Potential future full conversion mods for Vic 3?

[Baneslave]

Honestly if handled with care magic could actually work really well:
Vickys a game about large scale changes in society in technology, imo having magic/mana be a resource that is discovered could very well fit into the game.
This is ofc me assuming that you are coming up with an original fantasy scenario where you can write the lore to accomodate.

Turning one of capacities to actual mana which is used to cast state or country wide spells seems rather neat. Also great justification for having +10% farming output and similar bonuses.

Wizards being Pop type who allow extremely productive Production Methods which will also likely cause massive unemployment problem as well. Dwarves being their own Pop type too, with capability of replacing technical workers of any level.

Event where adventurers find dungeon filled with gold! Helping them on their task would provide massive income spike on that one state. This could be good or bad, as that gold will run out sooner or later and adventurers have to move on too...

Different races and societies having completely different Production Methods, Needs and Buildings? There being multiple viable ways of advancing society? Fully automated luxury elven magic naturology? Yes please.

 

[ero_sk]

Cold war/modern day of course. As long as the diplomacy system is up to the high standard set by the society and economy mechanics we've been presented to date. And I really hope it is.

 

[Deathknight15]

I know it's not exactly a total conversion, but I have been wondering about a mechanics extension mod.

What if you could keep playing your vicky 3 game until the modern day? I haven't seen anything that would make this not work so far. 1836-2020+

Techs, laws, social movements could all be added onto the end and the rise and fall of different movements too. Weird cold wars between alternate history blocs, ahoy!

 

[Vohen]

Yeah...
For a mod, shure, fit the base game, mmhh...

American independance
Napoleonic era

The first one indirectly brought independance on all american colonies (napoleonic war accelerated it)
And the second event... had so many important implication ai wouldn't even know how to start. But most importantly you would need to have a game mechanic which potentially could both simulate the extreamly rapid expansion of France in Europe and then it's collapse. And at the same time make it fun for the player. Otherwise you would either always end of with a French Continent or with the revolution never spreading past France or even worse, crushed from the start.

Yeah, the biggest issue I have with a pre Napoleonic start date is how it would, inevitably, lead to a Victorian era so wildly different from what we know to the point of it being completely unrecognizable.
Another issue is how these games, as a narrative, rises to a crescendo, building up to a climax near the end.
This would put a climax (can't call the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars anything other than climatic) in the game right out of the gate, with well over a century to go after.
It's too bad that EU4 botches the late game (well, a lot more than that), because that really is the ideal climax for that game.

I know it's not exactly a total conversion, but I have been wondering about a mechanics extension mod.

What if you could keep playing your vicky 3 game until the modern day? I haven't seen anything that would make this not work so far. 1836-2020+

Techs, laws, social movements could all be added onto the end and the rise and fall of different movements too. Weird cold wars between alternate history blocs, ahoy!

The only real issue I could see is with nukes and deterrence, the AI would have to be moddable enough to be very, very scared of going to war against other nuclear powers, or else I can see it being very trigger happy and nuclear holocaust being nearly inevitable.

 

[Deathknight15]

The only real issue I could see is with nukes and deterrence, the AI would have to be moddable enough to be very, very scared of going to war against other nuclear powers, or else I can see it being very trigger happy and nuclear holocaust being nearly inevitable.

True. However, based on their hints about the diplomatic plays system I would guess there should be some room to work.

Worst case scenario, a rather inelegant event system could cancel wars and force negotiations between the AIs. Not ideal, but modding rarely is.

 

[Twiggly_the_Gnome]

Maybe a "Maria Theresa" mod that shifts the timestamps back a century to the founding of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty and ends December 31, 1835.

My dream for a new map, full conversion mod would be Eberron.

 

[The Mysterious Dr. Butter]

Definitely modern day, but to be honest I think that the entire game is really an experiment so that there can be a full blown modern day/Cold War paradox game, and this is trying out systems, and then using the same engine they'll make one but I'm not really sure.

 

[Vernichtere]

Honestly if handled with care magic could actually work really well:
Vickys a game about large scale changes in society in technology, imo having magic/mana be a resource that is discovered could very well fit into the game.
This is ofc me assuming that you are coming up with an original fantasy scenario where you can write the lore to accomodate.

I haven't done a lot of modding until now. When the game is out, I'll take a look. If I have the motivation, I would like to try it out:

It would definitely be a new map of the world to avoid senseless historical discussions and moral conflicts. Then magic would just be a kind of resource that you use for industry.

I would add some physical features to the fantasy races that give slight advantages and disadvantages:

Lizardmen:
no genders, but phases in which eggs can be laid. So no concept of the mechanics associated with gender.

Elves: longer life expectancy, reduced reproduction.


Then just preferences that are culturally set at the start and can change.

The magical resource would be quite toxic to begin with. In this respect, hardly anyone would voluntarily dismantle it.

I would make the mixing of the species impossible.

 

[shadowofneptune]

True. However, based on their hints about the diplomatic plays system I would guess there should be some room to work.

Worst case scenario, a rather inelegant event system could cancel wars and force negotiations between the AIs. Not ideal, but modding rarely is.

Based on what little we know of the diplomatic play system, a nuclear armed power could have a 'trump card,' a diplomatic decision which is so obscenely powerful that everyone else must back down. It'd be in the interest of the existing nuclear powers then to keep other people from having it.

More generally about a cold war/modern day mod. I feel it'd be better to have it start in the 60s or 70s for the same reason Victoria 3 starts in 1836: you get a much more stable world than in 1945, with less chance for weirdness like a neutral unified Germany.

 

[Olaf Trygvasson]

Based on what little we know of the diplomatic play system, a nuclear armed power could have a 'trump card,' a diplomatic decision which is so obscenely powerful that everyone else must back down. It'd be in the interest of the existing nuclear powers then to keep other people from having it.

More generally about a cold war/modern day mod. I feel it'd be better to have it start in the 60s or 70s for the same reason Victoria 3 starts in 1836: you get a much more stable world than in 1945, with less chance for weirdness like a neutral unified Germany.

Like you said, the nuclear weapons impact on diplomacy would be very hard to model- in large part because I don't know how to make something to force the player to account for things like morality when it comes to hesitating to even use the threat of nuclear weapons. We all know that we paradox players don't usually shy away from making decisions that real world leaders would balk at because we won't lose sleep at night if we nuke half the globe or get two thirds of our pops annihilated in nuclear hellfire. Nuclear disarmament would have to be an interest group that would be greatly buffed in-game, with at least half-hearted support from most pops, and the usage of a nuclear weapon, even in WWII when it ends the war with Japan, would have to draw major criticism from a large segment of the population, much more than it did in reality, where most people were absolutely fine with its usage and with nuclear stockpiling in the cold war

 

[Vohen]

Like you said, the nuclear weapons impact on diplomacy would be very hard to model- in large part because I don't know how to make something to force the player to account for things like morality when it comes to hesitating to even use the threat of nuclear weapons. We all know that we paradox players don't usually shy away from making decisions that real world leaders would balk at because we won't lose sleep at night if we nuke half the globe or get two thirds of our pops annihilated in nuclear hellfire. Nuclear disarmament would have to be an interest group that would be greatly buffed in-game, with at least half-hearted support from most pops, and the usage of a nuclear weapon, even in WWII when it ends the war with Japan, would have to draw major criticism from a large segment of the population, much more than it did in reality, where most people were absolutely fine with its usage and with nuclear stockpiling in the cold war

I mean, Vic, from all PDX series, is the one in the best position to discourage players from making such destructive moves.
Using pops, that is. Make them angry, annihilate them, completely ruin your country, have a nuclear holocaust be essentially a game over state, you know, the MAD doctrine.
I imagine how Vic2 could have you on a death spiral of endless rebellions and revolutions upon revolutions if you mismanaged militancy, but far, far worse, something you can literally not recover from (unless you actually want to play a post apocalyptic scenario, that could also be fun).
The other challenge, that is not only making war uninteresting, but making other aspects of the game actually interesting to play with as an alternative for war, like the economy and diplomacy, is also something Vic3 is in a good position to tackle, and is already a stated focus of the vanilla game to begin with.

So the signs are good there, imo.

 

[Olaf Trygvasson]

I mean, Vic, from all PDX series, is the one in the best position to discourage players from making such destructive moves.
Using pops, that is. Make them angry, annihilate them, completely ruin your country, have a nuclear holocaust be essentially a game over state, you know, the MAD doctrine.
I imagine how Vic2 could have you on a death spiral of endless rebellions and revolutions upon revolutions if you mismanaged militancy, but far, far worse, something you can literally not recover from (unless you actually want to play a post apocalyptic scenario, that could also be fun).
The other challenge, that is not only making war uninteresting, but making other aspects of the game actually interesting to play with as an alternative for war, like the economy and diplomacy, is also something Vic3 is in a good position to tackle, and is already a stated focus of the vanilla game to begin with.

So the signs are good there, imo.

Oh I absolutely agree that Vic is by far the most capable of handling this- EU4 and CK3 give very few downsides to declaring war, other than being expensive and possibly losing, and HOI4 actively forces you into war (not that this is in any way bad in a game completely centered around WW2). I was just saying that the anti-war movement will have to be much stronger in a cold war-era, and the "pro war" group will still have to be largely against the use of nuclear weapons- during the wars in Korea and Vietnam, even the people who supported US involvement were very much against the idea of using nuclear weapons (most of them, anyway) and civilian deaths such as the My Lai Massacre or those considered collateral damage in bombing campaigns helped switch more and more people to be against the war- I don't know exactly how this would be modeled, but I am sure it is possible for a particularly creative modder

 

[pheonicia]

Oh I absolutely agree that Vic is by far the most capable of handling this- EU4 and CK3 give very few downsides to declaring war, other than being expensive and possibly losing, and HOI4 actively forces you into war (not that this is in any way bad in a game completely centered around WW2). I was just saying that the anti-war movement will have to be much stronger in a cold war-era, and the "pro war" group will still have to be largely against the use of nuclear weapons- during the wars in Korea and Vietnam, even the people who supported US involvement were very much against the idea of using nuclear weapons (most of them, anyway) and civilian deaths such as the My Lai Massacre or those considered collateral damage in bombing campaigns helped switch more and more people to be against the war- I don't know exactly how this would be modeled, but I am sure it is possible for a particularly creative modder

When it comes to nuclear weapons during the cold war, any confirmed use is basically a game over. In the event of global thermonuclear war, the after effects would be so immense that the game may as well just load up a copy of surviving the aftermath.

It's a fail state akin to being annexed in eu or having your dynasty wiped out in ck.

 

[Skydiver12]

Honestly if handled with care magic could actually work really well:
Vickys a game about large scale changes in society in technology, imo having magic/mana be a resource that is discovered could very well fit into the game.
This is ofc me assuming that you are coming up with an original fantasy scenario where you can write the lore to accomodate.

I agree, in any case Vik3's system is such that it will benefit from having original resources and production chains thrown into the mix. It's too bad most lore-rich fantasy settings are generally more focused on characters and cultural diversity but not so much on fleshing out the "magic economy" on a society level. It would probably work best to use a setting where magic and technology coexist. Avatar is indeed a good inspiration, as is the game Arcanum, the anime Full Metal Alchemist and the Ile-Rien book series. But overall probably an original setting would help bring out the most potential of Vic3 economics and politics without being restricted to lore which was never meant to support economic/political complexity.

Some interesting production chains could be:
- Researching nature magic, leading to enabling magical herbs agriculture, leading to product that satisfy the population need for love potions and such
- Researching necromancy, leading to buildings that gradually create docile slave pops as workforce or cheap soldiers
- Researching fire/earth magic leading to ability to mine magical ores, smelt them and construct machinery

Research paths could be balanced in a way to encourage specialization over balanced technological advancement, even going as far as to lock nations into their fantasy stereotype. Also different races/cultures could have major bonuses in some production chains. This would lead to extremely specialized economies that produce some goods but need to import others to maintain their pop's high weath, which in turn allows them to meet high-end job qualification requirements.
Good empires would develop common markets with their allies and be able to support high-wealth pops and advanced armies. That would be counterbalanced by the fact that they're very dependent on their allies for their economy to work and also struggle to blob in ways that their allies find morally acceptable.
Evil empires would want to control their entire production chain by rejecting fair trade and conquering territories and vassalized states instead. Those conquered/vassalized territories would retain some of their previous magical-technological specialization at severely reduced efficiency. Thus evil empires will be able to blob fast and develop large low-skilled economies but will be limited in their ability to promote any large volume of high-wealth high-skill pop thus would have to rely on large low-tech armies.

 

[Hertzila]

Honestly, never going to happen but: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura conversion mod. Doesn't even need to be set in its world, just take its world-building aspects and lore and plop them into the normal world map like a Steampunk Shadowrun setting.

It would fit in nicely into Victoria's systems: The old power of magic is waning and the power of the steam engine is on the rise. The two don't like each other, eating into each other's strength: guns and trains malfunction near magic, while wizards turn powerless when close to industrial districts. Industrial technologists and steampunk engineers are on the rise, while mages and wizards cling to their socio-political relevancy as best they can.
Aside from the lack of magic, Victoria already has that dynamic, with the old elite growing less powerful and old ways dying out as new capitalistic and political systems are likely usurping power. You got a new dynamic with a magic vs tech aspect between industrial powerhouses and non-industrial nations. It would fit so well.

 

[big red 3]

The world of Harthe Alle from the Monster Blood Tattoo series would be a pretty cool one, probably helps that it is set in a Victorian inspired world with a mountain of worldbuilding to work on.

 

[luxfelix]

Bronze Age Collapse

 

[Naga Niome]

I always wanted to do a total conversion modification for Victoria 2 but couldn't commit to something at that for several reasons. Especially lack of developer and large communal support for such an old title.

Now I'm working on the same project for Victoria 3 and hope I can get it done completely within the next several years. I've been using vulgarlang, Wonderdraft, Photoshop, etc to accomplish it.

If anyone is interested in it, its of course entirely WIP: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/gods-amongst-suns-26-orphans-nagaprince

Its a Sci-Fi mod that takes place in a solar system containing three Terran planets, the first two containing several dozen nations at least, from Unrecognized, to Great Powers. The third planet being essentially the "New World" that has mystified everything. It takes place in a time basically like Victoria's, except with the addition of elements like androids, unique minerals, biocomputers, anti-gravity technology with cultures mirroring from classical antiquity to Renaissance, and 20th century.

 

[kuba_mar]

Frostpunk, the timeline diverges around a decade before start of Vic3 soo you even have a decent chunk of gameplay before the great frost a lot of vics mechanics are also a perfect match, resources management, people with qualifications, laws, internal politics, in the "On The Edge" DLC the city is already beginning its expansion and colonization.

Another interesting one could be Fallout, nation building in post nuclear wasteland sounds pretty fun, you would have to deal with many issues similar to the ones in normal vic, except more extreme.

I really think theres a lot of potential for both of these and with enough effort put in could be great experiences vastly different form the base game, like OWB and TNO are for HOI4.

 

[pheonicia]

Frostpunk, the timeline diverges around a decade before start of Vic3 soo you even have a decent chunk of gameplay before the great frost a lot of vics mechanics are also a perfect match, resources management, people with qualifications, laws, internal politics, in the "On The Edge" DLC the city is already beginning its expansion and colonization.

Another interesting one could be Fallout, nation building in post nuclear wasteland sounds pretty fun, you would have to deal with many issues similar to the ones in normal vic, except more extreme.

I really think theres a lot of potential for both of these and with enough effort put in could be great experiences vastly different form the base game, like OWB and TNO are for HOI4.

Frostpunk would be trivially difficult if those stupid brits could figure out how to build a goddamn igloo.