Where's the Manalink 3.0 MultiPlayer version?

[BlueTemplar]

So, we have the Manalink 3.0 SinglePlayer version, the Shandalar 2012 version... but where is the Manalink 3.0 MultiPlayer version with all the cards (like fetchlands) and features that always make MP crash/desynch fixed or at least removed?
Right now playing Manalink 3.0 in MultiPlayer is a bit like playing Russian roulette, you never know when the game might crash! (which happens in SinglePlayer too but a lot less frequently...)

[stassy]

One sacrifice in breaking the 2k limit was to leave away the multiplayer mode, since we don't know all the code source of the game and netcode need a perfect card checksum between each player in order to avoid desync...

Also in ML2, with the making of Limited, Golden Years version...there were already some desync but as there were few cards and lot of cards were replacement or improvement of existing cards, it was barely noticeable.

In fact, only the original non recoded cards and vanilla new cards can be played in ML3, but their number are decreasing.
Because of new mechanism implemented as expansions go on, original cards are also recoded so no longer multiplayer compatible...

[BlueTemplar]

Yes, that's why I'd like to see a fork of the project dedicated to making MP work.
Otherwise, what do you think is the most MP-stable Manalink version with the most card variety? (not necessarily card number, if there are more cards, but they all are X/Y no capacities creatures, it's not worth it...)

[stassy]

*cough* The original game with its expansions or the ISO version*cough*
Anyway, ML3 multiplayers should be still playable with any vanilla creatures, but you will lose some recently recoded original cards like Control Magic, Martyrs Of Korlis, Fog and Holy Day and so on...

[BlueTemplar]

What about the version just before the 2k limit was lifted? Is there a way to add to that version cards added after that?

[stassy]

Well, before ML3, the 2k limit was reached for several patches, that is why Limited and Golden Years were created, and the only way to add new cards was to remove existing cards, which was really painful...

[BlueTemplar]

Maybe, but IIRC I saw a program that would check the cards in a list of decks and would automatically rearrange the 2k cards to include the cards in those decks... doesn't sound as painful as not having those cards at all!

[stassy]

It was, because swapping only one card in the whole card database would take around 5 hours to reconstruct it, and the game was not guaranteed to work properly after that.
The only safest way was to dig into the wiki and others devs help to modify by hand in the available source code, but each update and new card messed up the whole thing and you would have to start over...

[gmzombie]

easiest solution (which isnt easy mind you) is to go through the magic.exe code piece by piece and first figure out names of every arrays, formulas, jumps, objects, and variables and after we know what everything is related to in the magic.exe then the hard part comes about to covert code to C. if you read the 2k limit post in the development sub forum from mok you will understand why it would be important to get that list done . it may sway mok to come back and help.

[BlueTemplar]

Wait, I'm talking about one of the CardEditor.exe/CardEditorLimited.exe/DeckEditor.exe (not sure which one, I can't run them anymore for some reason), that allowed you to swap cards in and out of the 2k cards actually used. Did it really require 5 hours after that to rebuild the card database?

[stassy]

Clearly.

Because each swap take around 10 sec and if you have to refresh the whole database (each card linked to each card image)
So at the minimum you have :
10 sec for 1 card
2000 card pool limit

10 x 2000 = 20000 seconds = 333 minutes = 5 hours at best

Of course, it is not processor dependent so even if you have a uber computer it will still take 10 sec per card and you better not do anything else or you might crash the software during the process...

[BlueTemplar]

[Where did my post go? Trying again...]
Why do you even need 10 whole seconds to swap a card? How can it not be processor dependent?

[stassy]

It was how the program was designed, it couldn't go any faster as his author said so we had to cope with that.

You can have a peak at the development of that time in the archives with the search feature OF "DeckEditor"

[BlueTemplar]

Ok then, but why would you need to refresh the whole database if only 2 decks are concerned? In the worst case, you would only need to change 80 cards = 800 seconds = 13 minutes 20 seconds...

[stassy]

You needed to refresh the whole database with no swap the 1st time to sync with the cardimage, that alone with the fact that following patches messed up custom db, you had to do it very often because at that time patches were released every week, even by days. . .