SFO Update Process

Hello Everyone!

Venris here!

It is that time of year! New DLC is coming and all mods will require an update to work. Many of you don’t know how this looks like so I want to write this little guide and info about what will be happening with SFO in the coming weeks.

1. Vanilla gameplay.

On November 8th Curse of The Vampire Coast (LINK) will be released. BE SURE TO BUY IT AND SUPPORT CA!

At that day I will be streaming vanilla gameplay and make notes live on https://www.twitch.tv/venrisSFO

It's a thing that I always do before any update. It's very important to feel new content out and determine what needs changes. SFO is not a mod to make changes for changes sake so context is very important. For the first time I would like all of you to be with me at this fun moment of discovering the Vampire Coast!

Link to future notes document:

LINK

Note: Keep in mind that I usually play very fast to get to the next point asap!

2. Making the mod work.

This is the most important part. New game updates, dlcs etc. changes how many files and stuff work. SFO is a mod, so it’s based on vanilla files that if changed, will crash the mod or do other strange stuff like pink Archaon! Usually, it requires us to find what was changed and remove all of the outdated files from the mod. In most cases it will be 25%-50% of mod tables. After removing those, the mod usually can be launched! Whats wrong then? Most stuff are empty, buildings dont have effects or units any stats or abilities.

Example: mod uses vanilla effect that is named “super_effect” but in update it was changed to “super_uber_effect”. It does the same thing it did before, but it’s missing from the tables. So the new name needs to be added because the old name doesn’t have a reference in vanilla tables.

3. Adding and updating all outdated tables again.

This is quite simple, all the stuff removed and outdated needs to be added again using new table changes from the update. It takes a lot of time and requires me to usually check the whole mod content. It's also important to first remove and then add new tables to see if the game crashes.

4. Checking update changelog.

This links to point 3. The time comes when all changes for old content need to be revisited. As I said already SFO is not mod that changes for changes. It’s important to look at what good things CA has added and check if those fit SFO balance. In most cases many changes are adopted from the vanilla update.

5. New content.

Once everything works as before the DLC, and all tables have been updated, it’s time to look at the new content. SFO over its long history has added many new systems and things to all factions. So all of those need to be added to the new faction. That includes new lords skills, unit abilities, technology, buildings, stances, events and more. Quality of the last new faction content (Tomb Kings, I don’t count Norsca because it was 100% the same as in Warhammer 1) was very good so not many big changes were needed to be added on its SFO launch.

6. Beta.

This is last stage. It has two phases: Patrons and Public. Those are quite important because both are the best way to check for bugs and balance. That’s to ensure full public release is at the best SFO quality, and that all of you play happily without game breaking bugs :).

7. Release

Grand release, everyone is happy, we play some games and Venris sleeps, a lot!

HOW TO GET INFO ABOUT UPDATE?

Latest news and progress % will be always posted on twitter https://twitter.com/VenrisSFO

and SFO discord: https://discord.gg/ETaUQNk

Steam page will also be updated with latest news, and the mod name will be changed to UPDATE IN PROGRESS.

On discord all of you can use special command !update to get latest news.

Updating SFO to the newest DLC is a very important thing for me. I want to give all of you best experience possible so I would like to again encourage all of you to buy the DLC, support the devs, and have fun with the vanilla game without ANY mods before turning mods back on.

P.S. Everytime someone asks when the update is coming out adds +1 day to release time :).

Venris out!