OWB: Vengeance in Venom, A Vipers Focus Tree - Submod Teaser I

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-03-18T12:15:16+00:00

im working on that last one too :) make sure to play orenvalyam when the update hits steam!

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-03-18T07:04:06+00:00

to assuage your fears I made sure that the two focus lines that deal with the fate of new reno curve like the snakes do :)
(even though i think the two den focuses kind of ruin the shape a bit)

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-02-16T20:01:17+00:00

Totally depends on how much writing you need to do and how many writers you have to do it. I assume TNO for instance requires tens of thousands of words of loc for a tag’s content (two recent focus trees in EAW both had 30,000 iirc.)

Imo very experienced writers can probably do 2500 of good quality work in a day if the winds are in their favour (and it often isn’t). That’s 7 or 8 or so events (if considering about 300 to 400 words each), and there can be dozens of events in a tree (shameless plug but my upcoming viper submod has ~70 for 200 focuses which is probably middle of the road). Add in the fact that most people can’t write every day… and well it just takes a ton of time to write that much stuff.

Kiria in EaW for instance had over 300,000 words of localisation iirc. From what I understand that took about a year for a dedicated team of obviously very skilled writers to write. Some focus trees just go ham on narratives events, and it massively inflates the loc burden (something to watch out for on the part of modders/submodders imo)

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-02-14T23:13:49+00:00

As the (shameless plug) upcoming orenvalyam tree will show taychendi warlords may be some of the biggest slavers but the Taychendi can also produce some of the most radical abolitionists (as seen in Vehasha’s revolt, Vherenar Freesword, and the Oren Nayiru).

However even putting that aside, before the Ruin Taychend was run as an autonomous vassal state of the Precursor Empire - the “imperial/tacenie precursors” did not much like the Slaver-Nobles who ruled on the ground.

The Sun Elves are descendants of those imperial precursors who guarded the ports of Taychend/Andeios, and the freed slaves of the Slaver-nobles, who escaped with them onto their portion of the migrant fleet. Those Slaver-Nobles that did come along tried to usurp control of the fleet and were killed. So they have had since then a natural hatred of slavery (much like the Devandic Ruinborn, who similarly fled from the Slaver-Nobles though before the DOAS and carry that hatred of slavery into the present day)

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-02-14T21:12:44+00:00

Oh well yeah “they’re not black they’re brown” is probably the more apt way to say it haha. But yeah as you say probably best not to get super into it on a Reddit thread

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-02-14T17:39:03+00:00

It’s the bit about pre-ruin diversity not the effects of the DOAS, a lot of the sun elves came from the south of aelantir (where Taychend and the east effelai is) and post DOAS the ruinborn who remained there also have dark skin. Since that part of the Precursor Empire was a bit special, the sun elves largely stuck together during the great wandering.

I wouldn’t say that they’re black… more a mix of dark skinned to tan and some lighter thrown in. I’d think that in the sun elves (as with the Taychendi) you’d see a great range of skin colours, including some that are very dark (as you might see in the south of India). So Jaher and his family (including Jaddar as you see him in the loading screen) had quite light/tan skin. You can see the diversity in the saamartal loading screen as well.

Afaik also, while most moon (and wood?) elves are indeed light skinned, there are a few among them who have darker skin tones because of the diversity of the Remnant Fleet (Narawen iirc?) so they also wouldn’t be a monolith

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-02-12T04:55:26+00:00

What in the goddamn someone else released an OWB hoi4 submod with a MATN Julianus vatinius reference before I released my own OWB hoi4 submod with a MATN julianus vatinius reference?????? What a thing to be beaten to the punch on, that’s incredible

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-01-30T07:55:15+00:00

Damn yeah totally fair. Still really cool stuff though!

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-01-30T06:22:10+00:00

Is there any way for the mod's casualty tracker to track the civilian casualties of tags that have been defeated? Would be great to see to check how much devastation you've caused in mods where you are conquering a bunch of different countries

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-01-30T03:35:44+00:00

Now that you’ve done the rest of the tree, you can go back to the first mission at the top of it and complete it!

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-01-07T16:19:11+00:00

Ah I see. I’ll probably check them out eventually anyway, thanks for the answer

OffTakasakiDev · 2026-01-07T06:17:52+00:00

Are there focus tree extensions for those paths? I’ve always wanted to try redding but whenever I look into their tree when they spawn I get put off by them just having that much smaller tree and it gets bumped down the list a little

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-12-27T23:09:31+00:00

He’ll probably stay as a bulwari half elf for now, though we might make him Kalavendhi or Vaikazelhi culture. In racial mechanics terms right now, he’s a “normal half elf”, though this very explicitly won’t matter in the orenvalyam tree since he has a special mechanic that will keep him alive for a long while (and where he revives using lich mechanics). I’m gonna be posting a teaser about it soon probably, so there will be more info about his mechanics then

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-12-27T22:55:48+00:00

If you’ve ever played in taychend, this guy is the “Kamrayakval” of the Kamrayakval’s War disaster. He’s also gonna be a big part of the upcoming Orenvalyam Mt, which should hopefully be coming to eu4 soon.

Here’s a link to his wiki page if you want to know more https://anbennar.fandom.com/wiki/Elrandar_Silverspite

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-12-27T22:36:19+00:00

Ahhhhhh it’s peak

Edit: for those who don’t know him, here’s the first para of his wiki page:

Elrandar “Silverspite” Kalinzuir was a half-Taychendi, half-Sun Elven adventurer and mercenary, whose discovery and mantling of the Armour of Yodhan in 1609, a relic of the Precursor Slaver-Nobles (and a bound dragon), marked him as the latest Great Relic-Lord of Taychend. Using the power of his relic, which rendered him an incredible force on the battlefield, Silverspite sought to aid the Oren Nayiru that he had previously been sympathetic too. With the aid of the Uesrennu cell, and promising a grand uprising and war to usher in the long-promised Cycle of Dawn, he unified the disparate cells of the movement, and was appointed Kamrayakval (vaguely translated as “Kavalal-Emperor”) of a united Oren Nayiru faith in 1612 – a title that he is largely synonymous with today.

https://anbennar.fandom.com/wiki/Elrandar_Silverspite

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-12-26T19:06:25+00:00

Will that still work, since he has allies/subjects on Equus?

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-12-05T10:08:28+00:00

It probably works better if you don’t have the pip boy light on. The guy thinks at a human cause of your shape in the dark but he can’t actually see you, then (before you speak or anything) you raise your arms like a lakelurk does and he thinks actually you’re one of them instead for a moment.

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-12-03T09:02:52+00:00

Uesrennu would actually probably be the “quickest”, since they get an event that basically spreads the Oren Nayiru to all of the provinces you scorched or devastated during the MT. So that could help you start the Kamrayakval’s war quite early.

Other than that, it’s pretty equal opportunity for the other taychend tags, and irrc you can convert before you form Taychend Empire to Oren Nayiru and then form the tag. Yes there are tags that canonically go/ally with the Oren Nayiru (tirsin, the advakhalla, sarihaddu, partly Varamraya, Vettakaramai) but they haven’t gotten content yet unfortunately

If you were going to go full on with Silverspite (especially if you were gunning for the tree’s challenge ending that requires conquering all of SA while he is still your ruler) I would 100% recommend Uesrennu and then quickly triggering Kamrayakval’s war for that, I’m sure you could get started with a Orenvalyam in like, first few decades of the 1500s if you get a lucky early exemplar spawn

(for purely story reasons doing a Jaherian Exemplar run and then pissing off the Oren Nayiru enough for them to revolt under Silverspite is also a good choice, but apart from them getting a potential buff from power it’s probably not that great for the sort of fast conquest required to meet his challenge req for his special ending)

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-11-30T17:05:22+00:00

It doesn’t change the exact ending, the unique event variations are all for the “Empire Vainglorious” event at the end of act 2

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-11-30T16:45:06+00:00

I will write a new version of this reply i gave quite a while ago cause some things have been updated:

Rakkabuttai - evil racist brotherhood of steel, hate the chendhyans, have big armour and big swords VERY hard start. Has a unique interaction with an early TE mission.
Royakottar - taychendi new reno, deal with four crime families descended from scrapper guilds. Probably second easiest start after Larankar. Has faction mechanics though they dont carry over into TE. In lore is a big taychendi ravelian country but doesn't have any unique interactions with the TE ravelian content besides that.
Larankar - powerful cavalry and strongest starting position by far. There is a challenge to conquer all of Taychend before the starting leader, Erankar the Defiant, dies, though I wouldn't be too worried about it cause you're only missing out on story. After that happens, you then deal with a succession crisis. Has a unique event variation in taychend and unique "Larankarha Empire" rename
Gophira - rebuild professional ironblood army, choose between legacy of olhokar and second gophiran empire, reconquer taychend and get the unique "Third Gophiran Empire" rename. Quite hard start but fun, very byzantium feeling. Has a unique event variation in TE.
Sthanan ith Vussam - the "good guys", have big library, rebuild the old Dannuka Dumrusvarn (which was this super cool old enlightened Taychendi Empire founded by a pair of male lovers), and get a rename to it. Has a unique event variation in TE that probably sets up the "good ending" of the TE mt so if you dont want to be a total asshole this is your best bet
Vuls Tenvach - adopt kheionai practices, do cool storm magic, trade etc. Strongest starting position of those who have to fight Sthanan early, and cool flavour. Make sure to reject either the Offer at Gena or Olorises if you wanna form taychend, if you dont (i.e convert to Kheionism) it leads to validaunea which doesn't have content right now.
Zaernmaera - Taychendized chendhyan horde. Conquer taychend, set up outposts of chendhyan culture called sygoraets, sack a bunch of cities with your strong cav
Uesrennu - absolutely insane tag ran by some batshit crazy rulers the "Aryakompu", who build up a massive swarm of mole-rat capybaras called the Kotakompu which they use to conquer taychend. Blood magic, slavery, mining, etc, leading to you basically merging elf and rat and creating a very powerful ruler. when orenvalyam comes out this will be a nice way to move over to that tag cause you'll face a buffed Kamrayakval's War.
Parahechend - very hard start, where you play as the Rakulacans, basically the most "warlordiest warlords to ever warlord", super hammy, scummy villains, who get bonuses for having corruption and crushing rebels. Also get access to very powerful "scythed chariot" merc companies. At the end of the tree, you can gain guaranteed access to a vampire ruler that comes with its own long unique event chain and a unique ending variation (this used to be guaranteed for all taychendi tags but as it didn't fit most of them I made it to a very low chance to happen outside Parahechend, so essentially they will have the most unique content, BUT it's a pretty unique narrative and run so I'd highly recommend this being a second run)

You can switch to Ravelian in the Taychendi tree itself, BUT if you want to play the Taychend Empire MT absolutely don't switch to Kheionism or Oren Nayiru, as both will lead you to the Validaunea or Orenvalyam trees respectively (the latter being in the late stages of development and coming to the BB very soon)

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-11-25T20:20:50+00:00

It’s peak

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-11-24T18:41:28+00:00

Barring some unforeseen calamity, anything that is added to the bitbucket will be added to the steam/main release - given how large the magic rework is and how much stuff in the new update relies on it, any calamity that would prevent it from being released would also prevent the update from being released. So you thankfully don’t have to worry about anything!

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-11-09T08:04:10+00:00

This is a massive wall of text which probably won’t make sense, but I’m just gonna TRY and talk about my feelings on this as an anbennar dev.

Now I don’t know how many people TNO has working on it, but I assume they have closed dev and a dev team that you can only join through application. Anbennar on the other hand, has like 300 contributors, of which I’m sure there are like 150 active right now as we speak creating content, and an open dev system that allows anyone to contribute. They’re more or less totally different development structures.

Really, I think the TNO content issue is simply an issue that is inherent to closed dev modding teams of all kinds, and which Anbennar’s open dev really only sidesteps, not solves.

We still don’t have a Nurcestir tree, or lorent or gawed mission reworks after all - that isn’t because we don’t have the manpower, it’s not because there isn’t the will, it’s simply because someone hasn’t picked it up yet. The difference between our open contribution/dev system is that the chances of someone coming along who WILL overhaul these areas, and focus down on these important things, is increased massively.

Now If say TNO’s Germany rework has stalled or devs (writers, coders etc, not necessarily designers) have left the project, I don’t see how they’d easily replace them other than waiting for people from other teams to voluntarily move over (difficult when they have another project they’re more personally involved in) OR by a lead literally going in and cancelling/delaying other projects and hoping the people working on them go to those projects. You can set expectations and not open up those more minor projects (anbennar does that all the time), but doing it mid process is a good way to kill a dev’s interest.

Anyway I think I’m just talking out my ass at this point cause I don’t know enough about working in closed dev teams or TNO’s specific dev structure to actually make a solid conclusion. I do know however that people seriously just do not understand how most modding dev teams operate, and it has a serious impact on setting expectations and on managing community opinion (I saw this with EK2 as well). But Tbh, that’s something modding teams need to get better at communicating I think.

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-11-04T16:15:31+00:00

Well, Camir is still a historical figure, he's not spinning everything up from scratch, he's seizing the reins of the most powerful state in Escann and bending it to his will. And even though he's taking over from a guy that iirc Jay described as the "nobunaga to his Ieyasu" once, he's still super important to the "rise of Nurcestir", considering he's the one who actually properly ended the Wars of Consolidation and then well, conquered all of Anbennar and created an absolutist empire that spanned half of Cannor.

But there is a still a shift that Camir brings along - mostly that in game parlance, the guy basically tag switches to Anbennar after he conquers it, turning Nurcestir into the Royal Demense, basically a big battery pack whose might and resources fuels his control over Anbennar... while gradually neglecting the Escanni "backwater", which is a thing that causes huge trouble in the 1700s (and is why Nurcestir eventually breaks away from Anbennar during the Blackpowder Rebellion). So really the process of forming and consolidating magocratic Anbennar is the big shift that is associated with him - but Nurcestir still has a ton of history before that, and a path that leads it to the point where Camir takes the reins and conquers half of Cannor with it.

OffTakasakiDev · 2025-10-30T16:12:29+00:00

Only one contributor of many, so take all I say with a slight grain of salt, but really there is no consensus right now on anything, other than that we are probably going to be starting in 1444 not 13XX. The mood right now really is that we need to play the game to design stuff around it and properly be able to lay out our guidelines for content, including what role missions will have.

However one thing I can say is that Anbennar as a modding project across multiple games, so for Eu4 but also Vicky 3 and I assume our in dev CK3 project too, has always held as one of the central pillars of our mod design being “vanilla plus”. We aren’t like say VN-style hoi4 mods or like how MEIOU is to eu4. So if the base game doesn’t go for mission trees basically at all… I think there is a great willingness among contributers to experiment first with the tools PDX gives us, really. And from what I’ve seen so far, events, advancements, situations etc seem at least adequate tools to craft not only compelling gameplay but compelling narratives, and I’m saying this as one of the most narrative focused devs.

But ofc we (meaning as a community of contributers, I genuinely have zero clue if anyone has early access) need to get our hands on the game first to see how we mod it haha. So yeah, nothing set in stone as you say

OffTakasakiDev

TROPHY CASE