We have already talked a bit about Great Powers, so let me give you a bit more about it. Being a Great Power in Victoria was fun; you got this cool silver thingy round your flag. It was something to aspire to. However, there was no pressing gameplay reason to be a Great Power. We felt that the era was very much about competition between the Great Powers. We made a conscious design decision to make acquiring the status of Great Power something you would want to achieve, and once you have the status of Great Power it would become something you would want to fight to keep.
There are now 4 classes of country in Victoria 2. These are uncivilised, civilised, powers of the second rank (ranks16-9) and Great Power (top 8). The top 16 countries have the ability to colonise. Essentially the Great Powers will be willing to share Africa with second ranked countries like Belgium and Portugal. Since prestige is part of your ranking, and colonies give you prestige, securing second rank status is a useful springboard for those aspiring great powers.
Dropping out of the top 16 is something that just happens, but losing Great Power status is something much more major and therefore runs under different rules. Should you drop below rank 8 you have three choices. First up do nothing and take a hit. Secondly, you have 6 months to get your standing up and get yourself back into the top 8. The final option is launch a Great War. A Great War is classed as having 2 Great Powers on both sides and if you are in a Great War you are obviously a Great Power. Thus launching a desperate war, without being certain of victory, is a strategic option for you. Our goal is to create a historical sand box. We are not going to force you into World War I, but what we will do is a give you a logical reason to plunge Europe into war when you are not certain of victory.
Losing your Great Power status is bad for your country, not only do you lose your nice Sphere of Influence, but people get angry about the decline of their country and gain militancy. Minorities get even more militant; why remain part of some average country when you can go it alone? If Austria did not exist, you would have to invent it. Losing Great Power status is even worse if you have a multinational empire; we are trying to give you something to think about here.
We have already talked about the Sphere of Influence in the previous developer diary. So, let’s move on and talk about how you get one. The first route is war. You can demand that a non-great power is moved into your sphere of influence. You can also demand that a Great Power transfer countries into your Sphere. Thus, as Prussia you can invade Austria and demand the transfer the South German minors into your SoI. Now, no territory would change hands, but it would help fulfil some of the perquisites for forming Germany. Thus you can find ways to ‘win’ wars without needing to paint the map your colour. Again we come back to our historical sand box model, where the historical result can be a good result.
So how about peaceful ways of expanding your Sphere? Great Powers accumulate influence points, which they then send to non great powers. We have set up a system similar to the intelligence interface in HoI3. You assign priorities to various countries and then influence is sent to them. Influence can be used to increase their opinion of you. This is separate from the relation value and is a description of your long-term relation with the country. This goes from being hostile to being in your sphere of influence. One use of the accumulated influence is to increase their opinion of you, once you have enough influence points you can take a country that is hostile to you and make it simply opposed. However, as their opinion increases you gain additional options that you can use against other Great Powers. You can reduce their influence in a country; make it harder for them to gain influence for a while, even reduce the country’s opinion of them. However, the most useful one of all is if you have a lot of influence in a country and they have a high opinion of you, you can persuade them to leave another country’s sphere (also neatly making them available for you to pick then up in your sphere.) Thus, there are ways to gain countries in your sphere through diplomatic means. The Ottoman Sultan may be listening to the British early on in the game, but perhaps Germany will be the one to displace them late game?
Well, there is our first delve into the wonderful world of Great Powers. Our aim is two part, first to give you game reasons to do historical things. The second is to give you a nice in-game challenge; which country can you make a Great Power?
There are now 4 classes of country in Victoria 2. These are uncivilised, civilised, powers of the second rank (ranks16-9) and Great Power (top 8). The top 16 countries have the ability to colonise. Essentially the Great Powers will be willing to share Africa with second ranked countries like Belgium and Portugal. Since prestige is part of your ranking, and colonies give you prestige, securing second rank status is a useful springboard for those aspiring great powers.
Dropping out of the top 16 is something that just happens, but losing Great Power status is something much more major and therefore runs under different rules. Should you drop below rank 8 you have three choices. First up do nothing and take a hit. Secondly, you have 6 months to get your standing up and get yourself back into the top 8. The final option is launch a Great War. A Great War is classed as having 2 Great Powers on both sides and if you are in a Great War you are obviously a Great Power. Thus launching a desperate war, without being certain of victory, is a strategic option for you. Our goal is to create a historical sand box. We are not going to force you into World War I, but what we will do is a give you a logical reason to plunge Europe into war when you are not certain of victory.
Losing your Great Power status is bad for your country, not only do you lose your nice Sphere of Influence, but people get angry about the decline of their country and gain militancy. Minorities get even more militant; why remain part of some average country when you can go it alone? If Austria did not exist, you would have to invent it. Losing Great Power status is even worse if you have a multinational empire; we are trying to give you something to think about here.
We have already talked about the Sphere of Influence in the previous developer diary. So, let’s move on and talk about how you get one. The first route is war. You can demand that a non-great power is moved into your sphere of influence. You can also demand that a Great Power transfer countries into your Sphere. Thus, as Prussia you can invade Austria and demand the transfer the South German minors into your SoI. Now, no territory would change hands, but it would help fulfil some of the perquisites for forming Germany. Thus you can find ways to ‘win’ wars without needing to paint the map your colour. Again we come back to our historical sand box model, where the historical result can be a good result.
So how about peaceful ways of expanding your Sphere? Great Powers accumulate influence points, which they then send to non great powers. We have set up a system similar to the intelligence interface in HoI3. You assign priorities to various countries and then influence is sent to them. Influence can be used to increase their opinion of you. This is separate from the relation value and is a description of your long-term relation with the country. This goes from being hostile to being in your sphere of influence. One use of the accumulated influence is to increase their opinion of you, once you have enough influence points you can take a country that is hostile to you and make it simply opposed. However, as their opinion increases you gain additional options that you can use against other Great Powers. You can reduce their influence in a country; make it harder for them to gain influence for a while, even reduce the country’s opinion of them. However, the most useful one of all is if you have a lot of influence in a country and they have a high opinion of you, you can persuade them to leave another country’s sphere (also neatly making them available for you to pick then up in your sphere.) Thus, there are ways to gain countries in your sphere through diplomatic means. The Ottoman Sultan may be listening to the British early on in the game, but perhaps Germany will be the one to displace them late game?
Well, there is our first delve into the wonderful world of Great Powers. Our aim is two part, first to give you game reasons to do historical things. The second is to give you a nice in-game challenge; which country can you make a Great Power?
Though I'm a bit confused about the difference between opinion and relations.
