Spartakus - World in Revolution

[sparkz9502]

Hello, and welcome to the eleventh Dev Report for Spartakus.

We showed off a lot last week so this one is a bit shorter than normal.

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sparkz
Portugal Rework
I’ve already pointed out previously I am reworking Portugal a bit and finishing up some odds and ends. So far I have shown off decisions, and I have also teased the reworked Civil War recovery focus tree.

First off, here are both of the political screens for the two Portugal’s:

(Republic)

(Monarchy)

For the Republic, they will be receiving a new political focus section for the democratic socialists and similarly, another political route. A large base of the revolutionaries are anarchists, and as a result the Portuguese Socialist Party will break away from revolutionary socialism and merge with the Reformist Party under democratic socialism when the Civil War ends. This means Portugal can remain revolutionary socialist as anarchists under the Anarchist Portuguese Union (UAP), an organization connected to the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI). The Leninist route is still only restricted to the Communist Coup direction seen in the Progress Report.

For the Monarchy, they will face a similar situation, with the Monarchist Cause (CM) falling apart after achieving victory. They can choose a constitutional monarchy under the ARP or the CCP or they can go Integralist or Corporatist under the IL and UN respectively.

Finally, I already teased the Civil War recovery tree, but the Economic tree has also received major changes, now being connected directly to the recovery tree. It has also received a number of new focuses and some less generic names.

I am also redoing the military trees, including the navy and airforce tree. They are now both connected to the main military tree. As with the economic tree, it is a bit more flavorful now and more in the scope of Portugal. For the moment, I can show off the reworked navy tree:

Thanks for reading. Hopefully I can show off a lot more next week.

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Jago à la Hat (bluejaygo)
Beginnings of Haiti

For the most part, the government of Haiti is going to be roughly the same, with Sténio Vincent as the starting leader. From 1930 to 1941 in OTL, Vincent suspended democracy while he tried to remove US military occupation from their country, eventually doing so in 1934, and resigning from popular elections in 41.

I am planning on making decisions and events based on what is needed to remove the troops, as there will be a negative country spirit because of it. Further down the line, there will be the Parsley Massacre by the Dominican Republic, and you will have to figure out how to deal with the backlash from both their countrymen and your own.

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Trains
Danish Lore

Denmark in 1932 is under a provisional military dictatorship led by Generalløjtnant William Wain Prior. Denmark was launched into a political crisis following the German Revolution next door.

1925 - The first Socialist revolt takes place

After years of witch hunts against socialist leaders, both the left and the right progressively became more radicalized with more socialist elements wanting Prior dead in anticipation of abolishing the monarchy and establishing a new Danish Republic. The revolt started in May of that year. Jutland fell quickly and by the end of year the rebels were pushing on Copenhagen, but during the battle for the city, the rebels were left with a gap in their lines. Prior, seeing this fault, decisively took advantage of it and with that the socialists were sent off running with their tails between their legs. With much aid from Britain, Prior’s regime crushed the revolt later that year.

1927 - The Aarhus trials start

The trials were intended to show that anyone who challenged the regime would face deadly consequences. However. Socialist and Liberal rioters continued to march on the streets and the mock trials did not seem to work in the regimes favor.

1929 - London Stock Exchange Crash

Denmark fell into more disarray as a result of the crash as its effects hit Denmark extremely hard. This inflamed the already existing anger among socialists in Denmark.

Can Denmark get out of its hole and stay and stand against socialism or will Denmark fall to the revolution like Germany and Russia?

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We hope you enjoyed the eleventh Dev Report! Remember to join the Discord as well, as many additional teasers are posted on there daily. Discord.gg

 

[Alex1guy]

This is looking really good.

 

[sparkz9502]

Hello, and welcome to the twelfth Dev Report for Spartakus.

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Last Witch of Illyrith
Serbia

I’ve been working on making two Yugoslav states, Montenegro and Serbia, playable, but I’ll only talk about Serbia in this dev report, as they’re the first to get a focus tree.

The Adriatic War was sparked by the Italians supporting the anti-Yugoslav elements in Montenegro, and tore apart the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, splitting among three states.

The loss of all Great War gains caused mass unrest in Serbia, and in order to prevent it from escalating further, the parliament was suspended and all political organizations were banned. However, 10 years have passed since then, and King Alexander’s power is caving under pressure and various concessions to underground organizer and activists. He is massively unpopular, and probably won’t survive for long.

The May Day rally of 1932, the first one held since before the Great War, will be the tipping point of the collapsing monarchy.

Serbia is faced with the choice of adopting a modern constitution, or avoiding political change via an octroic constitution and allowing a single party in the parliament.

Upon adopting a modern constitution, Serbia will hold its first free elections, and choose between the two leading opposition parties.

If it chooses the octroic constitution, it can slide either back to a liberal coup, a communist revolution or a military government.

Further on, the reformation of Yugoslavia may be a major part of its foreign policy path, but more on this later, hopefully next week.

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BlazedSoulofHate
British Raj Focus Tree

Hello everyone, it’s me back after quite a hiatus, 6 dev reports i believe, but I come bearing the British Raj Tree! Or at least a third of it… A military tree will be added eventually, but the current tree does some up the Raj’s position quite well.

At the start of 1932, the British Raj is not heavily affected by the depression, as an economy is required to have an economic crash, and the British Raj has little in the way of an internal economy, and what little exists serves the British colonial enforcers mostly, bar a miniscule Anglo-Indian middle class. But while the Raj maintains itself comfortably, more investments must be made to tide over the British aristocrat’s fortunes while London struggles with its Depression. Thus, the first part of the tree is about extracting more from the fruit that is India. For a player, this means long foci, that provide negligible reward

The foci are all 70 days, except the Budget ones, meaning most of the year will be spent doing nothing.

This all comes into sharp focus in 1934, where after the yearly budget occurs, -redacted- causes the near collapse of the Raj. Emergency changes must be made, and a desperate bid must be made to create an army independent of Britain, for the Crown may be too late to save the Raj

A choice must be made, over commit to rapidly building a military...

...and risk further internal troubles, or gamble on the fact that the new enemies of the Raj will take time to be ready to crush her and gradually build the economy...

...to support a massive army to crush the upstarts.

I can’t guarantee anything, but I hope it takes less time for another Indian report to pop-up after this one!

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sparkz
Somaliland

You might see this title and wonder what the hell I am doing with my modding time, but I assure you, this is just a side little flavor thing for the moment that I wanted to show off. I could show off more devwork in Portugal or Livonia but I am also getting very near being able to show off those two countries in Progress Reports and would rather not spoil the entire focus trees for them through teasers.

So, here is Somaliland:

Somaliland is dominated primarily by the Warsangali tribe under Maxamuud Cali Shiire due to their cooperation with the British near the end of the Dervish rebellion. The legacy of the Dervish State (1899-1920) still both haunts and unites the people of Somaliland of which many see as a valiant attempt to retain independence for the Somali peoples. However, the rebellion took a great toll on the population and prosperity of Somaliland and the neighboring Ogaden region in Ethiopia due to mass livestock raiding by the leader of the Dervish’s, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (also known as the “Mad Mullah”).

With the British Empire experiencing many issues elsewhere that strain its ability to fund the Somaliland Protectorate, some have conspired to start another rebellion against the British to drive them out of the important port city and capital of Berbera. Will the Dervish State be reborn? Only time will tell.

I hope you enjoyed this little minor showcase. I am hoping to get another PR for both Portugal’s either next Friday or next weekend.

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We hope you enjoyed the twelfth Dev Report! Remember to join the Discord as well, as many additional teasers are posted on there daily. Discord.gg

 

[sparkz9502]

Hello, and welcome to the thirteenth Dev Report for Spartakus.

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KingPeng
Argentine Crisis
Hello There, it’s been a while since I post something in a Dev Diary. Anyways, let’s talk about crisis.

At the start of the game, Argentina would have to deal with two different economic crisis.

Firstly, there is the 1929 British Crash, also known as the Agrarian Crisis, due to it affecting Argentina’s biggest trade partner, and affecting the income created by Agricultural exports. To solve this, you must help the agrarian sector, either by giving monetary aid to the big exporters or by taking matters into your own hands.

The second crisis will come in 1932, as the United States falls to a great economic disaster. Since after WW1 Argentina had become reliant on US exports to sustain its agriculture and small industrial sector. You must impose emergency austerity policies which would not solve the crisis, but would help you ease the situation for the moment, and prepare an infrastructure plan to solve the issue of unemployment.

Resolving these 2 issues will allow you to continue through the economic path and fix the crisis.

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Hiraeth
Introduction to Albania
Hello everyone! It’s been a while since I did a dev diary, and since the last progress report on Romania I have been doing a lot of work on Japan, into which a lot of effort is being put so that the content is as polished and well-done as it should be for a major country. You’ll see it eventually. However in the meantime taken a bit of a break to do some work on the other forgotten major of the 30s, Albania. Albania in Spartakus is seeing both some surprisingly interesting lore reworks, and also testing for some new gameplay aspects. I’ll be going over both of those here.

Albanian Lore:

Having been disjointed, divided and fought over since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, Albania at last found some modicum of stability. Initially doomed to the status of an Italian protectorate after the Great War, Albanian militias attempting to seize the port city of Vlore in 1920 sparked a full war between Italy and Albania. The insecure government, still seeking a monarch after the flight of the short-lived Prince Vidi I, found their savior in the unlikely candidate of British MP and Aristocrat Aubrey Herbert. (In OTL, Herbert was in fact twice offered the throne of Albania, but declined. What if he’d accepted?) An orientalist and long-time champion for Albanian self-determination and one of the western diplomats who had first assured Albanian statehood in the 1913 Treaty of London, Herbert was hastily crowned as Herthe I of Albania. Successfully mediating with Italy he managed to conclude the Vlora War on terms favourable to Albania, while retaining amiability with Italy. Over the intervening decade, the unlikely British King has managed to establish a stable and developing Albanian state under the auspices of a small clique of fellow British Albanologists.

However, the regime faces threats from the King’s advanced age and increasing disability, as well as popular discontent in the form of nationalist intellectuals and army officers, lead by Ahmet Zogu. Influenced by ultranationalist thought developed in Italy and Romania, these young radicals desire to cast down what they see as a paternalistic foreign order and instate a true Albanian government, hoping to restore the ethnically Albanian territories lost to Greece, Serbia and Montenegro.

The threats on the left are less prominent in the largely unindustrialized country, however a politically diverse group of once-liberal exiles, KONARE, lead by the charismatic bishop Fan Noli have aligned themselves with the revolutionary ideologies of Germany & Russia, hoping to seize power when the Kingdom is weak.

Albanian Gameplay:

The main part of the focus tree that most players will be pursuing immediately deals with Albania’s industrialization; offering a number of paths forward. Whether to shore up Italo-Albanian economic ties, or sever them to pursue national autarky. Later on, there is the question of how to approach the modernization of the country - centralise effort in the cities, encouraging migration, or to focus on the countryside and its resources?

The Great Depression does not affect Albania as hard first-hand given it’s largely rural, unindustrialized economy - however the effects wrought on Italy, given the country’s economically dependent relationship, will be very destabilizing.

The question of Albania’s Army is also another pressing issue that must be dealt with. Any state exists through a monopolization on the use of violence, and a state as historically unstable as Albania will have to take extra precautions in order to preserve itself. Albania does however have a rich and varied landscape of tribes, most of them very well-armed, and the question of how to approach them in the military centralization of the country is one that could go either way.

Regional Tension

A mechanic being introduced by the Greater Albania segments of the political tree (which is remaining otherwise hidden for now, more on that later) is Regional Tension. Albania is a tiny, weak country with little in the way of military might, and yet with a great many territorial disputes, with three different countries. Thus, Albania (and potentially other countries’ in the future) will have a more covert way to achieve their aims than through outright warfare.

You’ll have options to spend various types of mana, political, army experience as well as manpower and equipment to further your goals in claimed regions. As tension rises, you’ll unlock more options until eventually the way is open to either force a conference with the territories’ occupiers on the future of the region (this may not go your way), or launch an invasion, during which you’ll get bonuses derived from your investment in militarizing the disputed areas such as rebels joining your army.

Addendum

I’m leaving out the Political Tree for this dev diary since it isn’t quite finished yet, but I’ll leave you with a teaser.

 

[sparkz9502]

sparkz
Making Africa Fun - (Southern) Rhodesia

After rapid fire developing South Africa, I quickly finished up to Southern Rhodesia to complete the Caucaususization of most of lower Southern Africa.

Southern Rhodesia is part of the Central African Federation, also officially known as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Historically, this was established near the end of colonization during the 1950s and 1960s, however the issues that resulted in decolonization come much earlier in the Spartakus timeline due to a number of factors including but not limited to the Statute of Westminster failing, Comintern meddling within the colonies and increasingly dire economic situations throughout the colonies.

In an attempt to alleviate these troubles, the British reorganized many of the colonies in Southeastern Africa in the 1920’s by federating Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar and the newly acquired Tanganyika/Tanzania into the East African Federation, and likewise the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe was federated with Northern Rhodesia/Zambia and Nyasaland/Malawi as the Central African Federation. Only Bechuanaland/Botswana was spared, but much its administration is done from neighboring South Africa.

I hope you enjoyed this mini lore dump. Britain will have multiple in game ways of influencing, developing and ultimately exploiting these colonies with the potential of various revolts.

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NatSpi
The Czech Republic
Last time we visited the isolated Czech Republic, I alluded to a few potentially destabilising events that may occur during the course of the game. First, let me show you Czechia’s political situation, as well as a few of their starting national spirits. As you can see, no one party has a large amount of popularity, and as such none of them has anything nearing a majority in the parliament. This is why five of the most prominent parties decided to form the Pětka, or Committee of Five.

To better represent the Pětka, and coalition governments in general, I’ve modified the popularity system (in which higher ruling party popularity gives a higher rate of political power gain), to allow for the system to take coalitions into account. This means that the popularity system takes into account the popularity of all five coalition parties; therefore, since the Pětka has a combined popularity of 82% at the start of the game, they begin with high popularity. Other countries are also adopting this system.

Moving on: Meet the rebellious general Radola Gajda. The OTL Gajda Affair of the mid- to late-1920s never occurred in the world of Spartakus, due to a number of factors such as the Polish May Coup never occurring (since Poland is a socialist republic).

In Spartakus, therefore, Gajda retains a large degree of influence within the military, especially among those who served with the Czechoslovak Legion during the Russian Civil War. If Gajda and the party he supports, the fascist NOK, are permitted to effect their schemes without sufficient resistance from the civilian government, Czech democracy may be at risk.

The government may choose to resort to riskier and riskier methods, but be careful, or you may be facing even larger crises…..

That’s all from me today! Pravda vítězí!

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We hope you enjoyed the thirteenth Dev Report! Remember to join the Discord as well, as many additional teasers are posted on there daily. Discord.gg

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Additionally, here are the teasers posted yesterday for the South Africa rework:

 

[WotanArgead]

Excuse me, but I have a few considerations about the art of Germany. The fact that German expressionism was born because of the defeat in the First World War and the economic collapse - "The End of the World has come. The worst of it was that the light did not end." There was a revolution and the apocalypse must give way to the pathos of the New World, that is ... let's say Futurism instead of Expressionism. And the "new materiality" should not be so ... cynical.

 

[sparkz9502]

Excuse me, but I have a few considerations about the art of Germany. The fact that German expressionism was born because of the defeat in the First World War and the economic collapse - "The End of the World has come. The worst of it was that the light did not end." There was a revolution and the apocalypse must give way to the pathos of the New World, that is ... let's say Futurism instead of Expressionism. And the "new materiality" should not be so ... cynical.

Art in Socialist Germany in the Spartakus timeline is a unique mix of expressionism, constructivism, futurism and new objectivity. Expressionism still flourishes in this timeline throughout the 1920's in the post-Civil War era and continues to exist, however by the start date in 1932 it is on decline in favor of more "optimistic" forms of art. Architecture is primarily expressionist and constructivist while other forms of art are a mix, but socialist realism is pretty much nonexistent. Here is some examples of architecture you would commonly see in the F.S.R.D. and the Bavarian Soviet Republic:

 

[Worffan101]

Would I be correct in assuming that Socialist Germany is not Soviet-aligned and that the USSR is tight with Bavaria?

 

[sparkz9502]

Would I be correct in assuming that Socialist Germany is not Soviet-aligned and that the USSR is tight with Bavaria?

We are taking a more complex route with the potential USSR-Germany split.

At the start, Bavaria and the Austrian Workers Republic (Bavaro-Austrian socialist puppet state in Tirol) are aligned with Germany in the Rotfront faction. The USSR and its puppet Poland, as well as Hungary, Slovakia, Gilan, Mongolia and Tannu Tuva are in the Sovetsglas faction (which is a mashup of the word Soviet and the Russian word glasije, meaning agreement). However, all of these countries are united economically within the Comintern, which is represented by national spirits and in the future, a brand new scripted UI. The blocs are mainly for military and sphere based interests. The USSR and Germany are on good terms at the start of the game, and this generally will remain so throughout the inevitable conflict with the reactionary powers. However, if the USSR and Germany manage to emerge victorious in a war against the reactionary powers, they will be able to turn on each other in a final conflict, where some of the various minor powers will be able to choose a side.

We are still messing around with this concept but that is generally how we are planning for it to work. The conflict is also going to be completely optional so if two players want to remain friendly throughout the whole game playing as the USSR and Germany they can do so without being forced into fighting each other.

 

[Worffan101]

OK!

How about reformation of the USSR into a more democratic state (via council communism or something like that?)?

Also, please don't take this the wrong way, but I have one really big problem with this mod, and that is that the list of ideologies is a bit long and the socialist ideas feel a bit generic. I may be biased, given that I'm a huge Kaiserreich fan, but there seem to be too many socialist ideologies of dubious distinction--an I say that as a socialist!

If I were designing a mod like this, I'd have something like:

Strasserism (what you call National Syndicalism, basically): Horseshoe theory in full effect, Nazis cribbing Marxist rhetoric. Combines the insane evil of the Nazis with the planned-economy failings of the Stalinist USSR in one fucked-up bundle. (This also contains the most right-wing-oriented third-positiony Nazbol crap and the most batshit ends of Kaiserreich's Totalism) Orthodox Strasserism itself would be a poor, unstable hierarchy of "racial" groups with white blonde blue-eyed people on top and Jews on the bottom; similar ideologies would share similar rhetoric if not the same final plan.

Stalinism: Exactly what it says on the tin. Authoritarian, command economy, Lavrently Pavlovich having people sent to the gulag and shot in between feeling up kids, etc. Can also cover less openly totalitarian command economies, like Foster's CSA in Kaiserreich.

Anarcho-Socialism: Covers anarcho-Syndicalism, DeLeonism, council communism, etc. Libertarian, economy controlled by socialist labor unions that are run as democracies, essentially replacing the corporate profit-driven structure with a workers' wellfare incentive.

Social Democracy: Very strong wellfare state focusing on entitlements within a capitalist economy. Big problem here is that the workers have most of the power they have in a Syndicalist or council communist economy but little to none of the responsibility. Other name options: Progressivism, Left-Populism.

Neoliberalism: Neoliberalism proper won't really develop as an ideology until the late 20th century, but the idea of free markets and sociopolitical liberalism in concert exists already. Holds that free markets are necessary to ensure rights for all people, and vice versa. KR's Social Liberals.

Minarchism: Ancaps with a marginally different coat of paint. (KR's Market Liberals)

Conservatism: Free market, Traditional Values (tm). Something of a new conservative synthesis as WW1 put paid to old 19th century conservative ideas.

Unaligned Authoritarianism: Literally Putin. Any tinpot dictator should be covered by this, too, unless they go for fascism or Strasser. Basically KR's Aut-Dem.

Monarchism: Think Kaiserreich pat-auts. Differs from conservatives in being more statist and in favor of a traditional authority rather than a more new-rich authority. Rooted in 19th century conservatism.

Fascism: Right-wing populism pushing for a totalitarian corporate state. Nasty racists. Literally Hitler.
-------
Kaiserreich radsocs work better as a separate thing in that setting, where the main socialist divides are over urban vs. rural and totalitarian vs. libertarian, and Totalism covers Stalin and Strasser both. To differentiate from that, in my version the focus is more on the place of nationalism in socialism and the totalitarian/libertarian divide. It's entirely possible to include something else in there (like, merge monarchism and *Aut-Dem) and put in "agrarian socialism" instead since the focus is on socialism in this mod.

Anyway, please don't take this too hard, but I think that a little modification would be helpful to clarify the stances of the ideologies (especially since most more libertarian branches of socialism tend to be more open to working within a preexisting state than inevitable revolution). Just my 2 cents, feel free to take it or leave it.

 

[SomeFollowTheStars]

OK!

How about reformation of the USSR into a more democratic state (via council communism or something like that?)?

Also, please don't take this the wrong way, but I have one really big problem with this mod, and that is that the list of ideologies is a bit long and the socialist ideas feel a bit generic. I may be biased, given that I'm a huge Kaiserreich fan, but there seem to be too many socialist ideologies of dubious distinction--an I say that as a socialist!

If I were designing a mod like this, I'd have something like:

Strasserism (what you call National Syndicalism, basically): Horseshoe theory in full effect, Nazis cribbing Marxist rhetoric. Combines the insane evil of the Nazis with the planned-economy failings of the Stalinist USSR in one fucked-up bundle. (This also contains the most right-wing-oriented third-positiony Nazbol crap and the most batshit ends of Kaiserreich's Totalism) Orthodox Strasserism itself would be a poor, unstable hierarchy of "racial" groups with white blonde blue-eyed people on top and Jews on the bottom; similar ideologies would share similar rhetoric if not the same final plan.

Stalinism: Exactly what it says on the tin. Authoritarian, command economy, Lavrently Pavlovich having people sent to the gulag and shot in between feeling up kids, etc. Can also cover less openly totalitarian command economies, like Foster's CSA in Kaiserreich.

Anarcho-Socialism: Covers anarcho-Syndicalism, DeLeonism, council communism, etc. Libertarian, economy controlled by socialist labor unions that are run as democracies, essentially replacing the corporate profit-driven structure with a workers' wellfare incentive.

Social Democracy: Very strong wellfare state focusing on entitlements within a capitalist economy. Big problem here is that the workers have most of the power they have in a Syndicalist or council communist economy but little to none of the responsibility. Other name options: Progressivism, Left-Populism.

Neoliberalism: Neoliberalism proper won't really develop as an ideology until the late 20th century, but the idea of free markets and sociopolitical liberalism in concert exists already. Holds that free markets are necessary to ensure rights for all people, and vice versa. KR's Social Liberals.

Minarchism: Ancaps with a marginally different coat of paint. (KR's Market Liberals)

Conservatism: Free market, Traditional Values (tm). Something of a new conservative synthesis as WW1 put paid to old 19th century conservative ideas.

Unaligned Authoritarianism: Literally Putin. Any tinpot dictator should be covered by this, too, unless they go for fascism or Strasser. Basically KR's Aut-Dem.

Monarchism: Think Kaiserreich pat-auts. Differs from conservatives in being more statist and in favor of a traditional authority rather than a more new-rich authority. Rooted in 19th century conservatism.

Fascism: Right-wing populism pushing for a totalitarian corporate state. Nasty racists. Literally Hitler.
-------
Kaiserreich radsocs work better as a separate thing in that setting, where the main socialist divides are over urban vs. rural and totalitarian vs. libertarian, and Totalism covers Stalin and Strasser both. To differentiate from that, in my version the focus is more on the place of nationalism in socialism and the totalitarian/libertarian divide. It's entirely possible to include something else in there (like, merge monarchism and *Aut-Dem) and put in "agrarian socialism" instead since the focus is on socialism in this mod.

Anyway, please don't take this too hard, but I think that a little modification would be helpful to clarify the stances of the ideologies (especially since most more libertarian branches of socialism tend to be more open to working within a preexisting state than inevitable revolution). Just my 2 cents, feel free to take it or leave it.

I actually really like the Spartakus Ideology system and wish the Kaiserreich one would expand more. I'm favor of the 12 point ideology programme suggested by reddit user KapiTod.

 

[sparkz9502]

OK!

How about reformation of the USSR into a more democratic state (via council communism or something like that?)?

I suppose it depends on what you mean by democratic. Obviously I do not want to get into a political debate, but the USSR and Germany are no more or less "authoritarian" than each other. Libertarian Marxism is a false dichotomy mainly used as an opposition to the Stalinist "Marxist-Leninism" which does not exist in this timeline. I am personally a socialist and extensive reading has shown me and various others on the mod team that Luxemburg and Lenin did not have distinctly different sets of beliefs, and the same can be said for Marx and Lenin and Marx and Luxemburg. The conflict between the USSR and Germany would not necessarily be ideological but rather based on competing spheres of power.

The distinction between Marxists and Leninists in Spartakus is mainly based on what the leaders in power identify with rather than distinct ideological splits. Additionally, more agrarian, rural and underdeveloped countries are more likely to have prominent Leninist movements rather than Marxists. On the flip side, Marxism will be more prominent in more industrialized and "modern" countries such as Germany and France. Nonetheless there will be a few so-called Leninists who will be pushing far beyond the bounds of Orthodox Marxism such as Stalin. We will be implementing various sub-ideologies for all the 12 ideologies to provide more details on the specific beliefs of the movements and leaders in power. Think of the 12 in-game ideologies as more of "categories" for many different ideologies to be in. Revolutionary socialism covers all the various non-Marxist ideologies such as anarchism, syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism, religious socialism, etc, and finally Democratic Socialism does not necessarily mean "democratic" in the literal sense but is rather a term for parliamentary and reformist socialist movements which do not support a violent revolution.

I hope this clears it up.

 

[Worffan101]

I suppose it depends on what you mean by democratic. Obviously I do not want to get into a political debate, but the USSR and Germany are no more or less "authoritarian" than each other. Libertarian Marxism is a false dichotomy mainly used as an opposition to the Stalinist "Marxist-Leninism" which does not exist in this timeline. I am personally a socialist and extensive reading has shown me and various others on the mod team that Luxemburg and Lenin did not have distinctly different sets of beliefs, and the same can be said for Marx and Lenin and Marx and Luxemburg. The conflict between the USSR and Germany would not necessarily be ideological but rather based on competing spheres of power.

The distinction between Marxists and Leninists in Spartakus is mainly based on what the leaders in power identify with rather than distinct ideological splits. Additionally, more agrarian, rural and underdeveloped countries are more likely to have prominent Leninist movements rather than Marxists. On the flip side, Marxism will be more prominent in more industrialized and "modern" countries such as Germany and France. Nonetheless there will be a few so-called Leninists who will be pushing far beyond the bounds of Orthodox Marxism such as Stalin. We will be implementing various sub-ideologies for all the 12 ideologies to provide more details on the specific beliefs of the movements and leaders in power. Think of the 12 in-game ideologies as more of "categories" for many different ideologies to be in. Revolutionary socialism covers all the various non-Marxist ideologies such as anarchism, syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism, religious socialism, etc, and finally Democratic Socialism does not necessarily mean "democratic" in the literal sense but is rather a term for parliamentary and reformist socialist movements which do not support a violent revolution.

I hope this clears it up.

Fair enough! Using the two as a stand-in for the international alignment of the country in question makes it a lot more sensible.

That does actually clear up a lot.

EDIT: And when I say democratic, something along the lines of re-establishing and empowering the soviets (as in, the councils established early in the revolution before Lenin and company established the Party's dominance), and enabling free elections for the central government. Obviously the command economy would get thrown out somewhere in there once people realized it's full of holes, but yeah, that's basically what I meant.

 

[sparkz9502]

Fair enough! Using the two as a stand-in for the international alignment of the country in question makes it a lot more sensible.

That does actually clear up a lot.

EDIT: And when I say democratic, something along the lines of re-establishing and empowering the soviets (as in, the councils established early in the revolution before Lenin and company established the Party's dominance), and enabling free elections for the central government. Obviously the command economy would get thrown out somewhere in there once people realized it's full of holes, but yeah, that's basically what I meant.

Ah, I see what you mean now. The Soviet Union at the start date in 1932 is not perfect by any means and hasn't completely transitioned away from the issues that stemmed from war communism due to its political crisis, but by no means is it comparable to the Stalinist USSR thankfully. They do have relatively free Soviet elections and the stances on various other issues will be decided by the player not long after the start of the game.

 

[WotanArgead]

Art in Socialist Germany in the Spartakus timeline is a unique mix of expressionism, constructivism, futurism and new objectivity. Expressionism still flourishes in this timeline throughout the 1920's in the post-Civil War era and continues to exist, however by the start date in 1932 it is on decline in favor of more "optimistic" forms of art. Architecture is primarily expressionist and constructivist while other forms of art are a mix, but socialist realism is pretty much nonexistent. Here is some examples of architecture you would commonly see in the F.S.R.D. and the Bavarian Soviet Republic:

Purely theoretically, in painting and literature, socialist realism can emerge in the midst of a "new objectivity," such as striving to overcome alienation between a person and activity, or an attempt to break out of the position of an observer .... This is your business.

But in architecture ... In fact, there is no "socialist realism in architecture" - architectural trends have changed every 10-20 years. The architecture of the 1920s is avngardism and constructivism; architecture of the 30's - 45's - an eclectic art deco, combining elements of constructivism and classicism; 45-60th - neo-empire style with baroque elements; 60-e-80-e - neo-constructivism, sometimes with elements of classicism or "organic architecture."

 

[sparkz9502]

Purely theoretically, in painting and literature, socialist realism can emerge in the midst of a "new objectivity," such as striving to overcome alienation between a person and activity, or an attempt to break out of the position of an observer .... This is your business.

But in architecture ... In fact, there is no "socialist realism in architecture" - architectural trends have changed every 10-20 years. The architecture of the 1920s is avngardism and constructivism; architecture of the 30's - 45's - an eclectic art deco, combining elements of constructivism and classicism; 45-60th - neo-empire style with baroque elements; 60-e-80-e - neo-constructivism, sometimes with elements of classicism or "organic architecture."

Well, I was more referring to Stalinist/classicist architecture which is linked to socialist realism, but it is true that art and architecture shifted after his death. There will be plenty of art related flavor events showing how things will evolve.

 

[Rush Tarquin]

The distinction in the mod between National Syndicalism and Fascism is interesting. Will that division come into play anywhere outside of Romania?

 

[GDIS Pathe]

The distinction in the mod between National Syndicalism and Fascism is interesting. Will that division come into play anywhere outside of Romania?

INTEGRALISM

(AKA: Portugal and Brazil probably)

 

[sparkz9502]

The distinction in the mod between National Syndicalism and Fascism is interesting. Will that division come into play anywhere outside of Romania?

It will actually be quite prominent in places other than Romania. For example, the primary nationalist movements in Spain, France, Brazil, Portugal and Livonia are National Syndicalist, and elsewhere they maintain a strong presence such as in Baden-Wurttemberg, Mexico, Argentina and Italy. On the contrary the primary nationalist movements in Italy, Albania, the United States, Norway, Estonia, El Salvador and South Africa are National Corporatist, while they maintain a strong presence in Portugal, France and Argentina. These are just to name a few and various other countries have divisions between the NatSyn's and NatCorp's. In some cases the NatSyn's and NatCorp's will clash with each other internally while in other cases they will work together.

 

[sparkz9502]

Hello, and welcome to the fourteenth Dev Report for Spartakus.

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Nina
The State of Italy in 1932 (National Spirits)
Hey all, it’s me Nina! It’s been a while since my last DR but I have returned this week to share with you the starting situation of Italy. In 1932, Italy’s situation is quite precarious, held only together by the military government of the Transitional Stability Cabinet. At the start of the game, Italy will have four national spirits. Each one represents part of the instability that plagues the Kingdom.

First on the list is Ghastly Memories of the Great War. The Italian people are quite tired of war and need incentives to motivate them into fully supporting another conflict.

The next one is the ‘Red Decade’. This term applies to the 1920s, in which Italy became the hotbed of revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries. The nation still hasn’t quite recovered from the events of the 20s and suffers greatly.

Third of the four are the fascist sympathies in the Royal Army. Many major figures in the army have or currently support Mussolini’s PNF, from Emilio De Bono to Rodolfo Graziani, it might become necessary to purge the army of their influence before anything drastic occurs.

The Fourth and Final Spirit, certainly not least however, is the Insurgency in Libya. While there are no visible effects of this focus, a player will most definitely feel the effects of this insurgency throughout the early game until the situation in Libya is dealt with.

I am quite glad to be back on that modding grind and I look forward to fully sharing the fully reworked political situation of Italy next week!

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Last Witch of Illyrith
Yugoslavia! Mechanics! Part One!
I’ve been laying this off for a little bit (and it’s still not finished, there’s a whole another set of mechanics I’d want to introduce in the next week or so) but today I’m going to show off a few of the things that’ll make Yugoslavia (~if you do choose to form it~) a more unique playthrough experience.

Each of the Yugoslav countries, that is, at the start, Illyria, Montenegro and Serbia, and the releasable Bosnia and Slovenia, will have a national spirit to represent how influential Yugoslavism is in it. This has several degrees, from almost none at all, to the final one, representing the fact that they have formed the one and only Yugoslavia (flag and name change through cosmetic tag, party names and such are also changed).

As of now, Yugoslavia will be formable as the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia if Serbia succumbs to a communist coup, or by a ORJUNA military government (the latter focus tree still unfinished).

Once you’ve formed it, you can advance it internally through a focus tree, and once your military has been rebuilt, you can move on to fighting south slavic countries still not in Yugoslavia. When that’s done, there are still some south slavic territories in foreign countries; Banat in Romania, Bačka in Hungary. Istria in Italy... Instead of having to go into a full out war against these countries, you can agitate in them and start a border war similar to the ones in Albania. Finally, once you take back the land, you can also give its native names back again.

The planned internal stability mechanics are going to be up most likely next week.

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sparkz
Portugal (and the coming Progress Report)
This dev report section for me is going to be pretty short. Work is going very steady on Portugal, Livonia and Germany. Although I wasn’t able to get a PR for both Portugal’s out last weekend like I wanted, it will be coming out soon. The entire non-political section of both Portuguese focus trees are completely finished and all focuses have final effects. Of course, though, I don’t want to spoil all of this before I am able to make the PR, so here is the air force section of the focus tree:

Additionally, here is the flag for anarcho-syndicalist Portugal:

As you might see from the flag, the Portuguese anarchists are under the União Anarquista Portuguesa, or the UAP (and additionally the Confederação Geral do Trabalho, or CGT) and are closely connected to the Federación Anarquista Ibérica, meaning it holds very close relations to the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, or CNT, in Spain.

That is it for now. I can tell you getting together research for an anarcho-syndicalist Portugal was quite the task, but when the mod releases you can be sure to find plenty of obscure information about the UAP and CGT through playing.

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We hope you enjoyed the fourteenth Dev Report! Remember to join the Discord as well, as many additional teasers are posted on there daily. Discord.gg

Also, if you are interested in joining the Dev Team, please remember all you need to do is fill out this form: Goo.gl