• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #55 - Achievements

16_9.jpg

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.
DD55_1.jpg


Perkeletankki: Starting as Finland, produce at least 100 units of tanks every week.
DD55_2.jpg


Luxurious Luxemburg: Starting as Luxembourg, be the leading producer of Luxury Clothes, Luxury Furniture, and Porcelain.
DD55_3.jpg


Anarchy in the UK: Starting as Great Britain, have an Anarchist form of government.
DD55_4.jpg


Mohammed Ali’s Ambition: Starting as Egypt, form Arabia and own Thrace.
DD55_5.jpg


An Empire Under the Pun: Starting as the Sikh Empire, subjugate Great Britain.
DD55_6.jpg


I didn’t vote for Pedro: Starting as Brazil, change government to Republic and implement Universal Suffrage.
DD55_7.jpg


Go West, Young Man: Starting as the USA, own California, Oregon and Washington with 250k or more population in each.
DD55_8.jpg


The Western Protectorate: Starting as Great Qing, have a treaty port in France, Germany, the British Isles, Iberia and Italy.
DD55_9.jpg


The Paris Commune: Starting as France, become a Council Republic and have a Command Economy.
DD55_10.jpg


Barbary’s Back: Starting as Algeria, retake Algiers and become a Major Power.
DD55_11.jpg


Miners and Minors: Starting as Lanfang, incorporate all states in Borneo and have the 'Compulsory Primary School' law.
DD55_12.jpg


Healthy Man of Europe: Starting as the Ottomans, be the Greatest Power while having max level Public Health Insurance.
DD55_13.jpg


Habsburg Resurgence: Starting as Austria, own Silesia and Prussia must be Minor Power or lower rank.
DD55_14.jpg


The Great Game: Starting as Russia, own the entire Central Asia region.
DD55_15.jpg


Bourbon for Everyone: Starting as Spain, have an average standard of living of at least 20 while remaining a monarchy.
DD55_16.jpg


Manifest Mexico: Starting as Mexico, own the Pacific Coast & Great Plains, and have a higher Power Rank than the USA.
DD55_17.jpg


American Territory: Starting as the Indian Territory, have the USA as a subject with no more than three states.
DD55_18.jpg


Broken Promises: As Italy, join a diplomatic play against 2 or more of your allies.
DD55_19.jpg


The Berlin Conference: Starting as Prussia, form Germany and fully own at least 10 states in Africa.
DD55_20.jpg


Star-Swarmed Banner: As the United States, have 100 incorporated states represented on your flag.
DD55_21.jpg


Belle Époque: Starting as France, have the highest GDP per capita and Innovation generation in the world.
DD55_22.jpg


Deeds, Not Words: Pass the Women's Suffrage law.
DD55_23.jpg


First Flight: Be the first nation in the world to fly aeroplanes.
DD55_24.jpg


Victorian Century: Play a full campaign from 1836 to 1936.
DD55_25.jpg


Poor, Huddled Masses: Have a cultural migration target in one of your states.
DD55_26.jpg


Billionaire: Have a national GDP of at least £1 billion.
DD55_27.jpg


Serf’s Up: Starting as a nation with Serfdom, enact Worker’s Protections Labour Rights Law.
DD55_28.jpg


Risorgimento: Form the nation of Italy.
DD55_29.jpg


Three Hurrahs: Form the nation of Germany.
DD55_30.jpg


Solomon’s Quest: Form the nation of Ethiopia.
DD55_31.jpg


I am a Scandinavian: Form the nation of Scandinavia.
DD55_32.jpg


Enlightened Despot: Have electrical street lights in all states while being an Autocracy.
DD55_33.jpg


Mightier than the Sword: Have the other side back down in a diplomatic play.
DD55_34.jpg


Revolutionary: Switch sides to the revolutionaries in a civil war and win the ensuing conflict.
DD55_35.jpg


Reading Campaign: Starting as a nation with less than 20% literacy, get to 100% literacy.
DD55_36.jpg


We Are Not Amused: Starting as Great Britain, Expel Diplomats of a Great Power with Cordial or better relations.
DD55_37.jpg


Institutional: Have an institution at maximum investment level.
DD55_38.jpg


Poppydock: Have at least a level 8 port and export at least 2500 units of Opium to foreign markets.
DD55_39.jpg


Grander Colombia: Form Grand Colombia and own all land in the Gran Colombia, Andes, and La Plata strategic regions.
DD55_40.jpg


Inventive: Research all technologies across all three categories.
DD55_41.jpg


Educated: Complete the 'Learn the Game' objective.
DD55_42.jpg


Tycoon: Complete the 'Economic Dominance' objective.
DD55_43.jpg


Hegemon: Complete the 'Hegemon' objective.
DD55_44.jpg


Caretaker: Complete the 'Egalitarian Society' objective.
DD55_45.jpg


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!
 
  • 174Like
  • 104Love
  • 69
  • 15
  • 11
  • 6Haha
Reactions:
Why would I play on Ironman if I don’t have to? That’s the problem. Like, the amount of people that ever play Ironman will drastically reduce because of this.

It’s the equivalent of adding an easy mode to dark souls.

Sure, people can play hard mode. But like, many won’t now? It takes away something that made achievements special.
Sorry, this comment is ridiculously self-debunking. You admit that ironman is a so-so experience that people should just bear because they otherwise would definitely cheat in their achievements instantly -which as others have noted already, does not really happen in games which would allow it. Sure, there will be some cheaters, but that doesn't really matter.
Reducing my fun playing the game for internet points? That is shallow.
But from the way you worded "Why would I play on Ironman if I don’t have to?", I wonder, if you would be among those that could not resist to cheat.

As an aside: An easy mode to Dark Souls is also not a totally awful idea, considering that there is more to that game than just the fights.
 
  • 19
  • 5Like
  • 2
  • 1Love
Reactions:
Don’t call it player hostile jeez. Apparently wanting achievements to… be achievements, is “player hostile” now.
Yes, it is. Attempting to restrict the player from using the software that they have purchased in the way that they wish is necessarily and by definition hostile to them.
 
  • 10Like
  • 8
  • 2
Reactions:
Sorry, this comment is ridiculously self-debunking. You admit that ironman is a so-so experience that people should just bear because they otherwise would definitely cheat in their achievements instantly -which as others have noted already, does not really happen in games which would allow it. Sure, there will be some cheaters, but that doesn't really matter.
Reducing my fun playing the game for internet points? That is shallow.
But from the way you worded "Why would I play on Ironman if I don’t have to?", I wonder, if you would be among those that could not resist to cheat.

As an aside: An easy mode to Dark Souls is also not a totally awful idea, considering that there is more to that game than just the fights.
No the point is that achievements are built off of the experience of Ironman within paradox game culture. But many people will naturally gravitate to what’s easier, especially when presented as the “default” option.

So that culture is going to suffer.
 
  • 16
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
The only mode in dark souls is “hard mode”

My point is about needlessly removing requirements for achievements, such as, for example, adding an easy mode to dark souls.
I'd take Dark souls anyday over hardly anything sevres achievement from HOI 4. Atleast losing in dark souls can be fun. Failing hours of a run due to RNG or a misclick requiring a complete start over. Not so much.
 
  • 12Like
  • 5
Reactions:
Paradox games have an actual community built around achievements and their difficulty, unlike Civ 6 or most games frankly. This is harpooning it.
Many games have staggeringly hardcode communities built around achieving things in-game that most people would think are impossible, and somehow they survive even though they aren't recognized by the game at all. Somehow, I think you'll pull through.

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.
"Failed" is such a hostile way of putting it. Better to say that they had other priorities.

You can't have a tool go line-by-line analyzing an entire mod to see if it might potentially break something. Even if you could make a tool that was smart enough, it wouldn't be performant. So the approach they take is by domains. Everything in this domain is safe and they can be confident that it won't cause OOS, so it doesn't modify checksum. Everything in that domain is unsafe and may cause OOS, so it does.

So when it comes to UI code, you have two options:
* The script that modders use to write UI code can't ever do anything that would cause OOS. It must use exactly the same action API as the base UI, nothing more, nothing less - and definitely no arbitrary scripting! This is good for checksum because the UI domain is safe, but it's bad for UI mods because they can't make any genuinely new features or buttons.
* The script that modders use to write UI code can have new, almost arbitrary effects. You can make buttons that do completely new stuff that isn't in the base UI - great for modding. But, that entire domain has to be designated as unsafe and checksum-modifying.

In previous games they went with the first approach, severely restricting what you can do with UI modding, but making it more portable. In later games, they decided that a more permissive and mod-friendly approach was worth the limitations.
 
  • 11Like
  • 3
  • 2
Reactions:
Yes, it is. Attempting to restrict the player from using the software that they have purchased in the way that they wish is necessarily and by definition hostile to them.
Don't be ridiculous. I'm loathe to agree with him, but this is nonsense. use it how you like. but saying that people wanting achievements to be on even field is "hostile" is madness.

some may put across their opinion of that in a hostile way, but it doesn't make the opinion hostile.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Don't be ridiculous. I'm loathe to agree with him, but this is nonsense. use it how you like. but saying that people wanting achievements to be on even field is "hostile" is madness.

some may put across their opinion of that in a hostile way, but it doesn't make the opinion hostile.
I didn't call him hostile. To be clear, I consider the previous Paradox policy hostile to the player, I'm not saying anyone here is being hostile.

It's difficult to be the minority position on these forums. Politely arguing one's point of view while being drowned in red crosses is hard. Much kudos!
 
  • 4Like
  • 1
Reactions:
How am I parodying myself? I’m being sarcastic. I’m making a point about how ridiculous adding an easy way to beat achievements without playing is.
Man, at this point I don't even know where to start. I already linked the video about how you can legitimately cheese achievements in Civ6 and yet there is no discernible evidence that people have done so. The only reason why the achievement completion rate is going to be high for Vicky3 is because it is artificially low on the rest of Paradox's games! Nothing about getting achievements with Iron Man has changed. At all! The only thing that has changed is that the True Gamers can no longer lord it over the Plebs, which is the bad faith argument that you would make in favor of restricting achievements!
 
  • 10Like
  • 3
Reactions:
Let us be respectful to each other and cut the dark souls side conversation, its fast approaching not being "on-topic." Antagonizing each other over this is unnecessary.

Those who like achievements tied to ironman are allowed to be unhappy with the change and express their opinions as such.
 
Last edited:
  • 41
  • 7Like
  • 3
  • 1Love
Reactions:
Alright! I look forward to more of these being added post-release! I don't care about the Ironman thing, in fact, I think it is bizarre this is even a controversial change.

For your consideration: @Wizzington


Comrade Cotton

Starting as the United States, trigger the Civil war, side with the Confederacy and win your independence. At the end of the game, be a Council Republic with a Command Economy, and produce a majority(60/80%?) of the world's cotton supply.
 
Concerning the next dev diary on cultures / religions, some thoughs :
> Historically speaking, religion conversion between monotheisms was really rare in the XIXth centruy. Game should reflect this and maybe only alow those kind of conversion via the implementation of a decree in a state region that cost autority. (e.g. Jews did not convert to catholic faith in France in this time period, same with muslims in French Algeria, Greek orthodox in the Ottoman Empire or the catholic Irish in the USA exept some individual cases)
> Religion could also affect the Culture conversion, if pops have the same religion the Culture conversion would be possible but not if the Religion is different.
> Some faiths could be added to simulate some historical antagonisms in this time period, e.g. :
- Calvinism : Dutch origin calvinist Boers vs. protestant English in South Africa
- Armenian Apostolic Church in the Ottoman Empire vs Greek Orthodox
 
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
Regarding making it so GUI and language mods don't affect checksum, while mods changing game logic do. It's actually very easy for us to customize this. The reason we still do force checksum changes for these types of files is because there's actually a lot you can accomplish with a UI-only mod in the engine we use these days - you could add entire new helper interfaces that exposes action shortcuts once a value in a rival country reached a certain threshold for example, or just reveal crucial insight into other countries' situations that would normally be hidden to other players. In this way one could essentially build an "aimbot" type mod that would be entirely invisible in MP if we didn't track checksum. Since the language files run through the UI computation layer you could do much of the same with a language-only mod, even.

Having said that, it might be possible to manually turn off checksumming these files in a friendly MP game by mutual agreement.
 
  • 52
  • 8Like
  • 8
  • 1Love
Reactions: