Universal Project Mod is a mod for Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness. It expands the game and updates several features to create a more direct progression path. This includes being able to colonize America and Africa. This mod starts V2 in 1492.

The timeline and progression in this mod were heavily inspired by Europa Universalis 4. The developers were trying to recreate the EU4 experience in V2. The mod adds new time periods in the same way that The New Era mod does.

More direct progression

For people who enjoy games like Europa Universalis 4, Civilization and maybe even Empire Earth, game progression in the Universal Project Mod will feel very familiar. Each century unlocks a new line of technology, which may benefit those who don't like to tech-race their way to victory.

Expanding colonization

This mod allows you to colonize America, and then later in the game, you can colonize Africa too. The mod does this by expanding past the limits and time zones of the original. For some people, this will extend play and add further load to their devices, but it shouldn't be a problem for modern desktop devices.

A crispier facelift

Players of older games may recognize the sort of textures and widgets/buttons used to have in older games. This mod sharpens up many of the buttons, smaller texts and small toggle functions, so they look more like modern games. This mild update helps modernize the game for today’s audience.

Game changes that don't suit everybody

Part of the nuance of playing Victoria II is manipulating progression in a very tactical way. This mod simplifies that progression. It is more ordered and predictable but also less easily able to use tactically. The entire map was restructured to contain 250 new locations (independent countries and countries within nations).