Recently Adrenaline Vault writer Jason Pitruzzello had the chance to fire off a few questions to David “Darkrenown” Ballantyne (pictured left), scripter and designer at Paradox Development Studio, about Heart of Darkness, the developer’s new expansion pack for their historical strategy game Victoria II. The expansion will be available April 16, 2013.

AV: I’d like to thank you for taking time out of your development schedule to give us an interview. I’d first like to talk about the crisis mechanic, since it’s probably the most awaited feature in the expansion. It looks like just about any country can help precipitate a crisis that might turn half the world’s Great Powers against one another. But what would be the difference between Greece starting a crisis about a state with Greek POPs in it, and Greece just declaring war on the Ottomans using pre-existing cores?

DB: There are two main differences in Victoria II: Heart of Darkness. First, if Greece just declares war on the Ottomans, it’s just a case of Greece and her allies fighting the Ottomans and theirs; it’s unlikely anyone else will get involved. If it were a Crisis, all the local Great Powers would get involved and there’s the potential for a major war. The second difference is that, unlike with a war, it’s possible that a crisis can be resolved without fighting. If your side gains overwhelming support, then it’s possible that the other side will back down and give you what you want without it coming to war, especially early on when the prestige cost of backing down is lower.

AV: How does the game engine determine which Great Powers initially get involved because of the actions of a smaller state? Is it just high relations between the Great Power and minor country, or do levels of influence, sphere of influence, alliances, or some other combination of factors make a difference here? Also, how much time is there between the beginning of a crisis and someone either backing down or a war starting? And how does all this play out in multiplayer when humans are running the Great Powers of the world?

DB: All the factors you mention definitely play a part. An AI nation will generally support an ally or member of their sphere, but good relations can make them support a neutral party or bad relations may make them abandon a sphere member. They’ll also consider how much they dislike your opponent, so it’s possible you may get support from someone who doesn’t particularly like you if they really hate your enemy. And once both sides have a Great Power supporter (or are a GP themselves), all other Great Powers on the same continent are invited to take part in the crisis.

It’s hard to say exactly how long a crisis takes to heat up, as various factors affect it, like random events, nations mobilizing or manufacturing war justifications against the other side, and things heat up faster for the other nations that have picked sides already. A rough estimate is a year, though.

AV: I wanted to talk about navies for a moment. I see a lot of great changes, including a torpedo technology for cruisers that lets them threaten inadequately escorted dreadnoughts. It seems like the game is now set up so that spamming dreadnoughts is no longer possible thanks to how naval bases are implemented. Will we finally see an end to the 500 dreadnought fleets in previous versions of Victoria II? And is there any balancing of prices for ships in general in the new expansion?

Related to navies, I also noticed in the military developer diary that a new war goal has been added: dismantle fortifications. The diary says this war goal will remove both fortifications and naval bases. Is this still true? And is this war goal a way for major naval powers to limit the strength of other nations without annexing half of their coastlines? And does removing a rival’s naval bases hurt their colonial ambitions?

DB: It’s still true, and yes, lowering the naval potential of your enemies or un-fortifying their borders is the exact reason for this war goal. Losing naval bases really hurts in Victoria II: Heart of Darkness because they generate naval supply points that your navy needs for upkeep. If you don’t have enough of them, then you still need to buy the same amount of goods to maintain your ships, but less of them actually reach the ships, which reduces their effectiveness in combat. You also need high-level naval bases to build the more advanced ships, so lost bases mean you can’t rebuild your navy as quickly. And finally, yes, lost bases hurt your colonial power because colonial points are generated both by naval bases and your ships themselves.

AV: I guess we can’t talk about an expansion named “Heart of Darkness” without talking about colonies. The screenshot you folks posted in the developer diary quotes Hilaire Belloc’s words about the Maxim gun, which tells me colonies are only going to get more important in the expansion. I’ve read that colonies are now established using colonial points rather than national focuses. Since other Great Powers will no doubt be using their colonial points to grab colonies in the scramble for Africa, I have to ask: how does a country generate colonial points? And how can I generate more than my opponents?

DB: As I mentioned, naval bases and ships are your main source of colonial points, so you really need a good-sized navy and the bases to support it if you want to be a colonial power. Colonies also use up some of your points for their upkeep, so you can free up points by either turning your colonies into states or dominions. Making them into states turns them into an integral part of your nation, like the states in your homeland, so they no longer use colonial points for upkeep. But to do this you need a certain amount of accepted culture bureaucrats living there. And actually turning them into states costs quite a few points, more so the further away from your homeland they are. Your other choice is to spin your colonies off into self-governing Dominions, like the United Kingdom did with Canada, Australia, etc. The downside to Dominions is you can no longer tax the people living there or harvest the resources in the area, but your Dominions are placed in your Sphere of Influence and are quite difficult for others to remove, and you can take control of their troops during wars. You’re not limited to Britain’s historical Dominions. We have added 50 dynamic nations that will take their names from the area they are formed in and their culture from the nation releasing them.

AV: The developer diaries have mentioned that there is a colonial influence race when multiple countries try to colonize an area. What actions can a player take to speed up their own colonization, or hamper the colonization efforts of others?

DB: It all comes down to how many colonial points you are willing to use in Heart of Darkness. At the most basic level, it’s a bidding war. Can you really afford to throw more and more points into this one area instead of picking up less-fought-over states? You need to decide how many points you’re willing to invest for your pretty borders. On the other hand, getting into a colonial race with someone speeds up the generation of war justifications, so you could always whip one up and then just fight them for the colony afterwards. Unlike in previous versions, the presence of troops in the area doesn’t speed up the colonization process, but it does further speed war justifying.

AV: I’ve heard that colonial races can create flashpoints for crises. This sounds like a great addition to the game, but does this mean the Congo Conference and Congo Free State decisions and events are going to be removed? And are there other flashpoints related to colonies besides issues related to initial colonization?

DB: Yes, the Congo event/decisions are gone now. Instead, colonial bidding wars generate Flashpoint Tensions, so a really heated race may turn into a Crisis if neither side can win handily or backs out. Aside from that, the only other flashpoint related to colonies is if, say, the US colonizes part of Canada and then the UK spins Canada off as a Dominion. Then Canada may end up starting a Crisis to get their state from the US.

AV: One final question for you. Since this is Victoria we are talking about and my readers would be irritated if I didn’t ask, are there any changes to the economy of Victoria II coming with Heart of Darkness?

DB: Yes, there are a few. The big one is that factories get a throughput bonus if they are built in a state that produces one or more of their input goods, which encourages local production chains. So, for example, if you have a state that produces Iron and Coal, it is a great spot for a Steel mill, which is then a good place for an Artillery factory, a Car factory, and a Tank factory. We’ve also given factories the ability to reduce their throughput on the fly if they are losing money before starting to fire workers, which gives them a safety buffer if they hit a rough spot and start making a loss. Capitalists have also been made a bit smarter and will now remember which factories have recently been shut down, so they shouldn’t throw good money after bad if a certain industry isn’t making a profit. They’ll also reserve some factory slots for the more advanced factories that are invented later in the game.