Black ICE 12
Major Changes
Terrain rework:
Too many terrain changes to actually list. Terrain should be now more accurate although there might be some inaccuracies or simplifications for the sake of the gameplay.
Added new terrain types:
swamp
highlands
hills woods/forest/jungle/desert/arctic
mountain woods/forest/jungle/desert/arctic
Tweaked terrain modifiers for all units, technologies and leader traits
Experience and Training system rework
Went back to the old system with a few tweaks aiming at properly simulating decline in troops quality as the war progresses. In order to achieve that we:
removed branch specific training laws
tweaked repair rate of units for each training law
brought back “Starting Experience” as measurement of training and unit quality
tweaked experience gain from combat
tweaked Repair Rate bonuses from event, strategic modifiers and ministers
Training laws do not give direct bonuses - they trigger strategic effects over time
added option to get starting xp instead of vet HQ/elite HQ/BC/aces for events spawning them
IC efficiency nerf to attempt preventing unit numbers going out of hand in late war
Added “tech decay” similar to the one affecting unit stats meaning that IC efficiency won’t snowball later in the war
tweaked bonuses from techs and certain event/strategic effects
reduced base IC efficiency
tweaked cost of buildings
New GUI
Reworked every tab (diplo, production etc.)
Updated textures for backgrounds and buttons
Moved things around to be more accessible and easier to read
Reworked province screen
Updated textures for almost every piece of it
Everything is aligned properly now and clearer, bigger fonts
New textures for unit tabs and leader selection
General
many Ostfront tweaks to go well with new IC/training systems. Important note here. Make a save on June 22nd. Play it, let me know if it was too easy or too hard so I can adjust the values. Those changes will be save compatible, are easy to implement and once done you can simply restart from that save.
SOV leaders rework:
New pictures for… thousands of them
Added new traits:
Russian Liberation Army
Red Fleret and COastal Army
Soviet Air Forces and Air Defence
Added event with NKVD leaders purge
reverted event spawned ships to be built in queue like any other unit
tweaked the triggers for the second vienna award so it fires on a historical date
also tweaked Romanian joining axis event so player can decline it
Moscow and Leningrad will remain lvl10 forts in AI vs AI scenario
Winter Offensive won’t happen with Barbarossa modifiers still being in place
reworked Bank for International Settlements events. They're the same for minors and majors now and give the option to pick investment into one of three areas: IC, LS and money.
tweaks to minister types:
insignificant buff to insignificant layman
nerfed smiling oilman
money buff for old general
money laissez faires capitalist
removed money penalty from theoretical scientist
research specialist money penalty replaced with LS penalty
technical specialist now gives higher LS bonus but also research eff penalty
reduced money penalties on science specialised ministers and increased benefits from events
military entrepreneur now gives small Unit Repair bonus
school of psychology starting xp bonus is back
school of mass combat now comes with small starting xp penalty
added tiers to tank/air/naval producer effects based on IC and availability of resources
increased money cost of education laws
Added some IC to SOV
removed effects killing JAP in AI vs AI scenario
tweaked SOV purges
increased weather buildings effects
SOV now gets temporary fort attack bonuses to allow successful winter offensives
removed Churchill as science minister
reduced threat from combat (caused some weird things in test games)
added TP penalty for ITA after Operation Husky
Communism now has lower CG demand
Heavy Industry CG penalty reduced
tweaks to difficulty settings
Removed no modifiers difficulty option
split starting PER convoy raiders
added UK bribes for Spain neutrality decisions
removed "industry prepares for war" decisions
police buildings are now much cheaper
puppet master now also gives LS bonus
removed Blitz effects - it was stupid and player could do nothing to stop it
practically removed naval limits for sea leaders
SOV leaders now have xp gain bonus instead of penalty
removed Training Grounds
ITA now starts with Strike Commando tech (Frogmen)
ROM starting navy is now historical
7 new ministers for JAP, historical ultranationalists with natsoc type, played varying roles irl both in politics and behind it
added ITA convoy raiders Adriatico and Barletta to starting OOB
added Ramb ships events for ITA (convoy raiders)
added ITA-SOV trade agreement effect
Italian military academy at Modena event will now spawn a training base but less IC
Italian historical arm divs (131a, 132a, 133a) will now have mot engineers and regular art as standard, AI versions will have arm brigades as standard but player will have to upgrade manually from larm. 133a Littorio will also have med art as standard for AI
XVII Corpo now spawns with arm att instead of larm att
removed Operation Zet LS penalty
ROM now can leave Axis after Vienna Diktat
Added event for ROM to ask to join Axis
Removed Japan Death effect
Added new ship names for POL, CHI, BRA as part of our Patreon/contributor rewards (thanks to tigeriii, MarinePhil1 and BlackBaron)
Units and combat Balance
Artillery is now split into 3 separate CA groups:
Light Artillery - Artillery, Rocket Artillery and Pack Art
Heavy Artillery - Medium and Heavy Artillery
Mobile Artillery - SP Artillery and Rocket Artillery
Hiryu construction added as a decision (removed from starting production queue)
rebalanced AA values for ships to make them more in line with historical use of ships
nerfed Mot/mech infantry combat stats
mot inf is now faster than mech inf
Kampfgruppe are now separate CA group and serve as an HQ
Kampfgruppe are now permanent
buffed armor brigade
buffed armor battalion
nerfed assault guns
tweaked speeds of trucks and halftracks
added ic/days penalties to some events that were missed
historical SS divs will spawn around historical dates
ski brigade is SF CA group now
nerfed CVs speed
HARM defensiveness buffed
halftracks now give toughness/defensiveness
armored battalions (LARM, ARM) are now Direct CA group
amphibious armor is now Armor CA group
infantry tank is now Armor CA group
armored engineers are a bit faster
Unique SS brigades have terrain modifiers tweaked based on their combat history (small bonuses, flavour mostly)
Anti Air brigade now gives decent (for its cost) SA
Heavy Anti Air tweaked (those changes are also simulated in mixed support):
added “artillery like” effects for terrain
increased SA
tweaks to Engineers (those changes are also simulated in mixed support):
lowered toughness
increased defensiveness
good defensive terrain bonuses
low offensive terrain bonuses in easy terrains
retains good fort/river/urban attack
tweaks to Recon (those changes are also simulated in mixed support):
very high toughness
low defensiveness
very good terrain attack bonuses
related techs now also give terrain attack bonuses on top of movement bonuses
tweaks to mixed support brigades:
mixed support brigades are now Support CA group
Mixed Support Brigade:
Artillery changed to Heavy Artillery with tweaked values
Rocket Artillery changed to Light artillery
buffed or tweaked all other options
Motorized Support:
Anti Tank changed to Tank Destroyer
old choice between HAT and TD is now between HAT and MTD
buffed or tweaked all other options (mot.supp is actually good now)
Armored Support:
reduced base AP value and re added it to certain options
tweaked speed effects - now it’s slower than motorized support
reduced armor bonuses
Technology
buffed Blitzkrieg doctrine
kesselschlacht tech now gives mobile/inf/mobile art CA bonus
Auftragstaktik tech toughness bonus increased
brigade command structure tech CA bonuses increased
divisional command structure tech now increases HQ CA
buffed air support techs
kampfgruppe tech CA bonus increased
tank crews training tech bonuses increased
buffed pakfront defense tech - small direct fire CA bonus and higher other bonuses
panzerkreil buffed
added law or minister requirements to certain techs
added casemate/turret vehicles technology (triggered by an event after researching some techs)
Hedgehog tech is now unique ENG technology
T-34 tech now comes with small casualty trickleback penalty
Tiger tech has now 2 levels
added new techs: Fletcher class, Independence class, QF17pdr, SAS, Motobomba
removed range penalties from air techs
Dual Purpose Guns is now required for more techs
tweaked SOV starting naval techs to be historical
ITA CL tech will start 1 level higher to align with the ships of that class in construction at game start
Localisations for gun layout techs
Models/Graphics/Sounds
added missing class of NOR DDs
AI/LUA
……
GER AI will build more INF
Map……
Bug Fixes……
Major Changes
Terrain rework:
Too many terrain changes to actually list. Terrain should be now more accurate although there might be some inaccuracies or simplifications for the sake of the gameplay.
Added new terrain types:
swamp
highlands
hills woods/forest/jungle/desert/arctic
mountain woods/forest/jungle/desert/arctic
Tweaked terrain modifiers for all units, technologies and leader traits
Experience and Training system rework
Went back to the old system with a few tweaks aiming at properly simulating decline in troops quality as the war progresses. In order to achieve that we:
removed branch specific training laws
tweaked repair rate of units for each training law
brought back “Starting Experience” as measurement of training and unit quality
tweaked experience gain from combat
tweaked Repair Rate bonuses from event, strategic modifiers and ministers
Training laws do not give direct bonuses - they trigger strategic effects over time
added option to get starting xp instead of vet HQ/elite HQ/BC/aces for events spawning them
IC efficiency nerf to attempt preventing unit numbers going out of hand in late war
Added “tech decay” similar to the one affecting unit stats meaning that IC efficiency won’t snowball later in the war
tweaked bonuses from techs and certain event/strategic effects
reduced base IC efficiency
tweaked cost of buildings
New GUI
Reworked every tab (diplo, production etc.)
Updated textures for backgrounds and buttons
Moved things around to be more accessible and easier to read
Reworked province screen
Updated textures for almost every piece of it
Everything is aligned properly now and clearer, bigger fonts
New textures for unit tabs and leader selection
General
many Ostfront tweaks to go well with new IC/training systems. Important note here. Make a save on June 22nd. Play it, let me know if it was too easy or too hard so I can adjust the values. Those changes will be save compatible, are easy to implement and once done you can simply restart from that save.
SOV leaders rework:
New pictures for… thousands of them
Added new traits:
Russian Liberation Army
Red Fleret and COastal Army
Soviet Air Forces and Air Defence
Added event with NKVD leaders purge
reverted event spawned ships to be built in queue like any other unit
tweaked the triggers for the second vienna award so it fires on a historical date
also tweaked Romanian joining axis event so player can decline it
Moscow and Leningrad will remain lvl10 forts in AI vs AI scenario
Winter Offensive won’t happen with Barbarossa modifiers still being in place
reworked Bank for International Settlements events. They're the same for minors and majors now and give the option to pick investment into one of three areas: IC, LS and money.
tweaks to minister types:
insignificant buff to insignificant layman
nerfed smiling oilman
money buff for old general
money laissez faires capitalist
removed money penalty from theoretical scientist
research specialist money penalty replaced with LS penalty
technical specialist now gives higher LS bonus but also research eff penalty
reduced money penalties on science specialised ministers and increased benefits from events
military entrepreneur now gives small Unit Repair bonus
school of psychology starting xp bonus is back
school of mass combat now comes with small starting xp penalty
added tiers to tank/air/naval producer effects based on IC and availability of resources
increased money cost of education laws
Added some IC to SOV
removed effects killing JAP in AI vs AI scenario
tweaked SOV purges
increased weather buildings effects
SOV now gets temporary fort attack bonuses to allow successful winter offensives
removed Churchill as science minister
reduced threat from combat (caused some weird things in test games)
added TP penalty for ITA after Operation Husky
Communism now has lower CG demand
Heavy Industry CG penalty reduced
tweaks to difficulty settings
Removed no modifiers difficulty option
split starting PER convoy raiders
added UK bribes for Spain neutrality decisions
removed "industry prepares for war" decisions
police buildings are now much cheaper
puppet master now also gives LS bonus
removed Blitz effects - it was stupid and player could do nothing to stop it
practically removed naval limits for sea leaders
SOV leaders now have xp gain bonus instead of penalty
removed Training Grounds
ITA now starts with Strike Commando tech (Frogmen)
ROM starting navy is now historical
7 new ministers for JAP, historical ultranationalists with natsoc type, played varying roles irl both in politics and behind it
added ITA convoy raiders Adriatico and Barletta to starting OOB
added Ramb ships events for ITA (convoy raiders)
added ITA-SOV trade agreement effect
Italian military academy at Modena event will now spawn a training base but less IC
Italian historical arm divs (131a, 132a, 133a) will now have mot engineers and regular art as standard, AI versions will have arm brigades as standard but player will have to upgrade manually from larm. 133a Littorio will also have med art as standard for AI
XVII Corpo now spawns with arm att instead of larm att
removed Operation Zet LS penalty
ROM now can leave Axis after Vienna Diktat
Added event for ROM to ask to join Axis
Removed Japan Death effect
Added new ship names for POL, CHI, BRA as part of our Patreon/contributor rewards (thanks to tigeriii, MarinePhil1 and BlackBaron)
Units and combat Balance
Artillery is now split into 3 separate CA groups:
Light Artillery - Artillery, Rocket Artillery and Pack Art
Heavy Artillery - Medium and Heavy Artillery
Mobile Artillery - SP Artillery and Rocket Artillery
Hiryu construction added as a decision (removed from starting production queue)
rebalanced AA values for ships to make them more in line with historical use of ships
nerfed Mot/mech infantry combat stats
mot inf is now faster than mech inf
Kampfgruppe are now separate CA group and serve as an HQ
Kampfgruppe are now permanent
buffed armor brigade
buffed armor battalion
nerfed assault guns
tweaked speeds of trucks and halftracks
added ic/days penalties to some events that were missed
historical SS divs will spawn around historical dates
ski brigade is SF CA group now
nerfed CVs speed
HARM defensiveness buffed
halftracks now give toughness/defensiveness
armored battalions (LARM, ARM) are now Direct CA group
amphibious armor is now Armor CA group
infantry tank is now Armor CA group
armored engineers are a bit faster
Unique SS brigades have terrain modifiers tweaked based on their combat history (small bonuses, flavour mostly)
Anti Air brigade now gives decent (for its cost) SA
Heavy Anti Air tweaked (those changes are also simulated in mixed support):
added “artillery like” effects for terrain
increased SA
tweaks to Engineers (those changes are also simulated in mixed support):
lowered toughness
increased defensiveness
good defensive terrain bonuses
low offensive terrain bonuses in easy terrains
retains good fort/river/urban attack
tweaks to Recon (those changes are also simulated in mixed support):
very high toughness
low defensiveness
very good terrain attack bonuses
related techs now also give terrain attack bonuses on top of movement bonuses
tweaks to mixed support brigades:
mixed support brigades are now Support CA group
Mixed Support Brigade:
Artillery changed to Heavy Artillery with tweaked values
Rocket Artillery changed to Light artillery
buffed or tweaked all other options
Motorized Support:
Anti Tank changed to Tank Destroyer
old choice between HAT and TD is now between HAT and MTD
buffed or tweaked all other options (mot.supp is actually good now)
Armored Support:
reduced base AP value and re added it to certain options
tweaked speed effects - now it’s slower than motorized support
reduced armor bonuses
Technology
buffed Blitzkrieg doctrine
kesselschlacht tech now gives mobile/inf/mobile art CA bonus
Auftragstaktik tech toughness bonus increased
brigade command structure tech CA bonuses increased
divisional command structure tech now increases HQ CA
buffed air support techs
kampfgruppe tech CA bonus increased
tank crews training tech bonuses increased
buffed pakfront defense tech - small direct fire CA bonus and higher other bonuses
panzerkreil buffed
added law or minister requirements to certain techs
added casemate/turret vehicles technology (triggered by an event after researching some techs)
Hedgehog tech is now unique ENG technology
T-34 tech now comes with small casualty trickleback penalty
Tiger tech has now 2 levels
added new techs: Fletcher class, Independence class, QF17pdr, SAS, Motobomba
removed range penalties from air techs
Dual Purpose Guns is now required for more techs
tweaked SOV starting naval techs to be historical
ITA CL tech will start 1 level higher to align with the ships of that class in construction at game start
Localisations for gun layout techs
Models/Graphics/Sounds
added missing class of NOR DDs
AI/LUA
……
GER AI will build more INF
Map……
Bug Fixes……
