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Victoria 3 >  Workshop > CaelReader's Workshop > Hail, Columbia! - United States Flavor Pack > Discussions
Hail, Columbia! - United States Flavor Pack
Description Discussions5 Comments794 Change Notes
MyNameIsChaz Apr 19, 2024 @ 8:59pm
Feedback and suggestions
Stellar mod- absolutely fantastic amount of content. Figured I'd give some feedback:

I forgot to screenshot, but at some point in the 1890s (I think?) I got an event to spawn a progressive (forget which one) and neither option would work. The event specifically mentioned either spawning him as an agitator or as an IG leader, but the IG was listed as "Politically Unaffiliated" or something like that, so it didn't work.

After the Civil War when you lose all the extra agitator slots, you're typically stuck with a very large number of agitators and no way to get rid of them. You can exile/promote to leadership, but only once per four years. Worse yet, lots of interesting historical characters end up not getting used because there's so few places for them to go (IGs, agitators, generals/admirals) which is a real shame. Perhaps the extra agitators could be kept for the whole run? Maybe to balance it out, you could reduce their individual strength relative to political movements so the US player doesn't have a constant stream of political movements and radicals. Alternatively, maybe the US player can have their timers for exile and promotion reduced; perhaps some combination of all of the above?

Another random suggestion: perhaps there could be scripted events to choose between various historical characters for IG leadership? Especially around elections. Like, "It's 1860- do we pick Lincoln or keep our current leader?" type stuff.

I'm not sure if it's a me problem or a mod problem but post-Civil War, I have a really hard time having anybody but the Democratic Party with a lone Rural Folk IG win elections. It doesn't seem to matter if the Whigs (who never became the Republicans) have the Intelligentsia, PB, and Armed Forces all together and relatively strong- the Rural Folk Dems win every time. Industrialists have sequestered themselves in the Liberal Republican Party alone, no matter the ideology of their leader, ensuring they come dead last in each election.

I really like the Manifest Destiny mechanic, though I'd perhaps like to see if there's a possibility of further ways to increase/decrease it that the player could have control over. As it stands, it's slightly difficult to influence it in the direction you want. The Infamy Decay debuff is a little punishing, though I suppose I understand it being so with the other buffs.

Overall, the mod is great though. It really does well at touching on some of the most broad strokes of American history and I'd love to see more. As an American history nerd and Vicky addict, this was exactly what I wanted.

Edit:

Nearly forgot, but it would be nice if there was some way of fixing the New England/DC mid-late game problem wherein those states become incredibly useless, or active liabilities. I know there's mods that combine them into a single state, which is nice, though as you've mentioned, they're incompatible.
Last edited by MyNameIsChaz; Apr 19, 2024 @ 9:04pm
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Showing 1-15 of 33 comments
CaelReader  [developer] Apr 23, 2024 @ 12:30pm 
Thanks for the feedback, glad you liked the mod.
Hmm, thought I fixed that bug with the Cross of Gold spawning WJB as "politically unaligned", not sure what's going on there
Party attraction stuff is an ongoing problem I'm still tinkering with.
There is actually an event already to spawn Lincoln and make him PB leader, but I have plans for a full Party Nomination mechanic to that effect.

I think the player has precisely the correct control over Manifest Destiny right now. You can push to increase it through foreign policy actions or bolstering relevant IGs. The one-time suppress/promote buttons are available as a direct way to influence it, but otherwise I do not want it to just be a "press button to progress bar" mechanic. If the people elect anti-expansionists or pro-expansionists against your wishes, you the player should have to just cope.

I will probably end up making a submod to do an eastern states merge, since it seems to be a common problem, and that way it could be compatible with the mod.
#1
MyNameIsChaz Apr 23, 2024 @ 11:14pm 
Originally posted by CaelReader:
Thanks for the feedback, glad you liked the mod.
Hmm, thought I fixed that bug with the Cross of Gold spawning WJB as "politically unaligned", not sure what's going on there
Party attraction stuff is an ongoing problem I'm still tinkering with.
There is actually an event already to spawn Lincoln and make him PB leader, but I have plans for a full Party Nomination mechanic to that effect.

I think the player has precisely the correct control over Manifest Destiny right now. You can push to increase it through foreign policy actions or bolstering relevant IGs. The one-time suppress/promote buttons are available as a direct way to influence it, but otherwise I do not want it to just be a "press button to progress bar" mechanic. If the people elect anti-expansionists or pro-expansionists against your wishes, you the player should have to just cope.

I will probably end up making a submod to do an eastern states merge, since it seems to be a common problem, and that way it could be compatible with the mod.

Yeah, if I do another playthrough soon I'll try and record any apparent bugs like that with screens and maybe a save copy for you if that helps.

Interesting about the Lincoln event though- is it conditional to something? I played pretty historical and never got it. Just wondering if there's something I missed or if it's just a chance thing. Party nominations would be extremely cool, though. There's so many unique alternative possibilities throughout our history. The expanded ideologies really help with that, too- do you plan to add more? Same with the characters, as many as there already are.

I guess I can't argue with the MD points, though. Perhaps on a second playthrough with a better understanding of what I'm doing, I could manipulate it better.

And yeah, New England is just such a liability after the early game that it's genuinely pointless to do anything there, to include DC. I've seen mods that merge DC and Delaware into Maryland, and turn NE into 2 states which I think makes the most sense, though I suppose 1 large state including ME, VT, NH, MA, CN, and RI would also be a solid solution. Probably just depends how well you can balance out the change in resources.

Anyway, thanks again for the mod, and I hope to see you continue to do great things with it! If you ever need a research assistant/consultant, I'd be happy to help.
#2
Sg. Stormchaser May 5, 2024 @ 9:08am 
You cant colonize the far north of Canada and Alaska since their impassible.
#3
Jakman217 May 15, 2024 @ 1:33pm 
Not sure if I'd call it a bug or an oversight, but during the event where Deseret asks for statehood, it seems like Annexation doesn't really do much of anything. It gives you their current territory immediately, yes, but the LDS bonus doesn't seem to be active, and while they mention the expanded territory of Deseret, it doesn't seem to do anything with that. Maybe it's because I pushed forward the Civil war and other things forward to 1850s, but it seems like it's missing some of it's intended effects.

The LDS attraction bonus may not be working as it's applied to Deseret the country, which you immediately annex, rather than applied to the State.
#4
Jakman217 May 23, 2024 @ 8:17pm 
Also, have you considered adding any more unique US companies? The two I can think of as additions would be The Great Northern Railway and Westinghouse.

The GNR was a privately owned and generally more successful (if less famous) Transcontinental Railway. My thought to make it unique is that, from it's history, it expanded by steadily building own new lines west, and helping settlers build towns around it's railways, simultaniously helping to settle the west and ensuring it's own financial stability. So, along with the given Railway bonus, perhaps some benefit to the Rural folk or maybe a throughput bonus to Farms would be a good representative bonus. Maybe a migration or colonization bonus also, as GNR did basically subsidize entire towns from europe to move over into the great plains.

For Westinghouse, My thought is that while General Electric was the Cutting Edge, Westinghouse ultimately just as successful Electrical company. To give some extra flavor, make Westinghouse the better Electric Company, while General Electric is the better Electronics company. The key idea being that Edison lost the Current Wars between AC and DC, while Westinghouse won. Also, when Tesla left Edison, he went to Westinghouse for a while.
#5
邓三科 May 30, 2024 @ 9:11am 
Hello, I love your mod, can I use your mod for secondary creation, God bless you
#6
CaelReader  [developer] Jun 16, 2024 @ 7:22pm 
Originally posted by 邓三科:
Hello, I love your mod, can I use your mod for secondary creation, God bless you

Sure, just credit and link back to the original mod.
#7
Cole Jun 27, 2024 @ 5:50pm 
It is very hard to get the southern planters and rural folk weakened. i only got lucky in one game and basically became modern usa with tons more. also universal suffrage should weaken the rural folk for a bit because it makes them too strong and they are in the democratic party at the start. or force the rural folk to leave it? i dont really know what else to say cause of how good this mod is :steamthumbsup:
#8
CaelReader  [developer] Jun 28, 2024 @ 5:58am 
Originally posted by Cole:
It is very hard to get the southern planters and rural folk weakened. i only got lucky in one game and basically became modern usa with tons more. also universal suffrage should weaken the rural folk for a bit because it makes them too strong and they are in the democratic party at the start. or force the rural folk to leave it? i dont really know what else to say cause of how good this mod is :steamthumbsup:

working as intended
#9
Ariostos Jul 6, 2024 @ 8:39pm 
The immediate issue that I see with this Mod, having tried it a handful of times, is that it is impossible to get the Party that has won an election into power if it is backing a Revolution, and that this is a rather common occurrence in the early game. The illegitimacy of the government spurs the growth of even more Radicalism, which fuels the Revolution further, and so on. In a handful of plays I have not been able to prevent the Abolitionists from triggering the Civil War early, usually the Mid to Late 1840's after the Mexican-American War has wrapped up.

I've also found it odd that Calhoun is the one that is elected President in the initial election, as opposed to Van Buren; I actually tried manually boosting the Yeoman by having the Universal Suffrage Law passed before the election in addition to the Authority Boost, but I was still not able to surpass the Southern Planters. I suspect this is because the Yeoman have a rather poor position in the Northern States, principally the absence of Laborers in the Coalition. I added Laborers to the Yeoman as an experiment and that helped, but I'm not sure how heavy the modifiers should be to balance it out. Alternatively the multiplier for Farmers to ally themselves with the Landowners in the Slave States could be flattened from a (4) to a (1), which in that experiment, in combination with giving the Laborers access with modifiers akin to those of Farmers, allowed the Yeoman to pull ahead of the Planters; that risks weakening the Planters to much however, given historical President James Polk is part of that class.

Note: Just noticed the comment where the Planters and Yeoman were considered too strong; not sure if it was just luck or the version I was on, but I didn't have any issues on that front.
#10
CaelReader  [developer] Jul 7, 2024 @ 10:54am 
Originally posted by Ariostos:
The immediate issue that I see with this Mod, having tried it a handful of times, is that it is impossible to get the Party that has won an election into power if it is backing a Revolution, and that this is a rather common occurrence in the early game. The illegitimacy of the government spurs the growth of even more Radicalism, which fuels the Revolution further, and so on. In a handful of plays I have not been able to prevent the Abolitionists from triggering the Civil War early, usually the Mid to Late 1840's after the Mexican-American War has wrapped up.

I've also found it odd that Calhoun is the one that is elected President in the initial election, as opposed to Van Buren; I actually tried manually boosting the Yeoman by having the Universal Suffrage Law passed before the election in addition to the Authority Boost, but I was still not able to surpass the Southern Planters. I suspect this is because the Yeoman have a rather poor position in the Northern States, principally the absence of Laborers in the Coalition. I added Laborers to the Yeoman as an experiment and that helped, but I'm not sure how heavy the modifiers should be to balance it out. Alternatively the multiplier for Farmers to ally themselves with the Landowners in the Slave States could be flattened from a (4) to a (1), which in that experiment, in combination with giving the Laborers access with modifiers akin to those of Farmers, allowed the Yeoman to pull ahead of the Planters; that risks weakening the Planters to much however, given historical President James Polk is part of that class.

Note: Just noticed the comment where the Planters and Yeoman were considered too strong; not sure if it was just luck or the version I was on, but I didn't have any issues on that front.

In 1.6 the RF were reliably the highest clout IG in the early game. Now with 1.7 they have borked Homesteading and so RF are weaker than even the LOs. This wreaks havoc on the elections, causing the Whigs to reliably win every game, but there's not much I can do beyond putting more arbitrary +RF power modifiers on.
#11
Ariostos Jul 14, 2024 @ 2:57pm 
I'm curious, would it be possible to create Political Parties 'as' the Interest Groups? In theory, this would mean one IG for each Party. I'm not sure how this would play out in practice, but it could better represent the political situation at the start of the game, where the parties where not yet polarized on the issue of Slavery. This would allow for some representation of Third Parties, while also giving greater control over who is the technical leader of the Whig or Democratic parties; Van Buren could be locked in no problem, for example, same as William Harrison or Winfield Scott.

That being said, I'm not sure how easy this would be to Mod, or if this is something that you have mulled over in the past already.
#12
Kaiser Waffle Jul 15, 2024 @ 4:00pm 
It would be nice to eventually add events where american and other european immigrants arrive in hawaii and import chinese and japanese workers for their farms slowly over taking the influence of the natives and throwing a coup , it was a total toss up who would end up with hawaii couldve been the english , americans , russians or even japan would be cool to see events surrounding all of that. eventually the americans couped the kingdom and tried to join the union but weren't immediatly accepted and many americans condemned this coup
#13
CaelReader  [developer] Jul 16, 2024 @ 5:33pm 
Originally posted by Ariostos:
I'm curious, would it be possible to create Political Parties 'as' the Interest Groups? In theory, this would mean one IG for each Party. I'm not sure how this would play out in practice, but it could better represent the political situation at the start of the game, where the parties where not yet polarized on the issue of Slavery. This would allow for some representation of Third Parties, while also giving greater control over who is the technical leader of the Whig or Democratic parties; Van Buren could be locked in no problem, for example, same as William Harrison or Winfield Scott.

That being said, I'm not sure how easy this would be to Mod, or if this is something that you have mulled over in the past already.

It wouldn't really work with Vic3's game systems frankly.
#14
Ariostos Jul 16, 2024 @ 6:46pm 
Originally posted by CaelReader:
It wouldn't really work with Vic3's game systems frankly.

I suppose, since you pointed me to the "Better Politics" Mod, have you inquired about adapting it in part to "Hail Columbia"? The IG's in particular, the way that for example the Conscience and Cotton Whigs are represented; I feel as though that would be a natural extension, provided permission was provided.

Mexico seems to be in a awkward spot currently, with the way colonization is now working in the American West; even if the United States opts to not to go to war with Mexico, it often colonizes the vast majority of what should be Mexican land. Since to my knowledge province IDs are not used as variables in events or decisions, I'm not sure there is a clean way to resolve this.

I also played as the United States and managed to Ban Slavery without triggering the Civil War; the caveat to that is that I then spent the next twenty years dealing with a Slave Trade Revolution that regularly hovered around (80%) support, and it made it nigh impossible to govern for stretches of time as the Insurrectionists won the Presidential Election, but could not be brought into the government.

Also, is there a reason why the Ostend Manifesto is so expensive Infamy-wise? It seems strange that going after Cuba is (39) infamy, about (50) when the War Goal is used, whereas annexing the whole of Mexico is (72).
Last edited by Ariostos; Jul 16, 2024 @ 6:50pm
#15
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