Hrdina_Imperia

Always love new cards :^)

Looking forward to actually trying out the attack path

Always love new cards :^)

Hello Skyladies and Skylords,
Welcome to another Official PvE Event!

Quick Overview:
Map                           1-player community map Town in Need Difficulty                    Advanced Goal                           Destroy the Twilight caves as quickly as possible or score as many point as possible while defending Date                           01.05.2024 until 14.05.2024 23:59 CEST Prizes                         Boosters and cards  
Rules and Goals:
In this event, the user @R4bitF00t will reveal his new community map Town in Need.
On this map, you have to save a small town from an imminent attack by the Twilight. You can do this in one of two ways:
Build a strong enough army to overrun the Twilight's camps before they can launch their attack on the town. Defend the town with the aid of the Kobold Engineers provided by the map. Depending on which way you beat the map, you will enter a separate ranking.
 
How the ranking works:
All entries, which choose the attacking way of beating the map will be ranked by speed. The lower your final time on the map is, the higher you will be ranked.
All entries, which choose the defensive way of beating the map will be ranked by score. The higher your score at the end of the game, the higher you will be ranked. In order receive points for your score, you have to use the Kobold Engineers provided by the map to reconstruct the defensive buildings in the town and to collect the power crystals on the southwestern part of the map. Doing these things will grant you the following amount of points:
Fully reconstruct the Tavern:                         10 points Fully reconstruct the Monument:                  20 points Fully reconstruct the Palace:                         30 points Fully reconstruct the Stronghold:                 40 points Fully reconstruct the Worldbreaker Gun:    100 points Fully reconstruct the Juice Tank:                    0 points, but enables collecting power crystals Collect Power Crystals:                                    8 points per crystal Note, that scoring ends as soon as the timer for the final attack runs out!
For a more detailed explanations on how the map works, see below.
 
Prize Pool
There are different prize pools for attacking and defending entries. You may submit multiple replays, but you will only be rewarded once for your highest ranking. The prize pool for both rankings consists of:
1st Place:                4 General Boosters + 3 Rebirth Edition Boosters + Bedrock 2nd Place:               3 General Boosters + 2 Rebirth Edition Boosters + Bedrock 3rd Place:                2 General Boosters + 1 Rebirth Edition Boosters + Bedrock 4th-5th Place:         2 General Boosters 6th-50%th Place:    1 General Booster Additionally, there will be a random draw of 5 Rebirth Edition Boosters as well as 5 Bedrock cards.

 
How to participate?

Everyone with an in-game account can participate in the event, there is no need to sign up separately.

To enter, you just have to send in your best replay, including the player name and whether you played the offensive or defensive way as well as you final score or time, to Metagross31 on Discord (metagross31) or the forum (@Metagross31)
BattleForge automatically saves a replay of your last game. You can find your replays here: Documents=>BattleForge=>replays
To save me some time, please rename the replay according to the following name format:  <offensive/defensive>_<score/time>_<your_name>.pmv (e.g. "defensive_120_Majora.pmv" or "offensive_20:35.6_Dutchy.pmv").

You can send in your replays until 14.05.2024 23:59 CEST.
 
How to play community maps:
What is the map about?
Here is a quick rundown of the map's mechanics:
Our Video Editor @Ultralord also created a cool trailer for the map, check it out on YouTube!
How will the winners be revealed?
Once the event is over, I will analyze the replays as soon as possible. @Ultralord has offered to host a stream in which he will show of some of the winning replays. The date has yet to be determined.
Afterwards, I will share the rankings in this forum thread and send out the rewards via in-game mail.
Future events
If you are interested in helping with these kinds of events for the community, or want to host one yourself, don't be afraid and simply reach out!
Send @Metagross31 a PM on the forum, or direct message via Discord (metagross31).
We are happy to assist you with upcoming events and with sponsoring towards your prize pool!
 
We hope you have a lot of fun with this event and are looking forward to seeing all your replays!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Hello once again!
We are near the end of advanced scripting principles.
Ifs and for loops are the last step between you and an official Skylords Reborn Advanced Scripting Degree! (jk)
Let's look at them now, shall we?
I will create two script files for this chapter, you can download them here.
Don't forget to define the example.lua script in _scriptlist.lua!
 
_globalvars.luaexample.lua
 
If you encounter any issues, don't hesitate to ask in Skylords Reborn Map Making Discord.
 
• Content

If, Elseif, Else For Loops Using Ifs in BF Scripts Using Loops in BF Scripts Next Chapter  
• If, Elseif, Else

First, I will use if, elseif and else conditions in a _globalvars.lua script.
There, we can most easily see how to work with these conditions.

In Lua, using the if condition is very simple.
There are three basic keywords you need to know:
IF - starts the if condition block, is followed by the actual condition THEN - defines the actions that should happen if the condition is true END - closes the if condition block Let's look at the _globalvars.lua example above.
I've declared a difficulty variable and used the GetDifficulty() function to get the difficulty we are playing the map on.
The GetDifficulty() function returns the numbers 1, 2 or 3 based on the difficulty.
1 - standard difficulty 2 - advanced difficulty 3 - expert difficulty
   
Then I use the if condition to check if the difficulty is equal to one of these numbers.
To compare values, we use the following characters.
== - checks if the value on the left is equal to the value on the right, be sure to use double = > - checks if the value on the left is bigger than the value on the right < - checks if the value on the left is smaller than the value on the right >= - checks if the value on the left is larger or equal to the value on the right <= - checks if the value on the left is smaller or equal to the value on the right As you can see, I've used the else keywords in the code.
If you want to check another condition for the same if condition, use the following keywords.
ELSEIF - starts another if condition block, if the first if condition returns false, is followed by the new condition to check ELSE - defines the actions that will happen if ALL the above ifs and elseifs return false In my example - if the difficulty is not standard, I use the ELSEIF condition to check if the difficulty is advanced.
If the difficulty is not standard or advanced, then it must be expert, so I use the ELSE keyword - no further condition needed, as the ELSE actions get executed if all the other conditions fail.
If you don't want to deal with the ELSE and ELSEIF keywords, you can separate the check into three separate IF conditions.
Keep in mind that you then need to end every if condition with the END keyword.

 
• For Loops

I am going to show you how to declare for loops outside of BF scripts at first. 
For loops are used to execute code multiple times, until you reach the loop count you specify.
If you were to use for loops in general Lua scripts, you would go about it like this.

So these are the keywords you need to remember.
FOR - declares the for loop, is followed by definition how many times the loop should run DO - defines the actions that should happen for every run of the loop END - ends the for loop After the for, we need to declare a variable for that loop, that we will increase by one every time the loop finishes, and the range the variable should start and end at. Like this.
i = 1,2
This tells the loop to define the i variable that starts at the value of 1, and the loop will stop once the i reaches a value of 2.
So the loop will run two times.
first time when the loop starts at i = 1 second time when i = 2 the loop will not start a third time, as the i has reached the specified value of 2 This for loop would do absolutely nothing, but if we were to add an equation into the for loop...

With this loop, it would increase our difficulty variable by 1 every time the loop runs. So in the end, if we started the map on standard difficulty, the difficulty variable would return 3 - as if we were playing expert, and it would return 5 if we were actually playing on expert.
(GetDifficulty() returns 1 on standard difficulty and 3 on expert difficulty, then we add 1 for every loop -> 1+1+1 = 3 or 3+1+1 = 5 )
For now, let's just declare a variable number_of_spawners in _globalvars.lua.

 
 
• Using Ifs BF Scripts

To show you how to use ifs and loops in BF scripts, I am going to create an example.lua script.
I want the game to give me an outcry that the script was successfully loaded, so I add a state (remember, every script needs at least one state) with a OnOneTimeEvent that sends out an outcry.

Now if we define the example.lua into _scriptlist.lua, upon map start, we should get the outcry "EXAMPLE LOADED".
 
To actually use the ifs and for loops in the script, we will need to define them OUTSIDE OF ANY STATE.
The events we declare in ifs and for loops will be added to the next state after them.
I've added an if difficulty == 3 condition above my INIT state.

This condition will use the difficulty variable I've declared in _globalvars.lua and check if we are playing on expert difficulty.
If the condition is true, it will add the declared OnOneTimeEvent to the INIT state below the if condition.
You probably didn't notice this, but I've added something special to the MissionOutcry. A "..difficulty" after the outcry text.

Believe it or not, but we can actually use the variables in BF actions and conditions. The double dot (..) tells the script to add whatever comes after the double dot to the text before it.
In our case, it will add the difficulty variable to the outcry text, like this.

Awesome!
Also notice that the event will switch the script to the EXPERT state. Note that, it is important in the following topic.
 
 
• Using Loops in BF Scripts

I've prepared a little scenario to showcase the usage of for loops.
I have two fire spawners, one tagged spawn_point1 and the other spawn_point2.

I want to spawn a squad next to each of them on expert difficulty.
To do that, I will add the EXPERT state, to which the if condition event switches to.
And above the EXPERT state, I will define my for loop.

I have two spawners, and I want to spawn one squad next to each of them. So I will declare the i = 1,2.
I use the SquadSpawn action to spawn the squad and in the TargetTag, I use the good old double dot (..) to spawn the squad next to each spawner.

The SquadSpawn action takes the "spawn_point" tag we specified and the for loop adds the number of the i after it.
 
So what this for loop does is, it adds two OnOneTimeEvents with the SquadSpawn action to the EXPERT state. And the TargetTag for the first event is spawn_point1 and for the second event it is spawn_point2.
 
Now, the number of spawners I have on the map can change as I work further on the map, for easy access to the number of spawners, I have declared the number_of_spawners variable in _globalvars.lua.
We can use that variable in our for loop, now we won't need to sift through all the scripts to adjust the number of spawners we have, we can only change the variable in _globalvars.lua.

 
Let's check our script in game.
When we start the map on standard or advanced difficulty, the squads will not spawn.

The EXAMPLE LOADED outcry tells us that the script works as it should, we just didn't select the expert difficulty.

But when we start the map on expert (remember - we switch to the EXPERT state in our event in the first if condition), we will get a squad of Sunstriders next to each spawner, alongside the DIFFICULTY 3 outcry.

YAY!
Before we leave thic topic behind us, I just want to reiterate that the contents of the ifs and for loops get added to the next state that comes after them.

 
• Next Chapter

I know this chapter was a bit... ify.
But you successfully got through the advanced scripting principles. Don't worry, a bit of practice and some help from your fellow map making skylords will carry you a long way.
In the next chapter, we will look at the very complex topic of Warfare Patterns. Using them can be really great and easy if you know what you're doing, but they include some weird behaviours that might confuse you.
Don't dread, I will be there to guide you on your Warfare Pattern jouney to victory.
 
• Warfare Patterns • (Coming Soon)
 

 

Hotfix - 29 April 2024

General Fixes
Fix postgame window sometimes showing as loss even when winning. Fix postgame window sometimes missing rewards. Fix postgame gold tab error. Fix players being stuck not being able to join lobbies. Fix crash upon opening 12 player rankings tab. Fix wrong date on rankings. Fix some replays crashing the game. Fix free PvP deck clone error when pressing enter. Fix empty 2 player rankings. Fix Phalanx mode change crashing the game. Fix non-human players appearing on replays player list. Fix Burrow Ritual (G) crashing the game. Fix error message when disenchanting rewards too quickly. Fix occasional crash on match end for 4 players map. General Changes
Add new filter "Cards" to replay UI, to search played cards.

Patch #400046 - Stone Turtle
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our eleventh balance patch for the game, a brand-new card, a new booster type, and our new map of the day feature!

Patch Preview
One new card is now available! Jump in-game to collect Bedrock. Added Map of the Day! A multiplayer map will be chosen at random each day and highlighted on the map. Play it to receive extra rewards. The new Rebirth Booster is now available. Earn it by completing the Map of the Day and through events.  A few balance changes to underperforming Twilight cards as well as a bugfix to a longstanding bug with heal stacking. A batch of quality of life changes requested by the community.
General Changes
Added an indicator for if a random PvE lobby is for the Map of the Month. The Marketplace no longer resets the page on purchase. This should allow players to purchase multiple cards without having to repeatedly scroll back to the same page.  Boosters now stack in the booster inventory screen. Replays are now searchable and sortable. Players can also now see the played cards of all players in a replay. Dates & Times now are displayed in the player time zone using their operating system format. Deck name length increased from 16 to 30. This will allow players to better label their decks. The actual visible deck name is dependent on what resolution a person uses when playing the game. Free PvP deck cloning has been massively improved. If a player has a fully upgraded and charged copy of the card in their collection from the Free PvP deck, that card will now replace the free version of the card in the deck whenever the player clones a Free PvP deck.  Players can now export their in-game collection to the Skylords Marketplace Journal (SMJ) by using the chat command /exportcollection in-game. Once exported to SMJ, players can see their progress in terms of their total collection and check which of their cards are the most valuable to sell and which are cheap to buy in order to complete their collection. Removed generated maps from PvP daily quests. Additionally, the "win sparring match" on a specific PvP map quest has been changed from "win" to "play". This will allow players to finish the quest even if on a losing streak.  General Fixes
Implemented a fix for when sometimes swapping the player portrait with a card results in an error. Daily quests are now properly ordered with the most recently received quest at the top. Improved the descriptive text for the import deck tutorial mission. Added dates to PvE leaderboard entries. The text wrapping when displaying a lobby's rPvE difficulty has been fixed.   Fixed spectators counting for achievements, specifically PvP achievements. Fixed match statistics having an incorrect count for maps with spectators. A script will be run to correct the information in player profiles.
New Cards
Bedrock - 280p T4 Stonekin Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map "King of the Giants".
When thinking about Stonekin's design, we determined that more buildings interactions fit well with the faction. More specifically, we thought that a building-based archetype was the natural expansion for a faction of living stones. Last patch, we released Tectonic Shift, and this patch we are adding Bedrock. Bedrock is a T4 ranged unit capable of spawning a Stone Launcher and casting an AoE shield that protects buildings in range. For more information, check out Community Update - October 2023.
 

Map of the Day
In our last major patch, we reworked campaign map rewards. A major driving force behind this change, beyond equalizing rewards between the random and campaign PvE modes, was to allow for more flexibility in the reward structure. This flexibility will allow us to create new systems which interact with campaign maps going forward. The first of these new systems is the Map of the Day (MotD) feature. The details for the MotD can be found below. We hope that by introducing this feature, and for rewarding players for regularly interacting with it, it will become as easy for players to find lobbies for campaign maps as it is for random PvE matches. We want players to be able to play the game mode they want, and to not be forced into a mode because of an imbalance in rewards or available lobbies.
[ Map of the Day Features ]
Each day, a new multiplayer map is chosen and highlighted on the world map via a flame identical to the flame used for PvP Happy Hours. Players who win the Map of the Day, on any difficulty, receive an additional choice of upgrade on the post-game reward screen. If the MotD is a 12p map, players will instead receive an additional 1200 gold for completing the map on advanced, and an additional 2400 gold for completing it on expert difficulty. A new achievement "Feel the Burn" has been added. For each day that a player completes the Map of the Day, they will receive 50 bfp. On every 10th completion, they will additionally receive a Rebirth Booster. Rebirth Boosters contain 3 cards, all from the Rebirth Edition (cards released by the Skylords Reborn team), with a substantially increased chance of producing an Ultra-rare card.
Achievements
[ Random PvE Achievement Changes ]
We have made a few changes to the names and structure of the main random PvE achievements. The new structure of the achievements and their rewards are listed below. Note that people who previously completed the random PvE 10 achievement (now expert+) will already receive credit for having completed "Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire." We have made this change to encourage people to play the new expert difficulty level, but without feeling forced to try and complete expert+ to get the booster reward.
The Road Not Taken [3 general boosters]
Win rPvE Advanced++ or higher [20 matches]
Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire [6 boosters]
Win rPvE Expert or higher [20 matches] - Locked until PvE rank 5 (Silver 1)
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here [Avatar: Demon Skull & Avatar: Hell Fire; Title: Hell Diver] 
Win rPvE Expert+ [10 matches & 20 matches] - Locked until PvE rank 10 (Gold 2)

Card Balance Changes
[ Global Balance Changes ]
All healing and rejuvenation effects now stack: 
Regardless of whether they are local, global, percentage, or flat, all healing effects now stack with each other. No longer will Fountain of Rebirth overwrite Wheel of Gift's healing effect. [ Twilight Changes ]
 Twilight Brute:
1. Gifted Burstout (g):
   A. Max Targets: 4 ➜ 7
   B. Damage application: Damages hostile or friendly units ➜ hostile units
   C. Ability cast range: 15m ➜ 25m
2. Infused Burstout (r):
   A. Damage: 400, up to 1600 ➜ 400, up to 2800
   B. Increase damage to buildings: 400 per target ➜ 600 per target
   C. Damage application: Damages hostile or friendly entities ➜ hostile entities
   D. Ability cast range: 15m ➜ 25m
Twilight Brute has an interesting ability that seems tailored fit for giving Twilight a new strategy in T2 PvE. While the ability itself is well-designed, its current strength holds it back. We are increasing the ability cast range to allow it to be used deeper into enemy encampments, increasing the total targets from 4 to 7, and removing the ally damage. We hope with these changes we help to create a new strategy where the player can run some Brutes into a camp and, along with Fire's damage spells, create a cascading explosion effect similar to how Evil Eye plays in T4.  
 Twilight Creeper:
1. Life points: 1700 ➜ 1880
2. Infused Spit debuff strength: 40% ➜ 50%
3. Tainted Spit debuff strength: 30% ➜ 40%
Twilight Creeper is well designed but it currently has low stat efficiency for a T3 L-sized melee unit. We are giving it some more life points and boosting its primary strength through the spit effect.
 Twilight Hag:
1. Damage: 75 damage, up to 153 in total ➜ 124, up to 186 in total (1030 dp20)
2. Life Points: 850 ➜ 1030 life points
3. Damage Counter: L-counter ➜ M-counter
4. Ability name change: Femme Fatale ➜ Enrapture
   A. Cooldown: 60 seconds ➜ 40 seconds
   B. No longer affects Male/Female. Negative effect now affects all enemies and positive effect all allies.
Twilight Hag is one of those cards which is fearsome to face in the lower tiers in PvE, but which as a player card is a wet noodle. We have sent her to the gym, and she has come back with an over 20% increase in both her damage and health stats. Alongside the stat increase, which is more than it might first appear because she had an unusually low single-target damage value previously, we are shifting her damage counter to M. The new M-counter plus her pre-existing small and medium knockback should make her feel powerful against smaller unit sizes. Besides low stats, Hag also suffers from a highly niche ability. The player cannot control the gender of their enemies, and it is not clear what units have what genders anyway (did you know Necrofury is a woman?). In general, we think these male/female mechanics just do not fit in Skylords Reborn, and in this particular case, they are holding back Twilight Hag from potentially becoming a potent crowd control unit similar to Timeless One. Therefore, we are removing the male/female interaction while also shaving 20 seconds off the ability cooldown. 
[ Minor Card Changes ]
 Wheel of Gifts:
1. The same gifts can no longer be activated while another instance of that gift is already starting up.
[ NPC Changes ]
Added several new NPC units: Bandit Bloodhorn, Bandit Wasteland Terror, Snapjaws, Overlord, and Lost Grigori. These units are now available for use by community and official mapmakers.   Lost Spirit Ship (NPC):
1. Removed the suicide ability.
2. Now spawns a Crystal similar to the player version on reaching the previous corpse threshold for suiciding.
   A. Crystal damages enemy units for 300 damage every second, up to 900 in total in a 15m radius.
   B. Cooldown: 30 seconds
   C. Duration: 10 seconds
The existing implementation of Lost Spirit Ship in PvE, while conceptually interesting and a good template for future suicidal units, simply does not work with a T4 XL-sized ranged unit. By changing NPC LSS to spawn a crystal instead, we give it a general usefulness that will open up the possibility of adding the unit to future maps and as a regular part of Lost Souls' rPvE repertoire. 
 Lost Converter (NPC):
1. Spell debuff: 20% less damage ➜ 30% less damage
2. Corpse collection radius: 25m ➜ 40m
3. Poison application radius: 25m ➜ 30m
3. Poison damage per tick: 25 (same as before)
4. Poison damage tick speed: 2s ➜ 1s
5. Corpse cost on enemy entry: 300 ➜ 50
6. Corpse cost per damage tick: 0 ➜ 25
In simpler terms: Lost Converter's poison effect now has normal ranged range (30m), deals double the damage it currently does, and has an increased debuff strength. The corpse collection range has also been increased to 40m, meaning that the building should begin poisoning the player sooner. This will slightly increase the strength of camps with a Lost Converter as the building should now do something.

Hotfix
 Fixed the 12 player rankings tab crashing upon opening it.

BIG THX to @SunWu who donated 25.000 BFP!!!  to the price pool ❤️

The male/female tags are being removed.
Reason being that on many cards it is unclear what the unit even is and there is no pretty way to communicate it. Also, the concept was never really fleshed out, it only had two cards that interacted with it. Twilight Hag already got reworked and Girl Power is next. So it hardly ever really amounted to an actual playstyle.

Making both affinities of a card equally viable is a difficult task. It is something we have achieved on probably less than 20% of all cards with affinities. It is also why we do not add affinities to a lot of the new cards we introduce into the game, because we do not want to contribute to an already substantial problem.
In terms of Banditos, I think it is fine if the green affinity's primary use is in combination with Corsair. But even then, I think you underestimate how important damage scaling is on S-units. While Bandits might lose to Thugs in an army vs. army match-up, this is hardly representative of scenarios players will encounter in PvE. The new Girl Power (Fire Force) will provide damage reduction scaling, giving Banditos more survivability, while the natural limitations of melee S-units means more damage per squad member is one of the highest prized stats. Melee units have an attack limit against enemies and S-units are the ones most affected by this. There reaches a point where more squad members simply cannot attack the enemy. The damage scaling of Banditos is a creative way around this limitation. 
Will this be enough? Honestly I am not sure. Melee S-units will likely never be top tier strategies, there are simply too many structural issues at play for them to thrive. But we are hoping they become viable, which is a different standard entirely. 

It is the same dancing flame, yes. And glad to hear you are enjoying the game, that is really why all of us continue to do this. 

Greetings Skylords!
A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

Click below to view our April Fools joke for 2024. 
    • Upcoming Patch - April

While we continue working on our significant Summer patch (which will include our new campaign missions), we are nearly ready to release another patch to bridge the gap until you can get your hands on the Echoes of the Amii patch. In this smaller patch, planned for release in April, we will introduce two new cards, Map-of-the-Day, our new Rebirth booster, as well as some minor balance changes. Stay tuned for the full patch notes later this month.
The two new cards included in this patch will be the long-awaited Stonekin turtle, Bedrock, and a new build-around tool for Lost Souls players in Gate of Akylos.

As you can see, these cards will mark the introduction of the first new Ultra Rare cards to the game. If you're curious about the basis for our rarities, please check out our rarity design philosophy.
While maintaining a consistent logic for rarities is important to us, we also want to ensure that players can actually experience our newly created content. These new cards will be obtainable in their respective boosters as usual, but introducing an Ultra Rare without additional measures would likely make them unattainable for the majority of the player base.
We have received feedback from the community regarding the availability of the new cards in the Rebirth Edition in general, and set out to find a solution. Introducing: the Rebirth booster.

This booster will differ from the other boosters currently in the game. It will not be available in the store and can only be obtained through special events and a new reoccurring achievement. This new achievement rewards you for interacting with our new Map-of-the-Day feature. Every day, a random multiplayer Campaign Map will be selected for the Map-of-the-Day. They will be easy to spot, with an effect around their icon on the world map similar to the PvP-happy hour. For every completed Map-of-the-Day on a different day, players will receive 50 BFP. Additionally, for every 10th map, they will receive a Rebirth booster.
Each Rebirth booster contains 3 cards, all from the Rebirth Edition. Additionally, there will be an increased chance for cards of a higher rarity to drop.
We hope that Map-of-the-Day will encourage players to play both fan-favorite and lesser-played campaign maps. This should also help in assisting new players who are seeking to complete the full campaign. We will be monitoring the prices of our new cards and the impact the Rebirth booster is having on the economy, and might adjust accordingly in the future. We are also planning to distribute some Rebirth boosters through various events.
 
While we are unable to announce a specific release date yet, we feel quite comfortable announcing that this patch will go live in April. We hope you look forward to it!
 
• New Card Reveal - Skydancer

During our Anniversary Stream we announced there would be three new Amii units coming to Skylords Reborn in 2024. We will be revealing those cards in the upcoming Community Updates. Last month we revealed Amii Sentinel. Today we are ready to reveal Skydancer!
Please note: We are still testing the card. While we are generally happy with it, numbers and effects might still change before release. 


 
Spirit Blade
Every 1.6 seconds, unit casts a lance of elemental power that deals 222 damage to enemies in a 5m radius around its target, up to 333 in total.

 
Spirit of Anguish - Mode Change, Cost: 50p
Activate to call forth an ancient Shadow spirit draining the enemy’s will to fight. While an enemy unit is within 40m of Sky Dancer, it deals 20% less damage. After being affected for 10 seconds, the debuff increases, causing enemies to deal 50% less damage. Effect lasts for 10 seconds after an enemy leaves range. Lasts until deactivated. Reusable every 30 seconds.
 
Spirit of Hope - Mode Change, Cost: 50p
Activate to call forth an ancient Nature spirit that bolsters the life of allies. While an allied unit is within 30m of Sky Dancer, its maximum life points are increased by 20% and it regenerates 1% of its life points every second. Effect lasts for 10 seconds after units leave the area of effect. Lasts until deactivated. Reusable every 30 seconds.
 
Elusive
Units with Elusive have the duration of the immobilizing effects of Freeze and Paralyze reduced by 10%.
 
 
Design notes: Last month, we revealed Amii Sentinel. The card itself was well received and its design led to a lively discussion in our card balancing discord about potential synergizes and the types of strategies people thought it would create. The design of Amii Sentinel, while interesting in itself, becomes more so when considered alongside its intended support unit, Skydancer. Skydancer is an L-sized flying unit with two powerful support abilities. The first is Spirit of Anguish, a kind of anti-rage effect which scales in strength as the enemy remains in range. The other is Spirit of Hope, which introduces a new mechanic allowing for players to increase the maximum life points of their own units. This second ability is the one intended to directly synergize with Amii Sentinel. Amii Sentinel can turn health into damage through its reflect mechanic, and by adding more total life points to its pool of health, the total damage available through reflection also increases. 
Our goal for Skydancer goes beyond being a summon-once support for Amii Sentinel. In general, XL-sized melee units rule T4, particularly in random PvE, with there being a lot of structural reasons why this is true. While we love XL-units as much as everyone else, we as a team want to start diversifying the unit experience by bolstering other types of strategies. With a solid damage-to-power ratio, a large amount of survivability via both Spirit abilities, and a natural synergy with Transcendence, we hope to see flying armies of Skydancers become a viable strategy in T4, both with and without Amii Sentinel. 
Skydancer is currently planned to release alongside our next major content patch in the summer, including brand-new campaign maps. We are not yet able to announce an exact release date. Please stay tuned for more information, and check in next month for another Amii card reveal!
 
• Input requested: Elemental Mastery

Skylords Reborn can be a daunting game, given the large variety of cards and mechanics. With so many options to explore, there is always more to learn. We want players to get a sense of which faction they play the most, what kind of interactions they have with the faction, and to complete tasks that give them a sense of having achieved mastery with said faction. To support both the learning and mastering process for each faction, we would like to introduce a new category of mini-achievements known as Elemental Masteries. These achievements will be tailored to each faction and divided into two categories:
Individual - these will track specific card actions, such as the number of spawns erupted to death.
General - these will will track player progress with the overall faction, such as how many maps a player has completed with Pure Fire.
Each category will reward minor rewards along the way, mostly in the form of faction-specific cosmetics.
The goal is for each faction to track 5 interactions per tier, as well as 5-10 general faction progress trackers. We are interested in the community's ideas for what types of card actions they would like to track, with focus on things which are commonly repeatable. Focus can be either PvP or PvE, though the final choices will be a mix of both.
 
Examples of Trackable Actions
Due to recent advancements in our understanding of the game, we can track most internal and external card interactions. Below are a list of some of these trackable events, all of which have been taken from Fire cards.  
• Number of units charged by Enforcer
• Enemy spawn buildings erupted to death
• Buildings suppressed (Sunstriders + Suppression)
• Enemies knocked back with Lava Field
• Total time Batariel has spent in his stage 3 burning phase
• Total damage dealt by Fire Dragons
• Void returned with Shrine of War
 
Join our brainstorm
You can share your idea's in this thread on the Forum. Brainstorming is also taking place in our official discord dedicated to discussion of card balancing in Skylords Reborn. Please join us there if you would like to see more elemental mastery suggestions or if you would like to participate in discussions relating to proposed changes to the game before they happen.

 
• Events

In between our monthly Community Updates, we host various events and tournaments, so be sure to keep a close eye on the in-game event tab and the forum calendar to stay informed and not miss out on any exciting events!
 
• NEW - Returning Easter Event
Complete any match during the Easter season to collect a free Promo Easter Egg. Additionally, you can collect a special Easter-themed border by completing the community map "The Easter Tree". 
 
 • SECOND PHASE STARTED - PvP AI programming contest
We are gathering players for a new type of event. Get ready for an AI Programming Tournament, where the submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist! More information.
 
• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizer @Metagross31. We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, we will gladly assist you.
 
• Team changes

We are happy to announce that both a new and a returning member have formally joined the Skylords Reborn team. ElementG is our new 3D artist, assisting the art team with model adjustments. His latest work, Skydancer, has turned out very nicely, so stay tuned for that. Additionally, Chibiterasu has re-joined the team as a Card Implementor. We are delighted to have him return, as his experience with the tools is a welcome addition to our work output.
Minashigo Hiko has concluded his role as an Event Manager. We would like to thank him for his contributions over the years.
As our team continues to grow, Dutchy has taken on the role of HR Coordinator alongside his Lead Moderator duties. Are you interested in helping out with the project but not sure how? Feel free to send him a message!
 
• Contribute to Skylords Reborn

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to have a look at our open positions!

We are especially looking for some more proofreaders (English), to read over stuff like the Community Update and Event posts before they go live. We are also looking for translators (French, Russian) to help with our new campaign maps and more. 
Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• In Conclusion

That's all for this Community Update! We appreciate you taking the time to read through it.
As is tradition, we're including a scratch code as a small token of our appreciation for your support.
The code will reward you with a General booster: SKYL-ORDS-REBO-RNVR
The code is valid until May 1st, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
We're always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them with us. We'll be back next month with more updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming features. You can also sign up to our e-mail newsletter here. 

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update March 2024
 

Why I think Battleforge/Skylords Reborn has one of the best RTS tutorials.
Hey guys, I have been an RTS enthusiast since i was roughly 7 years old, I could barely hold the mouse in my hand back then and of course I was really bad. I played Command and Conquer and Starcraft, and even up to this day I still look around for new RTS to play and enjoy, and especially now is a good time to be a fan of RTS games as we have some very exciting games coming up, like Zerospace, Tempest Rising, Stormgate and D.O.R.F.. 
And even though I've played so much RTS in my life, which is arguably my most favorite genre, I still always check out the tutorial of new games, and sometimes I even catch myself how I check out the tutorial of a game that I have played a thousand times just to see how they handled the tutorial. Were they doing a good job explaining stuff? Was the pacing good? Did they let you have some freedom in it or was it extremely strict and limited?
I still check out these tutorials because at the end of the day, I would still consider myself being a casual RTS player, I don't need difficult challenges to overcome, for me the S in RTS stands for sandbox (took the quote from GiantGrantGames). I just wanna have fun! But in order for that to happen I need a good tutorial. One that teaches me all the unique stuff about this particular RTS. They still can do the little control tutorial part but it shouldn't be overdone. (As you never know if this is a players first RTS or not, so littlebit of control tutorial should be part of it)
RTS games that I have played are Starcraft 1/2, Warcraft 3, Age of Empires 2/3, Star Wars Empire at War, Age of Mythology, Command & Conquer (almost all of them except 4), 8-Bit Armies, Battle for Middleearth 1/2, War of the Ring, Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, Dawn of War 1, SWINE, Arena Wars, Pikmin 2/3/4, A year of rain, Warparty, Stronghold (1, Crusader 1/2 and Warlords) and of course Skylords Reborn. But among all these i actually think Skyloords has the best tutorial out there.
Age of empires 2 was fine but also extremely long and slow. Some of the tutorial missions could have been thrown together.
Starcraft 2 was also fine but it didn't leave you much freedom to just go and try stuff. It was very limited.
Warcraft 3 almost takes the win, but instead of having Thrall explain things to you or a grunt, its just a disembodied voice as a narrator.
Dawn of war 1 was basically just a skirmish with an extradumb AI and another disembodied voice.
This is where I think Battleforge back then nailed it.
1. First of all, the narrator. Youre being guided through the tutorial by Moon, a character that is relevant for the entire campaign. And shes not talking to you breaking the fourth wall, she talks to you as an equivalent, you are a fellow skylord as well. The way she talks to you is way more immersive than in some other games were they basically remind you that this is a game.
2. The whole control stuff with the camera and unitcontrol is being dealt with quickly. The basecontrols of any RTS games is just never the difficult part, its easy to pick up and doesn't need much explaination. She also doesn't force you to things that you might never end up doing anyway. There were games were you had to spin the camera, or click on the minimap to move the camera but in the actual game you just never did it because its just not necessary.
3. Next is the explaination of the ressource system, its quick and easy to understand, but that is part of the game mechanics itself.
4. The tutorial is actually disguised as an actual mission. You not here in a bootcamp like situation, there are bandits and they need to be dealt with. At one point even Moon was shocked how well equipped the bandits were and she even helped you with an earthquake spell. This was not just a trial or an exam, it was a mission!
5. The pacing in general is very well done, you are not dumped with too many informations at one point without doing too much in the meantime. It was well proportioned overall, a little bit of info, then you got to some stuff again.
6. In the introduction you also had to not only attack, but also defend. Some tutorials always show you just how to A-move and then they are done, but here you also  had to defend on that wall. Whats even more interesting is, when she wants you to defend, you are tasked to build a cannon tower, building something takes time. But instead of waiting until its finished the enemy attack wave is already on the way. You are not idly sitting around doing nothing waiting for the tower to be finished you already being attacked, the tower finishes midcombat and then helps you out a lot.
There are even more little things that I could point out, like the way abilities were explained, spell showcase, or construction of walls with the right direction. But the final important thing about this tutorial is the ending.
7. Once you have arrived at the third monument, the mission opens up. You can play with more stuff and there is a lot to do. You get access to magma hurler and tremors, which when I played the game for the first time were cool as heck! Moon tasked with the task to take out the remaining enemies and their boss. A BOSS... IN A TUTORIAL! This was awesome, you have access to everything now and can do whatever you want, there is a bunch more enemies to deal with, even with a little camp to the side where you can find more power wells (its not worth it building them up as they wont pay for themselves anymore but its just plain fun, finding stuff and being rewarded for being curious) The choice of your final two units is also well made, you got the magma hurler as pretty good ranged damage dealer without abilities, so you can just A-move them, but the tremor have an aoe that knocks back smaller targets, is it strong? No but it also doesn't need to be, just seeing all the enemies sent flying with the skill is awesome. 
And then there is the boss, is he difficult? No but he got a very strong healer and if that one isn't dealt with the fight can take way longer. It rewards the player realizing the situation and figuring stuff out. Sure looking back its not that impressive, but newer players will feel good after this.
Overall I think of all the tutorials that I have played this is one of the best of all time. I'm curios to see how the upcoming RTS are gonna handle this stuff.
If there is one thing that I would add is maybe at least a voice line telling you about the effectiveness of counters and that its a 50% damagebuff. Not everything must be within a tutorial but I think that one would be nice.
So this is my opinion on this, again I'm just a casual and probably some people are gonna disagree with some of the things that I said.
What did you think of the introduction, or which RTS tutorial did you think did it best?

As per the design documents, Bandits has always had problems with the identity of their cards and splash redundancy. Skyfire Drake is to Windhunter, Gunner to Ashbone Pyro, Frenetic Assault to Amok and further. Banditos faces the largest redundancies in the lineup as a S->S type, which even T1 unit cards are outperforming. This post is made as a long standing Bandit's player, and isn't meant to be any sole verdict on the state of cards within Battleforge, nor any effort to change the game beyond Banditos themselves*. First let us look at the card itself:
Banditos are a swarm/anti swarm unit through their passive, Alliance. Swarms being within the Bandit archetype. Banditos have a Complexity Calculation of 2, having only passives, with Alliance containing external dependencies (sum of surrounding enemy/ally units). While Alliance stacks multiple times with itself, the function of the passive remains consistent and straightforward (though it may be interpreted as more complex or multi-stage, Alliance requires no further game knowledge). Banditos lack synergy with other Bandits cards, which is contrasted by other Bandits cards granting them a factional synergy. Banditos has the highest health value among Bandit unit cards in T2 at 840 HP (beating Bandit Spearmen by 30 HP). Banditos has a low attack power for a T2 melee unit at 660 ATK, which rises with 3 surrounding units up to 990 ATK, and a maximum potential of 1650 ATK at 9 surrounding units (comparable with Nightcrawler's Frenzied 1630 ATK). Banditos can be summoned four at a time by the T3 Corsair (Nature) for 120 power, a design choice seemingly made for Gifted Alliance to be active without needing the Corsair itself nearby, or for Motivate/Blood Healing to be more easily used underneath a supporting Corsair. Within PvE, Banditos can grant a significant advantage when swarming, but in practice suffers from a lack of support options such as Nature's healing spells. Earth Crystal and Ice Crystal appear to be heavily encouraged within Bandits, as many cards have a Nature or Frost affinity available, but these neutral buildings just help an already ahead player get further ahead. Banditos require a large power pool to make a difference, and only when they're not being knocked down or facing area damage.
For PvP, Banditos face significant use-case issues:
Army deterioration near immediately disables Alliance. Bandit's limited sustainability and high offense exasperates Banditos' lackluster statistics, especially when contrasted with Bandit Spearmen (who do not rely upon a conditional effect) having nearly the same statistics of a Banditos with Alliance active (without factoring in Bandit Spearmen's weapon change ability). Banditos (Nature) requires a significant lead to utilize fully, and in the situations 7-10 units can be massed up (and not lost to spells) the match has likely been decided first by other cards. Banditos (Frost) is a counter to swarms (without any ability to intercept said swarms). Banditos (Frost) are not useful against any swarm cards. Banditos do not counter Sunken Temple and its Pest Creepers, nor Undead Army or Harvester, while Thugs will always beat an equal power's worth of Banditos if Gang Up is active alongside proper targeting. Fire/Shadow has other S->S counter units, which Banditos offers no play advantages over. Thugs are more durable when swarming in T1 saving you a deck slot, Rippers will bounce back from spells and counter corpse use, while Dark Elf Assassins are already one of the most power-effective S->S units; and happen to be ranged. The primary issue with balancing Banditos is that they are produced by Corsair (Nature) for 30 power each, without binding power. While I personally believe the impact of buffing Corsair (Nature)'s Banditos will not shake PvE's balance, there may be significant problems in PvP if Banditos' are over tweaked. Corsair drops (especially Banditos) are currently in an okay spot balance wise for T3 PvP, but this is about the T2 unit, Banditos, not Corsair! So what can be done?
Tweaking the units combat statistics to better compete with other cards in Fire/Shadow which are S->S unit counters. Again, this could be an issue with Corsair, but Banditos are not winning games outside of being the ability of another card. Raising Banditos' complexity, since the unit has a budget as an uncommon card for new effects. Maybe something which will support a swarm playstyle earlier for Bandits than T3 (as admitted to be the case by the Bandit Design documents). Perhaps a controversial take, but lowering Banditos power cost (maybe below 50 even) may grant the card some space in a deck without altering Corsair's functionality. Thugs are already outperforming Banditos with their Gang Up ability, but its questionable whether this approach would actually enable swarms, instead encouraging smaller trades over and over. Another route (which may be better as its own card) may be for Banditos to include a rapid constructing building, and over time it resummons these Banditos or has an ability which you can spawn another for a price. Again this isn't an effort to change the game beyond Banditos themselves, with Corsair it's a tricky subject to approach. The state of play for Banditos is defined by other cards in a deck of limited slots, and currently Banditos don't have a role alongside other Fire/Shadow cards.

First of all, great post. You did a good job of analyzing the state of the card and you did so through the lens of the existing literature we have on card rarity and the Bandit faction. 
We as a dev team agree with your assessment and we actually have proposed some Banditos changes for next patch in our official card balancing discord.
Banditos - Iteration 1
1. Alliance friendly unit requirement: 3 per stage ➜ 2 per stage
2. Blessed Alliance Rework:
   A. No longer based on nearby enemies.
   B. Now grants increasingly more damage reduction based on number of friendly units nearby.
   C. Description: "The unit will be incited to resist more damage when being surrounded by friendly units within a 25m radius. Per every 2 friendly ground units around them, Banditos will receive 20% less damage up to a maximum of 6 units that will spur them on."
With these changes we want to buff the swarm aspect of the card by giving them access to their scaling buffs earlier. We think this is a better approach than trying to turn Banditos into a trading card or a one-unit wonder. As you pointed out, the blue affinity simply lacks the tools to be an anti-swarm card, so we are giving it scaling damage reduction, like the red affinity has a scaling damage increase, and making it into a swarm card as well. We have also proposed changing Girl Power into a melee unit swarm support card on our balance discord. If these changes both go through, we hope it will help to carve out a new melee swarm archetype in Fire T2 splash decks. We also know this will constitute an indirect buff to Corsair, and we think that is perfectly acceptable.

Hello everyone!

I rendered together the last couple days dozens of original battleforge artworks to a better resolution thanks to @Perendi.
You can find them in the links below:
All Albums
Units (Shadow)
Units (Fire)
Units (Frost)
Units (Nature)
Units (Twilight)
Units (Bandit)
Units (Stoneskin)
Units (Lost Souls)
Units (Legendary)
Miscellaneous Artworks
Buildings (Fire)
Buildings (Bandits)
Buildings (Frost)
Buildings (Legendary)
Buildings (Twilight)
Buildings (Lost Souls)
Buildings (Shadow)
Buildings (Stoneskin)
Buildings (Nature)
Spells (Nature)
Spells (Shadow)
Spells (Fire)
Spells (Frost)
Spells (Mixed Fractions)
Reworked Artworks
HD Artworks
BFR Backgrounds
HD Loadingscreens

Also because some people asked me about the backgrounds that I am using for my thumbnails, I am using this ones right here :

Screenshots

If you are going to use one of these artworks, make sure mention my work.
If I am missing some artworks in the current existing albums let me know, in that case I will add them as quickly as I can.

i compaired several slow units of all elements with each other and noticed both Battleship and Construct being considerably slower than other slow units such as Thunder Wagon or Spore Launcher. While this may be a feature that can be circumvented on Battleship with "Full speed ahead" bringing it up to normal speed (whoever had that idea, absolute geniuous!) Construct is at a huge disadvantage.
Since many other XL units got additional abilities, reworks, slow even removed (Magma Fiend), i believe there should be a solution for Construct as well.
Adding "Full speed Ahead" to Construct as a feature that only frost has might allready do the trick, as in mixed decks one would be encouraged to play with cards that grant ice shields as a balance.
 
As it stands now Construct has been never used in any Maps i played ever which is a shame. I understand Ironclad has completely taken over the role of ranged Frost XL, but still, the treatment of Construct is quite unreasonable.

Nightmare's End - Proposed Changes - Iteration 2
A major issue with Nightmare's End is that the map requires the player to defend a substantial amount of locations, but almost none of these locations are capable of being fortified. This encourages players to fight back against the map, warping its mechanics in an attempt to reduce the defensive load on the player. Our goal with these proposed changes is to improve the experience of playing the map in the way intended by the original designers, without impacting the creative approaches to conquering the map that have emerged over the years.  
All changes mentioned here are proposals. Some, all, or none of the proposed changes might make it into the game depending on the results of community feedback and map testing.

Elemental Node Changes
All nodes have been moved to the back of their respective area, freeing up more space for buildings and maneuvering units All nodes now have buildable walls behind the Amii Gates, allowing players to fortify their position and defend the nodes more easily. Note: the walls in the pictures below are not pre-built, they are only shown that way for illustrative purposes. Shadow Node

Nature Node

Fire Node

Frost Node


Shard of the Forge Changes
Add buildable walls to the left and right side of the Shard of the Forge. This will help to foreshadow the final defense for new players and give everyone a more stable defensive location. This is particularly important because the final attack adds a major point of failure to a map that exceeds 40 minutes in average playtime.  Move the final wave spawn caves to prevent the attack waves from instantly aggroing onto the new walls surrounding the Shard. Shard Defensive Walls

Final Attack Wave Spawn Locations


Southwest Spawn & Monument Changes
Move the Monument + 3 Power Wells in the southwest to the right to create more space to place defenses and lengthen the time between when attack waves arrive. Move the spawn cave north to see if we can redirect the waves to attack the western player's T1 location which has defensive walls to aid the player in defending. This change is experimental and will require testing to see if it works.  Southwest Monument + Well Location

Southwest Spawn Cave

Hello, I got back to recording. No specific reason. I am on Corporate Downsizing achi and since I am completing the maps I thought I could share my ways for those who don't know how to do it.
It's mostly improvised and imperfect, I can choose to share or not to share and I chose the first ^^
I got Siege of Hope done; Defending Hope, Treasure Fleet and Behind Enemy Lines are done, now I need to record replays and do the commentary.
 

Do exactly as the picture below 😉 

Greetings Skylords!
A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

• February Hotfix Patches

Over the course of February, we released several hotfix patches for our most recent major content update. If you are still experiencing any issues, please contact our technical support team and/or use the 'report a bug'-feature on our Discord.
One of these hotfix patches also includes an often-requested feature: spawnable bosses in the Forge. We have added a new 'Leader' tab to the Forge Menu, allowing you to spawn bosses from randomly generated scenarios. 
 
• Upcoming Feature - Map of the Day 

In our last patch, we increased the rewards for playing campaign maps to bring them more in line with rPvE, which players could feel forced to play due to its better rewards. In our continued effort to allow players to enjoy each different game mode, we are working on multiple additional incentives to play the campaign; one being Map of the Day. 
Map of the Day is a feature that highlights a particular multi-player map each day and rewards players additional rewards for completing that map, similar to the PvP Happy Hour. This map is randomly selected each day, and picks from the pool of existing multi-player campaign maps. Our new campaign maps, once released, will also be added to the pool. 

Playing on the Map of the Day rewards players with an additional upgrade on all 2-player and 4-player maps. Players will also receive additional gold for completing the 12-player maps Passage to Darkness and Ascension on Advanced (1200g), and Expert (2400g) difficulties.
Our goal for Map of the Day is to give players an incentive to get together and play one of the various campaign maps, including less popular ones. The Map of the Day will highlight in a similar way to Happy Hours on the World Map, so people know which map is active for additional rewards. 

We are currently working on finalizing the feature, and hope to release it in the near future. 
Disclaimer: text, layout and colors are subject to change.
 
• Skylords Reborn Classic - Legacy Server

BattleForge shut down its servers on October 31, 2013, following its release in March 2009. Our unofficial revival of the game opened its servers on December 18, 2020 as Skylords Reborn. Over the past 3 years since its release, we have added a ton of new content, quality of life changes and balance changes to the game. While we don't have a video covering the last year, our 2-year recap video should give you an idea of what we've added to the game. 
It is not uncommon for communities to provide mod support for older titles. However, those titles are typically still available for purchase or playable offline post-official support. This is not the case for BattleForge. If you want to play BattleForge in 2024, your only option is through Skylords Reborn.  
Our dedicated team, now comprising over 50 volunteers, has always taken this project very seriously, striving to make it the best it can possibly be. We're committed to continually introducing new content and delivering fresh experiences to keep our players engaged. Whether it's through new campaign maps, additional cards, new systems (such as Reforging), or balance adjustments (discussed on our balance discord), we feel a responsibility to keep the legacy of BattleForge in place, while also wanting to prevent the same fate of its downfall. 
However, we acknowledge that some of our past and future changes, while essential for the health of the game, may impact players' nostalgic sentiments. Considering that numerous cards have already undergone modifications compared to the original game, the differences between Skylords Reborn and BattleForge is increasing with each patch. Thus, the concept of a Legacy server has been a topic of discussion within our team over the years.
Yet, implementing a Legacy server isn't as straightforward as reverting to the version of BattleForge at the time of its shutdown. The game simply wouldn't work. Significant overhauls to the game's economy, rectification of critical bugs, and resolution of other technical issues were needed. Now, as we enter the fourth year of Skylords Reborn, we felt it was time to revisit this idea and have devised a way to introduce a Legacy server without impeding Skylords Reborn's ongoing development.
Here is what you can expect of the Legacy server:
• Original cards, maps and balancing
• All cards are available to the player right away
• No progression system
• No new cards
• No balance patches
• No additional rPvE factions (Fire, Nature) or campaign maps
• No technical or moderation support
We have to set up the server this way to prevent additional workload that would impact our actual patch releases for Skylords Reborn, which will continue to be our top priority. Additionally, there may be certain features on the Legacy server that deviate from a true "legacy" experience. For instance, Reforging will be available (though redundant given the complete card collection), and while Achievements and Quests may also be accessible, some may be unattainable due to outdated balance, game systems, or maps. 
The server will work similar to our current test server, you'll log into the Legacy server with a new account, and there will be no interaction between players on this server and the primary SR-server. The SR-server will remain the default server for both new players discovering the game and seasoned veterans seeking fresh content. All our major content patches will be releasing exclusively on the SR-server, including new campaign maps and new cards. Because of this, we don't expect a big split in our player base.      
Nevertheless, we anticipate that the Legacy server will offer a nostalgic journey for Skylords keen on revisiting the original BattleForge gameplay, as well as for players interested in witnessing the evolution of Skylords Reborn.
While we're still finalizing certain details, and things might change before its release. The Legacy server is scheduled to launch alongside our next major content patch.
 
• New Card Reveal - Amii Sentinel

During our Anniversary Stream we announced there would be three new Amii units coming to Skylords Reborn in 2024. We will be revealing those cards in the upcoming Community Updates, the first being revealed today! Here is Amii Sentinel!
Please note: We are still testing the card. While we are generally happy with it, numbers and effects might still change before release. 


 
Grasp of the Earth - 60 power
Activate to reach Amii Golem's fist into the ground, emerging within the target area of 15m and dealing 1800 damage to enemies, up to 5400 in total. Reusable every 20 seconds.
 
Volatile Body
100% of all damage done to the unit will additionally also be distributed among all units within a 20m radius. This damage cannot be warded off with the help of damage reducing abilities because it is able to circumvent every buff or protective shield.
 
Siege
Deals 50% more damage against structures.
 
 
Elusive
Units with Elusive have the duration of the immobilizing effects of Freeze and Paralyze reduced by 10%.
 
 
Design notes: Our goal for Amii's T4 is to create a micro-intensive deck where most of the damage is unit-based. With Amii Sentinel in particular, our goal is to create a frontline tank that functions as a perfect conduit for Shadow's single-target buff cards. Volatile Body's 100% reflect turns Sentinel's health into a damage resource, which synergizes perfectly with cards like Regrowth, Transcendence, and Lifeweaving.
The active ability "Grasp of the Earth" is designed to one-shot problematic buildings when buffed, which is important because both Shadow and Nature lack fast acting anti-building tools.
Amii Sentinel is currently planned to release alongside our next major content patch, including brand-new campaign maps. We are not yet able to announce a release date. Please stay tuned for more information, and check in next month for another Amii card reveal!
 
• Art Spotlight - Amii Sentinel

It has been a while since we have done an Art Spotlight; diving into the process of our artists coming up with a new card artwork. Amii Sentinel was always part of a combination of three Amii units, combined into a single landscape image. We asked our artist Tweeto to share some work-in-progress artwork and sketches, as well as his workflow. As always, a big thanks to our Art Critiques to offer valuable feedback during the process.

Initial Sketch: I started off with a loose sketch to block in the basic stance and proportions of the character. Keeping the lines dynamic and rough, I focused on the silhouette to ensure a strong, impactful presence that conveys power and stability.
Values Blocking: Next, I moved into grayscale, blocking my values to develop the form and give the character a sense of volume. This is a critical step in figuring how light interacts with the different materials and shapes of the character. To speed up this process, I employed AI generation tools, which allowed me to quickly iterate on different lighting scenarios and value compositions
Color Blocking: After nailing down the values, I started laying in broad strokes of color. Using a muted palette, I began to block in the main hues, thinking about the overall temperature balance and how it will complement the character's environment.

Detailing and Texture: With the base colors in place, I zoomed in to start rendering the finer details. Here, I focused on the texture of the stone, adding cracks and variations to make the surface look realistic. I also added golden ornate details to give it a more intricate look, and connect the character to the Amii aesthetics.

Lighting and Atmosphere: Then, I intensified the lighting effects to emphasize the magical core and the dramatic ambient light of the scene. I worked on the specular highlights on the metal parts, as well as the soft glow emanating from the core, to suggest a powerful energy source within.

Final Adjustments: In the final stage, I made subtle adjustments to the composition and the pose, fine-tuning the contrast and saturation to make certain elements pop. I also added a more pronounced rim light to enhance the character's form against the background, and adjusted the overall color balance for visual harmony.
Polishing: To finish off, I polished the image by sharpening key areas to draw focus, such as the face, the core, and the hand. I also rendered the background elements, ensuring the character look integrated with the environment and reflect the character's influence on its surroundings.

We are very happy with how the Amii faction is now finally coming together, and hope you appreciate all the thoughts and passion that went into creating them! 
 
• PvP Bots

Right now, Skylords Reborn doesn't have a mode where players can practice against computer-controlled opponents before jumping into ranked matches. This missing feature can make it tough for new players to get into PvP (Player versus Player). To help players ease into PvP, we're looking to add bots to the game in the future, and we're asking the community for their support to make it happen.
Below you can see a short video showcasing bots playing against each other:
 
ai_contest_announcement.webm
If you are interested in helping out, be sure to check the PvP AI programming contest below!
 
• Events

In between our monthly Community Updates, we host various events and tournaments, so be sure to keep a close eye on the in-game event tab and the forum calendar to stay informed and not miss out on any exciting events!
 
• NEW - Battle of Tactics #6 - Rainbow Road - February 23rd until March 3rd
Try to conquer a modified version of Dwarven Riddle in this crazy colorful contest hosted by Ultralord. In this one player map, you don't build orbs, but have a Rainbow crystal granting you different elements. More information.
 
• FINISHED - Faction Fusion: Embrace the Shift
Skylords were tasked to play the newly redesigned rPvE difficulties to have a chance at receiving one of the new cards, Lost Manabeast and Tectonic Shift. More information.
 
 • SECOND PHASE STARTED - PvP AI programming contest
We are gathering players for a new type of event. Get ready for an AI Programming Tournament, where the submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist! More information.
 
• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our other Event Organizers, @Metagross31or @Minashigo Hiko. We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, we will gladly assist you.
 
• Contribute

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to have a look at our open positions!

We are especially looking for some more proofreaders (English), to read over stuff like the Community Update and Event posts before they go live. We are also looking for translators (French, Russian) to help with our new campaign maps and more. 
Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• In Conclusion

That's all for this Community Update! We appreciate you taking the time to read through it.
As is tradition, we're including a scratch code as a small token of our appreciation for your support.
The code will reward you with a General booster: AFTE-RALL-THIS-TIME
The code is valid until April 1st, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
We're always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them with us. We'll be back next month with more updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming features. You can also sign up to our e-mail newsletter here. 

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update February 2024
 

Hey ReleeSquirrel,
All friendly buildings cause the units around them to passively regenerate a percentage of their life points each second, as long as they have not taken damage recently. So this is a feature not just of Construction Hut, but also your wells, orbs, and all other buildings. This passive regeneration is a big reason why people bring Ice Barrier in Frost decks, because it can function as a 20p healing location. 
The blue ring around Construction Hut reflects the area in which the "Maintenance" effect takes place. The area in which units can passively regen is likely 5-10m smaller.

Feel free to also join our Discord server since most day-to-day activity and communication happens there: https://discord.gg/HkxG8UdNEn 

Been a fan of Battleforge through most of its life back when it came out. Dumped almost $500 back then on packs, and always adored playing it. One thing that always excited me was the story, and what could happen in it... imagine my sadness when the game closed its doors. However, now that it's got new life, and the story has progressed, I have had a lot of fun, but would love to see more campaign maps, and a couple new factions, since there are some nice ones that could be added! So, I'm going to have three Expansion Ideas, each with a new faction. Each will have their owon forum post so it won't get too cluttered with ideas.

Even if they aren't used, maybe some of my ideas for worldbuilding or cards could be helpful for the devs. Who knows!

Now without further ado...

Fall of the Twilight Cult
With the Twilight Plague having been destroyed and the Lost Souls put to rest, dangers are still abound from the remains of the Twilight Cult. Scattered and without a way to transmit the plague, the Cult seeks another method to infect and spread the plague: the remainder of the missing Gods, who have been missing since Brannoc's betrayal. However, deep within the ranks of the Twilight Cult, something evil stirs, far beyond what the mortals of Lyr or even the Skylords can dream of...

NEW LEGENDARY CARDS:
T2 LEGENDARY: The Great Archive - [Retexture + Scaled Up: Power Well] Essentially is a mix of the Juice Tank and the Resource Booster. Gives 25% faster power and raises the cap by 30% for all power wells around it. The balancing factor is that you can have only one on the map, like The Incredible Mo.
T4 LEGENDARY: Erla - [Retexture: Evil Eye] A slightly stronger Twilight Evil Eye. Gains an active ability: "Bountiful Harvest" that heals all allies within 100m around half the strength of a Rebirth spell.
T4 LEGENDARY: Oxar - [Retexture: Ironclad] A stronger version of the Ironclad that has a book motif, if possible, as well as Twilight coloring. Does not root like the Ironclad, instead does an AOE attack that is around as powerful as the Treefiend Twilight unit all around him.

NEW TWILIGHT CARDS:
T3: Twilight Cultist (R) - [Retexture: Cultist Master] Similar to the card it's modelled after, the Twilight Cultist has the Active Ability [Twilight Call] which summons 2 Twilight Brutes. R Infusion: All surrounding Twilight units deal 20% more damage.
T3: Twilight Cultist (G) - [Retexture: Cultist Master] G Infusion: The Twilight Cultist heals for 5% of its max Hp per second when near a Twilight Brute.

Campaign: Fall of the Twilight Cult
The campaign would be based around the return of the Twilight Cult's attacks, as happened in the early years of the Twilight. Unknowning where this new wave of Twilight is coming from, the Skylords have to spread out to discover the source, and end the Twilight Curse once and for all.

All of the following maps are Advanced difficulty or higher only

Chapter 1: Old Enemies (1 Player)

This single player map begins with a group of Lyrish soldiers patrolling near the edge of an old forest. When they get closer, they are ambushed by Twilight Slayers, and they flee back to the Power Wells, where the Skylords appear. The mission then has the player hunting down three Twilight camps, with the soldiers commenting how they thought the Twilight Plague was over, and how they built up so much. After the third camp is defeated, the focus goes to a larger Twilight Camp, and a large building that has to be gotten close to.

Once the player attacks the large camp and gets close, a Twilight Cultist appears and transforms himself into a stronger than normal Skycatcher (Higher difficulties adds more cultists). When the player wins, it's revealed that there's a strange liquid inside the building, that reeks of foul magic. The soldiers find a book on the old pantheon, and wonder if one of the old gods are behind this. The soldiers state that they have to hurry and inform the others in Lyre about the return of the Twilight.


Chapter 2: Knowledge Hunt (1 Player)
This mission revolves around two phases. Cutting through the large waves of enemies long enough to set up in the central area, and holding the central area and the Great Archive. The western part of the map is well-defended and allows the player to recuperate between each attack, while the middle area is right in the way of the massive horde as it comes each wave. There are 5 waves, (7 in Expert) each larger than the last, with the 5th (and 6th and 7th) being incredibly dangerous. The difficulty increases in Expert difficulty, but not too much, as the difficulty comes from Wave 6 and 7.

Around the map there are several different twilight camps that assist with the caves. Destroying them reduces the amount of enemies in each wave, 4 camps in total. By destroying all 4 camps, the waves are reduced to half strength.

After the 5th (Or 7th) wave has been defeated, the player wins.

Chapter 3: Infected Blood (1 Player)
This mission begins with the SKylords appearing in the Temple of Harvest. Built of Nature and Twilight towers and creatures both, it is lightly defended, but the main feature is the Evil Eye boss in the center, "Erla". Erla explains that when the Harbinger was banished, he slowly regained more and more of his senses, and was able to be calmed and led back to his sanity by his loyal priests. Once he did, he took the Twilight he controlled, and came to his temple to recover from the curse that had befallen him.
He would ask about Brannoc, and be glad that he is dead, but would be sad about Viridya, who he thought of as "His Little Flower" (Bonus points if you can get him to say some special lines if Viridya is summoned like what happens with Ravenheart in a Mo mission). However, he explains the other Twilight are still mad, and once they discovered his Temple, started attacking it. One of his former priests, by the name of Carnog, is leading the assault, and he begs the help of the Skylords to protect his temple and his followers.

This begins a large defense mission, where the player must defend 3 routes (5 in expert) into the temple. The temple is very defensive, but the waves are strong, and require a heavy defense. Carnog has a lieutenant at the end of each of the defense points, allowing the player to attack them to remove the threat of being attacked from each direction. Each one has 3 main camps, leading to a total of 9 (or 15) camps to destroy to end the siege.
Once the siege is over, Carnog taunts the players and comes out, turning into a powerful Nightshade plant and telling how much better it is to simply succumb to the Curse. He challenges the skylords to defeat him, if they can, leading to a large boss fight where he spawns enemies from caverns nearby every so often. In his last breath, he mentions that everything is futile, because they have limitless numbers, and taunt the Skylords to go south, if they want to save their precious gods.

Erla thanks the Skylords, and comments how he knew they could do it, and chose them well as guardians.

Chapter 4: God Hunt (1 Player)
This mission is based around getting to three gods in time. Two of the gods use the same model as Mora, and are Vor, God of Stone, Jrat, God of Ice, Oxar, God of Knowledge is the final one, using a model for a Legendary card, mentioned above. Each one is defended by a large Twilight camp, which is set up in a multi-ringed city similar to Minas Tirith. The player has to get through and save the gods before they succumb to insanity from the torture, If the God reaches 10% HP, they will go insane, and become a dangerous boss that must be killed to progress. Each time a God is freed before their HP is reduced, they join the player to assist their army in getting through the next challenges. In Expert mode, all 3 gods must be rescued, in Advanced, only Oxar is needed.
After Oxar, God of Knowledge is freed, he explains that he was the first to be infected by Brannoc, but also the first to regain his sanity from the plague when the Harbinger was defeated. He explained that he had refused to go to the Sunbridge because of it. He explained the fear the other gods had, (With some extra dialogue if the other two gods are alive) and they realized their true nature as the Plague afflicted them, as children of the Skyforge. However, he warns Moon that there is someone pulling the strings, even beyond the Harbinger. He tells of the Trade that he had heard mentioned before the Plague was placed, and he thinks that he was infected first, a stipulation told to Brannoc by the Harbinger.

Chapter 5: Blood Rituals (2 Players)
This mission is once more a mission based on attacking, but this time the players must work together to push into the Amii fortress together. One player defends, and then the other player attacks in between waves of enemies to try to deal enough damage to the camps to push deeper within. In each camp is a barrier controller that must be used to allow their partner to continue (disabled when only one player is playing).
After the last of the camps fall, the four Cultist Mages in the center of the fortress must be cut down, but they are protected by a large army. Once these four Cultists are dead, then a scene plays showing that the Cultists had information on a hidden Amii ruin not far from the fortress.

Chapter 6: Buried Answers (2 Players)
This is... quite a difficult map to create. It's a trap-fest with heavy lore drops, The player controls Moon and Oxar to go inside via a teleporter, as well as some soldiers, with the rest remaining to defend the fortress outside. There will be several traps, such as Simon Says (From Oracle) but also things like elemental traps from the map "Nightmare Shard" that must be carefully timed and run through or it will damage Moon and Oxar. After eight minutes (five on expert), Twilight begin to attack the entrance, and the player must protect it while diving deeper into the Amii ruin. If the entrance is destroyed, then Moon and Oxar are lost within, and game over.
The deeper they go, the more they find ancient statues coming to life (Amii Phantoms and Paladins) and attacking them. Oxar and Moon would need some support as well to survive the larger waves. Once they get deep enough, they find a device and activate it, finding out that it's an archive machine. Through it, they find the Amii were the ones who traded for the Skyforge; only the General of the Amii Legions did not accept the bargain made. With this newfound power, the Amii created a great empire, and flourished in floating cities.
Continuing through the fortress, Moon and Oxar cut their way through a giant, who had been created in the Skyforge by the Amii to defend their fortress. (It's a Jorne model named "Forged Giant"). Once they defeat him, they find another Archive device.
In this one, they learn that the General of the Legion voiced his discontent, and a civil war broke out, those who believed the Skyforge was not a worthwhile trade for their afterlife, and those who believed it was a fair trade. Suddenly, the Amii civilization began to crumble as Amii blood fell from the sky.
Moon and Oxar must continue through the final section of the fortress now, and fight a pair of Juggernauts named Alpha and Beta. These Juggernauts are very strong, and take quite a bit to get down. After they take them down, they find the final archive device.
In a final act of desperation, the Amii Emperor used the Skyforge to create beings of incredible power, that they would then use to defeat the rebels once and for all. Unknowingly, theb y would create the first of the gods. The Gods, however, were fledgelings, not knowing of the world around them or their powers, and the immense power of creating such beings drained the power of the Skyforge, and the Emperor tried to take a shard of the Forge to the fortress to power it, in an effort to keep it flying, to no avail. The fortress fell, signifying the end of the Amii.
Moon and Oxar both comment about the fall of the Amii, and move to the final room to get the shard of the Forge, only to find the room empty, much to their terror.

Chapter 7: Twilight Siege (4 Players)
This mission is based around an enormous four-way siege that the players must begin. Every so often, waves of Twilight forces will attack from the center of the map supported by spells being cast on one of the four players from the Shard in the middle of the fortress (The Twilight Leader taunts the players about his limitless power during the castings). The players must destroy four Amii Shrines that are empowering the Shard of the Skyforge, before the power destroys the entire siege. After the four shrines are destroyed, The mortal armies and Erla both appear with armies from the north and south respectively, and begin to attack the fortress. (Erla must survive, but remains back at the camps the attackers create). The mortals come with Stonekin and Fire support and Erla with Nature support.
The two set up their camps and begin to send forces to attack the fortress, the players then having to assist the two armies in pushing deeper and deeper. The two armies send waves ever 2 minutes, and continue until the fortress falls. Once the fortress falls, a Twilight Cultist rushes towards the shard and then rushes back towards a cavern behind him. Moon shouts that the Twilight leader stole a piece of the Shard, and to follow him!

Chapter 8: To the Sea (4 Players)
This mission is based around hunting for the creature that took the fragment. Opening the mission, Moon explains that the plan is to use a series of Amii dredging machines in an archipellago to force the creature to come up. However, more of the Deep creatures stand between Moon and the dredging devices.
There are five devices in total that must be captured and activated, protected by substantial Deep camps. Travel between the islands is done through shallows connecting them.
Once the five Dredging devices are activated, the creature appears in the middle of the map with a large army, either in shallows or otherwise, allowing the player to fight them and reclaim the fragment, but the creature speaking for the first time, telling them that there will be more coming... and the Twilight Cult belongs to them.

Chapter 9: Revelation (12 Players)
This is a straight-forward defense mission on the same map as before. This time, there's twice as many entry points and the waves are much more dangerous, as wave after wave of Twilight mixed with Deep units assault the fortress. Waves appear every 7 minutes (4 on Expert) and the players must survive until the 5th and final wave. Each wave, the Deep leaders say how they were the ones who convinced the Twilight Cult to obey them, and imprison their own gods to use the Ichor. The 4th wave leader taunts that they were the ones who fed the Cult the information on the shard, and how close they were to reclaim it.
Moon retaliates as the attack continues, asking why they wanted the shard so badly, and the revelation hits as the final wave comes.
They are the Amii, using the Skyforge during the civil war to allow themselves to survive the coming world. And now, they were going to return, and reclaim what was theirs.
When the final wave falls, the leader says with his last breath that this is just a drop of their army, and they will come... and they will reclaim the Skyforge.






After spending around 6 hours on this, I look back and realize I have to cut out The Deep faction for the next expansion info, and even then, I still feel like I didn't do my best. I'll review, and perhaps repost this with a new synopsis and questchain with fixes in the future. I feel like I didn't quite do a good job with this and will correct it as needed, as well.

Final Hotfix - 11 February 2024

General Changes
Added a new "Leader" tab to the Forge Menu. It allows spawning bosses from randomly generated scenarios.
Card Fixes
Resolved an issue with Altar of Chaos not using its stored lifepoints for damage calculations.