Forge Android App: 11-13-2016 Alpha 1.5.58.002

[drdev]

Ooo, very nice, you mean it's already playable? You really managed to implemented this?

I'd love to see it, please upload it!

More like under development. Also, it's going to be a little different than my original design (I nixed the hexagon tile part for example) but I think it should still be awesome.

I'll post more details and screenshots once I finish a bit more of the implementation.

[jureidinim]

Ooo, very nice, you mean it's already playable? You really managed to implemented this?

I'd love to see it, please upload it!

More like under development. Also, it's going to be a little different than my original design (I nixed the hexagon tile part for example) but I think it should still be awesome.

I'll post more details and screenshots once I finish a bit more of the implementation.

Looks very cool. I read that thread describing what you are going for. Very nice. I take it there will be constructed decks to face - would there be random ones too - just to mix it up and make it replayable.

I like the idea of you incorporating commander mode into this game.
Would it be difficult to do the PlanesChase variant as well? Maybe just at the time the player chooses to change planes it would trigger a Planeschase matchup?

I always thought Magic has these great variants but they dont get showcased a lot. something like what you are doing now could really incorporate most/all the variants.

[drdev]

Looks very cool. I read that thread describing what you are going for. Very nice. I take it there will be constructed decks to face - would there be random ones too - just to mix it up and make it replayable.

I like the idea of you incorporating commander mode into this game.
Would it be difficult to do the PlanesChase variant as well? Maybe just at the time the player chooses to change planes it would trigger a Planeschase matchup?

I always thought Magic has these great variants but they dont get showcased a lot. something like what you are doing now could really incorporate most/all the variants.

Actually, my plan is have all decks be randomly generated for this game mode. Creating decks takes a lot of effort, especially for the sheer number of planes I'm trying to support. Also, I want this format to be as different from Quest mode as possible (to justify both modes existing), so I'm purposefully doing some things different than Quest mode.

As to your question about variant support, I'll let this teaser screenshot answer that question (and perhaps raise others )

[jureidinim]

Actually, my plan is have all decks be randomly generated for this game mode. Creating decks takes a lot of effort, especially for the sheer number of planes I'm trying to support. Also, I want this format to be as different from Quest mode as possible (to justify both modes existing), so I'm purposefully doing some things different than Quest mode.

As to your question about variant support, I'll let this teaser screenshot answer that question (and perhaps raise others )

ConquestPrefs.png

Awesome
I have no further questions... except.. when do we get to play?

[drdev]

My goal is to have something playable out by Christmas at this point.

[drdev]

Here's another teaser screenshot, this time of the main launch screen:

Note that this screen isn't finished yet, so there will be more to reveal later.

[Blitzdragoon]

I seem to crash the game alot when i use my sliver commande4 deck. It often breaks after either using mana echoes or when i use my commander (sliver overlord) ability to tutor slivers more than a couple of times in a round. I have been using this to help play test my deck. It has helped me some but never completing a battle with it is a problem.

[drdev]

I seem to crash the game alot when i use my sliver commande4 deck. It often breaks after either using mana echoes or when i use my commander (sliver overlord) ability to tutor slivers more than a couple of times in a round. I have been using this to help play test my deck. It has helped me some but never completing a battle with it is a problem.

Can you reproduce this issue on the desktop version? Could you provide more details on the error, such as the stack trace?

[Blitzdragoon]

I can reproduce it, but currently only run forge on my tablet because my desktop is down right now. Once i reproduce it again i will try sending the report again to you, i needed to be able to log on to your site to post a reply. I do want to thank you guys for such a great program though. I find it quite fun to play magic on it when im bored and by myself, its also really great to build and test deck designs. I just wish it had a way to set the random decks to a setting. I occassionally find that several of the random decks are way to easy, and wouldlike to be able to set them closer to a medium difficulty level to practice versus a more traditional player than what seems to be a beginner in the constructed blocks. I do find that several of the quest decks in the medium and hard are quite what i am expecting to face. I might just have to setup my deck in quest to get a closer playtest to what i want, the only problem is i would like to quest commander format as well as more traditional constructed decks.

[j6m6w6]

I'm thinking of getting a nvidia shield, does anyone here have one and does forge run well on it? Thanks for any info!

[drdev]

So I realized it's been awhile since I last released an update, due to a combination of my work on Planar Conquest (the new game mode), as well as some work on usability improvements for the desktop version of Forge. Certainly overdue.

I just released 1.5.32.001, which contains all new cards released in the 1.5.30 and 1.5.31 Betas, as well as the following changes:

• Consolidated Booster Draft and Sealed Deck buttons into Draft/Sealed on main menu screen, which points to a new screen that allows creating or loading both types of limited games. This is to make room for the new Planar Conquest button (which is currently disabled while I continue its development)
• Added support for swiping up on a stack of tokens to attack with them all
• Added support for swiping up on a stack of lands to tap them all for mana (or at least as many as can be used towards the cost of the current spell)
• Added support for swiping up on a mana symbol in your pool to pay as much of that type of as possible towards the cost current spell)

[drdev]

I just released 1.5.32.002, which contains some requested enhancements to the card zoom view:

• Replaced the Zoom/Details tabs at the bottom with a thinner bar indicating the ability to swipe down to switch between the displaying the card picture and the details
• Added support for displaying part of the previous and next card on the sides, with the ability to swipe left and right to view other cards without having to leave the zoom view
• Added support for swiping up to activate the current card, with a thin bar at the top indicating such
  
  • By activate, I mean perform the equivalent action as if you'd just tapped on the card initially
  • In the match screen, this will either activate a card's ability if on the battlefield or play it from other zones
  • In the deck editor, this will select the card and display the menu to add/remove copies
  • In card picker dialogs, this will simply select the card
  • If there's no action that can be taken, swiping up will do nothing and the top bar indicating the swipe up action will not be shown
• Made it so tapping anywhere on the zoom view will close it, as opposed to the 4 directional swipe actions described above

The result looks like this:

Let me know what you think. Thanks.
-Dan

EDIT: Since first posting this, I've released versions .003 and .004 with a couple bug fixes for the new zoom view.

[friarsol]

Is there a way to check the alternate side of Morph creatures or DFCs or Flips yet?

[drdev]

Is there a way to check the alternate side of Morph creatures or DFCs or Flips yet?

No, but that's one of the next things I'm going to do.

[markthema3]

Fantastic work so far, a few issues have come up and I have a few ideas/suggestions.

The app sometimes crashes when the splash screen says it's loading fonts and the progress bar is full. I've had a few crashes that seem like low ram crashes, even after a fresh reboot and with a gig of ram, and I'm not using any card images.

The app generally isn't as responsive as I would like, and some higher resolution UI assets and/or better UI scaling is definitely in order.

If you still haven't decided how to implement things that go in the right click menu on desktop versions of forge, the "proper" way would be to bring up the right click menu when the user does a long press. You're currently using long press to show the zoomed in view of a card. For one, there should be some indication to the user that something will happen if they keep pressing (typically darkening the pressed item is fairly standard). For two, I think a double tap gesture makes more sense for zooming (that's how it's used in mobile web browsers), which would then free up the long tap gesture for the right click menu.

If would be cool to create a native UI using standard Android UI components and design patterns as much as possible, and only use the desktop UI bits where necessary (playing field, card rendering, etc). Using the built in components would almost certainly improve the responsiveness of the UI, make managing scaling easier, and make Forge feel more at home on Android, but on the other hand it would probably be a lot of work.

I'm going to check out the code when I get home tonight and look for other areas that could be improved. Maybe implement the double tap for zoom and long tap right click menu if I have time.