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Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #99 - Colossus of the South

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Hello. This is Victoria, and today I have two very important reveals to share with you.

First off, the long-awaited Update 1.5 “Chimarrão”, which has been in Open Beta since September, will be released on November 14.

Second, it is my pleasure to announce our new Region Pack Colossus of the South, focusing on the Amazonas region of South America. Colossus will be released alongside Update 1.5, and will be free to all Grand Edition or Expansion Pass owners. The price of the standalone pack will be $5.99.

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Region Packs are a new type of product for Victoria, and will contain detailed content regarding a certain region or political sphere. They differ from Immersion Packs through a heavier focus on narrative content, and a lighter focus on art and mechanical systems. Whilst Region Packs do include some 3D and 2D art assets, such as clothing and event images, they do not include features such as new UI skins or building sets.

Infographics​

For those who would like a quick reference, we have these excellent infographics to help summarise the content.

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Paid Content

Colossus of the South is largely centred around the largest nation in South America - Brazil, with a selection of content for its neighbours. Owners of Colossus of the South will be able to experience events through Brazil’s history from 1836 to 1936 through new journal entries and events, with plentiful flavour and alternate-history options.

In addition to in-depth content for Brazil, Colossus of the South contains a selection of journal entries for Paraguay, representing the buildup to the War of the Triple Alliance. For the other Hispanophone South American nations, the region pack contains journal entries revolving around pan-national ambitions, from Gran Colombia, to the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, to Simón Bolívar’s greatest ambition - a unified Spanish-speaking South America.

Magnanimous Monarch

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Brazil begins the game in a perilous position, with an eleven-year-old monarch on the throne, and a country in a state of revolt and political upheaval. The Magnanimous Monarch journal entry is the primary journal entry of Brazil’s early game, and will remain until Pedro II either perishes or is removed from the throne.

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The progress of this Journal Entry will be determined by actions carried out through the game, tied into nearly every piece of content experienced by Brazil.

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Whilst Pedro II represents the Intelligentsia class, and the royal family is abolitionist, the extent to which the entrenched agrarian oligarchy is willing to tolerate reformism is severely limited. Failing the crises that embroil Brazil throughout his reign will lead to the military and landowners coming closer and closer to assuming unrestricted power, whilst successfully centralising authority and tying the nation together will bring them further from doing so.

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If one wishes to embark upon the monarchist course, one must seek to minimise the power of the Landowners and Armed Forces, keep Brazil on a strong and stable course, and be willing to take short-term penalties for long-term political gain.

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If all goes well, rather than heralding the end of the Empire, Pedro II’s death will be regarded as only the beginning of a continued, enlightened reign.

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On the other hand, whilst the Landowners remain basically supportive of the institution of the monarchy, continuing down the reformist road will alienate them further and further, until they become full-fledged supporters of an oligarchic Republic.

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If the monarchy continues to alienate their interests enough that the progress bar reaches zero, the military will march on Rio de Janeiro hand in hand with representatives of the oligarchy, and put an end to the Brazilian Empire.

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The Matter of Slavery

The economy of Brazil, dependent largely on agricultural exports, is massively dependent upon slavery as a source of cheap labour. Whilst abolitionist elements in society, including the royal family, condemn slavery, to truly abolish it represents an enormous struggle.

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Whilst Brazil has formally outlawed the slave trade, this ban is widely ignored, with Brazilian slave ships continuing to rove the Atlantic, shipping new slaves from Africa to the fields of Brazil. This slave trade has embroiled Brazil in a constant, low-level conflict with the British Empire on the Atlantic, with the Royal Navy vessels of the West Africa Squadron occasionally boarding and seizing Brazilian slave ships - even within Brazilian waters, if they so desire.

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Whilst Brazil preserves the Slave Trade law, these interceptions and crises with Britain will continue. In order to keep track of this state of affairs, Britain possesses a similar journal entry, providing a British player several tools for combating Brazilian slavery on the high seas.

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Similarly to the Magnanimous Monarch journal entry, the Matter of Slavery journal entry possesses a set of conditions that will lead to its decreasing or increasing. Leaning into the Landowners - a necessity, if they are particularly powerful - will deplete the progress bar, bringing slavery closer and closer to being a permanently entrenched institution, whereas keeping the bar at a stable level will prevent this outcome from occurring.

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The official stance of the nation on slave trading can be switched every two years via the second button in the journal entry, either providing bonuses to suppressing the slave trade at the cost of angering the Landowners, or the inverse.

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Despite these measures, however, the only truly comprehensive way to end the slave trade will be to pass the Legacy Slavery law, which will end the harassment of Brazilian vessels, and slow the progress of the progress bar towards zero.

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Enacting Legacy Slavery, however, is not the end. In order to truly end slavery, Brazil will need to risk the ire of the Landowners, and the credibility of the monarchy, by enacting the Slavery Banned law. Fortunately, with this journal entry, there is a tool through which this process may be expedited, albeit controversially.

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The issue of slavery is the most contentious one in Brazil - even a forced slavery ban through a war with Britain will infuriate the Landowners, and bring the monarchy closer to falling.

Coffee and Milk

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Brazil, throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has had an economy centred around coffee and other agricultural products. The River of Coffee journal entry, triggered by researching Intensive Agriculture and investing into the plantation sector, will guide Brazil in a more agrarian direction, presenting incentives for both a human player and the AI to invest into the coffee industry.

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In order to complete this journal entry, producing lots of coffee is not enough. Brazil must find a buyer for it all, whether that is through greatly growing the domestic economy or through exports. With the relatively low population of Brazil at game start, exports is the most sensible path - and if focused on, can grow the Brazilian economy to new heights.

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With wealth, however, comes power. As the Brazilian plantation economy grows, a new trend will emerge in politics - the monopolisation of power by the agrarian oligarchy, and politics being increasingly bent around two states. Whereas historically these two states were Minas Gerais and São Paulo, in Victoria 3, additional combinations are possible.

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Whereas the River of Coffee journal entry represents the economic side of agricultural development, the Coffee with Milk journal entry represents its political consequences. The presence of the monarchy will prevent the absolute worst excesses of the Milk-Coffee system from emerging - but, if the empowered landowners created by the agricultural boom are able to institute their ideal Republic, there will be no limit as to what they may do.

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Pictured: The name of the Conservative Party under a Brazilian Republic has a dynamic name, determined by the most prosperous non-capital state.
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Now, what’s that new mystery ideology that the Landowners have? You’ll see in a moment, once we cover Positivism and its impact on Brazil.

The Coffee with Milk journal entry may be escaped through breaking the power of the Landowners and modernising Brazil - but how to do that, when they control politics so heavily? The next piece of content will present the answer.

The New Republic

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Once the Political Agitation technology is unlocked, if the Brazilian landowners remain powerful, a populist movement will begin in Brazil, seeking to break the power of the landed aristocracy and bring modernity to the nation.

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This movement will rely upon an alliance between the Intelligentsia and Petit-Bourgeoisie, both urban classes whose influence has been arrested by the dominance of the agrarian oligarchy. As opposed to developed nations, where the petit-bourgeois have everything to lose, and zealously guard the status quo, in Brazil, they have everything to win by finally overthrowing the old order. To represent their current interest in modernising the nation, this journal entry will grant the Moderniser ideology to the petit-bourgeoisie, which will make them marginally less reactionary and slightly more useful.

Pictured: They simply love the Regime.
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The populist movement will persist until it can either overthrow the government or get squashed down by the current order. Turmoil, Unemployment, and Petit-Bourgeois clout will advance it, whilst Loyalists, and Home Affairs and Policing Institutions will fight against it.

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Whilst the Populist Unrest journal entry is ongoing, events will appear that pertain to officers’ revolts and growing organisation amongst the urban “liberal classes”.

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If this movement succeeds in overthrowing the current Landowner-dominated government, it will seize power in a swift coup, and instate the Autocracy law, under the justification that that current political system has utterly failed Brazil, and requires a total reorganisation.

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Once the Petit-Bourgeoisie and their allies have successfully overthrown the government and installed their own modernising regime, a new journal entry is unlocked, inviting Brazil to implement a variety of reforms desired by the modernisers, as well as crushing communism.

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This dictatorial period will invite the rise of many other radical ideologies and new vectors for social unrest…

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…as well as new potential allies for the government to help see through their agenda.

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Nation-Building

In 1836, Brazil is not a truly united nation, but rather a patchwork of regional identities loosely unified by sharing one government. From the start, the government will need to struggle with this, and seek to construct a unified Brazilian culture from the disparate identities of Brazil.

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Four new cultures have been added to Brazil - Nordestino, Sulista, Paulista, and Amazonic, representing different regional identities. These populations will represent sizable minorities at game start, and, due to the fact that Brazil does not have any of these cultures as primary, a constant risk of secession.

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Through fulfilling the conditions listed for each culture, which will require interacting with other aspects of Brazil’s content, the disparate regional cultures will be, one by one, brought into the fold.

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If these cultures are not successfully integrated within fifty years of the start date, the integrity of the nation will be compromised, and secessionist sentiments will begin to flare. Additionally, a failed integration of the regions will harm the monarchy, potentially bringing Pedro II’s reign to ruin.

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New releasable nations have also been added, representing the various cultures of Brazil, in addition to the existing secessionist tags. Piratini is now a Sulista state, and Grão-Pará is now Amazonic.

Pictured: Paulistania represents the Paulistas, Angola Janga the Afro-Brazilians, and the Confederation of the Equator the Nordestinos. Minas Gerais is Brazilian culture, and Piratini and Santa Catarina are Sulista.
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Positivism

Pictured: Auguste Comte and the Positivist ideology will be free for all players.
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The history of Brazil and Latin America has been heavily marked by the influence of Positivism, a philosophical strand, ideology, and atheistic religion founded by Auguste Comte. In the early game, France will receive a new, free event representing the foundation of Positivism - unlocking the Positivist ideology for the rest of the world. Many years will pass between Positivism’s development and its popularisation - but once certain technologies are unlocked, it will make its entry into the political scenes of eligible nations.

Pictured: Owners of Colossus of the South will be able to experience the full extent of the Positivist movement.
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Similar to existing journal entries for political movements, such as the Nihilism and Communism journal entries, the progress of Positivism will be tracked through a variable, and be able to be influenced through events. Nations with the Positivism journal entry will be able to either make choices to endorse or suppress the ideology, with the end results of the journal entry dependent on the choices made therein.

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Whilst this journal entry is underway, events about Positivist influence in elite circles of society will appear - especially in the military. Embracing Positivism fully will grant benefits to military science and the influence of the Armed Forces, at the cost of greatly increasing the spawn rate of Positivist leaders, and the political influence of officers and intellectuals.

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In the end, the fate of the Positivist movement will depend on the degree of influence they have been able to receive. If the movement is politely but firmly rejected, they will be regarded as just another ephemeral trend…

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…but if fully embraced, the influence of Positivism will be certain to remain for time to come.

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Pictured: Brazil’s unique interaction with the Positivist content, which grants them a slightly more modernist Landowners interest group. If one wishes to pursue the historical Oligarchic Republic route, this may be an excellent asset.
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The Paraguayan War

Paraguay in 1836 is a peculiar nation indeed. An isolationist state in the heart of South America, it is ruled by the iron fist of Doctor José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, an eccentric dictator devoted to transforming his nation into a Rosseauian paradise.

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Paraguay begins with a set of laws reflecting its unique situation, a journal entry for Francia’s rule, and leaders with a unique ideology - Despotic Utopian.

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However, the Perpetual Dictatorship cannot necessarily last for as long as it advertises. Once Francia dies, a power struggle will emerge within Asunción, allowing for either a change in course or a continuation of Francia’s vision.

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When the dust is cleared, and Carlos Antonio López has ascended to the position of President of Paraguay, a new journal entry will be unlocked, covering the rapid modernisation of Paraguay in the post-Francia period.

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The buttons of this journal entry present powerful opportunities for modernisation, allowing Paraguay to experience the boom in population and GDP growth that it did historically.

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Once this journal entry is complete, Paraguay will be in a strong position to challenge its neighbours - and, if one wishes to follow the President’s desires, challenge them it will.

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This journal entry, “Si Vis Pacem, Fac Bellum” permits for a modelling of the historical War of the Triple Alliance. An AI Paraguay that reaches this stage will have its aggression massively increased - and, with the developments provided by the previous journal entries, will serve as a worthy opponent for the other South American powers.

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Once Paraguay launches a diplomatic play against Argentina for Corrientes, the war will escalate, granting journal entries to its opponents, and encouraging them to stand together against the invasion.

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A selection of historical commanders for Paraguay with advanced defensive skills have been added, ensuring an interesting, challenging, and historical experience re-enacting this conflict.

If Paraguay can manage a victory in this war, great benefits await it…

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…but a loss will bring utter ruin to the nation.

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Pan-Nationalism

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In 1836, South America still bears the scars of its wars of independence. It has been marked by both the struggle against Spain, and against itself - the collapses of the state of Gran Colombia in the North, and the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata in the South. Despite this, pan-nationalist thought remains prevalent, especially in the former Gran Colombia.

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In Colossus of the South, as one’s nation develops, it may choose to either embrace these pan-national identities, preserving its broad starting culture, or abandon them, surrendering its greater claims in favour of harmony with its neighbours and the development of a unique national culture.

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Colossus of the South’s pan-national Journal Entries will be active for as long as a nation can retain its North Andean, South Andean, or Platinean culture. Successfully forming a pan-national construction will allow a nation to retain one of these cultures, whilst failing to do so will lead to its loss. What will replace these cultures as time goes on is the subject of the Culture section below.

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Once one of these nations has been successfully formed, however, that is not all.

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Once Pan-Nationalism is researched, a North Andean or South Andean nation that has successfully retained its starting culture and has either formed its formable or simply expanded by a large amount will receive the option to adopt a maximalist approach to South American unity. This approach will take the form of Simón Bolívar’s dream - the Federation of the Andes.

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The Federation is a new major formation available to owners of Colossus of the South, and enabled by accepting the Federation proposal.

Pictured: One of the Federation’s possible incarnations.
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Of course, this configuration is not the only one that it can assume. If the Federation is formed by a Rio de la Plata that adopts the South Andean culture, for example, it may be able to assume new territories and names.

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Free Content

In addition to the paid content coming in Colossus of the South, Update 1.5 will include a selection of free content to improve South American gameplay as a whole.

Peru-Bolivia Rework

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The starting situation of Peru-Bolivia has been reworked in Update 1.5, to include the governments established in the wake of the Salaverry-Santa Cruz war of 1835-36. Where a unified Peru once stood, there is now North Peru, South Peru, and Iquicha, states subordinated to the Supreme Protector of Bolivia, Andrés de Santa Cruz.

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At game start, the states of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation are working to establish a stable government with a functional constitution, whilst facing pressure from their neighbours. The Peru-Bolivia journal entry has been reworked, now requiring the maintenance of a legitimate government and the management of more component states against foreign aggression. The Peruvian states will begin with a large amount of radicals, presenting the constant risk of a revolt to break free from Bolivian influence.

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The Peru-Bolivian Confederation, if it forms, presents a serious challenge to the balance of power in the region - and the nations facing off against it know this well.

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Whilst the process of unifying the Peru-Bolivian Confederation is ongoing, AI nations will have greatly increased aggression towards Peru-Bolivia, seeking to forcibly dissolve the Confederation by liberating Bolivia’s puppets. A new journal entry has been made available for player nations with an interest in the region, presenting solutions to this problem. Either the Confederation must be smothered in its cradle, or it must be made amicable.

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If these threats are averted, however, the Peru-Bolivian Confederation shall transition from being a concept that exists on paper to a truly powerful nation - one which is certain to use its population and gold deposits to dominate the Andes and provide a counterweight to Brazil.

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Migration

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The New World of the nineteenth century has enormous potential, but a low population that hampers the exploitation of its resources. Free to all players, Update 1.5 contains a journal entry for all New World nations designed to greatly boost immigration from Europe and allow for fully populating one’s nation.

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In addition to boosting base migration attraction whilst it is active, this journal entry permits a North or South American nation to create migration targets within its territories, drawing European migrants in search of a better life.

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Update 1.5 includes modding support for mass migrations, allowing for the creation of migration targets in script for all of your immigration or emigration encouragement needs.

Culture

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The South American states are young nations, only recently winning their independence from Spain. At game start, many aspects of their national identities are mixed with their neighbours, built primarily from shared regional struggles. These loose regional identities are represented through the existing North Andean, South Andean, and Platinean cultures.

Upon researching Nationalism, however, this will rapidly change.

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Once the first national identity journal entry appears, a South American nation will be set on a race against the development of its own identity. Once the progress bar reaches 100, the shared regional culture will be replaced with a true national culture, locking it out of the pan-national content. Whilst regional formations will still be available, they will be prone to secessions, and the Federation of the Andes will be no longer possible.

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Upon completing this journal entry, the nation will lose its previous regional culture, and gain a new national culture. The new national cultures will begin with homelands solely in a nation’s capital, with the previous culture retaining its homelands, but no longer being a primary culture.

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This is very easy and simple for one-state nations such as Uruguay - but what about larger nations, with a hinterland which is not necessarily clued into the work of the nationalist intellectuals of the capital?

Pictured: If one wishes to become a Buenos Aires-centred Argentine ethnostate and oppress the unenlightened Platineans of the rural provinces, one can certainly do that, but there are other options.
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The “A New National Identity” journal entry permits for the spread of this new national identity across the provinces of one’s nation, bringing the light of culture to areas outside its capital. The “Promote National Identity” button spreads the new national culture outwards from the capital, prioritising states that border the capital to convert.

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As time goes by, a nation is developed, and pops in the newly spawned homelands of its national identity assimilate, the culture will expand further and further, until all of one’s nation has embraced its new national identity.

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1.5 contains one new culture for each existing South American nation - Ecuadorian, Venezuelan, Colombian, Argentine, Chilean, Uruguayan, and Paraguayan. Whilst expansion is very much possible in the early game, doing so in the late game is hazardous - whilst any amount of South Andeans can be converted to Bolivians, one cannot convert a Peruvian.

Amazonas

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For all nations that own Amazon states, the Exploiting the Amazon journal entry has been reworked, with all-new buttons for transforming the Amazon Rainforest into an asset. For Brazil, it contains additional content, granting the ability to claim the state of Acre from Peru-Bolivia and resolving border disputes in Brazil’s favour.

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By creating Rubber Plantations in the Amazon, nations with this journal entry will be able to transform the Amazon Rainforest state trait into something less punishing and more useful for a rapidly industrialising nation.

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Pictured: The state traits granted by advancing through this journal entry.
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Unlocked by having sufficient military power and positive enough relations with its neighbours, the Treaty of Bogotá and Treaty of Ayacucho permit peaceful expansion of Brazil’s territories into the Amazonian states owned by Bolivia and Colombia.

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This is not the limit of Brazil’s expansionist ambitions, however. If a Brazilian player wishes, they may use this journal entry’s buttons to claim the Bolivian state of Acre, opening a new journal entry - the Acre Dispute.

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Pictured: The full extent of the Brazilian Amazon, following the use of every option in this journal entry.
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Achievements

To wrap things up, here are the six more new achievements directly tied to Colossus of the South’s content.

Magnanimous: Playing as Brazil, complete the Magnanimous Monarch JE and preserve the monarchy.
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Federation Day: Form the Federation of the Andes.
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Estado Novo: As Brazil, make Vargas your ruler and complete the New Republic JE.
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Piratini, not Pira-tiny: Starting as Piratini or Grão-Para, have a higher GDP than Brazil
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Republic or Death!: Starting as Paraguay, complete the Expanding Paraguay and Populating the Americas JEs.
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Devil's Railroad: Complete the Exploiting the Amazon JE and build railroads in all Amazonian states
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And that is all. Thank you for reading.






South America plays a fascinating role in the Victorian century, both in its countries' internal development and in how the struggles and conflicts in the region came to impact the world as a whole. It has been very interesting to research and develop narrative content for Colossus of the South, and exciting to see how it affects the experience of playing through these nations' many potential stories. The revised mechanics available in Update 1.5 "Chimarrão" - military improvements, Companies, local prices, Diplomatic Play options, and more - also add a lot to the experience. We hope you will enjoy playing it as much as we do.

For those of you who won't already get it for free with the Grand Edition or Expansion Pass, you're able to wishlist it on Steam already.

We will now get busy putting the final touches on Update 1.5 and compiling the absolutely massive changelog, which you will get access to in the next Development Diary on November 9th. Until then, Victorians!



Hello Victorians!

Community Manager Pelly here. That was a monster of a dev diary, 88 pages in all!

I have something to share about the Expansion Pass, due to technical difficulties, Colossus of the South will not appear in the Expansion Pass Steam store page immediately. It is being worked on to appear as soon as possible. We will keep you updated on this!

Alongside this, when the region pack releases on the 14th of November owners of the expansion pass will need to 're-buy' the pass to gain access to the region pack. This will not cost you anything as in the pass, like the American Buildings pack, Colossus of the South is marked free.
 
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@PDX_Pelly
I have the Grand Edition purchased, so I own the Expansion Pass, and your message applies to me.
If I buy Expansion Pass on the 14th, I will have to pay for Sphere of Influence, which in fact is already purchased, but it doesn't shows in the library.

Now, Colossus of the South shows that I have it in my library. Do I have to do something? Buy an Expansion Pass?

————
In CK3 all future already purchased content is immediately shows that it is in the library. I would like it to be the same in V3.
Earlier I read that some people bought Expansion Pass for the second time because of this, thinking that there is new content, but this content they have already bought.

You won't need to do anything, since you own the Grand Edition, Colossus of the South content will become available for you on release. :)
 
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An extremely impressive dev diary. Now my gaming calendar is a bit packed right now (working my way through another game SLOWLY) so I kind of think I won't be able to come back to Victoria 3 until Sphere of Influence, but I am pretty hyped for it right now.

Great job!
 
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You won't need to do anything, since you own the Grand Edition, Colossus of the South content will become available for you on release. :)

Community Manager Pelly here. That was a monster of a dev diary, 88 pages in all!

I have something to share about the Expansion Pass, due to technical difficulties, Colossus of the South will not appear in the Expansion Pass Steam store page immediately. It is being worked on to appear as soon as possible. We will keep you updated on this!

Alongside this, when the region pack releases on the 14th of November owners of the expansion pass will need to 're-buy' the pass to gain access to the region pack. This will not cost you anything as in the pass, like the American Buildings pack, Colossus of the South is marked free.
 
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That looks like a lot of possible new cultures, have considerations been made to handle the splintering of Pops and performance degradation that comes with it?

Also should we expect new cultures with every new regional and immersion pack as we see with EU4?
 
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Also should we expect new cultures with every new regional and immersion pack as we see with EU4?
I hope so. The journal entries seem like a good way to handle the push and pull factors between nationalism and pan-nationalism for a lot of places. I could see it being used elsewhere for places like Central American national identities vs. the USCA, Texas, Deseret, and California being incorporated into the US or Mexico or going their own way, Bavaria and Austria or other German states becoming more or less identified with a unified German nation, etc.
 
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Community Manager Pelly here. That was a monster of a dev diary, 88 pages in all!

I have something to share about the Expansion Pass, due to technical difficulties, Colossus of the South will not appear in the Expansion Pass Steam store page immediately. It is being worked on to appear as soon as possible. We will keep you updated on this!

Alongside this, when the region pack releases on the 14th of November owners of the expansion pass will need to 're-buy' the pass to gain access to the region pack. This will not cost you anything as in the pass, like the American Buildings pack, Colossus of the South is marked free.

I've got the expansion pass (I bought the Grand Edition) and it's not free for me in Steam because of Sphere of Influence:

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Weirdly enough, I'm said to have Colossus of the South in my library ("biblioteca"), though I can wishlist it, which it's not possible in other cases with products you already own:

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(Sorry for the Spanish in the images, though I suppose you get what's going on).
 
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Paradox putting CA to shame lmao
"The Total War franchise has always been known and loved for its history strategy games. Let's completely abandon them and focus exclusively on Warhammer, while pushing out half-baked regional history games every few years."
-Creative Assembly
 
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I have played Paradox Games for at least 20 years and this is the first time they release a DLC or expansion covering our region in a non-Eurocentric way.

The DD looks impressive, the XIX century was the most important period for the development of our cultures and institutions, and the devs actually reflected that on what we see on the DD.

Hopefully you added Mate as a trade good as well!

Time to reinstall the game and relearn the mechanics on the 1.5 beta :p
 
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The Expansion Sphere of Influence is still included in said Grand Edition.
It’s just confusing because you said in the DD that we’d need to “rebuy” the expansion pass to register Colossus but in steam Colossus already shows as owned (“in library”) without rebuying but Sphere of Influence does not show as owned.
 
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Amazing. As a Brazilian, you have my heartfelt thank you, Paradox. Never in a million years did I think Brazil would ever get enough content as to include everything from the Empire up to Getúlio Vargas, given how he only took power in 1930 historically.

A question: will we be able to combine the monarchical path with the Estado Novo path? Having Vargas as the Empire’s prime minister would be some awesome alternate history.
 
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Besides, the problem with Latin American cultures being monoethnic - with the game reinforcing racist stereotypes like "all Latin Americans are mestizos" - is present since release, there's no excuse for it not having been fixed yet.

Honestly, the CK3 team has done a far better job of depicting the ethnic diversity of various cultures, and it's a shame that the Victoria 3 team hasn't kept up.

CK3's culture system is a nightmare. It has far too many basic options, and the AI is obsessed with hybridizing, which makes the CPU weight of processing even worse. The only reason it even works is because CK3 doesn't have any kind of pop simulation, each province is basically one person, with a single religion and culture, and no ability to simulate gradients or demographics. Trying to add anything approaching CK3's culture depth into Victoria 3 -- a game that is already slow enough with it's ability to simulate pop jobs, migrations, wages, and social interests -- would torch my CPU and leave it bleeding to death by the side of the road.

I'll admit, I don't really like the way that culture and ethnicity work in Victoria 3, either. Using the aggressive pop compression game rules that make the game playable to the end date has a habit of doing strange and wrong things, like slowly turning South Africa 100% white, or erasing dixie whites entirely if the American South secedes as an Afro-American revolution.

Still though, I understand why its like this, and it has nothing to with reinforcing racist stereotypes. The game is focused on Europe and seeks to simulate the entire planet in pop groups, frankly it has too many different culture groups for what modern CPUs can handle already.
 
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Amazing. As a Brazilian, you have my heartfelt thank you, Paradox. Never in a million years did I think Brazil would ever get enough content as to include everything from the Empire up to Getúlio Vargas, given how he only took power in 1930 historically.

A question: will we be able to combine the monarchical path with the Estado Novo path? Having Vargas as the Empire’s prime minister would be some awesome alternate history.
I could see Getúlio as the leader of the PB working with Pedro III assuming Pedro III was as liberal and progressive as his grandfather.
 
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Yooo, the biggest surprise paradox has shown in ages! Did they finally see the hidden lucrative potential of South America? I sure hope so, because this seems like a dream come true and we need MORE. Time to make content about this folks, history is being written here.
 
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So, I have a few concerns.

First off:
Region Packs are a new type of product for Victoria, and will contain detailed content regarding a certain region or political sphere. They differ from Immersion Packs through a heavier focus on narrative content, and a lighter focus on art and mechanical systems. Whilst Region Packs do include some 3D and 2D art assets, such as clothing and event images, they do not include features such as new UI skins or building sets.
The way this was phrased made me think this was a bulk pack for South America as a whole, and that sounded like a really good balance of things. Content built around regions means there will be an effort to facilitate interaction between countries, Gran Colombia and Brazil and Paraguay Bolivia and Argentina, which somehow goes almost completely unmentioned in this entire diary (despite this century being essentially the apex of Argentinian power). But the entire rest of the diary seems to indicate the pack is geared towards this being essentially an Immersion Pack for Brazil in all but name, up to and including leading the summary of features with
Colossus of the South is largely centred around the largest nation in South America - Brazil, with a selection of content for its neighbours.

Secondly:
Whilst Brazil preserves the Slave Trade law, these interceptions and crises with Britain will continue. In order to keep track of this state of affairs, Britain possesses a similar journal entry, providing a British player several tools for combating Brazilian slavery on the high seas.
Given that this behavior by the UK was not unique to Brazil - they combated slavery by many countries during this time - why is it unique to Brazil? This rings to me like a case where there should be a generally applicable international position people can take up - any GP with banned slavery and a sufficiently powerful fleet - can use that fleet to target the ships of any country with the slave trade if they have an interest in that region and a fleet stationed there. Set the requirements such that only the UK can do this at the start, and then you have a more broad-based means of doing the same. Why, for example, would the UK not care if the Argentina started trading slaves instead of moving towards banning them? It's been something of a running theme with V3 that extremely specific content is added for select nations in ways that can be easily made illogical because they were designed too narrowly.

This issue is doubly reflected in the ways that Brazil now is the only country with a law that isn't actually the de jure law (they have slave trade, despite legally having banned slavery), which has been something V3 has always struggled with. It's not that I think exploring how the government's ability to effect change isn't absolute is bad, since I like the recognition of it, but this is hardly going to be the last example of society not reflecting in practice the laws that govern it in theory. Bespoke content is probably not going to scale well and I worry when I see this hole getting ever deeper.

This goes also for a lot of the culture stuff. South America was not the only place struggling with the concept of a national identity at this time, I would have rather seen something more general. Maybe whenever a culture gets nationalism, that starts off a process of them forming a national level identity, rather than something South America specific. I'm not sure why China isn't expected to go through the same struggles, for example. (and not to belabor the point, but I am still flabbergasted that a mechanic was added for the Americas to promote immigration from Europe as part of this, and Argentina isn't even mentioned as a secondary element to the pack, when Argentina was the foremost beneficiary of this after the USA itself)
 
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Excellent work. Just chiming to say never ever sacrifice internal management complexity or difficulty. Never listen to blobbers. In fact, make it harder.
 
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This issue is doubly reflected in the ways that Brazil now is the only country with a law that isn't actually the de jure law (they have slave trade, despite legally having banned slavery)

I disagree this is a problem. There was an agreement between Brazil and GB in 1826 to banish slave trade (not slavery itself), reinforced with another law in 1831, as the game will seem to portray now. Neither of these laws were actually enforced in reality - and when I say it, it's not like "oh the trade diminished but continued as an illegal activity, hidden from the authorities". Between 1826 and 1850, more than 800 thousand enslaved people were disembarked in Brazil. It was not hidden at all. The law simply didn't exist in practice. The game having slave trade enacted for Brazil is actually a better solution and closer to how it was in reality than the contrary.

Slave trade in Brazil was actually banned only in 1850, with the passing of another law.
 
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Wow, I can't believe I'm actually seeing Brazil receiving content, I might not be able to sleep today.
Just one feedback! The first brazilian republican flag shown ( the one that looks a LITTLE like the US one ) only lasted for about half a week, which wouldn't even be 10 seconds of gameplay. I suggest adding an event to choose your flag with some flavor text, maybe put something along emulating US politics as well?
 
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