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[/p][p]Exuberant Thursday! It is once again time for a Dev Diary, and once again time to revisit the ‘What’s next?’ plans, which we last did in
Dev Diary #152. This time, however, we’re going to do a slightly different spin on the concept, as foreshadowed by the name of this diary. In the
last dev diary before the winter break I talked about how the second half of 2025 was the ‘Autumn and Winter of Side Quests’, and as a result the things we did get done were mostly not points from the ‘What’s next?’ plans.[/p][p][/p][p]While this means we don’t have much to show in terms of ‘Done’, what it does do is present a golden opportunity to restructure these dev diaries to be more transparent about what we’re aiming to accomplish in the next few updates, and to clear off points like ‘add more unique flavor to countries’ that are never actually going to be properly done since we’ll never stop doing that.[/p][p][/p][p]This invariably means that a number of points that were present in the previous iteration of our plans will be removed, but it
also means that for the points that we
do list, the aim is now to get them done over the course of Expansion Pass 3 (now known as “Volume 3”), giving you a much better idea of when you can expect certain features to be added to the game. Plans can still of course change and we might not be able to get
everything we want done over the course of the Volume, but we’ll try our best! [/p][p] [/p][p]The plan is to have one of these dev diaries at the start of each Volume outlining our plans, one somewhere in the middle updating you on how it’s coming, and one at the very end for how it all turned out. So there will be two more updates for Volume 3, then a DD like this one for the start of Volume 4, and so on.[/p][p][/p][p]We’re also changing the structure of the categories slightly. The ‘Historical Immersion’ category is getting axed, as it is the prime offender for points that are really just something we continue to work on every single patch. Instead, we’re replacing it with an ‘Economy’ category. Any actual valid points related to Historical Immersion will be placed in ‘Other’ going forward.[/p][p] [/p][p]The statuses have been similarly simplified, and will now be as follows:[/p]
- [p]Planned: This is planned to be done at some point during the next Volume (Volume 3 in this case).[/p]
- [p]Updated: This has received work in at least one already released update for the current Volume, but more work is planned before the Volume is over.[/p]
- [p]Done: This is done for now and no further major work is planned on it for the current Volume.[/p]
[p][/p][p]Before moving on to the details I will just remind you that we will still only be talking about improvements, changes and new features that are part of planned
free updates. I will also remind you that this is
not an exhaustive list of the things we are going to do, just the main notes we want to hit over the course of the next Volume. This also means that the list will be
exclusively points we’re aiming to hit in Volume 3. All points present in older infographics are still things we’re intending to do, but will come in future Volumes.[/p][p]
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[/p][p][/p][h2]Military[/h2][p]
Planned:[/p]
- [p]Make generals/admirals into more meaningful and noticeable actors in countries and reduce the micromanagement of large numbers of commanders.[/p]
- [p]Make sure that supply is an important and meaningful part of the military system that can win or lose you wars.[/p]
- [p]Make navies more important for projecting global power and securing control of coasts.[/p]
- [p]Turn individual ships into proper pieces of military hardware that can be built, sunk and repaired rather than just being manpower packages.[/p]
- [p]Improve naval combat and make it mechanically distinct from land combat.[/p]
[h2]Economy[/h2][p]
Planned:[/p]
- [p]Make Qualifications into a more impactful system and improve the logic & UI for building hiring/firing to be more consistent and transparent.[/p]
[h2]Diplomacy[/h2][p]
Planned:[/p]
- [p]Rework the War Exhaustion system from one where a single uncontrolled war goal can stalemate wars towards one where war goal control and war outcomes are more dynamic and interesting (and much less frustrating).[/p]
- [p]Make declaring and holding onto diplomatic Interests a more rewarding and challenging aspect of global empire-building[/p]
[h2]Internal Politics[/h2][p]
Planned:[/p]
- [p]Turn legitimacy into a more interesting mechanic, where the strength of a government depends on their successes and failures, and highly legitimate governments can’t simply be ousted at a whim but have to be undermined first.[/p]
[h2]Other[/h2][p]
Planned:[/p]
- [p]Improve the way we simulate important historical conflicts such as the Opium Wars to make them play out closer to the way they did historically.[/p]
[p] [/p][p]That’s all for this most Salubrious Thursday! Dev diaries will now be on break again, but information about the contents of Volume 3 will put in an appearance sometime in the early spring, after which we’ll pick things back up and start digging into the details of the next update. See you then![/p][p]
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