On the topic of Steel*Faith (update on bottom)

Hello Everyone!

Venris Here!

I would like today to talk about recent situation that occured on our community channels. But before that a small portion of history.

Steel Faith Overhaul mod was released by Steel*Faith at June 2016 and until January 2017 had 20.000 subscribers. Then I joined the mod team. At the time, Steel Faith Overhaul mod was a rebalance mod mainly focused on changing units stats without much of any extra content like units, abilities, new buildings, technologies and more. When I joined, I created SFO discord and tended to community on all other mod channels. We together created Patreon and thanks to community support expanded on the mod. I was also in contact with other modders to ask to use their work legally and make submods to their mod. Through this work I was able to expand both the SFO Modding Team and also the SFO Mod itself. I was further involved in developing SFO’s media presence and took up the main roll on Twitch and Youtube.

Of course, I was also modding and this was my main role in that mod.

In September 2017, just before Total War: Warhammer 2 release, the Mod reached 70.000 subscribers. At that time its original creator, who had for few weeks become less and less involved in modding, informed me that he was stepping back from SFO.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/535809242452590592/551780431758884894/evidence2.png

Soon after this message was sent publicly to SFO community:  https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/535809242452590592/551779399188480001/end1.png

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/704361604/1519260397797559736/

For couple next week's Steel*Faith was posting from time to time on community channels but was not involved in modding anymore in any matter.

That, however, is only part of the story. His passing was not only linked to his real time job but also community problems. Steel*Faith became very aggressive with community members and started to remove or ban people on public community channels. Even small criticism was able to make him rant on community members. He was also accused of anti semitic political beliefs and never denied them. Regardless of what his political beliefs actually were, it is clear that this behaviour was not acceptable for someone leading the most subscribed mod on the Warhammer workshop. His dismissal, while ultimately his choice, was a necessary consequence of that behaviour.
https://imgur.com/a/LMvh6

After that, at the end of 2017, he vanished. Never logged in or contacted any of mod member or community. He parted with me in very good terms.

1,5 year has passed and in that time I took charge of the growing SFO Mod Team. The mod was entirely rebuilt and totally changed both to fit the needs of Total War: Warhammer 2 systems, but also to start fresh with our creative direction and content. At this time, I left my normal job to mod full time and in summary I worked on mod alone more than its original creator ever did. Only thing that was left, was the name.

Recently I decided to change mod name because almost nothing was left of its original state. More info here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiHy7xXWKtI Before that I sended video to original creator and informed him about the matter one month in advance.

Now, Steel*Faith came back to community after 1,5 year of absence and sended that information:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/535809242452590592/551782786722430986/email.png

After short conversations I was not able to explain anything. Whole talk ended on a very angry note on original creator side. Now he demands money for all work I and other people did for this 1,5 year. Whole rebrand I did recently was to avoid such sad situation like now. I also said that name Steel Faith Overhaul is still its creator and that he can do with his mod what he want. But this sadly did nothing to convince him. 

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/535809242452590592/551784063829278723/steam1.png

Steel, regrettably, doesn’t want to understand that the SFO Mod Team and SFO: Grimhammer and not the same as Steel Faith Overhaul, and they definitely are not the same as Steel*Faith’s Overhaul. He still demands money and whole mod now as his own because of that. This is clearly not reasonable, and caving to that demand is clearly not an option. The SFO Patreon is a community which donates to see the SFO mod succeed, and spending money from the SFO Patreon on anything other than supporting the individuals who develop the mod would be breaching that trust with those that support us. You aren’t purchasing a mod that Steel has some right to. You aren’t purchasing anything. You are supporting my dreams for the SFO mod, and helping me to make the mod better for everyone, even those who don’t donate.

I don't want to cause any drama because, despite Steel’s troubles, he was around at the start and who knows if SFO would have existed without that. I regret that things had to end this way with him. Right now I am receiving offensive text messages on my phone, steam and email threatening me and my family. 

If you’re worried about the SFO Mod Team, don’t be. During rebranding I copyrighted the SFO Mod Team and SFO names (not Steel Faith Overhaul names) for future use outside modding. Those rights extend only to our peripheral content and youtube presence that our community has, because the fact of the matter is that Creative Assembly owns all pack files and workshop content. I don’t like law stuff either, the gist of it is that Steel definitely doesn’t own the hard work that the community has put into SFO: Grimhammer II over the past year.

SFO: Grimhammer was planned to be reupload of SFO: Grimhammer II without things that would not work in first Total War: Warhammer. Never to remove its original creators work.

If needed SFO Mod Team will abandon SFO: Grimhammer project for Total War: Warhammer. But we won't do it for Total War: Warhammer 2 because beside those 3 letters don’t belong to Steel anymore. As we’ve always said, they belong to the people who work every day making SFO better, and to the people who support us in that goal. 

Venris out!

UPDATE:  Steel*Faith withdrew his demands and deleted Steel Faith Overhaul mod after our request. New mod created entirely again from the ground will take its place. SFO: Grimhammer. SFO is safe and sound.