Originally released in 2022, it was a slightly rocky road Victoria 3. Compared to its uniformly beloved predecessor, the latest in the Paradox trade and diplomatically led Grand Strategy series has so far produced mixed emotions from players, but it appears a quiet comeback is ongoing. The latest expansion pass featured some deserved praise along with the influence and enormous realm of the South DLC Pack. Now, spiritual rival Civilization 7 faces its own struggle and closes cousin Europe Universalis 5 along the way, the new Victoria 3 update, 1.9 could become a game changer. One of its most important features appears to be sneaking up under the radar.
In a series of developer diaries, Paradox already outlines the changes the next Victoria 3 update will generally introduce to military upgrades and war. The release date for 1.9 is Tuesday, June 17th. New commanders, such as lockdowns and revisions to strategic goal mechanics, form part of a new version of Grand Strategy Game. However, there is one more special feature, but perhaps so far it has been slightly hidden by some of the more immediate changes, which can change the way you experience Victoria 3.
Paradox adds the ability to use custom seeds for random number generation (RNG). In video games in general, custom seeds are what you enter at the start of a playthrough to ensure specific results, events, and other in-game elements. For example, in Minecraft, instead of leaving it to the possibilities of RNG, you might use seeds to generate maps with a large number of diamonds. Each time you use that seed, those resources are generated in the same number and in the same location. Project Zomboid’s seed system may always ensure that certain parts of the game’s world are always inhabited by enemies, or that certain buildings always contain certain items.
Victoria 3 is a strategy game with endless variables and possibilities. However, with the 1.9 launch, it appears that at least some of these could be under your control if you choose. “When activated (the custom RNG seed system) allows you to set custom seeds based on random roles in the game,” Paradox said, “This feature should be particularly useful for modders between you.
It is unclear exactly which variables can lead to seeds, but Paradox shares a screenshot of the RNG menu system. “As a result, initialization and observer games without player interaction will produce the same results in multiple playthroughs using the same seeds.”
Based on that description, it appears that seeds can be used to reliably replicate specific starting conditions for a new playthrough. It also becomes a “script” observer game with no interaction with the player. If that’s true, if the seed is dominated, rather than all random events in the Victoria 3 playthrough, the player can only guarantee leaders, resources, and other allocatables first. From there, interactions affect RNG as usual.
Nevertheless, it presents interesting possibilities. Perhaps it is possible to create a species of observer games that mimic 100% of actual historical events. Additionally, players may be able to build and share custom scenarios. Custom scenarios have a huge stack of starting conditions for you, and you need to strategize your survival plan. You’ll need to see when Victoria 3 Update 1.9 finally gets live.
In the meantime, we recommend trying out the best 4x games or trying out a little Brisker with the best RTS games available now.
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