Remove all previous Black ICE folders/ files - this is best done by navigating to TFH/mods and deleting the entire Black ICE folder. Also remove the Black ICE launcher from the main HOI3 directory. Old BICE files will cause conflict issues.
Make sure you are able to download POdcat's TFH exe from the paradox tech support forum ( you will need to register TFH expansion on their forum). The mod won't run without the altered exe.
Place the installer in the main HOI3 directory and run. It should install a Black ICE folder in TFH/mods.
You might also need the 7.03 map cache if you are having issues with building the quads when you start the mod first time.
The map cache needs to be unzipped in the user/ documents part of the game files.
Look for paradox/hoi3/blackice/gfx/maps and unzip the cache there.
Reccommended 1920 x 1080 or more screen resolution. XP computer systems not supported. Check out the Black ICE sub forum on the paradox HOI3 forum for lots of great BICE sub mods !
New features and changes.
~ New Weather effects. Different times of the year in different regions will see added weather effects in place. This can be Mud effects, snow effects or monsoon floods. Each level of these effects add an added defensive bonus to that province.
Attacking in heavy mud or deep snow is very difficult. Its not a good idea to conduct an amphibious invasion during the Monsoon either.
At the same time its much easier to consolidate and hold ground during winter. Of course normal game mechanics still apply so supply can be an added issue.
~ Unique Counters for Capital ships. All the starting OOB capital ships + some event granted capital ships now have unique counters. The Bismarck and HMS Hood now have their own fleet counters and their stats can be customised to a extent. There is also individual ship loss events for each ship. When the USS Yorktown is lost there will be a short period where the USN suffers an org loss. Sink enough enemy capital ships and the enemy fleet can be badly disorganised. At the same time these ships have better strength and can absorb more damage so a harder to sink. Get to know your capital ships individually and base fleets around
~ The Germans also have unique counters for the more famous u boat flotillas.
~ More unique counters added for all six US Marine divisions, 32nd US infantry division, German SA militia, more Panzer units , 1st Gebirgsjaeger division, and Japanese Kwantung Army infantry.
~ New event chains for the London Naval Treaty, Operation Pastorious, Felderrnhalle Division, Anti Comintern Pact, Chinese Collaborators for Japan and more.
~ Added options to difficult settings for no extra combat decision/ event modifers, and no scripted invasions. You can now choose to have virtually no added modifiers affecting the player or AI. Disclaimer...very little playtesting has been done in terms of game balance here.
~ armor and infantry techs reworked. Units upgrade from a single tech which requires 4 main techs to be researched. It makes tech rushing more difficult and event OOBs more useful.
~ New Black ICE launcher thanks to Hadadad - solves the save game compression error problems.
~ extensive rework of land units stats balance. Including a reduction in late war build times.
~ Jet aircraft and CAGs rebalanced to be more effective.
~ Atomic bombs are now more viable for late war construction.
~ German leader pack added thanks to TheDWorm
~ Gross Deutschland and unique U-boat emblem counters thanks to Sam
~ New generic counters added thanks to HarleQuin
~ economic rework. Less overall IC, oil, rares are more expensive and supplies cheaper to trade.
~ Cost of naval ships increased substantially. Building capital ships is now much more costlier.
7.03 changelog bug fixesFix for allied map font/ colour
fix to Guards strength decrease tech requirements
Unique Uboat can now be split up from their fleet
fixed impassable terrian penalty in rhineland provinces
incoreect units in Fin and Australian OOB,
2nd Naval treaty not clearing correctly fixd
airbase missing in German province Gera
Spanish veterans returning mistake fixed
marines, amph armor, pack artillery weights lowered
reduced speed of all mobile/ armor units
increased terrian bonus from recon units
Added custom counters, model images, etc for U.S. 28th ID (starting OOB)
Added unique counters, model images for U.S. 27th Infantry Division (starting OOB)
SA militia have panzerfaust tech
Better color in the counters for US 26th ID
missing german 20. ID/ Mot ID model GFX added
Added custom counters for U.S. 26th Infantry Division (in the starting OOB)
Added damage to port and airfield during attack on Pearl Harbor
Added custom counters for the U.S. 24th Infantry Division ("Hawaiian Division" - in the starting '36 OOB), as well as Wilson, the historical leader during that period.
Missing unit counter for USA 32nd ID
Removed the word "begins" from the manhatten project event is not a one-time event. Was a little confusing.
Made CAGs faster to build, but more expensive, and with more surface defense
6. U-Flotilla GFX fix
Gniesenau launch event pic typo fixed
Deutschland PBB GFX and USS California GFX fixed
blurred some swastikas in an event pic
SS TD unit model level reduced in OOBs
Increased time between USO events for the USA
Ger,Jap, Ita, Sov removed from 2nd london treaty decision
rares penatly removed from normal BICE setting
lowered unque ship costs/ increased build times
armored trains changed to a HQ unit
jap and hungarian armored trains
xpeditionary Polish/ UK OOB
New loading screen
added infantry_tank_brigade to desert training techs
Removed fourth US theater command in 1936 OOB that was in there, but never worked because of hardcoded constraints.
Renamed the usa_americal_division to usa_twentythird_id, to make it more consistent with all of the other custom U.S. counters/units.
Major cleanup of USA 1936 starting OOB. Some highlights: All divisions now have reasonably histprical/accurate OOBs and subordinate unit names. Removed the is_reserve from divisions that were not actually NG or Reserve status. Commented out the 82nd, 101st, and 32nd Inf. Divisions as those are converted and load via event OOBs now.
Added U.S. 34th Infantry Division ('Red Bull') counters, model images, etc. (starting OOB)
U.S. 33rd Infantry Division counters/models/leader
Added custom counters/model images/etc for U.S. 30th and 31st Infantry Divisions (in starting OOB). Also adjusted some of the unit descriptions to be more historically accurate (using this table: History.army.mil).
Removed three duplicate leaders that were already in GER.txt
New loading screen for JAP
Added complete historical list of Japanese destroyers
Added complete historical list of ENG's destroyers and frigates/destroyer escorts.
Added complete historical list of U.S. Frigates and Destroyer Escorts
Added historical list of U.S. Destroyers (DD) and PT Boats to unit name list.
Added USA 1st, 2nd, 3rd armor units to Wet Ammo Stowage tech
Removed some additional unit names from the USA default division name list, as they are unique units now.
Added U.S. 40th, 41st, and 42nd Infantry Division counters/models/etc (in starting OOB, except for 42nd, which activates via OOB on the historical 1943 date)
Added U.S. 37th and 38th Infantry Divisions (counters, models, etc) (in starting OOB)
minor corrections to help with the sprite sub mod
Added U.S. 36th Infantry Division (counters, models, etc)
Added U.S. 35th Infantry Division counters, models, etc.
Cleanup of USA division names to account for the ones that are now custom counters, etc. Don't want new divisions to have those same names ![]( "Smilie")
Also commented out the division names for the inflatable decoy brigades
fixed semi n motorised LUA builds
Fixes to USMC OOB divisions - made them slightly less potent by removing a brigade from each (so 5 brigades now rather than 6)
reduce chinese manpower amounts at province level
SS buildable with ahistorical choice
tweaks to the USA starting economy/ manpower levels
Added U.S. 83rd Infantry Division counters/models/etc.
Added U.S. 81st Infantry Division counters/models/etc.
Added U.S. 80th Infantry Division counters/models/etc
Added U.S. 79th Infantry Division counters/models/etc
Added U.S. 78th Infantry Division counters/models/etc
Added U.S. 97th Infantry Division counters/models/etc
Added U.S. 77th Infantry Division counters/models/etc
Added U.S. 96th Infantry Division counters/models/etc
Added U.S. 94th and 95th Infantry Divisions (counters/models/etc)
increased XP gain for air/naval units to help those leaders earn traits faster.
Made historical U.S. infantry and armor divisions upgradeable (though you'll lose the custom counter if you upgrade them).
Added U.S. 76th Infantry Division counters/models/etc.
Added U.S. 43rd, 44th, and 45th Infantry Division counters/models. Also added a missing portrait for a leader.
naval supremacy localisation fix
Added missing portrait for Admiral Radford (USA)
duetschland PBB fix
Also commented out the division names for the inflatable decoy brigades
Great！Thx a lot！！！
Been waiting for this for a while. Thanks for the new release! :)
Exciting! What a Great News! Thank a lot!
7.03 Map cache Mediafire.com
:OOOOOO
MY LEGACY!!!11!
Thanks BlackIceTeam.
is there changes to the postwar borders?
No time to work on this as yet.
congratulation!
waiting for a long time@-@
Yay!
Please make a low-resolution version
The guy who does the GUI is no longer working on low res versions. Which means someone new would need to create it. Not even sure if its possible anymore due to the way the tech screens are set up.
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First of all thank you very much PANZEROO and friends for this awesome job! You have changed poor HOI3 into a great game.
But there are also some cons (sorry for language - I'm from Poland). I've played several hours with 7.00 version of BICE, previously knew only version 3.1. The newest game is unfortunately step back... Sorry to say it, but some changes gone worse. My two general objections are: divisions without people and only with addons (all those artillery and so one) and consumption of manpower. For example about 1938 year Germany and Russia consumed all(!) manpower I've added them using cheats (wanted to make game harder) - some about 3000. Both countries have literally dozens of planes and weak divisions, which soon will be at 0 manpower. Big problem is also performance of the game, even with proper podcast and on good computer. Must say that version 3.1 gave me more fun than this one.
Anyway - great respect and thanks for you're time! Hope didn't offend you, as I like very much you're kind performance on this forum!
If you give those countries more MP then they will build more and won't be able to sustain the divisions when they start to take combat losses. the game isn't balanced for cheats so its not really an issue. With so many extra units your performance problems are also obvious. Not much we can do if you decide to change the mod in this way as its not designed to work like that.
a better way of increasing difficulty is to increase the IC efficiency levels for the AI ( and perhaps research efficiency) in static modifiers.txt. This will allow units to be produced faster and cheaper as well as techs researched faster. the units produced will still be controlled by the LUA and the normal manpower levels so it won't tend to get ahead of itself so much and then suffer manpower problems when losses mount. There is a fine degree of game balance to achieve in terms of manpower amounts, numbers of units produced, and combat losses.
Well - didn't know that - maybe this change spoiled the game. Thanks for info - I'll try normally with version 7.03.
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For some reason all the flags are incorrect for me? For example Great Britain has USSR's flag?
you might need to reinstall. Did you remove any old BICE files ? Otherwise go to user/documents and find paradox/hoi3/blackice/gfx/flags and delete the contents.
Mod has HUGE optimization issues. I turn off all side applications, game runs almost my entire physical memory, any alt+tab or switch to screensaver makes game crash. Fix this **** please. I shouldn't need a supercomputer to run a game from 2009.
you need podcat's TFH exe.
Hi - game really perform better when there is less units on map. Think that newest version goes slightly better. Sometimes crashes during making save, but generally is stable. Fine new ideas - great idea would be get possibility to mine waters, like those around Italy :-) Other idea would be changing templates for computer divisions - too small manpower, too many addons.
I have such situation - as a Great Britain player got 10 000 manpower - is this normal?
Once more - about mixed flags or inactive techs - you have to remove older version like PANZEROO says. I had the same problems and now mod works fine.
we had the sea mines in older version, but they added a lot of performance issues and so they are scrapped.
10,000 MP for the UK is not normal, though it could depend on your difficulty settings and what you are building/disbanding.
I like the "preview image" for the new version..........!!!
I have another issue - in 1941 year Germany has discovered max techs from most possibly branches. No wonder they are able to make easy attacks on British Isles just with garrisons and are beating my panzer divisions just with touching them :-). Slightly overstrenght of Germany is ok, but not like that. This is an old problem of HOI3 - thought it will be resolved in mod. When played in HOI3 always had the same situation: in 1939 enemies where able to attack me with several (!) atomic bombs (usually just one level of reactor was enough for making 20 bombs...). They also had in 1939 discovered all possibly researches. Sorry but mod isn't playable if repeats this bug.
that's basically impossible unless you are using changed research efficiency for Germany, and doing this playing on the hardest settings. The mod is balanced very differently to that for normal gameplay. For a start the AI isn't likely to research too far ahead of time anymore and doing so will incur a larger research penalty then vanilla which makes this very ineffiecent. Also up to 1941 german leadership wouldn't be high enough to cover all branches of techs and maintain officer ratio and diplomacy. The AI won't put all its leadership into research in any situation. So basically what you are reporting is either a result of cheat codes or altering research efficency to far in the files.
It was like that: until 1939 research of Germany and my (Great Britain) were comparably, with emphasis - they land army, my - navy and air force. But with starting the war they got dramatic boost and during 1,5 half a year were able to discover all (!) infantry, tank and doctrine branches to max level. Must admit that used cheats for me ("instant research" sometimes) - was that affected on computer? It would be strange, because didn't affected on France and Belgium - they armies also were fought by German garrisons - best army of ever :-)
In version 3.1 there wasn't such situation, so thought BICE resolved problem.
instantresearch will research all the techs in the queue everyday which is covered by leadership values. So basically running it for a week will result in countries like Germany gaining every tech. Minors and weaker majors such as france who may not have as much leadership for research will not gain all their techs as quickly. This isn't a mod issue or even a game issue, its a direct result of using instant research. Bottom line, if you use cheat codes you will break the mod. Its not balanced to take that sort of thing into account.
Hey. Great mod! I have a question though. I've started a new campaign with USA, selected normal dificulty and everything went fine until March 1936. Then all of a sudden all of the resources skydived to like -400 for energy and -100 for rare materials and so on. By the October I was all out of resources and entire economy halted to a stand still?! I've started a new game and same thing happend. Is this supposed to be that way?
no. Difficult to know what happened without knowing what you were doing at the time. What strategic effects had fired ? what choices did you make in events during this time ?
I usualy go for "Science", "Send in goon squads", I'm building olny two carriers and two CAGs. BIS 2000. Leadership goes almost everything into research. I've picked two ministers with +5% resources.
Energy production is 135, energy usage is 537.
At the 01/01/1936 is at more than 900 production! Where did it go?
I've found out what was going on. The combination of "Full civilian Economy" and "Send in security forces" reduces resources output to 1%.
Full civilian economy: -50%
National revolt risk: -49%
If I select "give'em cake" the national revolt risk gives only -9% on resources.
ah yes your revolt risk is a little crazy there.
Firstly, the BI mod team deserves a lot of credit and my thanks for improving an otherwise moribund product. I really enjoy the game but feel Paradox has lost its way in supporting the dedicated user base. BI's mods have injected new life into the product.
I am currently playing the BI v6 version and will upgrade to the v7. Before I do, can I carry on playing where I left off a saved v6 game using the new v7?
Thank you ! The V.6 mod won't work with V.7. However a restart will be 100% worth it due to all the changes.
Hi, after playing some time (without cheats), have some notices. Game performs perfectly: fast, stable - everything is OK. Ideas are good, computer do his researches as it should be, however, Germans are overpowered - no on can fight them. They still can beat several Russian divisions with only one unit, as well as me - even if we have the same techs, don't loose organisation during the battle - simply superpower. No chance that Russia defend herself - I think Germans are seriously unbalanced.
depends on the campaign timeframe. Different nations will receive different modifiers at different points in their campaigns. For example Germany gains a bonus during the blitzkrieg period vs Poland > France > Balkans campaigns. The soviets get a big penalty during the first 6 months of Barbarossa and regain some bonus during the first winter. AI tends to receive more bonuses then the player due to the handicap the AI is under. It does depend on your national difficulty settings. However the German AI very rarely wins in Black ICE so is not at all overpowered.
Will you ever add P.O.W Camps that the Player or AI can fight for to get some of his units back, that they lose in combat?
POW camps and anything related to POWs are banned by paradox on their forum where the mod is hosted. The mod would also get banned if we added those things.
I am playing as japan and I have received a number of nonsensical events.
One was about my HQ being destroyed which greatly impacts my organisation and after checking, I haven't lost a single hq.
Another kind of events I receive are about losing capital ships that lower naval organisation, but these are all false as I never owned any of the capital ships named in the event and I haven't actually lost a single ship either.
Other than that I'm enjoying the mod.
those events will trigger if the unit in question - the special HQ or political leader, and the ship - are not on the map anymore. Either the name was changed, the unit was removed at some point, or it was destroyed. Basically the trigger checks if the unit name no longer exists. A common mistake is when people play a custom game start and remove the unit without realising. This will trigger the loss event when the game starts. It can also happen if the unit is renamed for whatever reason.
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Hi, may I ask you is however I download this and that, it always can not start, so can you teach me how to do it???
Hi Panzeroo - this time I ask for some help/advice. Have such a problem: playing as a GB cant repair my planes. T tried almost everything: allocated them in better bases, in capital, allocated much more resources, than needed, developed researches, that should improve repair ratio, prioritized them and so on. And thats all for nothing - have severall planes at zero manpower - they litteraly dont repair at all. Meantime German can repair their planes quickly, so I cant fight with them :-) What Im doing wrong?
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