Victoria 3

[Jacob]

I pre-bought the expansion anyhow. It's 20% off at the moment.

[Syt]

1.6 released today. Also, Sphere of Influence, originally scheduled for March release, scheduled for May:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2411231/Victoria_3_Sphere_of_Influence/

Put your diplomatic skill to the ultimate test in Sphere of Influence, a new expansion to Victoria 3. Pull other nations into your orbit through diplomatic skill, economic leverage or straightforward bribery. Building a durable international faction of like-minded governments, pursuing common goals for a common good and the glory of your power.

Paradox Interactive's grand strategy simulation of the Victorian Age offers new ways to impose your will on the world. A coalition of reactionary powers can form blocs to work against the threat of liberal forces in other nations. Use your economic might to co-opt or coerce other regimes, spreading the banner of your ideology wherever your fleets might sail. Resist or embrace domestic pressure to change your traditional foreign policy, as economic and ideological agitators push you to build new coalitions of power.

Sphere of Influence adds many new actions and systems to illustrate the quick moving nature of diplomatic relations in this dramatic era, including new content specifically about The Great Game - the decades long competition between the British and Russian Empires for pre-eminence in North India and Central Asia.

Features of Victoria 3: Sphere of Influence includes:

Fierce Competition: Use your Prestige to become a Great Power and create your own Power Bloc! Dominate other nations in a diplomatic arrangement to pursue common economic or ideological goals, whether promoting open trade around the world or spreading specific values to other nations.

Power Bloc Customization: Choose the identity and principles of your loose alliance, whether it be a group promoting ideological concerns like the Comintern, or an economy-oriented bloc pushing for cross-border market integration like the Zollverein. You can even customize colors and emblems for your bloc!

"The Great Game": New events, journal entries and decisions inspired by the Russian and British rivalry in Central Asia, and a new Objective - you can play as any of the powers central to that conflict, including Persia and Afghanistan. A newly redrawn map highlights the many competing interests in this frontier between empires.

Foreign Investment: Invest in the economic development of countries outside of your direct influence, making a profit from their financial success.

Nationalization: Start a Diplomatic Play to seize foreign assets in your country and prevent your wealth from going overseas.

Subject Interactions: Adjust the payments from your vassals and protectorates, meddle in their internal politics and more!

Interest Group Lobbies: Domestic interest groups will pursue foreign policy objectives, promoting amicable relations with some countries and hostility with others nations or even influence the development of friendly lobbies in other nations.

Power Bloc Monuments: Build majestic monuments to emphasise your bloc's influence and domination over world events.
New Historical Flavor: New historical characters and companies, most centered on the Great Game content, as well as more events, new journal entries, Lobby related content, new clothing and event art.

Now, I may be missing something, but ... Power Blocs?

Though I guess that should making Cold War mods a lot easier.

[Syt]

Screenshots:

[Syt]

Feature list for SoI:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-108-sphere-of-influence-and-1-7-overview.1630240/

Next dev diaries:

21st March   Power Blocs
28th March   Foreign Investment & Building Ownership
4th April   Subject Interactions
11th April   Lobbies and More on Power Blocs
18th April   The Great Game
25th April   The Art of Sphere of Influence
2nd May   Changelog 1.7

[Josephus]

Trying to give this another go. According to my save files, the last time I played was exactly 12 months ago. Feeling overwhelmed

[Tamas]

Trying to give this another go. According to my save files, the last time I played was exactly 12 months ago. Feeling overwhelmed

I've been tempted but I am going to wait for the DLC, it's only 5 weeks now and there's going to be a lot of interesting stuff.

Most of them broken at release, no doubt. 

[Syt]

The foreign investment DD had me quite excited. Having owners of buildings separated from the buildings themselves is great, and should help funnel funds from the colonies/poor countries back home instead of having the Standard of Living in Kenya outpacing that of Paris or London

Though I'm worried that this change may lead to a lot of whining/complaining from people not understanding systems:

Q: Just to be clear: the private investment pool may be used by the AI to fund the creation of wholly new buildings in foreign countries, right? That is, we don't need to wait for that country to build something and then put it up for sale.

Does this mean that this may create situations in which capitalists might prefer to invest in foreign, more profitable enterprises, instead of on your own territory, generating employment overseas but not at home? That would be a really nice consequence.

A: Correct

There's people complaining regularly that private investors don't build "strategic" industries, because they should look at "what's good for the country" (and not what's good for their bank account?), and I assume this will add to that. "They should invest in jobs at home FIRST, not in some third world country where they can produce for a fraction of the cost!" (Esp. since they plan to remove the option to disable the private investment pool )

[Josquius]

My reason for not getting this yet has come to fruition. Its on humble bundle

https://www.humblebundle.com/membership/home

[Josephus]

One thing I will say about this game...it has the best map of all P'dox games.

[The Minsky Moment]

1.5/1.6 seemed stable enough to start up a new game.
"Sphere" looks really promising but I figure a few months to get it running right.

[Syt]

Yes. There seems a lot of complexity coming into the model which I think will have "quirks" at launch. I just hope they're taking notes from recent not so successful releases and try to get the base functionalities right from the get go.

[Solmyr]

One thing I will say about this game...it has the best map of all P'dox games.

Best terrain map. Imperator has the best political/atlas map.

[Josephus]

Just when I thought I was getting into this game, something happens I don't understand, can't fix, and want to rage quit. So I'm playing as Switzerland. Am in a customs union with Prussia. But suddenly I get alerts that I am isolated from Prussia. Don't have a land connection. Austria is embargoing Prussia. Is that the reason? And if so, why can't I connect through France and the west provinces which are connected. And what do I do?

[Tamas]

Just when I thought I was getting into this game, something happens I don't understand, can't fix, and want to rage quit. So I'm playing as Switzerland. Am in a customs union with Prussia. But suddenly I get alerts that I am isolated from Prussia. Don't have a land connection. Austria is embargoing Prussia. Is that the reason? And if so, why can't I connect through France and the west provinces which are connected. And what do I do?

Join another market? It's a bit silly at the moment especially since enemy armies seem to have less restrictions on where to roam than market access. 

[Josephus]

Just when I thought I was getting into this game, something happens I don't understand, can't fix, and want to rage quit. So I'm playing as Switzerland. Am in a customs union with Prussia. But suddenly I get alerts that I am isolated from Prussia. Don't have a land connection. Austria is embargoing Prussia. Is that the reason? And if so, why can't I connect through France and the west provinces which are connected. And what do I do?

Join another market? It's a bit silly at the moment especially since enemy armies seem to have less restrictions on where to roam than market access. 

no other market wants me.