Dutchy

Greetings Skylords!

It's been two weeks already since our last community update so it's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!
 

Deep Dive: Rarities
As our development of new cards continues, a frequently asked question is the upcoming rarities. These will be the first brand new cards for Skylords Reborn, so we want to have a system in place to provide insights on what makes a card common, uncommon, rare or ultra rare. We have explored this in a document, providing a deep dive into the rarities EA used in their first edition for the game: the Twilight Edition. Even though these are not always consistent, and expansions have not made things any easier, we still can take some lessons from the current distribution and apply it going forward. 
If you are interested in the thought process behind card rarities and how we will decide them for our new cards, you can read the full document here: Designing_for_Card_Rarity.pdf
And in case you missed them, here are the rarity icons for our new cards:

 
Test Server Patch Notes
Iteration 17 of our test server is here! Check out the patch notes. This patch mainly finalizes the PvP changes which will soon hit the live server. Please keep in mind that these changes are all relative to the previous iteration. The final PvE changes will go live in the next iteration. 
There are also some noteworthy requested general changes in this iteration. We fixed the inventory sorting, which should now properly sort the cards as specified. We also added a power well and a monument for each player in the forge. You can now test out all your damage combo's without the need to find a building that has exactly the same amount of health as these buildings. 
We also made another change to the game that will certainly be the topic of many conversations in the future. We added a preliminary fix so units in PvE maps always have correct orb and power costs. This means that certain abilities, like e.g. Nightguard Swap or Mindcontrol cannot ignore the orb requirements anymore. Please note these changes will not be included in the next live server patch. We want to test and gather feedback before making a change like this, but first had to figure out if it was even possible. You can discuss these and other changes on our balance discord.

Next Live Patch Delayed
Because of a delay of the Test Server Patch we sadly also have to delay the Live Patch we were hoping to release this week. Since this is going to be a big one, we need a little more time to make sure all the bugs (not you Scythe Fiend) are taken care of before we patch to live. Please be patient a bit longer, we are still hoping for a release in August. 



Special Effect Tool
Last Community Update we gave you a sneak peek at our new special effect tool. With the this tool we will be able to create fancy new spells and effects. Even though we are currently not able to add new models to the game, this is a great step in allowing us to create new visually appealing content. 
We are looking for players who are interested in learning how to create special effects and give feedback on how to improve the tool. If you are interested in this, please reach out to Ladadoos on Discord for a quick explanation. We have plans to open source the editor in the future.

Tournaments & Events
• NEW: Feedback official PvE events
Now that we have hosted two official events, we are looking for some feedback regarding both the events and the stream to improve upon them where possible. Feedback is anonymous and can be provided here. Please keep the feedback constructive and understand we do this in our free time. 

• Finished: Community Tournament: Toggy's Tome Invitational
If you played BattleForge back in the day you might remember Tomes. In this gamemode you get a selection of boosters that you have to use to build your deck with, after which you play PvP matches. While Tomes got discontinued around the end of BattleForge and are not available in Skylords Reborn, Toggy hosted a limited-access event last weekend to relive the experience. It was a great success, with crazy off-meta plays and is bound to return. For now you can rewatch the stream in case you missed it. 

• NEW : Community Tournament: Toggy's Tome Tournament - August 22th
A new tome tournament has been announced! This one is open for everyone, but you need to sign up in advance by contacting Toggy. This will be another Tome tournament, meaning you will build a deck with a selection of random cards and play PvP matches with them. Sign up and read the details about it here. 

• Host your own event / tournament
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizer Hiko 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. 

New Team Members / Open Positions
We are happy to welcome a new member to the team: Kerkk has joined us as a web developer! 
We could definitely need some more help with the Skylords Reborn project however.
Below are three roles highlighted, but you can find more information, desired traits and all our open positions here. 
Open Position - Map Tester 
As a map tester you get early access to new maps and gamemodes and are responsible to playtest them and provide feedback to the other map developers about possible issues or improvements. This includes check how balanced the map is, how fun it is to play, if there are any exploits, if areas on the map need to be prettified etc. Map developers/designers/artists should be able to rely on you to make sure maps that are released or changed are done so properly.

Open Position - Marketeer / Outreach Coordinator
As a Marketeer / Outreach Coordinator you are responsible to spread the word and create awareness about Skylords Reborn and to attract veteran and new players alike. This includes actively researching and reaching out to potentially interested streamers, youtubers, Discord channels, game magazines, among others. You will be responsible for the communication to and from interested parties and for any promotion deals (for example involving scratch codes). Please note that Skylords Reborn cannot do any paid promotions.

Open Position - Artist
As an artist you are responsible to create the visuals required for new content. This is a broad position and there are many areas where you could help in, depending on your skills and interests. Think of loading screen artwork for new maps, card artwork for new cards, visual UI elements for new features that involve adding UI to the game, banners for events/tournaments/community challenges/large game updates etc. Our current artist Tweeto is hard at work on new cards, but he can only do so much. If you have the skills and want to speed up the progress, please reach out to us. 
 

In Conclusion
Thanks for reading! 
Is there anything you wish us to cover in upcoming community updates? As always, we are open to feedback so please let us know!
Here is a scratch code you can redeem in-game for 100bfp. COMM-UNIT-YUPD-ATE9
The code is valid till August 28th. 
Archive
Community Update #6
Community Update #7
Community Update #8

Stream is now live: 
 
 

@Majora You got to represent us dutchies 😛

@Majora You got to represent us dutchies 😛

Thanks! Looks like I will need it! 

Hello Skyladies and Skylords,
the new PvP patch is coming closer and in the Skylords Open many battles were fought. It is time for a little fun... with a tome tournament! This means: the tournament decks will be built out of the content of 8 Boosterpacks!
 
Format?
The tournament will be played as a 1on1 best of 3 double elimination tournament, grand finals will be best of 5, no reset. The grand finalist coming from the winnerbracket will start with  a win (1-0) already. Oh and it will be tome.
 
When?
On 08.08.21 starting on 1pm CET (Berlin time), the stream will start about 30 minutes in advance.
 
Prize Pool! (subject to change)
1st place  - 3 Booster packs
2nd place - 2 Booster packs
3rd place - 1 Booster pack
 
Bonus prizes:
Beat RadicalX in a set - 1500 BFP
 
Organisation?
The tournament will be organized in challonge and access will be limited. If you want to participate contact me via Discord, you should have pretty much a complete collection and experience in the tournaments already. I will send you a list of your cardpool ~1h before the tournament starts (I will not send you actual 8 boosters) . The usual rules apply.
 
List of participants
1.  RadicalX
2. Majora
3. Crossbow_andy
4. Afro
5. Yuah
6. Killbuster
7. Hirooo
8. Carofex
 
 
Best regards,
Toggy

Join us tonight at 19:00 CEST for the stream announcing the winners of the second official PvE Contest.

There will also be some giveaways, so even if you did not participate; we invite you all to join us for a night of Skylords Reborn fun! twitch.tv/skylordsreborn

Hey guys 😁,
Donaar here presenting you a fun and unusual run: Titans Expert Solo starting P2 (thanks to @Kapo for theorycrafting this challenge).
Soloing this map is quite challenging since the player has to clear the way for Rogan and free the 12 civilians before Jorne spawns (which happens 13 minutes into the game). As showcased in this replay (all credits to Pritstift and RadicalX), Titans Solo runs always start on P4, since the way for Rogan is "automatically cleared" in order to get T2, T3 and T4. Corsair's Assistance ability is then used to open the gates for the civilians - this step has to be performed carefully due to the 60s cooldown of said ability.
Starting on another position (P2 in my case) is a completely different story: you have to free the 12 civilians, go to the cave where Rogan & Jorne spawn, clear an enemy camp (in order to make Rogan move) and block Jorne with buildings, ALL in 13 minutes. Okok, i know, blocking Jorne is lame but it's the only way to keep Rogan alive (there's no way to clear all Rogan's path within the tight time tresholds we got).
I completed my run in 19.45 minutes (and the second part isn't fully optimized) - below you can find the replay. Here's the deck I used:

Nomad (G) + Mines: classic Fire T1 for PvE, nothing much to say here. Scythe Fiends + Undead Army: great combination to reach spots you're not supposed to reach. Burrower: great card for this run since it's fast, it's a melee unit (counters Mark of the Keepers) with Siege (useful to kill Living Towers & Spawners) and the Acid Spit ability is super useful against walls. Cultists Master + Furnace of Flesh: best void manipulation tool in the game. Mutating Frenzy: pretty good melee unit that is used both to clear Rogan's way (ranged units have an hard time given MotKs presence) and for oneshotting Brannoc by stacking its ability multiple times. Corsair: used to reach the bossfight arena without clearing the fire emitters. Here's important to note that the switch provides ground presence. Used in combination with Enlightenment Dreadnought: used to stack up Mutating Frenzies infinitely. Obviously spawned after an Enlightenment use. Makeshift Tower: used to defend your wells from the small waves (2 Thugs) that attack you. Useful mostly for its S-knockback ability. Tunnel: used for both teleporting units strategically and to block Jorne. Breeding Grounds, Surge of Light, Curse of Oink, Thunderstorm, Regrowth, Frenetic Assault (G), Soulshatter: some of the best offensive & support spells/buildings in the game. Nothing much to say here.  
Hope you enjoy this run as much as I do,
See you in the Forge,
Donaar
Titans Solo P2 19.45.pmv

Another great read! Again, Good job!!!
true true
Thank you again!

Another great read! Again, Good job!!!
true true
Thank you again!

Another great read! Again, Good job!!!
true true
Thank you again!

Another great read! Again, Good job!!!
true true
Thank you again!

Another great read! Again, Good job!!!
true true
Thank you again!

Another great read! Again, Good job!!!
true true
Thank you again!

Greetings Skylords!

It's been two weeks already since our last community update so it's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

This community update is a bit shorter than you have come to expect from us. Every area of development is progressing nicely, but we are currently not in a position where we can share the results just yet. Rest assured new cards are still actively in development, and so are our new game modes. Skylords Reborn is being developed alongside our jobs and studies, and real life can get in the way sometimes. We also don't make any money from the game, since all our Patreon income goes directly toward server upkeep. Some of our team members also struggled with the flood from two weeks ago. We know you are all excited for new content, and we try to provide you with a steady stream of information in these Community Updates, but some tasks might take a bit longer than expected. 

Upcoming Patch
We are still hard at work on our upcoming balance patch to the live servers. Sadly, we are running into some delays because of all the changes that accumulated on the test server and now have to move to the live server. We are now looking at an expected release of mid-august. In our next community update we should be able to provide the patch notes, but you can expect some changes to pure frost (check our deep dive if you haven't already!) and a lot of cool changes for both PvE and PvP. 


Free PvP Decks Adjustments
When Skylords Reborn released in 2020, we introduced our free PvP decks. Every week you can select up to two decks that are fully upgraded and can compete in the PvP meta. For our new players, here is a quick recap:

- Select the sword on the top right of the menu to select your 2 free PvP decks.
- Free PvP decks are fully upgraded decks, that can only be used in PvP. 
- You can select two new decks every week, if you want to switch things up.
- You can freely swap around cards in those decks with cards in your collection to customize the decks to your liking. You can do this by clicking the tab in your inventory on the top left (see the image).

The meta of Skylords Reborn has seen a lot of changes ever since release, with multiple balance patches hitting the live servers. The contents of the free PvP decks did not change with them however. We plan to change that with the next patch*, and will continue to adjust them when new patches hit the server. Below you can find a list of all the changes coming to the free PvP decks. As mentioned above, if you don't want to alter your deck, you can still use your own cards to adjust your list to your liking. Keep in mind some cards might increase in price however, since they will no longer be available in some, or all, of the free PvP decks. 
Tainted Darkness (Pure Shadow)
+ Satanael (red) 
+ Blood Healing
-  Evocators Woe
-  Phasetower
Gifted Darkness (Shadow Nature)
+ Mo
-  Evocators Woe
Blessed Darkness (Shadow Frost)
+ Lost Reaver (red) 
-  Mountaineer
Infused Darkness (Shadow Fire) 
+ Bandit Stalker (green) 
-  Phasetower
Tainted Flora (Nature Shadow)
+ Spearmen
+ Unstable Demon
-  Treespirit
-  Evocators Woe
Gifted Flora (Pure Nature)
No changes
Blessed Flora (Nature Frost)
+ Razorshard (red) 
-  Crystal Fiend
Infused Flora (Nature Fire)
+ Magma Hurler
+ Mutating Maniac (red) 
-  Brannoc
-  Disenchant (purple)
Tainted Ice (Frost Shadow)
+ Lost Reaver
-  Mountaineer
Gifted Ice (Frost Nature)
+ Lightblade (purple)
-  Lightblade (red)
Blessed Ice (Pure Frost)
+ Icefang Raptor
+ Mountain Rowdy
+ White Ranger
-  Frostmage 
-  Skyelf Templar
-  Lyrish Knight
Infused Ice (Frost Fire)
+ Glyph of Frost
+ Icefang Raptor (blue) 
+ Gladiatrix (green) 
+ Warlock (blue)
+ Eruption
-  Frost Mage
-  Mountaineer
-  Scythe Fiends
-  Skyelf Templar
-  Virtuoso
Tainted Flame (Fire Shadow)
+ Wrecker
+ Bandit Stalker (green) 
-  Mortar Tower
-  Ashbone Pyro
Gifted Flame (Fire Nature)
+ Mutating Maniac
-  Mortar Tower
Blessed Flame (Fire Frost)
+ Icefang Raptor (blue) 
+ Warlock (blue)
+ Wrecker
-  Mortar Tower
-  Scythe Fiends
-  Mountaineer
Infused Flame (Pure Toggy)
+ Sun Reaver
-  Mortar Tower

Those changes to the Free PvP decks are planned alongside our new balance patch, planned for release mid-August*. This might give you a bit of a sneak peek at some cards receiving buffs this iteration. We hope you are looking forward to a fresh new meta! 
*We do want to make sure changing those decks will not break the game, so they might release a bit later.

Special Effect Editor
We have made some great progress in the project in a different area: the special effect editor. With this tool we are able to edit the special effects of BattleForge and create new ones from scratch. This is particularly useful for spells, since they are for the majority special effects. Many units also have special effects on their models though, like the flames of Batariel or the frosty cold effect emitted from Frost Mage. We can create complex new effects like Fire Sphere or meteors that leave ice shards on impact. Even though we are currently not able to add new models to the game, this is a great step in allowing us to create new visually appealing content. 
The tool is currently still work in progress. After it matures a little and we gain experience creating new special effects, we should barely be limited anymore for creating new special effects. 

Upcoming Tournaments
• FINISHED Official PvE Contest#2 Slave Master 
The second official PvE contest for the map Slave Master has ended. Thanks to everyone for participating! The winners will be announced on a stream on Monday 19:00 CEST on our official twitch channel.  
We will also do some giveaways, so even if you did not participate; we invite you all to join us for a night of Skylords Reborn fun! 

• FINISHED Skylords Open #10
Last week marked the return of the Skylords Open, with its 10th edition since release already. Joining Toggy as co-caster was RadicalX, so if you are interested in PvP, be sure to rewatch the stream.

• Host your own event / tournament
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organiser Hiko 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. 
 
New Team Members / Team Changes
Another new member has joined the Skylords Reborn team. A frequent contender in the Skylords Open, and traumatized for life by Harvesters; we are happy to welcome DutchyDutchy as a Discord Moderator! 
As always; if you want to help the project, please take a look at these open positions in our team!

In conclusion
Thanks for reading! 
Is there anything you wish us to cover in upcoming community updates? As always, we are open to feedback so please let us know!
Here is a scratch code you can redeem in-game for 100bfp. COMM-UNIT-YUPD-ATE8
The code is valid till August 14th. 
Archive
Community Update #5
Community Update #6
Community Update #7

I know nobody cares, but last sunday really made me appreciate the few responsibilites I had as a young adult 
 
Thanks for the tournament, especially to organizers, casters, players, sponsors, mods and viewers! Had a lot of fun participating  GGs to all!
 
My glorious exit series (lol) from the tournament in the lower bracket semi finals vs Alphabet got featured on the stream ✌️ next time morklay with the proper upgrades will be there  😄 honestly didn't imagine I'd make it this far, props to @desconhecido and @Eirias who played good games! Until there's an offical replay hub, i uploaded my replays on http://bfleague.com/?view=PVP .
maybe some other players had some notworthy games that weren't on stream? Feel free to share

Since at least a month I am working on the same topic. Not an improvement but rather new functionality. Sorry for not being specific but once we get closer to finalizing it you can read about it in our community update. Hope people will like it.

Also I am glad to hear to you enjoy those improvements/changes 🙂 

Hey everyone,
Please understand this is a passion project that we all work on in our free time, for no profit, alongside our actual jobs. That means both the development, discussions and the moderation. 
I don't want to silence constructive criticism or complaints, but at this point I don't see this going anywhere productive. To conclude, we won't be removing the multi-account ban rule, but we are looking into a more rewarding system for playing past the daily. 
I'm not a moderator but since this threat is turning highly toxic, I will lock it for now until a moderator has time to look at it and decide how to go forward. Please respect each other and stick to a discussion, instead of a flame war. We are all here because we love the game. 

Glad to see some players have already signed up! 🙂 If you are interested in joining, please sign-up in advance so the price pool might be increased. The tournament is open for all skill levels, and with a loser-bracket you are going to play at least two best of three games. 
Hope to see you all this sunday!

I really hope I can get free again on sunday, just to be able to lose 0-4 in round 1 again 😜 

Hello fellow Skyladies and Skylords!
 
Another 1on1 tournament, who will take the title this time?
 
Format?
The tournament will be played as a 1on1 best of 3 double elimination tournament, grand finals will be best of 5, no reset. The grand finalist coming from the winnerbracket will start with  a win (1-0) already.
 
Prize Pool! (subject to change)
1st place  - 4 Booster packs
2nd place - 3 Booster packs
3rd place - 2 Booster pack
4th -8th place  - 1 Booster pack
Big thanks to the devs who sponsor the booster packs!
 
Bounty: Beat radicalX in a set to gain 3 extra boosters.
 
 
When?
On 25.07.21  starting on 3pm CET (Berlin time), the stream will start about 30 minutes in advance.
 
Organisation?
The tournament brackets will be on Challonge, so register and join the tournament there. Please use your in game account name to make communication and finding your enemy easier.
The streaming channel that will be covering the tournament is DasToggy on twitch.tv.
In case of problems contact me or one of my mods via Discord, Battleforge or on twitch.
 
Twitch mods: LynnTaki
 
 
Rules! (read this)
-Disconnection during a game results in a default loss. If both sides agree it is possible to have a remake.
-Not showing up to your match after 15 minutes results in a default loss. The plan is to play a round of matches every ~30 mins.
-After your match, go to Challonge and insert the result. That is done by clicking on your match and selecting the winner/stats . The brackets will be updated automatically.
-The Map Pool is: 1st round: Haladur, 2nd round: Simai, 3rd: Elyon, 4th: Lajesh, 5th: Uro and 6th: Yrmia (same pool as in ranked duel). The first match of the round will be played on the fixed map, then it is losers choice.  The winning player (who won the previous match in this bo3) also has to lock in his deck first.
-The brackets for the tournament will be shuffled before the tournament starts.
-Use your Battleforge name for the tournament. If your Challonge account differs from your Battleforge account name use the "Sign up with an alternate name" feature or change your name for the tournament in the settings. Finding your opponent will be a LOT easier this way.
 
 
Reply in this thread if you have questions, I will check it out later.
 
 
Best regards,
Toggy

@Majora And the rest of the team, Pleasure to read and visually very appealing. Again, a great job! keep it up!

Greetings Skylords!

It's been two weeks already since our last community update so it's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

Test Server Patch
A new patch has hit the test server, including another batch of balance changes and adjustments. This patch contains many balancing changes and experimental changes for both PvE and PvP, with Frost specifically getting some love this time. We have also sent the first reworked versions of the 2vs2 maps to the test server!
Please take a look at the patch notes, test them out on the test server and take part in the discussion.
A detailed list of changes with images will become available in the wiki in the upcoming days.
There have now been a couple of patches to the test server, resulting in a big difference between the current state of the game on the live server and the card adjustments on the test server. Which brings us to:

Upcoming Patch
We are now preparing the next patch for the live servers. It has been a while since our last patch, so expect this to be a big one with tons of balance changes for both PvP and PvE. Because of this, we have quite a bit of work ahead of us and we expect this patch to release in the beginning of August. We hope you are looking forward to a new meta with new strategies to play with. 
We will share more information about the specific changes in our next community update on the 31st of July. 

New Cards development update
To manage expectations: we will not release new cards in this upcoming patch. As mentioned in a previous community update, we are currently creating new cards for Bandits (Fire/Shadow), Amii (Nature/Shadow) and Pure Frost.
New card development is going well, but we are treading new territory here and want to take our time to make sure our first new cards are the best they could be. This still could take quite a while, but please rest assured we are working hard to give you some cool new cards to play with!
Meanwhile we are continuing rolling out balance patches to give underplayed cards some love, and offer you new strategies and options for all the factions in the game. New cards can be tools to help fill these specific roles, but we are also looking at adjusting existing cards to reach the desired result. 
We are also taking a deep dive into each faction separately, spending a lot of time figuring out what makes the faction tick, its strengths and weaknesses and where it could need some help to allow for a more diverse play style. 
 

Deep Dive: Pure Frost
Frost has been our primary focus for the past several months and our team is excited to finally get to share our work with the community. Attached you will find a document exploring the Frost faction in detail, including upcoming changes and a tease of our first new card!
While Frost has been the first faction on our list, in the future other factions will also be receiving major changes. As our focus shifts from one faction to another we will continue to provide insights into our thinking through future documents like this one.
We hope this look into Frost has helped you to understand both the faction better and our reasoning behind the upcoming changes.
Pure Frost Deep Dive.pdf
Upcoming Tournaments
• NEW: Official PvE Contest#2 Slave Master
Our second official PvE contest is running! Play Slave Master on Advanced but with a twist! Go back to the roots and put in your best time using only cards from the first edition (Twilight Edition). The contest is running until the 28th of July and you can win multiple prizes. Check out the full rules here. 

• NEW: Skylords Open #10
Next week (25th of July) the 10th edition of the Skylords Open will take place! Battle it out in a 1vs1 community tournament hosted by Toggy, open for everyone, and with prizes! If you want to participate, it helps a lot if you sign-up in advance.
Last tournament had some great matches on all skill levels, so whether you are a new player or looking to break the win streak of RadicalX; join us for a day of PvP-fun!
 
New Team Members / Team Changes
Another new member has joined the Skylords Reborn team. We are happy to welcome ddrazard as a Discord Moderator.
As always; if you want to see Skylords Reborn succeed, please take a look at how you can help. There are still some open positions in our team.

In conclusion
Thanks for reading! 
Is there anything you wish us to cover in upcoming community updates? As always, we are open to feedback so please let us know!
Here is a scratch code you can redeem in-game for 100bfp. COMM-UNIT-YUPD-ATE7
The code is valid till July 31th. 
Archive
Community Update #4
Community Update #5
Community Update #6

Hype hype

Hype hype