Release Stream Summary & Future Plans!

Hello Everyone!

Venris Here!

Crazy time last week. We released the new Blood-Grounds update after 200 hours of work, finished the DLC update, and had a release stream. The craziest part was that on stream over 1,500 people were watching live and donating to help me with my desk and second screen problem :).

As you can see, it's here. Thanks everyone for the opportunity to have this new setup. I was very embarrassed and intimidated by your kindness and generosity. It's very visible on stream :). The names of everyone that made a donation can be seen on this post image! I think we will make these streams and rewards more often.

But this post is not only about the release stream, so let's focus on some future stuff!

1. Balancing

From time to time I post small bug and balance fixes. These changes are not major, but were reported by you so require fixing. None are game-breaking so don't worry. 

Soon we will also be releasing a new Army Caps system rework thanks to Drunk Flamingo. PREVIOUS SFO: Grimhammer II mod will be updated if you have any problems with the new system.

2. Empire Things

We were not able to add all the Empire stuff that I wanted to last update. New lord, hero and Prestige system will be coming with the next major update, or as I hope before Festag DLC. More info soon.

3. Wood Elves Rework

Tree Elves did not have luck and the Beastmen took their place in last update. But they are still the next faction to get some love. In the past they received a minor update thanks to Zarkis’ seasons mod, but we want to add more and rework some non-working systems like Amber. From my notes, this update looks smaller than the Beastmen one, but as you all know, in practice, everything is different. I am planning to release this rework with the Festag DLC (2 months from now). But we shall see. Again, more info about the update idea will be posted on our Patreon and Patreon Discord. After that update we will have Patrons Poll about next faction that will get rework!

4. Youtube

I have to say that I like doing things on YT more and more. I am still learning and trying new stuff. Thanks to donations, I will be buying some better software to make better videos. And thanks to that, I am going to release two videos in the near future. The first will be Mod Spotlight that will be showing interesting mods for Total War: Warhammer II. Second will be my DLC ranking of Total War: Warhammer I dlcs. I want to talk about things that dlc added for modders and how they changed the game at that time. The end of this month is my goal to release those videos. After those I would like to make a very short modding guide series for everyone that wants to adjust their games but is afraid of tables, etc. So think about those as Guides for Modding Newbies.

5. Future

SFO as a brand is growing very fast. Thanks to your support I will be able to get a second full time modder. She is starting to learn stuff as we speak, and soon will be revealed to the world :). With an extra modder, we will be able to make updates faster and fix the mod sooner after each DLC.

But that’s not all. Lately I was contacted by one of the biggest Gaming Companies. I can't say what company it is, but I can say that it's much much bigger than Creative Assembly. Contact was about a job offer for me. Company X, as we will call them, is making a very interesting game and wanted me as a Designer of it because they are fans of SFO and my ideas. A big thing you will say, and it's true. A very good offer on even better terms, but I can't accept it. To take this job would mean that I would need to stop modding. While it wasn’t explicitly part of the deal, l need to be realistic. I am modding full time, and the job in Company X is also full time. I have a family, and can’t do it all at once, and I won't abandon SFO. 

So I talked with X’s people and gave them a different offer: Project Hammer, my idea for a standalone game set in the Warhammer universe. Why not work together to make it? And you know what? I showed them the idea and they liked it. So, the long process of Project Hammer becoming a true game has just begun. It may mean that in the future I will leave SFO to someone that will be able to hold my vision of it, with me as the owner rather than the main modder. It’s not set in stone, but depending on the results of the coming months, I will probably be focusing a lot of my time on the standalone project. You don't need to fear about the future of SFO mods, but I wanted all of you to know about the situation. Many doors can open for me if everything works, and all of you will benefit from it. So if anything happens, be sure I will inform all of you.

Thanks everyone again for the donations on the release stream and ongoing support from Patrons. We are on a great road to something big, I am sure of it :).

Venris Out!