Skylords Reborn FAQ

[MrXLink 1052]

So you've come across Skylords Reborn, and you may wonder what's up with this project, how it works, and you may have some further in-depth questions for us. Well, you're not the only one! For your convenience, here is a list of frequently asked questions about Skylords Reborn. Please carefully read through this before asking what has already been asked and answered, maybe you'll find your answers over here! 

For all questions regarding how to play, please refer to this here thread:

What is Skylords Reborn?
Skylords Reborn is a project which started off as a 2-man team working on allowing the community to play BattleForge again. BattleForge was a Real-Time Strategy Collectible Card PC game (not a MOBA) made by EA Phenomic that got closed down approximately 2 years ago, disappointing many players. The ever-growing Skylords Reborn team is working hard to make BattleForge playable and accessible for its still large community and new players once more!

Sounds cool! Does this mean EA is bringing the game back?
No. We are in no way related to EA, we are a team of former community members participating in this project out of love and commitment to the game in our spare time.

Have you asked EA for help with the project?
Unfortunately, that is not how the project works and we sincerely doubt EA is interested in the funding of the project nor rebooting the game. We do not expect any help from EA. We have, however, been given permission to alter the existing client and make this project a thing until further notice is provided. Former BF staff are under NDA as well, disallowing them to help us in the first place.

Are you Legacy ReForge?
Are you rebuilding the game from scratch?
No. Legacy Reforge is a completely different project which is rebuilding the entire game from scratch inspired by the original game. We are not Legacy Reforge, we are bringing the actual old game back with some minor changes. We will edit as little within the original client as possible for now.

When can we play BattleForge again?
You can right now, but the game is in a BETA stage with limited slots. Please follow the link at the start of this thread to find out more!

(When) will there be an Alpha version of this project?
The game's Alpha stage has passed.

(When) will there be a Beta version of this project?
The game's Beta stage is currently in progress. It's currently in an OPEN STRESS TEST state, in which a limited amount of people can join at a time. You can attempt to log in using the thread at the start of this forum. Your forum account will be your in-game account! It may be possible that in the start, servers won't be able to handle the load, resulting in entering in waves. This may or may not be the case, it really depends.

But I thought I heard it would be in January?
That is correct. However, due to severe overworking, stress and unexpected issues, this was postponed.You can read up on this over here: 

 

Who will enter the Beta?
Can I please get Beta access?
Can I please play the game?
I have an amazing excuse. Give me beta please?
Anyone can enter the beta right now, but there are limited slots available. If you can't get in, be patient and try again later.
 

PLEASE RELEASE THE FULL GAME/BETA NOW!
Whoah there, hold your horses! We understand that due to seeing stream gameplay, we might as well release everything to everyone, right? Well, that sounds like an awful idea. We won't claim a full release of the game just yet. There's many reasons for this, including bugs and server stability. We are open now, but there are many reasons while servers may still fail and modes are unavailable. There is a thread made by Moderator @Kiwi describing this perfectly, please check it out:

How does the game work? I've never played it/I forgot/I'm new here!
Welcome (back) to the game and/or its community! BattleForge is an RTS in which you use collected cards to spawn your units, structures or spells into the game, control them and fight against other players or the AI in a wide variety of environments. You can find out a lot about the game's systems and mechanics in the wiki over here: http://skylords-reborn.wikia.com/wiki/Skylords_Reborn

Will this game cost me money?
How do we earn BFP?
Nope! Skylords Reborn will be completely free to play, and you will be able to earn your BFP through daily quests and playtime. You will of course gain more BFP than the original 2 you would receive from the original game.

Where can I buy BFP?
You know what's a good idea? A quest/mission system!
Since the game will be completely free to play, there is no place you can purchase any in-game content with real money. We are working on creating a quest/mission system to earn your BFP through completing tasks and spending time online.

Can I use the old BattleForge client?
No. A new client will be available once we reach a stage where we will be able to accept players into the servers.

Where can I download the new client?
You can pre-download the client using Mediafire or MEGA.nz.

Quote

Name: BattleForge.rar

Size: 5307589968 Bytes (5061 MB)
CRC32: F3E0B49E
CRC64: 72BCE6DDE51A926B
SHA256: E6456C335B004A1E77DD6BBCA0F27ECF22389F2DBE7A66624C5B1C4471865F26
SHA1: B411782EF4034310A655B9E4DD100EA057B29374
BLAKE2sp: 1D7624B734EB372D5F59830B38DB25A6528890BE8A7D33E5CC43E0B10914DF82

Then, download the updater here, extract it in the same folder as your Battleforge extracted game and run it.

Will I be able to use my old account?
No. As we are not EA we do not have access to your old accounts and most likely never will, so you will have to create a new one and start from scratch. We know this is annoying but there is no way for us to retrieve account information. At least you can play the game again though!

If this project is completely non-profit, how will you keep servers up?
We have created a donation pool. If you feel like donating to the project and help us keep the BattleForge servers up in the future, you can donate funds to the Skylords Reborn team. Any donated money will be spent on server upkeep, development and a lot will be saved up for future server upkeep. No money whatsoever will go into our own pockets, and must we have a lot of excess money (beyond our savings for future upkeep), we will make sure this excess money will go to a good cause rather than it being profit. Check the donate page here: https://www.patreon.com/skylordsreborn 

Will you distribute the server files for private hosting?
We currently can't provide you with an answer to that. We have been considering to do this in a terminal situation, but have not yet made a definitive decision about this. We have definitely been giving it thought, though.

Why Patreon?
We have chosen to implement a Patreon-based donation system for a few reasons. First off, Patreon is more liberal with its guidelines and regulations. They also allow for a bigger donation pool, have a lot of options, and apply their donations immediately as opposed to paypal.

But Patreon is a monthly payment. What if I only want to make a single payment?
No worries! You can simply donate once and then unsubscribe. This will apply your donation and any benefits you may gain from it for one month, and won't ask you for further payment or monthly subscriptions. Donations are direct and easy to cancel, so you can easily make a single donation.

Patreon gives its patrons benefits. Will this boost donators to give them an advantage over non-donators?
Not at all. We have made sure that our patrons will only receive benefits that do not give them a head start in the game, nor do we treat them as more valuable or more important than other members. We respect input and ideas from the entire community, and patrons' humble donations will not tip the scales in their favour in that regard.

Can we at least watch replays?
Once we get BattleForge up and running completely, you will be able to do anything you could before in the game. In current development, yes, the replays are working. The replay system can still only replay matches from the last official EA build as always, and no older.

How far are you in development?
Our current development progress can be found on the home page, the News forums, through social media, youtube videos, and mainly on our Discord. The devplatform has old update logs over here: http://dev.skylords.eu 

Development progress since the open stress test phase will be posted (also) on the skylords reborn discord server. Direct link is here: https://discord.gg/wPKsG9T

Will the game only be in English?
Seeing as the original clients contained all localisation information, the game should be able to be played in all languages that were previously available. This includes German, French and Russian. However, we are mostly focusing our project around the English language, and this language is definitely supported.

Will the game run on iOS/Linux/Ubuntu?
Yes, it will. Instructions on how to do so will be provided duly.

Will you be adding additional content to the game?
Will you be fixing/balancing cards, maps, strategies etc?
Will you add new campaigns/maps?
Will you continue the Amii faction/Will you add Fire/Frost?
We don't know. I intend to and would love to, but right now we should really focus on getting the old game as we know it up and running, then we will see whether we will be involved in any of the above.

Where will the server be located?
The server will be located somewhere in Europe.

Can my computer run the game?
You can check the system requirements for the game in the link at the top of this topic.

Will all cards be instantly available to every player?
No. Collecting cards was a vital and fun part of the game so new players will start off with a standard deck you used to get when creating a new account for BattleForge when it went free to play. Using BFP you obtain daily, you can then open boosters and use the auction hall to obtain and sell new cards. Direct trading will also be an option as usual.

How can I obtain promos?
You can get promos as an extremely rare reward in boosters, or during special events that we will host.

I have asked EA support about hosting a private BattleForge Server and they said yes! This means you can do whatever you want! Amazing, right? (and any other legal conversations)
While we have been given permission to alter the client and host the game, there are several other boundaries and situations that might appear, so please do not take anything for granted. Let's focus on getting the game up first before discussing any further improvements, permissions or boundaries.

(What if) EA might do something about [insert feature here]?
We do not know and we will have to face it. There is no need for discussing what EA can, cannot, will, and won't do. We can't and won't be able to answer this. As mentioned before, let's focus on getting the game up first.

Why did you change name?
This happened due to complications with our logo and the name "BattleForge" being claimed as our own project. Since we are not EA, we can no longer allow this. Ever since, we kept the "Reborn" and call ourselves "Skylords".

Who are the current Skylords Reborn Team Members?
You can find a team list here: http://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/staff/ and additionally there is one with role descriptions in the Global Forum Rules (please read that through as well, if you don't want to do anything wrong over here!) http://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/topic/460-global-forum-rules/ . Do note that (Alpha/Beta) Testers and Community Ambassadors are not part of the core team, and know very little more about the current state of progress and development than any other member.

What was Ardent Peak?
Ardent Peak is the company that the Skylords Reborn Team used to be a part of. Thanks to Ardent Peak, we have been given permission by EA to alter the client and host the game. Due to differences in interest and vision of the direction of the project, we have since parted on good terms from Ardent Peak and gone our own way.

How can I help with this project?
First of all, be sure to check the recruitment section of these forums to see if we still have some spots open for development or community management. You can apply in those forums if you want to be part of the project. Please be patient, processing your request can take quite a while.
Secondly, you can all help by spreading the word. Tell your friends, family, community members you know, make videos once the game is released, write articles, stay active on the forums, keep the hype up those are all things you can do that help us in more ways than you can imagine!

Do you need (help with) translation of the forums and/or game?
Don't you guys have different forum languages/Discord channels?
No, we do not. We want to keep the forums in English to keep the community together as a whole. With different languages, the community will be easily split, creating separate communities for each language (especially German), and we do not want this separation to occur. If you want to join the forums, you will have to speak and read English. It will also provide a lot more coherence and overall clarity within this website. The game will have all original languages supported and we are currently not looking into adding additional languages.

On the forums, we are discussing a lot of promising ideas for Skylords Reborn, but a developer never posts along. Is our idea being ignored? 
No! The developer and moderation team watches your threads carefully, often discussing or noting your ideas behind the scenes. The reason we don't post is because we are not 100% sure about implementing said idea, due to time, programming or idea constraints. This means we'll be keeping an eye on your discussions but don't join in just yet until a definitive decision has been made, in order to prevent confusion, false implications, false hopes, or the illusion of the team picking sides. It basically prevents a lot of unnecessary chaos. So keep posting and discussing, we are eager to hear your ideas, even though it may not seem like we are!

You guys should put this game on Steam or some other gaming platform!
Will Skylords Reborn be on Steam?
No. We can't put this project on Steam or other platforms, considering we do not have the rights to BattleForge as a game. Even with permission to alter the client, putting the game on e.g. Steam is an absolute no-go, as we do not own any rights, nor do we have the required funds and authorisation to add a game to Steam.

Will you do Community Challenges when the game is up and running?
I plan to, yes.

When is the next Podcast coming?
We need more video updates soon!
Can you give us more info in an upcoming stream? 
The next podcast is coming whenever we have enough new material to present to you. If we have sufficient news, updates, and/or announcements, we will make a new podcast. We have absolutely no set date or schedule for podcasts. Be sure to check social media and this website though; as soon as we know we plan a podcast we will tell you. Please be patient; if it is not clearly announced anywhere there is no podcast coming soon. We will give you updates when we see fit. Development is a slow and steady process, have patience.

I am extremely hyped and want nothing more than to support the community with streams, development update news, or any other sort of additional content. Is this allowed? 
There are set regulations for streaming and updates during the game's current stage. If you are eligible of streaming, your forums should show you rules and guidelines. Any community-made updates, streams, and other similar content will have to be approved by the team first, and will have to clearly state that any information provided is unofficial, fan-made and not necessarily true whatsoever. Please inform us of what you are planning in a PM or thread in the Suggestions forum.

Can I have my name changed?
Due to the nature of our program, account management and game moderation, there is a chance that changing your name may not be possible once open beta starts. In order to change your name now, please send me a private message and I'll get your name changed lickety split!

The forums seem rather dead/inactive. What's wrong?
We check the forums on a regular basis and there are some threads popping up every now and then. However, a lot of topics have already been discussed in the past few years, so there is quite the lack of original content while the game is in development. Additionally, the majority of the forum activity has moved over to our Discord channel, which can be found here: https://discord.gg/0y3WGMGXhd5q2lXA

I have another question about the forums
Please read through the Global Forum Rules ( http://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/topic/460-global-forum-rules/ ), most of your questions will most likely be answered there. Mind that the forum rules may apply to all platforms under our name