Hrdina_Imperia

Thanks @Majora for your explanation. I was also there when the servers were shut down, so I know the feeling, i think its also nice for the devs to look back and think about what you've achieved so far. The game is currently imo in the best state it has ever been in. Very inspiring what you guys are doing, looking forward to everything you have planned. 
Oh and of course, thanks for everything!

Shame about the boosters, my goblin brain is sad 😄  But honestly, not that surprising. Personally, hardest part for me was not the idea, but working out how to create it. I really suck at anything picture/video related, lack the programs (and reaaaally don't like getting new stuff for single/one off project). But somehow pulled through 🧐

The contest ended! The jury will start their deliberations these days.
Bad news first: Though we got 19 submissions - some of them are really awesome - they came from only 12 different participants, so we sadly missed the mark for a Booster code. Creative contests always draw fewer participants, but I'm still already happy with the results, and the Discord will be populated with some really cool GIFs very soon. 👍
Not the contests many people wanted, but the contest we needed 😉

Can't talk for the whole team but:

Love for the game. Me and most of us were there when the original servers were down, and I was pretty devastated about it, having wonderful memories of playing it with my brother, ex girlfriend and friends. Its quite rare (especially for an online-only game) to be revived, so I personally count my blessing to be able to enjoy it once more. 

Potential. This game is super unique. I have not encountered anything like it. While it has some issues because of this (how on earth do you market this?) I still fully believe in what this game has to offer, and still hold on to hope that sometimes it will be discovered by the right group of people. 

New players. We still have an influx of new players coming in, either returning from the EA days, or finding the game as its own thing. This is not a case of a group of people slowly dwindling, there are people coming in and going out. 

Non-active players. While active players go up and down, there is still a large number of players with warm feelings towards Skylords Reborn, as we tend to see with, f.e. the Yearly Feedback Survey. As was mentioned in this topic already, we also see numbers go down a bit during summer time in general. I also don't expect people to continue playing daily for 2+ years straight. There is only so much content to experience and replay. But most of them keep a close eye on the project and return for big patches or other exciting changes. Leading to:

Upcoming new Campaign Maps. When I joined the team, one of my first pushes was for new cards to enter development. The team achieved bringing back BattleForge into a playable state, but if we wanted it to not face the same fate, we had to keep improving on it, and the easiest way to communicate new stuff is new cards. But new cards only do so much for time spend playing the game; we need people to actually have new content to play. Achievements, rPvE Nature and Fire and the upcoming 9.5 difficulty are good examples of this (and previously mentioned Map Modifiers will also do a ton for replayability) . But the biggest ask from the Community has been New Campaign Maps. We still have this up our sleeve, and I fully expect a lot of those non-active players will return to take a look once we start releasing them. Non-active players need a hook to come back, and I expect this will do the trick.

The Community. Skylords Reborn has an amazing community. Its a bit of a cliché for a Community Manager to say this is the best community to be in, but honestly, the absolute majority of our players are amazing! When things get rough, I sometimes take a look at the kind words our players mention in f.e. the Survey. At the end of the day, everyone is grateful for all the hours we pour into this, and its important to remember this.
Though I will admit, sometimes I wish some players remember a bit more that we do this in our free time as well 😅 There have been a couple of moments where some of our teammembers, myself included, got very demotivated by the way certain players expressed their disagreement. So to everyone reading, if I could ask for a single favor to keep the motivation up for both me and the team; please keep in mind we are all volunteers. We do not get paid, yet we show up day after day, working on the game while we have a lot of things to deal with, both in Skylords Reborn and outside of it. Most of us combine the hours we pour into this game with a job, study, kids, marriage, etc, to the point where we don't even have time to play the game we put so much hours in as much as we would like. We love the game, and want to see it succeed, and for that we absolutely want to hear your feedback, we create this game for our players after all. But be constructive, and be kind. It really goes a long way for our motivation and the health of the project. 
Thank you for being a part of this game. ❤️
 

Woooo! Might try to scribble up something!

Woooo! Might try to scribble up something!

Added Deep Dive: Stonekin
(Released in February)

I like the "Recore" idea! Getting a T3 xl-unit with only two orbs seems wild at first glance -- but the 320 power cost and stats of a core dredge (3325*/2700XL) actually puts it at a similar spot to the shadow T2 Harvester (300 power 3440*/2800XL) so it could work!
Not sure how hype i am about the prospect of needing to deal with pulsing aoe in pvp vs frost T1....but that's probably just me being bad at pvp and paranoid 😂
Might be worth thinking about Blue / Red affinity, too, since the big core dredge (into which the worms would potentially recore) has two affinity variants 🙂
 

First idea is a rework for the T4 fire card Virtuoso. Make it's trumpet attack the basic attack. Reduce a bit it's damage, and can only knock back large and smaller units. Give it a new ability on cooldown that increases damage dealt by ally units by 25% for 20seconds with a 20energy cost.

And here's my crappy idea at making a T1 swift unit for frost.  (Art and unit would be smaller core dredge in a squad of 4)

Grinding teeth: while attacking near an ally building, the Dredge Tendril will do a small aoe damaging shockwave dealing 8dmg per second to nearby enemies.

Earth Dive: While moving around unit takes 25% less damage and is unaffected by unit collision slowing effects. 
Swift: Well we all know what it does.
Recore: Cost 60 energy: Combine 4 dredge tendril squads while having atleast two frost orbs to turn into a Core dredge with 75% life but unable to move for the next 20seconds.

16th of June 19:00 CEST

@nukiePerhaps add the info to the first post

Standard? Guess I might be able to complete this map 🧐

Amazing stuff! Lot of hard work ahead of us and looking forward to that .

Hello Skyladies and Skylords,

Welcome to another Community Run PvE event!
 
Quick Overview:
Map                          - Encounters with Twilight 
Difficulty                   - Standard
Date                          - 10:30 CET 01.06.2023 until 23:59 CET 11.06.2023
Prizes                        - Boosters
Winner reveal           - Stream and Forum (Stream Date: 16th of June 19:00 CEST)

Rules and Goals:
Win the map in under 45 min
Do not use any ability except Open/Close Gate of the Fortification Wall and the Amii Screaming Stone 
(Abilities are all abilities on units or buildings regardless of power cost. Even if free they can’t be used)
Get the lowest combined power score:
Units give x2 their powercost
Building give x1.5 their powercost
Spells give x1 their powercost  
To check your score you can use Ultralords amazing website: Ultralords amazing Website

How Can I Participate?

Everyone with an ingame account can participate in the event, there is no need to sign up separately.
You just have to send in your best replay, including the player name and the time, to Vornskr on the forum (@Vornskr666).

You can send in your replays until 23:59 CET 11.06.2023
You can find your replays here: Documents=>Battleforge=>replays

What's the Prize Pool?
For the prizes there are a few time categories, you can only win one time category! 😉
Below 10 min
1st Place: 5 Boosters 2nd Place: 3 Boosters 3rd Place: 2 Boosters 4th-5th Place: 1 Booster Below 15 min
1st Place: 3 Boosters 2nd Place: 2 Boosters 3rd Place: 1 Booster Below 20 min
1st Place: 3 Boosters 2nd Place: 2 Boosters 3rd Place: 1 Booster Below 45 min
1st Place: 3 Boosters 2nd Place: 2 Boosters 3rd Place: 1 Booster
Additional Prizes You Can Win:
Armchair commander: lowest action count: 3 Booster
Powersaver: lowest total power (Not affected by the multipliers) spend: 3 Booster
New Star: lowest PVE rank in each time category : 3 Boosters
Poor man's fortune: lowest deck level: 100k Gold
Code Smith: What do I know? I am not in IT: 5 Booster 
 
All players without a prize will be entered into a random draw, there will be up to 10x Boosters up for grabs!
 
When will the winners be announced?

The winners will be announced via a Twitch stream (Ultralord´s Stream) co hosted by Ultralord and Vornskr! The stream will include the 3 most interesting runs, quiz questions (with prizes!) and some interesting data from the event.

Future Events
If you are interested in helping with these kinds of events for the community, or want to host one yourself as I do it here, don't be afraid and simply reach out!
Send @nukie, @Metagross31, or @Minashigo Hiko a PM on the forum, or direct message via Discord (nukie#9354, Metagross31#1103, Minashigo Hiko#1126).
They 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.

Rogone

Amazing stuff! Lot of hard work ahead of us and looking forward to that .

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!

• Patch Overview Video
Our latest patch, Nature's Awakening, has released! We have made a short overview video to celebrate the occasion, highlighting some of the changes we have made to the game. We hope you enjoy it, and be sure to share it with your friends!

If you want to read the full patch notes, you can find them here. 
 
• Patch Feedback Thread
As always, we highly value your feedback on the changes implemented in our latest patch. To facilitate this, we have once again created a dedicated feedback thread where you can express your thoughts about what you liked, disliked, and any other suggestions you may have.
We kindly request that you provide constructive feedback regarding aspects you would like to see improved, while also sharing the elements you enjoyed. Your input is invaluable to us!
 
• Voice Acting – Apply Now! 
Back in October 2021 we initiated the search for voice actors to enhance the game with new voice lines. The new cards Amii Paladin and Banzai Lord were voiced by community members, bringing these characters to life. At that time, we had plans to expand the range of voice lines in the game further. Unfortunately, due to the absence of an audio editor, we faced limitations in what we could achieve, resulting in the regrettable need to even reject fully recorded lines. Consequently, voice-acting was temporarily put on hold.
However, we are delighted to announce that we now have an Audio Editor on our team, and with our current focus on creating new campaign maps, we are once again actively seeking individuals who are interested in contributing their voices to Skylords Reborn!
We are looking for a variety of voices (both male and female), and encourage everyone who is interested (and has a decent microphone!) to apply. You are also welcome to apply if you did so in the original application round in 2021! 
To apply, fill in a brief survey to provide us with some information about yourself and select which characters you are interested in. We will be in touch with you for a trial script, and select our favourites from the provided recordings.  
 

 
Don't miss your chance to make a lasting impact on Skylords Reborn! Apply today and maybe your voice will be heard in the game!
 

 
• Art Spotlight – Bedrock
In our Stonekin Deep Dive, we previously mentioned our plans for a new tier 4 Stonekin unit based on the Moloch model. Today, we are excited to offer you a sneak peek of this unit by unveiling the artwork we have created for it. Additionally, we would like to share some insights into the process our artist, Spirit Alpha, went through to achieve the final result.
 
Sketch and Early Draft
Spirit Alpha initiates his artwork by creating a sketch or draft, outlining the general ideas to establish the artwork's direction. For this particular piece, we aimed to capture the essence of a formidable Stonekin creature emerging from the water.

It is important to consider the card frame when creating artwork. As you can see, while the left piece looks impressive on its own, the head partially falls off when placed within the card frame. This issue becomes even more apparent when displaying the creature type and charges in the game. This is why working with sketches and exploring various compositions is crucial before settling on a final design in Skylords Reborn.

Settling on a Design
Spirit Alpha explored several other options, some of which are highlighted below, while receiving feedback and suggestions from our art critiques along the way.

The design on the right showcased the most potential, and work continued with that version. 

Finalizing the Design
Although we were fond of the design, feedback indicated that the head of the creature should be tilted to the right instead of the left.

Throughout the process, Spirit Alpha also experimented with various designs for the creature's belly, ranging from a nearly fully closed appearance to a more open one.

Colour Scheme
Ultimately, we opted to retain a more closed design, and significant effort was invested in ensuring that the card followed the Stonekin colour scheme, preventing it from potentially resembling a Frost unit.


Final Adjustments
Spirit Alpha submitted his final design, and our lead artist, Tweeto, made some last minor adjustments to produce the final artwork. One of the modifications involved tilting the "volcano" slightly to ensure it remained within the card frame. Can you identify the other changes? 


Here are Tweeto's final adjustments: 
We are extremely pleased with the final outcome of Bedrock and sincerely hope that you can appreciate the dedication and effort that went into its creation. A heartfelt appreciation goes out to Spirit Alpha for his hard work!
 
• Tournaments and 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 - Community Run Event: Old School Efficiency
Fancy a challenge? Complete Encounters with Twilight on standard using as little power as you can! Please check in tomorrow for more information.
 
 • COMING UP - Official Event #9: Who Dares Wins! - June 17th until June 25th
Look out for our next official event later this month. Do you have what it takes to aid Rogan?
 

• COMING UP - Crappy Community Contest #11 - June 26th until July 3rd
The next CCC will be a creative contest held on the forum. Look out for the forum post on June 26th!



• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event yourself? Please reach out to our Event Organizers, @Metagross31, @Minashigo Hiko or @nukie! 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 thrilled to announce that the creators behind the maps used in the previous community event Through Ice and Flames have officially joined our team as Map Designers! With the addition of both Damo and Hrdina Impéria, our team's focus on creating new campaign maps has been further strengthened, and we can't wait to release some exciting content in the future. Welcome both, and thank you for your contribution! 
More than a year after the position was first listed, we have found an Audio Editor in Discoheart! He will be able to help us out with the needed editing for adding new voice lines into the game, both for cards and upcoming campaign maps. We are glad to have him, and excited to continue adding new voice lines into the game. 
 
• Contribute
Interested in joining the team yourself? Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fuelled by the passion and dedication of over 30 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!
 

 
• 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: APPL-YFOR-VOIC-ENOW
The code is valid until July 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 May 2023

Oh i just loaded the magma hurler photo into GIMP and adjusted the hue 🙂
In gimp you can find it in the top drop-down menus: Colors > Hue-Saturation > drag the hue slider to rotate the image's colors.
I'm sure photoshop (or whichever image manipulation software you favour) has an equivalent feature -- if not, gimp is open source and free to download here.

Interesting idea, and also loving the possibility of Magma Hurler recolor 🤩
Side note, how do you change the colors/hue of the card picture? 

That sand worm idea is really cool! The Endless Stomach mechanic might be a bit unreliable if it's used in conjunction with other units though (other units might steal the killing blow and screw your worm's durability.) Maybe something like an "execute" mechanic could help in this regard -- imagine the worm deals 2x damage if the target has less than a certain amount of HP (e.g. if the worm does 500 damage per hit, and the target is at or below 1000 health, the worm would do 2x500=1000 damage instead, thus giving it a much greater chance of actually benefiting from its passive ability). Would be sick if it had a special animation too, maybe burrowing under ground and emerging under the target to swallow it (think of the sand worms in Dune!)
 
Here's another idea that might contend with the Bush Men idea above to fill part of the same niches but in a different (and likely less complicated to implement) manner.
Presenting: 
T2 N Elemental Archer idea -- Mana Surger
T2 nature ranged unit that doesn't suck when more than one exists on the field (looking at you, spirit hunters with non-stacking poison...), and fits as another design option for dealing with air units as T2 nature. Its stats are based on the spikeroot - which shares its status as a T2 unit with similar power cost - but with the numbers scaled-down a bit due to the 10 points cheaper power cost and its ability to counter air units.

The unit could use a recolor / re-texture of the magma hurler for its in-game avatar.
Abilities:
Mana Surge - The mana surger calls forth a surge of mana from the ground underneath the targeted ground unit. Deals [735 dp20] damage in an 8 meter radius around its target, up to [1125 dp20] in total. Affects ground targets only.
Arcane Hunger (toggle) - Lose the ability to use Mana Surge and gain the ability to use Mana Urge. (or vice versa when you toggle back)
Mana Urge - Mana surger has an urge for mana! It sucks mana from the air around its enemies, dealing [735 dp20 * X] damage in an 8 meter radius around its target, up to [1125 dp20 * X] in total. Affected units may not use their ranged attacks or special abilities for 5 seconds. Affects flying targets only.
(X = reduced damage modifier in anti-air mode. Can scale with card ranks, say x0.4 / x0.5 / x0.6 / x0.66)

After a while had a little fun with creating new card concepts. Nothing major, nothing deep, just pure fun. 
Sandworm - Bandit T3 melee worm
Giant Maw - Activate to eat an own unit. Its current HP will be added to Sand Worms life, increasing it beyond the maximum capacaity. Sand Worm can have at most 4500 max HP. 
Endless Stomach - Sand Worms are known for their endless hunger. Landing a killing blow on enemy unit or building will heal the Worm for 1/4 of the targets maximum health. 
Others as usual

Maggotlord - Shadow T4 melee unit
Worm infection - Works as a weaker Infect, applying the same debuff to several enemies around the unit (uses the original animation for Thrust of Ultima). Doesn't cost power, but uses corpses - needs 1500 lifepoints stored. Max storage is 2500. Cooldown of 60 seconds.
Corpse bloat - Enemies or allies that die within 15m of Maggotlord have their corpses bloated with worms and maggots. They will contain 50% extra lifepoints.  
Siege - 50% extra damage to buildings

I don't really see the exact problem. It's an optional achievement that grants an optional forge skin and boosters worth 900 BFP. The featured maps are hand picked. And they can be difficult.
Why should this exact achievement be made easier? It's a vanity reward. If it's really cool and desirable, shouldn't the effort be worth it? If it isn't you don't have to bother. Why is this reward perceived so differently from Promo Mana Wing or Promo Worldbreaker Gun and their respective achievements?
That aside, there is also the aspect that having players try the various featured community maps on a high difficulty can potentially help highlight the ones that are in a really good state. Thus they could eventually serve as a baseline for official cPvE releases. Having a well functioning Expert-version is very important because when a new cPvE map hits live there will immediately be many seasoned players giving it a try. And if you look at the current Upvotes, thanks to the amazing UI overhaul by the Client/Server Devs, there definitely seem to be some contenders.

They are not entirely unregulated - The maps for the achievements have to be featured maps, which are checked by staff members and only after receiving the staff's seal of approval they get the featured status.

Absolutely massive! Amazing work, an applause to the devs is in order! 

Absolutely massive! Amazing work, an applause to the devs is in order! 

Patch #400042 - Nature's Awakening
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our eighth balance patch for the game, a brand-new card, all kinds of quality of life features, and many other changes, enjoy!

Patch Preview
- One new card is now available! Jump in-game to collect Sleet Storm.
- Nature becomes the next faction to join the party in random PvE. 
- The first half of our two-part gold rework for PvE game modes and card upgrade costs.
- The Community Map menu has been completely reworked to increase usability. Also, gold rewards and a new achievement have been added for community maps. 
- Our third balance pass on towers, numerous buffs to well-designed but underperforming cards, and some of our first changes to NPC enemies.
- New quality of life features including a single-player pause feature, key down versus key up interactions, the ability to copy text from the in-game chat, the ability to immediately import a deck when a valid code is pasted in chat, and many more!

General Changes
The Community Map section has been completely revamped. Players can now better filter between maps, rank maps themselves, search for high-rated maps from other players, and receive overtime gold rewards while playing both featured and non-featured community maps. Cards played in featured community maps now also count towards daily quest rewards, and a new achievement to play and beat featured community maps will reward players with the Spring Forge skin. This rework will open up a lot of new content with which players can engage, and hopefully encourage more community members to bless their fellow Skylords with their map making talents. For more information, check out the February 2023 Community Update. Players can now pause PvE matches when they are the only active player in the game, including situations where multiple players were previously active in the match but have since left. The game automatically pauses whenever you open the options menu, showing a pause message while darkening the screen, and automatically unpauses when you close the options menu. Players will still be able to earn progress towards quests and achievements when pausing, but any game where a pause occurred will be removed from the leaderboard. Pausing solo matches can be disabled in the config file by changing the "allow_pausing_solo_games" option under the "application" section to false. The game now handles global key events on key down rather than on key up interactions. BattleForge is an outlier among modern games in that hotkeys are activated when a player releases a key, not when it is first pressed. By changing this, the game now feels much smoother and more responsive. Players can change back to using key up interactions by changing the line "global_key_events_on_key_down" in the config file to false. Gold rewards for rPvE have been changed. Random PvE now rewards players with overtime gold rewards based on map difficulty and whether they are playing 1p, 2p, or 4p. Gold earned from a 4p level 9 match will be roughly identical, while the gold reward for most other levels has been increased. 1p and 2p rPvE matches now reward significantly more gold than previously. Additionally, all rPvE matches now reward 15% of the expected rewards on-loss.  The gold cost to purchase and apply upgrades has been restructured. Previously, the application cost accounted for 28% of the total gold cost; it has now been increased to 40% while the cost to purchase upgrades has been decreased proportionately. Additionally, common and uncommon cards now have higher gold costs, while rare and ultra-rare cards have lower gold costs. The total cost to purchase and apply all upgrades, approximately 5.7 million gold for all cards, remains unchanged. This change is intended to make higher rarity cards easier to upgrade for newer players, while making lower rarity upgrades more valuable. More changes to upgrades and their procurement will be coming in a follow-up patch when we rework and increase the rewards for playing campaign maps.  Card upgrade drop locations are now provided in-game. When upgrading a card, it will now tell players where they can find the other upgrades they are missing. Additionally, each map now has a "Show Upgrades" button where players can filter and search for what upgrades the map provides at each difficulty level. For more information, see the March 2023 Community Update. All card upgrades have had their locations changed. Each map now has a roughly equal amount of commons, uncommons, rares, and ultra-rares. The 12p maps Passage to Darkness and Ascension are unchanged and will continue to only provide gold.  Players now have the ability to compare their profiles. Right now, this feature is limited to just comparing what achievements each player has completed, though it may be expanded to include more details in the future depending on community feedback. The feature is set to "Friends only" by default (meaning only people that you personally have added as a friend can see your profile), but it can be opened to the public or restricted completely in the settings.  Nature has been added as an enemy faction in rPvE. Face iconic Nature units, discover new bosses, battle through enemy root networks, and overcome the ultimate control faction in this newest addition to the random PvE game mode! For more information, and an interview with the designer, see the May 2023 Community Update. Shaman users rejoice, gold chests are now openable in-combat! Two new chat options have been added to the right-click context menu. Players can now copy messages directly from the chat and import decks from any message that contains a valid deck code automatically. Additionally, the context menu now only shows currently available actions instead of every possible action at all times.  Major changes have been made to the global effects system. More than 5 global effects are now shown at the top-left of the match window, with temporary effects, like Shrine of War, taking precedence over permanent effects, like Wheel of Gifts. Players should now be able to see all, or nearly all, global effects currently active in the game.  Twilight Transformation now counts as playing a card for the sake of achievements, meaning it can no longer be used to bypass achievement unit or card restrictions. Does not affect Not Even My Final Form.
New Cards
Sleet Storm  - 60p T3 Frost  
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map Defending Hope.
Two issues plague Frost in the higher tiers of PvE. The first is that the faction's only source of area CC is freeze. Given that a unit or building can only be frozen once, freeze application cards overlap in non-productive ways. The second issue is that while one orb of other factions gives the player powerful tools, the same is not true of one Frost orb. Most good Frost cards are locked behind 2 Frost orbs. We therefore wanted to address both issues at once by releasing a new Frost CC which was fully splashable. We made it an area Gravity Surge effect to synergize with Construct and to give other deck archetypes that lack anti-air easy access to it. For more information, check out the April 2023 Community Update.