Happy Wednesday Victorians! Update 2 of the 1.14 Open Beta is here! This update focuses on various improvements to Wargoal infamy rebalancing, diplomatic AI improvements, improved AI state values and radicals de-radicalising upon a state being flipped back to the original owner. To those of you who are just finding out about the beta or need a refresher on how to join, you can opt into the Beta by following these instructions:
Navigate to your Steam Library.
Right-click Victoria 3 and select “Properties”.
In the newly created window, select “Game Versions & Betas”.
Now find the “1.14-openbeta” option and select it.
If you wish to opt out and return to the live version of the game, you can scroll back up to the top of the same list and select “Default Public Version”
The Open Beta is only available in English, other languages will be supported when changes make it to the public version of the game.
Changes in 1.14 Open Beta Update 2
Everything in this section will be available to test in the second Open Beta update, which released shortly before this post went live. To see the changes brought by the previous updates of the Open Beta, click here for the opening update or here for the first update. Wargoal Infamy Rebalancing
What is it: Complete rework of how infamy from wargoals is calculated. Infamy is now calculated against a state’s share of global GDP and population rather than a flat value, so that it scales properly throughout the game. It is also generally higher for very consequential states and lower for inconsequential ones (taking London gives a lot of infamy, Dutch West Indies not so much). Costs for non-conquest war goals were also rebalanced to be more appropriate to their impact.
What to test/feedback: How wargoal infamy balance feels now, whether some wargoals generate too much or too little infamy.
Diplomatic AI Improvements
What is it: First set of changes to the diplomatic AI in terms of things like war goal and treaty article selection. AI Strategies now also have a larger impact on diplomatic play support. A pass was also done on AI willingness to accept demands.
What to test/feedback: Which areas of the diplomatic AI are in need of further polish and improvement.
Improve AI State Values
What is it: Addressed numerous issues based on your feedback like Hawaii not being valued correctly, additionally did a first pass on broadening state values in preparation for a future update where we also more clearly show the difference between state value vs. willingness to actually go to war over a state, individual AI strategies now also modify state values
What to test/feedback: Do AI state values feel reasonable? How readable are the individual factors?
War Goal Flipping De-Radicalization
What is it: When states are flipped back and forth during a war, individuals radicalized by conquest are now de-radicalized when the state is taken back.
What to test/feedback: Whether this works correctly, whether there are other serious balance issues with in-war state flipping.
Planned changes in future 1.14 Open Betas
Expand on AI Regional Stances
Improve the impact and readability of AI Regional Stances by providing further guidance to AI nations via the addition of “mini strategies” called Regional Objectives which are drawn from different pools depending on the regional stance and situation in that region. This will be exposed to and help players develop a better understanding of their neighbors goals but also help the AI evaluate its current situation and progress.
AI Government Spending Improvements
Make the AI better at balancing its budget and not overspending on certain government building types, make it better at understanding how many armies it actually needs to mobilize for a particular war.
Early Troopships
Add early troopships to make transportation less of a hassle early-game
AI Naval Improvements
Make the AI better at fleet management and overseas force projection. Find a good balance between spreading out fleets for power projection and keeping them consolidated to win naval battles.
AI Strait Handling
Improve AI understanding of straits: both in how to use them and how to diplomatically react to player strait closures.
AI Trade & Production
Give the AI better tools for evaluating trade capabilities in its market and which goods it should encourage importing as opposed to domestically producing. Make AI understand which goods it can overproduce to fill key needs in the world market.
That’s all from us today but we’ll see you tomorrow for our next Dev Diary!