Dutchy

Why I think Battleforge/Skylords Reborn has one of the best RTS tutorials.
Hey guys, I have been an RTS enthusiast since i was roughly 7 years old, I could barely hold the mouse in my hand back then and of course I was really bad. I played Command and Conquer and Starcraft, and even up to this day I still look around for new RTS to play and enjoy, and especially now is a good time to be a fan of RTS games as we have some very exciting games coming up, like Zerospace, Tempest Rising, Stormgate and D.O.R.F.. 
And even though I've played so much RTS in my life, which is arguably my most favorite genre, I still always check out the tutorial of new games, and sometimes I even catch myself how I check out the tutorial of a game that I have played a thousand times just to see how they handled the tutorial. Were they doing a good job explaining stuff? Was the pacing good? Did they let you have some freedom in it or was it extremely strict and limited?
I still check out these tutorials because at the end of the day, I would still consider myself being a casual RTS player, I don't need difficult challenges to overcome, for me the S in RTS stands for sandbox (took the quote from GiantGrantGames). I just wanna have fun! But in order for that to happen I need a good tutorial. One that teaches me all the unique stuff about this particular RTS. They still can do the little control tutorial part but it shouldn't be overdone. (As you never know if this is a players first RTS or not, so littlebit of control tutorial should be part of it)
RTS games that I have played are Starcraft 1/2, Warcraft 3, Age of Empires 2/3, Star Wars Empire at War, Age of Mythology, Command & Conquer (almost all of them except 4), 8-Bit Armies, Battle for Middleearth 1/2, War of the Ring, Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, Dawn of War 1, SWINE, Arena Wars, Pikmin 2/3/4, A year of rain, Warparty, Stronghold (1, Crusader 1/2 and Warlords) and of course Skylords Reborn. But among all these i actually think Skyloords has the best tutorial out there.
Age of empires 2 was fine but also extremely long and slow. Some of the tutorial missions could have been thrown together.
Starcraft 2 was also fine but it didn't leave you much freedom to just go and try stuff. It was very limited.
Warcraft 3 almost takes the win, but instead of having Thrall explain things to you or a grunt, its just a disembodied voice as a narrator.
Dawn of war 1 was basically just a skirmish with an extradumb AI and another disembodied voice.
This is where I think Battleforge back then nailed it.
1. First of all, the narrator. Youre being guided through the tutorial by Moon, a character that is relevant for the entire campaign. And shes not talking to you breaking the fourth wall, she talks to you as an equivalent, you are a fellow skylord as well. The way she talks to you is way more immersive than in some other games were they basically remind you that this is a game.
2. The whole control stuff with the camera and unitcontrol is being dealt with quickly. The basecontrols of any RTS games is just never the difficult part, its easy to pick up and doesn't need much explaination. She also doesn't force you to things that you might never end up doing anyway. There were games were you had to spin the camera, or click on the minimap to move the camera but in the actual game you just never did it because its just not necessary.
3. Next is the explaination of the ressource system, its quick and easy to understand, but that is part of the game mechanics itself.
4. The tutorial is actually disguised as an actual mission. You not here in a bootcamp like situation, there are bandits and they need to be dealt with. At one point even Moon was shocked how well equipped the bandits were and she even helped you with an earthquake spell. This was not just a trial or an exam, it was a mission!
5. The pacing in general is very well done, you are not dumped with too many informations at one point without doing too much in the meantime. It was well proportioned overall, a little bit of info, then you got to some stuff again.
6. In the introduction you also had to not only attack, but also defend. Some tutorials always show you just how to A-move and then they are done, but here you also  had to defend on that wall. Whats even more interesting is, when she wants you to defend, you are tasked to build a cannon tower, building something takes time. But instead of waiting until its finished the enemy attack wave is already on the way. You are not idly sitting around doing nothing waiting for the tower to be finished you already being attacked, the tower finishes midcombat and then helps you out a lot.
There are even more little things that I could point out, like the way abilities were explained, spell showcase, or construction of walls with the right direction. But the final important thing about this tutorial is the ending.
7. Once you have arrived at the third monument, the mission opens up. You can play with more stuff and there is a lot to do. You get access to magma hurler and tremors, which when I played the game for the first time were cool as heck! Moon tasked with the task to take out the remaining enemies and their boss. A BOSS... IN A TUTORIAL! This was awesome, you have access to everything now and can do whatever you want, there is a bunch more enemies to deal with, even with a little camp to the side where you can find more power wells (its not worth it building them up as they wont pay for themselves anymore but its just plain fun, finding stuff and being rewarded for being curious) The choice of your final two units is also well made, you got the magma hurler as pretty good ranged damage dealer without abilities, so you can just A-move them, but the tremor have an aoe that knocks back smaller targets, is it strong? No but it also doesn't need to be, just seeing all the enemies sent flying with the skill is awesome. 
And then there is the boss, is he difficult? No but he got a very strong healer and if that one isn't dealt with the fight can take way longer. It rewards the player realizing the situation and figuring stuff out. Sure looking back its not that impressive, but newer players will feel good after this.
Overall I think of all the tutorials that I have played this is one of the best of all time. I'm curios to see how the upcoming RTS are gonna handle this stuff.
If there is one thing that I would add is maybe at least a voice line telling you about the effectiveness of counters and that its a 50% damagebuff. Not everything must be within a tutorial but I think that one would be nice.
So this is my opinion on this, again I'm just a casual and probably some people are gonna disagree with some of the things that I said.
What did you think of the introduction, or which RTS tutorial did you think did it best?

That was an amazing update. Thank you so much for all the hard work you guys are putting into this! What you are doing is simply amazing. 
The new updates look great (Nice April Fools joke, by the way), I've recently come back to the game again and I've been thinking about Lost Souls or Stonekin; these new cards look fantastic. I'm really excited for the upcoming Amii faction too.
I'm also excited about the PvP AI; I always felt a bit intimidated by the prospect of playing multiplayer battles. I want to go into that one day, but the addition of an AI would lower the treshold. 
Thank you again for the update.

That new unit looks amazing! 

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!

Click below to view our April Fools joke for 2024. 
    • Upcoming Patch - April

While we continue working on our significant Summer patch (which will include our new campaign missions), we are nearly ready to release another patch to bridge the gap until you can get your hands on the Echoes of the Amii patch. In this smaller patch, planned for release in April, we will introduce two new cards, Map-of-the-Day, our new Rebirth booster, as well as some minor balance changes. Stay tuned for the full patch notes later this month.
The two new cards included in this patch will be the long-awaited Stonekin turtle, Bedrock, and a new build-around tool for Lost Souls players in Gate of Akylos.

As you can see, these cards will mark the introduction of the first new Ultra Rare cards to the game. If you're curious about the basis for our rarities, please check out our rarity design philosophy.
While maintaining a consistent logic for rarities is important to us, we also want to ensure that players can actually experience our newly created content. These new cards will be obtainable in their respective boosters as usual, but introducing an Ultra Rare without additional measures would likely make them unattainable for the majority of the player base.
We have received feedback from the community regarding the availability of the new cards in the Rebirth Edition in general, and set out to find a solution. Introducing: the Rebirth booster.

This booster will differ from the other boosters currently in the game. It will not be available in the store and can only be obtained through special events and a new reoccurring achievement. This new achievement rewards you for interacting with our new Map-of-the-Day feature. Every day, a random multiplayer Campaign Map will be selected for the Map-of-the-Day. They will be easy to spot, with an effect around their icon on the world map similar to the PvP-happy hour. For every completed Map-of-the-Day on a different day, players will receive 50 BFP. Additionally, for every 10th map, they will receive a Rebirth booster.
Each Rebirth booster contains 3 cards, all from the Rebirth Edition. Additionally, there will be an increased chance for cards of a higher rarity to drop.
We hope that Map-of-the-Day will encourage players to play both fan-favorite and lesser-played campaign maps. This should also help in assisting new players who are seeking to complete the full campaign. We will be monitoring the prices of our new cards and the impact the Rebirth booster is having on the economy, and might adjust accordingly in the future. We are also planning to distribute some Rebirth boosters through various events.
 
While we are unable to announce a specific release date yet, we feel quite comfortable announcing that this patch will go live in April. We hope you look forward to it!
 
• New Card Reveal - Skydancer

During our Anniversary Stream we announced there would be three new Amii units coming to Skylords Reborn in 2024. We will be revealing those cards in the upcoming Community Updates. Last month we revealed Amii Sentinel. Today we are ready to reveal Skydancer!
Please note: We are still testing the card. While we are generally happy with it, numbers and effects might still change before release. 


 
Spirit Blade
Every 1.6 seconds, unit casts a lance of elemental power that deals 222 damage to enemies in a 5m radius around its target, up to 333 in total.

 
Spirit of Anguish - Mode Change, Cost: 50p
Activate to call forth an ancient Shadow spirit draining the enemy’s will to fight. While an enemy unit is within 40m of Sky Dancer, it deals 20% less damage. After being affected for 10 seconds, the debuff increases, causing enemies to deal 50% less damage. Effect lasts for 10 seconds after an enemy leaves range. Lasts until deactivated. Reusable every 30 seconds.
 
Spirit of Hope - Mode Change, Cost: 50p
Activate to call forth an ancient Nature spirit that bolsters the life of allies. While an allied unit is within 30m of Sky Dancer, its maximum life points are increased by 20% and it regenerates 1% of its life points every second. Effect lasts for 10 seconds after units leave the area of effect. Lasts until deactivated. Reusable every 30 seconds.
 
Elusive
Units with Elusive have the duration of the immobilizing effects of Freeze and Paralyze reduced by 10%.
 
 
Design notes: Last month, we revealed Amii Sentinel. The card itself was well received and its design led to a lively discussion in our card balancing discord about potential synergizes and the types of strategies people thought it would create. The design of Amii Sentinel, while interesting in itself, becomes more so when considered alongside its intended support unit, Skydancer. Skydancer is an L-sized flying unit with two powerful support abilities. The first is Spirit of Anguish, a kind of anti-rage effect which scales in strength as the enemy remains in range. The other is Spirit of Hope, which introduces a new mechanic allowing for players to increase the maximum life points of their own units. This second ability is the one intended to directly synergize with Amii Sentinel. Amii Sentinel can turn health into damage through its reflect mechanic, and by adding more total life points to its pool of health, the total damage available through reflection also increases. 
Our goal for Skydancer goes beyond being a summon-once support for Amii Sentinel. In general, XL-sized melee units rule T4, particularly in random PvE, with there being a lot of structural reasons why this is true. While we love XL-units as much as everyone else, we as a team want to start diversifying the unit experience by bolstering other types of strategies. With a solid damage-to-power ratio, a large amount of survivability via both Spirit abilities, and a natural synergy with Transcendence, we hope to see flying armies of Skydancers become a viable strategy in T4, both with and without Amii Sentinel. 
Skydancer is currently planned to release alongside our next major content patch in the summer, including brand-new campaign maps. We are not yet able to announce an exact release date. Please stay tuned for more information, and check in next month for another Amii card reveal!
 
• Input requested: Elemental Mastery

Skylords Reborn can be a daunting game, given the large variety of cards and mechanics. With so many options to explore, there is always more to learn. We want players to get a sense of which faction they play the most, what kind of interactions they have with the faction, and to complete tasks that give them a sense of having achieved mastery with said faction. To support both the learning and mastering process for each faction, we would like to introduce a new category of mini-achievements known as Elemental Masteries. These achievements will be tailored to each faction and divided into two categories:
Individual - these will track specific card actions, such as the number of spawns erupted to death.
General - these will will track player progress with the overall faction, such as how many maps a player has completed with Pure Fire.
Each category will reward minor rewards along the way, mostly in the form of faction-specific cosmetics.
The goal is for each faction to track 5 interactions per tier, as well as 5-10 general faction progress trackers. We are interested in the community's ideas for what types of card actions they would like to track, with focus on things which are commonly repeatable. Focus can be either PvP or PvE, though the final choices will be a mix of both.
 
Examples of Trackable Actions
Due to recent advancements in our understanding of the game, we can track most internal and external card interactions. Below are a list of some of these trackable events, all of which have been taken from Fire cards.  
• Number of units charged by Enforcer
• Enemy spawn buildings erupted to death
• Buildings suppressed (Sunstriders + Suppression)
• Enemies knocked back with Lava Field
• Total time Batariel has spent in his stage 3 burning phase
• Total damage dealt by Fire Dragons
• Void returned with Shrine of War
 
Join our brainstorm
You can share your idea's in this thread on the Forum. Brainstorming is also taking place in our official discord dedicated to discussion of card balancing in Skylords Reborn. Please join us there if you would like to see more elemental mastery suggestions or if you would like to participate in discussions relating to proposed changes to the game before they happen.

 
• 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!
 
• NEW - Returning Easter Event
Complete any match during the Easter season to collect a free Promo Easter Egg. Additionally, you can collect a special Easter-themed border by completing the community map "The Easter Tree". 
 
 • SECOND PHASE STARTED - PvP AI programming contest
We are gathering players for a new type of event. Get ready for an AI Programming Tournament, where the submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist! More information.
 
• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizer @Metagross31. 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

We are happy to announce that both a new and a returning member have formally joined the Skylords Reborn team. ElementG is our new 3D artist, assisting the art team with model adjustments. His latest work, Skydancer, has turned out very nicely, so stay tuned for that. Additionally, Chibiterasu has re-joined the team as a Card Implementor. We are delighted to have him return, as his experience with the tools is a welcome addition to our work output.
Minashigo Hiko has concluded his role as an Event Manager. We would like to thank him for his contributions over the years.
As our team continues to grow, Dutchy has taken on the role of HR Coordinator alongside his Lead Moderator duties. Are you interested in helping out with the project but not sure how? Feel free to send him a message!
 
• Contribute to Skylords Reborn

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 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!

We are especially looking for some more proofreaders (English), to read over stuff like the Community Update and Event posts before they go live. We are also looking for translators (French, Russian) to help with our new campaign maps and more. 
Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• 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: SKYL-ORDS-REBO-RNVR
The code is valid until May 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 March 2024
 

Thanks for both answers! superhelpful, and the video was very informative, all the doubts clear 😄 

thx

Do exactly as the picture below 😉 

Having additional Proofreaders would help out tremendously. Great it's pointed out in the Community Update!

Having additional Proofreaders would help out tremendously. Great it's pointed out in the Community Update!

In this part of the tutorial, we will go over how to create your first map, save it and make it playable.
It may seem like a pretty lengthy post for something so simple, but I just wanted to make the tutorial foolproof and cover some additional not well known things.
In reality, this step in the map creation takes about one or two minutes.
If you encounter any issues, don't hesitate to ask in Skylords Reborn Map Making Discord.
 
• Content

Creating a Map Saving the Map Making the Map Playable Map Name and Description Team Setup and Player Kits Starting Location Starting Monument PAKing the Map PvP Maps Next Chapter  
• Creating a Map

Now that we have the editor open, let's create our first map, shall we?
In the top left of the editor window, click on File -> New...

Now we can select the size of our map. To start with, we'll go with the smaller 256x256 map.

 
• Saving the Map
Now that we are greeted by an empty map, let's first try saving our map. (this step is optional, you can save the map at a later stage)
Since we haven't done anything with the map yet, we'll need to save the map as.
You can either open the File tab, or press Ctrl+Shift+S keys (notice the shortcuts next to the actions in the File tab)
In the future, you can save the map after every edit you make with the Ctrl+S shortcut - this will be your best friend.

You can save the map wherever you want on your computer, but the default save location is best. The reason is that the editor will pak our map into that same folder, so we have everything together. Be sure to follow the naming convention (see quote below).
Unfortunately, the map editor is full of traps for map makers that crash the editor. I will try to point out any known crash or corruption causing issues as I go along (you can also check the FAQ).
SAVE AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN - EVEN AFTER ONLY A COUPLE OF CHANGES
 
• Making the Map Playable

To actually see the map in the game, we first need to go through several steps:
Update map name and description Setup teams and player kits Place and assign starting location for each player Place and assign starting monument for each player Let's look at the individual steps now.
 
• Map Name and Description
Now that we have saved our map, we can add an in-game map name and description.
Open Map Settings -> Edit Map Description

 
In here, we need to fill in the in-game map name and description (shown on loading screen and in map selection) for all languages.
You don't need to actually translate the name and description, I used Google Translate for this example, but you can leave everything in English. Then click OK - you will get a pop-up that the map description has been successfully updated.
    
 
• Team Setup and Player Kits
After we've saved the map name and description, it's time to decide what type of map we'll be making - PvE / PvP and how many players.
We do that by going into Map Settings -> Team Setup & Player Kits.

In here, we can select if we want the map to be PvE or PvP, and how many players there should be.
We can adjust the fog of war (FOW) settings for the players.
And set the individual players starting power and void power (AI doesn't work with power, so there is no need to set the starting power for the NPC enemies).
Ideally, choose one of the available presets!
Fiddling with the teams can prevent the map from being playable.
You can add more players to the teams, just don't change the team order.
(Tip: Usual sweet spot for starting power and void is 200 / 200)
   
 
If you want to fiddle with the settings, you can manually add more teams with the New Team button. And add Computer players to a team selected in the list with the New Player button. Adjusting the teams and players manually comes with some risk though.
Be sure to be familiar enough with the basics before experimenting with teams.
For each player, you also need a player kit - that is actually what determines which players control which entities. These can be created with the New button under the Player Kit section.
  
Let's go with the PvE 2P preset, so we can have a friend to play the map with us.
After we are done making changes, click the Save button at the bottom of the window.
 
• Starting Location
Now it is time to set the player's starting position.
For that, we'll need to open our first tool - Entity Placement.
We can find it under Windows -> Entity Placement or Shift + E shortcut.

A new window will open up - for now, we'll need the Misc tab and under the root folder, we can select the Starting Point.

Now we'll have this little object following our cursor around, we can place it by left-clicking the mouse.

Congratulations! You've placed your first object on the map. But we still need to make it functional.
For that, we will need another tool - Entity Properties.
Open it again through the Windows tab.
With the Entity Properties window open, you will notice that it is completely empty. Also, that you cannot click the Starting Point you just placed, you will instead place another one.
That is because we are in the Entity Placement mode, and we need to get to the Selection mode. You can do that by pressing the blue "0" button in the editor toolbar, or by pressing the Q shortcut (remember this shortcut, it will be your second-best friend).
If you need to delete any extra placed Starting Point, use the Ctrl + Z shortcut for now (already on our third-best friend, let's stop counting for now).

Now that we are in the proper entity selecting mode, let's select the Starting Point we just placed by clicking on it. The Entity Properties window will now show some information about the selected object. We need to assign the correct Player Kit to the Starting Point. Do that by clicking None and selecting the pk_kit1.
Why pk_kit1? If you look into the Team Setup & Player Kits, you will see that the pk_kit1 is assigned to our Human pl_Player1. You might remember that I mentioned that the player kit is actually what determines who controls what squad/building.
Setting up the first Starting Point is a good time to make a quick-save (Ctrl + S).

Instead of selecting the Starting Point from Entity Placement again, you can select our first starting point, press Ctrl + C to copy the object and then Ctrl + V to paste the object to the location of the cursor.
Under normal circumstances, copy-pasting entities preserves their team setup and their player kits. But due to the nature of the Starting Points, the player kit gets reset to None - a player cannot have multiple starting locations.
So let's select our new Starting Point and assign it to our Player2 (pk_kit2).
You don't need to place and assign Starting Points for the computer players.
Setting up the second Starting Point is another good time to save the map.

 
• Starting Monument
We could actually see the map in-game and play it at this point, but without any structures or monuments, the player will lose instantly at the start of the map - so let's fix that!
In the Entity Placement, go into the Token Slots tab and select TokenNormal.
This is a standard monument. All the monuments are functionally the same, the only difference is visual - so pick whichever you want.

Place one monument near Player1 Starting Point (or right under it) and another near the Player2 Starting Point.
Now, we will need to assign the players to the monuments - simply click them with the Selection tool active (Q) and set it up in the Entity Properties window, same as we did for the player Starting Points.
This is another great spot to save the map - by now you certainly get the message.

Awesome! 
 
• PAKing the Map
Saving the map is not the same as PAKing it. The editor works with .map files - that is what you save with Ctrl + S. But the game only sees a PAKed version of the map.
When PAKing, the editor takes all the files associated with the map - the .map file and the map's folder - and merges them into a new file (think of WinRAR or WinZip). This PAK file can be seen by the game as the final map.

Lucky for us, the editor can PAK the map - simply go to File -> PAK Map

If everything is set up correctly, you will get a pop-up saying the map PAKing was successful.
The PAKed map can be found in Documents/BattleForge/map folder.

Now we can start the game, go to the User Generated Maps node (remember, we made a 2P PvE map) and search for the map name that you set in the Map Description step.
 

We can actually start our map now and have a look around, exciting!
Notice that when playing solo - the monument we set for the other player is missing. That is because the game automatically deletes all entities set to a human player that is not present at the start of the map.
 

 
• PvP Maps
Creating a PvP map is just as simple.
Set up the Map Description and in the Team Setup & Player Kits step - choose whichever PvP preset you want. Place the starting positions and monuments for all the players and PAK the map.
You will find your PvP maps in the Sparring Grounds node.
We will not be going into further detail about PvP maps in this tutorial.
 
 
• Next Chapter

Now you have everything you need to get to map making.
In the next chapter, we'll talk about placing and working with entities.
 
• Working with Entities •
 

Feel free to also join our Discord server since most day-to-day activity and communication happens there: https://discord.gg/HkxG8UdNEn 

Feel free to also join our Discord server since most day-to-day activity and communication happens there:  https://discord.gg/HkxG8UdNEn

Thanks They helped. Now I'm going to play and not lose touch with the game 🤤

As long as you only use 1 account, it doesn't matter on how many different pc's/laptops you log in with. 

In case you didn't see this video yet: https://youtu.be/PQXlwkfklKU
 

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!

 
• Skylord Reborn 3rd Anniversary

Happy New Year, everyone! We hope 2024 will be a wonderful year for every one of you! 
December 2023 marked the 3rd Anniversary of Skylords Reborn, and we are happy you are here to celebrate it with us!
In case you missed it, we hosted a special Anniversary Stream last Friday, which you can rewatch here. 

In this Community Update, we would like to take a look back at 2023, and share what 2024 has in store for Skylords Reborn. We have a lot to talk about, so let's get started!
 
• Looking back at 2023

Can you believe it's already been a year since we added cosmetics? Here is a quick summary of every patch we released in 2023. 
 
January 14th, 2023

Early in 2023, we released our 2nd Anniversary Patch. The patch contained three new cards; Sanctuary, a Tier 4 Nature spell to go along with our ongoing Pure Nature rework, Raven Archwalker, our first Legendary card, and Worldbreaker Gun Promo, the first Promo building in the game. 


This patch also introduced cosmetics; unlockable ways for Skylords to personalize their banner and avatar border. We also added 32 new achievements, many balance changes, and a ton of Quality of Life features; like a longer Marketplace option, more advanced filtering options including a handy in-game guide, and an import/export deck function.


February 27th, 2023

As with most major patches, our follow-up patch was a small one, containing some bugfixes, and the QoL option for players to re-roll the same quest multiple times. The minimum quest reward after re-rolls was changed to 50 BFP. 
 
April 8th, 2023

After our successful Halloween Event, we wanted to surprise Skylords with an Easter-themed event. While the map and general idea were received positively, we probably should not have attached a speedrun contest to it. Players expressed playing the map once was fun, but grinding the clunky Egg-push mechanic for the top time turned out to be a bit tedious. 

Regardless, completing the special map ''The Easter Tree" on any difficulty resulted in the completion of the newly added achievement "Bunny Brawler", which automatically rewarded Skylords with a new Easter-themed banner. We saw that banner equipped a lot around the holidays, so we are happy to see it being received so positively. 

This patch also contained some bugfixes, and a change to the friend list to display only online friends by default, a much requested change. 
 
May 19th - 2023

In May, we released another big content patch, called appropriately called Nature's Awakening. Alongside many Nature-themed changes, the patch also contained one new card: Sleetstorm.

The spotlight for this patch, however, was on the addition of the Nature faction to rPvE, joining Fire as the second Skylords-Reborn exclusive addition to the game mode. Hodron spend a lot of time balancing the faction and making it fun to play against, which you can read more about in our interview. The patch also contained many balance changes, mostly focusing on our Pure Nature rework. 

The patch also included many Quality of Life changes, including a single-player pause feature, key-down vs key-up interaction, the ability to copy text or import a deck from the in-game chat, and gold chests being openable in combat. Lastly, the patch also included our first part of our Gold rework, a few campaign map changes, and a rework of the community map section. 


This rework allows Skylords to have an easier time finding great community-made maps, by showing more information, and having featured maps for maps that are especially good or unique. We also had an event on two of those great community maps: An Expedition South and Lyrish Uprising. We would once again like to stress that every Skylords Reborn installation comes with a Map Editor, so feel free to add your creations to the list! 
 
July 25th - 2023

Sadly, the major content patch came alongside some annoying bugs, the most infamous being the lag in the Forge after playing for a while. The issue should be solved, though we still sometimes receive reports of similar behavior. If this is the case for you, please report it to our team to investigate. 
We also used this occasion to fix some inconsistencies in card descriptions and enabled playback for outdated replays. However, because replays are playbacks (instead of being a video), if cards were used that have since been changed, it can still result in not accurately reflecting the original gameplay. Regardless, it solved a major headache for our Event Department and Community Events to still be able to access replays if the game had been patched in a way that only effected a few cards that were not present in their replays. 
 
October 28th - 2023

For our Halloween patch, we added a new Pumpkin avatar for Skylords to unlock by playing the custom map Spooky Encounters once more during the Halloween season. The patch also contained one new card: the long awaited Soulstone. This card saw the longest development cycle yet, but we are very proud of how it turned out. 

There was one more thing for Skylords to unlock: we released a special Fire-themed Forge, locked behind an achievement we noticed not many players were participating in due to the old lackluster reward. We are happy to see an increase in the completion rate after adding the special Forge. 
Lastly, we also released a bunch of balance changes, bugfixes, and a batch of Quality of Life changes, like a higher deck-limit (500), a warning notification for queuing up with a low deck level for ranked (pointing towards the free PvP decks), and some improvements to comparing profiles. 

The Fire-themed Forge can be unlocked by completing the achievement "Never Thought of Him"
 
December - 2023 -> January 2024

Originally, our plan was to bring out a patch for our 3rd Anniversary in December. Sadly, we had to delay after crucial staff members became sick. Which brings us to...
 
• Looking ahead at 2024

We are kicking off 2024 with our first content patch, and today we are happy to announce the patch date:
January 26th - 2024

Our first content patch of 2024 will contain various previously announced features. You can expect to see the new card Lost Manabeast, our overhaul of the rPvE difficulty system, our Lost Souls Rework, balance changes, and quality of life features, like buttons in the Forge to pause, speed up and slowdown. While we are trying to include previously announced cards like Tectonic Shift and Bedrock, technical issues are plaguing their developments, so we can't make the promise they will be included yet. 
 
2024

While we are not able to provide a concrete roadmap for 2024, we are able to share some general information about what we have planned for the new year. We have spent a lot of 2023 working on map-content, and we are very excited to share what we have been working on! The following content can be expected further along in 2024: 
 
New Campaign Maps

2024 will see the release of some brand-new campaign maps! There are currently four maps in development, three 2-player maps, and one 1-player map. The first two maps you can expect will be Unexpected Visitors and Into the Jungle, which are part of our new Key of Ashia story campaign, filling in some of the questions the original campaign failed to answer. In Unexpected Visitors, you will face the Lost Souls to protect the last Amii tribe, while Into the Jungle tasks you with finding a new safe haven for them. We did a short live-play of Into the Jungle during our stream.

Unexpected Visitors will be the first new campaign map of Skylords Reborn.
 
New Cards

You can expect more new cards, including three for the Amii faction: Amii Golem, Amii Simulacrum and Amii Skydancer, bringing long-awaited higher tier units to the faction. We will reveal more about these new cards in the upcoming Community Updates. 
Besides new Amii cards, we also have a couple of other new cards in various stages of development. 
 
More voice-acting

Alongside voicing our new campaign-maps, we are also working on providing voices for both new and old cards alike. A teaser of the Amii Golem was already heard in the Amii-teaser above, but we also have talented people working on Burning Spears and other cards that patched without voice-lines. 

To navigate the players through the new campaign, we have also worked on a Frost Skylord named Gaeron, artwork made by our artist Tweeto. Gaeron was an Imperial Captain defending a Lyrish town. He is shortly mentioned in the original lore book in the game, and we thought he would be a fitting candidate to expand upon. We have found a great voice-actor to voice him during our search back in June.
 
Balance changes

We are always tweaking cards and looking for opportunities to make underplayed but cards with potential viable, and 2024 will be no different. Be sure to join our balance discord if you want to join the discussion and/or provide suggestions! A lot of the changes in SR are community suggestions, after all!
 
More Map Content

2024 will continue our vision of focusing on returning content. We are especially excited about Map Modifiers, special conditions that can be activated on campaign maps to provide new and exciting challenges. Modifiers that increase the defense of enemies, or cause them to explode once defeated, are simple examples that can already impact maps drastically. We plan to bundle these with a highlighted Map of the Day campaign map, resulting in additional rewards for Skylords facing the challenge. 

Example screenshot of Map Modifiers. Work in progress.

With new campaign maps, expanding on rPvE and Map Modifiers freshening up the original Campaign Maps, 2024 should be a good year for replayable content! 
 
• Events

Kicking off 2024 we also have a new event to enjoy!
 
• NEW - Amii Training Camp
While we eagerly wait for new Amii cards, let's find out if you fully master the excising ones! Play rPvE with only Amii Paladins and Amii Phantoms on Tier 2 and see how fast you can get! More information.
 
 • FIRST PHASE - PvP AI programming contest
We are gathering players for a new type of event. Get ready for an AI Programming Tournament, where the submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist! More information.
 
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? Please reach out to our other Event Organizers, @Metagross31or @Minashigo Hiko. 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.
 
• Community Spotlight - Masters of the Forge

In this podcast-like series, Kapo interviews various staff members to discuss the project and personal stories about their interaction with BattleForge and Skylords Reborn. There are currently 10 episodes to watch:
• Episode 1: Dutchy, Lead Moderator - Watch now.
• Episode 2: Majora, Project Coordinator - Watch now.
• Episode 3: Volin, Testing Coordinator -  Watch now.
• Episode 4: RadicalX, Faction Designer - Watch now.
• Episode 5: Ult, Server Developer - Watch now.
• Episode 6: Ultralord, Video Editor - Watch now.
• Episode 7: Zyna & Ladadoos, Admins - Watch now.


• New: Episode 8: Maze, Web Developer - Watch now.
In this episode, Maze and Kapo talk about the moderation tool, different APIs, and of course in great detail about Maze' wonderful website, the Skylords Marketplace Journal (www.smj.cards)
 
• New: Episode 9: Windhunter, Lead Designer - Watch now.
In this episode, Windhunter and Kapo talk all about design, the priorities of picking what to change next, the state of the economy and loads of submitted questions from Fire-Frost to Deepdives, and what's upcoming in the next months and years. 
 
• New: Episode 10: Emmaerzeh & Hodron - Watch now.
This episode is all about the art of map-making, in all variations from campaign, rPvE and PvP-maps; with a highlight on how (community) mapmaking is done.
 
• Contribute

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 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!


We are especially looking for an active and passionate outreach coordinator, helping us reach new Skylords by contacting streamers, influencers, media, and other potential parties. This role can make a drastic impact for Skylords Reborn! More information.
Please consider applying for this position; we would love to gather both new and old players alike in 2024 to check out our new campaign maps. We are also looking for someone who can help us with our newsletter. 
Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• 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: LOOK-BACK-YEAR-2023
The code is valid until February 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 December 2023

In addition to the community update, I'd also like to take this time to share some of my personal thoughts as we transition into year 4 of Skylords Reborn. 

3 years and 43 Community Updates in the books! Working on this yearly recap sure was a trip down memory lane with many "Did we really release that this year?". With so many moving parts and various things in development, things can start to blur a bit. Due to the nature of map making, this felt like a year in which we did a ton of work behind the scenes, but couldn't show off our hard work yet. I'm excited we can now finally start to reveal what the team has been working on.
I hope our monthly community updates still managed to show we are hard at work, and had enough to reveal for players to feel engaged with the project. In hindsight, there were some things that we probably announced too early, (for example the Lost Soul Rework) but with so many variables in our project (our team now has 50 volunteers!) that is bound to happen now and then. I am extremely proud of the work our team put out this year, and I can't wait for players to get their hands on our new campaign maps. 
Speaking of the team, we had a bunch of lovely people joining as volunteers! I am super grateful that 3 years in, we still have so many people with dedication and love for the project that they are willing to spend their free time on it. The following Skylords joined in 2023:
CrazyCockerell and Titan as Tech-artists
Piskr as Client Developer
Pierakor as Tool Developer
Lucas Ansei as Web Developer
Ultralord as Video Editor
Volin as Map Tester Coordinator
Damo and Hrdina Impéria as Map Designers
Kayrie as Map Artist. 
Discoheart and Noah.K as Audio Editor 
Vultagx and Linkz as Global Moderator
ElementG is currently in his trial period for Tech-artist

But it would be unfair to not also give a shout-out to the members who left the team during 2023: 
Katchau (developer) left the team
Nukie left the event department
Watermelon Lord, Nukie, Pfirsichkralle and Dallarian left the Moderator department

Thank you all for your work for the project!
Besides the team, I would like to give a personal shout out to Kapo and Dreamlord. You know Kapo from his CCC and Masters of the Forge series, but he does not get nearly enough credit for how much he does for the project and has always been a reliable friend, whether it be proofreading my documents, or getting a Rayman statue imported from another country. Dreamlord has been our favorite Banzaiii Lorrrd and I have been consistently impressed by not only his quality voice acting but his professionalism and willingness to help out, sometimes on short notice. Besides doing voice-overs for our trailers, you can also expect to hear him in our loading screen narrations for the new maps in 2024. I have high hopes for his voice-acting career, and I hope 2024 will be the breakthrough year for him! 
2023 was a year full of highs and lows. My girlfriend and I got our own apartment and a lovely cat named Lyra. At the same time I saw friends struggling with depression, break-ups, war and death of loved ones. The world can be a rough place, so please take care of yourself and each other. 
What was your highlight for 2023? And what are you most excited about for 2024? Would love to hear it in the comments!
Thank you so much for being a part of this lovely community. 

Looking forward to this! 

Looking forward to this! 

Greetings Skylords,
Join us to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of Skylords Reborn! 
We are grateful that we were not only successful in bringing BattleForge back, but are now able to celebrate its 3rd anniversary with this lovely community. For this occasion, we would like to give you a sneak peek of an upcoming new campaign map, planned for release in 2024.

We invite all of you to join us on Friday, the 29th of December, at 20:00 CET for a special anniversary stream on our official Twitch channel. Alongside some information about our upcoming content, there will also be giveaways and a Q&A. So come chill with us!
There will be five staff members on the stream; Majora, Hanna, Ladadoos, Windhunter and RadicalX. If you have any questions for us, let us know in the comments below!
 

I know you are waiting for the next promo card.
But after Rogan and Vivi have a Promo Party, Moon was so sad - i have to make a Promo Moon.
Normal version is in first post.
But here you find the Gif 🙂
 

@LichterLoh You can also reach out to me on Discord if the video did not answer your question(s).

If you want an answer to question 3, I recommend to watch my interview with Kapo 🙂 
 
 

SOLDIER
Quick Tier - the most helpful clicks to settle in
Help drive the most essential metric by subscribing to the official Skylords YouTube channel, and like the trailer. Done
Join the Skylords Discord to stay on top of news, and help build an enjoyable community. Done
Subscribe to the other official Skylords Reborn socials: Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and TikTok. Done
 CHAMPION
Basic Tier - become a part of the community
Subscribe to BattleForge content creators, and like their videos if you enjoy them. Done
Participate in events - not just for prices, but to support event hosts. Done
Make sure beginners are welcomed properly: Answer questions, and play multiplayer maps with them. Done
Read the monthly Community Update and help spread correct information about the state of the project. Done
Interact with forum posts or Discord messages through likes, emoticons etc. - the creators will appreciate that. Done
Make a proper bug report when you encounter a bug or crash. Done
This rarely happens, but: report rule violations, either ingame or on the #contact-staff Discord channel. Done
Suggest the game to people you know that will enjoy a RTS/TCG game, but make sure you coordinate with the Skylords team Outreach Coordinator when contacting high profile people or outlets. Done
 HERO
Dedicated Tier - invest some time to make the Skylords experience better
Accompany some Twitch streamers, while the community is still small, one viewer more or less makes a huge difference. Done
Participate in the votes or share your decks on the SMJ community deck section. Done
Become an educator: Help others understand core concepts like void power or faction mechanics, and give advice on expert maps on the ingame strategy channel or on the deckbuilding channel on Discord. Done
Write a beginner guide or a deck building/strategy guide on the forum, or a more general one like the one you are reading right now. Done
Create something: make a painting, a graphic, a short clip, a song, a text, a meme, an animated GIF or just some cookies, and share it in the art, video or meme channel. Done
Become a sponsor of a community contest/event to beef up its prize pool. Done
Join the discussion and give quality feedback on the Balance Discord. Done
 SKYLORD
Invested Tier - halfway down the rabbit hole
Become a Contributor: There are several roles that don't require you to join the team, like Map Tester, Translator, Proofreader, Art Critique, or Internal Tester. Done
Get involved into more detail-focussed Discords, like lore, descriptions, mapmaking, or rPvE. Done
Help maintain the Skylords Reborn Wiki by either adding or updating articles.
Create an enjoyable community map.
Host an event for other Skylords to enjoy, be it PvE, PvP or something else. Done
Contribute to Skylords Open Source projects.
Become a content creator on YouTube, or start to stream the game on Twitch. Done
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 things left to do on the list!
I am getting close for a full Bingo! 🙂

SOLDIER
Quick Tier - the most helpful clicks to settle in
Help drive the most essential metric by subscribing to the official Skylords YouTube channel, and like the trailer. Done
Join the Skylords Discord to stay on top of news, and help build an enjoyable community. Done
Subscribe to the other official Skylords Reborn socials: Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and TikTok. Done
 CHAMPION
Basic Tier - become a part of the community
Subscribe to BattleForge content creators, and like their videos if you enjoy them. Done
Participate in events - not just for prices, but to support event hosts. Done
Make sure beginners are welcomed properly: Answer questions, and play multiplayer maps with them. Done
Read the monthly Community Update and help spread correct information about the state of the project. Done
Interact with forum posts or Discord messages through likes, emoticons etc. - the creators will appreciate that. Done
Make a proper bug report when you encounter a bug or crash. Done
This rarely happens, but: report rule violations, either ingame or on the #contact-staff Discord channel. Done
Suggest the game to people you know that will enjoy a RTS/TCG game, but make sure you coordinate with the Skylords team Outreach Coordinator when contacting high profile people or outlets. Done
 HERO
Dedicated Tier - invest some time to make the Skylords experience better
Accompany some Twitch streamers, while the community is still small, one viewer more or less makes a huge difference. Done
Participate in the votes or share your decks on the SMJ community deck section. Done
Become an educator: Help others understand core concepts like void power or faction mechanics, and give advice on expert maps on the ingame strategy channel or on the deckbuilding channel on Discord. Done
Write a beginner guide or a deck building/strategy guide on the forum, or a more general one like the one you are reading right now. Done
Create something: make a painting, a graphic, a short clip, a song, a text, a meme, an animated GIF or just some cookies, and share it in the art, video or meme channel. Done
Become a sponsor of a community contest/event to beef up its prize pool. Done
Join the discussion and give quality feedback on the Balance Discord. Done
 SKYLORD
Invested Tier - halfway down the rabbit hole
Become a Contributor: There are several roles that don't require you to join the team, like Map Tester, Translator, Proofreader, Art Critique, or Internal Tester. Done
Get involved into more detail-focussed Discords, like lore, descriptions, mapmaking, or rPvE. Done
Help maintain the Skylords Reborn Wiki by either adding or updating articles.
Create an enjoyable community map.
Host an event for other Skylords to enjoy, be it PvE, PvP or something else. Done
Contribute to Skylords Open Source projects.
Become a content creator on YouTube, or start to stream the game on Twitch. Done
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 things left to do on the list!
I am getting close for a full Bingo! 🙂