Anyone here play Magic: The Gathering?*Program now avaliable

[Destructionator XV]

Do you know how many folders are marked 'Windows" on a computer running Windows XP?!

I realise this now. Next update I will change the name to something sensible... like cardgame sounds good.

I will probably have another update as early as tomorrow, so stay tuned.

I also just played my first successful game with the program. I can see a few things that need improvement, will work on them, but it was pretty easy to use.

[LadyTevar]

I've found a problem:
If you accidentally add a card to your deck, there's no way to get rid of the damn thing.

Otherwise, my first deck is built. Now how do I clear the deck screen to create a new one?

[Destructionator XV]

Tuesday. (actually probably tomorrow)

Until then, save your deck with the menu option, then close and reopen the program.

The decks are saved as text files, one card per line, so you should be safe simply deleting any extra lines from the saved file in notepad.

[Destructionator XV]

Well, I am going tonight but here is my to-do list of coding tomorrow:

Add a way to clear the deck list (a menu option should be simple enough)

Add a way to remove a card from the deck list (double clicking on the card name?)

I found a bug while playing where it had a hard time searching my library late game, will fix this.

Will make the game window close gracefully if the connection is broken mid game instead of crashing like it does now.

I hear the Windows version doesn't have a title bar on the game window. Will check and fix this if that is correct.

Putting a card back on your deck doesnt seem to be working, will fix that.

Lower priority things to add:

Full search dialog box to make finding cards easier.

Current prices for the cards.

The ability to untap a stack of cards in a single click (ctrl + click erhaps?

Way to draw an X on the map (spacebar probably)

A hot key to tell the other player your turn is over (probably G)
Tokens and counters for in game.

Maybe a central server for games. Instead of connecting to peer's computers, just connect to my computer which will set you up with another player. This will be easier to manage with firewalls too.




If anyone using it has any ideas on what you want to see done first, just speak up and tell me what priority it is. I might be able to get alot of things done tomorrow alone.

[B4UTRUST]

we could possibly set it up to connect to our LA server.

Card prices, if we're not paying for the cards, aren't really neccessary

Counter and tokens are a must...

Have a clickable button to advance the seven phases of the turn:
(Draw, Upkeep, Untap, Main, Combat, Main 2, Discard) This would allow you to not have to worry about what phase you're in. The only problem I foresee with this is unless you can get the program to intelligently read the cards to pick up rules from them it'll have to be an honor system type deal. Like some of the old lockdown decks use cards to prevent your opponent from having an untap phase. Or picking up from the cards Upkeep 1GG. But this would allow your opponent to automatically take control once the turn is over and would make it so you didn't have to tell your opponent every time you were done with your turn. You click the last advance phase button and it automatically ends your turn.

A full search for the cards would definatly be nice but since we're all playing online we can just look for the cards in your database. And most of us already have a fair idea of what type of decks we want...

[Destructionator XV]

Version 0.1.1 is out

Download it here.

This update is only the exe file! You must have downloaded the first version first!

To install the update: copy the zip file into the bin folder of your old program, right next to cardgame.exe.
Unzip the file. It should overwrite the old cardgame.exe with the new one. Then simply run it.

To ensure you are running the new version, just look for the search menu up top. If you see it, the update was successful.

Here is the list of enhancements for this version:

• You can now remove a card from your deck list by double clicking on it.
• You can clear your decklist by clicking Deck -> New.
• You can count your deck list by clicking Deck->count.
• Cleaned up a memory deallocation error.
• Made menu skeleton for advanced searches.
• Implemented a simple filter. It currently works, but is rather slow. Just give it a few seconds.
• Added a search->reset option to reset the main list. This will be needed if you want to turn off the filters.
• You can manually type search strings with the Execute search string function. Search strings are a command line search feature I made up as I went.
  You probably will have no use for this until I finish the search dialog box.
• In game enhancements
• You can put a card back on top of your library.
• Your opponent's deck now appears as it should.
• Your opponent's graveyard is no longer obscured.
• Experimental: Ctrl+Right Click will now tap or untap an entire stack of cards. This still seems buggy though.
• Fixed a problem where if you closed the main window before the game window, the application would never free its memory.

[LadyTevar]

Fuckfuckfuckfuck!!

I just uploaded your new patch, and now I can't find the deck I'd saved with the Original, not even using my FileSearch.

[Destructionator XV]

My error again.

When you save as, it did not automatically add the .txt extension to the filename.

Look in C:\Documents And Settings\your_username\

For the file. But remember, it probably has no file extension, so it will just have a generic icon.

When you use file->open with the program, change it to view All files instead of the default *.txt option and you will see it.

I'll fix this with the next release.

[LadyTevar]

My error again.

When you save as, it did not automatically add the .txt extension to the filename.

Look in C:\Documents And Settings\your_username\

For the file. But remember, it probably has no file extension, so it will just have a generic icon.

When you use file->open with the program, change it to view All files instead of the default *.txt option and you will see it.

I'll fix this with the next release.

Found it. Moved it to the Folder with the Game itself.

[Destructionator XV]

Two problems found for Windows 98 users:

1) Downloading files that aren't on my server seems to crash the program.

2) When you try to play a network game, it will say it connected, but no data seems to be actually transmitted nor received.

Probably both related, but I will need to get more data to figure out what is wrong, and that might take a little while.


So the bottom line is you can make decks and view cards with Windows 98, but you cannot play games.

The Linux and Windows XP versions are unaffected by this problem.

[Destructionator XV]

Oh wow look at this deck I just built:


Black Lotus x1
Ali from Cairo x1
Mox Ruby x1
Lava Hounds x4
Lava Burst x2
Disintegrate x2
Lightning Bolt x4
Lightning Elemental x4
Ball Lightning x4
Suq'Ata Lancer x4
Volcanic Dragon x3
Volcanic Geyser x3
Fire Diamond x2
Shock x4
Sol Ring x1
Mountain x20


This deck is amazing. I just won 3 straight games with it.

And found a few more bugs in the game code while playing. Now to fix them, but wow, good deck.

[B4UTRUST]

Alright, haven't actually gotten to play the game yet(no one around too) but from going through the program I've seen a few issues.

1) The not saving as .txt. You said you've already seen it and are making changes.

2) Make a way for it to remember the last place it pulled a deck from. By default it's sending me back to C:\Documents and Settings\ which makes me have to either retype the address of the folder I want or navigate through about 20 folders to get to it.

3) While I realize the desire to keep the game screen clean, adding a few labels would be helpful. It will keep me from clicking on things I shouldn't click on yet and erroring out the program.

4) Again, you already are aware of this but I'll list it for the sake of having it: If you click on something without a network being there(not connected to a game) it errors the game out.

5) Duplicate pics folder. I store my decks in a folder in /windows/ marked of course decks. Now my deck has generated a seperate pic folder with all the pics of that deck. Yet when I go into the /bin/ folder there's another pic folder there too containing many of the same pictures. Is this going to happen for all decks?

6) On the deck building/main window you have the close (X) button. On the menu window with your life counter, deck shuffle, deck search, etc. you have the button but on the actual play menu you don't have one. Don't get me wrong it's not huge task to go to my task bar and right click>close but it's just something I noticed as a possible improvement. You could shift the opponent's deck picture over some to make room for it so it didn't interfere with that. It's not like we need our opponents deck to be EXACTLY right corner aligned.

[LadyTevar]

B4 and I just tried to start a game... we're having trouble connecting.

When I start up the program, my firewalls gave me a warning and asked if I wanted to block info from this program. I told it UnBlock. But now, even with me typing in B4's IP, I'm getting a message stating it's unable to connect to peer, there may be a block.

[Destructionator XV]

2) Make a way for it to remember the last place it pulled a deck from. By default it's sending me back to C:\Documents and Settings\ which makes me have to either retype the address of the folder I want or navigate through about 20 folders to get to it.

Yeah, I am going to add a simple config file to it today hopefully so it will remember what folders you prefer to use for decks, etc.

3) While I realize the desire to keep the game screen clean, adding a few labels would be helpful. It will keep me from clicking on things I shouldn't click on yet and erroring out the program.

When I clean up the newtork code, this and your complaint 4 will both be fixed.

Some labels will probably be added though, like life and stuff.

5) Duplicate pics folder. I store my decks in a folder in /windows/ marked of course decks. Now my deck has generated a seperate pic folder with all the pics of that deck. Yet when I go into the /bin/ folder there's another pic folder there too containing many of the same pictures. Is this going to happen for all decks?

As of now, there should be only one pics folder, one folder up from where the exe is located. In the first version though, it would have created an extra pics folder with the cardback image in it.

So there should not be duplicate folders; I'll double check though.

6) On the deck building/main window you have the close (X) button. On the menu window with your life counter, deck shuffle, deck search, etc. you have the button but on the actual play menu you don't have one. Don't get me wrong it's not huge task to go to my task bar and right click>close but it's just something I noticed as a possible improvement.

I actually made a simple error in the code, sticking in a 0 where it should have been 1 telling it about the title bar. This didn't affect the Linux version so I didn't catch it myself.

I've already fixed it in my version, and you will see that fix in the next avaliable download.

B4 and I just tried to start a game... we're having trouble connecting.

When I start up the program, my firewalls gave me a warning and asked if I wanted to block info from this program. I told it UnBlock. But now, even with me typing in B4's IP, I'm getting a message stating it's unable to connect to peer, there may be a block.

I know Scott has a NAT firewall on his network; it is probably blocking incomming traffic on port 5000 on his end.

To do a peer to peer connection, you have to make the connecter can dial out, which is easy, just click allow when the firewall complains, but the player listening has to make sure all connections on port 5000 are allowed to come in.

On linksys routers, there is a section called "Applications and Gaming" that allows you to turn on port forwarding. You will need to forward port 5000 to your computer or just connect your computer direct to the Internet (which often isn't an option.) to be a listener.

In the next day or two, I am hoping to write a dedicated server program that I will run on my computer so none of you will have to worry about the port forwarding issues. But that might take a few days to get working and in the mean time, you both have to make sure your firewalls are configured to work with it.

[B4UTRUST]

Actually I port forwarded 5000 all the way through through both nat firewalls so that shouldn't have affected it.

[Destructionator XV]

Version 0.1.2 out

Download here

Update the same was as with version 0.1.1: unzip it in the bin folder and make sure it overwrites the old cardgame.exe.

Enhancements with this release:

• Now detects if oracle.cdb file cannot be found and attempts other folders.
• Ctrl+Right Click now works reliably to tap or untap a stack of cards.
• If you don't manually add an extension to the file name when saving, it automatically adds the default.
  However, at this time, it will not allow you to save with no extension.
• Fixed an error where it would not tell you what a card in your opponent's graveyard is when you hover over it if it is too high on the screen.
• Now properly supports pictures of split cards.
• Fixed a bug in the picture lookup code.
• It now remembers the last peer to whom you tried to connect and the last folder you opened or saved a deck in.

Things that might anger you:

The dialog box for save as is not the standard Windows dialog box. It looks almost the same and works the same, but be aware that some of the icons will be different.
It is different because I decided to customize how it chose a filename and took the easy way out.
It works perfectly, just looks slightly different.
I will hopefully switch back to the normal Windows dialog next version.


Todo for next version:

EDIT: [*]Added a border and title bar to the game window.
(Thought I got this in this version, but still doesn't work right on Windows XP....)

1) Add hotkeys for faster communication between players.
2) Audit network code for errors and encapsulate it so I can add support for a dedicated server.
3) Write useful help.
4) Ability to move a whole stack of cards at once.
5) Count number of lands in deck
6) Detailed deck summary

Todo for a little more down the line:

1) Add a dedicated server program and a built in chatroom.
2) Allow third players to watch a game.
3) Allow saving of replays of games.
4) Full search capabilities.
5) Tokens and counters

[Destructionator XV]

A Quick FAQ:

In game

• How do I draw a card?
  You drag and drop a card off your deck, which is in the lower left part of the screen.
• Where is my hand?
  Any cards placed directly to the right of your deck is your hand. You can see the cards there, but your opponent can't.
• Why does double clicking a card flip it over?
  This allows you to played morphed creatures and cards like that (see Onslaught set creatures)
• Can I move a whole stack of cards at once?
  Not yet. Next version I want to add control+click to do this.
• How do I shuffle my deck?
  Click 'shuffle deck' in the little window that pops up (usally behind the main game window...)
• Can I put cards back on top of my deck?
  Yup, just drag and drop it onto your deck.
• How do I search my deck, like with cards like Demonic Tutor?
  First, on the little window, click search deck. In the pop up dialog, input the name of the card you want. Then it is on top of your deck, so just draw a card and you have it.
• How can I tell what a card is? The pictures are too small to read.
  Hover your mouse over the card you want to see. The text box on the main window (the one with the lists on it) will be filled in with the text of the card over which you are hovering.
  
  While playing, you might want to hide the deck and main lists (use the View menu and uncheck them) then resize the window so you can see the text box easier.
• How do I tap a card?
  Right click it. If it is already tapped, that will untap it.
• How do I signal the end of my turn?
  You just tell him to go on IM or whatever you have. You can also type messages in the little text box under the life counters, but this sucks right now; AIM is way better.
  
  The program is just supposed to be like the real cards: you can read them, daw them, tap them and move them, but everything else is up to the player. The program doesn't understand the rules or anything like that.
  
  I intend to add a better build in IM system in the next release, including hot keys for common messages like "go" and "attack".
• I can't connect to my opponent.
  First, make sure you have the IP address correct, then make sure your opponent has the program listening (Game -> Begin listen) and has his firewall open to allow incomming connections on port 5000.
  
  If that doens't work, there must be something else blocking it. Double check your network, or wait until I can finish the central server program.

Deck building

• How do I add a card to my deck?
  You double click it's name in the main list.
• How do I take a card out?
  Double click its name in the deck list (the list on the right).
• How do I clear the deck list?
  Click deck-> new on the menu. Make sure you don't click this before saving anything you want though!
• How does the filter option work?
  Click search->filter and it pops up a drop down list of options. Select the option you want to see, and it will filter out everything from the main list except what you selected.
  
  For example, to see all red creatures do these steps:
  
  Click search-> reset to reset the list to all cards.
  Click search -> filter, and select red cards. Now all the list has are red cards.
  Click search -> filter, and select creatures. Now, it shows all creatures that are red.
• Can you give me some examples on how to use the execute search string function?
  Yup. That option allows you to run the cardlist command line search, which is quite powerful, and not too hard.
  
  Here are some useful strings to try:
  
  1="[R]",4
  Displays all rare cards in the game.
  
  1="",4
  Displays all uncommon cards in the game.
  
  4="4",57
  Shows all cards with a power less than or equal to 4.
  
  5="4",58
  Shows all cards with a toughness greater than or equal to 4.
  
  
  To see more examples, use the online search page to do some searches. It displays the search string it used on the top of the page.

General

• What is the cardgame.cfg file I found in my documents and settings folder?
  This is the program's remembered options. It remembers things like what folder you like to use to save decks, and what IP address you connected to last.
  
  It is perfectly safe to delete this; the program will just revert to default values, but you should keep it for your convience.
• The program crashed! What can I do?
  You just have to reopen it. It is not done yet, and may still have some serious bugs. If you can remember what you were doing when it crashed and the error message given, post it here so I can find it and fix it.
• Why did you release it if it isn't done?
  I was pretty excited and wanted people to be able to try it out. It also helps me see what problems people have early on so I can fix or change it before it becomes a foundation of the code.