Monday, March 17, 2008

New Version

I’ve fixed a few errors and added 6 new cards. The total number of cards in now a whopping 461!!! You can now resize the window, a caring reader donated this code. I fixed a random EOT error and Immaculate Magistrate used to occasionally target lands. The AI for Kiki-Jiki can now copy one of your creatures, before the computer would just copy one of the creatures that he already owned. I also fixed the combat code when you are attacking into a bigger creature with trample, you will not receive trample damage. Trample only works when attacking, who knew?

The 6 cards I added where pretty random. I am still very limited in the kinds of cards that I can program and most Lorwyn and Morningtide cards are very complicated. Kamahl, Pit Fighter is a big guy with a nice ability that the computer can effectively use. Empty the Warrens is my first storm card that is interesting in a variety of situations. Serra Avatar is an unusual creature, since she can be a 20/20. She is also quite valuable and still runs at least $15 in real life. The man-lands Faerie Conclave, Forbidding Watchtower, and Treetop Village where pretty easy to program so I added them.

People have asked me what decks the computer can use effectively, so I’ve added 5 constructed decks that should be challenging to play against. The black deck is called “black-good-AI” and has Pestilence and lots of Terror effects. The blue one has 8 ways to steal creatures, 4 Control Magic and 4 Sower of Temptation, and 7 bounce effects with Repulse and Man-o-War. The green deck has a good mana curve along with game winning cards like Epic Proportions and Garruk Wildspeaker.

The white deck has 4 Wrath of Gods, 4 Oblivion Rings, 4 Sunlances, and 4 Serra Avengers to beat you down with. (Maybe the Wrath of Gods should be Swords to Plowshares?) The land counts are low because the computer has his land automatically smoothed so he only draws land when he needs to. This smoothing helps the computer be more competitive by increasing his chances of top-decking something good.

Download Windows Installer – MTG Forge 03-2008
(To save the decks that you created, keep a copy of the file “all-decks2”.)

ps.
I had Empty the Warrens working correctly, then I fixed Serra Avenger and that broke Empty the Warrens. It will probably produce too many tokens.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

will there be a java-version out soon? would be great if i could run your (btw fantastic) game without booting windows on a virtual machine.

keep up the good work! :)

Unknown said...

WHoever posted the resize code - the stack frame becomes too short when resized. and the button frame under the text box is too big.

Suggest that the dimensions of the textbox, button frame and the computer stats frame be locked in size relative to the top of the window. The Combat and player stats frame should be locked to the bottom, and let the Stack frame in the middle resize to fill-in.

Also, the text version of the mouse-over card display resizes, which isn't critical, but it loses proportion, and looks weird.

Forge - Would there be any benefit in someone compiling a cards.txt for every vanilla and french-vanilla creature that you can handle purely by keywords? (the ones that you don't already have in there) This could give us some much needed variety, until you program the splashier stuff.

Anonymous said...

i'm running the java-version, the program crashes when i want to start a booster draft game.

Forge said...

I wasn't sure if anyone ever just used the Java version. I can release a zip file with just the Java version.

The resize code is jumpy. It works but moving everything isn't pleasant.

"Would there be any benefit in someone compiling a cards.txt for every vanilla and french-vanilla creature that you can handle purely by keywords?"

Yeah, that would be great. The error checking for cards.txt is very minimal so you have to make sure you have only 1 space and all keywords start with a capital letter. Just to tell you, cards.txt only supports creatures so you can't add any sorceries or instants.

So just add a bunch of creatures to cards.txt and e-mail the file at mtgrares yahoo com Even if 100% of the cards aren't working, like you forgot a space somewhere, I can easily fix it. The version of MTG Forge that you are running doesn't show any errors, while my developmental version does.

Thanks for the help.

Seth said...

I don't know if it matters but the actual kiki-jiki card can only copy creatures that it's controller controls. The AI shouldn't be able to copy your creatures with it.

Forge said...

"I don't know if it matters but the actual kiki-jiki card can only copy creatures that it's controller controls."

Thanks for the comment. I do sometimes gloss over the card text. Currently you, the human player, can copy a creature you don't control. Kiki-Jiki likes causing problems doesn't he, I'll try to fix it.

Forge said...

Drafting is currently broken. I'll try to fix it.

Unknown said...

I didn't notice the "you control" in kiki jiki either... and I've been playing a kiki-jiki deck in forge lately. I did notice however, that I couldn't copy a token....

Unknown said...

What's the full list of implemented french-vanilla keywords, besides flying?

Forge said...

The only reason you can't copy a token, is because I didn't want you to play giant growth on a token and then copy it. I probably should take that restriction off, since it is so rare. Currently I can't get the "base" power and defense of a creature or token.

All right, full keyword list. All the kewords have to have this exact spelling, with Haste being capitilized and "tap: G" having only 1 space after the colon.

Haste
Vigilance
Flying
Defender
Trample
Fear
tap: add W
tap: add B
tap: add U
tap: add R
tap: add G
tap: add 1
(And the whole line below, I never got around to shortening it to reach)
This creature can block as though it had flying.

A creature can generate 1 mana of any color. Birds of Paradise can generate any colored mana, but it only produces 1 mana. Llanowar Elves naturally only produces green mana.

Birds of Paradise
G
Creature Bird
no text
0/1
Flying
tap: add W
tap: add B
tap: add U
tap: add R
tap: add G

Llanowar Elves
G
Creature Elf Druid
no text
1/1
tap: add G

And just a reminder, flash is NOT a keyword that cards.txt recognizes.