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Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #132 - Pivot of Empire

Hello Victorians, happy Tuesday! It feels odd having a happy Tuesday instead of Thursday, but we have a good reason to release two Dev Diaries this week!

This week is our Anniversary and yesterday we talked about what came in free updates since launch. As a follow up, today we have a special treat for you: the announcement and the release date of a new immersion pack, Pivot of Empire, which will come alongside Update 1.8.

PoEArt (1).png

Some of you may know the name of this pack from a famous quote:

India is the pivot of our Empire... If the Empire loses any other part of its Dominion we can survive, but if we lose India, the sun of our Empire will have set” - Victor Bruce, Viceroy of India during the Indian Uprising.

This sets the scene for the immersion pack. Pivot of Empire is set in the Indian Subcontinent, focused on the events following the years of discrimination and suppression by the East India Company. The Indian Uprising events take us through the eventual downfall of the East India Company and rise of the British Raj.


Within this Immersion pack you will get to experience narrative content for the East India Company, but also the other Indian Nations, Great Britain imposing its will upon such a wealthy land, and the nearby Sikh Empire trying to assert itself with such an avaricious neighbor. Regardless if you already played in this region or not, Pivot of Empire will bring a lot of unique and fresh flavor to the game.

And for your easy reference of the content we have this handy dandy infographic (you can enlarge it by clicking on it!):
V3-PoE-Info-16-9(1).jpg


Now, if you have forgotten what is coming with the free Update 1.8, we also have another quick reference overview graphic too!
V3-Update1_8-Infographic-V2.jpg

As you might have noticed, the Caste System Laws and updated Indian Uprising events are part of the free Update available to all players, while narrative content related to them will be added in Pivot of Empire, along with additional content related to religious tensions in the region, Indian national movements and local initiatives for independence (among other things).

We hope you enjoy our foray into the Indian Subcontinent and the surrounding interactions caused by discrimination and movements for liberation! Of course this is just the tip of an iceberg, as we are going to delve more into the details in the upcoming Dev Diaries.

Both Pivot of Empire and free Update 1.8 will be released on the 21st of November, Pivot of Empire will cost €9.99 . Check out the Steam store page for screenshots, and don't forget to wishlist this immersion pack!

Now, with that all said and the release date coming up in just about a month, we have quite a few Dev Diaries delving into the meat of Pivot of Empire. Starting this week already, with Emperatriz leading the charge on the 24th, where we look at a selection of the narrative content!
 
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Will Caste affect qualification? For example, aristocrats may be likely become officers (both kshatriyas), but unlikely become clergymen (which are brahmins).
 
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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.
Screenshot 2024-10-22 103625.png

Screenshot 2024-10-22 103653.png

Screenshot 2024-10-22 103804.png


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.
 
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Nice, Indian history is fascinating!

Is the new Caste Law going to be subcontinent-specific, or will I be able to switch to a caste-based society as e.g. Ireland?
 
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I just want to confirm but are the caste laws something that will show up in every country depending on what stage of the system laws they are in of course. for example if a country that started without a caste system wanted to could they go back and enact one? or is the caste law something unique to India and other directly relevant countries or culture groups? I could see the laws being used for every country to represent the historical aristocracies and leftover feudal systems regarding the political power individuals can have
 
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Two questions I have as I skimmed the steam page.

1. Will the Mughal Empire be included (by this time the Mughal Empire existed as a puppet of the British, ruling only Delhi)?
1. Will the Maldives become a playable protectorate of the British? Like how Togo was added as a French protectorate after the Voices of the People dlc.
 
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Nice, Indian history is fascinating!

Is the new Caste Law going to be subcontinent-specific, or will I be able to switch to a caste-based society as e.g. Ireland?
Korea has a good case for having it too (maybe 'codified' rather than 'enforced'). I guess for many countries where it is a non-issue they could make it so that no IG will ever want to have it.
 
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Two questions I have as I skimmed the steam page.

1. Will the Mughal Empire be included (by this time the Mughal Empire existed as a puppet of the British, ruling only Delhi)?
1. Will the Maldives become a playable protectorate of the British? Like how Togo was added as a French protectorate after the Voices of the People dlc.
Mughals appear to be present in Delhi.
 
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Nice, Indian history is fascinating!

Is the new Caste Law going to be subcontinent-specific, or will I be able to switch to a caste-based society as e.g. Ireland?
i can't remember if it was in a screenshot or the video but it said caste was country specific
 
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India really needed this, just like South America previously. Glad to see those regions getting good attention lately.
India arguably needed this, as the caste system is a justifiable mechanical change.
South America didn't. You don't need a DLC to fix bad resource distribution and other geographic mistakes made on release, and nothing else was good in the DLC: bespoke ideologies are unfair and barely working; migration attraction buttons are unfair (but working), coffee events are ridiculous and, again, not working.
 
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Kudos to the graphic artist(s) its really nice art :) Would be nice if the joined/shared market gets an overhaul, political mechanics a better explanation, trade and transport in tonnage combined with stockpiling and overhaul of army, war mechanics as with shared market is to complicated, unfortunately bit chaotic.
 
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Does that indian caste laws mean that we'll have specific laws (I imagine variants of already existing for the simplest iteration) bound to tags and/or cultures?
Question: Are we getting more religions and cultures at least for South Asia? I saw that Jamshedji Tata was a character, cool. But I hope this means Zoroastrianism for the parsi community of India.

And as usual I pray that we follow Project Ceaser's route and get rid of animism everywhere for their own traditions.
Will this come with content for playing smaller Indian states, such as the vassal states of the EIC?
Since caste system is a law like any other, then its effects would disappear or appear from/in state X instantly, if India loses or gains it.
I guess its not that different from other laws like slavery, or cultural/religious laws.
I'm now curious what the caste laws will do
Will Caste affect qualification? For example, aristocrats may be likely become officers (both kshatriyas), but unlikely become clergymen (which are brahmins).
Nice, Indian history is fascinating!

Is the new Caste Law going to be subcontinent-specific, or will I be able to switch to a caste-based society as e.g. Ireland?
I just want to confirm but are the caste laws something that will show up in every country depending on what stage of the system laws they are in of course. for example if a country that started without a caste system wanted to could they go back and enact one? or is the caste law something unique to India and other directly relevant countries or culture groups? I could see the laws being used for every country to represent the historical aristocracies and leftover feudal systems regarding the political power individuals can have

As we always do, we will follow-up on our DLC announcement with more detailed information on what's in it and how things work.
This includes (but isn't limited to) information on the caste system, map rework (incl. cultures), narrative content and many other things.

I'd encourage you to read our upcoming Dev Diaries and then if your question wasn't answered in them, you can still ask your question in that thread, so that we have answers collected for the appropriate topics instead of them being spread everywhere :)
 
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Another step in the right direction.
I'm sure we'll get around to Carlist War at some point.
We can't do everything at once sadly.
(I really wish we could)
A shame, the Ideologically-focused movements being added would be perfect for Carlists.

Anyway, still waiting for the Statue of Liberty oxidizing in real time expansion.
 
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1) Devs ignoring all questions concerning a possible Expansion Pass
2)They would say it if an Expansion Pass would not be planned/announced shortly in the days to come

=> EXPANSION PASS CONFIRMED
 
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Just curious, why was the word "pivot" from Bruce chosen rather than other, better known terms like Crown Jewel of Empire?
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 ;)
 
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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.
 
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