payments owed by a subject, appointing a new ruler, or allowing them to manage their own market. Certain Subject Actions, such as Increasing Autonomy or Granting Market Independence, will be available even to those without Sphere of Influence.

[h2]Building Ownership Revision (Update 1.7)[/h2]
The mechanics for Building Ownership are completely revised in the 1.7 update so that the owners of a building no longer have to work in that building, or even live in the same state - London-based Capitalists can now own buildings all over the world, and buildings can be selectively nationalized or privatized and put up for sale to interested investors, with the available options being restricted by which economic system a country is operating under. Additionally, buildings can now potentially have a different owner for each of its levels.

Instead of hanging around on the farms doing what could (God forbid) be considered ‘working’, the Aristocrats of East Anglia now stay in their Manor Houses and enjoy the proper leisurely pursuits of a countryside gentleman or gentlewoman

[h2]Liberty Desire (Update 1.7)[/h2]
Update 1.7 adds Liberty Desire for Subjects that restricts both which actions they can take against their overlord and which actions an overlord is able to take against them. Liberty Desire is calculated on a variety of factors, such as how intertwined the subject’s economy is with their overlord, and can increase or decrease over time. AI subjects will have a number of new diplomatic strategies influenced by their liberty desire, such as pursuing independence or remaining a subject but seeking greater autonomy from their overlord.

Owing to a relatively high level of Liberty Desire, Cambodia is pursuing a strategy of increased autonomy and self-reliance, but will not seek full independence yet

This is of course by no means an exhaustive list of everything we’re adding in Sphere of Influence and 1.7! There are new companies, new flavor events, more historical characters, new clothing and changes to the map, to name just a few. Since there is a lot to talk about, we’ll be releasing weekly dev diaries for at least the next couple of months!

That’s all for today. Next week we begin the deep-dives into 1.7 and Sphere of Influence, on the topic of Power Blocs!

Below you can see the Upcoming Dev Diary Schedule, so mark the dates down for when we go over your topics of interest!

Hello Victorians!

We have a hotfix today, with a number of bugfixes and in particular fixing the internal migration issue reported by players.

Not for problem reports, but rather file any bug reports in the bug reporting forum, thank you!



[h2]BugFixes[/h2]
- Fixed CTD related to graphics and UI
- Fixed a crash that could occur when browsing different countries' census data
- Fixed an issue where South American cultures would spam the error log with errors, causing performance impact
- Fixed several possible errors caused by Garibaldi
- Fixed multiple miscellaneous script errors
- The River of Coffee journal entry will now fail properly if Brazil joins another market.
- Fixed bug where migration in a market would almost entirely stop if a culture in that market had no states it could migrate to (most often due to migration laws like Closed Borders)
- Fixed the mix up of Radicals/Loyalists sort buttons in the Census Data to sort on the correct value.
- Re-added the Ongoing Diplomatic Actions (bankroll, improve/damage relations) to the outliner based on player feedback.
- Fixed an issue where errors in Women's Suffrage modifiers could cause massive late-game slowdowns
- Fixed an issue where revolutions would cause error spam
- Fixed a missed scope in the Art Noveau event
- Fixed a bug where AI participants in Diplomatic Plays may compute the worth of its sways incorrectly
- Fixed a case where Call In Obligation sway might not clear the obligation
- Fixed a bug where an event script may cause error logging if Paraguay ceases to exist
- Embargoes are now possible at poor-and-lower relations
- Fixed a crash that could happen after starting a diplomatic play
- Fixed a bug in commander order script causing irrelevant error log spam when recruiting commanders
- Fixed a bug where the investment pool could tap into the treasury to cover private constructions if the country had a very long construction queue
- Fixed a bug where military formation map markers could show the wrong number of battalions if moving around the map while the game was paused
- Fixed a broken localization key in Japanese

[h2]AI[/h2]
- AI will no longer disable Mobilization Options that have a cost (in Organization, Morale, etc) associated with them on a mobilized army, since in a fluctuating market this could lead to repeated toggling with disastrous results


All these error log changes together should hopefully improve performance but we are continuing to investigate the causes of the slowdown over time.

Hello to the last Dev Diary on 1.6! A little of a mash up between 1.6, Sphere of Influence and the Train Pack!

It is I, Pelly, here to be the voice of Victoria! (Read in the voice of the mysterons voice, old 1960’s references are always relevant)

We released a hotfix (1.6.1) this morning addressing the Mac crash related to sea nodes, one of the issues mentioned in the 1.6 Known Issues post.

Otherwise for 1.6, we are looking to address a number of issues in upcoming patches including, but not limited to:

• A crash in the Census panel
  
• The Radicals and Loyalists in the Census Panel being reversed
  
• Embargo not being allowed below Poor Relations
  
• Script errors that may cause large error logs
  

We are looking into addressing these issues as soon as we can and will update people further when we have more information, within the next week.

There are also reports of performance being affected on certain machines, for example on AMD CPUs. This is unconfirmed by us as of writing but being investigated. If you are currently experiencing stability or performance issues with version 1.6.1, as always we ask you ensure all your mods are turned off (even mods marked by their authors as compatible with 1.6) and that you aren't loading a save from an old build (such as 1.5.13).

As for the surprise announcements yesterday, first up on Sphere of Influence!

It has been very nice to see the response to Sphere of Influence, including the fun people are having with the trailer (Read, people joking around in R’lyehian and how the octopuses in the trailer are actually Old Ones. Which they aren’t, we promise.). The nice comments about the trailer have been passed on to our lovely Creative Producer!

Otherwise, I have been looking at all the threads, comments, posts and all the interest in how features could work! Particularly, how everyone is analyzing the screenshots on Steam and speculation on them! We’ll have more information on said features over the upcoming dev diaries, starting next week (as mentioned in the announcement post of Sphere of Influence).

Then, we have the surprise release of the Train Bonus Pack!

I have been looking forward to this being released ever since we first started talking about it internally, seeing them actually come into being (I was so happy seeing them clatter along and have smoke coming out of them) and then doing the cool video discussion with Mike - Mike is a professional doing videos in one take.

The work the art and audio team have done is so, so cool and I am so happy to see other people also like them.

Speaking of Mike, behold the prophet of steam, the maniacal mechanic himself!

Talking about the background of making the pack!

---

THEY ASKED ME ABOUT TRAINS! THE FOOLS ACTUALLY ASKED ME ABOUT TRAINS!

Hello, yes, I'm Mike, and I am partial to railroading history and trains and suchlike. I've been working on Victoria 3 for years now, and way back in the early days I compiled a matrix of locomotives that would fit in the game, based on historical period and country so I could pitch some number of appropriate locomotives whenever the opportunity presented itself. That matrix looked a little something like this:



So when I got approached a little while back and asked if I could recommend any trains that the art team on V3 could add to the game, I cackled like a goddamn maniac, opened up the matrix, and sort of just gestured at the screen as I continued to laugh for a few more minutes.

…then I got a little nervous. Trains are serious business. Train People have serious opinions on trains. We had to pick only one locomotive per country per period, and there were so many trains. In some cases, there are also so many countries. The German trains are supposed to cover all the Germanies—would a Prussian locomotive be appropriate for Baden? Would a Bavarian engine work for Hanover? I am sure everyone has their own opinions about which locomotives are most emblematic of German locomotive design in the Victorian era. Ultimately I picked an Austrian locomotive because I once visited a museum near Vienna that actually had one around and that was a neat museum, you should go visit the Eisenbahnmuseum "Das Heizhaus", it's cool and fun.

This is my picture! I also went to the museum and really enjoyed seeing the trains! I have over 100 pictures just of trains from that visit. - Pelly

The majority of my work was on this front—I got to pick out designs, supply references to art, and then sit back and opine at length about why these trains were neat while the art team did the real work of modeling them and getting them working in the game. I got to tell you folks, being asked to give opinions about trains and have that count as work felt amazing.

A fun one to baffle the artists with was the John Bull. It's explained a lot more in the video (Pelly Note: It is a fun video, go watch it!) for the pack, but the John Bull is such an awful mess of a locomotive. Originally it was a nice and tidy British export, an early 1830s engine designed and built by the distinguished Robert Stephenson & Company, a classic 0-4-0 design.

It did not last long in this state.

Turns out, American tracks in the 1830s sucked! They sucked a lot! The routes were windy, the rail quality was awful, quality was just awful. In order to operate under such conditions, the locomotive's crew began making modifications, and then more modifications, and then more modifications. By the time it fully left service, it looked nothing like the original machine.

So, then, what should it look like in Victoria 3? Its recorded appearance changed several times over the years, but one of the biggest considerations here was to make the trains distinctive from each other, so you can easily see that an American train isn't a German one, and a British train isn't a French one. That led to the choice to use the current form that the locomotive's found in, preserved at the Smithsonian. There's enough modifications to make it weird, but not so many that it looks like it did in its sordid state at retirement. It makes it look distinct—that's the key consideration here.

God, what a weird little machine.

Ultimately though, it's been fun and terrifying work putting together the basics for this pack. It's been fun, because oh boy trains! It's also been terrifying, because I could only pick two trains for these nations and their hangers-on, to represent all their rich railway heritage over much of the Victorian era. What we have is but an introduction to all the real-life locomotives and railroading history of the 19th century. Learning more is a cinch—there's a plethora of books available in your local libraries, bookstores, and points online, and museums are all over the place.

Trains!

----

Thanks Mike! Very informative and engaging! It is always a joy talking about trains with you, and finally seeing some more trains in the game!


Now is the correct train sound Choo Choo or Chugga Chugga? I’m on team Choo Choo.

Stay tuned into radio Victoria, as next week (March 14th), we join Martin! With an overview of Sphere of Influence, its accompanying free update, thoughts behind the Expansion and the dev diaries to come between now until release!

See you there Victorians!