CWE Mod Version 1.06 news

Good day, the CWE team is pleased to announce the release of v1.06. This marks a significant milestone in the development of the mod and lays a good foundation for it to be expanded further. In 1.06, our goal was to deepen the late-early and middle game experience. To that end, we have added features that build upon the concept of globalisation in addition to cleaning up the code to make the late game much more stable. In addition, we have strengthened and widened the ability for the AI to challenge and surprise the player with the addition of more dynamic event chains and systems to better simulate the modern world. Without further ado, here is a rough overview of what CWE has to offer in better detail.

At the heart of this update is fleshing out the conflict between non-state and state actors in the many forms that it takes, be it as terrorism, corporate corruption, or lone wolf hackers. This update will give strength to these groups by allowing them to directly impact the national economic and political scene. Corporations can dictate monopolistic terms to corrupt governments bound by their shackles of illicit bribes and instigate the rise and fall of oil production, regardless of the human costs of doing so. In the war on terror, terrorists can now steal nuclear warheads to blackmail nations and conduct atrocious acts of general barbarism in your nation, with varying impacts, from mobilising the rise of the far right to causing economic chaos, while theocratic sponsors of terror seek to radicalise minorities of their religion living abroad. Even the digital scene is no longer safe, with lone wolf hackers disrupting critical infrastructure with nefarious randsomware that will make you wannacry. However, this is probably the least to worry about, as governments can also engage in digital warfare, with superpowers gaining the ability to use their cyber wizardry to influence your elections. In the cities, the metropolitan elite can also use their cultural and monetary might to sway elections in their favour, resulting in a greater vote weightage for city dwellers.

The realm of interstate relations have also been further fleshed out with the addition of new systems. The first is the neutrality system, that allows nations to voluntarily renounce their right to war war in exchange for neutral country status. This status grants international protection in times of invasion and infamy reduction in times of disarmament. City states choose to become tax havens with a risk of becoming a den of money laundering while financial powerhouses can choose to acquire special drawing rights from the IMF to boost their credit generation. In the Cold War era, superpower joint projects have also been added to simulate the second detente and the gradual normalisation of relations between the east and west. Losing wars has also become more dangerous with the possibility of the UNSC approving a war crimes trial to punitively punish the loser state. In times of peace, the USSR can also try to create a Manchurian candidate to destroy the USA from within through a civil war. Dynamic United Nations secretaries-general can also thwart aggressors with varying levels of sanctions depending on the nature of the ruling UNSG of the time. Some late game rivalries have also been added with the addition of the arctic trade route and the global internet authority. These provide the opportunity for powerful nations to compete for global hegemony beyond the Cold War era.

In the military sphere, aerial bombardment, war damage mechanics, and commerce raiding have been added in addition to a rebalance of military units. Aerial bombardment allows nations to passively destroy their enemies' cities from afar while war damage punishes any current or previously occupied territories to 5 years of negative modifiers. Commerce raiding makes import costs higher and civilian morale lower at the cost of acquiring infamy. A military doctrine system has also been added to allow for greater customisation of a nation's military with three options to choose from: offensive, balanced, defensive. All of this will make warfare much more realistic and challenging with more to play for and more to lose.

The intrastate aspect of the mod also received a boost, with new features allowing governments to better fine-tune their economy and political scene. Dynamic secularisation and de-secularisation creates an organic rising and falling of religion throughout the game in response to global factors, and the corresponding pressure on ethnoreligious and minority groups that comes with it. Tension levels now directly impact the ideology of the world's populace too with more tension being a catalyst for the rise of the far right who will want to resort to more extreme measures to keep the peace. Financial crashes are now big events and timing a good quantitative easing in its aftermath is vital to preserve the prosperity of the nation. In nations with huge reserves, a sovereign wealth fund can be utilised to make the stored money more productive for the nation. Other pursuits for the government involve building supercomputers and regulating the banking sector. For dictatorships, more flavour has also been added with the ability to eliminate the opposition, and the factionalism mechanic, which occurs when the dictator dies, creating a dangerous situation that can lead to the downfall of the dictatorship. For communist nations, there is now an updated way to become a socialist democracy which is via the communist plebiscite mechanic: the blocs are overall more fluid, with the rise of revisionist "Market Communism" giving the global capitalist order a chance to destroy the eastern bloc from within - or giving the USSR a chance to commit to extreme detente and reform. Beware bad hombres, extreme vetting is now a reality in the mod, allowing players to reduce immigration into their country. The last major addition to this area is the dynamic leader selection feature which randomly changes the leader attributes of a government depending on the ideological bent of the government.

Amongst all of this, there have been many other things that were added. Some of them include improving the Korean and Arab war chains and the implementation of more accurate UN mandates. Decolonisation in Africa and abroad now also involves more than just granting independence: a nation so inclined may encourage minority rule in certain areas, or rely on a divide-and-rule strategy to the dismay of the newly-formed United Nations - either way, African nations will have to find their own approach to deal with ethnic tensions within their borders and endure nationalism from minority groups. The event chains for many nations have been completely rewritten, with a focus on fun and the possibility of historical divergence. The UI has been improved with a focus on usability, flavor has been added in countless minor events, flags, newspapers, and localisation, and, above all, care has been given to ensure that every playthrough differs from the rest.

It is here where I would like to extend my immense appreciation to ARR8, without whose invaluable contributions 1.06 would not have been possible. Thank you, ARR8!

We would also like to thank the community for their continued support for CWE and their numerous bug reports and suggestions, many of which we ultimately implemented into the mod. A brief reminder: we are a fully open-source project, and we welcome contributions of any kind! In particular, we are always looking for country-specific flavor enhancements: political parties, newspaper (news site) images, population demographics, and similar improvements which may not be readily available online but which people can contribute for their own communities.

In conclusion, 1.06 was a small step in version number, but a huge leap in pushing the limits of what the Victoria engine can do. So, for 1.07, we aim to focus on fleshing out the end-game of the mod by deepening the climate change mechanics and introduce more future content like the rise of automation. Other minor features that can be added would be fleshing out the techschool and export/import focus mechanics and making ideological alignment more dynamic.

We hope you enjoy version 1.06 of the mod and thank you for following the development of the Cold War Enhancement mod.

Some suggestions on minor starting nations which may have more interesting flavor in this version:

• Ethiopia
• IS
• Israel
• Netherlands
• Southern Rhodesia

Github link:

While the Moddb file will give you big changes between versions, you may still feel that you wish to follow the mod more closely so I have made a Github Repository with the mod where you can download the most up to date Dev version of the mod. However as it may be updated frequently, you may have to download the lastest Github version multiple times for small commits like bug fixes etc so I still recommend that you wait for Moddb version releases.