Vic3 is like an early access game. You see good potential, but it also has many flaws, problems, bugs and performance issues. Except that you paid full price.
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I would rather play it NOW as it is, then WAIT 2 more years to fix all the problems and more that some people have with the game. And i want the navy moral fix that really really really annoys me. And i can't wait to see how it grows. I think i'll have a grand time with this game for a long while.
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Bloated, busted, and never actually worked a single day? <:
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Ah, that explains late-game slowdown.
They claimed it was Small pop bloat, but it was the Queen aging all along.
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I have revised my Steam review to a positive one. I will paste it here for the interested:
I initially gave this game a negative review. I was dismayed by the game's (at first pass) opaque economics, the Factorio-esque economy building, and the VERY barebones warfare system. I stopped playing and moved on.
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After getting bored of Skyrim, I came back and gave it another look. I loaded up the same country (Uruguay), and grew the economy gradually, going from subsistence farms to organized ranches and plantations, adding tools, machines, railroads. Improving your economy is not simple or instantaneous, you have to organize trade routes for inputs, and sometimes hold back on getting that new production method until you can actually take advantage of it. Sometimes you have to do something suboptimal in itself to free up trade routes for overall more beneficial usages.
This is the core gameplay loop of Vic3, and if it sounds appealing to you, you should buy the game. As for me, after several hours, I realized two things: I was having fun, and I was accurately simulating the market revolution that occurred over the 19th century. I grade Paradox games on fun and historicity (this is why I did not buy EU4, as while it looks fun, it very obviously lacks historical accuracy), and Vic3 succeeds on those counts.
The game also has an accurate simulation of 19th century political struggles, where coalitions of latifundistas and army officers square off against intelligentsia and industrialists, and later you have trade unions, petit bourgeoisie, and all kinds of other groups in the mix.
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That said, this game has a lot of flaws and jank. Its warfare system is very barebones, its diplomacy leads to many odd results, and it needs much more historical railroading to avoid blatantly implausible results (if you want to be amused, look up "super confederacy Victoria 3.") But these things are fixable. Vic3's fundamentals are sound, and I think Paradox can make this game a real gem.
I initially gave this game a negative review. I was dismayed by the game's (at first pass) opaque economics, the Factorio-esque economy building, and the VERY barebones warfare system. I stopped playing and moved on.
---
After getting bored of Skyrim, I came back and gave it another look. I loaded up the same country (Uruguay), and grew the economy gradually, going from subsistence farms to organized ranches and plantations, adding tools, machines, railroads. Improving your economy is not simple or instantaneous, you have to organize trade routes for inputs, and sometimes hold back on getting that new production method until you can actually take advantage of it. Sometimes you have to do something suboptimal in itself to free up trade routes for overall more beneficial usages.
This is the core gameplay loop of Vic3, and if it sounds appealing to you, you should buy the game. As for me, after several hours, I realized two things: I was having fun, and I was accurately simulating the market revolution that occurred over the 19th century. I grade Paradox games on fun and historicity (this is why I did not buy EU4, as while it looks fun, it very obviously lacks historical accuracy), and Vic3 succeeds on those counts.
The game also has an accurate simulation of 19th century political struggles, where coalitions of latifundistas and army officers square off against intelligentsia and industrialists, and later you have trade unions, petit bourgeoisie, and all kinds of other groups in the mix.
---
That said, this game has a lot of flaws and jank. Its warfare system is very barebones, its diplomacy leads to many odd results, and it needs much more historical railroading to avoid blatantly implausible results (if you want to be amused, look up "super confederacy Victoria 3.") But these things are fixable. Vic3's fundamentals are sound, and I think Paradox can make this game a real gem.
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I've logged well over 100 hours since launch, and I'm immensely enjoying myself, despite some room for improvement IMHO.
The game sure has issues, but I have to say it's been a while since I've been pulled into a grand strategy game like this at launch.
There's lots of room for improvement, but big fixes I'd like to see to be implemented soon are:
- fixing circular trades
- making political management harder (currently it feels sometimes too easy to "play" IGs and strengthen/weakenthem through development and law changes)
- making the AI better at developing their tech, economy and resource extraction
- making the AI more proactive on standard settings (after helping Bavaria against their war against Germany in the 1840s nothing else happened in Germany for the rest of the game - no diplo plays, no one trying to unify, no nothing - countries just sat there, doing their thing); I feel in late game the AI becomes much more conservative about going to war - which makes sense, as war will become more expensive, but near end game they seem barely interested in interaction with others (YMMV - that's my impression, anyways)
- making the AI smarter about when to get involved in diplo plays and when not and what to demand
Mid-term fixes I'd like to see:
- more data transparency and visibility
- making sure that historical outcomes happen a bit more often (American Civil War, Oregon, Alaska, German & Italian unifications with historical territories, a mechanic for ramping up chance of Great Wars later in game, Meiji restoration ...)
- slowing down the scramble for colonies and making colony grabbing more reasonable and rooted in national policies (US should be reluctant to take any colonies until their political landscape changes or dixie landowners take over; even then it should look more realistic - US taking colonies/puppets in the Americas first, before taking chunks of Africa; Russia seems eager to get into Africa early in my games)
- more interactive wars (setting strategic targets, strategy/tactics offering more options with more advanced armies, maybe requiring you to "test" new technologies before they actually give you a major edge - journal entries try something like that but it could be expanded)
- more complexity to wars instead of all or nothing struggles (colonial conflicts vs. territorial wars between great powers), a mechanic to escalate wars (i.e. pulling the US into WW1, or intervening as great power, maybe at the cost of influence/authority?).
- the AI becoming much better at fighting distant wars - I've noticed the AI sometimes sitting passively for years, when sending one invasion fleet would resolve the conflict quickly (I sometimes switch over to that country and send the fleet for them before switching back to my own country)
- some mechanic (besides violate sovereignty) to get to enemies you don't have direct land or sea access to (transit rights? might also work for trade?)
- making trade slightly more complex (e.g. adding shipping costs based on distance between capitals?)
Long term (DLCs?)
- more industries/economics; e.g. add museums and artists/archaeology, opera houses and prestigious composers, painters, writers, movie makers .... (that's more a personal wish, which is probably of interest for few people
However, having "national literature", "national museums", etc. were important for national identity for some countries of the era); tied into this - more "great people" outside of the interest groups, maybe - inventors, business tycoons ...
- based on that - make IGs more complex; instead of just the leaders, have 2 "influential people" behind them that are jockeying for leadership and try to pull the IGs in different directions and affecting them to a larger or smaller degree to model the infighting some of those groups saw and making them less monolithic
- more national flavor and events
- foreign investment and informal empire building
- MOAR of everything
The game sure has issues, but I have to say it's been a while since I've been pulled into a grand strategy game like this at launch.
There's lots of room for improvement, but big fixes I'd like to see to be implemented soon are:
- fixing circular trades
- making political management harder (currently it feels sometimes too easy to "play" IGs and strengthen/weakenthem through development and law changes)
- making the AI better at developing their tech, economy and resource extraction
- making the AI more proactive on standard settings (after helping Bavaria against their war against Germany in the 1840s nothing else happened in Germany for the rest of the game - no diplo plays, no one trying to unify, no nothing - countries just sat there, doing their thing); I feel in late game the AI becomes much more conservative about going to war - which makes sense, as war will become more expensive, but near end game they seem barely interested in interaction with others (YMMV - that's my impression, anyways)
- making the AI smarter about when to get involved in diplo plays and when not and what to demand
Mid-term fixes I'd like to see:
- more data transparency and visibility
- making sure that historical outcomes happen a bit more often (American Civil War, Oregon, Alaska, German & Italian unifications with historical territories, a mechanic for ramping up chance of Great Wars later in game, Meiji restoration ...)
- slowing down the scramble for colonies and making colony grabbing more reasonable and rooted in national policies (US should be reluctant to take any colonies until their political landscape changes or dixie landowners take over; even then it should look more realistic - US taking colonies/puppets in the Americas first, before taking chunks of Africa; Russia seems eager to get into Africa early in my games)
- more interactive wars (setting strategic targets, strategy/tactics offering more options with more advanced armies, maybe requiring you to "test" new technologies before they actually give you a major edge - journal entries try something like that but it could be expanded)
- more complexity to wars instead of all or nothing struggles (colonial conflicts vs. territorial wars between great powers), a mechanic to escalate wars (i.e. pulling the US into WW1, or intervening as great power, maybe at the cost of influence/authority?).
- the AI becoming much better at fighting distant wars - I've noticed the AI sometimes sitting passively for years, when sending one invasion fleet would resolve the conflict quickly (I sometimes switch over to that country and send the fleet for them before switching back to my own country)
- some mechanic (besides violate sovereignty) to get to enemies you don't have direct land or sea access to (transit rights? might also work for trade?)
- making trade slightly more complex (e.g. adding shipping costs based on distance between capitals?)
Long term (DLCs?)
- more industries/economics; e.g. add museums and artists/archaeology, opera houses and prestigious composers, painters, writers, movie makers .... (that's more a personal wish, which is probably of interest for few people
- based on that - make IGs more complex; instead of just the leaders, have 2 "influential people" behind them that are jockeying for leadership and try to pull the IGs in different directions and affecting them to a larger or smaller degree to model the infighting some of those groups saw and making them less monolithic
- more national flavor and events
- foreign investment and informal empire building
- MOAR of everything
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