Nations news & patch notes

Dear players,

I know it was a long time since my last activity, but don't worry – the new update is coming soon :)

As stated previously, this update will be focused mainly on expanding accessibility of the game – therefore adding new game modes and translations to other languages. I know it took a lot of time – but the game had to be adjusted technically to the translations, what took most of it.

Unfortunately, to get translations fast and cheaply into so many languages, I have decided to use artificial intelligence :/ I know that players don't like it when developers use the AI, but I hope it won't be a problem if this is only about localization. If the language versions made by the AI turns out to be very innacurate I may decide to seek for real translators – but this will be dependent on money. For now I hope it will be enough – although it might be a bit inaccurate and janky.

New game modes

The next update is going to add two new game modes and a range of new game settings. Beside the default, standard game mode, there will be simplified and lite mode.

Simplified game mode is going to be standard mode with several simplifications. They are going to impact mainly the AI, but beside it they are going to change things like devlopment cost, diplomacy and some game rules. In simplified mode there will be no offensive or defensive alliances against selected countries, but only general alliances and forming them will be much easier.

Lite mode is going to be completely different than the standard mode. Many players seeing simple graphics of the game expected it to be easy, simple and fast – and this mode will be for them. In lite mode a range of mechanics is going to be turned off (including the entire production system – the military is going to run only on money). The AI will work in a similar way as in the simplified mode.

I am planning to release a full list of differences between simplified, lite and standard game mode after the update.

New settings

The next update is going to provide players with a range of new game settings, allowing them to adjust the gameplay however they want. The players will be able to change multipliers of income, political power gain, military supplies production cost, and many more. Additionally, a new game setting is going to be added called “No limits mode”. This mode is going to move limits of development of a single province, increasing max amount of colonial units to 250 and removing max economy and population limit. I know some players would like to see completely no limits at all – but not everything is possible even for a computer.

Statistics

Following the player's suggestions, the next update will add a range of statistics that will allow the players to compare their nations to others and monitor the changes throughout the years. Moreover, to increase competition between countries, a new, simple mechanic will be added – the tittles. Nations will be able to claim tittles such as “the greatest economy in the region/world, “signicifant/global power”, “capital of culture” or “regional/global policeman” providing them some useful boosts. Especially the tittle of the regional or global policeman will be very interesting, as it will not only reduce aggressiveness gain significantly, but also allow the policeman to use new diplomatic options – demanding ceasing attack and warning not to attack other countries.

Other changes

Beside these, the next update is going to provide a range of small changes in many branches of the game, including:

• changing mechanic of taking territories in peace conferences – a warscore mechanic will be intruduced, based on several factors, such as war participation, country size, and peace target size – aggressiveness from territorial gains will occour only in case of exceeding warscore, in simplified mode exceeding warscore will be limited to 100%, in lite mode exceeding warscore won't be possible

• new decisions and national features will be introduced, especially useful for small nations

• intelligence mechanic will be reworked to make it more useful, especially for small nations

• minor changes in military mechanics – taking over a sector will require more power advantage, mobile units will be more useful in attack, heavy units will be more useful as defense against mobile units, numerical advantage will get boost, especially in simplified and lite mode

Also, I am planning to change the graphics of society and production tab – I would appreciate your opinion about the new look.

The update is going to be released, hopefully, this or the next week :)

Dear players, after long time of work I have an honor to introduce you the newest update. Its main part is the long-awaited editor, but beside it, a range of fixes, upgrades and improvements were made.

Here is the changelog:

Editor:

• added integrated mod system

• added scenario editor

• added nations packs editor

• added cultures packs editor

• all of the editors create content in game files in “editor/results” folder

• an exemplary mod has been put in mods folder

• there is a simple instruction how to make mods in exemplary mod

• scenario editor has additional feature – support maps. You can change them in game files in “editor/supportMaps”

New tutorial:

• a new, interactive tutorial has been added

• the tutorial explains step by step the most important things about the gameplay

• it is recommended for all the players who are not sure about some game mechanics, such as army or administrative divisions, to check the tutorial

Revolts:

• revolts and separatisms system is finally functioning

• since now players have to watch their unrest and unrest of each ethnic group

• revolts break up usually in situation of serious neglecting of social needs and during crysis

• separatist revolts may lead to establishing a new state, if not pacified fast enough

• political revolts may lead to ending the game or changing the government – depending on game settings

• added revolts settings: disabled, simplified (victory of rebels changes government) and default (victory of rebels ends game)

Diplomacy:

• improved provoking – since now provoking can make selected nation to declare a war on us. The decision depends on tension, ideology and its military strength

• changed the way AI responds to improving relations offer – now it accepts more often

• changed the way AI reponds to alliance offers – now it accepts more often

• changed the way investments work – since now you don't need an acceptation of your offer from other country – maximum foreign investments is regulated by new internal law of each nation, allowing to build influence more easy

• added “Annex” option which allows every country to annex much smaller country using influence. It allows to annex small countries way faster than gradual increasing its dependence level and eventually incorporating it

• added option to gradually decrease dependence level using influence and eventually become independent, if played as a dependent nation

• fixed independence guarantee and protection – since now the AI will accept offer of guarantee of independence and protection if they are endangered and the player is stronger than them

• guarantee of independence now adds 7.5 influence

• protection now adds 25 influence instead of 50, but provides military access

• increased aggressiveness decay rate

• added two of “coming soon” intelligence buttons:

  • escalate tension with other country – using a big amount of spies and money you can now build tension between two selected countries, eventually leading to war between them

  • increase unrest – increases unrest which can eventually lead to civil war in selected nation

• added new level of dependence – fief/protectorate – this level of dependence is higher than dependent territory and provides the most resources of all levels. It can be incorporated fast and was added to provide more realistic experiences of playing as medieval countries, often possessing several fiefdoms

• added option to intercept a puppet state using influence. Only puppet states can be intercepted

• since now locating divisions on other nations territory increases your influence in this country. Influence increase depends on amount of your units compared to its units on its territory

• changed pricing of international investments and increasing dependence level to more reasonable – it was increased for small countries and decreased for big countries

Law changes:

• changed “christian democracy” to “social conservatism” to avoid religious confusion

• added “trade law” - trade law allows us to set the maximum amount of foreign investments, limiting its total influence

• added several new laws: workers rights, culture spendings and government policy

• changed modifiers of some laws, especially related to stability and unrest (taxes, security spendings)

• added new conscription law – limited conscription (3.5%)

• since now limiting freedoms of your people, including introducing new taxes or conscripting new soldiers, will cause unrest to grow. To avoid huge growth, the player has to introduce these laws gradually

• corrected costs of some laws

Buildings:

• added several new buildings:

  • laboratory – adds certain technology points

  • tavern/bussiness establishment – adds certain income basing on province type. This building was added to make it easier to develop small countries

  • manufacture/small factory – adds certain income, more than workshop, less than factory. It was added to make it more easy to build the industry for small countries. Factories, however, are still more profitable for big countries

  • added military storages – military storages increase maximum amount of military equipment and supplies we can store. Since now there is a limited amount of military equipment we can store – every piece of equipment over this limit decays. This mechanic was introduced to balance a long-term gameplay

• changed the way some buildings work:

  • universities – since now universities hugely increase technology gain and maximum technology from province they are built and nearby area instead of adding certain number of technology points

  • hospitals – increased range of effect

  • offices – increased range of effect

  • museums – since now museums increase culture points gain from provinces they are built and nearby area instead of adding certain number of culture points

  • armory – increased range of effect

• range of effect of building affecting nearby provinces is now shown on the map during construction

• removed monuments, as they were useless and were replaced by laboratories

Navy:

• added naval equivalent of armies – fleets. Thanks to them players can now command naval units automatically

• added option to spend assigned part of naval production monthly automatically on fleet repeirs

• added naval range – it is visible when choosing any naval units. Red colored naval regions are out of your range, while yellow colored naval regions are in range, but out of range for permanent stationing. Naval range increases gradually with updating naval technology

Other:

• reduced negative economic and infrastructural impact on technology growth – poor countries struggled to develop at all

• added some historical regions

• added option to change frequency of autosaves and disabling them

• added maximum amount of money and option to increase it by building banks. This mechanic was introduced to balance a big nations, which often collected a huge amount of money for the rest of the game

• added maximum amount of technology points collected. Buildings increasing technology points gain increase also maximum amount of technology points

• removed showing capital cities of micronations, to limit the mess on the map

• fixed a lot of bugs, including a range of crash-causing and some not working modifiers. Playing as outdated nations might be a bit harder now, so additional balance changes were made

• added a range of releasable nations

• added formable nations – you can learn how to make custom formable nations using text file located in exemplary mod

• changed the way buildings are displayed in the administrative region menu

• added option to build some constructions collectively

IMPORTANT: the entire game project was built in a different way – this should improve performance and hugely reduce crashes, but sume users – especially using Linux – may face even more problems. If you encounter a technical issues you have not encountered earlier – such as constant crashes or game not launching – please, contact me personally using my mail given in tech support and game credits, or post a thread in Steam discussion tab.

I hope you enjoy!

Dear players,

sorry for this long period without updates. I've been working for this entire time on a big update and I didn't expect it to take so much time. I have decided to share this news, because I hoped to release it today, but, unfortunately, I will not make it. Thankfully, I can say that all of the content and bug fixes that were planned are already implemented and all that is left to do is some polishing and tests. Therefore, after long time, I can say that the update is going to be released this week, hopefully before friday.

To answer your curiosity, here are some things that will be added or changed: - editor – including scenarios editor, nations packs editor and cultures packs editor - new, interactive tutorial - integrated, simple mod system - a range of releasable nations - new historical regions - completely new fleet managing mechanic - better diplomatic AI – things like protection pacts, guarantees of independence, alliances, relations improvement will finally become real and useful - some changes in diplomacy mechanics – investments will be way more useful - several new laws, buildings and intelligence options - revolts and separatisms will finally work Beside these changes, a range of bug fixes were made, including fixing crash-causing bugs. Also, the entire game was built differently, which should sginificantly reduce the amount of crashes many players encounter and generally improve optimisation a little.

I hope the amount of changes explains why work took so long.

In future, I would prefer to focus on a smaller, but more frequent updates. Here are some pictures showing the effects: Thank you for your patience and see you in the next update!