Community Update - August 2024

**Majora** · August 1, 2024

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

For the past two months, we have received multiple reports of antivirus programs flagging Skylord Reborn files. We have been working hard to resolve these issues and are pleased to share some promising developments.

Our efforts to formally sign the DLL files and update our automation tools appears to have resolved several of these problems. Additionally, we have been collaborating with antivirus companies to whitelist the flagged files, and the initial results are promising.

We are continuing to monitor the situation closely, and we would appreciate your feedback if you are still experiencing any issues. The easiest way is doing so directly through our technical support channel on discord, but you can also make a topic on the forum.

• New Card Reveal - Umbabwe

Today, we have a very exciting card reveal: Blight's infamous witch doctor will make its appearance as a playable legendary card! Players have been asking for this ever since it appeared during the boss battle on Oracle, and we are happy to announce that you won't have to wait much longer for this classic character. Let's break down the card.

Please note: We are still working on the card. While we are generally happy with it, numbers and effects might still change before release.

Skyfall
Every 4 seconds, unit calls down a meteor that deals 400 damage to enemies in a 15m radius around its target, up to 1600 in total. Has a long range of 40m. Knocks back small and medium units.

Storm Caller
Activate to create a fiery tornado at a target location for 10 seconds, that deals 160 damage per second to enemies in a 10m radius, up to 480 in total per second. Additionally, affected hostile units are set on fire for 3 seconds, and take 280 damage per second. Reusable every 15 seconds.

Oink Oink
Activate to transform up to 10 hostile units at a target location of 20m radius into pigs for 15 seconds. Affected units may neither move nor attack. After 5 seconds they will be retransformed if being attacked. After the effect wears off, targets are immune against Oink for 10 seconds. Reusable every 20 seconds.

Steadfast
Cannot be knocked back.

Design notes: Umbabwe is one of the more colorful characters in the Renegade campaign and the last of the Raven-based cards to become a player card. While we were designing Umbabwe we decided early on not to tie him into the existing Raven squad system but to make him a standalone entity. We wanted to design a spellcaster type unit which relied heavily on low cooldown abilities. This should allow Umbabwe to function as a good T4 starting unit which can then transition into a spell supporter for several decks.

Umbabwe's auto-attack is unique because it is a meteor from Inferno. Its large splash radius and splash damage should allow him to stun-lock small and medium units. The Storm Caller ability provides a potent anti-unit tornado, which unlike other tornados, does not travel but remains in place. Additionally the tornado is capable of being buffed when cards like Unholy Hero are used on Umbabwe. Its low cooldown means it can potentially be used multiple times per camp. Finally, we had to give Blight's Witch Doctor an equivalent of Oink, as Umbabwe, or at least his tribe, seem to be the inventors of this iconic spell.

Umbabwe will release alongside our next content patch, expected in September.

• Art Spotlight

We made a few changes to the original artwork of Umbabwe, now that he will become available as a player card. Our artist, Tweeto, started by changing the background to better reflect the fire magic Umbabwe is known for. He also adjusted the way Umbabwe holds his staff and ensured the staff better fits the in-game model. There are many other minor changes—can you spot them all?

• New Campaign Maps - September

Many players are eagerly looking forward to our new campaign maps. Expanding on the original campaign is an exciting moment for the project, and we can't wait for you all to experience them firsthand. Today, we are happy to announce that work has progressed nicely, and we currently expect the first two maps to be released next month, through a content patch sometime in September.

While we have already done extensive testing, we are exploring new territories here, so we can't yet provide a concrete release date. However, we are confident we will be able to share more info in the next community update.

We hope players will appreciate what we have put together, and we are excited for this new chapter of Skylords Reborn.

• New Voice Lines

It's been a while since we requested voice actors to apply for voicing both old and new characters, and we are happy to share that it won't be long until you can hear the results of everyone's hard work.

With our next content patch, you can expect voice lines for the following cards:

• Burning Spears
• Amii Phantom
• Amii Sentinel
• Skydancer
• Umbabwe (taken from the game)
• Deep One (alteration to Sunderer)

There will also be loading screen narration and voiced outcries for our new campaign maps, including our new Skylord; Gaeron.

We are very excited to flesh out these characters and hope you will appreciate the work that went into creating them!

• Critical: Artist Needed

Skylords Reborn has a team of volunteers from all over the world. Unfortunately, this also means we can be greatly affected by real-world events, as is the case with our art team. Both of our artists are located in countries currently affected by war. While we have managed so far by working through our backlog, we have reached a critical point where we will soon face a bottleneck in producing new cards and characters.

We will not be able to bring you new cards if we do not find additional artists soon.

If you are a talented artist able to draw in the BattleForge art style, please contact me through the Forum or discord (majora5222), or apply directly.

• Event Spotlight: Seven Strategy Showdown by Ultralord

We have a very special community event to spotlight today: Ultralord took it upon himself to run not one, but seven events. Inspired by Kapo's ''Crappy Community Contest'', these small scale events are easily accessible and have fun twists, while also taking inspiration from Ducky's PvE league in regards to an overreaching ranking. Each event will have a fun handcrafted challenge or mechanic to explore.

Every two weeks there will be a new event waiting for you all, with great prizes to be won! Be sure to check out the overview post for everything you need to know, and be on the look-out for each separate event in the event-calendar and in-game news-tab.

• 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!

Current events:

• NEW - Seven Strategy Showdown
Every two weeks there will be a new event in this series of seven events, each bringing a fun handcrafted challenge or mechanic! Be sure to check them out, as there are some great prizes to be won! More information.

• SECOND PHASE IN PROGRESS - PvP AI programming contest
Get ready for an AI Programming Tournament, where the submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist! Players are still able to join this programming contest. More information.

• FINISHED - 2p PvE Event - Save energy to restore Lyr
For this event, players had to compete on the new featured community map "Restoring Lyr'', using as little power as possible. Check out the winner reveal stream here!

• 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.

• 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!

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: HERE-TAKE-YOUR-CURE

The code is valid until September 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.