Thingol

what would be an actual improvement in quality of life is when stonekin critters would automatically appear in the same unit group as Deepfang. its possible to add them manually of course, but its kinda annoying to do so over and over.

Bandit Wizard Towers are hard? Fear not!

Here is some budget deck participation run for you:
(Please note that the commentary is kinda scuffed because the mic was positioned wrong, but I think the video is short-lived so no need to re-record 😃

Hello Skyladies and Skylords,
Welcome to the eleventh official PvE event!

Quick Overview:
Map                          1-player random PvE, Map of the Month Difficulty                   4-6 (your choice) Date                          01.01.2024 until 10.01.2024 23:59 CET Prizes                        Boosters, Soulstones, and much more! Winner reveal           Stream on the 15.01.2024 19:00 CET  
Rules and Goals:
In the Amii training camp, ...
... you have to stay on Tier 2, with only a Nature and a Shadow orb,  ... you are only allowed to play Amii Paladins and Amii Phantoms as T2 units, ... you are allowed to select any difficulty between four, five or six. Don't forget to tick the "Map of the Month" box! The fastest entry to finish the map will win.
The replays will be ranked in the same way as on the leaderboards, so a slow difficulty 5 entry will still be ranked higher than any difficulty 4 entry.
The order of the orbs is up to you, and you may as well play any Nature / Shadow / Amii spells or buildings - only your T2 units are limited to the Phantom and the Paladins.
 
What's the Prize Pool?
1st Place:              8 Amii Boosters + Swamp Drake Promo
2nd Place:            6 Amii Boosters
3rd Place:             4 Amii Boosters
4th Place:             3 Amii Boosters
5th Place:             2 Amii Boosters
6th-10th Place:    1 Amii Booster
All players will enter a random draw with a 50% chance of winning a Soulstone card, the other 50% will get an Amii Booster.
 

 
How can I participate?

Everyone with an ingame account can participate in the event, there is no need to sign up separately.

To enter, you just have to send in your best replay, including the player names and the time, to Kapo on Discord (kapojones) or the forum (@Kapo).
Battleforge automatically saves a replay of your last game. You can find your replays here: Documents=>Battleforge=>replays
To save me some time, please rename the replay to the following name format:  Amii_<your_time>_<your_name>.pmv (e.g. "Amii_00.12.23_Majora.pmv")

You can send in your replays until 10.01.2023 23:59 CET
 
FAQ:
I will update the below as questions are asked throughout the event. 
 
When will the winners be announced?

The winners will be announced via a Twitch stream hosted by @Ultralord!
Location: https://www.twitch.tv/ultralord_t1421
Date & time: 15.01. 2024 19:00 CET
 
Future events
If you are interested in helping with these kinds of events for the community, or want to host one yourself, don't be afraid and simply reach out!
Send @Metagross31, or @Minashigo Hiko a PM on the forum, or direct message via Discord (Metagross31#1103, Minashigo Hiko#1126).
We are happy to assist you with upcoming events and with sponsoring towards your prize pool!
 
We hope you have a lot of fun with this event and are looking forward to seeing all your replays!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Hello Skylords,
After starting the Masters of the Forge, I had the setup ready to record some videos - and since I was always drawn to Pure Nature, I thought it would be nice to have some chill sessions and record all necessary maps for the Mana Wing Promo.
In the playlist linked below, you will find a complete collection of Pure Nature playthroughs - I might also add some bonus content, especially if there are some requests.
CLICK HERE FOR THE PLAYLIST
This content is in honour of BadKen, who did the same back in the days, and I remember very fondly that his content helped me a lot not only to understand how to play Nature, but also how the more tricky expert maps work.
See you in the Forge, fellow Skylords!

I think the idea of a spawn building definitely connects well with Twilight as a faction. I think both Twilight and Bandits could eventually see their spawn buildings become player cards. 
 
I think the idea of a stampede effect that primarily interacts with units instead of buildings would be a cool twist on the ability. I am not sure if that would be infection or knockback or some other concept, but it is worth thinking more about. 

We also want to add a lot of Twilight transformation effects like you suggest to make the mechanic more worthwhile to play around. 

Im still playing around with some twilight decks for pve so might make some mistakes, but had a few thoughts on how to punch up the twilight faction.  Im not 100% sure on how the power works with transformation, its quite a fun mechanic, but does feel underused compared to other groups.  
 
Late game structures:
Currently, cards like fleshbender and willzapper are really only usable in pvp, which is a shame as they are interesting buildings!  My thought here would be to create an alternate card for pve, either using the same models as those or a different one.  One could have a pair of affinities, its primary effect would be to provide damage reduction to units who are transforming (global range).   One affinity, perhaps green, could make units that complete a transformation fully heal, while the other (blue perhaps) makes the unit immune to knockback or stun or any form of disable while transforming and/or temporary immunity on completion.  Alternatively have the structure render units immune to disables/knockbacks by default, then provide heal for one affinity and extended immunity on the other.  Incentivises more combat transformations!  This could use the fleshbender model perhaps, or a variant of it.  
 
Another could be based off the willzapper and also have a global effect, this could reduce the cost of transform by a %, or return a fixed amount of it  back to the power pool immediately.  It would have to be global to really get use, as transform is often most effective in combat to trigger the transform abilities.  
 
You could also consider a building based off the basic twilight spawner building that functions similar to sunken temple, but spawning twilight minions/archers with timed life.  This could be an interesting defensive structure with synergies with infected tower and some transform effects.  
 
Spells:
Id like to see a spell that simulates the infection spreading, and if the victim gets weak enough they transform into a twilight equivalent.  Im picturing an effect based on parasite, but without the damage and a much faster transfer speed (ie a unit is infected, and then it rapidly spreads to nearby units).  Infected units get a debuff, and if they fall to below 50% health they transform to a twilight unit of similar type under the players control (small melee units become minions, small ranged to slayers, xls like colossus to abominations etc) at their previous health.  If the debuff wears off, the unit becomes immune to the debuff for a while.  Said units could have a timed life from the moment they transform.  Ends up being similar to infect, but spreads differently and creates units differently more in theme with the twilight curse.
 
What about a power that creates an area of effect, and if a twilight unit dies within said area it triggers its transform ability as if it had transformed (in the case of slaver, it explodes twice).  This is probably best placed in tier 2, maybe 3 at a pinch, as t2 units have most of the on transform effects (minions, slavers, vileblood are all t2 transform effects, maniac and nightshade for t3, evil eye at t4).  Upside is a reduced micro method of triggering transform effects in combat, downside being that the units have to die to trigger it, losing their card charge and needing to be resummoned.  
 
Units:
Unless I havent found it yet, twilight dancer doesnt have a card yet.  This could quite simply be a long range artillery unit in theme to take the place of fire dancer or fire stalker.  If a unit transforms into her, this could create a temporary buff based on affinity (increased damage for a short time or damage reduction for a moderate time) to represent an inspiring dance!  
 
Abomination is great, a good unit I find.  I would however like a transform effect for it, to try incentivise the ability.  Perhaps when a unit transforms into abomination it triggers his roar for free?  
 
Twilight hulk doesnt have a card yet!  How bout it has a stampede effect that leaves a trail of infection behind it, perhaps like the infected tower ability or the spell I described.  If it transforms into another unit, it restores a charge to units of the same size as it perhaps?  The hulk leads the charge of the twilight horde!  
 
Ive got a few other ideas, but they are fairly rough so might post them later.  
 
As a side note, twilight does seem quite strong as it stands for pvp with its flexibility and potent void power and summoning shenanigans, so maybe any additional cards are t4 which arent really used in pvp, or have an effect that works fairly on each mode (ie a twilight dancer wouldnt be out of place, as it would act much like a firedancer type unit just a bit different)

Here is the recording of the Winners Stream:
 

Thanks for the reply, that is actually a good point, I got the invite link on discord, where it shows the server, so there no confusion that it is a different server.
@Metagross31 you should also add the information, that it is different server, because people that already are on SR discord might not notice, and not click on the link.

🤔 45 people filled the questionnaire, but only 13 14 participants on discord so far.
What is working:
Rust, C#, python, have full API with 2 examples for both Rust, and C#, and only 1 for python. These 3 languages are tested with every version. (at least a bit) Types are mostly documented. Typescript (javascript) have the required types generated for each version, but no testing is done. Participants are already trying to make their bots. What is still missing:
More documentation. More examples. Improvements are prioritized based on requests from participants. Can I ask what are the reasons to not join yet?

Link to the discord is not advertised? I didn't get a manual invitation to the discord, and no notification that the forum post was edited.
I had no idea the discord even existed until I stumbled onto your comment on another channel. Came here to check if it was public or staff-only.

Huha...69... the meme lives on 😄

Wow, there are already some really strong names in there, which didn't even make it into the top 5! It must have been really competitive up there then.
The winner reveal will be so !

My favourite contest and I got kompletely noooothing 😞
 

Hello There!

We are ready to reveal all places under the top 5!



Everyone under 50%:
45. BananaBadman, 46. Archmystic, 47. fatyy778, 48. Enginenilla, 49. Johaze, 50. Spizzy, 51. pandinjo, 52. AlexisVaunt, 53. Druffey, 54. Wotan, 55. Istis73, 56. IntetDerTraeumer,
57. Laertes, 58. itap, 59. Omnilisk924, 60. Temaktima, 61. Kserske, 62. Djaffahr, 63. LordVanDragon, 64. shaitzu, 65. JunVIII, 66. CrimeLime, 67. kamalon, 68. Majora, 69. Volin,
70. Laser, 71. Metagross31, 72. Devou, 73. Osteburger, 74. Junviper, 75. Anacord, 76. Fral, 77. Enraged, 78. Babonja, 79. mx-2, 80. Regonix, 81. shdw, 82. Kamelot, 83. Orca,
84. Draconix, 85. blackfission, 86. Ryana, 87. Chatterbox.

Raffle 1 Winner (Booster):
fatyy778, pandinjo, Kserske, CrimeLime, Devou, Junviper, Enraged, mx-2, Ryana, Chatterbox

Raffle 2 Winner (Soulstone): 
Hrdina_Imperia, Shaulani, Wolf, Sarsch, Djaffahr, Laertes, Rankerz, Osteburger, Istis73, Kapo, Simplius, Fral, HeRZ, Laser, RadicalX, Ultralord, Volin, Temaktima, Draconix, Enginenilla, shaitzu, Thingol, Omnilisk924, shdw, IntetDerTraeumer, Deelane, Novia, BananaBadman, Eirias, Babonja, AlexisVaunt, LichterLoh, Mocaak Druffey, Sorthal, JunVIII, Faulgaul, kamalon, Majora, Shirokami, pierakor, Metagross31, GevatterTODdy, Wotan.


Secret Raffle Winner (Sponsored by @Vysnia) :
Johaze, LordVanDragon

The Secret Raffle rewards each winner with 1k bfp.

All Prizes will be Distributed over the course of tomorrow.

ooooh I made it in the top 5 !
so guys, check out my total not crappy run on youtube 😉

Here goes my entry with a T4 time of 05:50 - but I don't think this will get me very far 😃
 
 

@Thingol the python versin is almost ready to be tried out, but the problem is, we have no python expert to finish it 😢 and python just complains without am useful error

MZFzMKZYFqLrL2UqOjLaTuLqFvVmYfSqSOMqYYINM

No love for Rageflames? 🥶

Hello Skylords,
One of the best things about cards games is the way you can combine cards and come up with cool decks. Yet, too often we turn to the most powerful combos, even when it's not necessary. On rPvE 9 you have much leeway to take a 2nd or even 3rd class deck, and still not be a burden on your teammates.
This series contains many deck suggestions which not only are working in difficulty 9, but also keep the game fresh and exciting by trying out new playstyles. So have a look at the playlist, and if you got a suggestion for a deck to cover here, just submit it to me - I will try it out and might make a video on it.
The following decks have been covered so far:

Here is the playlist with the playthroughs:
CLICK HERE
I hope you find one deck or another that gives you a refreshing outlook on rPvE 9, and see you in the Forge!

I'd gladly help once the Python API is ready 😄

We are testing the above theory... partial examples available for Rust, and C# (Python soon?) So feel free to join the discord to check it out.
Lets hope, that there will be a lot of useful feedback 🙂

Newbie question: How do I activate the recording of replays? When I go to Documents>BattleForge>replays the only (visible) file is autosave.pmv and it is only 67KB. I just completed the challenge and wanted to send my game.
EDIT: I just found the box in settings to enable saving all replays. I assume I lost all past replays but now it should record all replays right?
__________________________________________________________
I did it at about 10 or 11 min. I had some problems getting to T3 and T4, hope I can improve before the 15th 😄

Even without the "save all replays" option, your very latest game is always there as "autosave.pmv". As soon as you start a new game of course, that one gets overwritten.
So either you save all replays, or you rename the autosave right after the game to secure it.

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!

 
• Halloween Patch

Happy Halloween Skylords! Last weekend, we released a surprise Halloween patch. This patch contains various bugfixes and quality of life changes. Additionally, we have implemented some balance changes, including the previously announced Stronghold changes. 
We have also added the Fire-themed Forge. Keep yourself warm this month with this special themed Forge (active as a featured Forge till the end of November), or complete the achievement ''Never Thought of Him'' to permanently unlock the Forge in addition to 100.000 gold. This reward is retroactive, meaning those who already completed the achievement in the past automatically have the Fire-forge. 
Skylords might remember our Spooky Encounters Halloween Event from last year. We have now implemented a returning achievement, where you can earn a Lost Souls booster and a special Pumpkin-avatar for beating the map during the Halloween season. 
For those looking for a more classic event, we also have a Halloween event that went live earlier today. 
We hope you enjoy this special Halloween patch. You can find the full patch notes here. 
 
• New Card Reveal - Soulstone

This patch also contained the surprise reveal and release of Soulstone!
Today we would like to dive a bit deeper into its design, and how the release is both sudden and overdue.  
 

 
Soulstone is the very first building card we have introduced in the Rebirth Edition (if you don't count our Promo Worldbreaker Gun). It is a Frost card requiring only a single Frost orb, but with a unique twist: Skylords are able to upgrade the card to tier 2 once they have a second orb available. This allows the card to transition throughout the game, powering up alongside the other tools at your disposal. 
Upgrading the card reduces the cost for its memorial ability, and increase its lifepoints. Soulstone is a rare card and can drop from boosters or be reforged into. We also have a special Halloween event where you have a chance to earn it, more about that later in this Community Update.
 
 
 

Let's break down the card: 

Frozen Ward
Activate to trigger a global shielding spell that enchants every friendly structure to grant friendly units within a 20m radius an Ice Shield that absorbs up to 120 damage for 10 seconds. Units that already have an Ice Shield are unaffected. Each unit can only be affected once every 10 seconds. Lasts for 30 seconds. Also affects structures that are still under construction. Has a 60 seconds cool-down after the building was built. Reusable every 60 seconds.  
 
Memorial (mode change)
Activate to regenerate the full power of the Soulstone. After 2 seconds, the building gains Soul Armor and loses Frozen Ward. Requires 2 orbs to activate. Has a 60 seconds cool-down after the building was build. 
 

Soul Armor
Activate to trigger a global shielding spell that enchants every friendly structure to grant friendly units within a 20m radius an Ice Shield that absorbs up to 180 damage for 10 seconds. Units that already have an Ice Shield are unaffected. Each unit can only be affected once every 10 seconds. Lasts for 30 seconds. Also affects structures that are still under construction. Reusable every 60 seconds.
 
Soulstone has been in the making for quite a while now, and we would like to share some behind the scenes' information about its road to release. To do so, Lead Designer Windhunter will take you all the way back to 2021.
 
• Soulstone Design Notes

The release of Soulstone is a testament to how far the Skylords Reborn team has come in its development capacities. The original design concept for Soulstone dates back to June 2021, where it was one of the first cards ever designed by the faction design department. Soulstone's initial design pattern was very closely on the Soulstone players encounter in Defense of Hope, similar to how Banzai Lord is patterned closely on its eponymous mini-boss in Mo. The idea was that the player Soulstone would achieve its full its strength upon reaching T2 just as the Soulstone in Defense of Hope regenerates its strength partway through the mission, summoning Skyelfs to defend itself. We did not think that Frost needed a Skyelf spawner, but we did believe that Frost needed early game sustain and that providing shields would fit well with Soulstone's existing identity. In terms of initial vision and final design, the Soulstone we released a few days ago and the Soulstone we originally designed 28 months ago are highly similar. So why did it take so long?
The challenge of creating a card like Soulstone that could transform into a stronger version of itself upon reaching a higher tier was riddled with technical hurdles. Despite how much we have achieved, it is important to remember that we do not have the source code for BattleForge. Much of what we do is a slow process of reverse engineering and subsequent tool development to allow ourselves to make use of that reverse engineering. Many of our new cards and major redesigns to existing cards have required at least one new mechanic to be successfully reverse engineered before they could proceed. It is a frequent occurrence for our team's faction designers to put forward an idea, have it be accepted as worthwhile to pursue, only for development to hit a wall while we wait for our developers to play Marco Polo with the game engine until they can isolate the correct variable that then allows our card implementers to make the card a reality.
For Soulstone, the primary challenge was the description length. Embedding the functionalities of two cards would result in an exceedingly lengthy description, unprecedented in the game. When we run into major issues like this, we ask ourselves, can we design around it? The best idea we had was to make the Memorial ability self-destruct the existing Soulstone and summon a new, better Soulstone in its place. Altar of Chaos and Portal Nexus both summon new buildings, so this was clearly possible. A little janky, but a promising workaround nonetheless, except that both Altar of Chaos and Portal Nexus' summon abilities are hardcoded, meaning that if we add the ability to a different building, it will always and only summon the building from the original ability. Additionally, even the ability icons were hardcoded, so even if we got it to work, Soulstone would have had an Altar of Chaos icon on it. For regular followers of our Community Updates, you may have pieced together that this same issue would seem to be true for our upcoming card Bedrock, which summons its own Stone Launcher, and if so, you would now have a better understanding of one reason for why said card is not yet released. Anyway, the workaround also proved impossible, so we decided to adjust the design so both the T1 and T2 version could reasonably fit into a single card.
While lacking its originally intended evolution mechanic, Soulstone would have still made a good addition to the game. We implemented the global shields and found that it worked fine. Then we started designing a slightly frostier texture for the building, the original is quite gray, only to find that when we tried to construct the Soulstone in-game that the building got stuck under the ground. It was there, but completely buried. With no knowledge of how to fix this issue, we had to abandon the possibility of using the Soulstone building itself. What we knew we could do was retexture existing buildings with functioning build animations, so we decided to change the name and use a different building instead. Our most promising attempt was trying to retexture Fountain of Rebirth, turning its roots into icicles in the process.
After a half dozen aborted tries leading to more and more frustration from the art team, and in light of the ongoing implementation struggles, we made the decision to shelve the development of Soulstone for the time being. This, while the right decision, became very awkward for us as a team because we justified several changes to Frost T1 cards with the reasoning that a new "Frost T1 sustain option" would be releasing next patch. Obviously, this was no longer true, so we scrambled to make changes to Northern Keep as compensation. Instances like this one are one reason we are careful not to announce things until we are sure they are possible.
For nearly two years, Soulstone sat untouched and largely forgotten until early this summer one of the team members pointed out that the original Soulstone design was now fully possible. We did a few preliminary tests and discovered that the team member was correct. In the course of two years, we had advanced our understanding of the game to the point that what was previously impossible was now relatively simple. Once the various card and ability artworks were finished, the building retextured, and the 3D FX crafted, the card implementation took a little under a week. At long last, on Oct. 28th 2023, Soulstone made its way into the Forge.
 
• Events

If you want to get your hands on the brand-new Soulstone card, be sure to participate in our official Halloween event! We will distribute the card among 50% of the participants, and there are also Lost Souls boosters to be won! 
 
• NEW - Official 1p rPvE Contest - Resurrection of the Lost Soul
The Bandits have disturbed our rest for too long! It is time for the Souls to hunt the Soulhunters, show the Power of Lost Souls in this rPvE 1p Contest. The more participate, the more Soulstones we will Raffle! 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.
 
• FINISHED - PvP Rookie Tournament
Last weekend, Triggz hosted a special Rookie 1vs1 Tournament. 22 inexperienced players entered the ring and battled it out. The tournament was streamed live, and can be rewatched on the YouTube-channel of Eirias. 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 5 episodes to watch:
• Episode 1: Dutchy, Lead Moderator - Watch now.
• Episode 2: Majora, Project Coordinator - Watch now.
• Episode 3: Volin, Testing Coordinator -  Watch now.

• New: Episode 4: RadicalX, Faction Designer
In this episode, Kapo and RadicalX talk about Radicals fame as one of the best players in speedrunning and PvP, but also about design (decisions) and loads of topics submitted by user questions. Watch now.

• New: Episode 5: Ult, Server Developer
In this episode, Kapo and Ult talk about the server side of the game, especially about systems like the achievements or cosmetics, as well as future projects like map modifiers. Watch now.
Episode 6 will be hosted live on the 4th of November and feature Ultralord, Video Editor. Tune in live on Twitch, or watch back on YouTube the day after.  
 
• Team changes

During the past month, WaterMelonLord, Nukie and Dallarian have moved on from the team for various reasons. All three of them helped us out with moderation. Additionally, Nukie managed the Event Department, where Dallarian helped the Map Department set the first step into new campaign maps. We appreciate their contributions and wish them well in their future endeavors!
Meanwhile, Noah.K has joined the team as our second Audio Editor. He is helping us out with adding new voicelines into the game by providing editing and advice regarding the recorded takes we have received from our voice-actors. In the moderator department, Linkz has been promoted to Global Moderator. 
 
• Contribute

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fuelled by the passion and dedication of over 45 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, so please consider applying.
• Marketeer / Outreach Coordinator
As a Marketeer / Outreach Coordinator, you are responsible to spread the word and create awareness about Skylords Reborn, attracting veteran and new players alike. 
Your tasks will include 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. 
More information. 
 
• 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 Lost Souls booster: SOUL-STON-ENOW-LIVE
The code is valid until December 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 October 2023