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Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #146 - Diplomatic Treaties

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Hello Victorians,

My name is Alex, I’m a multiclass programmer and designer on Victoria 3 and today it’s finally time for another Dev Diary on this very Happy Thursday!
Today we will be taking a look at Diplomatic Treaties, one of the features arriving with the free 1.9 update on June 17 together with our Mechanics Pack “Charters of Commerce”.

Before we begin though, I should mention that today is a public holiday (ig_tradeunions) for us here in Sweden (and in a lot of other places). This dev diary was as usual written ahead of time, but when it comes to questions, this means I won’t actually be around to answer them when it comes out. Instead, Martin will be around to answer some of your more pressing questions to begin with and I’ll try to answer any remaining important questions on Monday (as we also get tomorrow off as a bridge day).

With all that said, I should also remind you that as always any values, texts, designs, graphics etc. are work in progress and are subject to change!

But now, without further ado, enter Treaties:

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Diplomatic Treaties​

As part of the changes to the World Market we described in Dev Diary #143 and with Trade Routes as you know them going away, we wanted to introduce a new mechanic that let you actively establish pointed strategic ways of elevating your industries or exploiting other countries through trade. We wanted more ways for you to peacefully (but aggressively) compete against your rivals (and allies) and establish your dominance across the globe.

Initially, this was drafted to be a relatively simple tit-for-tat deal: “you give me grain, I give you coal”. But we of course got thinking and, particularly in the context of how often the community asks for more in-depth diplomacy, we thought: what if we went a step or two (or twenty) further and made it a full-blown system of treaties where you can weigh a bunch of different types of things against each other? Maybe to get Prussia to agree to an alliance you can sweeten the deal by promising to give them a certain amount of weapons every week. Or maybe you can say you’ll pay off Haiti’s debts in exchange for them granting you investment rights.

And well, that’s what we did.

Diplomatic Treaties are a new way for you to interact with other countries diplomatically. They are, in a way, a natural extension of what the diplomatic actions and pacts currently in the game do (more on that later), but instead of just having you propose one thing at a time in a vacuum, you can combine them and have the whole context of what you want be available and weighted together.

Pedro had some aggressive negotiation tactics
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In short, the way it works is like this: you decide you want a treaty with another country, so you open the Treaty Draft panel (shown in the animation above). You then select what articles you’d like to have, both offers and requests. When you’re happy you send the proposal to the other country. They can then look at what you have proposed and either accept or reject of course, but they can also choose to negotiate further. Negotiating further lets them tweak the proposal however they want and then send it back to you. This is then repeated until either you agree on a treaty or you decide to just end the process. Assuming you sign the treaty, it is now in effect and remains so until either side withdraws from it.

A big crux on a system like this is of course how the AI handles it. We want to make sure that you can’t just scam the AI, but we also want you to feel you are drafting clever treaties and making use of any advantages you might have. In particular, we also want to feed into the fantasy of you being able to draft clearly unequal treaties with other countries because maybe you are able to remind them that you have big boats and a big army next door. These are all goals we have in mind while working on the balancing of this feature.

Before we go into the details of this a bit more though, I want to specifically address something I know will come up in the comments: are multilateral treaties possible? No. Making this system support multilateral treaties would be on a completely different level of complexity and would be a massive undertaking. If nothing else it would immensely complicate the UX and require a completely different way of tackling AI, drafting and all that. So, unfortunately, it’s not feasible. That is of course not to say that we don’t want multilateral treaties (they would be super cool!) or that a system like that couldn’t in the future build on treaties, but at least for now, it’s not something we are doing.

Enough of that though, let’s dive into the details.

Articles​

This is the core part of treaties that actually defines what they do. Articles have a few different classifications. On a fundamental level, articles can be either Mutual or Directional. This mostly just indicates whether the article is something that affects both sides equally or not. A prime example of a mutual article is an Alliance: both sides are involved equally. On the other hand, Transfer Goods is an example of a Directional article: one side (the source) is sending the goods and the other (the target) is receiving them.

The next important aspect of articles is Inputs. Some articles have required inputs and others do not. Again, an Alliance is just an Alliance, you don’t need to define anything else, but for Transfer Goods you need to specify which goods you want to transfer and how many.

Supporting Texas with some good ol’ ammo
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Articles can have a number of different inputs depending on what they’re meant to do.

What these inputs are actually used for differs and is up for the article to define.

As for what articles you can expect to be in the game, a lot of them will be things we are moving over from the old diplomatic actions system. This includes of course Alliances and Defensive Pacts, but also e.g. State Transfer and Join Power Bloc and if you own Sphere of Influence, Investment Rights.

For the majority of the articles that have counterparts as diplomatic actions, the corresponding diplomatic actions or pacts will be removed and Treaties will be the new way through which you access them. Do note that not all diplomatic actions have been made into articles, only the ones that made sense, this means that actions like Declare Rivalry or Improve Relations will still work as they used to.

We’ve taken the opportunity to rework Treaty Ports by turning them into an article instead of a consequence of geography. No Treaty, no Treaty Port! (Historical treaties aren’t setup yet, so ignore the date and binding time details)
DD146_04.png
In addition to those, we also have some completely new articles coming with 1.9. One of them Lino talked about on the previous Dev Diary DD #145: Military Access. That Dev Diary already went into detail on how Military Access works, so let’s talk about the other new article coming with 1.9: Transit Rights.

Who’s gonna play Switzerland as their first run when 1.9 drops?
DD146_05.png

If Military Access lets you march your troops through another country, Transit Rights lets landlocked countries pass through a country to access the world market. This can be chained through multiple countries if needed. Switzerland stans can calm down.

Ending a Treaty​

A Treaty ends when either side withdraws from the treaty. Easy. Of course, if you gave away Angola in exchange for Spain transferring you a certain amount of money every week, you want to make sure they actually follow through and you don’t get scammed. This is where binding periods come in.

When signing a treaty, you also define for how long that treaty will be binding (e.g. 5, 10, 15 years). When the binding duration for the treaty lapses, either side can end the treaty at any point without consequences.

We’re still looking at a few alternatives for how to pick the binding period. This is one, but it could also maybe be a slider?
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You can still end a treaty before the binding period ends of course, but then you would be in breach of the treaty and subject to hefty penalties depending on the articles present in the treaty.

(Re)Negotiation​

If you made some poor choices and a Treaty is really not good for you, you can attempt to renegotiate the treaty instead of just withdrawing from it. To do so, you select what treaty you want to renegotiate and simply click on the button. This will bring you to a flow similar to the original drafting panel, but instead of having a blank slate, the existing articles will be the baseline. From there you can add or remove articles, change inputs or even change the binding period. When you’re happy, you send the proposal as usual and the other side has the opportunity to respond. If they agree, great, the old treaty is replaced with this new one. If they reject your offer though, the old treaty remains in force as it was.

New Granada is starting to feel like maybe this wasn’t such a good deal after all
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It is worth noting though that some articles are not renegotiable. This mostly applies to articles that have some kind of immediate effect upon signing, like transferring a state, because you can’t just undo that simply by changing the terms somewhat.

Non-fulfillment Consequences​

Say you are playing as Belgium and you need paper, but don’t feel like actually making it yourself. You could set up a treaty where you give the Netherlands some of your Sulfur and in exchange they give you some of the Paper they produce. They agree to this, but then for whatever reason, say a foreign power annexed their only paper mills, they are not able to produce the Paper they should deliver to you. This would likely lead to a shortage of Paper in the Dutch Market which would mean they are not able to deliver the Paper to you.

In such a case, the Netherlands would be considered to be in non-fulfillment of their part of the Treaty. When that happens, generally one of two things will happen depending on what Article is not being fulfilled: if it’s a serious breach, like not answering the call of an Alliance, that will break the whole treaty and the party at fault will receive all the penalties tied to an early withdrawal if the treaty is still binding.

For less serious breaches though, like with the example above, what happens is that the other side of the treaty will be inactive until the breach is addressed, at which point the treaty resumes as usual. In our example, if the Netherlands stopped delivering Paper because they had a shortage due to not producing it, Belgium would stop delivering Sulfur in return as well. This would then hold until the Paper deliveries resume. If there are any other articles on Belgium’s side (including mutual articles) those are also inactivated for as long as the other side is in non-fulfillment. The side that isn’t fulfilling one of their articles stays active though.

Finally, I’d like to note that not all articles will be non-fulfillable. For some articles like investment rights, you can’t not fulfill it, it just happens anyway.

Obligations​

As usual, you can call in obligations to make countries more likely to accept a treaty you propose. When it comes to how you get those obligations we’re making some changes though. Broadly speaking, you will be able to say you consider a certain treaty as essentially a favor to the other side. This will reduce their acceptance of the treaty, but in turn, if the binding period of the treaty lapses and everyone fulfills their parts it will grant you an obligation you can then use as usual.

Signed treaties will take on different names depending on different circumstances. There will also be some historical treaties scripted in with their historical names. Additionally, you will also be able to give your treaties a custom name if you so wish. (shout out to Default Window Line Two)
DD146_08.png

Modding​

As always we have made an active effort to keep this feature as moddable as possible. Many times when thinking about how to solve a certain problem we could see an easy solution which would just work within the assumptions of what we have planned to do with the feature and a more complicated solution where making things work on a more abstract level meant more combinations were possible for modders and as much as possible we chose the latter. As such, I’d like to take a little bit of time to talk about what you can do with this system, primarily centered around modding articles.
A lot of article modding is similar to diplomatic action modding: you can set AI weights, modifiers, effects, costs and so on. What is a bit different here with how articles work, is that you are also able to set if an article should be mutual or directional, but more importantly, you can have the article take any combination of the following inputs (although only one of each):

  • Quantity
  • Goods
  • Building Type
  • Law Type
  • Strategic Region
  • Country
  • State
  • Company
You can then reference these inputs in the immediate effect of the article to do whatever you want that can be done in an effect block.

A little example of how flags and inputs are set in script on articles
DD146_09.png

There are of course some significant parts of articles that are hard coded, but we tried to make them flexible in that. For instance, most vanilla articles work by setting behavior flags. So Transfer Goods has an is_transfer_goods flag. This then tells the code what behavior it should call and makes it take in the expected inputs that is_transfer_goods requires. There’s also say is_investment_rights, or is_alliance. And the cool thing here is that you can actually to some degree combine these. So if you want to make an article that grants both military access and transit rights at the same time, you can do that. The main limitation here is if you have two flags that look at the same input type, they will have to use the same input. So combining transfer goods with no tariffs would necessarily both target the same input.

Another cool thing you can do is mod the non-fulfillment conditions. You could for instance have a version of Transfer Goods that is only active while the countries are at peace or something and then if that is broken maybe you’d want the treaty to auto-break or maybe you want it to freeze instead. Up to you.

Charters of Commerce​

While everything I have described so far will be part of the free 1.9 update, the Mechanics Pack Charters of Commerce will also include a number of new articles exclusive to it:

  • No Tariffs on Goods
    • The country is not allowed to set tariffs on a specific input good when trading with the World Market
  • No Subventions on Goods
    • The country is not allowed to set subventions on a specific input good when trading with the World Market
  • Prohibit trade of good with World Market
    • The country is not allowed to trade a specific input good with the World Market
  • Law commitment
    • The country commits to passing a specific law. As long as they don’t, their side is not fulfilled and the other side of the treaty is inactive
  • Non-Colonization Agreement
    • The country is not allowed to colonize a specific strategic region
  • Grant Monopoly to Foreign Company
    • Tune in to the next dev diary when Lino will talk more about this

Portugal would really like to be left alone with their colonies
DD146_10.png



I feel like there is something I forgot to mention…hmmm

Just one more thing​

There’s one more thing I’d like to show before we end this though. In addition to the flow I’ve already explained above, there’s another way Treaties can be used: Diplomatic Plays.

In 1.9, as part of the free update, we’re adding a new war goal: Enforce Treaty Article. This war goal lets you select between a number of articles that are specifically classified (in script) as enforceable. You can select this war goal multiple times targeting different articles. Then, at the end of the war, all instances of the war goal against the same country will result in a War Reparations Treaty against that country. This treaty, being enforced, cannot be withdrawn from.

What this means is that on a base level you can have war reparations work as they used to, but if you prefer, as part of war reparations you can instead demand getting investment rights in the country in question. Or you can prohibit them from trading weapons and artillery with the world market. Or you could mod some other article we haven’t thought about and do that instead. Or all of the above.

Now you’ll have more ways in which you can make the Prussians pay
DD146_11.png

​


Alright, now that was actually all I had to show you today. I hope you are as excited about all this as I have been to tell you about it. It’s been a whole journey to work on it and it’s awesome finally getting to share it with you all. Let me know what you think: are there any article combinations you are particularly excited about? And for the modders out there, have the modding gears started turning already? I’m very much looking forward to seeing what clever treaties you all come up with and hearing about all the backstabbing in MP when 1.9 releases on June 17.

Before that though, Lino will be back in two weeks to tell you some more about what we have been cooking with Companies and Executives. Until then!

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Tanko Szabolcs said:
Will "Guarantee Independence" be an article?
Click to expand...
I doubt it. A negotiated guarantee of independence is a defensive pact. The current guarantee independence action represents a declaration to the rest of the world about your interests. It's not something you'd negotiate with the target.
 
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"Please, please. It's too much winning. We can't take it anymore. Mr. Paradox, it's too much!" I'm even more hyped then I was for the Spheres of Influence Updates! Every day I reach closer to the perfect Vicky 3 American Empire Simulator Power Fantasy!
 
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I have some UX suggestions. First, it should be clearly indicated what articles are reversible and which aren't. For example, in the Brazilian-Bolivian treaty shown in the screenshot, I'm assuming that when the 15 year binding period is over and someone withdraws, the trade agreement and the money and goods transfers will end, but Acre will not be given back to Bolivia. It may be obvious that state transfers are permanent but maybe it's not obvious to some and maybe there are other articles that are more ambiguous.

Second, it seems like there are some types of treaties where one party would clearly want to withdraw immediately when the binding period ends. Using the Brazilian-Bolivian treaty again as an example, if we remove the trade agreement then we can basically see it as a payment over 15 years for the state of Acre. There is no reason Brazil would want to continue transferring that money and goods after 15 years. There should be an option to have a treaty automatically end when the binding period is over, versus them continuing indefinitely until one party decides to withdraw. The player shouldn't have to watch the timer like a hawk to make sure they optimally withdraw as soon as possible.
 
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What happens if you embargo someone that has a treaty where they give you goods? Will that be taken into account or will the other country show as not fulfilling the treaty?
 
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Can you enforce treaties on behalf of another country in return for an obligation that you can cash in on? This would be a lite way of introducing multilateral agreements without making new mechanics for it.
 
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With Treaty ports being changed, does that mean that you can no longer create armies there to use as a quick response garrison? I.e. as GB, have a treaty port in Hong Kong and use the army stationed there to intervene faster in East Asia?
 
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What about a tick box: “allow for treaty extension” so if you don’t have an obligation and they will accept the treaty anyways, by the time the treaty is up you can extend it with your newly gained obligation. Unless the other party is weaker by then and they will accept anyways out of coercion. Treaty extension time could be set after it is originally expiring.
 
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BrotherJonathan said:
This looks good, but I'm kind of skeptical of open-table diplomacy. In my personal experience a lot of the time it just becomes a vehicle to scam the AI.
Click to expand...
It's a very good and valid observation, I think to some degree it's OK to scam the AI if this is a "I am much more powerful than you and could just annex you if I wanted, but I'll let you live" kind of situation, which is very applicable to diplomacy of the period (especially towards unrecognised powers).

I would hope that they can come up with some AI constraints which keep things from getting too silly, I think most players would rather have a system which is somewhat inflexible than one which is completely abuseable.
 
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Fantastic stuff all around! I do have a question about the article regarding non-colonization:

If as Mexico, we managed to get a non-colonization agreement with the US for them not to colonize Kansas for example, will Mexico still be blocked from starting the colonization of Kansas because the US has claims on Kansas?
So essentially, would claims still block colonization even if there's a non-colonization agreement with the claimant?
 
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Wizzington said:
Correct, or turn a profit if it's the other way around.
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I guess that in this new system, we should be able to renegociate the treaty when the transfers suddenly become very unprofitable, to ask for money in exchange for instance, ot just reduce the amount.
Is there a planned UI where all the country trade deals can be checked, with their profitability ? Will this be in the classic trade window like before ?
 
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Does non-fulfillment compliance pause the binding period or have any other major effect? If I'm somehow able to acquire a state from the AI in exchange for promising them a luxury goods trade for 15 years and then am not able to actually supply that good for ten of those years, is there a relations or reputation penalty or something? I know that active articles from the AI side would go inactive, but a state transfer is a one-time thing. Are other AI paying any attention to which countries aren't fulfilling their sides of a bargain and which are?
 
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Quick question regarding modding:
Can we mod our own articles that execute something more "abstract" that isn't directly exchanging a good or a diplomatic action? Or in other words, basically an article that turns on a country flag or runs a scripted_effect for example?

Like let's say mod in an article that is "Adopt Macarena as National Anthem" and it has some custom tooltip description, and in the article there's like a block similar to decisions that's something like

Code: 
    when_taken = {
        trigger_event = {
            id = macarena.1
            popup = yes
        }
        
        add_modifier = {
            name = st_vitus_dance_macarena
        }
    }

Is that something that's possible?
And/or will there be some kind of condition check that's something like

Code: 
has_article = article_macarena

has_article_from = {
    article = article_macarena
    from = SPA
}

Before hitting send, I also looked back at the short segment, I assume something like I'm describing can be done by not having relevant flags, right?
 
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I like what I see, but where are the options for all the post-WW1 forced dearmament treaties? Fleets were seized/reduced, army size was capped. It was a major part of i.e. the Treaty of Versailles.
 
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This update is just super, but please leave the ability to customize the contract time as much as the player wants, restrictions like 1 year 2 years 3 years 5 years, it will ruin the gameplay a lot
 
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When transfering goods as part of a treaty article, what about trade infrastructure or convoys? Whose capacities are used and how the thing works?
 
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Really looking forward to playing with this. This is the content I was dreaming about when Vic 3 was announced. Feels like the diplomacy of the old total war games, but with more layers.

What will be the mechanics for treaty ports in this new system? Can you transfer goods from your treaty-market to your own? Since all trade is now running through the world market, treaty ports must change a lot.

How does the trade agreement article work? As I understand it cannot change tariffs between specific nations, as it all runs through the world market. So what's the benefits?
 
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