Grand Strategy Victoria 3

[Fedora Master]

 

[Axioms]

Pretty standard PDox smolbrain stuff.

 

[Axioms]

So the average player count increase has dropped back below +800 for the last month. Only got 3 days to go though so it probably won't drop super far for the final March numbers. Very interested to see how far it drops in April when presumably there won't be anything to boost the numbers like the patch.

 

[Seigneur Locklear]

I mean, it's been a verified flop for quite a while now. The only real question is when will it get the inevitable Imperator treatment and how will the gaslighters on reddit cope about it this time around.

 

[Axioms]

I mean, it's been a verified flop for quite a while now. The only real question is when will it get the inevitable Imperator treatment and how will the gaslighters on reddit cope about it this time around.

I mean it is doing significantly better than Imperator did. And they haven't dropped the first expansion yet. So I will reserve final judgement until then. But it certainly isn't looking very good.

 

[Fedora Master]

I don't know what there even is to expand without heavily reworking the basics again. A flavor pack isn't going to fix this.

 

[IDtenT]

Victoria 3 is missing spice.

 

[Fedora Master]

Victoria 3 is missing spice.

Wypipo don't season dey games

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #79 - What’s next after 1.2?​

Hello and welcome to the first Victoria 3 dev diary after the release of update 1.2! With this update now out, we feel that it’s a good time to return to the Post-Release Plans we outlined in Dev Diary #64, check what’s already been done and go over what further changes and improvements we have planned for the game in future free updates such as 1.3, 1.4 and beyond. In the Post-Release Plans Dev Diary we outlined three key areas of improvement for the game: Military, Historical Immersion and Diplomacy and these are very much still our main targets, but are now being joined by an Internal Politics section. The Other section is also still there for anything that doesn’t fall neatly into one of the four categories.

For this dev diary, I’ll be aiming to give you an overview of where we stand and where we’re heading by going through each of these four categories and marking on each one with one of the below statuses:

• Done: This is a part of the game that we now consider to be in good shape. Something being Done of course doesn’t mean we’re never going to expand or improve on it in the future, just that it’s no longer a high priority for us.
• Updated: This is a part of the game where we have made some of the improvements and changes that we want to make, but aren’t yet satisfied with where it stands and plan to make further improvements to it in future updates such as 1.3, 1.4 and so on.
• Not Updated: This is a part of the game where we haven’t yet released any of our planned changes/improvements in either 1.1 or 1.2 but still plan to do so for future updates.
• New: This is a planned change or improvement that is newly added, ie wasn’t present on the list in Dev Diary #64.

Just like in the original Post-Release Plans dev diary, we will only be talking about improvements, changes and new features that are part of planned free updates in this dev diary. So then, let’s get to the categories and see where we stand! For each point in each category that isn’t new to this update there will be a sub-point detailing our progress on the point so far.

Military​

Done:

• Adding the ability for countries to set strategic objectives for their generals
• The ability to designate Strategic Objectives were added to the game in update 1.2
• Addressing some of the rough edges in how generals function at the moment, such as improving unit selection for battles and balancing the overall progression along fronts
  • While there are still rough edges in the military system and we undoubtedly will continue to tweak the precise balancing here, we consider the specific issues with front progression and unit selection for battles largely resolved in update 1.2

Updated:

• Improving the ability of players to get an overview of their military situation and exposing more data, like the underlying numbers behind battle sizes
  • We have made a number of improvements to army visualization in 1.2 and added breakdowns for factors such as battle sizes, but we have more work to do when it comes to giving players a good overview of wars and making multi-front wars easier to manage
• Increasing the visibility of navies and making admirals easier to work with
  • Some improvements have been made here, such as removing the restriction on naval invasions using Generals from different HQs, but we still consider navies an area of the game in need of improvement from a visibility and usability standpoint
• Finding solutions for the issue where theaters can split into multiple (sometimes even dozens) of tiny fronts as pockets are created
  • We have mitigated this issue in update 1.2 by auto-closing small pockets and improving battle province selection but the issue still persists (particularly in wars with a large number of small countries) so further improvements are needed here

Not Updated:

• Experimenting with controlled front-splitting for longer fronts
  • Some internal design work has been done on this, but it’s very tricky to get right without worsening the front splitting issues - it’s still very much a high priority for us nonetheless!

New:

• Adding a system for limited wars to reduce the number of early-game total wars between Great Powers
• Solving the issue of armies going home after Generals die during a war by adding a system for field promotion

Historical Immersion​

Done:

• Ensuring the American Civil War has a decent chance to happen, happens in a way that makes sense (slave states rising up to defend slavery, etc), and isn’t easily avoidable by the player.
  • The ACW is now more difficult to avoid, and when sparked over the issue of slavery, should now create a historically plausible CSA (note that there may still be unintended cases of a ‘fake CSA’ appearing due to a non slavery related landowner revolt, which isn’t covered by the above fixes)
• Working to expose and improve content such as expeditions and journal entries that is currently too difficult for players to find or complete
  • The Journal Entries that we wanted to make easier to complete and/or more visible have been tweaked in the intended way (though we will undoubtedly continue to make minor balance adjustments to them)

Updated:

• Tweaking content such as the Meiji Restoration, Alaska purchase and so on in a way that they can more frequently be successfully performed by the AI, through a mix of AI improvements and content tweaks
  • Significant improvements have been made to the AI’s ability to complete Journal Entries such as Tanzimat, Manifest Destiny and so on, though it still struggles with others like the Meiji Restoration and so further work is needed.
• Ensuring unifications such as Italy, Germany and Canada doesn’t constantly happen decades ahead of the historical schedule, and increasing the challenge of unifying Italy and Germany in particular
  • The Unifications now occur in a way that is more ‘on schedule’, but we still want to change them so that they mechanically behave in a more historically plausible way
• General AI tweaks to have AI countries play in a more believable, immersive way
  • Significant changes have been made to the diplomatic AI in both 1.1 and 1.2 but this is an area that is going to continue receiving attention from us for some time, particularly when it comes to making the AI less opaque in its reasoning (for example, explaining why they sided against you in a diplomatic play despite good relations)

New:

• Adding more country, state and region-specific content to enhance historical flavor of different countries

Diplomacy​

Done:

• The ability to expand your primary demands in a diplomatic play beyond just one wargoal (though this has to be done in such a way that there’s still a reason for countries to actually back down)
• Adding additional primary demands was added to the game in update 1.2

Not Updated:

• ‘Reverse-swaying’, ie the ability to offer to join a side in a play in exchange for something
• More things to offer in diplomatic plays, like giving away your own land for support
• Trading (or at least giving away) states
• Foreign investment and some form of construction in other countries, at least if they’re part of your market
• Improving and expanding on interactions with and from subjects, such as being able to grant and ask for more autonomy through a diplomatic action

New:

• Allowing peace deals to be negotiated during a Diplomatic Play instead of only having the option to give in

Internal Politics​

Updated:

• (Moved from ‘Other’) Making it more interesting and ‘competitive’ but also more challenging to play in a more conservative and autocratic style
• We have made some changes here, such as locking laws behind regressive distributions of power and changing GDP to not unfairly favor manufacturing economies but this is still an area where we want to do more

New:

• Improving the mechanics of law enactment and revolutions to be more engaging for the player to interact with
• Adding more mechanics for characters and giving the player more reason to care about individual characters in your country:
• Adding laws that expand on diversity of countries and introduce new ways to play the game

Other​

Done:

• Making it easier to get an overview of your Pops and Pop factors such as Needs, Standard of Living and Radicals/Loyalists
  • Update 1.2 added new overviews for Pop Needs and better explanations for the reasons behind radicals and loyalists
• Experimenting with autonomous private-sector construction and increasing the differences in gameplay between different economic systems (though as I’ve said many times, we are never going to take construction entirely out of the hands of the player)
  • Autonomous private-sector construction was added to the game in update 1.2
• Ironing out some of the kinks with the late-game economy and the AI’s ability to develop key resources such as oil and rubber
  • While the economic AI is definitely going to continue to receive improvements, the specific issue of the AI never developing these key resources should be fixed

New:

• Improving Alerts and the Current Situation widget to provide more useful and actionable information.

Just as last time we shared these plans, the above is not an exhaustive list of everything we want to do, and I can’t give an exact timeline for any of the individual points or which precise future update they will be a part of. This list also still only covers changes and additions that will be part of free updates! We are planning to continue releasing dev diaries like this updating you on our progress after each major update to the game.

That’s all for today’s update, I hope you found it informative! Next week we’ll dive right back into regular dev diaries as we start going over the details of what we have in the works for Update 1.3, though I’ll note that we won’t be ready to talk about the release date for that update. See you then!

Source: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-3-dev-diary-79-whats-next-after-1-2.1576275/

 

[HeroMarine]

• Ensuring the American Civil War has a decent chance to happen, happens in a way that makes sense (slave states rising up to defend slavery

 

[Axioms]

So March is officially over:

March 2023	6,121.1	+918.1	+17.65%	11,647
February 2023	5,202.9	-1,748.4	-25.15%	8,669
January 2023	6,951.3	-3,022.2	-30.30%	11,546

Time to see if April stays green or goes back red. If April has any growth or is even flat we might have to say the game is not gonna crash and burn.

 

[Axioms]

After an initial climb, mostly because it was still counting the halcyon days of March Vicky3 begins the long and hard descent back below having a daily low 3000 concurrent players. 3770 for the past couple days. Game peaked at +4.5% now down to the 3%s and dropping.

 

[whydoibother]

While the new investors pools work as you'd expect, and the capitalists and aristocrats build their respective ownership buildings with their respective profits, an issue in the current version is that capitalists build very many railway lines. Including unprofitable railways, in provinces that don't need them, and never will need them. This causes a coal shortage, which is an issue for most nations. And it can't be prevented in some market systems, while where it can be prevented, you get radicals from destroying their new unprofitable railway they just built in Mumbhajwaehae.

After an initial climb, mostly because it was still counting the halcyon days of March Vicky3 begins the long and hard descent back below having a daily low 3000 concurrent players. 3770 for the past couple days. Game peaked at +4.5% now down to the 3%s and dropping.

Crusader Kings 3 and Hearts of Iron IV fell for 5 months in a row after release, before stabilizing. Victoria fell more, in 4 months, and has some small gains the next 2 months. I'm guessing it will sit at around 5000 players.
Imperator Rome sits at around 500 players, for a comparison of how total failure looks like.

https://steamcharts.com/app/394360#All
https://steamcharts.com/app/1158310#All
https://steamcharts.com/app/529340#All
https://steamcharts.com/app/859580#All

 

[Axioms]

While the new investors pools work as you'd expect, and the capitalists and aristocrats build their respective ownership buildings with their respective profits, an issue in the current version is that capitalists build very many railway lines. Including unprofitable railways, in provinces that don't need them, and never will need them. This causes a coal shortage, which is an issue for most nations. And it can't be prevented in some market systems, while where it can be prevented, you get radicals from destroying their new unprofitable railway they just built in Mumbhajwaehae.

After an initial climb, mostly because it was still counting the halcyon days of March Vicky3 begins the long and hard descent back below having a daily low 3000 concurrent players. 3770 for the past couple days. Game peaked at +4.5% now down to the 3%s and dropping.

Crusader Kings 3 and Hearts of Iron IV fell for 5 months in a row after release, before stabilizing. Victoria fell more, in 4 months, and has some small gains the next 2 months. I'm guessing it will sit at around 5000 players.
Imperator Rome sits at around 500 players, for a comparison of how total failure looks like.

https://steamcharts.com/app/394360#All
https://steamcharts.com/app/1158310#All
https://steamcharts.com/app/529340#All
https://steamcharts.com/app/859580#All

No but the point I'm making is that the second month of growth was an illusion. It is double counting. The peak of mid March right after the patch is being counted both for March and for "Last 30 Days".

 

[janior]

good news, there's an ongoing opensource victoria 2 project

 

[whydoibother]

good news, there's an ongoing opensource victoria 2 project

I don't want open source Victoria 2, I want good Victoria 3.

 

[Fedora Master]

Vic3 can not be good because PDX isn't good anymore.

 

[Axioms]

V3 so close to dropping back below 3000. Poor PDox.

 

[Axioms]

Victoria 3 ended up at 3041 users overnight. Barely hanging on. We'll see how tonight goes.

One thing to note that I saw in a few places including the official forums is how the AI completely lacks any concept of "economic imperialism". There's no real attempt to push goods into export markets in a way that stifles competition and creates a need for tariffs in those places. This would have been a hallmark of the era. Even the archetypical aspects of the time. Pretty sad.

 

[Fedora Master]

Victoria 3 ended up at 3041 users overnight. Barely hanging on. We'll see how tonight goes.

One thing to note that I saw in a few places including the official forums is how the AI completely lacks any concept of "economic imperialism". There's no real attempt to push goods into export markets in a way that stifles competition and creates a need for tariffs in those places. This would have been a hallmark of the era. Even the archetypical aspects of the time. Pretty sad.

I don't think the game even supports such market manipulation from outside forces.

 

[whydoibother]

Victoria 3 ended up at 3041 users overnight. Barely hanging on. We'll see how tonight goes.

One thing to note that I saw in a few places including the official forums is how the AI completely lacks any concept of "economic imperialism". There's no real attempt to push goods into export markets in a way that stifles competition and creates a need for tariffs in those places. This would have been a hallmark of the era. Even the archetypical aspects of the time. Pretty sad.

I don't think the game even supports such market manipulation from outside forces.

You can technically force export to a certain market, which will reduce the price of the given good in the market, and reduce the profits for the interest group that manages that good's supply chain. Little reason to do this, unless you are trying to make Opium cheap somewhere to trigger the addiction event. Or just trying to make the thing more expensive at home, to raise the profit of the interest group at home and make them more influential over time so you can pass laws for them.

 

[Fedora Master]

Interesting, I wouldn't know how to do that with the UI in the game. All I ever saw was the "Export/Protect supply" buttons for my own market.

 

[whydoibother]

Interesting, I wouldn't know how to do that with the UI in the game. All I ever saw was the "Export/Protect supply" buttons for my own market.

Export artillery from your market to the Swedish market == price of artillery in Sweden falls down == workers rather work at more profitable ventures == when you declare war on Sweden, their arms production is crippled as tries to hire qualified people. It technically can be done, its just not necessary and not worth the fiddling.

 

[Average Manatee]

It technically can be done, its just not necessary and not worth the fiddling.

I think this applies to playing the whole game.

 

[Axioms]

Vicky3 barely managing to avoid dropping into the 2000s for concurrent users, but even so in a week the player count change for the month with become negative and April overall might drop below February totall erasing the gains in March.