Is it even worth it?

[Doub13Dd]

One of my favorite things about Victoria II was playing as generally minor nations, such as Canada or Sokoto, and having interesting and unique gameplay experiences that you really couldn't have with the great powers like GB or Prussia. I recently wanted to try and start an ironman game playing as the Transvaal Republic and work towards forming an alt-history, independent South African Republic. About 5 minutes into the game I realized that there doesn't seem to be any unique journal entries/decisions for the Boer republics, and the army artwork and map architecture appear far more "native" African than what I would expect from the Afrikaners... Has anyone else attempted a game like this and are there any unique events, decisions, or flavor around what i'm trying to do?

*PS: Sorry for the click-baity title, just really wanted to hear before I put hours into a disappointing experience.

[Dao of Yakitori]

Flavor events and units will arrive in the upcoming DLCs. This is Paradox's business model. Games are very bland on release on purpose.

I have CK2, CK3, EU4, HoI4, and they all need DLCs to be fun. I expect the same for Victoria 3 which is why I'm waiting before buying it.

[kesat]

Overall most nations are rather blank unfortunately, esp. in comparison to vicky 2 or EU.

E.g. the ethiopian minors have an journal entry and event related to King Solomon and the unifiication of Ethiopia. But except that it's just another uncivilized minor - there's currently just a pretty big lack of unique flavor to any nation.

[curtadamsCA]

I find different countries are very different plays for the same reason they are different in the real world - different situations. The Boer republics have a lot of hostile neighbors and they'll play very differently from a Central American country or a Great Power subject.

[a.s.banon]

THe game itself now got too many game breaking bugs that spoil the experience. really no thx for now, maybe in 6 month the game will be finished

[hayst]

I'm playing Japan and trying to industrialize while politically battling the Shogunate (it is it's own interest group) is a cool dynamic.

[salad fork]

Originally posted by Doub13Dd:

One of my favorite things about Victoria II was playing as generally minor nations, such as Canada or Sokoto, and having interesting and unique gameplay experiences that you really couldn't have with the great powers like GB or Prussia. I recently wanted to try and start an ironman game playing as the Transvaal Republic and work towards forming an alt-history, independent South African Republic. About 5 minutes into the game I realized that there doesn't seem to be any unique journal entries/decisions for the Boer republics, and the army artwork and map architecture appear far more "native" African than what I would expect from the Afrikaners... Has anyone else attempted a game like this and are there any unique events, decisions, or flavor around what i'm trying to do?

*PS: Sorry for the click-baity title, just really wanted to hear before I put hours into a disappointing experience.

I find the major powers too easy. Minor powers in their own market are fun and you have to build everything from the ground up or import what's missing it's fun gameplay.

[Pond_Lotus]

The game is def very bare bones right now, and I do agree that paradox will 100% be using DLC to flavor countries up, however mods will also do this. I can imagine that in the next few months when the markets get reworked, war, etc. and the game is in a bit better state, that flavor mods will come out with unique decisions/events and unique boosts that will give you what you are looking for. Luckily with the addition of steam workshop I see mods really adding a lot to VIC 3, that was much harder to achieve in VIC 2.

[Doub13Dd]

Originally posted by Pond_Lotus:

The game is def very bare bones right now, and I do agree that paradox will 100% be using DLC to flavor countries up, however mods will also do this. I can imagine that in the next few months when the markets get reworked, war, etc. and the game is in a bit better state, that flavor mods will come out with unique decisions/events and unique boosts that will give you what you are looking for. Luckily with the addition of steam workshop I see mods really adding a lot to VIC 3, that was much harder to achieve in VIC 2.

Yeah, it's just a real shame that so much of the game lacks any real flavor. The only mods i've used so far are just to fix what "seem" to be developer oversights, like Russia colonizing Hokkaido or the disgusting border gore that is the Canada-US border midgame. Guess I miss the old paradox dlc policy where they usually focused on mechanic updates and adding new systems to the game, not just pure flavor for one region of the world $15.00 at a time...

[Doub13Dd]

Originally posted by salad fork:

Originally posted by Doub13Dd:

One of my favorite things about Victoria II was playing as generally minor nations, such as Canada or Sokoto, and having interesting and unique gameplay experiences that you really couldn't have with the great powers like GB or Prussia. I recently wanted to try and start an ironman game playing as the Transvaal Republic and work towards forming an alt-history, independent South African Republic. About 5 minutes into the game I realized that there doesn't seem to be any unique journal entries/decisions for the Boer republics, and the army artwork and map architecture appear far more "native" African than what I would expect from the Afrikaners... Has anyone else attempted a game like this and are there any unique events, decisions, or flavor around what i'm trying to do?

*PS: Sorry for the click-baity title, just really wanted to hear before I put hours into a disappointing experience.

I find the major powers too easy. Minor powers in their own market are fun and you have to build everything from the ground up or import what's missing it's fun gameplay.

Exactly, playing as a major can be fun when you're looking for that kind of campaign, but sometimes I want to just go off and do my own thing. It's just disappointing to see that most minor nations in this game don't have anything unique to offer other then their initial starting conditions.

[Doub13Dd]

Originally posted by kesat:

Overall most nations are rather blank unfortunately, esp. in comparison to vicky 2 or EU.

E.g. the ethiopian minors have an journal entry and event related to King Solomon and the unifiication of Ethiopia. But except that it's just another uncivilized minor - there's currently just a pretty big lack of unique flavor to any nation.

I think that's what bothers me the most. I don't expect 100 event chains for some random minor nation at game launch, but outside of formable nations there doesn't even seem to be anything unique to distinguish most nations from each other. Its sad that a decade-old game like Vicky II had more flavor built into it then Victoria III at launch.

[Doub13Dd]

Originally posted by Hayst:

I'm playing Japan and trying to industrialize while politically battling the Shogunate (it is it's own interest group) is a cool dynamic.

Japan was always one of my favorite nations in Vicky II, I'll have to try a playthrough with them! From the Dev Diaries I read it seems like they put a lot of focus into making Japan fun to play.

[Doub13Dd]

Originally posted by Dao of Eithan Arelius:

Flavor events and units will arrive in the upcoming DLCs. This is Paradox's business model. Games are very bland on release on purpose.

I have CK2, CK3, EU4, HoI4, and they all need DLCs to be fun. I expect the same for Victoria 3 which is why I'm waiting before buying it.

Believe me, I know all about their DLC model. EU4 before institutions were introduced seems like ancient history lol. I think this is the same reason I have really struggled with trying to enjoy CK3, the mechanics all seem to be there... but there's nothing really interesting or unique enough to keep my attention in a game for more then a couple hours before I get bored and have seen everything there is to offer. I don't know when Paradox started separating the flavor packs from the actual "mechanic" expansions... but its really starting to irritate me that they want to double dip on their DLC releases when each new game is being released half baked (Just look at what happened to Imperator...).

[George Costanza]

not at this point. Maybe in a year if they'll fix multiple problems.