Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #52 - Player Objectives

[Wizzington]

There is not a 50% world pop req, description is misleading.

 

[lachek]

These objectives are just guides, right? They don't provide any benefits (besides the ones aimed for), correct?

Completing the objectives that are in the game on release will confer no benefits other than earning the related Achievement. Similarly, the sub-objectives along the way confer no benefits other than the ability to progress towards completing the final objective. There's nothing in the system that prevents it though, it could also be used to build a kind of "RPG questline" campaign where the player gets rewards for every challenge they complete or even an invisible HOI-style Focus Tree system where rewards are provided at each node. We haven't used it like that because we wanted the player to pursue the Objectives challenges for guidance, not for extrinsic rewards.

 

[lachek]

Is it possible to invert this, as an additional option? That is, would it be possible to select a country, and then the game could show me what could be interesting challenges for that country?

Good idea, but unfortunately no. Of course we could invert the flow and have you pick from the Objectives' Recommended Countries first and then see which they're associated with, but at least at launch that would only be a list of a dozen or so countries each with a single Objective. Clicking through the objectives is just as easy at that point. Perhaps it would make sense to add this kind of selection flow in the future as more Objectives and Recommended Countries are added, though!

 

[lachek]

I really like this system. Helps you focus on your goals for your campaign and can still do sandbox if you want.

You mentioned that countries in the game are recommended for interesting reasons, whether there are extra challenges or opportunities for that. However, I would love to know what those are in a blurb besides just what it normally states when choosing a nation. Some nations I get, but others I would love to know why so I can see exactly what will be exciting about playing that country for the objective.

Good point! We intend to update the descriptions accordingly for each country/objective pair, the text in these screenshots is a more generic sitrep blurb at the moment.

 

[lachek]

Will new objectives be written and updated on a regular basis or does Paradox consider this to be the three that the game needs and that's it?

I remember at the tail end of CK2 the team released an "interesting character" every few weeks and it was totally optional but it was a nice touch that this kind of could fit into. A bit of "this month's idea is do X". Like you say, sometimes you aren't sure what you want to do, but with only three ideas those will eventually run out.

Hard to say at this point how frequently we will update or add more objectives post-release, but we definitely intended it to be infinitely expandable with e.g. expansions. Whether we'll ever turn it into more of a "monthly challenge" type thing I can't comment on now but the possibility exists!

 

[lachek]

Some of the recommended country picks seem rather weird though. Wouldn't Qing and Russia better fit as potential hegemons than as your first pick for egalitarian society? Similarly, Spain, Egypt and Japan do not seem like the most obvious picks for hegemons, even if they might be well positioned for easy pickings.

Weird, perhaps - but certainly interesting, which is our measuring stick. Qing and Russia are easier and more obvious candidates for Hegemony than Egalitarianism, but that also means players will likely gravitate towards that combination anyway without suggestions. Turning those countries Egalitarian however is a greater challenge and more likely to provide a unique and dynamic playthrough. Taking an isolationist country with a lot of early-game domestic concerns like Japan and turning them outward into a hegemonic superpower is similarly the kind of thing that can really shake a game up. Keep in mind you can always play any objective with any country if you like!

 

[lachek]

I wonder how hard it would be to create multiplayer objectives as a more direct alternative to PvP.

Objectives are sadly not supported in multiplayer, at least not at launch. This is less about a technical restriction than a matter of the choices you make when you start a game though, so we may enable this in the future if the idea becomes popular / a requested feature.

 

[lachek]

Seems pretty good. Will objectives be moddable so that major overhaul mods can create their own tutorials?

Yes, 100%, nothing prevents you from using this system to make anything from tutorials to full campaign modes.

 

[lachek]

Can you reveal what the next DD topic will be, or is that still a secret for now?

It's not a secret, just not nailed down yet with a lot of us on vacation at the moment. It'll be a surprise to all of us

 

[lachek]

will we be able to continue past the end date?

Yes! Of course you're going to start running out of content eventually, like technological innovation stopping with early 20th century tech, so the longer you play the stranger things will undoubtedly start to feel. But you're free to keep going for as long as you're having fun!

 

[lachek]

Will there be an option to select a specific achievement as your goal?

Each Objective has a linked Achievement, so by picking an Objective you're also picking one of those Achievements to pursue. Of course not all Achievements have Objectives though, and you can gain other Achievements in the process of pursuing an Objective too.