Divergences - An AlterVicky mod

[Kinniken]

This mod proposes an 'alternative history' for Victoria, where events started to move differently from about 1400 onward. The result is a very different world, in which to experience the familiar Victoria experience - with a twist.

The overview, team members list and change logs are in the second page of this thread. Download links are at the bottom of this post.

Divergences Key Threads

• This thread, for general feedback
• History thread
• Governments and civilised status thread
• Events & decisions thread
• States & provinces thread
• Bug reports
• Empires & gameplay reports
• Optional DLC

Download & Installation

As the mod folder system apparently has issues, duplicate a vanilla 1.2 install and unrar the mod file in the main folder. It should ask if you want to replace files, say yes.

You then need to go to the map folder and delete the "cache" folder within it. It will be recreated by the game on the first launch.

0.5 Mod 7ZIP (4.7 Mb): Divergences

[Kinniken]

Arras, Northern France, 1435. Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy is deep in thoughts - should he abandon his Plantagenet ally Henry VI, King of England and pretender to the throne of France, and back Charles VII, the Valois candidate? The war has been going for so long already...

In our world, he did, and the Valois proceeded to win the Hundred Years' War. But what if he had not?

What if the Chenghua Emperor had not stopped Ming China's explorations, but decided to pursue them with greater zeal than before?

What if Isabella I of Castille had married a Portuguese prince instead of Ferdinand II of Aragon?

What if the Kalmar Union had held, and gradually merged in a proper Scandinavian state, master of the Baltic?

What if...

This mod proposes an 'alternative history' for Victoria, where events started to move differently from about 1400 onward. The result is a very different world, in which to experience the familiar Victoria experience - with a twist.

Overview of historical changes

• Burgundy continued to side with the Plantagenets in the hundred years' war, in a grand bargain: the Kings of England would be installed as Kings of France, but Burgundy would become an independent kingdom. In 1836, the Dual Monarchy of France & England and Burgundy are two of Europe's major players.
• The Hapsburgs never inherited Bohemia or Hungary, and the HRE ended up dominated by Burgundy and the Kingdom of Bohemia.
• The Kalmar Union evolved toward a unified Scandinavia, which controls the modern-day Baltic states and large parts of the German coast.
• Muscovy never gained preponderance over the Russian lands. Ukraine and Novgorod still exist, and Poland is strong.
• Castille was not unified with Aragon but with Portugal, forming Spain. Aragon remains and thrived as Mediterranean power, still holding the Two Sicilies and having added Morocco to it.
• The Ottoman Empire managed to keep Egypt, and is much stronger as result.
• China continued its naval explorations, eventually reaching as far as America and Australia and founding two states there: Qingqiu and Zhourao. However all this was stopped by the Manchu invasions - Ming China survived, but not without losing parts of north-west China to the Manchus, including Beijing, and most of the rest of the country to rebel kingdoms.
• Changed in 0.4: China is thus divided mainly into Manchu-held areas, a much reduced surviving Ming China, and several new kingdoms fighting to reunify the country. Dedicated cores and CBs allow Ming and the rebel kingdoms to annex each-others in attempts to reunite China.
• Changed in 0.4: One of the Chinese kingdom, the small Tungsing state, is civilised. If they can reunite China, the new state will be as well...
• Changed in 0.4: The Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping, based on the historical Taiping Rebellion, adheres to its version of christianity and aims to create a new theocratic China. Its king is officialy proclaimed "Younger Brother of Jesus".
• Korea and Japan flourished from Chinese intellectuals fleeing the war, and in 1836 both are civilised.
• The colonisation of America was radically different, and in 1836 the dominant power is Gran Colombia, a Spanish-culture state spreading from Texas to Peru. Scandinavia, Burgundy and the Dual Monarchy all founded states in North America which are now independent.
• Changed in 0.2: Aside from Gran Colombia, South America features two republics formed of ex Burgundian and Dual Monarchy colonies: Amazonia and the Lotharingian Republic. Finally, 'Neo Anglia' is an independent state founded by English Protestant refugees in Argentina fleeing the Catholic Dual Monarchy, and a rump Inca state remains in the lower Andes.
• In India, Vijayanagar stayed strong, partly through a long-standing alliance with Spain. The Mughal Empire did not face as strong a colonial invasion as it historically did from the UK, and remains largely intact. The Dual Monarchy, Spain, Burgundy, Aragon and Scandinavia all have small Indian holdings.
• Changed in 0.2: the small Indian states of Travancore and Bengal, though extensive commercial relationship with the west, have reached the envied status of 'civilised nations'. They are bordered by the much larger states of Vijayanagar and the Mughal Empire, but if they are not destroyed they might yet achieve great things.
• In Australia, Zhourao is still there, cut off from China and the rest of the world...

Gameplay principles

When deciding of elements to change, I tried both to come up with interesting and novel historical scenarios, and also to try and have the most interesting gameplay possible. With this in mind, here a few key points in the mod:

• No country is as dominant as the UK in vanilla. It's no fun to always know who is going to be the big challenge to overtake.
• As far as possible, I've tried to make all regions of the world competitive. No 'frozen India', for instance.
• Colonisation is generally less advanced than in vanilla. This means opportunities abound in the early game, and the AI goes for them hard.

Screenshots

















Mod team

• Kinniken - mod initiator and leader
• Athalcor - many big changes throughout the mod
• Itzcolotl - Inca and Maori state and province names, rework of Africa
• Alex Speed - German translation
• Fryz - Concepts, flags and historical research for upcoming China
• Elias Tarfarius and LAF1994 - contributions to the historical write-up
• Dyranum and Keanon - Scandinavian province and state names
• LAF1994 - Gran Colombia events, various contributions
• Dutchemperor - Boer state and province names

Integrated mods

• Konrad's Victoria 2 Realism & Rebalance Project: the excellent military and naval overhaul, for land units that make sense and a balanced naval warfare.

Update log

0.5 release - 13/12/2010:

• New army system, with non-accepted populations recruitable only for lesser troop types
• Several new African nations
• Many new revolters
• As a result of this and some culture changes, much more starting populations are now resistant to assimilation
• New setup for Ethiopia, with a civil war at the start of the game
• Ottoman Empire starts in revolt
• Alternative condition for westernising: have N&I instead of 40 warscore, to allow small nations to westernise as well
• Uncivilized AIs will now give higher priorities to techs leading to westernisation
• More complex "Congress of Panama" event system, with more possible outcomes
• New events for Greece, Yugoslavia and Macedonia
• Tweaked provinces in North America to make it less likely Plantagenia will colonise in a north-west direction

0.4.4 release - 28/11/2010:

• Populations in a province where a country with their culture as primary has a core no longer integrates
• New conditions to gain core: have the dominant culture in the province be the primary one plus low militancy
• Revised Latin American revolters, if Gran Colombia breaks up
• Aboriginal names for Western Australian provinces
• African names for uncolonised provinces and states with European names
• Revised European borders of the Dual Monarchy, Burgundy and Bohemia. East Frisia is now independant
• Moved Burgundian capital to Anvers. It is now a sea port, to reflect the Scheldt never having been closed by the Dutch
• New Maori country in New Zealand's North Island
• Improved "Form China" decisions
• Strengthened Seven Republics and weakened Vinland a little

0.4.3 release - 15/11/2010:

• Soldier populations now reside in state capitals ony, for easier management and less penalties for countries with small soldier pops spread over any provinces
• New "Council of Panama" events for Gran Colombia, determining whether it succeeds in holding itself together or collapses
• New names for states and provinces in South Africa, New Zealand and Zhourao
• Chinese states in SoI now get annexed when forming China
• Manchu, Mongolia, Chagatai, Zhurao, Lanfang and Qingqiu now get decisions to form China as well
• New decisions for Greece to reclaim Thrace and Asia Minor
• Custom introduction text
• Some new flags
• Fixed bug with new unciv conquest and protectorate CBs (wrong prestige/infamy values applied)
• Fixed bug with South African, Inca and Aragon decisions
• Fixed an issue where some countries started with no army, and some with not enough manpower to create one

0.4.2 release - 01/11/2010:

• Rework of South Africa: new Boer states, new country for westernised African populations
• Rework of the Casus Belli: graduated infamy/prestige for conquests based on size, generally higher prestige from wars, lesser costs for "Place in the sun"
• Added Courland, a Baltic German state in Scandinavia's SoI with small colonial holdings
• Zhourao and the American countries will now prioritise medicine, and thus colonise earlier
• Reorganised the African cultures in the Americas in Afro-French, Afro-Burgundian and Afro-Colombian populations
• Added decisions for the Seven Republics, Platagenia, Gran Colombia, Amazonie and Lotharingia to accept their Afro cultures after slavery is abolished
• Renamed New Britain to Beornia
• Added decisions for Beornia and Batavia to claim and if successful form England and the Netherlands
• Added decisions for Russia to claim Livonia, Finland and Siberia
• Added decision for Al Haasa to form Arabia
• Added Lusitania as a revolter along the Rio Grande
• Added cores in China to make it more likely it will form
• Gave more cores to several European countries
• Some changes to states in Spain and France

0.4.1 release - 01/11/2010:

• Integrated VRRP 1.11's army and navy modifications
• New industrial setup for Burgundy, Bohemia, the Dual Monarchy and Scandinavia
• New states and new state and province names in South America
• Turned Poland into Poland-Lithuania, with accepted Lithuanian and Byelorussian cultures, changed government, and higher literacy
• Neo Anglia is now New Britain, a more "English" name
• Boosted Travancore again (slightly bigger starting territories, more cores)
• Added cores for several countries, such as the Ottomans, Persia, Inca
• Rework of state borders, particularily in India and China, to lessen the number of divided states and states with very igh populations (above 3 or 4 millions)
• Every civilised country can now colonise
• Zhourao is civilised again, now that it can colonise
• Merged Dutch and Flemish culture (no seperate history to split them in Divergences)
• Many other tweaks, changes and bug fixes

0.4 release - 24/10/2010:

• Complete rework of China on Fryz's ideas, with more interesting new states such as the Christian Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
• Complete rework of South-East Asia
• New states in most of North America, with state names and province names reflecting the Divergences colonisers (in Chinese by Fryz, in Scandinavian by Dyranum and Keanon). 308 provinces and 51 states enamed in total.
• States and provinces in Inca Empire given Inca names by Itzcolotl
• Reworked central Europe, with Salzburg created and many border changes
• Switzerland is now considered a German state, with Genève and Neuchatel taken by Burgundy but Bergenz gained. It is culturally South German and can form Germany.
• Sharply reduced the number of craftsmen and clerks in the DM, and massively increased it in Burgundy, Bohemia and Scandinavia. Burgundy is now the largest industrial power at the start, and the DM no longer dominates the game.
• Massively increased the literacy rates of non-accepted cultures for Burgundy, Bohemia and Scandinavia, making them much more competitive tech-wise
• Rebalanced the North-West American states
• Renamed "New Burgundy" to "Seven Republics", created new flags for it
• Renamed Dong Guo to Qingqiu and Gan Guo to Zhourao, after mystical foreign lands from Chinese legends
• Transfered Cuba from Gran Colombia to Spain
• Changed the government types of some American and European countries
• "Form Argon-Italy" and "Flee to Sicily" decisions for Arago
• "Move capital to Cuzco" decision for the Incas
• "Form South Africa" decision for the Boer states and Zulu
• All American countries (save Neo Anglia) have their own culture now, not the European ones
• Added Occitania as a revolter in southern France
• Increased the number of countries that can colonise to 50 (GP included), to ensure more intense colonisation in the Americas
• Many other tweaks, changes and bug fixes

0.3.3 release - 10/10/2010:

• Added Pskov as a satelitte of Scandinavia
• Overhaul of the revolters in Poland and Baltics
• New revolters: Athesia in Florida, Yucutan in Yucutan
• Lots more new flags
• Removed Gran Colombia's extra cultures to make revolts more likely, lessened their starting techs and literacy
• Rebalanced many countries, especially in the Americas as well as Bengal (weakened) and Travancore (strenghtened)
• Removed Bengal's cores outside of the two Bengali states
• Transfered two provinces from Min to Chongsheng, which got annexed too fast in 1.2
• Fixed some cultural weirdness in Neo Anglia and Inca
• Strengthened Iraq, to make it a less easy prey for the Ottomans
• The Ottomans no longer have cores over all of Iraq and Persia no longer has cores over all Armenia and Azerbaijan, to prevent those three countries being annexed too early
• Added Rapa Nui and Fiji (mainly for easier hands-off games)
• Gave starting armies to Armenia, Georgia, Slovenia, Gan Guo and the Rajput states
• Made Gan Guo uncivilised once more
• Gave Yemen a starting fleet, to prevent it from being annex in the first year by Ethiopia in every game

0.3.2 release - 06/10/2010:

• Merged with 1.2 changes where required

0.3.1 release - 03/10/2010 - in collaboration with Athalcor:

• German translation for new 0.3 content
• New flags for the Incas and Guyana

0.3 release - 25/09/2010 - in collaboration with Athalcor:

• New system for the formation of lesser Germany, greater Germany and the North German League
• Redrawn the Middle-East, with new countries, new revolters and many other changes
• New decision to form India, Russia and Italy
• Spliting of British culture into Anglo-French, Anglo-Saxon and Scottish (weakens DM)
• Rhineland, Palantinate, East Frisia and Westfalen added as revolters for Burgundy
• Pomerania added as revolter for Scandinavia
• Saxony, Silesia and Branderburg added as revolters for Bohemia
• Added African kingdom of Kanem-Bornu
• Added Wales as a revolter (and removed English cores from Wales)
• Added Eritrea and Adal as revolters for Ethiopia
• Added Navarre/Euskadi as a revolter for Spain
• New flags for non-Republic India, name changed to "Hindustan" for monarchies
• New flags for Spain reflecting the union of Castille and Portugal, by Veovis
• Renamed Siebenburgen to Transylvania
• Converted most of the Spanish populations in Aragon to Catalan
• Heligoland moved to Scandinavia from Dual Monarchy
• Removed mistaken Austrian cores on Hungarian provinces
• Removed flavour events and decisions that made no sense in teh alternate world
• Many other new flags
• Many other tweaks and bug fixes
• Mod name changed to "Divergences"

0.2.1 release - 08/09/2010:

• Various changes to India to make Bengal and Travancore more competitive
• Included fix for jacobin rebels
• Updated various countries' colours to lessen confusion
• Fixed bug with Aragon's Indian outpost (it was inland)
• New flags for Neo Anglia, New Burgundy, Plantagenia, Travancore and Vinland

0.2 release - 04/09/2010:

• Reworked China (Warring Kindoms, CBs & decision for Imperial unification)
• Reworked South America (Franco-English and Burgundian colonies now independent)
• Added two civilised states in India (Travancore and Bengal)
• Removed Ukraine, replacing it with the Crimea and Astrakhan khanate
• German translation by Alexspeed
• Added naval bases in Indonesia for the main colonial powers to encourage colonisation there
• Changed starting Indian possesion by European powers to have less Dual Monarchy conquests there
• Reduced the European population of the Dual Monarchy
• Removed releasable colonial nations that no longer made sense (Canada, New England, Australia...)
• Removed flavour decisions that no longer made sense
• Replaced Piedmont with Savoy
• Gave more of Siberia to Novgorod instead of Muscovy, to allow it to colonise east. This balances Muscovy's easy conquest of the two khanates
• Savoy, Venice and Aragon given a little more colonies
• More alternate flags for different government types
• Many other changes and tweaks

0.1.2b release - 30/08/2010:

• Removed mistaken Russian cores on Sakhalin and the Kuril islands
• Removed mistaken German cores on two Hungarian provinces
• Gave Japan ownership of Etorofu in Kuril islands
• Removed IDs from province names

0.1.2 release - 29/08/2010:

• Added "Santandera" in mordern-day Colombia and "Guyana" in the Gran Colombia holdings west of Venezuala as releaseble nations. All Gran Colombian territory outside of Mexico can now revolt.
• Japan now starts with the Kurils, Sakhalin and parts of the Kamchatka peninsula, more realist if they've gone as far as Alaska.
• However, Japan's possesions in Alaska are lessened in Dong Guon's favour. This should also slow excessive Japanese colonisation of North America.
• Fixed oversights in the Gran Colombia population (former Texan & British, Dutch and French holdings had their old POPs)
• Germany now has cores on Austria
• Rework of Bohemian POPs (convertion of some North German and most South German to Czech, somewhat larger population overall, North German and South German are now accepted cultures)
• Most German minors now start in the SoI of Burgundy or Bohemia, to emphasise the HRE connection
• Sigmaringen belongs to Württemberg not Bohemia at the start (see post 54 by Nascaram for explanations)
• Other minor bug fixes

0.1.1 release - 28/08/2010:

• Translated to French.
• German version now uses the English names for new nations, instead of whatever was there in the lines I copy-pasted.
• New Burgundy / Vinland, New Burgundy / Plantagenet, Muscovy / Novgorod and Muscovy / Ukraine now starts with cores on the other country's border areas, to encourage conflicts between them.
• Burgundy now has cores on parts of northern France.
• Burgundy and Aragon now have a stronger initial position (more starting factories, larger home populations), to balance the Dual Monarchy and Spain better.
• Danish, Swedish and Norwegian cultures replaced by a single "Scandinavian" culture, to boost Scandinavia and represent four centuries of being part of the same entity.
• Fixed the absence of flags for New Burgundy when not a republic.
• Algeria is no longer an Ottoman vassal, to encourage Spain and Aragon to expend in the maghreb
• Gan Guo is now civilized, to avoid it just sitting there for the entire game
• Istanbul is now technically in Asia, to improve the Ottoman Empire's map names.

Current status

This release is an 'alpha' release, with minor testing (mostly hands-off games up to 1900 or so). It will probably require some balancing, and more flavour adding (events taking the new history into accounts, better names for the ships & armies, new province names when they no longer make sense, etc). It should however be completely playable.

It should be compatible with most of the small balancing mods. Check if they modify the files included in my RAR.

[Kinniken]

reserved

[Kinniken]

The Dragon Throne challenge (obsolete in recent versions in this form)

With the release of 0.2, China has become a lot more exciting, with seven contestants to reunify China. The most interesting of them is the smallest, Chongsheng, which is also civilised.

Your challenge, should you accept it, is to unify China as fast as possible with Chongsheng. The winner is simply the one to trigger the "Dragon Throne" decision the earliest, nothing else matters. To do it, you need to destroy all six other contestants. Like every Chinese-culture state, you get free CBs to annex them back in one go, so it can go fast. Post results in this thread.

I'll start:



January 19, 1842.

(Note that while this is very fast and the resulting China is a monster, the AI is incapable of it, so it's not unbalanced).

[CaptRobau]

Seem very cool.

[Alexspeed]

Austria cannot into Colonies

Besides the humor, i find this mod highly creative and interresting

[EMT0]

Great work! I wanted to do one of these eventually, but Empire Mod gets priority. If I may make a suggestion, have the Khmer Empire never fall and remain dominant in Southeast Asia; while you're at it, keep Majahapit/Srivijaya from collapsing. Southeast Asia never seems to get any love.

[Orinsul]

that map looks pretty awesome, any thoughts on MTC or another indian country to fill the middle of america?
are the POPs recultured to match the new world?
looks like it was fun to make anyway, im sure it'll be fun to play too

[Kinniken]

Austria cannot into Colonies

Ah well, some countries do better than normal, some worse The good thing is, if you found regular Austria not much of a challenge to play, now you have one - try unifying Germany against Bohemia, Scandinavia, Poland and Burgundy. Good luck

[Kinniken]

Great work! I wanted to do one of these eventually, but Empire Mod gets priority. If I may make a suggestion, have the Khmer Empire never fall and remain dominant in Southeast Asia; while you're at it, keep Majahapit/Srivijaya from collapsing. Southeast Asia never seems to get any love.

Actually I was thinking of bringing back the Hindi Indonesian kingdoms I've already increased the size of Bali. But but warned, all they'll be is quick fodder for the colonial powers...

As for South East Asia, I intend to rework it a bit, but I haven't decided on anything yet.

that map looks pretty awesome, any thoughts on MTC or another indian country to fill the middle of america?
are the POPs recultured to match the new world?
looks like it was fun to make anyway, im sure it'll be fun to play too

Not too keen on an Indian state, it would just get annexed ASAP and I like the intense colonial competition between the North American states (the kind I was hoping to see in Africa in vanilla ).

And yes, I re-cultured/re-religioned all the colonial POPs. Burgundy and Vinland also got new cultures.

[dinofs]

This looks really good! Good job.

[CaptRobau]

It would be cool if you could change some of the states as well, especially in America. Different names and different shapes would be great. I want to fight with Gran Colombia over Lafayette, not Oklahoma.

[Xcapos]

Looks interesting

Are the Chinese colonial states civilized?

[Kinniken]

It would be cool if you could change some of the states as well, especially in America. Different names and different shapes would be great. I want to fight with Gran Colombia over Lafayette, not Oklahoma.

That and province names are on my to-do list. I agree the American names make little sense right now.

[Kinniken]

Looks interesting

Are the Chinese colonial states civilized?

The Californian one yes, due to interactions with Japan and the Spanish settlers.

The Australian one no, too isolated to develop. Though for gameplay reasons I might change my mind - right now it does nothing but sit there for the entire game, if it was civilised it would be colonising and might end up in conflict with other nations, that would be more interesting.

[CirMag]

Seems like it might be interesting, gonna give it a try.

[Puppets]

Do Novgorod and Moscow have cores on each other so you can form Russia in one war in stead of 16 ( or so )
It looks great though!

[arcain]

I tried it several times now, but Aragon, Burgundy and Boehmia are always named "Frankreich" (France)? Is it because I am using the german version of the game?

[LordInsane]

Hm, I would change the name of Scandinavia. As a political term, Scandinavia came into being in our 19th century, and was primarily intended to replace the term 'Norden', as Norden had come to include Finland, which, for various reasons, were somewhat more problematic in 1810 than in 1710.
Here, however, the united Nordic state still has Finland, and, well, Scotland is in the North of Europe, but it isn't in Scandinavia...
Will there still be Danish, Swedish and Norwegian cultures? An argument could be made that after so many centuries of closer togetherness, they would in large be as united as North German. This would, admittedly, make Scandinavia a fair bit stronger...
Hm, it would seem that Norden/Scandinavia would have an interest in connecting its Baltic possessions, and Novgorod might not be able to stop an alt-Treaty of Stolbovo, nor reverse it as Russia did...
Er, a minor nitpick, irrelevant to the modern day of the mod but present in the description: there never was a political unit called the Kalmar Union. Many history books, even those from the region which said Union covered, make that mistake, but the Union of Kalmar was the unification of the three crowns, not the unified realm of the three crowns.

Er, considering the Habsburgs got Austria before the point of divergence, how did they not get Austria here? Now, Bohemia, Austria, and all those other acquisitions, especially the marriage ones or the ones that flowed from the marriage ones, might be a different matter.

[Kinniken]

Do Novgorod and Moscow have cores on each other so you can form Russia in one war in stead of 16 ( or so )
It looks great though!

No, they don't. Maybe I should change that (and with Ukraine too). I've been thinking of putting a pit more cores around anyway, in parts of the world where conflicts are too rare.