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Chivlan Lifecrafter Member # 3608	written Friday, April 30 2004 07:15 Profile Homepage #0 Discuss. [mispelled 'discuss', damnit] [ Friday, April 30, 2004 07:17: Message edited by: Maurice the Man ] -------------------- - The Great Mister kommari@gmail.com[/url] Posts: 972 | Registered: Tuesday, October 28 2003 08:00
Custer Bob's Big Date Member # 3151	written Friday, April 30 2004 07:20 Profile Homepage #1 The New Victoria Manual And Strategy Guide Second Edition By Memnon Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1?? The Map The Terrain, Political, Economic, Infrastructure, and Revoltrisk views; map organization Chapter 2?? POPs The Different POP types and their uses; merging, splitting, migration, and efficiency Chapter 3?? The Budget Description of the screen; the functions and effects of the various sliders Chapter 4?? Industrialization Construction of factories; the implementation of POPs; POP efficiency; railroads Chapter 5??Trade Pros and cons of the auto-trade system; stockpiles; the international aspect of trade Chapter 6??Politics Government types; economic, religious, minority, trade, and military policies Chapter 7??Reforms Political reforms and their effects; social reforms and their effects Chapter 8??Diplomacy Diplomatic points; diplomatic actions in peace; trading techs; buying land and claims Chapter 9??The Army Manpower, leadership, and generals; the various units and their modifiers; attachments Chapter 10?..The Navy The various units and their modifiers; attachments; naval power as used in the game Chapter 11?..Mobilization and the Reserves How to form and use mobilized troops and reserves; pros and cons of mobilization Chapter 12?..Leaders Backgrounds; personality traits; default leaders; how to create leaders Chapter 13?..War Combat modifiers; occupying provinces; reinforcement; attrition; peace negotiations Chapter 14?..The Big Three Plurality; Consciousness; Militancy Chapter 15?..Other Concepts Prestige; badboy; national cultures; war score; war exhaustion Chapter 16?..Research and Technologies An introduction to research in the game; research points; intellectual establishments Chapter 17?..Colonies The various claim buildings; how to claim a colony; benefits of a colonial empire Chapter 18?..Very Frequently Asked Questions The Unification of Italy; the Unification of Germany; how to become civilized; which country to play; purchases off the world market; the American Civil War; the Liberal Revolution; granting statehood to colonies; the ledger and its uses -- Introduction ?I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.? -Sam Houston I have had the distinct pleasure of being a member of the Victoria forums for a little while now, and yet even in my relatively brief time there, I have found that there is a severe lack of knowledge about the workings of the game. There have been many attempts to correct this, and valiant efforts put forth by several dedicated members have indeed produced results. These answers, however, tend to be scattered around the forums, and even when they are found, they are mixed in with discussion threads so that distilling the legitimate information is often difficult. More importantly, there is hardly ever a definitive answer given to the more difficult questions. That is why I undertook to write this manual?so that there would be one place where players with questions could go to find the answers they sought. There have been many negative comments made about the original manual. I, for one, believe that given the constraints on space the writers had, as well as the complexity of the game itself, they actually did an excellent job summarizing some of the more difficult concepts. Therefore, it is not my intent to replace the current manual?only to supplement it. This document assumes a prior understanding of where certain screens are, as well as what the buttons do. I do not bother to delve into installation instructions, nor into how to load or save a game. My hope is that this effort of mine helps clear up some of the more pressing problems that result in several repeated threads being posted in the forums. I also hope that this manual will give even experienced players a new understanding of the game, at least in certain areas. This manual is, to the best of my ability, 1.03 compliant. I do not profess to know everything about this game?quite the contrary, in fact?and if there is anything wrong with this manual, please do not hesitate to contact me at once. I can be reached via the open forums or by private message if you wish. I want to thank Rafiki for all the time he put into correcting the drafts of this second edition. Rafiki?s webpage (http://victoria.nsen.ch) is where you should go for all the tables that this manual leaves out, as well as for a bevy of other information. I also want to thank Darkrenown for his extensive commentary, as well as always being available to answer my questions on the forums. Thanks also to Derek Pullem for reviewing the first draft of this document and correcting my many errors. I also want to thank aprof for allowing me the use of his leadership modifier chart, and Carligula for his superb essay on Plurality and Consciousness, which I reference. Thanks also to Johan for reading this over and approving its release. Last but certainly not least, I want to thank the members of the forums for patiently and consistently answering my questions. This manual is, in reality, a reflection not of my own knowledge but of yours, for most of the facts contained herein I learned from you. Regards, Memnon -- Chapter 1 ? The Map ?BOUNDARY, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other.? -Ambrose Bierce There are five ways to view the map, each with a different use. The buttons activating each of these views are on the bottom left of the main task window, beside the minimap. Terrain: This is the first map mode. It is the default form you see when loading the game. This map will show you the kind of topography of the province?mountains, hills, grassland, forests, etc. It also shows where the major rivers are. These factors are important to keep in mind when conducting a war, as terrain acts as a combat modifier. The types of terrain are described in the fold out sheet packaged with the game. Political: The Political map is perhaps the most frequently used mode. This shows you clearly the borders between all countries, as well as the demarcation of provinces. It also shows the location of capitals by placing a city icon in the province where the capital is located. Economic: The economic mode shows what resource is produced by each province. This resource is represented by the icon in the center of the province. Each province produces only one kind of resource, but certain in-game events can change the type of resource produced in the province. Infrastructure: The infrastructure map shows the layout of the railroads and factories of a country. Railroads appear as dark, straight lines connecting provinces with one another, whereas factories are represented as small factory icons. Provinces where railroads may be built are shown in green. Fully developed provinces are show in white. Although the icons appear in a particular province, factories are organized not by province but by the state (see below). Revoltrisk: This mode shows in red those provinces that are in danger of revolting. No red means no revolts and the greener the better. This map also shows, through the placement of small icons, the various types of crime in each province. Provinces can only have one form of crime at a time. The map is organized into three levels. The highest level is that of the nation. These are clearly shown in their own color on the political map. Each nation is sovereign over its own territory and (unless it is a satellite or a dominion) has control over its international relations. Taxes and tariffs and literacy are examples of factors determined at the national level. The lowest level is that of the province. These are also clearly illustrated on the map?they are the smaller territorial demarcations within a country. Battles, railroads, resources, crime, revolts, and POP management are all handled by the province. Provinces also have an individual ?life rating? which shows how hospitable the province is to human habitation. The better the life rating, the more people will want to move there and the lower the penalties suffered by invading armies. Between the province and the nation is the state. States are visible as the highlighted region on the terrain map after only one click, or as the slightly darkened region on the political map after only one click (clicking again selects a specific province). The state is merely a collection of provinces, geographically related. It is at the state level that factories are managed. The factories are spread across the entire state, even though the icon appears in a specific province. POPs in any province in the state can be assigned to work in a factory within that state. Factories can only be built in states that have been granted statehood in your country. Statehood can be granted only when the majority population of at least one of the provinces in the state is your national culture. Keep in mind that all territory conquered or purchased from civilized countries, regardless of its population, is a state. States are unique in Victoria in that they are the only demarcation of land that transcends national boundaries. Land allocation in treaties is done by the province, not by the state, meaning that states can be split up among two or more nations. Examples of this at the outset of the 1836 scenario include the state of Azerbaijan, which is divided between Russia and Persia, and the state of Maine, which is divided between the United States and Great Britain. States divided between nations can still have factories built in them, but only those POPs inside your country can be assigned to work in them. When an entire state is conquered, all factories in that state are transferred as well, but keep in mind that as long as even one of the provinces in a state remains in the hands of the other country, all the factories will remain in that other country. -- Chapter 2 ? POPs ?The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.? -Karl Marx What is a POP anyway? POPs are the basic population units in Victoria. They are in every country and every populated province. They are the basis for your entire economy. In fact, they are your economy. POPs come in various sizes, from 1 to 100,000. POPs come in ten flavors: Officers, Aristocrats, Capitalists, Clergymen, Clerks, Craftsmen, Farmers, Laborers, Soldiers, and Slaves. Each contributes in different ways to your economy. Most POPs are convertible by you, the player, assuming they are at the right level already and you have the resources to promote them to the next. What do the different POPs do? Aristocrats: These are the wealthy landowners in your country. They basically sit at home all day and consume things. They do provide a bonus to RGOs, but besides that, they?re useful for little more than being taxed. Officers: These are the more experienced and highly trained solders in your army. The number of Officers you have contributes directly to the number of leadership points you develop. The more Officers you have, the more leadership points you earn. Clergymen: These are the religious figures in your country. They work to your benefit by reducing the Consciousness of your POPs (see section ?The Big Three?), making them better citizens of autocratic governments, but worse citizens of democratic governments. They also, by extension, reduce the Militancy of some strata of your population, making them less likely to revolt against your rule. They do, however, raise consciousness for Aristocrats, Capitalists, and Officers. Clergymen also add to your research points until the discovery of Darwinism makes the obsolete. Capitalists: These are the entrepreneurs of your economy. They boost your industrial output and are also very good for taxing. Clerks: These are the educated working class of your population. They work in factories alongside Craftsmen (see below), and they improve the efficiency of the factory itself. Importantly, Clerks add to your research points, so the more Clerks you have, the more research points you acquire. Unlike most other POPs, the size of a Clerk POP does have a direct effect on your research output. An 80,000 person Clerk POP does produce more research points than a 1200 person Clerk POP, so a common tactic has become to convert the largest POPs in an industrialized province to Clerks. Craftsmen: These represent the lower-educated skilled workers. They work in factories, but they do not add to the efficiency of the factory the way Clerks do, nor do they yield research points the way Clerks do. Farmers: These are the agricultural workers in your country. They work the land and produce goods. Farmers work in RGOs (Resource Gathering Operations), of which every province has one. But they will only work in RGOs that produce grain, fish, cattle, fruit, or wool. Laborers: These do the hard physical work of your economy. These are the coal miners, the lumberjacks, the hard-working men who develop the raw resources that drive your industry. They, like Farmers, also work in RGOs, but they do not share space with Farmers. Instead, the fill the ranks in the other RGOs, such as iron, coal, sulfur, timber, etc. Soldiers: These are the basic fighting unit of your country. The number of soldiers you have adds directly to your manpower pool. The more soldiers you have, the higher the manpower. Slaves: These are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder. Not actually considered citizens, they cannot be taxed, nor can they be converted to any other kind of POP. Slaves work, like Farmers and Laborers, in RGOs. Only a few countries in Victoria have Slaves, and these include the United States, Denmark, Texas, and eventually the Confederacy as well. Many of these countries have events that allow their slaves to be emancipated and converted into laborers. Note that any and all POPs that give a bonus of some sort (ie. Clerks granting research points) must be of your National Culture (see section ?Other Concepts?) for you to receive that bonus. Aristocrats and Capitalists are considered ?Rich?; Officers, Clergymen, and Clerks are considered ?Middle Class?; and Craftsmen, Farmers, Laborers, and Soldiers are considered ?Poor?. This is important to keep in mind when deciding how much to tax each class of your citizenry. Slaves, as mentioned earlier, are not taxable. POP merging is one of the more controversial concepts of the POP system. Merging, under the 1.03 patch takes place between POPs which are less than 10,000 in size, and essentially keeps there from being dozens of small, hundred or thousand person POPs in a province. An under-10,000 POP can merge with a larger POP as long as the resulting POP is not larger than 100,000. When any two POPs whose culture, religion, and type (i.e. Clerk, Craftsman, Farmer) are the same are located in the same province, they will merge and form a single, larger POP, as long as one is less than 10,000 in size/. The direct effect of POP merging is that industrialization is easier in multi-ethnic empires, as the small POPs of different cultural groups will not merge, thus creating more available POPs to place in factories. Since a 500 person POP is just as efficient in the factory as a 19,999 person POP, this kind of multi-ethnic industrialization can make a big difference in production. POPs not only merge but split as well. When a POP grows to be 100,000 in size, it will split into one 75,000 person POP and one 25,000 person POP, each of which will continue to grow as separate entities, eventually splitting themselves once they reach 100,000. This is how the game simulates population growth. POPs can also degrade. If a specific POP is taxed above fifty percent of its income, it may degrade itself into a lower class. Thus it is wise to never tax your upper and especially your middle class above forty-nine percent except in cases of emergencies. How do POPs produce? POPs add to your production output by working directly in either factories or in RGOs. Neither will produce goods without POPs to work them. When choosing which POPs to assign to a particular factory, you must keep in mind the POP?s size. Different sizes of POPs produce more than others (see section ?Industrialization?). Every factory can accommodate only five POPs per level, regardless of their size. Another factor to keep in mind is that there is a specific ratio of clerks to craftsmen?2:3?that produces the most efficient factories. If possible, you should always try to aim for this ratio when assigning clerks and craftsmen to factories. POPs will not remain forever in one province. If they are unemployed, they will emigrate and seek work elsewhere. All POPs migrating are programmed to seek jobs within your country first, then in your country?s colonies, and lastly in other countries. This way, if you have open factory positions in one state and unemployed Clerks and Craftsmen in another, they may migrate to the open jobs. Keep in mind that this process?as in real life?is not perfect and many POPs will not always go where you want them to. POP migration is also affected by the life ratings of your provinces (the little thermometers), which show how good they are for human habitation. The better the life rating of the province, the more people will want to move there. All individual POPs come with individual thoughts and issues. Each POP will tell you what their specific issues of concern are, what chance they have to revolt, and how politically conscious they are of themselves. Each POP type also comes with its own demands for specific goods. These are in three groups: life needs, everyday needs, and luxuries. The more of each they get, the less likely they are to revolt. The specific goods that fall into each class can very by POP type. For example, Farmers, unlike all other POP types, have fertilizer set as a luxury good. -- Chapter 3 ? The Budget ?The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.? -John Stewart Mill Managing your budget is key to any successful game, and knowing what the various sliders mean helps tremendously. Taxes: There are three tax sliders, one each for the poor, middle, and rich classes. The first thing to remember is that POPs don?t like being taxed above a third of their income, but they?ll stomach it for a while. The worst thing you can do is consistently tax the middle and upper classes above fifty percent, as this will probably lead to devolvement among the POPs (see section ?POPs?). If this happens, your Clerks, the driving force behind your research, can fall back into farmers or laborers because of tax-imposed poverty. High taxes will also lead to high levels of emigration. But of course, it also leads to lots and lots of money, so do your own balancing. There is a second idea related here?tax efficiency. This is the rate at which your collectors are actually able to impose your tax legislation on the people. There is an overall tax efficiency as well as a class-specific efficiency. To see how much of your POPs money you?re actually getting, you have to multiply the tax rate by the tax efficiency by the class-specific efficiency. State Bonds: Though not actually a slider, bonds represent your population?s investment in the government of your country. Remember the reasoning behind this: the more of a financial stake a population has in its government, the more likely they are to rally to its support in time of crisis (by the way, for all you history buffs and econ majors, this was part of Alexander Hamilton?s financial plan back in the Washington administration, and was the original reason the United States federal government developed a permanent system of national debt). Though the citizens rallying to the flag in a crisis to save their money is not actually represented in the game, your income from selling bonds is. Citizens will buy bonds if they have extra capital left over after purchasing at least all their everyday needs. Even if your government is in debt, your citizens can still purchase state bonds. Education: This slider determines how much your government spends on raising the literacy rate and on funding research and technological development. Holding spending at fifty percent keeps the current literacy rate steady. Put the slider above fifty percent, and literacy gradually increases; put it below and it gradually decreases. The amount of spending also determines how many research points you earn. Spending minimally on education yields few points, regardless of the number of Clerks or Clergymen you have. Spending a great deal can compensate for a small population. Crime Fighting: This determines how much money your government spends fighting corruption and illegal activity in the country. Reducing crime helps reduce militancy, directly affects the revolt risk, and can help remove issues like immoral business practices which can lead to a collapse of your economy. There is always crime developing in your country, but the higher the slider the more quickly the government moves to stamp it out. Each month the computer runs a check on the amount of crime in you country, and depending on how much you have invested, a crime ?building? (such as immoral business or machine politics) may appear or disappear. At zero percent funding, Revoltrisk is doubled; at one hundred percent funding, it is halved. Social Spending: This determines how much your government spends supporting its various social reforms. In order to gain the benefits of your reforms, you must spend at least fifty percent of the slider. Funding below reduces the benefits, whereas funding above leads to Trust in Government (see section ?Reforms?). Defense Spending: This is where you decide how much you put into national defense. The amount of money you allocate here determines your rate of increase in manpower and leadership points, as well as the maximum of each that you can have. When you convert a POP into a Soldier or Officer, the current level of defense spending determines how much manpower or leadership you get for that particular conversion (this number will not be constant, but dependent on the size of the converted POP. However, overall, the higher the defense spending of your country, the more effective conversion to Soldiers or Officers is in increasing you manpower and leadership). High defense spending also increases prestige to have high defense spending. Army Maintenance: This determines how much money you give to the upkeep of your army. This can?and sometimes must?be low due to the expensive nature of industrialization early in the game. Funding Army Maintenance at one hundred percent means your divisions can be at full strength?ten thousand men. Placing the slider below one hundred percent reduces the number of men per division, although the divisions themselves can never disappear, even at the lowest Army Maintenance possible. The lowest number of men a division can have, even if its maintenance is as low as possible, is 1,900 men; a fully maintained division has 10,000 men (or 12,000 if it has a brigade attached). Once you have lowered the slider, those men have disappeared. They will not automatically return when you increase the slider again. The only way to bring the divisions back to full strength is through reinforcement (see section ?The Army?). Navy Maintenance: This influences your individual ships the same way Army Maintenance influences individual divisions. Lower it below one hundred percent and the strength of your ships declines. Unlike with divisions, the strength of your ships will return at no cost to you when their funding is brought back up. The only requirement is that they be in a port, and, given enough time, they will come back to full strength. Note that ships take considerably loger to regain full strength than land units. Loans and Interest Payments: Whenever your country spends more then it has in its treasury, it doesn?t shoot you into negative territory. Rather, you take out a loan, the amount of which is located in this box. This loan will stay out until you yourself repay it. Repayment is not automatic. Alongside this number is the interest rate. Not only do you have to repay the loan, but you also must pay daily interest on it. This number is usually only a few pounds a day at most, unless you are a very reckless spender. The interest rate can be reduced through discovering several technologies in the Commerce area of research. These include things like Ad Hoc Money Bill Printing and any other techs that make capital flow more freely in an economy. One thing to keep in mind: if your country goes too far into debt, you will be forced to declare bankruptcy. If this happens, not only do you lose a tremendous amount of prestige, but, as of the 1.03 patch, you lose all your stockpiles of goods and some of your factories as well. Having gone bankrupt once makes you more likely to go bankrupt again, and sooner as well, as the trust bankers put in your government goes down with each successive declaration. Suffice it to say, bankruptcy is a bad thing. Tariffs: Tariffs were one of the most hotly debated issues in the Victorian time period, and, similarly, they are one of the more powerful?and potentially destructive?tools you can use to manage your economy. Tariffs are taxes on imported goods, which, for the purposes of the game?s mechanics (see section ?Trade?) means that you?re putting a tax on every item your POPs buy. The larger your population, the higher your tariff income should be. Tariff incomes are also higher for countries whose POPs are more advanced (i.e. Clerks, Capitalists, Officers, Clergymen, and Aristocrats over Craftsmen, Laborers, Farmers, and Slaves). This is because well developed POPs demand more goods and more expensive goods, thus raising your tariff revenue. But tariffs also make the goods your POPs seek to buy more expensive, and thus, potentially out of their reach. One of the modifiers of Militancy is how many of their desired goods POPs are able to purchase, so leaving high tariffs for indefinite periods of time can be quite harmful to your domestic tranquility. One other thing that can be done with the tariff slider is moving it below the spot where you break even. This puts a subsidy, rather than a tax, on the goods your POPs purchase, making the cheaper, and thus more accessible, reducing Militancy. There is a certain balance to keep in mind when imposing tariffs and constructing factories. If you produce an item domestically in any quantity, your POPs will try to buy it from your own sources first. Even though they will buy it through the world market system, there will not be a tariff imposed because the product was created domestically. For this reason, producing at least a little of all your POPs? desired goods within your nation will benefit them by reducing the cost of those goods (as there will be no tariff on them) but it will kill your tariff income. Keep this in mind in the early game, particularly for players of countries with one one or more liquor factories. As Russia, closing your liquor distilleries on day one of the game can lead to a very large increase in tariff income for the early game with very few if any immediate repercussions. Remember, though you may make changes to the sliders in this window, none will take effect until you have actually exited the window. -- Chapter 4 ? Industrialization ?Red-hot iron, white-hot iron, cold-black iron; an iron taste and iron smell, and a Babel of iron sounds.? -Charles Dickens Industrialization is the key to the Victorian economic system. Though it?s possible to survive on an agrarian economic system, your country will go nowhere. All players seeking to achieve or keep Great Power status must industrialize. There are three aspects to successful industrialization. The first aspect is the construction of factories. As mentioned previously (see section ?The Map?), this is done at the state, not provincial level. To construct a factory, open the particular state?s information screen. At the bottom, there will be a button allowing you to build a new factory. Factories cost a certain amount of raw material to build. Many nations start out with a certain amount of these raw materials?lumber, cement, and steel?and with a small stockpile of machine parts. Use them wisely, especially the machine parts. Many nations do not begin the game with machine parts. When choosing what factories you wish to build, try to keep in mind the various prices and uses of the products you are considering making. For example, in the early game, steel is a well-priced commodity considering how cheap it is to produce. Keeping this process in mind can help you quickly amass enough cash to continue industrialization. Also keep in mind the system of vertical production. By this I mean the way that one factory uses the products produced by another. For example, let?s say you take timber and turn it into lumber in a Lumber Mill. You can then take that lumber and use it in a Furniture Factory to make furniture, a generally highly-priced good. That furniture can then be used to manufacture luxury furniture in a Luxury Furniture Factory. Luxury furniture, situated as it is at the top of a long vertical production chain, tends to be very highly priced and thus very valuable to sell. As a rule, remember that the longer the production chain, the higher-priced the goods towards the top tend to be. Most factories are able to be built once the technology Freedom of Trade has been discovered, although there are some that cannot be built until later (Telephone and Automobile factories, for instance) and some that can be built before (Liquor Distilleries, Wineries, and Glass Factories). Note that most uncivilized nations start the game without having discovered Freedom of Trade. Once you have built your factories, you want to ensure that they actually produce things that you can sell. This brings us to the second aspect of successful industrialization?POPs. You need POPs to run your factories for you. They are the labor that runs the machines, the strength behind your economy. There are two kinds of POPs that work in factories?Craftsmen and Clerks. Craftsmen do not need Clerks with them in a factory; they can run it on their own. Clerks, on the other hand, cannot run a factory on their own, and, in fact, there are a limited number of Clerks you can put into a factory. You must have at least one Craftsman for each Clerk in a factory; there cannot be more Clerks than Craftsmen in any particular factory at any time. Unemployed Clerks and Craftsmen will automatically be placed into newly constructed factories as soon as they are complete, but eventually, you will run out of unemployed workers and will have to convert more. You should take these new workers from the ranks of the Farmers and Laborers of the state. To convert another type of POP into a Craftsman or a Clerk (or, in fact, into most other kinds of POPs), simply click on their specific box and then click the button that says ?Convert to [insert POP type of your choice here]?. If you have enough of the required goods in stock, the POP will be converted immediately and will be auto-assigned to a factory at once. But not all POPs are equal when it comes to factory assignment. As you will recall, all POPs come in sizes between 1 and 100,000. Obviously, a thirteen man POP is not as good in a factory as an eighty-five thousand man POP, but the differences are slightly more esoteric than that. Rather than having a set value increase in proportion to the size of the POP, there is instead a system based around several POP size thresholds. Before you can understand this concept you must understand the idea of production efficiency. Factories do not start out running at maximum possible capacity. There are, in fact, several discoveries that increase the output of the factories using their efficiency as a modifier. POPs also have efficiencies for production based on their sizes: 1 ? 499: 33% efficiency 20,000 ? 49,999: 75% efficiency 500 ? 19,999: 50% efficiency 50,000 ? 100,000: 100% efficiency So a fifty-thousand person POP produces exactly as much as a hundred-thousand person POP, which is three times the amount of a three-hundred person POP. Note also that POPs of non-National Cultures are half as efficient than those of your National Culture(s). Managing POP sizes is not the only way to improve factory efficiency. This brings us to the third aspect of successful industrialization?railroads. Railroads are the last link to gaining the highest possible factory efficiency because, unlike POPs, their efficiency increases over time with new technologies. There are several levels of railroad in the game, and each successive level further improves the efficiency of your factories. To build a railroad, simply go to the information screen of the province in which you wish to build the railroad and click on the button beneath the picture of the current transportation type (for almost all nations in the start of the game this should be a horse-and-carriage). Assuming you have the requisite materials in stock, the railroad will immediately begin construction. In order to receive the benefits of railroads, they must cover one province in the state in which the factory is situated. Otherwise, they will not be effective. The average railroad efficiency of the state is calculated and usd for factory purposes; the more railroads you have in the state, the higher the efficiency. Never forget the importance of railroads in improving factory efficiency; it can make all the difference in the world in the later game. Besides, railroads are always a good investment because they also allow your troops to move across your territory much more quickly than they otherwise could. -- Chapter 5 ? Trade ?Free trade is not a principle, it is an expedient.? -Benjamin Disraeli The last remaining issue with the economic system is trade. Understand trade, and you will be able to make a quick fortune. There are many, many products you can make, buy, and sell in Victoria, and all of them are available for trade on the world market. All commodities start the game being auto-traded by the computer. A word of advice: turn this feature off. History has shown that the computer will purchase items you need, but in quantities and at intervals not usually suited to your budget constraints. To turn off this feature, you must go through and unclick all the little boxes on the left of the screen that have X?s through them. An X signifies that the computer is trading the commodity for you. In a normal game, however, it is usually safe to leave some basic raw materials auto-traded. These include cotton, wool, coal, sulfur, and timber. But check your economic map first. If you country is short on any of these goods, it is better to leave them under your control. You should rarely leave your higher-end goods under computer control. Allowing the game to auto-trade luxury clothing has lead to several second-year bankruptcies among new players. To set the orders for buying and selling manually, click on the box for the particular commodity. That commodity should then appear at the bottom of the trade window. Click the box to the left to indicate whether you want the game to buy or sell, and then move the slider to the amount desired. Remember to click ?Confirm Trade? or else the order will not take effect. Victoria?s economy is an open one, meaning that, like all open economies, the price of goods is determined by supply and demand. As mentioned earlier, all types of POPs have different demands. The game keeps track of how much of each good (furniture, clothing, precious metal, automobiles, etc.) is produced on the market, as well as how many POPs are demanding them. Based on the amount of demand for goods, and their relative scarcity, the game will churn out a number for the price of that item. This number is found in the standard, humdrum, Econ 101 supply-and-demand graph. Because of the game?s reliance on this system to calculate price, you can, of course, manipulate it. To do this, you simply have to understand the way supply and demand systems work. If the demand goes down, the price drops, but if the demand goes up, so does the price. Similarly, if the supply drops, the proce of the remaining items will rise as well. Therefore, if you are a large producer of a certain item?precious metals, for example?and are unsatisfied with the price per unit you are receiving, all you have to do is stop selling the good for a little while. As required by the system, the price will rise. Once the cost of the good has reached a satisfactory level, you can sell your stockpile and reap enormous cash benefits. Of course, flooding the market that way will drop the price back down to a more reasonable level. Be cautious, though, for messing around with the supply of certain items can increase your POPs militancy, because they, along with everyone else, will have trouble getting them. It is always good to have stockpiles of certain essential goods. Steel, lumber, and cement, for instance, are necessary for building almost every type of building in the game, including railroads. Products like paper, furniture, and regular clothing are necessary in order to convert POPs into Craftsmen and Clerks, so it is also good to have a small stockpile of these on hand, though it should not be your first priority. You should also try to have at least fifty small arms and fifty canned food in stockpile if you can, as this is the cost of increasing mobilization. Trade in Victoria is always international. There is always a domestic market for the goods you produce in your factories, but the fact is that the system makes the POPs buy their desired goods from the world market. This means that if, for example, you are the world?s only producer of furniture and you don?t offer your stockpile onto the world market, then your POPs won?t ever get any of it. This situation, recall, increases their Militancy. This means that stockpiling your goods can be a very, very bad thing. Though you may be tempted to keep the other countries from industrializing by not providing them with the materials to convert their POPs (such as furniture and clothing), you will also be robbing your POPs of goods they need to live a happy life. Remember, free trade is a good thing in Victoria. It is, however, fine to stockpile certain goods. War materiel, for example, is not demanded by any POPs and is generally a good thing to stockpile as you do not want to be supplying the armies of your enemies. Clippers and Steamers are very well priced, but they are also good to keep off the world market if you can afford it, as it will stymie the attempts of other countries to build up their navies. Of course, you can always utilize the commodities in your stockpiles whenever you want. Trade also adds to your income. Any products you sell puts money directly into the pockets of your POPs, money which is then taxable. Your trade balance is clearly visible on the main task window inside the ?Trade? box. -- Chapter 6 ? Politics ?The Empress is Legitimist, my cousin is Republican, Morny is Orleanist, I am a socialist; the only Bonapartist is Persigny, and he is mad.? -Napoleon III Victorian politics is an incredible complicated business. There are several factors to keep in mind, from national ideology to the specific ideals of political parties to the types of political and social reforms you grant. Every country has a specific government type. These are: Monarchy, Constitutional Monarchy, Democracy, Presidential Dictatorship, or Proletarian Dictatorship. The vast majority of countries in the game will start and end as monarchies, although there is a great deal of transfer to constitutional monarchy and democracy by the end. Presidential and proletarian dictatorships are few and far between, and can only be arrived at through revolution. You cannot purposefully achieve either through a combination of political reforms (see ?Reforms?). Every country also has an Executive Designation, which is directly related to what form of government you have. ?Laws by Decree? reflects a monarchy, presidential, or proletarian dictatorship; ?HMS Government?, a Constitutional Monarchy; ?Parliamentarism?, a Democracy. Each nation also has specific party system which determines how elections are run. In a One-Party state, the ruling party will continuously hold power and be reelected. In a Two-Party system, there exist third parties, but they receive a large penalty when votes are counted. In a Multi-party system, all parties have a chance at the election. Countries come with a National Value. This represents the sentiment of the majority of the population, regardless of their political actions. This is the way the game reflects certain cultural determinants, such as the British and American aversions to despotism, or the German and Russian desires for a strong, central government. This is not to say that National Value does not change, but it tends to do so more through revolution than through political reforms. National Values come in three flavors: Order, Liberty, and Equality. Countries that value order will have more efficient crime fighting and military research. Societies upholding liberty will speed up non-military research, and societies valuing Equality will make social spending more effective at reducing militancy. Each country also has files representing the political parties that can come into power, and each has its own qualities. But there are universal ideals that are combined in various ways among the parties: Economic Policies: Laissez-Faire: This means little or no government intervention in the private sector. A party with this kind of belief will not allow you to ever tax any class above fifty percent of its income, nor will it allow you to grant social reforms or spend more than fifty percent of the social budget. Interventionism: Interventionist parties allow all types of social reforms, and social spending is allowed between ten and eighty percent of the budget. State Capitalism: This is the essence of a socialist government. You cannot remove social reforms, only add them, and you cannot tax your population below twenty percent of their income. Planned Economy: This is Victoria?s equivalent of a communist economic policy. Planned economy parties do not allow the taxing of classes at below fifty percent, and social reform spending can only be thirty percent at a minimum. In Planned economies, you can add social reforms, but not remove them. The effect of these policies, obviously, is directly related to your ability to raise and spend money as you wish. Religious Policies: Pluralism: Pluralist parties allow all religions in a country. Moralism: One religion is dominant, and, while others may be allowed, they suffer for lack of funds or state support. Secularized: There is freedom of religion in the country, but the dominant mood is one of secularization and non-religion as people are accustoming themselves to the ideas of modern science. Atheism: Religion is forbidden in the country. These policies have a great effect on your citizens. Religion is one of the strongest motivators people have, and a party that attempts to crush religion in a very religious country (or one that seeks to promote it in an atheist country) will suffer revolts galore. Minority Policies: Full Citizenship: In full Citizenship governments, all people have the same rights, regardless of race, creed, or color. Minorities can vote only in this kind of government. Limited Citizenship: These kinds of governments distribute rights unequally, but the bottom-most class can still do everything but vote. Residence: Residence governments allow foreigners or other ethnic groups to work in the country but allow them few liberties. Slavery: Governments of this type put the less favored classes into forced bondage. The type of minority policy your government has effects how content your minorities are to be living there. A strongly xenophobic party will virtually eliminate immigration and encourage emigration, whereas an open government can draw hordes of foreign workers to your shores, thus giving you free labor and costing your rivals. Trade Policies: Free Trade: Free Trade governments impose maximum limits on tariffs. Protectionism: Protectionist governments limit how much you can subsidize your population. These policies have an effect on the happiness of your POPs. Since a part of their happiness is determined by their access to goods, if the cost of those good is beyond their reach, they will be unhappy. Free Trade governments may limit how much of a tariff you can impose, but Protectionist governments are potentially more dangerous: subsidizing expansive good for your POPs keeps them happy, and not being able to do this can lead to revolts later in the game. Military Policies: Pacifism: A pacifist government does not allow defense spending above fifty percent. Anti-Military: These governments do not allow defense spending to go above eighty percent. Pro-Military: These governments do not allow defense spending to fall below ten percent. Jingoism: Jingoistic governments do not allow defense spending to be below thirty percent. These policies determine how much you can spend on national defense, which is directly related to how much manpower and leadership points you accumulate. With low stockpiles of either, it is difficult to fight a successful war, especially a prolonged one. -- Chapter 7 ? Reforms ?The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.? -Leo Tolstoy Once you understand how the political system in Victoria works, you can consider granting reforms. There are two types of reforms: political and social. These work in different ways. Political reforms extend rights to your population. These include such things as public meetings and the right to form unions. Social reforms, on the other hand, involve the state shelling out cash to provide services to the people. Such services include health care, pension funds, and minimum wages. Both kinds of reforms reduce the militancy of your population, but neither is free?monetarily or otherwise. Political Reforms: Voting Rights: This is perhaps the most important political reform, as it can determine what kind of government your country takes as a whole. There are several levels of voting rights. First, there is the ?None? option. This is pretty self-explanatory, so we?ll leave it at that. Second is the ?Landowners only? choice. This means that you will be allowing your Aristocrats and Capitalists to vote, but no one else. ?Wealth? means that suffrage is extended through the middle class, enveloping Clergymen, Officers, and Clerks. And finally, ?Universal Suffrage? means everyone can vote (note: this does not include women until late in the game, if at all). The people allowed to vote determine what kinds of governments are elected. The upper classes tend to be quite conservative?even reactionary?in their leanings, so with very restrictive voting rights, those are the kinds of parties you will see elected. The lower classes tend to be more liberal?and later, socialist?and granting them voting rights may get those kinds of parties elected. Before extending voting rights, look at the parties that can currently be elected and make sure you understand what kinds of restrictions they could put on your government. The type of voting right you have also tends to determine your overall form of government. Many states with no voting rights, when granted suffrage of any sort, become Constitutional Monarchies. Extending this to Universal Suffrage tends to shift the government to a democracy, though with the more conservative nations of Central and Eastern Europe they will stay Constitutional Monarchies. The classes that are newly allowed to vote are happy to be able to do so and generally receive a decrease in militancy, but understand that those who can already vote are unhappy to see the privileges extended, and will be unhappy. Public Meetings: This is where you choose whether to allow public meetings, one of the staples of popular government. Prohibiting them will make your liberal classes angry, but it will reduce your crime fighting costs as everyone (including criminals and political protestors) can no longer congregate without breaking the law. Allowing them will keep your crime fighting costs up, but it will mollify your more liberal POPs. Press Rights: This is how you choose how much of a license the press in your country gets. Providing the ?State Press? option puts the newspapers in the control of the government. Make no mistake, people are not fooled by this, and though it helps keep people in control, they can get unhappy. ?Censored Press? means that the newspapers have some freedom, but they are being watched by government censors. This allows for a reduction in militancy among the population without suffering the burdens of a truly free press, and seems to be a balance point with which many players are comfortable. ?Free Press? means that you remove all restrictions on your newspapers, allowing them to print whatever they want. You will find that this can often include government criticism, which can itself lead to an increase in Consciousness and Militancy for a segment of your population. Political Parties: This is where you choose what kind of power you will have over the parties in your country. The first choice ?No Political Parties? is self-explanatory. The second is ?Right to Ban?. Selecting this means that you are allowing elections, but that the monarch retains the right to dissolve a government with which he is unsatisfied. This allows you to expel a party from power if it has imposed restrictions on you with which you are unhappy. ?All Allowed? means that you agree to allow whatever party gets elected into office, and agree to go along with that they legislate. Banning a party or expelling it from power creates a tremendous amount of unrest among the adherents to that party within your citizenry. As with press rights, the more freedom there is the lower the militancy of the majority of your population, but remember that allowing all parties can lead to the election of Pacifist or Socialist parties that restrict how you can manage your military or economy. Trade Unions: Here you select what kind of collective bargaining rights you assign. You can of course select the ?No Trade Unions? choice. Besides that, you can select the ?Non-Socialist? choice, which makes your liberal POPs happy but angers your conservative POPs. Choosing ?Only Socialist? makes the socialist POPs happy while angering all the rest. ?All Allowed? means that all trade unions, whatever their ideology, are free do form. This makes socialist POPs happy, but angers all the rest. All political reforms will reduce the Militancy of one or more strata of your population, but they will increase the Militancy and Consciousness of others. A good rule of thumb to follow: whoever benefits from the political reforms will be happier, but whoever loses political power will be unhappy. For example, if you extend voting rights from landed to wealth, you will include Clerks. These will be happy, while the Aristocrats and Capitalists will be upset. Furthermore, if you then extend voting rights to universal suffrage, the Clerks, who will have less power after the next reform than before, will be upset by it. Social Reforms: All social reforms are a good way to reduce militancy, but they cost a great amount of money. As you can see, the social reforms come at several levels, from ?trinkets? to ?good?. The higher the rate, the more money it costs to run. There is both an establishment cost and a daily cost that comes out of your budget. Minimum Wages: This sets how much of a minimum wage your workers get. Maximum Workhours: This sets a limit on how long employers can force their employees to work. Reducing the number of workhours also reduces the efficiency of your workers, as they have less time to produce. Safety Regulations: These set how much safety your workers should be provided. This, again, reduces efficiency as it leads to slightly slower rates of production. Health Care: This establishes a national health care system for your POPs. Unlike the previous reforms, this one counts both employed and unemployed POPs. On the positive side, though, it leads to an increase in population growth as well as the typical decrease in militancy. Unemployment Subsidies: These provide an allowance for your unemployed citizens. Recall how it was mentioned that all POPs have desired goods. Unemployed POPs, since they do not have a salary, will quickly run out of cash, lose the ability to purchase their desired goods, and become unhappy, leading to revolts or emigration. Unemployment subsidies reduce this by giving those without a job some money so that they can still purchase goods. Pension Funds: Although there are no ?retired? POPs in Victoria, pension funds are also a good way to reduce militancy overall, for, like health care, it is calculated for all POPs, employed or unemployed. The cost of social reforms depends on the size of your population as a whole, not on who is actually using it. For example, even if you have no actually unemployed POPs in your nation, you will still have to pay for unemployment subsidies. Furthermore, if you fund your social reforms more than fifty percent, you increase their effects. In other words, they will reduce Consciousness, and through it, Militancy (see section ?The Big Three?). Note that all social reforms will reduce the militancy of one or more strata of your population, but most of them raise the Militancy and Consciousness of rich POPs. -- Chapter 8 ? Diplomacy ?The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.? -Otto von Bismarck Good diplomacy is a key to victory in Victoria. Setting up alliances can mean the difference between a long slog of a war and a quick, overwhelming victory. Considering the way the Badboy system functions (see section ?Other Concepts?), and especially in the later patches, diplomacy can allow your empire to continue expanding its borders and influence even after conquest is no longer a worthwhile means of furthering the national interest. In order to make treaties with other nations, you must first have diplomatic points. These represent the number of diplomatic missions you can send to other countries. The rate at which you accumulate diplomatic points is based on your prestige. The more prestige you have, the more diplomatic points you get. A country gets a basic allowance of one diplomatic point per year, standard. If the country is considered a Great Power (i.e. if it is one of the eight most powerful nations in the world) it will get a second point per year. If the nation is a war, it will receive a third point per year. Beyond this, the number you receive depends on prestige: Once twenty-five prestige points have been attained, you will receive a quarter more points per year. At one hundred prestige points, you will receive a further quarter of a point. You will get another quarter at five hundred and twenty-five hundred prestige points as well. There are no more thresholds beyond this. It is possible to build up a supply of diplomatic points, but be aware that your stock cannot go above ten. The number of diplomatic points you get can also be changed through certain events, such as ?Aristocracy vs. Bureaucracy?. Aristocracy increases your rate of gain by twenty percent, whereas Bureaucracy reduces it by twenty percent. Once you have your diplomatic points, there are several diplomatic actions you can take in Victoria. Note that some actions require cash as well as that you have positive prestige. Declaring War: This is perhaps the most simple to comprehend of all the diplomatic actions. When you declare war on another country, you announce your intention to send your soldiers into their territory and take from them either land, money, access rights, or prestige, depending on what you ask for in the peace treaty. Declaring war can cause a chain reaction wherein you call on your allies to join on your side, and your enemy calls on theirs. Declaring Colonial War: This is a special kind of war. Colonial wars can only be declared if both belligerent powers have claimed colonies (Claimed, not just have claim buildings). In colonial wars, no states of either country can be invaded, only the colonies. For example, in a colonial war between France and the United Kingdom, the UK could not land troops in Normandy, nor the French in Dover, but the French could take Australia and India and the British could attack the French holdings in the Caribbean or North Africa. Colonial wars are good for seizing another country?s colonies without bringing your homeland?or, in fact, your national existence?into jeopardy. Colonial wars are also the only kind of war that can be declared against an uncivilized country. In this situation, a colonial war will allow you to invade the uncivilized country?s homeland, and it also does not require that the uncivilized country have claimed colonies. Colonial wars cannot be expanded to full wars, so declaring a preemptive colonial war can be a good tactic to keep someone from declaring a full war on you. This is especially true as the war will not end until you accept peace, and because your homeland is safe in this kind of war. Offer Alliance: This is how you propose to another country that you formally unite your interests. There are two forms of alliances: defensive and full. Defensive alliances come into effect when either side is attacked, but not when one of the countries initiated the war. Full alliances (known in the game as Military Alliances) are for all circumstances, including when one ally declares the war. In both instances, there is the ability to make one exception to the alliance. For example, Prussia can form a full military alliance with the Russians except in the case of Austria, meaning that Prussia will be required to come to Russia?s aid if it declares war on anyone except on Austria. Alliances do not come into effect when a country enters into a colonial war. Dissolve Alliance: This is how you break your existing alliance with someone. Keep in mind that alliances (except for those among the German states or between satellites and their home countries) dissolve on their own every five years and must be renewed or allowed to expire. Improve Relations: This is the way to increase the friendliness between you and another country. The minimum they can increase is ten points, but if you?re lucky, they can increase much more than that. The better your relations with another country, the more receptive they are likely to be to deals you offer. Bear in mind that relations between all countries naturally erode at one per month. Send Expeditionary Force: This is the way you send one of your country?s military units to aid a friend in war. You don?t have to be allied to do it, either. Your troops will be put under the direct control of the other nation, but you can take them back at any point. Remember that the enemy will make no distinction between your troops and the country?s with which they are at war, so there is a risk you will lose the division you send. The hosting country pays for the upkeep and maintenance of the troops they are sent, so sending expeditionary forces to secure allies can, in some instances, be a tricky way of avoiding high army maintenance costs in peacetime. Ask for Military Access: This is the way you secure permission to move your troops across another country?s land. You already have the ability to do this with allies, but this allows you to move across another country?s territory if they are not your ally. This is useful when trying to enter a war with a country with which you have no border or for opening a second front in the war (for example, if the US gets military access through Great Britain, it can attack Mexico from the north as well as from Belize, a British holding. Ask for Naval Access: This is similar to asking form military access. When naval access is granted, you can dock your ships in another country?s port. Keep in mind that while you have naval or military access with another country, you cannot declare war on them. Since ships in Victoria have unlimited range, this feature is useful only if you want your ships to have a port to retreat into so they can avoid combat. Demand Cessation of Colonialism: This is the way you get a country to stop constructing colonial claim buildings. In a sense, you are threatening them if they do not stop. When making this demand, you must specify the continent on which they must stop. Making this demand naturally lowers your relation with the other country. Guarantee Independence: This is the way you establish a measure of protection over another country. Not quite an alliance, a country whose independence you have guaranteed will come to you for help if war is declared on it, but it will not come to your aid of war is declared on you. If you are a powerful country, your guarantee of independence acts as a deterrent to any other country declaring war on the country you have guaranteed. Open Negotiations: This is the way you begin the more complicated dealings of the diplomacy function of Victoria. This is the place to trade technology, provinces, cash, and claims. Trading Technologies: Remember that technology is not free. Under the 1.03 patch, any technology you give to another country that is not matched by a corresponding province, claim, or other technology costs you ten prestige points. This was done to prevent the selling of technologies for huge amounts of cash. Also keep in mind that each technology you receive costs ten research points to make up. If you have negative research points, your current research does not advance (unless it already has the maximum ten points invested). This penalty is meant to represent the retro-engineering your scientists will have to do to catch up with the new technology, although you can utilize the benefits of the technology immediately. You only lose research points for techs in trades initiated by you, however. If the computer offers you a trade which includes giving you techs, you will lose no research points for it. Also as a result of the 1.03 patch, cultural technologies are no longer exchangeable. Purchasing land: Purchasing land in Victoria requires attention to several factors: First, make sure you have good relations with the country from which you intend to buy. Only countries with which you have positive relations will even consider making the deal, and the better the relations, the cheaper the cost to you. Second, make sure you haven?t racked up too many badboy points. Nations will hesitate to make trades with you if you?re seen as an aggressor (this goes for all trades, not just land). Third, be sure to pick the right provinces. There are two things to look at here. The first is the population of the province. Every nation has one or more national cultures (you can see what they are in the game files, or you can open up a new game and play as the country from which you want to buy. The national cultures are the names listed at the bottom of the Population button on the task screen). No nation will ever sell you a province whose majority population is one of their national cultures, no matter how much you offer. The second thing to look at is the diplomacy map. Once there, click on the country from which you want to buy. Every nation has provinces it will never sell, regardless of the offer or population. These provinces are represented by little dots on the diplomacy screen when that country Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Chivlan Lifecrafter Member # 3608	written Friday, April 30 2004 07:30 Profile Homepage #2 tl, dr [ Friday, April 30, 2004 07:31: Message edited by: Bojar ] -------------------- - The Great Mister kommari@gmail.com[/url] Posts: 972 | Registered: Tuesday, October 28 2003 08:00
dampeoples Shock Trooper Member # 3719	written Friday, April 30 2004 07:42 Profile Homepage #3 No kidding, maybe if all the extra spaces were taken out, too much scrolling -------------------- Scandalous Stories, fishing,and great photos Posts: 294 | Registered: Monday, November 24 2003 08:00
Custer Bob's Big Date Member # 3151	written Friday, April 30 2004 07:51 Profile Homepage #4 The manual can be found with original formatting here. -------------------- AnamaFreak (3:59:56 AM): Shounen-ai to the MAX Misogynism is the wave of the future, but it sure pisses the womenfolk off. Shocking, isn't it? Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00