Building SFO Future Together

Hello Everyone!
Venris Here!

A lot of stuff to talk about today! Patreon, SFO, Beastmen, Wood Elves and other minor stuff. I would like to focus on the most important stuff and future things that have to change as soon as possible.

1. Beastmen and Wood Elves

First topic is good and bad. The next update will cover only Beastmen changes and will not include the Wood Elves. This decision is linked to the next topic, but let me explain the basics. As you all know, with each SFO update, reworks became more complex and extensive. It's because I learn more about modding, more people allow me to use their knowledge (truly thankful for that) and great DLCs from CA provide more options. I went crazy with the Beastmen, I will admit it, and also spent a crazy amount of time already on this update (3 months at least). Reworking whole factions and adding new mechanics takes a lot of time. At this moment they are almost ready BUT there is the second part of the update that I promised: the Wood Elves. And here is the problem that was in the previous updates. 

I would like to expand even more on the Beastmen to leave them in a perfect state for today, but I won't, because I need to start focusing on the Wood Elves. By doing this, both of these factions won't be finished 100% as I want, so not every aspect will be touched and improved (like different features for each Legendary Lord). By looking on past major updates like Dwarfs and Greenskins or Chaos and Bretonnia, I think I could do those factions much better if they were done as separate updates. That's why I decided that this next update will cover only the Beastmen as the main faction rework. I am really sorry for that but I have only 2 hands, head full of ideas and am still modding 90% or more of SFO alone. The reward for this will be good content, that I can promise now :).

2. Need more hands

And here we are at the second and most important topic. I need hands to help me work on SFO. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people that help me every day with feedback, textures, texts, icons, ideas and more. But there is only one person that adds all of those things to tables and makes them work with overall mod balance. As you can figure out, that person is me. I am working on the mod 8-12 hours a day. Even more with DLC drops. When I don’t mod, I make notes while watching shows with my wife so I will not forget anything. SFO is my life thanks to all of you but the mod is expanding. We recently started to mod Total War: Three Kingdoms with the DEI team, and because of that I have even less time. I want to deliver the best possible content, but I am not able to do it anymore without burning out.

3. Patreon goals

Patreon is main source of income of my family. My wife is not working because she tends to our son Alex while I am modding. I would not be able to do anything without her help, but if we are going to keep SFO working for the future some things have to change. Each DLC require me to rework major parts of the mod--and I am ok with that, but it takes a lot of time. I can't imagine how difficult and time-consuming making SFO for Warhammer 3 will be. Making SFO for Warhammer 2 took me several months and the mod back then was only a small part of its current size, maybe 10% or less.

So what’s the solution, you ask? I need a second pair of hands for modding. Not a person that helps me from time to time, but a full time modder. To do it, I will need your support. All of you know me and also know that for these past 3 years I have never asked for money, and I still think that I should never do it because my mods are free and I also play them. Your support is and always should be voluntary. That will never change, I promise. But your constant support can help me to obtain a person to help me full time. That way, we would avoid problems like with this update that we have to cut in half. DLC mod updating, making submods, tending to steam threads, making proper videos and more would be much faster. 

I have wanted to do this for a long time and even started to teach one person, but it ended in disaster. I wasted almost 2 months on teaching and received nothing beside lost time. That's why this time I did more research, I got a person that would like to help, but I need to pay her. She needs to eat like everyone, feed her cat and husband. 

By growing the team, we can really kick SFO into professional modding. Not only having a full time modder, but also rewarding people that help SFO with feedback, texts, balancing, ideas and more, all those that spare their own time to help make this mod great.

Because of this, I have reworked goals on Patreon that you can find on the left side of the site. When we reach a new goal, our new team member will be able to get a decent salary and live off of it. Of course, you will meet her very soon :). 

“BUT VENRIS! What about Project Hammer, where is it now?” Project Hammer is my big dream, but I never thought that SFO will expand to this size, and time will be my greatest enemy. That's why, until we settle things down and work out a method to make everything work more smoothly, the Project Hammer idea is in holding. Again, I am really sorry for that, and I wish I could start fully working on it today and make it work for all for you, but I just can't, I am only human :(.

I hope that you understand what I want to achieve. The Beastmen update quality will be the best example of how things can be if we will focus more on single things and not stretch too thin. It’s still very hard to ask for anything after all that I have received, so I will just stop here. All of you are great, no matter if you support, criticize (yes I read those also), watch videos or just play the mod. This mod would never exist without you and I would not be here.

So as an endnote, I am really sorry again that the update will only focus on Beastmen, and that the Three Dragons mod has so few updates lately. But I will try to fix it in the  future with your help!

Venris Out!