Comments - silent771

first off thanks for the hard work and effort it truly is appreciated.

now that that's out of the way I've never been less amused in my entire life with a paradox game then the headache you gave me.

I had used your mod collection with AGOT in the past, and after purchasing the newer DLC's and deciding to gear back up for a few more CK2 playthroughs (currently about to become HRE controller after starting as a count @ approx 1000 AD in the base game start after beginning as a count due to an awesome inheritance of kingdom of Bavaria when I desperately switched to seniority to get off gravelkind after grinding my way to double duke of lombardy) I decided the poles have had enough and it's time to get dragons involved. I installed AGOT and your mods as I always have paired the 2 together in the past, and proceeded to carefully craft my character and choose my lowly county lord to inevitably rule the iron throne. my eyes narrowed to slits as the 'Entertainment Software Association' events began popping up. I figured the version had somehow got flagged for some kind of piracy prevention for using a submod and it was a feature of AGOT. First, i attempted to destroy the dynasty with console commands (lucky I accidentally didn't check ironman because I always play on ironman) to no avail. I killed the characters, neutered them to being incapable, etc etc still didn't stop the torrent of events and my liege having war declared on him for no reason by ESA due to dejure ********.

As a fellow paradox modder I was like alright, so they accidentally made an overzealous anti piracy protection that I'm getting falsely flagged for should be simple as finding the events and killing them. I was pretty sure given your tongue in cheek nature as made apparent through the mods you weren't the culprit so it had to be AGOT which has had anti-piracy protections bitched about on the comments before, whether or not that's true or not idk. SO I hopped into the text files of AGOT and literally searched for 2-3 hours every god damn line of text of every file for every god damn thing I could think of the dynasty being triggered, thinking that they hid it somewhere so I was searching for a needle in the haystack of odd man out.

Hours upon hours of fruitless searching and exasperation later... I tried to just restart and play and just quickly reimburse myself with console command.

Utterly ruined the immersion and would not allow me to focus on the game in the same way trying to ignore the put your damn seatbelt on beeper is hard to ignore.

Google had completely and utterly failed me to this point looking for fixes or hints and I had combed every line of CK2 AGOT moddb and forums looking for a solution.

Then finally I hit your steam page describing your ESA joke mod.

I was simultaneously amused and completely unamused.. amused that you made a joke out of it and it would've been funny in another context and just absolutely facepalming that I just wasted 3-4 hours of my life over a god damn joke submod to a submod that somehow got grouped together and installed with the rest.

I quickly downloaded the ESA submod files from the steamlink and used it to hunt down and destroy all the f***ing piece of s*** files that had been plaguing me worse than the Great Spring Sickness ever could.

Oh well, no harm done.. just figured you'd get a laugh out of my predicament and how your joke project ended up being the bane of some poor players existence for a few hours.. and perhaps I might save some other poor soul from learning the hard way instead of vicariously. Regardless, Voted 10/10 keep up the awesome work friend

yes, the partisans in Northern France made Hitler believe that direct oversight (as well as hoping they would integrate into more Germanic culture by being a full reichstate) was his best option for managing the region. he also wanted direct control over its industries and shipyards. he also believed the partitioned France would over time culturally divide and become less likely to revolt simultaneously/at all against his 1000 year reich

Greece, this time, is caught by complete surprise and the Soviet spearhead behind the Greek lines with Bulgaria down the coast reaches the outskirts of Thessaloniki before serious organized resistance can be made. Fearing encirclement, the Greeks withdraw more troops towards the Albanian/Athenian areas in an attempt to hold the Greek heartland as after a few weeks of tense fighting and heavy bombardment with massive casualties for the Soviet shock forces Thessaloniki falls. Bulgaria quickly uses the Greek withdrawal to sweep through most of Macdeon and Northern Thrace, as the Soviets focus their thrust South towards Athens and West towards Corfu. Months of hard fighting continue as the Greeks valiantly but futilely resist 3 larger, better equipped armies, yet despite atrocious losses the Soviets had pushed through Athens and were moving towards Pilos. The Italians, in the meantime, regained their lost territory and begun pushing back with the Bulgarians who were about to form a united front with the Italians. King Georgios II, having nowhere left to move his government and staff to continue commanding from and wishing to minimize Greek casualties and suffering formally surrenders to the Soviets late September 1942. A land rush commences where the 'victorious' (air quotes for Italians) militaries race to occupy as much land as possible.

Hitler demands Stalin partition Greece between the BTP, citing their original agreement of the Berlin-Moscow Axis citing Europe as being completely within Germany's sphere of influence and not to be encroached upon by the USSR. Stalin flatly refuses stating the other 2 countries' lack of war contribution, how Greece wouldn't have fallen had he not intervene, and wishing to engage in Mediterranean trade. He forms a puppet government for Greece in Soviet occupied lands, and the rest of it is split between Bulgaria and Italy. (Mussolini sulking and not even willing to show his face to the Bulgarians to demand more land after the whooping his army got, again)

For the first time The Unholy Alliance is tested.

okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk I was planning on this to go a bit later in time period, however it is LATE here and I was hoping to both start and end this article many hours ago so I shall use that as a stopping point for the time being =]

Once again shout out to WILF, Gre, Weaboo, xugador, Undead Unicorn, TarmSparkarn, Ryzemon, Macaron, Glosur, denis12s and everyone else actively helping us with the mod!

-silent

p.s. yes all your terrible useless waste of space and with ridiculous amounts of unwarranted Nationalism that should be more along territory of something greater pride lines than sovereign state levels will be releasable and have storyboarded ways for them to appear at different time periods throughout the mod.

p.p.s. ok fine I'm sorry for calling your countries a silly childish waste ):

p.p.p.s. even tho they are

p.p.p.p.s just kidding guys i love all your countries, even you Montenegro, and that triggeredniz ur feeling is me trolling your nationalizm cause its the Balkans and your proud <3 feel free to join us at Discord.gg to help lobby for your countries greatne- err I mean collaborate on unique flavor for your home/favorite Balkan region

Things do not go as expected. The Greeks are not caught off guard (courtesy of a tip from the British who had noticed increased naval preparations in the area, moving towards the Royal Navies evacuation of the Mediterranean with the position in Egypt being deemed untenable and the Suez's fall inevitable as Gibraltar's fort had already broken with only isolated resistance at this point) and full defensive entrenchments have been prepared along both borders, with the coasts guarded from all but the most coordinated invasion and troops held in reserve. Italy makes little progress the first weeks and as the December snows begin to fall gets pushed back into Albania. The blockade in place around Greece, however, is extremely effective and allows them to gain control of the island of Crete and the Aegean islands, due to them being cut off from reinforcement and supply by early January 1942.

Hitler, in the meanwhile, is FURIOUS with both Benito and Boris III for their complete disregard for what he had said at the summit; especially when his entire North African campaign he had been delaying the invasion of Britain for was due to Italian incompetence forcing him to intervene. He refuses to lend naval, air, or army aid as well as declines to allow the Italian or Bulgarian military to use Yugoslavia as a frontline in the war.

By March Bulgaria has made World War I level progress, and Italy is barely holding the line near the Albanian border.

Stalin, eyes these events carefully from afar and decides that it is in his interest to intervene. He issues an ultimatum to weak destitute Turkey, give him the Bosphorous Sound Toll and its corresponding region, or he will take it anyway and destroy the entire country along the way. The Turks balk at being told to give up their capital, but their military at the time consisted of ~150k men and about half that number of old Mausers/Lee Enfields. With the U.K.'s lack of ability to provide any aid whatsoever by this point, and Germany still bound by alliance to not intervene in USSR wars of conquest against the Soviets the Turkish government accepts the ultimatum and local garrisons leave the region immediately. Many Istanbul and other natives in the region also leave as was allowed per ultimatum, and Byzantium is renamed for the 3rd time to (we're open to suggestions for phenomenal historically plausible Soviet names here, place holder will) Alexsandrovgrad.

Securing the strait and thus the Black Sea and Danube/Euphrates estuary was only step 1 in getting a Soviet foothold into Europe, however and by April Stalin has landed enough troops on the Black Sea side (avoiding the Italian blockade) to launch an invasion of Greece. On March 14th 1942 the USSR attacks the Greeks from what they believed was still the Turkish border without a formal declaration of war given in advance.

The Balkans: 1941-1943

With the war in Yugoslavia giving Italy only paltry amounts of the Adriatic coastline ending in June of 1941, and the Italian army underperforming in Africa making the ambitions he had accepted the conditions of the BTP over seeming laughably over confident, Mussolini is desperate for a victory and believes his best option is to press his 'Roman claims on sovereignty over Greece'. He calls for a summit of the BTP members in the Fall with his plans, and calls for a joint invasion between himself Bulgaria Yugoslavia and Germany to bring it under mostly Italian heel with parts of Thrace and Macedon going to Bulgaria.

Hitler, while not directly opposed to the idea, but now well aware of just how much Benito has been over estimating his army's abilities, tells Mussolini to wait until his African campaigns and invasion of Britain are completed before opening a new front so Germany can lend aid and attack from Yugoslavia. He also believes that the Yugoslavian army is depleted from just being smashed on all sides and will not be helping, as to help with dissent and consolidate his control over the newly puppeted region through showing them he will not force them to fight his wars. Bulgaria, after its successes against Yugoslavia (an unfair assessment given the circumstances but raising Jingoism nonetheless) is eager for conquests and agrees they will be prepared for when the time comes.

A few months pass, and Mussolini's patience wears thin. His generals and advisers insist that Greece would be a far easier adversary than the Commonwealth, and that their outdated, smaller military stood no chance in a direct conflict in Europe where Italian soldiers are used to fighting. November 1941 Mussolini is done waiting. The preparations have been made and the troops stand ready along the Albanian/Greek border and arrangements with Boris III having met in secret with Il Duce agreed that their combined strength would be more than enough to take down Greece without German and Yugoslavian assistance his military was locked and loaded to engage. November 14th 1941 Italy & Bulgaria declare a limited war on Greece.

Today's overview highlights the alternate history of the Balkan region during WW2, which will prove to be (as always) a powder-keg during the timeline the mod takes place. It will pick up from where the previous European installment left off after Yugoslavia's demise and puppeting/partition and cover how the map got to how it is, as well as reveal the first road bump in Soviet-German relations.

Alright, before I dive in I must preface that due to how important the Balkan story-line during this time period is, we had left the story-boarding to a minimum before today. Apologies for the slight delay our schedules were a bit opposite and it took us until this evening to be able to collaborate, so work started later than we had hoped.

Lightning Round Recap:
Yugoslavia joins axis(Berlin Treaty Pact/BTP in this), couped by U.K., crushed by BTP, partitioned/puppeted between BTP neighbors.. Mussolini's war in Africa where he thought he could forge an empire is going terribly, and he's already ****** he didn't get more of Yugoslavia.

its a Soviet puppeted Moldova although the name isn't finalized, as things stand currently. Walachia will not have independence initially but will probably be included as a releasable, as we will have almost every country you can think of as releasables in the final version

The formal alliance known as 'The Berlin Treaty Pact' is announced October 1940 and Italy & Spain subsequently declare war on The United Kingdom and her allies. During the negotations, Germany in secret moved a large portion of the Wehrmacht to the Portuguese border and the day of the alliance announcement an ultimatum to enter into dominionship under Spain or suffer the fate of France is issued to Portugal. Antonio de la Salazara is absolutely stunned by this complete reversal of his relations with Franco and his violation of the Iberian pact signed early 1939, and having not been properly mobilized or prepared for war accepts a junior role in the relationship between himself and Franco under the condition he maintains full control over domestic policy bar none. The deal is concluded and Iberia is secured for the BTP.

Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary.. their positions precarious and leaders mostly pro-German, quickly follow suit and also join the growing German led European faction.

For the first time in the war the Allies hold their ground however, and the campaigns in Africa are bogged down. Germany sends 'The Afrika Korps' under Erwin Rommel to help clean up the mess January 1941, and proceeds to turn the tide making great progress towards Alexandria. He passes Benghazi within months with the British tied up dealing with Franco around Gibraltar and Cetua; the grizzled Spanish civil war vets holding their own in the West in a back and forth between the Commonwealth (CW) troops, and the CW holding The Rock (Gibraltar) until late '41 when Dora and Gustav (800mm Railway Artillery) arrive, are set up, and pound the forts and coastal guns there to smithereens. By the years end the pockets of underground resistance were ferreted out and The Rock is under Spanish control for the first time since 1713, but nowhere near as defensively viable as it had been previously.

The additional German supporting divisions (minus the guns) are transferred with the most modern equipment to help Rommel make his final push on Alexandria; which now with British supplies needing to be rerouted through the Suez, (due to Dora/Gustav and other coastal batteries blocking the strait) lies directly in his sights... Alexandria subsequently falls mid 1942, with the rest of Egypt and a corridor towards previously French controlled Syria/Lebanon secured by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a series of coups in Yugoslavia backed by the British and in Iraq by German sponsored nationalists has shaken up the status quo in The Balkans and Middle East. The Yugoslavian coup, whilst successful in disposing of the BTP sovereign government, proves disastrous as Yugoslavia was simultaneously invaded on all sides by the Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania capitulating within months. (the map showing the current borders of the partition of it, & whats left of Yugoslavia being a puppet of Germany giving Germany Mediterranean naval bases connected to its cores more details in the Balkans screenshot to come)

In Iraq, however, with the British overmatched and beleaguered in Egypt and Germany able to rerout modern equipment and forces to lend aid, the coup is extremely successful and Iraq becomes a Nationalist state, that despite being pro-German has no formal obligations or alliances with The Third Reich. (although various trade agreements including protections of the oil fields and the Berlin-Baghdad railway are secured, this along with other Middle East regions will be elaborated upon further in the Middle East screenshot)

Back in England, The Battle for Britain is not going well for the British. With the Red Airforce sending large amounts of volunteers (viewing this as a prime opportunity to test out its Airforce and see how there's compare against Germany/U.K.'s, and implement better designs) day bombing of Southern England is possible and the population is weary and losing faith with the terrible overseas news coming in hourly. The Afrika Korps finishes off the remaining holdouts in West Africa by April 1943 and plans for a June invasion of England are put into full motion with additional divisions arriving and preparing from other fronts. On June 5th 1943, Hitler offers the U.K. a non-negotiable peace accord that must be accepted or face annilhation.

Europe January 1st 1948:
How it got like this - (All events subsequently are Work in Progress and subject to change of varying degrees whether minor or major, be it events map etc)

After Hitler accepted the Unholy Alliance in exchange for a larger portion of Eastern Poland and the Baltic states, he issued an ultimatum (part of the Unholy Alliance agreement) to Finland to be allowed to join into a sovereign alliance with Germany under the conditions they cede Soviet claims in/near Karjala; or fight a dual war against the Reich and USSR. The Finnish begrudgingly accepted, with assurances from Germany that never again would her borders be changed.

In late January 1940, Hitler launches Operation Weserübung.. a joint invasion of Denmark (where he meets little to no resistance) and Norway, which, despite holdouts around Narvik, quickly capitulates to the combined German Airborne/Marine invasions. This sets the stage for May 1940, with German Panzers reinforced by millions of Soviet troops and artillery positioned along the Dutch/Belgian border, both countries accept conditional military access to the two mustached monsters in exchange for guarantees of future sovereignty and non-intervention. France, overwhelmed by the speed and ferocity of the attack and betrayed by the lowlands capitulates by mid June. The evacuation to England (historically at Dunkirk) is much less successful due to Germany not facing any resistance throughout the low lands. For the time being, Vichy France is going to be relatively historic in how it was formed and its loyalty/conditions with Germany.

The speed and overperformance of the German military as well as the manpower and resources at its disposal due to its alliance with the U.S.S.R. sends shockwaves around the globe. Nearby Fascist neighbors, Franco and Mussolini, are both anxious for spoils feeling they know the clear winner of this conflict, and begin posturing themselves to formally ally with Germany. Fearing a similar invasion of conquest targeting the central Balkans, as well as concerns over Italy wanting to connect Albania to the boot and their growing closeness with Germany, Yugoslavia joins into a Treaty of Friendship (historic) with Germany. Mussolini, feeling his chances of forming the New Rome slipping away, is furious. Hitler, wishing to consolidate his control over mainland Europe and end his potential fronts there, quickly invites Mussolini and Franco to Berlin for a meeting to try and create a united ideological front. After much squabbling over who would get what pieces of Africa in exchange for a full military alliance between the 3, the deal is made that Spain will get control over Iberia and Western North Africa, Germany will control the Suez and some French possessions in the Middle East, and Italy can have as much of the rest as they can grab in Africa. (in Mussolini's mind he believed he could grab much much more and that this deal was better for him than it actually was.)

Hey first off thankyou thankyou thankyou for deciding to spend the time to make this (I figured it was a matter of time before someone did a grand campaign type mod to expand through cold war and modern times) I hope I speak for all of us when I say we're behind you 100% and can't wait to see where you guys can take it.

I'm pretty curious though as to how your going to thresh out the rest of the timeline and the multitudes of possibilities that could have or did happen historically, as it seems you want to have a realistic gritty feel to it with quite a bit of real and alt history as opposed to creating a giant long term sandbox.

I'd assume your either going to use huge arcing decision chains (might as well call it a forest at that point) or expand the national focus tree branches onward and onward to give more direct control and foresight as to how you can guide your country onward in the shifting political situations of the 20th and 21st century.

I would love to help you guys out in any way possible with writing any and all potential and real history, although I've never modded before outside of Warcraft 3 which was extremely simple relatively speaking. Let me know if you think you could use a hand as I've been a huge history and world war 2 buff all my life and spent countless hours on HoI2/DH/HoI3/Victoria etc etc mods that have attempted and succeeded to varying degrees to accomplish a feat like this!
My background is a creative writer and history buff so I feel like I could help out quite a bit with the creative direction you plan on taking! I'm also far from tech illiterate and could pretty quickly pick up any other small side projects you might need done as I have some spare time and an interest in learning about the actual file modifying side of modding. Well I guess that's it let me know =)

hey noticed another oversight, steamer transports are currently unable to be built since steamships only activates steamer convoys not both, also when playing as thirteen colonies depending on how the initial wars Prussia is in goes it's very easy for America to get great power status before intolerables act fires which kinda breaks the event chain to become USA, maybe add an event where upon becoming a great power you have to decide to declare independence then and there or lose all prestige and remain a British satellite?

also for some reason after taking cuba in my war for florida I've been getting carlist rebels fire in Cuba whenever they get rebels.. they seem to disperse after a while tho (i was trying to tech steamship transports so i neglected to build any clipper trans)

I do find the lack of starting naval bases a tad annoying however, in example with Spain since they start already running an absurd deficit the first half decade or so it makes it virtually impossible to build the 5-6 naval bases required to even getting you back to even.. in this case forcing me to disband the entire Asian fleet. Would be nice if that were balanced out a bit =)

fantastic mod, V2 was the last Paradox game I got a true appreciation for and fell in love with, after initially finding it boring and droll (probably because I played U.S.A. first playthru in vanilla before House Divided/HoD in a colonial empire game hah) and I always figured it would be my favorite if it weren't so damn short. It never felt like I had enough time to accomplish my objectives, especially since the amount your able to achieve derrived almost entirely from your infamy dicerolls, and right when I was getting a full head of steam towards world conquest and European hegemony the game would unceremoniously end leaving a :/ feeling a shrug and a switch over to Darkest Hour Grand Campaign Mod to get to the grind.

Your mod thoroughly fixed that, although I find the lingering nation name tags in former colonial states obnoxious since if you reload to fix it it resets all your diplomatic values with new nations due to the super annoying built in glitch. I love every part of it and hope in the future you plan on extending the timeline to 1930 or so and add some flavor events to the tail end just to keep it interesting :) thanks for all the hard work and keep it up!

Alright thanks I'll give it a go in windowed mode, I had considered that but felt it might add more strain by mixing it with background tasks idek. Will let you know how it goes! And for some reason I doubt if the game would even launch without podcats LAA at this point haha

Is 8.4 just completely broken?

Crashes have always been an issue but I just put 30+ hours on a Gröfaz Soviet playthru lovingly painstakingly rebuilding every division building my division equipment separately for minimum ic waste recalibrating ic by hand daily etc etc and I had auto save on weekly and after doing major reorg would zoom in to an ocean square far off and hold my breath (only had to redo one major reorganization because I foolishly opened the leaders list after deploying and arranging locations and oob for 100 new NKVD + MOTO recon div) and yet once Barbarossa was launched I've had 25 crashes by June 28th all unrelated and just due to engine overload.. my rig specs are ungodly with top i7 dual gtx970's 20gb ram + max installed ram all overclocked 40+% etc etc has no trouble running 3 copies of any tripe A 2016 game simul, is the game just broken due to too much for the engine to handle? I've tried everything from setting priority to realtime to having 5 dedicated processors run it to no avail /: it's just so sad cause the game is so beautiful and immersive and indepth I do hope this isn't the end of black ice hoi3 (although I'm excited to see what you'll du with hoi4 since vanilla and the mods thus far are laughable both revelatively and generally) Ive been unlucky/fortunate enough to have my basic training deployment postponed due to paperwork so I am happy I should be able to check it out before my 3+ month break haha

and if your suffering those defeats on an offensive you need to make a breakthrough at a weak point in the enemy line by overloading it with a "spearhead" of armored/motorized divisions and then encircle and exploit that opening just like real military tactics of that day and age utilizing marines and paratroopers to seal off and trap retreating units once they break from lack of supply.. also if your attacking forts/large cities that are heavily defended you need to be prepared to rotate many many divisions into and out of combat to take it or all progress will be lost, the computer won't do that for you effectively so even if you are using AI control (which i dont recommend whatsoever unless its something like the invasion of Poland which really should be your warmup for real offensives) you need to turn ai control off of those specific corps/armys and do it yourself so as not to throw your troops lives away for no gain. I hope that advice helped although I'm sure panzeroo will answer your question himself anyways like the champ he is ^^ "

"Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter." -Sir Winston Churchill

“Generally in war, the best policy is to take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior to this….For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” Sun Tzu

you need to manually retreat your units back to more easily defensible positions i.e. forts/rivers/mountains if your incurring losses like that in a battle... your nation should not suffer more than 3 major defeats in a couple weeks (and that would be the ABSOLUTE highest cause even that shouldnt happen) even in an unwinnable campaign like France/Soviet Union Barbarossa defenses =/ in my opinion at least (: if you have 1 division defending against 3 armored divisions in an open field obviously they are going to get slaughtered

whew thats a huge load off my chest! im assuming then that includes the National Focus additions? cause so far I've literally chosen my national focus solely based on which one doesn't say "Tank/armament/aircraft factory changed by -1 in Leipzig" or whatever haha.. and I'm running a 2.5 thousand dollar gaming rig with 16 gb installed ram and the maximum virtual ram on Dual GTX 970's all overclocked around 30% so yikes talk about pushing to limits ^^

I mean... the answer to the question is literally 2 posts above this one? At least read the PAGE sort of before asking the same question as the last 3 guys =/ haha

Hey PANZ, I just had a few quick questions.. With the introduction of the Industrial Zones and provincial AA now costing significant IC/time to build instead of peppering my IC in throughout the entire south eastern german/austrain/czechoslovakian regions I built up the major industrial centers i.e. Nürnberg Dresden Stuttgart etc etc.. yet it seems with allot of decisions such as the four year plan and the IX'th rally at Nürnberg I lost IC as opposed to gaining IC in many locations usually leading to me losing more IC than I gained.. I always leave room for at least 2-3 additional IC to be triggered by events but I'm curious as to if its triggered in as a "set IC to value X" or if that is intentional.. other events also removed other factories/IC that I had improved manually so I'm very curious as to how it works so as in future playthroughs I can either avoid improving these areas and shooting myself in the **** or if it's just the way its supposed to be. Also I have been plagued by FAR more crashes than I commonly get (today I played through October 1937-September 1st 1939 and CTD'd 6 times all off of random changing screens, opening the leaders list, opening the aircraft production screen, etc) have these been reported as common for this patch? My checksum is correct =/ Unfortunately I've already crashed twice on September 1st AFTER I set every single combat order in motion down to the air scrambles.. but I'm about to jump back on the horse after a 4-5 hour break so wish me luck fingers crossed it was flukes ^^

glad to hear it! you've put so much work into making the HoI3 base game a true masterpiece and legend of strategic gaming in the same breath as Gary Grigsby's games (and far more playable and enjoyable in my personal opinion) and although I was looking forward to you all revamping the vanilla mass appeal looking HoI4 into a masterpiece in and of itself I'm extremely excited to see where you guys will take Black Ice! I've been hoping for that 1933 campaign you said you were toying with a while back so maybe in a year or two you could explore the whole "if germany didn't go NaZi" or give you more time to fully tweak and customize your countries buildup, but I understand it's a historical mod and as much as you try to theorycraft possible scenarios it's an endless chain upon chain of "what ifs" that could go on forever any way you slice it, regardless I'm stoked looking forward to the Cold War era after the scrapping of the extremely anticipated East vs West (especially with the implementation of the Victoria 2 economy system [which would have to be revamped like they did with POP's Heart of Darkness but still]) had me dreaming of being able to play a worthwhile complex strategy game of that era.. hopefully the Beta will be done before I head out but if not then I'll have a hell of a grin on my face coming back to a completely new experience fully fleshed out and mastered! Keep up the good work and know the whole community is soo so appreciative of you spending all the countless unpaid hours making a beautiful gaming/strategy experience for other people to enjoy with nothing but a few thankyous in return! All my serious gamer friends love your mod too and always beg to play it when they come and kick it while we have a few drinks.. it's always a bit devastating but exciting for them when a new version comes out or I tell them the cache became corrupted and their save is ****** but hey they could always stop being filthy casual console gamers and buy it ^^

damn u got rid of the easy everytime win-win option for the secretary =/ as well as whether its better to take the IC/production boost national agenda or start early on the manufactories.. everything used to be so clear cut and the perfectionist in me HATES not knowing which will reap the most rewards haha I'll just try a balanced approach first time and spend time doing math on the spreadsheets some other time before a GröFaz playthrough on U.S.S.R. or somethin ig ^^ and honestly I just wanted to reiterate just how stunning the Satellite-esque terrain looks.. I've never played HoI on anything except political and simplified terrain map modes aside from the obligatory peeks at victory points/resources/infrastructure/revolt risk etc but I can easily tell exactly what the terrain type is from the image and it looks beautiful and the borders are all clearly defined and you know exactly where your looking at to those of us that are geopolitically savvy.. I can't say enough how much that improved the aesthetics and realism I feel when looking at it instead of feeling like a guy playing with a souped up riskboard. 100x over props to whoever painted/figured out how to render that. Beautiful.

ignore all previous comments. the 5th time going back thru each forum post I read them all one by one and ran into your's with the spoiler+ with the links =) saved my *** without even trying thanks a ton dude, with HoI4 just around the corner is this going to be the final final version or you guys still have one last hoorah in you for HoI3 before getting to work on the new game the Cold War type version following 8.53? I do recall reading you were planning on 7.5 or so being the last version before HoI4 was delayed for the thousandth time, sadly I likely won't be able to play BIce for HoI4 for a long time as will be going to basic training USMC soon after the release /= will give me something to look forward to instead of waiting daily though ^^

the only version I as able to find even after a half hour of trolling through the paradox forums was Marneman's 8.5 beta release post despite you saying it was posted there on here =/ any direction whatsoever would help cause its working like a charm I just don't want to get far into a new playthru without the most recent patch

hey hate to bother you about something stupid (as always) but im having difficulties finding the 8.52 either on the paradox forum/google/wherever the **** i can think to look.. please help :) I was also just about to add after 2 Grand Campaign Darkest Hour playthroughs that you should add some awesome music cause no one minds in a multi gig mod a few extra megs to keep the hundred + hours of a playthru less mundane but you all beat me to it in your supreme and infinite wisdom ^^ also mad kudos to whoever painted the new terrain it looks absolutely beautiful! thanks a ton Pz

I used to run into this problem occasionally when I was using a computer that could barely run it at slow speeds (1 to 3 arrows) back when it was 1280x1080 compatible. clearing the cache would work temporarily but black ice is an adventure and if your playing it where u repair your tanks down to the rivets personally spending 1000x more time paused painstakingly rearranging and micromanaging then moving forward 1 hour and restarting the whole damn process across multiple thousand mile fronts then i'd say it isnt worth the investment of the frustrations crashes are going to plague you with over and over on that computer.. playing BIce and wanting to play HoI4 was like 90% of why I finally built a gaming rig instead of investing in a console ^^

I used to run into this problem occasionally when I was using a computer that could barely run it at slow speeds (1 to 3 arrows) back when it was 1280x1080 compatible. clearing the cache would work temporarily but black ice is an adventure and if your playing it where u repair your tanks down to the rivets personally spending 1000x more time paused painstakingly rearranging and micromanaging then moving forward 1 hour and restarting the whole damn process across multiple thousand mile fronts then i'd say it isnt worth the investment of the frustrations crashes are going to plague you with over and over on that computer.. playing BIce and wanting to play HoI4 was like 90% of why I finally built a gaming rig instead of investing in a console ^^

haha the struggle of trying to effectively make use of this releases' new features while having nothing but a common sense knowledge of "ok armament factory decreases land build time speed... i hope, or maybe it increases supply production? ****." idea of what any of them do is real. SCREW the changelog and all its "truck transport allows your troops to get the mobile combined arms bonus herp derp" obvious ****, give us a 3 bullet point synopsis of exactly what kind of % bonuses (and if they stack, or stack diminishingly, etc) these 13 new building types do ^^ if you have the time in between polishing your legendary mod ofc :D

Yeah unfortunately thats what I've been doing, and I've already reset my cache in the docs 5x this week and earlier today reinstalled Hoi3/BIce from scratch and completely deleted the Hearts of Iron 3 folder in /documents/paradox interactive :| it took until October '36 for the first AutoSave crash even with this (i like autosave on cause its far worse when it ISNT on and then you save and go back months instead of days) .. as I said the issue was minimized with this system using windows XP SP4 for all the exe's (namely podcats was the one that fixed it) before, but with Windows 10 XP compatability pack is no longer accessible and I'm at a loss... It's a testament to your mod tho that I've been seriously considering reverting to Windows 8 just to be able to play Black Ice ^^

I should mention this problem occurs FAR more often when playing as any country aside from Germany, and I also am currently using the Third Reich Events mod even though this problem has existed long long before I started using it and throughout every version of BIce I've played on 4 different PC's since 2012 :/