In the recent PDXCON, a digital event of Paradox Interactive, the arrival of Victoria 3, for an grand strategy game set in the Victorian era that hadn't shown up on players' screens for about 10 years. We don't have official dates yet, but in the meantime the developers have started a Dev Diary which will illustrate the numerous game components over time.
Victoria 3's first Dev Diary focuses on Pop, an abbreviation for population representing an archetype of a slice of the population, or a real character. Pops have always been the pivot on which the whole Victoria franchise revolved, in the past Paradox had tried to transpose it also in Stellaris e Emperor: Rome. Also in Victoria 3 the Pops are there main feature of the title, and this time they will be part of a much deeper game system.
To put it in terms of Mikael Andersson, Lead Game Designer by Victoria 3, the Pops are the real engine of the country: they work in industries, pay taxes, run institutions and fight wars. They are born, they die, they change jobs, they emigrate. Or worse… they organize, get angry and give life to revolutions unsuccessful for their colonial and industrial aims.
Victoria 3 uses the same model system as the Crusader kings iii, allowing you to view the different types of Pop in all of them three-dimensionality. But how does the management of Pops work with that of the nation? The player is a single person in charge of the nation's government, but it absolutely cannot intervene directly on the life of Pops. Every decision made by the player on his country has an effect on all the Pops who live there, ed they will react according to their interests. The player's strategy, therefore, in addition to foreign policy, is mainly concentrated at home, in management of the different appetites of the population.
Each Pop has one Profession, an aspect that reflects the types of jobs carried out by the demographic. Professions determine the class of the Pops and influences its wages, its political strength within the framework of the country, and the political groups it is most inclined to support. Some of the Victoria 3 professions revealed by Paradox Interactive are Capitalists, Aristocrats, Bureaucrats, Officials, Shopkeepers, Machinists, Workers and Farmers.
A Pop is made up of the combination of his profession, his culture, his religion and his workplace. In addition, each Pop stands out in Workforce e Employee. Members of the workforce keep the buildings operational and receive a salary in return, while those who cannot be officially hired do odd jobs that guarantee a small income.
Laws promulgated by the player can influence both categories of Pop, and depending on the different game situations it will be more useful to invest in this or that aspect of society. For example, by abolishing child labor the amount of income of POP employees will decrease, but the overall literacy of all Pops who will be able to access more high-sounding jobs in this way will increase. Or, after a war, there may be many employees among soldiers without sufficient income and it may be useful to set up pensions for veterans to help them recover financially.
We don't have a certain date for Victoria 3 yet, but we're sure it will be a 'PC exclusive like almost every other strategy video game from Paradox Interactive.
