Victoria 3 patch notes deepen the potential for cultural and religious fracture

New Victoria 3 patch notes have arrived ahead of the upcoming 'Kaffee' update. The patch is set to land alongside its new DLC, National Awakening. While the period piece landed to a decidedly mixed reception back in 2022, it's continued to win back opinion. The Pivot of Empire pack wasn't a winner, but its two most recent full expansions, Sphere of Influence and Charters of Commerce, have been very well received. Now, developer Paradox will be hoping that this latest overhaul drives Vicky 3 another stop along the road to redemption, and maybe towards the hallowed halls of the best grand strategy games in its lineup.

Victoria 3 update 1.10 is titled 'Kaffee,' and it lands officially on Tuesday September 23 alongside the National Awakening expansion. The DLC builds out Central Europe and the Balkans with particular focus on Austria and Hungary, alongside other key players including Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Illyria, as you deal with the crumbling Ottoman Empire. Whether you grab this latest pack or not, however, you'll be able to take full advantage of the free 1.10 patch, which is almost as substantial in its own right.

Among the key features, there's a rework to the way discrimination traits play into cultures and religions. A new mechanic called 'cultural fervor' will measure how much your people have come to identify with a singular national identity. The introduction of 'obstinance' can create penalties when movements within your state refuse to cooperate with the government, while a new 'support separatism' action allows you to push aggressively towards activism for cultural minority groups in a target country.

There are plenty of more granular gameplay overhauls to look forward to as well. Companies are now organized into categories that adjust their employment structure. While only a single revolution can happen at a time, it's been made possible for multiple movements to attempt secession simultaneously. If you're facing these more rebellious rumblings, you're able to downsize buildings and disband units that aren't in an actively insurrectionary state. Elsewhere, fleets can now be borrowed for naval battles, and pops will maintain their professions when they become unemployed.

Paradox has also been making balance changes and AI improvements. Better lawmaking evaluations mean computer-controlled leaders should face fewer "unnecessary civil wars." They'll now be more willing to lead a military attack if they consider themselves at an advantage, even when their organization is low. In the notable case of Italian and German unification, interest groups and government pressures will be factored in when determining how likely the AI is to support the move.

Reworks to pops should now mean you'll see fewer of them (but not a decrease in population numbers) as you get into the later game. This should help improve performance as your matches run on. There's also some nice cosmetic tweaks, such as a 'dynamic theme' setting that changes the look of the interface based on your currently selected nation, and quality-of-life touches like warning pop-ups when you're preparing to make a decision that could break an alliance or treaty.

Victoria 3 patch 1.10 launches on Tuesday September 23 alongside the new National Awakening immersion pack. You can read through the full notes courtesy of Paradox if you want to scour through every single change in detail.

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Has Victoria 3 won you back over, or are you still playing Vicky 2 perhaps? Let us know how you're feeling about Paradox's grand strategy lineup in the PCGamesN community Discord server, where you'll find plenty of tactics enjoyers.