First, a few words about the 1.3.5 patch that we released Monday June 26. We are very happy to see the positive response to the changes made, both to the Voice of the People content and the free update. As we mentioned previously, these are not all the planned improvements to Voice of the People and we plan to give more love to France in 1.5, with further updates to the Paris Commune and more.
Also, while the reception of the feature to selectively demobilize Generals has been overall positive, there is a remaining high-priority concern that you still cannot tell conscripts raised to stand down for as long as you remain at war. This functionality was not implemented for 1.3.5 since we're planning to address the matter more comprehensively in a different way in the near future. We'll touch on that below, in the section about Update 1.5.
We're planning on putting out one more hotfix (1.3.6) in the 1.3 series before we go on summer vacation. With any luck that should be available to you already, if not it will arrive within a few days of this diary publication date. Among other things this fix addresses the bug where overlords helping out their subjects get their claimed states as wargoals if they win.
Now, on to the future!
Selected Highlights in Update 1.4
Update 1.4 focuses mostly on bug fixes and performance improvements, but we have still made a handful of major enhancements:Convoy Raiding Revisions
Convoy Raiding has been made more impactful on the long term economic health of your supply network, as the time it takes to recover sunk convoys now scales properly against both the damaged shipping lanes and overall number of convoys produced. However, defending against raiders has also been made more reliable, with the introduction of a ‘shielding’ effect where admirals with Escort Convoys orders now directly reduce the number of convoys sunk during attacks by an amount relative to their fleet’s defensive combat effectiveness, further boosted by secondary PMs such as Destroyers.Patrolling fleets are no longer only there to try and catch convoy raiders in the act, but also act to directly reduce the number of convoys sunk by hostile admirals
Goods Substitution Changes
The Goods Substitution system has received a face-lift to make it more easy to work with for both ourselves and modders. We’ve also taken the time to tweak a bunch of the weights for goods to make certain goods more in demand (such as for example Meat and Fish, as well as Oil for heating in the early game)Subject Independence Wars
A much-requested fix to independence wars means that subjects that are fighting for their freedom no longer continue to pay subject taxes to or stay in the market of their overlord.Imperialist AI Revisions
The AI of Imperialist colonial powers in 1.4 has been made more inclined to go on certain overseas adventures such as opening up Japan’s market, and also less inclined to support Unrecognized powers against the aggressions of fellow imperialists unless they have a strong reason to do so (such as an alliance or a desire to seize that land for themselves).But that is not everything that will be available upon launch of Update 1.4:
Highlights in Update 1.5 Open Beta
The Open Beta for update 1.5 will launch simultaneously with Update 1.4, and will contain a number of features deemed too experimental or too early in development to go into the main branch. This Open Beta will be running for an extended period during which we will incorporate your feedback to make the final 1.5 release as good as possible.Among the many features that will be available in Update 1.5 Open Beta will be:
Shared Fronts
Adjacent Fronts belonging to the same side in a Diplomatic Play will now act as one unified Front, thus reducing the number of Fronts to manage in conflicts with many participants. This means that, as an example, a war in pre-unification Germany will not devolve into a dozen or more fronts due to numerous participants.Multiple Simultaneous Battles per Front
To compensate for the fact that Fronts might now be larger, each advancing General on a Front may be able to start a Battle if the Front is long enough despite one Battle already being fought.Reverse Sways in Diplomatic Plays
Unintentional rhyme aside, this long-awaited feature will let a potential participant name their own price for joining a side in a Diplomatic Play instead of having to rely on the leaders of the Play guessing at what they want. All Sways (such as Wargoals, Obligations etc) are also valid for Reverse Swaying.Call Ally in Diplomatic Plays
Countries that can be called into wars, such as subjects or allies, no longer automatically join every Diplomatic Play they could be called into. Instead the primary participant has to explicitly call them in, which costs Maneuvers.New Sways
Numerous new Sways to offer or request in Diplomatic Plays, including offering or asking for states/subjects and diplomatic deals such as bankrolling or joining a customs union.Under attack by France and somewhat desperate, Belgium is willing to agree to a number of different concessions in exchange for British military support
Local Price Variation
Goods production / consumption will now always have a local effect no matter how good your Market Access. This leads to natural synergies, where having your Steel Mill in the same state as your Coal and Iron Mines makes for more profitable operations of all three buildings than if they are distributed across the nation. On the other hand, building a Textile Mill in a state with Cotton Plantations but precious few Pops to buy their Luxury Clothes might be worse for the Textile Mill than building it in a major population center with loads of demand.By looking at the local prices for Wine in the French Market, you can easily see the difference between the states that are major producers and the ones that are not
New Buildings and Production Methods
Several buildings have had select functions split off into dedicated buildings, and many Production Methods have been added and rebalanced. The end result is to make it easier for you to balance your economy without always having to use trade to export excess production.Vineyards have been split away from grain farms and turned into their own building type
Retreat and Pursuit
Battles that are all-but-decided will now conclude more rapidly through special Battle Conditions instead of dragging on pointlessly for weeks and weeks. More disciplined Generals will be able to organize more controlled, less damaging retreats.Military Formations (Armies and Fleets)
This will be a major revision to how you manage and organize your armed forces, to give you more intuitive control both before and during active warfare while still retaining the option to let wars play out on their own. As I mentioned in the beginning of this diary, among many other things this will revise how mobilization and conscripts works currently, making both conscription and early demobilization more intuitive and less frustrating.Military Formations are currently in very active development and we expect it to receive a lot of iteration and polish over the course of the 1.5 Open Beta. Much like Strategic Objectives were not part of the initial 1.2 Open Beta release, you can expect features relating to Formations to be released over several phases. You will learn much more about this in later dev diaries after the summer, the first which you can expect on August 10!
Note that this is by no means an exhaustive list. In addition to these you can expect a great deal more features and major improvements to be made, both for the initial and subsequent Open Beta releases.
Wishing you a wonderful summer filled with lots of Victoria 3, and we'll see you all in 6 weeks!
