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Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #144 - Charters of Commerce & Expansion Pass 2

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Happy Monday Victorians!

The time has come! Last week we announced Expansion Pass 2 (well, showed you the logo and a blurry square), thank you for the huge amount of responses, discussion, hype and speculation about what is in the Pass!

Speaking of speculation, we saw a lot of it for different countries based on the logos in the Expansion Pass, for example: Albania, Spain, Russia, Austria and everywhere across the globe! Some people thought the barrel was for brewing, the flag for flag customization and many, many more interesting ideas. Thank you for them all, we had a lot of fun following your discussions!

But today, we shall give you a quick tour of the Expansion Pass: first of all a proper visit to our first upcoming release and the barrel in the Expansion Pass 2 logo! Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to announce Charters of Commerce!

Charters of Commerce​


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Welcome to Charters of Commerce, a Mechanics pack focused on building trade, companies and negotiating treaties with other nations!

Control world trade through market domination, expand companies to new horizons and strongarm countries into unequal treaties. Use the power of commerce to bend other nations to your will - peacefully or by force. Create monopolies to secure critical industries, keeping foreign investors in check. Ultimately, prove your mettle and produce unique Prestige Goods to make your brands known worldwide!

What’s included in Charters of Commerce?
  • Company Charters- Grant special Charters to Companies, giving them a range of special privileges:
    • Trade Charters - lets Companies trade their goods on the World Market
    • Investment Charters - allows establishment of regional headquarters that exploit the target's coffers
    • Colony Charters - makes it possible for a Company to run a colonial region on their own, turning them into a country in the process
    • Industry Charters - grants Companies the ability to expand into producing other goods
  • Monopolies - Boost the efficiency of selected buildings and grant your Companies an exclusive right to certain industries, ensuring their dominance
  • Diplomatic Treaties - Negotiate fair or unequal arrangements with other countries. Expands upon treaties added in Update 1.9, including Non-Colonization Agreements!
  • Prestige Goods - successful Companies can produce higher quality goods, such as Champagne (as an advanced variant of Wine)

Alongside Charters of Commerce, we will be releasing free Update 1.9 that will focus on some of the areas we mentioned back in January with Dev Diary 142. With the full Update including:
  • World Market with Autonomous trade - as shown last week in Dev Diary 143
  • Diplomatic Treaties - negotiate with other nations to truly make the best deal for you, with new additions such as Transit Rights!
  • Frontline and Military Quality of Life Improvements - improving front splitting, teleportation and more
  • Blockades - blockade key locations to control access for military or trade purposes

Now, you may be asking “What is a Mechanic Pack”? It is a pack aimed to provide mechanical immersion at a lower price than an Expansion due to lower focus on the narrative content. This allows us to provide a deeper mechanical immersion, while extra flavour will be included in an additional Immersion Pack within the same Expansion Pass 2.

This is a bit of an experiment on our end - as we want to make it possible for you to receive both new mechanics as well as narrative content when purchasing an Expansion Pass (as you would with an Expansion Pack), while also giving you an option to choose only one when buying content separately (Mechanics Pack + Immersion Pack). The choice is all yours!

Charters of Commerce and Update 1.9 will be releasing June 17th, for $19.99 and is available to be wishlisted now! We will delve into upcoming features in the future Dev Diaries and videos, so stay tuned!.

Expansion Pass 2​


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And so we bid you greetings to the second Expansion Pass for Victoria 3! Adding more to the game through a range of new content for trade, diplomacy, nations and much more!

Expansion Pass 2 includes:
  • Trade Ships Bonus Pack Instant Unlock
  • Charters of Commerce Mechanics Pack
  • National Awakening Immersion Pack
  • Songs of the Homeland Music Pack
  • Iberian Twilight Immersion Pack
You can see more information on each pack later in the dev diary!

By getting Expansion Pass 2 you will save -20% compared to the price of content being sold separately - and you will also receive Trade Ships Bonus Pack, which will be unlocked immediately upon purchase of the Expansion Pass 2. The whole package is available now for $35.97.

More information can be found on the Steam page for Expansion Pass 2, and we will have dev diaries leading up to each pack!

Trade Ships​

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For those of you who would like to delve into Expansion Pass 2 right away, we prepared an instant unlock: Trade Ships Bonus Pack. This art pack will become instantly available in the game for all who purchase the Expansion Pass, providing three new trade ship appearances to ply the trade lanes of the world map.

As we want to make these ships feel truly unique, the sails color update to which country you are playing based on their flag, and appear based on cultural heritage or culture. For example, a Marmara would appear as trade ships for Turkish, Greek or Misri primary culture.

You can also have these appear in other ways e.g. if you are a subject of someone who has them, if your Power Bloc leader has them or you are importing clippers from a nation with them!

A Qing Junk, in a dapper yellow​
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The Marmara in Ottoman Empire colors, with a rather dashing red and white​
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A Dhow clad in midnight sails​
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National Awakening​

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Our next Immersion pack releasing in Q3 2025 is National Awakening - focusing on the century of national struggles in Central Europe and the Balkans. Will Austria survive its internal political and national struggles? And, how will they all fare with the swell of national identities?

Selected key features:

  • Austrian Internal Content - will Klemens von Metternich keep the crumbling empire together, or will nationalist forces break it apart? Is there a future for all the different ethnicities under Habsburg's absolute rule, or maybe it’s time for a more federationist state?
  • Hungarian Flavour - determine the place of the proud Hungarian nation within or without the empire.
  • Powderkeg of Europe - engage with intricate narrative content surrounding the emerging Balkan states, struggling for independence and power.
  • New southern states - form Yugoslavia or Illyria, carving out their borders and national outline as you please.
  • Historic characters - join a whole cast of bigger-than-life figures who helped shape the outline of Austria and Balkans.
  • New 2D art - including new map and UI skin, as well as event images.

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Songs of the Homeland​

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In Q4 2025, immerse yourself in a music pack dedicated to the rise of national identities, modernism and a truly grand tomorrow!

Selected key features:

  • Embrace the power of the nation - immerse yourself in sounds of national pride and fervor.
  • Modern trends - experience the innovation of emerging modernist music.
  • Ambition wins all - lose yourself in the global soundscape of a truly global empire.

Iberian Twilight​

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And so we come to our last part of Expansion Pass 2, also releasing in Q4 2025. Iberian Twilight lets you ponder at the once mighty powers of the Iberian Peninsula, grappling with the clashing ideals of reform or reaction! Can you restore these sleeping giants to their old glory, or shall they fade away into the darkening night?

Selected key features:

  • Spain:
    • Carlist Wars - side with the liberals or counter their aspirations through dedicated narrative content.
    • Return of a global empire - rebuild your once powerful, world-spanning empire and face both new and old adversaries as you progress on the path to greatness.
    • The future calls - modernize your country and institutions, freeing the nation of the shackles of the past.
  • Portugal:
    • Define who you are - recover from the War of the Two Brothers and define the vision for the future of your nation.
    • The ultimate trade powerhouse - reaffirm your position as the world-leading trade power, spanning a commercial empire.
    • American ambitions - navigate the diplomatic relations with Brazil, defining your position as a former suzerain of the region.
  • Other:
    • One Iberia - unite the peninsula under your rule.
    • New art - including buildings, unit models and more!

What’s next?​


With that we finish the overview of Charters of Commerce and the new Expansion Pass!

The infographic below shows you when each part of the pass will land, with more information about each piece of upcoming content receiving their own dedicated dev diaries.

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Before we send you off, last week we announced new bundles coming to Victoria 3; the Starter Edition and Ultimate Bundle for new and seasoned players of Victoria 3! These will replace the previous Grand Edition and old Expansion Pass bundles, and provide the best way to start or complete your collection!

We joined Martin with the Trade Rework dev diary last week, next time we see you in a Dev Diary it will be mid April with Lino and information on Frontline Improvements coming in free Update 1.9! A happy Thursday when we see you next!
 
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With some expansion of diplomacy, one thing I would like to see would be some way for the player to have more influence over their diplomatic capacity. I have always disliked that there are times I have to deny certain agreements simply because I need my influence elsewhere.

It would be amazing if there was some diplomatic administration building that functionally works the same as government administration except gives you influence rather than bureaucracy. Could even combine the two buildings though I am generally opposed to mixing production types within the same building. This makes sense as well as a nation like Britain might want to have a large diplomatic corp to maintain treaties all across the world with everyone small and large whilst a nation like Austria would only need a small group to manage their affairs in Europe.
 
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This looks very promising! I gotta say though, that's going to be one hell of a second half of the year. With 1.9 coming so late I'm a little worried about 1.10 and 1.11. The theme and content of the two Immersion Packs coming alongside them give me hope that we will get both the addition of national pride and the Legitimacy rework in 1.10 and the navy rework in 1.11. But that sounds like quite the undertaking for two patches coming so close to each other and 1.9. And that is not even considering all the diplomacy related improvements you discussed that I thought would be coming alongside the navy rework but now I fear will be pushed to next year due to the sheer volume of changes packed into 1.9. Which is a shame because I was really looking forward to the Diplo Play and Interest improvements in particular. But maybe you will prove me wrong and all this will still make it into one of the patches this year. Either way, can't wait to see all that you have in store for us!
 
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Hmm, so this takes the normal mechanics and immersion pack + an immersion pack and splits it further into mechanics+immersion+immersion?
It seems to be the same content that pdx has established as standard bit split more.
Is there a reason for this?
 
brantodb01 said:
Hmm, so this takes the normal mechanics and immersion pack + an immersion pack and splits it further into mechanics+immersion+immersion?
It seems to be the same content that pdx has established as standard bit split more.
Is there a reason for this?
Click to expand...
$$$

and:

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Of course it remains to be seen if this experiment will for work for PDX.
 
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looks fantastic and im very intrigued, i just hope that there'll be a navy rework because whats the world market without blockades...
although i do appreciate of the arbitrage between countries as is right and proper
 
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brantodb01 said:
Is there a reason for this?
Click to expand...
At some point during Stellaris development, Paradox decided to reverse the policy of keeping new mechanics and reworks behind DLC, and releasing flavour for free. So now they release reworks and mechanics for free, and keep flavour behind DLC.

Now say "thank you".
 
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I truly hope that when spawning characters, the system does not rigidly adhere to a nation's primary culture but instead dynamically generates them based on discriminatory law and political power
 
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  • Colony Charters - makes it possible for a Company to run a colonial region on their own, turning them into a country in the process
Click to expand...
So the United States can eat Central America and replace them with the United Fruit Company?
 
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Considering the national awakening DLC, please don't consider nations and cultures as the same thing. There are a lot of pluri-ethnic / pluricultural or complex nations with many languages that are united between a strong national fervor. We have to stop having this myth that Scotland, Britanny, Corsica, Wales or Catalogne always have been staunch antagonist of national constructions in France, Great Britain, Spain etc...

Also, don't forget that we are in the XIXth century mostly : nations are sometime associated with political institutions, regimes and constitutions (USA, Republican france etc...) So they are tons of nuance.

Ethno-nationalism (culture in vicky 3 = nations) is really not compatible in any cases
 
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LET'S F*****G GOOOOOOO!!!

Eager to know what the Iberian Inmersion Pack brings. Personal desires that I'd love to see here:

- Tratados de Paz y Amistad - Spain didn't start to recognize the independence of Hispanoamerican countries until precisely 1836 with Mexico (a process that spanned until many decades later for the rest of the countries). I imagine a mechanic where as Spain you can decide between giving up claims in America, as liberals did, to get clout for IGs that favour progress (doing this country by country, so you can play with the rate of treaties and figure out ways to compound benefits) or, likely a Carlist stance, keeping claims that can end up being cheap and resource rich core states in America at the exchange of having harder times modernizing the country and the economy and struggling with reluctant Great Powers that want to be the top influence and trade partner in the region (mainly GB and USA).

- Espadones and Pronunciamientos - Generals had huge protagonism since the Peninsula War against Napoleon until the Spanish Civil War, so was it through coups, being the leaders of the main political parties or even the only supporter of a new dynasty for the Crown. There already are mechanics to make generals take part in politica and staging coups, especially in South America with CotS, but in this case there should be room for something like a spree of coups (Sexenio Revolucionario, uprisings in the II Republic...) with individuals playing a more decisive role.

- Prestige Wars - Aligned to the previous point, Spain entered some wars in Africa (especially against Morocco) and SE Asia that were seen as an opportunity to regain some prestige as a country. The Spanish American War can also match this mindset, given the role propaganda played in both sides (W.R. Hearst's yellow press in this conflict is quite known, but Spain also saw lots of patriotic publishings depicting Americans as mischieving greedy capitalist pigs that couldn't rival the Spanish historical might and honor on the battlefield). The result of these battles and wars can range from boosts in legitimacy and the popularity of the militars that fought there (Africa War: the lions of the Spanish Congress were built casting the iron of Moroccan cannons and Prim became massively popular) to absolute national disasters that changed the moral of the people (like those of 1898 and Annual).

- Cantonalismo - Another classic of the unstability of Spanish XIXth century. The struggle between centralism and federalism/separatism was one of the headlines in both Republics. Going federalist may make the Spanish state too weak to push reforms and modernization on its own, but pushing centralism too much may make states or even ports (looking especially at the Canton of Cartagena, which even asked US to join the Union) to revolt/secede.

- Choosing a new host for the Spanish Crown - When Isabel II exiled in 1868, the new democratic parliament had to look for a new king. Candidates may make tensions among Great Powers to appear, as the possible pick of a Hohenzollern originated the casus belli that started the Franco Prussian War. French Monarchism like JE that can overthrown the Bourbons but with GPs having the chance to play a role.

- Magnicides and Terrorism - This mechanic already exists in the game as a revolution event, but my impression is that this happens not as often as this century saw, apart from them not being always in that kind of revolutionary context (Lincoln when the Civil War just finished, Tsar Alexander II when he was enacting some liberal reforms, McKinley not being 1901 US a country on the verge of revolution...). Spain saw 4 assassinations of its PMs by either plots or revolutionary/anarchist terrorists in barely 50 years, plus many other failed attempts on kings and PMs and Barcelona becoming one of the cities with more political violence in the world, and Portugal seeing the regicide of both its King and its Crown Prince make this DLC a suitable occasion to revisit this kind of events.
 
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