Magarena – Great AI

Magarena is a great, great program. It lets you play Magic against the computer and has almost 2,000 cards. The outstanding feature of Magarena is that the AI is as smart a human opponent. The AI will punish you for mistakes and will play unexpected instants during combat. While Forge’s AI is a nice stroll through the forest, Magarena feels more like all-out war. You can also scale back the AI and limit the time that is had to “think ahead” to only a couple of seconds which makes the AI good but not great.

Magarena also has a great user interface which is skinnable and supports different themes. The cards are artfully displayed so you can easily glance at your hand or the battlefield and see everything. Combat is beautifully handled with a separate combat mode that graphically shows which creatures are attacking and blocking.

Magarena also highlights the cards in your hand that you can play and if you double-click, it has an auto-pay feature. In case you made a mistake, it even has a fabulous undo button. Magarena also highlights cards that have an activated ability that you can use. Also when attacking and blocking, Magarena highlights which creatures you can attack with and block.

Magarena lets you choose between a cheating or non-cheating AI. The difference is that the cheating AI can see the cards in your hand. I randomly play against both cheating and non-cheating opponents and I cannot see a discernable difference. Basically the cheating AI is a little bit better than the non-cheating.

Magarena has a difficult (even grueling) AI and a powerful, candy-covered user interface.

Magarena-1.21.zip (10 MB) (Windows,Linux)

Magarena-1.21.app.zip (10 MB) (Mac)

Magarena Forum

Just a random programmer,
mtgrares

p.s.
--Magarena is written in Java, which I think is very cool. Java (can be) great.

--If I understand Magarena’s docs, the strongest AI is the “monte carlo (cheat)” option. This algorithm is very sophisticated. As I understand monte carlo, it plays many thousands of games using random moves and then chooses the move (branch) that generates the best outcome for the AI and the worst outcome for the opponent. Easy to explain but hard to code.

Magarena - 918 Cards, Good AI

Forge is great but sometimes a little variety is good.  Magarena has rules enforcement like Forge and has a great AI.  Magarena's AI is the best that I've every seen.  (And I've heard that it is better than the new Duels of the Planeswalker.)  Magarena has a great user interface and looks like a real videogame.  Magarena lets you pick your theme from a variety of user created skins.

It is hard to describe Magarena's AI.  It feels like there is a little guy in the computer that is purposefully trying to destroy you.  The AI will play as hard and as smart as a human.  Sometimes the AI will hold back and you may think that it may think that it is a glitch but then the AI will play some uber-powerful card that changes the whole game.  Most games will be grueling 20+ turns. 

Magarena only has 1-on-1 matches and doesn't have any sort of quest mode.  Magarena features high-quality card scans so you can sit back and enjoy the great the great art.  While Magic is a great game, it also features some great artwork. 

Magarena-1.16b.zip  - Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and requires Java 1.6

Magarena_1126.exe - Is a small update for Windows users and should be put in the same directory that you unzipped Magarena-1.16b.zip  

Link - Magarena Download Site for all future versions

Everybody loves screenshots.

p.s.

Working on an open source project is hard and thankfully other people step up to the task.  I, the original author of Forge, no longer work on Forge and ubeefx, the original author of Magarena, no longer works on that project.  Thanks to melvin who continues to work on Magarena and thanks to the Forge coders who have added more cards than I ever thought possible.

Forge Coding Team:

Friar Sol
Sloth
Dave
Rob Cashwalker
Braids
Max mtg
Jeff Wadsworth
Hellfish
ArsenalNut
Starcrash
Marc
Corwin
Chris H

Magarena - A Smart Magic AI

I just had to tell everybody about a new Magic program that I found.  It is called Magarena.  It has 900 cards and a very good AI.  The computer can (and will) play instants and abilities during combat and at end of turn.  I "researched" the program very thoroughly and I had a good time playing against such a smart opponent.  Some of the games lasted 20 or 25 turns because the game AI was so good.  In those close games I had no idea if I would win or lose.

Magarena has a very nice user interface and looks likes a real videogame.  The user interface is much more graphical than Forge and has an elegant wood background.  Magarena also has "undo" which lets you fix a mistake or try to sneak something else past the intelligent AI.  Undo is a great feature because it is universally used and understood.

Magarena uses min-max for the AI and is written in Java.  Feel free to post your comments about Magarena to the forum thread here.

Download - Magarena's Google Project page, runs on Windows, Mac, Linux

Requires Java

User Interfaces – Forge and Pirates of the Spanish Main

Graphic user interfaces (GUI, pronounced "goo-ey") make or break computer programs.  A good gui is worth its weight in gold while a bad one will make you throw your computer out of the window. 

Recently I read the quote, "To users the gui is the program".  Programmers tend to view things much differently than users.  To programmers the gui is the "front-end" that has sparkling colors and other unnecessary eye candy while the "back-end" does the actual number crunching.  To programmers the "heart" of the program is the back-end while users see the "heart" as the front-end.

I've worked a little bit on Pirates of the Spanish Main's back-end and I was thinking about the front-end.  The difficulty is that I was going to use only 2D graphics, which is great for games like Pacman but not so good for good for other things.  Limiting myself to 2D graphics means that Pirates would have an "overhead" gui, where you saw everything from directly above.  While this might sound ok, in reality your ships would be only outlines of the hull. 

Viewing a ship directly from above is very unexciting and the gui could show your ships in one color and the computer's ships in a different color but the overall game experience would be very abstract compared with the nice 3/4 view that the (now deceased) online game had which used 3D models.  The 3/4 view is similar to Zaxxon.  (Boy, I'm dating myself with the Zaxxon reference.) You can see videos of the online Pirates game here. 

I'm still interested in trying to write a Pirates of the Spanish Main game but I'm not sure how to do it using only 2D graphics.  Maybe I could simulate a 3/4 perspective by taking numerous pictures of a ship at different angles?  Theoretically, I could use a 3D game engine but I think I would be in over by head.  (JMonkey looks like a good 3D Java videogame library.)

Last night I played a few games with Magarena, a great Magic program that features a very good AI.  I just marveled at how "nice" everything felt.  Magarena feels like a real, commercial program because the gui is so nice and refined.  It even supports creating your own themes so users can customize the icons representing your hand, graveyard, library as well as the wallpaper where the game is played. 

I am going to try to create a gui for Forge that is similar to Magarena.  I always figured that someone else would update Forge's gui but since that hasn't happened, I thought I would offer my meager skills.  I know absolutely nothing about videogame programming but I did find a small, simple videogame library called fly that I plan to use.  Magarena supports themes and I want Forge's new gui to support themes also.  I actually plan to "borrow" Magarena's themes because they look so nice.  "Good artists borrow, greats artists steal."

Keep on forging,

mtgrares

Link - Magarena's download site - It is a great program and the AI is very challenging.

Link - Fly is a small, simple Java videogame library.

p.s.
The pirates videogame could be done from an isometric viewpoint.  It wouldn't be fancy looking or anything but it would be better than nothing.  (For a good definition of isometric read this Wikipedia article.)

Odds and Ends

I wanted to name this column “Todds and Tends” but I wasn’t sure that anybody would get it.  When I post something I try to have a specific topic in mind but today I’m going to wonder a little bit and talk about various magically related subjects.

Forge continues to be developed by about 5 serious programmers who tend to spend many hours a week programming new features.  One of the areas of improvement is the attacking and blocking code.  They have been working on improving this important piece of code.  Considering all of the combat modifers in Magic like first strike, deathtouch, regeneration and planewalkers the AI combat code has to take into account a lot of information.  Improving this area of the AI is very tough because the AI cannot “see” activated abilities and treats insanely, powerful creatures like Royal Assassin as generic 1/1 creatures.

I’ve been playing Magarena all week and it has been great.  Magarena has a great AI and it will make some very good tactical decisions.  The other good thing is that the AI is very fast and I only have to wait a few seconds, even though my computer is ancient.  Magarena has 450 cards but all of the cards are game winners, no stupid 2/2 for 3 mana.  The AI can be very aggressive, one time it killed my 8/8 with 2 spells and another time he totally devastated me with a trampling 24/24.

I’m thinking about adding a quest mode to Magarena because I think it would be really fun.  I’ve really enjoyed using randomly generated decks but the quest mode provides some real depth and is very engaging (you don’t want to quit).  Magarena happens to be written in Java, so at least I have a chance of modifying the source code.  I’ve written about Magarena previously here.

I’m not sure how many of you know about stackoverflow.com, which is a question and answer website that only deals with computer programming.  There is a new-ish website called draw3cards.com that deals with Magic questions.  Draw3cards isn’t a very “serious” website but it does let people ask and answer a variety of questions like: What is the least printed magic card? and Are there any colored lands? (only Dryad Arbor which is green.)  I even asked my own question, “Is there a downside to being able to play any card as a land?” I didn't know about the Dakkon Blackblade Magic Online avatar that lets you play any card as a land.  Vanguard seems to have some great avatars like Momir Vig which have spawned whole new formats.

The card art is from  Jace vs. Chandra which are Japanese duel decks with new manga art for the planeswalkers.  You can read the official announcement here.

Keep on tapping,

mtgrares

p.s.

This is a little bit random but just sit back and enjoy something: look outside, tell a joke, or just say ‘hi’ to the people sitting next to you.  I love computers, the internet, and always being connected but it can be very stressful.  And truthfully you don’t need to read the latest gossip or read about the latest technology or read somebodies twitter feed (I’ve never used twitter myself).  Try to relax for a whole 2 minutes. :+)

Fast Games and Good Times: The Benefits of a fast and stupid AI

When I started the Forge project I had some major doubts in my mind.

1.  Will the program be usable? 

2.  Will a fast, stupid AI be fun?

Thankfully issue number one isn’t an issue.  Forge is very usable by non-programmers.  I know that Forge isn’t the prettiest piece of eye candy that you have ever seen but I’m very happy with it.  99% of the user interface complaints went away when Forge actually drew the cards in hand and on the battlefield, instead of only displaying the card picture on the right.

Issue number two hasn't been a problem.  Having a simple, fast, stupid AI seems to be a major benefit instead of a weakness.  I can play a Magic game in about 10 minutes which is about 3 times faster than a normal game against another player.  The benefit is that I get to play 3 times the number of games in the same time, which equals 3 times the fun.

Forge minimizes the longest, most boring part of the game: waiting for your opponent.  The gooey goodness of Magic is when I’m thinking about how to beat the computer into submission with some absurd combination of spells and abilities.  Maybe I get to cast a crazy 7UU costed spell or use a nearly worthless card to win the game.  The computer is just smart enough to keep me on my toes by using counter spells and punishing me for any foolish combat decisions.

I also worried that Forge would be dead meat compared to a program with a smarter AI but that didn’t happen.  Magarena was released (for free) and it has a great AI that plays like a real person.  I love playing Magarena because the computer will completely pound you into submission and will never say, “I’m sorry”.  In like manner, it is great fun to win because you can feel the computer working against you.  Magarena is absolutely brilliant but it hasn’t made Forge less fun.  In a way, Magarena has allowed me to see how fun Forge really is and that having a better AI wouldn’t increase its fun factor.  (You can read more about Magarena here and how to download it.)

Forge is absolutely fantastic with a fast, dumb AI.

One of the cheapest Magic players in the world,

mtgrares

Still Working on Forge User Interface

I did spend a couple of hours last week and worked on a new user interface for Forge.  (User interfaces are usually abbreviated gui, pronounce gooey, for graphic user interface.)  It is amazing how complicated a “simple” gui can be.  Forge doesn’t even have any animation or movement but coding a gui is still painfully slow.

GUIs look simple, they take 2 minutes to evaluate and 2 weeks (or more) to write.  GUIs have a ton of details like “what is the icon size for your graveyard?”  Do you want it to be 8 x 8 or 16 x 16 or 32 x 32 or something else?  Additionally it is hard to make a gui look symmetrical and “clean”.  Creating a messy gui is very easy but a “nice”, easy-to-use one takes many hours.

The good news is that I found a gui that I want to copy so I don’t have to juggle as many details.  Magarena has a very nice gui, see below.  I find it very aesthetically pleasing.  Magarena also supports themes so you can customize the gui yourself and since Magarena already has a nice assorted of themes, Forge’s new gui will be able to use Magarena’s themes.  (Everybody says code reuse is good right?!)

Hopefully the  right panel in Forge, which I call the “card detail” panel, will slide in and out of view so you will have more space to see which cards are in play.  I may be able to get rid of it completely by allowing the card picture to popup when your mouse is hovering over a card.  The popup card picture would have to regular top of the card and the lower part could be Forge’s text view of the card, like keywords (flying, fear) and abilities.

In conclusion, writing a gui is a lot like writing a novel.  Having one great idea isn’t enough, you need to fill in millions of details.  And “millions of details” is the very definition of computer programming.

Thanks for reading,

mtgrares

p.s.

--Random computer quote, “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers”  by Pablo Picasso.

--You really need to play Magarena.  It has a great AI.

List of All Magic Programs

(Updated on 6/2, updated download link for Magarena)

(You can look some of the New Phyrexia cards here from Wizards official spoiler.)

I don't have anything earth-shaking to talk about today.  I thought I might try to create a comprehensive list of all computer programs that play Magic: The Gathering.  Having a comprehensive list makes it easy for a person to glance through the programs to see if any of them are interesting.  This also helps programmers who could help an existing project instead of creating a new one.  A few of these programs are mentioned in the Wikipedia entry Magic: The Gathering Video Games.

Feel free to post other programs in the comments section and I'll update this page.  If you contributed to one of these programs and would like something changed in its description, also post in the comments sections.

p.s. Creating a web page full of links is tedious and boring.  I plan to just update this webpage instead of doing anything like this again.  Hopefully this post will be helpful. :=)

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Programs that let you play against the computer.

Duels of the Planeswalker (old version) which is also known as Shandalar

Download Forum - which discusses how to download and install Shandalar on modern PCs.

There is a similar but different forum on the same website that deals with updating Shandalar with new cards.  The updates are collectively called Manalink 2.0 and their forum is here.

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Duels of the Planeswalkers - runs on XBox 360, Playstation 3 and Windows.  It was written using C++ and Lua.

Wikipedia Entry
Forum - that discusses how to hack the game to add more cards.

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Forge - runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and is written in Java.  It has more than 7,000 cards.

Download Site
Forum
Java - in case you need to download Java
You can download the source code from the SVN 

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Magarena - runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.  It is written in Java and has 900 cards.  The user interface is very nice and the AI is very good (better than Forge's AI).

Download Site

Forum
You can download the source code from here.
You can read more about Magarena's AI here.  It uses alpha-beta pruning and monte-carlo simulations.
Java - in case you need to download Java

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Mage - runs on Windows and also lets you play over the internet, 1-on-1 or multiplayer.  Mage has more than 800 cards and is written in Java.

Download Site - You want to download the "bundle" which has both the client and server.

Forum

FAQ

You can download the source code from here.

Java - in case you need to download Java

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Wagic - was written for the Playstation Portable (PSP) but also runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and the Nokia N900 (maemo).  Wagic's name is the "M" character turned upside down like Mario and Wario.  Wagic has 7,700 cards and is written in C++.

Download Site
Forum

You can download the source code from here.

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BotArena -  Runs on Windows and has more than 8,096 cards.  It is written in C++ and is looking for programmers to help them out.  The AI is very good.

Forum and Download site

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Magma - runs on Windows and has many cards.  This is sort of an amateur project but I can tell that they have spent a lot of time working on it.

Homapage - translated from Italian.
Download Site - You have to download all of the programs on these two page: page1 and page2.  I have not done this and this is unverified.

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Programs that let you play against other people over the internet with rules enforcement.

Mage (see description above)

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Incantus runs on Windows and Mac.  It may run on Linux, I don't know.  It has more than 8,000 cards and is written in Python.

Forum - which also servers as a download site.
You can download the source code from here.

**Programs that let you play against other people over the internet (no rules enforcement).

Magic Workstation - doesn't seem to be updated.  Its name is banned from the Wizards of the Coast forums

Forum - this is an unofficial forum but it has many helpful guides and add-ons to download

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Online Playtable - runs on Windows and possibly other platforms.

Forum - which also serves as a download site

Features:

--Supports HQ (high quality card pictures)
--Multilayer duels up to 6 players
--Draft Games up to 8 players including custome cubes
--Team-Multiplayer duels (2HG, Empoeror)
--Full support for Momir Basic
--Sealed Deck Generator
--100% stability (no random disconnects)
--Replay function
--Automatic dice roll and simultaneous mulligans

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Cockatrice runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and is client-server based to prevent any kind of cheating, though it supports single-player games without a network interface as well.  Cockatrice can be used for playtesting purposes, but it is not ready for online tournaments yet due to a lack of deck list security and some other important functions. We aim to resolve these issues shortly.

Download Site - you can also get the C++ source code from here also
Forum

Min-Max Combat

Combat is a major component of any Magic game but unfortunately combat is also one of the areas where the AI struggles.  The AI falters in combat because it only follows a few "rules of thumb" like attack if you have the biggest creature or attack if no other creature can block.  Since combat can be hugely variable these rules of thumb break down and the AI doesn't play competitively. 

The two biggest problems with AI combat are:

1. Sometimes the AI attacks with all of its creatures and then you easily attack and win.  The AI should have held back a few creatures.

2.  The board becomes crowded with many creatures and the AI is afraid to attack.  This is a stalemate where each player has plenty of creatures on the board but not a winning position so you just hope you draw something good and usually you can beat the computer.

I am working on making the AI combat better by applying min-max.  This would allow the AI to "see" several turns in the future and make much better combat decisions.  The new code should be able to process common keywords like flying and defender.  Hopefully in the future the new code will handle other keywords like wither and "this card must always attack".

The downside is that this new combat code won't be 100% perfect and the computer won't suddenly be playing like a pro.  The new code won't consider static, triggered or activated abilities like regeneration.  This seems really bad except that the old combat code didn't consider these abilities either.  The new combat code should be an improvement but I don't know how much of an improvement.

Planeswalkers are confusing to the old and new combat code.  With the old code, the AI attacked a planeswalker 50% of the time.  While this seems incredibly lame, it ensures that you will not be able to predict what the AI will do.  The new code will probably do the same thing because the AI cannot generate future events like a planeswalker using his devastating, ultimate ability.

Hopefully I will finish the new combat code so everybody can see if it makes a difference.  I want to guess that I will be done in a week but I probably should guess a month (which is way too long but is probably more realistic).

The only way to improve the AI combat code so that it plays perfectly is to use min-max for all parts of the AI.  Forge has a very simple AI implementation so we can't use min-max because it requires the computer to generate thousands of future events so the AI can determine which future path would be the best. 

To get a taste of a good Magic AI download Magarena.  It only has 450 cards but the AI is very good.  You can read more about Magarena here.

Keep on forging,

mtgrares

p.s.

--I'm glad that my previous post about other offline TCGs was interesting.  Personally I thought the article was a little bit "weak" but I'm glad that people enjoyed it.  Picking a topic each week feels very random but I'm glad that I occasionally strike writer's gold. 

--Just for reference, here is the old combat code.  The attacking code is 290 lines and the blocking code is 260 lines.  You can view the Java attacking code here and the blocking code here.

--Crap, I was looking over the old combat code and I saw that it mentioned lure.  Man, I really hate lure right now.

Picking the Right Programming Language

I actually worried a little bit when I started coding Forge in Java.  I thought, “Was Java really the best language for this project?”  “What if people didn’t have Java installed on their computers?”  Thankfully I have never had an email telling me that they had to install Java.  I presume some people did have to install Java but hopefully it installed without any problems.  After a little analysis-paralysis I chose Java and starting coding furiously.

In the end I chose Java because it was the language I knew the best.  Java isn’t perfect but no language is.  Java ended up to be a good choice because Forge also runs on Mac and Linux.  The remarkable thing is that I didn’t intend for Forge to run on any other operating system other than Windows.  Being able to be run on Mac and Linux was a happy accident.

Choosing the right programming language also depends on your goal.  If you want to make a browser based game you can use Flash or Java.  (Forge could be made into a browser game but it would take a lot of work.)  If you are trying to squeeze every CPU cycle, you will probably want to use C++.   Java is pretty fast but C++ is probably the fastest language (other than assembly of course).

Various Magic projects use various languages.  Incantus is written in Python.  Wagic uses C++ in order to effectively run on the PSP (Playstation Portable).  MagArena uses Java and although it uses min-max (a CPU intensive algorithm) it employs various speed-ups and it runs well on my 750 MHz machine.

In the end it really doesn’t matter which programming language you use. 

p.s.

If your language has any type of certification, I would say go for it.  Even if you just study and never take the test, it would really help you.  Studying helped me learn a bunch of esoteric stuff that is generally unimportant but sometimes very important.  By knowing a language through and through, you will be a better, faster programmer.

Mage – 2,450 Cards, Offline AI, Multiplayer

Mage is lets you play offline against the computer or online against other players.  Mage has an AI that is better than Forge’s.  Mage's AI that can generate possible futures and chooses the best one.  While the AI is not as good as Magarena, it can still be quite surprising.

Mage also supports booster drafting and sealed with either computer or human players or both.  I've always found booster drafting to be infinitely fun.  Forge's boosting drafting is OK but since the AI is only average it doesn't always test my skills and I can beat the AI with pretty bad cards.  Mage should provide great fun drafting and playing sealed deck against the computer and your friends.

Mage has plenty of cards, 2,450 to be exact.  Mage implements many full sets like Magic 2011 and 2012 as well as Scars of Mirrodin and Mirridon Besieged.  The statistics for other sets are listed below.

(Updated these stats, thanks to North.)

Magic 2012: 182/249 (100%)

Magic 2011: 249/249 (100%)

Scars of Mirrodin: 220/249 (100%)

Mirrodin Besieged: 122/155 (100%)

New Phyrexia 148/170 (87%)

Zendikar: 186/253 (73%)
Worldwake: 77/145 (53%)
Rise of the Eldrazi: 162/248 (65%)

Mage is very unique because it also has multiplayer games.  People have asked me, “Will Forge every have multiplayer?” and I always respond, “No, because it is too freakin complicated.”  Obviously the makers of Mage don’t feel that way.

Mage offers multiplayer games and you can mix human and computer players.  Other multiplayer options include setting the “attacking options” which lets you attack multiple players, or only the player on your left or right.  You can also change the “range of influence” which is another way of asking “How many players will be affected by Wrath of God?”

Collection Viewer

Download Site - You want to download the "bundle" which has both the client and server.

Forum

FAQ

To download the card images and mana symbols, click on the buttons “Images” and “Symbols” in the upper right corner. 

p.s.

--Mage is another fine project that uses Java. 

--Thanks to the Mage developers and supporters:

BetaSteward

Nantuko84

Eugen.Rivniy

North

maurer.it

Viserion

i_no_k

soulless

arching