Welcome to the first preview of Morgenröte! The first updates will revolve entirely around archeology. Not only will we return to the Valley of the Kings known from Victoria 2, but also many familiar locations from "Gott mit uns". The successor to Koldewey is appropriately called Lepsius, named after the famous Prussian archaeologist who led the expedition in Egypt named after him in 1842.

In "Lepsius - The Return of Archeology" you will go on expeditions to exotic lands, excavate valuable artifacts, find mysterious clues about ancient cultures and improve your research and prestige by building museums. Through the sands of Egypt to the fertile Mesopotamia, to the Greek shores and mountains of the Andes to the deep jungles of the Yucatán, you will try to increase your nation's standing in the world through fabulous archaeological discoveries - and unearth valuable treasures along the way.

But not so hasty! You can only build a museum if you have something to exhibit - and you can only get artifacts from expeditions, excavations or events. Also, at the start of Victoria 3, archeology is still in its infancy and has a long way to go from treasure hunt to science. Initially you will hardly have any places to explore, later you will need technologies and important discoveries to progress.

Before you can think of expeditions and excavations, the place has to catch the attention of the scholarly world. This requires the completion of journal entries. For example, the first two archaeological sites in Egypt will not be accessible until Lepsius composes his letter to Roselli, improving Champollion's decipherment of hieroglyphs and thereby breaking new ground in Egyptology.

The first two journal entries (Lepsius Letter to Roselli and Stephens and Catherwood's expedition to Yucatán) are historically deterministic: on the one hand, because these historical events happened so early after the start of the game that they are fixed; on the other hand, because it ensures that there are some archeological objectives early on in the game. The other three journal entries, on the other hand, are much more dynamic. While Lepsius and Stephens are fixed for Prussia and the USA and require little work, the other journal entries are open to all nations and have more demanding requirements.

After fulfilling a journal, an event triggers for the respective nation that makes new archaeological dig sites possible. For the player this is made clearer by the fact that the regions with excavation sites get a permanent modifier. These locations are now open to all countries as long as they meet certain requirements. With the three dynamic journal entries, the country that completed them also receives a permanent, fixed prestige bonus. The following are the excavation sites and their requirements:


Lepsius Letter to Rosellini: Upper Egypt (The Valley of the Kings), Lower Egypt (The Pyramids)
Stephens and Catherwood's Expedition: Yucatán (Maya Culture)
Decoding of the Arcadian language: Baghdad (Babylon), Mosul (Nimrud/Nineveh)
Heinrich Schliemann finds Troy: Peloponnese (Mycenae), Crete (Knossos)
The rediscovery of Machu Picchu: Ica (Cusco)


Of course, all nations that could benefit from such a discovery in this situation by sending out an expedition will be notified.

However, unlocking the excavation sites is only a first step. An important technology that you need at the beginning is Antiquarianism. Only with this technology is it possible to send expeditions and build a museum. Some nations have a historical advantage because they have these technologies, while others have to research them first. I gave these starting technologies to nations that either had an Egyptian collection before 1836 or had important archaeologists or Egyptologists. Here is a list:


Great Britain (British Museum/Young)
France (Louvre/Champollion)
Prussia (Egyptian Museum/Lepsius)
Austria (Egyptian Collection)
Netherlands (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden/Reuvens)
Sweden (Giovanni Anastasi Donation)
Bavaria (Aegyptica/Glyptothek Egyptian Hall)
Saxony (Seyffarth)
Baden (Aegyptica) ?
Sardinia-Piedmont (Egyptian Collection)
Two Sicilies (Borgia/Picchianti)
Tuscany (Egyptian Museum/Tuscany Expedition/Rosellini)
Papal States (Roman Egypt Collection/Ungarelli)


From this point on, a modifier will be displayed on each state to let the player know which nations own a dig site. Instead of the typical modifiers in red or green, these are highlighted with an image.

You can only acquire excavation licenses from countries that have such excavation sites and send excavation teams there. More about excavation licenses, excavation teams and decisions on expeditions in the next diary.

Welcome back to the next diarium on project "Lepsius". After explaining what archeological excavation sites are and how to unlock them last time, this time it's about how you get access to them.

Unlike the usual geographical expeditions, simply sending out an expedition is not enough. In contrast to Africa and the two poles, one cannot simply set out for Egypt or Peru without colliding with the states there. Egypt, for example, passed an antiquities law just a year before the launch of Victoria 3. Most archaeological excavations of the 19th century required a so-called "firman" before they could begin, that is: an excavation license.

In Lepsius, nations can acquire an excavation license from other countries if they own an excavation site - provided it has been unlocked. This option is only available to major or great powers. The requirements are not high. However, excavation rights cost a small fee that goes to the country with the archeological site. The values in the screenshot are not final. Currently, the AI will not cancel excavation licenses from its side (at the moment, at least), but excavation licenses will automatically cancel if a country loses the dig site or a war breaks out between the two countries.

An excavation license always covers the whole country. So if the Ottoman Empire owns both Mosul and Baghdad, you only need to sign one treaty. However, even after you have acquired an excavation license, you cannot start excavation directly. You must first have a free excavation team to send out!

Currently, a country can have a maximum of 3 excavation teams (in an update there will be 4). Antiquarianism unlocks the first excavation team, while the Modern Archeology technology unlocks the second. An additional excavation team can be hired if you have a character with the Archaeologist trait. The team he recruited stays with you even after his death.

Only with a free excavation team can you make a decision about where to send your expedition. Different excavation sites have different requirements. While you only need Antiquarianism for Egypt, you will later be dependent on technologies such as Modern Archeology or Aviation in Peru. You can also only send out one expedition at a time, even if you have another free excavation team. I will explain in a later diary why it makes sense to have several excavation teams. Oh yes: of course you will get your excavation team back after the expedition.

Lepsius currently has ten archaeological decisions. So that the overview is not lost, you can switch the archaeological decisions on and off with one click.

Today we're going to talk about one of the core elements of Lepsius: Expeditions!

At the beginning an important distinction: in Lepsius there are expeditions and excavations. Both can be contested by an archaeological team.

While expeditions describe the journey as such and associated events, post-expedition excavations are possible once you have researched the Early Archaeology technology. Expeditions are unpredictable in some respects and, depending on how they go, can bring in a large amount of artifacts; Excavation is a continuous way of acquiring artifacts in an area over a long period of time. Today it's all about expeditions.

In the previous two diaries I already explained what you need to bring about an expedition decision. There are similarities, but also very strong differences to the geographical expeditions from Victoria 3. The aim of the geographical expeditions is to reach a certain end point before your endeavor becomes too dangerous and the enterprise fails. Your expedition can never fail in Lepsius, at least not officially. It's all about getting as many artifacts as possible in a given amount of time.

There are a few factors that affect your expedition that I'd like to share here while I haven't found the time to set up a proper tooltip system. The first concept concerns the length of the expedition. In a first preparatory event you can decide how long the expedition should last. “Length” here corresponds to the number of events. A short journey contains 5 events, a medium journey contains 7 events, and a long journey contains 9 events. The monthly costs differ depending on the selected length.

Another factor is the speed of the expedition. By default, the chance of an expedition not firing an event per month has a value of 66 (events have an average value of 10). However, you have the option during preparation to lower this value to 50, thereby increasing the likelihood that an expedition event will arrive in the month. This speeds up the expedition - and thus shortens the waiting time to start a new expedition. It's also useful if you want to quickly level up an Archaeologist and are less interested in the artifacts themselves.

However, you can also choose to increase the success of an expedition in the same event. The success of the expedition is a crucial value in accounting at the end of the expedition. The greater the expedition success, the greater the number of artifacts you will receive at the end of the expedition (in addition to the artifacts acquired in individual events). Think of it as a kind of final reckoning. During the expedition there can always be events that increase or decrease your expedition success.

Unlike the geographic expeditions, there are not just one, but two characters that influence the course of the expedition. The expedition leader is not a military man, but a civilian. The leader of the intelligentsia will claim this position for himself; you can also choose a random leader from a ruling or opposition party. Monarchies can also make the heir to the throne the leader. If you already have an archaeologist, you can also select that.

The military attaché is the second person accompanying the expedition. Unlike the expedition leader, you cannot choose this one: the military chooses a general at random.

The characteristics of the expedition leader and the attaché have an influence on which events are coming your way. A romantically inclined expedition leader, for example, will get the idea of writing a diary, a diplomat could put in a good word with the local ruler during an audience, depending on his education. From time to time you will also be confronted with having to reprimand the attaché, which causes uneasiness among the relevant interest group. It can also happen that they acquire new items as modifiers or even get a new property (not always positive). There is still room for improvement here in the future!

The choice of your expedition leader has an influence on your expedition and is not an arbitrary decision. Also keep in mind that after the first expedition your leader will acquire the Archaeologist trait and with it slightly popularity. He can even increase his rank after a second and third expedition (to "experienced archaeologist" and "famous archaeologist").

Now a brief overview of the course of an expedition. This is divided into three parts. First you make the most important decisions in your capital: choosing the length of the expedition, choosing the expedition leader, assigning the military attaché (as well as three possible additional events if you already have archaeological experience and are also good at arts and education). This is followed by the decision between expedition success and expedition speed (as well as six possible additional events that depend on the character traits of the expedition leader and the military attaché).

After that, the expedition begins in the narrower sense. You will be faced with natural and human obstacles, have to decide on the success of the journey or a quickly acquired artefact, get angry with your own expedition members or the locals, find old tombs and abandoned temples - or have to accept some setbacks.

In the first version, which I am currently preparing for a release, there will be around 60 different expedition events (not counting events in preparation and in the arrival city). In the final version of Lepsius there will be around 100. There are different types of event groups:

- Expedition events that affect the success of a voyage
- Artifacts Events, which include the possibility of obtaining Artifacts Research events that speed up the research of archeological and philosophical technologies
- Character events that depend on and affect the traits of the expedition leader and military attaché
- Narrative events that depend on one of the eight dig sites and contain an event chain with a special reward (not yet included in the first version)
- Events with mysterious items... but that will remain secret for now!

That would be it for the Expeditions! Next time we'll talk about what you can do with the artifacts when it comes to museums and collections.

Welcome to today's Diarium - and as the title suggests, today is about everything to do with the museum: archaeologists, collections and the museum itself.

Let's start with archaeologists! You won't find archaeologists in free play. The archaeologist trait is only granted once an expedition leader has completed an expedition. With each completed expedition, the archaeologist gains one experience point (in the future there will also be other events that increases archaeologists' experience). Archaeologists with enough experience will rise in rank and have a chance to become experienced or even famous archaeologists. More experienced archaeologists trigger new events on expeditions with increased chances of artefacts.

Here is a short list:

1-2 experience points: Archaeologist
3-4 experience points: Experienced Archaeologist
5+: Famous Archaeologist

Now you are probably wondering: "But Marco, if the leaders of the expeditions are always recruited from among the politicians, isn't there a risk that they will quickly disappear because they withdraw from political life or die?" Indeed, that is a problem! Because the way political leaders come and go is governed by paradox in a rather arbitrary way. As rulers and military men reach the age of Methuselah, politicians come and go like ephemera.

This is where the museum comes in. It is your central archaeological hub. As soon as you have got hold of five artifacts, you can lay the foundation for your museum by making a decision. Only when you have done that can you also build a museum in your capital. Once construction is complete, more choices will be available to you.

For example, you can appoint a Lead Scientist. This Lead Scientist has a special function: a politician who bears the title is not simply deleted from the game for 15 to 20 years. That means: this person stays with you for a controllable period of time and you can count on him as your chief archaeologist. However, after the period expires, you will surely lose it. You can only appoint one Archaeologist as Lead Scientist and he will remain in that position until the deadline is up.

On the other hand, you can visit your museum. This way you can see how many artifacts you have of which type. The number of your total artifacts and your free archeology teams is also here. You can also host exhibitions in the four different collection rooms (Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Aegean, Pre-Columbian) once you have found the necessary artifacts. These exhibitions give your nation permanent prestige until such time as you create a bigger and better exhibition.

Welcome to the release of the first „Morgenröte“-Beta! But first: another Diarium.

Today we will be dealing with many smaller concepts that have not had a place over the course of the last few posts. Let's start with excavations first!

Excavations are possible at the end of an expedition, but not available at the start of the game. To unlock the option at the end of an Expedition, you must first unlock Early Archeology in the Tech Tree. The advantage of excavations is that they are continuous. This means that you will automatically search for artifacts in a country while preparing a new expedition. This is also where the different dig teams come into play: you can follow up an expedition with a dig in one country, and then after a few years continue an expedition in another location with a different dig team.

In the meantime, you will receive artifacts from the dig site once a year. For example, if you dig in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, you will get two Egyptian artifacts on the deadline; if you dig in Upper Egypt and, for example, Assyria, it is an Egyptian and a Mesopotamian artifact instead. You will be informed annually on the deadline via a notification at the bottom right that new artifacts have arrived - they go directly and unbureaucratically to your museum.

Since your excavation team stays on site, you will not automatically get it back after an expedition. However, you can choose to abort an excavation at any time if you need it somewhere else in the world. Incidentally, it is a perfectly valid strategy that if all of your archaeologist teams are on an excavation and you can do another expedition, you call it back and carry out a new expedition with an associated excavation. Because over time, your yields from expeditions will improve, and your archaeologists will primarily earn points through expeditions. If you want to complete your collection, you shouldn't lean back.

The "Excavation" concept is not yet complete in this version. Because only with an ongoing excavation is it guaranteed that you will have access to important artifacts and great discoveries. The introduction of significant artifacts and great discoveries will also be among the main aspects of the next update.

Nineteenth-century archeology saw itself as a modern science, but there's a reason why we still associate it with a touch of romantic adventure and the mystical today. Those who go to the roots of humanity are often confronted with something that goes beyond material facts. It is no coincidence that this supposedly so enlightened, modern and technically adept age also had an uncanny fascination with the occult and the supernatural.

In short: in Lepsius too, you will now and then come across something that is entirely in line with the spirit of the times, but does not always meet the historical requirements. That's why I've already introduced rules of the game that you can change at the beginning if you want. They are initially set up to trigger all possible events. Should you choose to only want historical events, you won't be pressured by the mythical. However, it will not relieve you of the fact that individuals and also societies could be affected by occult superstition.

There are almost no events where this applies yet, but I wanted to implement this setting now, as it should make it easier to patch your game later without having to give up your save.

Last: Achievements. That's right! In Lepsius there will be 4 achievements for the time being, 7 are planned in total. You can unlock them in single player, but they won't appear on Steam. The achievements available so far are:


It belongs in a museum! - Build a museum.
Dig deeper! - Find 100 artifacts.
Dr Jones, I presume? - Promote one of your characters to a famous archaeologist.
You call THIS Archaeology?! – Conquer all states with dig sites.


This won't be the last diarium - but the last before the first release.

As briefly announced yesterday, not only is the new patch for Victoria 3 coming out tomorrow, but also the next major update for Morgenröte, which will finally bring "Lepsius" into the intended form. It's mainly about Major Artifacts and Discoveries.

There was already a foretaste of the idea I had in mind for "Lepsius" in last week's update, but it was still a long way from completion. Since this idea will be completed with tomorrow's update, I would like to briefly repeat it here.

There are now 4 Major Artifacts each for the Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Aegean Collections, and 3 Major Artifacts for the Pre-Columbian Collection. Unlike the anonymous minor artifacts, these will be named and labeled separately in the museum when you find them. There are various ways of getting hold of these, and thus finally organizing “excellent” exhibitions. Sometimes you can acquire a special artifact from a major discovery, sometimes there are specific narrative events or journal entries. And then there are Major Artifacts again, which you can find randomly. However, these chance finds require that you have already researched modern archeology and are also permanently excavating in a certain region.

In addition to these major artifacts, there are a few special items that cannot be assigned to any of the classic exhibitions. There are also some event chains in Lepsius that correspond entirely to the spirit of the 19th century and are not strictly archaeological adventures, but definitely address the literature of the time. Since this mod maintains the basic idea of living the spirit of the Victorian era, don't be surprised if you find a few references to Jules Verne or Arthur Conan Doyle. Such "literary" events are also planned for the future of Dawn.

Let's move on to the excavations: a game element that was only very basic until now, and which gave your nation a few artifacts every year. As mentioned, you need excavations to find random Major Artifacts; however, that is not all. As you know, you can establish excavations from the research of early archeology at the end of an expedition. With research into modern archeology, an additional option is added.

You can then send your archaeologist to an already established excavation to investigate it and establish a new excavation site. The background is as follows: depending on the experience of your archaeologist, you will then find one or more clues to a hidden, previously unknown major archaeological discovery. These include archaeological sensations such as the tomb of Tutankhamun, the hanging gardens or the treasures of Mycenae. These unique discoveries give the explorer nation a high prestige bonus.

There are currently 6 major discoveries you can make this way. Another discovery is possible via an event chain. As already mentioned, such discoveries can also be associated with the possibility of acquiring a Major Artifact. But beware: should you dig in foreign countries, there is a high possibility that your smuggling will be exposed and you will provoke an international incident.

In addition, there are many small extensions that are only partially listed here; such as your Lead Scientist's office, where - if you have formed an Archaeological Society - you can host a congress to enhance your Archaeologist's experience. The total number of expeditions you have funded and the major discoveries you have made are now also there. There are also eight new random events for your expeditions and now a total of eight narrative event chains, as well as the option to dismantle the Ishtar Gate and reconstruct it in your museum. There is also a new achievement to coincide with the introduction of Discoveries.

This completes the basics of Lepsius. This is one of the reasons why the version will reach status 1.0 on Monday and, appropriately enough, bear the name "Lepsius". Peru still lacks a narrative event chain, a major discovery and suitable images (so far Peru has largely taken over Yucatán's illustrations). I would also like to see more interaction between the excavators and the dig lands in the future, as well as some events that have a social impact (cue: Egyptomania). However, these are things that I will probably add over time to round out Lepsius.

After the release of Lepsius I will focus on possible bugs for the time being. The next project will then revolve around the music world of the 19th century. Lepsius's successor will be named Elgar.

As already mentioned, I strongly advise starting a new game with version 1.0. Your save should still work with the update, but you won't be able to make use of discoveries and some major artifacts. Unpredictable bugs can also occur.

The update will be live later tomorrow once the Paradox patch has been released. :)

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Welcome not only to a new diary but also to a new project! I announced last time that we wanted to delve more into the music of the time, but some things cut my time considerably, which is why I wasn't able to tackle the "Elgar" project the way I originally wanted to. Don't worry: more on that another time.

Instead, I've been working on another project for the past week that was originally only supposed to get a few small events, but has now grown. "Le Verrier" is the second project for Morgenröte and it's all about astronomy! It's smaller than Lepsius but will also help to improve the atmosphere of the Victorian era.

In Victoria 2, there were two historical events depicting the discovery of the planets Neptune and Pluto. They were historical events, meaning the events for Prussia and the US triggered in a given year. “Le Verrier” will continue this idea – and make it more dynamic. The project is named after Urbaine Le Verrier, who predicted the position of the still unknown planet, which would later turn out to be Neptune.

First a few introductory words. At the beginning of the 19th century, the ideas about how our solar system is structured and which planets are part of it were still very different from today's. Several celestial bodies that we now consider asteroids were then considered full-fledged planets - the most famous being Ceres, an object first sighted in 1801 and considered the eighth planet until the mid-19th century.

After Ceres, more and more new "planets" were discovered, whose celestial orbits were drawn on an equal footing with those of the planets known since antiquity (as well as Uranus, which was discovered at the end of the 18th century). They also received astronomical symbols, like the ancient planets. In a sky map from the 1850s I could read that at that time there were sixteen (!) planets. The increasing number of discovered celestial bodies in the asteroid belt led to confusion and further problems.

The situation in 1836 is therefore quite different from ours. At that time, science considered eleven celestial bodies to be planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Vesta, Juno, Ceres, Pallas, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. You can get an overview of which celestial bodies are internationally regarded as planets in the observatory - which brings us to the topic!

Observatories are a new production method in universities. There are currently three tiers: no observatories, early modern observatories, and modern observatories. Early modern observatories are available to most nations from the start of the game. They are tied to the "classical physics" technology, which is supposed to represent the knowledge of early modernity from Galileo to Herschel. Its advancement is Modern Astronomy, which unlocks the Modern Observatory. This is intended to represent progress since the 1830s and 1840s.

Both technologies are located in the "Production" research tree. This may come as a surprise, but there are several reasons for this. Because, first of all, physics is the actual foundation of almost all inventions in this research tree. The atmospheric engine now also needs classical physics to be researched. I also need to build a "counterbalance" to the three new technologies in the Society tech tree that I added with Lepsius. The third new technology in the production tree is electromagnetism: it requires astronomy and leads to electricity. The additions follow a longer plan - Dawn will eventually add five more techs per tree (the military will be expanded with "Curtiss", this is mostly about air warfare).

If you have an observatory, you can choose to support it financially. For a small annual fee, the observatory will sight new astronomical objects every year. You can always check how many astronomical objects your researchers have discovered in the observatory. You have to find a certain number of astronomical objects to be the first to find Neptune or Pluto. There is a journal entry for that.

In addition to the passive search for astronomical objects, observing the sky also unlocks random events: small events considering comets, asteroids or nebulae will make the game more flavorful. In addition, there is a chance that one of your characters will become an astronomer. In addition, the observatory not only shows you the celestial bodies you have found, but also counts the total status of the celestial bodies discovered so far - a global total of the astronomical objects discovered so far as an indication of how far mankind has progressed in exploring the starry sky.

This is not just a statistic. Because when Neptune has been discovered, there is the possibility of triggering a conference via journal if a sufficient number of objects have been discovered. There will be three such conferences in "Le Verrier". The first, and perhaps the most important, deals with planetary status. It will declassify the previous “planets” Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Juno to asteroids and introduce the solar system that was valid until 1930, according to which there are only 8 planets. The nations that previously had a prestige modifier for discovering these celestial bodies will lose it (that's Bremen, Hanover, and Two Sicilies).

Of course, there is a small chance of changing the story slightly. It's entirely possible to make an exception for Ceres and keep this largest of the small celestial bodies as a planet (thus retaining its small prestige bonus). So if you ever wanted revenge for Pluto, Ceres can fulfill the long-held wish for the solar system to have nine planets (and, with the discovery of Pluto, even ten!).

That's it for today. Next time I will say more about astronomers, lunar photography, the "Great Debate" and Great Comets. The next diarium is scheduled to appear on Thursday, the update "Le Verrier" is planned for Friday. :)

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Welcome back to the Diarium for the upcoming update! As you've unfortunately noticed, something has come up in the last few days, including dealing with the latest Paradox Dev Diary...let's say I'm a bit confused.

What else awaits you in the field of astronomy? Last time I already presented a congress, namely the one on the classification of planets and asteroids. There are also two other congresses that you can organize by decision. The first congress is based on the historical Carte du Ciel: the astronomical nations are rated according to the number of their astronomical objects and there is the possibility to exchange star charts.

The third congress, like the first congress, involves a vote. It is based on the historical Great Debate. Here it is determined whether the universe consists only of the Milky Way or several galaxies; and whether the Sun is at the center of the Milky Way, or at its edge. As with the vote on Ceres, the respective result is displayed in your observatory and thus shows the international state of research (whether it may be right or wrong). If the final results agree with historical knowledge - the universe consists of several galaxies and the sun is in an outer zone - then there is a reward for each correct answer.

The last points lead me to two further topics. Contrary to what was claimed in the last Diarium, there will be no observatory as a production method in the university after all; instead, there is a separate building for it. Background is the AI. Not only does it have problems upgrading production methods in the base game. In this way I circumvent the problem that the AI does not upgrade properly and always lags behind the astronomical level.

Another point concerns the introduction of a new technology: Modern Physics. It is fundamental to the Great Debate. Modern physics has always had strong overlaps with astrophysics and has a strong influence on the view of the universe. Modern physics, on the other hand, is strongly influenced by observations of the universe. In Le Verrier you cannot research this special technology in the normal way.

Instead, Modern Physics is decoupled from the technology tree - and must be unlocked via a journal entry. The ability to acquire tech through journals has far-reaching implications and includes capabilities that I will show in full in the "Elgar" update. For the moment, you get this technology when you have researched the basic physical technologies and gained enough astronomical experience.

The personality of Albert Einstein is closely related to the concept of modern physics. There is a historical event for Switzerland from 1905 (annus mirabilis); but from 1910 Einstein will look elsewhere in the world and focus on liberal-democratic states in particular. Having emigrated there, there is a possibility that Einstein will discover the general theory of relativity. Should the country take on more authoritarian traits, there is a chance that Einstein will emigrate again.

In addition to Einstein, there are a few smaller historical events, such as the discovery of the Mars canals by Schiaparelli or Georges Lemaître's Big Bang theory. In addition, with the invention of the camera, there is the possibility of photographing the moon and creating an exact map of the earth's companion.

Finally, we come to one of my personal favorite concepts: Great Comets. The 19th century had a dozen of these good celestial bodies that commanded widespread public attention. Five of these Great Comets will appear historically. There is a chance that a nation, if it has an astronomer, will discover it first - and the comet will then bear the discoverer's name. If a comet appears and no nation has an astronomer, then the comet gets a year instead.

And finally: a look at the three achievements, which should be self-explanatory.

"Le Verrier" should be online within the next 10 hours. Unfortunately, in order to use the astronomy update, you have to start a new game.

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Salve and welcome to the last Diarium of this year!

With Lepsius and Verrier, Dawn now stands on two pillars. As announced some time ago, "Elgar" is the next project, which mainly covers the music culture of that time. I deliberately say “music culture” instead of just “music”. The idea that Morgenröte should have an emphasis on music came up in the conception phase before the release of Victoria 3.

There are some mods that add music from that period. However, Elgar will differ in some aspects from the usual music mods that you have known so far. There are some basic concepts I want to elaborate on here as to why this mod project is different.

Elgar doesn't just want to expand or replace the music selection. The first point is: you can decide for yourself whether you want to play with the music or not. There are therefore several options for the rules of the game. By default, the option is given to mix classical pieces and the original music; so you hear both Elgar and the soundtrack. However, you can choose to only play with the soundtrack or only with the historical pieces.

The next point concerns the selection. There are some projects that just add music. Elgar guarantees that the music development accompanies you. The music of the 1840's is very different from that played in the 1880's - or even the 1920's. A Chopin piece should not be played at the turn of the century, nor does Richard Strauss fit in at the beginning of the game. The player should experience the right atmosphere at the right time. Elgar also has a certain educational claim.

In order to implement this, Elgar divided the season into five musical epochs of twenty years each. This also ensures immersion: in this phase, only pieces will appear whose premiere is within the period. The player not only develops technologies or expands factories, the music in the background also changes depending on the era. To fully understand this, just playing with the Elgar music is good, but it's not a must.

There are currently 12 pieces of music per 20 years. For comparison, the entire Victoria 3 soundtrack has 20 tracks. In addition, the historical pieces are much longer. Only for the last epoch (1916-1936) there are currently only eight pieces of music. The selections are symphonic to fit more into the concept of the Victoria soundtrack.

In addition, the seven major western nations (Great Britain, France, Russia, Austria, Germany, Italy, USA) each have their own character piece. These only play when the historical premiere has taken place and are then not subject to any epochal boundaries.

Another serious difference: I pay very close attention to the origin of the tracks and value public domain under current EU law. I use websites like cc0.oer-musik.de, imslp.org and Wikimedia Commons as a guide to ensure that all content falls under the public domain or under a license which allows sharing the music. Incidentally, in many cases this does not necessarily mean that the recordings are of low quality. On the contrary, there are some high-quality recordings from the 1950s. All tracks were edited by me in the music.-file and recorded with their origin to ensure legality under EU law.

When choosing the music, it was important to me that the quality of the sound recording had priority so as not to stand in contrast to the original tracks. This also meant time and again that I had to cut corners when it came to personal wishes. My guiding principle was to depict as many different composers from different European countries as possible in each epoch, which unfortunately was not always possible due to the availability of good quality and the fundamental dominance of German-speaking music culture in the 19th century.

But the last and most important point is: the music does not stand alone. In Elgar you will be confronted with the very composers you hear. There will be traveling composers who travel from state to state as “cosmopolitans”. Other “national” composers remain deeply attached to their homeland. This means: if you hear a piece by Grieg, there is a high probability that there will also be an event or a journal entry for Norway in the same epoch. Historical personalities who traveled a lot - the most famous example is Liszt - will give a concert in one of your opera houses and maybe even settle down in one of your cities should you have the necessary requirements.

But more on the latter point in the next diary. For the time being there will only be pure music in the next update. The update will be published as a Christmas gift just in time for Christmas Eve.

Welcome to the first diarium of this new year and the second to Elgar.

As already mentioned in the previous diarium and the road map, Elgar should also confront the player with the music of that time in the game. What is more obvious than the insertion of an opera house? But stop! After all, music doesn't come out of nowhere.

Elgar will therefore add new goods and production chains as the first project of Morgenröte. The first new good is musical instruments. Musical instruments are made in a new production chain in the Tool Workshop. You can choose between handcrafted instruments, industrially built instruments and no instruments. Instruments can be built from the Classicism technology onwards, with Mechanical Tools industrial production is also possible. Musical instruments are tradable but not a pop need.

Instruments are needed in an opera house to create music. The ratio of instruments and music produced is related to the size of the orchestra. The production method distinguishes between a classical orchestra, a romantic orchestra, a Wagnerian orchestra and a late romantic orchestra. Unlike the observatory or the museum, the opera house is not a unique building, but can be built and expanded at will.

Music is a non-tradable good, but it's part of the Pop Needs, more specifically Art. I've made a few changes to it. Services as a good fall out of this category; either music or fine art is needed, whereby music can fill 80 percent of the need, fine art only 60 percent. The trend should be that more music than paintings is needed to satisfy the need. In the long term, there should be a third good (drama or literature) here at some point. Since the middle class also belonged to the concert visitors, POPs from level 22 onwards will ask for art.

Instruments, such as music, are among the more prestigious objects. On the one hand, this underlines the cultural value that music had and the prestige of the nation at the time (think of Austria, which initially dominated this sector culturally and was famous for it). At the same time, there is a counterweight to the prestigious fine art.

Since this is the first time I'm working with new production lines and production buildings, this still requires a number of tests and balancing. If you are interested, you are welcome to contact me for a beta version that only contains extensions to test more lengthy and effectively what effects these new goods have and how the AI deals with them and the needs.

Next time we'll take a closer look at the opera house - and why it's so important for composers and your musical culture.

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Welcome to a new Morgenröte Dev Diary! Unfortunately, the last two weeks have been somewhat problematic for me personally, which is why I haven't progressed as quickly on the project as I had hoped. Things are progressing, but a little more slowly than might otherwise be the case. So let's get back to what to expect in the next update to Elgar.

Elgar introduces a concept called Musical Tradition. Musical tradition is the total value of a nation's musical output. It would be nice if there were a similar rating for literature and painting, which would ultimately give a "culture score" that would play a role in a country's overall prestige, similar to GDP or the military. Musical tradition is at least an approximation of such an idea.

The player acquires musical tradition in different ways. There is continuously acquired musical tradition: this value increasess anually due to institutions, achievements or composers in the country. Researching cultural technologies (like Classicism, Romanticism, Irrationalism or Impressionism) is a very easy way to do this. A large, well-developed opera house also ensures that you acquire more musical tradition every year than with a small stage (or none at all). Additionally, there are institutions such as unique conservatories or monuments that give you a bonus. Your musical tradition will receive a particularly strong boost if you hire a great composer – until his contract expires.

In addition to this continuous musical tradition, there is also a spontaneously acquired musical tradition. This is fed primarily from events, but also from decisions and journal entries. Often they are related to a historical event or a composer; for example, when a very special piece has its world premiere, a traveling composer makes a stopover in your country, or a hired composer composes a masterpiece. In rare cases, you can also lose music tradition.

There are seven levels related to the musical tradition you have acquired. It's possible that your country doesn't always reach the maximum level (and some countries might not get past mid-tier). The more musical tradition your country accumulates, the more fixed prestige you will receive as a permanent value in the overall ranking. Musical tradition not only improves your prestige, but also a prerequisite for some decisions or a journal entry. There are even technologies that you can only research through musical Tradition.

I've definitely thought about whether there should be some kind of historical starting position at the beginning of the game: for example, France and Austria, as well as some German and Italian states, should have a higher starting tradition. I decided against it because I didn't show the historical museums with their artefacts in Lepsius either, but let all countries start with 0.

In addition, some countries are favored in the course of the game, which compensates for this difference in the course of the game. Some historical determinants are built in, so the states mentioned above will certainly have advantages that will be noticeable right from the start of the game; For example, there are a few selected, famous conservatories that only certain countries can own or build. But that doesn't mean that other countries don't have the opportunity to follow suit; but they will have it much more difficult.

One way to expand your musical tradition is to recruit traveling composers. I'll tell you more about that in the next diary.

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Welcome to a new diary dedicated to Elgar. Today it's about the great creators of musical culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries: composers!

There are two types of composers in Elgar: national composers and traveling composers. "National" composers add musical culture to a specific nation at a specific time - almost always through events. The premiere of a specific work is used as an opportunity to briefly introduce the composer and his vita. To unlock such an event, it usually requires not only a specific year, but also a technology and a location. For example, Claude Debussy will only perform his most famous work if you, as France, own Paris and have researched Impressionism.

In addition to this very simple way of representing composers, there is a second and far more exciting type: the traveling composer. The most well-known of these traveling composers, Franz Liszt, undertook so many journeys in the 1840s alone that it is almost impossible to describe them all - and caused a real "Lisztomania" in the cities of Europe. Hector Berlioz was also well known for spending as many years abroad as he did in France over the years of his career.

Traveling composers are triggered and activated by a specific event - usually with a performance and a bonus musical tradition for the respective country. There's even a country that begins with an employed composer: namely the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. However, Gaetano Donizetti will leave Napoli very early in the game. The player can try to keep Donizetti at his court, but there are disadvantages that are technically to be avoided. But I would like to at least leave it up to the player to keep Donizetti in his country for role-playing reasons.

After a composer is activated, he will sometimes go on at least one concert tour immediately, sometimes later. It depends on the composer how often he travels. Liszt (six tours) and Berlioz (five tours) travel a lot, while Donizetti, Wagner and Delius will only be available for one trip. Some composers will also show up in one place without touring, to give the nations that historically signed them a chance to do the same.

Concert tours have a geographical focus. For example, if a composer travels to Germany at the beginning of the game, this means that he visits all countries with German (northern German and southern German) culture. In the beginning, this actually means that you can observe how the composer travels through the various small states; after the unification of Germany this long tour comes to an end. At the same time, the composers will also follow the routes that they have taken historically.

The last four composers are an exception. Frederick Delius and Gustav Mahler will visit not only Europe but also North America. The last two composers, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Sergei Prokofiev, will even be available globally. They base their journey on major concert halls and researched technologies, not geography. This also gives countries outside the West the opportunity to sign at least one composer.

The arrival of a composer is announced with an event. A composer makes the length of his stay dependent on how big your opera house is. A larger opera house not only grants a higher bonus, but also additional events; 1 to 3 events can trigger in this way. If you have a sufficiently large opera house and the latest technologies, you also have the option of recruiting the composer. After his stay, the composer will leave you and choose the next stop on his journey. A modifier in the province makes it clear where a composer has been. He will only visit a place again after five years at the earliest.

There are various random events that can trigger upon a composer's arrival. A rehearsel can be bad; a premiere that was a flop in the composer's home country could get the applause in yours; and should there be social unrest in your country, an assassin could use a famous composer's performance to attack an unwanted member of the government. There are currently sixteen random events that give more or less musical tradition or other modifiers depending on the outcome. However, such a random event will not take place if you have decided upon arrival to hire the composer.

A recruited composer brings you a strong boost in the musical tradition - 10 points a year! There is also a chance that your composer will create a masterpiece during his engagement. Masterworks give a large bonus of 100 Musical Tradition, but whether any of the three different Masterwork events actually triggers is a quirk of chance. A composer's contract expires 10 years after recruitment; you can have it extended once, but at a higher cost. After that, the composer will definitely leave you.

The opera house offers an overview of the various active composers. There you will find a list of living composers and their patrons. In total you can encounter ten different composers in the game, but this is not certain. You will most likely encounter composers when playing countries in Germany and Italy, including France and Austria. The Benelux countries, Switzerland, Russia and Great Britain are also well-known destinations.

In total there are ten traveling composers in Victoria. These are:

Gateano Donizetti
Hector Berlioz
Franz Liszt
Richard Wagner
Edward Grieg
Johannes Brahms
Frederick Delius
Gustav Mahler
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Prokofiev

A final word: two famous representatives of this epoch are conspicuously absent from both the historical events and the traveling composers. These are Chopin and Mendelssohn. Although they are mentioned in passing - Mendelssohn, for example, in the decision to build the Leipzig Conservatory - they do not have their own event. This is by design: both are reserved in case there is an earlier start date (1815/1816) one day. Mendelssohn and Chopin would then be the first two traveling composers.

In the next Diarium I want to go into more detail about technologies, decisions and the question of what you can do with musical tradition. :)

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Hello and welcome to the penultimate diarium before the release of the next update.

In a previous post, I pointed out that musical culture goes hand in hand with a prestige rating. But music culture is also good for other purposes. You have already seen in Le Verrier that it is possible to assign special technologies via journal entries. So you could explore modern physics if you discovered enough astronomical objects.

Elgar will take this concept to a new level. There are three cultural technologies available that you can explore with musical tradition: Impressionism, Expressionism and Art Nouveau. To say it beforehand: I would prefer it if there were also literary tradition and painting tradition, which are considered prerequisites for this, because I see not only music in these cultural technologies, but the entire phenomenon of art. I only see my concept as a shell and would appreciate it if someone might one day build on it.

There are some peculiarities in the technologies. The first is that the technologies are mutually exclusive. Once your country has explored Impressionism, it can no longer choose Expressionism. The respective successor technology is also excluded for the rest of the game. This means that Impressionism is always followed by Neoclassicism, Expressionism by New Objectivity and Art Nouveau by Art Deco. Ultimately, however, all three cultural technologies lead to mass culture (which in turn leads to mass propaganda).

Another special feature: the technologies not only increase the prestige value, but also the annual value of the musical tradition. There are differences (Impressionism +3, Expressionism +2, Art Nouveau +1). Here, too, the following applies: Expressionism should be more of a literary technology, Art Nouveau more of a painting/architectural technology. I intend to add at least one more decision for Art Nouveau in the future.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the respective nation that researches one of the three technologies first gets a small boost. The capital of that nation becomes the center of that art movement and that modifier will remain until the end of the game. This gives you the feeling that you are not only a major industrial power and have a strong military, but you can also consciously claim to be a cultural nation. If all three cultural centers have emerged after 1890, they will extend their influence to neighboring countries that do not yet have any of the three cultural technologies. Elgar thus knows a counterpart to the Reformation in Europa Universalis. ;)

To keep a balance, there have been some changes in the tech tree. The chemistry has been added to the production technologies, which in turn leads to the camera and the film. In era one, the social technologies now also have classicism, which unlocks opera houses and leads to romanticism and antiquarianism. Organized sport only gives 5% prestige and has been moved to era 4. In the long term I would also like to take care of the Olympic Games here. With Curtiss, Elgar's successor project, the military technologies are also reformed in such a way that there is complete balance again.

The next diarium is all about fine-tuning: a few events, decisions, journal entries and achievements. Until then! :)

Welcome to Elgar's last pre-release diarium. Today a long month of hard modding work finally comes to an end. Finally, a few final innovations that affect events, decisions, and achievements in particular.

The musical world of the 19th century was decisively shaped by the German music of the time. In particular, Beethoven's long shadow shaped this epoch. It is therefore not unusual that there are some special events, especially for the German-speaking area.

Let's stay with Beethoven. In the first year, the German states (including France and Great Britain) will collect money for a Beethoven memorial in Bonn. The owner of Bonn - which will almost always be Prussia - can erect the Beethoven monument if he has researched Irrationalism and has enough musical culture. This is accompanied by the historic Beethoven Festival, which is already known from GMU. The owner of the Beethoven monument receives an annual music tradition bonus. Donors are invited to the Beethoven Festival and receive a one-time music tradition bonus.

As a counterpart, Austria can build a Mozart monument from a similar point of view, with the possible side effect that Frankfurt am Main will hold a benefit concert to which all German states will be invited; in addition, a German nation can found the General German Music Association. This is not only connected to a Tonkunstler meeting that takes place every five years, but also to a division into two groups of music schools, whose strife can degenerate into a "war of the romantics".

There are also a number of famous historical conservatories that either exist (Paris) or can still be built (Rome, Petersburg, Leipzig). Nations without one of the historical conservatories can establish a national conservatory of their own. However, the requirements are significantly higher, they are expensive to build, and unlike the historic conservatories, they do not give an annual musical tradition.

Conservatories have a small side effect: as they are built, there is a chance that characters with the Composer trait will appear. Building a ballet school (production method in opera that becomes available from Impressionism/Expressionism/Art Nouveau) increases the chance. Composers are not to be confused with the Great Composers. It's more about those responsible for the day-to-day musical business. You can appoint a composer as chief conductor of your opera house.

As a player, you can choose to recruit a composer three times in the game, each time after you have researched a specific technology and reached a specific level of musical tradition. I included this option primarily for immersion reasons. He is definitely too overpowered for the classic European states, which is why I blocked them for major powers. However, a player who wishes to build Brazil or Saxen-Weimar into a musical nation, for example, should definitely have a tool in hand to promote this idea. There are quite a number of players who prefer role-playing to maximum profit orientation.

As mentioned, you can appoint a composer as chief conductor. This is a backup. Should your composer be a politician, this ensures that he will not die or be replaced for at least 12 years after his appointment. You still know the concept from archaeologists, whom you can appoint as Lead Scientist. You can also give him an order in the Chief Conductor's office. He will then focus on the concert season (increases musical production in an opera house), a tour (increases prestige), or composing (increases musical tradition). Some of these activities are accompanied by random events.

Last thing: Achievements!

Wagnerism: Recruit Richard Wagner and found his festival.
A Night in the Opera: Own an Opera house which is at least at level 50.
A Thriving Culture: Reach the highest level of music culture and have 2.500 musical tradition.
Impressionante: Start as a Latin American country and make your capital the cradle of Impressionism.
Not just yodelling: As Switzerland, hire five Great Composers over the course of the game.

That would be it for Elgar today.

I am pleased to announce that Elgar is finally finished and after some beta testing, it will be available for download tomorrow, Sunday February 5th!

After a long project like Elgar, even a modder needs a break – and shorter projects. That was already the case after Lepsius. Le Verrier was not actually planned for Morgenröte as an astronomy expansion, but rather spontaneous fun that developed from the idea of incorporating the discovery of Neptune and Pluto into something of its own.

It is the same now. As already mentioned in the road map, the construction of the Cologne Cathedral from GMU should find its way back into Victoria 3. But just as Lepsius is not a mere imitation of Koldewey, the construction of the Cologne Cathedral is also significantly more extensive than before. But first things first.

I'm basically not a fan of monuments, especially not the way they were introduced in EUIV. Many modifiers are completely overpowered. Some are based on a simple pay-to-win concept. It is therefore welcome that you can convert monuments in Victoria 3 to pure prestige objects. I use it myself.

My approach is different. Certain buildings are deeply connected to a nation's spirit and identity. When I add a monument, it should first of all offer immersion and fit into the narrative of a nation. Cologne Cathedral, for example, was not just a church. It was a national building that embodied German Romanticism and the German Middle Ages on the one hand, and on the other hand referred to technology and modernity with its dimensions. At the same time, it could be considered a unity symbol. Its construction not only defined the city of Cologne for decades, but also represented the rise of Germany and the return to German identity as such (Gothic was considered a classic German style at the time).

The next point: a supposed monument is not a push of a button. It is not defined by its bonuses. It is also defined to some extent by the hardship, misery and suffering associated with its construction. It is ultimately an act of creation that requires constant struggle. That means: a special building in Morgenröte should also give the feeling of having fought for it.

Using the Cologne Cathedral as an example, there are four decisions and four journal entries. Each decision triggers one of these journal entries. Each of these is a construction phase that lasts ten years. This means that the construction of the cathedral will take the respective German state (in 99 percent of the cases: Prussia) almost half the game. And events are associated with every construction phase: construction delays such as storms, bad materials or political disputes over costs. New inventions or donations, on the other hand, can speed up construction. There will also be some overlap with events from Elgar. At some points you will legitimately question whether all the effort is worth it; but unlike monuments from some Paradox games, it's not about "boosts" here, but about the narrative.

With the cathedral, I was also concerned with the fact that Prussia, as a Great Power, has a counterpart to the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben. Russia has St. Basil's Cathedral and the USA has the Statue of Liberty. In this sense, Italy (the Vatican is useless for the nation state) and Austria still lack corresponding counterparts; lanned are the Mole Antonelliana and the Vienna Ringstrasse.

I would like to emphasize once again that the main emphasis is on construction and realization and related events; this is the important difference to other possible monument mods. And it shouldn't be just any old thing, but something that duly represents this game period. This also includes, for example, the Gotthard tunnel or the Gotthard railway in Switzerland, which is definitely on a par with the Eiffel Tower in terms of engineering and was considered by some to be at least as demanding as the construction of the Suez Canal.

It's also the only object that brings more than prestige; with the Gotthard railway, the penalties that the alpine country brings with it should be somewhat weakened. That was already the case in Victoria 2. The construction of the Gotthard railway is also one of the most difficult construction projects. In addition to the construction progress, there is also an opposing value: worker dissatisfaction. The construction of the tunnel was notorious at the time for the poor conditions workers faced. Quite apart from the high financial requirements for a comparatively small country, it must also be ensured that no strike breaks out - and that this leads to unpleasant scenes or further delays.

The following objects are planned for this module, although not all of them may be included at the time of release:

- The Cologne Cathedral in the northern Rhineland
- The Gotthard Railway in Eastern Switzerland
- The statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro
- The Mole Antonelliana in Turin
- The Ringstrasse in Vienna

In addition, there is another project, the largest in this project. It's one that you probably won't see completed and will only be available from the invention of Art Nouveau. This unique building is also the reason for the name of this module. ;)

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