Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #132 - Pivot of Empire

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Did you know that we have had some breadcrumb hints throughout the last dev diaries about something happening in India? I have been waiting to reveal this for ages! It wasn’t every diary but it was there!


DD126 - The vaishya caste text and the full map, which showed the map changes


DD129 - the classes tab, related to the caste system


DD131 - the map showing in more detail parts of india, people did notice the Netherlands changes though.

If I may add:

DD 127 - Bulk Nationalization and Company Ownership

I had added a tiny hint with West Bengal
And I do realize me saying this will make everybody suspicious about the tiniest details in my future examples. Which 9/10 times didn't have a meaning. So there's that.

 

[Lamartine]

We've considered a lot of names!
Crown Jewel was certainly among them.
Some names we can't do due to trademark/copyright stuff etc.
In the end, I'm not actually sure if there was a specific argument why Pivot of Empire over others, but a call has been made.
It does come with the nice benefit that I can say I've worked on PoE now

I too wish I'd worked on the DnD call-back Pillars of Eternity, or it's fellow mid 2010s release Path of Exile, or the American Gothic festival dedicated to Edgar Allen Poe.

 

[Desseabar]

From the map in the video, we can see a couple major changes:

• Lots more subjects within India, with lots of previous Princely States getting divided up
• The Sikh Empire is now the "Khalsa Raj" with Kashmir getting divided between a subject and independent Ladakh
• Burma now has Shan as a subject, and there's several smaller independent states in Assam
• Danish India and Goa look to be added as foreign ports
• The Maldives appear to be independent (or decentralized?)
• Lots of revisions to the border with China/Tibet (around Sikkim and the northeast with Burma)

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Exciting news! I'd suspected this might be in the works given the caste system mechanics, and it's great to see. I'll echo what others have asked about Sikh Empire interactions with its neighbours to the west.

How will the East India Company Company work? That is, the flavour Company in the game called the East India Company, which you can have as the East India Company. In general I feel that chartered companies could do with their own Governance Principles law, one which encourages heavy dependence on an overlord, perhaps by ensuring their Legitimacy will take blows unless they can hit increasingly unfeasible economic targets. Now Companies can own buildings, it might make sense to have the EIC be a Company headquartered in the Home Counties, which requires the EIC as a subject to maintain. In exchange for dealing with the unreliability of CC rule, the overlord gets an additional Company slot; if you go the route of making CC into a GP law, that might extend to the Hudson Bay Company and perhaps even to the CC subjects in Africa.

Finally, in DD 130 I asked about Austria. Knowing that you're focusing on India this time round, I assume there won't be much content there, but I do think that with Discrimination and Secessions both getting reworked this update, you do need to give them a bit of a touch-up. Spoilered is my last post on the matter.

Finally, I must reiterate how impressed I am with all that you've been doing. It's fantastic to see India getting the attention it deserves; keep up the great work!

Thanks for the kind words!

As for the company and chartered companies:
Most of what you mention here sounds like very nice ideas for the future. No concrete plans for any of it at this point, but I mean it: nice ideas that we've also tossed around (at least in parts).

For now, the country remains as it is (more or less) and the newly added company HQ will be based in the country with ownership of a decent amount of plantations. Most remain in british hands though for the time being.

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Hello Paradox,

I've been developing an Indian immersion mod for quite some time now, and I’m excited to see the announcement of Pivot of Empires. I’d like to share a few ideas from my project that your team might consider for implementation.

New States and Economic Hubs
The Sikh Empire, as it stands, feels somewhat underdeveloped, particularly when it comes to industrialization, which tends to focus on just one central city in Punjab. Historically, the capital was Lahore, not Multan, and given the size and population of Punjab, dividing it into additional states to include more cities could make the process of industrializing the Sikh Empire much more dynamic and engaging.

Here's a mockup of this idea for your consideration.
View attachment 1205422
View attachment 1205423
View attachment 1205425

Cultural Overhaul
I’d also suggest the inclusion of some new cultural groups, such as Deccani, Shina, Balti, Rohilla, andLadakhi, which are currently mot present in the game. For instance, Deccanis played a major role in the governance of Hyderabad, and adding them would reflect quite important accuracy. Additionally, using Awadhi to represent all Hindustani speakers feels very broad. Breaking them into smaller regional identities would better reflect the linguistic diversity in this period.

Thanks for the feedback!
I do recommend you to check back in on the Dev Diary when we talk about map rework etc., because your comment is best suited to be answered in detail then.

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Great stuff, looks amazing!

Small comment on the discrimination system, consider changing "second-rate citizen" to "second-class citizen". The former, I think, more often refers to quality while the latter refers to standing.

This has in fact been done. I just forgot to reply to you!

 

[gurufabbes]

Well... with götterdämmerung and this, November is going to be expensive.

What's the release date for the patch and the expansion?

EDIT: Never mind. 21st November

 

[Lakigigar]

Looks great, excited to hear India is getting flavor.

 

[47pik]

Still no Carlist War...unbelievable.

I have no interest in India or Great Britain so I will be sitting this one out. Impatiently awaiting for the expansion!

Might start making condescending posts like this whenever Europe gets content added.

Still no Aceh War…unbelievable.

I have no interest in Spain or Catalonia so I will be sitting this one out. Impatiently awaiting for the expansion!

Could be a good bit.

 

[greywulfos]

Might start making condescending posts like this whenever Europe gets content added.


Could be a good bit.

The unification of Germany? Ugh... Boring. Arab Revolt when

 

[AnirudhSubramanian]

Can't wait for the events regarding Birsa Munda , and the Kakori conspiracy , and of course the failed independence war. I fear the biggest challenge might actually be managing famines , though

 

[ChiOsaVince]

Will there be historical agitators added in relation to the Indian Independence movement and their leaders? Birsa Munda, Dadabhai Naoroji, and of course the big man Gandhi come to mind as options to have in game.

 

[CivMasters]

Very nice! From the language in DD#124 ("However, I can tell you that the next update (1.8) will be a standalone free update [...]") and the changes of plans described in DD#126, I didn't think a DLC was accompanying this update! @nudu seem to be the only person on the right tracks back then!

If anyone, like me, was a bit disappointed to see this DD on the short side, I took the time to take screenshots from every relevant frame from the fast-paced section in the video, from ~0:18 up to ~0:25. They are quite interesting, though I reckon not final.

Let's take a nice look:

Every level of discrimination (Japan)

Spoiler: Preventing Bandwidth Consumption

This seems very promising!

Caste System Law

Spoiler: Preventing Bandwidth Consumption

Maybe there should be an "informal" Caste System to represent discrimination in former slave states?

Company Ownership

Spoiler: Preventing Bandwidth Consumption

I find it interesting that companies pay very little in wages. Who do they employ? I guess their weekly balance is fully added to the Investment Pool with no bonus nor malus?

Every level of Bulk Nationalization

Spoiler: Preventing Bandwidth Consumption

I find it interesting that nationalizing some levels is "free", since it cause no extra radicalism.

 

[Clophiroth]

I had assumed the Flavour Pack was going to be Ottoman focused (discrimination and secession rework seemed to be a way of allowing Ottoman content, and some of the images showed Ottoman stuff like the Turkish Moral Majority in the Movement DD) but India is also a pretty cool country.




I had a lot of fun playing Sindh a while ago (and disappointed because there was no Pakistan formable back then) so I want to ask, will there be content for the Indian Partition and India being able to be divided among Muslims and Hindus (maybe with different outcomes to how it was IRL)?

 

[Galadredid]

I had assumed the Flavour Pack was going to be Ottoman focused (discrimination and secession rework seemed to be a way of allowing Ottoman content, and some of the images showed Ottoman stuff like the Turkish Moral Majority in the Movement DD) but India is also a pretty cool country.




I had a lot of fun playing Sindh a while ago (and disappointed because there was no Pakistan formable back then) so I want to ask, will there be content for the Indian Partition and India being able to be divided among Muslims and Hindus (maybe with different outcomes to how it was IRL)?

There is a split-second in the announcement video where you can see a huge Pakistan as one of the potential formables in the expansion

 

[Clophiroth]

There is a split-second in the announcement video where you can see a huge Pakistan as one of the potential formables in the expansion

View attachment 1205597

I think Pakistan was added a while ago, in 1.6 or 1.7 (my Sindh game was in 1.1 or 1.2, a bit after the game was released) but I was more wondering about content about how India should be divided in the independence debate and movement.

 

[Don_Quigleone]

Will the cheese that allows a player to force the east India company to be independent of the UK be patched out?

 

[TitaniumMan91]

So what tea blend is the patch going to be called?

Hopefully chai tea.

 

[adil3tr]

This is great to see, I almost wish it was the focus of a full DLC because India and China are so key to the divergences possible in this period.

Will it be possible, perhaps through modding, to add a form of caste system to other nations? Like an Iron Heel class-caste system

 

[lilcritt]

This is cool - from what I can tell it won't be in the last expansion pack, or the next? (ofc assuming there will be one) and that this wasn't a part of the Sphere of Influence DLC... I mean... all together 50 bucks...