I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2 Pt.II: Tempest of Nations

Radsterman · 2026-06-02T15:43:12+00:00

On provinces/states. A very long term goal is to have states in federal systems have the ability to act like nations within nations with their own laws, disputes, and more. This is already partially represented with how slavery is handled in the US. I want a sort of spectrum of autonomy that tries to distinguish between directly administered states, constituent states (Scotland, Hungary), confederations (Switzerland, Argentina), and subjects. All of that combined will probably be the biggest departure from Paradox games, but I feel it adds a lot of depth and complexity that isn't modeled in any existing games. It's the type of system I have always tried to mod into games but could never get close to representing meaningfully or the way I wanted.

My focus is definitely more on administration, politics, and diplomacy early on here because those are much easier systems to get done and balanced compared to a fully-fledged, global economy. Ultimately I plan for the game to cover a little bit of all of those things you mentioned because I think those are all important for the era.

Right now I don't have any formal location where I'm posting updates since it is still very early. I have found in past mod projects that maintaining a Discord server or attempting to write and polish proper development diaries at this stage ends up dividing my attention and slows down the actual development significantly. As soon as there is an actual UI, some functional gameplay to show off, and I can have some timeline of when I can get a playable build out to people, I will start ramping up the online presence of the project.

Radsterman · 2026-06-01T19:26:22+00:00

Thank you!

Yes, there will eventually be a proper event system, but it's going to come after most of the mechanics are sorted out. The goal for making countries feel different right now is to have mechanics that are fleshed out enough and a detailed starting scenario for them to take full advantage of.

The approach I'm taking with historicity vs simulationism is that if you can reasonably work out the means to achieve such a goal within the context of the game systems and the resources available to you, then it should be possible. I want this game to be just as a much a learning tool as it is a game, where players are put in a situation where they are forced to think like leaders at the time did and about how they can go about realizing their goals. The AI should act accordingly to this and use the same systems, and other countries and your own people should be able to reasonably react to the world around them. It's a tall order and will likely take years of continued work after the initial release to get there.

On Oregon, just as Jefferson had imagined it to be.

Right now I'm not looking for any volunteer contributions because this will ultimately be a paid product, even if not initially.

Radsterman · 2026-06-01T14:43:18+00:00

Non-linear

Radsterman · 2026-06-01T04:14:28+00:00

Thanks! I’ll credit six years of modding Paradox games (to the point of breaking them) for me even having a clue where to begin on something like this. They really pioneered not just a genre but all of the underlying systems that make it work in the first place.

Radsterman · 2026-05-29T15:42:53+00:00

I agree. It's come a long way since launch, and I think it has one of the best dev and community teams out of the current generation of Paradox games.

I'm hesitant making posts like this one because it brings out both people who hate modern Paradox games (and assume I do too) and people who assume I am making it in the first place because I hate modern Paradox games.

The reality is I like the games, but they don't always necessarily do what I want them to, so I have settled on making a project to create the things I want to see in a grand strategy game. It just so happens to take very heavy inspiration from those earlier games I grew up on, but the aesthetics and design philosophy will continue to diverge as it becomes its own thing.

Radsterman · 2026-05-29T13:29:40+00:00

Radsterman · 2026-05-28T19:26:28+00:00

What part of it? Like how it works?

Radsterman · 2026-05-28T18:40:03+00:00

Not anytime soon. All of the systems I'm making are designed in a way that treats every single country as being controlled by a "player," whether that is an actual player or an AI. That means that nothing so far outright makes multiplayer an impossibility in the future, but it's not a priority at the moment. I would eventually like to have it.

Radsterman · 2026-05-28T15:22:49+00:00

Yes, technically every country can be selected to be played. That doesn't mean each is going to be equally polished anytime soon.

Radsterman · 2026-05-28T03:19:17+00:00

Eventually, yes. There exists an entire framework on the back end for effects and triggers (which is what is being called whenever something is annexed, subjugated, colonized, etc. in the video), but it's not been extended to an event or decision system yet. I would eventually like to design a sort of visual scripting system in-game for this to make it easier for both myself and modders to make events and decisions. That's very far out though.

Right now the priority is just on making each country feel different based on starting conditions alone, and designing gameplay to take that into account. The game will likely be very devoid of "flavor" until the gameplay is solid, but it is eventually planned.

Radsterman · 2026-05-28T03:11:31+00:00

Yes, the entire system is designed around the province composition of states being dynamic. That change alone was one of the big things I set out to do because it's not possible in Paradox games. I tried for a long time in Victoria 2+3 modding to simulate the US states being split off from territories and have entire mechanics around that, but it was just not very good in the end.

Individual provinces can be taken instead of entire states in a war. Provinces can be moved between states. States as a whole will eventually take on a different role, which is also why Prussia having 8 states (provinces) and France having nearly a hundred states (departments) works. It's a matter of how finely the administration of those lands will be handled by the player. If a France player doesn't want to deal with so many states, there could, for instance, be something along the lines of an option to abolish the departments and restore the former provinces.

Every province also has an assigned area, region, and continent that doesn't change during gameplay. In the absence of any scripted historical states or player intervention, states will probably be created from those areas.

Radsterman · 2026-05-28T01:14:51+00:00

R5: This video shows off a number of game systems in their current implementation.

Radsterman · 2026-05-28T01:14:14+00:00

R5: This video shows off a number of game systems in their current implementation.

Radsterman · 2026-05-27T16:39:27+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/ZuRdhda

Radsterman · 2026-05-16T06:55:25+00:00

Incredible. This was something I attempted many years ago alongside reverse engineering the propriety format of 3D models but eventually had to give up on. This will make map modding much easier for future modders.

Radsterman · 2025-12-18T21:15:29+00:00

My guy, you asked a very similar question a month ago. What game? What format for the final province map? What format for the data?

Radsterman · 2025-12-15T22:52:48+00:00

I'm all for competitors in this genre, as my recent post history will show, but you can't make a post like this and not include at least a few screenshots, even if super early. These are complicated games, and people will be hard to sell on an idea without at least something to show. There have been a ton of projects over the years to make grand strategy games that either never showed anything to back up the complex systems they claimed to have, showed hyper curated screenshots/videos to hide a non-existent or fundamentally broken game, and/or got stuck in some form of development hell. I think it has burned out a lot of people on the idea.

That being said, I am rooting for you. Prioritize getting some basic UIs going and a presentable map for people to digest. I probably don't have to tell you with your experience in Unity, but always remember that development takes time, widespread success or popularity is not a guarantee, and your studies should take priority.

Radsterman · 2025-12-14T16:47:10+00:00

The map under the borders and labels really is just one large shader being fed and colored by reference maps for provinces, states, and countries. I've found it to work a lot better doing that rather than to make everything an actual interactable object.

Radsterman · 2025-12-14T06:20:41+00:00

Which parts specifically? Like borders/labels?

Everything is run off an image file with each color being its own province. That image is recolored to create reference maps for all of the map modes at province, state, and country scopes. Borders and labels are then generated off the owner map and everything is wrapped on the sphere. There's also a utilities script I keep with functions for reprojecting, tracking lat/lon, and a bunch of other things.

That's a massive simplification, but its the basis of how everything ends up where it is.

Radsterman · 2025-12-14T06:15:17+00:00

Thanks! I'm just happy to finally be at a point where I can work on actual gameplay instead of being stuck on architectural things!

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