Part 1: The National Cast and other character changes
[p]Characters have always been a bit of an underutilized feature in Victoria 3, and I’ve never felt that we’ve managed to settle on a single cohesive vision for the feature. In some roles, characters can be incredibly impactful, and getting the right historical character can have massive implications for your political system, but in other cases you’re simply recruiting commander #94 to be able to start one more simultaneous battle on a front and couldn’t be less bothered about the particulars of their personality, skills, political leanings or personal hobbies.[/p][p][/p][p]This is something I’ve long wanted to change, and have made it my own personal pet project to take the first significant steps towards doing so in Update 1.13. Going forward, the way we approach the character system will be guided by the following design principles:[/p]
- [p]Characters are player-facing avatars of specific ideological forces, social classes or other groupings within your country. They exist to highlight and/or champion a force or cause greater than themselves.[/p][/*]
- [p]Characters should be ‘surfaced’ to the player in proportion to their importance. It is fine for unimportant characters to exist, but they should not be held up by the game as worthy of the player’s notice unless specifically sought out.[/p][/*]
- [p]Characters are not solely defined by their job. Important/interesting characters should be able to change their role and influence multiple parts of your nation. For example, a forcibly retired commander might step into politics and become an even bigger headache for the player than they were before. [/p][p][/p][/*]
- [p]Ruler: The ruler of a country. Rulers will virtually always have the maximum amount of prominence (100).[/p][/*]
- [p]Heir: The heir-apparent in a monarchy, gets a large boost to Prominence (though less so if they are not yet an adult).[/p][/*]
- [p]Leader: The leader of an Interest Group, gets a significant boost to their Prominence. Always held concurrently with another role.[/p][/*]
- [p]General/Admiral: The commander of an army or a fleet, gets a boost to Prominence based on their rank.[/p][/*]
- [p]Executive: The CEO of a Company. Gets a boost to Prominence based on the size of the Company.[/p][/*]
- [p]Politician: The champion of a particular ideology within their Interest Group. Gets a small boost to Prominence. Politicians are randomly generated into the pool for non-marginalized Interest Groups to champion appropriate ideologies within that Interest Group.[/p][/*]
- [p]Agitator: A demagogue stirring up the masses to achieve specific political ends. Agitators have reduced Prominence, representing the disdain of the elite for their populist ways.[/p][/*]
- [p]Magnate: A wealthy landowner or businessman using their money to influence politics. This is a new role that I’ll explain more in detail below.[/p][/*]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/defea1c375e940c2be61c7a62dd995812b672eab.png"][/img]Honoré Charles Reille wears many hats, all of them fancy[/p][p][/p][p]Prominence can also be gained from a variety of secondary factors, such as traits, Popularity, events and so on. Prominence is the principal stat affecting which character and ideology is likely to be selected for the next leader of an Interest Group: Higher-Prominence characters are both more likely to be picked as the next leader if there are multiple characters of the same ideology competing for the job, and also directly increase the chance of their ideology being picked over other ideologies. [/p][p]This means that, for example, if a character from the Landowners happens to espouse a more liberal ideology that would make the Interest Group less of a pain in the rear to your reformist ambitions, you can attempt to put your thumb on the scale for that character by looking for ways to boost their Prominence - for example, by giving them a promotion (if they’re a commander) or striving to increase the revenue of their holdings (if they’re a Magnate, more on this below). [/p][p][/p][p]There is one additional thing Prominence does for characters which meet a certain threshold (currently set at 25): They directly increase the Clout of their Interest Group. This replaces the old (and sometimes very silly) ways in which characters impacted Clout, such as every single commander giving a Clout boost no matter how utterly pointless their command was to the country as a whole. There’s a bit more nuance to how commanders and politically-aimed promotions work now, but I’ll cover that in part 2 of this Dev Diary.[/p][p][/p][p]Onto Magnates, then. Magnates are a new role that have an important part to play in new Japanese scripted content coming in The Great Wave (more on that in a later Dev Diary), but aren’t exclusively limited to Japan. Magnates can be generated as historical characters, but will also be randomly generated up to a limit set by the rank of your country. As I mentioned above, Magnates are wealthy landowners and businessmen who have decided that because they are wealthy, they obviously know what’s best for their country, and have decided to put their money to use furthering their chosen political agenda.[/p][p][/p][p]Magnates have a Home State (in fact, all characters now do, though it has no real impact outside the Magnate role for now) and a Holding, which is either the Financial Districts or Manor Houses in their Home State. Which of these two it is primarily depends on their Interest Group - Landowner Magnates naturally tend to come from, you know, landowners, while Industrialist Magnates are more into the whole captain of industry thing. You can think of the Magnate as representing one of the Capitalist or Aristocrat Pops within their Holding, though obviously they are far wealthier and more powerful than most.[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/4b7857806e68fbac50c23422fce45b454257b429.png"][/img][/p][p]Baron Veit von Göriz uses the revenue from his Tyrol estates to try and make the Austrian Aristocracy even more reactionary - really fighting the good fight there, Veit. If you’re wondering about the poverty look, it’s WIP - we haven’t set up proper clothing script for the role yet.[/p][p][/p][p]Magnates gain Prominence from the revenue (note that it’s revenue, and not profit) of their Holdings, scaled against the GDP of the country. If you paid attention to how Prominence works, you’ve probably already figured out what this means: The larger and wealthier their Holding, the more the Magnate will boost their Interest Group, their Ideology within the Interest Group, and their own chance of being selected as the next leader of said Interest Group. Magnates are thus fairly similar to Executives (who derive Prominence from the size of their Company), but tend to be a bit more diverse in which Interest Groups they come from and Ideologies they champion, at least so long as your country isn’t still operating on an economic system more suited to the era of Crusader Kings.[/p][p][/p][p]We’ve now gone over the big changes to characters, but there’s a couple minor bits to cover before we move on to the next topic. The first is Loyalty, which is a secondary stat for characters which is now used instead of Interest Group Approval in some content (mainly Coups), and which is a bit more nuanced, incorporating the approval of their IG, how well their individual Ideology matches the current crop of laws, and modifiers from events. This is a very limited mechanic for the time being, but is something we plan to make more use of in the future.[/p][p]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/dbb9194dccf15784d4fbbf5da1b07920c995a495.png"][/img][/p][p]Mathieu is not the biggest fan of the July Monarchy, all in all[/p][p][/p][p]Finally, we’ve also ended the era of politically radicalized toddlers. When generated, child characters will no longer have an Ideology, Interest Group or fully formed personality, but instead have hearts full of neutrality. For historical child characters or characters generated via a scripted effect with specific characteristics, those characteristics will be saved and applied to the character once they turn 16 and become an adult. [/p][p]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/1b69d0edf13c238a78c15989389f0275197377f3.png"][/img][/p][p]Isabella now starts the game politically unaligned. Upon turning 16, she is scripted to join the Petit-Bourgeoisie and become a Moderate, thus changing… not all that much, really.[/p][p][/p][p]Any characteristics not pre-saved or set by content before they become an adult will be randomly determined on their 16th birthday, which also means that heirs will select their ideology based on the political conditions when they are a teenager, rather than coming into the world having already been convinced of the inevitable triumph of socialism while in the womb.[/p][p][/p]
Part 2: One Formation, One Commander
[p]One of our stated goals for Update 1.13 reads as follows: “Make generals/admirals into more meaningful and noticeable actors in countries and reduce the micromanagement of large numbers of commanders.” This is precisely what we are doing, and this section of the Dev Diary is all about that particular change, namely to reduce the number of commanders in countries while simultaneously increasing the importance of each particular commander. [/p][p]This is actually something that’s effectively made possible by the National Cast and the ability to have characters without explicit jobs hanging around. If you’ve been with us for a while, you might be raising your hand and saying “But wait, Mr. Martin, didn’t we have one commander per formation back before 1.5?” and I would then tell you that “Ha-ha! There were in fact no military formations before 1.5”.[/p][p][/p][p]But is there actually a difference between one commander now and one commander back then? Absolutely. I don’t want to spend too much time talking about the past, but suffice it to say that the old, release-era single-commander system allowed for very little control over the size and composition of your armies and navies. They were extremely transient objects, changing size of their own accord and stealing units left and right when commanders were recruited or dismissed. The end result was messy and made it hard to care about any one commander even with less of them hanging around overall.[/p][p][/p][p]Under the new system, we maintain armies and fleets as the semi-permanent objects they are, only they now have a maximum of a single commander instead of a maximum of four. Additionally, commanders are no longer permanently married to their military formation: They can be unassigned and reassigned at will, and you can have unassigned commanders hanging around in the Character Pool waiting for the day when they are needed, though there is a limit on how many unassigned commanders you can have, and once you reach this limit you are no longer able to recruit new commanders, unassign existing commanders, or disband formations with a commander until you retire some of your excess brass.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/dd473d605564ece69ea30fcf035070f329809c05.png"][/img][/p][p]“You can’t replace Santa Anna, Santa Anna is irreplaceable!” Quote attributed to Antonio López de Santa Anna.[/p][p][/p][p]Besides making the individual commanders more important in your country and making commander management much more user-friendly, this also increases their mechanical significance: The traits of a skilled commander now apply to their entire formation, and so do any special orders they unlock, making the “special orders from traits” system one you might actually care about when selecting who gets to lead your desperate defense against British imperialism.[/p][p]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/59b8443f6d73e7458c7e27eb8cd2c264dc80069a.png"][/img][/p][p]“1er Corps d’Armée - pillage at will!”[/p][p][/p][p]To represent the fact that commanders do not have access to teleporters, a newly assigned commander now has to travel from their current position to the position of their new formation. While travelling, they contribute command limit to the formation but the troops under their command gain no benefit from their orders or skill traits. The amount of time spent travelling depends on the distance, so reassigning a commander from South France to North France goes a lot faster than if Jean-Pierre had to catch a ship to Micronesia to take command of the 1st Pacific Rifles.[/p][p][/p][p]Those of you familiar with the military system will likely have several objections raised at this point, such as “Does this mean we can only push in a single state per front?” or “Doesn’t this make commander political cheese even worse since you can just unassign commanders you don’t like?”, or “Does this mean command limits have been rebalanced?”. These are indeed real issues that we’ve attempted to tackle alongside this change, so I’ll try to address them one at a time.[/p][p][/p][p]Firstly, as a more general balm to political cheese, Rank is now more important than size of assignment. A Field Marshal is still a highly influential figure in the military even if you’ve decided that his particular skills are best suited for a desk job back at HQ, and will be able to get a significant amount of backing from more junior officers if he attempts a coup. [/p][p][/p][p]Additionally, there is now a penalty for ‘unnecessary promotions’, which is a promotion done when the collective command limit of your commanders is already more than enough for the needs of your armies + keeping some benchwarmers at the ready in case of a sudden battlefield death. Such a promotion, presumably carried out for purely political reasons, will always anger the Armed Forces (even if they’re the ones benefitting, they don’t like frivolous promotions that undermine the chain of command), as well as any non-benefitting Interest Groups that have active commanders who feel snubbed.[/p][p]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/4b653572f3811ea0e8ecfcf4a90abcf6407c6758.png"][/img]Antonio López de Santa Anna is outraged at the lack of understanding for the necessity in promoting Mexico’s most capable general, Antonio López de Santa Anna.[/p][p][/p][p]As far as battles go, generals can now be engaged in multiple battles simultaneously, being able to participate in an unlimited number of defensive battles and a limited number of offensive ones (the cap for offensive battles is based on their rank), so long as there are troops under their command available to fight. While this may seem a little odd, you can think of the general as being in overall command at the front, with unnamed junior commanders in place carrying out their orders at the actual battles.[/p][p][/p][p]Command Limit has also been rebalanced to reflect the growing size of formations over the course of the game. At the start of the game, it’s the same as now, but increases with army & navy tech, so that at the end of the game a single Field Marshal can take command of nearly half a million men.[/p][p]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/9e1fad93e6b3baad7d6eb9796847c118a4424856.png"][/img][/p][p]The impact of tech on Command Limit is split so that naval techs increase the effectiveness of your admirals, while army techs impact generals[/p][p][/p][p]You might also be wondering what happens when a commander dies in action: Does this spell immediate doom for their formation as the organization of the commander-less formation craters? This is a legitimate concern, and to address it we’ve added a grace period: When a formation enters a state of being ‘below command limit’, its Organization target won’t go down for 30 days, giving you time to assign or recruit a new commander. We’re also looking into an auto-replacement feature, but are currently not sure if this is something we’ll have time to do for 1.13. [/p][p]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/8d12bbf86d45ccf1aa20b1e44ae2ee9809ea4b6f.png"][/img][/p][p]Oh no! Antonio López de Santa Anna has [strike]succumbed to an infection after pricking himself on his new medal[/strike] valiantly fallen in battle, and a replacement must be found! Fortunately we have a whole month to grieve before a decision must be made.[/p][p][/p][p]There is one last small thing of note here, which is that commanders that embark on expeditions will now automatically be unassigned from their formations and are not available for reassignment until they return from their adventures.[/p][p][/p]
Part 3: Cabin Boy Tunay’s Modding Menagerie
[p][/p][p]Hello everyone! Cabin boy Tunay here with a couple of modding related additions included in the upcoming Update. [/p][p]Note that while, of course, we will also have a bunch of navy and ship related script additions, I will not be diving into those today![/p][p][/p]Character Role Database
[p]After reading through all of the above mentioned changes to characters you probably won't be surprised to hear that some of our script additions have to do with characters as well, the biggest one in question is the addition of the character role database.I know that this has been a much requested feature for a long time and I'm happy that we have finally managed to get around to implementing this! [/p][p]Going forward anyone can define and implement new character roles as they please.[/p][p]
To do this you will have to create a new entry in common/character_roles with your role in question. This does not only add script support to be able to apply this role to your characters but it also comes with some additional functionality hooked straight into the code like determining if and how characters are generated by the game. You will also be able to assign custom titles to characters, more on that in a moment.[/p][p][/p][p][c]character_role_example = {[/c][/p][p][c] type = politician # Archetype for this role, valid archetypes are politician/general/admiral/executive/agitator/ruler/heir/magnate. Roles do not need to have archetypes if they are fully controlled by script.[/c][/p][p][c] priority = 1 # Used to select the primary title for a character, higher priority gets selected over lower[/c][/p][p][c]
[/c][/p][p][c] auto_assigned = yes/no # If this is set to yes, then all characters of this role's archetype will receive this role when created[/c][/p][p][c] [/c][/p][p][c] should_use_title_in_name = yes/no # If set to yes, characters with this role as primary will have its title in their titled name ('General Cupcakes Muffin III')[/c][/p][p][c] title_format = from_name # Determines how titles are formatted, from_name/ruler/heir/custom, defaults to from_name. If set to custom, a customizable localization with the format key_custom_loc (example: character_role_politician_custom_loc) must be added to the customizable loc database.[/c][/p][p][c] title_preposition = "PREP_IN" # Determines the preposition when title is shown in country context (ie, 'Ruler in France'), uses define (english default: 'in') if not set[/c][/p][p][c] [/c][/p][p][c] spawn_characters_to_pool = yes/no # If set to yes, characters with this role will be spawned into the pool from templates and potentially also randomly depending on spawn target values below[/c][/p][p][c] [/c][/p][p][c] # The below values are used to control when new characters of a role should be randomly generated into the character pool[/c][/p][p][c] # The target value is the number of characters of a specific role and IG we want to hang around in the pool at different levels of IG influence[/c][/p][p][c] # Current IG leader is counted, as are other characters that are potentially valid for IG leadership[/c][/p][p][c] # If the number of characters of this role hanging around in the pool is below the target, we will try to create a new character.[/c][/p][p][c] # Politicians generated randomly will get an ideology currently unrepresented in their IG, other characters use normal ideology selection[/c][/p][p][c] # Characters generated from templates count towards but are not prevented from spawning by these values[/c][/p][p][c] # Each of these is a script value, root = interest group[/c][/p][p][c] # WARNING: Using complex script values here is likely to degrade performance![/c][/p][p][c] pool_spawn_target_powerful = 3 # Target if the character's IG is powerful[/c][/p][p][c] pool_spawn_target_influential = 2 # Target if the character's IG is influential[/c][/p][p][c] pool_spawn_target_marginal = 0 # Target if the character's IG is marginal[/c][/p][p][c] [/c][/p][p][c] # Alternative spawn control number, incompatible with IG spawn values above[/c][/p][p][c] # Script value, target for number of characters from this role that should be spawned into the pool across a country. Created characters will be assigned IGs based via the normal IG selection logic from role etc.[/c][/p][p][c] # Root = country[/c][/p][p][c] pool_spawn_target_country_wide = {[/c][/p][p][c] value = 0[/c][/p][p][c] }[/c][/p][p][c] [/c][/p][p][c] # Applied to characters holding this role[/c][/p][p][c] character_modifier = {[/c][/p][p][c] character_prominence_add = 10[/c][/p][p][c] }[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][/p]
Custom Character Role Titles
[p]Characters of a given role may be granted a custom title, we do this for Rulers and Heirs of course and it's usually dependent on the country or type of government or both, but you will now be able to create custom titles for other roles as well, including of course your own ones.[/p][p][/p][p]To do so, you would first have to specify in your character role database that this role uses custom titles, in the basegame this is true for Magnates for example:[/p][p][/p][p][c]character_role_magnate = {[/c][/p][p][c]\[...][/c][/p][p][c]title_format = custom[/c][/p][p][c]\[...][/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][/p][p]Now we can create a new entry in common/customizable_localization. Please keep in mind that it's very important that your key follows this strict syntax: character_role_\[character_role_key]_custom_loc[/p][p][/p][p][c]character_role_magnate_custom_loc = {[/c][/p][p][c]type = character[/c][/p][p][c]random_valid = yes[/c][/p][p][/p][p][c]text = {[/c][/p][p][c]trigger = {[/c][/p][p][c]is_female = no[/c][/p][p][c]is_noble = yes[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]localization_key = character_title_lord[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]text = {[/c][/p][p][c]trigger = {[/c][/p][p][c]is_female = no[/c][/p][p][c]is_noble = yes[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]localization_key = character_title_baron[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]text = {[/c][/p][p][c]trigger = {[/c][/p][p][c]is_female = no[/c][/p][p][c]is_noble = yes[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]localization_key = character_title_count[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]text = {[/c][/p][p][c]trigger = {[/c][/p][p][c]is_female = no[/c][/p][p][c]is_noble = yes[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]localization_key = character_title_marquis[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]text = {[/c][/p][p][c]trigger = {[/c][/p][p][c]is_female = no[/c][/p][p][c]is_noble = no[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]localization_key = character_title_gentleman[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c] [/p][p][/p]Other Script Additions
[p]As always, there are a bunch of miscellaneous and smaller additions in terms of effects and triggers, and I have chosen to highlight some of them here today. But first, some housekeeping![/p][p][/p][p]The has_role trigger has been split into has_role and has_role_of_type, all of your current has_role instances should be replaced with has_role_of_type.[/p][p][/p][p]Moving on, we have added the ability to change an already existing character's name via a new effect, well two really![/p][p][/p][p]To do so you can scope to a character and use the set_first_name or set_last_name effects, either of which will require you to provide a predefined loc key.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/2789b08ac6fb86768fd5da07fb6849b759d7a67e.png"][/img][/p][p align="center"]Philippe Égalité, I can do you one better.[/p][p][/p][p]Additionally you can use the new set_home_state effect to change a character's home state. Note, that when creating a character template, you will also be able to insert a new home_region parameter directly.[/p][p][/p][p]We have also provided you with a new trigger called is_noble to check whether a character belongs to the nobility (if there is such a thing in your country). This distinction had always existed but it was not really something you could check for in script and now you can! [/p][p][/p][p]Taboos can now be applied to and removed from cultures directly instead of just being a strictly religion based feature. To do so you can simply use the add_cultural_taboo and remove_cultural_taboo effects in culture scope with the target being a goods key![/p][p]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/a3a6bf8800c4a8e468d8c6fe602bfb8e8d57c3d3.png"][/img][/p][p align="center"]It’s something of a patriotic duty[/p][p][/p][p]Another long requested feature is finally making its way into the game: we have added the ability to add and modify resource potentials in script on run time! To do so you can use the new add_resource_potential, remove_resource_potential and change_resource_potential (for capped resources) effects.[/p][p][/p][p][c]s:STATE_GREENLAND = {[/c][/p][p][c]add_resource_potential = building_vineyard[/c][/p][p][c]change_resource_potential = {[/c][/p][p][c]type = building_iron_mine[/c][/p][p][c]amount = 5[/c][/p][p][c] }[/c][/p][p][c]}[/c][/p][p]
[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/5ba443dab23a9f1e9f2eb07fb0f2a5f6150d48c3.png"][/img][/p][p align="center"]What will you tell your grandchildren when they ask you why you didn’t invest in Greenlandic Vineyards?[/p][p][/p][p]Lastly, if you have made it this far, I would also like to let you know that we are working on implementing variable maps into the game which were first introduced in the most recent EU5 Rossbach update. I highly recommend checking out the associated Tinto Talks for more details, but in essence, variable maps allow you to insert a key:value pairing whereas the variable lists only accept a key or value respectively.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40579353/5f008d11551f78ca58eed6a91d0e46940e8fbb2a.png"][/img][/p][p align="center"]This is our Get Along Shirt[/p][p][/p][p]This will be it for me for today! Now if you will excuse me, I got a ship deck to scrub…[/p][p][/p][p]Next time in Dev Diaries, we return to Admiral Lino and will go down to the dockyard to look at the Ship Designer, Flagships and Ship Purchasing, this Thursday![/p][p][/p][p]Schedule of our upcoming dev diaries:[/p]
- [p]March 26 - Ship Designer & Flagships & Ship Purchasing[/p][/*]
- [p]April 02 - Naval Combat & Gunboat Diplomacy[/p][/*]
- [p]April 09 - Narrative Content of The Great Wave[/p][/*]
- [p]April 16 - Art & Music of The Great Wave[/p][/*]
- [p]April 23 - Changelog & Achievements[/p][/*]
- [p]April 28 - Release of The Great Wave and Update 1.13[/p][/*]
