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Updates to Victoria II have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

New Features

• Difficulty is back, with lots of different effects.
• Added a sphere overview to the outliner
• Added flags in zoomed out mode to represent armies and navies on the map.
• When releaseing a nation you are now able to select that you want to continue playing as them. (singleplayer only, but will not make them a satellite.)

New Countries

• Added Israel, South Rhodesia, Congo Free State & Iceland as releasable countries.
• You can now form the Byzantine Empire if you play as a greek state and achieve a few goals.
• Playable Babylon added as a free DLC integrated in the patch.

AI Improvements
* Diplomacy AI

• AI will now try to influence and remove other GPs influence from countries it wants to attack
• AI is more likely to cancel alliances with those that occupy their territory.
• Countries which has cores in other countries no longer want to ally with them
• AI less keen on expelling advisors
• Fixed a bug which made the GP AI misjudge the influence gain of other GPs
• AI now less likely to sphere unciv neighbors with low production output
• AI now a bit more stubborn when feeling superior to another country when determining peace chance
• AI should now be able to intervene in wars
• AI now takes possible intervention into account when evaluating wars
• Made sphere leaders slightly more friendly towards spherees
• AI doesn’t really like to intervene and help out countries with high badboy
• AI now dislikes provinces it cannot reach even if has lots of goodie factorys and gold RGOs
• AI now likes countries which can get canals built through them
• Fixed a serious bug that made the AI overconfident when going to war
• AI now considers neighbors more of a threat when evaluating enemies allies, and allies close to war target is considered slightly better
• AI will no longer count countries in their own sphere as allies when evaluating if another country should be allied with.
• Great powers will now consider allying with people outside their sphere.
• AI is now less likely to break alliances.
• AI can now cancel alliances because of CB against allied
• There’s now a small distance penalty when evaluating non-neighboring states as target of wargoals

* Economic AI

• Fixed an issue with AI budget minister assuming it could take loans when it couldn’t
• Fixed an issue with AI budget minister not always taking the cost of the national stockpile into account
• AI now tries to lower taxes for rich strata to make them invest more in projects
• AI should now build and upgrade naval bases in decent positions
• AI no longer tries to upgrade factories that are already being upgraded
• AI should now promote more craftmen/clerks
• AI will now save some more money in the budget
• AI is now better at promoting Capitalists to kickstart the economy.

* Military AI

• A country that has heavily occupied core territory will now mobilize
• Army AI: Splits off siege forces when dealing with rebel occupied provinces
• Army AI: now properly considers areas with rebels “war zones”
• AI now considers Military Tactics a bit stronger when calculating troop strength

* Tech AI

• tech ai should now be more resonable
• AI should be a little bit better at keeping up in naval tech research.
• more ai evaluation to watch out for nasty gas
• Clean coal tech is now also desired by iron producers.
• Electricity is now more desirable by great powers.
• The AI will now focus on national focus techs if a greaterpower or having a big population.

Gamebalance Changes
* Great Powers

• GP intervention now requires the country to have a “Friendly” opinion of the GP
• Once a GP has formed its union tag it no longer gets the free assert hegemnoy CB vs other nations with the union tag.
• Assert Hegemony wargoal changed into removing the all nations within the same culture group from being either in the sphere or being vassals. It also sets the relation back to neutral.
• Changed warscore for Hegemony to 6 for each sphere member or vassal
• Military and industrial score now have higher theoretical maximum
• Halfed impact from leaders on military score.
• In order to intervene in a war, a nation targeted by a wargoal need to have at least cordial opinion of the nation wanting to intervene
• Removing a country from a sphere now incurs an influence drop as well
• Relation now has slightly less effect on suppressing wars if countries have valid CBs
• It’s no longer possible to call your sphereleader again and again into a war as a spheree
• Lowered influence cost of discredit, upped the effect(-50% -> -75%)
• You can no longer influence any country you have a truce with.

* Diplomacy

• Its no longer possible to release satellites when at war.
• Relations now have slightly more effect on military access chance
• It’s no longer possible to add wargoals to a side that has a Status Quo wargoal added to it
• The first nation that intervenes in a war will always become warleader, subsequent joins will never become warleader
• Called allies never become warleader in Status Quo has been added to that side
• It’s no longer possible to negotiate with minors if you have added non-annex wargoals and the other side has added status quo
• All states that are annexed by a minor in a war are now added as “Free people” wargoals(up to 150 warscore worth)
• Status Quo wargoal is now removed if someone annexes a minor(since it will be replaced with Free People wargoals)
• No longer possible to call allies into civil war
• Rebel territory is now disregarded when occupation percentage is compared.
• Releasing nations now reduce infamy and prestige

* Capitalists

• Capitalists are no longer restricted to building factories/railroads in the state they live in.
• Capitalists now select a couple of states to invest in rather than distribute money over the entire nation
• Capitalist build selection now less random, are nowmuch more likeley to listen to national focus.
• Capitalist projects now responds to economic policy changes
• Capitalists should now invest some of their money in projects before buying luxuaries
• Capitalist should now consider available inputs when determining projects
• Capitalists now better at investing in projects before their needs
• Capitalists will now focus fully on creating new factories when they have none and slow down their investment to support their life needs

* Pop Migration

• POPs are even less likely to move to desert or arctic provinces.
• POPs are slightly more likely to move to coastal provinces
• Migrating pops now understands that unemployment is not an ideal dream.
• Factory workers won’t move to colonies anymore.
• Pops now understand that migrating where unemployment exists is bad.
• Pops getting luxury goods are no longer keen on migrating.
• Soldiers will not migrate to provinces where farmers and labourers are heavily unemployed.

* Pop Promotion

• Pops will no longer promote away from what a national focus desires.
• Fixed a few problems which caused pops to demote when they shouldn’t.
• Pops promoting gets consciousness to 0 now.
• Pops are less likely to promote to capitalists where there is low amount of beurucrats or if they have low literacy.
• Artisans will not consider becoming capitalists if the capitalists are not well off.
• Capitalists are now less likely to be promoted in low pop areas or if they are non-accepted culture.
• Pops are less likely to become bureaucrats if the admin slider is low.
• Low literacy is now a proper penalty on beuruecrat promotion.
• Rebalanced crime slider impact on bureaucrat promotion.
• Pops will not promote to aristocrats if aristocrats can’t get all luxury goods.
• Pops promoting to bureuacrats of accepted culture will not auto-assimilate into non-accepted.
• Pops will no longer want to become aristocrats if there is already 2% in a province.
• Clergy will not promote to beuruecrats if there is more spending on clergy than on beurues.
• Clergy will not promote to artistocrats if you fully fund clergy.
• Clergy and Literacy now impact researchspeed more and country status less.
• Clergy is no longer desired to promote to when the optimal is reached.
• Made a small increase in promotion for farmers and labourers to craftsmen if there is work for them.
• Pops will not promote to soldiers if there is lots of soldier pops not recruited.
• Pops are less likely to become soldiers if payment is bad.
• Craftsmen doing well is now far more likely to promote to clerks.
• Pops will not promote to officers if already at optimal cap percentage unless a national focus is there.

* Politics

• Conservatives now properly allow social reforms at scaled militancy.
• Fixed a consistency with militancy to support reform calculation.
• There is now less of a militancy decrease when enacting a reform.
• You can now only change ruling party once a year.
• Ideology changing on pops from events is no longer divided by 100.
• You can now release union tag countries if nobody with this tag exists (crush krakow->release poland->victory)
• Ruling party is now set to one of the same ideology you had, after a tag change.
• Free peoples now work on union tag countries that already exists
• Pops of the primary culture will never assimilate now.

* Revolutions

• Rebels of union tags can now spawn if no country with culture exist
• Reliability is now applied correctly.
• Rebels now have a bit better organisation, and will be more likely to form in bigger armies.
• Inventions are now inherited when a country is formed.
• When a rebellion ends in any way, all pops who symphatized with that rebelfaction lose militancy.
• Pan-nationalists are now limited in spawning, not in enforcing
• Rebelfactions grow stronger a little faster now.
• Provinces seceding from events will now get militancy&consciousness reset.
• Government change is now updated when rebels enforce their demands, thust nationalists rising under one fog wont change the country they broke free from when they do so, should that country had changed during their insurection.
• All alliances, SoIs and influence cleared by revolutions
• Rebels are now far less likely to rise on their own.
• General risings will now set the organisation of a faction to 0.
• Rebel organisation gains are now colored correctly.
• Soldiers now only revolt when the rest of the faction is close to ready to rise.
• Getting a revolution succeeding in your country now reduces 10% of your current prestige instead of -5.

* Armies

• Naturalbornleader trait is now good.
• Experience for already recruited troops are now affected from tech discoveries the next time they get some r&r.
• Units forced to retreat now cancel previous movement before doing so.
• Gas is now a bit less awesome, also the modifier is exported in defines for tweaking
• Artillery added to combat after first day is now more likely to avoid frontline duties.
• Pops now take higher casualties when a unit takes damage.
• Battles at endgame now gets bloodier, and attack value is only for attacker and defend value for defender, with each value giving +10% extra damage dealt.
• Discipline now reduces morale damage taken only.
• Units in exile status will not attempt to siege which they weren’t allowed to in the first case.
• If you have access to a countries territory, you also have access through its vassals.

* Navies

• Fleets now check hull value instead of number of ships for “overrun”.
• Ships now costs about 20x as much to upkeep.
• Canals are now blocked if the controller is hostile.
• Each level of navalbase now gives a little less range.
• Admirals should no longer get traits and backgrounds that affect reliability.

* Mobilisation

• Mobilised troops will not transfer over automatically when a province is taken.
• Only accepted and primary cultures can be mobilized now.

* Technology

• Literacy gain doubled.
• Made a large overhaul of how often inventions spawn and which spawn for each country and when.
• Plurality is now far worse for tech research.
• Reworked a few inventions that reduced plurality to instead modify other aspects.
• Education efficiency inventions are now far better.
• Aesthetic techs now increase prestige impacts by a bigger margin than before.
• Philosophy techs now increase research speed instead of prestige.
• Psychology techs now affect reinforcement rate and experience of regulars.
• Social Thought techs are now both colonisation and education efficiency.
• Market functionality techs are now affecting great power influence.
• Organisation techs now affects output.
• Reduced factory out effect from power techs, front loaded the RGO tech effects so the total bonus are same but your receive more earlier.
• Reduced effect of pop-growth inventions.
• Gas-attack and defend is now triggered from a later tech, and gas-defend is only possible to get from fighting with countries that have gas-attack.
• Rebalanced effects from some naval inventions. Steamer Transports are now far worse, while Dreadnoughts and Cruisers got a nice buff.

* Economy

• Added more pre-reqs to the formations of canals.
• Factory output are now affected by your economic policy. LF is by far the best.
• Rebalanced goods demands for pops.
• Added demand for fuel at various places.
• Pop projects are now re-evaluated if they building a new/expanding factory and factories are added to state, either conquered or player-built, but only if there aren’t enough workers
• Under Lassiez Faire, each state can now have 1 closed factory(2 if they are the only factories in the state)
• Factories can now be upgraded to far higher levels than just 5, if needed.
• Maintenance goods are now only consumed if they make a difference to the output
• check if countries can take loans in budget ai now also checks bankruptcy
• fixed an overflow issue when calculating potential project profits
• Only cultured bureaucrats now contributes to tax efficiency
• Factories no longer skip buying input if the input good is also needed for maintanace.
• Pop demands in non-colonial territories is now increased by plurality.
• Pension costs now properly calculated
• Fixed calculation issue with amount of sold goods from factories
• Convoy needs now always bought independent of stockpile slider to stop market fluctuations
• Oversea costs now deducted earlier to stop problems with army using more than they should
• Selling big stockpiles internally should no longer nuke world price
• Factories are now updated in different order depending on day, which means same prio factories have an equal chance of getting clerks/craftmen for instance
• Banks now limit the loans they give based off the creditors tax base
• Interest payment now much more costly

* War exhaustion.

• Removed war exhaustion for just being at war
• Increased all other warexhaustion gains.
• Exported base combat war exhaustion gain
• Warexhaustion now declines a bit quicker at peace.

* Slavery

• You can no longer make conquered provinces in europe into slave states.
• Making a state into a slave state or not, now have repercussions.
• Its no longer possible to make a colony into a state when at war.
• Prevented the USA from abolishing slavery early if during the slavery debate.

Database Changes
* Balance

• Prussia, Austria and Russia have somewhat better relations at start.
• Disease events now more expensive
• Increased weight for nationalist_rebels
• Added MTTH modifiers to delay the ACW
• Britain now enjoys cordial relations with Johore
• Increased the military spending penalty from signing the Geneva Convention.
• Reduced MTTH:s for regional and colonial fairs
• Removed ships from danish and swedish oob.
• Increased conservative weight toward nationalist rebel type.
• CSA should now get some leadership when they break free.
• Reduced prestige gain from Penal Colonies
• PAP can now be inherited when Italy unites
• Safaris should now give a lot less prestige
• Cavour’s Diplomacy should now remove SAR cores from territories ceded to FRA, and give cores on Lombardy
• Chanoine’s Expedition now only requries naval statistics
• Fabric factories require less inputs
• Fixed a problem with event “Miliary Intelligence Spreads” firing too often
• minority_building_restrictions now gives less assimilation bonus and more militancy
• The Prussian tech school is now actually good.
• FRA’s palais_garnier decision now requires expressionism0
• RGO spread events now more likely in capitals
• Most minority events now hit state scope rather than province scope. Their mtths have been altered to hopefully reflect this.
• Tweaked the descent into wishy washy Liberalism caused by bleeding heart abolitionists
• Nationalist rebels should now be ever so slightly more common
• changed power techs to increase factory throughput
• made it more likely that explosives will actually make money

* Setup

• Gave Chile and Argentina their historical provinces in Patagonia from game start
• Slightly increased the life rating of the far North of Canada and the Australian outback.
• UCA_reactionary economic policy -> State capitalism
• Added Bureaucrats both here and there to AUS
• MEX no longer has “The Command Principle”
• Made Texas’ regiments cavalry, guards and artillery
• Fixed an issue with Panjab’s main army taking attrition on day one
• Fixed a problem with Persia’s main army taking attrition on day one
• Kokand’s and Bukhara’s armies no longer suffer attrition on day one
• Added some more cores for HND
• Renamed EGY_921 to “Palestine”
• Made ORA use a nice hue of orange as country color
• Fixed issue with PHI reactionary party not being set to reactionary ideology
• The Netherlands now allow Slavery at game start
• Fixed an issue with several mainstream US parties having a residency citizenship policy
• NIP_conservative and NIP_conservative_2 set to support state_capitalism
• Added in further modifiers to army inventions
• Italian Socialists now organise a party much earlier
• Fixed an issue with ALD not having cores on French Algeria
• Scripted in political party names for ISR, ICE and BYZ
• Fixed a problem with region sub-divisions in EGY/TUR
• Irish Conservative party should now last the entire game
• Austria-Hungary now has a different color.
• KUK is now non-releasable
• Baden now has new Defualt, Monarchy and Republic flag
• West Hawaii seazone fixed
• West Magellan straigt fixed
• Made the USCA upper house more reactionary to prevent reforms being passed
• Removed Austrian Cores from Northern Italy
• San Antonio now has a fort (The Alamo, remember it)
• Several of Mexico’s infantry units set to irregulars
• Fixed a problem with ICL’s conservative party expiring too early
• Split Bas-Congo into ‘Bas-Congo’ and ‘Equatorial’
• moved Aosta into Piemote State to prevent split states
• Gave Piedmont a military Industrial Complex
• Moved Jamaica and The Cayman Islands to the Caribbean Islands region
• Renamed “Greater Antilles” region to “Cuba”
• Maputo province renamed Lourenzo Marques
• Added SCA cores to Flensburg and Aabenraa
• Eisenstadt is no longer a core of HUN
• USA_prussian_constitutionalism now named ‘The Kingdom of America’
• anti_jacobin_tract now uses core_pop_consciousness_modifier
• ENG_bourgeois_dictatorship -> Republic of Britannia
• Soldier POP in Malmö partly transferred to Stockholm
• Reshuffled Sudanese provinces and states a bit, and gave them some better names
• Lebanon & Formosa now have proper names
• Fixed region names in The Congo
• Fixed Cameroon Region names
• Broke the back of Mexican militarism by sending thousands of soldiers off to the reeducation camps. World now safer for democracy.
• DES is now a civilized country
• Fixed a problem with a superflous comma in the Mexican leader names
• Fixed an issue with primary cultures for MCK and MGL
• Added in some missing modifiers to pru.con. monarchies for invention triggering
• Alaska set to colonial
• Belgium now accepts French culture
• RUS, ENG, and GER will now be called The ADJ Empire if absolute monarchies or prussian constitutionalist
• Harare region renamed Zambezi.
• Proletarian dictatorship Ottomania will now be called Turkey
• GER_2530 and AST_2528 now renamed Northern New Guinea and Southern New Guinea

* Events & Decisions

• Added the “Peking Convention” and “Russian Vladivostok” decisions to RUS
• Added a decision to allow ITA to move its capital to Rome
• Added events to represent the Doctrine of Lapse, allowing the UK to annex Indian Minors who haven’t behaved themselves.
• Added a decision ‘The Vega Expedition’ to SWE
• Added a decision ‘The British South Africa Company’ to ENG (Zambezi -> Southern Rhodesia, Harare -> Salisbury)
• Added a decision ‘Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land’ to GER (Northern New Guinea -> Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land)
• Added a decision ‘Megali Idea’ to GRE
• Added a decision ‘Motala Verkstad’ to SWE
• Added a decision ‘Borggårdstalet!’ to SWE
• Added in a few mostly harmless events
• Added a decision ‘Miskatonic University’ for NEN
• Added a decision ‘The Walhalla’ to BAV
• Added a decision ‘Introduce the Presbyteries’ to HAN
• Added a decision ‘Build The Gotthard Tunnel’ to SWI
• Added a decision ‘The Lambert Charter’ to FRA
• Added a decision ‘End The Merina Monarchy’ to FRA
• Added a new country, RHO
• Southern Rhodesia, cores placed by decision British South Africa Company
• Added a new decision ‘Host the Congo Conference’, with a couple of follow up events.
• Added a new event ‘Rubber from The Congo!’
• Added a new event ‘The Congo Reform Association’
• Added a new decision ‘Annex The Congo’
• Added a new decision ‘Explore the Congo!’ for BEL (Renames Leopold-, Elisabeth
• and Stanleyville)
• Added a new decision ‘Brazza’s Expedition’ for FRA (Renames Brazzaville)
• Added a decision ‘von Moltke’s Reforms’ to PRU
• Added a decision ‘Kanun-i-Esasi’ to TUR
• Added a decision ‘Encourage The Ruhr Boom’ to PRU, NGF or GER
• Wrote a new event 4430
• Added a decision ‘Build The Eiffel Tower’ to FRA
• Provided decision ‘The Bonnie Blue Flag’ with text and event modifier.
• Wrote decision “King of Kings, Ruler of Rulers” to form the Byzantine Empire
• Rewrote the anarcho-liberal enabling text.
• Forming KUK will now add KUK cores to all provinces with Austrian cores.
• Forming KUK will now remove all AUS cores from provinces not of south german culture.
• Expedition of the Thousand should now give you North and South Italian culture
• Legation Quarter event now gives CB to the offended power
• Ionian Islands question decision now has tech requirements
• Republic of Neuchâtel decision now requires you to be SWI
• CB Event “Ship Explodes!” now gives cut_down_to_size CB
• CB Event “Ship Explodes!” can no longer fire versus Allies
• GER should no longer be able to annex AUS by having it in its SoI unless HUN exists
• Crown from the Gutter is now sent to neither AUS nor KUK unless HUN exists
• Three Hurrahs decision no longer annexes AUS nor KUK unless HUN exists
• All events that reduce the stockpile should now only fire if there are corresponding goods in the stockpile
• Wrote a decision for ENG to hand over Caribou to USA
• Renamed ‘Support Ruhr Industrialism’ to ‘Support The Krupp Family’
• Removed crazy mtth modifiers from World Fairs. They should now be less likely.
• Metz should now join the SGF if Austria forms it.
• Added a decision ‘The Left Bank’ to FRA
• Decision ‘Die Wacht am Rhein’ now dependent on France’s decision ‘The Left Bank’.
• Wrote decision “The Balfour Declaration” to place Israeli cores
• KUK can now form if AUS prestige is below 80 OR GER exists
• Events that issue a declaration of war should now also add the CB for said war.
• Added a decision ‘The Confiscations of Mendezibal’ to SPA
• Fixed a small problem with the Guardia Civil decision
• Added a decision ‘Hausmann’s Renovations’ to FRA
• Italy now gets its further cores by a special decision ‘Italia Irredenta’
• Germany now gets its core on Heligoland by a special decision ‘The Heligoland Question’

Interface Improvements
* Cheats

• Added a cheatcode “prestige” to add some prestige to your country.
• The Instant research & construction cheats is now only affecting the player.
• Fow cheat now works in release mode

* Screens

• Closed factories no longer show a false cost for being subsidized
• Project view now shows states with 0 investors if the state has a project, so you no longer need to wonder what happened to you 99% complete factory that suddenly disappeared
• Cavalry should now allways be visible in unitview if present, even if country cant build more
• Pop view sort buttons now updates properly when switching province
• Production output in production screen now more correct
• Colorized display of factors in lists of factors for pops.
• Interface should be better at handling fractions of loans
• Added support for more accepted cultures in the interface
• Updated projects tab to only show projects in progress
• Goods icons shown correctly for biggest produced
• Stockpile slider will be cut as well on bankruptcy if player is not in the budget view at the time

* Tooltips

• Added some more cases in explanation of when you can’t select a certain ruling party.
• Added detailed explanation to pop literacy change
• Added tooltips for relation progress.
• Improved a tooltip for regiments and ships in the unitview.
• Max speed shown on unit details tooltip
• Fixed top producers tooltip to take trade into account.
• Fixed a tooltip on core restricting navalbase distance.
• Tooltip for colonization should now tell you if you cant colonize due to lack of focus
• Morale and trait effects are now applied to the org change value shown in the unitview tooltip.
• Added expiration date for CBs in event/diploview/diplomapmode tooltips
• trade view now displays actual bought of a good as well as supply/demand in the tooltip

* Map

• Diplomatic mapmode won’t list cb’s against yourself anymore.
• Diplomacy mapmode will only show relations with other country, not the player against itself.
• Changed colors of infrastructure mapmode so it now shows railroad levels and provinces where railroad cannot be built
• Ship flags are now shown in ports
• Fixed some serious lag issues when scrolling around on the map
• Keyboard scrolling is now disregards multiple arrow key events
• Keyboard scrolling a bit smoother as well
• Fixed issue with rgo goods icon not updating
• Building sprites should now properly update when switching levels
• Unit stack size indicator now summarizes stacks of neutrals, shows asummary of enemies and a summary of friendlies if friendly stack

* Misc

• Updated tutorial text about how much clergy you need
• Autoassign and generate leaders now saved in settings
• ‘Sieges’ renamed ‘Occupations’ in the outliner
• Added a slider for counter distance in settings menu
• units now show counter under stacks if < 1000 men
• Corrected incorrect color codes in localization message for peace negotiations
• Number of researched techs now properly displayed in endscreen
• Fixed overwrite problem in textbuffers
• Chat removal timeout increased to 60 seconds
• Scrolling in the Loans list should not reset at each tick of day.
• Reordered the outliner so occupations are shown first
• Election sounds now played at start and end of election instead of on election event
• Declaration of war sound now played on intervention
• Fixed a province event title overflow problem
• Shortcut for building railroads in the province view is now shift+r to not conflict with ‘r’ that changes mapmode

User Modding
* Effects

• Added primary_culture effect
• Added an ‘all_core’ effect.
• Infrastructure event effect now builds railroad
• new effect “leadership” to give/take leadership points from a country

* Triggers

• Added a ‘crime_higher_than_education = yes/no’ trigger to check if crime spending is higher than education spending or not.
• Added a ‘total_pops = x’ trigger that checks the current scope.
• new “rank = ” trigger to check a countries ranking
• new “big_producer ” trigger to check if a good is one of its major produced ones
• new trigger someone_can_form_union_tag =
• Added a = [0-1] trigger to check current scope how much % of that poptype there is there.
• Added a new trigger ‘rebel_power_fraction = ‘.
• Added ‘is_secondary_power trigger = yes/no’
• Added a ‘recruited_percentage = [0-1]’ trigger to check how much troops is recruited from the soldier base.

* Misc

• Added modding support for another level of sprites, and for unique units for each landunit type without affecting the checksum.
• is_greater_power & any_neighbor_country triggers now work from pop-scope.
• ruling_party_ideology now works from pop-scope.

Performance and Stability

• WavesVertexDeclaration fixed for older ATI cards.
• Fixed start issues for people with odd desktop resolutions
• Map cache can be rebuilt in Release without crashes.
• Debug reload right click menu no longer enabled in release.
• Optimised some internal calculations.
• Game will no longer crash due to ruling party being removed.
• Fixed crash when drawing unit arrows close to map edge
• Fixed a crash bug with country name generation
• Fixed crahsbug in ai sphere recalculation.
• Fixed a crashbug in the pop details window.
• Fixed crashbug with the formation of Italy

Generic Bugfixes
* Game Mechanics

• Strategic AI is now reinitialised properly when resigning and starting a new game, so the AI will no longer be braindead by this.
• Fixed an issue with discredit effect not being applied correctly
• Changed a bug which caused countries to influence other countries it had cores in to still influence them(to ban other GPs) but never add them to own sphere
• It’s now possible to intervene in wars containing satellites
• Fixed a bug that could lead to countries not calling allies or mobilize under certain circumstances
• Fixed a bug that caused wargoals to become corrupt when changing tags
• Leaders generated from events will no longer instantly die, and will also have pictures.
• fixed error when taking many small loans
• Countries now properly change parties on tag change
• Fixed issue with luxuary goods supply/demand behaving oddly in the world market
• Inventions will no longer be able to trigger twice if scripted from the start files.
• Core giving event now checks for province control
• Annexed countries spheres is now cleaned up properly.
• Fixed a problem which caused multiple parties to be duplicated after reloading when your country had changed tags.
• Fixed a bug with the needs triggers not working as they should.
• Fixed bug in casus belli update code

* Interface

• Combats should now be properly selectable if a country switches tag.
• Now possible to cancel national focus in region 0 (Alaska for humans)
• No longer possible to repay more debt than you have
• Fixed a few issues with events having broken picture references
• Fixed so that move to front on listboxes actually work (making chat allways on top)
• fixed a rounding error with leadership points display.
• fixed a calculation error for supply display on some goods
• Changed province and statenames now saved
• Sorting leaders by army now actually works
• No longer possible to turn other peoples colonies into states.
• Provinceevents will no longer have “null_state” when referring to the state the province is in.
• Trade sliders no longer drop in value
• Fixed a bug with combat width limitation being displayed for the wrong positions.

* Database Files

• Fixed a spelling error in Portugese leader names
• German text no longer get cut in lobby.
• Fixed a bug with a rebel modifier scripted wrong
• Fixed some spelling errors in the tutorial as reported.
• War Gamming renamed War Gaming
• Added in a timed modifier to prevent Excavation spam for EGY
• Republic of Neuchâtel now removes NGF and GER cores as well as PRUssian.
• Witwatersrand Gold Rush now a modifier instead of a flag
• RGO Spread Events should no longer fire in provinces that already have the modifier
• Fixed issues with province LRs foobared due to lack of linebreak for province(s): 280, 2702, 1002, Lima
• Fixed several spelling issues in the tutorial
• Fixed an issue with country tag not set properly by the politics tutorial
• Wrote a better ADM_DESC
• Fixed a trigger problem with event 32508
• fixed text overflow on becoming GP
• free people wargoal now has proper check for union tags
• North American minors should no longer be able to apply for statehood if the USA is at war
• Fixed issue with event 13150 genociding an entire province
• Unification decisions can no longer be enacted if at war
• Indian Sepoys should no longer spawn in south_asian countries
• Fixed an issue with Trinket Minimum Wage being named differently in the reform and issue lists
• Decisions to civilize no longer possible to enact during wartime.
• fixed a typo in the constitutional convention event
• Fixed an issue with the “Europeans Harassed” event reducing population by 50% instead of 5%
• Fixed a problem with spelling of Flemish/Dutch/Belgian parties
• Fixed a problem with Hondura’s adjective form
• Fixed a problem with Union nations having unification CBs
• Fixed an issue with province Kuala Lumpur switching RGO type back and forth
• Fixed a problem with Garibaldi’s Redshirts not spawning as intended
• Border Incident event should now only fire versus civilized countries
• Red Shirts should now not appear in SAR
• Fixed a problem with SWI’s signing of the Geneva Convention
• Fixed a problem with DEN reverting back to Absolute Monarchy due to decision ‘Den Danske Lov’ not setting a reform properly
• Fixed a problem with event 19300 lacking options titles
• Fixed a slight spelling issue in newtext.csv
• Fixed a spelling issue in international_negotiations modifier
• Fixed a problem with armies lacking closing brackets
• Vega expedition now uses badboy instead of infamy
• EGY should no longer have troubles with Egyptian officials in the Valley of The Kings
• Unification CBs now only valid if there is a union tag
• Corrected the province owned check for the Congo Conference decision
• HOL_anarcho_liberal no longer misspelled
• Stopped the invention of cars and planes until you can build electric gears
• Fixed an issue with ARG spamming the law 1420 decision
• Fixed a problem with rebels rising despite lack of cores

Source Continue reading Victoria II Update Released →

Updates to Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Shared Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)

• ServerBrowser now sorts by ping by default once again.
• Fixed Mac crash on launch when running Mac OSX 10.5.8.
• Fixed spectator bug where spectating a Sniper looking through scope didn’t zoom fov

Team Fortress 2

• General Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that caused some old demos to crash.
  • The server browser now sorts by ping by default.
  • The Trading dialog now starts with the chat window having focus.
  • Fixed a bug that caused overheal to not work properly.
  • Fixed the Sandvich cooldown not occurring when the Heavy is hurt.
  • Fixed the Heavy’s hands being invisible.
  • Soldiers no longer maintain their rage level when changing loadout.
  • Alerts now sort on top of achievement status.
  • Prevented a bad state occurring when someone tried to trade with themselves.
  • Fixed a dueling related crash caused by custom scoreboard UIs.
  • Fixed players not being able to set their default FOV correctly.
  • Fixed being unable to equip customized shotguns & pistols on some classes.
  • Improved the explanation of the item set bonus in set item descriptions.
  • Fixed a bug where items with particle systems would show up at the player’s feet or pelvis.
  • Fixed the wrench number for the Golden Wrench not displaying properly.
  • Fixed the medal number for the Gentle Manne’s Service Medal not displaying properly.
  • Fixed client seeing incorrect message when changing team while participating in a duel.
• Economy Changes
  • Added Remove Name and Remove Paint features.
  • Achievement items and store promotion items are now usable in crafting.
  • Gifted items are now craftable and tradable.
  • Attempting to craft a non tradable item will result in a warning that the items produced by the craft will also be marked as non tradable.
  • Community, Self-Made, and Valve items are not tradable or usable in crafting.
  • Changed “Not Craftable” description to “Not Usable in Crafting” to increase clarity.
• Item Changes
  • The TF badge on the Glengarry Bonnet is no longer team colored.
  • Restored the missing PDA2 Slot Token.
  • Restored the appearance of the Tippler’s Tricorne to the version prior to the Mannconomy Update. This item is now paintable.
  • Added a new paintable hat, the ‘Rimmed Raincatcher’ that has a new Tricorne style appearance.
  • The Earbuds are now nameable.
  • Duel fixes:
    • Fixed Dueling badges using the wrong texture.
    • Fixed an issue where dueling stats did not show up on dueling badges above Bronze.
    • During a duel, the Dueling mini-game item used to initiate the duel cannot be deleted, traded or crafted.
    • The following hats now allow the paint to affect their color more (colors should not be washed out):
      • The Pugilist’s Protector, The Hard Counter, The Bombing Run, Football Helmet, Fancy Fedora, Cowboy Hat, Engineer’s Cap, Viking Helm, Respectless Rubber Glove, Batter’s Helmet, Brigade Helm, Master’s Yellow Belt, Killer’s Kabuto, Backbiter’s Billycock
    • Dueling Mini-Game now drops with 5 uses.
• Weapon Changes
  • The Battalion’s Backup no longer gives rage for falling damage.
  • The Shortstop is now affected by tf_use_fixed_weaponspreads.
  • The Gloves of Running Urgently now using the boxing taunt and boxing glove weapons are now of the type “Boxing Gloves” instead of “Fists.”
  • Your Eternal Reward no longer disguises the Spy if the victim survives the backstabbing attempt (because of Ubercharge, The Razorback, etc)
  • Your Eternal Reward no longer disguises the Spy if they are carrying the flag.
  • The Holy Mackerel no longer displays a fish hit message when a Spy disguised as the attacker’s team is hit.
  • The Holy Mackerel no longer triggers other death events (like achievements or stats mods) improperly.
  • The Sydney Sleeper no longer penetrates targets.
  • The Sydney Sleeper no longer randomly crits.
  • Milk will no longer spray from the barrels of other Scout weapons when switching from the Mad Milk.

Counter-Strike: Source

• Fixed a bug where the player crouching/standing animations were delayed until after (from the player’s local viewpoint).
• Changed the way that scope zooming works so that it is no longer affected by client-server latency, and zooming begins immediately for the local player. This fixes an issue that would give an advantage to lower ping players and penalize higher ping players.
• Fixed animation problem caused by aborting bomb plant by switching weapons (“crab walk”).
• Crosshairs now have customizable size, thickness, and color:
  • cl_crosshairsize specifies the size of the crosshair in pixels at 640×480 resolution
  • cl_crosshairthickness specifies the thickness of the crosshair in pixels at 640×480 resolution
  • The crosshair now scales proportionately for all screen resolutions. This replaces the old scaling behavior, and the cvar cl_crosshairscale is no longer used. Players can revert to old crosshair behavior by setting cl_legacy_crosshair_scale to 1.
  • Setting cl_crosshaircolor to 5 enables the use of custom crosshair colors, specified by cvars cl_crosshaircolor_r, cl_crosshaircolor_g, and cl_crosshaircolor_b.
  • The default of cl_crosshairuseapha has been changed to 1. Alpha blending makes the crosshair much more visible on new HDR maps, and it is recommended that existing players enable this setting manually or through the options interface (Multiplayer->Crosshair appearance->Translucent).
  • Cvar cl_legacy_crosshair has been renamed to cl_legacy_crosshair_recoil for consistency.
• Fixed inverted translucency preview on crosshair configuration panel.
• Removed the ability for players to temporarily stand on and jump from thrown grenades and jumping players. Legacy behavior can be enabled by setting sv_enableboost to 1.
• Fixed issue with players “stacking” on ladders. Players are no longer prevented from moving off a ladder when they are in contact with a player beneath them.
• Fixed UI issue causing Steam dialog boxes to be unreadable over certain backgrounds.
• Fixed a bug which allowed players to move the bomb with +use when sv_turbophysics was enabled.
• Fixed a bug that caused crosshair to expand when attempting to fire an empty gun or when holding trigger on pistols.
• Players are no longer kicked for team killing during mp_spawnprotectiontime if mp_autokick is not enabled.
• Fixed a bug which caused incorrect FoV on zoomed sniper rifles after reload.
• Fixed FoV on wide-screen display modes.
• Fixed a bug which caused incorrect zoom for a spectator watching a player with a sniper rifle.
• Fixed a crash that could occur if a player disconnected shortly after attacking a bot.
• Bomb icon now has priority over dominated/dominating icon on scoreboard.
• Deathcam now allows a short period of camera movement (matching pre-OB behavior) when a player dies.
• Bots now use distinct Terrorist and Counter-Terrorist icons on the scoreboard, voice indicators, end of match, and freeze panel.
• The round clock on the spectator UI is now replaced with a bomb icon after the C4 has been planted.
• Fixed a bug which caused models to occasionally appear non-animating when cl_minmodels and low violence mode were both enabled.
• Fixed the Buy Menu not taking into account the discounted price for Kevlar + Helmet if you already have Kevlar (not damaged) or a Helmet.
• Fixed cases where flashbang was not visible but still blinded the player.
• Reduced blindness amount when looking away from a flashbang.
• Added a checkbox to the Options->Audio dialog to control muting the audio when the game window is in the background.
• Fixed crash in custom maps using the trigger_camera entity.

Source Continue reading Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Source Updates Released →

Hello there, Team Fortress people. Now that I got your attention, the name’s Whitaker, from Left 4 Dead 2. Nice little setup y’all got here. Now, I’m told y’all are hired killers. Also, I wanna make it clear that this is ALL I’ve been told. Ol’ Whitaker don’t pass judgment, and he don’t take sides. RED, BLU — your money’s all green here.

Now, to business. I have once again been asked to try and clarify the essence of some sales paraphernalia.

While my words alone should have been enough to sway you to purchase one of these fine games, the good people at Valve have decided to throw in a little something extra for those of you who currently own or who purchase the game Left 4 Dead 2 by this Thursday at 4pm Pacific Standard Time. This is what those to the east of me in nawlins might call a Lagniappe.

So what are these items you may ask? Before we go into the finer details of said offer, let me tell you a little story. Many years ago before my gun selling ways, I sold house wares door-to-door. I truly must admit, I struggled in those early days. I simply did not have what those people wanted.

During a long walk down a dusty stretch of road, I met a boy. Now, this won’t no ordinary boy, he had a sparkle about him, a gleam. You could tell he was gonna be somethin’. So in my desperation, looking to expand my product line into those items that people genuinely wished to purchase, I asked the boy what is the greatest gift a man could give?

Without hesitation that young boy said, a skillet to fry your bacon and hat to act as a mobile roof above your head sir. By god if that boy wasn’t right. I added both to my product line that day and soon was the number three seller of cast iron skillets in the great state of Georgia. And for that boy? That boy grew up to be president.

So now you can see I am familiar with the merchandise I speak of. While I do not understand the machinations of this skillet and hat scheme, I do know that if you purchase the said game Left 4 Dead 2, it will reward you with a free hat from my friend Ellis and a handy skillet to fry yours or more importantly your enemy’s bacon. These items all manifest themselves in some infernal game called TeamFortress2 which I have no understandin’ of but my good friends what I do know is these items know no class, color, weight or gender. They work for all peoples.

Now if I could get a hat and a skillet for $6.80 — I would own a new hat and skillet. At that price, I implore of you, if you see a hatless or skilletless friend, buy them one.

If I was not bound by certain contracts and gentlemen agreements, I would be buyin’ every hat and skillet I could afford. I would be leveraging myself to the gills to purchase enough hats and skillets so that I could corner the ever present, ever important, ever expanding hat and skillet market.

People, this is no time to be savin’, this is a time to be procurin’!

With that, I thank you kindly for your time and your purchases.

*Current L4D2 owners will see the items appear over the next few days.

Source Continue reading Free Hats! →

NBA 2K11 is now available on Steam.

The #1 selling NBA videogame two years in a row, the #1 rated NBA videogame 10 years in a row* brings you Michael Jordan, new “Legend” gameplay mode, all-new IsoMotion™ dribbling controls and much more. This year BECOME THE GREATEST with NBA 2K11.

Source Continue reading New Release – NBA 2K11 →

Left 4 Dead 2 is now available on the Xbox 360!
Source Continue reading TF2 Items →

An update to R.U.S.E. has been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.
The major changes include:

• No more region lock applied to the multiplayer matchmaking
• VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat System) activation including in-game kick plus ban from official servers for players identified as cheaters
• Several measures and tweaks to combat cheating

Source Continue reading R.U.S.E. Update Released →

An update to Left 4 Dead & Left 4 Dead 2 has been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.

The major changes include:
L4D 360:
– Added “The Sacrifice” content.

L4D2 360:
– Added “The Sacrifice” content.
– Added “No Mercy” content.

– Game Play
? Bullets that first pass through an infected character before striking a Survivor are now ignored as friendly fire.
? Fix for survivors speaking The Passing Finale lines in other campaigns.
? Added a setup timer to Versus Survival
? Fixed bug in Versus-Survival where a team could get 5 survivors
? Removed Defibs and First Aid Kits in Realism Versus. Survivors start with a First Aid Kit, but all world spawns are disabled.
– UI
? Added vote option to enable All Talk in Versus.
? Added vote option to Restart Chapter in Versus.
? Added the ability in the lobby for all players to vote on starting the game.
– Versus
? Charger now receives 300 points for any Survivor that is insta-killed.
? Charger now receives 100 points for any Survivor that is insta-incapped by a charge.
? Any infected that causes a Survivor to stumble into a “ledge hang” situation will receive 50 points.
? Tanks go into a stasis when they spawn and leave stasis when the human player takes over.
? Tanks in stasis are invisible but still show a glow to the infected team.
? Tanks do not attack when they are in stasis.
? Tanks in stasis cannot be set on fire or damaged.

L4D PC:
– Fixed a few third person camera cheats.
– Added VPK audio cache support.
– Added “The Sacrifice” content.
– Added Versus Multi-Map Scoreboard
– Added the L4D2 Mounted .50 Cal
L4D2 PC/OS X:
– Game is fully playable on the Mac platform.
– Fixed a few third person camera cheats.
– Added “The Sacrifice” content.
– Added “No Mercy” content.
– Versus: Infected players will get a respawn time reduction against teams that rush.
– Removed need for Left 4 Dead 2 Add-on Support for Community Campaigns
Source Continue reading Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 Update Released →

We have released the Sacrifice for Left 4 Dead on the PC, for Left 4 Dead 2 on the PC and Mac. It will be released later this evening on the Xbox 360.

We have also released the final issue of the comic for you to read while downloading the DLC.

On Steam Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 have had their prices slashed so low, we needed to ask our favorite Georgia gun store owner to explain the pricing to you. Click here to read his explanation of the current sale prices.

Source Continue reading The Sacrifice is out! →

The big surprise today is? there is no surprise and no that isn’t one of Gabe’s three surprises. We have moved today’s surprise to Wednesday. We moved the announcement of the Midnight Rider’s contest winners to today. For tomorrow, we have enlisted an old friend to help with that announcement.

With that cleared up, here are the winners of the Midnight Rider’s Video contest. Thanks to everyone who entered, viewed and voted. When we originally designed this contest, we expected maybe a handful of clear winners. Instead we had over 80 videos that made it into the final round of voting.

With so many great entries, picking the winners was near impossible. As we tried to tabulate the votes today, they kept coming up too close to call. We checked and rechecked the votes. We used abacuses, calculators, and even plotted the results using the stars.

No matter how we sliced it, it was a tie.

But we had a problem, only one guitar and the Riders nowhere to be found. So we dug through their tour bus, through crates, boxes, and too many cans of diet energy drink to count. And there it was, a little more worn than the other, even looked like it been used for more than just rocking. But now we have one nice clean guitar and one dirty bloody guitar.

After you watch the two winners, it should be obvious who gets what guitar.

The Winners

Zombies rocking the House!

We should just name this one, Easter Egg!

Honorable Mentions:

Ballad of the Fallen Survivor

Best Cover Band

Puppet Category:

Best Use of Sugar Bags

Scariest Puppets

Best Animated

Best Cut Out

Best Use of Explosions

Best Use of Black and White

Thanks again to everyone who entered. If you have time to kill, like say waiting for a DLC to be released on Tuesday – here is the complete list of videos for you to check out.

Source Continue reading Monday Sacrifice Update →

Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2 Resurgence Pack and Stimulus Package is now on sale. Purchase before October 11th, 2010 and receive 50% off!

Source Continue reading Weeklong Sale – 50% off on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Map Packs →