Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #116 - The Art of Sphere of Influence

[Serensius]

It's a Caduceus not to be confused with a Staff of Asclepius.

Yes, modern medical organisations in some parts of the world (notably the US) regularly use the wrong one

Well you learn something everyday! That’s interesting. Still, I think another symbol would be more widely recognizable, e.g. a set of merchant’s scales.

 

[yurcick]

Didn't expect to like this, to be honest.

And statues and other on-map things do not really invite any nice comments (the skull with a top hat and a sword example resembles those modded Helldivers videos where Shrek fights Thomases the Tank Engines).

But 2d stuff is cool. Clothing is cool. Generally solid work.

 

[Normannus]

I’m rather surprised by how positive the comments are here. I’ve had my doubts about how the power blocs are being portrayed, saying that it seems like they’re acting too much like Stellaris Federations and don’t seem to fit very well with the period, and I’ve seen nothing to change my mind. Especially the artwork and UI, which seem to be lending themselves to the power blocs acting like federations, instead of modeling the 19th century idea of spheres of influence. But I suppose I’ll have to wait until release to play this. Hopefully this isn’t the Royal Court of Vic3, which is the CK3 DLC that finally broke me and led me to uninstalling the game

 

[BigChungus344]

Love the quality and detail of this new art!

1. Will other Great Powers benefit from these new assets in any way (e.g. modern 20th century uniforms)?

2. Can similar military uniform assets perhaps be added for the French in Voice of the People to make that DLC better value?

 

[sigismundus]

Regarding art - is there any plans to switch from horrendous 3D models to some better 2D portraits?
If not then at least some support for the moders who would like to do it?

 

[Olauron]

While I also may have to just ignore them but it feels like a waste of time that doesn't belong. It just feels like all the art and the ui work for it could have been better spent.

It is not a waste of time. It is great to have visually different parts of map (cities, farms, ports, ships and vehicles). It is great that this difference depicts economical, political and / or cultural difference. The more information I can get from map itself without looking at the tabs and windows (and even without enabling special map modes), the better.

 

[Serensius]

I’m rather surprised by how positive the comments are here. I’ve had my doubts about how the power blocs are being portrayed, saying that it seems like they’re acting too much like Stellaris Federations and don’t seem to fit very well with the period, and I’ve seen nothing to change my mind. Especially the artwork and UI, which seem to be lending themselves to the power blocs acting like federations, instead of modeling the 19th century idea of spheres of influence. But I suppose I’ll have to wait until release to play this. Hopefully this isn’t the Royal Court of Vic3, which is the CK3 DLC that finally broke me and led me to uninstalling the game

Though I think most of the art show here is good, I get your apprehension regarding the power blocs. There seems to be much of an emphasis on having a visual identity for power blocs. But historically I don’t think there was e.g. a logo for the Zollverein or a banner for the Entente. The customizable stuff leans a bit too much into fantasy play imo.

 

[MatthewP]

I’m rather surprised by how positive the comments are here. I’ve had my doubts about how the power blocs are being portrayed, saying that it seems like they’re acting too much like Stellaris Federations and don’t seem to fit very well with the period, and I’ve seen nothing to change my mind. Especially the artwork and UI, which seem to be lending themselves to the power blocs acting like federations, instead of modeling the 19th century idea of spheres of influence. But I suppose I’ll have to wait until release to play this. Hopefully this isn’t the Royal Court of Vic3, which is the CK3 DLC that finally broke me and led me to uninstalling the game

This is a dev diary about art, so people are responding to the art, which seems nice. Also plenty of people like stellaris federations. Personally I don’t, but I’m taking it the opposite way. I’m super excited for the stuff in the base update and also excited that all the stuff I don’t really want seems to be dlc-locked.

 

[wilcoxchar]

I want to thank Paradox for using texture patterns on the map modes in addition to colors. It really helps a lot to make them more visible and differentiate the power blocs from each other.

 

[Oglesby]

It is not a waste of time. It is great to have visually different parts of map (cities, farms, ports, ships and vehicles). It is great that this difference depicts economical, political and / or cultural difference. The more information I can get from map itself without looking at the tabs and windows (and even without enabling special map modes), the better.

As I was responding to the monuments and the ui to support it. Do you really feel that they, the Power Bloc monuments, help visually differentiate cities, farms, ships and vehicles? Are you getting more information because it is a Squid or a Skull in a top hat?

Is this the visual differences on the map you speak of? What information do you get here that you would otherwise have to go to a tab of window to get?

 

[wilcoxchar]

It is not a waste of time. It is great to have visually different parts of map (cities, farms, ports, ships and vehicles). It is great that this difference depicts economical, political and / or cultural difference. The more information I can get from map itself without looking at the tabs and windows (and even without enabling special map modes), the better.

Exactly. Having more information represented on the map means being able to tell more at a glance, without having to go into tabs and menus and submenus for everything. I don't know why people are so opposed to having information available in multiple places.

 

[Olauron]

Do you really feel that they, the Power Bloc monuments, help visually differentiate cities, farms, ships and vehicles? Are you getting more information because it is a Squid or a Skull in a top hat?

Is this the visual differences on the map you speak of? What information do you get here that you would otherwise have to go to a tab of window to get?

Yes. Yes.
Yes. The information is what power bloc the owner of this city belongs to.

I have some doubts that AI would use squids or skulls very often, but as a player I am glad to have such options, even if I would use other types of statues. I use only 10% of flag icons, that doesn't mean that all other flag icons are a waste.

 

[Normannus]

This is a dev diary about art, so people are responding to the art, which seems nice. Also plenty of people like stellaris federations. Personally I don’t, but I’m taking it the opposite way. I’m super excited for the stuff in the base update and also excited that all the stuff I don’t really want seems to be dlc-locked.

For the record, I think the art looks largely atrocious, especially the map UI part.

Oh I love Stellaris Federations, don’t get me wrong- in Stellaris. But they are representing coalitions of multiple empires which can start operating as a single unit on the galactic stage. This could fit in Vic 3 if we were playing through the Cold War, these power blocs wouldn’t be a terrible way to represent NATO, the EU, and the Warsaw Pact, etc., but from what I’ve seen they seem to be trying to create a single Jack-of-all trades mechanic that can then represent multiple completely different systems. I don’t think that when this is released you will get people coming into the forums and complaining about the power blocs causing very strange, ahistoric things (or possibly coming in and bragging about the very strange ahistoric things), similar to how in earlier iterations of the game you could have the US abolish slavery and enact multiculturalism by 1837 with no real pushback.

 

[MatthewP]

For the record, I think the art looks largely atrocious, especially the map UI part.

Oh I love Stellaris Federations, don’t get me wrong- in Stellaris. But they are representing coalitions of multiple empires which can start operating as a single unit on the galactic stage. This could fit in Vic 3 if we were playing through the Cold War, these power blocs wouldn’t be a terrible way to represent NATO, the EU, and the Warsaw Pact, etc., but from what I’ve seen they seem to be trying to create a single Jack-of-all trades mechanic that can then represent multiple completely different systems. I don’t think that when this is released you will get people coming into the forums and complaining about the power blocs causing very strange, ahistoric things (or possibly coming in and bragging about the very strange ahistoric things), similar to how in earlier iterations of the game you could have the US abolish slavery and enact multiculturalism by 1837 with no real pushback.

Well, it also seems like they should work pretty well as "Great power and members of its market", which I believe is going to be the only option without the DLC.

 

[dodito]

Is it possible via a game rule to disable the bloc statues? Please, those are so immersion breaking. I mean, come on, big octopuses and skulls in the middle of 1800's otherwise beautiful capitasl?! Is this going fantasy?
And I would say I'd remove the capes also, while I quite love the necklaces, sabres, crowns (very good job there) and all the rest actually.

 

[Citizen Caen]

For the record, I think the art looks largely atrocious, especially the map UI part.

Oh I love Stellaris Federations, don’t get me wrong- in Stellaris. But they are representing coalitions of multiple empires which can start operating as a single unit on the galactic stage. This could fit in Vic 3 if we were playing through the Cold War, these power blocs wouldn’t be a terrible way to represent NATO, the EU, and the Warsaw Pact, etc., but from what I’ve seen they seem to be trying to create a single Jack-of-all trades mechanic that can then represent multiple completely different systems. I don’t think that when this is released you will get people coming into the forums and complaining about the power blocs causing very strange, ahistoric things (or possibly coming in and bragging about the very strange ahistoric things), similar to how in earlier iterations of the game you could have the US abolish slavery and enact multiculturalism by 1837 with no real pushback.

Yeah I’m trying to stay positive about it until I play it, but I’m pretty skeptical of that cohesion mechanic and unlocking bonuses. We’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully the unlocks will solely be mechanical in nature (mutual defense, market share, foreign investment) and not flat bonuses like Stellaris. If a bunch of the principals end up being +5% construction efficiency or +10% defense on army. Im going to be pretty disappointed with the direction.

 

[Normannus]

Well, it also seems like they should work pretty well as "Great power and members of its market", which I believe is going to be the only option without the DLC.

Perhaps, but I’m not convinced that they’ll be any better than the current mechanics at this. It seems like a lot of the SOI mechanics aren’t really creating diverse ways to exert your authority as they are just creating different gamey categories that have stages that you level-up through. As I mentioned elsewhere, if you were using this to try and model the 20th-21st century development of the EU which slowly seems to be consolidating closer to operating almost like a single state, that would be fine. But I can’t really thing of an example like this during the period. It seems to be trying to simulate multilateral agreements like the Zollverein, Imperial systems like the Habsburg dominions in Italy and the British Empire, and also the looser, less strictly official networks of bilateral and multilateral treaties through which the great powers of the era exerted their authority over smaller states. But then, despite initially seeming like it would be precisely for this, it doesn’t seem to in any way be designed to tackle situations such as the Holy Alliance, the Triple Alliance, the Entente, the Central Powers, or any of the other alliance systems of the concert of Europe which defined this period and which I initially assumed to be the focus of a mechanic called a “Power bloc”

 

[MatthewP]

Perhaps, but I’m not convinced that they’ll be any better than the current mechanics at this. It seems like a lot of the SOI mechanics aren’t really creating diverse ways to exert your authority as they are just creating different gamey categories that have stages that you level-up through. As I mentioned elsewhere, if you were using this to try and model the 20th-21st century development of the EU which slowly seems to be consolidating closer to operating almost like a single state, that would be fine. But I can’t really thing of an example like this during the period. It seems to be trying to simulate multilateral agreements like the Zollverein, Imperial systems like the Habsburg dominions in Italy and the British Empire, and also the looser, less strictly official networks of bilateral and multilateral treaties through which the great powers of the era exerted their authority over smaller states. But then, despite initially seeming like it would be precisely for this, it doesn’t seem to in any way be designed to tackle situations such as the Holy Alliance, the Triple Alliance, the Entente, the Central Powers, or any of the other alliance systems of the concert of Europe which defined this period and which I initially assumed to be the focus of a mechanic called a “Power bloc”

Yeah, I agree with that, it is odd that they created power blocs that don't model the actual well-known power blocs of the time. But on the other hand:

Yeah I’m trying to stay positive about it until I play it, but I’m pretty skeptical of that cohesion mechanic and unlocking bonuses. We’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully the unlocks will solely be mechanical in nature (mutual defense, market share, foreign investment) and not flat bonuses like Stellaris. If a bunch of the principals end up being +5% construction efficiency or +10% defense on army. Im going to be pretty disappointed with the direction.

I agree with this and don't really like the direction of power blocs, so I'm sorta glad that the interesting WWI-triggering dynamics aren't in scope and maybe can be represented later in a better way.

 

[Simian182]

Hey there and thanks!
Could you tell us why does new Russian soldiers skin has Prussian helmets?

 

[Tuppie]

I'll start by commending the art team on a great job! The clothes, event art and historical figures especially look fantastic, but like many others I feel obligated to respectfully voice my disappointment in regards to the current look of monuments. I don't particularly mind the idea or proposed mechanics of monuments as a way of spreading the image of your empire across the globe, after all this was a vital way for real empires of the Victorian age to do just that, however I find the current aesthetics and feel of the monument designer to be far too anachronistic, unserious and ultimately immersion-breaking to fullfill this fantasy. It's not a matter of the monuments looking bad , but it honestly just feels like whoever designed them completely forgot what game they were working on in the first place. Unlike most other art in the game, which is well researched and at least truthful enough to the era to where it feels authentic, the monuments showcased, especially the one with a skull, doesn't even try to adhere to the historical art of any point within the game's timeframe. To make things worse there are (literally) tons of real monuments to use as reference, Nelson's Column for one, is an excellent example of the kind of monument actual Victorians built to project the power and prestige of their empires. For some reason though, rather than taking inspiration from history someone has actively decided that tasteless and anachronistic golden skulls with top-hats and giant squids is the superiour way of visually implementing this system.

Again, the art for this expansion looks great overall and that, I am sure, is why the monuments are especially souring to people. In an expansion where the quality of modelling and research looks especially good they stick out as immersion-breaking by undermining the visual and historical identity of the game. I truly hope that these are reconsidered and that the game retains at least a semi-historical and serious aesthetic.