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Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #27 - Technology

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Welcome back to another Victoria 3 development diary! Today we will talk about something we’ve already had to touch on in numerous previous dev diaries, as it is a topic crucial to every part of the game: Technology.

The Victorian era saw revolutionary progress in three major areas: industry, military, and politics. The rise of automation and free enterprise brought about the promise of immense material wealth for anyone willing and able to put in the work. Military technology - on land, at sea, and eventually even in the air - progressed so rapidly it could render a nation’s centuries-old doctrines obsolete overnight. And along with these material changes came a fundamental reorganisation of the societies themselves - sometimes by redistributing power from the ancient noble regimes to benefit the common people, and at other times by reigning such democracies in through entirely novel power structures made up of bureaucrats, business magnates, or populist autocratic strongmen.

These three revolutions are represented in Victoria 3 through three distinct tech trees: Production, Military, and Society. Within each tree, the many technologies your country will discover through each game are organised such that each tech both requires one or several others and leads to one or several others. Modders might be interested to know that each tree automatically rebuilds and reorganises itself whenever changes are made, to make it pain-free to add, remove, or change the tech trees without having to tinker with tree layout or static image files.

To research Shaft Mining, which permits the construction of mining industries, you need both Enclosure (which permits private ownership of land) and Manufactories (which lets you establish basic industries that make finished products). Shaft Mining itself leads to Prospecting (which increases your chance of discovering new resources), Steelworking (which lets you build Steel Mills), and the Atmospheric Engine, a building-sized early steam engine employed to pump water out of mine shafts. Industrialised countries start the game with most or all of these technologies.
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Production technologies are all about increasing your economic capacity in various ways. These tend to be very concrete inventions, such as Cotton Gin which increases the output of Cotton Plantations and Dynamite which can be employed for increased yields in all kinds of Mines. On some occasions they are more abstract, such as Enclosure which is a prerequisite for construction of modern, privately owned farms and ranches or Shift Work which more effectively utilises labor in your manufacturing industries. Production technologies also include advances to Railways, and some even unlock Goods unknown at the start of the game such as Rubber, Electricity, and Automobiles.

Military technologies improve your army and navy. These consist of a mix of new weapon technologies, doctrines, and ways of organising your Servicemen and Officers. Rifling lets you switch Production Methods from Muskets to Rifles in your Arms Industries, increasing their Small Arms production. Trench Infantry, once employed in your Barracks, organises your Battalions for trench warfare, which requires greater access to Small Arms but establishes a more reliable supply of manpower and causes fewer provinces to be lost when territory must be yielded to the enemy. The naval part of the tree is mostly dedicated to the invention of new ship types, but also includes a few new naval strategies that unlock or improve the effectiveness of certain naval Orders as well as upgrades to civilian Ports to improve your Supply Network and trade capacity.

Society technologies are all about new ideas for organising society. These include ideas pertaining to politics, finance, and diplomacy to name a few. Democracy permits the enactment of various voting franchise Laws as well as Republican principles of governing. Pan-Nationalism is a requirement for forming certain larger countries, and leads to Political Agitation which both makes your population more politically active and also gives you more Authority to deal with them. Several political ideas in this tree also unlocks specific Ideologies which may appear from that point on alongside new Interest Group Leaders and shake up the political landscape you had so carefully tuned, such as Feminism and Anarchism. Just as techs in the Production tree often unlock Production Methods, Society techs often unlock Laws - or Ideologies that can lend support for Laws previously thought utterly absurd by the political establishment.

In addition, Society technologies include improvements to your country’s financial system, such as Central Banking which increases your capacity for minting new currency and unlocks the Diplomatic Actions to Bankroll a country or Take on their Debt, as well as new forms of Institutions like Central Archives that unlock the Secret Police Law / Institution and leads to Identification Documents.

We are aiming for roundabout 175 of these technologies in the game on release, split up across the three trees. Many countries will start with 20-30 of these technologies already researched, as their starting economies, legal systems, militaries, and diplomatic relations rely on them. On average, leading edge countries will discover perhaps one new technology per year, though this pace can vary greatly from country to country.

An early part of the Society tech tree that deals mostly with finance and diplomacy. While a pre-industrial country might want to prioritise crucial Production technologies, missing out on elementary Society ideas that let you adjust Relations or perform effective International Trade is inadvisable. A rapidly developing country without allies could easily fall under the influence of an ambitious Great Power.
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Embarking on the research of a new technology is a simple matter of clicking on the tech in the tree you’d like to focus on, and time will take care of the rest. But time is perhaps your most precious resource in Victoria 3, since falling behind your neighbours could be a death sentence - or at least might force you to cede your right to self-determination. The pace at which your research progresses is therefore of the utmost importance.

The rate by which countries develop new technologies is measured by Innovation. All countries start with a small amount of Innovation capacity. Those countries who can afford to do so can construct and fund University buildings, which employ Academics and Clerks to boost Innovation and thereby speed up the pace at which a country discovers new things.

Another way to improve research speed is to ensure the Industrialists, Armed Forces, or Intelligentsia are satisfied with the state of the country, as this will cause the effective cost of Production, Military, and Society techs respectively to drop. If only one of these groups are pleased with the society you’ve built, this will incentivize focusing your research on that tree since it’s relatively advantageous. As a result, a country with a large army and Laws favouring Patriotic, Loyalist, and Jingoist Ideologies would also progress faster in their Military technologies, though they may fall behind on Production and Society.

The amount of Innovation you can use to actively research your chosen technology is capped by your country’s Literacy. Even if your Universities are top-notch, your country’s ability to effectively incorporate new learnings will be hampered by a poorly educated population. Those countries who aim to be the guiding light of global progress must maintain a solid primary school system in addition to Universities that carry out their research.

Mexico is evidently on the fast-track of becoming the innovative powerhouse in the Americas, but its current Literacy rate doesn’t quite support making full directed use of the Universities they’ve built - for now.
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Literacy is a product of a Pop’s Education Access. If a given Pop has 30% Education Access, over time 30% of individuals in that Pop will become Literate. The pace by which this value changes is dependent on the birth- and death rate of the Pop, since this sort of learning happens mostly in the early years.

A Pop’s Wealth provides it with a base level of Education Access, and Wealth often varies substantially depending on Profession, making higher-paid Professions have greater Education Access. However, Literacy is often a limiting factor to a Pop’s ability to Qualify for those jobs in the first place, so relying solely on Wealth for Education Access could severely limit your country’s social mobility and opportunity for economic growth. This is where your school system comes in.

The main source of Education Access comes from the Education Institution, which must be established by a Law and can be run by either the religious authorities, the private sector, or by a public administration depending on your school system Law. Each of these systems have their advantages: a religious school system keeps your priesthood strong and helps ensure unity of faith; a private school system works just peachy for Pops with high Wealth levels and ensures the working class don’t get strange ideas; and a public school system lets you enact mandatory schooling for children and encourages cultural assimilation.

A country’s Literacy is simply the percentage of their Pops in Incorporated states that know how to read and write at any given point. This means that if the most educated people in your society decide they’ve had enough and move abroad, your average Literacy will drop, to the benefit of the other country. If a war utterly devastates the backwaters of your nation and slaughters the hundreds of thousands you conscripted to defend it, your average Literacy might increase.

After the Texan Revolutionary War, these Clerks found themselves once again subjects of Mexico. While they currently all know how to read and write, their offspring are unlikely to enjoy the same benefits. Mexico has no formal school system in place and their Wealth doesn’t buy much of an education. To add insult to injury the Catholic Church Interest Group in Mexico is currently spreading Pious Fiction to ensure the children aren’t led astray by heretical ideas. The next generation of Clerks are unlikely to qualify to follow in their parents’ footsteps.
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All technology is organised into Eras, which are rough estimates of progress through the game’s timespan. Anything in Era I is considered pre-1836 technology, going back as far as the very idea of Rationalism to the invention of Steelworking. Era II ranges from the start of the game to around the 1860s - Railways and Percussion Cap ammunition both belong here (though some countries did have railways a little earlier than 1836; this is not an exact science). Era III runs from the early 1860s to the end of the 1880s, and includes Civilizing Mission as a justification for colonisation and Pumpjacks, heralding the rise of the oil industry. Era IV from late 1880 to the early 20th century includes both War Propaganda and Film, both which might make it easier to justify the horrors which are to come in Era V - including Battleships, Chemical Warfare, and Stormtroopers. Era V also sees truly modern civilian inventions such as the Oil Turbine to make Electricity from Oil and Paved Roads to improve your national infrastructure.

The Eras act as an indicator of roughly where you are at in a given tree, but also serves a role in ensuring that rushing a certain late-game technology is difficult. Not only do technologies in later Eras take more innovative effort to research, but each technology you have not yet researched in that tree from previous Eras makes it harder and harder to make progress. This means techs aren’t unlocked on specific years in Victoria 3, and there is never a hard block preventing you from making your Universities develop technologies earlier than they were historically invented. But keep in mind that it’s a less efficient use of time and resources, so ensure that acquiring that technology ahead of everyone else is actually crucial for your strategy, as it will not come easily.

Trying to take a shortcut from the Atmospheric Engine (Era I) through Water-tube Boiler (II) and Rotary Valve Engine (III) straight to Combustion Engine (IV) so you’re able to manufacture Automobiles in the mid-1800s is certainly possible given enough money and grit, but would be far from the best use of your resources. Even skipping a few Era III Production techs before going for the Combustion Engine could easily yield this 30% time penalty, the difference which might buy you a whole Era III tech. Besides, you might want to research Rubber Mastication and set up a few Rubber Plantations before you start building Automobiles, unless you want your factories to be wholly dependent on foreign rubber for the tires...
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The final yet crucial point about technological development is that government funding and steering of national research is not the dominant way most countries are exposed to new ideas. For each of the three categories of technology (Production, Military, and Society) there is always one technology that is spreading in your country. Which exact tech that spreads to you in each category is out of your hands, but it will always be something in your current technological Era which has already been invented elsewhere.

The speed by which technology spreads to you is highly dependent on your population’s Literacy. In addition, any Innovation you generate in excess of the Literacy cap is funnelled into improving tech spread rate. In other words, oversizing your Universities compared to your school system can assist in catching up to the rest of the world but can never be used to get ahead of the others.

Technology spread is also affected by your Freedom of Speech Laws. Stricter censorship provides you with more Authority but hinders the assimilation of new knowledge throughout your country. This is often to your detriment but could also very well be exactly what you intended! The downside of having a well-educated population is that they get exposed to foreign ideas more easily, and some of those ideas might not be what you had in mind. A bit more state control over what people are allowed to talk about can help keep your population focused on the ideas you want them to know about.
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The technology system in Victoria 3 is meant to shape and change the game as your campaign evolves. While a few techs apply straight bonuses to various attributes of your country, the primary function of most techs is to unlock new actions, options, and even challenges. Very often, discovering a new technology doesn’t have any immediate effect on your country but gives you new ways to run your country and new tools in your toolbox. The introduction of new inventions and ideas can also act as a catalyst for emerging situations in your country, with certain parts of your populace demanding these new developments be adopted - or shunned. Much of this is driven by the Journal system which we will talk more about in a few weeks, but before that we will cover another feature of crucial importance to grand strategy games - Flags! See you next week!
 

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You say this, but I don't envy whoever has to pick between Oxford and Cambridge.
Oxford for humanities, Cambridge for STEM.

Also, Oxford is even further up itself than Cambridge is. (Did you know that Oxford undergrads still have to wear a suit, tie, and academic gown to sit their exams?)
 
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Mild downside: deciding which universities 'make the cut,' especially in places like the Northeast US, which is absolutely riddled with world-tier universities. Just Massachusetts alone. There's Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Williams, Amherst, Smith - just naming some of the more prestigious ones in the state. Now, in all fairness, I don't think anyone would actually argue that, if you only had to pick one in the state, Harvard is the one to pick. But, well, Americans do tend to take their university rivalries pretty serious.
Actually it would be a lot easier for the US than for other places. Just pick X number of the Colonial Colleges. If it's 3, then Harvard, Columbia, and William & Mary to spread it more around the country. If it's 4, then add Yale.
 
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I'm a stickler for the details in history regarding Steam Power and Mining Tech. I just don't think you've given the proper look for the way a cyclical tech progression begins as Steam Power first comes into the Mining Industry as of ~1700 and only accelerates from there. When I say cyclical, I mean a rapid cycle of Steam Power helping Coal Mining especially, more coal means more fuel to provide even greater fire strength/heat to the steam engine, and then more steam engine power means deeper/more effective mining, and this cycle went on and on for over 150 years (Steam Power improves Mining improves Steam Power improves Mining etc.). There is also the Synergy that occurs with Steam Power and Coal Mining especially, because Coal was the preferred fuel for Steam Engines, so therefore - must mine Coal for Steam Power, yet Steam Power also helps mine Coal in greater amounts and in deeper shaft mines, faster Pit Mines, and the types of Mines for Coal Industry starts to change over time with incremental Steam Power advances.

The "one and done" Atmospheric Engine was actually tech that was already available in 1700 in most European countries and soon after in America, which is especially why the Metals and Energy of "Western Nations" advanced so rapidly beyond those nations without this "mining with steam power" approach.

It's the reason that mass-production of guns and artillery occurs in some nations, and not in others. I would have inserted a 4-staged tech advance for Steam Power alone, and a 4-staged tech advance for Mining that runs in parallel, to more accurately portray it and give it that "back and forth" cyclical feel. I also don't like how you generalize "Mining" and not a parsed portrayal of Mining Industry for Industrial Metals, for Precious Metals, vice the Energy/Power industries with Coal Mining (in itself, should be individually portrayed in tech with advancing stages). I think some Dev's and your PM may look at Coal Mining in gaming like some see slavery now - dangerous ground to tread on and possibly portray with some PC filtering, but - I think you should continue to put the raw truth in front of gamers, that the Coal Mining industry is what helped power the entire Industrial Revolution, because - it did, and we can't just cut/paste in some other mythical tech advance and rewrite history on that one.

The way I would label the earliest Steam Engines, if you gave this a new look:
- 1698 "Miner's Friend" - invented by Thomas Savery.
- 1712 "Newcomen Engine" invented by Thomas Newcomen (as reminder, most modern Engines were named after their Inventor, not by their type - you Dev's have improperly named it the Atmospheric Engine, which was its type, not its name it was known by at the time, and think: Diesel Engine named after a man named Diesel, and...)
- 1763 "Watt Engine" invented by James Watt and Matthew Boulton (Watt is given primary credit, and this is the same "Watt" for which the measure of Power in Watts is named after). Watt's engine was a significant leap in power output compared to the Newcomen Engine and replacements were swift across Western mining industry (more output more money). For specificity and commercial implementation though, Watt's engine wasn't in industry/mining until 1776.

These are just a few starting points and there are many other lesser known variants, but depending on "when" Vicky 3 game timeline starts, your use of "Atmospheric Engine" may not be appropriate on one of two counts, whether it's the misnaming of the Newcomen Engine, or that the Watt Engine may have been in place if a game start occurs on/after 1776, among the Western nations.
 
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I don't like this "click and select" method of research. The key to innovation is necessity. So, I would have preferred the research of new technology to be based on what you are doing with your current technology. So, suppose you already have lots of musket factories, then it makes sense some of those musket factories would do some R&D and discover rifling.

It makes no sense for you to discover rifling if you don't have any musket factories.

Similarly, it makes sense for universities to drive research in some areas (such as sciences and may be philosophies). But it doesn't make sense for universities to drive research in production. That has always been something which has been carried out by industry.
 
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I don't like this "click and select" method of research. The key to innovation is necessity. So, I would have preferred the research of new technology to be based on what you are doing with your current technology. So, suppose you already have lots of musket factories, then it makes sense some of those musket factories would do some R&D and discover rifling.

It makes no sense for you to discover rifling if you don't have any musket factories.

Similarly, it makes sense for universities to drive research in some areas (such as sciences and may be philosophies). But it doesn't make sense for universities to drive research in production. That has always been something which has been carried out by industry.
This can be solved by putting industrial requirements (like having a ammo factory to discover advanced rifling) for more advanced techs in eras III, IV, and V.
 
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This can be solved by putting industrial requirements (like having a ammo factory to discover advanced rifling) for more advanced techs in eras III, IV, and V.
No, that's not what I meant. My issue is that we did not get these advancements because someone sitting in a Government department decided to research it. The advancements happened from bottom to top because various industries felt the need to innovate. The research system right now seem to have some invisible hand of the government directing the nation as to what it should research.
 
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Are we going to see the return of the different "doctrines" for tech that are present in previous Vicky games (Traditional Academia, Military-Industrial Complex, etc.)?
 
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and think: Diesel Engine named after a man named Diesel,
Because "Compression-ignition engine" is an awkward mouthful (and honestly, most people outside Germanophonia between the death of Rudolf and the rise to fame of Vin (né Mark Sinclair) probably didn't know that "Diesel" is a surname).

And nobody says "Otto engine" except a certain kind of history-of-engineering enthusiast.
 
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No, that's not what I meant. My issue is that we did not get these advancements because someone sitting in a Government department decided to research it.
They don't (usually) open factories because someone sitting in a government department decided to build one, either. Good gameplay is more important than a totally self-consistent narrative.
 
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Passionate min-maxer here: if you are ahead of everyone else in a given tree, do you still get passive spread?
 
Passionate min-maxer here: if you are ahead of everyone else in a given tree, do you still get passive spread?
It seems obvious to me that a tech can only spread to you if you don't have it but someone else does.
 
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It seems obvious to me that a tech can only spread to you if you don't have it but someone else does.
So even more min-maxing and espionage to make sure you are always late somewhere
 
Because "Compression-ignition engine" is an awkward mouthful (and honestly, most people outside Germanophonia between the death of Rudolf and the rise to fame of Vin (né Mark Sinclair) probably didn't know that "Diesel" is a surname).
so you're trying to tell me that the naming of those engines was about family?
 
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I'm a stickler for the details in history regarding Steam Power and Mining Tech. I just don't think you've given the proper look for the way a cyclical tech progression begins as Steam Power first comes into the Mining Industry as of ~1700 and only accelerates from there. When I say cyclical, I mean a rapid cycle of Steam Power helping Coal Mining especially, more coal means more fuel to provide even greater fire strength/heat to the steam engine, and then more steam engine power means deeper/more effective mining, and this cycle went on and on for over 150 years (Steam Power improves Mining improves Steam Power improves Mining etc.). There is also the Synergy that occurs with Steam Power and Coal Mining especially, because Coal was the preferred fuel for Steam Engines, so therefore - must mine Coal for Steam Power, yet Steam Power also helps mine Coal in greater amounts and in deeper shaft mines, faster Pit Mines, and the types of Mines for Coal Industry starts to change over time with incremental Steam Power advances.

In reality, you don't need to consistently research all the old technologies. You are simply borrowing the latest technologies already discovered by someone else. In Victoria, this is impossible, and it's bad.
 
Because "Compression-ignition engine" is an awkward mouthful (and honestly, most people outside Germanophonia between the death of Rudolf and the rise to fame of Vin (né Mark Sinclair) probably didn't know that "Diesel" is a surname).

And nobody says "Otto engine" except a certain kind of history-of-engineering enthusiast.
And Germans in non-historical engineering, they love their Otto engines.
 
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No, that's not what I meant. My issue is that we did not get these advancements because someone sitting in a Government department decided to research it. The advancements happened from bottom to top because various industries felt the need to innovate. The research system right now seem to have some invisible hand of the government directing the nation as to what it should research.
I mean, what's more important to you as a gamer, the ends or the means? I will always accept a more abstract or gamified mechanic if it means that the end state is closer to "reality" or whatever arbitrary criteria I am seeking vs the more "realistic" mechanic that leads to horrible game balance, or game states that never come close to reality.

Yes, there is an invisible hand component to Technology in Vic 3, but the end result looks plausible and rooted in how economics/politics work in the game with good interactions with the other systems.
 
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There's a good point in the posts above that, even in the 19th and early 20th centuries when technology was advancing rapidly, there were periods of great breakthroughs and of relative stagnation. Especially if viewed at the level of countries catching up with the forefront of technology. But these paradigm shifts aren't a model that works in a game that wants to use tech as a continuous reward for the player for "good play".
 
I don't like this "click and select" method of research. The key to innovation is necessity. So, I would have preferred the research of new technology to be based on what you are doing with your current technology. So, suppose you already have lots of musket factories, then it makes sense some of those musket factories would do some R&D and discover rifling.

It makes no sense for you to discover rifling if you don't have any musket factories.

Similarly, it makes sense for universities to drive research in some areas (such as sciences and may be philosophies). But it doesn't make sense for universities to drive research in production. That has always been something which has been carried out by industry.
That kind of R&D is really not how companies and especially manufacturing companies worked until very recently, as in post-WWII.

And anyway, you're not playing the government so the government isn't necessarily directing what you're researching.
 
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