Victoria 3

[Richard Hakluyt]

Very odd. V3 used to crash on my old intel machine and is now very stable on my win11 AMD X3D machine 

[Norgy]

I run the game on an AMD rig. It works fine, but I've turned off all the bells and whistles that AMD offer with CPU and GPU.

HoI4 would not work because I had those aforementioned bells and whistles turned on.

Could you adjust the RAM speed in BIOS and just see how it goes, Syt?
Victoria 3 does have an extremely long load time even from an m.2.

[Syt]

I noticed I was missing an optional Windows update, so I installed that. I've been able to run an observer game now till 1901 (took about 2.5 hours) ... fingers crossed that this is the issue resolved.

[Syt]

One of the things that kept bothering me about Vic3 is how the events would interrupt the soundtrack all the damn time, even if you lower the volume of the event sounds all the way.

Went looking once again if anyone had a workaround .... yes! This mod:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3378208147

It's simple - it modifies the file that defines all event sounds to be blank. Sure, you will no longer get the screaming/sawing sound of someone having their leg amputated or little fanfares, but the background music now plays uninterrupted.

(Previously I played music from Spotify instead )

[Syt]

I know everyone's on the EU5 train for now, but this dev diary for the Vic 3 DLC also looks nice (preview of the FREE patch content):

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-163-the-fine-print.1867438/

In short, laws become more interactive - you can try to bribe interest groups to either support or at least not oppose certain laws. It will depend on how amenable they are (comes in 4 tiers, from will not change mind at all to easily swayed).












Additionally, amendments might be added to laws during the legislative process which will also be a mechanic to further flesh out country specific laws (the dev diary cites the difference between French and British wealth voting).












Additionally, there will be new production methods for plantation, with the options to make it harder on the slaves/wage labor - esp. if low worker rights - together with making plantations more profitable, i.e. encouraging plantation economies more. They'll also add slave revolts.

And, if a monarch is underage, there will be regencies going forward.

All in all more exciting changes coming to the game.

[Tamas]

Thabks Syt sounds interesting.

[Syt]

Heads up: next patch will break pretty much all mods.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-164-marvelous-modding-monday.1868975/

However, it will make it easier to do partial overrides/maintain compatibility as they add a similar modding functions as EU5:

Code Select Expand

INJECT:key - this mode tries to inject the script into an existing entry. Errors if the respective entry does not exist.
REPLACE:key - this mode replaces an existing entry with a new one. Errors if the respective entry does not exist.


TRY_INJECT:key same as INJECT: but does not error if the entry does not exist.
TRY_REPLACE:key same as REPLACE: but does not error if the entry does not exist.


REPLACE_OR_CREATE:key = { } # Same as REPLACE: but if the entry does not exist, it will create it
INJECT_OR_CREATE:key = { } # Same as INJECT: but if the entry does not exist, it will create it

[Syt]

As part of the Spain content pack there will be a revision to coups:

Update 1.12's Coup system completely replaces the Coup! Journal Entry contained in the Voice of the People immersion pack, and makes it free to all users. As a result, we have decided to make it so that the new paid Depose Ruling Dynasty decision and country-specific patriotic sashes contained in Iberian Twilight will also be unlocked by Voice of the People.

If an Interest Group's approval is reduced below -10, and a country has an applicable military commander belonging to this interest group, they will be able to begin a coup against the government.

The chance for a successful coup is calculated off of a commander's Coup Strength compared to the sitting government's Coup Resistance. A commander's Coup Strength is calculated from their popularity, the number of units they command, their proximity to the capital, and the clout of their interest group, as well as any other bonuses or maluses provided by narrative content. The government's Coup Resistance is largely calculated from its legitimacy, as well as the presence of armed institutions that may rival the standing military in a pinch.

Once it begins, a coup will progress according to the ratio between Coup Strength and Coup Resistance. As one may see here, the progress of the coup is greatly benefited by the stunningly high popularity of His Highness Captain General Baldomero Espartero, Viceroy of Navarre, Prince of Vergara, Duke of la Victoria, Duke of Morella, Count of Luchana, and Viscount of Banderas. Historically, His Highness took the Regency of Spain over from Queen-Regent María Cristina following the Revolution of 1840, an event one may recreate if a commander coups a Regency.

A successful coup may have different effects depending on circumstances. In this case, as Spain is electing a law that the Petit-Bourgeoisie dislikes, the enactment of this law will cease and a law they prefer will be activated instead. Additionally, Spain will be forced into a Petit-Bourgeoisie dominated government for the next two years, or until the next election.

Once the progress bar reaches 100%, the coupist commander will issue a pronunciamiento. Attempting to exile or retire the coupist commander whilst this Journal Entry is active will also trigger a pronunciamiento, albeit one whose strength is reduced by a function of how premature it is. Depending on circumstances, the government will either have the chance to try and resist the coup, or it will be forced out of power. The former case will occur if a pronunciamiento has been triggered by attempting to exile or retire the coupist commander, or if the Coup Resistance and Coup Strength of government and commander are relatively evenly-matched. The latter will occur if the Coup Strength of the commander enormously eclipses the Coup Resistance of the government.

If a coup fails, a portion of the military proportional to the popularity of the coupist commander will become radicalised, as will the membership of their Interest Group.

In certain circumstances, one may orchestrate a coup against the government themselves. Those who own Iberian Twilight or Voice of the People may make use of the Depose Ruling Dynasty decision, which initialises a coup to replace the ruling dynasty of a country. If one wishes to restore King Miguel as Portugal, for example, one may do so by recruiting a Miguelist commander and getting them into a position where they may overthrow the constitutionalist government.

Vic 3 is the Cinderella story that I wish Imperator could have experienced, too

[Syt]

Also (this from the latest dev diary):
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-166-i-am-not-in-spain.1875473/

Changes to Colonial Administrations (Changing administrative language, racial segregation)
Electoral Confidence (going down if you manipulate elections)
Cultural Commonwealth (new type of power bloc - could be an interesting twist for Germany? Trying to replace the Zollverein with a Cultural Commonwealth?)
Rework of Colonial Governors
Some content for Cuba, Philippines, Morocco, Haiti/Dominica

Next dev diary will be about Portugal.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I decided to spin up Vicky 3 for the first time in a few years and several patches.  Bought Expansion Pass 2, so I now have all the DLC except Pivot of Empire.  Started with the US, as one does.

It's been... interesting.  I'm a little over 20 years in, but I have already dealt with the Mexican-American War, ACW, and Oregon border dispute.  I have control of the entire Lower 48 except for some areas of Idaho that still need to be colonized.  I'm also about 40 weeks from completing the Transcontinental Railroad.

The ACW fired in early 1850 due to radicalization of the Pro-Slavery Movement.  Very oddly, the Yeoman Farmers broke from the Southern Planters in the mid 1840s and became the driving force behind the Whigs.  This eventually brought the Whigs/Republicans into power when the Yeoman Farmers alone had more than 50% support for a bit.  This was partly driven by an event coming up that allowed for some nefarious interference with the Southern Planters, but I expected the Yeoman Farmers would stick with the Democrats.  Them flipping to the Whigs (and eventually pulling the more liberal Industrialists with them) made it too easy to push the Democrats out and pass a few laws that weakened the reactionary elements.  Also during this time, the Evangelicals and Intelligentsia quickly fell into irrelevance and never recovered.  This doesn't really make sense, either.

Anyway, after the radicalization of the Pro-Slavery Movement got high enough, I got the secession movement.  The choice of states was... odd.  Kentucky joined the movement, but Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina did not.  I let the movement go so I could get this over with.  I had, as usual, been careful not to raise any battalions from southern states, though I did not disband the ones I started with.  Despite the rebels trying to raise conscripts, I was able to steamroll them in about six months with about 30 regular battalions and about 15 conscript battalions (I was trying to raise more conscripts, but the war was over too quickly).

So, war over.  I get journal entries for Reconstruction.  Except... I have to reconstruct states that remained loyal just because they're Dixie homelands?  That makes no sense.  It makes even less sense that the loyalist states suddenly unincorporate like the ones who actually seceded.  Really inconsistent mechanic design that the secession is dynamic, but the Reconstruction is static.  Even dumber that states I colonized after the war get added to this list just for being flagged as Dixie homelands.  It feels like the "reconstruct states" entry is very hard to actually do in the allotted time frame because of this.

Speaking of Reconstruction journal entries, the one about raising base acceptance of the Afro-American culture seems downright impossible.  As I read the cultural acceptance mechanism, base acceptance is driven largely by indelible traits of the culture.  I'm assuming there's some way to change how these traits interact with the dominant culture through institutions (and maybe social technologies), but I have no chance of budging the base acceptance in the allotted time frame.  I get events that will boost local acceptance, but this does nothing for the goal.

Moving on, I decided to concentrate on the West after the ACW.  I researched Nationalism shortly after the war, and immediately took the Manifest Destiny decision.  I let my infamy chill for a few years, built up my forces, waited for the Mexicans to finish colonization, then went for my states.  This war was also a steamroll, though it took a bit longer than the ACW.  Other than a few ill-advised attacks by a small formation early in the war, I won every battle.  Easy peasy, and now I have most of the Lower 48.

From there, I concentrated on clearing up the Oregon border dispute and getting my last three states.  Pretty boring and straightforward: find the trail, kiss Bri'ish ass, thanks for the Northwest guv'nah.  Around the same time I finished colonizing Nebraska, so I got the Transcontinental Railroad entry and immediately queued the necessary trackage.  Just waiting for Nevada to finish.  Guess the next task is to gobble up Alaska and Hawai'i.

A few other oddities I've noticed in the world:

• The Heavenly Kingdom overthrew the Qing
• Japan become a Westernizing empire in the early 1850s, maybe late 1840s, after the British made an early "open market" play
• Prussia has already started going after German unification