Community Update - July 2024

[Majora]

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!

• Update regarding antivirus programs flagging Skylords Reborn as unsafe

Last month we informed our players of issues regarding Anti-Virus programs flagging Skylords Reborn files as unsafe, preventing the launcher and installer from working correctly. Because the issues are still ongoing, we'd like to take another moment to talk about the situation. 

Many players have been confused why the issues are now popping up, 3 years after release. While we can not confirm our theory due to AV-programs being vague about their reasons for flagging files, one theory we have is that experimental features regarding replays and SMJ export collection we rolled out a while ago triggered the AV response. This feature would allow players to directly go into their folder to find their replays. This might have triggered the AV response but, sadly, reverting the changes does not suddenly remove the unsafe flag. AV-programs also tend to share their databases, so even though we reverted the changes, the damage was already done and multiple AV-programs now continue to flag SR-files as unsafe. 

It is worth noting this situation is not unique to Skylords Reborn, as we have also seen reports of the popular game "Palworld" undergoing similar issues. While unrelated to our current issues, it goes to show Anti-Virus programs are very complicated and time consuming to deal with, even for bigger companies.

We are currently trying to get our files marked as safe again by getting the right certification, but these steps take time. While we are still hard at work to fix the issues, the rest of our team continues their work on new content, like the new patch we have released this weekend. We had hoped to fix the AV issues before its release, but also don't want to hold back our content due to the uncertainty of the situation.

This currently leaves players with two options to play Skylords Reborn; wait for the situation to resolve, or manually exclude the files from your AV-program. 

We have seen some confusion regarding the issue also happening to players without a dedicated Anti Virus program like Norton or McAfee. Please note that Windows automatically comes with the AV-program Microsoft Defender, which also blocks the installer/updater. 

While we continue to search for solutions for the current situation, here is a explanation on how to add an exception to Microsoft Defender. Excluding the Skylords Reborn folder (not just the file) should also prevent players from constantly having to manually exclude the file every time we patch the game.  

Spoiler

The following steps were done on Windows 10, but they should be the same for Windows 11. You can also view the official Microsoft instructions here. 

1) Go to Virus & Threat protection

 

2) Click Manage settings:

3) Add or remove exclusions

4) Add exclusion for C:\games\skylords reborn (or wherever you have/want to install the game)

For players installing the game for the first time; we suggest to create the Skylords Reborn folder manually, move the installer files there, and add the folder to the anti-virus exceptions. Then proceed the installation into that folder. This prevents the AV from removing the file during installation. 

We have also updated the Forum-post to include this explanation on how to add an exception to Microsoft Defender, the default Anti-Virus program that comes with Windows. 

We know asking players to add an exception to their Anti Virus is a big ask, and we are still trying to solve the problem in a way that does not require this. We hope for your understanding and patience, this situation is affecting us all. 

 

• New Patch Release

On to a brighter note! Our latest content patch released this weekend, bringing with it two new cards and a ton of balance changes. The majority of these changes are to tier 3 units, making sure the game is in a great place to explore our new campaign maps scheduled for later this year.

Balance changes include long awaited ones like the Colossus rework. Other notable changes are found on Lost Dancer and Banditos, but with so many changes, we highly suggest you check out the patchnotes for the full list of adjustments. 

This patch also brings two exciting new cards for the Frost and Nature factions. 

The first new card is Icespike. 

Icespike can apply a weak 800-strength Ice Shield to up to 5 allied units. This shield can be strengthened up to 2000 total strength by Ice Age. This gives Frost T3 a new sustain option in addition to Ward of the North. Icespike will also freeze any unit it attacks on contact. This kind of auto-attack CC is common among NPC enemies, but as of yet it is not a feature of any player card. We thought this was thematically fitting, turn enemies to ice while using ice to protect allies, and it makes the unit a bit more interesting than being just a walking Ice Shield generator.  

We also have a short Card Spotlight video showcasing the card:

Our second new card is Swarm. 

While Nature decks have a lot of flexibility, one of Nature's persistent weaknesses is buildings. None of Nature's damage spells affect buildings and the faction lacks long-range siege abilities that would allow players to target important buildings in the backline. While we have tried multiple solutions to this problem that were not just adding a Nature version of Earthshaker, we also recognized that Nature does need a specific anti-building spell. Still, we wanted to give this spell a unique twist that fits the Nature faction and so we settled on a spell which spawns burrowers unconditionally, allowing you to directly target buildings with siege bugs.

We also have a short Card Spotlight video showcasing the card:

 

There are also some nice quality of life changes in this patch. For example, you can now use the text search in the achievements window to look for missing maps and cards. For example, if you search ''Crusade'', it will return all achievements related to the PvE map Crusade that are still incomplete. 

We have also added more information to logs when getting errors or crashes, which should help us better diagnose the cause of game instabilities. If you run into any issues, the best way to reach us is through our discord. 

We hope you will enjoy the changes this patch brings, be sure to share your feedback! 
 

• PvP Maps

While the majority of our map department is finalizing new campaign maps, we did not forget about the PvP players. The latest patch brings a long requested change to the map Uro: the removal of the fortification walls that led to many heated arguments. 

The Skylords Reborn team has been tweaking the official PvP maps since release, and doing so resulted in a good understanding of what makes a good PvP map. We are therefore excited to announce we have started work on our first brand-new PvP map!

While terrain and minimaps are still subjected to change, we asked RadicalX to share design thoughts about the map:

Hey everyone, I am very excited to share a few thoughts on our upcoming PvP map project.

We want to create a unique theme, that isn't already covered by the existing map pool. Therefore, our new map will feature a teleporter, providing lots of unexplored possibilities to play out the game. It will cover a large diagonal and unlocks new possibilities to outmaneuver the enemy. That said, its importance is also affected by player choices. You can always choose to expand towards safer areas in the early game and avoid the fast paced teleporting area.

Our main goal for map balancing is to create different viable approaches for each playstyle and faction, while providing a fun experience with room for a lot player interaction. Terrain and resource locations are supposed to be meaningful (balancing spell efficiency with choke points, map control relevance, late game economy) while preventing disruptive strategies, which proved to be troublesome on existing maps (T1 exploits, long range cliffing, aggressive walls).

We will share more details once the core design is finished.

 

• New Featured Community Map

Some of you might be familiar with the map "Restoring Lyr". This map dates back all the way to 2021, and has seen numerous changes and tweaks by multiple map designers since then. We even set out to turn it into the first official new Campaign Map, going as far as sketching ideas for the loading screen, and do a test recording for the loading screen introduction. After a ton of hiccups in the design process, we ended up scrapping the map as an official campaign map candidate, and instead moved onto Unexpected Visitors and Into the Jungle as our new candidates, but many of us found it a waste to discard all the progress that went into designing and balancing the map. 

We are therefore happy to announce Restoring Lyr saw another batch of changes, including a visual rework and some balance tweaks, and can now be played as a new Featured Community Map. 

This map tasks two Skylords with a mix between Defense and Offense, and will be a fun and challenging experience for Skylords eager for new PvE content. A big thank you to everyone who worked on the map over the years. We hope players will give it a try, while we finalize our official campaign maps. 

We would like to remind you that you can also complete quests and earn gold + BFP by playing community maps. 

 

• Events

We are currently understaffed in the Event Department, which has become clear by the lack of events the last few months. If you are interested in helping out, please consider applying for the Event Manager position. In the past, many non-staff players have also come up with fun events, so please note that you are not required to join the staff to host an event. 

• 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.

 

Current events

 • SECOND PHASE IN PROGRESS - 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.

 

 

• 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!

Sadly, both of our artists are located in countries that are effected by war, so our art output is currently heavily impacted. If you are a talented artist able to draw in the BattleForge art style, please contact us. 

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: ICES-PIKE-ANDS-WARM

The code is valid until August 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 June 2024

[Hrdina_Imperia]

New featured community map is already half-step to new campaigns wooo!

[JH24]

Thank you for the new update and for the clear explanation about the AV exclusion. It worked! 

Due to circumstances I had to take a break from the game but I just want to say I'm loving the new updates!

I'm excited to see what you have in store for us this year. I can't wait! Many thanks to the entire Skylords Reborn team for all your hard work! 

Edited July 1, 2024 by JH24

[Metagross31]

The news about Restoring Lyr and a new PvP map sound really awesome!

I hope I will soon have a bit more time for the project again, so I can play the game a bit more and host some more events. Let's hope IRL things calm down a little bit in the near futer 🙂

[Kayrie]

Restoring Lyr v2 looks great 🤭

[kggx]

On 7/1/2024 at 11:55 AM, Majora said:

The first new card is Icespike. 

Great work getting new cards to work! 🚀 Really looking forward for all the stuff to come!

 

[Majora]

On 7/20/2024 at 6:38 PM, kggx said:

Great work getting new cards to work! 🚀 Really looking forward for all the stuff to come!

 

Just to clarify, this isnt the first new card we have added to the game, we have been at it for quite a while now! 🙂
Check them out here: https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Rebirth_Edition