AHD DD1 – A House Divided

[Darkrenown]

Hello and welcome to the first developer diary for A House Divided, the first expansion for Victoria 2. From the title you're probably thinking two things:
1) So the focus is on the American Civil War?
2) Must everything about the ACW be called A House Divided?

Well the answers to those are “No” and “Yes” respectively.

AHD does not have any particular focus on the ACW, although it does include a new scenario which I will talk about in a moment, the main aim is to make the game better all round. We plan to improve politics, the economy, uncivilised nation's path to reform and modernisation, warfare, the UI, game speed, and more!

As for the name, Lincoln really liked his “House divided” speech and stuck with it despite everyone he showed it to telling him it was going too far. He liked it so much that after the war he decreed all computer games based it are required to use his speech as the title*.

Now, back to the scenario: The ACW scenario currently starts on July 1st 1861, the CSA is fully formed, armies on both sides are on the move, and the first real battles of the Civil War are about to take place.




Sharp eyed formites might notice some bonus details in these screenshots too


*= This may not be true.

We should be back next week with a DD about the economic improvements we're working on now.

 

[podcat]

you broke the minimap?

Under Construction. there is a bunch of new mapmodes coming which we will talk about later, but the artist havent had time to fix the new buttons yet.

 

[podcat]

Schleswig-Holstein being Prussian 1861 before the 1864 war. Is there something new that stops Prussia from eating all of Denmark in the first year of the game?

there might be but the details of it will be apparent 2 dev diaries in the future

 

[Johan]

Will there be weekly DDs from now on?

Thats the plan!

 

[Darkrenown]

New Mexico AND Arizona are with the Confederates... why??

Just over-excitment on my part, they did claim the area though

 

[podcat]

Diaries will release to the end of November?

there is plans to have diaries and perhaps some AARs through christmas as well.

 

[Darkrenown]

Honestly the dd shows nothing new. Sad.
Hope we will get lucky next week.

Let me explain simply for people complaining:
First DD = Early in the project.
Early in the project = New features not made yet.
New features not made yet = Not much to put in DD.
With a few seconds thought this should be obvious.

So you get a brief overview of the plans for the expansion and a look at something almost-done and visible, the new scenario. Which is new, so you are quite incorrect to say there is nothing. There are also several new mapmode buttons visible.

 

[Darkrenown]

Kraków get in Austria

Already done, but this hadn't even been sent to the betas at the time of posting. You;re seeing a first draft, not a final one.

 

[Darkrenown]

Is the project in such an early stage that there are no sort of design documents detailing the planned new features?

No, but the problem with doing DDs on features that are only designed rather than made is they sometimes change or are even cut, then people complain we "lied to them" or we "broke our promise".

 

[Darkrenown]

I was honestly hoping for the same thing when I saw Darkrenown posted it My first post was meant in jest if I didn't make that clear, it's great that the dev's actually having a sense of humour

I did actually have a funny one written too, but we went with the "real" one instead. I might get to post the other one at some point though.

 

[podcat]

Or it's an early beta/alpha shot and the UK hasn't been set up properly in the scenario files, yet.

this is it

 

[Darkrenown]

Reading that made me wish we had something whacky and hilarious for the first AHD DD, too!

Well, why not?

A House Divided: Union Marine DD 1

For AHD we have decided on a change of pace. Rather than yet another Grand Strategy game, we're taking Victoria 2 in a new direction: FPS.

Using a range of authentic period weaponry ranging from sabre and pistol to a Gatling gun, Abraham Lincoln must carve his way through the rebellious states of the CSA. A little known fact about Lincoln was that he was a remarkably strong man, but this will be fully realised in AHD: Your melee blows will send secessionists flying, and you can execute weaker enemies with a single blow (this causes Lincoln's health to re-generate).

The key concept in AHD is Lincoln's ability to deliver violence upon his enemies. Combat will be fast-paced and brutal, flowing seamlessly between ranged and melee combat. You can even use a one-handed gun and melee weapon at the same time. Every enemy has multiple death animations for each weapon in the game. Rebels will swarm on from every side and Lincoln must use all his skills, including a range of knock-backs and stuns, in order to survive.

The Campaign will involve Lincoln battling his way though all 11 states of the CSA, with a Confederate general as a boss-monster at the end of each. The game will end in Richmond, Virgina, and will feature a cinematic final battle against both Richard E Lee and Jefferson Davis. Will Lincoln prevail? Only time will tell!

 

[Darkrenown]

Sounds like a dig at Relic's Space Marine, a rather mediocre attempt by a company famous for strategy titles at a FPS.

More a homage than a dig, I enjoyed Space Marine

 

[Darkrenown]

Strategy games are no longer relevant, FPS is the future!

 

[podcat]

Fantastic -- an FPS where it takes a 30 seconds of standing still to reload a single shot in your gun. Can't go wrong there.

I dont see how. Lincoln can easily punch out anyone getting close enough to interrupt his reloading

 

[podcat]

I note from the picture that Lincoln is without his distinctive stove pipe hat. Is this just a cynical excuse to sell it later as a DLC?

yes "A House Divided: Union Marine" will include DLC hats! In fact you can even buy DLC hats for your DLC hats creating amazingly high hats!

The game box will also be infused with opium extract effectively turning fans who touch it into addicts and we will later on be selling increasingly more expensive DLC opiate items.

 

[Darkrenown]

They have no melee stuff, we're still good!

 

[Darkrenown]

No, there will only be the ACW scenario and nothing else, as the OP states.

 

[podcat]

btw, the webpage for AHD got updated with some new screenshots yesterday. Much of that is still in development, but if you look closely you can see some stuff we havent talked about yet: http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/victoria-ii-a-house-divided

 

[Darkrenown]

so we can use counters instead of sprites
and i see belarus there

No, you just have more detail when zoomed out. And that's the culture mapmode, Belarus is not a seperate country.