Sometimes the costs of reform can appear heavier than the cost of decline. The Hellhole of Kaiserreich Subreddit is a colossal, socially progressive nation, ruled by Victoria III with an even hand, and renowned for its sprawling. Historically, everyone knew what the internal problems of the "Sick Man of Europe" were, but reform also has costs. This system makes playing a declining power like the Ottomans or Qing much more fun and interesting, as well as historical. So reform requires reshaping society to build the necessary support for passing said reforms, or violence to impose them. Further, the power of these sectors is based in the economic structure of the country. Rather, the player has to contend with the power of different social sectors to get what they want. I like how political reform is more than pushing some buttons for +/- modifiers. Next to the economic system, the political system appears the most in depth of the game systems. Watching the Japan stream gave me a lot of hope for the potential of the political system in Victoria 3. Korea basically imitate Meji Japan, but as Korea! Aim to secure either Kleindeutschland or GrossDeutschland. Another obvious one industrial Austria, liberalise and either integrate (or cast out) your national minorities.
With your pro-southern leanings, maintain slavery as long as it is economical and attempt to conquer the Golden Circle. On a "Jeffersonian" run of the United States, try keep the country ahead of the Civil War but consistently prioritise the interests of the southern gentry while merely sustaining industry as a secondary concern. Perhaps the most obvious/unoriginal, but I think trying to create a democratic "functioning" and peaceful Russia will be a good tutorial run for managing a large country Still should be a good first try country both for industrialising and also colonising - aim to do both better than the real Belgium did! Belgium was the former tutorial nation of Vicky 2, but it seems that role's been taken by Sweden now. You can ignore it and get on just fine, but it’s obnoxious and I hope they change the system up a bit.I think it might be fun to put our heads together and think of some ideas for potentially fun runs. You can embargo specific goods to stop them, but it costs 100 influence, and influence is a very limited resource better used on other things, and there are dozens of resources you’d need to embargo to prevent it from happening. You cannot say no to another country importing your goods. So you build a new coal mine to increase production, but, as soon as it goes live, Spain decides they’re going to import all that new coal you just started producing, and you’re back at square one. This year is dominated by the launch of numerous new subreddits. They then get displaced by 'politics' as the most popular non-'' subreddit towards the end of the year.
The solution is easy, right? Produce more coal. For most of the year, 'science' and 'programming' are the most popular subreddits (apart from ''). Let’s say I produce 800 coal, and my pops need 900 coal. I’m not sure if it’s meant to function this way or if it’s just buggy. Mind you, that could mean going from a living standard of 10.2 to 10.1, so a revolution seems like a bit of an overreaction. I had a revolution trigger in the US in early 1837 due to “decreased living standards” for a few million people. I’m probably doing something wrong, but literally as soon as I load up a new game, my country nose dives into poverty. It seems like it has similar problems to Vic2 where the simulation just sort of breaks down over time and there aren’t enough goods to go around the global market. I am a little nervous about the in game economy though. Needs a lot of work in stability and polish. Even running a large economy is harder, you can't just keep expanding factories and getting techs and watch green line go up. It’s really hard to say right now-it’s super buggy (my construction yards in the US were building a farm in northern Sweden that I had queued up in a different save), but those should all be fixed by release. Overall it's more involving than V2 (except war, which is disappointing).