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Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #55 - Achievements

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Hello and welcome to yet another Victoria 3 development diary. Today we’re going to be talking about Achievements, and since I think absolutely everyone reading this already knows what an Achievement is, I’m not going to do the usual what-is-this-feature preface. But before I get to listing all the achievements that Victoria 3 will be releasing with, we do have something to announce in regards to achievements which will differ in Victoria 3 compared to earlier Paradox Grand Strategy Games, namely that Ironman and an unmodified checksum will no longer be required to unlock achievements.

That is to say, no matter what mods you have installed and whether you’re playing ironman or not, all of these achievements will be unlockable. There are a few game rules that disallow achievements, but since you could simply mod away that requirement if you wanted, not even this is a particularly hard rule. The reason for this change is simply that after quite a bit of discussion among the designers, we’ve decided that for Victoria 3 we want to emphasize access to achievements for everyone, even if that may end ‘devaluing’ the achievements in the eyes of some players.

Now then, with that out of the way and without further ado, I will get to listing, in no particular order, the 50 achievements that will be available in the release version of Victoria 3!

Peccavi: Starting as the British India Company, fully own the states of Sindh and Punjab.
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Perkeletankki: Starting as Finland, produce at least 100 units of tanks every week.
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Luxurious Luxemburg: Starting as Luxembourg, be the leading producer of Luxury Clothes, Luxury Furniture, and Porcelain.
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Anarchy in the UK: Starting as Great Britain, have an Anarchist form of government.
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Mohammed Ali’s Ambition: Starting as Egypt, form Arabia and own Thrace.
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An Empire Under the Pun: Starting as the Sikh Empire, subjugate Great Britain.
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I didn’t vote for Pedro: Starting as Brazil, change government to Republic and implement Universal Suffrage.
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Go West, Young Man: Starting as the USA, own California, Oregon and Washington with 250k or more population in each.
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The Western Protectorate: Starting as Great Qing, have a treaty port in France, Germany, the British Isles, Iberia and Italy.
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The Paris Commune: Starting as France, become a Council Republic and have a Command Economy.
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Barbary’s Back: Starting as Algeria, retake Algiers and become a Major Power.
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Miners and Minors: Starting as Lanfang, incorporate all states in Borneo and have the 'Compulsory Primary School' law.
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Healthy Man of Europe: Starting as the Ottomans, be the Greatest Power while having max level Public Health Insurance.
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Habsburg Resurgence: Starting as Austria, own Silesia and Prussia must be Minor Power or lower rank.
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The Great Game: Starting as Russia, own the entire Central Asia region.
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Bourbon for Everyone: Starting as Spain, have an average standard of living of at least 20 while remaining a monarchy.
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Manifest Mexico: Starting as Mexico, own the Pacific Coast & Great Plains, and have a higher Power Rank than the USA.
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American Territory: Starting as the Indian Territory, have the USA as a subject with no more than three states.
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Broken Promises: As Italy, join a diplomatic play against 2 or more of your allies.
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The Berlin Conference: Starting as Prussia, form Germany and fully own at least 10 states in Africa.
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Star-Swarmed Banner: As the United States, have 100 incorporated states represented on your flag.
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Belle Époque: Starting as France, have the highest GDP per capita and Innovation generation in the world.
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Deeds, Not Words: Pass the Women's Suffrage law.
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First Flight: Be the first nation in the world to fly aeroplanes.
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Victorian Century: Play a full campaign from 1836 to 1936.
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Poor, Huddled Masses: Have a cultural migration target in one of your states.
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Billionaire: Have a national GDP of at least £1 billion.
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Serf’s Up: Starting as a nation with Serfdom, enact Worker’s Protections Labour Rights Law.
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Risorgimento: Form the nation of Italy.
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Three Hurrahs: Form the nation of Germany.
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Solomon’s Quest: Form the nation of Ethiopia.
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I am a Scandinavian: Form the nation of Scandinavia.
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Enlightened Despot: Have electrical street lights in all states while being an Autocracy.
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Mightier than the Sword: Have the other side back down in a diplomatic play.
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Revolutionary: Switch sides to the revolutionaries in a civil war and win the ensuing conflict.
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Reading Campaign: Starting as a nation with less than 20% literacy, get to 100% literacy.
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We Are Not Amused: Starting as Great Britain, Expel Diplomats of a Great Power with Cordial or better relations.
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Institutional: Have an institution at maximum investment level.
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Poppydock: Have at least a level 8 port and export at least 2500 units of Opium to foreign markets.
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Grander Colombia: Form Grand Colombia and own all land in the Gran Colombia, Andes, and La Plata strategic regions.
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Inventive: Research all technologies across all three categories.
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Educated: Complete the 'Learn the Game' objective.
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Tycoon: Complete the 'Economic Dominance' objective.
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Hegemon: Complete the 'Hegemon' objective.
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Caretaker: Complete the 'Egalitarian Society' objective.
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That’s all of them, and that’s all for today! Join us again next week as Alex goes into more depth about Cultures and Religions!
 
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Very disappointed with new achievement system. I can understand people are frustrated with ironman. As for me it's just a mild restriction to make your choices irreversible and the game itself more alive with some rng that you can't undo. And it's not a big deal that it is not required now. But for the checksum it's really ruining the definiton of the "achievement" itself. Basically, cheating is now legit.

As for the achievements themselves, I'm rather dissapointed too. I'm okay with current philosophy of having basic achievements tied with basic mechanics and some challenges that give you a stimulus for unusual playstyles and goals and also give you a stimulus to play some underdog countries. Every PDX game has some basic stuff and some challenges. And majority of listed achievements are either tied to a basic mechanics or lack of any real challenge. For example, The Paris Commune achievements requires just to trigger a communist revolution and surrender. Or Star-Swarmed Banner achievement is just a brainless map painting playing as one of the most powerful majors of the game that none of its neighbours can really stop. I'd rather see more achievements like Luxurious Luxemburg or The Western Protectorate that challenge you.
 
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Give us a toggle at game start, to disable achievements. that way people can gain them in ironman, but still play modded without fear of getting some.

Is that easily doable? Or are there technical barriers?
DD mentions game rule that will still disable achievements so it's definitely doable. Maybe if they don't put it there will be some rule that's very unimpactful but still disables it
 
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Unlocking achievements for mods and non-ironman games is good idea. I personally do not care about achievements since I play PDX games modded which, in my case, makes the game harder, not easier. On top of that I self-impose ironman (no save-scumming) without the need to endure autosaving the game every couple of seconds, which is irritating, to say the least. So, having access to those achievements - in my case - would be welcome addition, letting me track my progress and games more easily.

2nd point: I'm surprised there's no Poland-related achievement. For instance 'As a free city of Kraków form Poland' or 'Having Polish as your primary culture, reform the Commonwealth' etc. My gut feeling tells me we're going to get a revolutions-related dlc pretty soon after the release.
 
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And yet it literally has before. So it’s not that it doesn’t work that way, it’s that the devs failed to design it that way in the first place.
This is like when people say "it was working earlier" as evidence for why it should be working now, when the fact is the percentage of things that now do not work, but worked earlier, is incredibly high.

it has before, in an entirely different program using an entirely different engine built using entirely different technology.
 
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As I said in the first quote string it was a good idea and I would follow-up on it. I cannot answer the technical side but I don't think its too hard in concept, but then I'm not a coder. It might already exist and I'm just blind, I don't have the game installed on my home PC for work/life balance reasons.
If there is such a toggle or your making one, is there a streightforward way to toggle it within a mod?
While mods don't automatically disable achievments, the mod maker might decide that their particular mod should do so. Totel conversion mods for example don't really make achievements make sense.
 
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DD mentions game rule that will still disable achievements so it's definitely doable. Maybe if they don't put it there will be some rule that's very unimpactful but still disables it
Yeah he did now I think of it. Surely this is the easiest solution then, a toggle to disable them.

It won't please many I know, but it works for me, and since there is, in my opinion, no one more important, that's all that matters really, Right?
 
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Why would I play on Ironman if I don’t have to?
Then don't?
Like, the amount of people that ever play Ironman will drastically reduce because of this.
So what?
But like, many won’t now?
Most didn't before. So what?

It's an additional option for those who wants to limit themselves, for their own pleasure or gratification, not an actual completely different game mode
 
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So what? Only a third of the people who've played CK3 have the marriage achievement and its only achievement with higher than 30% a completion rate. Only 24 out of the 97 achievements have a double digit completion rate. People do not care about achievement hunting. The devs made the choice they felt served the entire playerbase the best. Achievements are a fun way reminder of the things you've done in a game and they should be available to everyone on that basis alone. And guess what? You can still play only Iron Man games to get achievement if you want to, on one is going to stop you from doing so. If you think they lose their value because people don't have to play a restricted mode to get them that's your problem and nobody else's.
You’re right it is my problem. I’m upset. And I’m stating it. You can ride in the sunset happy that achievements mean nothing now. And I will continue to be sour about it.
 
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The difficulty hasn't been removed, ironman is still there for that community - you can still brag to each other and post about getting achievements on ironman.
What you cannot do is lord that over others easily by statistics, but you weren't doing that, those communities were built around achievements and their difficulty - which is still there.
I haven't been lording achievements over anyone. Doing achievements that a very small portion of the player base has received is fun for me. I know it will be challenging when I start them.

I'm clearly on the losing side of this argument but I won't pretend that achievements hold the same value when achievement numbers are off by an order of magnitude from where they "should" be if they were only available on ironman.
 
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As I said in the first quote string it was a good idea and I would follow-up on it. I cannot answer the technical side but I don't think its too hard in concept, but then I'm not a coder. It might already exist and I'm just blind, I don't have the game installed on my home PC for work/life balance reasons.
No worries, I'm half asleep so sorry if I missed that.

As for the work life balance, that must suck for you guys sometimes. We're all like rabid dogs with a pork chop being waved in their face to play the thing but you have uninstalled it from your home machine to help you stay sane lol
 
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Unlocking achievements for mods and non-ironman games is good idea. I personally do not care about achievements since I play PDX games modded which, in my case, makes the game harder, not easier. On top of that I self-impose ironman (no save-scumming) without the need to endure autosaving the game every couple of seconds, which is irritating, to say the least. So, having access to those achievements - in my case - would be welcome addition, letting me track my progress and games more easily.
Same for me, but i'm thinking if i can get them modded, it would make me want to then try to get the non modded version.