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Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #108 - Sphere of Influence and 1.7 Overview

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Hello and welcome to the first Development Diary for the 1.7 update and Sphere of Influence expansion for Victoria 3. This Dev Diary is meant to give you a broad overview of the major Expansion and update features, which we’ll naturally go over in much greater detail in the next few weeks. As mentioned previously, all of this is scheduled to release on May 6th and you can pre-order Sphere of Influence right now.

Power Blocs (Sphere of Influence)​

Power Blocs are multinational associations that can be formed by high-ranking countries, and which take a variety of forms based on their Identity and Principles. Power Bloc Identities are set when they are formed, while Principles can be added and removed over time. Power Blocs are highly customizable in other ways, such as choosing their name and customizing their emblem, as well as creating custom statues to reflect the glory and reach of your Bloc.

A Power Bloc might take the form of a single Great Power and countries under its influence, a multilateral military alliance between several Major/Great Powers, or an economic cooperation with numerous countries in a unified market.

Power Blocs have Leverage on countries outside the Bloc (including members of other Blocs) and can use that Leverage to entice and cajole them into the Power Bloc. Being part of a Power Bloc comes with both benefits and obligations, and members are at risk of having their internal politics meddled with by the leader of the Bloc.

Interest Group Lobbies (Sphere of Influence)​

In Sphere of Influence, Interest Groups can now join Lobbies with specific foreign policy agendas centered around other countries. These Lobbies form organically as the result of a new system of Diplomatic Catalysts: A lobby friendly to Great Britain might form after the signing of an alliance with them, while a lobby hostile to Austria might spring up after being defeated by them in a war, all depending on a variety of diplomatic and political conditions at the time the Catalyst occurred.

Lobbies will try to promote or counter the interests of foreign powers and will help or hinder your diplomatic efforts based on whether your goals align with their own. Lobbies that are friendly to a specific foreign power can smooth the way for diplomatic agreement that would otherwise not be possible, but will oppose hostile actions and undermine any war efforts against that power, while unfriendly lobbies will try to hinder diplomatic efforts with the country of their ire but may create an opportunity for a key alliance with their rival instead.

In addition to appearing as due to Diplomatic Catalysts, Political Lobbies can also form as a result of certain events, like Social Democrats feeling the need to prove their opposition to Communism
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Foreign Investment (Sphere of Influence)​

Foreign Investment makes it possible for both governments and autonomous private investors to construct building levels in other countries and enjoy the profits generated. To construct in another country, you need to have certain diplomatic pacts in place, or otherwise be part of a Power Bloc that allows such construction. If you do not own Sphere of Influence you will still be able to do Foreign Investment in your subjects.

The Great Game (Sphere of Influence)​

The Great Game is a major new content addition adding a new Objective and new Journal Entries focused on the historical Great Game that played out between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. The Objective can be played as either Russia/Britain or one of the other involved powers such as Persia, and which country you select changes the conditions required to ‘win’ the Great Game. The new Objective ties directly into numerous new Journal Entries such as Persia’s ambition to restore its hegemony over Afghanistan, most of which will be present even if the Objective isn’t selected and so will also drive AI behavior in the region.

As one of the Afghanistani minors, your most immediate priority will be to reunify Afghanistan and either restore the Durrani Empire or create something new
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Subject Interactions (Sphere of Influence)​

Subject Interactions are a new group of Diplomatic Actions that can be done either by an overlord against their subjects, or by a subject against their overlord. These include actions such as Increasing or Decreasing Autonomy, changing the level of payments owed by a subject, appointing a new ruler, or allowing them to manage their own market. Certain Subject Actions, such as Increasing Autonomy or Granting Market Independence, will be available even to those without Sphere of Influence.

Building Ownership Revision (Update 1.7)​

The mechanics for Building Ownership are completely revised in the 1.7 update so that the owners of a building no longer have to work in that building, or even live in the same state - London-based Capitalists can now own buildings all over the world, and buildings can be selectively nationalized or privatized and put up for sale to interested investors, with the available options being restricted by which economic system a country is operating under. Additionally, buildings can now potentially have a different owner for each of its levels.

Instead of hanging around on the farms doing what could (God forbid) be considered ‘working’, the Aristocrats of East Anglia now stay in their Manor Houses and enjoy the proper leisurely pursuits of a countryside gentleman or gentlewoman
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Liberty Desire (Update 1.7)​

Update 1.7 adds Liberty Desire for Subjects that restricts both which actions they can take against their overlord and which actions an overlord is able to take against them. Liberty Desire is calculated on a variety of factors, such as how intertwined the subject’s economy is with their overlord, and can increase or decrease over time. AI subjects will have a number of new diplomatic strategies influenced by their liberty desire, such as pursuing independence or remaining a subject but seeking greater autonomy from their overlord.

Owing to a relatively high level of Liberty Desire, Cambodia is pursuing a strategy of increased autonomy and self-reliance, but will not seek full independence yet
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This is of course by no means an exhaustive list of everything we’re adding in Sphere of Influence and 1.7! There are new companies, new flavor events, more historical characters, new clothing and changes to the map, to name just a few. Since there is a lot to talk about, we’ll be releasing weekly dev diaries for at least the next couple of months!

That’s all for today. Next week we begin the deep-dives into 1.7 and Sphere of Influence, on the topic of Power Blocs!

Below you can see the Upcoming Dev Diary Schedule, so mark the dates down for when we go over your topics of interest!


Date Topic
21st MarchPower Blocs
28th MarchForeign Investment & Building Ownership
4th AprilSubject Interactions
11th AprilLobbies and More on Power Blocs
18th AprilThe Great Game
25th AprilThe Art of Sphere of Influence
2nd MayChangelog 1.7
 
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Hopefully these power blocks will be a means to form coalitions if a countries infamy becomes too great and have a special CB that causes the target of the coalition to have its colonial holdings dismantled and cores returned to coalition members either with this update or in the future.
 
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I hope these new systems are fully fleshed out in the update. Agitators and companies felt 1/2 baked. I want changes that feel like fully developed mechanics. I don't want something that I engage with a handful of times in a playthrough. I want substantial changes to the gameplay loop. As is, the game is mostly just managing a changing market while trying to pass some reforms. This is interjected with conquests or colonization, but the core gameplay loop is economy and reforms. We need changes to that loop, agitators and companies did not change that loop almost at all.
 
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Dr BAMF said:
I am, however, very concerned that this is coming out in a mere 2 months, especially when we have heard little to nothing about it before now. With all these massive, sweeping additions and the huge, dramatic effect on game balance this will inevitably have, making it work properly is going to be a big job.
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We have known the name, and that it will have power blocks and foreign investment since May last year. It's not like they start telling us about the content the moment they start working on it. Just because they started working on it a long time ago doesn't guarantee it will feel fleshed out, nor work properly though.
 
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What happens if I eat state with manors or financial centers? Do they relocate or do they accept, that they are in new country even if discriminated now?

If communist nation eats state with manors/financial centers, then all employed capitalists/aristocrats become unemployed?
Can they relocate?
 
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Any word on what happens if capitalists in your capitol own stuff in a province that revolts, do they still own the buildings or what happens do they regain ownership after the war or just lose ownership forever?
 
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Can you rename the buildings button to industry? Building feels too micro, while the game deals more with macro.

Maybe also a way to reclassify industry instead of urban/rural/development as the building lists can get very long once everything is built.
 
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@Wizzington

To make cavalry and artillery have 6 of each category like infantry, I would add howitzers before heavy tanks which is the last one for artillery, and I would add armored cars/mot. Infantry before light tanks which is the last one for cavalry.
 
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Metz said:
@Wizzington

To make cavalry and artillery have 6 of each category like infantry, I would add howitzers before heavy tanks which is the last one for artillery, and I would add armored cars/mot. Infantry before light tanks which is the last one for cavalry.
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Post it in suggestions subforum instead of pinging dev in random thread
 
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Looks great! I was wondering if you guys would consider letting the owners of buildings choose the production methods? For me, it breaks the realism a bit when I (supposedly a free-market government) am able to decide specific production methods for buildings that the government doesn't own. For buildings that are owned by the government, it absolutely makes sense for the player to define production methods.

I know others are going to say that the player is not the government, but with automated construction (buildings built by pops) it definitely seems implied that the player controls the government and not the spirit of a nation.
 
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This looks really good. The changes to ownership seem like they'll have a lot of impact even beyond just allowing for foreign investment.

It is funny to see people for some reason losing their minds again over the very concept of symbolic things having on-map representations in a video game with people weirdly freaking out over statues and monuments still.
 
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Metz said:
Can you rename the buildings button to industry? Building feels too micro, while the game deals more with macro.

Maybe also a way to reclassify industry instead of urban/rural/development as the building lists can get very long once everything is built.
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I would even go with "Sector"
 
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The_Sterwood said:
Quick question: Will interest group lobbies respond to interests? So, if I declare an interest in China, will my industrialist interest group lobby to get a treaty port?
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To build on this, could an interest group lobby to declare an interest somewhere-- or perhaps, by virtue of being an interest group, stake an interest somewhere that would not be at cost of our own interests pool. So, for a, (rather crude), example, the industrialist group creates an interest in California after gold pops up.
 
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Will there be some sort of mechanism where landowners try to stay ahead of the curve by reducing costs/increasing outputs via using tools and fertilizers? Currently, a way to disempower the Aristocrat clout is to not build up agriculture buildings/plantations and to industrialize so that the industrialist clout increases to help pass laws that would then enable the PB, Intelligentsia, and eventually Trade Unions.
 
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Will the Central Asian countries (Orta-Juz, Kishi-Juz, Ulu-Juz) become playable? At the moment Russia captures them right from the start or within 10 years, no matter how hard a player tries, it cannot be avoided.
 
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