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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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BrotherJonathan said:
Ah, thank you. When I hear things like this I tend to think of things like the Virginia Company or the BEIC.
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There were many smaller companies, that established individual cities or smaller colonies in the pacific too. but the NZ company is one of the biggest
they were colonies explicitly for colonisation, moving settlers and buying, developing and selling land to colonists, quite different from the EIC before it which was more about profit of trade and plantations, not profit through colonisation and land sales, it kind of only existed in this era
 
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BrotherJonathan said:
Ah, thank you. When I hear things like this I tend to think of things like the Virginia Company or the BEIC.
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Would the Congo Free State be more accurately represented as a personal union or as a colonial company? I feel like it honestly makes more sense as a colonial company that Leopold holds, even if it was technically a personal union.

Put another way, I think it's basically autonomous colonies, right? Similar to how today you have a decision to convert colonial African holdings into a colonial subject. I think it's fine for a 'hands off' colonization, where you can have a colony that's either more or less barbaric than you'd be directly.

Anyways, there will be a fun US run out there where you let Standard Oil colonize the US frontier then fight a war to prevent Standard Oil independence.
 
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This Charters expansion has really piqued my curiosity with Prestige Goods as a way of adding "flavor" to goods. Definitely suited to a DLC feature, based on the assumption that y'all's team will have to reimagine the art for the goods to some extent, and change mechanics so multiple similar goods satisfy the same demands. Presumably the prestigious kind will be equivalent to 1.X units of the regular version, in terms of input values and base prices? Really gets me thinking about possibilities I hadn't considered.
 
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sundown7 said:
Im surprised ships and naval warfare seem to get no update whatsoever. Wasnt one point in the road map last year that ships can be individual Units etc...?
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it might be something on the free update horizon, not on the dlc season

Desseabar said:
Would the Congo Free State be more accurately represented as a personal union or as a colonial company? I feel like it honestly makes more sense as a colonial company that Leopold holds, even if it was technically a personal union.

Put another way, I think it's basically autonomous colonies, right? Similar to how today you have a decision to convert colonial African holdings into a colonial subject. I think it's fine for a 'hands off' colonization, where you can have a colony that's either more or less barbaric than you'd be directly.

Anyways, there will be a fun US run out there where you let Standard Oil colonize the US frontier then fight a war to prevent Standard Oil independence.
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it could be a good way for slavery-banned countries to have slave-holding colonies too, have the actual colonisation done by an initially landless subject company so there isn't that temporary window of owned by slavery banned before the handover
 
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Will this feature Ottoman flavour? Since they weren't specifically named. I'm fine if there isn't and you make a specific flavour pack for the Ottomans and the rising Arab states, maybe foreign intervention DLC, since the Entente intervened in the Great Arab Revolt to support them against the Ottomans. Actually the alt-history for the Arab Revolt seems pretty cool, imagine if the Hashemites got what they wanted instead of being betrayed and had a mega Arab Caliphate state.

But I've been wanting to do a Bosnia to Yugoslavia run after I saw people do it on Reddit, this seems like the perfect excuse to do it now haha.
 
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Antonin Vuillemin said:
It's not really a big crisis ...

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I never said that they are in a crisis.

It's just that they want even more of your money and investors want even better stock market results. It's a stock market company after all.

People keep buying these DLCs, so they will continue splitting and producing even more of them. Another price increase is also possible in the future. They know that you will buy anything from them.
 
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Martin deliberately didn’t answer my question about trade advantage and quality goods because they already had plans for that. Ha, great one — this is exactly what I was looking for! This will create the depth and character for nations we’ve been longing for since release. Just based on face value, this will be great!
 
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Carlos Burbon said:
Will Serbia, Greece and Montengro get content in the immersion pack?
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From the Steam page:
  • Serbia: Take sides in the rivalry between the Serbian royal houses of the Karadjordjevic and Obrenovic dynasties.
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And:
  • Montenegro: Lead this tiny theocratic state to secular monarchy and potential expansion.
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However no mention of Greece.
 
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PDX_H4n1baL said:
As Wiz commented, the mechanics we're introducing with Charters of Commerce are comparable to the ones we released with Sphere of Influence.
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Well, my argument was that the old "mechanics+flavour" DLC shouldn't have had mechanics parts either. The problem is that
1) they tend to be systemically intrusive (replacing mechanics available to every country making those less important) and very often overpowered
2) they tend to be neglected in QA, especially in the latter patches, and are a constant source of bugs
PDX_H4n1baL said:
Parts of the content there are driven or motivated by mechanics. But we'll talk more about it in the future.
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Great to hear that!
I feel like the questions like "should Czechs have the right to vote" should dominate the politics of many countries. The effects should be very tangible, because saying "no" would mean a constantly dissatisfied educated homeland-based minority just waiting for a spark to ignite the rebellion. Saying "yes" would mean that the governments tend to be less stable, but the Czechs are more happy in general. But when the whole country is in turmoil, they have more political power to wreak chaos.
I even think that some of these things are in fact already modelled by clout increase when you switch acceptance laws, but this is not highlighted and unclear to the player.
PDX_H4n1baL said:
There's certainly room for expanding this to be more hands-off in the future, agreed. But no concrete plans at this point.
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I think the more important thing is that there should be more downsides to monopolies than upsides. The DD is currently worded like having a monopoly is a boon you're aiming for as a player. This should be the other way round, monopolies should mostly appear against your will, because innovation stifling and tendencies to inflate prices with deliberate supply reduction are not countered by their streamlined governance and standartisation effects.

The fact that they should appear organically rather than be granted is secondary (although of course it would make sense that a player would not manually create something bad for them).

We've got a whole thread about this, please come visit if you have the time.
 
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You should definitely switch the release dates of the Austrian and Spain packs. On a more serious note I had imagined the eventual Iberian flavor pack would also include some relatively minor content for Cuba and Philippines. Is there any plans for them?
 
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Austrian content is interesting. I mentioned before how an Immersion Pack would work great for a more diverse, federlised state, and how with a much needed improvement to cultural discrimination, a really fun, but still optional content could be made with special focus on Austrian Empire, and it seems that's what we are getting! Main issue however, is maybe that it seems a bit stretched thin. Like I imagine there's gonna be a journal entry for Montenegro, which is a country with 0 influence on the overall game (it's not like it's French Immersion Pack, which you want, regardless of who you play as), and which won't be nearly enough to get anyone to actually play as Montenegro, and result in a wasted development time, which could go into making Serbia/Austria/Hungary stuff better. It's very important, that the impactful immersion is good, not that there is a lot of it.

For Iberian pack however... I am not too hopeful. Honestly it already sounds bad. Carlist Wars is something people asked for, and I would probably want it to be the single feature from the entire list, that actually does come into the game, but in a free patch just polishing the content. The rest of the planned features? We already can do that. You already can take Spain and reconquer Americas, and in fact it's what many Spain players decide to do. If there's gonna be a JE which asks you to conquer at least 70% of the states in some strategic regions, and allows you to release previous colonial administrations there, and awards you 10% bonus prestige for 20 years, then I simply have 0 interest in this. Same for Portugal - you already can fight Brazil, why would I need to pay for extra content, which will just be "if you do you get a temporary radicalism reduction bonus~~~"
 
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