Victoria 1.03 - Your opinion?

[Cookie Monster]

Paradox has recently released patch 1.03 for Victoria. With that said I'd like to hear feedback from our players here at 'Poly before making the decision to buy or not.

From what I've read on the Paradox boards people generally seem happy with the new patch. What say you?

[Maniac]

Good question. What are Polytubbies' opinion about especially the economy in the new patch?

[General Ludd]

Wow, didn't know it was released. I'll probably be playing it all day tommorow...

[JCG]

Was wondering why this thread hadn't appeared yet...IMHO, 1.03's better than 1.02 overall...

Partisans are now ok, the WM is improved (though machine tools and a couple of other things might still be hard to find early on, most stuff is more abundant now), the AI seems better at doing amphibious invasions, Spain won't get free manpower from reconquering the Americas (thanks to the implementation of new cultures), the liberal / 1848 revolutions are more of a threat, and other misc. fixes.....

...but there are still a few economic quirks / small bugs left in the game, which could make people uneasy if they can't figure them out or adapt to them (a couple of Prussia players, for example, have complained of increased difficulty at making a profit, though I can't relate at all...I've united Germany historically a couple of times with little previous trouble, military or economics-wise, even if the BB's a bit high afterwards...).
The game can still use some balancing, yes, but there's nothing gamebreaking as far as I'm concerned.

Still, if you found the game too slow / boring / not worth your patience before, that probably won't change too much....if you had mixed feelings, perhaps you'll like it, perhaps not.

[Grumbold]

Its got decidedly better AI and is certainly a worthy game as it stands. I've played a lot since 1.00 and I think ultimately it just has a bit too much stuff I don't consider 'fun' to be worth recommending to anyone who isn't an enthusiast.

With easier starting economics, ways of automating basic stuff like revolt suppression and other tweaks it could be great fun. Unfortunately those are the sort of changes that seem likely to get made.

[Cookie Monster]

Interesting. Glad to see there has been some economic improvements. I know that was/is? a glaring issue.

So before I rush out to buy the game would someone be kind enough to answer this question? If I liked EU1 and HOI would I like Victoria as it stands now with 1.03?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Cookie Monster
So before I rush out to buy the game would someone be kind enough to answer this question? If I liked EU1 and HOI would I like Victoria as it stands now with 1.03?

I would liken it to HOI 1.05 quality wise.

... Atleast, I think. I can't really keep track of how good all the patches where - but basically, it's good and playable, and has that "finished" feel to it, but I expect atleast one more patch before they can start taking a more leisurely aproach to it.

(Disclamer: I haven't actually played a full game of 1.03 - only a very short game as the United States of Central America - but it left a good impression)

[Grumbold]

If you wish EU2/HoI had more economic depth and are willing to micromanage more to get it, you will love Victoria.

[JCG]

I'd say it's a small step behind HoI 1.05 (especially since there are no public betapatches for Victoria yet), but good enough for the game to work (there are still bugs, like a couple regarding POP cash for example, but not any gamebreaking ones).

Btw, VIP 0.1 (a MOD for Victoria with many extra events, like CORE for HoI and EEP for EU2) has just been released, some people here might want to give it a try (even if it's just the first release, evidently).

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
Did they fix the pop unit things that always merged?

They seem to have limited merging to POPs under 10k or so..

[Nikolai]

If you liked EU2 and HoI there is a good chance you'll like Vickie. I didn't like HoI very much, but totally loved EU1/2, and although Vickie is a whole other game, with much more complexity, I like it very well! In 1.02 it was just partly fun, but with 1.03 the game is absolutely entertaining.

[General Ludd]

I like all the paradox games, personally. I don't get how someone can like one and not the others.

[Grumbold]

Well they all have their small differences. I'd love HoI if it was possible to automate the aircraft. Plotting every mission they do by hand is just tedious beyond belief. The more they patch, the harder it is to win while largely ignoring the planes and the more irritating this becomes.

Vicky is like EU2 but when you get revolts a colonial empire can get dozens and dozens. They were pretty tedious in EU2 and downright hair tearing in Vic. If I could automate revolt suppression that would disappear....

That is my problem. Micromanagement is fine if you can automate it when its not important, like moving your colonial troops to suppress riots. When you can't automate it I get frustrated. Civ III managed to notice this and patched in automated workers and group movement. Paradox needs to do the same.

[General Ludd]

You want an AI strategist?

Automating that would reduce the player's input to slider managment. You might aswell take it another step further and just play 'observation' games and watch the computers do their thing.

[Grumbold]

How does setting the odd colonial defence force to 'suppress riots' so you can concentrate on the major war front affect what we have to do with sliders?

Or for that matter telling a naval air group on the channel to bomb likely targets while you play with the bloodbath on the Eastern Front?

You have totally lost me there!

[JCG]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
Is it just me, or is Prussia broken?

It's not just you, but it's not totally broken either...it just requires some more initial attention and balancing than other countries, due to its starting situation. I've probably got the hang of it by now, with some trial and error and some Paradox forum reading, but it may be hard to get it right the first couple of times....