A statement and request

[Diz]

Ok, I'll just try and keep this simple and as short as possible.

I'm not trying to tick anyone off or anything, but this site has become unbearably impossible to navigate and use efficiently.

I've used this program before, being an old(er) M:TG player who wanted a little bit of nostalgia. I remember about six months ago coming here and finding it relatively easy to download the program and update the cards available in the deck builder for dueling. I remember Shandalar being almost unplayable in the versions that were available. I played around for about a week before I got bored with dueling the AI in gauntlet format and just wished that Shandalar would be playable. I also remember it took about a day or two to get that old My2000 or whatever injecting the right cards into the deck builder, but when it worked, it worked.

Well, fast-forward to now, and that's pretty much the case. You can come to this site, and with very little searching or hassle, you can get a Shandalar experience in the stickied "2010 Shandalar ISO" yada yada yada. However, now the problem is the exact opposite as six months ago. I can play Shandalar without it crashing but there is practically no way to get new cards into the system. I load up Bog's post about "editing decks in W7" and while I don't have 7, it's jaw-dropping the amount of struggle that someone has to go through to simply put Mana Drains and Force of Will into the card library.

Am I missing something? I've spent 8+ hours and downloaded pretty much everything around this site and I cannot, for the life of me, manage to get Force of Will and Mana Drain into the card library. It's literally the only thing I care about outside of Shandalar; if I want to gauntlet against the AI I would like the two best counters available. Is that too much to ask?

But really, that's a personal problem and the reason I am posting is to draw attention to the lack of a clear path to playing this game. Some people come here to find Shandalar, some come here to find a deck builder, and some come here to find an engine that can be updated with cards to test their decks against quick gauntlet AI to find any glaring holes. I think these different reasons for coming here need to be addressed from the get go without all this confusing cross-linking, obsolete patching, and varying game versions.

Can one of the major players on this site help galvanize the community into becoming more homogenous in the product delivery and somehow still manage to support varying platforms and gaming preferences?

Anyways, at the end of the day, if you get this game working and can at least duel, deck build, or wreck noob NPCs in Shandalar then it's worth the effort, but it could be presented a little bit better and without all the fluff.

Thanks Slightlymagic and all of the people who have kept Shandalar alive, every time I play it I'm reminded of days as a kid playing Magic in some smelly hobby store or when I first played this game over at a friends house. It doesn't get old even though the Scathe Zombie ai decks sometimes do. I think theres still some lot of room for improvement in this game but it doesn't get much better than this - props for keeping it going!!!!!! JUST MAKE IT MORE ACCESSIBLE!!!

[stassy]

I can play Shandalar without it crashing but there is practically no way to get new cards into the system

In what game mode do you mean adding new cards? Shandalar mode? Constructed Duel mode? Limited Duel mode? Custom Duel mode?

In the latest update, Mana Drain and Force of Will are by default in the Constructed Duel mode, and Mana Drain is in the Limited Duel mode.

If you want to play Shandalar or multiplayer mode, your thread is the big sticky one for Microprose Magic the Gathering 2010 Custom Installer ISO which is a special custom standalone version

If you want to play with the latest coded new cards your thread is in the New Users Start Here section called Download + Installation Guide, plus User Manual that allow to play in Constructed and Limited mode.

If you want to custom your decklist your thread is in the root of this forum called New Deck Editor (also a replacement for My2000) , however recent updates show it has some issues.

If you want to create new cards or insert card one by one you have the ML2 wiki or the Development section:
http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/ManaLink_2.0

[scherbchen1]

I'd just keep seperate folders. one for Shandalar fun (the one part of the game that apparently cannot be altered though many would love to have it) and one for constructed.

[Diz]

I've put in about 12 hours trying to get a version of this game besides the 2010 ISO running.

Can't do it.

Downloaded the files from the wiki and various threads over 50(!) times.

I get various runtime errors, windows crashes, etc. It's ridiculous how hard it is to customize your card library in this game.

Honestly the only version I can get running are the 2010 ISO (which I use for Shandalar). Basically everything else I download doesn't work on my system. This computer is running Vista, but when I had this game back in this past winter I was running it on a XP laptop. It's really odd how I couldn't play Shandalar at all back then but could customize the cards I wanted to select from when building decks, and flash forward to now, it's the exact opposite. Can play Shandalar all day but I can't change a single card and can't, for the life of me, find a version of the game that features a library of cards Alpha---Alliances.

I mean if you actually look at the Wiki and the tutorials and forums and tons of different files and versions and even NAMES, then it's obvious the product could be homogenized somewhat for the benefit of accessibility and to avoid confusion. A long term goal for the people who are keeping this game alive should be to find a way to support the game across various platforms while keeping the client and subsequent patches to a minimum, and yet still allowing for card library customization. If that is possible then I don't even know why anyone would ever want to play real Magic with an awesome game like this available (especially online).

[stassy]

As you might have guessed, Manalink has some issues with Vista and Win7, though for the latter there are some fixes posted around in the forum. You might try to use a dual boot system or a virtual OS in order to run properly under XP if you are not using compatibility fixes

As you might have also read on the wiki, the wiki files but the original game files are not compatible with Shandalar because it disable the Deck Builder:

Important: patching beyond this point will cause Shandalar to become corrupted. If you want to play Shandalar, copy your current installation to a separate directory, and use that exclusively for Shaldalar.

There are currently several versions of Manalink because adding new cards or new features will disable some previous ones and various peoples are using various features (Shandalar, Duel, Gauntlet, Challenges, Tournaments...) and current developper cannot fix the previously disabled features, hence the suggestion to run separately different versions of the game in differents folders.

I suggest you give a try at this version of the game in the latest post of this thread, which might be still compatible with Shandalar and have news cards thanks to CirothUngol :
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=898&p=40758#p40758

[Diz]

Thanks a lot stassy for helping push me to take a dive into the gigantic thread he posted. I had noticed it earlier today but sort of groaned when I saw it was 10+ files to download and had basically given up and reserved myself to the 2010 ISO's card library for running the Gauntlet.

Now, after trying Ciroth's gigantic work-around, I can Gauntlet with the cards I want via his patched version and the Virtual Station, and I can play the 2010 ISO for Shandalar.

Thanks for the help everybody, but this only goes to show how confusing and difficult it can be when you're trying to get the most out of a nostlagic experience like M:TG. I still say the versions need to be reigned in a bit and some genius needs to find a way to make an all-platform App that is able to change sets / cards in the library.

Oh well, all I know is I got my stuff working after basically giving up and I want to say thanks again to you stassy, and everybody else around trying to keep this game going.

[monopoman]

Well part of the problem is that we have updates very often so that makes it difficult. Most of the applications that are much easier to manage are usually developed by the same company that made the application.

Being able to work with the same guys that programmed it and have the source code is huge for development. Also realize that no one here is being paid to develop this so they deserve a bit more leeway. It's not like you shelled out 40 bucks to get all the additional content added to the game.

Even having the source code wouldn't make this thing a joke for development though every programmer uses their own method to program, and you can figure out like 20 ways to make something that would perform basically the same task.

Some being far more complex to figure out then others due to method of programming.