[MOD] Imperatrix: Victoria

[Gurkhal]

@Sobisonator

Just a bit curious but what are your, as in the devs', plans for handling warfare during this period?

 

[Sobisonator]

@Sobisonator

Just a bit curious but what are your, as in the devs', plans for handling warfare during this period?

Good question. Obviously it's very different to the warfare of Imperator's period, and in the 121 year timespan of the mod it changed drastically in different parts of the world, several times - we're aware we need to reflect this.

Not a lot of work has been done on the warfare at this point, but I'll talk about some of the things we envisage.

The early game should be about decisive battles which are relatively quick. The late game should focus on slow battles that lock down your armies. In the latter instance, obviously we need to balance that with what the AI can handle, as the vanilla Imperator AI is coded to think about quick and decisive engagements.

We also want to allow for asymmetric warfare, and I think that the army stances from Imperator are a good way to enable this. With a smaller or worse equipped army it should be possible to use stances that give you mobility advantages or advantages in certain terrain that let you stick it to the enemy.

Logistics and supply must remain a central part of the game. Right now we're working on the economy and vanilla food has been reworked into the more generic "amenities" - how this will fit into our warfare system is something not decided yet, but armies will still be able to make use of regional supplies of it.

As for army management, we want different nations to have noticeably different playstyles. A feudal nation will rely on levies from its governors and vassals, or a federal nation might rely on the militias of its autonomous states; nations with standing volunteer armies will have small cores of well-trained troops, with the possibility to raise reservists if they have the laws to enable it; conscription will also be possible, at the cost of placing a burden on your administrative systems (aside from the obvious economic and social impacts of forcing people into the army). Certain laws will also allow for elite slave-soldiers as was still common in many parts of the world.

Traditions are in the process of the re-work and will focus on a lot more than just army, but that's in flux so I can't say anything concrete about that yet.

Edit: Changing the way your army works will also be possible by inviting foreign legations, as part of our soft westernisation system. There will be pros and cons to this, such as advanced training at the cost of greater foreign influence.

 

[Gurkhal]

@Sobisonator

Thank you for the above post. To me it shows that you guys are heading down the right path with this and I look forward to try the mod when it comes out.

However I think that I shall need to ask about the elephant in the room, so to speak. And that is how you intend to handle artillery? The importance of artillery was immense in the period and grew to its, in my opinion, zenith in the Great War.

 

[ErringMelkor]

"The late game should focus on slow battles that lock down your armies. In the latter instance, obviously we need to balance that with what the AI can handle, as the vanilla Imperator AI is coded to think about quick and decisive engagements."

This may be interesting, considering the doctrine that led to the search of those engagements in WW1.

 

[Sobisonator]

New Western European city building set thanks to Feed me nuggets on the Workshop!

 

[Sobisonator]

Haiti Changes (Part 1 of 2)

In the last dev diary, we introduced the concept of the Minor Country focus poll. The results of that poll showed a clear majority in support of additions for Haiti.

The work on this content is well underway and the first half of that content is ready to be showcased today including setup, missions and some events. Haiti, being immersed in a complex and transformative period in 1815, over 100 hours of research was needed before we got to a position where we were happy implementing content.

As part of the research into the region, 1 new country has been added called ‘Grande Anse’ to represent Gamon’s seperatist state in the South. Most of the new content has been targeted towards the Kingdom of Haiti and the Republic of Haiti, with each being given a mission tree, decisions, events, characters and more. Due to the large scope of flavour created, the developer diary will be split in 2, with this one focusing on the Kingdom of Haiti.

The Kingdom of Haiti introduction event:

Context

Following the Haitian revolution Jean-Jacques Dessalines was proclaimed Emperor of Haiti. Dessalines was one of the national ‘heroes’ of the revolution but would become a controversial figure due to a range of governance decisions. In response to his stern rule, he would be assassinated and Haiti was divided among factions and ideologies. By 1815, two major factions remained: to the North the monarchists united under Henri Christophe to form the Kingdom of Haiti. Republican supporters united in the south to form the Republic of Haiti. The two state solution is uneasy and both sides want to pursue a reunification under their regime.

A Strong Starting Economy and Military Ambitions (Kingdom of Haiti)

The Kingdom of Haiti starts with a much stronger economy than its republican counterparts. The state was administered effectively, by a strong aristocracy, firm cabinet government, powerful monarch and successive programs to develop the state's economy. While slavery was abolished, plantations still functioned under a system resembling serfdom and resulted in economic prosperity for the Kingdom. This system would come to be known as agrarian capitalism, something which the player will get options to further (or abandon).

Thanks to this the state was able to fund major military innovations, significantly a fortification called the Citadelle Laferrière which was perhaps the mightiest fortress in the New World upon its completion. At game start, this construct was already under construction, represented by a province modifier.

The completion of the fortress can be slowed or sped up through events. While its main purpose was to ward off French invasion and provide a monument to unify the young nation, building up the state's defensive capacity may be vital to protecting the state from revolutionaries and republicans. The decisions you make during its construction can have dramatic long-term results for the country, such as through the extension of forced labour.

While the threat to the kingdom from the southern republic may be the most real threat, the French should not be underestimated. While the French were certain they could make the Republic of Haiti make concessions and perhaps to the return of the old colonial system (engaging in diplomacy with the south), it was much less convinced that the Kingdom of Haiti could be integrated without military force. Its first diplomatic mission to the kingdom in 1814 narrowly avoided the execution of its diplomat, whose cabinet demanded his head for insults to the state. France would use spies to try and gather the intentions and capacity of the kingdom, something which can be discovered by the kingdom of Haiti and dealt with.

The Kingdom of Haiti's military in 1815 stands to benefit from the veterans of the Haitian war for independence, of whom a number of significant figures are represented in the court of Henri Christophe. The Kingdom additionally has an elite army of soldiers obtained from Dahomey, who are fiercely loyal to the monarch of the kingdom, with a subset of female warriors (the Amazonians) who are dedicated to the royal consort/queen. The Amazonians do not feature within a gameplay capacity at game start but the player has the option to expand the guard via a decision, spawning a character with a unique trait (and loyalty to a female consort) and the potential for more to spawn after that point.

Henri's Ambitions (Kingdom of Haiti’s Mission Tree)

The Kingdom of Haiti gets a timed mission tree, which focuses on implementing Henri Christophe’s grand ambitions for Haiti. Henri’s dreams for an enlightened, prosperous, and highly educated Haiti were overly ambitious, with his goal to accomplish what would have realistically taken 100 years in a single generation was never fully achieved. His ambitions would die with him, something represented by the mission tree being blocked upon his death. The reforms obtained from the missions can outlive him should future rulers not lose their grasp on the nation. The below image covers the first section of the mission tree (the second half will remain secret as to not spoil too much).

The cornerstone of the mission tree relates to forming relations with the British. Henri modeled much of his state around Great Britain, from its constitution to its education system. The reforms and actions that can be undertaken in the tree are largely activated through fostering ties with Britain.

One mission allows the kingdom to recognize the English language, something Henri accomplished by making it one of two official state languages. Recognizing the English language improves the loyalty of American and English characters in your court, something which could be highly important in realizing Henri's desire to model more of his country along the advice of English advisors.

One of the areas where cooperation with the British in the mission tree can help move the player forwards is through overhauling the country's education system. Shortly after 1815, The Kingdom of Haiti would have one of the period's most robust education systems. It is estimated that 72,000 students attended school before the country's historical collapse. The Kingdom of Haiti has the potential to benefit from a strong British influenced education system starting within the early game.

The tense military situation between Spain, France and the Republic of Haiti risks unraveling the Kingdom of Haiti. To help reduce the risk of invasion, the mission tree allows for the player to request British mediation, in which a colonial envoy can enforce a short truce between the Republic of Haiti and the Kingdom of Haiti. This will help the kingdom maintain its footing while it continues to build up its defensive and economic capacity.

The major transformative mission is the Triennial Conference. There were multiple Triennial Conferences held but it was the 1818 conference out of Philadelphia that is of most importance to Haiti. Many societies and prominent individuals would rise to oppose the slavetrade and practice in the USA, a matter the conference attempted to deal with. The conference's most critical topic was to identify somewhere safe for freedmen to seek asylum and Haiti was identified as an option. The player will get the option to try and interfere with the proceedings and make demands. One of these demands is for the USA to purchase the Dominicans from New Spain and relinquish it to the kingdom of Haiti, so former American slaves could resettle there. The outcomes of this mission are numerous and each unlocks new paths within the mission tree.

End notes:
Before the release of P2 of the Haitian Changes Developer Diary we will push two other diaries, one updating on the mods overall progress which will include some exciting leaps in progress and one covering a region into which a significant amount of love have been poured. A teaser for each below…

Don't forget to join us on Discord for discussion, volunteering and notification of new teasers and DDs https://discord.gg/nbxgkwy

 

[Sobisonator]

Dev Diary 8: China

Today we're going to take you on a tour of one the major areas in Imperatrix that's had a lot of love poured into it.

China in 1815 (the 19th year of the Jiaqing Era) is represented by the Empire of the Great Qing with its numerous vassals and viceroyalties.

Demographics

China is a huge multinational empire, and this is represented even in the demographics of the core territories governed by the Great Qing tag:

For balance and flavour reasons the current build distinguishes between 4 Mandarin-speaking “cultures”: Jianghuai for natives of Anhui and Jiangsu, Bashu for southwestern (especially Sichuan) Mandarin speakers, Beihua as a broad grouping for northern Mandarin varieties (including the central plains), and Dungan culture for ethnic Hui (Dungan is an exonym of Turkic origin - we’ve used it as the localisation for now because it’s potentially more recognisable, but would appreciate any feedback on this usage). Besides Mandarin speakers there are various other Han cultures in our Great Qing, as well as non-Han ethnicities such as Qiang, Tujia, and of course Manchu.

China is also one of the most densely populated regions in the world, with the Great Qing tag boasting by far the largest share of global population within its borders.

The coast is heavily urbanised, with a great number of port cities lining the sea. These may be both an asset and a liability for China during the 19th century…

Chinese silk, tea and porcelain can be found in households around the globe, and the Empire's scholarly culture remains the standard its neighbours strive to follow. But a steadily rising population combined with an inefficient semi-feudal system of land ownership has led to unemployment and famine, while increasing reliance on foreign silver has caused alarming devaluation of the domestically mined and minted copper coins used for everyday trade.

Beyond being just flavour, Imperatrix: Victoria will simulate these economic problems in real, tangible ways that you can manage with a versatile toolset rather than through delineated paths.

Playing as the Great Qing, or one of its devolved administrations, you are unlikely to find easy answers to these problems - and you will have to make use of the economy mechanics that Imperatrix introduces to tackle them. Economic difficulties are contributing to a rising wave of Han nationalism against the Manchu political elite, with many hushed voices talking about the withdrawal of the Mandate of Heaven. Any moves to correct this situation will have to be made with caution and long-term thinking, and changes may not be well received either by those in the administration who benefit from the status quo or by the people as a whole.

The Empire

The widespread White Lotus Rebellion of 1808, and its 1813 aftershock (in which 200 radical Buddhists from the Eight Trigrams sect stormed the Forbidden Palace itself with the help of disgruntled eunuchs - only defeated after the Emperor's eldest son fired into the crowd with his ornamental musket), has dented the imperial Aisin Gioro clan's sense of invincibility. The attempt on the Emperor's life has left him troubled and changed. He spends his days pacing in his chambers, and his nights without sleep. His fragile mental state has led him to order a crackdown on all unorthodox religious activities, including the more or less summary execution of several hundred Chinese Christians.

Internationally, the Joseon Kingdom (aka Korea) remains the Qing's most loyal tributary. It's a symbiotic relationship: Joseon kings derive legitimacy at home from their close relationship to the Son of Heaven, while being a useful partner for the Qing in trade, academia and military matters.

Other important Qing tributaries include the kingdoms of Ryukyu, Nepal and Viet Nam, as well as the Tuvan tribes of Uriankhai who enjoy a special status.

Meanwhile, the loyalty of imperial generals and viceroys in the frontier regions is a testament to the Emperor's wisdom and virtue. Manchuria, the imperial clan’s ancestral home, is (somewhat loosely) governed by three worthy generals. The vast plains and mountains of Mongolia are entirely under Qing control, divided between direct imperial rule, military rule under the Governor-General of Uliastai, and religious rule under the Tibetan monks of Urga guided by the imperial amban. To the west, the Governor-General of Yili rules over a diverse frontier society of settlers and tribespeople. South of Yili are the Six Cities (Altishahr) of the Tarim Basin (aka Kashgaria), a confederacy of Uyghur city-states under Qing protection. South of the Altishahr lies Tibet, where the Lhasa government (Ganden Phodrang) is a trusted ally and nominal protectorate of the Qing.

Across the East China Sea, Japan seems to sleep quietly under the Tokugawa Shogunate, withdrawn from the world as it has been for over a century. Far to the south, on the island of Borneo, communities of Chinese men mine for gold to send home - while also pioneering forms of collective government rooted in China’s secret society tradition. Of the many gongsi statelets in West Borneo, two of the most important - the Lanfang Republic and the Heshun Confederation - are currently represented in the mod. And, speaking of secret societies: they will play an extremely important role in mainland China’s political mechanics, but we can’t tell you more right now. It’s a secret.

Present relations with Russia are no longer the friendly ones of the Kangxi Era, and may be about to sour even further. As the Qing you may or may not be able to restore relations with Russia in the long term - it’s not all on you. Recent reports suggest that the Khwadja's supporters may be stirring once again among the Kirghiz tribes and in the Altishahr's less-governed corners, while out in the wild west beyond Kashgar the rebellious petty khanate of Khoqand has stopped sending tribute and started sending raiding parties into Qing subject lands.

We have chosen to represent two out of the eight regional civil viceroyalties within China as distinct tags: Yun(nan)-Gui(zhou) and Shaan(xi)-Gan(su).

These two were chosen because their territories are more or less geographically remote, so lacked regular imperial oversight (Yun-Gui is recorded as having the same viceroy for 16 years at this time while the normal term limit was 3 years), and because especially in the case of Shaan-Gan the territories administered by the viceroy cover multiple provinces which it would be wrong to merge in game. Other viceroys were important political figures and exercised great autonomy in certain spheres (in particular those of Liangguang in foreign trade, of Liangjiang in domestic trade and of Zhili in military power), but for the purposes of this mod we have chosen to represent them in other ways. Taiwan, an island loosely administered by the governor of Fujian (whose main task was preventing further Han settlement in order to avoid having to intervene in ethnic tensions between settlers and natives), will be represented as an unorganised territory with most local government interactions locked behind the development of local government.

Diplomacy

The demands of the barbarian merchants at Guangzhou seem to increase with their numbers - France and Britain both clamour for special trading privileges. In recent years they have even dared to fight among themselves in the Qing's waterways. Now news reaches Beijing that the barbarian princes of the far west have made peace among themselves after more than ten years of war... perhaps they have begun to understand the value of a harmonious society?

A few months after the start of the game, the second British Embassy to China will be announced, and in August 1816 (if you as the Qing allow it) the Embassy will arrive. How you and your officials interact with the British diplomats at this early stage may affect the course of history in complex ways.

Minor country flavour poll:

Last time we ran a minor country flavour poll where we asked you, the readers, to vote on a minor country you’d like to see more flavour for. It proved very successful and we are still pouring work into Haiti alongside working on all our other features (more to be teased very soon, again...)

Because of the success of the previous poll, we invite you to vote again on new tags!

You can vote on your minor tag of choice here: https://forms.gle/w4ss9CNAMZEPHFcAA
​

​

 

[Sobisonator]

Dev Diary 9: Industry & Production

Sobisonator and Dementive here, we are going to be showing off some of the brand new industry mechanics for Imperatrix: Victoria that we've created!

What is the heart of all industry? Trade and trade goods; without it the wheels of production cannot turn as factories have no supply. Trade goods have been totally overhauled and now function completely differently than the base game.

Imperatrix’s trade goods are discrete objects which are produced, stockpiled and consumed by various sources. Every region has a local stockpile of every kind of good - these stockpiles are displayed dynamically so as not to clutter your screen with empty stockpiles.

What the base game considers trade goods are now known as “Raw Resources”. These resources consist of materials obtained from the earth such as grain, oil, or gold. In industrial nations, raw resources are sent to local industries where they are used to manufacture important commodities for your nation.

This leads us into the heart of economic activity in Imperatrix, Industry. Each area has a set of industries that are unique to it Alcohol, Luxury Clothing, and Artillery are just a few industries. Here is a look at the current state of the industry screen:

NOTE: This is very much a work in progress this screen will look different at release.

As you can see in the screenshot, every region in your country will have a screen to manage its industries. This overview, built into the game’s province & state overview, is where the player is able to interact with the local industries by assigning or removing available industries.

The number of industries available in a region depends on how many industrial districts you have within that region.

Each industrial district is a province-level building, and the number of these you can build depends on a combination of factors:

• Natural transportation infrastructure, namely rivers
• Local infrastructure such as canals and railways
• The industrialisation progress of the province
• The province terrain. Relatively flat and easily accessible land makes it easier to build industries, whereas mountainous or desert areas reduce the number of industries you can support in one province.

We will eventually also be factoring in available workforce as a limit on industries per province.

In this screenshot, the player has built 7 industrial districts in London and reached their limit there, so the option to build more districts is greyed out. If they were to build additional districts in other provinces within the same region, like Bromley or Essex (pictured), these would add to the regional total.

This means that, while industry as a whole is on the region level, it will be possible to build up and vie for control of key industrial cities.

The interface

Anatomy of an industry:

Each industry icon shows the top-level information about that industry in the selected region; mousing over the industry gives you more detailed information which we’ll show next.

The icon tells you what tradegood the industry is producing.

The regional stockpile tells you how much of that tradegood is stockpiled in this region, and this can grow even if you have no industries e.g. by imports.

Assigned districts tells you how many industrial districts are assigned to producing this tradegood, which is the chief governing factor in production.

(Values are work in progress)

Here we can see the tooltip for the Alcohol Industry widget. This widget has 2 functions for the player to interact with, adding regional industries and removing them. Left clicking will add an industry if possible and right clicking will remove an industry if possible.

Industrial production

You will have noticed the information within the above tooltip:

• How much the industry can produce with current raw material supplies
• The maximum production that all industries can reach
• The amount produced last quarter
• A percentage of maximum output potential
• Levels of demand

All of this fits together into how industries produce manufactured goods.

The main function of an industry in Imperatrix: Victoria is to take a set of goods, which may be raw goods or goods from other industries, and process them into a new kind of manufactured good.

For this purpose, each industry has a unique list of required goods that it demands. Every quarter-year, the industry consumes all demand from the regional stockpile before producing. Depending on how much demand is left un-met, the production is lowered correspondingly. We will talk more about the quarterly economic cycle of Imperatrix in a future dev diary, but for now it is enough to point out that this is the fundamental tick for most economic activity.

If you are seriously lacking in the materials needed for your industries, they will underperform. Luckily, industries can create purchase orders for goods to be imported into the region - which we will get into in a future dev diary.

The tooltip shows you how efficiently the industry is running, and this is simple: keep it well supplied, and you will run at 100% potential. An industry may consume various alternative raw resources to fuel its production - for example, here the alcohol industry can consume either grain or mediterranean fruits.

Unlocking industries

Industries will be locked behind inventions, which we are currently in the process of implementing. These triggers will show up at the top of the industry’s tooltip when completed.

If you are missing the pre-requisite invention, the industry icon will be greyed out and you will not be able to assign districts to production of that tradegood. You will still, however, be able to stockpile that tradegood through trade.

A future dev diary about tech will cover this in a lot more detail.

Cottage industry

Not all manufacturing takes place at a factory level. Non-industrialised regions can still produce manufactured goods if the raw resources are present.

Depending on the quantity of raw goods produced in a region, a comparatively very small quantity of corresponding manufactured goods will be produced. Cottage industries are boosted simply by having better local goods production, and less industrialised nations will rely upon this more heavily to provide their local supply.

New pop GFX

You might have spotted in this dev diary, if you recall our previous dev diaries, that certain old icons are missing.

After feedback from our previous dev diary about pop types, we decided that we needed to re-work them to be more recognisable and consistent. In the end, we went for a look that mimics 19th century enamel cameos as both thematic and quite easy to make into very clear, distinct-looking icons.

All of the icons are original designs that, combined with their colour, we have used to quickly communicate message about the pop’s social role using recognisable tropes.

As one exception inspired by a historical piece of art, we have chosen the symbol from the famous “Am I Not a Man and a Brother” pendant used by abolitionists in the time period to represent slaves, as a nod to the inhumanity of the practice and the struggle running throughout the game’s timeframe to end it.

New map GFX

Since the last time we showed off our map’s terrain view, The_Inspector has reworked the look and now Imperatrix looks more beautiful than before! We could not waste the opportunity to also show you some screenshots of this…

Wealth (teaser)

The more eagle-eyed among you may also have noticed this row of numbers along the bottom of the regional overview screens.

We are working on a wealth system that ties in to production, industry and trade. We’ll be showing off this system in detail in an upcoming dev diary, so stay tuned!

Minor country focus poll - Posen

We can also announce the results of the minor country focus poll! We had a grand total of 231 responses, with one clear winner in the group: the Grand Duchy of Posen, a Polish vassal of Prussia and one of the three Polish states available to play at the start of the game.

You can of course expect a dev diary on Posen coming in the pipeline, too.

Discord

Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/nbxgkwy to get more regular previews, talk to the devs (we’re very responsive!) and even volunteer to contribute directly to the mod - no coding skills required.

 

[Sobisonator]

While we work on the big changes to show off in our next dev diary, here are some teasers of new content:

New military uniform for Latin-America:

A teaser for the work-in-progress economy overhaul

Work-in-progress federation mechanics

Work-in-progress character title system

 

[ErringMelkor]

Glad to see your work. It's been a long time and for sure it will have to be in the oven for quite a while, but I really like seeing it take shape.

 

[Sobisonator]

Dev Diary 10: Trade part 1

This is a dev diary I'm really excited to share, and I hope you'll be thrilled by what we have to show, too. Perhaps the single greatest overhaul in Imperatrix is the trade system, which has been completely designed from the ground up much like industry and production, to give an authentic management-sim and living-world feeling to the player. We have also designed it to provide the player with new gameplay opportunities and challenges that deepen the strategy and interactivity of the game greatly.

The vanilla Imperator system has been totally removed, with a brand-new global trade mechanic that can be extensively customised to represent different economies, and is based on simulation of real supply and demand of tradegoods by all the pops and industries in the world.

Pictured: work-in-progress tradegoods produced at the start of the game in Italy. It will be possible for regions to have their crops changed during the course of the game, or for prospecting to take place that makes minerals available.

Overview

In Imperatrix, as we hinted in the previous dev diary, pops produce tangible tradegoods by working provincial resources or industries. These outputs are stored in regional stockpiles and consumed by both pops and industries according to their need. Each tradegood has its own unique formula of demand.

But naturally, not every region can always produce all of the tradegoods it needs to sustain its population! What happens when an industry needs to import goods that are not produced locally?

Well, every region in Imperatrix makes purchases and offers surplus goods to market for other regions to purchase. All trade in Imperatrix is between regions, since they are the fundamental unit of economy. Large countries will need to be able to sustain trade between their interior regions, and international trade will take into account access not only to markets, but to specific parts of the world so that geographically remote areas within an empire may have a harder time selling goods - or if they produce something rare and in high demand, they may benefit from its high value!

Please note that the values in this dev diary are still subject to balancing, and not all trade goods have been set up.

Demand

The need for trade in Imperatrix is fuelled by demand. Every pop, every industry and every bit of infrastructure in your nation can demand tradegoods, which all adds up to total demands which are put into purchase orders. These purchase orders reflect the various contributing demand factors and are paid for by the pops' pockets and the government's treasury where appropriate.

Below, you can see an overview of the trade tooltip for grain in the Southern England region.

Payments

Naturally, goods are not exchanged for free. Pops and governments pay for imports and make revenue from selling goods for export, and of course there is also the possibility for the state to tax these transactions.

The Administration tab has been updated to show the actual tax income from taxed trades per governorship now, and as more types of tax are added to the mod, they will also be shown in this total and viewable as a breakdown within the tooltip.

All pops and the government have some degree of ownership of different types of goods, and will also have different levels of need that correspond to how much they are paying for the goods. It may be that the state subsidises all of a good's imports, or that factory owners spend most of the money on importing raw materials for industries. Likewise, if ownership is collectivised, then income from goods being sold is distributed more equally among the pops than if the wealthy few own most of the shares.

Categories of goods

Goods in Imperatrix are split into broad categories:

• Essential goods: things like food, clothing and basic furniture. Everyone needs these no matter what their social role is.
• Business goods: products used for manufacturing, construction, et cetera. These are demanded by industry owners and artisans, and sometimes the state if they have nationally-owned infrastructure.
• Luxury goods: nice clothes, recreational substances, and fancy furniture. These tend to be demanded by people with a bit of money to spend and a taste for the better life.
• Military goods: these are demanded by whoever runs the military. It might be that if your country relies on a feudal or tribal military, it will be pop groups managing their own military supplies. In more centralised states, usually the government pays for these, but private contractors will still be able to sell military goods to governments.

It will be possible to regulate each of these categories using different laws:

• Tax regimes or tariffs applied to internal and external trade for each category.
• State subsidies for each category.

Internal trade

Today we are going to talk about just internal trade, which is one half of Imperatrix's trade system. Now what do we mean by "internal trade"?

In Imperatrix, trade is divided into two broad categories:

Internal trade: Trade conducted within a country's customs union. We'll explain what a customs union is shortly.

International trade: Global trade conducted outside of customs unions. This has features which will be discussed in a future dev diary, such as import fees and trade zones.

Customs unions

A customs union, in Imperatrix terms, is a group of regions within one or more countries that has no import or export fee associated with transportation of goods within the group. This is opposed to international trade, where the costs of import must be covered.

A customs union can be formed in many ways. In its most fundamental form, every country forms a customs union unto itself. Usually, a customs union takes precedent for the exchange of goods, before international trade is conducted.

Many countries may band together to form a customs union as part of a federation, such as the German Confederation.
Federations may specify the particular regions which are part of the customs union, as was the case historically. This means that the German Confederation's customs union extends to parts of Prussia and Austria, but does not extend into Hungary, Ruthenia and East Prussia!

Pictured here is internal trade information for the German Confederation, as seen from the point of view of the Prussian region of Saxony. It can be beneficial for small nations to be in a federal customs union, as it allows them to share access to goods with other small nations without having to pay external trade fees.

A country may also include its subjects within its customs union as part of a mutually beneficial relationship.

Of course, a country may also choose the more exploitative route, and compel its colonies to make a percentage of all their goods available to their own customs union without actually including them in the customs union.

Infrastructure & trade capacity

A key factor in Imperatrix's trade, both internal and international, is the provision of infrastructure to sustain it.

A region needs infrastructure to be able to transport goods, both for export and import. If it does not have enough infrastructure, the maximum size of goods orders it can transport will be limited. This means that regions with poor infrastructure may be at risk of entering a famine or economic decline if their local production falls behind and they are unable to import enough to meet demand.

Likewise, it will not be possible to immediately introduce a far-flung region into your empire and expect it to start participating in trade if it does not have ports, canals, cities with commercial districts and railways. Certain landscapes lend themselves to developing better infrastructure. Coastal areas can support ports, and you can build river ports on rivers to increase the flow of trade.

More trade also means more tax, so more productive and populous regions with better infrastructure will net the state more income over time.

Infrastructure can be destroyed in war or by natural disasters, which may lead to long-term disasters if you cannot support your regions.

Stability is also a key factor in trade - if your country is very unstable, it will be reflected in trade by a reduced capacity for orders as moving shipments becomes more chaotic and risky, fewer merchants are willing to do it. You may find that if your country is in chaos, it is difficult to supply your industries, your military, and even your pops' basic needs, so make sure to maintain law and order or risk falling into a deep crisis.

Production

Production, while we'll go into it more in a future dev diary on buildings, is a huge factor in the supply of goods and cannot be ignored.

The production factor is also multiplied by the industrialisaton of a province, so as you industrialise areas you will find their goods output also climbing significantly. Here is a preview of the work-in-progress industrialisation view of Europe.

While sheer population numbers working in a region will affect how much of a good is produced, you need to construct Resource Gathering Operations (RGOs) in provinces in order to boost the production there. More developed regions with bigger RGOs will be much more efficient per pop at producing goods than less developed ones.

NOTE: Graphics and tooltip are works in progress

There is a lot more to be said on buildings, but that will have to come in a future dev diary about Imperatrix's new approach to buildings. As a teaser for now: buildings will be able to be built independently, they will employ pops and incur upkeep costs and sources of income for the owners and workers. No part of your country will operate in isolation.

Price of goods

The price of goods in Imperatrix is localised: every region will be willing to pay a different amount for a tradegood based on local demand and local supply. One of the benefits of a customs union is that you can regulate the prices paid for goods within it as they are based on the price in the capital of the customs union - but sometimes this may come at a detriment if the customs union has very little access to the good in its own market.

Because this system is so closely impacted by international trade, we will go into more depth on this in the dev diary covering that topic.

Conclusion

When all these pieces come together, the economic gameplay of Imperatrix has a great deal of depth and interactivity. You'll see fluctuations in global and internal markets as nations develop, as colonies are formed, as wars cut down trade and as rebellions throw regions into chaos. We will be overhauling the diplomatic AI via scripted systems to respond to economic sitautions, so AI behaviour will be responsive to the nuances in the simulation. The politics of your nation will be influenced by the wealth and access to luxury of your pops, and the desire to control the endless reams of money that will be flowing constantly.

In future dev diaries we'll be going into all of these overhauled areas of gameplay in more depth, so stay tuned.

The process

All trade happens on a quarterly basis - that is, four times a year - and runs many tens of thousands of calculations. We have been working very hard to optimise this as absolutely best as we can with some creative scripting. At the moment, this takes just over two seconds on my 10-year-old CPU. When we first started, it took over a minute to calculate everything! Performance and usability is at the front of our minds when designing these systems for the player.

If you are interested in the "how", we have created a process flowchart that illustrates just how trade functions. Beware, it's BIG!

Spoiler: Big trade flowchart

Discord

Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/nbxgkwy to get more regular previews, talk to the devs (we’re very responsive!) and even volunteer to contribute directly to the mod - no coding skills required.

 

[Mr.Grizzly]

Seriously. Victoria III has been a massive disappointment, more hyped for this then the post-release roadmap for Victoria.

 

[yenot]

Hey! This looks beautiful and I'm amazed by the amount of effort you put into this work.

Currently trying to build a mod that requires a far more detailed economic simulation than what IR has. Which is why I have some questions on your design choices that might not be just pure curiosity (of course, I understand you might not want to go into full detail on any of those at this stage):

1. You mention different modes of ownership - does it mean that, say, building ownership may be traced to specific pops (or characters or variables representing pop subgroups or whatever)? Or does ownership belong to all capitalists in a province?
2. More to that question - do you model inequality outside geographical and class differences or do, say, all capitalists in London get the same income?
3. Yet more to that question - do you use IR pops system or do you model population by script and then generate pops from scripted values for the game to use pop modifiers such as production?
4. Do you model financial markets - banks, stock market, etc?
5. Do you model inflation - either as an explicit factor or as an endogenous phenomenon?

Sorry for the multitude of questions, not all of which are on the topic of the DD, but there are not so many deep economic simulation mods built specifically for IR.

 

[Sobisonator]

Hey! This looks beautiful and I'm amazed by the amount of effort you put into this work.

Currently trying to build a mod that requires a far more detailed economic simulation than what IR has. Which is why I have some questions on your design choices that might not be just pure curiosity (of course, I understand you might not want to go into full detail on any of those at this stage):

1. You mention different modes of ownership - does it mean that, say, building ownership may be traced to specific pops (or characters or variables representing pop subgroups or whatever)? Or does ownership belong to all capitalists in a province?
2. More to that question - do you model inequality outside geographical and class differences or do, say, all capitalists in London get the same income?
3. Yet more to that question - do you use IR pops system or do you model population by script and then generate pops from scripted values for the game to use pop modifiers such as production?
4. Do you model financial markets - banks, stock market, etc?
5. Do you model inflation - either as an explicit factor or as an endogenous phenomenon?

Sorry for the multitude of questions, not all of which are on the topic of the DD, but there are not so many deep economic simulation mods built specifically for IR.

That is interesting! What is the mod you are trying to build?

Let me answer your questions:

1. You mention different modes of ownership - does it mean that, say, building ownership may be traced to specific pops (or characters or variables representing pop subgroups or whatever)? Or does ownership belong to all capitalists in a province?
   1. Building ownership may be traced to specific pop subgroups, or other stakeholders such as the state. This is a work in progress so I cannot give you an answer on the mechanics yet.
2. More to that question - do you model inequality outside geographical and class differences or do, say, all capitalists in London get the same income?
   1. At the moment, all pops of one type in a governorship share a wealth pool. There is not currently a separation based on culture or religion, but we do want to represent this somehow.
3. Yet more to that question - do you use IR pops system or do you model population by script and then generate pops from scripted values for the game to use pop modifiers such as production?
   1. We use the IR pops system but additional scripted features will need to be built for international migration, pop conversion and promotion/demotion.
4. Do you model financial markets - banks, stock market, etc?
   1. This will be modelled, but has not yet been built.
5. Do you model inflation - either as an explicit factor or as an endogenous phenomenon?
   1. Inflation is something we are currently researching, by looking into historical analyses of how it worked in the time period in different currency systems. Inflation cannot be said to be the same in an economy that issued promisory notes vs, for example, an economy reliant solely on minting precious metals. What about economies that did not allow any form of debt? So this will need some research before we can implement it but rest assured we are working on it. I definitely want to model currencies as something that can be invested in and exchanged, as it was an important part of diplomacy.

 

[yenot]

That is interesting! What is the mod you are trying to build?

The idea is to give each state some internal structure in order to (a) make the part of the game where you already dominate most of the map more fun and (b) model large states collapsing (because, obviously, IRL Rome did collapse). One Paradox series where a player-led empire may collapse is CK - a series that already has some internal structure under the evenly coloured blob.

Here I want to have a different kind of stuff: slaveholders' latifundia, greek polis surrounded by an Aramaic-speaking sea of peoples, a Buddhist monastery in a rich Sogdian trading city. Surprisingly, I think I have a simple way to make each of those and then some be represented by the same core mechanic (if it turns out to be false, well, too bad, I guess). This all is in the planning stage atm, kind of feels too large a claim to boast without the working prototype (and I did produce my share of abandonware in the past).

1. Building ownership may be traced to specific pop subgroups, or other stakeholders such as the state. This is a work in progress so I cannot give you an answer on the mechanics yet.

This is the key problem for me at the moment, how do I, say, track those 20 guys in Rome, who own 90% of farmland and slaves in Campania? What if three of them start obtaining side income from loans, one is elected a pretor and sent to Sicily and five are sent to a war into Gaul? The simple way is to block this kind of intersections but those are the whole reason of modelling inequality for me - one rich person getting X amount of money will spend most of it on corruption, buying electorate and conspicious consumption, while the very same X amount of money given to a 1000 poor people will buy bread and plain clothes. In fact, two equally rich nobles given the same amount of income will spend them differently if affiliated with different institutions.

Modelling different spenders explicitely is conceptually simpler but sounds like a lot of lag. Modelling inequality via a dinamic inequality index (say, Theil index) could reduce lag but requires some applied math (which I feel a bit too lazy to do). Which is the reason behind my questions: if you attempted to code some or another model of inequality, I could at least assess its viability (given ofc my economy needs to be far simpler then the one you make for Imperatrix since CPU time needs to be left for religion and politics).

1. This will be modelled, but has not yet been built.

Nice. Very very nice. I cannot understand why it has been left out from both Victoria games (not sure about the first one but likely all three of them?). This was the time of rapid growth and immence significance of the financial sector.

1. Inflation is something we are currently researching, by looking into historical analyses of how it worked in the time period in different currency systems. Inflation cannot be said to be the same in an economy that issued promisory notes vs, for example, an economy reliant solely on minting precious metals. What about economies that did not allow any form of debt? So this will need some research before we can implement it but rest assured we are working on it. I definitely want to model currencies as something that can be invested in and exchanged, as it was an important part of diplomacy.

Thise are very valid questions and that's great to hear you are looking into it. The range of questions you currently have is, at least for me, a very reassuring sign. Some of those (like, how do you code a multitude of currencies with their cross rates or what is the driver behind prices in no-debt economies) I'd love to have at least a vague idea about. A random bit of information I remember from my macroeconomy course is that the worst thing about inflation is how it's uneven across prices for different goods and wages for different kinds of work, but that's my idea of what to look for and it might be not nearly as relevant for Imperatrix ofc.

 

[za3tarani]

when is the next dev diary/update? and is there a roadmap for the project, alpha/beta releases?

thinking to buy imperator just for this mod..

 

[Sobisonator]

New DD coming soon, I can't give a firm date but it will be shortly. Main focus ATM is international trade which is a very specific mechanic that needs a lot of attention to get right, and in a way that does not cause unacceptable slowdowns.

There's an internal development roadmap, which you can see here:

 

[ConstantineTheGreat]

Is there more than one RGO per province in IR?

 

[Sobisonator]

Is there more than one RGO per province in IR?

There is not, but we have discussed a potential new farming system that would be developed at some stage after Alpha 1 is released.

The level of detail on the province map we use does allow for quite a fine grain.

 

[LeoTheMobster]

awesome!