V3 - Sphere Of Influence Feature Overview!

Victoria 3's first major Expansion "Sphere of Influence" is releasing on the 6th may and I will now be giving you a thorough overview!
The DLC: store.steampowered.com/app/24...
Put your diplomatic skill to the ultimate test in Sphere of Influence, a new expansion to Victoria 3. Pull other nations into your orbit through diplomatic skill, economic leverage or straightforward bribery. Building a durable international faction of like-minded governments, pursuing common goals for a common good and the glory of your power.
Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy simulation of the Victorian Age offers new ways to impose your will on the world. A coalition of reactionary powers can form blocs to work against the threat of liberal forces in other nations. Use your economic might to co-opt or coerce other regimes, spreading the banner of your ideology wherever your fleets might sail. Resist or embrace domestic pressure to change your traditional foreign policy, as economic and ideological agitators push you to build new coalitions of power.
Sphere of Influence adds many new actions and systems to illustrate the quick moving nature of diplomatic relations in this dramatic era, including new content specifically about The Great Game - the decades long competition between the British and Russian Empires for pre-eminence in North India and Central Asia.
00:00 Intro
00:38 1.6 & Concerns (Bugs, Bugs, bugs)
02:36 Power Blocs (Function, Types, Leverage)
06:51 Interest Group Lobbies (Formation, Impact, Catalysts)
09:07 Foreign Investment! (Function, DLC/Free)
11:36 The Great Game (Objective, Content)
14:24 Subject Interactions (Autonomy, Overlord Actions)
16:01 Liberty Desire (HoI4-like?, New Diplomatic Strategies)
17:22 Building Ownership Revisions (Ownership Across States)
21:43 This Week: Power Blocs!
#victoria3

[@OneProudBavarian]

PRAY with me for a bug-free 1.7! 🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@dr_gamerhind]

I will pray but I won’t hope They broke my heart too many times

[@fbiannis9514]

🙏🙏🙏

[@mommi1979]

My biggest gripe as of now is performance. 1.6 halved my FPS straight up compared to 1.5

[@giannis_m]

I don't think that's happening tbh. Hotfix 1.7.2 is probably gonna be it.

[@EskiltheWanderer]

As long as we have VTM, all ist gut

[@daydreamer1917]

Power blocs, lobbies, AND private foreign investment??? This expansion is going to help make the Cold War Project mod for Vicky 3 one of the greatest Paradox mods of all time.

[@Bayonet1809]

I hope there are other sorts of lobbies than just those that are pro or anti other nations, like particularly successfully companies should be able to form industry lobbies for their industries, who could push for particular production methods, technology research, or laws. I think this could be a good way of integrating the companies into the political system, as currently they feel half-baked and tacked on.

[@MC11723]

i hope those are free though because that kinda sounds like what they had in Victoria 2

[@Konstantinos1648]

Actually the French Russian and English parties in greece were named so after their rivals in terms of "those people are doing this great powers biding". They were also called that because the parties themselves thought of those great powers as greeces most important ally. So those were in fact NOT the parties actual names just nicknames.

[@Deus_Galicus]

"of course has to pay for the greek economy at the end of the day", sounds different when the German dude says that lmao

[@oxedd4856]

What do you think about the idea of civil wars risking colonies or creating new governments? For example, if the UK has a communist revolution, the original government flees to one of the colonies, or the colonies that disapprove of the new communist government declare independence? I think that can create some really interesting scenarios, especially with this new powerblock system they are announcing through spheres of influence.

[@DrShocktopus]

Isn't that what literally happened in with Portugal/Brazil

[@k__k___]

Would be so frustrating given every country has about 14 civil wars per game

[@thegamer-jz5du]

@k__k___ Yeah, I find it weird that game revolutions are so common. Either they need to decrease the chances of them happening or make some changes on the revolution mechanic. (I was thinking that they should have different categories of revolts depending on the IG's clout size and the size of the revolt itself. Like if it was a minor revolt, it shouldn't really affect anything at all, but if it was a massive revolt, then yeah, it should have more effect on the country and its colonies)

[@lazykatie42069]

original government fleeing to one of their colonies after a communist revolution IS why the nation of Taiwan exists today so it would make sense as a feature

[@k__k___]

@@lazykatie42069 Extremely choice example, Taiwan and mainland China have the same ethnolinguistic background. The idea that a European coloniser would set up government in exile in an African colony is a pretty absurd thing in real life, WW2 is an exception that has very unique characteristics (I.e. when the French did this). Kaiserreich is a fun story for a reason, not reflective of reality

[@crassustheelder9665]

Meanwhile, Imperator: Rome works great ROMA INVICTA!

[@Imperial_Archives]

Best paradox game! They need to return development into that game.

[@blueshellincident]

It takes a lot of balls to release a feature that was in the base game for the previous game as a DLC for the sequel.

[@SS5Ghaleon]

I hope it actually speeds up the game. 1.6 made the game even SLOWER! 1880s feel like the 1920s now

[@timomuller1101]

I am just wondering how more features can make the game faster. I expect it to have the same performance impact as 1.5 (far worse performance than 1.4)

[@Jack29245]

@@timomuller1101 They are making changes to how Capitalists work, we don't know the exact details yet but it seems like there will be potentially hundreds or even thousands of fewer pops in the game by the end which should help performance.

[@timomuller1101]

@@Jack29245They said the same about the jobseekers mechanics in 1.5 but they didn‘t change that much either…

[@NnormPR]

Because pops are not appareantly the issue. On PDX forum someone put a screenshot and ticks count for revolutions was most burdersome for the game.

[@robanson32]

@@NnormPRI think they responded back and said this was a bug specifically in and of itself

[@TheSiverFoundation]

Sure hope this doesn't make more game less stable, but I think this is gonna make diplomacy more engaging

[@RationaLess]

I hope they fix the bug where OPB's AI strats prevent him from finishing the Greece playthrough JE

[@mairao]

Really excited about the new stuff. The last topic, building ownership, is the one I'm more excited about. The colonial exploitation practices will be more logical now and the example you mentioned of Silesia having few capitalists and most of their buildings being owned by rich people in Berlin can create really cool asymmetries, leading to increased radicalism in poorer states and all the nasty stuff coming with radicalism, such as turmoil and revolutions.

[@the11382]

Power blocs is something I have been wanting for a long time in EU4/5. Nations that aren't GPs should be able to manage the influences of GPs.

[@Hebelehubelledurchfall]

I gonna buy it anyway. Im already happy vic3 got even made. And i love trains tschutschuuu❤.

[@blockchicken8052]

Praying for Patch 1.7.12 to fix the bugs introduced in the first 11 hot fixes!!!

[@Pattarek]

Insanely hyped for this next Expansion. Especially private Ownership and Foreign Investment.

[@RoNPlayer]

I need them to make an achievement for owning a huge chunk of Austria's economy as Krakow!

[@ZeMalta]

This will make fighting against Capitalist Imperialism so much fun. And simulating more of the infrastructures and superstructures used at the time is always cool for Vic3!

[@eduardog3000]

Yeah, a big thing that’s been missing is capitalist nations being very intolerant of the existence of communist nations. Communism was kind of OP on launch, and part of that is because this is a materialist game and communism is materialist (i.e. correct), but it also just lacked the outside factors putting pressure on communist nations.

[@ashbery76]

I've had this since launch and I'm still waiting for it be polished enough to play.

[@lluis9650]

I know paradox which means this is probably gonna be broken at launch but o boy when they fix it after a month or 2 this is gonna be a great dlc.

[@LactoseintolerantWis]

So it's Stellaris Federations in Victoria 3

[@AntonioZL]

I think we just need some sort of simplified international financial markets, similar to what we had in Vic 2, where pops could lend their money to both the national and foreign governments. Not only would this mechanic be very representative of the period, but it would also add a lot of depth to both the economic core loop as well as diplomacy, by allowing the player and AI to act on behalf of the economic interests of their pops by using diplomatic tools such as repay debt casus belli and etc. Fingers crossed.

[@stephan4921]

I'm surprised they still haven't implemented foreign investments, I was under the impression they did that ages ago... I haven't actually played the game since my first campaign after release, since there had been so many problems and just annoying mechanics that needed fixing imo. I feel like I want to give it another go soon, or maybe I'll wait for 1.7, not sure yet.

[@eduardog3000]

Power Blocks sounds like it should be possible to essentially make the European Union (a century early ofc). But that wouldn’t quite make sense if they have to have a dominant country. Hopefully at some point we could get overlapping Power Blocks. Comparing to modern day again, the EU and NATO would be separate Power Blocks, but they would have a lot of overlap in members.

[@LuziFearon]

SoI improves exaclty the part of my gameplay, that I use the most: creating the perfect borders in europe and creating vasalls that are under my thump! I'm very exited and hoping for the best

[@cyberrb25]

I wonder if, with the "Friends of" IG effects, they will get ways to entice the IGs to set yours. Things like having a dedicated bankroll for it would be pretty appreciated so it's not as much as a roll of the dice...

[@sockscav]

very informative!

[@567secret]

In reference to the scenarios you mention of older games, EU4 had some specific setups too, eg. American Revolution

[@567secret]

I know it would be a risk but I hope the privatisation / nationalisation is reflected in the investment pool

[@zoidinoberger]

Mercosur and EU in victoria III confirmed /hj

[@asdassbass8482]

we are so back

[@PS-G1]

im more hyped for this dlc than i was for the whole game

[@brucebanner5247]

So.. If Great Britain owns iron mines in Russia. And the two countries end up going to war. Will Russia be able to seize the iron mines owned by the British investors? How will that work out?

[@arandombard1197]

Lobby groups are great ways of forcing the player to behave more within roleplay. If you have good relations with a nation, you can't just turn against them and attack them because you've built up good relations with them and politically this would be unpopular. Likewise, a long term enemy can't just become your new ally because veterans and the old guard will object to this. Foreign investment might be the best mechanic they could have added to the game. It lets you actually roleplay your country in an authentic to the era way. America forced Japan at gunpoint to open up just so they could trade with them. Now, diplomacy can be used to gain access to investment rights and you can just exploit that country's resources directly without having to actually conquer it yourself. You can take advantage of the benefits of trade and your sphere of influence without having to directly conquer places.

[@cantalope6980]

i’ve found out in the new update any button you click adds 5k radicals

[@alleythetoaster8401]

Performance for me after last patch increased by a lot. and it doesn't crash anymore,. especially in late game

[@christophermino7101]

I do agree with the hotfix talk in the beginning. That is a reason I stopped even playing Vic 3 before a patch after the patch. I don't have to worry too much with CK3 for example to play it on patch day or shortly after. Just waiting for the most important mods to update.

[@thegreatdodo5092]

This one is still available with the pre-order season pass, is it?

[@OneProudBavarian]

Yep, expansion pass owners get this one included!

[@Bayonet1809]

Just be careful you don't preorder the DLC if you had already bought the pass. Strange that that is even an option really.

[@nathanmclean3086]

What I wanna know is how you got such good American Civil War borders in the simulated game running in the background

[@eduardog3000]

Good borders, but they got crushed by the US then just… continued to exist?

[@timteichmann6830]

This is the third time in the last two years paradox releases an dlc the day uni starts again and/or my gilfriend comes back from her parents.

[@brucebanner5247]

I really wish PDX would do something more along the lines of making theocracies more viable, powerful.

[@grandicus]

i really hope power blocks makes it more possible and more fun to play a major power, playing as scandinavia and hopping between german russian and british powerblocks to my own benefit would be really cool, or if the more i help germany the more i can demand stuff myself, if as sweden i can help prussia form germany, and demand help for myself in forming scandinavia or the like

[@DivinityOfBLaze]

this feels like it should have been base game features...

[@thefinal9923]

Yeah, honestly, that and maybe the fact that it *feels* like DLC has been extremely slow to roll-out (could be just me), but I've lost 100% interest in the game. I just don't care about it anymore. Maybe this is a CK3 royal court repeating itself and in 3 years I'll love the game, but I'm not even excited about spheres of influence.

[@asthor93]

A lot of it is base game though. The ownership changes comes with the free patch. Foreign investment (albeit limited to subjects) comes with the free patch, so will the introduction of liberty desire and some subject interactions.

[@ccdee89]

@@asthor93 they mean it should have been part of the 1.0 release. Not the barebones, dull software we got

[@Arcomist]

@@ccdee89 Same happens with each Paradox release of the last 10 year with increasingly barebones games that become great in 3-4 years. Just dont buy any games from them on launch, problem solved

[@bdrferreira]

@@thefinal9923 for real. I clocked 60 hours in the first couple of weeks thinking I'll leave the burnout for when DLC comes out, and it's been for fucking ever to get proper DLC. I feel robbed ordering the expansion packed that included very very shitty DLC

[@HamzaPKR]

Much needed dlc. Really worried about the implementation though, my trust in Paradox is at an all time low. Thankfully Manor Lords is coming out during the same period so i will wait with my purchase till it becomes clearer how buggy, or not, the DLC is.

[@cursed2590]

A feature I think they should really add at some point is the ability to borrow money from foreign powers. And also have that be a away for larger nations to make money from and control smaller nations.

[@Chriskr23]

They should also make the migration more work based and not just unused land

[@cheeki3998]

since you asked, my performance is pretty bad. game just decides to run about 60% slower once 1860 comes around, and every year afterward it just gets slower and slower and just becomes unplayably slow approaching 1900. T-T

[@swedichboy1000]

2:45 How will that not screw over people who dont have the Dlc then?

[@cyberrb25]

I don't think The Great Game will be a scenario per se. Or, at least, no less a scenario as Scramble for Africa or the journals for France or Brazil are.

[@Imperial_Archives]

I think Victoria 3 needs a new start date. A late-game 1914 would be great, having a scenario where you can play WW1 would be crazy.

[@MichalLiszkay]

I play mostly as serbia. I would really like to have my own market sooner than independence, coz leaving market and having costly independece war right away is making my population sad. ;). I also would like to have some event when i conquer my homeland that decrease militancy of my accepted population (serbs) - some kind of rejoice, and maybe getting population pissed later as they find out that grass isnt greener (or otherwise). I also hope that i can make secret pact with russia that if i rebbel against ottos they will for sure come to my help !

[@MrMkG2]

LESS FUCKING GOOOO

[@janslavik5284]

4:12 ah yes, the M I T T E L M Ä C H T E

[@501lilspoon]

Should have been in the base game, this will be like $30

[@liamwarren7590]

Genuinely think this is a great step forward but worry massively about performance.

[@wheatblue7592]

Paradox is the biggest shill ever. They'll announce a feature that is exciting on paper but then absolutely butchered its implementation. Look at CK3's legends and how great it sounds on paper, but its implementation is trash half-made empty content that is of little use. I really hope they prove me wrong but I'm not really too hopeful. I've been waiting since December, if they manage to fail this too I'm done with the game honestly

[@OneProudBavarian]

The one thing that V3 has been consistent about is releasing patches that need several patches to function properly. It sucks so much.

[@Presario3440]

I am done with them but at the same time I am desperate enough to buy this DLC. I dont buy dlc for any other pdx game tho. I just sub to eu4 if I have to.

[@yescovy7629]

I hate that i agree with you. I desperately want this dlc to be could but it will for sure be the straw that breaks the camels back if it is incomplete or unsatisfactory

[@chelvo56]

I'm pretty much done with CK3 nowadays. It didn't catch me at the start and despite doing a lot of things I hoped for, the implementation repulsed me from continuing. Kinda waited for them finally turning the game into something fun and hoped chapter 3 would be that, but I don't expect even the landless gameplay to be any good, despite being a feature I looked forward to for a long time.

[@holydoggo4822]

I think stellaris is (mostly) the exception to this rule

[@ForTheJerusalem]

It is funny how the most exciting feature they announced has nothing to do with the DLC, shows how basic ownership currently is.

[@airfluxe2095]

Still, for me the main issue to be solved is to depict accurately population total numbers. It does not grow as it should.

[@SDM-Zone]

Victoria 3 crashes on my system all the time since 1.5. I think the fix is known but I'd have to undervolt my system by like 20% to properly play Victoria 3 but I honestly don't know if I care that much anymore. The only reason I'm somewhat interested is to play divergences of darkness mod for it. Other paradox titles don't give me this issue and its because I have one of the newish processors and they are still ironing out the issues involved with that. It does make me think this is likely going to be more common for other titles going forward sadly as I had issues with CK 3 on other hardware and its one of the reasons I never grew attached to the game. I just hope the new Stellaris DLC doesn't ruin my ability to play. I'm still interested in playing a big economic grand strategy game but I have my doubts about Victoria filling that niche now. Sad to see.

[@Lakester98]

Thanks for the comments about the problematic development from Paradox. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Paradox, but they’re abusing that love the past couple years. Canceling Imperator development, CK’s expansions, Vic’s base game, etc. Doesn’t make me optimistic on their upcoming titles like EU5.

[@pietropulsinelli1059]

This will also mean that socialist movement would be more likely to happen becsuse workers will not be as rich as before

[@ancaoraathasach]

Honestly, the game's main problem is that it's almost entirely just waiting. Waiting for laws to pass, armies to move, buildings to build and so on. I'm holding back for SoI for now for that reason.

[@Shutendouji94]

Update the mod pls i beg youuu

[@swedichboy1000]

So now i´ll be able to build stuff in Norway as Sweden? Why the fuck did it take a new DLC to allow for that? It just reeks of Paradox doing that on purpose, just to sell that feature back at you.

[@ellidominusser1138]

I don't think you read the DD nor did you understand what OPB just said, since you think you won't be able to build stuff in Norway as Sweden without the DLC.

[@swedichboy1000]

Does not mean it wasent done on purpose, you could build in Norway in Vic2, so i see no reason not to allow it in Vic3.@@ellidominusser1138

[@CubeInspector]

Meanwhile they still havent fixed war

[@MrDainemudda]

Here's the deal Paradox, I'll start giving you my money again, when all sequels games are Feature complete - meaning the game that they are based on including all DLCs - oh and not being a broken mess on release helps... last stuff I bought was Imperator Rome and Imperator EU4 DLC... before that I bought everything - you literally missing out on hundreds of Euros...

[@donaldpetersen2382]

V3 is in a pretty bad state of development, but the V3 fans are happy none the less. Any other game players WOULD NOT accept another DLC at this broken state of the game. V3 however has a long long way to go still, and a the players are desperately encouraging Paradox to continue development knowing the game is still very broken in it's current state. I am thankful to Paradox for releasing more DLC, but none the less they deserve every bit of criticism for the state of this game's development. All that being said knowing the history of bugs on patch release buying this DLC on release day will be a disaster. Any initial purchases will be a generous act of charity.

[@aapjeaaron]

Your reservation on the fact that nationalising starts a diplo play shows had bad the diplo play implementation is. It should absolutely starts a diplo play thematically. It’s just that diplo plays in the game are a delayed DoW in stead of being a system for negotiating on a world stage with the escalation of war looming on the background. The fact that neither 1.7 nor spheres of influence touch on the diplo play system. Even circumvent it with subject interactions makes me lose a bit of hope for interesting diplomacy in vicky 3.

[@Shindeiru69]

2:42 Why Paradox still locking game mechanics behind DLCs?

[@ellidominusser1138]

Yep I hate that they locked that, foreign Influence should at least be fully in the base game including non-subjects, idc about the power blocs tho

[@Spoot1RHGL]

Doesn t sound too exciting honestly. Diplomacy is where Vicky lacks the most and i think this doesn t make it interesting enough to be really engaging

[@sus10651]

Two years on, thr game still doesn't look complete. Paradox should stop releasing unfinished work.

[@rebelsj2159]

Isnt it like $30usd? Yea no thanks

[@MrPainisCupcake]

Paradox regretting firing their whole QA team yet?

[@01296501923654]

Best wait for the day 7 patch - got to let the coffee cool off just a bit or you will surely burn your tongue!