Which mod for a Victoria newbie?

[unmerged(139713)]

Hi and welcome to my first post in this forum

I finally bought Victoria but it will take one or two weeks until it will arrive in my mailbox.
In the meantime I am contemplating which mods to play and I came across VIP of course. Do you think it is a good mod for a newbie to play? I've only played HOI2 before and need to learn how Victoria works and I'm not sure if it is a good idea to start with a mod right away especially if there is no comprehensive documentation which lines out the differences between vanilla and the mod. And I don't even have first hand experience on how Victoria works, I've only read around in this Forum and in the Wiki so far.
So do you have any advice for me?

Another question: is there a language patch for Victoria? I will probably get a German version but want to play in English if this is possible in any (legal) way.

Thanks in advance,
zwobot

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

The only mod I've played is VIP, but I'd say play unmodded first. VIP adds a lot more detail and historical information and a few cool features, and is an improvement just like it sets out to be. But Victoria can already be an overwhelming game without adding in extra countries and events, so getting used to it unmodded first is good. In particular VIP adds a lot of historical events to countries outside Europe, for example the War of the Pacific for South America. These are good additions, but when you're learning it's better not to have to worry about major events spoiling your day when you don't know they're coming and you're more worried about keeping your country afloat.

I also think it's good to play a game as the developer designed it, just so you know what it's actually like, before all sorts of things get tweaked around. For one thing, it can give you a better appreciation of the effort modders have gone to, and the difference they've made with a project such as VIP. And it's not like there's anything wrong with Vicky 1.04 or Revolutions as games, VIP is an improvement of an already good game.

 

[MannheimCouncil]

VIP is a very good mod, but it'll probably be better to start off with a vanilla game (patched to version 1.4).

Unfortunately, there's no way you'll be able to patch your German version to the English one. I'm German and I switched all my Paradox games to English, but Vicky is too old for that. Also there's less confusion this way when you play a mod (or probably even Revolutions). The English is also much less atrocious than the German.

I know it's hard not to have a game disk, but Gamersgate is pretty good as far as online shops go.

Oh, and welcome to the forum

 

[unmerged(139713)]

Thanks for your quick answers.

For one thing, it can give you a better appreciation of the effort modders have gone to, and the difference they've made with a project such as VIP.

That is a very good point. I'm convinced to play vanilla first.
I think I'm going to start with Belguim or the Netherlands. I liked to play Argentina the most in HOI2 but I think it will be less interesting in Vicky, for a newbie, since it is an uncivilized nation (I guess).

What is the difference between Victoria and Victoria Revolutions? Does Revolutions only expand the timeframe to 1936 or are there additional improvements like there are in Doomsday or Armageddon for HOI2?

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

You're welcome

I'm pretty sure all nations in the Americas in vanilla are civilised, although some are more advanced than others. And being civilised or not changes the flavour of a game, but doesn't necessarilly make it more or less interesting. In fact uncivilised can be far more interesting, although I'd say civilised is nicer for starting. South America is actually a pretty good learning area in Victoria, or it was when I learnt. Patches and Revolutions may have changed that, I'm not sure.

I don't know what Doomsday or Armageddon are like (yet - waiting for the price to drop after HoI 3 comes out ), But Revolutions makes a fair few changes. Because the time period is extended it adds a new level of technology and naval units, and it makes fairly major changes to politics to reflect the post world war 1 situation in Europe. Plus it completely redoes colonisation into a much, much, much better system. All in all it's far better, but Vicky is fine without it. If you have HoI you might want to get it so you can play a converted game easier, but that's up to you.

And yes, welcome to the forum.

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

The English is also much less atrocious than the German.

I hate to think how bad the German must be then. Though the poor grammar and unusual choice of words is one of the charms of the game.

 

[Lord Raglan]

as a reletive newbee myself i'd recommend Sardina-Piedmont as well, its a little more interesting than belgium because you've got a couple of nice small countries to fight and practice the war system if you want to - its also got a decent population like belgium so is pretty good at industrialising

 

[Andrelvis]

German is a default language for the Victoria files (meaning translation doesn't use the "English" slot, since it has it's own slot), so it should be possible to switch from German to English and vice-verse. Otherwise, why would Paradox include German, French and such in the text files?

 

[MannheimCouncil]

German is a default language for the Victoria files (meaning translation doesn't use the "English" slot, since it has it's own slot), so it should be possible to switch from German to English and vice-verse.

Wow, I didn't know there was a way to change the language. I thought Paradox introduced that with HoI2. Anybody know how to change it? (Not that I want to, but it's always interesting to learn something new about your all-time favourite game ;-) )

 

[unmerged(139713)]

I found this thread 'wrong language version' with a quick search. I haven't read it thouroughly yet but it seems to require some work with the Windows registry to get the English version.
Unlike in HOI2 you only have to change a value in a config file to switch the language (see here). I don't know if this will work with Vicky too, because I don't have the game yet (got a message from Amazon yesterday saying it will be delivered next week...)

 

[unmerged(139713)]

I finally got Vicky and it is the english version, yay

I started with Chile and tuned down the defence, crime and military maintenance sliders to get money as stated in the Wiki.
But I cannot build Factories in my states, the tooltip says I cannot build Factories with Interventionism or Laissez faire economic policy (Liberals are ruling in my country). How can I build factories in this case
Both major parties in Chile have either Laissez faire or Interventionism as economic policy...

 

[OHgamer]

I finally got Vicky and it is the english version, yay

I started with Chile and tuned down the defence, crime and military maintenance sliders to get money as stated in the Wiki.
But I cannot build Factories in my states, the tooltip says I cannot build Factories with Interventionism or Laissez faire economic policy (Liberals are ruling in my country). How can I build factories in this case
Both major parties in Chile have either Laissez faire or Interventionism as economic policy...

You have Victoria with the Revolutions expansion. The Wiki article is for Chile in pre-Revolutions Victoria.

In Revolutions, players only build factories under command economy or state capitalism, they can also expand existing factories and build railroads under those policies and under interventionism, and can not build or expand factories or build railways at all under laissez-faire (or build new factories under interventionism). In those cases, you have to promote the economic conditions necessary for your capitalist POPs to build the factories themselves.

If you do not start with capitalist POPs, you will need to convert a POP into first a clerk, and then that clerk into a capitalist.

Once you have a capitalist, watch its reserve income. Capitalists will only build factories or railways once all of its needs (life, everyday and luxury) are met and it builds up enough reserve income afterwards to pay for the new factory or railway. So you need to do everything in your power to help the capitalist pop build up their reserve income if you want them to build things for you. POP income comes from the goods you sell to the world market, so sell any excess production beyond what you need to create income for your POPs. Then, minimize the amount of income you as the State take from your capi POPs in terms of taxes (which the POPs pay before buying their needs) and/or tariffs (applied to those goods POPs need that your own nation does not put into the marketplace to sell..that is to say imports).

Once a capitalist POP reaches the necessary reserve income, then the game engine will calculate whether it will build a factory or a railway in a province, and the process then begins all over again. In general, based on various cost factors, capi pops begin building things when there reserves reach 1000-1500 under a laissez-faire government, 2000-3000 under interventionsim, and 4000-6000 in theory under state capitalism. The cost then rises with each additional factory that exists in the country by approximately 100-300 more depending on form of economic policy your ruling government has. Capis will not build anything under command economy.

 

[unmerged(139713)]

Thanks for your answer, I really apprecaite the help I'm receiving as a newcomer here.
I think this game has even more to learn than HOI2...

 

[unmerged(48056)]

Yep.
It took me a long time to learn that all I had to do was click a button to stop automatically scheduling to RGOs (helps a lot as an immigrant nation :rofl


The only downside to the game is the weak a.i. Even on the hardest difficulties you'll be begging for a bigger challenge...