Grand Strategy Victoria 3

[Norfleet]

Meanwhile the intent behind “defend front” is the opposite: prevent enemy incursions by defending it in the places where the enemy might advance, bringing to bear as powerful a force as possible. Similarly at sea, “convoy raiding” is about maximizing shipping lane damage while avoiding detection, while “patrol” is about minimizing damage to convoys by seeking out and destroying those enemy ships attacking them - not to sink ships for its own sake.

This notion sort of misses out on the fact that there was an entire doctrine of the era aimed at not "avoiding detection", but rather, to deliberately cause a decisive battle. Where's our option to pursue Mahanian doctrine?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I see that you're putting the fleet in Norfleet.

 

[Norfleet]

I mean, I've played games in which we played as captains and admirals doing fleety things, against another side doing things, and there ABSOLUTELY WAS a pattern of behaviors where the goal was first and foremost to get in a fight, with achieving any other strategic objectives being secondary and carried out primarily to provoke your opponent into having to respond to you so you can fight them. There was not clandestine attempts carried out with avoiding detection on the menu, these were overt ops meant to be as loud and visible as possible.

The game administrators were not particularly pleased when the result of this tended to produce Mahanian showdowns that resulted in the total destruction of one side (inevitably the other side).

 

[Tigranes]

Instead of being unit-in-province-based, warfare in Victoria 3 is focused on supplying and allocating troops to frontlines between you and your enemies. The decisions you make during war are about matters such as what front you send your generals to and what overall strategy they should be following there

Well this definitely has me hyped. At least they are finally trying a transformative change (if only to fail?), and it is a change that is clearly logically aimed at better reflecting war in the chosen historical era and improving gameplay.

Fighting doomstacks is not fun. Chasing them and wiping them out is not fun. It's a very basic and stale gameplay that they've now put into a dozen Paradox games. There is nothing about it to be missed.

Re. navies as well, it almost sounds like you still have distinct units with generals, but they're just taken off the boardgame map and then tasked to 'missions' that might occur in the sea or in a land front? We could only hope for a far future version of this where you in central command are also reliant on the reports and communications from your generals to assess how the war is going, and that depending on stats/etc there is a chance of miscomm...

 

[Fedora Master]

Something tells me they're experimenting only to patch it out later in favor of normal units. Remember the travel methods in Stellaris?

 

[Delterius]

Something tells me they're experimenting only to patch it out later in favor of normal units. Remember the travel methods in Stellaris?

I don't think that applies. In Stellaris the different methods of transportation made things unwieldy for the AI, while also providing players with one means of travel that completely outclassed the rest. Defensive stations and defensive fleets didn't matter as long as you had the right means of transport. These are not likely issues in Victoria 3.

 

[Space Satan]

Back then everyone were hostages of Big Fleet doctrine and woke up in terror at the very thought of one decisive battle. To lose the fleet completely were unthinkable. The worst possible outcome.

 

[Norfleet]

Back then everyone were hostages of Big Fleet doctrine and woke up in terror at the very thought of one decisive battle. To lose the fleet completely were unthinkable. The worst possible outcome.

Well, it was something everyone tended to pussy out of, but it wasn't clearly UNTHINKABLE, as it formed a prominent part of the thinking. The fact that Jutland happened at all is proof that people were thinking it. They just kept pussying out of it when it happened. As it is, they probably should have committed, seeing as it they ended up losing the entire fleet anyway as a result.

 

[Delterius]

Back then everyone were hostages of Big Fleet doctrine and woke up in terror at the very thought of one decisive battle. To lose the fleet completely were unthinkable. The worst possible outcome.

Well, it was something everyone tended to pussy out of, but it wasn't clearly UNTHINKABLE, as it formed a prominent part of the thinking. The fact that Jutland happened at all is proof that people were thinking it. They just kept pussying out of it when it happened. As it is, they probably should have committed, seeing as it they ended up losing the entire fleet anyway as a result.

Sounds like big fleet engagements are gonna happen when two big fleets are on an intercept mission.

 

[Norfleet]

Do we have intercept missions? I thought they were only giving us patrol and raid. Intercept would essentially be the seek-and-destroy option. I mean, it makes sense that there's no defensive version of seek-and-destroy, because why the fuck would you be defending an empty piece of open ocean? But on offense, the raid option seeks to minimize engagement, which is counter to the idea of trying to force decisive battle, where the amount of shipping damage you cause is merely the provocation to force your enemy to do something about you, since tromping about a piece of open ocean doesn't force any actual response.

 

[Space Satan]

Well, there were literally no alternatives back then. Submarine warfare fared poorly even when they could be the focus of a doctrine. No aircraft carriers, just shitton of armor and huge calibers. Actually, WWII grossly overblown calibers came from jutland and it ended up with battleships that still could not be effective against land fortifications and not quite suitable for direct engagement due to aircraft and subs.

 

[Malakal]

Well, there were literally no alternatives back then. Submarine warfare fared poorly even when they could be the focus of a doctrine. No aircraft carriers, just shitton of armor and huge calibers. Actually, WWII grossly overblown calibers came from jutland and it ended up with battleships that still could not be effective against land fortifications and not quite suitable for direct engagement due to aircraft and subs.

I must point out that U-boats did better in WW1 than in WW2 and torpedoes overall changed the game a lot.

 

[Fedora Master]

Something tells me they're experimenting only to patch it out later in favor of normal units. Remember the travel methods in Stellaris?

I don't think that applies. In Stellaris the different methods of transportation made things unwieldy for the AI, while also providing players with one means of travel that completely outclassed the rest. Defensive stations and defensive fleets didn't matter as long as you had the right means of transport. These are not likely issues in Victoria 3.

The problem is PDX themselves. They'll do MP games for testing purposes, determine that everything works fine when used by the players and then realise oh shit the AI can't actually handle any of it.

 

[Norfleet]

I must point out that U-boats did better in WW1 than in WW2 and torpedoes overall changed the game a lot.

I'm still waiting for the WW1 U-Boat game.

 

[Space Satan]

Winged:
Will some cultures have areas they specialise in? For example Nepali could be better soldiers while Norwegians could be better fishermen
Michael "Ofaloaf" Kundak-Cowall:
The main problem I have with that is the unfortunate implications of saying people are just innately better at one thing or another- a Norwegian who moves to central Iowa isn't going to be a terribly good fisherman, and a Nepali who has never experienced war in his or her lifetime isn't going to have much experience at combat.

General_WCJ:
what is the most common degree held by team members working on v3, history, game development, game design, computer science or something else
Paul Depre:
If I had to guess its most likely some form of computer science and or game development for those who were able to go to school for such. We also have quite a few individuals who have the non-standard degrees in various forms of sciences, history, language, and me - the token economist. Never done a survey among the studio though, might be an interesting thing to do. The results will not be in a pie chart, that I can assure you.

SenatorSnowBear:
Will we see models of trains move around the railways on the map? Will they go 'choo choo' if we zoom in close enough? The latter question is very important to me.
Michael "Ofaloaf" Kundak-Cowall:
The trains do indeed travel around on the map and go choo choo! In fact, the trains even go chugga chugga.

Gimokes:
How does the government form affect how laws pass?
Does an Absolute Monarchy like Prussia have a easier way to pass unpopular laws by many interest groups than a Constitutional Monarchy like Great Britain?
Daniel Tolman:
More authoritarian laws will help you pass laws faster; so an autocratic monarchy that suppresses opposition interest groups can pass laws quickly and with less resistance than a democracy with a strong opposition. Of course, that has its own downsides.

Dr. Njitram:
Are there any mechanics youre not fully fleshing out, awaiting feedback from the larger player base/QA?
Paul Depre:
There are plenty of things not solid - all to various levels. That's part of the reason we do dev diaries and feedback sessions, hold UR tests, and let QA tinker on the regular. Some more structural mechanics are locked in, but we are always looking to and reacting to your feedback. If we do not act upon it right away its usually because doing such is risk based on the timeline and then we look for when we can address it in the future. In future dev diaries you may in fact see such changes detailed.

Kings:
Can democracies influence what interest groups are in their governments?
Aron Nisbel:
Yes! As a Democracy you will be able to Reform your Government by adding and removing Parties and Interest Groups. However, Government constellations will vary on how Legitimate they are.

KaiserPiplup:
What is the feature you are most excited about personally and to see what players will do with?
Martin Anward:
Definitely Diplomatic Plays! I want to see what kind of crazy upsets players manage to pull through clever diplomacy, and also what unintended consequences they end up with. Not to mention the multiplayer shenanigans...

EnzoF:
What is the most interesting aspect/consequence of something you've already talked about that you were not able to place onto a dev diary?
Mikael Andersson:
I don't actually recall if we've discussed Urbanization in detail yet, but one aspect I find fascinating is how building up your industrial states automatically create a parallel service industry which booms if the Pops' Wealth increases but fails if it doesn't, so creating an exploitative, extractive industrial sector will decrease the price of the industrial output goods in the market but not benefit any sector of Pops in that state.

al-Khalidi:
Will it be possible for Austria to unify Germany?
Daniel Tolman:
yes, but only if they don't become Austria-Hungary!

Katakras:
Can interest groups be banned in authoritarian countries?
Paul Depre:
More authoritarian countries have an easier time influencing their IGs to irrelevance. That being said its not as easy as simple to "ban" an IG - if they have the clout they will attempt to fight back instead of heading off meekly into irrelevance.

Softload3r:
Will there be a tutorial like in CK3? Vic 3 will be the first game in the Vic Series I'm playing, so a tutorial like in CK3 would be a huge help and much appreciated!
Aron Nisbel:
Yes! We're working hard on the Tutorial and the format will have similarities to CK3, but we're of course aiming to improve on it and have made many of our own changes to fit it more to our game and take it further. One change we've been aiming for is that you will be able to play the tutorial as any country, but we're not going into any specific details on that yet! As a UX designer, the Tutorial is close to my UX heart since it is one of the most important features especially for a new player's experience. Hopefully, our Tutorial will make the game very enjoyable even for anyone without an economics degree.

Grovar:
Are we going to have game rules we can change before we start a new campaign like we have in other pdx titles?
Martin Anward: Y
es, game rules are going to be in! For example, there will be a game rule to decide whether you want 'silly' nations like Byzantium and Jan Mayen to be able to appear or not.

Jboy2000000:
How will the blimp reward from sighing up to the newsletter be implemented in game?
Mikael Andersson:
Airships are one of the many things in the game that makes the map more alive. The one you get for signing up for the newsletter will be making an appearance in place of the standard model from time to time.

SolarCola:
Is colourblindness considered in the design of the UI?
Paul Depre:
Yes! I can say we have been working towards addressing some color-blindness issues with our game particularly because it is more numbers heavy than others. We've been working on a dynamic setting that should allow for us to expand its coverage and hopefully (don't confirm quote me here) allow for modding as well to help cover all the various possibilities. Maybe we can do a dev diary on it in the future.

Simply John?:
What are some of the biggest quality of life changes that are planned or that have been made?
Martin Anward:
There's a lot, but just to take one example we have implemented prediction functions when you change a production method or expand a building for how profitable the method/building will be. This in itself isn't new, but what is new about it is that the prediction takes into account factors such as how prices are going to change not just from that particular building/method but also from every other building currently in your construction queue, pop goods substitution (so you can see if there is potential for a good to be consumed even if it's not currently consumed) and so on. These predictions are actually also used by the AI to be able to far more accurately plan out its economic decisions than in our other games.

Goodluck:
Will there be reasons to keep the upper class happy on the cost of the lower and middle class, even though the upper class is just a fraction of your nation’s population?
Daniel Tolman:
Absolutely. Firstly, if you're deliberately playing as an autocratic reactionary country, you of course want to favor the old guard power groups. But also, remember that wealth and certain laws boost the political power of pops - and if you try to pass laws that favor the poor, the rich will push back.

Golden:
although events aren’t going to be railroaded, will we still see history play out roughly as we would expect? (As long as the player doesn’t interfere, that is )
Mikael Andersson:
That depends on your expectations! We are not taking the approach that there is one "Platonic" way that history played out and if you don't poke at it, it will repeat itself. Rather, historical progression is the emergent consequence of millions of interacting events based on material conditions. What this means in practice is that while a lot of things will progress roughly as you might expect - countries are more likely to fight over shared Homelands, technologically advanced countries are more likely to do well financially, a country with a lot of colonies are likely to dominate the seas and vice versa - there will also be plenty of "butterfly effects" where e.g. a mass migration from China to Argentina will change the power dynamics in South America which might cause the US to reconsider their Interests there, etc. Our aim here is that some events should be recognizable while the remainder should be justifiable, and as few events as possible should feel inconceivable.

SL128:
Which types of countries tend to be the most beginner friendly or hostile?
Daniel Tolman:
Personally I think Japan is very beginner friendly. But to a great extent how "difficult" a country is largely depends on what your goals are.

An_Oxygen_Consumer:
can we play as rebels in some events?
Martin Anward:
Yes, there's a variety of both events and mechanics where you can choose to be the rebels and fight against 'your own' country. To give one example, if the Sepoy Rebellion happens it's possible to switch and fight for Indian freedom.

RatherHolistic:
are there any alt-history formables?
Daniel Tolman:
We certainly have some, and we'd like to add more before release. Scandinavia and Gran Colombia are some examples.

Happy Doggu:
When do big nations like France, Prussia, and Austria actually get in on diplomatic plays? How does the game determine that?
Martin Anward:
I'm assuming this is about when the AI decides to join a play rather than when it's possible for them to do so. The gist of it is that to join a side, an AI has to either want strongly either to back a side, or be tempted with something that it wants enough (what it wants depends on which AI strategies is governing it at the moment) to overcome both their desire to support the opposing side and their desire to stay neutral. I'll go more into this in AI dev diaries in the future.

Mr.Erik:
how will taxes affect purchasing power and so standard of living? I want to know if i can build a small government for less militancy for less returns(money/soldiers)
Paul Depre:
Without going into extravagant detail about the various disagreements among the economic schools of the relative effectiveness of taxes on consumption, etc. I’m on a character limit and I cannot digress.

In short any money taken by taxes will reduce the purchasing power of the pop and make where their consumption basket is relatively more expensive (out of their remaining income) thus they will have to reprioritize and might possibly consume less. More wealth in their pocket would mean a gradual want of the more quality goods, a nicer standard of living, even something extravagant.

But depending on how those taxes are spent - maybe by building industries that stimulate domestic production of the consumed goods you've been importing (thus keeping the relative wealth within your domestic economy) this loss in purchasing power from one strata of society can be overcome by subsidizing the welfare of another.

I said I wouldn't go into extravagant detail and here I am with the answer of "it depends"

michael III:
Will there be an observer mode(if you want to just watch the AI)?
Aron Nisbel:
Yes!

Goodluck:
Is it possible to stay competetive as an agricultural focused nation, or will you have to industralize if you want to keep up with the great powers?
Paul Depre:
What determines staying competitive here may differ from player to player: you can stay as a primarily agricultural based economy and meet the relevant standard of livings for your pops. Of course to expand that past your domestic restrictions without industrializing would require finding markets for such goods, etc. Its a challenge to meet the needs of your pops if they start asking for goods you choose to not produce. Nothing in the economic situation and focus is inherently impossible, it just presents a different set of challenges to you to maintain.

Goodluck:
Is there advantages to both tall and wide play; like will it be advantages to focus on one big city or building up many different Urban areas?
Paul Depre:
In short: yes. Playing tall has its advantages and disadvantages as does wide - its more a question of which problems you want to confront. Playing tall can allow for the benefits and throughput of industrialization to be seen faster. Wider means more accessible resources domestically across your economy but multiple urban centres will require an infrastructure network to maintain a connection between them and the movement of goods but a single industrial capital might become dirty overtime and see an increase in mortality.

Aquos:
What are you most excited for in terms of new modding capabilities?
Mikael Andersson:
I've seen some absolutely next-level overhauls just focused on replacing buildings, production methods, and goods made by members of the team on their "free project" time, and I think this is where we will see the most amount of modding. Having said that we aim to make nearly everything we put in the game moddable, so undoubtedly we will see new laws, institutions, tech trees, diplomatic actions, subject types, military behaviors, and even AI mods. There's also another major feature we use to support the event system which we'll cover in a dev diary in January, that I am also positive will see some really amazing mods written for it.

Theo:
Will we be able to zoom out fully and see the whole world?
Aron Nisbel:
Yes, and we put a keyboard shortcut in for you to instantly zoom out and then you can click the map + release the shortcut to instantly zoom in there.

Jagriel:
Can we expect more pie charts and graphs in the release state of the game?
Mikael Andersson:
We'll have more charts and graphs than you can shake a stick at. We recently rewrote our trends backend system to be able to support a ridiculous amount of data sampling, just so we can give you more charts.

Cilantro:
Will we be able to outfit arctic expeditions like the Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage?
Michael “Ofaloaf” Kundaw-Cowall:
There are expeditions- hang tight and we'll go into detail about them in the future!

Eze agha:
will their be flavor events to spice up gameplay inbetween diplomatic plays?
Michael “Ofaloaf” Kundaw-Cowall:
Yes! They even let me write some of them, somehow.

uzo70:
Will the "Tooltips in Tooltips" system from CK3, make its way into Vicky 3?
Aron Nisbel:
Yes!

 

[HeroMarine]

Nepali could be better soldiers

This person obviously never saw a Nepali or studied its history.

 

[Ol' Willy]

This notion sort of misses out on the fact that there was an entire doctrine of the era aimed at not "avoiding detection", but rather, to deliberately cause a decisive battle. Where's our option to pursue Mahanian doctrine?

When you want Kantai Kessen but instead get Jeune Ecole

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Can't wait to form Germany, make it bigger and enslave black people again or Niggers, as i like to call them. Fuck you Tyrone and Shaniqua for bullying me at school, i will now bully your ancestors.

 

[Space Satan]

Hello, my name is Henrik and I am a UX Designer on PDS. I have been a part of the Victoria 3 team for almost the entirety of the project, and since I am about to take a few months of parental leave I wanted to leave you with a brief summary and overview of the thoughts and ideas that form the foundation of the User Experience (UX) design in our game. Also, say hello to Aron whom I have written this dev diary in cooperation with. Aron has been my UX padawan for the past year and will be shouldering the UX while I am gone.

First and foremost, why do we do what we do? Basically, our end goal is to make the game more approachable and accessible, so that we can make it even deeper and more complex. Complexity should not come from not knowing where to find something and why something happened, but from the deep simulation and game mechanics at the core of our game. The more accessible the information and interactions can be, the more complex we can make that information and those interactions.

In order to get there, we have three UX Pillars

1. The right information at the right time
2. Clear feedback about cause and effect
3. Clearly separate Actions from Information

What tools do we have at our disposal to provide a user experience that satisfies these lofty goals? In this Dev Diary we will walk you through some of our main tools and approaches.
Nested tooltip, as made famous by Crusader Kings 3
There is one piece of technology we can not see this game without: Nested Tooltips. We use it both for Game Concepts, and for getting more detailed breakdowns of numbers, and boy do we have numbers! This allows us to achieve parts of the first UX Pillar, The Right information at the right time. Instead of having to explain every single detail and anecdote in a single humongous tooltip, we can focus on the most essential and important information for the current context and leave any information that might not be directly tied to this context for the nested tooltips to cover. This is crucial in Victoria 3 where every single thing affects a whole bunch of other things, some very important and others simply knock on effects.

DD29 01 concept v2.png

Of course Nested Tooltips come with their own set of challenges. This is where we are happy to allow for a lot of customization and tweaking. For example, how do you want the tooltip to lock? Mouse Tendency, Timer Lock, or Action Lock? If you choose the Timer Lock, how long do you want that timer to be? Etc.

DD29 03 menu tooltip.png
hagerhink · Jan 12, 2022 at 14:58

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Another thing we show in these tooltips is the next thing on the agenda and what y’all been waiting for - graphs!
Data visualization
One of the more challenging areas is to clearly give feedback of a value’s change over time. In a game with as many interlocking systems as Victoria, giving feedback on how something has changed over time becomes an essential part of the game-loop. How can we take several values and show you exactly how it has changed over time? You guessed it, line graphs.

We would never make a Victoria game without the proper amount of graphs and charts! (Yes, you can switch to show pie charts for the Victoria 2 purists.)

Numbers that update in real time and Predictions
In most cases in our previous games, you have to tick the game in order to see the effects of things. In Victoria, we try to make all the immediate effects of your actions available the second you take them. When taking actions that have consequences spreading far and wide throughout the game's systems, it can be really hard to parse if this is a good idea or not without excessive use of spreadsheet software. So we predict things for you. (With a nested tooltip breakdown of that prediction value of course!)

The Building panel provides you with all the raw building data you could ever need, for you to analyze however you like. For whatever action you may desire, we provide our warmest support in your calculating endeavors with predictions such as the Weekly Balance when changing Production Method and predicted Earnings of the building if you were to expand it.

DD29 08 Production Methods tooltip.png

Focus on the Map
Our map is gorgeous and we want to put more emphasis on it. For example, all Events in the game have a location on the Map, and if you hover over a State name in any text, that State will be highlighted on the Map. This makes it easier to connect the names of things with their representation on the map, giving context to the text and the map. However, one of the coolest contextual information we are creating are Map Modes. We have Map Modes connected to most of our information panels, triggering when you open each panel which gives you the right contextual information at the right time. With the use of icons, numbers, and different heatmaps, we enable you to see several layers of contextual information at the same time without things getting too cluttered and without you having to scroll through a big sheet of data. Albeit, all Map Modes also exist in list form, making it possible to sort the information that is shown on the map, not entirely unlike a visual Ledger.

DD29 10 Fabric goods heatmap.png
hagerhink · Jan 12, 2022 at 14:58

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The Lenses
Every action you can take on the map, you can take from the five Lenses. Production Lens, Political Lens, Diplomatic Lens, Military Lens, and Trade Lens - each Lens comes with its own Map Mode! Basically, it is like viewing your country from a specific point of view.

DD29 11 Diplo attitude v2.png
DD29 12 Iron Mines v2.png
hagerhink · Jan 12, 2022 at 14:58

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Right-Click menus
The Map Interactions in the Lenses are our take on the Macro Builder, that is when you know what action you want to take and then you select what type of entity to perform that action on. On the other side of the coin, we use Right-Click menus for when you know what entity you want to perform an action on and then select an action from a list of potential actions. We have this for States, Markets, Characters, Buildings, Interest Groups and Goods. So any time you see any of those in the game, you can right-click on them to get a list of actions you can perform.

DD29 13 Right-Click.png

Should you get an economics degree before you play V3?
Far be it from us to ever discourage anyone from getting an economics degree! Yet, despite Victoria 3's immense depth and complexity, our intention is still to allow you to learn even the most advanced concepts the game is based on as you play. One aspect of this is the tutorial, which we are putting more focus onto than ever before and will cover in detail in a future Dev Diary. Another aspect is through tooltippable Game Concepts, which work much like an integrated dictionary or rule book. Whenever you see such a Concept in text, such as Pops, Dividends Taxes, or Market Price, you can tooltip it to get an explanation of what it means and references to related concepts and mechanics. This powerful tool together with the Nested Tooltips allows us to design and explain anything in the game without writing a novel in each tooltip, and as a player, you can choose to deep dive into any peculiarities as you see fit.

DD29 15 pop tooltip.png
hagerhink · Jan 12, 2022 at 14:58

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Accessibility features
Last but not least, we can not talk about UX without mentioning Accessibility and boy are we happy to have something never before seen in any PDS game - Colorblindness mode for text! We have it on our roadmap to make this feature work with more things in the game as well. We have also worked hard to get to a point where the UI scaling should work even better out of the box than previous releases.

Default mode, Tritanopia mode, and Protanopia/Deuteranopia mode
DD29 16 Colorblind 1.png
hagerhink · Jan 12, 2022 at 14:58

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That’s all for the first dev diary of 2022 folks. What an exciting year we have in front of us with so many tooltips to design and improve on! We’ll be back next week where Kenneth, our 2D Art Lead, will guide you through a closer look at the UI design of Victoria 3. See you then!

 

[what am i doing]

Daniel there is a Paradox employee, by the way. You know, one of the greediest money-grubbing semitic companies in the entire gaming industry.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Are Para cucks still salty about fascism being one of the best type of goverment in Vicky 2? What a bunch of faggots.

 

[Delterius]

Daniel there is a Paradox employee, by the way. You know, one of the greediest money-grubbing semitic companies in the entire gaming industry.

If paradox was a worker coop then all dlc money would go into more dlc. It's an infinite money cheat.

 

[Space Satan]

16_9.jpg
DD32 1.png
neondt · Feb 2, 2022 at 15:08

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To establish colonies, you must have researched the Colonization technology, a tier 1 technology common to many recognized powers at game start. This unlocks Colonization laws as well as the Colonial Affairs Institution, which affects how quickly your colonies will grow.

In 1884 the Berlin Conference initiated the Scramble for Africa. Hungry for new resources and global dominance, the great powers divided the continent between themselves and began a relentless campaign of conquest and colonization, establishing colonial governments to oversee their new domains.

You can establish colonies in strategic regions where you have declared an Interest, and within those strategic regions you can colonize a state region in which at least one state is controlled by a Decentralized nation. Once you’ve selected a location, one of the provinces in that state region will be the starting point for your colony. Having a colony in a state region does not give you a monopoly on it; other colonial powers can create competing colonies, resulting in split states and messy borders that are sure to generate diplomatic tensions in the future.

Colonial States are a special kind of state that is created by establishing a colony in a Decentralized nation or conquering territory from an Unrecognized power. A Colonial State that borders a non-colonial state belonging to the same country will lose its colonial status and become a regular unincorporated state. Colonial States have a bonus to migration attraction and are affected by certain modifiers from colonial laws and the Colonial Affairs institution. Since Colonial States cannot be incorporated, your institutions do not apply there, and pops living in these states cannot be taxed and will have very little political power to contribute to Interest Groups.

Now, why would you want a colony? Primarily, you’d want colonies to gain access to more natural resources that you may be lacking at home, especially goods required for more advanced manufacturing Production Methods like rubber and dye. Once your colony expands enough that it’s the largest State in its State Region, it will become part of your National Market, giving you direct access to the goods it produces assuming that you ensure market access. Many European powers have little opportunity for aggressive expansion in their homelands, as wars there could become very unpredictable and destructive. And of course, any territory you don’t colonize yourself may fall into the hands of your rivals!

A handy progress bar lets you know how soon your colony will expand, with the corresponding tooltip and nested tooltip breaking down in increasing detail exactly why it is growing (or not growing!) at the current rate.
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The rate of Colonial Growth is determined by your incorporated population, and modified by your Colony Growth Generation Speed (primarily affected by your investment in Colonial Affairs) as well as by local conditions in the State Region.The more colonies you have growing at once, the less quickly each colony will develop, though you can selectively pause and resume Colonial Growth in a state. Once a colony grows, it will expand into neighboring provinces owned by a Decentralized nation within its state region.

Early in the game, the colonization of most regions will be a very long and painful process due to the prevalence of malaria and other hostile conditions. The technology of the time did not allow the European colonial powers to penetrate far into Africa, but with the development of quinine and malaria prevention techniques this would cease to be the obstacle it once was. In Victoria 3, you will need to develop your medical technology and invest in your institutions to overcome harsh penalties to colonial growth in the most inhospitable regions.

Now of course you can’t expect to claim and exploit vast swathes of land without some resistance from the people who live there. While a colony is growing, it has a chance to generate Tension with neighbouring Decentralized nations. If Tension rises too high, the Decentralized nation will begin a Native Uprising - a kind of Diplomatic Play - against you to retake their homeland and expel the invaders. Tension will slowly decay, but on average you can expect the factors advancing Tension to eventually outweigh its decay rate. Though it is very likely that the native inhabitants will be technologically outmatched by a colonial power, there are some factors that give them a fighting chance. Firstly, the colonial power needs to manage the logistics of transporting an army to the region while the Decentralized nation has the home advantage. Secondly, other nations with an Interest in the region can join the Diplomatic Play on either side. If France, for instance, has their own designs for dominance over West Africa they might decide to support Kaabu in their struggle against British encroachment.

Colonial laws are typically supported by the Armed Forces due to their Jingoist ideology, which causes them to advocate for an aggressive and expansionist foreign policy. The Industrialists, ever seeking new sources of profit, especially favor Colonial Exploitation, while the Rural Folk fear for their livelihoods if their agricultural jobs are replaced by cheap colonial labor.
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neondt · Feb 2, 2022 at 15:08

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One of the most important factors affecting Tension decay is your colonial policy. Colonial powers can choose between Colonial Resettlement, which encourages migration to colonies, and Colonial Exploitation, which improves building throughput in colonial states at the expense of reduced Tension decay and Standard of Living for pops in those states.

Let’s sum this up: once you have the appropriate technology and laws, you can start a colony in a Decentralized nation and it will slowly expand over time. The rate of growth is determined largely by your level of investment in Colonial Affairs and the population of your incorporated states. As your colonies grow, they generate Tension with nearby Decentralized nations which can eventually lead to a Native Uprising.

Next week I’ll be handing you over to Ofaloaf of Monthly Update video fame, who will talk in more detail about the Decentralized nations of Victoria 3’s world map.

 

[Joggerino]

Daniel there is a Paradox employee, by the way. You know, one of the greediest money-grubbing semitic companies in the entire gaming industry.

Why wouldn't the workers suck out just as much money out of the company as capitalists do??

 

[Axioms]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4p0uw42cdo