VICTORIA

[Fritz]

a nice little red box was waiting for me when I got home.

Just from the usermanual, victoria is closer to EU2 than HOI, but an assbucket more complex.

Not much to report yet. It does look swanky on my new flatscreen....

anyone witha slider fetish wil be in heaven.

[Fritz]

okay, I started a game as America because I figured they would not giveme economic problems.

There are nations, which have states, which have provinces. States have at least one provinve, but may have several. In the US, the states roughly equal US states, but not eniterly.

The hear of the game are populations, which have an ethnicity, social strata, religious, and political views. In the US the main ethnic groups at the start of the grand campaign are Yankee, Dixie, and African minor. Because of immigration there are bunches of minor populations.

how these populations act is what drives much of the game. Actions that the player takes, from taxation, to trade, to policy, to militarism affect and are affected by the attitudes of the populations.

more soon...

[Fritz]

dola

first patch (1.01) out

[WSUCougar]

Any update, Fritz? I'm really curious about this one. It sort of came out of the blue for me, but it seems right down my alley.

[Fritz]

I was writing one, but work got in the way.

Playing america was a lot of fun. The game captured the progress from 1820 to 1920 well. I never looked to europe, imported little (though imports would have helped). The first half of the game was spent developing industry and banking, while tending to a very unhappy south in revolt. The second half of the game was spent on a late westward expansion. I never did get all of Cali away from the mexicans.

There is a lot about the game that I do not yet understand. Soon it will be time for a new game and a european nation.

[Eilim]

I'm looking forward to an update on this as well. (Will probably get the game either way, the new way their handling the politcal side of the engine has me intrigued.)

[WSUCougar]

Thanks for the update, Fritz.

Is it a strict offspring of the EU/EU2 system, or has it been refined or changed significantly?

[The_herd]

Gamespot has a review up. They didn't seem to like it, too hard for them I guess. The user rating, however, is good.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/victoria/index.html

The opening comment is kinda funny as well.

Victoria is so overwhelming and complex that you might feel as if you'd been hit by a locomotive. - Brett Todd

[Fritz]

Originally posted by WSUCougar
Thanks for the update, Fritz.

Is it a strict offspring of the EU/EU2 system, or has it been refined or changed significantly?

In a Bobby to Barry Bonds kind of way.

Victoria has much more complext economic system, which is completely entwined with the social and domestic systems. From my one game 2 things stand out: everything in Victoria is more complex, and every portion of the game is tied to some other portion.

On a first pass, the review above seems fair. I think the game is a matter of taste, but I like it.

[wbonnell]

So, you get an even deeper level of micro-management?

[Fritz]

http://www.strategy-gaming.com/reviews/victoria/index.shtml

The Nineteenth Century was a most remarkable time in world affairs. Every facet of human endeavor saw radical change. Economics, Politics, Science, and the Arts all intertwined and commingled in novel ways and changed the course of human events. Bracketed by the Napoleonic Wars and The War to End All Wars, the period that began at Valmy with set-piece battles between lines of troops using muzzleloaders and cavalry, came full circle to end on the blood-soaked battlegrounds of Flanders beneath chattering machine guns and swooping aircraft. Systems of banking and trade based on mercantilism and slavery disappeared in the face of industrialization and the telegraph. Societies built upon serfdom and Divine Right were attacked by anarchists and churned beneath the marching feet of Liberalism and the novel theories of fellows like Engels and Marx.

None of these changes was easy. Old systems and assumptions resisted change, sometimes bitterly.

The ossified agreements of the Congress of Vienna held for nearly a half-century, but the widespread popular revolutions by mid-century shook the Courts of Europe. The balance of power - long maintained by a neutralist Britain that saw France as its natural foe - teetered between France and the emergent Prussia-Germany while Britain grabbed possessions across the globe. At the beginning, both the former British colonies in America and the inward-looking Russia were insignificant. US troops couldn't prevent the burning of the White House by troops from Canada, and Russia was the only state in Europe that could still reliably lose to the Turks. By the end of the period, the military power of Russia and the economic power of the United States were irrefutable. In 1815, Germany and Italy (as unified states) didn't even exist, Japanese Shoguns were cheerfully hacking each other with swords, and Britain was mopping her brow after finally witnessing the defeat of the Corsican Ogre. A hundred years later, Japan had stunned the world with her surprise win at Tshushima, and the growing bellicose power of Germany forced Britain to form an Entente Cordiale with her centuries-old enemy.

The tremors of democracy, the deep-rooted reverbations of 1848, and conflicting national ambitions would combine inexorably to immolate the world in the most horrific conflagrations of human history. This was a century that cried out to be simulated for years, but even the most ambitious designers seemingly hesitated at the enormity of the task. Let's face it: the scope of events was so broad, the changes in the international system so deep, surely no system could approach the subject with any degree of comprehensiveness or realism?

Enter Paradox. You will probably recognize them as the fellows who hit the strategy market hard with Europa Universalis, a computer port of a very complicated boardgame popular in Europe. It was a stunning success. After a streamlined and expanded version came out as EU2, Paradox bent the same systems to the task of simulating World War 2 in Hearts of Iron, at which they succeeded admirably.

Victoria continues the evolution of this extraordinary game engine into a whole new period of history. They've left all traces of their boardgame roots behind, and have presented us with a game that fully uses the massive data-management capabilities of today's computers to comprehensively represent just about every aspect of events from 1835 to 1920. Diplomacy and the military feature heavily, of course - but Victoria also has sophisticated systems for economics, trade, industrial and technological development, and even domestic politics. (I'll jump ahead and tell you EU2 fans right away: Yes, Paradox has said they plan to produce a 'translator' app that will take the end-state from their EU2 savegames and use it to translate into a 'fantasy' starting-game for Victoria. It's not there yet, but they've said they'll do it, and nobody supports their games better than Paradox. If it's possible, I believe they'll write it.)

For those of you new to the series, you need to immediately go and buy EU2 from the bargain bin of your local software store. Until you do that, though, I'll review the general characteristics of the game system. Each player represents the guiding force for a particular state. Your map is the entirety of the world, divided into thousands of provinces and sea-zones. Uniquely to Paradox games, you can select and play any state in the world - even teeny single-province states. Extremely capable AI's play everyone else, each state having its own goals and talents, which makes for a very challenging game.

You are not the government, which can (and almost inevitably will) change based on popular opinion and civil war - but the state itself. The particular faction/party/family in power generally limits your freedom of action (a pacifistic government might put a low ceiling on your defense spending and research while it also places a high floor on your social spending), making it very important that you keep your population happy enough to maintain someone in power that lets you do what you want.

It's also a running-time game. Most strategy titles are either turn-based (allowing a player to carefully contemplate their next move) or "realtime" in which the clock runs continuously. Victoria is running-time: the clock ticks constantly but (in single player mode) you can scale it up or down, as well as pause time completely. This is a nice middle ground - players are somewhat forced to deal with events as they occur, but it recognizes that in a real life situation, players would have thousands of advisers and subordinates to execute policy decisions.

Running-time does present a problem for multiplayer; there are boring times when your enemies have all been conquered (or at least mollified) and the clock runs too slowly while you wait for some treaty-obligation to break open. There are frantic times when even the slowest setting doesn't allow you to manage all your units in a worldwide general war. Paradox has mitigated the latter through a neat mechanism allowing individual multiplayers to pause the game for at least 30 seconds; after that, anyone can unpause it. In a friendly game, this is exactly what's needed. In a cutthroat game with opponents you don't know, it's rare that anyone is interested in making sure you had the time to manage your empire properly. Personally, I find this a particularly appealing game-element. It seems eminently realistic that states have to prioritize their policy focus, not just their physical resources. In the same sense that the player can't manage everything at once, there are several instances in history where a state's concern for a specific region or conflict seems to have overwhelmed their ability to deal with even minor events elsewhere (the French in post-Fashoda Africa come to mind).

Prestige points determine the winner of the game (making you the Victor Victoria?). These are accumulated through expansion, economic and industrial development, and a dominant place in the balance of power politics in the world. Of course, Paradox wouldn't miss the chance to add atmospheric touches here to induce players to act like the Victorians - you also gain prestige points for building capital ships and strategic canals. Perhaps you too will get entangled in another Naval Race.

Characteristically, Victoria emphasizes diplomacy on a worldwide scale. This is justified; the Nineteenth Century saw the formulation of the first true extra-European norms for international behavior. The EU engine has always been notable for its diplomatic flexibility, and Victoria is a solid developmental step beyond that. The 'relational' diplomatic system (where every country has an individualized and dynamic relationship with every other state in the game, AI or human-played) has been aggressively expanded. You can negotiate over just about any relationship, access, or territory (or even trade claims for regions you don't control). It's a wise move to forestall another state's expansion in a colonial region by exchanging trading posts or colonial missions for cold, hard, cash or even technology. But be warned, this is no simplistic algorithm between the player and AI; other AI states are watching your diplomatic maneuvers carefully. Conclude a sweet deal for western Canadian territories from Britain and you might both be happy. However, the Russian bear who may have had planned expansion into that area with be happy with neither of you.

Of course a major aspect of your diplomatic relations with other Great Powers (as well as with the not-so-great ones) will be negotiating over such opportunities in the New World, the Orient, Far East, and Africa. Colonialism in the latter 1700's and early 1800's was still in its fledgling stages, but the colonial effort by the Victorian era was no longer simply a matter of flinging explorers and colonists to the winds, conquering natives, and planting the flag. By then it was a matter of watching these economic systems grow (or not) into client states which (by the reasoning of the times) would not only provide raw materials for the resource-hungry industries of the developed world, but in turn would become markets for the finished good produced therefrom.

Sure, there had been extensive networks of commerce throughout the Old and New Worlds since the 16th century, but they traded almost exclusively in luxuries and high-value/low weight goods. In Victoria you will manage the process as your state transitions from general self-sufficiency to a level of industrialization (and the concomitant luxury expectations of your citizenry) that forces you to participate in the worldwide economic system, or stagnate.

With the maturation of sailing technology, and moreso the development of steam power, commerce went mainstream. Suddenly clippers laden with grain were racing across the Pacific, and steam engines chugged across North America and Europe cheaply uniting raw materials with industrial heartlands, producers with consumers. Victoria has an extraordinarily robust and well-developed world market, where fluctuating surpluses and shortages of more than fifty commodities cause the market pricing and availability to be a source of constant opportunity and/or headache for the astute economics player. For those who aren't so interested in world-trade minutiae, Paradox's experience with helper AI's in HoI is well-employed: all world trades can be handled by a competent if not daring management helper AI.

This naturally ties in with industry. The expansion and development of your home industry is an immediate and pressing concern for any new player. Victoria has a Railroad-Tycoonlike resource model; raw materials are gathered in each province, and processed through factories into subsequent goods. These goods themselves can be combined with sufficient technological achievements to produce to the wares of the late Industrial Age. (For example, coal + iron = steel. Sulphur can be converted to fertilizer, fertilizer + ammunition = explosives. Steel + explosives = artillery.) This can end up being surprisingly complicated, and represents very well the interdependence of a modern technological economy.

The reference to Railroad Tycoon is deliberate; no industrial economy can flourish without a significant development of the infrastructure to support it. Victoria is naturally no exception. You will constantly measure the opportunity costs for much-needed railroad expansion against that "one more factory" - the first allows your economy to run much more efficiently (and not insignificantly, it allows more rapid relocation of military forces as well). The second might allow you to produce something like machine parts - desperately needed by less-developed powers and therefore very valuable - granting you more money for development over time. Which is better?

But it is in the concept of "POPS" (population units) that Victoria feels really different than previous EU games. In these, the population existed, but only as a money sponge; domestic taxation decisions were essentially a matter of "how hard can I squeeze before they revolt?" Victoria is entirely different. POPS make up the population of a province, and represent segments of your population. There are ten classes of POPS, from Aristocrat to Slave, each with different preferences and consumer good needs. Their goals can be political, religious, martial, or social, and will affect their support (or lack) of the current government. Is it worth infuriating your capitalists to make social reforms or workplace safety regulations? Or is better to court the wealthy taxpayers and risk disaffecting the underclass? You need to watch your polls, because each POP is rated for Consciousness and Militancy, showing how seriously they take their needs, and how aggressively they'll pursue them. Ignore your public and they may force unhappy changes on you.

It's not The Sims, certainly, but the POPS act almost like individuals in the system - seeking employment, supporting a government that makes them happy, and moving somewhere else (if possible) if they are unhappy enough. As you advance through the century, your population will undergo development hand in hand with your industry and economy; some will become clerks, some capitalists. Players need to attend to their populace (or keep them well-suppressed) or the resulting crises will consume all their attention and energy.

POPS add another rich element into the complex economics of Victoria. Their wealth allows them to purchase more goods from the marketplace, and the resulting money flow can (& will) be taxed to benefit a starving government treasury. These POPS will drive policy as well; as the POPS develop into middle and upper class types, they demand more sophisticated items like luxury furniture, fine clothing, wine, even opium - many of these must be purchased for high prices on the world market, or are only available in raw form in remote locations. Again and again, you are faced with decisions that will have far-reaching effects on your state and ultimately, the game. Do you spend precious cash buying these low-demand but expensive items from some other power, or do you spend your young men's lives quashing the natives and then keeping other great powers away? More than ever, the domestic policy a player follows can significantly affect future opportunities and even lead to civil war in a web of interrelationships that will keep you awake at night. It's no coincidence that The Economist (probably the world's pre-eminent economic and political journal) was founded in 1843. Victoria's economics engine does it justice.

One of the problems with the earliest versions of Europa Universalis was the almost-paralyzing number of choices, and the resulting pacing of events. This was a strategic model based on the real world, and that hasn't changed. While Paradox toyed with earlier visions of events and national goals that a player could choose to follow for more prestige (victory) points, in Victoria they realized that many government policies are the forced result of "lesser of two evils" choices. Players are confronted rather frequently with events and circumstances, usually with two or more choices whose consequences are shown in Paradox's usual excellent tooltips system (but not always). A lot of these events are random, and relatively generic; many are nationality-driven and contextually appropriate.

In a long game as the USA, my administrations (whose domestic policies I was trying deliberately to advance toward an early, peaceful elimination of slavery) were plagued with slave and abolitionist events. My westward push toward my Manifest Destiny was constantly checked by a need to spend huge amounts on industry and infrastructure in the slave states (trying to evolve the system out of slavery, rather than try to legislate it away and simultaneously invite civil war). Nevertheless, by the mid 1850's I faced a great deal of southern militancy and the threat of civil action (amply demonstrated by occasional risings) forced me to keep both a larger military than I wanted to have, and deploy many troops passively rather than aggressively in my western expansion.

The military element of the game is sophisticated and smooth. Like HoI, units are recruited by division and by function, with the application of support units like artillery or cuirassier brigades requiring more resources and money to build, but endowing the unit with greater capabilities. Colonial and native units are less reliable and effective (usually) but importantly cost much less - sometimes this is the deciding factor for an overstretched and strapped empire that can't quite afford the best everywhere.

Naval units are logically resource- and money-intensive, but they are naturally faster and critical in the race for overseas colonies. They are built in a method similar to ground forces, with a fleet being constructed of individual capital ships and flotillas of escort/support vessels. Naval units also are very dependent on technology; you can pretty much always build infantry and cavalry, and tech will help them to some degree. But naval units require a sustained and heavy investment in tech development, as some units can't even be built without the achievement of certain technological breakthroughs.

The technology system is a perfect example of Paradox's talent for constructing a neat mechanic that artfully finds the balance-point between realism and entertainment. On the one hand, you have utterly realistic games whose linear tech development represents the 'steps' that each of the real-life states passed through historically. In these cases, it's simply a matter of plodding along a predictable (and boring) sequence of discoveries. In other games, there is a more or less free-development of tech, where you have a broad range of choices that might in some ways be dependent on earlier developments. This is IMO better, but still not great. (I want to develop the Railroad, so according to this chart I have 5 steps to go.) Again, too predictable and end-goal oriented. Did anyone in 1815 decide to go with "Iron Artillery" because it was the shortest tech-path to Nuclear Propulsion?

At the concordant opposite end of the spectrum is the 'random tech' game; invest research points and every so often voila! a new tech appears. This is unpredictable certainly, but hardly representative of the ability of government policy to guide investment and direct research toward short-term goals.

Paradox has found an excellent and playable compromise. First, technological developments are broadly characterized as "army", "navy", "culture", "industry", and "commerce" and ranked in logical order - you won't be able to develop advanced steam engines before basic steam engines for example. Each state may select one research project for development at a time from a randomized list of five available choices. Further, what projects are available in this list of five is based on the country's Intellectual Establishment - representing the cultural focus of the country's research efforts. An "Industrialist" establishment will always have three choices from the Industry tech list, one from the Commerce list, and one selected randomly. You start with a historically-appropriate Intellectual Establishment, but you can change it periodically for a cost in victory points. Thus Paradox has found a way for players to guide their research development generally, while still offering them a degree of novelty and replayability in the actual applications being researched.

Of course, no game is perfect. Lest this sound more like ad copy than a review, I do need to touch on some of the things that could have been done better. The manual is anemic. While I imagine that a full and deep examination of all the functions and aspects of the game would fill a good-sized textbook, and while (I imagine) that most of the players will be familiar with either EU or HoI already, this doesn't obviate the need for something more useful than this. There is no tutorial, and one is desperately needed. You're not going to get much accomplished, but I recommend starting play with a very small state (I chose Texas in 1836, which isn't a great choice since it's in the midst of a war with a much-bigger Mexico…). This will give you a feel for the controls and displays, and some familiarity with the extensive ledger & reporting system that you will use frequently. Managing two or three provinces each with a couple of areas is far more doable than jumping right into managing Russia or (god forbid) Britain.

In terms of the graphics and UI, they have improved the overall look and added Victorian-era flourishes with restraint. Nonetheless, I think there remains an excessive level of micromanagement and clicking around, especially when your empire is sizable. I think more could have been done (and may yet be done) with the graphics to depict industries underutilized or capable of growth, but some of the provinces are so small that they beggar the ability of artists to convey meaning within their map outlines. But even with extensive keyboard shortcuts, initiating a general upgrade of a small region's raw material gathering operations can take thirty or forty (!) clicks.

A lot of players I've talked to simply play the Grand Campaigns, starting at the beginning and working toward the end. If you do this with Victoria, you are missing a big chunk of the game. My late-gold version came with four scenarios: The 1836 Grand Campaign of course is the first. The others are set in 1861 (naturally the focus is the US Civil war, but the consolidation of Prussia and her final ascendancy over Austria can also prove an interesting game), 1881 (covering the serious development of the colonial economic systems) and of course 1914 (World War I).

Victoria does not come with an editor per se, but like its predecessors all game information is easily accessible text and csv files. Modifications are therefore technically simple, but the scope of the game (requiring you to script in all the populations, etc. for thousands of regions) will prevent too much casual modding. I would expect that modifications will follow relatively quickly after the game's release.

Paradox has successfully combined their experience with simulating complex systems of economics, politics, and diplomacy from EU2, and their deep understanding of streamlining, helper AIs, and totally revamped technology & military systems from HoI. They have united all of these elements to turn the Victorian Era into a mature yet fresh strategy game.

The essence of Victoria is the complicated intertwining of many key factors of 19th-Century statecraft, each themselves deeply-nuanced and inextricably related to other subordinate themes. The natural child of two already-brilliant games (EU2 and HoI), Victoria is smarter, smoother, and even better-playing than its famous forbears. EU was really a game about European politics, religion, Machiavellian intrigue and the fight to grab overseas possessions. Victoria is more than "a strategy game" - it thoroughly models the development and expansion of these systems, and the maturation of the 'Great Powers of Europe' into truly global states. This was a time that witnessed examples of the most sophisticated relationships ever contrived by some of the greatest statesmen that ever lived. The period closed as Europe was immolated by the inability of mediocre politicians and bureaucrats to sustain the complex geopolitical ballet laid down before them. What about you: are you going to be a Bismarck, or a von Bulow? A Disraeli or a Napoleon III?



'Ave you 'eard o' the Widow at Windsor With a hairy gold crown on 'er 'ead?
She 'as ships on the foam -- she 'as millions at 'ome, An' she pays us poor beggars in red.
(Ow, poor beggars in red!)
There's 'er nick on the cavalry 'orses, There's 'er mark on the medical stores --
An' 'er troopers you'll find with a fair wind be'ind That takes us to various wars.
(Poor beggars! -- barbarious wars!)
Then 'ere's to the Widow at Windsor, An' 'ere's to the stores an' the guns,
The men an' the 'orses what makes up the forces O' Missis Victorier's sons.
(Poor beggars! Victorier's sons!) -Rudyard Kipling, "The Widow at Windsor"
Truth in Journalism notice: in the interest of ever getting this bloody review finished, I confess that I'm writing this review on a laptop several rooms removed from my home gaming system. I simply can't trust myself to write the review on the same machine. I'll remember a question, or need a screenshot and jump into the game 'for just a second'. Three hours later, my spare time is gone and this review remains unwritten. Again.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Just ordered this game from GoGamer. It's their 48-hour special. $27.90.

[Fritz]

Note: after reading some things on the forums, some features still don't work well. Immigration/Emmigration is one of them, but it is still functional for the US.

-----
There is an event message saying "you offer to buy chunk of land from (countryname)" it is a yes or no thing. Last night I had that as the US offering to buy New Mexico (NM, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, part of Colorado) from Mexico. I selected yes. Soon I was debited $200,000. Since my cash surplus was about 2k, I was hit with a massive loan whose daily interest payment was more than my daily income.

[Fritz]

A few things I have learned:

To do well, you need the right kind of POPs. When new POP come along, they generally come in as Farmers/Laborers. This is find for working the natural resources of the land, but not much help with industrialization. To improve that, you need to change (educate) POPs.

Slaves can't be eduacted, but some policies can set them (or some of them) free.

Laborers and farmers can swap between classes. Since a province can only have one type of natural product, this will not happen often, but sometimes a provincial product changes. Oil is the big one for this.

Soldiers can be added (for free I think) and they boost the manpower pool. To convert a soldier back to something else you must demobilze him, which reduces the manpower pool. Often, there will not be enough in the manpower pool to demobilize.

Craftsmen, Clerks, Capitalists, Clergy, and Officers can be created by expending resources. Craftsmen (a lower class group) require the most easily attainable goods. Clerks and up require harder to get/more expensive goods.

Since Craftsmen and Clerks man the factories, this is where much of the education will be focused. In my current game, I have been making Capitalists as well.

Capitalists don't work, but they provide some industry bonus.

[WSUCougar]

Geez this game sounds wild. I'm alternating between "wow, cool" and "sounds a bit overwhelming." Fritz, are you really enjoying the game, or is it too much hard work? I'm by no means a beer-and-pretzels type when it comes to stategy games like this, but I also was turned off by the ridiculous (IMO) approach that MOO3 took to planetary management and empire building.

Thoughts?

[Eaglesfan27]

I've been reading this thread and echoing those thoughts. I'm almost done SW:KOTOR (or at least I think I am) and I want a good strategy game to occupy me when I'm not playing FOF2004 for a while before I replay through SW:KOTOR. At times, I read this and am thinking "Wow that sounds amazing." At other times, I think this game would actually overwhelm me. I'm fairly intelligent (or at least I think I am) but this game sounds like it might actually be too complex to be fun. However, from reading the posts in this thread I think Fritz is having fun with it. Decisions.. decisions..

Edited to add: I was also tremendously disappointed with MOO3

[Fritz]

Am I having fun? Hell yeah!

A few huge problems:

1.) The manual is near worthless and there are no official online guides. The forum site has, but nothing comprehensive.

2.) These EU style games are bit evolutionary between patches. In most cases the game works out of box (as this does) but not all of the features are quite right. Input from the user base leads to a lot improvements and adjustments via patch. Because of this, I am prone to think anything before the 1.02 patch is practice.

3.) "Start." As the game starts a scenario there are some fluctuations as things like prices/income/etc settle. Because of this it can a be a little hard (for a newb) to get grip on things before they go too far out of whack.

------
The game is complex, but some of that can be given to the AI. For instance, you can ask the AI to manage your labor pool. It will not educate people for you, but it will keep some things in line. I use this.

You can also ask it to trade for you. I do not use this.


------------------
Technology:

There are 5 types of technology: Army, Navy, Economic, Cultual, and Industrial. Each one has 4 or 5 subgroups and each of those have 5 or 6 tech levels. Of course there requirements to gain access to a tech, and some requirements cross groups.

The twist that this game adds is a sort of national research policy. Each policy allow the user to pick one tech time from a list of up to 5 options. what options you will be shown depends on the policy. There is a ballnced one, and several unballenced ones. To change policy you must expend prestige. As you may recall, prestige what you need to win the game.

Research is done one tech at a time and is influanced by a few factors. 1: literacy rate, 2: education funding (which also affects literacy) 3: POP bonus. some POPS like clergy speed research

This one at a time approach coupled with the policy veil make the player choose. Economics will help you make money, but you may still have a poor army....

This one at a time approach

[wbonnell]

Are we sure this is a *game*?

[sachmo71]

Fritz, can you post the hardware specs...so I don't have to go look it up? *sheepish grin*

[Fritz]

now I have to look it up.

P3 450 , Win98 or better, 128 Mem, 600 Mb free HD, $MB video card, able to take DirectX 9.0.

[sachmo71]

Bummer.

Thanks for doing the work for me! :)

[Fritz]

Playing Prussia now. I am not sure how I am supposed to unify germany. Is it by force, diplomacy, or event? I am guessing event.

the prussian problem is all of my money is tied up in the army. I need the money, but prussia is meat without troops.

[WSUCougar]

Originally posted by Fritz
Playing Prussia now. I am not sure how I am supposed to unify germany.
Blood and iron, baby, blood and iron.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by WSUCougar
Blood and iron, baby, blood and iron.

That can really piss people off.

As lesser German states revolt and lose their alliances, I have been annexing them, but annexing damages relations. I was able to gobble up Schleswig-Holstein early and not provoke Austria. I was also able to grab Kracow (a mistake I think) and Frankfurt-AM. After the revolutions of 1848 the Elector of Prussia is offered the German crown, which I turned down (following history). A few years later the "Germany" event was triggered a pan-German state was formed.

Mostly I have worked on infrastructure and the economy while spending most of diplomatic clout getting friedly with Russia and England.

These events are the prelude to (the future) Austro-Prussian war in 1866 (which I am sure is event driven) and then the Franco-Prussian war in 1870.

[sachmo71]

Time for a comprehensive review yet, Fritz?

[Fritz]

It is, but I rarely write that much. Sorry guys.

[Fritz]

A few notes on war:

There are two kinds of war: War, and colonial war. In a colonial war you can only fight in provinces that are not part of states. This is a more limited war with less prestige on the line and a lot less to lose or win.

Of course you can form alliances, but when you form one with another county you can put an (ONE) exception in. For instance, Begium may ally with England, excpet vs France.

How much money you spend on the military, and how active it is are included as issues a PoP can care about. Some may clamor for action while others want to disarm.

[Fritz]

I have been playing the hell out of this game, which may explain my low posting as of late.

[Fritz]

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/downloads.asp

Strategy first is not on top of patches, but here is the second one.

[Fritz]

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---- Changes done to 1.02 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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*****************************
* GameBalance
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* Politics
- Actual number of reforms implemented is a modifier of the effect the social slider has on conciousness.
- Social Reforms are now slightly cheaper for poor people, and more costly for richer pops.
- Tweaked the issues logic for Atheism and Secularism for pops, to make secularism much more common than atheism.
- Tweaked general issues logic to get a slight difference between similar pops.
- Minority policies should now pop up as issues for Pops.
- Slavery is now a very popular issue among rich and working pops in provinces with slaves
- Pops should no longer get more than one issue in each category.
- Added a random element to elections. The outcome can now differ a bit from the pie chart, which should be regarded as a "poll".
- Large minorities are much less likely to become assimilated now.
- Assimilated pops now change religion as well, to the state religion.
- A pop growing over 100,000 will now split into two pops at 50,000 each, instead of just spawning a new at 0,00X.
- Pops are now much more likely to merge when applicable.

* Economy

- Reduced population growth factor from healthcare to reasonable levels.
- Reduced population growth modifiers from tech by about 50%.
- Revised factory input, to balance factories a bit better..
- Each factory now increases the crime fighting costs. Amount tweakable in misc.txt
- Factories are now merged properly at startup if more than one specified in the same state.
- All prices can now reach up to 999$ in maximum now.
- Conversion costs for a pop is now multiplied by the production efficiency of that pop.
- Increased literacy costs for higher pops, and those factors are exported to a new file called pops.txt.
- There is now an individual reform cost modifier for each workforce type in pops.txt
- Tweaked the cut-off for max efficiency of a pop to 50% size and upwards.
- Default production efficiency is now 40%, and each railroad gives 10%.
- Only pops with more than 100$ in cash reserves will have a demand for luxury goods now.
- Increased coal significantly in the Appalachies, Great Britain, Bohemia and the Ruhr area. Also added some to France and Saxony.
- Primitive nations can no longer expand RGO's.
- Reduced some demands for some items for pops.
- Soldiers are now considered in the poor strata, and will get the same effects.
- Soldiers now have demands on goods as well.
- Rebalanced industrial score calculation a bit to value factories higher.
- You will now only be able to tax strata that you have population of.
- Fixed a few bugs in output calculation of rgo's and factories.
- RGO's are no longer important for a countries industrial rating.
- Aristocrats and Capitalist bonuses on production now depend on the size of their pops.
- Clergymen now affect the entire state they are in.
- Decreased costs significantly for running costs.
- Farmers no longer have any demand for food.
- Increased food demans for clerks and craftsmen.
- Steel factories now have a slightly higher default efficiency.
- Reduced resource input for winerys and liquor distilleries.
- Artillery factories now use 1 steel instead of 2 steel.
- Reduced unit resource costs by a factor of 5.
- Reduced railroad resource costs by about one fifth.
- Reduced resource costs of provinical developments by one fifth.
- Increased default income for each pop.
- The bonus from clerks is no longer just 50%, but its modified by the countries literacy. ie, Literacy/2
- Tech's improving output from coal are now significantly larger in effect.
- Primitive nations now get half the chance to get rid of corruption buildings.


* Combat and Military Units

- There is now a system for navalcombat, which differentiates between the three levels of ships, and makes it practically impossible for a manowar to sink a cruiser. There are 5 different naval levels. Top level is Dreadnought+Heavy Cruiser, while a new level was inserted between monitors and treeships, for commerce-raiders.
- Implemented a new cultural max-divisions capacity scheme. You can only have as many divisions of a certain culture as you have soldier pops supporting it.
- Fixed so that a soldier pop can now only give 100 MP at full defence spending, instead of 200MP as before. Leadership works the same also.
- Ships no longer cost manpower to build.
- Dropped all maintenance costs for landunits to 50%.
- Maintenance costs are now increased for landunits when technology is advanced.
- Reserves are now cheaper in maintenance costs.
- Unloading troops is now automatically cancelled whenever the transporting fleet is engaged.
- Newly created divisions are now at 12,000 strength if they got brigades attachments.
- Trooplosses effects on soldier pops are have now changed on harder difficulties. Hard is twice as much, and Very Hard 4 times as many as default.
- The minimum efficiency cap in combat is now modified by the divisions organisation value.
- Organisation now modifies how long it takes to take control over a territory.
- Organisation can no longer be modified below 0.
- Increased the rate at which losses affect war exhaustion, which should take care of a number of problems. E.g. crucial peace events not triggering and the Peace AI being too stubborn.
- Units no longer regain morale while retreating.
- Steamer Transports now have reliability 10 as all other vessels.
- Fixed a problem that prevented upgrading the max fort level above 3 correctly.
- Tweaked the values of attachments for the military score.
- Voluntarily disbanding capital ships no longer costs prestige.
- Modifed personality & background values for a couple of leader traits.
- Irregulars are now much slower.
- Slightly tweaked land division types to make irregulars more inferior.
- Irregulars are no longer improved by inventions or techs.
- A divisions defence value now have the same restricts as attackvalues.
- Max of mobilization size is now 15% of non-colonial pops.


* Rebels and Partisans

- War exhaustion is no longer reduced during colonial wars
- Warexhaustion now increases the probability for cultural minorities to revolt
- Warexhaustion when fighting primitives and not being primitive yourself is now 1/10th of what it was.
- Important separate peace treaties now reduce the war exhaustion of the winner.
- Rebel forces are now slightly larger.
- Rebel forces in primitive countries are always irregulars now.
- Rebel forces in civilized countries are never irregulars now.
- Rebel forces should now have similar stats as the country they were created from.
- Primitive nations now only get irregulars as partisans.
- Partisans are now tagged as that.
- Partisans can no longer be reinforced.
- Partisans are now automatically disbanded whenever the country demobilizes.
- Partisan units are now indicated by a small rebel flag in the interface.


* Diplomacy and Prestige

- Fixed a problem with Bad Boy falling way too quickly.
- Badboy effect on "Open Negotiations" reduced and capped.
- Badboy is increased severly when a peace treaty is broken.
- Added a new country field specifying whether or not slavery is legal. If not, all slaves will be emancipated as soon as they become controlled by the country. This field also added to revolt.txt. Default is that slavery is illegal.
- Annexing a nation no longer automatically ends a war, even if it was the alliance leader.
- Colonial wars now require that either side is uncivilized or that both sides have claimed colonies.
- Changed the annexation rule so that colonial provinces are not counted (i.e. they don't need to be occupied to annex a nation).
- Tweaked value of colonial provinces in war and AI valuation of such.
- It should no longer be even possible to offer non-colonial provinces in a colonial war between civilized nations.
- It should now be possible to demand all colonial provinces of an enemy in a colonial war, regardless of whether they are occupied or not.
- Primitive countries gain even less prestige from wars now.
- Losing Great Wars now only costs 100 prestige.
- You no longer lose your primitive status merely by becoming a great power.
- You now only lose 100 prestige for breaking a treaty.
- Winning wars against and annexing uncivilized nations no longer give as much prestige.
- Prestige affects greater power rating less now.
- Negative prestige will not affect your great power rating.. Only positive prestige does.



* Emigration and Colonisation

- Reduced the emigration bias for America and the US a bit.
- Tweaked immigration target rules, to not congest completely in the same province.
- Pops are now much more likely to emigrate if they have no cash reserves left.
- Tweaked the effects of the irish famine to make irish move like mad.
- Pops should now migrate internally in a country to its colonies as well.
- Unfinished claim buildings are no longer counted when claiming colonies.
- Natives burning down unfinished claim buildings should no longer cause a bug that makes building a new building there impossible.
- Removed precious metal cost from trading posts.

* Technology

- Infantry, Cavalry and Dragoons are now properly activated by "Flintlock Rifles".
- Inventions with random parameters in their commands should now work correctly when transferred to new countries instead of potentially causing crashes.
- Modified dates and triggers for the submarine invention.
- Modified Steamer tech increasing effect of woodenships somewhat.
- Naval Invention Torpedo Boats got prereq and startdate changed.
- Fixed Army & Navy tech names to distinguish between them.
- Lots of other invention and technology balance fixes.





*****************************
* Interface fixes
*****************************

- Added a message when factories are completed.
- Added a completion message for the expansion of RGOs (and factories.)
- The "Leader Dies" message now has a "Go To" button.
- Added a message for when partisans appear in occupied provinces.
- Diplomatic offers are now autodeclined after 1 month.
- Corruption buildings should now be shown in the revolt mapmode.
- Added a new message for colonial war declarations. Should help clear up some confusion over that.
- Added another column to the goods page in the ledger, to show total world production.
- Added an option to expand the RGO through rightclick menu on the province listing in the ledger.
- Closed factories are now indicated as much in the ledger.
- An approximation of potential profit is now shown in the ledger for closed factories.
- Fixed quite a few ledger bugs.
- The worldmarket stockpile is no longer shown in interfaces, but the current supply is instead.
- Added a profit information line at the factory info screen.
- Added the ability control-click and shift-control-click for larger chunks of money in the Negotiations window.
- Expanded the text for units in the info panel so their destination is shown if they are moving.
- Revised interface for development, so that culture must be chosen before province.
- Added tooltips for country status (uncivilized, Great Power, etc.)
- Added a bunch of tooltips to the "Expand" button for RGOs.
- Added a bunch of tooltips to the "Add Worker" button for RGOs.
- Added a delayed tooltip for unit screen, detailing attrition of all divisions with attrition, when pointing at the attrition icon.
- Added a tooltip for Life Sustainability in the province window
- Added culture and quality tooltips for new divisions waiting to be deployed.
- Expanded provincial tooltips a lot.
- Added some tooltips to the mobilization buttons.
- tooltip for borders no longer says "Terra Incognita".
- tooltips added for the "Grant Statehood" button.
- Corrected the province tooltip so that it correctly shows average consciousness.
- Added some more detailed tooltips for the reform screens.







*****************************
* Generic Bugfixes
*****************************

- Optimized bandwidth heavily for Multiplayer.. Usage should now be at approximately 33% of before.
- Fixed a major network bug with some code not executing across machines.
- Fixed the reported popview CTD.
- Fixed the CTD that was just after negotiating peace.
- Added a safeguard in the Peace Offer dialog to prevent a crash if the country no longer exists.
- Fixed potential ctd's at the negotiation and neutral provicne screens.
- Added some self-repair code for broken savegames.
- Fixed an issue with the "amphibious" combat modifier being used wrongly.
- Fixed a bug which reduced building price of factories below 0$ in the endgame.
- Fixed a bug with retreats and blockaded straits.
- Fixed a bug which costs officers to cost more in defence cost than intended.
- Fixed the "Generic Treaty has expired" bug.
- The correct expansion costs for forts are now shown.
- The same expeditionary force can no longer be sent multiple times (unless control is returned to the owner first.)
- Fixed some bugs with reinforcing expeditionary forces, and some other logics with them.
- Fixed a problem which allowed more clerks than craftsmen in a factory.
- Fixed one problem that made it possible to increase mob pool too far.
- Fixed a bug which made it possible to claim colonies as soon as the projects were started.
- Fixed a bug with domestic buyers only buying 1/10th of the goods they demand. Should balance prices a bit more for basic resources that flooded the market.
- The 'convert_pop_type' event command now kicks POPs out of their building if they change workforce type.
- Meritocracy and retirement to Mansions events should no longer happen multiple times.
- Fixed a typo in several events which caused them never to fire.
- Historical Events targetted for SWE/PRU/etc should not happen after they switch tag to SCA/GER etc, as it did before a reload.
- Fixed a problem with tag-changes making auto-systems not work.
- Fixed a problem with tag-changes making messages not appear anymore.
- Fixed a problem with the "won_war" event command.
- Satellite and dominion nations now correctly change the tag of their master if that country changes tag.
- Rubber and Oil is now shown in worldmarket




****************************
*AI
****************************

* ARMAMENTS AI

- Tweaked the naval construction evaluation AI.
- Armaments AI now keeps navy and army needs completely separate. AI file format changed to reflect this.
- AI should now go for modern ships when they get them.
- Countries will no longer disband irregulars just because they lack manpower.
- Fixed a calculation bug which caused the AI to build less landunits than it should.
- Armaments AI should now always try to raise a small standing army and not just go for mobilization.
- Primitive nations should no longer build absurd numbers of irregulars.

* MILITARY AI

- AI will no longer steal ships from Expeditionary forces given them.
- AI will now respect the strength of rebel forces a bit less.
- Enhanced the ability of the AI to attack and take claim buildings.
- Tweaked front behaviour a bit in the AI files.
- Removed the Front AI propensity to encircle enemy armies. This should help to maintain more stable fronts appropriate for the era.
- AI is now more likely to mobilize if it faces a stronger enemy.
- AI is a little bit better at managing rebels now.
- Fixed a problem with the colonial warfare AI.
- Optimized the Garrison AI. The game should no longer slow down nearly as much when there is a very large number of units on the map.
- Improved AI for invasions slightly, to take rebel controlled territory while at war as well.
- AI learned that it can use other types of ships than cruisers to escort their transport fleets with.
- Front AI could go passive in certain situations, like the USA in the 1861 scenario.
- Fixed a problem which made the invasion AI get stuck when lot of rebels around.
- Tweaked Garrison AI overseas distribution scheme in desperate situations more.

* DIPLOMACY AI

- Russia now more intent on conquering Central Asian states.
- Added a new AI file directive for strategic province priority. I.e. war goals.
- Prussia now uses new "war goal" AI directive for Flensburg and Ribe.
- Reduced AI white peace tendency a bit.
- AI is now a tougher sell. I.e. it values its own money more in Negotiations.
- Peace AI tweak to make it only go for provinces and annex against enemies whose capital is their national province (to help with unification of Italy,
etc.)
- Expanded the 'befriend', 'combat' and 'eradicate' AI directives to allow for custom values.
- Badboy factor for AI has been doubled now.
- United Kingdom is now slightly more inclined to protect Persia.
- Tweaked the 1914 AI files and added such for Turkey and and France.
- AI is less likely to break truces now, and wont be declaring war immediately after it.
- Fixed some bugs with AI trying to get mil-access...
- AI is slightly less likely to declare war now.
- Chinese AI now less aggressive.
- Diplo AI will now be better at seeking military access so it can get to an enemy home area.
- Peace AI will no longer try to humiliate primitive nations, and be more likely to go for annexation.
- Diplo AI is now more aggressive in its pursuit to gain crucial claim buildings through colonial wars.
- Diplo AI should no longer try to ally with the enemies of its current allies.
- Tweaked War Declaration AI for great powers a bit.
- Great Power AI now more hostile towards primitive countries.
- Tweaked Holland AI files to prevent it from sending garrisons to every little island.
- Tweaked UK AI files to prevent it from sending garrisons to every little island.
- Tweaked Garrison AI overseas distribution scheme in desperate situations.

* ECONOMY AI

- AI will now make more clerks and craftsmen when needed.
- Added railroad AI directives for the USA and France.
- The AI can no longer super-expand a factory in one go.
- AI now knows about negative manpower and will now take that into account when converting soldier pops.
- Fixed a bug which made the AI not trade for or keep resources for ships, if it had a big enough land army.
- AI now learned to not create colonial buildings in provinces where there are hostile forces.
- AI is now a little bit better in realising it needs to build more factories.
- AI is slightly better at dealing with its economy when at war now.
- The AI is now better at closing and opening unprofitable factories.
- Improved AI for moving workers between its factories.
- Tweaked factory AI to build slightly less large amounts of machine parts factories before techs improving their efficiency are finished.

* MISC AI

- Game will now switch to 1914 AI files through hidden events.
- Fixed an error in the Austrian 1914 AI file.
- Fixed a problem with Germany switching to an older AI file in the 1914 scenario.
- Adjusted Prussian AI.
- Only greater power AI nations will colonise outside their defined areas now.
- AI gets a little leadership bonus at hard and very-hard.
- Added an AI event (invisible) for Sweden, granting Norway independence in 1905.
- Tweaked the 1914 UK AI file.
- The AI is now a fair bit better at selecting what it needs to research.
- Added 1881 AI files for CSA and USA and AI events to switch.
- Tweaked Chinese AI file.
- Tweaked Dutch AI file.
- Expanded the capabilities to specify specific techs for the AI to research, with different priorities.
- Updated technology focus for a few nations.





****************************
* Modding Support.
****************************
- Event commands expanded:
type = prov_owner_war which = [province] value = [country tag] # War on owner of province. If a country is specified in the value field, ignore this command if the country is the owner of the province.
type = alliance which = country value = [0/1] where = country when = [0/1] # If 'value = 1' the alliance will be defensive. If 'where' is set, that country will be an exception to the alliance. 'when' = 1 means the alliance will never expire.
- Added event command:
type = set_slavery which = [yes/no] # Declare slavery legal or illegal
- Added triggers:
capital = X # Is the national capital in province X?
literacy = X # Is the literacy at or above X%?
peace_treaty = { country = [tag1] country = [tag2] } # Do countries 1 and 2 have a peace treaty?
plurality = X(%)
executive_designation = [parliamentarism/hms_government/laws_by_decree]
party_system = [multi_party/two_party/one_party]
national_value = [liberty/equality/order]
- Event trigger expanded.
pop_majority = [religion/culture/ideology/workforce] # Checks if the majority of POPs are of a certain type
- Changed they way this event command works (inverted it):
type = colony_creation_prestige_mod value = X # NOTE: Less is better. This reduces the prestige penalty for taking provinces in a peace, if they are of an accepted culture. At 0, the penalty is 0.


****************************
* Scenario & Events
****************************

* 1836

- Tibet no longer a Chinese satellite to prevent strangeness when UK goes to war against China.
- Updated the national provinces of a bunch of European nations.
- Italian minor states now share the same national provinces (the whole of Italy.)
- China no longer starts with huge RGO's producing insane amounts of raw materials.
- Some French ships had the wrong home provinces in the 1836 scenario.
- Removed a Russian tech and a distillery to slow down their industrial development a little bit.
- Revised a lot of pops.
- Literacy increase (USA 70%)(TEX 50%)
- RGO's in India and Indochina now start with more levels as they need, to simulate the richness of India.
- Removed african_minor form US state_cultures.
- Bhutan, Kashmir, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Tibet got their state religion changed to Mahayana in scenariofiles and revoltfile.
- three trade posts added for UK
- popchanges - Korean, veneti & lombardia
- Changed illegal attachments for BAV, FRA, POR, RUS, SAX.
- TIB is a CHI-satellite.
- Fixed script error with ION government type.
- NAL should now be playable.
- Fixed two Cambodian provincial claims.
- Changed four provinces to ETH ownership.

* 1861

- Italian minor states now share the same national provinces (the whole of Italy.)
- Added the minority_emigration from the irish famine event to UK.
- Fixed some minor glitches.
- Bhutan, Kashmir, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Tibet got their state religion changed to Mahayana in scenariofiles and revoltfile.

* 1881

- Italian minor states now share the same national provinces (the whole of Italy.)
- Fixed a problem with the culture of North Italian POPs in Corsica.
- Fixed the colonial entry for Newfoundland in the British scenario file.
- Added the minority_emigration from the irish famine event to UK.
- Moved Bhutan's Royal Army to Bhutan (it had been in Tibet).
- Tweaked some POPs in Southeast Asia.
- Moved Italian capital from Torino to Roma.
- Added two events to the event history.
- Fixed a bug with the canal flags in the .eug file.
- Tweaked War of the Pacific setup.
- Fixed a problem that caused an Arabic POP to appear in Sweden.
- Tweaked resources.inc file.
- Removed certain culture, commerce, & industry inventions from countries that did not have the prerequisites.
- Fixed a few minor bugs.
- Bhutan, Kashmir, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Tibet got their state religion changed to Mahayana in scenariofiles and revoltfile.

* 1914

- Italian minor states now share the same national provinces (the whole of Italy.)
- Turkey is now a Central Power in the 1914 scenario.
- Fixed some bugs.
- Revised railroads for Portugal, Sweden and Germany.
- Removed all sceondary cultures from South and Central American countries.
- Fixed a bunch of reported problems.
- Fixed a bunch of problematic pop files.


* EVENTS

- Fixed a problem with the "Scandinavian Union" event chain.
- Tweaked Latin Monetary Union events.
- Tweaked US flavor events.
- Fixed bad triggers in (FRA) Fall of Louis Philipe & The Presidential Election of 1848
- Tweaked the Crimean War events a bit.
- There is now a capital move event for Italy if its capital is not Rome.
- Event 28006 "The Bardo Treaty" moved to the general Turkish event file and set as happened in the 1881 and 1914 scenarios.
- Fixed some event typos setting invalid party systems.
- Fixed some events that modified crime fighting efficiency too much.
- Fixed some more problems with the Italian unification events.
- NGF should now merge with Germany on the "Three Hurrays for the German empire" event.
- Fixed some problems with the "Three Hurrays for the German empire" event.
- Tweaked the civil war events.
- Tweaked the "Three Hurrays" for the German Empire event so that France secedes any German possessions.
- Fixed a problem with the Counter-revolution of Archduchess Sophia event.
- Fixed some problems in the Sonderbund Rebellion event chain.
- Added two inventions to the Meiji Restoration events.
- Fixed a problem with the Major Workers Strike random event.
- Reduced plurality effect of the Meritocracy and Aristocracy follow-on events.
- Fixed error in date command for events: SIC/SAR/PAP/FRA
- Most events which declare war now use the new peace_treaty trigger (although in some cases it is not possible or desirable).
- Toned down the pop growth penalty of the "Humane Economy" event.
- The "Meiji Restoration" events now set voting rights to "wealth".
- USA now gets a fair bit of units in its conscription act.
- Did a lot of work on the Italian Unification mess. It should run a lot smoother now.
- Tweaked the "Louis Napoleon" events a bit.
- Tweaked "Fall" events for Prussia and France.
- Tweaked Prussian event "Leadership in Germany".
- The earliest oil events now occur later.
- Tweaked the "The Bismarckian Social Reforms" event.
- Tweaked some 1914 events.
- Tweaked the 'Alexander II' event.
- Tweaked the 'Sonderbund Rebellion'.
- Tweaked the 'Mahdist Uprising' event.
- The slave uprising event in the Virgin Islands now only triggers if Denmark owns the islands.


* DATABASE & MISC

- Removed redundant countries (DAI&VIE) from revolt.txt
- Changed some US party data.
- Added Romanian, Wallachian, and Moldavian revolters.
- Fixed error with trade policy in a US Party.
- Fixed error in economic policy of GRE Party.
- Added new leaderfile for SIC.
- Increased the life-ratings of several major western cities.
- Added a "primitive" field to the countries in revolt.txt.
- Revised the random leadernames database.
- German leaders will no longer all go splat in 1918.
- Added three parties for CSA
- Modified leaders for: ORA/POR
- Removed wrong cultures from SA countries in revolt.txt
- CYP now got greek/orthodox in revolt.txt



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---- Changes done to 1.01 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*********************************
*** New Features
*********************************
- Improved the AI in all categories.
- Its now possible to grant statehood to colonies manually. You can only do this if they are on the same continent as your capital, OR they have a province where the dominant culture is your nations dominant culture.
- Added a new scenario, which starts in 1881, called "A Place in the Sun".
- Added a fifth mapmode with button to view revolt risk in your country.
- Added a lot more commands and triggers for AI files and Events.
- Added a huge amount of leader pictures to historical leaders.
- You can now use the '*' key to center on the currently selected province.
- You can now dismiss leaders without a command at will.

*********************************
*** Gamebalancing
*********************************
- Warexhaustion now increases slightly faster.
- Provinces taken from primitive nations are now flagged as colonies.
- Provinces taken from other nations colonies are now flagged as colonies as well.
- Plurality is now increased by your average consciousness, instead of a fixed value.
- Plurality now affects the militancy change from reforms on pops. At 10% plurality you only get 10% of the effect, while at 100% plurality you get 100% of the effect.
- Alliances are now prolonged if they expire during a war involving both parties.
- Rebalanced effects from invention events according to feedback.
- Revised historical events to balance the game better.
- Education, Defence, Crimefighting budgets now only cost 1/4th for colonies.
- You must have at least one craftsmen for every clerk in a factory now.
- RGO output will now decrease if the goods are no longer profitable, and the supply is too big.
- Demands for goods for pops have been rebalanced.
- All scenarios have been balanced and changed.
- You can now only build colonial or native quality type troops in colonies.
- You can now only deploy new units in provinces that can trace a contigous landroute to the homeprovince.
- Deployment mapmode will no longer be covered by terrain map.
- Mobilization should now only take troops from states.
- Spawning of inventions have been changed, to make them more likely to appear in set time periods.
- Manpower cap is now reduced by the amount of troops you already have deployed.
- You now get prestige for building capital ships.
- You now lose prestige whenever a capital ship has been sunk.
- When satellites and dominions are liberated, all units of their primary culture will defect (unless it is also the primary culture of the liberators.)
- Doubled conversion costs for pops.
- Rebalanced factory costs, endgame factories now costs a large amount of money and resources, while some midlevel got a bit more expensive.
- Nationalistic tendencies will now affect a pop's probability to revolt after a peace treaty, for a period of ten years, gradually dropping.
- Nationalism in conquered provinces makes a pop's militancy slightly rise.
- Dig-in speed is now affected by unittype (infantry fastest, irregulars worst), and unit organisation.
- Soldier and Officer Pops are now autoconverted when conquered to labourers and aristocrats.
- Units recruited from non-accepted cultures now get a -1 on reliability.
- Non-colonial provinces should no longer be eligible in peace deals between civilized nations in colonial wars.
- Machine Parts cost for erecting factories increased for everything but steel,cement and lumber.
- Natives should now revolt properly if they get irritated enough.
- Battle for the Streets will no longer permanently decrease tax efficiency with 1%, but instead make all pops in that state lose quite a lot of cash reserves.
- Leader bonuses to attack values are only applied on units that have those values.
- Modifiers for attack values can never set them below 1 OR more than double them.
- There is now a minimum cap on efficiency, so bigger armies deal some sort of firepower.
- Artillery superiority modifier is now 1% instead of 5%.
- Winery's and Liquor distilleries now require glass to produce.
- Canned Food now needs grain, fish and cattle instead of just cattle.
- Cuirassiers and Hussars are now only attachable to Cavalry.
- Tweaked costs and stats of all units.

*********************************
*** Bugfixes
*********************************
- Reported CTD's adressed and fixed.
- All reported bugs fixed.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Just loaded, patched, and messed with this tonight (for 30 minutes).

Yikes.

Many confusions.

[bamcgee]

Mine should be arriving today. I browsed through some of the Victoria forums, and I'm almost scared to start the thing up. Nevertheless, despite the obvious additional complexity, from what I've read fans of EU and HOI seem to like it a lot.

[Fritz]

just remember to go to the paradox site for patches, and not the strategy first site.


-----

Don't neglect diplomacy. It will be difference between getting crushed and making it all the way through.

[Peregrine]

Wow, I'd heard vaguely about this game, but didn't realize it was Paradox's "next big thing." I'm a huge EU2 nut, and this might be very nice indeed, but even more complexity than EU2? I'm not sure I want to handle right now. Oh well, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by Peregrine
Wow, I'd heard vaguely about this game, but didn't realize it was Paradox's "next big thing." I'm a huge EU2 nut, and this might be very nice indeed, but even more complexity than EU2? I'm not sure I want to handle right now. Oh well, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

Much more complex, although diplomacy may be less so becuase they do not have marriages.

-------------

On thing still sort of broken with the game is immigration/emmigration functions.

In my latest game I played all the way through as the Brits and could not get ONE guy to move into the Canadian interior, and not enough into the SW pacific or South Africa to "make them a state".

Until something is a state, you can't build factories.

[bamcgee]

I gave it a run through last night and basically liked it. I think I got a grasp around the early economic system (build high value factories), but I still don't have a clue with the political stuff - consciousness, militancy, plurality. Railroads are very expensive, hopefully that will decrease. I'm playing as the US and I've cut my military spending, so I'm woefully unprepared to take on Mexico or the Confederacy. I have a sneaking suspicion that I've already set my country down a road to ruin and I don't know it yet.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by bamcgee
I gave it a run through last night and basically liked it. I think I got a grasp around the early economic system (build high value factories), but I still don't have a clue with the political stuff - consciousness, militancy, plurality. Railroads are very expensive, hopefully that will decrease. I'm playing as the US and I've cut my military spending, so I'm woefully unprepared to take on Mexico or the Confederacy. I have a sneaking suspicion that I've already set my country down a road to ruin and I don't know it yet.

Railroads can get a little less expensive, but what will help more is steel getting cheaper. As you build railroads your POPs become more efficent, so more money will be availble (in theory).

What I am discovering is that you need to build some factories early that you will eventually shut down in order to move the workers into more lucrative industries.

The Rebs in the Civil war are tough. They will depete their pops and budget to form a huge army, and they start off with quality troops. After the latest patch, I had a problem where Mexico joined the cofederacy in the war. For reason, spain negotiated a peace on my behalf, so having a nation that resembled the modern US was tough.

Good luck

[Godzilla Blitz]

Any recommendations for a good country to start with to learn the game?

[bamcgee]

folks in the paradox forums suggested smaller countries like Sweden or Belgium simply because there are fewer provinces to worry about. I don't think it really matters though - it's going to be difficult no matter what. Plus I enjoy the events that are more common with larger countries.

[Godzilla Blitz]

bamcgee: Thanks. I might give Belgium a try. I tried Nepal (one province) for 30 minutes the other night, but that was kind of meaningless.

I read the manual. I felt like I learned a lot about the game but didn't learn anything about how to actually play it.

[Fritz]

Portugal might be something to try, and they are a little isolated

[bamcgee]

Portugal is a good suggestion.

I've had to restart several games, learning something new everytime. I've learned 1) it's really difficult to avoid the Civil War event. 2) don't ignore diplomacy with Great Britain as the US 3) just one incorrect trade setting and you could accidentally bankrupt yourself 4) how to mobilize and use manpower effectively.

I was perplexed in my Grand Campaign at how the CSA had so many troops, but then I realized I had focused a lot of my investing there in a belated attempt to shift from an agrarian society. Won't make that mistake again. The politics/ militancy/ consciousness model is still a complete mystery. The game is just so deep that I feel like I'm uncovering a new wrinkle every time. I love it.

[Fritz]

bamcgee - I have plaid through several time, perhaps 10, and each time I feel I understand something else better. A por manual is a bitch, but it does add to the replay value....

[Godzilla Blitz]

I'd be interested to hear what people think of this review (http://www.firingsquad.com/games/victoria_review/) .

Reading through it makes me think it might be better to wait for the next patch before starting to play.

[Fritz]

not a positive, but mostly accuarate review.

Still, now I want to go play.


BTW, the economy thing may be a bitch, but it can be very fun. yesterday as brazil I had to build all the requisite factories in tow province and swap my workfoce between them until I got the materials need to make a new workers. Then I could expand.

[bamcgee]

The reviewer was right on target with many of his comments. I'm still enjoying it in the meantime, however. I feel the same way about Victoria that I did about CM4 at one point - a great game is under the surface if they can just straighten out a few issues. (Unfortunately in that case it wasn't straightened out until CM 03/04.)

[vex]

How is online play?

[Fritz]

I haven't tried it, and probably will not. Everyone says its a mess.

[bamcgee]

has there been any news on when the next patch will be released?

[Franklinnoble]

Well, if I weren't married with young kids, I might have time to try this out... sounds like fun.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Version 1.03 is out!

Paradox Downloads (http://www.paradoxplaza.com/downloads.asp)

I think it's time I loaded this one up.

[Fritz]

woooooohoooooo

time for another bathless weekend

[WSUCougar]

I want very much to like this game. I really do. But I am struggling mightily, mainly with the fact that regardless of my efforts the budget goes into an irretrievable tailspin. I've sold tech. I've restructured factories. I've taxed the crap out of the populace. I've managed trade.

GAHHHHH!

Any ideas for salvation? I started playing as Denmark.

[Fritz]

there is your problem WSU cougar. Denmark is probably a hard country to start with.

[STK]

Fritz-

Could you give a few basic instructions for getting a game started? Regardless of your country, what are the first actions you take when starting a new game? I'm not looking for anything particularly detailed or country-specific because that would just add to my confusion.

[Fritz]

STK my boy! Howinthefuckareya? Don't be such a stranger.

Here is what I do (in a nutshell), not tot say that it is right:

1.) press pause
2.) pick a research tech. I tend to select something that will raise my income, or improve my ability to produce.
3.) Jack the Tax sliders to the right for all three income groups. You can lower them again soon, maybe.
4.) Set Def spending to almost as low as it can go.
5.) Set Army to lowish number
6.) Set Navy to almost nothing

All of this will wreck your military, but should stabalize your income situation.

The next thing I do is let the game advance 1 day. Then I start looking for a few things: 1) what goods am I lacking 2) Do I have people out of work

I also start looking at how my budget is shaping up.

Questions from there?

[bamcgee]

what's your impression of 1.03? I haven't picked up the game after my patience wore out with 1.02. Did some of the trade issues get worked out?

[STK]

Thanks for the response, Fritz ol' pal. I'm still always around, just lurking in the background.

I've been playing quite a bit over the last week. I have much of the military and diplomacy sides of the game understood. Playing as the US at war with Mexico, I was able to reach the west coast, only to settle a peace treaty for all of modern day Texas, New Mexico, and the Mexican claims in Colorado.

What I have yet to fully understand are the effects of plurality on the population, boosting the economy through industrialization, and politics as a whole. I have only played as the US and never for more than about 4 years game-time. I always seem to learn something new then start all over again from scratch.

What I could really use are specific tips for getting the US economy on the right track early in the 1836 scenario.