• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #83 - Agitators and Exiles

16_9.jpg

Hello again! Last week we announced that the Voice of the People Immersion Pack will be released alongside the 1.3 Update on May 22nd and included in the Grand Edition of Victoria 3. Following on from that, today we’ll be going into depth on Agitators and Exiles, the central mechanical features of the update.

As I teased in the previous dev diary, Agitators are populist firebrands who lead Political Movements to support their ideological goals in your country. They might be the only avenue towards moving your country in a direction opposed by your political elite, allowing you to leverage their support to enact laws that would otherwise find no support. Alternatively they might be dangerous dissidents who oppose the very foundations of your rule, leading the people to revolt against the state. Agitators are a free feature included in the 1.3 Update but various bells and whistles, primarily the historical Agitator characters, will be exclusive to the Voice of the People Immersion Pack.

DD83_01.jpg

Lenin is one of the historical Agitators that can appear in your game. Depending on conditions in Russia when he becomes politically active, he might either remain there and immediately agitate for a communist revolution or first spend some time in Exile.
Voice of the People will include over 60 historical Agitators that can appear throughout the world in your game, but regardless of whether you own the Immersion Pack you will also see “unscripted” Agitators emerge. There are three ways that an Agitator can appear your country:

  • They can appear randomly, with a frequency based on your country’s literacy rate
  • They can appear through scripted Events
  • Exiled characters can be invited to your country as Agitators

When Agitators appear in your country, their Ideology is determined both by the many factors that already influence which Ideology characters receive and also by whether they would have laws to agitate for. For example, the Feminist ideology supports Women’s Suffrage, so if you already have this law you will not get Feminist Agitators. Agitators are intended to be opponents of the status quo, fighting alongside the people for the change they want to see in the world.

DD83_02.jpg

Giuseppe Mazzini begins in Exile, and here has decided to take up residence in the Papal States where he was shocked to discover its suboptimal non-republican mode of government.
Agitators always support a Political Movement. When an Agitator arrives in your country, they will immediately look for an existing movement that they will support - either because their personal Ideology favors it over the current law in that category, or because their Interest Group wants it and it does not conflict with their personal ideology. If there are no Political Movements that an Agitator will support, they will instead create their own, rallying the people to their cause regardless of whether any of the powers that be approve of their methods. When creating their own Political Movements, Agitators will be heavily biased towards reforming whichever law in your country is most detestable to their personal Ideology. For example, a Nihilist Agitator entering a country with State Religion is very likely to create a movement in opposition to that law. This makes some Agitators more dangerous to the status quo than others - Radical Agitators for instance strongly desire a republican form of government, making them especially dangerous in monarchies.

DD83_03.jpg

Through Events, Agitators will take a role in enacting laws, supporting revolutionary movements, and influencing elections.
Between the free 1.3 Update and the content exclusive to Voice of the People, we have written over 350 new Events for Victoria 3. Many of these Events are aimed at improving the variety of content you’ll experience while your country is passing a law, having an election, or dealing with a brewing revolution, and we’ve focused on prominently including Agitators in as many of them as possible.

DD83_04.jpg

The movement for women’s suffrage will now emerge from Agitators leading your Pops in Political Movements rather than Interest Group Leaders gaining a Feminist Ideology.
Now that we have Agitators in the game, we’ve updated some existing content to make use of them, often in places where we were instead relying on Interest Group Leaders. In places where the content was much more thematically appropriate to popular movements rather than political elites, we shook things up a bit so that Agitators get created and involved instead or as well. For instance, the Votes for Women and the Springtime of the People Journal Entries and related Events now make extensive use of Agitators.

In 1.3 Agitators will join Political Movements that can boil over into Revolutions. In the future (no promises as to exactly when), we would like to overhaul our Nationalism/Secession systems and also give Agitators a role in national liberation movements. For this reason many significant and interesting figures that might have been solid Agitator candidates like Gandhi or Cao Futian haven’t been included in 1.3, as we feel we can do them more justice at a later time.

DD83_05.png

Here you can see which Exiles are looking for a new home. For ease of use, you can sort by Interest Group and by whether your country is able to accept an Exile. You can also helpfully see what kind of Political Movement the Exile will join or create when they become an Agitator in your country.
Exiles are characters with no nation, who have left or been forcibly ejected from their home country and are seeking new opportunities to spread their political Ideology. This pool of Exiles is populated when other countries (or indeed, you yourself) decide to boot a character out of the country, so all of these Exiles have a story to tell and a home that they have left behind.

Countries have a soft limit on the number of Agitators that can be active at once. If you are at or over your limit, you cannot invite more Exiles to your country and new Agitators will not appear. In 1836 you’ll have 2 at most, if you’re a Great Power, else you’re limited to 1. Later in the game, Society techs will unlock additional potential for Agitators. Labor Movement, Political Agitation, and Mass Propaganda all increase your capacity for Agitators. This means that as the game progresses your internal politics will become increasingly divisive and there will be more competing demands from Agitators and the people they inspire.

There are also some restrictions on which Exiles you are able to invite:

  • Devout Agitators must always share your state religion. We don’t want Buddhist Theocrats agitating for a Protestant Theocracy!
  • On a similar note, if you have the State Religion law all Exiles you invite must share your state religion.
  • You cannot invite Exiles with cultures that are discriminated against in your country. This limits historically implausible scenarios where characters travel vast distances to become major political figures in societies that would likely not accept them.
  • If you have Closed Borders, you are entirely prohibited from inviting Exiles.

DD83_06.jpg

Victor Hugo’s exile took him to some very exciting places, such as the Channel Island of Jersey where he was expelled for criticism of Queen Victoria. He then moved to the much worse island of Guernsey instead. I have absolutely no bias when it comes to the Channel Islands.
Just as you can invite Exiles to your country, you can also send characters into Exile. Just like with inviting Exiles, Exiling a character also has some restrictions on its use:

  • If you have Protected Speech, you are entirely prohibited from Exiling characters
  • If the character is not an Agitator, their Interest Group cannot be Marginalized, in government, or Insurrectionary
  • You can never Exile your ruler or heir

You’ll notice that these rules absolutely allow you to exile Agitators belonging to Interest Groups that are part of your government.

Exiling a character is not “free”. You are not able to simply remove any character that is not to your taste on a whim without consequence. Like all Character Interactions (more on that soon), there’s a cooldown for using it. But more importantly doing so can create Radicals in your country. You’ll get extra Radicals if you have the Right of Assembly law, and slightly fewer if you have Censorship - but notably no additional Radicals if you have Outlawed Dissent. You’ll also get extra Radicals if the character in question has high Popularity.

An interesting quirk of Exiling a character is that if they have the incredibly boring Moderate Ideology, they will inexplicably develop political opinions that are hostile to the government that Exiled them. No idea why they’d do that.

DD83_07.jpg

Agitators who return home might be met with a hero’s welcome or steely-eyed disdain, depending on how things have changed (or not changed) since they left.
When a character is Exiled, we store their home country and use this in Events, such as the above. For the modders out there, this is accessible using the home_country scope. You as the player can also use this for your own nefarious purposes, as you can Repatriate Exiles to your Rivals. It can be very satisfying to wait for an opportune moment of weakness and send a Radical Agitator that you have safely harbored in your progressive Republic back to your rival’s ailing Monarchy to cause trouble.

DD83_08.jpg

Finding suitors for your monarchs and heirs can help improve relations with nations that share your religious faith.
Character Interactions are … well they’re what they say on the tin, a new way to interact with characters accessible through the right-click menu or by pressing the Interactions button at the top right of the character panel. These interactions can entail anything from Exiling a dissident to finding that character a suitably distinguished spouse. The full list of Character Interactions coming in 1.3 is presented here:

  • We’ve converted the Grant and Remove Command interactions for rulers into Character Interactions, as well as Retire Command for ordinary commanders.
  • Royal Marriages! Available for free with the 1.3 Update.
  • Owners of Voice of the People can use the Grant Leadership Interaction to promote an Agitator to an Interest Group Leader, which replaces their Agitator role.
  • Owners of the Voice of the People can use the Grant Command Interaction to promote an Agitator to a General, which does NOT replace their Agitator role.
  • Owners of Voice of the People can have their monarch Abdicate the Throne under certain circumstances, such as the monarch’s advanced age.
  • Though we had previously said that Exile Character, Invite Exile, and Repatriate Exile Interactions are exclusive to owners of Voice of the People, this is something that we have re-examined following the community discussions on the topic. After some internal discussions in the team, we have decided that these interactions are too much a core part of the Agitators mechanic and thus we will make them part of the free update.
  • Owners of Voice of the People have access to some France-exclusive Interactions related to the struggle between the different dynastic Houses. We’ll talk more about that next week.

DD83_09.jpg

Personally I’m quite partial to Sublime. Post your favourite text editor in the comments and argue passionately about which is superior!
Character Interactions are extremely moddable, and use the same essential scripting norms that we use in Journal Entries, Decisions, etc. You can create your own interactions, define when an Interaction is visible, the circumstances of use, its effect, a cooldown, AI weighting, etc. If for instance you wanted to create a Character Interaction that allows you to target a politician for assassination, it would be relatively easy to write some script that allows you to select an appropriate target for your devious machinations.

And that is all I have for you today. Next week I’ll be back, alongside my Content Designers, to talk about the historical content exclusive to France coming in the Voice of the People Immersion Pack. See you there!
 
  • 135Like
  • 70Love
  • 8
  • 6
  • 6
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
Lovely !
Nice also too see that protected speach becomes less no brainer (for me, as someone bfore wrote the opposite, probably different playstile, i still never played "communist" for exeample, maybe that influences it ?).

I would join @Drakken asking if agitators are meant to be populist of all sides ? So clearly in our time line mostly people asking "progressive" reforms, but i would like a living country whereas "in the old days evrything was better" is true.

I guess yes as you mention religious figures asking for "state religion" and also because of some of the new incoming laws wich seems to be "desireble" only for utopist ?
 
  • 7Like
Reactions:
I like the addition of agitators to the game, and I appreciate moving exiling and inviting them to the base game (even though I own the grand edition). But tbh I don't think the inviting mechanic is too interesting. It would feel far more natural if the agitators moved around on their own, so if somebody else exiles the agitator, they may all of a sudden become your problem, rather than it become an easier way to pass reforms.

Also, in adition to the radicalism cost, could exiling (and inviting) be made to cost authority? Authority seems like a natural resource to use on this, while at the same time I feel authority isn't given enough prominence in game. It would also impose a more natural limit on exiling instead of an artificial cooldown. And, as more democratic governments generate less authority, would make exiling naturally more part of an authoritatian play through.
 
  • 9
  • 2
Reactions:
This DD gives me quite a bit of concern around direction of Vic3 that I did not have previously. This seems such a radical departure from any Victoria gameplay loop that I'm quite jarred reading it.

Victoria games have traditionally been about Pop management, while Vic3 at times floats with more factorio-esque building gameplay loop, the fact remained that you were influencing Pop promotion through those buildings.

The character driven approach here does not seem to align with Pop management. And instead seems to drive deeply into CK territory. I am locked in to this DLC (and the next) as an own of the Grand Edition, but I am quite unenthused by what is described here.

To highlight some concerns.

we have written over 350 new Events for Victoria 3
While this will help event repetition that currently exists, I must admit event driven decisions and event narrative is not what I want from a Victoria game and makes me concerned from a directional perspective.

Countries have a soft limit on the number of Agitators that can be active at once. If you are at or over your limit, you cannot invite more Exiles to your country and new Agitators will not appear. In 1836 you’ll have 2 at most, if you’re a Great Power, else you’re limited to 1.
What is the rationale behind this? From a thematic standpoint I don't quite understand why I couldn't have more than 2 agitators in my nation? I guess an upside is that it encourages you to exile agitators you don't want since they take up slot?

  • Royal Marriages! Available for free with the 1.3 Update.
I'm sorry this feels very un-Victoria. In Pre-release DDs we are told we are playing the "spirit of the nation". Why would we be able to determine who are monarch (absolute or constitutional) is able to wed? I am strongly against this addition. This is not CK, and shouldn't try to be.

  • Owners of Voice of the People can use the Grant Leadership Interaction to promote an Agitator to an Interest Group Leader, which replaces their Agitator role.
I don't understand the logic behind the "state" "spirit of the nation" etc being able to select who leads an interest group? This feels like another instance of eroding Pop influence.
 
  • 26
  • 8Like
  • 2
Reactions:
I like the addition of agitators to the game, and I appreciate moving exiling and inviting them to the base game (even though I own the grand edition). But tbh I don't think the inviting mechanic is too interesting. It would feel far more natural if the agitators moved around on their own, so if somebody else exiles the agitator, they may all of a sudden become your problem, rather than it become an easier way to pass reforms.

Also, in adition to the radicalism cost, could exiling (and inviting) be made to cost authority? Authority seems like a natural resource to use on this, while at the same time I feel authority isn't given enough prominence in game. It would also impose a more natural limit on exiling instead of an artificial cooldown. And, as more democratic governments generate less authority, would make exiling naturally more part of an authoritatian play through.
From what I heard from yesterday's stream (haven't seen it all yet), agitators can invite themselves into your country whether you like it or not.
 
  • 7
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Neat!
Do countries react to you holding their agitators? I can imagine holding potential usurpers and revolutionaries would be a potential thorn to whatever country you're safeguarding them from, no?
 
  • 5Like
Reactions:
The only thing i dislikes about this system it's that the Agitators fell dead when you exile them. I would like to have a small mechanic where they could go voluntarily to whatever country they wish or try to return to their home country by themselves.
 
  • 3Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Will Hitler and Mussolini appear among the agitators? Hitler, in particular, who in the 1920s and 1930s played the role of an agitator, would be perfect for this role. The second question, since agitators will oppose the status quo, I understand that in democratic countries there will be agitators who want to overthrow democracy? For example, pro-monarchist and in countries where there is no slavery, agitators who want to introduce it?
 
  • 11
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
I'm sorry but the thing that caught my eye here the most is that Victor Hugo image where it says
Historical Character: Learn More
That is a good change. The visibility of some of the added content like historical characters hasn't been great so it's a good addition.

Also, the theme of all the events and UI elements in your images seems to be blue, not red. Is this going to be a patch dependent color, or did you mod your own UI, or are you just adding options to pick? I hope we get to pick, I like the blue a lot more than the current red.
 
  • 5
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
These all look like improvements to the game but so far nothing here is a must-buy for me. I haven't really experienced much difficulty in passing laws. But maybe this is more of a pain point for other tags or playstyles.

I think there shouldn't be requirement of sharing faith for royal marriages. This restriction will be immersion breaking for example for Russia which often married german princesses who were just converting religion from protestant to orthodox upon marriage.

There certainly should be a religious requirement as a norm. Finding Protestant prince(sse)s was definitely a factor in the politics of northern Europe at this time. Likewise, the Ottoman Sultan wasn't going to take a Buddhist as a full wife.

I agree that spousal conversion on marriage was definitely a thing for Eastern Orthodox and Muslim monarchs in particular, but that needs to be implemented as a mechanic in its own right and it would be a good minifeature in an Orthodox (Russian) or Islamic (Turkish) focused DLC. It's probably too late to get this into 1.3 though so on balance I think its more important to keep the religion requirement for the time being to avoid ahistorical outcomes.

For us RP enjoyers, what point is there to inviting an agitator that is opposed to the government? Isn't it like inviting someone that's about to start a revolution against yourself?

You're playing the spirit of the nation, not the government. We might not like that decision but it's foundational to V3's design and isn't going to change.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Also, the theme of all the events and UI elements in your images seems to be blue, not red. Is this going to be a patch dependent color, or did you mod your own UI, or are you just adding options to pick? I hope we get to pick, I like the blue a lot more than the current red.

I guess that it's part of the French-themed UI you get with VotP?
 
  • 5
Reactions:
Sorry if I misunderstood, but does the Agitator limit mean that an autocratic player can intentionally invite non-problematic exiles to the country, thus blocking dangerous ones from popping up, essentially removing all the threat from these kinds of Agitators?
 
  • 15Like
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
Personally I’m quite partial to Sublime. Post your favourite text editor in the comments and argue passionately about which is superior!
I'm a big fan of Sublime and used it for many years. I only stopped, ironically enough, because I had all kinds of issues with text encoding in EU4 mod files. I switched to VS Code, which has made managing encodings much easier for me.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
What is the rationale behind this? From a thematic standpoint I don't quite understand why I couldn't have more than 2 agitators in my nation? I guess an upside is that it encourages you to exile agitators you don't want since they take up slot?
It is thematic, as the society techs that unlock more agitators are precisely the ones that unlock more political agitation. In other words, as your society develops new political ideas and institutions (or they filter through from other countries) the old order finds harder to sustain its monopoly on power and political discourse.
I don't understand the logic behind the "state" "spirit of the nation" etc being able to select who leads an interest group? This feels like another instance of eroding Pop influence.
As long as it produces either a significant amount of radicals (2-10% of the interest groups pops for example, depending on the popularity of the previous leader) or applies a significant malus to group approval (-5 approval for 10 years, for example), I don't see a problem, since excluding or including certain political groups (not interest groups, but political groups within them) into national politics or retiring politicians that disagree with the national agenda has happened several times in the past. I just hope the penalties are not something you would never use, but also not something that can be thoughlessly used (I am thinking about the Tsar or the Kaiser ensuring the political leadership of the conservative groups remains within tolerable limits and excluding certain movements from the leadership of even reformist groups or promoting/backing reformist leaders when they agreed with them. Within liberal democracies, it could represent the leader of a popular movement managing to usurp leadership from the previous leadership. In both of those cases, the political situation usually destabilizes a bit, but not too much.)
 
  • 3
Reactions:
This is a great expansion on the character system which is new to the Victoria series. A quick question - most if not all of the historical Agitators we've seen so far have been liberal or leftist. Could you give a few examples of historical Agitators that are conservative/reactionary?

EDIT: besides Napoleon III...
As Lenin starts as an Agitator, it makes sense that there's also one that you heil, heil, heil right in his face
 
  • 6
Reactions:
I'm real glad you guys decided to put Exile, Invite, and Repatriate in as free features and swapped granting leadership of an IG as the paid feature. Kudos for that, it's definitely a DLC I'm going to be buying instead of waiting on.
 
  • 4Like
Reactions:
I just don't want agitators to just do the same thing as TU or Intelligentsia IGs already do. They should either strongly focus on issues of discriminated portion of your population, and minority views like feminism. We absolutely need a tool for nations with huge discriminated populations to have them protest this status quo.

Or maybe the usual IG law preferences could be watered down and moderate leaders would not be all that radical, but the agitators would have more radical ideologies and work more as a tool for change.
 
  • 4Like
Reactions:
- If you make an Agitator IG leader, will the previous leader be exiled? Can I make an Agitator leader of any IG or only government IG's?
- Same for generals/admirals: can I make any Agitator a General or Admiral or are there limitations?
 
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions: