Volin

Swamp Drake Promo is an awesome card, very useful in my Nature / Stonekin / mixed decks, I'd definitely keep it.
@p0lerbear

https://smj.herokuapp.com/cards/lyrish-knight-promo

Protip: do not trust random people in the internet with weird links, check if it's not a trap first.
 

How could I oversee that... yeah listen to the wise man and get Oink. Always.

 

Hey guys, 
An update, again. I took in all advices and suggestions from you guys so a big thanks for that!
I've been brewing and I think I got my lists. As said by @Volin I'll make 2 seperate lists. One for rPvE 9, and one for 10.
For rPvE 9:

For rPvE 10:

 
Any more suggestions are always welcome!
Big thanks to all who helped me!!

In your case I'd cut the ashbone. Your t2 is superior and your t3 shadow spells can do any job, if you need a ground presence at t3, your Cultist or Forsaken/Nox will do fine. You really should try out Motivate, its a great spell and even scales a bit into t4. First you use it in t1 to get power into your Nox/Forsaken, in the mid game you can Motivate a Crawler of your Infect and if you are on a good track you can do what wanky supposed and even use it on your LSS in the late match.
This is the case for either 9 or 10  but as the step up from 9 to 10 is a huge one, I wouldn't mix things here too much.
For BG9 Meta starts are imho:
- Forsaken/Nox, Soul Splicer (G) and Motivate
- Nomad (G), Mine, Eruption
- Windweaver, Surge, and one out of Roots/Hurricane (Hurricane mostly stronger, Roots more versatile). Hint: Practice your BG9 w/o Shaman.
For BG10 add:
- Bring either a red starting friend or superior knowledge as shadow player. The early boosters are great for speedrunning for example, but still no choice for allrounders and random groups (in my personal view)
- For Random maps or if you know you will face flying at t2 add for fire the mentioned Blaster Cannon. If you know you face certain situations you want prolly to bring sunstriders too (sunstriders only as supporter against flying, certain towers and to "block" Lost Souls Dancers
- For Nature starts you now want to add at least a Mark of the Keeper and prolly now you want to have the Shaman. Here Root the first choice over Hurricane, though both are ofc great.
And your reason is valid Early Boosters are a great thing, even more in your deck.
For BG9 - NEVER EVER - but you already got it
If you want to play your deck in BG10  swapping one orb is a valid option! Another (I would prefer) is to play GreenT1, bring Shadow t2 and t3 and raise your boosters later. You cant say what is better, this is very situational.
However, it is basically very good that you are concerned about the bound energy and do not want to lose your orbs at any price. That is exactly right for the time being. However, keep in mind that changing your orbs can break your deck limitations (only 20 cards that are consistently distributed among the set 4 orbs) - this flexibility quickly makes the 100 energy worth it. Perhaps I may give an example of this: Every good Bata deck actually switches an Orb at some point in T3 or T4, regardless of whether Fire, Nature, or Shadow is started.
In BG 10 Fire is simply the meta start par excellence and furthermore you want to have at least one player on each side who is Shadow T2 (Phoenix Embalmers) - this forces 2 or more players to have 2 Orbs of a certain color. Since from Fire/Shadow 2 more Green orbs are needed for the Batariel, many experienced players go and change their T2 orb back to Nature after reaching T3, because they need it for their Enlightenment. Almost all good BG10 players I know do this (at least in unknown random maps with random groups without Discord) and change an orb 2 times in one match, ergo 200 energy loss.
It is important to consider well here: What are the costs, what is the benefit.
And ofc there are other ways to deal with a BG10 and ofc not everyone pushes a batariel there. Yes there is Amii for one player as option (but I would never plan this for allrounder decks) and ofc you can just push t4 on some maps. Just speaking of the MOST COMMON way I see almost everyday from the top BG players.
 
 

In your case I'd cut the ashbone. Your t2 is superior and your t3 shadow spells can do any job, if you need a ground presence at t3, your Cultist or Forsaken/Nox will do fine. You really should try out Motivate, its a great spell and even scales a bit into t4. First you use it in t1 to get power into your Nox/Forsaken, in the mid game you can Motivate a Crawler of your Infect and if you are on a good track you can do what wanky supposed and even use it on your LSS in the late match.
This is the case for either 9 or 10  but as the step up from 9 to 10 is a huge one, I wouldn't mix things here too much.
For BG9 Meta starts are imho:
- Forsaken/Nox, Soul Splicer (G) and Motivate
- Nomad (G), Mine, Eruption
- Windweaver, Surge, and one out of Roots/Hurricane (Hurricane mostly stronger, Roots more versatile). Hint: Practice your BG9 w/o Shaman.
For BG10 add:
- Bring either a red starting friend or superior knowledge as shadow player. The early boosters are great for speedrunning for example, but still no choice for allrounders and random groups (in my personal view)
- For Random maps or if you know you will face flying at t2 add for fire the mentioned Blaster Cannon. If you know you face certain situations you want prolly to bring sunstriders too (sunstriders only as supporter against flying, certain towers and to "block" Lost Souls Dancers
- For Nature starts you now want to add at least a Mark of the Keeper and prolly now you want to have the Shaman. Here Root the first choice over Hurricane, though both are ofc great.
And your reason is valid Early Boosters are a great thing, even more in your deck.
For BG9 - NEVER EVER - but you already got it
If you want to play your deck in BG10  swapping one orb is a valid option! Another (I would prefer) is to play GreenT1, bring Shadow t2 and t3 and raise your boosters later. You cant say what is better, this is very situational.
However, it is basically very good that you are concerned about the bound energy and do not want to lose your orbs at any price. That is exactly right for the time being. However, keep in mind that changing your orbs can break your deck limitations (only 20 cards that are consistently distributed among the set 4 orbs) - this flexibility quickly makes the 100 energy worth it. Perhaps I may give an example of this: Every good Bata deck actually switches an Orb at some point in T3 or T4, regardless of whether Fire, Nature, or Shadow is started.
In BG 10 Fire is simply the meta start par excellence and furthermore you want to have at least one player on each side who is Shadow T2 (Phoenix Embalmers) - this forces 2 or more players to have 2 Orbs of a certain color. Since from Fire/Shadow 2 more Green orbs are needed for the Batariel, many experienced players go and change their T2 orb back to Nature after reaching T3, because they need it for their Enlightenment. Almost all good BG10 players I know do this (at least in unknown random maps with random groups without Discord) and change an orb 2 times in one match, ergo 200 energy loss.
It is important to consider well here: What are the costs, what is the benefit.
And ofc there are other ways to deal with a BG10 and ofc not everyone pushes a batariel there. Yes there is Amii for one player as option (but I would never plan this for allrounder decks) and ofc you can just push t4 on some maps. Just speaking of the MOST COMMON way I see almost everyday from the top BG players.
 
 

Soulsplicer > Meatshield for standard purpose in BG9
For BG10 shadow start is - at least in random groups - not recommended. If you want to do it, Soul Splicer (G) is set and so is Motivate (which I would recommend for BG9 too).
Rest of the deck is very common for LSS imho and rock-solid.
 
PS: I personally prefer Forsaken as T1 unit for allrounder BG-decks, as they are a bit more versatile (thinking of Lost Souls Dancers and suicide-actions), but that is a personal attitude. Nox ofc have their strengths too!
 
 

I would definitely not remove the difficulty names from the buttons: the approach to add the symbols next to the names sounds much more suitable and I think is a good solution.
Even though I think the initial proposal of using small dots is cleaner, stars likely convey the message better. That being said, I would make them much smaller and always at the same position, like image below.


In order to make the UI consistent with the achievements, I would make it such that the stars indicate the highest won difficulty and not all the difficulties played. As an example, if the left and middle star were yellow it would indicate that the highest difficulty won is advanced (and not that you won standard and advanced). 

The exact details of what difficulty you won could be added in the tooltip of the map icon. It's a big widget with little information. The first image is how it is now, the second how I could imagine it being.


 So this shows as  in the worldmap but when hovering over it, you would see that you actually only completed advanced.
Curious to hear what you think.
 

Just have to beat it on expert first 

I said the opposite, ofc these Quests are good for  everyone who likes them, and sometimes I feel nudged enough to play a campaing map once in a while.
 
Nice that you begin a kinder discussion style and emphazise your personal opinion! But this "Rank XY should be able to beat content XY" is what prolly triggers me, a wrong assumption in really almost every game that comes to my mind. And in BF, neither in the original game nor the beta Rank ever showed what skill the player behind had.
 

Greetings Skylords!

It's been two weeks already since our second community update so it's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!
Promo Snapjaws
Collectors rejoice! Promo Snapjaws will be trade-able after the next maintenance update. This promo was handed out through a scratch code that was only valid around the time of the game release. If you missed out on this one, you can now trade or buy them in the AH from other players. If they are willing to part from it of course!
There are currently no plans to distribute the Snapjaw Promo through boosters.

New Patch on the Test Server
A new patch has hit the test server with quite a lot of changes in all kind of categories. Full notes can be found attached to this post, but here are some things that are currently being tested. Please note: none of those are final, and they will not necessarily make their way to the live server in this state! Please give us feedback regarding those changes on the balance discord!
Global Changes
Various tier 3 units (Swamp Drake, Bandit Lancer, Fallen Skyelf, etc.) have had their charges increased. 
PvE Changes
Thugs have received a new ability to compensate for the nerfs they received with the removal of looter. There is also some love for pure frost. 
PvP Changes
After some necessary nerfs in the last few patches, we are now in a position where we can also buff some cards to provide more options and playstyles. Various tier 3 units (Drones, Unstable Demon, Magma Hurler, etc.) are seeing some buffs, while counter units like Lyrish Knight and Gladiatrix are also being looked at. 
Bug Fixes
A couple of bug fixes and a change that makes Bloodthirst and Unity stackable with every other regeneration ability in the game (others will follow).
Class Fixes
Some units have had their class changed or fixed. This can mean the correct melee or ranged class, but also creature class (Deathglider is now a Demon for all you Eliminator lovers out there!). 
QoL description changes
Some nice Quality of Life changes in descriptions have been made to make cards easier to understand or consistent. Please note this is not the big description changes mentioned in an earlier update yet; that is still in the works. Noteworthy would be the Mountaineer: It now shows the hidden ammo generation used for its attack and ice shield, so one can better use the card. Additionally U0 now also has the Glacier Shield for consistency with the shown ammo system.

As mentioned before, those changes are still on the test server and you can find the full list of changes in the document attached to this post. Please note that for the changes to be implemented, we had to clear the test server accounts. So don't be startled if you have to create a new account. 

Skylords Reborn Design Philosophy
Now that Skylords Reborn has been released fully, we are looking at the future of the game for the next couple of years. Over the past months there have been a lot of discussions and feedback regarding the state of the game and the changes to make (or not make) moving forward. In the attached document, we go extensively into this topic. We understand not everyone will be interested in reading 12 pages, but we did want to take the time to clarify our vision for the future as much as possible.
As unique as Battleforge is, it also has some unique concerns in regards to balance. Where most RTS games only provide a limited number of factions to play, the number of decks in Battleforge is virtually uncountable. And while most other RTS games limit their balancing concerns to either competitive or cooperative play, Battleforge has to serve them both. Fortunately, this is mitigated by the fact that PvE and PvP are often build around different core-cards. However, some overlap between cards is inevitable and some changes will have ripple effects in other formats.
In this document we have striven to detail the thought process behind how we will be balancing the game moving forward. We have broken the document into three parts: Introduction, PvE Balance, and Fundamental Game Principles.
The reason we have written this document is to give you, the community, a clear view into our philosophy and stance on certain topics. We will use the topics described here as guidelines for the changes we will make in the coming months.
This is just a start that covers our fundamentals for faction design and more concrete documents will follow. We want to analyze and discuss each faction in particular and shed light into our roadmap.
As always, we are open to constructive feedback. 
Upcoming Tournaments

• NEW: Skylords Open #8
Next week (30th of May) you can again battle it out in the Skylords Open #8. 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!

• Community Challenge #3: King's Ridge
The King's Ridge PvE contest is still going on until the 31th of May. Try to complete the community map King's Ridge as fast as you can in the Community Challange #3 for a chance to win some prizes!

• NEW: Official PvE Contest#1 Siege of Hope 
Our first official PvE contest is here! play Siege of Hope Expert with a twist! Our Event Organizer has created a point system that allows multiple strategies and hopefully rewards thinking outside of the box. Speedrunning still gets you points, but speedrunning alone won't be enough to win this one! A promo of your choice is one of the prizes, so make sure to check it out!

New Team Members / Team Changes
Another new member, HardwareHeinz, has joined the Skylords Reborn team. We are happy to have him as our new Global Moderator.
We would also like to take this time to thank MrXLink for all the work he put in Skylords Reborn over the years. After many years and many roles, he has decided to step down as a member of the Skylords Reborn team. You can read his full explanation here. We wish him all the best and are grateful for all his hard work. 
We are still looking for new team members! If you want to see Skylords Reborn succeed, please take a look at how you can help. We recently added these new positions: backend web developer, frontend web developer and C# developer.

In conclusion
And that's it for this Community Update! We hope we were able to share something you like. See you again in 2 weeks!
What do you guys think of this biweekly status update? Is there something you would want to see covered more? We are open to feedback so please let us know. 
Thanks for reading! Here is a scratch code you can redeem in-game for 100bfp. The code is valid till June 5th.
COMM-UNIT-YUPD-ATE3
Archive
Community Update #1
Community Update #2
Attachments
Balance_Philosophy_Skylords_Reborn.pdfTest_Server_Patch_Skylords_Reborn.pdf

Dear Skylords, Skyladies, and other skyfolk,
As you may know I've been here a long, long time. 12 years ago on the official forums, and pretty much ever since this project started. Over those years a lot has changed, for better and for worse. Both myself and some of the veterans around here have seen the game and its dev team rise and fall more often than we'd all like to admit, but we prevailed and we held on to Nyn and the wonders of this unique RTS/TCG hybrid. BattleForge has always been a great passion of mine, as a player and as a developer.
But times change, and life changes, and as Skylords Reborn grew to the size and state that it is now, my own time had to be more and more divided. Graduation, running a full-time job, major changes in my personal life and thought processes, and the ongoing pandemic have greatly jumbled up my day-to-day life, my mind, and my available time and energy. This has had quite an impact on how well I can contribute to this project right now, and so I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't feel appropriate to be a part of the SR team for as little work as I'm able to get myself to contribute. 
It's with a heavy heart I'm saying I am, on my own accord, stepping down from the SR team for the time being, but I feel that it's necessary. This is purely personal and has nothing to do with the current team, community, or the game itself; after all, we've accomplished so much, all of us! Thanks to all of you we've actually succeeded in what many thought to be utterly impossible; to revive an entire game purely out of passion, figuring out its inner workings, and altering it to make it a 100% free, enjoyable, non-profit game to keep enjoying despite the studio having long been disbanded. I've had the pleasure of working with an already fantastic community and team on a passion project others would dream of, and over time the team's grown so much.
It's been fantastic working on Skylords for so long and the game and project still are very dear to me. Throughout the years I've learnt tremendously much and have helped to keep things afloat in both bright and darker times for the project; it's been a rollercoaster for all of us. But we got there! We got to a fantastic release and have a whole revitalised and excited team ready to support all of you for a long time to come! This project is now in better hands than I could ever have anticipated, and I am happy and confident to leave Skylords Reborn to some of the most capable people I've had the pleasure of meeting.
I'll be stepping down after having been a long-time admin, CM, moderator and designer, and though I will keep providing some advice and help in the background, I will stop being a dev and remain a player. Perhaps I'll return if my personal life allows for it in the future, but as of right now I simply don't think I can contribute enough. 
It's been an absolute honour being a part of BattleForge's development throughout well over a decade, and I want to thank everybody for their continued work, support and belief in the amazing things we've ended up accomplishing. That includes you, no matter how long you're here or if you even know me. We did it! I'm still so proud of all of us, and I am happy to know the project's in great hands. Keep up the amazing work and let the hype train rage ever onward.
Thanks for everything, until next time, and may the Forge be ever with you!
~MrXLink

I got my copy, but I'm feeling you. My full support for solution 2.  

I don't know who the thread opener is ingame and what is your - obvious - personal beef you have with him. And it also has nothing to do with the matter in my opinion. The main point of the thread was and is in my opinion: "Don't force us here too much, because it's no fun" - and I still hold this opinion.

Your argument that the TO has probably farmed his high rank in BH is unfortunately off-topic, as it doesn't really get to the heart of the problem. At some point, every casual would come to the point where he has to play maps that he can't manage on his own or that he doesn't feel like playing. And I can think of a dozen other reasons off the top of my head why you might want to bypass a certain campaign map, and each one could/should be respected, even if it might not affect you or you have a different take on it. And "fun" is absolutely the focus here for me, and even though we're all playing the same game, it also shows time and time again that we all have fun doing different things in this game.
That you, as a member of the best PvE team that runs around out there by far, then give to the best that one can manage every Expert alone is just impudent elitism - someone has probably completely forgotten where he comes from. Sorry, but really try to take the position of family father with 2-3 playing hours per week and not the time and attitude to read forums, watching replays, youtube... There are many people around that do not even care a bit about that little timer up there or doing things that several players are supposed to do.
But lets just speak just for myself here:
Personally, I'm probably at the lower end of the top percent of Battleground players currently - but I have NO idea about Expert maps and will not start to get any knowlege there anymore. I am someone who has to do one thing 3-5 times before I can do it - and repeat it regularly so I can remember it. Honestly, the strategies that your team has all there, would be a full-time job for me to remember it all.
Plus - and this is even more important - I just don't enjoy it! And this "there are always people in Discord" doesn't help either, you have to find the players you have fun with first. When I did expert maps with more experienced players - like you (thanks again!) - for example for the achievement, it was pure stress for me. Everyone knows what's going on, except me, yeah, that made me feeling great. Pings everywhere, a thousand explanations (usually so brief that only the insider understands), Moon yakking at a stretch, but who is she talking about... or catch a group of people who are even more clueless and you fail without a chance--- yay, campaign rocks...not (for me).
By the way, I think the TO is very right when he states that in the vast majority of games, daily quests are less of a "challenge" than an "occupation". I don't think it's a bad thing that there's a "Do map XY" quest, because every once in a while I feel nudged to take a map with me - but please don't make me do it. And by the way, sometimes I did it on expert though my quest was only for advanced. But hey - this was MY choice, and then I have fun.
Oh and by the way, the TO has also at NO point said that the quests would be unmanageable for him, he said that they are annoying. Here you can see at the latest that it is probably something personal for you.
And as a really last thought just: As much as I laugh at the BH farmers, and by God how I laugh at these Lappen, it is quite arrogant to assume that these players all per se can not play. Unless you take the squad you're traveling with as a benchmark, but then I guess we're all unworthy....
What speaks against constant rerolling (still only one per day if you want, maybe of course with another -5 bfp if that is needed balancing wise)? I see no reasons. In fact quite the opposite, most games I know of that had similar systems had no such restrictions.
 

I think the idea that you can rate communitymaps after completion is very good. What you could possibly additionally include is an "average playing time" Especially with the COmmunity maps, has some in the process that partly take 1h + even for speedruns.  Again, others are played through in 5 minutes, even if you take it comfortably. So you would have a nice overview 
Or is even a general sorting possible?
e.g.
-Rpve
-TD
-PVE short (0-10min)
-PVE medium (10-30min)
-PVE long (30+ min)
-Special mods 
(from my point of view, special mods would be e.g. the community schmide, the Tiktakto etc.)
/wanky

There is an extensive guide to the Skylords economy somewhere here in the forum. Please read it thoroughly, understand it, rethink tour question, and if it is still your opinion, post it again.

We are slowly approaching unhinged levels of conspiracy theories.
You can literally learn "wtf they were thinking" by giving the patch notes a read. They are linked in the official announcement.
There are 650 people on the balancing discord, over 100 being online right now and probably also at most times. What sort of Illuminati are you fighting in your head where that qualifies as a secret? You can find the discord right here on the forum, in the wiki or by simply asking someone about how balancing decisions get made. Get a grip.

Hmm I'll take this back on topic a bit if you don't mind. One question, because I don't really understand the thread creator I think.
Chickennoodler complains, if I understood correctly, that he countered with Wintertide Red in PVE XL units, which is no longer possible?
But that alone can't be it with all the further drama and completely failed sound.
What exactly is the problem of the thread creator, because killing an XL unit as Frost t1 can not be it (if we play the same game).
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

There are early-stage plans to list some populair and well received community maps on the actual overview-map in a new location. That will surely help the community find populair ones  Would that solve your issue as well? 

Hi there,
I didnt have any times yet exploring Community Maps much, but the current Challenge lead finally me to that section of the game. And frankly, the List is a total mess. I just wanted to download and start Kings Ridge, but it took me forever to find it. From what I hear there are some maps that are really good, but I dont want to either test or ask around much, most people just want to "jump into a good game". So long story short, there is a huge accessability wall turning you away when you stare at that list.
My suggestions to solve this would be:
a) Enforce Naming Conventions for the map, in part they already exist (e.g. RPVE at the beginning)
b) Sorting the List alphabetically, right now any already existing naming convention is no help at all since all starting with "RPVE" are still all over the place.
c) Even better, make colums with categories (type of map, number of players, etc.)
d) Add some kind of rating information - I know taste is subjective, but a Rating how finished the map is would be very appreciated. Just 5 Starts or something. Not how much you like it, but if its bugged or half-finished or in a polished state, like (0 - unplayable, 1 - still completly unfinished, 2 - half-done with bugs, 3 working with minor bugs, 4 working fine, 5 realy finished and polished).
If, due to technical limitations, none of this is possible even a Forum Thread or Wiki-Post containing this information would help ALOT. People wouldnt have to dive through the Jungle and end up frustrated.
Even just a small forum post with 5 or 10 maps that get a "Brannoc approved" badge would help alot.

Your role is to give me my boosters. Also looking forward to working with you.
Greetings, Toggy

Hey all,

I hope we are gonna have a great time and some awesome events!

My role will be to help you guys with events and also organize official events for the community.
In the next weeks you will receive the first announcement for my first event.

If you have any event ideas, interest in assisting with organizing etc. Don't be afraid to just hit me up.

Hey everyone,

we're glad to tell you we have found a volunteer for a role which has been unfilled for quite a while! We would like to welcome @Minashigo Hiko to the team. As an event organizer he will be responsible to design and organize official events and tournaments from start to finish. He will research new and fun event ideas, design the event and rewards, organize the event and ensure it runs smoothly as a whole. One of the first things he will be working on is a new PvE challenge, so be on the lookout for announcements in the upcoming weeks ! If you are a member of the community who's also interested in making your own events, you can reach out to him if you have any questions, or if you need to get sponsoring for your events. Alternatively, you can also reach out to him if you wish to help him out with the events by e.g. moderating, casting, or designing them. We're really glad he's part of the team now, and are highly anticipating the first official event in Skylords Reborn!

Best regards, Skylords Reborn Team.

Why is it not possible dailys to reroll with specific maps more than 1 time.
I get only maps on expert.

The problems are:
- you didnt find players who like to play it (on some maps you have to wait hours for players)
- maps with bugs, its possible you have to run more than one time so: you didnt find players who like to play it
- you cant play this alone, if you consider there are far fewer players
- not everyone have friends they can help, and if you have not everyone like to run 2-3 times, because the map hase bugs or...

And why does it have to be an expert at all, maybe it is players who have been playing here for years, I don't care, because I don't understand what motivates it to get your daily booster harder just because you are from the level above, it it is frustrating to wait hours until there are 4-12 players and then to have to repeat the map x times because people don't know what to do, I don't see any point in it, rather the opposite.

The problems with maps have all players, no matter what level they are, dailys are in all games easy af, in BF only frustrating if it comes to specific maps like, assencion, blight, kingdom...etc.

I think, 1 reroll per day, ok, but why not again the next day?
For me its more than frustrating.

Greetings Skylords, Skyladies and Skyfolks!
Today we're happy to announce our new client developer @MarcoMaar joining the team! He will be responsible for adding new features, modifying user interfaces, or fixing bugs in our game client. Up until recently, he was working on a new ingame section, where you are able to see all of your opened boosters. Below, you can see a sneak peek of this new feature. We're very excited to have him with us, and are looking forward to his future contributions!

Best regards, Skylords Reborn Team.