Victoria 3

[The Minsky Moment]

Come on guys, you can do better than that

BEET THE GAME

[Tamas]

 

[Tamas]

Otherwise:



I am going to play Austria first for my standard benchmark game and see how easy it is to federalise, then, assuming the balance isn't completely broken, I am going to play Hungary.

[Syt]

I'm unreasonably excited about this change (in the GDFIX thing):

Interface [GDFIX]: Laws with/without government support are now sorted in order of highest chance to enact instead of lowest

It's been an annoyance of mine since the game launched.

There's a few more I like:

• AI [GDFIX]: Russia annexing Outer Manchuria will no longer trigger the AI to start annexing Chinese states
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added Grocery taboo to Jewish religion to reflect their dietary restrictions (thanks nullpotato for the suggestion)
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added Rye throughput bonus to the Ursus Company (thanks germaniec7 for the suggestion)
• Balance [GDFIX]: Political Movement support from Wealth now scales against the political strength from wealth levels, meaning that the support of a single wealthy individual is much more significant than support from a large number of poor individuals - Guess we'll have to keep our wealthy elites happier than the rabble
• Balance [GDFIX]: The 'Force Nationalization' wargoal now requires you to control all your own states instead of requiring you to occupy the enemy capital
• Balance [GDFIX]: Machinists and Engineers now contribute to the Investment Pool under economic setups where they receive dividends
• Balance [GDFIX]: GDP owned by your country in other countries now counts towards the reinvestment multiplier, so that a country with a massive investment pool from foreign holdings will not have it artificially boosted further
• Balance [GDFIX]: The Launch Military Incursions decision in the Conquest of the Desert now requires Logistics instead of Civilizing Mission, and adds some infamy when taken
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added one level of Artillery Foundry and Port to Washington DC (thanks RyantheLion for the suggestion)
• Balance [GDFIX]: Increased Wood potentials throughout Sweden, Norway, Canada, and the Northern and Western United States
• Balance [GDFIX]: Increased Iron potentials for Norrland and Svealand
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added Vineyard potentials to Tyrol, Bavaria, and Delvidek
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added Tobacco potentials to Wisconsin, Indiana, New York, Pastaza, and Mosul
• Balance [GDFIX]: Removed Rye potentials from Oulu, Kola, and Yakutsk, and added Rye potential to Outer Manchuria
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added Iron and Sulphur potentials to Cyprus
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added Fruit potentials to Pastaza
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added Rubber potentials to Antioquia and Cauca
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added Coffee potential to Goias
• Balance [GDFIX]: Forming FND as PLT should keep Platinean culture as primary
• Balance [GDFIX]: Haiti starts with Homesteading now
• Balance [GDFIX]: Made colonization speed account for paused colonies
• Balance [GDFIX]: Made colonization ignore population of source state when determining speed penalty
• Balance [GDFIX]: Added a lot of Obsessions to various cultures (thanks Tony for the suggestion)
• Balance [GDFIX]: Changed the trigger of the United Fruit Company to allow foreign investment to fulfill forming conditions. The requirement of having 5 levels in their home state AND in Central/South America is intentional.
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: The Fascist leader ideology now requires Political Agitation instead of Mass Propaganda, to bring it in line with the requirements for the Fascist Movement
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Added missing starting province for when Luxembourg is released (thanks Jackolio for the suggestion)
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Removed Rice Farm potentials from Hokkaido
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Corrected Asa Thurston's culture to Yankee
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Juan Silvano Godoi and Rafael Barrett will now correctly spawn for Paraguay
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Fixed several issues with subject flags for United Tribes, Tibet, Jamaica, Bretagne, and Brunei
• Bugfixes [GFDIX]: Fixed errors in the names of Pakubuwana IX and George Strickland Kingston
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Fixed an issue where releasing Russia or Belarus would give the Devout ideology redundant Moralist ideologies
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Fixed an issue where various left-wing ideologies would not properly weight Serfdom in political party calculations
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Fixed an issue where Moderniser characters could not support Moderniser movements
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Fixed an issue where power bloc join calculations used an incorrect scope for assessing identity/principle scores
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Re-enabled the Despotic Utopian ideology for Trade Unions and Petit-Bourgeoisie
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Fixed incorrect secession weights for the Abolitionist Movement in the USA
• Bugfixes [GDFIX]: Fixed some japanese loc formatting to allow showing data (thanks maruta for the suggestion)
• Game Content [GDFIX]: Added a chain of succession for all French dynasties
• Game Content [GDFIX]: Added Yankee homelands to District of Columbus, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia (thanks DonQuijote for the suggestion)
• Game Content [GDFIX]: Changed Savoy and Piedmont's hub and state names to be italian by default. They will switch to the french version once controlled by France (thanks Il Fop for the suggestion).
• Interface [GDFIX]: The pop list movement support display now provides an accurate number and a correct breakdown tooltip
• Interface [GDFIX]: Laws with/without government support are now sorted in order of highest chance to enact instead of lowest
• Interface [GDFIX]: Added a player countries map mode
• Interface [GDFIX]: You can now see information about foreign GDP ownership in the country panel - I was using a mod for it, but let's see how they handle it
• Interface [GDFIX]: Fixed so we show correct goods contribution to gdp % in the state interface.
• Interface [GDFIX]: Fixed so we no longer get spam of notifications for when someone joins a diplomatic play and they have tons of subjects
• Improvements [GDFIX]: The 'September Convention' treaty name template now names the treaty dynamically after the month it was signed in instead of it always being September
• Improvements [GDFIX]: Switched José Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia's Ambitious trait for Cautious, and his Cruel trait for Ruthless
• Improvements [GDFIX]: Added option when releasing a nation to keep states considered homelands for your primary cultures[/li]
  
  • Improvements [GDFIX]: Military wages now also affect the prestige gain from Navy power projection (thanks Tony for the suggestion) (also previously handled via mod)
  • Improvements [GDFIX]: When enforced as part of a peace agreement or capitulation during war, the Independence war goal now also automatically also nationalizes overlord-held building levels - not sure how I feel about it; seems potentially a bit too powerful? Also, historically, didn't economic influence of the previous overlord continue after political independence?
  • Localisation [GDFIX]: Corrected localisation for the has_commander_order trigger to display the relevant order
  • Modding [GDFIX]: Fixed a typo in the Artillery Foundry building group, was foundary before

[Syt]

Expansion releases tomorrow. I'm trying to tamper my expectations - there'll surely be bugs, broken stuff and imbalances (as there always are), but fingers crossed.


BTW, a major annoyance IMO is that the Union rarely wins the American Civil War. It's way too easy for the Rebels to take DC right next to the border and peace out the Union. I feel the "occupy capital for quick win" strategy needs nerfing. On the one hand, I don't think you should have to siege down an entire country to win. But similarly, taking St Petersburg should not cause Russia to peace out. I feel that major powers should have the option to relocate the capital in case of occupation. This should be limited - only to incorporated states with certain infrastructure/population. Also, it should cause a drop in War support, but not as severely as having your capital taken. And it should be limited to once or twice per War and reset right after.

[The Minsky Moment]

DC has heavily fortified and guarded with defense in depth but that really isn't modeled in the game

[Syt]

Well, yeah, there's the complete lack of fortifications in game, too.

[Tamas]

New patch is out and by a COMPLETE coincidence I organised my meetings to free up a fair chunk of my afternoon.

Not nearly ready to draw conclusion on the Austria content and the new mechanics of course (Austria is defo more interesting than it was) but front creation oddities certainly persist.

My Austria got into a war, where I supported the Papal State against Two Sicilies, and the latter received Russian support with whom I have a defensive alliance.

I THINK the alliance is the reason why a front was not created pre-war on the Austro-Russian border. But when the war broke out, a tiny front was created there (for whatever reason), which looks pretty odd. But it did allow my Hungarian vassal to achieve a deep breakthrough into Ukraine while Russia is busy trying to invade my Venetian lands...

[Tamas]

So this is how it is now. Second North Italian secession succeeded thanks to US support (there was one Piedmontian attempt to unify Italy against me but I beat them and re-divided Italy into small states).

Super-Greece grew out of a big secessionist revolt (when the Greek revolt broke out, Greece declared a separate war with Russian support) and they wasted little time to go against Egypt for the Greek islands plus those Middle East territories. Bulgaria was released as a Greek-Russian demand during that war.

I have been trying to push things toward liberal things. with some success. when the Springtime of Nations hit I gave Hungary everything they wanted (events for their March 1848 demands ie. fairly liberal laws and then in a separate event the annexation of Transylvania) and I have been letting them keep those things, BUT I have been refusing their request to decrease autonomy to Personal Union, even though that'd enable the Dual Monarchy option.

Things might change now though, if I can't reconquer Northern Italy that's going to hurt, it feels vulnerable (and a waste) to have a massive vassal in the middle of my territory.

Croatia (now Slovenia-Croatia for some reason) had a period where I had a 75% chance for them accepting annexation but I didn't take it and now it's long gone, they are on the regular "can we please ease up" demand circle just like Hungary.

[The Minsky Moment]

Known issues include
Male_beard_european_05 not showing correct mesh.

No way I touch this game without my favorite European beard.

[Syt]

I didn't really dig into it yet. By the time I sat down to play it (wanted to give Russia a go to see if it was harder to modernize now), but my brain was too tired to engage with complex matters at that point.

I switched over to observer mode while listening to a podcast and playing Balatro on my phone. Ottomans saw many uprisings. Bulgaria broke free, but they conquered Serbia. Montenegro consolidated its one state and during a time Ottomans fought several wars almost took over the two Serbian states and Montenegro, only losing because Ottomans finished their other wars before their war support dropped to -100.

Germany formed (Prussia had become a parliamentary republic after Springtime of Peoples, so it was democratic Germany). Brittany had broken from France. Austria-Hungary became Austria-Hungary (Transylvania/Croatia were absorbed). England went a bit crazy - turning Venezuela into a protectorate, and starting its (now usual) conqest run into China and Tibet, plus taking Eastern Andalusia. Though Andalusia rebelled shortly after, though didn't see how that played out as I went to bed. But maybe (just maybe) countries taking chunks of China will self - remedy more easily when the locals rebel?

[Tamas]

Well, who needs sleep, right?!

By 1882 my half-assed approach to Hungary (let them thrive but don't give them more autonomy) really came back to bite me.

Earlier we fought once already. When I decided to honour my alliance with Russia and help them against the UK going for most of Central Asia, Hungary joined Britain for the goal of increased autonomy. But they were no match to the combined Russo-Austrian armies.

So in 1881 I figured it was time to vassalise the Republic of San Marco to start and get North Italy back in some fashion. Well, Hungary stabbed me in the back again, and for added flavour, Mega Greece joined them as well. And I was beaten.

Since Hungary was thus now in Personal Union anyways, I went for the Dual Monarchy, opti g for giving them Croatia but keeping half of Dalmatia for myself so I can keep my fleet.

Thing is though, I have neither the prestige nor the army size to compell them to decrease their liberty desire even with the bonus from this deal. So I need to rearm and quickly.

Bloody Hungarians.

[Norgy]

How the hell did Mega Greece exist? Through alliances?

I would not recommend The Great Revision mod(s). It just railroads Germany into a super-power and somewhat helps Italy form.

Some of the new laws it introduces, they do not make much sense to me. Support mining industry? Okay. I have to choose between that and agriculture?

The fact that most countries also start out with mercantilism as trade law is just weird because of the way it works. So my country pays to get imports from the world market of things we easily produce ourselves? Did anyone read an economic history book?

[Tamas]

No, mega Greece came from a Greek sepaarist uprising plus a Greece and Russia vs Ottomans war happening simultaneously.

[Tamas]

Also I would defo skip such mods for now since the new mechanics have changed how the unification work as well, I think.