Victoria 2: A House Divided

republic · February 03, 2012, 09:35:25 PM

Has anyone played this enough to feel like sharing their thoughts? Victoria 2 was (oddly) the EU3 engined game that I most understood. However, as most have said...it tends to play itself. Does the expansion give you more to do?

ArizonaTank · February 05, 2012, 11:16:11 AM

I've always been a big fan of Paradox (I even like HOI3). So I eagerly bought "A House Divided" looking forward to a weekend of VickyII gaming. But after firing up the expansion...my hopes were pretty deflated. Only one new scenario and just a handful of useful game enhancements (certainly some really nice ones...like being able to invest in foreign territory). Sure, Paradox has always padded their bottom line with expansions that critics have argued should just be patches. For "A House Divided", this VickyII fan has to side with the critics; I don't walk away from VickyII: A House Divided thinking, "wow! I'm glad I bought that." It's more like, "Did it install? Hard to tell." IMHO hold on to your money and wait until it goes on sale.

republic · February 05, 2012, 11:56:47 AM

That is sad to hear :( The Victorian age is such a fascinating time, and both Victoria 2 and Pride of Nations come up short (at least for me).

Grim.Reaper · February 05, 2012, 12:14:19 PM

I bought it for something like $10 since I had a bunch of blue coins saved up from GG, so not a huge investment for me. I had thought the official forum seemed mostly positive, but haven't been there in a few days. Either way, haven't had anytime to really do anything with it yet and with CKII coming out in a week or so, likely won't get any play anytime soon. Probably just in time for patch:)

eyebiter · November 28, 2012, 08:56:07 PM

With the House Divided Expansion things get weird after the US Civil War is finished. Playing as the USA around 1870, was #4 power in the world. Annexed Hawaii and built the Panama Canal. Suddenly had to suppress wave after wave of internal American rebellions. First Southern secessionists in a few states, then Jacobean rebels, followed by a huge 74 unit New York City borough revolt. Even will full war mobilization of all reserve division didn't have enough troops to suppress them. In the midst of this unrest Texas separatists made their bid for independence. Finally ended the game around 1874 when a full blown American Communist revolution happened in every state from New England to Iowa. Don't know if this was a bug or the way the game was designed.

Are there any good mods for Victoria 2: A House Divided?

sandman2575 · November 28, 2012, 11:08:34 PM

the APD mod "A Pop Divided" does some good things with economy balancing, adding interesting commodities, etc. Plus the world map is more interesting politically than vanilla. The dev's seem to be constantly refining it as well -- all good things.

I wouldn't play Vicky 2 vanilla, but with APD it is more of an interesting challenge. (Although V2 is always one of those games I'm always just on the verge of 'firing' up a new campaign' ... and then i put it off for some reason...)

OJsDad · November 29, 2012, 08:09:22 AM

I'll disagree with AT, I think AHD added a lot.

First, there are some nice UI enhancements; open and closing and subsidizing factories can be done with the click on one button on the factories screen, if you want to build a bunch of army units in all of your European territories, then you can click on a single button for that unit type in the Build Army screen, same with Naval units, rally points have been added, using the ctrl+build button will build a fort/port/railroad not just in the province, but in all provinces in the state that that province belongs. There are several others. Norhing real major, just some nice adjustments.

Two are the bigger changes are;
a) Casus Belli, before, if you wanted to go to war with someone, you got hit with a bunch of bad boy points. Now, we can build a casus belli, which, depending on how successful, can greatly lower the amount of BB points you earn. Depending on the type of war justification your going for, will determine how long it takes to accomplish.
b) Civilizating a nation. Before, it was a goofy combination of prestige and research, now it is based on reforms. Reforms can act as tech (you don't get tech tree as an uncivilized nation). When you have built a 100 civilization points, you can reform to a civilized nation. See my Chining Rising AAR in the digital AAR section.

I will admit that the game does degrade into a whack a rebel game. I think one of the problems is the rebels have certain goals, Jocobian rebels want a monarchy to become a constitutional monarchy and then a full democracy, but there is not taking into account things like low unemployment, and general economic well being of the population.

I've tried the VRRP mod (Victori 2 Realism & Rebalance Project), and it seems to help with the rebels. It makes a lot of other changes to.

As for the game playing itself. It depends a lot on what you want to do and the type of country you're playing. As an example, some government types will not allow you to build factories, but you can expand, subsidize and close them, while others allow you to build them. Trade can be done controlled manually or set to automatic. Those are the two biggest things that I can think of that can allow more or less direct control in the game.

I'm glad I got AHD.

Nefaro · November 29, 2012, 09:49:43 AM

Quote from: sandman2575 on November 28, 2012, 11:08:34 PM
the APD mod "A Pop Divided" does some good things with economy balancing, adding interesting commodities, etc. Plus the world map is more interesting politically than vanilla. The dev's seem to be constantly refining it as well -- all good things.

I wouldn't play Vicky 2 vanilla, but with APD it is more of an interesting challenge. (Although V2 is always one of those games I'm always just on the verge of 'firing' up a new campaign' ... and then i put it off for some reason...)

I just loaded up the non-DLC version (Pop Demand Mod) after giving up on vanilla.

One huge draw to it, for me, was all the historical events and decisions that were added in the mod, besides all the mechanics fixes. I had definitely tired of vanilla's dismally low amount of events and how hollow it felt when seeing the same three or four all the time.

OJsDad · November 29, 2012, 10:05:14 AM

Quote from: Nefaro on November 29, 2012, 09:49:43 AM
Quote from: sandman2575 on November 28, 2012, 11:08:34 PM
the APD mod "A Pop Divided" does some good things with economy balancing, adding interesting commodities, etc. Plus the world map is more interesting politically than vanilla. The dev's seem to be constantly refining it as well -- all good things.

I wouldn't play Vicky 2 vanilla, but with APD it is more of an interesting challenge. (Although V2 is always one of those games I'm always just on the verge of 'firing' up a new campaign' ... and then i put it off for some reason...)

I just loaded up the non-DLC version (Pop Demand Mod) after giving up on vanilla.

One huge draw to it, for me, was all the historical events and decisions that were added in the mod, besides all the mechanics fixes. I had definitely tired of vanilla's dismally low amount of events and how hollow it felt when seeing the same three or four all the time.

I hadn't tried Pop Demand Mod yet. I'm downloading now to give it a try.

PanzersEast · December 05, 2012, 02:28:29 PM

Just installed the mod... however, I have not fully learned the mechanics of the game.

PE

eyebiter · February 12, 2013, 03:18:19 PM

Paradox is beta testing a new Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness expansion. European colonization in Africa theme this time around.

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/victoria-ii-heart-of-darkness

PanzersEast · February 12, 2013, 04:14:10 PM

Quote from: eyebiter on February 12, 2013, 03:18:19 PM
Paradox is beta testing a new Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness expansion. European colonization in Africa theme this time around.

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/victoria-ii-heart-of-darkness

Interesting.... I still have not got around to learning the mechanics and playing this one... still high on my list.

PE

bbmike · February 12, 2013, 05:36:59 PM

Quote from: eyebiter on February 12, 2013, 03:18:19 PM
Paradox is beta testing a new Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness expansion. European colonization in Africa theme this time around.

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/victoria-ii-heart-of-darkness

I had no idea this was in the works. I like Victoria 2 because it is ahistorical. I also thought AHD was a good expansion to the game.

ArizonaTank · February 13, 2013, 12:08:14 PM

How is the AI now?

I remember I liked the game when it first came out....but they released some patches and the game started to run itself, and I lost interest. Haven't been keeping up with the current state.

Boggit · February 13, 2013, 05:56:15 PM

I've had Vicky2 for a while and played it a few times as Japan, Argentina and Greece. I quite enjoyed it starting as a secondary or uncivilised power. I recently got Victoria 2 Gold in a sale (getting Victoria 2 on disk and then VIA PARADOX FORUMS - I might add - downloaded the AHD expansion from Gamersgate - not a good point IMO). I've started playing Peru and that has been fun so far. I like the ability to manufacture Casus Belli - seems a more logical approach than an arbitrary decision to war with the neighbours. :)