Best Mods For Victoria 3

Key Takeaways

• Victoria 3 faced mixed reviews but has improved with regular updates and mods to enhance gameplay.
• The modding community has worked tirelessly to provide players with the experience they expected from the start.
• Updates like Ultra Historical Warfare and The Great Rework deepen gameplay for a more nuanced experience.

Victoria 3 was released in October 2022 to broadly mixed reviews, with many decrying the significant changes to the warfare system and removal of features such as the Spheres of Influence mechanic. Though the developer would take much of the criticism to heart, releasing regular and often substantive updates to the game, the modding community has truly come through to attempt to make Victoria 3 what many feel it should have been on release.

From simple UI changes to deep and far-reaching system re-works, the modding community has been working tirelessly to give players the game they wanted from the start. Countless mods can be used to enhance the feel of Victora 3, and with so many to choose from, players are sure to find something that suits their needs.

Updated November 25, 2024 by Rhenn Taguiam: With the game’s free Update 1.8 “Masala Chai” coming alongside the Pivot of Empire expansion pack, fans of Victoria 3 can now set their sights on India as it paves the way through the Victorian era with mechanics reworks such as Discrimination and Political Movements as well as new features like Food Security and Harvest Conditions. As Victoria 3 stays strong with its regular updates, fans of the game may want to spice things up for their playthroughs with mods that can change the way they play.

These include a mod that adds a trackable statistic about inequality, an AI overhaul that improves gameplay, a rework that transforms certain nations into more power-hungry counterparts, and one that provides players with more challenging gameplay features “based on real data” stats.

1 Check Your Gini Coefficient

See The State Of Inequality For A More Immersive Experience

It’s not all the time that a Mod has to do something remarkable to be considered extremely useful, especially in a game of a grander scale like Victoria 3 that focuses on simulating more nuanced parts of governance. With Check Your Gini Coefficient, players can improve their immersion into the game’s faction-heavy mechanics even further with a socioeconomic twist – this time from the very real Gini Coefficient or Gini Index, courtesy of Italian statistician Corrado Gini.

The Gini Coefficient is known as the best way of measuring any form of inequality across different kinds of distribution systems. Its context in Victoria 3 gameplay is its most popular use, that of measuring inequality in terms of wealth distribution. Ideally, the Gini Coefficient should be 0 to indicate perfect equality where everyone gets the same income. However, it’s more often than not the Gini Coefficient shows a higher-than-zero value, meaning someone to some extent is holding more power than others. While the Check Your Gini Coefficient Mod doesn’t affect the game in drastic ways, its existence as a measure of the perceived inequality among the player’s populace adds a layer of immersion that may motivate players to pursue it.

2 Historically Accurate Randomize Farming Yields

Simulate Real-Life Farming Models Of The Time

Players who love Paradox Interactive’s slate of grand strategy games will appreciate the focus on population that Victoria 3 provides in its gameplay, as it’s a stark change of pace from the combat-heavy and big-picture-heavy nature of other titles like Hearts of Iron 4 and Europa Universalis. However, players looking for more of a challenge in their Victoria 3 runs may want to consider running a session with the Historically Accurate Randomize Farming Yields.

As the name suggests, the Historically Accurate Randomize Farming Yields makes slight adjustments to the Agricultural Throughput that nations encounter throughout the game. This mod provides a number that is more or less based on real historical data and changes the Throughput statistic every year in the background. The nature of the mod can add a significant challenge to players, especially for those who didn’t expect their nation to be affected by the Historically Accurate Randomize Farming Yields in wildly different ways. Players who want an extra challenge in finding ways of modifying their strategy for such a situation may appreciate the mod.

3 Rising Powers: An AI Overhaul

Players trying to figure out which nations to play next in their Victoria 3 session might be discouraged from trying smaller nations or even slightly major powers due to the potential setbacks they might experience at the hands of stronger early-game rivals. However, players who want to see these smaller nations actually get a shot at becoming a Great Power should consider installing the Rising Powers: An AI Overhaul. This AI-focused mod focuses on unrecognized Major Powers which somehow always encounter difficulties attaining Great Power status. Thanks to this mod, the AI now implements a “Rising Power” strategy that encourages them to be more aggressive and do what it takes to get recognized.

Other strategies pursued by AI are reworked to be more functional, such as territorial expansion where other nations actively seek war to expand. In line with these are extra challenges for players to overcome, such as raising the Infamy Cost of Diplomacy plays and the Sway Cost of offering a subject War Goal. This pursuit of more functional AI opponents may transform Victoria 3 into a more exciting experience for fans.

4 Formable And Releasable Nations

Expand Victoria 3 Gameplay With New Nations

Players who spent hundreds of hours in Victoria 3 might have their favorite nations and even have candidates for nations they wouldn’t even bother trying – perhaps because they’re too difficult to use, lacking in exciting events, or just not as “fun” to tinker with. This is what Formable and Releasable Nations tries to change, as the mod adds new formable and releasable nations – complete with their own flags and dynamically changing features – for players to use.

Such new nations in the mod are separated into different groups, such as entirely new nations (like Yuan, East Prussia), hegemonies (like the Roman Empire, Carthage, Imperial Federation), dual monarchies (like Illyria, Zapadoslavia, Alpine Republic), nations of yore (like Angevin Empire, Celtica), and even dynamic names for specific conditions (such as “Portugaliza” that only happens when Portugal owns Galicia). These new additions can add new layers of fun for Victoria 3 players, especially for those who want to explore different takes on their gameplay.

5 Know When To Fold ‘Em

Speed Up Warfare

As with other grand strategy titles, wars in Victoria 3 can be a challenging endeavor – especially now that population groups and their interests have to be taken to heart. Players who want a more pleasant playthrough might be bewildered by more aggressive or persistent AI enemies, and this is something Know When To Fold ‘Em remedies.

Unlike other Victoria 3 mods, this upgrade is straightforward: parties will capitulate on a complete defeat. While this game was more useful at a time before the base game forced this upon AI, this mod was tweaked to have extra features as well. For instance, the mod now programs AI not to surrender when war can still benefit them. More importantly, the mod now forces players to capitulate on complete defeat as well – ensuring they don’t waste more time than usual on a losing battle.

6 Victoria Tweaks Mod

Lightweight Changes For An Enhanced Experience

While more seasoned Victoria 3 players may be looking for mods tailored to more specific circumstances, the Victoria Tweaks Mod is a collection of slight tweaks that, when combined, become a robust upgrade to the acclaimed grand strategy title.

Victoria Tweaks Mod has a mixture of major and minor features, with the former offering players the opportunity to transform their Victoria 3 experience. For instance, the mod has slightly changed AI behavior, Legitimacy Levels have different effects, population growth will closely match historical figures, and urban centers can quickly revitalize the economy. Meanwhile, significant changes include imperialist AI being programmed to both colonize other lands and fight other rivals for territory, and Great Powers being able to gain claims in Africa, Indonesia, and Oceania.

7 War Is Politics

Make Diplomatic Plays More Manageable

Players who want a more peaceful and passive gameplay style in their Victoria 3 experience aren’t always rewarded with how the game incentivizes expansion. While focusing on Diplomatic Plays remains a doable playthrough in the base experience, War Is Politics improves gameplay by tweaking the game mechanic.

Through this mod, actions such as aggressive warfare, affecting a subject’s autonomy, finding colonies, banning slavery, and even declaring independence now affect more varied population groups. Moreover, countries now get temporary buffs or penalties to their Legitimacy based on actions such as winning or losing wars, respectively, and even how they perform their Diplomatic Plays. Wars now impact the player’s Ruler popularity and the appeal to their Interest Groups.

8 Formables Inherit ALL Primary Cultures

Stack Cultures For Smoother Expansion

When players embark on a grand campaign in their Victoria 3 playthrough, it’s unsurprising for them to eventually unite and form larger countries such as the Holy Roman Empire or Ethiopia. However, as players may notice, using an unconventional nation to form such a larger union can result in unsavory circumstances. For instance, the French may be persecuted in the HRE even if France created it – all because the HRE has a predetermined Primary Culture.

This all changes with Formables Inherit ALL Primary Cultures, a mod that is as straightforward as its name. When activated, players who form larger nations will stack the Culture of the forming nation to that of the larger formable. This feature can encourage more players to jump between formables, especially if they want a Russian nesting doll-esque gameplay of forming one nation to the next. As the larger nation now contains all Primary Cultures of their forming nations, players may have a more diverse set of strategies to deal with various situations.

9 No Clouds

Remove Clouds For Better Quality

• Created by: Lord Lambert, Wagentzu
• Mod Link

One of the first mods to be released for Victoria 3, No Clouds does exactly what its title implies. Though aesthetically pleasing, it’s true that the clouds sweeping over the game map can often get in the way of what the player is looking for.

That’s why, a mere three days after the game’s release, one player took it upon themselves to remove them from the game. Although many far more substantive mods have been released since then, No Clouds remains one of the most subscribed mods on the Victoria 3 Steam Workshop.

Get More Insights From The Game

Another of the earliest and most subscribed mods in the community, Extra Topbar Info is a simple yet effective UI mod that gives the players much more information along the top of the interface than they’d have otherwise.

Even just the simple addition of Prestige to the interface makes this mod worth downloading; however, stats such as Legitimacy and the nation’s technology research rate are displayed as well. It’s no wonder Extra Topbar Info has remained as well-regarded as it has since only a month after the original release.

11 Miniature World

Get Smaller Icons For Better Realism

One of the most impressive changes from Victoria 2 to Victoria 3 was the visual quality of the game. Even those most critical of the design philosophy of the developers of Victoria 3 had to admit the game was beautiful to look at. Miniature World seeks to make that beautiful world just a bit more realistic, shrinking the size of map objects down to something more believable.

This mod affects cities as well as ships, trains, and the newly added carriages, while also adjusting the speed of moving objects like ships. Miniature World is a must-have for any player who wants to add to the realism and immersion of the Victoria 3‘s visual style.

12 Historical Population Growth And Resources

Better Real World Depiction Of Resources

Another mod focused on realism, Historical Population Growth and Resources seeks to better imitate real-world resource dispersion and population growth rates within the game. While Victoria 3 distributed many resources relatively evenly across the world, this mod attempts to relegate those resources exclusively to the areas within which they were produced during the 19th century.

Though one can imagine just how much work a mod like this would take, the first version was released a mere week after the game’s initial launch! Historical Population Growth and Resources is one of the most impressive mods in development.

13 GORA UI

Multiple UI Mods Wrapped Into One

This UI mod features six UI mods in one bundle. GORA UI attempts to distill all the best UI mods into one, making it easier and simpler for the player to get the UI they want.

The downside to this approach is that the player has to want each of the six packaged mods. Luckily, each is a popular and well-regarded mod within the community, so most seeking to alter their UI will find much of what they want in this bundle. GORA UI is a mod for any player curious about both streamlining and deepening the game’s UX.

14 Ultra Historical Diplomacy

Get More In-Depth Diplomatic Options

Ultra Historical Diplomacy seeks to improve the diplomacy systems of Victoria 3, adding new diplomatic interactions and rebalancing certain features like National Unification.

In addition, it improves AI decision-making, allowing the player to worry less about a Great Power intervening in a diplomatic play they really shouldn’t care about. Part of the well-regarded Ultra Historical series of mods, Ultra Historical Diplomacy is a must for a player wanting a deeper diplomatic experience.

15 Ultra Historical Warfare

Get A More Different View On War

The second in the Ultra Historical mod series, Ultra Historical Warfare does to the warfare system what its aforementioned counterpart does to diplomacy. Making changes to everything from military production methods to military technology, this mod promises to make wars longer, more costly, and more dangerous, advising the player to think more carefully about which conflicts they should get involved with.

The changes Ultra Historical Warfare makes to technology widen the gap between nations of different technology levels, making non-European nations much more difficult to play.

16 The Great Rework

Quality Of Life Changes For A Better Experience

The first total conversion mod on the list, The Great Rework aims to broaden and deepen the game’s experience by reworking existing features, adding entirely new ones, and improving the quality of life for players across the board.

There’s no system this mod doesn’t touch, with particular focus on politics and the economy (as well as the ways in which those systems affect pops and vice-versa), along with new events and journal entries that add to the game’s historical immersion. The Great Rework is one of the oldest and most well-made total conversion mods currently in development.

17 Victorian Flavor Mod

Get 100+ New Countries With Vastly Different Tweaks

• Created by: stjern, Radsterman, Cynic, Nightingale, Timur, Tawani
• Mod Link

Another total conversion mod, the Victorian Flavor Mod seeks to be a successor to the most popular Victoria 2 mods, with many on the development team being responsible for some of those same mods. Focusing on creating a more realistic political and economic simulator and removing some of the more sandbox aspects of Victoria 3, this mod alters just about every aspect of the base game and adds more than 100 playable countries at the start of the campaign.

Players should check the Victorian Flavor Mod page on the Steam Workshop to find out which countries have received unique flavors, as said countries are currently the best to play to get the most out of the mod.

18 Divergences

Drastic Alternate History Premise For Interesting Gameplay

• Created by: KallarDuskwood, User 76561198010206276, Mr. Parrot, Lemmings, Kuri, S, divergencesdev
• Mod Link

The continuation of the famous Divergences of Darkness mod for Victoria 2,Divergences brings the famous alternative history setting into Victoria 3 with impressive results. Based on the idea that certain key historical turning points swung a different way, Divergences presents the player with a vastly different world, one in which England and France are ruled as a dual monarchy, Russia never unified, the Norse successfully colonized the New World, and so much more.

This mod is an absolute must-have for any player getting bored with Victoria 3‘s setting and wanting to dramatically alter the world in which the game takes place, while still keeping it grounded in historical realism.