Happy Monday Victorians!
The time has come! Last week we announced Expansion Pass 2 (well, showed you the logo and a blurry square), thank you for the huge amount of responses, discussion, hype and speculation about what is in the Pass!
Speaking of speculation, we saw a lot of it for different countries based on the logos in the Expansion Pass, for example: Albania, Spain, Russia, Austria and everywhere across the globe! Some people thought the barrel was for brewing, the flag for flag customization and many, many more interesting ideas. Thank you for them all, we had a lot of fun following your discussions!
But today, we shall give you a quick tour of the Expansion Pass: first of all a proper visit to our first upcoming release and the barrel in the Expansion Pass 2 logo! Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to announce Charters of Commerce!
Charters of Commerce
Welcome to Charters of Commerce, a Mechanics pack focused on building trade, companies and negotiating treaties with other nations!
Control world trade through market domination, expand companies to new horizons and strongarm countries into unequal treaties. Use the power of commerce to bend other nations to your will - peacefully or by force. Create monopolies to secure critical industries, keeping foreign investors in check. Ultimately, prove your mettle and produce unique Prestige Goods to make your brands known worldwide!
What’s included in Charters of Commerce?
- Company Charters- Grant special Charters to Companies, giving them a range of special privileges:
- Trade Charters - lets Companies trade their goods on the World Market
- Investment Charters - allows establishment of regional headquarters that exploit the target's coffers
- Colony Charters - makes it possible for a Company to run a colonial region on their own, turning them into a country in the process
- Industry Charters - grants Companies the ability to expand into producing other goods
- Monopolies - Boost the efficiency of selected buildings and grant your Companies an exclusive right to certain industries, ensuring their dominance
- Diplomatic Treaties - Negotiate fair or unequal arrangements with other countries. Expands upon treaties added in Update 1.9, including Non-Colonization Agreements!
- Prestige Goods - successful Companies can produce higher quality goods, such as Champagne (as an advanced variant of Wine)
Alongside Charters of Commerce, we will be releasing free Update 1.9 that will focus on some of the areas we mentioned back in January with Dev Diary 142. With the full Update including:
- World Market with Autonomous trade - as shown last week in Dev Diary 143
- Diplomatic Treaties - negotiate with other nations to truly make the best deal for you, with new additions such as Transit Rights!
- Frontline and Military Quality of Life Improvements - improving front splitting, teleportation and more
- Blockades - blockade key locations to control access for military or trade purposes
Now, you may be asking “What is a Mechanic Pack”? It is a pack aimed to provide mechanical immersion at a lower price than an Expansion due to lower focus on the narrative content. This allows us to provide a deeper mechanical immersion, while extra flavour will be included in an additional Immersion Pack within the same Expansion Pass 2.
This is a bit of an experiment on our end - as we want to make it possible for you to receive both new mechanics as well as narrative content when purchasing an Expansion Pass (as you would with an Expansion Pack), while also giving you an option to choose only one when buying content separately (Mechanics Pack + Immersion Pack). The choice is all yours!
Charters of Commerce and Update 1.9 will be releasing June 17th, for $19.99 and is available to be wishlisted now! We will delve into upcoming features in the future Dev Diaries and videos, so stay tuned!.
Expansion Pass 2
Expansion Pass 2 includes:
- Trade Ships Bonus Pack Instant Unlock
- Charters of Commerce Mechanics Pack
- National Awakening Immersion Pack
- Songs of the Homeland Music Pack
- Iberian Twilight Immersion Pack
By getting Expansion Pass 2 you will save -20% compared to the price of content being sold separately - and you will also receive Trade Ships Bonus Pack, which will be unlocked immediately upon purchase of the Expansion Pass 2. The whole package is available now for $35.97.
More information can be found on the Steam page for Expansion Pass 2, and we will have dev diaries leading up to each pack!
Trade Ships
For those of you who would like to delve into Expansion Pass 2 right away, we prepared an instant unlock: Trade Ships Bonus Pack. This art pack will become instantly available in the game for all who purchase the Expansion Pass, providing three new trade ship appearances to ply the trade lanes of the world map.
As we want to make these ships feel truly unique, the sails color update to which country you are playing based on their flag, and appear based on cultural heritage or culture. For example, a Marmara would appear as trade ships for Turkish, Greek or Misri primary culture.
You can also have these appear in other ways e.g. if you are a subject of someone who has them, if your Power Bloc leader has them or you are importing clippers from a nation with them!
A Qing Junk, in a dapper yellow
The Marmara in Ottoman Empire colors, with a rather dashing red and white
A Dhow clad in midnight sails
National Awakening
Our next Immersion pack releasing in Q3 2025 is National Awakening - focusing on the century of national struggles in Central Europe and the Balkans. Will Austria survive its internal political and national struggles? And, how will they all fare with the swell of national identities?
Selected key features:
- Austrian Internal Content - will Klemens von Metternich keep the crumbling empire together, or will nationalist forces break it apart? Is there a future for all the different ethnicities under Habsburg's absolute rule, or maybe it’s time for a more federationist state?
- Hungarian Flavour - determine the place of the proud Hungarian nation within or without the empire.
- Powderkeg of Europe - engage with intricate narrative content surrounding the emerging Balkan states, struggling for independence and power.
- New southern states - form Yugoslavia or Illyria, carving out their borders and national outline as you please.
- Historic characters - join a whole cast of bigger-than-life figures who helped shape the outline of Austria and Balkans.
- New 2D art - including new map and UI skin, as well as event images.
Songs of the Homeland
In Q4 2025, immerse yourself in a music pack dedicated to the rise of national identities, modernism and a truly grand tomorrow!
Selected key features:
- Embrace the power of the nation - immerse yourself in sounds of national pride and fervor.
- Modern trends - experience the innovation of emerging modernist music.
- Ambition wins all - lose yourself in the global soundscape of a truly global empire.
Iberian Twilight
And so we come to our last part of Expansion Pass 2, also releasing in Q4 2025. Iberian Twilight lets you ponder at the once mighty powers of the Iberian Peninsula, grappling with the clashing ideals of reform or reaction! Can you restore these sleeping giants to their old glory, or shall they fade away into the darkening night?
Selected key features:
- Spain:
- Carlist Wars - side with the liberals or counter their aspirations through dedicated narrative content.
- Return of a global empire - rebuild your once powerful, world-spanning empire and face both new and old adversaries as you progress on the path to greatness.
- The future calls - modernize your country and institutions, freeing the nation of the shackles of the past.
- Portugal:
- Define who you are - recover from the War of the Two Brothers and define the vision for the future of your nation.
- The ultimate trade powerhouse - reaffirm your position as the world-leading trade power, spanning a commercial empire.
- American ambitions - navigate the diplomatic relations with Brazil, defining your position as a former suzerain of the region.
- Other:
- One Iberia - unite the peninsula under your rule.
- New art - including buildings, unit models and more!
What’s next?
With that we finish the overview of Charters of Commerce and the new Expansion Pass!
The infographic below shows you when each part of the pass will land, with more information about each piece of upcoming content receiving their own dedicated dev diaries.
Before we send you off, last week we announced new bundles coming to Victoria 3; the Starter Edition and Ultimate Bundle for new and seasoned players of Victoria 3! These will replace the previous Grand Edition and old Expansion Pass bundles, and provide the best way to start or complete your collection!
We joined Martin with the Trade Rework dev diary last week, next time we see you in a Dev Diary it will be mid April with Lino and information on Frontline Improvements coming in free Update 1.9! A happy Thursday when we see you next!
