But these events pretty much serve as exceedingly simple algorithms doing what the game AI should be able to do for itself. From its starting position, and presuming that history goes down largely the way it did in real life, Switzerland should steer clear of alliances and refrain from declaring war on its neighbours - but if Germany is going round invading every single neighbour then it makes no sense for it to remain neutral.
Developer Diary 3 – Design Philosophy
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But these events pretty much serve as exceedingly simple algorithms doing what the game AI should be able to do for itself. From its starting position, and presuming that history goes down largely the way it did in real life, Switzerland should steer clear of alliances and refrain from declaring war on its neighbours - but if Germany is going round invading every single neighbour then it makes no sense for it to remain neutral.
Yet it is extreamly unlikely that Germany historically had any need to invade switzerland as they served as a neutral power capable of banking for them and they were already controlled by Germany due to being surrounded by Axis so could only trade with the Axis. In addition Switzerland has German as its largest culture so peaceful intergration would be the only realistic way Germany would go about bringing Switzerland into the fold as Hitler would be extreamly unlikely to actually invade and kill members of the unified Aryan race he was apparently trying to create.
This is great, an automated POP system nudged by player influence is one of my two biggest wishes for Vicky 2. Now, I am only hoping for a new economic model with proper supply and demand and regional markets and I am set for the next 5 years of gaming goodness
Also, slowing down reform through aristocratic elites holding power is a realy nice concept, I am getting all giggly
Also, slowing down reform through aristocratic elites holding power is a realy nice concept, I am getting all giggly
I don't disagree that the AI should be able to do that thinking itself. But if you expect that for this game, I'm pretty sure you will be disappointed.
And didn't Germany go about invading every single Swiss neighbor, remind me again which country wasn't invaded
If it where to join a faction in such a circumstance, it would sense if it joined the Axis, since the other factions clearly isn't capable of stopping ze germans
Indeed, if the AI actually follows the course. But the more important things would really be:
1) A mechanism for easier peaceful annexation of countries sharing the same national cultures - which was something seriously missing from Vicky1, despite this being the period when this sort of thing makes the most sense.
2) A much stronger chance that liberatable "nations" within your empire aim for independence en bloc - either being solved through liberating them as a vassal (i.e. Irish Home Rule or post-Ausgleich Hungary), turning into a war resulting in either independence or reannexation (i.e. Hungary in 1848), or granting total independence.
In Vicky1 these things were only doable via events, but it would be nicer to have them actually built into the game system in some way...
I've replied in the EU3 forum:http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?p=10447299#post10447299
Well, I'm sure they'll come up with a better solution than badboy eventually. Baby steps, man, baby steps - in the sequel to Victoria, I would be more than happy just being able to see my badboy rating without having to use the console
.But seriously - the trouble with the badboy concept is that with bilateral relationship ratings for every country, it's really always been entirely redundant. The result was that countries often behaved like they had... uh, hormone balance issues (which may or may not be appropriate for a game called Victoria
). You spent all your money and diplomats (oh, precious diplomats, far too few diplomats...) on getting up to +200 relations with Russia... only to have them declare war on you, because deep down in the game mechanics, Russia's AI totally ignored the +200 relations on account of badboy and its scripted dislike of your particular country.What would be great is if that bilateral relations indicator was really all there is to it - and if the factors affecting that relations indicator were listed (like the info provided in EU3 - "feels threatened by" etc.). Combined with spheres of influence, that would be a great and workable system - and badboy simply wouldn't be needed at all.
Yep. It was a rough-and-tumble system - and it worked fabulously to make the 19th century so remarkably peaceful by European standards.
...This makes me think that maybe other countries should not only feel threatened by actions like war and annexation, but also by diplomacy - even demanding military access would have been a badboy thing in 19th century Europe (provided the nations involved are within your general area of interest).
Actually...
So there might also be a "year-month-day" trigger, just not a "month-day" trigger (checking once per year on december 5 for Nobel prizes) and certianly no "day" triggers checking every month on the X:th day..
(and personally I do believe that a trigger on "year-month-day" is likely to exist in some way.. even if it might not lead to the event triggering that very day, only sometime in the following month..)
Great ideas.
The most important thing you guys recognize is the need "flavor", so we don't feel like you are playing generic country A. POPs offer tremendous potential in giving a game flavor: those are your people! Their make-up, diversity (or lack thereof), are hugely significant. So long as POPs remain the backbone of the game and drive flavor type events, then I think we will have great immersion.
Very excited to hear about the economic models in detail next, fwiw. I'm crossing my fingers for some good modeling.
The most important thing you guys recognize is the need "flavor", so we don't feel like you are playing generic country A. POPs offer tremendous potential in giving a game flavor: those are your people! Their make-up, diversity (or lack thereof), are hugely significant. So long as POPs remain the backbone of the game and drive flavor type events, then I think we will have great immersion.
Very excited to hear about the economic models in detail next, fwiw. I'm crossing my fingers for some good modeling.
Personally I think that the major events dont need to be in BUT only if the AI is scripted in such a way that it will take all factors into account before acting. So we dont get for Example Britain and France allowing a long time ally in the Ottomans get muscled around by Russia. Or we equally dont get Britain and France dropping all everything to save the bacon of a couple of Ottoman provinces. Equally the great powers ie top 8 nations should be very interested in keeping things the way they are, so if someoen goes on a war spree they should attempt to smack them down, first with warnings then with war.
Flavor idea: "newsreel like events"
In Vicky, you couldn't ever really recreate WW1, even if you tried. It is a paradox that by giving players more freedom they are less able to recreate seminal events in history.
In some sense, this can be addressed through flavor. For example, if a player is able to develop a set of conditions in a relatively industrialized Europe such that there is a patchwork of alliances that equate to a somewhat reasonable balance of power -- a "world war 1" event could kick off.
Imagine an event trigger that, when all those conditions are met, is caused by the next revolting POP in any nation of the patchwork alliance system -- that revolting POP forms a mob and kills an official from XXX state. This provides some historical flavor and plausible resemblance to history.
You could put in some flavor events throughout the war. Say every month a page summarizing the major gains or battles. The idea is to give it unique significance and immersion.
In Vicky, you couldn't ever really recreate WW1, even if you tried. It is a paradox that by giving players more freedom they are less able to recreate seminal events in history.
In some sense, this can be addressed through flavor. For example, if a player is able to develop a set of conditions in a relatively industrialized Europe such that there is a patchwork of alliances that equate to a somewhat reasonable balance of power -- a "world war 1" event could kick off.
Imagine an event trigger that, when all those conditions are met, is caused by the next revolting POP in any nation of the patchwork alliance system -- that revolting POP forms a mob and kills an official from XXX state. This provides some historical flavor and plausible resemblance to history.
You could put in some flavor events throughout the war. Say every month a page summarizing the major gains or battles. The idea is to give it unique significance and immersion.
POPs: will it be possible to manually upgrade/degrade some POPs for certain form of governemnts?
For example, will I be able to, playing authoritarian governemnt, convert specific POPs to soldiers?
EDIT: if not, would this mechanic be moddable?
For example, will I be able to, playing authoritarian governemnt, convert specific POPs to soldiers?
EDIT: if not, would this mechanic be moddable?
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Hmm, I do hope the AI will be more prone to actually declare war then. As often the majority of AI-declared wars in Victoria I came from events.
In order to get an suitable for Everyone Rating we have had remove all references to violence out fo the game. Thus the declaration of war funcationality will be disabled.
Awesome, we can now focus on trading opium and tobacco!
Or do those references go down the tube as well because of the rating?
It should be stated I think that for all those who love historical events of the old school there are probably as many who does like the new, dynamic, events and decisions that paradox has been putting out in their newer games.
An engine should modell the reasons for things turning out a certain way, not force them regardless. But this is a very old discussion and perhaps best left for some other thread. I like all I've read in the developer's diary If anything I'm a bit worried about the inclussion of too many unrelated flavour events But I do have confidence in the authors.
An engine should modell the reasons for things turning out a certain way, not force them regardless. But this is a very old discussion and perhaps best left for some other thread. I like all I've read in the developer's diary
If anything I'm a bit worried about the inclussion of too many unrelated flavour events But I do have confidence in the authors.