Ilsyde

€ 3044 as of 03 February 2017 82 donators so far (an average of € 37 per person)

"Siiize matters..." haha Juggernaut's comments always cracked me up. Thanks a bunch!

I tried Dragon Unpacker, Chris Moates's Extractor (more powerful version of the former) and Watto's Game Extractor back then. None of them were able to rebuild the sound files so that Winamp could play them, and have found no tools to convert snr files. Any idea how to deal with those? Unless I'm missing something obvious, unit sounds are in snr.

I knew you'd find something again. Much appreciated.

That has always been a problem, same with people reading stickies - they won't, if there are too many of them or contain generic information. More than half a dozen guides in each area (e.g. PvE and PvP) will scare away the vast majority. Mentoring works, because of the familiar environment. If you want to learn about advanced tactics and mechanics, it's better to see or experience them ingame. The only problem is, you have to do it separately for each individual. Hence guides on youtube are preferred to newbies, as long as the contents are presented in an interesting way without unnecessary filler. You can squeeze so much in a 15-20 minute video, and people can relate to what they see since everything is explained and shown during gameplay. Reading takes more effort, and the willingness to do it. And that is what most newcomers lack. If the game is not accessible enough, the tutorial is disjointed and there isn't a video around to pique their interest then they'll give up and leave.

Below is the recreation of my old guide on cards, drafted and finalised during the official beta phase. I filled in the blanks, rephrased and extended each paragraph. It contains plenty of basic, useful and important information for both beginners and more experiences players. factionsThe four main factions belong to the following elements:FIRE is all about offense, with its aggressive and damaging spells. Their units tend to have more damage and less health in general. FROST is the direct opposite to Fire with its defensive structures and high health, relatively low damage units. Their spells slow down or freeze groups of units. NATURE focuses on crowd control to dominate the battlefield. Their units excel at laying siege to enemy ranks and bases, supported by healing and neutralising spells. SHADOW favours corruption and sacrificing their own to gain the upper hand. Their units boast a wide range of powerful but counter-intuitive abilities that swiftly lay waste to enemies in skilled hands. card attributesMain attributes shown on each card: Cost: this is the number at the top right corner. Power Wells built on designated spots on the map provide power, which is then used to pay for the card’s cost. Furthermore, destroyed units and buildings – as well as spells cast – return 90% of their mana cost to the Void which acts a secondary income by essentially recycling power. Orbs: found at the top right corner and depicted by either filled-in or empty circles. Monuments built on designated spots on the map provide elemental orbs, which are then used to fulfil the orb requirement for each card. Filled-in orbs always refer to the element of their colour, while empty circles (neutral orbs) don’t require a specific element. Tier: is calculated by counting the number of orbs required for a particular card. Higher tiers become available as more Monuments are built and are generally more powerful. Charges: the first number below the card’s illustration. You may cast a card this many times, before it becomes dormant and enters a cooldown period. This recharge time is half the power cost of each creature, but otherwise may vary. Rarity: these are the various shapes at the bottom right corner, representing the likelihood of acquiring a card from booster packs, and their general in-game and trade value. Common cards have dark brown symbols, uncommons are grey, rares are orange and ultra-rares are turquoise. Edition: the shape of the rarity icon refers to the expansion corresponding cards have first appeared in. card typesThe three main types (or classes) of cards are units, buildings and spells. Each of these are then broken down into subclasses to further help in identifying a card’s role and purpose. This is a Tier 1 Sunstriders common UNIT Fire card that costs 50 power, requiring 1 fire orb to cast and has 5 charges before entering cooldown. The creature itself spawns in groups of 6, is considered small and has 360 health. It deals 450 ranged damage but receives a 50% bonus if attacking medium units. Attack type: melee units have a sword icon, ranged units a bow and creatures using special attacks have a star. Damage: done over 20 seconds. Units that are summoned away from a Power Well or Monument are dazed for 15 seconds and deal 50% less damage. Bonus damage: depicted by letters corresponding to seizes S, M, L, and XL. Units deal 50% additional damage to other creatures that match the attacking unit’s preference. However, units using special attacks don’t deal bonus damage. Creature size: small and medium units are sometimes summoned in groups of 4 to 6, shown by the second number below the portrait. If a member of the group dies, he or she can be revived but the squad’s total health and damage is temporarily reduced until then. Small and medium units are affected by knockback effects from large and extra-large units. Health: damaged units may be healed by some other creatures or spells. Alternatively, injured units can be returned to friendly buildings for healing. Units that are summoned away from a Power Well or Monument are dazed for 15 seconds and have 50% less health. Abilities: either active (must be triggered manually) or passive. Some cards have two versions (affinities) which manifests in different abilities but have otherwise the exact same attributes. Dazed units can’t use their special abilities for 15 seconds. This is a Tier 3 Armored Tower uncommon BUILDING Frost card that costs 80 power, requiring 1 frost orb in addition to two of any other colour to cast and has 3 charges before entering cooldown. Once built, it’ll have 2590 health and deal 1420 damage to enemies. Damage: while under construction, buildings take double damage from all sources, are unable to attack or use abilities. Constructing a building takes twice as long when not in the vicinity of a Power Well or Monument. Health: damaged buildings can be repaired using the hammer tool (found on the main interface to the right and above selected buildings) when out of combat or with spells. Buildings are also capable of healing nearby injured units. This is a Tier 3 Revenge rare SPELL Nature card that costs 100 power, 1 nature orb in addition to two of any other colour to cast and has 3 charges before entering cooldown. This is a Tier 4 Shadow Worm ultra-rare unit card that costs 250 power, requiring 4 shadow orbs to cast and only has 1 charge before entering cooldown. The creature is considered extra-large, has 3000 health and deals 4000 ranged damage but recieves a 50% bonus if attacking large units.

Yeah... SpikE has started it not long after the beta has begun, then I've taken over from him and expanded it before bfcards nabbed the info. At least it's still there - sort of.

Thanks guys. I made a guide almost identical to this in a similar fashion and with annotations at the start of the beta which everyone loved. It then got deleted when the subforum ceased to exist. Gone through a few gaming forums I was proactive on back then and found several documents containing useful info, all defunct - including my loot list which was hosted here. All gone... However I did manage to save shards of another of my guides perhaps worth re-assembling. @Treim good point, thank you. Added to the paragraph.

Credit goes to Michal "aRusher" Urbanek for creating this guide at gamepressure.com. After going over it a couple of times, I decided to fix mistakes and extend some paragraphs to provide even more information by including snippets from his Battleforge dictionary and tips section. I believe the below compilation should have a place on the BFR forums as a compendium of how mechanics and the main interface works. Also, to provide an easy to read but useful guide to newcomers, and as a general refresher course for when the game finally re-launches. Battle interfaceThe framed parts are described below: This panel allows us to group units. We can give orders to particular groups. 1 - selects all the units on the battlefield. You should be careful with this tool because if you order your troops to move, all of them will do so, including those left to guard some place; 2 - a click on a number selects a corresponding group; 3 - a click on a plus symbol creates a new group or joins already existing groups. 1 - Description of current mission objectives (in PvE). In PvP skirmishes the time remaining until the end of the match is displayed here; 2 - the number of unit points you have used (one unit is not equal to one point, the number of points depends on the unit's size) - when you reach the limit of 120 points, you can't summon any more troops, unless you kill some you already own; 3 - Power pool. The number shows how much Power you have which is needed to summon units, create buildings, cast spells or activate abilities. Power Wells supply you with Power but guard them well, because you don't get Power back when your adversary destroys them; 4 - The Void, where 90% of the cost of each card's usage is transferred, when a unit/building/spell is killed/destroyed/cast. From there, gradually, the Power spills to your pool. The number inside the skull indicates the amount of Power in the Void, and the arrow shows how much Power you receive every two seconds; 5 - the number inside the Power Well image tells you how much Power your Power Wells can produce, before they run dry. The arrow shows how much Power the Wells give you every two seconds (one such structure equals one point per two seconds); 6 - the mini-map with marked scenario objectives; 7 - the amount and kind of owned Orbs - in this case the player has two Fire Orbs. Every card requires a specified amount of Orbs of some color. Monuments give you one Orb of a chosen color and can only be built in designated spots on a map. You don't get Power back when your adversary destroys them; 8 - click on this button and on a building to begin its repair. It doesn't require any kind of "builder", but you have to have a unit near the structure to initiate its repair. The same can be achieved by clicking on a building and then on the appearing hammer icon; 9 - messages for other player. After clicking you can choose one of the messages ("Beware!", "Defend this place", "Attack here" etc.), than, you have to click on a place you want to indicate; 10 - takes you to a place indicate in the last message (see above); 11 - double-clicking it kills your selected units; 12 - a picture or portrait of a selected unit with the current attack value and number of hit points (considering all the auras). If the creature is under the effect of spells then it is indicated in the bottom - left corner above the attack value. After a unit is summoned it becomes dazed for 15 seconds: the unit has half of its life points, can't use its special abilities and deals 50% less damage. This only occurs when the unit is summoned far away from an Orb/Power Well. In the bottom left corner of every card or portrait, next to a sword or a bow you will find a letter, which tells the size of an enemy that will be hit for 150% of the base damage. S is for small, M medium, L large, a XL extra large. Also check the size of your own unit (the letter to the left of the Card Life) and try not to send it against enemies with such weapons. If the letter is replaced by a star, the unit doesn't receive a bonus to attack on any kind of unit. Some creatures are able to change their weapon type; 13 - stops the unit; 14 - orders the unit to remain in place (it doesn't attack an enemy if not ordered to); 15 - after clicking on this button and on an enemy you initiate attack. You can achieve the same by right-clicking on an enemy unit. 1 - a card you can play (all the requirements are fulfilled). Numbers in the bottom left corner are the Charges, telling you how many times you can use the card before it becomes unavailable and enters cooldown (the time it takes to charge up again); 2 - a card you can't play because you don't have enough Orbs; All cards, except spells, can have these four symbols in their descriptions: is a ranged attack, the unit can attack from a distance; means a clickable ability that you have to trigger on an ability symbol, which, most of the times, appears above the unit ; allows to change the card's mode. After the change, depending on the card, it can deal extra damage at the cost of speed, attack only ground/air targets and much more; tells us that the given ability is passive which means that it's active all the time. Some passive abilities work only in an appropriate card mode (look above)

Hey guys, First of all I'd like to say hi! to all original beta testers who may be lurking around and remember me from the official forums (and the game itself of course) since I joined at the end of 2008. Me and SpikE were the guys who started off the loot list that spread like wildfire as it contained all available card upgrades in a neat Excel sheet. At any rate, I've been longing to go back and enjoy BattleForge once more ever since, and I'm very please to have found the members of BF Reborn taking upon themself to resurrect this fantastic and innovative RTS. Back then, digital TCGs weren't nearly as common as nowadays - hence people weren't prepared for BF's complexity and the target audience didn't exist - the release date also coincided with the Starcraft 2 beta, not to mention the lack of marketing from EA and unsteady updates. Times have changed though, and while decent strategy games are considered a rarity nowadays, card games are getting more and more positive exposure. Then there is BattleForge, combining the best of both worlds...