Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #144 - Charters of Commerce & Expansion Pass 2

[PDX_Pelly]

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​

And so we bid you greetings to the second Expansion Pass for Victoria 3! Adding more to the game through a range of new content for trade, diplomacy, nations and much more!

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

You can see more information on each pack later in the dev diary!

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.

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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!

 

[commissar roach]

This comment is saved for developer responses!

 

[Wizzington]

It begins!

I have to say, I’m abit uneasy with mechanics packs. These look like very important and brilliant mechanics that should be in the base game rather than something that should be bought, especially when it seems to be vital for the game.

Also, apart from Charters of Commerce, am I right to say that there is no major expansion pack adding mechanics etc? That is quite disappointing if so. I was hoping for more mechanics and contents being added other than charters of commerce, like proper navy ships etc.

The kind of mechanics we will charge for in a Mechanics Pack will not differ from the kind we'd charge for in an Expansion. We will still generally keep the core of major mechanical additions and reworks free.

 

[PDX_Pelly]

In other words let the commerce be great again so next dev diary is in mid April?

Next diary is mid April indeed!

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Oh boy. Dam is bursted. More goods on its way.

Yesnomaybe.
More info to come with the Dev Diary about Prestige Goods

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Will the later packs have more focus on the military??

1.9 will feature multiple improvements to warfare, but not a rework by any means. We're aiming to address issues with front splitting, teleportation and such and are quite confident internally.
If by later packs you mean the Immersion Packs we presented today - no, they will not have a dedicated focus on military (with the exception of the Carlist Wars arguably).
If by later packs you mean after this season pass: We're not ready to talk about that yet.

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

I'm really glad to have Austria and Spain in this pass! Both are my favourites because I enjoy turning around and modernising these empires, and bringing back old, but also new glories.

But to clarify, does this mean 1.9 is coming in April, or does that just mean that's when dev diaries restart in general, and that 1.9 only comes out in June with Charters of Commerce? If it's the former, does the trade rework come out with 1.9, or only in June?

1.9 is releasing at the same time as Charters of Commerce in June.

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Hope that naval content is part of 1.9 if there isn’t a separate DLC that it makes sense to pair with.

Was hoping for WW1 since a rising tension to an endgame crisis would make the game arc more satisfying, but whatever, as long as diplomatic plays, and trade and navies get improvements, that should be enough for this year. These are the three biggest pain points of the game.

Plus, I suppose doing a focus on nationalism first will be a good foundation for Great War content down the road.

No navy rework is coming with 1.9, otherwise we'd have mentioned it.
We want to tackle it eventually of course, but we will need the necessary time to do it.

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Are there any patch notes for 1.8.7?

It's just the addition of the trade ships for the people who buy the season pass.

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Negative:

1. Mechanics should be a part of the base game, not paid packs. It's not really about the money, just that custom-made mechanics tend to be really poorly balanced and supported (like the CotS ones: some barely work, of some you can't say even that)

As Wiz commented, the mechanics we're introducing with Charters of Commerce are comparable to the ones we released with Sphere of Influence.

1. National struggles (most pronounced in Austria) should be mechanics rather than custom-made narratives ("movements" were a great step forward, but they need both many deep improvements and many balance iterations yet)

Parts of the content there are driven or motivated by mechanics. But we'll talk more about it in the future.

1. Monopolies in the modern era are generally not something that's granted, but something either natural, or allowed to form by an inept government. Seems we're only getting explicit "state-sanctioned monopolies", that's a shame

There's certainly room for expanding this to be more hands-off in the future, agreed. But no concrete plans at this point.

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Will companies finally get magnates or tycoons as characters in charge?

Well, you'll need to read the Dev Diary around Companies for infos on that I'm afraid

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

So are monopolies supposed to be... a good thing?

The whole reason companies want to be monopolies is so they can jack up prices on their products and people still have to buy them because there's no competitors. They're generally considered bad for the economy even by the most laissez-faire economists. That's why there was a whole political fight to get rid of them around the turn of the century in the USA.

I can see how if you have a world monopoly, like being the only producer of a good in the entire world, would be a good thing for your country, but I don't think that's what we're talking about. And I don't think that's really possible except for very narrowly distributed raw goods like opium.

There's some trade-offs, more on them in a later Dev Diary.

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

A step in a good direction.

Will the new agreements system allow us to create detailed trade agreements? Something like “I want to remove import tariffs on grain coming from nation X , but keep import tariffs on oil from X. When at the same time have a blanket tariffs on grain from all other nations”?

We'll talk a lot more about the details of the treaties in a dedicated Dev Diary

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

Amazing announcement!

Interesting, but I find it a bit incomplete. While governments did grant monopolies to certain industries (like the British East India Company, Dutch VOC, or various state-sanctioned utility monopolies), history also shows many powerful monopolies forming naturally through market dominance.
Standard Oil, American Tobacco, and U.S. Steel achieved near-complete market control without government assistance. In fact, governments eventually had to create antitrust legislation specifically to break up these monopolies, (eg: Sherman Antitrust Act, well within the timeperiod of the game) and subsequent trust-busting efforts.

This seems to only represent government-granted monopolies while missing the other side of the historical relationship between monopolies and governments. A more nuanced approach might include both the ability to secure government monopoly rights AND the government antitrust actions against too-dominant companies.
Imho it would be amazing to see the game exploring the tension between business power and governmental regulations.

As I mentioned in another reply, we agree this would be great for the future. But for now one step at a time I'm afraid.

 

[PDX_H4n1baL]

National Awakening mentions “events tied to National Fervor”
Does it mean we will have new mechanic of National Fervor tied to cultures or is it just set of events and JE for Balkan countries?

We'll talk more about it in the future.

 

[PDX_Pelly]

Im surprised ships and naval warfare seem to get no update whatsoever. Wasnt one point in the road map last year that ships can be individual Units etc...?

We have talked about wanting to look at navies in our What's Next dev diary and Developer Discussion video on that diary, where we went over what we wanted to look at in free updates moving forward post 1.8.

However, navy will not not be a focus of updates for the near future (e.g. 1.9), but will be when we can dedicate the time needed to it as we are quite passionate about the navy ( we really like ships and trains)

 

[PDX_Pelly]

Is the happy thursday meant today or next week?

The next dev diary will be in the middle of April, so we will see you then!