Thank you!!

[Brewin]

So a couple of weeks back now I went on a mission to find a version of the old Duels of the Planeswalkers with Shandalar et al that could run under Windows 7. The new DotPW versions where you could barely modify a deck with none of the old cards I grew up with just didn't cut it, and a few years back I recall spending a lot of my life playing this old classic - mostly my own tournaments in duel mode with my own decks against what was then, the best decks available - and I wanted to relive those glory days...

Then to my amazement, I find here what I'd only dreamed someone would do one day - revamping the old classic to include all the new cards as well (well not "all" but geez let's not get too picky!) You have my eternal thanks for making this dream come true (and also I curse you cos I really don't need to lose a significant chunk of my life again playing this haha, but that's only because what you've done is just so awesome!)

So anyway, now that I'm here (and since you're still reading) can I just say a few other things:

The first thing I should say is a hello to my old Blood Bowl friend Aswan Jaguar. I mean I can't be sure that it's the same person, but based on the moniker, I'm willing to guess that it is. How are you mate? I see you've been quite busy here (Haven't seen you in Blood Bowl land for some years now, but then again I haven't been there much these last couple of years either - having plenty of "other" things on the go myself...)

One of the other things I wanted to mention, is how I made use of the hard work you guys did here: I installed the full version with all the cards from the latest patch, then used that DeckAnalyser Tool to make every single deck Type 1, I mean "Vintage", compliant. Then I updated my own custom decks with the best of the new cards I could find on the Gatherer site (replacing Serra Angels with Baneslayer Angels etc) so that I could proceed to create my own tournaments to play in duel mode. (Not that you need to know, but I do elimination playoffs where I play each deck in a playoff against each other - basically playing until one deck wins twice in a row - playing for and against - or until I reach 5 games in all, in which case I have the higher ranked deck proceed; ranking on percentage wins overall; yeah I love my tournaments and stats haha).

But in doing this I discovered that a handful of cards were "locked" and that apparently I had to go through an arduous ordeal of unlocking them one by one in extended challenges, just so I could use them in duel mode. I figured it'd be easy to find a hack way around unlocking them, but then I discover that the trick to doing this is a guarded secret on here. I did figure out how to do it despite that (I'm a stubborn bugger and there was no way known I was going to bother doing those challenges), although I did have to spend most of a day completing just one challenge to figure out what I needed to do... I understand you have your reasons for keeping this secret, but I really don't understand it myself. To me it basically was a matter of either I found how to hack my way around it, or I would remove all the locked cards from all decks and never use them. Surely this isn't what you had in mind?

Which kinda leads into my new point: I'd like to blog about this site and the awesome things you have done here (I've already told a few friends that they can now play this old classic with thousands of cards and decks available and they were amazed too). I'll include instructions of how to set everything up, perhaps include a link through which they can grab my revised decklist all Vintage format compliant (along with my decks), but also... I'd like to tell them how to unlock those 40 odd damn cards as well... But I guess I won't if you tell me not to (even though I disagree) and instead just provide links to the two threads on here through which I figured out what to do... But y'know, I'd like to be more direct and save others my frustration

And if it's of use to others, I'm happy to share my custom decks here, and my revamped list of all the decks to be Vintage compliant (minus a handful of the top tournament decks that threw an error when converting for some reason).

I'm sure with so many cards you have plenty of ones that are bugged, or the AI doesn't know how to use properly, but the main issues I've noticed are that the AI doesn't know how to use Sleight / Hack spells (it just casts them on nothing), Comet Storms on multiple targets don't seem to work properly - costing one mana too much and not letting you cast on multiple targets for less, and that my White Knights die from Pestilence damage... But really, I'm amazed at how many thousands of cards you have working so well!

Lastly, there's a just couple of cards I wish I could use (but feel free to ignore my request - who am I to jump on here and ask such a thing anyway!?). Spectral Shift (for my sleight / hack deck) and Rootwater Thief (for some blue decks). Rootwater Thief may be tricky (and the creator of the card isn't exactly a well-loved bloke), but Spectral Shift may be straightforward? I dunno...

Think I've rambled enough for an intro post... Thanks again for what you've managed to do here!

Brewin

P.s. I don't plan on being particularly active here but will check back for replies before I do my blog post. And if this post gets moved or even deleted, I have no issue with that either

[stassy]

Moved to proper section.

But in doing this I discovered that a handful of cards were "locked" and that apparently I had to go through an arduous ordeal of unlocking them one by one in extended challenges, just so I could use them in duel mode.

This is a request from the original Challenge mode programmer, so even if it's an open secret his will carry on.
There are some future plans to only lock challenge card reward in challenge mode only but we have tons of bugs/feature to figure out first.

Which kinda leads into my new point: I'd like to blog about this site and the awesome things you have done here

We don't mind if you want to blog about it, just be aware that every patch might break something so new players might not fully appreciate the ML3 experience *wink* Orion79 *wink*.

I'm sure with so many cards you have plenty of ones that are bugged, or the AI doesn't know how to use properly, but the main issues I've noticed are that the AI doesn't know how to use Sleight / Hack spells (it just casts them on nothing), Comet Storms on multiple targets don't seem to work properly - costing one mana too much and not letting you cast on multiple targets for less, and that my White Knights die from Pestilence damage

We have a dedicated bug section that will happily wait for your properly formatted report if you wish to take some of your time.

nd if it's of use to others, I'm happy to share my custom decks here, and my revamped list of all the decks to be Vintage compliant

Our Basic Playdeck Brainstorming thread will welcome you with open arms

Lastly, there's a just couple of cards I wish I could use

We have a Top Ten wishlist thread for card request, openly write your top fave in there!

[Brewin]

Moved to proper section.

Thanks stassy

This is a request from the original Challenge mode programmer, so even if it's an open secret his will carry on.
There are some future plans to only lock challenge card reward in challenge mode only but we have tons of bugs/feature to figure out first.

Fair enough... I take it's okay at least for me to link back to the posts where there might be hints on how to solve this problem? Or would you rather I not say anything on it at all?

We have a dedicated bug section that will happily wait for your properly formatted report if you wish to take some of your time.

Okay I can see the Comet Storm bug is already reported (and confirmed), the issue I mentioned with my White Knight being killed by Pestilence damage I cannot replicate (so ignore that) and the issue with AI not knowing what to do with Mind Bend, Magical Hack and Sleight of Mind is probably covered (and unfixable) in this post here of known issues:
viewtopic.php?f=86&t=4012#p82325

...So I have nothing to report for now, but if I notice anything else, I'll make a report

But I'll at least post in those other areas you mentioned. Thanks!

[Aswan jaguar]

Welcome on the forum.Sorry to spoil it for you but I am not your friend from the old days.Just someone who likes Aswan Jaguar (I don't believe I have made a green deck without having it in it back then)and the real big cats.

[Brewin]

Oh well Aswan... I guess being a cool "Astral" card from way back, there's another out there with the same moniker