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Cocofang

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  1. WindHunter liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Necroblaster - Upcoming Changes   
    Exactly. Which is why the vast majority of changes that have happened up to this point and will continue to happen, including these planned tower changes, are buffs.
    Some nerfs are unavoidable if the overall powerlevel is supposed to become more stable.
    You can't take the strongest cards in the game as a baseline or otherwise you would end up with insane powercreep. And if you just leave them they will maintain their position as the gold standard that nothing else can touch, so the conversation would always be "Yeah, well Y is alright now, I guess. But it ain't X." A certain power discrepancy will always be there but it mustn't be too big. Otherwise the OP will just keep warping perceived power and crowd out anything else.
    In the end, there will be more attractive options, not less.
  2. PrincessKenny liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in AFK timer   
    12p maps sometimes need a bit of time to fill. So with such a feature there should definitely also be a way for the host to easily flag themselves as not afk. Like a pop-up box to click or a system message prompting them to type something in chat.
  3. Phased liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Community Update #25 - July 2022   
    No mention of Deck-Folders to organize your own decks and increasing the 100-cap? REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
  4. Metagross31 liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Achie -Encounter with the twilight -- Clue 200 IQ   
    As a big fan of the impenetrable T2 defense that is Razorshard G, Crystal Fiend B, Stone Tempest, Defenders and Healing Well I just let the onslaught hopelessly shatters against literal stone, including the Twilight Dragon.
  5. Bkingn liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Community Update #25 - July 2022   
    No mention of Deck-Folders to organize your own decks and increasing the 100-cap? REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
  6. DapleoH liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Community Update #25 - July 2022   
    No mention of Deck-Folders to organize your own decks and increasing the 100-cap? REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
  7. chickennoodler liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Necroblaster - Upcoming Changes   
    The proposal to adjust every map around Necroblaster is completely unfeasible.
    It is the single best tower and a nerf won't make it unusable. Currently it has a condition tied into its power that does pretty much nothing because once fueled it won't run out again in the vast majority of cases. It's true that most defensive building set-ups currently require way too much attention and don't do a good job at actually locking down areas. And in a way the goal of building a defensive set-up is to just not having to care for that area any longer. But Necroblaster is way too good at it for what its requirements are.
    The proposal doesn't even touch its obscene damage. Just makes it so accessing it requires a bit more thought.
  8. Metagross31 liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Necroblaster - Upcoming Changes   
    The proposal to adjust every map around Necroblaster is completely unfeasible.
    It is the single best tower and a nerf won't make it unusable. Currently it has a condition tied into its power that does pretty much nothing because once fueled it won't run out again in the vast majority of cases. It's true that most defensive building set-ups currently require way too much attention and don't do a good job at actually locking down areas. And in a way the goal of building a defensive set-up is to just not having to care for that area any longer. But Necroblaster is way too good at it for what its requirements are.
    The proposal doesn't even touch its obscene damage. Just makes it so accessing it requires a bit more thought.
  9. Metagross31 liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Community Update #25 - July 2022   
    No mention of Deck-Folders to organize your own decks and increasing the 100-cap? REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
  10. Kapo liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Community Update #25 - July 2022   
    No mention of Deck-Folders to organize your own decks and increasing the 100-cap? REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
  11. Cocofang liked a post in a topic by Majora in Community Update #25 - July 2022   
    Greetings Skylords!
    This community update is a bit different to what you are used to. We would like to take a bit of time to communicate to you all, the player base, about the state of the project, and give you the opportunity to communicate to us as well. 

     
    • Share your feedback, get two boosters!

    Last month, we released our latest patch: "Force of Nature". We hope you are all enjoying it, and are curious to hear how you feel about Skylords Reborn in general.  
    It has already been a year since our feedback survey, so it is time for some reflection and feedback. What do you like about Skylords Reborn? What could be better? We want to keep improving the game and growing our player base, and your feedback is crucial for us. 
    As a thank you, there will be two boosters for everyone who fills in the survey. Your feedback will be anonymous.
     

    • State of the Project

    We are very proud of everything we have accomplished with Skylords Reborn so far. Not only are fans able to play BattleForge again, but over the last two years we have added many new features and content. However, a lot of effort is required behind the scenes to create these new features.
    Skylords Reborn has a very loyal and consistent player base, but has been struggling to find new players. This also results in less potential contributors, resulting in a few individuals doing a ton of work. There is only so much we can do as volunteers, and at the current rate it is becoming unsustainable to keep the same feature output rate.
     
    Without additional contributors, Skylords Reborn will only get card and balance updates moving forward.
    This means new cards and adjustments on existing cards, but not features like Reforging, improvements to the UI, Happy Hours, etc. While we are currently working on a couple of new and existing cards, to improve the game, we would really like to add new features as well. 
    To give you an idea of what we are currently missing out on, below are some features highlighted that we feel would really improve Skylords Reborn. This is a game with so much potential, and we would love to bring it to you! 
     
    • What could be: potential features for Skylords Reborn

     
    Before we dive into them, please note:
    - The following features are currently not in development, due to a lack of game client developers, game server developers, and fullstack developers.
    - You can directly help create this features by applying for a staff role.
    - You can indirectly help by spreading the word.
    - Images shown are very early mock-ups.
     
    PvE Map Modifiers
    Map modifiers are global effects that can be applied to matches. These can be chosen before the start of a match, and different modifiers can be combined for limitless replayability. Examples of modifiers are: all enemy units regenerate 3% of their health every second, all enemy units move 25% faster, all enemy units spawn a hostile Nether Crawler on death, or cards return less power to the void pool. The more modifiers are active, the higher the reward from the match. The following is a mockup of a UI to choose the modifiers before lobby creation.

     
    New Reward Distribution System
    Do you dislike receiving achievement and quest rewards through the in-game mail? What about your auctions? Isn't it also a bit boring to see your scratch code rewards in a small static window? This feature is a new way to make it more exciting to open rewards. Imagine the following mockup with nice animations and sound effects, showing you what you received and actions to take with the items. The idea would be to move away from the lackluster interface and user experience of the in-game mail.
     

     
    Cosmetics
    Currently, the player can only express themselves through their character avatar. This feature would add numerous cosmetics like character borders, character banners (textured and colored), player titles and more avatars in general. The following image shows a Christmas themed border, and a green character banner. Instead of `Master of the Forge`, the player can also own and change their title and other cosmetics in a cosmetic management screen. We already started on this with the Cosmetics window currently found in-game, although it is currently limited to avatars. The idea is to add more tabs to the right of the Cosmetics page for the different cosmetics. Achievements, events and even leaderboard positions can also reward special cosmetics.
     


     
    Compare Profiles
    Amassing many cards, becoming the richest player, completing all the achievements and collecting all the different cosmetics is rewarding, but showcasing and comparing your accomplishments with others is also part of the fun. With the compare profiles feature, players would be able to manage what they share publicly, and easily compare their profiles with those of other players, either globally or specifically with one player. The following image is a very early concept of a screen to compare achievements with a specific player.


    Map Progression Indicators
    Map progression indicators is a feature for the world map that indicates, through the usage of stars above each campaign map, what difficulties you have completed for each map. This allows you to quickly have a glance of what you have already completed, and what you have not.

     
    New Campaign Maps
    While rPvE is arguably the most played game mode, we know players would really like to continue the story and/or experience new campaign maps. While we already have some of the resources to make this happen, we are lacking in the map department to make the push to get this done in a way that fits the quality you can expect from an official campaign map. Please consider applying as Map Artist, Map Designer or Map Developer. 

     
    New Community Map Experience
    The experience of creating, sharing, finding and managing community maps has always been very cumbersome. Currently, it is a unmanageable list that leaves much to be desired. This feature would completely overhaul how the community maps screen looks like, for both PvP and PvE. More filters, more sorting, public upvoting and private downvoting, highlighting of frequently played maps, deleting maps you have uploaded, viewing when a map was last edited and viewing the minimap of community maps without having to download them are a few features that could be included.
    Another option to improve the accessibility of Community Maps would be adding a second world map, where the best community maps would be found, similar to the campaign maps. 
     

     
    rPvE Deck Builder Mode
    Quite popular in other card games is a mode where you face challenges while your starting deck is slowly expanding by picking a card from a random selection. We think this could be a great new way to play Skylords Reborn, with every run being unique and allowing you to experiment with different cards and combinations. This would require quite a bit of UI work though, which is why this mode has not been developed yet. 


    Seasons
    Seasons are a broad topic that could include many features that reset or adjust based on the start of a new season. Some examples are Seasonal Leaderboards that reset at the end of each season and automatic events that occur throughout the season. But also seasonal objectives and/or objective trees to complete, similar to a battle pass in other games, are topics that have been discussed in the team quite often. We feel seasons would help make the game feel more fresh, and reward players for playing through each season, giving older players a reason to return. 
    Seasons are a broad feature that would probably require other features mentioned above to be included first, like the improved reward system, modifiers on maps to create new challenges, and additional cosmetics to be rewarded.  
     
    As you can see, there is still a lot of potential for Skylords Reborn, and we would love to add them to the game. 
    As mentioned before, these features are currently not in development due to a lack of people to work on them.
     
    • Help us make these features happen
    So get your friends to join, or have them return to check out the new content and achievements, give us suggestions (through the survey) on how to improve the player base, or apply for a staff position yourself. We really can't do this without you! 
     
      
      

    • Team Changes

    Due to personal reasons, Friendly Firefly sadly had to resign from the team. We are grateful for his help with Burning Spears and wish him all the best!
    While not technically a team change, we would also like to take a moment to thank Kapo for his contributions to Skylords Reborn. You might know him from hosting the CCC events, but Kapo has been doing a ton of work for the team behind the scenes as well. From helping out with the recent Force of Nature trailer, to proofreading and providing feedback, we can always count on him. Due to his contributions to Skylords Reborn, we have awarded him with the rare Skylord of Honor title. 
     
    • In Conclusion

    Thank you for reading this Community Update. We hope you will consider helping us out. 
    As is tradition, this community update comes with a scratch code. 
    The code will reward you with a general booster: NEWL-EGEN-DARY-WHEN
    And remember: By doing our survey, you can grab an additional two boosters! 
    The code is valid until August 1st, when we will bring you our next Community Update. 
    As always, we are open to feedback, so please let us know if you have any questions, suggestions or comments! 
     

    Archive
    • Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
    • Overview Community Updates
    • Community Update #24
     
  12. Titan liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Primeval Watcher - Upcoming Changes   
    If Primeval Watcher is to go 3Nature1Neutral, I think Nature itself needs a replacement. Every faction has at least two 2Factioncolor2Neutral units for committed hybrid decks or dipping two orbs deep into one color.
    This effectively leaves Nature with zero, because Spore Launcher is a root-card and has niche needs. Sure, you have Grimvine and Giant Wyrm as even more flexible splashes but that ain't the same. Primeval Watcher always was the sole T4 unit Nature offered as an "upgrade" for 2Nature splash.
    Alternatively, instead of increasing the orb requirements, an ability cost could be added since it is now much more powerful.
    Or an orb-swap with Colossus could be considered as well. So Primeval Watcher 3Nature1Neutral and Colossus 2Nature2Neutral.
  13. WindHunter liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Patch #400033 - 5 June 2022   
    Really like the new patch notes template as a baseline. Looks very familiar to what you're used to from other games but has its unique flair as well.
  14. Metanolo liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Patch #400033 - 5 June 2022   
    Boosters are rolled on opening, not on purchase. So your hoarded boosters can contain the new cards.
  15. Majora liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Patch #400033 - 5 June 2022   
    Boosters are rolled on opening, not on purchase. So your hoarded boosters can contain the new cards.
  16. Majora liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Patch #400033 - 5 June 2022   
    Really like the new patch notes template as a baseline. Looks very familiar to what you're used to from other games but has its unique flair as well.
  17. Cocofang liked a post in a topic by WindHunter in Patch #400033 - 5 June 2022   
    Card Balance Changes

    Global Balance Changes
    Each unit size has a defined limit of how many melee units of a given category can attack it at once. This limit directly affects the viability of melee units in a way that is not true for ranged units. As part of how balancing efforts, we have decided to increase the amount of melee units which can attack a given unit at a time. This should prove especially helpful for early strategies utilizing S-units or when fighting against boss units in RPvE with a primarily melee army.
    Numbers of melee attackers for creatures of different sizes:
    A single S creature can be attacked by at most 4 Normal, 6 Reach and 2 Huge attackers ➜ at most 6 Normal, 9 Reach and 4 Huge attackers
    A single M creature can be attacked by at most 6 Normal, 10 Reach and 2 Huge attackers ➜ at most 9 Normal, 15 Reach and 4 Huge attackers
    A single L creature can be attacked by at most 8 Normal, 12 Reach and 4 Huge attackers ➜ at most 12 Normal, 18 Reach and 6 Huge attackers
    A single XL creature can be attacked by at most 12 Normal, 14 Reach and 6 Huge attackers ➜ at most 18 Normal, 21 Reach and 8 Huge attackers
    Normal = S & M-units.
    Reach = Units with extended range. Ghostspears is a good example.
    Huge = L and XL-units.
    S-units count as 1 normal (or reach) attacker.
    M-units count as 2 normal (or reach) attackers.
    L-units count as 1 Huge attacker.
    XL-units count as 2 Huge attackers.
    Fortification walls: increased the gate's toggle cooldown from 1.4 seconds to 3.4 seconds. 
    Some units were unable to attack or pass through a gate when it was rapidly toggled between closed and open.
    Twilight's Transformation ability: added scaling to the transformation cost based on tier.
    Tier 2 units remain at 85%
    Tier 3 units from 85% ➜ 80%
    Tier 4 units from 85% ➜ 75%
    Twilight Transformation is now as efficient as Breeding Grounds at T4. 
    Changed all cone-attacker splash radii to 38m (ie. Frost Mage). This would reduce out-of-range issues faced by cards of this type.

    PvE Balance Changes
    The focus this patch for both PvE and PvP has been on the Nature faction. For more information on our vision for Nature, check out our Nature Deep Dive.
    While changes are split here between PvE and PvP sections, many of the changes, such as Parasite, Shrine of Memory, and Spikeroot, have important consequences for both game modes. Our PvE and PvP balance teams work closely together to ensure that the impact of all changes are evaluated for both game modes. Below, we have listed both the changes and our reasoning behind them. 
    [ Tier 1 ]
     Amazon (Nature):
       - Wildlife Protection radius increase: 20m ➜ 30m
    Quality of life change to make it easier to use Amazon(g) with Werebeasts in T1.
     Fountain of Rebirth
       - Ritual of Rebirth healing: 15 / 18 / 21 / 25 life points regenerated ➜ 20 / 23 / 26 / 30 life points regenerated globally
    A small buff to enable the Fountain to be used in more scenarios, particularly when supporting non-Nature players in multiplayer.  
     Treespirit:
       - Unit cost decrease: 60p ➜ 50p
       - Life points reduction: 680 / 720 / 800 / 880 ➜ 560 / 600 / 660 / 730
       - Thorns damage reduction: 100, up to 150 total ➜ 75, up to 115 total
    These changes to Treespirit were initially intended to turn the unit solely into a Root Network battery, but testing has shown increased viability in all game modes due to the ability to spam them out quickly, a trait that Nature T1 otherwise lacks. The cost reduction means a net benefit for Root Network decks, allowing them to set-up more quickly while binding significantly less power.
    [ Tier 2 ]
     Healing Well:
       - Water of Life:
          - Added initial healing capacity of 1500 life points.
          - Recharge rate increase: 20 life points per second ➜ 50 life points per second
    Purely support buildings typically need to provide a lot of benefit to be considered for inclusion in a player's deck. Currently, Healing Well takes 2 minutes and 30 seconds, or 150 seconds total, to fill its healing capacity of 3000. This is a recharge rate of 20 life points per second. Given that the building starts with 0 initial capacity, this means that the player must not only wait for the building to construct, but also well over a minute before the building becomes usable, and then only for a few seconds before they will need to wait again. In some sense, this mimics an initial and recurring ability cooldown timer, but we do not think this state of affairs is proper to this card. These changes should allow Healing Well to fulfill its purpose as a stable source of sustain in a localized area.  
     Sunken Temple:
       - Orb requirements changed: 2 Nature ➜ 1 Nature, 1 Neutral
       - Building cost reduction: 120p ➜ 110p
       - Swapped Shadow and Nature affinities of the card.
       - Plague:
          - Changed from active ability to passive auto-cast ability with a cooldown of 30 seconds.
          - Now displays a respawn status bar indicator.
       - Summoned Pest Creepers:
          - Unit now dies after 40 / 60 / 60 / 60 seconds.
          - Added immunity against reviving effects.
          - Can no longer be infected with the Twilight Curse.
          - No longer grants ground presence.
          - Green affinity poison duration increase: 4 ➜ 5 seconds
    Sunken Temple is a spawner building with has a high upfront cost of 120 bound power and a continually high cost of 80p for each ability activation. Given that the units it spawns are unbound units, the building will eventually pay itself off. This payoff comes in the form of melee S-units, which already begin to struggle in T2, particularly in PvE. Additionally, while the building eventually pays itself off, the time it takes for this to occur is quite long, both in terms of power cost and in-game time. This is not helped by Nature's newfound lack of void manipulation in T2. In nearly all scenarios, it would be better to push for T3 with a different strategy than using Sunken Temples.
    One of the holes that currently exists in Nature's T2 is the lack of a splashable defensive tower. Even Pure Nature's tower, Living Tower, is often lacking when not supported by other root network entities. The idea with this change is to turn Sunken Temple into a shrine which continually spawns short-lived defensive units. These units can then be paired with cards like Infected Tower to create permanent Twilight bugs or Furnace of Flesh for some minor void manipulation. 
    [ Tier 3 ]
     Northland Drake:
       - Unit cost increase: 240p ➜ 300p
       - Life points increase: 2435 / 2560 / 2820 / 3100 ➜ 3235 / 3360 / 3620 / 3900
       - Frost Breath (auto-cast) damage increase: 265, up to 398 total (2370 dp20) ➜ 400, up to 600 total (3570 dp20)
       - Active ability Blizzard:
          - Duration increase: 10 seconds ➜ 15 seconds
          - Ability cost increase: 60p ➜ 70p
          - Infused(r) Blizzard's flat damage bonus to frozen units is now consistently dealt against all frozen targets damaged by the storm.
    We have done a lot to buff Pure Frost, but have thus far neglected Northland Drake. We wanted to give the card a substantial buff, but needed to sharply increase its power cost to avoid any potential issues with PvP. Overall, this constitutes a 20% total increase in stat efficiency and a much improved ability. 
     Oracle Mask:
       - Mysticism:
          - Increased duration of the internal buff from 8 / 8 / 10 / 10 seconds ➜ 12 / 15 / 15 /15 seconds to match the external buff.
          - Changed the buff effect of the aura around friendly buildings from granting units invisibility ➜ units take 100% less damage.
          - The granted buff of the aura will now reapply to existing units in range.
          - Changed the displayed status bar icon on affected units and buildings from the card artwork icon to the ability's activation icon.
          - Added a proper global status bar description.
          - The visual effect of the activation no longer lasts an unlimited time on Oracle Mask.
    The old Oracle Mask was incredibly bugged and allowed the player to unbind their entire army and generate free units. This is a stopgap measure while we work on redesigning Oracle Mask entirely. 
     Shrine of Martyrs:
       - Power cost increase: 125p ➜ 220p
       - Blessing of the Martyr: Now a permanent, passive effect. Only one Blessing of the Martyr can be active at a time per team.
    We have envisioned Pure Frost as a macro-based faction oriented around good preparation and diverse unit compositions. The recent changes have given Frost players a lot to do in terms of micromanagement, and the newly buffed Shrine of Martyrs has only added to that by requiring the player to check back every 30 seconds. Given Frost's nature as a faction, which we discussed at length in our Deep Dive into Pure Frost, we would like to test out a version of Shrine of Martyrs which applies a permanent global buff. By doing so, we hope to cut out some of the micromanagement we have added to Frost in recent patches. 
     Shrine of Memory:
       - Orb requirements increased: 2 Nature (T2) ➜ 2 Nature, 1 Neutral (T3)
       - Power cost increased: 100p ➜ 120p
       - Echoes of the Past:
          - Void return percentage increase: 100% / 150% / 200% / 200% ➜ 150% / 175% / 225% / 300%
          - Maximum void return increased: 20 power per 2 seconds ➜ 80 power per 2 seconds
          - Also affects allies now, also only one Echoes of the Past can be active per team.
          - Decreased duration: 30 / 30 / 30 / 35 seconds ➜ 30 seconds on all upgrades.
    As a T2 building, Shrine of Memory sees play in PvP scenarios regularly, but falls behind in PvE compared to other void return mechanics. Its current effect is most efficient with medium amounts of void power, but actually loses efficiency beyond a certain threshold (333) and only works for the player which owns the structure. This means that Pure Nature as a faction has very poor void return tools, which is a major reason it is currently so weak.
    Turning SoM into a tier 3 buildings opens up significant space for buffs. Shrine of Memory now affects allies again, an ability which was originally taken away due to its strength in 2v2 PvP. Additionally, we have increased the void return percentage and allowed it to overcome the natural void return cap to allow it to compete with other void return options in T3. The goal is that after this change, all four factions will have competitive void return options which are thematically appropriate to the faction itself. 
     Stone Warrior:
       - Damage increase: 1700 dp20 ➜ 1850 dp20
       - Life points reduction: 1950 / 2020 / 2170 / 2360 ➜ 1750 / 1820 / 1970 / 2160
       - Shatter Lance activation cost reduction: 100p ➜ 80p
          - Gifted(g) Shatter Lance: Can now target structures. Deals 50% damage against structures.
    The blue affinity was recently given the ability to damage frozen buildings. The green affinity's description suggests it can do the same, and we don't see anything wrong with the interaction, so we have modified them to be consistent. We also reduced the ability cost to buff both affinities slightly. Stat realignment is for PvP viability which leaves unit with identical stat efficiency, which is the same as Mutating Maniac, better than Mutating Frenzy, and slightly worse than Fathom Lord. 
     Sylvan Gate:
       - Power cost reduction: 110p ➜ 80p
       - Add "Accelerated Construction" - Construction time is reduced by 50%.
       - Change Linked Fire ➜ Repeater
          - Range: 25m ➜ 100m
          - Sylvan Gate no longer provides support itself
       - Move affinities to their own passive:
          - Change Blessed(b) affinity to Tainted(p) affinity - Friendly entities connected to the root network within a 25m radius around Sylvan Gate will deal piercing damage
          - Infused(r) affinity - Friendly entities connected to the root network within a 25m radius around Sylvan Gate will deal 25% more damage.
    Sylvan Gate is in a prime place for a redesign. We would like to turn Sylvan Gate into a long-distance Root Network repeater, a role that fits perfectly with its existing tunnel ability. With these changes, a single Sylvan Gate will cover 200m and be able to connect support from every root entity within 100m in every direction. This means that Sylvan Gate can bridge massive distances, allowing the player to easily move their frontline root network unit while leaving their root network battery far away from the battlefield. 
     Thornbark:
       - Linked Fire, out-of-combat support provided increase: 1 ➜ 3.
    One of the aspects of root networks that has always been a little weird is the fact that every unit provides the same amount of support. There is no scaling, so it is always best to use the cheapest option in terms of power and population limit. With this change, Thornbarks used as root network batteries will provide significantly more support. Now only 2 Thornbarks will be needed to max-out another root network unit with full support. 
    [ Tier 4 ]
     Banzai Lord:
       - Counter added: Banzai Lord now has an S-counter
       - Bird Calling summon amount: 3 birds ➜ 2 birds summoned in total
       - Banzai Birds:
          - Damage (p): 1000, up to 3000 ➜ 1500, up to 4500
          - Healing (g): 1000 life points ➜ 3000 life points restored
          - Life points increased: 800 ➜ 1200 
          - Explosion radius decreased: 25m ➜ 20m
    Banzai Lord has causing performance issues by spawning massive amounts of birds at once. To mitigate this issue, we reduced the birds from 3 to 2, but increased the damage and health of each bird proportionally. This means that Banzai Lord (p) will continue to deal the same total damage. At the same time, we reduced the explosion radius slightly to give the purple affinity a minor nerf. The green affinity was severely underperforming and each green affinity Bird now provides 3000 life points worth of healing, which should allow it to properly fulfill its healing role. 
    Fire Sphere & Shatter Ice
       - Fixed incorrect handling of overkill damage.
    This is the first instance of us changing the way overkill damage works. It should provide a substantial buff for both cards by allowing them to always deal their full potential damage when a sufficient number of enemies are present.
     Forest Elder:
       - Flower Power / Pest Plants aura radius: 20m ➜ 30m.
       - New passive Ability, "Magic Link": Unit is surrounded by a magical zone of 30m radius where summoning friendly units requires 30% less of the usual power costs.
    Forest Elder is meant to be the apex Pure Nature unit, but currently is a walking Regrowth on steroids and a slightly improved Wheel of Gifts. Pure Nature is a unit-centric deck, and a major part of being a unit-centric deck is needing to summon units. Many players who splash Nature want to summon units in base, next to a Breeding Grounds. It thus feels unsatisfying when you have to summon a unit in the field and miss out on the major cost refund. We wanted to let Nature players stay in the field without waiting for other units to catch-up, as well as decrease the faction's bound power cost. As such, we thought it fitting to give Forest Elder a slightly improved mobile Breeding Grounds effect. More changes will be coming to Forest Elder in the future.
     Lifestream: 
       - Life Link:
          - Damage absorption limit increased: 10000 ➜ 20000 damage
          - Removed maximum ability duration.
          - Range increased: 200m ➜ 300m
          - Implemented a new visual effect to prevent confusion with Regrowth.
    Lifestream is Nature's superweapon equivalent and is a sustain option in a faction overflowing with sustain. In order to be used, it needs to either out compete Regrowth and Forest Elder or possess its own niche use. We have striven for the second option. To do so, we doubled the absorption limit and made the effect last permanently until the limit is reached. This will both increase Lifestream's strength in existing situations, as well as allow it to be used with less active input required from the player's end. Overall, it should fit in better as a part of a fixed defense and compliment Nature's healing in more offensive scenarios. To achieve this second aspect, we also decided to increase its range to 300m to match our recent buff to Comet Catcher.
     Necrofury:
       - Unit's default attack: Melee ➜ Ranged.
          - Damage: 1100 dp20 ➜ 4160 dp20
          - Range: 40m attack range
          - Needs to face enemies in order to target them.
          - Only affects ground units
       - Movement speed increase: 4.8 m/s ➜ 6.4 m/s
       - Nether Bomb is unchanged when switched into this mode.
    Necrofury is a card with a good concept that doesn't see play outside using its powerful Bone Shards ability to one-shot bosses with Unholy Hero and Fallen Skyelf. We are wanting to leave its current boss killing identity intact while opening it up for general usage. The goal is to allow Necrofury to function as a backline archer without the need to constantly micromanage her. Given Necrofury requires only 1 Shadow orb, it will be flexible enough to be used in a wide variety of decks and provide a reason to single splash a Shadow orb. 
     Overlord:
       - Blood Share:
          - Effect radius increase: 15m ➜ 20m
          - Healing increase: 1000 ➜ 1500 life points
          - Self-inflicted damage remains at 1000
    The ability is currently very thematic and fitting for Overlord but also quite lackluster, so we are giving it a small boost.
     Primeval Watcher:
       - Stasis Field targeting: Self-targeting ➜ Targeted area within a 30m radius
    Primeval Watcher is the primary backline damage dealer for Pure Nature. We want to increase its overall strength and the flexibility of Primeval Watcher's paralyze ability to allow for more offensive application. More changes will be coming to Primeval Watcher in the future.
     Promise of Life:
       - Orb requirements changed: 3 Nature, 1 Neutral (T4) ➜ 3 Nature orbs (T3)
    Allows Promise of Life to combo with Abyssal Warder and Pure Nature in T3, but otherwise has the same restriction for other decks, given it will still require 3 Nature orbs. This combo has proven to be quite powerful in testing and opens up a unique style of play, though one that can feel foreign to Nature. The idea is to attack a location with Abyssal Warder, purposefully allow it to die, and cast Promise of Life just before its death. This causes both a fully restored XL-warder and 2 L-warders to spawn, both of which are unbound. Promise of Life and Abyssal Warder will allow the player to quickly accumulate a large army of unbound units, while the new Shrine of Memory will grant fast void return, resulting into quicker transitions into T4.   

    PvP Balance Changes
     [ New Card Design Spotlight  - Burning Spears ]
    Burning Spears were designed as a new tool to increase deck building options in pure Fire. The faction currently has a limited pool of pure cards in PvP leading to a very M-unit centric deck design with a limited amount of deck building options and balancing levers to change specific matchup behaviors. The addition of Burning Spears will add a versatile small sized unit into the faction, that is supposed to help with some of the factions counter issues against L and XL units in T2, while demanding a deck slot investment in return. The passive ability enables very high back loaded damage potential to punish players that try to ignore them, whereas the slow and steadfast ability allows Burning Spears to stick to their priority targets while enabling further spell synergies with cards like Wildfire.
    [ Nature Rework ]
    Pure Nature has been struggling to find its place in PvP for a long time. The faction features some tools prone to snowballing games once a lead is established. This can be frustrating to play against. While these tools offer great snowball potential, the faction lacks ways to actually get ahead through more conventional means. At higher levels of play the deck could be considered the weakest, since it was possible to shut down the strenght points it has while abusing its weaknesses.  
    To address these issues, we want to increase Nature’s pool of options in open field trades while increasing its capacities of defending structures more consistently. At the same time, we are toning down the snowball mechanics to avoid creating an overly strong faction, which can’t be dealt with at some point in the game. This should lead to a more enjoyable experience for all players involved. Considering some of these changes are quite drastic, follow-up tweaks might be necessary to reach the desired goal.
     Burrowing Ritual:
      - Cost reduction: 50p ➜ 40p
    Our previous plan of slightly buffing Tunnel in PvP didn’t work out for various reasons. As a result, we decided to add a bit of power to one of its combo pieces, making slot investments for Tunneling strategies a little bit more worthwhile.
     Creeping Paralysis:
       - Cost reduction: 60p ➜ 50p
       - Paralyze duration increase: 15s ➜ 20s
       - Target limit increase: 7 ➜ 10 total targets
    Adding more crowd control and open field trading options for pure Nature allows the deck to compete with nature splash factions. The listed buffs are supposed to enable its role at defending power wells against melee units by preventing them from focusing down power wells. The spell also excels at disrupting immobile army stacking strategies.
     Deep One:
       - Life points reduction: 1650 ➜ 1450
       - Catch ability cost reduction: 25p ➜ 10p
    Deep One happened to be the most stat efficient T2 L-unit. Combined with Surge of Light, this led to very powerful snowball potential, allowing straight focus onto power wells ignoring any counter units. We reduce the overall health ratio to impact the effectiveness of Surge of Light support. On the other hand, we want to maintain Deep One’s ability during more defensive trades and are reducing its ability cost as a result. Deep One’s performance will be highly impacted by the upcoming Nightguard nerf as well.
     Energy Parasite:
       - Counter type change: S-counter ➜ M-counter
       - Power Drain: added 30s initial cooldown
    Any tool capable of generating maximum energy leads can snowball out of control very quickly. Therefore, preventing Energy Parasites from connecting to power wells at any given state is an absolute must if you want to beat pure Nature consistently. This necessary zoning of Energy Parasites often lead to a tempo loss by default, leading to heavily restricted gameplay options when playing against them. While this power level was necessary to keep pure Nature viable in the past, it did not leave a lot of room to buff the faction. This change is supposed to bring up more counter play options to Energy Parasites while keeping the unit strong and viable. The initial power investment can’t provide fast payoff, as counter unit spawns can be delayed. As nature often struggles with attacks based on M units, we also change the counter type from S to M. This might allow Energy Parasites to be utilized in combat before the initial cooldown goes off.
     Ghostspears:
       - Orb requirements changed: 1 Nature, 1 Neutral ➜ 2 Nature orbs
       - Weapon Change ability cost removed: 10p ➜ 0p
       - Damage increase: 900 dp20 -> 990 dp20
    With the introduction of Amii Paladins, every nature splash has its own melee S-sized M counter nowadays. By moving Ghostspears to pure Nature, we can tweak each of these units to specifically balance them towards each faction's needs. This change opens up room to buff pure Nature’s overall trading capabilities. 
     Parasite:
       - Orb requirements changed: 1 Nature, 1 Neutral ➜ 2 Nature orbs
       - Cost reduction: 100p -> 80p
       - Damage per second increase: 60 / 60 / 60 / 66  dmg/s -> 70 / 70 / 70 / 80 dmg/s
       - Max targets increase: 4 / 5 / 6 / 6 -> 8 / 9 / 10 / 10 total targets
       - Fixed damage interval from 0.9 to 1 sec without increasing total damage
    Pure Nature had little room to interact with air units in the past. Spirit Hunter poison gets countered by strong sustain tools (Ravage, Crystal Fiend healing etc.) and Parasite Swarm is too expensive and too susceptible to cc in order to work consistently. Parasite is supposed to be a strong support tool addressing this issue. Additionally, the card synergizes well with crowd control options to deal with stacked unit setups. We will move orb requirements towards pure nature to avoid interactions with splash factions, creating space for such a strong buff.
     Parasite Swarm:
       - Splash damage removed
       - Total damage increase: 16, up to 24 total damage (800 dp20) ➜ 24 damage (960 dp20)
       - Counter type change: M-counter ➜ XL-counter
       - Mind Control: added 10s initial ability cooldown
    Parasite Swarm is mostly reliant on using its active ability to generate value. This makes using the card rather inconsistent, especially in early T2 stages. The upcoming change increases single target damage by 50% vs L, S and buildings, while increasing damage by 125% against XL units (M remains unchanged). On top of that, its counter type is getting shifted from M to XL in order to provide a new option of dealing with XL units. This should make Rogan Kayle less mandatory in pure Nature. In return, we add a small initial cooldown on the ability to prevent undazed spawn into instant swap plays.
     Rogan Kayle:
       - Damage increase: 990 dp20 ➜ 1075 dp20
       - It’s the Shoes range increase: 15m ➜ 20m
    While not a pure Nature card in the first place, Rogan Kayle often gets used in combination with crowd control spells to produce permanent cc-chains. Outside of that, the card is rarely used and has large drawbacks due to rather underwhelming stat cost ratios. We increase its power a bit to open up more situations where the Lyrish leader can actually lead to victory.
     Shrine of Memory:
    Shrine of Memory will be shifted away from a meta pure Nature card and redesigned as a T3 tool. The card used to be a catch-up mechanic to compensate for nature’s weak early T2 complementing its spell spam heavy snowball tools. With the upcoming buffs, a back loaded hyperscaling mechanic is no longer necessary. Considering gameplay with SoM point and click hard counters like Suppression or Matter Mastery would naturally get more popular if Nature would increase in popularity, we decided to rework the card entirely. For more information, head towards the PvE section, where SoMs new powerful role will be further discussed.
     Spikeroot:
       - Unit cost reduction: 120p ➜ 110p
    Root Network decks were kept in a rather weak state in PvP considering static siege setups are rarely fun to play against. That said, we think it’s safe to increase Spikeroots power level a bit considering the card can complement Nature decks in various ways and is not reliant on root network support to be functional in the first place. It can be used as another tool to address nature’s M-counter issues. 
    [ Shadow L-counter Adjustments ]
    Nightguard has been dominant across Shadow splashes by shutting down a lot of L-unit centric strategies entirely across multiple matchups. The advantages of getting unbound units through mind control effects are more substantial than just removing units from the map. When kept alive, even a single unbound L-unit would lead to a huge long term advantage. Her omnipresence is preventing options to diversify faction identities, but also leads to numerous unhealthy interactions like shutting down L-unit centric factions entirely. We haven’t been able to touch Nightguard so far as a few L-units were at risk of getting out of hand without her (i.e. old Mountaineer). But since these outliers have received nerfs, we want to attempt to redesign the L-Counter role in Shadow splashes to enable more proactive skirmishing.
     Nightguard:
       - Unit cost increase: 65p ➜ 90p
       - Swap ability cost reduction: 75p ➜ 50p
    As the central change here, Nightguard unit cost will be increased by 25 energy, rewarding energy investments to prevent the swap from going through in the first place. On the other hand, her ability cost will go down by the same amount, so total swap costs remain unchanged. This will weaken Nightguard’s preemptive zoning power before the swap goes through and also strengthen any re-swap scenarios. Therefore, taking down the Nightguard after a swap goes through needs to be prioritized even more than before. As the total cost per swap remains unchanged PvE impact is minimized considering it is way more likely to be able to keep her safe compared to PvP.
     Executor:
       - Counter type change: M-counter ➜ L-counter
       - New passive ability, "Piercing Death" - Unit deals 60% piercing damage
    Executor has been redundant so far given that Shadow already has exceptional M counter options. To bring up a combat based alternative to Nightguard his counter type will be changed from M to L. In addition he will receive piercing damage to be able to help against buffed L units. This should help against early T2 or in 2vs2 matches.
     Knight of Chaos:
       - Chaos ability cost reduction: 50p ➜ 40p
    Pure Shadow was quite reliant on Nightguard to sufficiently counter L units. This buff should help compensate for the loss of power, and will also open up more opportunities for the less reliable purple affinity to finally cause real chaos.
    [ Miscellaneous Changes ]
     Dreadcharger:
       - Charge increase: 12 ➜ 16
    Small change as a response to recent design changes in the Shadow vs Frost matchup. This should enable more extended T1’s given that Frost also receives Ice Guardian buffs in this patch.
     Eliminator:
       - Taming ability radius increase: 20m ➜ 30m
          - Added radius preview
          - Buff increase, fire(r) affinity only: 30% ➜ 50%
       - Fixed affinities not working together without allowing it to stack infinitely 
    Helping Eliminator to reward very specific strategies in decks that are built around him.
     Ice Guardian:
       - Increased range from structures before Ice Shield decays: 25m ➜ 30m
       - Added a visual indicator when the Ice Shield is not decaying.
    After acquiring more data from the Master Archer change, the previous spam scenarios are less effective in PvP as predicted. That said, Frost often ends up being confined to its own structures. We are giving Ice Guardian a bit more room to chase units and add a little bit more power into close well combat, where Frost is supposed to excel. This is needed to avoid map cutoffs early into the game. We also added a visual indicator when the ice shield is not decaying. This should lead to more comfortable unit micro options.
     Mountain Rowdy:
       - Ice Block ability cooldown increase: 30 / 25 / 20 / 20s ➜ 40 / 35 / 30 / 30s
    While we are satisfied with the overall position Mountain Rowdy took in pure Frost, he currently has the potential to keep his ability active constantly. With the increased range, this is a very potent zoning tool and sometimes slows down the game a bit too much. Therefore, we want to provide a proper window for players to attack after the ability runs out. 
     Phalanx:
       - Damage increase: 570 / 600 / 660 / 750 dp20 ➜ 600 / 630 / 690 / 780 dp20
    Phalanx recently saw a bit more play in PvP. We think they still are on the weak side, therefore a small buff, which doesn’t impact their combo potential with Nasty Surprise should help them take a more consistent L counter role in Frost splashes.
     Slaver:
       - Cost reduction: 80p ➜ 75p
    Small buff to bring stat efficiency more into the line of other T2 L counters. Shouldn’t affect the unit performance too much.
     Stoneshards:
       - Life points reduction: 840 ➜ 810
    Small tweak for Stoneshards considering Stonekin is slightly overperforming and will benefit a lot from upcoming Nightguard changes.
     Strikers:
       - Movement speed increase: 6.4 m/s ➜ 8 m/s
    While Strikers are underperforming as a unit, we do want to keep them in a niche role rather than buffing them back into a meta position. Increased movement speed should help to seperate the great Striker players from the good ones without inflating their power level. This should make it easier for them to isolate and pick off units more often.
     Twilight Brute:
       - Damage increase: 940 dp20 ➜ 970 dp20
    Even though Twilight Brute is a strong tool in a few matchups, deck slot limitations are quite restrictive in Fire Nature decks, so the card doesn’t see too much play all in all. Increasing the attack should provide a small extra reward for selecting them.
     Twilight Minions
       - Damage increase: 900 dp20 ➜ 930 dp20
       - Life points increase: 780 ➜ 840
    Considering Fire Nature loses Ghostspears as small sized M counter, Twilight Minions need to step in and take their role. Despite their superior stat efficiency, they were rarely played due to ranged disadvantages compared to Ghostspears and a less flexible ability. As a result, we will increase stat efficiency a little further to compensate for this patch and also look to add a lot more value for Twilight oriented deck builds in Fire Nature in the near future.
     Virtuoso:
       - Damage increase: 1790 / 1890 / 2075 / 2265 dp20 ➜ 2025 / 2125 / 2310 / 2500 dp20
    Even after the recent ability buffs, Virtuoso remained underplayed due to his inferior stat efficiency compared to most other L sized melee units. As a result, we decided to increase his damage output to help him at countering L units and sieging.
     Warden Sigil (Frost):
       - Blessed(b)Sigil ability: Can no longer be attached to structures that are still under construction.
    We are working on Wardens Sigil buffs to add more defensive tools in Frost T1. Unfortunately, the testing process isn't finished entirely, therefore only some technical preparations will be included this patch. We will follow up on this one soon.
     Warlock:
       - Cost increase: 45p ➜ 50p
       - Damage increase: 430 dp20 ➜ 600 dp20
          - Blaze Bolt: 60, up to 90 total damage (430 dp20) ➜ 72, up to 108 total damage (600 dp20)
          - Attack speed: 3,5s ➜ 3s
       - Witchcraft ability now allows self-targeting
    After testing the Warlock sufficiently, we do think it’s safe to enable a little more combat power rather than keeping the unit just as a cheap supportive tool. Warlock still should remain as a part of growing armies, but once he can deal a bit of meaningful damage himself, the required amount of set-up to make him work is reduced. This should help Warlock become more valuable in earlier T2 stages.
     White Rangers:
       - Increased ability damage against non-Amii buildings from 50% ➜ 100% (orbs and power wells still do not receive any damage)
    White Rangers already perform well in PvP, but given there is a distinction between normal and Amii structures (orbs and power wells), we can remove their reduced damage output against buildings to open up more use cases in PvE without inflating their PvP power level.

  18. Cocofang liked a post in a topic by WindHunter in Patch #400033 - 5 June 2022   
    Map Balance Changes

    PvE Map Changes
    Behind Enemy Lines: increased initial power wells from 2 to 3. All three have a capacity of 1200, equivalent to a 40 min lifetime.
    Behind Enemy Lines is a map with a high failure rate with non-Nightguard strategies, and is none to have substantial periods where the player is forced to wait. The primary goal is to keep the map strategic and difficult, while removing the tedious moments. A secondary goal is to buff non-Nightguard strategies in preparation for the upcoming changes to mind control. Convoy: buildings are now properly blocked from being built in the canyon in the center of the map in all locations.
    Nightmare Shard: increased initial power wells from 2 to 3 and increased the capacity of the T2 & T3 power wells from 600 (20 min) to 900 (30 min). Once the goal is activated to destroy the infected Twilight spawns (which occurs either after the player has reached the Shard or the first Twilight Witch spawns, whichever is first) the fog of war over each infected camp is cleared in a 35m radius.
    The average completion time for this map on expert is 48 minutes. The idea is to increase early power generation to reduce waiting, and to increase well capacity in-line with how long the map actually takes. Additionally, many players do not have a good idea of the strength of the various Twilight camps. The choice to remove the fog of war over the camps should help the players to make a better informed decision of where next to attack. Nightmare's End: increased initial power wells from 2 to 3 and increased initial well capacity from 900 (30 min) to 1200 (40 min). Increased the capacity of the T2 power wells from 600 (20 min) to 900 (30 min). 
    Nightmare's End has an average completion time of 72 minutes. This makes it the longest map in the game, and it is notoriously frustrating, leading to low replayability. Initial power generation and well capacity does not match the map's actual difficulty or length, so we are hopeful these changes can help bring about a smoother gameplay experience. There are other issues with the map in need of changing, but they will need to wait for a future patch. The Dwarven Riddle: added a monument and 3 power wells on each side of the map, regardless of number of players. 
    This change will allow both players to go T4. It should only affect players who play the map in a more "standard" method, in contrast to the speedrun method.   Standardized all official single player campaign maps to have 4 gold chests.
    Defending Hope: added 2 gold chests to match the standard.  Ocean: removed 2 gold chests to match the standard. The Soultree: added 1 gold chest to match the standard Introduction: added one gold chest to introduce new players to the concept of gold chests.

    PvP Map Changes
    While PvP has been moving steadily towards a more and more balanced state, a major issue we still face is the maps themselves. Just like we previously made changes to the 1v1 maps, we are happy to finally unveil our changes to all the 2v2 PvP maps (and Yrmia). These changes should create a more competitive and fair play environment, with many existing imbalances and cheese opportunities removed. All minimaps have been adjusted to reflect the changes and to be more accurate in general.
    [ 1v1 Maps ]
    Yrmia / Yrmia (Spectator Map):
    Decreased the capacity of all power wells with 900 capacity to 600 capacity (1). Decreased the capacity of all power wells with 1500 capacity to 600 capacity (2). [ 2v2 Maps ]
    Danduil:
    Removed the 4 fortification walls surrounding the Monuments on both sides. Added 1 power well of 600 power capacity at each of the 4 monument positions in the corners. Fixed an issue where it was not possible to spawn non-S-sized units by the ground presence solely provided by the outer power wells (2 and 3). Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Fyre:
    Increased the construction cost of the 4 outer fortification walls from 25 to 50 energy. Decreased these wall's distance to the power wells. These walls can no longer be built by enemies if the player or ally own the power well closest to the wall. Additionally, slightly narrowed the layout of the respective area around the wall in the bottom left to enable the same effect there. Added flying blocking at the 2 big lakes in the center to prevent sieging across them with long-ranged flying units. This is now visualized by permanently present clouds in the area. The power wells in the top left of the upper starting base now provide spawn presence for units and buildings. The power wells in the bottom right of the lower starting base now provide better spawn presence for units and buildings. Fixed various other minor blocking issues. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Gorgash:
    Increased the construction cost of the fortification walls at each starting position from 25 to 50 power. These walls are no longer pre-built at the start of the game. Increased all player's starting void power from 400 to 425 to compensate for wall changes. Decreased the power cost of the walls at the central northern and southern bases at the border of map from 75 to 50 energy. Adjusted the position of the monuments and power wells in all 6 bases in the north and south of the map to decrease distance to the wall. These walls can no longer be built by enemies if the player or ally owns the power well or monument closest to it. Removed the 2 walls around the northern and southern bases in the center of the map. Changed the layout of power wells and monuments in these bases by rotating each cluster by 180 degrees. Moved the power wells and monuments in these bases outwards, hence further away from the center of the map. Removed the northern and southern power well in the well cluster in the middle of the map. Moved the 4 power well clusters near the outer left and outer right bases closer to the center. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Koshan:
    Swapped the starting positions between players, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Added 2 ramps to the sides of the new start positions, granting access to the plateau behind. Opened up the plateaus in the corners by creating connecting ramps towards the diagonal of the map. Adjusted the positions of wells, so that they are further away from the nearby wall, and thus hostile units mounted on the wall cannot attack the wells anymore. Nadai:
    Added 1 power well of 1200 capacity at each side of the center monument position. Adjusted the positions of monuments and walls, so that 4 of the walls cannot be taken anymore if an enemy has taken the adjacent monument. Adjusted the positions of monuments, so that they are further away from the nearby wall, and thus hostile units mounted on the wall cannot attack the orb anymore. Swapped the starting positions including the starting power wells and monuments only within teams for consistency, whilst preserving map symmetry. Turan:
    Opened up the middle of the map by creating 4 connecting paths between the power well clusters and the central monument. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Yshia:
    Adjusted the positions of the 4 outer fortification walls to prevent offensive walling, by moving them outwards and thus closer to the power wells and monuments there. Opened up the plateaus by adding 2 ramps to each of them. Widened one of the ramps leading up to the two small plateaus. Increased the cost of the plateau walls from 25 to 50. Moved the well clusters more towards the center of the plateau, but keeping them close to the wall to prevent offensive walling. Moved the monuments previously located off the plateau to add to each of them 1 power well of 600 power capacity. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Zahadune:
    Added flying blocking at various places at the borders of the bodies of water to prevent sieging across them with long-ranged flying units. This is now visualized by permanently present clouds in the area.
    Fire Random PvE Balance Changes
    Fire was added as an enemy faction in rPvE in our Anniversary Patch. While we are currently working on adding Nature as the next faction to fight against, we have been keeping a close eye on the balance and player experience against Fire among all skill levels. With this patch, we will be making some changes to improve the experience. 
    [ System Changes ]
        - Significantly reduced the difficulties 6 and below.
        - Volcano now only spawns in level 4 camps and beyond.*
        - Incoming attack waves should now be less oppressive on higher difficulties.
    [ Bosses ]
    Removed fire class from all fire boss units - Protector's Seal no longer blocks the damage of Fire bosses.
    Abaddon: 
       - Rage:
           - Reduced the damage bonus from the second stage from 300% to 200%.
       - Gates of Hell: 
           - Reduced the initial damage from 800 (2400 in total) to 400 (1200 in total).
           - Reduced the eruption damage from 2000 (6000 in total) to 1000 (3000 in total).
    Aspect of Summer:
       - Global Warming: No longer prevents ice shield from being applied to target units.
    Brannoc:
       - Reduced life points from 65000 to 60000.
       - Fire Sphere:
           - Increased channeling time from 3 to 5 seconds.
           - Reduced damage from 2000 (10000 in total) to 1500 (7500 in total).
           - Reduced the radius from 25m to 20m.
           - Reduced the casting range 30m to 25m.
    Fireback:
       - Increased life points from 30000 to 40000.
    Fiend of Fire:
       - Flamethrower: Reduced damage per second from 600 to 500.
    Molten Golem:
       - Blazing Surface: Reduced damage returned from 50% to 25%.
    Vulcanos:
       - Unit is now XL.
       - Can now damage air units.
    [ Units ]
    Emberstrike:
       - Fire Lance
           - Reduced damage from 1200 (3100 in total) to 1000 (2500 in total).
           - Only deals 50% damage to structures.
    Firesworn:
       - Fixed a bug that prevented the unit from attacking units other than L-sized units.
    Fire Dragon:
       - Rage: Reduced the damage bonus from the second stage from 300% to 200%.
    Fire Worm:
       - Earthquake:
           - Reduced the damage per hit from 1000 to 500.
           - Now properly deals L counter damage.
    Magma Spore:
       - Ground Blast: 
           - Reduced the damage from 720 (1120 in total) to 350 (1050 in total).
           - Reduced the area Radius 15m -> 10m.
    Spitfire:
       - Fire Bomb: Reduced range from 50m to 35m.
    [ Buildings ]
    Pyromaniac:
       - Reduced the duration of the damage over time debuff from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.
    Tower of Flames:
       - Volcanic Ground:
           - Reduced the damage from 6 times 200/1000 to 6 times 150/750.
           - Reduced the range from 25m to 20m.
    Volcano:
       - Reduced life points from 5000 to 3500.
       - Reduced the size by 10%.
    New Building: Flame Crystal - Spawns in Level 4 and Level 5 camps* and will periodically remove debuffs and cc effects from allied units
    Fire can be extremely strong, but due to its high attack and low defense, it is extra vulnerable to Crowd Control spells. We want to counter this weakness with a brand-new building, while some major enemy damage dealers have been rebalanced
    * Level 3 camps are usually right behind the T3/T4 camp; Level 4 camps are the row behind Level 3; Level 5 is always the last row.

    Map Editor Changes
    Increased maximum allowed file size of community maps from 64 to 512 megabytes. Added optional verbose logging for LUA. This is relevant for mapmakers and can be enabled in the debug section of the configuration file at `/Battleforge/config.json` using the `lua` configuration. The logs can be found in the `/Battleforge/Diag` folder. Increased max brush size in the map editor. Fixed crashes for the height map generation for Random PvE in the map editor in certain cases. Allowed selection of the fire Random PvE preset in the map editor.
    Bugfixes
    Fixed issue related to character names becoming too long with the added `{GM}` prefix and not being able to be whispered. Fixed issue with deleting community maps while they are being downloaded by another player. Fixed incorrect ordering for all time rankings in the leaderboards. Fixed ability to add 21 cards or 21 boosters to trade, instead of 20. Fixed too large scroll step size for upgrade view when trying to scroll through the upgrades. It now scrolls with the same steps as the cards scroll view. Fixed inconsistencies in the Amii card frames. Card descriptions will no longer overflow into the card artwork. Fixed walk speed mismatch between respawned squad members and existing ones, causing the group as a whole to move at an unfavorable speed. This could be noticed for example with Werebeasts and Strikers. Fixed wrong displayed remaining card charges for Offering in rare cases Fixed incorrect handling of overkill stampede damage when destroying buildings. In general, this has a nerfing effect on stampede. Improved error handling and logging for issues related to starting BattleForge with DirectX10. and many more!
  19. Cocofang liked a post in a topic by Majora in Community Update #24 - June 4th, 2022   
    Greetings Skylords!

    We are very excited to tell you about our newest patch. Welcome to this special Community Update! 

    • Patch Release

    We are currently hard at work finalizing the upcoming patch, which is planned for release later this weekend. We do not have a specific time yet, but we expect the patch to hit the live servers this Sunday. We have also created a special video for this patch, be sure to check it out! 
    In this community update, we will show some of the changes that will be included in this patch. For a full list of changes, please check out the patch notes, as there are many changes not mentioned here. 
    If you start the game after the patch has released, you will be greeted by a new loading screen. This is a combination of the wallpapers drawn by our former artist Nano, and additions and alterations by Tweeto. We hope you notice all the attention to detail and love they poured into it!

    • New Cards

    We are excited that you will finally get your hands on the cards we have been working on for the past months. With this patch, three new cards will be added to the game:

    Wasteland Terror
    Wasteland Terror is finally here! This awesome Bandit-take on the dragon model fires streams of sand that will lay waste to your enemies.
    This card has been long in the making, check out the original announcement for an overview of its abilities. 


    Transcendence
    Transcendence is our first Amii spell, and provides a powerful buff or debuff as long as you keep its target alive, rewarding careful management of the fight. Check out the original announcement for more information.


    Burning Spears
    Burning Spears joins the Fire faction to battle an age-old weakness of its pure deck: L and XL units in the early game. 
    Check out the original announcement, for more information and an artwork spotlight.



    • New Promo Card: Mana Wing

    Alongside our new cards, we have also added a new promo card to the game. Every player will be able to get a promo Mana Wing by completing the new achievement "A Force of Nature". The promo will not be available in boosters, but it will be trade-able. 


    • New Achievements

    This patch will add 18 new achievements into the game. Those are aimed at improving the new player experience, while also giving our more veteran players something to work towards. Please note that if you have beaten specific maps previously, they do not count towards these new achievements.  
     
    [ Infinitely Scaling Achievement ]

    Reborn in Fire  [1 Mini-booster]
    Reforge Cards (Unlocks every 20 reforges, scales infinitely)

    [ Beginner Achievements ]

    Just a Story  [1 Twilight booster]
    Complete Viridya and Brannoc's story on standard difficulty or higher (Encounters, Siege of Hope, Defending Hope, Soultree, Crusade, Sunbridge, King of the Giants, Titans, Ascension)
    The Most Dangerous Game [1 Bandits booster]
    Complete Mo's story on standard difficulty or higher {Mo, Ocean, Oracle, Slave Master, Convoy, Blight, Raven's End, Empire)
    A Debt Unpaid  [20,000 gold]
    Complete the story related to the Treasure Fleet on advanced difficulty or higher. (Bad Harvest, Treasure Fleet, Mo, Blight, Slave Master, Convoy) 
    A Mile in His Shoes  [2 Stonekin boosters]
    Complete Rogan's story on advanced difficulty or higher (Encounters, Siege of Hope, Defending Hope, Crusade, King of the Giants, Titans, Dwarven Riddle, Guns of Lyr, Empire)
    A Wrinkle in Time  [250 bfp]
    Win the 4-player map Empire spawning at least 5 different Lost Souls cards from a deck containing only frost, shadow, and Lost Souls cards.
    Godslayer  [250 bfp]
    Win the 2-player maps Sunbridge and Insane God on any difficulty. 
    Apprentice  [1 booster]
    Win 20 randomly generated PvE matches of difficulty 5 or higher. 
     
    [ Veteran PvE Achievements ]

    The Road Not Taken  [3 boosters]
    Win 20 randomly generated PvE matches of difficulty 9 or higher.
    Turn Back All Ye Who Enter Here  [6 boosters]
    Win 20 randomly generated PvE matches of difficulty 10.
    Nevermore  [2 Bandit boosters]
    Complete Blight's story on expert difficulty (Blight, Raven's End, Slave Master, Ocean, and Oracle)
    Make it Double  [2 Amii boosters]
    Complete all 2-player maps on expert difficulty. (Crusade, Sunbridge, Nightmare Shard, Nightmare's End, The Insane God, Slave Master and Convoy)
    Never Thought of Him  [100,000 gold]
    Complete the story of Mo becoming the new king of the fire tribes on expert difficulty with all players in the map using decks containing only Fire cards.  (Mo, Ocean, Oracle, Slave Master, Convoy, and Raven's End)
    The Long Journey Home  [2 Frost boosters]
    Complete the story re-establishing the Kingdom of Lyr on expert difficulty using decks containing only frost cards. (Encounters with Twilight, Siege of Hope, Defending Hope, Bad Harvest, Dwarven Riddle, and Guns of Lyr)
    Not Even My Final Form  [Rogan Kayle Card]
    Win the 1-player map Encounters with Twilight on expert difficulty without using T3 or T4 cards.
    Forest for the Tree  [Viridya Card]
    Complete the 1-player map The Soultree on expert difficulty using only Nature cards from T1 and T2.
    A City Strongly Compact  [Stronghold Card]
    Win the 1-player map Defending Hope on expert difficulty with a deck containing only spell and building cards.
    A Force of Nature   [Promo Mana Wing]
    Complete all 1-player and 2-player scenarios on expert difficulty with all players in your team using decks containing only Nature cards.

    • Map Changes

    Campaign Maps
    We have made adjustments to a couple of campaign maps. These changes include standardizing gold chests (adding or removing them on maps that break the standard) and adding extra power wells or additional capacity of current wells to improve the early game of maps like Nightmare Shard and The Dwarven Riddle. For a full list of changes, please reference the patch notes.


    Rebalanced 2vs2 Maps
    The rebalanced 2vs2 maps can now be played on the live server. Changes include removal (or adjustments) of walls, wells, slight changes to the layout, and making certain areas immovable for flying units. This should result in a better play experience and more balanced maps. These maps also have observer versions, and we have updated the minimaps to be accurate. 


    • PvP changes

    We have implemented multiple changes that should make playing PvP easier and more rewarding. If you need any help to get started, remember that you have access to free and fully upgraded PvP decks, and we have a great guide available, written by top players. The following changes have been made:
    New Player Protection
    To protect new players from facing top players when they are just getting started in ranked play, it is no longer possible to get matched with players with a base ELO above 135.000, if your own base ELO is below 102.000.

    Made Player Names Anonymous
    To prevent players from dodging bad match-ups, player names have been anonymized in the ranked lobby. This does not affect the sparring lobbies. 

    Losses Are Now Hidden
    It has been proven in other competitive games that showing losses on the ranked ladder results in demotivation and higher entry barriers. We have therefore removed losses from the ladder. The information is still accessible on your profile if you so desire. 

    Updates To The Free PvP Decks
    We have made some changes to the cards contained in the free PvP decks to compete with the new meta. If we made updates to the free PvP decks you have currently selected, you will now have the option to either swap to the new cards, or keep your current set up. Changes have been made to Pure Nature (Parasite over Shrine of Memory), Twilight (Twilight Minions over Ghost Spears), Pure Shadow (Executor over Nightguard) and Pure Fire (Burning Spears over Scorched Earth). 

    Improved Rewards
    We have removed the gold penalty that was currently active for playing sparring games. Quests that require you to play 2vs2 games, now also count 3vs3 games for completion. 

    We have also allowed you to drain the reserve while looking for a match. If you queue for at least 5 minutes, even if you don't find an opponent, you will earn BFP as if you were ingame, meaning you get BFP not just for playing, but also while searching for matches. 

    Happy Hours
    Happy Hours are specific time periods where players will receive additional gold and BFP for playing PvP. During Happy Hours, there will be an in-game announcement and the icon on the world map will indicate Happy Hours are active. 

    Happy Hours will take place during the following times:
    - 1vs1 happy hours: 7pm-9pm CET
    - 2vs2 happy hours: 9pm-10pm CET
    - 1vs1 happy hours: 4am-5am CET
    By clustering players together during certain time frames, players will have an easier time finding matches more frequently. 

    • rPvE Fire Balance Changes

    We have rolled out some balance adjustments to the fire faction for rPvE. The Fire faction in rPvE can be extremely strong, but due to its high attack and low defense, it is extra vulnerable to Crowd Control spells. We tried to counter this weakness with a brand-new building that removes Crowd Control effects from nearby units.
    Some major enemy damage dealers have been rebalanced, which should result in an improved experience for all skill levels. For more information on exactly what was changed, please reference the patch notes. 
    We have also expanded the wiki to contain information regarding the various bosses you might encounter.

     
    • Balance Changes

    This patch also contains rebalancing of over 40 cards, with a large focus on Nature cards. These changes follow the mindset written out in our Nature Deep Dive. While already a great step forward, our work on (Pure) Nature is not yet finished, with some of the more complicated changes (f.e. Abyssal Warder and Grove Spirit) still being worked on. Regardless, these changes should have a positive impact on the faction. 
    Players will enjoy seeing a Forest Elder on the battlefield, since the card now has a mobile Breeding Grounds effect, reducing the cost of friendly units spawned by its side. Promise of Life has gone down a tier, now requiring only 3 Nature orbs, while Shrine of Memory has gone up a tier, now costing 2 Nature + 1 Neutral orb but increasing its effect greatly.
    These are just a couple of examples from the many changes that will be included. You will be able to check out all the details in the patch notes soon. 

    • Tournaments / Events

    • NEW - Official PvE Contest #6: The Soultree Faction Battle - Until 19.06.2022
    In this event, you can show off how much you like your favorite faction. Beat the single player map 'The Soultree' on advanced difficulty using only mixed-colored units and buildings! The event will start after the new patch is live. More information.

    • NEW - Skylords Battleship Kahoot Quiz - June 12th 2022 16:00 CEST
    Dallarian and Volin are hosting a Skylords Reborn knowledge quiz! The quiz will be streamed on Twitch and use Kahoot, which is easy to access by phone or PC. There are a ton of prizes up for grabs, so the majority of players should win something. More information.
     
    • NEW - The Skylords Open #15 - June 19th 2022 - 14:00 CEST
    The new balance changes and addition of Burning Spears should shake up the PvP meta, so what better time to host another Skylords Open? This 1vs1 tournament is open for all players, and will be streamed live on Twitch. If possible, please sign-up in advance. More Information.
     
    • FINISHED - CCC #5 - Prophecy, Prophecy, PROPHECYYY!
    Kapo hosted another successful Crappy Community Contest© on an altered Oracle map. Players had access to 16 orbs and 10.000 power to beat the map as fast as possible. As with all CCC, the more players attend, the better the prizes are, resulting in a free booster for the whole community. View the event and the code.

    • FINISHED - Skylords Bounty: Spring Forge
    A Skylords Bounty is an open-source task for the community to create something needed in one of the departments of Skylords Reborn. For this Bounty, we asked the community to help us create a spring-themed Forge. We got multiple submissions, and will now work together with the most promising candidate. Every serious attempt will also be rewarded with a Nature booster. If you participated, you will hear from us in the coming week. 

    • Host your own tournament / event
    Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers Hiko and/or Metagross to have your event prizes sponsored by us. 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

    Hirooo has joined our team as Faction Designer / Balance Developer. He has already been helping us a lot with testing and balancing PvP, so we are happy to welcome him to our team!

    Sadly, MarcoMaar (UI Developer) and RookieN (Map Designer) will leave the team due to long inactivity. We do want to thank them for their contribution to the project!
     
    • Contribute To Skylords Reborn

    We are currently looking for more people to help us create new content. Many upcoming features are on hold or take a long time due to a lack of volunteers, so we encourage you to take a look at our open positions. 
    For example, we are looking for a Map Artist to help us with Defense rPvE, and a Map Designer to work on creating new Campaign Maps. And we could always use more developers to improve the game in general. 
    If you want to help with creating new cards, we encourage you to consider our Artist and Balance Developer roles. We can always use more people in those departments to speed up progress. Adding voice lines to our new cards is currently on hold due to us missing an Audio Editor. 
    We would also like to improve our marketing; you can help out as a Marketeer, but also a Video Editor, creating short card reveal videos and exciting trailers would be greatly appreciated. 

    If you don't want to join the staff, you can still help with proofreading, testing our maps or creating a community event. 

    • In Conclusion

    We really hope you will enjoy our latest patch "Force of Nature"! 

    To celebrate the release, and to help you out with your Nature decks, we have a special scratch code for you. 
    This code will reward you with two Nature boosters! SOIL-ROOT-TREE-LEAF
    Feel free to share this code, but please do so by pointing players towards the Community Update instead of sharing the code itself. 
    The code is valid until July 1st, when we will bring you our next Community Update.
    Going forward, we will bring you these Community Updates monthly, on the first day of every month.

    What changes are you most excited for? What decks will you build around the new cards? We would love to hear in the comments!  

    Archive
    • Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)
    • Overview Community Updates
    • Community Update #23
  20. SpiritAlpha liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Spore Launcher - Upcoming Changes   
    It would be SO MUCH cooler if the Treespirits got spawned from the projectile, not from the unit itself. I mean, it is literally called a "Spore Launcher".
    Having it on every auto attack (or every few ones) would be amazing but it would have some wonky quirks to work out. The amount of spawned Treespirits could even scale with the amount of spores shot and therefore with support, as far as I have seen. They'd have to be temporary though.

    Imagine if attackers got swamped like that. Could take Spore Launcher into an entirely different direction. Nerf the amount of default spores it shoots from 3 to 1 but let every attack spawn a Treespirit, amount of spores and Treespirits scaling with support. Unfortunately, the Treespirits would take up pop cap as we don't currently have a way to introduce new pop-counts per unit ...
  21. Xamos liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Spore Launcher - Upcoming Changes   
    It would be SO MUCH cooler if the Treespirits got spawned from the projectile, not from the unit itself. I mean, it is literally called a "Spore Launcher".
    Having it on every auto attack (or every few ones) would be amazing but it would have some wonky quirks to work out. The amount of spawned Treespirits could even scale with the amount of spores shot and therefore with support, as far as I have seen. They'd have to be temporary though.

    Imagine if attackers got swamped like that. Could take Spore Launcher into an entirely different direction. Nerf the amount of default spores it shoots from 3 to 1 but let every attack spawn a Treespirit, amount of spores and Treespirits scaling with support. Unfortunately, the Treespirits would take up pop cap as we don't currently have a way to introduce new pop-counts per unit ...
  22. Cocofang liked a post in a topic by Majora in Community Update #23 - May 14th, 2022   
    Greetings Skylords!
    Every three weeks, we give an update on the things going on behind the scenes of Skylords Reborn. Welcome to another Community Update!

    • Soon™

    Last Community Update we revealed our upcoming new achievements and ever since we get daily questions when those (and the patch in general) will hit the live server. We are currently hard at work finalizing the upcoming patch, but aren't able to reveal a concrete release date just yet.
    We expect to share more information with you regarding its release in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that. 
    In the meantime, we are excited to reveal a new card today! 

    • New Card Reveal: Burning Spears

    Burning Spears is a new tier 2 fire unit, requiring two fire orbs. Upgrading the card reduces its power cost and increases its stats. The values noted here are for U3. It will be an Uncommon and won't have an affinity. 

    Burning Spears is an S-sized squad unit that contains a weapon-switch similar to Ghost Spears. They will also have the Steadfast passive ability, meaning they can't be knocked back. 
     
    Weapon Change
    Type: mode-switch
    Makes unit more effective against large units instead of extra-large ones. Lasts until deactivated.
     
    Weapon Change
    Type: mode-switch
    Makes unit more effective against extra-large units instead of large ones. Lasts until deactivated.
     
    Burning Lance / Scorching Injury (passive ability)
    Enemies hit by Burning Spear's attacks will be set on fire and take additional damage that steadily increases the longer they burn. The burn deals 2 damage per second and stacks up to 25 times. Attacked units may only walk at walk speed for 15 seconds.
     
    Design Goals
    Burning Spears are designed as a new tool to increase deck building options in pure Fire. The faction currently has a limited pool of pure cards in PvP, leading to a very M-unit centric deck design with a limited amount of deck building options and balancing levers to change specific matchup behaviors.
    The addition of Burning Spears will add a versatile small sized unit into the faction, that is supposed to help with some of the factions counter issues against L and XL units in T2, while demanding a deck slot investment in return. The passive ability enables very high backloaded damage potential to punish players that try to ignore them, whereas the slow and steadfast ability allow Burning Spears to stick to their priority targets while enabling further spell synergies with cards like Wildfire.
    Please note: We are still testing the card. While we are generally happy about it and feel comfortable revealing it, numbers and effects might still change before release.
     
    • Artwork Spotlight

    Now that our art team has grown, we tried a different approach for our creation process. The card was already play tested, so we knew its effects and that it would use the Ghost Spears model, but there were no other hard restrictions for the art. 
    Our artist Spirit Alpha worked together with Tweeto to explore some ideas, which resulted in multiple concept arts. They settled on a barbaric look. 


    The next step was to visualize the design in-game, and make sure what we had in mind would actually be possible to implement, preventing a mismatch between art and model.

    Once the theme, colors and general appearance were fleshed out, it was time to start working on the artwork. Different compositions were explored again.



     
    Spirit Alpha then handed in this artwork. While we were generally happy with how this design turned out, there were still some things to be done. While the Deep One claw was a nice touch, we found it did make the artwork more cluttered and distracted the viewer's eye. With the help of Tweeto, adjustments were also made to the background, contrast and skin, left arm anatomy, right arm shape and the spear. 
     

    After a couple of extra iterations (and lots of discussion about flames with our art critique), we finally settled on the current design. A big thanks to our artists Spirit Alpha and Tweeto for drawing the artwork, to Friendly Firefly for working on the ability icons and to our art critiques for their support and comments. 
    As you can see, a ton of work went into this, and we haven't even showed you half of the iterations. 
    We are very happy with how it turned out, and hope you like it as well!
     
    • Upcoming PvP changes

    While PvP has a very passionate community, the game mode currently has certain flaws that prevent players from getting into it. We hope to tackle these in our upcoming patch. Here are some of the changes we will implement:

    Queue will drain the BFP reserve
    PvP often enters a "Spiral of Death" when too few players are online. It takes too long to find a match, so players stop queuing, which results in it taking longer to find a match... We want to give players an incentive to wait in the ranked lobby for more than a few minutes, resulting in the lobby no longer being empty and the next person who wants to play finding an opponent quickly. If you queue for at least 5 minutes, even if you don't find an opponent, you will earn BFP as if you were ingame, meaning you get BFP not just for playing, but also while searching for matches. 

    Hide Player Names
    We have seen that some players tend to dodge certain high ranked players while playing ranked, not queuing up when they see higher skilled opponents in the lobby. To prevent this behavior, we will hide player names in the ranked lobby. To not impact casual play, we have separated the sparring and ranked lobbies, allowing you to still invite players into your lobby and make things like tournaments and Toggy's Fightclub still possible.

    Hide Losses
    Another reason that prevents players from queuing up is the fear of messing up their win/loss ratio, or even feeling shame to have their losses publicly shown on the ladder. It has been proven in other competitive games that showing losses results in demotivation and higher entry barriers. We hope this change encourages players to focus on what matters (playing the game and improving yourself) instead of stats that might not even represent your current skill level.

    New Player Protection
    To protect new players from facing top players when they are just getting started, we will prevent players with <102.000 base ELO from getting matched with players at >135.000 base ELO. 

    Changes to Free PvP Decks
    With upcoming balance adjustments and new cards, we will update our free PvP decks to compete with the new meta. Additionally, we have made changing these decks more flexible; resulting in no longer having to reset all the free PvP decks when we make these changes.
    If we update one of the free PvP decks you have currently selected, you will now have the option to either swap to the new cards, or keep your current set up. We are currently planning to make the following changes:

    Pure Nature:
    + Parasite
    - Shrine of Memory

    Fire/Nature
    + Twilight Minions (G)
    - Ghost Spears

    Pure Shadow
    + Executor
    - Nightguard

    Rebalanced 2vs2 Maps
    While we mostly balance the game around 1vs1, we know players really enjoy 2vs2 as well. We are very happy with how our rebalanced 1vs1 maps turned out, and we want to give 2vs2 the same treatment. 

    Changes include removal (or adjustments) of walls, wells, slight changes to the layout, and making certain area's immovable for flying units. This should result in a better play experience and more balanced maps. 

    These maps will also have observer versions, meaning it will now be possible to host 2vs2 tournaments again! We also updated the minimaps to be accurate. 


    PvP Happy Hours
    A feature long in the works and finally nearing release is Happy Hours. Happy Hours are specific time periods where players will receive additional gold and BFP for playing PvP. 
    We have noticed PvP is currently quite scattered, with a lot of players wanting to play, but going offline again when they can't find opponents. While rewarding to queue is one incentive to have players stay online longer when the lobbies are empty, we also want to help players find opponents in general. We hope that by clustering players together during certain time frames, players will have an easier time finding matches more frequently. 
    Happy Hours will take place during the following times:
    - 1vs1 happy hours: 7pm-9pm CET
    - 2vs2 happy hours: 9pm-10pm CET
    - 1vs1 happy hours: 4am-5am CET

    These times were decided upon by going over our available data and keeping different time zones in mind where possible. During Happy Hours, there will be an in-game announcement and the icon on the world map will indicate Happy Hours are active. 

    We hope to release all these features with our next patch, though Happy Hours is currently still in active development. We hope to finish it in time to be included as well. 

    • Team Changes

    We have a new teammember in Nukie, who has joined the team recently as a Global Moderator. Welcome, and thanks for your help!

    • Open Positions Rework

    We have made some changes to our open positions and spotlighted them in their own forum section. It is now easier than ever to see the current open positions, and we also added some extra information to each role, better showcasing what you will be doing. 

    Skylords Reborn is always looking for motivated volunteers to help out the project. You can currently help out in multiple areas, ranging from artwork to development, map design and much more. 

    Want to help out but don't want to join the staff? No problem! We also have positions like proofreader and map tester where you can more easily drop in and out, helping out when you have time. Lastly, we also have open-source projects and our Skylords Bounty (see below). Please take a look!

     
    • Active Bounty

    While we already have some nice contenders, our current Bounty to create a Spring Forge is still open. A Skylords Bounty is an open-source task for the community to create something needed in one of the departments of Skylords Reborn. If your entry gets chosen, you can win a great prize, and we will reward everyone who applies with a serious attempt with a participation reward as well. View more information on Active bounties.

    • OPEN - Spring Forge Bounty
    Spring Forge Bounty is an opportunity for the community to have full engagement with the next upcoming Forge. This allows everyone to submit a possible design for how they would like the Forge to look! The winning design will be rewarded with a Promo Razorleaf!
    A tutorial video has been provided to assist and help the community take its first steps for doing so!

    • Tournaments / Events

    • NEW - Toggys Tome Tournament #4 17.05.22 
    A midweek tournament held on Tuesday May 17th, at 18:30 CEST (Berlin time). The format will be Tome, meaning you will build your decks for this tournament out of a booster pool Toggy provide to you. Tome tournaments always result in crazy decks and cards you dont see very often, so be sure to join the action or watch the tournament on Twitch. The tournament will be played on the Testserver. More information and sign-up. 


    • STREAM - Official 2p rPvE Contest#3 Last Resort - 25.05.2022 16:30 CEST
    In this event, players were only allowed to use units, not spells or buildings. We will host a stream revealing the winners of this contest on Wednesday 25rd of May, 16:30 on our official twitch channel. 

    • FINISHED - CCC #4
    Kapo hosted another successful Crappy Community Contest© on the map Mo. Players were encouraged to play as few cards as possible to complete the map. As one of the first events to not focus on speed, this resulted in some interesting strategies. As with all CCC, the more players attend, the better the prizes are, in this case resulting in a free booster for the whole community. 
     
    • FINISHED - Skylords Open 14
    The Skylords Open returned with a blast! We saw some of the best players battle it out, with some match results that would surprise you. You can rewatch the matches here. 

    • Host your own tournament / event
    Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers Hiko and/or Metagross to have your event prizes sponsored by us. 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. 
     
    • In Conclusion

    And that's it for this Community Update, thanks for reading! 
    As is tradition, this community update comes with a scratch code. 
    The code will reward you with a mini-booster: FIRE-CARD-HYPE-TIME
    The code is valid until June 4th, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
    As always, we are open to feedback, so please let us know if you have any questions, suggestions or comments! 

    Archive
    • Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
    • Overview Community Updates
    • Community Update #22
  23. Cocofang liked a post in a topic by Eirias in CCC #4 - Mo Card Count - UNTIL 11. MAY 2022   
    Fun event and nice idea, but I really dislike that tiebreakers were decided by submission time 😕
    This gives such a huge advantage to players who know about the event beforehand, and heavily penalizes people who don't have the availability to play every day.
  24. Venomlord liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Spore Launcher - Upcoming Changes   
    It would be SO MUCH cooler if the Treespirits got spawned from the projectile, not from the unit itself. I mean, it is literally called a "Spore Launcher".
    Having it on every auto attack (or every few ones) would be amazing but it would have some wonky quirks to work out. The amount of spawned Treespirits could even scale with the amount of spores shot and therefore with support, as far as I have seen. They'd have to be temporary though.

    Imagine if attackers got swamped like that. Could take Spore Launcher into an entirely different direction. Nerf the amount of default spores it shoots from 3 to 1 but let every attack spawn a Treespirit, amount of spores and Treespirits scaling with support. Unfortunately, the Treespirits would take up pop cap as we don't currently have a way to introduce new pop-counts per unit ...
  25. nukie liked a post in a topic by Cocofang in Community Update #22 - April 23rd, 2022   
    The achievements specify that the deck must only contain cards from a certain color. As neutral cards are not nature/frost/shadow/fire/lost souls, they are not eligible for the achievement.
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