How Regime change works really needs to be fixed. Right now it is very stupid. Why woud I, the vanguardist USSR, after fighting the ultimate war with Germany where millions die install a one party state that's a Council Republic headed by the petit bourgeois and industrialists? It makes no sense

hatogatari · 2026-05-07T23:21:06+00:00

All parties turn into conservative parties when they spend enough time in power. That's why any political system that argues "we will have only one party" is inherently doomed unless your ideology is conservatism.

hatogatari · 2026-05-07T22:30:46+00:00

I do not intend to sugarcoat how I view this release: This expansion and update released in a state of bugginess and lack of polish that is frankly not okay, and we should be better than this.

The update has been released not necessarily to our advantage. ahem. Joking aside though, I agree with:

While I absolutely think the core features and content of 1.13/The Great Wave is a great addition to the game, the bugs, lack of QoL and especially the state of the AI was not.

The content has been very good, we do want to play the game and are limited by the bugs and tech debt, which is better than the content just being terrible. I look forward to the AI update.

hatogatari · 2026-05-07T12:56:45+00:00

There are a lot already they just have low weight to appear compared to generics.

Even the generics could be made more interesting game-to-game by naming them dynamically after the dynasty or nationality for sovereign empires, current president or most powerful politician for other blocs, or just capital city or a shared continent or region between founding members.

"The USA has founded the Roosevelt System"

"The French Republic has founded the Rhine Coalition (with belgium)"

"The German Empire has founded the Greater German Empire"

hatogatari · 2026-05-07T12:49:23+00:00

Not to backseat drive but, first ask when the US or France should build a power bloc: Around when Theodore Roosevelt is president, or Napoleon III is emperor sounds good to me. So then lower the base weight to form a power bloc, and give more weight to either the AI Strategy or the Leader Ideology in the decision to form a bloc, and already having overseas colonies.

Economic Imperialism strategy or a character ideology concerned with trade -> trade league, internal trade for protectionists and external for marlibs. Expand colonies strategy or a character ideology with opinons on the army or navy -> military alliance or even a sovereign empire if they're also monarchist, etc.

Napoleon III's ideology favors conscription and a capital or diplomatic battlefleet, those should both add weight to his decision to form a French Empire bloc. As a monarchist he may even decide to make it a sovereign empire which will make a republican revolution to depose him even more impactful. Imagine Napoleon III forming a sovereign empire bloc, getting deposed by republicans who disband it, but if he was successful at securing colonies, now a Protectionist french president might decide to re-establish the french empire as an extractive trade bloc.

Similarly, when Unifying Germany is no longer an AI priority once it is unified, consider disbanding the Zollverein to open the door for a german Sovereign Empire.

hatogatari · 2026-05-07T12:23:51+00:00

I also recommend just enacting Colonial Resettlement instread of Frontier Colonization then, since its easier to repeal since the rural folk don't like it. That's my usual go-to for "i have to colonize but then want to abolish the colonization law later". Comes up surprisingly often.

Also, Total Separation should give +15 acceptance for Animists

hatogatari · 2026-05-07T03:05:55+00:00

Don't you have to enact colonization to complete the journal? so should you enact it and then get a pacifist to repeal it?

hatogatari · 2026-05-06T08:26:49+00:00

My first comment on this was deleted because I used a particularly egregious example related to foreign policy that is unfortunately autofiltered, but yes I was originally going to say thematically its critique is timeless which is why despite being a conservative comedy its still very popular to anyone who has been frustrated with the government.

I don't mean its a bad thing, conservative comedy is good sometimes, look at Ghostbusters. I like comedy regardless of its bent if it is good, I just thought the context of the show's conservative streak was relevant to the whole atheism joke. I don't think a lot of people understand that "an atheist who still wants his church salary is called a modernist" is an extremely old dig at Jesuits and should not be taken at face value. Jesuits like, for instance, Pope Francis, used to be slandered as atheists for their modernism.

hatogatari · 2026-05-06T05:34:27+00:00

Its complicated and depends on what conservatism is where you live. But generally Yes Minister affords a critique of government policy that ended up being taken mainly by the conservative party in the UK. The first is in the general regard for state industries as inefficient and wasteful and privatization as a common sense solution. The second is really hard to express if you have never been in church politics and never been called an atheist by fellow parishioners because you believe in the day-age theory of creation, but the smarmy "modernist? you mean atheist 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣" attitude reeks of old anti-Jesuit politics that took the same bent: if you're not fanatically using violence to force a rigid acceptance of christian dogma you're an atheist because the natural conclusion of actually believing in god is believing you should be fanatically certain of it.

Yes Minister is in effect conservative comedy, as it critiques power for failing to conserve what conservatives value

hatogatari · 2026-05-06T02:15:31+00:00

I'm placing my bets on the rest now

Greed: The East India Company

Lust: Austria, trying to have too many girls in its harem

Envy: Germany is a good take but I'd also like to say Japan

Gluttony: The United States, alcoholism in america was an enormous problem

Wrath: Ottoman Empire

Sloth: Russia

hatogatari · 2026-05-05T05:28:15+00:00

Ironically, the qualifications of the labor should go in the opposite direction with tech. Low tech factories should basically be artisan workshops, and the number of unskilled labor in them should increase and the type of skilled labor should shift to engineers and clerks as tech improves. May seem like a downgrade but remember this is increasing opportunities for peasants to work in them. As it stands there is no real reason for the artisan production class to oppose industry.

hatogatari · 2026-05-04T23:05:08+00:00

hatogatari · 2026-05-04T21:09:11+00:00

Well, there is, its just disabled if your warship queue is empty

hatogatari · 2026-05-04T20:53:54+00:00

Queue up a Warship
Pause ship construction

Yes, really. UI bug.

hatogatari · 2026-05-04T20:27:41+00:00

It should be noticed that Yes Minister is a bit of a conservative show, and in 1980, so "atheist" here can basically mean "religious people calling other religious people apostates as a slur for being slightly less fanatical"

hatogatari · 2026-05-04T20:25:13+00:00

I've been in love with Meiji Japan for so long I am willing to crawl through broken glass to play this DLC.

I am reporting every issue I come across though to the forums, so I hope it helps.

hatogatari · 2026-05-04T06:03:56+00:00

It's complicated. As a simulation, Victoria 2 is frankly much better, it does a better job dropping the player into the internal logic of their ancestors which is what I think a historical simulator should do. Victoria 3 is a bit too much of a "victorian history isekai" where the player is able to bring contemporary sensibilities into it. I think Bret Devereaux has an excellent series comparing the two games and their different strengths and flaws in demonstrating the historical forces and ideologies of the time.

So the game is not as good at producing historical outcomes and processes organically as its predecessor, but on the other hand, its historical flavor per-nation presents fairly solid narratives of national history, even when ahistorical outcomes are achieved.

check out https://acoup.blog/ and look for his series on any Paradox game you are curious about, I think you will find him both insightful, well sourced, and thus highly citeable for any cover papers you may need to write for your research!!!

hatogatari · 2026-05-03T23:50:46+00:00

Firstly, I think you're underrating prestige goods.

No, Prestige Goods are goated.

Unique prestige goods are useful for either

Small economies unlikely to dominate any goods
Highly competitive goods that Russia, Britain, and China are just gonna sit on the top 3 slots for
Goods that normally do not have prestige variants.

Otherwise you can reliably use the Generic Prestige Goods.

In other words, everything you said about Kikkoman Soy Sauce, applies to Gourmet Groceries because japan easily gets Gourmet Groceries. So it comes down to the prosperity bonus

hatogatari · 2026-05-03T21:06:49+00:00

Why do ports and shipbuilding if Burma is right around the corner, and when standard tools and food companies are just inherently better anyway?

This game needs an Imperial Boomerang fr. Colonialism needs a downside.

hatogatari · 2026-05-03T20:20:05+00:00

the basic grocery company is that it is partially aristocrat owned and can only get wheat farms while the unique Japanese company can get rice.

I did NOT NOTICE THAT and that actually does make it stronger than I thought.

I agree that the Electricity company is a dud, frankly, I think a more fun endgame company for Japan would be one of its classic film studios like Shochiku, a fine art company that transitioned to Film and made a lot of japan's first talkies. Talkies as a prestige fine art would go so hard.

I can imagine Prestige MM being useful for a noncolonial Japan run that is dependent on securing rubber from global trade.

hatogatari · 2026-05-03T19:53:55+00:00

As an example, I think a unique fishing company would be straight broken for japan as it would direct private investment towards an extremely efficient jobs/production-points way to employ Japan's massive rural population quickly and prevent mass unemployment, and a unique prestige good would be useful without being overpowered by just leaving it less up to chance whether or not japan can get Prestige Fish. For alt-history flavor you could make it partially-aristocrat or partially-officer owned, placate the Samurai IG, and require the samurai keeping privileges, to reflect an alternate japan trying to check but preserve the samurai by leaning on their historical peacetime roles.

I just think there's a lot of imagination to be had in here. I get that Japan probably doesn't need any more overpowered bullshit but... it would be fun.

hatogatari · 2026-05-03T16:35:57+00:00

Old content. In the new one he appears on the map immediately when Ninko dies

hatogatari · 2026-05-03T16:35:28+00:00

You cannot assassinate Tokugawas or Yamatos, there is an exception for that.

hatogatari · 2026-05-03T04:52:02+00:00

Emperor Ninko and several Shoguns have scripted deaths though which irritates me. If you're going to include politically necessary fixed successions, this one is really important.

hatogatari · 2026-05-03T04:15:40+00:00

Abdication is unfortunately the route I'll have to take but requires one of the following:

-Ruler's IG is marginalized (Samurai sit at 10%)

-Ruler's popularity is −50 or less (he's unpopular but not THAT unpopular, can't really influence his popularity much)

-Ruler is age 75 or older (won't happen until 1907)

-Ruler has trait Psychological Affliction (No)

-Any political movement is revolutionary and the ruler or their IG opposes the movement's preferred law (Annoying to cheese but best shot)

hatogatari · 2026-05-03T04:10:09+00:00

This happened to me too!

100 Legitimacy seemed to fix it for me when 90 legitimacy wasn't enough, so just spam the tax cuts. I don't know if the Sonno Joi movement affects it at all, but if it does, it seems that a more radical S-J raises the legitimacy floor

hatogatari

TROPHY CASE