Sphere of Influence / Update 1.7: New Release Date

[Wizzington]

Hello Victorians, this is Martin here with an update on the release date of the Sphere of Influence expansion.

A few weeks ago we announced we were planning to release the expansion and its accompanying update on May 6th. Since that time we’ve unfortunately come to the conclusion that both the update and the expansion are in need of more time for bug fixing and polish. Both update 1.7 and Sphere of Influence contain several fundamental changes to how the game functions, particularly in the form of the Building Ownership Revision and Power Blocs, which has resulted in bugs, as well as balance and technical stability issues.

While we are happy with the features on offer in 1.7/Sphere of Influence, we simply do not believe that sticking to the original release date will allow us to deliver those features in a polished and balanced state, and we frankly do not want your enjoyment of them to be marred by excessive bugginess, crashes or general lack of polish. We believe that a delay will allow us to release the update and expansion in a state that both we as the developers and you as the players will be much more happy with.

The new release date will be Monday the 24th of June. We will continue releasing weekly dev diaries up to that point, as there is still quite a lot to cover with both the DLC and the update. We know many of you are eagerly anticipating the expansion and apologize for the extended waiting that this will create, but we really want Sphere of Influence to meet your expectations and for this release to be one that we can be proud of as a development team!

 

[JakopDalunde]

Good decision! Best of luck with the development.

 

[exi123]

Finally an update, dlc and patch gets delayed when it is not ready. Seems like they are learning lessons from the latest desasters!

 

[lilcritt]

Disappointing, naturally. But reassuring. Take the time needed to avoid past mistakes.

 

[Grzegorz Grzybek]

Take your time!

 

[Marco Dandolo]

I hope that we'll see at least one or two hotfixes until then. 2,5 months is a long time.

 

[Windlife]

I hope MP works with this new update. On the current 1.6 patch, large scale MP is not possible without desyncs.

 

[Baalzamon85]

Paradox is taking the right lessons from this turbulent time, bugfree and polished experience is the way to go.

 

[Imp0815]

Ready when it's done!

 

[gustavotoniato]

Congratulations on your courageous decision! A game put off for polish is a game well made.

 

[PDX_Pelly]

I hope MP works with this new update. On the current 1.6 patch, large scale MP is not possible without desyncs.

We recently made some fixes specifically for MP coming in 1.7.

 

[IsaacCAT]

All my support to delay the release.

More time to adapt my suggestions of course!

I wish we could have open betas for everything, alas not always possible.

Godspeed!

 

[Arizal]

Good! I'm certainly a bit disappointed, but I would be more by a catastrophic release. This expansion is important for Victoria 3 and we all wish it comes out in the best of ways.

Full support, here! Do your thing and make SoI the best it can be!

 

[DaBombXXX]

Will we get a patch fixing the slowdowns we get for AMD CPU's in the meantime or does this mean I have to wait another month and a half for the game to be playable for me?

 

[Kropotkin1871]

A revised and balanced version is preferable to a bad release. I agree. I hope at this time you take advantage of adding ideas from the comments of previous DD.

 

[Metz]

Can make 1.7 encourage Argentina and Paraguay to actually expand into Mapuche and Guarani?

 

[CivMasters]

This is frankly the absolute best thing I could read from you. I've been asking for it since the announcement. With each Dev Diary the scale of this DLC showed more and more ambitious features, so I grew increasingly discomforted.

This decision gives you the chance to make things right and, for once, release a product players will be happy with, no strings attached. This could change the Steam store Review average, bring back players that avoided the game a few hours in after each bad release, and make the game a more popular streaming option.

Way to go! If needed, count on the community to help tackle polishing with an open Beta from the middle of may on! I'm sure many would be happy to help, such as with 1.5.

 

[RedRalphWiggum]

Correct decision. I eagerly await late June

 

[Arizal]

Way to go! If needed, count on the community to help tackle polishing with an open Beta from the middle of may on! I'm sure many would be happy to help, such as with 1.5.

Sure, a closed beta with understanding players could be nice!

 

[PDX_Pelly]

This is frankly the absolute best thing I could read from you. I've been asking for it since the announcement. With each Dev Diary the scale of this DLC showed more and more ambitious features, so I grew increasingly discomforted.

This decision gives you the chance to make things right and, for once, release a product players will be happy with, no strings attached. This could change the Steam store Review average, bring back players that avoided the game a few hours in after each bad release, and make the game a more popular streaming option.

Way to go! If needed, count on the community to help tackle polishing with an open Beta from the middle of may on! I'm sure many would be happy to help, such as with 1.5.

An Open Beta is not something we will go for with this release, due to the time and resource investment going into running the program. This doesn't mean we never want to do more Open Betas in the future however! (I personally really like helping to run them)