As we set off on the road towards Victoria 3’s release, Paradox has begun posting developer diaries that shed more light on its upcoming grand strategy game, the latest of which delves deeper into how buildings work and the philosophy behind them.
Buildings are a core mechanic in Victoria 3, giving Pops a place to work and produce resources vital for both themselves and the country. They “represent a wide range of industries, businesses and government functions,” according to the developer, and are constructed in States, a concept that should be familiar to fans of the previous game or Hearts of Iron 4.
”Buildings are just places where Pops can work and generally do not represent a single building - a single level of Government Administration, for example, represents the necessary buildings and infrastructure to support a certain number of Bureaucrats,” reads the developer diary. In order for them to provide you with benefits, you’ll need to make sure that qualified Pops work in each of them.
You will choose where a number of Victoria 3’s buildings are constructed, but others are built automatically. The Subsistence buildings category is one example of the latter. These are highly inefficient structures that cannot be built nor destroyed and which “appear anywhere in the world where there is Arable Land that isn’t being used for another type of building.”
Most of the world’s population starts as Peasants, working in such buildings, one purpose of the industrialization process being that of finding ways to help them use their time more efficiently.
Urban Centers are also automatically created, the level of one in any given State being determined by ”the amount of Urbanization generated by its other buildings.” These mainly employ Shopkeepers and ”provide a number of important local functions,” that weren’t touched upon just yet.
Government Buildings are fully funded by the player, providing ”crucial civil services required for the smooth running of a Victorian nation”. Government Administrations, for example, allow Bureaucrats to produce Bureaucracy, which is used in ”the administration of incorporated states and funding of Institutions, and Universities where Academics produce Innovation for technological progression.”
Private Industries then represents the category that covers most of Victoria 3’s buildings. Directly owned by Pops, like Capitalists and Aristocrats, their profits go to their owners which pay wages to the other Pops they’re employing. Naturally, different economic systems may have a different take on ownership.
”Many of these buildings are limited by locally available resources such as Arable Land for agriculture and simply how much iron is available in the state for Iron Mines,” the developer notes.
”Urban Buildings such as Factories, however, are only limited by how many people you can cram into the state, simulating the more densely populated nature of cities. In short, there is no system of building ‘slots’ or anything like that, as we want limitations on buildings to function in a sensible and realistic way.”
Lastly, Development Buildings come with ”vital state-level functions,” including structures like Barracks that turns your population into soldiers Railways that ”provide the Infrastructure other buildings need to bring their goods to the Market.”
The process of ”building up your country is meant to be more of a hands-on experience in Victoria 3,” acting as a central part of its core gameplay loop. Paradox is looking into ”some form of autonomous building construction,” to help players manage large buildings in large empires, but has yet to decide on what shape that’ll take. Regardless, the goal is to put the player in control of how their country develops during a playthrough.
Victoria 3 is headed to PC and does not currently have a release date.
Keep updated on the latest PC Gaming news by following GameWatcher on Twitter, checking out our videos on YouTube, giving us a like on Facebook, and joining us on Discord.
