History VideoGame / VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun

** The third game also introduced a hard cap to money itself in the form of gold reserves: Once your treasury reaches a certain cap (which depends on the overall size of your nation's economy) you can't save any more money.

Development on ''Victoria 2'' ceased with patch 3.04 in January 2016, without the release of a proper expansion pack covering the Great War in more detail. The reputation of ''Victoria'' for being the most complicated and least accessible series produced by a developer generally known for complex and inaccessible games kept the announcement of a third game in the series at bay for several years, but in May 2021 ''Victoria 3'' was formally announced at [=PDXCon=] Remixed with Martin Anward, previously the lead developer of ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}''[[note]]who added several gameplay elements ''very'' conspicuously reminiscent of ''Victoria'' to that game and who made a great show of departing to head a personal dream project which many fans (correctly) suspected to be this[[/note]], leading development. ''Victoria 3'' was released on October 25, 2022. The first [=DLC=] affecting mechanics, ''Voice of the People'', was released in May 2023 alongside patch 1.3. It adds more agitators (essentially opinion leaders who can help sway the populace to push through laws) and allows appointing them as leaders of interest groups and letting them command troops. It also adds flavour when playing as UsefulNotes/{{France}}. The second mechanics [=DLC=], ''Colossus of the South'', adds flavour when playing as certain South American countries, including UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}}. ''Colossus'' was released in November 2023, alongside patch 1.57.

* AttackAttackAttack: The primary strategy in the early part of the game. However, mid-game tech developments such as [[MoreDakka the machine gun]] [[TruthInTelevision start favouring the defense]].

* MortonsFork: In ''III'', there is no "winning" option when it comes to agriculture laws. Serfdom is terrible and restricts an entire slew of laws from being passed, while massively increasing the power of Landowners. Tenant Farmers are only slightly less awful, since they bypass Serfdom's restrictions, but still empower Landowners (less than Serfdom). Commercial Agriculture increases capitalist income, which adds fuel to the creation of a highly-stratified population in the "standard" capitalist economy. Homesteading looks like a great thing... except it empowers Rural Folk, who are nearly as annoying when it comes to reforming the country as the Landowners (and in governments with parties, they tend to band together). Meanwhile, Collective Farming is so down the tech tree, players will have to deal with the consequences of their earlier choice for the majority of the game - and Collective Farming only works well if you decide to go full communist.

** Pretty much every single mod to the game has a variation of the Danubian Federation, also known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Greater_Austria United States of Greater Austria]], an ultimately unrealised project for the federalisation of Austo-Hungary.

* TheFederation: Any reasonably liberal Great Power arguably counts. The [=US=], [=UK=], France, Italy, a united Scandinavia, and even UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany (if formed through a liberal revolution) are all particularly likely candidates.

** The ''Colossus of the South'' DLC for ''3'' allows any country with North or South Andean primary culture and at least 10 incorporated states in South America[[note]]This requirement is for Chile as every other candidate can form either Gran Colombia, Peru-Bolivia or Rio de la Plata to qualify as a candidate[[/note]] to form the Federation of the Andes, which is a unification of all South American nations with Andean primary culture. As noted in the journal entry, such a federation was Simon Bolivar's dream.

** Throughout the series, [[PragmaticVillainy Capitalists]] are better alternative to [[AppealToTradition Aristocrats]], both economically and politically. ''Both'' are leeching on the rest of the population for no other purpose than getting rich, but at least Capitalists build up your nation's economy and allow ''some'' limited reforms to make it a less awful place for the rest of the population.

** In ''III'' Tenant Farmers is a pretty bad economic law, and it still bolsters the political power of Land Owners... but unlike Serfdom, it doesn't block any of the important laws and reforms, and the Land Owners themselves hate it the least, making it possible to pass it with relative ease.

* MortonsFork: In ''III'', there is no "winning" option when it comes to agriculture laws. Serfdom is terrible and restricts an entire slew of laws from being passed, while massively increasing the power of Land Owners. Tenant Farmers are only slightly less awful, since they bypass Serfdom's restrictions, but still empower Land Owners (just less). Commercial Agriculture increases capitalist income, which adds fuel to the creation of a highly-stratified population in the "standard" capitalist economy. Homesteading looks like a great thing... except it empowers Rural Folk, who are nearly as annoying when it comes to reforming the country as the Land Owners (and in governments with parties, they tend to band together). Meanwhile, Collective Farming is so down the tech tree, players will have to deal with the consequences of their earlier choice for the majority of the game - and Collective Farming only works well if you decide to go full communist.

* PrisonersDilemma: The first, second and last reason why the global economy suffers a complete meltdown by the tail end of the 19th century in ''II''. To prevent the infamous liquidity crisis, all the bigger countries must keep a minimal surplus of their income, spending everything else and lowering taxes accordingly, to be juuust barely in the green. AI doesn't understand it and will ''always'' seek to maximise profit for utterly useless money reserves, in the process draining its own population for no real reason other than making even more money, decreasing POP consumption, generating militancy due to inability to fulfill even basic needs and the absurd taxes, cause excessive immigration and removing money from the market. Multiply this by 30+ countries and it's a matter of ''when'', not ''if'' the global economy will eventually collapse. Of course, on paper, a country having huge budget surplus is great and desirable thing. One of the [[ObviousRulePatch changes introduced]] in ''III'' was to rework how budget reserves even operate, rendering further taxing pointless, as there is no way to amass any more cash.

* NintendoHard: China deliberately receives many crippling penalties to it (such as having 90% of its population be non-accepted, terribly inadequate military, and constant rebellion events) such that players complained China was unplayable/unfair. Paradox simply responded that China was made to be unplayable ''on purpose'' because [[ShownTheirWork China really was a political quagmire at the time]] and also because if they didn't, China would constantly turn into an a-historical superpower.

** Any country that's just a single state will absolutely refuse to fold down to outside pressure and will instead fight, even if they stand absolutely zero chance to win the resulting war (itself a mop-up that will likely be resolved within a single battle and quick occupation). In ''3'', this goes a step further, as any diplomatic play that leads to annexation - regardless of the size of the defending country - will also lead to a bitter resistance to the last man.0

* {{Realpolitik}}: In ''3'', after you have joined a side during a diplomatic play with your ally promising you a reward, if the opposing side doesn't have any war goals targetting you or your subjects, it is possible to capitulate immediatly when war breaks out, thus screwing your ally ''and'' keeping your reward. This can also happen to the player, although the AI tends to at least send a token force and/or fight for some time.

* AppealToForce: In the first game, there is absolutely ''nothing'' preventing Prussia from declaring war on any of the [[UsefulNotes/AllTheLittleGermanies German states]] and unify Germany by force in less than a year. Since they are all allied, Germanic countries will all bravely unite against Prussia. And since Prussia is [[ForegoneConclusion military power No. 1 fighting against a coalition of city-states and tiny princedoms]]... AI will of course never do that, but all player has to do is call conscripts to arm, deploy them in crucial points and declare war. More importantly, since all those lands have Prussian cores, there is ''no diplomatic penalty'' for such conquest.

** Bavaria, No. 3 country when it comes to contest for unifying Germany. It is the biggest country in the region after Prussia, has decent technology, literacy and population, along with some starting industry. On top of that, unlike Austria and Prussia, it can create ''Southern'' German Federation, and do so without firing a single shot. It unifies [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin all the southern Germanic countries]], greatly expanding Bavaria's initial power-base and, far more importantly, ''preventing'' Prussia from regular German unification, locking it at best as Northern German Federation. In fact, if done quickly enough, Bavaria can prevent Prussia from even forming the NGF, because all it takes is keeping ''any'' of the northern Germanic states out of the Prussian sphere - and some of them already have bad relations with Prussia, making it all that easier. You might not end up as a big grey blob, but you don't even need to.

* FlawExploitation: Once the ObviousBeta was patched, Rebels became laughably easy to pacify when revolting; you only need to pass a Reform with a high amount of support behind it and the Rebel armies will disband within days.

* ObviousBeta: As traditional for earlier Paradox games, the first two games were extremely buggy on release with subpar AI. (The third was ''less'' buggy, but had its own AI and balance issues.) One of the most egregious parts was the impossible to pacify political radicals who often stage massive rebellions when it made no sense for them to; AI democracies would often be overrun by Jacobin rebels demanding a democracy, for instance.
** Some developer oversights still persist, particularly involving colonization and empty territory. An uncolonized province in Canada oftentimes leads to the United States colonizing Alberta, and the way that cores on uncolonized territory works means that there will often be uncolonized 'holes' near Liberia and Ethiopia. A broken decision intended to form Yugoslavia from Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia causes one country to turn into Yugoslavia [[EpicFail without annexing any territory.]]

** East India Company in ''3'' and any mod that featured it for the first two games is a complete pushover that still controls 2/3 of India at the game start and can field endless hordes of poorly-equipped troops, while each year getting more and more behind the curve. Furthermore, a large chunk of Great Britain's power comes from the fact that they control EIC as their subject, which can cause a domino effect if EIC is taken down. ''3'' takes it a step further, because it has a scripted event that simulates UsefulNotes/IndianRebellion, and even if EIC survives (which isn't a guaranteed thing to begin with), the most likely outcome is the dissolution of the Company and [[BalkaniseMe releasing all the Indian states and entities]].

** Panjab starts out as one of the few, yet largest, Indian minor states not a puppet of Britain, and thus stands the best possible chance of eventually working itself up to GP status and kicking Britain out of India. The AI will ''never'' accomplish this, but a skilled player can actually unite India around 1870 and with luck - by 1865. [[http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?568991-Subcontinental-Subtleties-An-experimental-comic-AAR One of the most award-winning After Action Reports]] for Victoria 2 is from Panjab perspective.
** In ''III'', the British East India Company is this. Plan your independence badly, and you end up with English rule which will quickly radicalize the natives, or only East India (the Bengal region) remaining under your control with any other territory split among your Indian subjects (who also go independent). Plan it correctly, and you end up with an "East" India which comprises most, if not all of the Indian sub-continent, ready to form India once Pan-Nationalism is researched and likely a Great Power right after independence.[[note]]Once the EIC goes independent, an event will fire and give the player two options: maintain English rule, or return power to the natives. The second option will check for Indian subjects and divide EIC territory in regions beyond the Bengal region among said Indian subjects. However, if all Indian subjects had already been annexed beforehand, there will be no division of territory.[[/note]]

** ''III'' introduces a puppet state for any Great Power who has the required number of German states (either directly held or as subjects): [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_of_the_Rhine the Confederation of the Rhine]]. Once formed, no other power may form Germany. As such, any Great Power who intends to muddle the waters in continental Europe will seek to create this puppet, while Prussia and Austria has a vested interest in destroying it should it exists.