Community Update - April 2023

[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!

• Huge Announcement

Today, we have a very special surprise for you! Many have requested Skylords to be available on other platforms besides PC. After years of hard work, we are super excited to bring Skylords to the palm of your hand!

Spoiler

   
Placeholder box art

That's right! Dust off your Game Boys because Skylords Reborn is coming to handheld! We've been working hard on this secret project and are excited to share our progress. Development is progressing nicely, and we even already have an internal Alpha build circulating on an actual cartridge. 

Prototype cartridge

Maps are playable in both single-player and multiplayer modes using the link cable, and players can trade cards with each other. We're also actively working on crossplay compatibility, but we can't make any promises just yet!

Alpha screenshot

Adapting the controls of an RTS like Skylords Reborn to the limited buttons of a Game Boy can be a challenging task. However, due to the overwhelming demand, we took on the challenge and are thrilled to share the end result with you - we think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Meanwhile, Ultralord has been working tirelessly on reworking the classic soundtrack, and you can already listen to the reworked main theme here:

We hope you are looking forward to the next chapter for Skylords Reborn!

 

• Upcoming Lost Souls Changes

Recently, we shared our Stonekin Deep Dive, giving you a sneak peek at the changes coming to the faction. It is only fitting for the Lost Souls faction to mess with the timeline, resulting in their balance changes actually releasing before our Stonekin rework.

Over the past few months, we have been hard at work on the Lost Souls faction, tackling many of their issues and finding design space to improve the feel of the faction as a whole. 

We have enlisted the help of @Volin and @T1421 (Ultralord) to give you an overview video of some of the changes coming to the faction. Please take a look!

We hope you are excited about these changes! Here are some of the concrete changes coming to the faction:

Lost Banestone - Lost Banestone is receiving one of the largest reworks. The building's aura have been reworked and now indefinitely extend the lifespan of friendly revenant's in a 30m radius. This makes it ideal for turning your leftover T2 units into a free defensive force. Additionally, its ability no longer prevents enemy spawns. It now damages a target enemy, and if that enemy dies during the duration, a Lost Shade revenant spawns out of its remains under the player's control. This allows Banestone to slowly grow its revenant defensive force over time. 

 

Lost Warlord - Lost Warlord's Onslaught ability and affinities have received major changes. Onslaught no longer teleports Lost Warlord. Instead, it spawns a revenant of Lost Warlord within a 40m radius. Additionally, the Fire affinity now provides all revenants spawned from Lost Warlord a +50% damage bonus, while the Frost affinity provides the unit's revenants a strong 3000 strength Ice Shield that refreshes every 25 seconds. 

 

Lost Spirit Ship - Lost Spirit Ship has received a number of changes to its stats, alongside a cost reduction to 230p. Most importantly, its Recycling ability is now capable of working on revenants and buildings. This synergizes strongly with revenant generating abilities such as Lost Warlord's new Onslaught ability, as well as Lost Banestone and Lost Evocation. These changes will help Lost Spirit Ship to better fulfil its role as a hybrid damage dealer and supporter in pure Lost Souls decks, while remaining useful on its own. 

 

Ethereal Storm - In its unchanged state, Ethereal Storm remains one of the worst cards in the game with poor payoff, high requirements, and bug-riddled functionality. We are reducing the spell's requirements so that only one revenant is required in the area to achieve its full effect, doubling its charges from 8 to 16, and reducing the power costs. The spell's damage has also been substantially buffed to 100 damage/sec with new affinity effects. The Fire affinity causes enemies to receive 20% more damage, while the Frost affinity removes the damage reduction from frozen enemies in the area. 

 

General Changes - In addition to these major reworks, we have several other buffs. Lost Priest's debuff has been increased, and it can now affect up to 10 targets with a larger cast range. Revenant's Blessing has received numerous buffs, including to its radius, affinity effects, and charges. Lost Evocation's Fire affinity now increases allied unit damage by +100%, up from +50%. Finally, the power cost of Revenant's Doom now scales by tier. The ability now costs 75% of the power cost of Tier 2 units, 65% of the power cost of Tier 3 units, and only 50% of the power cost of Tier 4 units.

Envisioned Playstyles:

Tier 2: Lost Shades will be the primary PvE unit, which will be supported by buffs to Lost Priest and Revenant's Blessing.

Tier 3: Lost Banestone will allow the player to maintain their revenant army of Lost Shades from as a static defensive army, as well as replace losses through its new Underworld Gate ability. For easy maps, players can continue with their army of Lost Shades, but otherwise they can transition into using Lost Horrors like currently. Ethereal Storm is being buffed to work with only 1 Revenant and will provide a good AoE damage spell which is currently lacking in Lost Souls. The red affinity will amplify damage, while the blue affinity will allow the player to bypass freeze's damage reduction.

Tier 4: Lost Evocation(r) will be buffed to enable the unit-based damage playstyle of Lost Souls while the blue affinity will continue to provide strong sustain through damage reduction. Evocation and Lost Warlord's new ability will be able to be combined with Lost Spirit Ship, which can now recycle Revenants as well as buildings. This gives the player the choice between extending Revenant lifetimes or utilizing their remaining life points as fodder for LSS's Crystal ability. Lost Dragon will be useful as a support unit. We are also working to add @UltDragon's Lost Obelisk card from the card creation contest into the game, more on that later!

 

• New Card Reveal: Sleet Storm

While we have shifted our focus to map-related content, there are still new cards in development, one of which we can reveal today! Take a look at the upcoming new card Sleet Storm.

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

 

Sleet Storm is a new tier 3 frost spell that can fit into multiple decks, requiring only 1 frost orb. The card will be Uncommon and will not have different affinities. The effect is as follows: 

Heavy Rain
Covers an area of 15m radius in freezing rain that fetters enemies to the ground. Enemy ground units which stay in the area for 5 seconds are rooted for 15 seconds, while flying units are enchained to the ground and can no longer move. Ground units will be able to attack it while it is bound. After the effect ends, targets are immune to root and Gravity Surge respectively for 10 seconds. Lasts for 10 seconds. Reusable every 20 seconds.

While our changes to Pure Frost over a year ago have proven to be a success, one of the persistent issues we have faced is making it worthwhile to invest in only one or two Frost orbs. This card is intended to provide a reason for players to splash into a single Frost orb in exchange for receiving access to an area of effect Gravity Surge spell. In order to make the card effective even in cases where enemy flies might be lacking, we also attached a rooting effect for ground units. The effect itself synergizes perfectly with Frost's Construct, which also only requires one Frost orb. Overall, this card should provide a boost to archetypes which struggle with flying units, even ground melee decks which we have been trying to improve for more general usage in PvE.

Sleet Storm is planned to release in our next patch. 

 

• Art Spotlight: Sleet Storm 

For the artwork of Sleet Storm, we used ArtRhino's old wallpaper as a base. You can see his wallpaper for Cold Snap below.

To utilize this base, our artist @Tweeto first aligned it in a 1:1 ratio required for card artwork. Then, he auto-filled the empty areas, corrected the colours, added hue shifts in the background, and multiple missiles to accurately depict raining, more in line with the spell's description. (1)

Afterward, Tweeto added more details to the foreground by covering it with Smokey Snow (2).

   

Although we liked the direction it was taking, there were still some aspects to address. Version 2 depicted the units completely frozen, which was not entirely accurate. Also, it was not clear enough that it was raining in the artwork, rather showing the impact of a spell in the distance. To address these issues, Tweeto made some additional changes, resulting in version 3. Here, only the legs of the units were frozen, indicating that the affected units could still fight.

However, the artwork still did not adequately depict the effect of the spell on flying units, a crucial element of the spell. With Gravity Surge already depicting a dragon being pulled to the ground, we thought it would be interesting to show a different model falling to its presumed doom. The final artwork version shows Spitfire caught in the rain.

 

• Tournaments / 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!

 FINISHED  – The Stonekin Hunt
Over a year has passed since the successful bandit hunt. This time, players had to fight the Stonekin faction. The results are in: check out the winner reveal stream, hosted by Ultralord and Volin: More information.

 

  COMING SOON - Official Event: Easter Hunt – 08.04.2023 until 16.04.2023
An Easter Egg has been stolen, and only the legendary Easter Bunny can return the missing pieces. Will you come to his aid? Maybe there will be a reward! More information soon!

 

COMING SOON - Through Ice and Flames - 21.04.2023 until 14.05.2023
We bring to you not one but TWO new community maps courtesy of @Damo and @Hrdina_Imperia! Look out for this three week event starting later this month.

 

• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event yourself? Please reach out to our Event Organizers, @Metagross31, @Minashigo Hiko, or @nukie! 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.

 

• Team Changes

We are happy to announce two new members joining our team. After they contributed so much to the game already, we decided to create a proper staff role for both @Titan and @CrazyCockerell, who have joind our team as Tech-Artist! 

Both will help us out with spell animations, adjustments to models, and other visuals that come with adding and changing cards. You will already have seen some of their work in action, f.e. Wasteland Terror (CrazyCockerell) and the raven effect from the ability of Raven Archwalker (Titan). We are looking forward to their creations!

 

• Contribute

We have made a name change to one of our critical roles in the project. We noticed a lot of people were not applying for the role of Balance Developer because they thought they had to have development experience, which is not the case. Additionally, players thought balance developers are the ones who adjust the balance of the game. While that is technically true, because they are the ones who adjust the card values for implementation, the Game Designers are the ones who make the actual balance decisions. To more clearly communicate what the role is about, we have changed it to "Card Implementer". 

As a Card Implementer, you will be able to help out Skylords Reborn by making the needed adjustments to cards, either for balance purposes or completely new cards. This is a very important role that can really make a difference in our patching schedule, so if you are interested, please check out the position. 

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fuelled by the passion and dedication of over 30 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 take a look at our open positions!
 

• Newsletter

While we aim to keep our community in the loop with monthly news through our Community Updates, we understand that sometimes these updates might not reach you. That's why we offer a newsletter that will notify you when a new patch or update is released. Don't worry, we respect your privacy and promise not to send spam or use your data in any other way. Click here to sign up.

 

 

If you provided your email address during our summer survey to stay up to date, then you are automatically subscribed to our newsletter. We recently sent out our first newsletter, which announced the release of our latest patch.

• 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: SKYL-ORDS-HAND-HELD

The code is valid until May 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.

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update March 2023

[Deadman]

Cool

[Majora]

Something tells me Ultralord is not going to like this new card.
"Spitfire, crashing down"

[Ultralord]

15 minutes ago, Majora said:

Something tells me Ultralord is not going to like this new card.
"Spitfire, crashing down"

haha was reading the CU, scrolling down to to defend my Spitfire and realized Majora was saw that coming 🤣

Still a very interesting card - cant wait to test this on flyer heavy maps.
And really like the LS changes

[JarodDempsey]

lol finally i have a reason to dust off the original gameboy i bought 10 years ago 

hmm most changes i was already aware of, warlord and banestone seem very solid.

any chance warlord could get 6k hp for lss synergy?

overall changes seems good for ls, main ones im worried about are lss and lost priest bc they really need to be strong to facilitate sustain

 

also i like the new frost card the artwork looks really cool but the effect is idk. Considering how unreliable gravity surge is (it doesnt work if no viable ground is below the flyer) and that theres a 5 second delay i def dont see it being a better counter than frost shard for stuff like multiple windhunters but maybe it will make earthbound strats and stuff like construct or spore launcher or weagles more viable

Edited April 1, 2023 by JarodDempsey

[Metagross31]

[Saintsix]

havent played the game since i had it on disc back in the day.

Today, i rejoin the skyforge.

[Kapo]

18 minutes ago, JarodDempsey said:

lol finally i have a reason to dust off the original gameboy i bought 10 years ago 

I never had one, time for some ebay deep dive

[Quivun]

Lore- and Map- wise, are the plans to introduce community maps that are fleshed out enough to be added to the campaign map pool (Separate from flavor of the month community map additions)? (Sorry, it's likely this question has been asked before year+ ago but I couldn't seem to find the answer for it).

[Majora]

12 minutes ago, Kapo said:

I never had one, time for some ebay deep dive

Deep Dive 😉 

5 minutes ago, Quivun said:

Lore- and Map- wise, are the plans to introduce community maps that are fleshed out enough to be added to the campaign map pool (Separate from flavor of the month community map additions)? (Sorry, it's likely this question has been asked before year+ ago but I couldn't seem to find the answer for it).

There are currently no plans to make Community Maps part of the actual campaign, though new campaign maps are in the works. Additionally, the Community Map overhaul (see Community Update March) should make it a lot easier to find good Community Maps. 

[WatcherOfSky]

Amazing how much progress can be made in one month. Really love that every month has a handful of cool stuff to look forward to!

[Raxaaa]

joke for the 1st, of april? who has a game boy still? i thought you aren´t allowed to make money with the game. where are the casettes for the game boy to get from?

 

 

[Kapo]

18 minutes ago, Raxaaa said:

who has a game boy still? i thought you aren´t allowed to make money with the game. where are the casettes for the game boy to get from?

You can make cartridges yourself, so probably it comes as a download you load into the PROM of the cartridge and you print out a sticker to make it look cool

no need for money to make this finally happen, so lets celebrate 🙌🎊

[Hrdina_Imperia]

Lovely stuff, really hyped up for the Lost Souls rework, and new card as well! 

Not to mention, that art looks absolutely amazing.

Edited April 1, 2023 by Hrdina_Imperia

[Volin]

1 hour ago, Raxaaa said:

who has a game boy still?

guilty

[Dutchy]

1 hour ago, Raxaaa said:

who has a game boy still

Never had one, first game thing I had was a GameCube followed quickly by DS Lite

[Raxaaa]

of course this would great, but still i think they wanna send us to april

😛

 

edit: i am not a permanent hater... my english is bad. i write in forum or chat only when i wished me other things.

and i often wish me other things. but i never thought that my wishes are the best for the game an the hole community.

also i love many things, as every new content since the project take control over the game.

all in all i am so happy to get this game back in this great form. 🙂

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Raxaaa

[Metagross31]

Oh boy, here we go 🙂

[DDrazard]

Nice job! As always, I am please with all those changes. ^^

[Kapo]

I think we should have different editions like in the original Pokemon, where some cards are locked and you have to exchange them with the cable.

As a suggestion for the devs 😃

[GrubaSrb]

I see that many here have caught on to the game-boy. First april effect.:D Well done for Lost Soul. Keep up the good work guys!!! 💪🤩

[Majora]

We hope it was obvious the first announcement about a GameBoy release was an April Fools' joke. 😉 Everything else in the CU is true however!

[Loriens]

On 4/1/2023 at 8:28 PM, GrubaSrb said:

I see that many here have caught on to the game-boy. First april effect.:D Well done for Lost Soul. Keep up the good work guys!!! 💪🤩

Actually, it was LS joke, Game Boy is defintely real part. 

[arcadia171e]

Seems like a massive nerf to banestone... this will break and make useless many speed and solo mission strategies.

[Kapo]

26 minutes ago, arcadia171e said:

Seems like a massive nerf to banestone... this will break and make useless many speed and solo mission strategies.

I'm not a game designer, but it's a safe bet that removing this one-click kind of spawn trapping was done intentional.