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Community Update #21 - April 2nd 2022


Majora

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Greetings Skylords!

Every three weeks, we give an update on the things going on behind the scenes of Skylords Reborn. Welcome to another Community Update!

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 Nature Deep Dive
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After Frost and Bandits, it is now time for a Deep Dive into one of the more popular factions among (new) players: Nature. In this Deep Dive we will look into the faction's strengths, weaknesses and upcoming changes. You can expect more incentive to play pure Nature, adjustments to the root network, important changes to cards like Abyssal Warder and Forest Elder and a sneak peek into two upcoming Nature cards. We are currently testing the changes, and you can expect most of these changes to hit the live server with our next content patch. 

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We have also opened up multiple forum posts about the proposed changes. 

From the beginning of the project, community involvement has been, and continues to be, important to us. We have thus decided to institute a change in the structure of our balance discussions. Going forward, balance discussions will be transitioning from discord to the forums with the hope of facilitating better discussion and involving more people.

 

 Introducing Skylords Bounty: Seasonal Forge
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We are aware there are quite a few players who want to contribute to Skylords Reborn, but don't have the time or motivation to fully apply as a team member. Today we introduce an alternative: Skylords Bounty! 

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A Skylords Bounty is a task for the community to create something needed in one of the departments of Skylords Reborn. If your entry gets chosen, you can win a great prize; in this case a Promo Razorleaf! Even if your entry is not chosen, everyone who applies with a serious attempt will earn a participation reward.

For our first Skylords Bounty, we have selected the task to help us create the next Seasonal Forge. During our December update, we gave the Forge a snowy look. We are now looking to give the Forge a spring make-over. This is your chance to get your work into the game!

Please check out
this forum post for more information and a short tutorial video on how to create a Forge. We hope we can count on your contributions! 

 

 Mana Wing Promo
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It is time to reveal our latest promo! A few months ago players were able to vote for their favorite card to get the promo treatment, and Mana Wing was the clear winner. Joining Snapjaws, here is the second Skylords Reborn promo: 

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A huge thanks to everyone involved. From artwork to model adjustments and special effects, multiple people spent weeks on getting everything just right. The wings have a shining glow, and as icing on the cake there are also golden dots when the unit is flying around. We are very proud of the result, and hope you will like it as well!

We will reveal how you can get your hands on this promo in the next community update, so stay tuned for that!

 

 Artwork
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The artwork behind the promo was a team effort from three talented artists. The starting point was the Mana Wing wallpaper from ArtRhino. A great piece of art, but it shares the same colors as the original Mana Wing. To give it that promo feel it thus needed some changes. Our two artists, Spirit Alpha and Tweeto, then worked together to create a new look and color palette for our feathery friend.  

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 Survey: Events
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Once again, we would like some feedback on our events. What do you like about them? Which ones were your favorite? And most importantly: Why? 

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We use this information to provide better events for you, so please take a few minutes to complete the survey. If you have never joined one of our events, please let us know in the survey why that is the case. Thanks a lot in advance!


 Tournaments / Events
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You will now also be able to find the events on our Forum Calendar! We hope this will make it easier to keep track of them, and tease future events in advance! 

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• NEW - PvP League - Register now
The PvP League has been a project long in the making, but sign-ups are finally open! 
The league will consist of small groups (divisions) of about 8 players who will fight each other, one opponent per week. A season ends when everyone played everyone in the group. Players should be roughly equal in skill level and can move up or down in groups depending on their results. This makes the league a perfect place to play PvP; both for new and experienced players! More information and sign-up.


• NEW - Official PvE Contest#5: They See Me Walkin', They Hatin' - Until 14.04.2022
For this challenge, we want to see you succeed in playing the map Convoy on Advanced difficulty while using pure colored decks.
Depending on what color deck you use, you will be able to get different rewards. If you want to increase the challenge, you can also try to tackle the map on your own or on expert difficulty for some bonus rewards.
More information and sign-up. 


• FINISHED -  Official 1 Player  rPvE Contest#3 The Minimalistic Firewatch
This event was very popular; we received exactly 120 different replays! In this event, people had to beat the map of the month on difficulty 7 but with an interesting twist: use as few cards as possible! Check out the results here


• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers Hiko and/or Metagross to have your event prizes sponsored by us. 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. 

 

 Team Changes
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Welcome aodpi! He's our new Tool Developer. He will create and improve various tools which aim to optimize the user experience and also speed up the internal development process. He is currently helping out with our new updater. 

We also have a new webdeveloper: nkmol! He is mostly helping back-end wise for the web interface. Welcome, and thank you for your contribution!

We are always looking for more help and support for the project. Please look over our open positions and apply if you see a role you like! We have multiple positions open, from development to audio or visual editors.  

 

 In Conclusion
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And that's it for this Community Update, thanks for reading! 

As is tradition, this community update comes with a scratch code. 
The code will reward you with a nature-booster: 
DEEP-DIVE-MANA-WING

The code is valid until April 23rd, when we will bring you another Community Update. 

As always, we are open to feedback, so please let us know if you have any questions, suggestions or comments! 

 

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Archive
Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
Overview Community Updates
Community Update #20

Nature_Deep_Dive.pdf

 

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Liking the Deep Dive for the most part, slightly concerned with the Forest Elder rebalance in particular, but loving the Mana Wing.

iirc Green Forest Elder's buff competes with Wheel's attack buff, but enemy debuff stacks with your buff, which would make purple + grove spirit significantly more powerful. I could be wrong.

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4 hours ago, Chronopie said:

Liking the Deep Dive for the most part, slightly concerned with the Forest Elder rebalance in particular, but loving the Mana Wing.

iirc Green Forest Elder's buff competes with Wheel's attack buff, but enemy debuff stacks with your buff, which would make purple + grove spirit significantly more powerful. I could be wrong.

Glad to hear it! Please feel free to share your concerns regarding Forest Elder in this topic:

 

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Strongly disagree with the Forest Elder (g) change.

You mention in the deep dive that Green lacks potent burst damage, particularly against structures. 
One of the very few tools at Green's disposal Is/was Forest Elder (g)'s damage buff, to allow the army to be that little bit stronger against buildings (and units)

I have been saying quietly amonsgt my group of friends but not in forums or such that green needed a mobile breeding grounds (Like how fire has wrecker, for the rallying banner)
So I am excited to see that yet again more of my quiet ideas are being implemented but I am concerned about what is being taken away to make room for that.

I feel like there is definitely room to have new Green spells added. Like a "Rampant growth" which would effectively operate the same as Fire's suppression. Where vines disable a building from functioning for X a time.

I also feel like Forest Elder, Grimvine Or even colossus could have received a tweak to give them stampede. Because, as mentioned in the deep dive. Pure nature has nothing to deal with buildings by themselves. You're either splashing it with Frost to be Stonekin have Matter mastery or you're splashing it with fire to be Twilight to have sunstriders' suppression, the suppresion spell, Juggernaut's stampede and Earthshaker.

If you splash shadow AND fire, you get bloodhorn too, but then, you're really playing bandit with a splash of nature, which is exactly what we're concerned about in the deep dive. If you want to give nature some independance to make pure nature more viable, focusing on buffing root and nerfing their coolest things isn't the way to go about it. Because Root isn't viable or practical in many situations.

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1 hour ago, Cocofang said:

@JarodDempsey There is text under the picture.

@Ragenarok Nothing is being taken away from Forest Elder G. The Breeding Grounds aura is a new, additional passive that both affinities get. The old damage amp aura stays for G.

That's quite a relief to hear nothing is being taken away from Forest Elder.

I still maintain that an XL pure nature unit needs stampede

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First really love the new nature deep dive, looking forward to have all the changes and finally be able to have us to all that cool designed Nature cards.

 

I personally like the idea with grove spirit and sanctuary mich more then the the idea with having a second "infect" playstyle Card. 

It would make nature much more special and I would lobe to have a use for grove spirit (now it's like kind of wasted Potential card ).

 

One question to forest elder (g) does the attack buff stack with wheels of gift, Rogan or home soil ?

If not the forest elder (p) feels way more usefully now .

And can I stack then the damage of a root network unit with Rogan (25)+ promo (25), wheels (20)and Forster elder (25) and forest vim (p) (50%) => 145 % damage bonus.

I think that would be extrem strong for the new spore launcher with (+8 support ) .

 

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18 hours ago, Ragenarok said:

I feel like there is definitely room to have new Green spells added. Like a "Rampant growth" which would effectively operate the same as Fire's suppression. Where vines disable a building from functioning for X a time.

I also feel like Forest Elder, Grimvine Or even colossus could have received a tweak to give them stampede. Because, as mentioned in the deep dive. Pure nature has nothing to deal with buildings by themselves. You're either splashing it with Frost to be Stonekin have Matter mastery or you're splashing it with fire to be Twilight to have sunstriders' suppression, the suppresion spell, Juggernaut's stampede and Earthshaker.

I think we could create a thematically appropriate Nature Suppression, a Nature Earthshaker, even a Nature Shatter Ice/Frost Shard combo where you paralyze a target then "shatter" it. The question though is, should we do this? As we mentioned in the Deep Dive in the "T4: Nature Army Deck" section, we think giving Nature mechanically identical options to deal with its weaknesses would be a mistake. I think we enter dangerous territory very quickly by blurring the lines between factions and intermingling their mechanics. We could easily end up with a game where the player is playing functionally the same deck, just with a different color and different styles of aesthetics. Our idea with thematic design though is not just that the spell feels externally like it could be a Nature spell, but that it is internally a Nature spell.

I think you have rightfully identified that a player right now purposefully dips into various other factions to get access to their unique mechanics to cover Nature's weaknesses. But I do not think this means that we should add these mechanics to Nature itself. What then would be the difference between the decks? The answer, I think, is to create new mechanics which are particularly and uniquely Nature's. Given the major issues Nature faces, this will be difficult to achieve. Yet, I firmly believe the game as a whole will be substantially richer if we spend the time and effort to make each faction a truly unique experience.

35 minutes ago, Wallbreaker said:

One question to forest elder (g) does the attack buff stack with wheels of gift, Rogan or home soil ?

If not the forest elder (p) feels way more usefully now .

And can I stack then the damage of a root network unit with Rogan (25)+ promo (25), wheels (20)and Forster elder (25) and forest vim (p) (50%) => 145 % damage bonus.

I think that would be extrem strong for the new spore launcher with (+8 support ) .

The rule is: Internal buffs (including counter) stack, but external buffs do not. The strongest external buff applies.

The exception is Unholy Power because it is a different mechanic entirely. Unholy Power uses the strength/ammo mechanic that is also used for Dreadcharger and Death Ray. Unlike these two cards, Unholy Power does not show its strength gauge. Whenever the unit deals an additional 1 point of damage (or takes 1 point less damage) it consumes 1 strength/ammo from Unholy Power's initial pool of 2000. When the pool reaches zero, Unholy Power ceases to buff the unit but the effect remains as if it still were.

So Forest Elder's damage buff does not stack with Rogan's or Wheel's buff. Wheel of Gifts is actually quite inefficient as a card because its damage amplification is so small that it is easily overridden. The nice thing about Forest Elder(g)'s buff is that it works against buildings while purple affinity's damage does not (because buildings cannot be paralyzed). We are still monitoring the card's current strength to make buffs either to one or both of its aura effects.

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Related to the Nature Deep Dive: very good and well thought-through changes. Except for the Sylvan Gate, the Heal support from the gate was the one thing that made it somewhat useful (the heal was significant enough to keep the front unit alive, for longer). Yes it sucked that it takes the support, but maybe that was worth it? And the red affinity is useful. It is a Rare building, but you made it do even less... What does it actually do now, what is its purpose, why does it even exist (considering other cards), and why would I want it in my deck? Maybe give it a passive heal inside its range (like Root Nexus)? The Tunnel is more a bonus, it is not the reason to build that Gate in the first place. Also the blue affinity is kindof underwhelming, especially now with the 100m range.

Regarding the Root Network: it is very unclear how the support/battery works (mainly due to lacking info / statistics). The passive ability Linked Fire says, up to X entities connected, which now makes it more complicated with the Thornbark (it now being the only entity in the game providing 3 support; all cards now need to state the amount of support they provide). If your network provides 18 support/battery in total (18 connected entities), does that mean 3 front line units with passive Linked Fire of 6 all do max damage simultaneously? Or is the extra support just not used and thus lost/wasted? Does it actually matter if its only 1 supported unit attacking, or if multiple units attack?

I would also like to see a preview of the root connection range (when hovering the Root ability), maybe a connection preview graphic that it is or isn't in range of the closest rooted entity. Or maybe as simple as Root Nexus and Sylvan Gate, they have the dotted circle, showing its range of effect. It just sucks so spawn something and that you then have to trial-and-error to find its maximum connection location. Maybe also somehow display by how many entities a building/unit is currently supported?

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1 hour ago, EinsteinV said:

I would also like to see a preview of the root connection range (when hovering the Root ability), maybe a connection preview graphic that it is or isn't in range of the closest rooted entity. Or maybe as simple as Root Nexus and Sylvan Gate, they have the dotted circle, showing its range of effect. It just sucks so spawn something and that you then have to trial-and-error to find its maximum connection location. Maybe also somehow display by how many entities a building/unit is currently supported?

And I would like to see the source code of the game, but unfortunately I think both of us are out of luck 😞

"they have the dotted circle, showing its range of effect" that is not correct 😞 the circle is different size, than the range of the effect 😞

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@EinsteinV

  • all cards now need to state the amount of support they provide

They don't because if a player was to read Thornbarks description and it specifically mentions that it gives 3 support while cards like Root Nexus specifically state that they provide none, then the logical conclusion is that the normal must be 1 support. How the support amount functions by default can be deducted by reading the exceptions.

  • If your network provides 18 support/battery in total (18 connected entities), does that mean 3 front line units with passive Linked Fire of 6 all do max damage simultaneously?

Not if the 3 front liners are active. While active they provide no support, so they each get 5 support each from the remaining 15 idle entities.

  • Does it actually matter if its only 1 supported unit attacking, or if multiple units attack?

Only idle entities provide support. Active entities (usually means attacking but in case of Sylvan Gate also the heal) draw support but provide none.

  • What does it actually do now, what is its purpose, why does it even exist (considering other cards), and why would I want it in my deck?

Because you can quickly build up a network over enormous distances. It's a 100m radius and has Tunnel access, so it's mobility and area coverage for a previously very static and local mechanic.

  • Yes it sucked that it takes the support, but maybe that was worth it?

Sucking away support means none is left for the entity that is supposed to attack. Which means it will kill attackers slower and take more damage. Unless you commit to 6 more battery entities just to compensate for Sylvan Gate. Why was that heal so important in a faction that has an abundance of heals and heal buildings?

Also note that a card can only have 4 effects listed on it. Heal, Repeater, Infused/Tainted Support, Tunnel, Accelerated Construction is 5. The lowest priority has to go and Tunnel is kinda locked in, as it is integral to the visual design to the card.

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I think it help a lot if there was some indication of what the root support is providing. The linked fire on Treespirit says faster fire rate (which I personally find it harder to measure what is the effect of each additional root support). Others like Spikeroot says more powerful and that isn't too bad to measure in forge. Still would be nice if we could see all that info somewhere instead of players having to measure/calculate it or maybe look it up on web somewhere. Also it would be super nice if say I could click on unit and as it is firing, it says how much root support it was able to draw for that shot (like how we can see the active effects of other things); might be tough to see for super fast fire rates...

 

47 minutes ago, Cocofang said:

Unless you commit to 6 more battery entities just to compensate for Sylvan Gate.

One thing I used to do (I haven't because I got other upgrade prioritizes nowadays) was take Razorleaf, Root Nexus, and Sylvan Gate and use it for tunnel, heal, and support (this is definitely not a very good way to use power as you got spend like ~1.6x power of Living Tower/wait for T3 but it was just for fun and fitting tons of things into a deck as a noob/toying around with all the power Juice Tank allows you to have).

 

57 minutes ago, Cocofang said:

Tunnel is kinda locked in, as it is integral to the visual design to the card.

I agree with that part. Do we really need it to be a tunnel? Not really but just look at the card/in game model...

 

I do think overall the new/proposed Sylvan Gate will be more useful than the current.

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Stacking buff/debuff icons are not possible right now. For icons it's either "on or off" but not "how much/many".

Also, the rule of thumb is this: Buildings and Onion-units attack faster from support. For everything else, it's a damage multiplier. So one Spore Launcher with one support has the same damage output as two Spore Launchers and so on.

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That's too bad... Ideally all final numbers (not just root network) would be visible somewhere but it definitely would be more of a nice to have. I guess I'm more used games displaying stats with buff/debuffs/etc in effect.

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12 hours ago, Lans said:

 I guess I'm more used games displaying stats with buff/debuffs/etc in effect.

We are greatly limited by the lack of a source code, so some suggestions, while great, are hard or impossible for us to implement. For example, we cant show a number of how many times Mutating Frenzy has been activated, which obviously would be a nice thing to display. 

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  • Majora unpinned and unfeatured this topic

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