Cocofang

Since you use LSS, I'll assume you are not looking for especially interesting, maybe even a bit wacky or micro intensive additions but simply more power. I'll also tailor it towards rPvE 9, which can be a detriment for campaign maps. So keep that in mind. As it is, you can already play rPvE 9. The cards are already there, maybe your approach is just unfit. So here are some major adjustments. Mana Wing is just worse than WW on rPvE, ditch. You can even get rid of Shaman if you want, since that card is effectively a lost WW. Surge and WW spam is enough to push to T2, even to T3. For your T2, Burrower is very powerful. You take your WWs and Burrowers, run into the enemy base and Oink all units. While they are CCd, you take out the spawn buildings. If you need more time then Coldsnap will keep them in place even longer. Just take care so you don't interfere with the spells from your allies. You should have more than enough healing with Viridya and Surge, no need for Ray of Light. Matter Mastery is there to counter dangerous enemy buildings like Willzappers. Towers and Razorleaf are too slow and unnecessary in rPvE. Deepcoil Worm is more than enough to work with. And a lot of the time it might not even be necessary, since your T1/T2 army can often clear your T4 Orb as well. If you have energy to spare, a combo of Revenges+Soul Shatter+Thunderstorm will annihilate enemy forces. You can add Equilibrium G if you desire more heal. Shrine of War is better for void return than Shrine of Memory in rPvE. Enemies constantly die there. Build 2 for permanent uptime. Bloodhorn can kill multiple buildings at once and is a very tanky frontliner. Affinity is up to you. Red if you want more consistency, as the Bloodhorn cannot be disabled anymore, which means no worries about CC as you run in to take out buildings. Purple if you want more single target damage. For clearing it hardly matters but against bosses and especially with Unholy Hero, it makes a big difference. It's a rainbow deck now, no longer mostly Nature. But I'd claim that it's undeniably more powerful for rPvE. And since you splashed for LSS anyway, I assumed you didn't care much for "purity" in the first place.

Although there are many changes I would personally love to see and some that I think are just straight up necessary for the game, in the end everything that comes now, after the final release, is just a bonus to me. Everything that helps the project grow and evolve is good news! I hope you guys are willing to take risks and shake things up. We all already know what BattleForge had to offer. Now lets see what Skylords does.

Always great to see some interesting approaches, and it's even without Amii Monument. Skyfire Drakes are a real carry. Only replay I didn't enjoy was Sunbridge because the gate exploit makes Expert almost easier than Standard.

Exploit case: People queuing up just to empty their reserves faster but always declining the match or throwing it as they have no real intention of playing PvP.

So first off, an argument that I see repeated is "Well, changing Decomposer won't fix issue X". Which is not an argument against changing Decomposer at all, it's just a deflection. You don't just not pull a weed simply because another one can grow in its place or there are other things wrong with your garden. "Don't like it, don't use it" is also a horrible approach to overall gameplay balance, it's also nothing more than a deflection trying to avoid issues. It can be applied to literally anything, so it's a worthless sentiment. Decomposer is the only card that completely subverts this fundamental of the game: Every player has their own power pool to spend and manage. It's a massive encroachment on game mechanics. The question is whether or not that opens up positive, unique and interesting gameplay options or if it spawns unhealthy gameplay patterns. As a tangential thought, is speedrunning truly meant as a measuring stick for regular gameplay? From what was being said here, I am sure the speedrunners would agree that it is quite the fundamentally different way of interacting with a game. Having people focus a big part or even the entirety of their gameplay on spawning units in order to generate power for one person definitely falls into the category of unhealthy gameplay patterns. That's unfortunately something that can happen when speedrunning tactics seep into regular play. After all, speedrunners are always at the forefront of pushing the game to its limits and past it. It's not too relevant for experienced and good speedrunners whether Decomposer can funnel energy into one player or not, no? If your way of enjoying the game is the challenge of finding and executing the fastest, best strategies the loss of such a tool shouldn't matter as restrictions are merely a challenge and breed creativity. And as already noted, if Decomposer was changed the record holders under post-patch conditions would probably stay the same. The tools in the kit of speedrunners change with patches, as they do for all other players, but that doesn't undermine their skill to make the most out of them. If anything, it highlights them. A different speedrunning category without certain cards or tactics feels like ego stroking, which I guess is fine because that's kind of implicit to mastery of a game, but it is also avoiding the issue. If so many people keep clinging to status quo, nothing will ever go anywhere in a meaningful way. And discussion about necessary balance changes will be stifled or derailed. You have to confront your biases and be willing to let go of your darlings.

Before implementing mechanics that flood more BFP/gold into the game, I'd like to see a dump to get rid of it first. Boosters merely shift the bulk of content from BFP onto extra cards, which you can do nothing with either. Speedrunning strats spilling over into regular play is something that is dangerous to be used as the measuring stick to judge "efficiency" by.

I think it's preferable to focus on the actual functionality of the site. It is not supposed to be a cardbase, it's supposed to give data on the AH. As such, if anything, it needs to be made as "patch proof" as possible. As in, remove any information from the card previews that might likely get changed and isn't necessary. Meaning: power cost, abilities, damage type and raw stats. Leave the name, rarity, type, orb requirements, edition and affinity. Some of these might get changed anyway but by streamlining the information on the cards the site becomes less prone of becoming out of date by patches. It would be a bunch of work now but less workload in the future. Or just leave it as is. Again, it's not meant to be a cardbase in the first place so it's not that important if the infos are out of date. Up to Maze which option he can get around to.

Does that imply the team now has the people to actually implement new cards and factions?

The numbers settled down, which is normal for all games, but are still around 500-800, mostly. So good enough to find people for all maps during reasonable hours. Rare and sought after cards keep getting more expensive. There are frequent spikes for cards when their stock gets bought up. Usually they dip down after a couple of days again but sometimes it leads to a more permanent price increase. More common mid-tier cards and below are pretty worthless. More common high-tier cards seem to slowly decline. Overall, I'd say the value for cards is slowly shifting towards the top end, leaving the mid- and low-end less valuable. Development has come to a near halt again, the team needs more members. There was one big patch that fixed and balanced a lot of cards though. I think the game is in its best state it ever was. Progression is alright, servers are very stable, I haven't had any crashes, group play works pretty well. I encounter very few issues, I'd say fewer when the game was still under EA even. Anything that is yet to come is just a bonus.

For a loss to give you BFP/quest/achievement progression the match needs to be longer than 10 minutes. You also cannot go AFK, after 5 minutes of inactivity, you don't get anything.

If you want to totally wreck rPvE with an unconventional, cheap T4 card, you can go for Death Ray. Tried to use cheap cards where possible. You can get by without Grimvine. Mutating Frenzies kinda work if you want to take them with you on T4 but they'll die. Technically, you don't strictly need any other T4 aside from Giant Wyrm and Death Ray. The most important spells are all Arcane, which means they can be used anywhere and without ground presence. Revenge and Thunderstorm aren't necessary either but are very good with Death Rays. Thunderstorm helps clearing up trash so Death Rays don't blow their valuable charges and Revenge has crazy synergy with their Leech Guns because the life they suck out of your own units gets splashed onto enemies! The idea is to spam WWs and support them with Surge. That can get you to T4 most of the time. But for quick clear of T3 you can use Burrowers to run in, Oink the camp and then destroy the spawns. I added a bunch of fluff units you can use if you feel like it. Can also just switch them around, the core here are just WWs, Death Ray and Giant Wyrm. 2x Healing Gardens are necessary, otherwise it becomes too expensive to sustain your Death Rays. You need to constantly heal them with Equilibrium and Regrowth. Use Unholy Hero and Unholy Might on your Death Rays against bosses. This is what a more expensive version of this deck can look like. It's obviously also possible to start with Shadow and go for Harvester. Noteworthy additions are Cultist Masters + Furnace of Flesh for quick void return, which you need because you heal a lot. Incredible Mo for the yellow buff so your Death Rays can't be disabled. Overlord and Grim Bahir are whatever, Grimvine and Giant Wyrm work just as well. Just some beefy units your Death Rays can leech off of. U3 Death Ray is required so they aren't slow anymore. Why are they worth the trouble? They have 4000 DP20S and they DOUBLE that while they have juice. In addition, they have bonus damage against XL. The tankiest bosses (and most dangerous enemy units) in rPvE are XL and they usually take some time to grind down. However Death Rays have a whooping 12.000 DP20S against XL units. Add Unholy Hero and they just tear whole chunks out of any boss. You WILL notice when your Death Rays lay into a boss, nothing else compares.

rPvE WWs with Surge can carry to T4. If you are feeling uncomfortable Ensnaring Roots and Hurricane can be added. Shaman is unnecessary. Dryad B is optional. Your T2 is way out of whack. Too many units and nothing against air except Aggressor, which is a support unit. Defenders have over 2000 EHP when they hunker down. Also makes heals MUCH more effective. Defense buff stacks with Crystal Fiend B. Insanely tanky, insane value. Crystal Fiend OR Razorhard. Both aren't necessary. Aggressor is an expensive addition and would need WWs as support, otherwise it will never kill S units. Burrower can also serve as the sole T2 to rush in with Oink and kill spawns. Stone Tempest is fun but also expensive. Don't linger on T2. People wanna gogogo. T3 Rageflame OR Deepfang, don't need both. Deepfang would be the higher value pick, I think. Tanky enough to frontline a bit with spell support. Can keep both for flavor anyway if you fancy it. T4 is flexible. Can freely mix and match between these and Grinders, Gemeye P, Watcher. Doesn't matter too much. Shrine is your way to get back void if nobody has SoW. Gardens more than double the value of your heals. Build 2 each for perma-uptime. Can add Incredible Mo (yellow buff is important) and/or Wheel. Spells are flexible. Can add Shatter Ice to chunk after freeze. Noxious Cloud for a bit of help on bosses. Tornado is great damage. Matter Mastery if you want a good card against Willzappers. Ward of the North for even more tankiness if you grind into a camp. Won't need that tho. Equilibrium G is more reliable once you have your army going. Revenge is a good solution for tankiness/damage but can pick between it and Shell.

It's a PoE copypasta. SSF is Solo Self Found. You play alone and only use what you get yourself.

I only play true ethical SSF hardcore. I give away every meta card I draw because it is unethical to keep it. When I lose a map, I delete every card upgrade I used on that map because it's not true ethical SSF hardcore otherwise. I disenchant every meta upgrade I land because it is unrealistic to ever get the upgrade I want in true ethical SSF hardcore. I skip XL units because they are unethical powerhouses. Every time a Cursed Orb or Cursed Well drops, I immediately remove a random card from my current deck to increase the challenge. I've had beginner chat and strategy chat disabled since I got my closed beta invite because player interaction gave too much advantage. I've sent at least 84 emails to the Skylords devs over the years asking for unlimited ignore player space so I can make sure that no one talks to me when I'm in the forge. I read and listen to every NPC callout, unit quote and lore entry to fully immerse myself in the true ethical SSF hardcore experience. Every time I go into this general and read the word "meta", "trading", "amii monument", "batariel", "nightguard", "mark of the keeper", so on and so on, I've stolen at least a dozen credit cards from my parents to pay for the patreon to show my support for the Skylords devs and the true hardcore game that they have revived. Why do you self-proclaimed SSF hardcores even try to pretend that you're truly SSF hardcore? You make me fucking sick.

From the old description I always imagined it working this way: Normally the power capacity in a well translates 1:1 to power output. For 10 power in the well you will eventually also gain 10 usable power. But with Juice Tank the power in the well drains slower while the output remains the same. By the time you get your 10 usable power the well only lost like 5 of its power capacity. So in order to get the most out of your wells, you build Juice Tank asap. Because every point of power capacity in the well lasts longer while still giving you the same energy output. It's factual that the well will effectively produce more. But not because it does so faster but because its capacity simply lasts longer. In maps that take a long time you will end up with a HUGE energy pool.

Potentially offset by an increase in price for less sought after cards. I'd say the amount of BFP/Gold you have to pay in order to reroll is based on card rarity. It would definitely shake up the AH. Questionable how it would affect people that already have all the cards (they want). Probably not good enough as a definitive card/bfp/gold sink forever.

I think the game would benefit from some sort of long-term culling mechanic for cards, BFP and gold. Also, rolling the dice is already part of the core experience when opening boosters. As such I think it would be in line to offer a reroll of sorts. For example three same-rarity cards and some BFP/gold rerolled for another card of equal rarity with a chance of getting one rarity higher. One might argue that people would then simply buy up all the cheap rares and ultra-rares to reroll. But that rise in demand would then also mean that those cards rise in value. And with boosters having a fixed price, it would make even "bad" cards in boosters have some sort of innate value. To evaluate pros and cons would be up to the design team but in general there needs to be a long-term sink, which is an acknowledged issue.

It's a part of micro management. They are powerful effects that already enjoy a lot of use. They don't need a buff like that. At all. In fact, I would argue that it is already too powerful that you are able to build two in order to completely circumvent the cooldown. This eliminates decision making about when to activate these extremely potent effects because you can just have them permanently. Otherwise you would AT LEAST have to wait for a decent amount of void to accumulate. And people would have to relay to the SoW user when they need a boost. But currently, on rPvE where enemies are dying at all times, it effectively eliminates the void mechanic from the game. Suggesting that it simply runs permanently shows one got too used to an extremely strong effect and is now even too comfortable to do anything for it.

In the meantime, and in case a colorblind mode won't/can't be implemented, ReShade is great for colorblind gamers and should be the go-to solution if an official one is absent. It is a post-processing software that can also straight up switch and adjust colors. With colorblindness having multiple forms, it is a good idea to have a customized colorblind shader that you can just slap over any game. Searching around the internet should net a few helpful tutorials and even premade shaders for colorblind people.

I think the current priority is attempting to clean up the absolute disgraceful mess the original game was.

Well, first thing I checked out was the Dwarven Riddle video and sure enough Amii Monument was used. And Shaman. Two cards that are traded with very high value. So if your target audience is supposed to be newer players, I think you should maybe limit yourself to a budget for any given deck. And provide alternative strategies with different decks and colors, since I think new players often focus on a certain color that they then try to make work. For example, if a fire player watches a tutorial that is done entirely with a Nature or Stonekin deck, they would be quite disappointed and possibly wonder if they can even do it with their preferred color. Also, generally, I think newer players should be taught to be less reliant on certain, common cheese strategies and cards. The usual offenders that get abused to bend or downright break the game are Enlightenment, Amii Monument, Nightguard or Mana Wind and Mark of the Keeper on certain maps. At the very least they should be made aware that you don't NEED them to win Expert maps. Because that is a sentiment I see expressed quite often. Challenges like "Only Twilight-Edition cards" would be very interesting to see as well. As a side note to you personally, I'd advise you to manage your expectations. Skylords is a very niche game with a small community so if you are hoping to grow a YouTube channel with this type of content, it's probably not viable. And even if that is not your goal, reception shouldn't be your main motivator, some subs, views and support would be more like a nice bonus for something you like to do for yourself.

Oracle Original goal was to do the map with roots but the gunners recked the Spikeroots. So I switched up T2. Two stacks of Defenders, 3 each, hunkering down and facing the two directions your T2 gets attacked by the gunners from. Supported by one Crystal Fiend. They hold forever without any maintenance. So you can pump out an army of Tempests and a few additional Crystal Fiends to blast the two camps on your way to T3. If you take care of them, you can easily push all the way down on the left side. After that I just built ALL the Living Towers at my T1 and built a network of Nexus for Razorleafs to clear the rest of the map. Got three of them in a line, always circling them through. The last one goes out front while in its original place another Nexus gets built. That way you push into the remaining bases. Got two options for the wagons. Either don't destroy the buildings that hold them until later or deliver them asap. If you just leave them in the open the spawning enemies will be a constant annoyance. Your T4 has to be defended by a Razorleaf or it will get destroyed on the boss fight. I put the Razorleaf (still linked to the Living Tower battery that I expand on cooldown) to the furthest left side of the T4. Same goes for your T2. There I put the Razorleaf to the furthest right side at the cliff. These two will defend your Orbs from drops and sniping Gunships. Meanwhile the boss arena gets besieged by two Spore Launchers and two Razorleafs. Wyrms are there just because. And Winter Witch to soak up damage and freeze the Bandit Walkers. Frostbite for a faster kill. The most important part is to get to your T2 at around 6 minutes so you can get a few Defenders out before the first Gunners come for you. As soon as your defense is set up you can chill. Key cards in this deck are Defenders, a healer (in this case Crystal Fiend) to keep them alive and Juice Tank. Tempests are fun because once they are set up in a base and supported with Ray of Light, you can just pick off one thing after another. Anything after T2 is completely up to you. T1 nature is obviously comfy. You can either go Shaman:Windweavers 45:55 or pump out more WWs and support with Surge of Light. Any start goes, really. As long as you reach T2 early enough. Defenders are just such a great card. When they Stand Ground, they have 2025 EHP. And that for 95 energy on T2, of which you get 25 back. Makes any heals CRAZY effective as well, as if they had a 2.5 multiplier. Stack them on top of each other so damage gets splashed more equally and they can lock many chokepoints down.

That's what I am talking about though. A bot can just interact with the game like a human would through inputs and screen scans. Navigating the AH isn't that complex. Would need a way to watch the important listings on the provided website and act on them, which would probably be the more difficult part. But I wouldn't put it past people to make one happen. It's something to be mindful about.

I was thinking of this: Confused it with the trade data. In any case a crafty person could surely write a bot that looks at the data output directly on the website to then automatically make AH purchases, no? Wouldn't even need a high success rate or short response time. I imagine if even 1 in 10 or even 20 transactions goes through you'd make more than enough bank each day. But sites like Skylords Marketplace Journal scan the trade data in real-time too, right? The website catches all the outliers and generates graphs from them. So I imagine anyone else could do that for private use as well. Catch the outliers and then have a bot automatically act on it in-game.

Hmm, since the API is public I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are trade bots. Thinking something akin to the bot scanning the API for certain buyout thresholds and when something pops up, it automatically uses the in-game AH to search for the card and buy it. Would definitely not be allowed as per rule 7: "Being a robot - Do not use any kind of bots on our Forums or in-game." An automated bot like that would definitely create some transaction patterns on an account that are abnormal and could be tracked by the dev team. But I do wonder if trade bots could actually be as fast as to instantly snipe an underpriced auction. I would assume that would have a negative impact on performance. Can't entirely rule out the chance that someone just so happened to search for a card at that precise moment.