Victoria 2 (and indeed Victoria if there's still anyone left playing it here)

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Originally Posted by Beskar

Damn, I don't get why Mexico keeps pwning me and why organisation/re-supply is so rubbish. Also, the army recruiting system is a pain (having to use up slots in a province, opposed to Manpower as in HoI3 and EU3)

Only way I can dent the Mexicans is just completely outnumber them, but they seem to have more men than me.

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Isn't that why Davy Crocket and the Alamo are such important symbols?

I fired up the demo this morning, only played about 20 mins but it was long enough for me to get Texas into my sphere and join their war of independance. I won the first skirmish and then got bogged down in a long battle into which the Mexicanos poured their reinforcements, finaly overwhelming my forces and forcing a retreat. I didn't ahve much time for more but it didn't look like things were going to go my way!

At the same time as getting stuck in with the Tejanos, I tried to play around with my Pop and taxes. Starting off, my middle class were havings erious difficulty getting their "life" needs,s o I ran their taxes rigfht down. The working class, by comparison were doing rather well, so I heaped tax on them and added a shade to the Uppers too. I had trade as automated and my budget was swinging quite crazyly -I understand there's an element of "suck it and see" to setting budgets in Vicky but it was intersting to see how that plays out.

I also had a problem with unemployed factory workers, due in no small part to inefficient factories. I'd initially not checked on these but by the time i did, some had closed -things were so bad! I moved to subsidise the most at risk as I was researching industrial improvements which would hopefuly improve factory efficiency in the medium term.

I'm going to have another go at this tonight, maybe forget about Tejas and see what i can do internally, trying to build the foundations of industry. It would be nice to link the southern RGOs (is that the right acronym?) with my northern manufacturing centres. If memory serves, Hobsbawm saw the diference and gap between northern and southern economies as a key economic driver of the civil war (South keen to remain part of the international free market as an exporter of raw materials, North -veering towards protectionism and an insulated internal market). I guess that production efficiency and competition with european manufacturing bases will be critical -as well as export markets for my manufactured goods (e.g. S.America here i come!).

In Vicky1 I always placed rich taxes on 0%. Rich people payed taxes in railroads.

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Originally Posted by Skullheadhq

In Vicky1 I always placed rich taxes on 0%. Rich people payed taxes in railroads.

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And Glass Factories. :P

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Originally Posted by Skullheadhq

In Vicky1 I always placed rich taxes on 0%.

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~:eek: but, but, but, this is my socialist paradise we are talking about.... there can be no un-taxed rich people there!

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Originally Posted by alh_p

~:eek: but, but, but, this is my socialist paradise we are talking about.... there can be no un-taxed rich people there!

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Capitalism is for the lazy, just place rich taxes on zero and the country will build itself. Free factories and railroads for everyone! Besides, taxing the rich to high will result in your country becoming Pauperland.

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Originally Posted by Skullheadhq

Capitalism is for the lazy, just place rich taxes on zero and the country will build itself. Free factories and railroads for everyone! Besides, taxing the rich to high will result in your country becoming Pauperland.

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Er, i think you mean it will become a socialist utopia, right?

I am joking btw, thanks for the hints on vicky's economy... :grin:

Huh, and for some reason I never have a middle class, only the very poor and very rich, and I don't even play South-American nations!

Seems to be a common issue with Mexican super-soldiers who seem to be far more tech advanced and have far superior re-supplying. Apparently, some spectulate that this was an intentional part on Paradox's behalf.

When does Vicky 2 officially come out?

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Originally Posted by Beskar

Seems to be a common issue with Mexican super-soldiers who seem to be far more tech advanced and have far superior re-supplying. Apparently, some spectulate that this was an intentional part on Paradox's behalf.

When does Vicky 2 officially come out?

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13th August - Friday - TOMORROW

As to the Mexicanos, there's a good AAR on the demo, and plenty of advice on how to withstand the onslaught in the paradox forum.

I actually didn't find it that hard, combat is much the same as EU3 and I found the US and Mexico to be quite balanced. I needed all my starting troops and more but I was able to defend Texas and annihilate 1 of 2 20-odd stacks the Mexicans sent north of the Rio grande. the seocnd I beat back and did not need to destroy to make peace (which included the addition of Mexican Texas (2 states north of the Rio G) to independant Texas). Mexico did mobilize during my game but I never saw a deluge of troops that has been reported. Use attrition and help the Texan forces out as their leader is waay better than any the USA gets for a while.

I preordered a box copy, can't wait till tomorrow!

After the first couple of attempts at saving Texas (some of which succeeded), I decided on one game to just bring Mexico into my SoI and then declare Manifest Destiny.
Another time I got a Casus Belli against Atjah or some Indonesian potentate, so I ordered some clippers in Seattle and Portland, marched my army corps over to Washington. However my rating was so low with UK that they thought my army was going to invade Vancouverm that they just invaded me to eliminate the threat, so I had to retaliate, so they retaliated, and it went downhill from there.

Alright, having another play, this time also roping the United States of Central America into the war as well on my side.

-big edit-

Ok, there is a war-tab which you can use to add more goals to wars, very handy so you don't do what I did and do 5 different wars to unite the US.

Is there a link to a good demo AAR? I deleted all my military units and was still losing money.

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Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good

Is there a link to a good demo AAR? I deleted all my military units and was still losing money.

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I found the Demo somewhat easy militarily, that is. I played with a graphics bug, and only played the first few years.

What I did:

Focus went to colonization of Washington and Colorado.
Moved the closest army to Washington to kill the British colonization.
Messed with the sliders, apparently my economy colapsed so quickly when I noticed (Only a few months into the game), I was already running a 1000£ debt. Coupled with my entry on the war against mexico, put the taxes of poor to 100%, Rich and Middle to 60% to start paying off the debt, mobilized, put every army into Texas, except the army stationed in Washington colonial state which I moved to New Mexico. My armies attacked the Mexican armies who were in battle with the Texan army and in two/three battles completely destroyed like 20 brigades. I was in the process of occupying Mexican Texas when I left the computer and my father exited the game as he wanted to go to the computer. >_>

Now I'm trying to get the graphics to work properly before retrying once again.

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Originally Posted by Jolt

Messed with the sliders, apparently my economy colapsed so quickly when I noticed (Only a few months into the game), I was already running a 1000£ debt. Coupled with my entry on the war against mexico, put the taxes of poor to 100%, Rich and Middle to 60% to start paying off the debt, mobilized, put every army into Texas, except the army stationed in Washington colonial state which I moved to New Mexico. My armies attacked the Mexican armies who were in battle with the Texan army and in two/three battles completely destroyed like 20 brigades.

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LOL, glad I wasn't living in the era of your game.

Near the end of my game, I had my taxes 12% for working, 12% for middle, 0% for Rich, and was making +160 odd a year in profit.

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Originally Posted by Beskar

LOL, glad I wasn't living in the era of your game.

Near the end of my game, I had my taxes 12% for working, 12% for middle, 0% for Rich, and was making +160 odd a year in profit.

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Yeah, usually when it's about paying debt (In my Austria game, there was an industrialization have from VIP factory building events, that saw me go into like a 90.000£ debt, and this is the maximum as before and after that one, there were similarly sized debts I had to pay off), I usually go all out, on sniffing every single coin I can find. At the Austria game's end, I had 0% taxes for poor and rich and 12% for the middle class (Which was the most profitable class to tax, in Austria by the end of the game), and relatively bland tariffs, so in the end it was all worth it. :)

Anyways, as to Vic 2 itself, the huge taxes made several factories enter into bankrupcy and made a great deal of unemployed people (I think the taxes were the cause of the bankrupcies, or maybe it was the bankrupcies which caused my economy to collapse).

What do the tariffs actually do? I am curious.

I know the basic concept of tariffs. You put tariffs on goods imported, as a form of protectionism, and you get the money. But why the negative tariffs? Wouldn't that end up bankrupting your economy as you are basically paying to have cheaper foriegn goods come into your country, so people won't use the domestic supplies.

Or is it to assist, lets say, the rich, import goods to set up stuff.

In my game, when the Whigs got elected, that annoyed me. I was unable to advance the infrastructure, etc, in the nation. There also doesn't seem to be any State-Capitalism parties (or even planned economies). I would assume State-Capitalism would be the best, as you could build railways and help fund projects, in the form of subs. I had so much money kicking around, and having laize-fair economical party seemed to rob a part of the game from me.

I think it's at least partly to make it easier for your POPs to buy goods off the foreign market for their Life/Daily/Luxury needs.

I have a question about the trade policies as USA
On the trade screen I'm trying to sell alot of tobacco because I there is an enormous surplus. I take it off auto- and try to sell from a "minimum" but it doesn't contribute to my budget no matter how many times I press "confirm trade". Confusion reigns.

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Originally Posted by Beskar

What do the tariffs actually do? I am curious.

I know the basic concept of tariffs. You put tariffs on goods imported, as a form of protectionism, and you get the money. But why the negative tariffs? Wouldn't that end up bankrupting your economy as you are basically paying to have cheaper foriegn goods come into your country, so people won't use the domestic supplies.

Or is it to assist, lets say, the rich, import goods to set up stuff.

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Negative tariffs are subsidies, useful for when your populace can't afford certain key goods that you don't produce internally. And if Vicky2 is like Vicky1, then the rich don't buy goods to build rail-roads/factories, it only costs money from their cash reserves

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Originally Posted by Beskar

In my game, when the Whigs got elected, that annoyed me. I was unable to advance the infrastructure, etc, in the nation. There also doesn't seem to be any State-Capitalism parties (or even planned economies). I would assume State-Capitalism would be the best, as you could build railways and help fund projects, in the form of subs. I had so much money kicking around, and having laize-fair economical party seemed to rob a part of the game from me.

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There's a trade off. It is much cheaper to have a Laissez-Faire economy, as your capitalists build industry, which in a massive industrialised nation like UK, France, Prussia will save you alot of money and effort. Thus you'll have cash reserves to dump into education, wars, etc. But, unlike state-capitalism and planned economies you can't be strategic with your placement and types of factory. Often you will have one state with many RGOs that can support a factory and many of a certain resource that can be manufactured into better goods, but your capitalists will decide to build in a random state of a random type that may or may not be supported people and raw material wise.

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Originally Posted by Marshal Murat

I have a question about the trade policies as USA
On the trade screen I'm trying to sell alot of tobacco because I there is an enormous surplus. I take it off auto- and try to sell from a "minimum" but it doesn't contribute to my budget no matter how many times I press "confirm trade". Confusion reigns.

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If you have a massive surplus and try sell it all at once you'll flood the market. Thus forcing prices down. Also, you are likely producing a lot which is causing you to always have tobacco stock in inventory. Check your daily production. For example if I am Prussia and I produce 100 grain a day and sell it all, every day I am still going to have 100 grain in inventory because it is being turned over as fast as it is produced.

Here is the end of my 15 years map, with text to explain the extent of my control:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2919/usagt.png

I own all the Manifest Destiny terrorities.
Half of (American) British Columbia
Colonising Alberta
Colonising North Western Terrorities
Own Cuba (Slave State decision)
Own Hawaii (did it for the lulz)
Took Sorona and Chi from Mexico
Mexico is in my Sphere of Influence
Panama is in my Sphere of Influence
Own Panama Canal terroritory
Liberia SoI from start of campaign

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Originally Posted by Jolt

put the taxes of poor to 100%, Rich and Middle to 60% to start paying off the debt

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Originally Posted by Beskar

LOL, glad I wasn't living in the era of your game.

Near the end of my game, I had my taxes 12% for working, 12% for middle, 0% for Rich, and was making +160 odd a year in profit.

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AFAIK, your administrative efficiency affects the "actual" tax of each POP, so at the beginning of the game, when your admin effic is low, you can actually only tax an absolute max of 30% with the slider is set to max. The tooltip explains this -handily! So it's not so crazy to be maxing your tax sliders at the beginning!

I had a preodered box from amazon uk but they emailed to say it won't be delivered. i've just canceled the order and pre-ordered (for £10 more!) on Impulse. It's alarming how easily I handed that extra tenner over...

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Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good

Is there a link to a good demo AAR? I deleted all my military units and was still losing money.

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http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...d.php?t=490403

(sorry for double post)

Edit:
if you mean you were losing money while at war, that's to be expected -all that supply costs! If you are embarking on a building spree, the same is also true -especially if you've justy ordered a load of buildings. i always noticed a drop in revenue as soon as I'd placed an order, as the AI bought in the neccessary goods.

If you mean during peace time, then you need to reduce your govt expenditure, through the budget screen primarily. Deleting military units is prob the last resort if you are cutting spending, as this will only reduce the number of employed millitary POPs -leaving you with more unemployed POPs. First off you should reduce the millitary spend slider and monitor how that affects the number of millitary POPs (and available divisions) you have.

Loans are also veeeeery cheap to pay off, so don't hesitate to take one out.

I wonder if there is a way to export your nation's stats to Excel to track your progression or if this is handled in game. I would be fun to compare your accomplishments with other player's.

Finally on Steam.

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Originally Posted by Marshal Murat

Finally on Steam.

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It should be noted there's a special offer on steam, available until Aug 20th. Buy Vicky 2 and you will get Vicky 1: Complete absolutely free.

Anyone else played the full game yet? I'll be interested to hear some un-biased opinions :sweatdrop:

After a super fast download from GG I've been playing for quite a bit - so far this feels like one of Paradox's finest games yet and I am mighty impressed. Unlike EU3 where everything falls apart and becomes a bore 100 years in, V2 has (I'm at 1865 so far with Belgium) just kept picking up pace so that I have no fingernails left after a very hard, long war with the Dutch. (I got lucky - hunted their 20K strong army across Belgium before occupying Amsterdam and the bottom half of the Netherlands.)

So far I really like this game, and is almost as fun as HOI2 (which is my fav) but will have to give it a few weeks to really prove itself.

Only problems is that it is a bit to easy (I'venever gone near debt and have taxes for Middle and High at 0 and Bottom Class at 20%) and AI can't handle rebels to well. Scotland has declared independance and is in my (Belgium's) SOI and Austria has cracked completely and released Venice, Lombardia, Trieste and Slovakia. Other then a touch of lag (Which is amazing as I have a really bad laptop right now) the games looking pretty sweet.

From what I saw in Singleton Mosby's Japan AAR, if there is anything Paradox should do is seriously steep up the number of partizans appearing during a war. The major headache anyone would get by fighting China in Victoria 1 was constant rebels spawning in every province. Forcing the armies to have to constantly retreat back to destroy them otherwise, all the occupied provinces would very quickly go back into Chinese partizans hands.

Heh. I worked out I could get the game cheaper by buying now and stacking pre-order bonuses, vouchers and cashback on game's website than I could if I waited. Put in a quick order on Thursday morning and my £18 copy was here the next day.

So far I'm still deciding who to play as in my first proper game, as well as tinkering around and playing the tutorials. Even the basic level tutorials have had the odd nugget of good info. This is an excellent thing - Vicky2 is the first Paradox game to have tutorials which are aren't worse than completely useless. Wooo! I like it: it shows that they are trying hard to address the decades old problems which have shown up in repeated titles.

The UI itself is a big improvement and the second successful bid to address a long standing problem IMO. At a glance I see it presenting much of the vital info I wanted in the first game right there on the main gameplay screen instead of buring it several layers deep. The 'choose your path' event pop ups are also much improved as they include a sidebar with all of your relevant information. No longer do you have to try and remember your country's minor stats to decide which is best.

There's lots of nice ideas which I can't wait to get fully to grips with. Spheres of influence and war goals being the big two. They look like they will change the gameplay considerably. The new POP system seems like much less of a headache. National focus is a good way to get many things done without being overly labour intensive.

The game itself manages to look fairly attractive. It's the first Paradox game I wouldn't cally ugly. Doesn't matter much, of course, but it's nice.

It's not all rosy. While I've not seen any bugs while playing, the game crashes without fail each time I exit it. There's also one change to the gameplay which I have strong doubts about, and that's the change to the way the market works. I'm not alone in the concern either; the official forum hasmultiple threads about people experiencing this.

In Vicky 1, generally speaking, your nation used anything it produced, Anything left over after your needs would be sold. If you didn't produce enough to fill your needs you would need to buy in. If you were the number 1 producer of steel or another hard to get good you were in a golden situation: your needs were met and you made a tonne of cash by selling the surplus.

Now everything gets sold to the local market full stop. So if you're in the sphere of a major power they'll take all of your iron. Any country with a more 'powerful' position on the local market will then get next dibs. You get their leftovers, assuming there are any. So you can be the number 1 producer of steel and not get to use a single ingot. Anything left after that goes to the world market; if you're not in the SoI of a producer then you're picking up the dregs of the dregs.

Considering that the first game had certain vital goods were supply never caught up with demand this could be a big problem. Iron, steel, machine parts - you can't build a decent nation without them. If you can't get them then you're stuck. If you're not at the top of the big boy charts then you'll struggle to buy, and now the traditional solution (do whatever it takes to make your own) is gone.




I might go with Japan for my first game. The path to Meiji and beyond sounds interesting.

Playing as France I felt stymied as I kept getting Infamy for trying to protect Morocco/Tunis from the Netherlands or Spain. So I went out on a branch and invaded Egypt. It wasn't that bad an idea, per se, but the infamy has pushed me so far up (and no one declared war), that I think that as I lose infamy I break a barrier, and UK goes all over my French butt. I tried to fix it by improving relations, but it's no use. I figure this time I'll just build up a massive ironclad/monitor fleet, run up my army costs and hold on because I'm tired of trying to be a lion in the sea.