DD16 - Keep the good times rolling: Part 2!

[podcat]

Hello again! We have kept working on A House Divided after its release and other than bug fixes we have gotten some fun new stuff in as well. I can't cover all we have done in this diary, but I will highlight the biggest tasty parts.

Great Wars
One of the things people have been missing in Victoria II is wars with some weight to them. World War 1 class weight for example. Once the new Great Wars are unlocked (1870+) they are possible and have their own special rules:

• Any war with 2 or more great powers on each side will become a Great War.
• Reduced cost on wargoals (infamy, warscore etc), so many claims can be made and enforced.
• You can not white peace from a great war. losers have to surrender which is effectively a cut down to size wargoal making the AI pretty reluctant to do so.
• Any great power can intervene in a great war if they have positive relations with one of the sides so they escalate easily. This is not the same intervention as for regular wars as no status quo wargoal is added. You are intervening to lend your strength to one of the sides.

Great wars are shown with a golden outline and always appear at the top of the current war list:



Interface Improvements
If you check the picture above showing a great war you will notice little arrows under the warscore progress. These show the value of added goals for each side and gives you an idea how much warscore you have to accumulate for the AI to accept all your goals. We also added tooltips in the diplomacy view giving you an idea of another country's army and naval technology levels:


The factory build interface also has a new neat information tooltip which show you an estimation on output value vs input costs to give you an idea if this type of factory is worth buying:

The output value turns red if the margin for profit is very small (5%) as you will probably want to actually be able to pay your workers salaries.


New Nations
We are adding a few releasable/formable nations that you can try out:

Arabia - A pan-arab union state. You can limit yourself to a fairly historical Saudi Arabia type affair, but you gain cores on all Arab nations when forming this state, so you can also carve out a massive caliphate if you prefer. Arabs are also now their own culture group, separated from Turkish.


The Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth - Poland isn't in a happy situation in the V2 era, so why not restore it to the height of power? The PLC is now the union tag for Polish and Lithuanian cultures. Although this means Krakow can no longer form Poland, we hope the PLC makes up for it.

The United Baltic Duchy - Another new nation in Eastern Europe, the UBD is a union of the Baltic states (Minus Lithuania). Perhaps united they can stop Russia from re-absorbing them?

Belarus - The final new nation in this area. Belarus/White Russia is entirely landlocked. Historically, they were briefly independent between the two world wars until becoming part of the newly formed USSR.

Gran Colombia - For a brief time after gaining independence from Spain, Colombia encompassed much of northern South America, and under the right circumstances they can do so again now! Forming Gran Columbia will also grant some cores on your neighbors, giving you the chance to re-take the entire "New Granada" area.



AI Improvements
Improvements have been made across the board, but main focus has been war, wargoal selection and alliances. For peacetime the AI is now much more competent at taxing its population so poor nations will be much better at educating their people while strong nations get a better economy - making them much stronger rivals. Great Power AIs will also be a bit more hesitant to form alliances early on in the game leaving more room for players in secondary countries.


So when do we get to play with this stuff?
Right now if you are feeling adventurous! There is a public beta patch out where you can try the new stuff here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...lic-Beta-Patch
It also has a full detailed changelog with all the changes included.

[Kaoschan]

I like!

[Farsun]

Oh post WWI states...I like.

[StormLightsBane]

It's official... I HAVE TO get AHD!

[FMekajiki]

Poor Rylock....all that hard work on the wonderful Great Wars mod. Though hopefully these features will have modifiable assets so that he can incorporate them and make an even better Great War mod than he already has. Great looking improvements though, even if some of them have already been in PDM for a while :P

[RedRalphWiggum]

Hands up who thinks Belarus is the best new feature in 2.3? Anyone?

Anyone?

[KonradRichtmark]

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the devs might actually have used Rylock's work as inspiration.

[Kitteh]

What's the deal with Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? Is Poland no longer a country?

[Naselus]

Nah, other than both being called 'Great Wars' there's not really that much similarity between them and the PDM-style ones, tbh. It should give Ry the additional tools he needs to make the GW mod even better, tho.

[Vaya con Queso]

Arabia, Gran Colombia, and Poland-Lithuania?
If they added an event to allow Brazil to change to democracy, AHD would be my favourite game ever.

[podcat]

What's the deal with Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? Is Poland no longer a country?

they are, but it is no longer a union tag. the effective difference is that you cant play as krakow and form poland, they have to be released through war or rebellion (this is more likely now) from russia. PLC however can be created like before instead, but is a bit more flexible

[Rylock]

Poor Rylock....all that hard work on the wonderful Great Wars mod. Though hopefully these features will have modifiable assets so that he can incorporate them and make an even better Great War mod than he already has. Great looking improvements though, even if some of them have already been in PDM for a while :P

What they've done looks pretty close to what the Great Wars already does-- minus the "dismantling" treaties. If they've added the ability to ensure that countries involved cannot white peace out of a Great War, however, as well as AI improvements to make them fight the war better... then I will happily re-tool the Great Wars mod to fit.

In fact, depending on how well the 2.3 version of Great Wars work, I will also happily toss out the mod in its entirety.

[Demonliver]

I just have to say this but I love how every patch is like a new game addition! Love it, keep up the great work!

[Sternness]

Arabia, Gran Colombia, and Poland-Lithuania?
If they added an event to allow Brazil to change to democracy, AHD would be my favourite game ever.

Seconded.

[Metz]

Should it be more like 3 Great Powers on each side? 2 Great Powers on each side is kind of common throughout the whole game.

[Loonyballoon]

I thought this was a new mod for a sec, thanks for adding even more unions.

[Buladelu]

Hands up who thinks Belarus is the best new feature in 2.3? Anyone?

Anyone?

Count me in, man.

But now I'm confused. Belarus and Poland have many common provinces (and I'm not sure about Smolensk in the era), so... Is Belarus in pre-WW2 borders? Is it LitBel that existed shortly as part of USSR? Is it Belarus as it was imagined at the time, with Smolensk? Well, if I remember correctly today's Belarus borders are present in V2 so it maybe so.

But now we have Poland-Lithuania which is Poland + Belarus + Lithuania + whatever land it had which is much. I'm really confused of how it will work.

[RedRalphWiggum]

Count me in, man.

But now I'm confused. Belarus and Poland have many common provinces (and I'm not sure about Smolensk in the era), so... Is Belarus in pre-WW2 borders? Is it LitBel that existed shortly as part of USSR? Is it Belarus as it was imagined at the time, with Smolensk? Well, if I remember correctly today's Belarus borders are present in V2 so it maybe so.

But now we have Poland-Lithuania which is Poland + Belarus + Lithuania + whatever land it had which is much. I'm really confused of how it will work.

Belarus is the present-day borders, i.e. the Byelorussian SSR borders.

[podcat]

Should it be more like 3 Great Powers on each side? 2 Great Powers on each side is kind of common throughout the whole game.

not as much anymore. the ai is a lot more cautious about making alliances with other GPs as it sees them more like rivals now. Also its a bit of a tradeoff as we want the feature to actually be there in every game rather than something that happens very rarely.

And the special rules for great wars are not activated until the 1870s.

[Buladelu]

Belarus is the present-day borders, i.e. the Byelorussian SSR borders.

Then what about PLC? Only Poland can create it if it has Belarus? Doesn't seem right for Belarus or Lithuania to create it. Also it was based on dynasty-monarchy things so it's even stranger.