The day is finally here! Hot on the heels of Dawn of Wonder and the 1.4 update, we have now launched a very early look at version 1.5 in Open Beta. This update is of course opt-in, and you can access it by switching to Steam beta branch 1.5-beta. During the Open Beta we will of course listen to and discuss your feedback directly on the Open Beta section of the Victoria 3 Discord server.
If you haven't already, I would urge you to go back and read Dev Diaries #92 and #93 as well as this one, since they cover the Companies and Military Improvements in more detail than we do in the changelog here. If you elect to participate in the Open Beta it is especially important you read the first part of #93 since it goes deeper into what to expect from each beta release.
There are also a number of known issues with the initial release, some of them which might heavily impact your game, which you should be aware of. I will echo it here for your convenience, but remember to always consult the living document since that will reflect the most major issues of the Open Beta build as we find more of them.
Dear Victorians!
It is time for some feedback for our Open Beta. But before we would like to introduce some known issues in our 1.5 Open Beta.
If you encounter any issues in 1.5 Open Beta not listed below, please report it!
First some notes about hurdles and exploits you might encounter during warfare:
- Commander Orders are undergoing a bit of a rework, since they will now represent the behavior of individual commanders (what they're doing) while the location (where they're doing it) is determined by their formation. This has a few implications that may not be apparent at the moment:
- The "Stand By" Order does nothing and will be removed in future beta builds, there is never any reason to assign this currently
- Formations will not advance unless at least one General has the Advance order. If you notice a formation you've sent to the front not advancing and creating battles, make sure the Generals you want leading the attack actually have the Advance order set. This can be done either from the Character panel or the Formation panel.
- All Naval Orders are currently useless, they will be reworked in future beta builds
- Naval Invasions currently have a very unintuitive UX flow and are very easy to exploit. Both will be improved in future beta builds. In 1.5.0, follow these steps to issue a Naval Invasion:
- From the Military lens -> Navy tab, click Plan Naval Invasion
- Select the state you want to invade
- In the popup, select a fleet and a demobilized army
- Ignore the static pink text as these are placeholders for information that will be added in future beta builds
- Confirm the naval invasion
- The fleet will now travel to the sea node off the coast of the target state
- Meanwhile, the army will start mobilizing
- Once the fleet has arrived and the army has mobilized, a landing battle will ensue; it is likely, in the current build, that there is no resistance and the battle will be immediately won, with the state conquered and a front created
- The invasion is now won and the army will be assigned to the front. Remember to ensure at least one General in the army has an Advance order if you want to advance the front.
There are lots of improvements to Orders and Naval Invasions planned that will appear in Open Beta 1.5 update 1 and 2. The current version of the mechanics are geared towards giving you enough functionality to allow you to pursue and conclude wars.
Additional issues to be aware of include:
- Morale Loss does not work correctly in battles, making them take an excessively long time to conclude.
- Visible issue in the Military tab there are two ‘Artillery’ sections’.
- It is possible to change names of Formations that do not belong to the player.
- Hovering the ‘Garrisoned’ in the Formation window displays the concept for ‘Mobilize Army’.
- In some cases flags in the ‘Load Game’ menu will be swapped causing inaccuracy.
- Creating an Army in an ‘HQ’ does not close the map interaction for Army creation, which may give an impression that no army is created
- Outdated Important Action for Admirals with no Flotillas in Current Situations.
- We are aware about the untranslated main menu text, basic information in the main menu is available in English only.
- The Naval Invasion Planner Interface contains a lot of (pink) placeholder text. The functionality that is described in this temporary text , e.g. calculations about travel time and efficiency are inaccurate.
- When splitting a Fleet in transit during a Naval invasion, the split fleet continues on the same path as the original Naval Invasion.
- There is some clipping in the Formation panel.
- In the right-click menu of formations - the Station command is available within formations/fleet menus, but it's grayed out in the right-click menu.
- You also might notice that we have unlocalized tooltips in Naval Invasions and in Military Unit Type instances.
- Observing greater wars and clicking on Sea Nodes might decrease the performance of the game.
Multiplayer session is currently very unstable and we advise not to play it due to some issues:
- MacOS hosting in multiplayer sessions leads to out of syncs.
- High chance to get an Out of Sync shortly after starting a new game in multiplayer.
Changelog Open Beta 1.5.0
The full list of changes follow below. Note that due to several heavily reworked mechanics, the following list of changes do not always include things like interface changes made to accommodate those new mechanics.
Features
- Military Formations can now be created, which will contain up to 4 commanders and any number of units. Military Formations determine the location of your military forces, while commander Orders continue to determine their behavior in that location.
- Companies: Each country now has a number of company slots which increases from technology and laws. A company has a number of associated building types, and improves the throughput and construction speed of those building types in its country. If a company's buildings have high productivity compared to the global average, the company will gain Prosperity over time and unlock a special bonus modifier. There are a number of basic companies that are available to all countries which can construct their associated building types. Companies unique to countries with particular circumstances, such as culture and geographic boundaries, will be added in future beta updates.
- The degree to which the Market can influence the price on goods in a State is now capped by the Market Access Price Impact modifier. This means that local production and consumption will now always matter when determining the price of a good in a state, creating the opportunity for local synergies and supply chains.
- It is now possible for a participant in a diplomatic play to offer support to either side in exchange for a desired sway ('reverse-swaying')
- The "Start Diplomatic Play" interaction has been changed into "Make Diplomatic Demand". This allows one country to demand a single war goal from another, which if rejected will start a diplomatic play for that wargoal. It is possible to bypass the demand phase and start a diplomatic play right away (useful if you want to make multiple demands for example).
- Mobilization Options let you configure how much extra goods you want your armies to consume when mobilized, with trade-offs to the efficacy of the army. At the moment these can only be toggled on/off while the army is demobilized, in future updates this will also be possible while mobilized at a penalty. Note that the UI is very basic and will get a facelift. At the moment, mobilization options not yet invented are not visible and there are not yet any indications what techs will unlock which options.
- Occupation is now gained or removed in a state (instead of provinces) as a result of successful battles. The frontline will not move until the whole state has been occupied.
- Added the Call Ally sway which can be used to sway an ally (Alliance if initiator, Alliance or Defensive Pact if target) to your side in a diplomatic play. This sway offers no additional acceptance score but also doesn't promise anything to the ally.
- Combat Units can now be one of multiple types, which belong to a group (e.g. Infantry, Artillery, Cavalry; Light Ships, Capital Ships, Support Vessels)
- Services, Electricity and Transportation are now local goods whose prices are fully set based on local production and consumption and whose market price plays no role at all
- It is now possible to decline a sway offer that is calling in an obligation, though doing so will repudiate the obligation with all associated penalties
- Added the Become Subject sway which allows you to offer to become the Subject of a country (and consequently offer a country to become your Subject) in exchange for Diplomatic Play support
- Added the Transfer Subject sway which allows you to transfer one of your Subjects (and consequently offer a country to transfer their Subject to you) in exchange for Diplomatic Play support
- Added the Transfer State sway which allows you to transfer one of your State (and consequently offer a country to transfer their state to you) in exchange for Diplomatic Play support
- Added the Diplomatic Pact sway which allows you to offer certain Diplomatic Pacts such as Trade Agreements, Customs Unions and Bankrolling to a country in exchange for Diplomatic Play support, with a forced duration of 5 years if accepted. Bankroll pacts resulting from this do not generate any Obligations while their forced duration is in effect.
- Battles are now detached from Fronts. They don't necessarily happen in the front line anymore; they will not be destroyed when the Front gets destroyed. Also, if a Front gets destroyed by being merged into another, all of their battles (active and ended) are transferred to the other front.
- Unique approval-activated traits for Interest Groups in several countries
- The player can now force a subject country to start enactment of a different law than their current one from the subject's country panel (early functionality, to be improved later)
- Armies can be demobilized during wars, leading to them returning to the closest HQ and gradually reducing their mobilization consumption over 4 months
- The player can rename each individual formation
Improvements
- Instead of having a Front being defined by an adjacent pair of enemy theaters, now each Front side has its own set of theaters. On each side, each theater must be adjacent to at least one enemy theater, and if there are other theaters on the same side, each theater on that side has to be adjacent to an allied theater as well.
- You can transfer commanders and units between formations of the same type, which will create a temporary formation that travels to automatically rendezvous with the target if they are not already in the same location
- Added new Experimental Trains PM to railways and rebalanced existing PMs.
- Added new Vineyards building
- Split up Shipyards into two separate buildings that produce either civilian or military ship types
- Adding a war goal against a neutral enemy subject to a play now also forces the targeted subject to become part of the enemy side in the play so the war goal can be properly contested
- Station at HQ map interaction for Army and Fleet formations added
- Added new building Explosives Factory that produces Explosives
- Removed Explosives from Chemical Plants
- Livestock Ranches now produce Meat and Fertilizer as a base Production Method, Fabric is now a secondary Production Method
- It is now possible to start Liberate Country Diplomatic Plays, with the country to be liberated being picked from a selection list in the confirmation popup
- Radical pops are now more drawn to opposition interest groups, and Loyalist pops are more drawn to government interest groups.
- Petitions can now only be made for laws that are potentially able to be supported by a political movement
- Streetlights now produce a small amount of infrastructure when enabled
- Meat Packaging (formerly Vacuum Canning) now consumes meat and fish instead of just fish
- Traditionalism now gives -15% State Market Access Price Impact
- Stock Exchange now gives 10% State Market Access Price Impact
- German/Italian unification candidate now inherit the incorporation status of any countries they annex as part of the unification event chains (but not the wargoal)
- Increased the number of states required to form Germany to 23, which means Prussia needs to either take a state from France or Austria in addition to the various minor countries
- Illegitimate governments may now only enact laws that have support from a Political Movement rather than being blocked from enactment altogether
- Removed diplomatic actions to become/demand subject and ask for independence (these are now done through diplomatic demands instead)
- Ranching is now a fully separate building group from Agriculture, just like Plantations
- Revised modifiers & state traits that affect agriculture throughput to also affect ranching and plantations where appropriate
- Number of maximum commanders per country is now removed, in favor of a limitation of max 4 per Formation
- Removed Vineyards Production Method from Wheat and Maize Farms
- Added Wine potential for certain states
- The maximum potential imports & exports of trade routes in a market is now multiplied by the BUY_SELL_DIFF_AT_MAX_FACTOR define, so that exported/imported goods with no local consumption/production aren't always stuck around base price
- Deploy to Front map interaction for Army formations added
- Combat Units can now be disbanded from the Formation panel
- Deploy to Sea Node map interaction for Fleet formations added
- Colonial exploitation law now lowers manufacturing throughput in unincorporated states by 10%, but boosts throughput of mining, plantations, rubber and logging by 20%
- Dongola and Blue Nile now have the Nile River state trait
- Automatic formation repositioning: a formation will automatically reposition when the front it is deployed to gets destroyed. In that case, it will first look for a front to redeploy to, and if that fails it will look for a HQ where it can station itself in. A formation will also automatically reposition when the HQ it is stationed in is destroyed.
- Removed Sahara desert penalties from Dongola
- Recontextualized several agitator law events to fit better with their position as populist figures.
Balance
- Numerous state traits that add infrastructure penalties for difficult terrain have been changed to either only be present in states which have a majority of such terrain or is clearly divided by that terrain
- Some state traits that had infrastructure penalties and which were not deemed suitable for any state have been changed into other traits or removed
- Readjusted pop needs so that pops are less likely to buy basic goods when better goods are available
- Rice Farms now have double the Employment and Production
- Adjusted values of secondary PMs on Textile Mills, Furniture Manufacturies, Glassworks, and Chemical Plants so they are usually profitable
- Unincorporated States now have -10% state access price impact
- Lowered the cost to build Shipyards
- Standardized Trains (formerly Steam Engine trains) PM is now unlocked by Steel Railway Cars
- Electric Trains now give higher infrastructure, but also have higher input costs
- Diesel Trains now give higher infrastructure, but also have higher input costs
- Infrastructure has been lowered for Steam Trains, Electric Trains and Diesel Trains
- Balanced Prussia's, France's, Great Britain's and USA's starting buildings, Production Methods and Trade Routes so that they aren't immediately unprofitable after State Market Access Price Impact changes
- Lowered the amount of alcohol that subsistence buildings produce
- Anchorages now produce only 20 convoys (down from 50)
- Reduced urbanization from heavy industry to cut down on excessive service production in industrialized states
- Reduced overall level of service production (as well as input goods) on urban centers
- Art Academies were changed to have a 5k workforce so as not to differ so much from other urban buildings
- Increased the amount of Fabric Livestock Ranches can produce
- Craftsman Sewing production method for Textile mills luxury clothes output increased from 20 to 30.
- Craftsman Sewing production method for Textile mills clothes output changed from -20 to -30.
- Craftsman Sewing production method for Textile mills silk input increased from 10 to 20.
- Craftsman Sewing production method for Textile mills fabric input changed from -10 to -20.
- Elastics production method for Textile mills luxury clothes output increased from 35 to 70.
- Elastics production method for Textile mills clothes output changed from -35 to -70.
- Elastics production method for Textile mills silk input increased from 10 to 40.
- Elastics production method for Textile mills fabric input changed from -10 to -30.
- Elastics Sewing production method for Textile mills rubber input increased from 10 to 20.
- Luxury Furniture production method for Furniture manufacturies luxury furniture output increased from 20 to 30.
- Luxury Furniture production method for Furniture manufacturies furniture output changed from -20 to -30.
- Luxury Furniture production method for Furniture manufacturies hardwood input increased from 10 to 15.
- Luxury Furniture production method for Furniture manufacturies wood input changed from -10 to -15.
- Precision Tools production method for Furniture manufacturies luxury furniture output increased from 40 to 55.
- Precision Tools production method for Furniture manufacturies furniture output changed from -40 to -55.
- Precision Tools production method for Furniture manufacturies hardwood input increased from 20 to 35.
- Precision Tools production method for Furniture manufacturies wood input changed from -20 to -25.
- Precision Tools production method for Furniture manufacturies tools input increased from 10 to 15.
- Ceramics production method for glassworks porcelain output decreased from 25 to 20.
- Bone China production method for glassworks porcelain lass output increased from 40 to 55.
- Bone China production method for glassworks glass output increased from -20 to -55.
- Bone China production method for glassworks dye input increased from 30 to 50.
- Leblanc Process production method for chemical plants fertilizer output changed from -15 to -20.
- Leblanc Process production method for chemical plants coal input increased from 15 to 20.
- Ammonia-soda Process production method for chemical plants explosives output increased 40 to 45.
- Ammonia-soda Process production method for chemical plants fertilizer output changed from -40 to -45.
- Ammonia-soda Process production method for chemical plants coal input increased 15 to 20.
- Vacuum Evaporation production method for chemical plants fertilizer output changed from -30 to -70.
- Vacuum Evaporation production method for chemical plants coal input increased 15 to 20.
- Vacuum Evaporation production method for chemical plants sulfur input increased 30 to 45.
- Brine Electrolysis production method for chemical plants fertilizer output changed from -50 to -100.
- Brine Electrolysis production method for chemical plants coal input increased 15 to 20.
- Brine Electrolysis production method for chemical plants sulfur input increased 30 to 45.
- Muskets production method for Arms industries small arms output increased 25 to 30.
- Rifles production method for Arms industries small arms output increased 35 to 50
- Repeaters production method for Arms industries small arms output increased 50 to 70.
- Bolt Action Rifles production method for Arms industries small arms output increased 75 to 100.
- Cannons production method for Arms industries small arms output changed from -10 to -15.
- Smoothbores production method for Arms industries small arms output changed from -15 to -25.
- Breechloaders production method for Arms industries small arms output changed from -25 to -35
- Added Recoil Mechanics production method for Arms industries.
- Hardwood production method for Logging camps hardwood output increased from 10 to 20.
- Hardwood production method for Logging camps wood output changed -10 to -30.
- Added Focused Hardwood Production production method for Logging camps.
- Balanced Glassworks and Chemical Plants so that later production methods are now profitable at a base level
- Lowered input goods of Coal and Engines for Railways
- Lowered Transport output goods for base Railway production methods
- Passenger carriage PMs for trains no longer reduce infrastructure when activated
- Increased Logging potential in Amazons, Congo and Siberia
- Manufacturing, Government and Military buildings now have lowered throughput in Unincorporated States
- Gave Bavaria intensive agriculture
- Gave Greece a starting interest in Italy
AI
- AI is now more likely to offer support to a side in a diplomatic play if they are already leaning towards that side
- AI is now more likely to attempt to sway an undecided country in a diplomatic play if that country is already leaning towards their side
- AI will now actively attempt to sway countries that are already committed participants on the opposite side into switching sides
- AI now places more value on holding obligations on diplomatically relevant powerful countries, even if they're just Wary towards them
- Allies are no longer automatically added as backers in Diplomatic Plays, but have an increased support score towards their ally
- Predictions for which country will lean towards supporting what side in the Diplomatic Play should now always be accurate (instead of intentionally unreliable), and takes the relations impact of the initial wargoal into account, though leaning towards a side is still not a guarantee of actually supporting that side.
- AI is now generally less willing to trigger revolutions when enacting laws unless they are doing so to avoid another revolution
- AI is now willing to enact laws with a lower chance of success if those laws have a revolutionary movement or government petition behind them
- Fixed an issue where the AI would activate anchorages over proper ports due to overvaluing the workforce reduction they provided
- AI will now be less likely to use restrictive export tariffs on goods which they have substantial unused potential for in their country
- AI will now be less likely to use restrictive import tariffs on goods which they do not have substantial unused potential for in their country
- AI is now less keen to get involved in plays when they have a truce with either primary participant
- AI should now be better at setting up trade routes for goods that are important for their economy to import or export
- AI should now be better at importing key industrial goods like rubber if they don't have those goods in their market
- AI now prioritizes universities more unless it is very close to its innovation cap
- Fixed an issue where the AI was calculating its gold reserve and income surplus targets incorrectly for some types of spending
- AI Great Powers are now much more keen on launching and joining Cut Down to Size diplomatic plays against Pariah countries
- Added AI strategy weights for how much the AI desires to have a country as a subject or become a country's subject
- Fixed inconsistent triggers in government petitions that were creating problems for the AI in following through on them
- Fixed an issue where some AI strategies did not work correctly due to a bad is_adjacent check against states
Performance
- Improves the evaluation speed of the Belle Epoque Journal Entry by 20x, improving overall Journal Entry update performance by 33%
- Improved performance of the Garibaldi event trigger by not iterating over all characters in the world
Interface
- Added a message settings tab for Alerts and Important Actions in the Message Settings window
- Improved the tooltips when swaying countries or offering support to countries
- Added what stance a country has in a Diplomatic Play to their respective tooltips in the Sway Countries tab
- The tooltip and confirmation box for making a Diplomatic Demand/starting a Diplomatic Play now shows more consolidated and useful information for the potential sides and supporters in the Play
- Army and Navy formations are created with a generated name based on a numerals and country culture
- Added important action for when a state has a shortage (but the market does not).
- Front panel has been updated with support for Formations instead of commanders
- Added 'zoom to front' button on the front panel
- Only show full details for goods that are locally produced/consumed in a state in state panel
- Show a simple grid of goods that are present in market but not locally consumed/produced in state panel
- The Hegemon final objective now displays how much of a share of the global population you currently control
- Journal Entry buttons that can be pressed and remain "selected" now appear as such, to distinguish them from buttons you don't qualify to press
- Fixed a number of typos in Concepts, Events and Technologies
Art
- Graphics entities are now added along the frontline when formations are present there
- Added portrait resolution upscaling setting for sharper portrait details
- Improved flag resolution and scaling for flag icons, preserving more details
- Improved "Zoom To" icon
- Production Method icon colors should now be consistent with their functions
Modding
- Added an in-game script profiler for modders to assess performance impact of script (ScriptProfiling.Enable, ScriptProfiling.Dump)
- War Exhaustion is now a script value that can be scripted with any factors and conditions
- All modifier types "building_input_" and "building_output_" are now renamed to "goods_input_" and "goods_output_" to support their usages in other contexts than buildings (such as units)
- Added new trigger has_political_movement =
- Added new trigger can_potentially_get_political_movement =
- On-actions added for when an army is mobilized or demobilized
- ignore_government_support console command now also lets you bypass the cannot_enact_laws modifier
- New compare triggers global_population, total_population_share, total_population_including_subjects, and total_population_including_subjects_share
- Adds country_turmoil compare trigger
- Adds enemy_occupation compare trigger
- Adds enemy_contested_wargoals compare trigger
- Adds size_weighted_lost_battles_fraction compare trigger
- Adds Additional War Exhaustion compare trigger
- Adds War-Diplomatic Play link
- front_battle_state_weight script value added to determine which state a battle will be launched in (before province is selected)
- Added console commands for `count_buildings`, `count_countries`, `count_markets`, `count_pops`, `count_potential_parties`, and `count_states`
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where buildings that were doing poorly could get stuck in a loop of firing employees, only to then raise wages to attract more employees which they then would fire again, leading to absurdly high wages and an unviable building
- Fixes an issue where trade route competitiveness share was not correctly calculated for trade routes that had been around for a while, leading to trade routes shrinking for no sensible reason
- Fixes an issue where trade routes would sometimes set their level targets incorrectly when you had multiple trade routes for the same good
- Fixes some issues with maneuver cost for wargoals
- Fix unset scope error in the IG Agenda Journal Entry
- Nursing events will no longer fire in wars with less than 1000 deaths
- Fixed a small bug in the BIC breakup event
- Fixed script issue in Victoria scripted effects that lacked an OR statement.
- Fixed interest group tooltips to show the correct political strength value
- Fixed issue with Shipyards appearing twice in Building Lens
That should be everything in the initial release, but we're continuing to plug away at new features and improvements!
Future Plans
A few highlights to look forward to in future Open Beta updates, the first of which should reach you sometime mid-September, are:
- Visuals of your armies moving along roads and railways on the map
- Improved frontline graphics
- The return of conscripts and naval warfare mechanics (which we disabled for this initial release)
- Improved Orders, with more options available for specific commanders
- Historical Companies that let you leverage your country's unique specialties
- More Mobilization Options and a revamped interface
- Formation Organization metric, which will enable you to adjust Mobilization Options for mobilized formations at a temporary penalty
- Improvements to Military Formation customization
- Unit Experience, letting you build up the might of your military forces over time
- Loads and loads of bugfixes, improved UX flows, and stability improvements that should make your playthroughs a lot more enjoyable
- And of course, as many of your own suggestions on Discord that we can muster!
Next dev diary will be released just ahead of Update 1, with the current planned date being September 14th. In that we will cover in more detail what has happened since release and what you can expect to see in the following update.
Until then, see you on the Discord!