Good day Victorians!
I’m happy to say Pivot of Empire and the free Update 1.8, fittingly named “Masala Chai”, have been released! The specific checksum is 98cc.
The Pivot of Empire Immersion Pack focuses on India and its path through the Victorian age. Many countries in the region have received new Journal Entries and Events that provide a more immersive experience to you.
The free Update 1.8, on the other hand, is adding reworks of central mechanics like Political Movements and Discrimination, additions like Harvest Conditions and Food Security, as well as Improvements for Companies and Military quality of life and many many other things.
In other news: As some of you may know, we recently hired Tunay, better known as Doodlez in the community, as a Systems Designer. Before joining us, he used to work on a mod called VTM (Victoria Tweaks Mod), together with One Proud Bavarian.
We have now integrated a range of improvements from that mod into the base game and might continue to do so in the future. You will find the respective entries marked with “VTM” at the front.
A big thank you to OPB and every other modder that continues to make Victoria 3 better, more interesting or completely different with their mods!
As always, you can find a list of Known Issues following the link. Most of these should get addressed in subsequent hotfixes in the coming days and weeks. Keep in mind that save games from 1.7.7 are not going to be compatible with the 1.8 Update, but any hotfixes released after will not break save games from 1.8 onwards.
Now let’s take a look at the full changelog or start playing right away!
Pivot of Empire Features
- Added the Communal Divides Journal Entry to the game, with associated events
- New random events can trigger when a new culture has recently arrived in a state and faces an acclimatization period
- Added a Journal Entry with associated events for Sikh Empire
- Added a Dravidian Movement journal entry with associated events
- Added a Utilitarianism Journal Entry for East India Company with associated events
- Added a Railways Journal Entry for India with associated events
- Added a Journal Entry with associated events to construct the Victoria Terminus
- Added a Journal Entry for Princely States with associated events
- Added an India-specific famine Journal Entry and associated events
- Added Utilitarian ideology and leader ideology
- Added 7 India-related companies to the game
- Updated John Stuart Mill's character template
There are also a wealth of new art features available with Pivot of Empire:
- Added new UI skin, panels, headers, buttons and menu assets
- Added Indian building set for the 3D map
- Added Victoria Terminus to the 3D map
- New clothing added for characters and pops in India
- Added historical characters DNA and outfits
- Added an Indian table cloth for the table
- Added two new loading screens for 'Pivot of Empire'
- Urban Indian states now make use of the Indian city image
- Added icon for 'Pivot of Empire'
- Added Theme Selector banner for 'Pivot of Empire'
To read through, and see even more from the art team about the art of Pivot of Empire, go here and here.
Achievements
To accompany all the new features and content added in Pivot of Empire, we have added 10 new achievements to the game:
ProleCorp
As a council republic with command economy, have a company at max prosperity.
prolecorp.jpg
Azadi
As the Mughal Empire, complete the Prisoner of the Red Fort journal entry, expel the British, and bring all of India under your control.
azadi.jpg
Be Prepared!
Be prepared and avert a famine during a high-intensity harvest condition.
be_prepared.jpg
On the Edge
As Punjab, have four rulers die during the Sikh Sovereignty Journal Entry, before successfully completing it.
on_the_edge.jpg
Caste Away
Enact Affirmative Action as a country with the British Indian caste system.
caste_away.jpg
The Real Movement
Have a Communist Movement with support over 50%
the_real_movement.jpg
Folkhemmet
As Sweden, enact Corporate State and have level 5 Social Security, Health, and Workplace Safety institutions.
folkhemmet.jpg
Cosmopolitan
Have 10 non-primary cultures present in your country, and have all their constituent pops be at Full Acceptance.
cosomopolitan.jpg
Our Words are Backed…
Have Gandhi as your head of state, whilst having Infamy over 100.
our_words_are_backed.jpg
The Man Who Would be King
Unify Afghanistan as Kafiristan under Josiah Harlan.
the_man_who_would_be_king.jpg
Changelog
The following changes have been made to the game compared to 1.7.7:
Features
- The Discrimination system has been overhauled. Instead of a binary accepted or not accepted status, Pops will now have an Acceptance value from 0-100. This value is determined by Culture and Religion first and foremost and depends on the Citizenship laws you have enacted. Depending on the value, they have one of five Acceptance statuses. Also depending on the Citizenship laws in your country, there are different effects being applied to these statuses.
- The Citizenship and Church and State laws have been reworked and a variety of new modifiers have been added.
- When pops first migrate into a state, they now start at a low cultural acceptance value which will improve over time as their Cultural Community matures
- Passing a law that makes some culture more accepted in your country will now cause them to gravitate towards that acceptance level over time, rather than gaining the full acceptance value they're legally entitled to by law immediately
- Reworked the Political Movement system completely. Political Movements are no longer temporary entities which just want to enact or stop a single law, but long-term ideological/cultural/religious forces that try to reshape the country in their image. In addition to helping or hindering the enactment of laws, movements can also pressure interest groups, resulting in a chance for those interest groups to get leaders with ideologies fitting for the movement.
- Reworked Secessions and Revolutions to work with the new Political Movement system. All civil wars now come from a specific movement and either aim to put that movement in charge of the country, or to secede. Secessions are no longer always culture-based and the old, highly random and turmoil-based cultural secession system has been removed from the game.
- Added a new subject track for Colonial countries
- Added a highly autonomous Chartered Company subject type, centered around income transfer to its overlord
- A social hierarchy system has been added. It is based on social classes which can be defined by a lot of things. In the base hierarchy, the only conditions are professions which result in the Strata setup as it was before, e.g. Aristocrats in Upper Strata, Peasants in Lower Strata.
- For India, we have added the British Caste System. Its classes are different than the base hierarchy. It only affects Pops of Hindu religion with South Asian Heritage. It comes with its own law group which will affect the flavored social classes directly, depending on which law is active.
- Added a Food Security value which measures how easy or difficult it is for a Pop to acquire the food they need to survive. It's based on availability of goods and how much of their money a Pop needs to spend on food.
- Adjusted Pop Starvation to be based on Food Security. Mild and Severe Starvation have drastic effects on birth rate, mortality and radicalization.
- Added 13 harvest conditions that can trigger around the world affecting rural buildings and infrastructure
- Added a map mode that tracks starvation levels globally
- Added a map list panel for the starvation map mode
- Added a resync button to multiplayer games when the game goes out of sync. If the host presses this all clients will immediately resync with the host and the game can continue.
- Companies now can own buildings. To establish them you will need to possess some country-owned building levels or pay a lump sum to transfer the levels from existing other owners to the company (depending on the economic law). Once established, a Company HQ building is constructed in a fitting state.
- Company HQs can use the investment pool in order to construct new buildings or buy existing building levels. They will prefer to invest locally up to a certain level before spreading their influence.
- Company throughput and construction efficiency bonuses now only apply to the levels they own directly or which they are constructing. To compensate for this, these bonuses have been drastically increased.
- States and their cities and towns can now change name based on things like the culture of their owner
- States and their cities and towns can now be renamed by the player
- Military formations can now be moved to fronts, HQs, and sea nodes using right-click
- Multiple formations can now be selected and deployed or stationed together
- You can now drag to select military formations with the mouse
- Added Bulk Nationalization to the Building Registry window. Pressing the "Nationalize Filtered Buildings" will open a window which only includes your filtered buildings. In it, you can choose how many of these levels you want to nationalize and which ownership type they belong to.
- Added pause on event setting to the message settings window. It will unpause after all events are resolved (will show Paused by Event message). If a player wants to keep the game paused just unpause the game while events haven't been resolved it will return the game to normal pausing mode.
Improvements
- It is now possible to add some types of wargoals (such as conquering/returning states) on behalf of subjects that are on your side in a diplomatic play. The infamy is added to the overlord adding the wargoal.
- When a revolution ends or a secession is crushed, the pre-civil war capital state is now restored to capital status if it ended up siding with the rebels
- Pop types now check for starvation rather than Standard of Living to determine their level of political engagement
- Sphere of Influence: Made the Ideological Union Power Bloc action "Force Regime Change" more usable. Instead of looking if the total difference in progressiveness is above 100, it's now enough if one of the two categories is different enough. Additionally, the minimum Cohesion value to activate it has been reduced from 50 to 25.
- It is now always possible to use the 'Increase Autonomy' and 'Independence' war goals when being directly targeted by your overlord in a diplomatic play
- Deaths related to wars are now tracked by culture, and each participant will lose War Support relative to their acceptance status for the cultures of dead pops on both sides (to different degrees). The implication of this is that it will be easier to stay in wars if your country discriminates against the cultures of combatant pops, and harder if you're a very accepting country in a war where either party uses their population as cannon fodder.
- Changed the Doctrine of Lapse from a decision to a subject interaction
- Overlords are now able to support their subjects in a war regardless of their relations level
- Taxation levels will now alter the expected standard of living, in lieu of directly generating radicals
- Which states will side with the rebels in a civil war now depends on the type of support it can bring in. Popular Support tends to result in more states overall rebelling, Military Support tends to result in a greater share of the army/navy rebelling, and Wealth Support tends to result in overseas colonies rebelling. Additionally, insurrectionary IGs will tend to pull in areas where they have a high degree of the local clout.
- Colonies will be stopped from growing if they are isolated from their market
- Frontier Colonization now allows the player to colonize states that border a sea zone that also borders any state connected by land to your capital
- Cooperative Ownership now only affects collectivization of Manufacturing, Resource Extraction and Power Plant buildings. Collectivization of agriculture, plantations and ranching is fully controlled by the land ownership law instead.
- Pro and Anti Lobbies now care about the acceptance status of your country's primary cultures in the target country, in addition to the mere presence of the primary culture
- Restricted the Social Mobility decree to not be usable under enforced caste system laws
- Adjusted France's starting navies so that none of them start with an organization penalty
- Added logging potential to Kyushu (Thanks to user ThatStrategist and many other people for the feedback!)
- When a country changes ruler, if the new ruler already rules another country, a Personal Union is established automatically
- Added dynamic state and hub names for Eastern Europe
- Replaced outdated uses of "Morale Cap" modifier with appropriate modifiers
- Added a new game rule, which is turned off by default. The game rule enables the player to set a grace period of 1, 5, or 10 years during which gains of both Radicals and Loyalists start out low and are progressively increased. Players are encouraged to use this game rule to give themselves a more stable political early game.
- Radicals and Loyalists from Standard of Living (only) are no longer scaled down by default in the early game, leading to unbalanced changes to Radicals and Loyalists from e.g. events
- Industry Banned law now decreases Economic Dependence on Overlord, while Extraction Economy law increases it
- The Devout is no longer very racist by default
- Reduced Japan's starting territories in Hokkaido to the Wajinchi area
- Removed Japan's starting claim on Sakhalin to stop them immediately colonizing the island, and gave them a starting colonization debuff modifier. Claim will be re-added and modifier removed once you complete the Honorable Restoration Journal Entry
- Reworked the map, pop, and culture setup for India and Burma
- The British East India Company now starts with many of its recently-acquired territories as unincorporated states
- Support Independence now increases Liberty Desire in the subject country by a small amount each week
- Unpopular agitators are no longer removed from the game, unless their popularity sinks all the way to -100
- The Andaman and Nicobar islands are no longer impassible
- Events triggered by monthly and yearly pulses are now spread out better
- When you click any of the privatization or subsidy buttons that affect all buildings of a type it will now flag that type so that all new buildings also get that setting
- Added a small experience gain effect for military units to the Military Drill technology (previously had no effect)
- acw_events.5.b now moves part of an existing slave pop from a neighboring slave state rather than create a new pop from thin air
- Made the Abdicate and Resign interactions more visible during valid revolutions
- VTM - Added a cultural trait for the Assyrian culture
- VTM - Added the Turkic cultural trait to cultures that were missing it
- Renamed New Brunswick into Maritimes
- Made Rubber Rush events appear less often
- References for GPU splines were removed from the game shaders
- Changed Isolated Colony alert type to Alert by default
AI
- The AI is now less willing to accept diplomatic play support in exchange for a bankroll from a country which is already the target of other bankrolls
- AI will be less likely to start wars over unrecognized subjects of recognized nations
- Ensured sure that the AI generally wants to pass Police if it has none
- Tweaked some technology weights so that Prussia pursues a military tech advantage over Austria/France when it wants to unify Germany
- The AI no longer puts extra value on conquering split states when they have a Treaty Port in that state
- VTM - Sphere of Influence: Nations with very little construction will now be less likely to accept being granted Foreign Investment rights
- Made the Dutch East Indies more inclined to consolidate Indonesia
- Made Britain more inclined to consolidate South Africa upon researching Malaria Prevention
- The Dutch East Indies will be more aggressive towards Indonesian minor nations
- Tweaked some AI weights for the Enlistment Efforts Decree
- VTM - Made the AI more keen on opening up the schools by passing education laws if they have none
- VTM - Unrecognized Major Powers and higher are now more eager to research Railways
- AI countries will now more strongly try to establish a country-wide network of Power Plants
Balance
- VTM - Historical characters are no longer immune to being cycled through as Interest Group leaders
- Abdication/Resign From Office can now only be used when the ruler or their Interest Group actually disapproves of the law being enacted (and the ruler does not personally approve), and no longer increases loyalists across the entire country
- Bankroll and Fund Lobbies money transfer amounts are now capped at 10% of the sender's income
- The number of loyalists gained from Standard of Living increases should now match the number of radicals gained from standard of living decreases, barring major changes to the country between when the SoL was gained/lost. This means that you can no longer 'print loyalists' by fiddling around with taxes and that events which temporarily increase SoL are no longer a bad thing as they don't generate net radicals.
- Wages for more accepted Pops are now higher under more discriminatory laws, and wages for less accepted Pops are lower, meaning that becoming more tolerant will overall flatten wages and result in reduced Standard of Living for your primary culture/religion pops
- Interest Groups now add Stall chance for laws if they are Unhappy or Angry, whether they are in government or not now only matters for adding success chance
- Agitators now provide a large amount of movement attraction relative to the fraction of a pop that are part of their interest group, meaning that they can be used to pull their Interest Group towards being pressured by (and thus, getting leader ideologies from) their chosen movement
- Grant Leadership to Agitator now requires the agitator's Interest Group to be pressured by their movement
- VTM - Barracks now provide a baseline training rate but their training rate per level of building has been slightly reduced to compensate
- VTM - Increased the amount of manpower required for defeated Admirals to return to a mission from 50% to 75%
- VTM - Victory score from defensive battles has been reduced from 100 to 50
- Charity Hospitals and Religious Schools will now provide their respective institutions at a 20% Bureaucracy discount
- Private Healthcare and Private Schools will now provide their respective institution at a 40% Bureaucracy discount
- Acquiring Foreign Investment Rights in the target nation now causes the Opium Wars to succeed
- Decreased the weekly passive experience gain of units from 1 to 0.5
- Increased the weekly unit experience gain multiplier from "Professional Army" law from 25% to 100%
- Buildings are now much more inclined to use their cash reserves to temporarily cover for low profits, particularly so they can continue to pay dividends to private owners
- Colonization no longer favors countries with large number of incorporated states, only incorporated population and Colonial Affairs level matters
- Colonization speed bonuses and maluses from excessive difference in province size from the norm, as well as a speed penalty for population size have been added
- Retooled Emergency Relief decree to have more relevant effects against starvation and harvest conditions
- Added Food Security modifier to Charity Hospitals and Welfare institution
- Added Harvest Condition impact modifiers to National Guard
- Commanders can now only be retired after they have served for at least a year
- Commanders can now only be picked as Interest Group Leaders after they have served for at least 10 years
- The 'Force Nationalization' wargoal now costs much less infamy to add
- VTM - Increased Obsession spawn chance
- Made fascist ideologies object to the Council Republic law
- The "Tanzimat: Reclaim Syria" journal entry now grants the Ottoman Empire increased diplomatic play maneuvers
- The "Arrange Accident" interaction now becomes more likely to succeed depending on one's level of Secret Police
- Protectionism now has a +25% leverage resistance effect
- Removed Standard of Living modifier from Charity Hospitals
- Added Drought impact modifiers to Fertilizer PMs in farms
- Added Harvest Condition impact modifiers to Pollution effects
- Added Harvest Condition impact modifiers to techs
- VTM - Colonial growth will now prioritize coastal provinces higher resulting in more uniform colonies
- "Chainsaws" Tools input removed, Oil input reduced from 5 to 4, added 1 Engines input, no longer adds 200 Machinists jobs, increased Engineers jobs by 50. Chop chop!
- Decreased the Wood input for the "Rayon" PM from 30 to 10, changed the Dye output from -40 to -10, decreased the Silk output from 40 to 30, increased the number of employed Machinists by 500, no longer employs an additional 500 Engineers
- Decreased the Oil input for the "Automobile Production" PM from 20 to 10, increased the Automobile output from 25 to 30
- Dutch East Indies now starts with Cultural Exclusion law
- Removed the generated leverage from increasing relations
- The chance for any Commander to be picked as the next leader of an Interest Group is now reduced if you have a very large number of commanders compared to the size of your army/navy
- "Automatic Bottle Blowers" Tools input reduced from 5 to 2, Oil input reduced from 10 to 5, added 2 Engines input
- Changed the laws of various Indian nations to better reflect their historical situation
- Added iron mines to the Sikh Empire
- Changed Great Britain's starting law to Migration Controls (was No Migration Controls before)
- Changed Persia's starting laws to better reflect the situation in 1836
- Bloated the starting Haitian army to better reflect historical size and power
- Increased the Education Access per level of institution from Public Schools from 10% to 12.5%
- Increased the Mortality reduction multiplier per level of institution from Public Healthcare from -4% to -5%
- A pro-republican revolution reaching above a certain threshold will now cause France to fail the Divided Monarchists journal entry
- Reduced the frequency of the Bandit trait, as well as its popularity malus
- VTM - Slightly decreased the value of Urban Center Transportation Production Methods
- "Crystal Glass" Glass Output reduced from 70 to 60
- "House Ware Plastics" Oil input reduced from 25 to 20, Lead input reduced from 35 to 30, Glass Output reduced from 110 to 100
- "Ceramics" Glass output changed from -20 to -10, Porcelain output reduced from 20 to 10, Shopkeepers reduced from 500 to 250
- "Bone China" Dye input reduced from 15 to 10, Glass output changed from -55 to -20, Porcelain output reduced from 55 to 30, Shopkeepers reduced from 1000 to 500
- "Reinforced Wooden Ships" Wood input reduced from 40 to 20
- "Capital Ships" Steel input reduced from 50 to 40, Electricity input reduced from 35 to 30, Engines input increased from 15 to 20
- Reduced the Territory of Hawaii event infamy gain
- VTM - Changed countries in Germany to now start off with Freedom of Conscience
- VTM - Set the correct faith for the rulers of Baden, Wurttemberg and Saxony
Art
- Improved Character lighting, as shown in Dev Diary 137
- Paved roads now appear on the map in states with very high infrastructure when the appropriate technology has been researched
- Added Company HQ buildings for all building sets
- Reworked the Taj Mahal 3D model
- Subjects' flags that make use of their overlord's flag in a canton no longer frame said canton
- Added dozens of new flags to the game for both new and already existing nations
- Updated outline color of unit movement arrow for better visual clarity
- Added highlighting of movement arrow for the selected military units
- Adjusted the revolution interface effect
- Karl Marx no longer dresses like the Joker
- Added more variations to the factory smoke vfx
- Characters in Character Panel should no longer overlap the frame
- Reworked rain vfx
- Updated some Production Method icons and colors to match the style of current PMs
- Historical characters now do not gain weight if they have the Expensive Tastes trait
Audio
- Audio has been added to the Population census data button
- The sounds when promoting and demoting generals and admirals are now less disturbing
- Audio for seagulls has been improved, now there is a more accurate positioning of sounds which can be heard around the clock
- Vultures now have sound
- Cargo ships don't sound so overwhelming in mix when far away
- Added missing dropdown and toggle button sounds
- Exported an updated list of FMOD GUIDs
Content
- Reworked the Sepoy Mutiny journal entry
- Added a new "Military Assistance" diplomatic action, which permits a country to improve another's armed forces.
- Added a "Corporate State" law, a fascist or corporatist answer to Council Republics
- Added several journal entries for Russia covering the Great Reforms of Tsar Alexander II's reign
- Added an Extraction Economy law, designed for use with subjects
- Adds a journal entry and associated events dealing with the Congress and Treaty of London (1839)
- Added 3 India-related companies to the game
- Added 10 new achievements to the game
- Reworked the Path to Fascism journal entry
- Reworked "Consolidate Colonial Rule" journal entry for British India
- Voice of the People: Added an "Imprison Agitator" character interaction, permitting countries without Guaranteed Liberties to send agitators to prison for a time
- Egypt now starts as a high-Liberty Desire protectorate of the Ottoman Empire
- Added a Man Who Would be King event for Kafiristan, allowing you to get a western adventurer as your ruler
- Added DNA and character template for Charles XV
- Added DNA and character template for Oscar II
- Added character template for Gustaf V
- Added Sweden Monarchy events to Sweden
- Added some flavored Interest Group names for Indian princely states and Nepal
- Added the Russian-American Company to Alaska
- Added Edward VII as heir to Queen Victoria
- Reworked interest group names, ideologies, and traits for Khalsaji, Granthis, and Jats in Sikh Empire
- Added dynamic names for Balkan state regions and hubs for Greek, Turkish, Hungarian, and German cultured nations
- Added dynamic names for the Indian subcontinent
- Updated Expeditions to the new journal entry progress bar system
- Updated the Earn Recognition journal entry to the new journal entry progress bar system
- Added a Social Bandit trait, for agitators and Rural Folk or Trade Unions characters
- Added the Country of Kafiristan to the game
- Added character DNA for Henrik Ibsen, who has a small chance of appearing as an agitator for the Intelligentsia in Norway and Scandinavia
- Renamed the Texas army to the "Texian Army". Added a Texian navy, and one naval commander each for Texas and Mexico
- Added more starting Interest Group leaders and commanders to the Low Countries
- Added the Church of Finland as a custom Interest Group for Finland
- Dynamic state and hub placenames have been implemented for some regions across the globe
- Expanded the pool of possible Power Bloc names
Due to the amount of all the changes, the full changelog is available on our forums here: https://pdxint.at/3Z124v4
But, one last thing before we let you go and enjoy 1.8 and Pivot of the Empire! Later today the base game for Victoria 3 will be free to play for the next few days, so let your Victori-friends know!