I am curious what other players think paradox ought to focus on for expanding the gameplay and making it more immersive, and to capture the problems of the victorian era. I had some thoughts on what new mechanics and themes might be explored based on what I've seen on the forum and my own experience and knowledge of the epoch, and perhaps people have other ideas.
(1) Pollution and environmentalism - industrialization caused massive ecological damage and hindered the improvement of standards of living. Modeling environmentalism and adding it as a set of laws and a leader ideology with corresponding mechanics could capture this (there's already a pollution level mechanic that has no real role but could be expanded on)
(2) Military doctrines and more detailed military decisions - military doctrines would add some local flavor to each nation (Zulus could have their bull and horns strategy and the Impi system, Britain can get better marines, France can get the foreign legion, etc). More military choices would also give players some mechanics to effect military outcomes a bit better instead of just praying that your combat width will be better than that of one's enemy
(3) More local flavor decisions for nations like Japan, Austria, France, etc - this is a common element of DLC in other paradox games and could translate well to V3 to add more depth to some areas currently lacking. I'm guessing this would be a part of any DLC and might be seen in patches
(4) More in-depth colonization and methods of interacting with decentralized countries - the current game gives basically two flavors of colonization - colonize to settle, and colonize to exploit, but colonialism often entailed many different practices such as diplomacy, the creation of protectorates, and so on. And there's really only one interaction you have with decentralized nations, which is to conquer them when they get mad enough.
(5) More economics mechanics - I think there's a lot that could be altered to make the current economic system more in depth and engaging. I'm sure people have their own ideas
(6) Enriching the IG system - the IG system is a good vanilla system, but it abstracts out of many important issues including tensions within IGs (for instance, northern landowners in the Civil War were not particularly interested in preserving slavery, while the southern petty-bourgeois often was)
(7) Enriching the religious mechanics - religion right now has no real mechanical impact outside of discrimination and a few taboos. Major religious buildings like Cathedrals and mechanics for each religion would do a lot to improve the game
(8) More diplomatic options - Victoria 3 has in some ways a richer diplomacy system than many grand strategy games, but is still missing some things. There's the fact I already mentioned about too few ways to interact with decentralized powers, but there could be more ways of interacting with vassal states too. For instance, subsidizing vassals, sharing tech (perhaps giving some tech spread, not the full technology) or even building them farms and factories. There's also the fact that we can never add war goals once a war has started (it should be hard to do but possible) or join a war in progress (also could be hard to do but possible), without which we can't really model events like the first world war (of course, Ottoman Turkey, Italy and America among other nations all entered the war late)
(9) More cultural options - the game currently allows you to build art academies and there was talk of adding museums in the future, but there's much more cultural depth to be captured, from opera and other forms of music to theater to literature. It's such an important part of the 19th century, from Dickens to Dostoyevsky. There are currently events for great works of literature etc
(1) Pollution and environmentalism - industrialization caused massive ecological damage and hindered the improvement of standards of living. Modeling environmentalism and adding it as a set of laws and a leader ideology with corresponding mechanics could capture this (there's already a pollution level mechanic that has no real role but could be expanded on)
(2) Military doctrines and more detailed military decisions - military doctrines would add some local flavor to each nation (Zulus could have their bull and horns strategy and the Impi system, Britain can get better marines, France can get the foreign legion, etc). More military choices would also give players some mechanics to effect military outcomes a bit better instead of just praying that your combat width will be better than that of one's enemy
(3) More local flavor decisions for nations like Japan, Austria, France, etc - this is a common element of DLC in other paradox games and could translate well to V3 to add more depth to some areas currently lacking. I'm guessing this would be a part of any DLC and might be seen in patches
(4) More in-depth colonization and methods of interacting with decentralized countries - the current game gives basically two flavors of colonization - colonize to settle, and colonize to exploit, but colonialism often entailed many different practices such as diplomacy, the creation of protectorates, and so on. And there's really only one interaction you have with decentralized nations, which is to conquer them when they get mad enough.
(5) More economics mechanics - I think there's a lot that could be altered to make the current economic system more in depth and engaging. I'm sure people have their own ideas
(6) Enriching the IG system - the IG system is a good vanilla system, but it abstracts out of many important issues including tensions within IGs (for instance, northern landowners in the Civil War were not particularly interested in preserving slavery, while the southern petty-bourgeois often was)
(7) Enriching the religious mechanics - religion right now has no real mechanical impact outside of discrimination and a few taboos. Major religious buildings like Cathedrals and mechanics for each religion would do a lot to improve the game
(8) More diplomatic options - Victoria 3 has in some ways a richer diplomacy system than many grand strategy games, but is still missing some things. There's the fact I already mentioned about too few ways to interact with decentralized powers, but there could be more ways of interacting with vassal states too. For instance, subsidizing vassals, sharing tech (perhaps giving some tech spread, not the full technology) or even building them farms and factories. There's also the fact that we can never add war goals once a war has started (it should be hard to do but possible) or join a war in progress (also could be hard to do but possible), without which we can't really model events like the first world war (of course, Ottoman Turkey, Italy and America among other nations all entered the war late)
(9) More cultural options - the game currently allows you to build art academies and there was talk of adding museums in the future, but there's much more cultural depth to be captured, from opera and other forms of music to theater to literature. It's such an important part of the 19th century, from Dickens to Dostoyevsky. There are currently events for great works of literature etc
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