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Damo

Map Designer
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  1. Damo liked a post in a topic by Majora in Community Update - July 2023   
    Greetings Skylords!
    A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

    • Share your feedback, get two boosters!
    Our yearly feedback survey has become a tradition by now. Because Skylords Reborn is a community project, we want to know what our players like about Skylords Reborn, and 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.

    • Announcing a new rPvE difficulty
    As mentioned in previous Community Updates, we are currently hard at work creating more map-based content, like the much anticipated new campaign maps. But we are also aware that one of the most played game-modes in Skylords Reborn is rPvE, specifically difficulty level 9. Today we are excited to announce we are close to complete a new difficulty for rPvE, sitting between difficulty 9 and 10!
    We sat down with one of our designers to share some more information about this upcoming new difficulty. Take it away, RadicalX! 
     
    What was the motivation to create rPvE 9.5?
    Based on game data, we noticed the difficulty spikes from rPvE difficulty 9 to 10 are too big. The change in win rate is even greater than the difference between difficulty 5 and 9, and the majority of games at the highest difficulty just result in a loss.

    What makes rPvE 10 so difficult?
    Outside significantly strengthened camps and waves throughout the entire game, early layout changes from single to double camp at the T2 row greatly increases difficulty. These camps also include spawn buildings, resummoning dead units and sending out very early waves towards the players. This requires a different strategy compared to lower difficulties. Getting used to these new threats takes some time, but since none of the other difficulties work in the same way, it’s hard to prepare and practice strategies.
     
    What are the goals of rPvE 9.5?
    The new difficulty is supposed to achieve two things. First, we want to provide players a more enjoyable experience by adding a more linear difficulty scaling in rPvE. Whereas single player rPvE already functions like that to some extent, 4-player rPvE lacks a proper difficulty scaling, currently generating the same amount of games as all other difficulties combined. Second, we want to provide players an environment that allows them to learn and understand how rPvE 10 works on a structural level.
     
    What can players expect from rPvE 9.5?
    In order to achieve the two previously mentioned goals, rPvE 9.5 is using the same layout as difficulty 10. To smoothen out the early game experience, all fliers are removed from camps in the T2 row. Starting void was increased towards the level of rPvE 9. The T3 area will not feature spawners, reducing the total wave income in the early game. This makes more methodical approaches viable and removes some of the toughest mechanics rPvE 10 has to offer. Camp density in post T4 camps is reduced a little bit, waves will generally be comparable with difficulty 10.
    From that point we did further tweaks based on map tester feedback, to address more specific preset dependent issues. Because rPvE 9.5 is a systematic change, certain rPvE layout issues are inherited. That said, the adjusted unit compositions and wave spawn structures should still help with making these very unforgiving maps appear less frequently. Ultimately, this should give players a new challenge beyond difficulty 9 and also give a better indication on what difficulty 10 will look like.
     
    Alongside this new difficulty, we will also be changing the naming of the rPvE difficulty scale. 

    New Name      Difficulty according to current scale
    Standard           (4)
    Standard +        (5)
    Standard ++     (6)
    Advanced          (7)
    Advanced +      (8)
    Advanced ++    (9)
    Expert               (9.5) New!
    Expert +            (10)

    As you can see, we will be removing rPvE levels 1, 2 and 3. Data shows us these levels don't see play, and their difficulty and rewards are very lackluster. By using this new logic, the difficulty should also be more in line to the campaign difficulty scaling, giving new players more clarity of what they can expect. 
    Difficulty rPvE 9.5 will be available for 1, 2 and 4-player scenario's, and contain all factions, meaning our newly added Nature and Fire factions will also appear in the pool of enemies. This new difficulty will go live alongside our next patch, currently planned for a Summer 2023 release. 
    We hope players are looking forward to face these new challenges!

     

    • Voice Acting – Update
    Last month, we started looking for voice actors who could help us to bring upcoming characters to life. We are about to close the application window for the second wave of voice-acting, so be sure to apply this weekend if you are still interested!  
    We are looking for a variety of voices (both male and female), and encourage everyone who is interested (and has a decent microphone!) to apply. You are also welcome to apply if you did so in the original application round in 2021! 
    To apply, fill in a brief survey to provide us with some information about yourself and select which characters you are interested in. We will be in touch with you for a trial script, and select our favourites from the provided recordings.  
     

     
    • Tournaments and Events
    In between our monthly Community Updates, we host various events and tournaments, so be sure to keep a close eye on the in-game event tab and the forum calendar to stay informed and not miss out on any exciting events!
     
     • FINISHED - Official Event #9: Who Dares Wins! 
    Ultralord will be hosting a stream to showcase the winners of the last official event. Join us on June 3rd at 19:00 CET on his Twitch channel, which you can find here. 
     

    • NEW - Crappy Community Contest #11: Meme-fy BattleForge - Until July 3rd
    A non-gameplay event where you create GIF-content for our Discord. Meme content, emotions, ingame scenes – everything is welcome. Help unlock a booster code by participating! More information.



    • Host your own tournament / event
    Want to host a tournament or event yourself? Please reach out to our Event Organizers, @Metagross31, @Minashigo Hiko or @nukie! We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, we will gladly assist you.
     
    • Contribute
    Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fuelled by the passion and dedication of over 40 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to have a look at our open positions!
     

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

    Archive
    • Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
    • Overview Community Updates
    • Community Update June 2023
  2. Damo liked a post in a topic by Bleicher6 in Community Update - June 2023   
    Very very good work, keep it up. The game is so much better now and will even get better in the future im sure. New PvE Campaign content, im hyped thats what im looking out for the most. And if you even get voice lines in to make it feel more alive, its WOW. Its a shame that no big Youtube game channels make some Videos about your game, because as now its slowly becomes a new game. Keep it up! 😉
  3. Damo liked a post in a topic by nukie in Old School Efficiency   
    Hello Skyladies and Skylords,

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

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

    How Can I Participate?

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

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

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

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

    Future Events
    If you are interested in helping with these kinds of events for the community, or want to host one yourself as I do it here, don't be afraid and simply reach out!
    Send @nukie, @Metagross31, or @Minashigo Hiko a PM on the forum, or direct message via Discord (nukie#9354, Metagross31#1103, Minashigo Hiko#1126).
    They are happy to assist you with upcoming events and with sponsoring towards your prize pool!
     
    We hope you have a lot of fun with this event and are looking forward to seeing all your replays!
    If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

  4. Metagross31 liked a post in a topic by Damo in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    So, the event has now officially ended and the prizes are soon to be distributed to our participants.
    The total ranking looks as following:

    Thank you very much @Ultralord for the great stream yesterday and also thanks to all for participating!
    See you in the next contest!
  5. Damo liked a post in a topic by Majora in Community Update - May 2023   
    Still in development, just like new Campaign maps. These things take a lot of time, especially because we are all volunteers. As you can read in the interview, nature rPvE also took us over a year to get ready.
    We are aware people are looking forward to it though 🙂
  6. Damo liked a post in a topic by WindHunter in Patch #400042 - 19 May 2023   
    Patch #400042 - Nature's Awakening
    Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our eighth balance patch for the game, a brand-new card, all kinds of quality of life features, and many other changes, enjoy!

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

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

  7. Ultralord liked a post in a topic by Damo in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    So, the event has now officially ended and the prizes are soon to be distributed to our participants.
    The total ranking looks as following:

    Thank you very much @Ultralord for the great stream yesterday and also thanks to all for participating!
    See you in the next contest!
  8. LEBOVIN liked a post in a topic by Damo in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    So, the event has now officially ended and the prizes are soon to be distributed to our participants.
    The total ranking looks as following:

    Thank you very much @Ultralord for the great stream yesterday and also thanks to all for participating!
    See you in the next contest!
  9. Dolewan liked a post in a topic by Damo in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    So, the event has now officially ended and the prizes are soon to be distributed to our participants.
    The total ranking looks as following:

    Thank you very much @Ultralord for the great stream yesterday and also thanks to all for participating!
    See you in the next contest!
  10. Dutchy liked a post in a topic by Damo in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    So, the event has now officially ended and the prizes are soon to be distributed to our participants.
    The total ranking looks as following:

    Thank you very much @Ultralord for the great stream yesterday and also thanks to all for participating!
    See you in the next contest!
  11. wanky liked a post in a topic by Damo in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    Hello Skylords and Skyladies!
    Like all good things, this contest is coming to an end. 
    A little reminder: Please don't forget to send in your replays if you haven't already done so.
    The deadline is tomorrow night, 23:59:59 - either via Discord Damo#7332 or directly to me here in the forum.
    We will evaluate all submitted replays promptly and have already agreed on a date for the stream.
    The stream will take place on the 18th of May and will thankfully be hosted on Ultralord's Twitch channel.
    s
  12. nukie liked a post in a topic by Damo in Community Update - May 2023   
    Yea, you guys should indeed check out the ongoing event 😉
  13. Hrdina_Imperia liked a post in a topic by Damo in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    Hello Skylords and Skyladies!
    Like all good things, this contest is coming to an end. 
    A little reminder: Please don't forget to send in your replays if you haven't already done so.
    The deadline is tomorrow night, 23:59:59 - either via Discord Damo#7332 or directly to me here in the forum.
    We will evaluate all submitted replays promptly and have already agreed on a date for the stream.
    The stream will take place on the 18th of May and will thankfully be hosted on Ultralord's Twitch channel.
    s
  14. Metagross31 liked a post in a topic by Damo in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    Hello Skylords and Skyladies!
    Like all good things, this contest is coming to an end. 
    A little reminder: Please don't forget to send in your replays if you haven't already done so.
    The deadline is tomorrow night, 23:59:59 - either via Discord Damo#7332 or directly to me here in the forum.
    We will evaluate all submitted replays promptly and have already agreed on a date for the stream.
    The stream will take place on the 18th of May and will thankfully be hosted on Ultralord's Twitch channel.
    s
  15. Damo liked a post in a topic by Hrdina_Imperia in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    Greetings friends. 
    As the 14th day of the event is rushing by us, I thought it might be interesting to reveal a bit of information about the map attempts. 
    With Damo's approval, these are the (intentionally vague) benchmarks so far achieved, based on received submissions:
    An Expedition South - sub 20 minute run on expert
    Lyrish Uprising - sub 30 minute run on expert
    If you are still thinking whether or not try and compete for those juicy prizes, think no more: maybe they are waiting just for you 😉 Those times can surely go lower...
    See you in the Forge!
  16. Damo liked a post in a topic by Carofex in 2p PvE Contest - Through Ice and Flames   
    since when one can open gold chests in community maps?
     
    aah. i see how it works...
  17. Metagross31 liked a post in a topic by Damo in Community Update - May 2023   
    Yea, you guys should indeed check out the ongoing event 😉
  18. Volin liked a post in a topic by Damo in Community Update - May 2023   
    Yea, you guys should indeed check out the ongoing event 😉
  19. Damo liked a post in a topic by Majora in Community Update - May 2023   
    Thanks for the feedback, we thought as much, but always wise to double check.

    The original idea of the event did not include a speedrun challenge, and making the egg-pushing smoother would drain quite a bit more extra time. In the end, it would probably have been correct to skip the speedrun contest for this one, so people would just focus on the ''hey this is fun!'' instead of ''this is kinda tedious..''. 
  20. Ultralord liked a post in a topic by Damo in Community Update - May 2023   
    Yea, you guys should indeed check out the ongoing event 😉
  21. Loriens liked a post in a topic by Damo in Community Update - May 2023   
    Imho the answer to this question is even simpler.
    Boosters alone are no longer a really big incentive for players. Not only do you get them every day, many players are now about to complete their collection or already have it.
    Cosmetics on the other hand, that can only be obtained over a short period of time, with which you can show "Date XYZ, I was there", are a better motivator in my opinion. And yes, a one-off cosmetic was also available in this case, but just for playing the map, not for participating in the contest.
    I have to admit that after the first standard run, I myself did not try to do an expert run. I already had the Cosmetic and - I have to agree with Liorans on this one - it wasn't that much fun after all to spend more time on a chance to get boosters. 
    The fear of missing out on something is definitely not negligible if you're only aiming to reach as many players as possible with something. And if you want players to take part in the contest, the limited availability cosmetics should have been used for this aspect of the event and not just as a participation goodie.
    tl;dr: Since I said that it was simpler than Liorans reason: Booster for participation, limited availability cosmetic for the ambitious contestants.
  22. Damo liked a post in a topic by Dutchy in Community Update - May 2023   
    We gave it to the AI so we have a chance to beat it 😛 
  23. Dutchy liked a post in a topic by Damo in Community Update - May 2023   
    Yea, you guys should indeed check out the ongoing event 😉
  24. Majora liked a post in a topic by Damo in Community Update - May 2023   
    Yea, you guys should indeed check out the ongoing event 😉
  25. Damo liked a post in a topic by Majora in Community Update - May 2023   
    Greetings Skylords!
    A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

    • Patch Date Announcement - 19th of May
    Exciting news! Our next content patch is almost ready for release. We are currently hard at work to finalize its content, and are ready to announce a patch date. Our spring patch is planned for a release on the 19th of May. 
    We have a lot of exciting things in the works in various stages of development, some of which you will see in later patches. While we highlighted some upcoming Lost Souls changes in last month's community update, we are still working to resolve some issues before we can confirm their inclusion in this patch. We appreciate your patience and want to assure you that if these changes are not ready for the spring patch, they will be included in a later one.
    As we get closer to the patch's release, we will provide more details about the content in the patch notes. In the meantime, we are pleased to share that the Nature faction will be introduced to the game as a new enemy for rPvE.
     
    • A look at Nature rPvE
    On December 18th, 2021, we introduced the Fire faction as a formidable new enemy to be faced in rPvE. We're thrilled to announce that the Nature faction is now ready to be added to the ranks, In celebration of this occasion, we sat down with Hodron to give us some insights into its development.

     
    Let's start with introductions, for those who do not know you, what is your role on the Skylords Reborn team?
    Hey, I am Hodron, I am part of the map department of the Skylords Reborn Team. I have mostly worked on the Fire rPvE set before Nature, which has been a quite monumental task in both cases.
     
    How long have you been working on Nature rPvE?
    In early 2022, after the release of the Fire rPvE faction, we had a poll to decide what the next faction would be; Nature or Frost. The overwhelming majority voted for Nature, and we started working on it around February 2022. If I had to estimate the time I was actively working on the faction, I would say about a year due to some pauses during development.
     
    How do you start designing a new rRvE faction?
    First of all, I think of all the Nature cards in the game and then imagine the AI using their abilities like the Fire units are already. Terrifying thought, am I right? Our very brave map testers can probably still remember the horrors of some early testing versions of Nature rPvE. The camps were stacked with healing and damage reduction while constantly paralyzing the player, almost like a horde of Twilight Willzappers. For the first few rounds of testing, we never actually won a match on difficulty 9, not even close. From there the process turns to cutting and / or improving the units, buildings, and camps until a good mix across all difficulties is found.
    What about units?
    Nature units were proving to be problematic in their original state because they are supposed to give the player a varied box of tools, but they cost energy to balance this. For example, Deep One: The ability to move player units into a camp and root them in place was immensely frustrating to play against, especially when multiple of these fellas were in one camp or attack wave. Swamp Drake also went through multiple iterations; first having the Sleep ability, then being like a Bandit Windhunter and lastly now only being a stat unit. 
     
    Are there more units that act completely different compared to their card counterparts?
    Of course, there are some units that differ quite a bit from their card version, either because of balance or because of how some card abilities would be wasted on the AI. Some examples include the Timeshifter Spirit which does not have his anti-magic field but can instead
     
    While adding the Fire faction, we had the challenge of a faction that does not really have access to CC, resulting in a more glass cannon approach for the faction. Did you have a specific theme in mind for the Nature faction?
    So I knew that the core of the nature faction would be healing and crowd control. But I also wanted to let the Root Network shine a bit. Then there were the more problematic things like Parasite Swarm, Mind Weaver and Mind Control, which we played around with for a while. However, it was simply not fun to play against enemies that took away too many of your units, even though it made for some hilarious scenarios, in which first timers got half of their army stolen, the other half eliminated and then after regaining control, also losing the other half.
     
    So a focus on mindcontrol did not work out, were you able to find alternatives?
    I think the mix of paralyze and root the faction now has, while also using the root network to some extent, will provide a unique experience.
     
    What about buildings, can you tell us something about those?
    Nature buildings were in a weird spot, some were completely overpowered against some frequent player strategies like early Strangleholds, while others were quite underwhelming like the Primal Defender. Because AI units only root while in combat, they are unable to provide support, and buildings that depend on the root network may fluctuate greatly in difficulty based on the amount of support a camp can generate. In the end, buildings are one thing that I did not want the focus to be on, so they are maybe even a little boring compared to the units.
     
    What would you say is unique about facing the Nature faction, compared to the other factions?
    Nature introduces a completly new mechanic which amps up their late game and can thus break the mold of later camps feeling all the same.
     
    You mentioned our brave map testers, can you tell us something about balancing?
    I think we almost exclusively had to nerf units after their initial inception, which were mostly just a carbon copy of the player card with their abilities set to automatically be used. Which really goes to show how strong crowd control and healing in a faction can be, even if they have only slightly above average damage. As mentioned before, we had to nerf quite a bit before we could actually win a match on difficulty 9 with quite experienced players and exclusive S-tier decks. Through playing a lot we found the parts that were annoying or outright destroying the flow, which we then tried to smooth out.
     
    How difficult do you think rPvE is compared to the other factions?
    I was aiming for this faction to be around the difficulty level of Twilight due to the depths of the mechanics that Nature uses. You will have to focus targets or their healing will overwhelm you while you are paralyzed, but there is room for outplaying that.
     
    What was the thing you enjoyed most about designing the faction?
    Designing the boss units was very enjoyable, as it had been the case for Fire. I also had a lot of fun just looking at camps and watching their mechanics interact with each other.
     
    What was the biggest challenge while developing the faction?
    A big challenge was to make units distinct, by which I mean to give each unit traits by which each player could gauge their threat level to their deck and playstyle. In the beginning, almost all units were tanky and had a lot of damage or had damage and some form of crowd control. We had to shift stats to make damage dealers less tanky, make crowd control units deal less damage and tanks have shorter range on their crowd control abilities.
     
    Fire rPvE introduced some fun and fan favourite bosses. Will we see new boss units for Nature as well?
    Yes, absolutely! The nature faction will ship with a set of nine new boss units. I really like how the low tier boss units based on the Burrower which is spitting acid all over the place and the Timeshifter Spirit which summons hordes of poisoned creepers turned out. But there are of course some threatening late game bosses.
     
    Will we see rPvE Frost or Shadow next?
    After working on rPvE for quite some time now, I really want to shift focus to campaign maps for a while, as that is also a huge part of the game that I and many others enjoy.
     
    Is there anything else you'd like to share with our players?
    Thank you for being so loyal to such an old game. I hope you enjoy this new faction once it is released and see you in the forge.
     


    A big thanks to Hodron and our map testers for pouring so much love and time into the development of this new rPvE faction. We hope you look forward to facing them! 
     
    • Easter Event Recap
    We are glad to share our Easter Event was a huge success, with nearly 700 of you unlocking the new special Easter banner. Although the banner is no longer obtainable, you can still find the map in the Community Map section by searching for "The Easter Tree" if you wish to play it.
    We hope you enjoyed all the effort that was put into the special map. While we always try to carefully balance our time investment into special events like this. We would love to hear some feedback. Would you like to see more events like the Easter and Halloween ones, where we modify a familiar map to suit the holiday theme?
    We noticed that not many of you participated in the speedrun competition for the map, and we would like to know why. Your feedback is very valuable to us, so please leave us a message below.
     
    • Event: Through Ice and Flames
    While you are waiting for our new patch, be sure to check out the community event Through Ice and Flames. This event takes place on two great community maps, created by @Damo and @Hrdina_Imperia. Check out the trailer below, and go here for more information.
    The event lasts till the 14th of May, though the maps will still be playable after. 

    In between our monthly Community Updates, we host various events and tournaments, so be sure to keep a close eye on the in-game event tab and the forum calendar to stay informed and not miss out on any exciting events!

    • Host your own tournament / event
    Want to host a tournament or event yourself? Please reach out to our Event Organizers, @Metagross31, @Minashigo Hiko, or @nukie! We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, we will gladly assist you.
     
    • Team Changes
    Katchau has recently departed from the team. We greatly appreciate his contributions, especially his development of the search card in market feature. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

    That being said, we are happy to announce three new community members formally joined our team last month!
    We have a new developer in Piskr, who will start out with a focus on Client Development. He is currently working on improving the player right click menu, including a way to improve importing decks. 

    Known in the community for his streams and beautiful artwork, Ultralord has joined the team as our first Video Editor.
    Another well known community member with terrible luck in opening promo's from boosters, Volin, has joined the team to help us out with coordinating Map Testing. 
    Volin and Ultralord also worked together to give us the Lost Souls overview video from last month.

    Welcome everyone, and we are looking forward to your contributions! 
     
    • Contribute
    Interested in joining the team yourself? Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fuelled by the passion and dedication of over 30 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to take a look at our open positions!
     

     
    • In Conclusion
    That's all for this Community Update! We appreciate you taking the time to read through it.
    As is tradition, we're including a scratch code as a small token of our appreciation for your support.
    The code will reward you with a General booster: 19TH-MAYN-EXTP-ATCH
    The code is valid until June 1st, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
    We're always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them with us. We'll be back next month with more updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming features. You can also sign-up to our e-mail newsletter here. 

    Archive
    • Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
    • Overview Community Updates
    • Community Update April 2023
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