Idea for Quest mode: Alchemist

[lazylockie]

I have an idea for Quest mode. I'm willing to implement it, although I'm a bit rusty on Java

I just wanted to know who or how do you guys decide what new ideas can have a go.

Idea: The Alchemist uses a predetermined set of rules to consume cards and generate a new card. For instance:

X Mythics + fee -> 1 new Mythic
Y Planeswalkers + fee -> 1 new Planeswalker
Z cards of same color + fee -> 1 new card of same color
Really difficult recipe + (a large amount of fee) -> 1 Any card you want

- The recipes would be stored on a xml/txt file so that new recipes can be easily added later
- For balance reasons, the access to it would need a new bazaar item and therefore a cost
- The recipes and prices themselves would be discussed on the community, so it feels just right: neither too cheap nor too expensive
- Alchemy Advanced Study 1: Bazaar item that allows you to choose one of two different outputs
- Alchemy Advanced Study 2: Bazaar item that allows you to choose one of three three different outputs
- Alchemy Advanced Study 3: Bazaar item that allows you to transmute again the same recipe for an increased price

What do you guys think?

[friarsol]

I have an idea for Quest mode. I'm willing to implement it, although I'm a bit rusty on Java

I just wanted to know who or how do you guys decide what new ideas can have a go.

Idea: The Alchemist uses a predetermined set of rules to consume cards and generate a new card. For instance:

X Mythics + fee -> 1 new Mythic
Y Planeswalkers + fee -> 1 new Planeswalker
Z cards of same color + fee -> 1 new card of same color
Really difficult recipe + (a large amount of fee) -> 1 Any card you want

What do you guys think?

Horadric Cube for Forge? I had a similar idea sometime back, but more about transmuting lands specifically within the cycle they exist in (Duals, Shocks, Pain, etc) for a fee based on the cycle, so users can improve their mana bases. [i.e. Taiga + $$$ = Tundra]. A flexible enough system could certainly handle that.

Typically for new developers we ask them to scope out exactly what they want to do, and realize how much work it might be. Then chat about where it fits in things. A new Bazaar ability is pretty low risk. (As opposed to say Network play or monte carlo AI)

If you can't implement it yourself, then it's basically convincing someone to do it for you, which is a tougher task since I know everyone has fairly long lists of things they already want done, and pretty limited timelines of when they can work on things.

Quest controllers are pretty isolated, so you should be able to download the source and write some code to try it out yourself.

[lazylockie]

I have an idea for Quest mode. I'm willing to implement it, although I'm a bit rusty on Java

I just wanted to know who or how do you guys decide what new ideas can have a go.

Idea: The Alchemist uses a predetermined set of rules to consume cards and generate a new card. For instance:

X Mythics + fee -> 1 new Mythic
Y Planeswalkers + fee -> 1 new Planeswalker
Z cards of same color + fee -> 1 new card of same color
Really difficult recipe + (a large amount of fee) -> 1 Any card you want

What do you guys think?

Horadric Cube for Forge? I had a similar idea sometime back, but more about transmuting lands specifically within the cycle they exist in (Duals, Shocks, Pain, etc) for a fee based on the cycle, so users can improve their mana bases. [i.e. Taiga + $$$ = Tundra]. A flexible enough system could certainly handle that.

Typically for new developers we ask them to scope out exactly what they want to do, and realize how much work it might be. Then chat about where it fits in things. A new Bazaar ability is pretty low risk. (As opposed to say Network play or monte carlo AI)

If you can't implement it yourself, then it's basically convincing someone to do it for you, which is a tougher task since I know everyone has fairly long lists of things they already want done, and pretty limited timelines of when they can work on things.

Quest controllers are pretty isolated, so you should be able to download the source and write some code to try it out yourself.

thanks for the response sol. I might be able to code it myself, I just need(ed) some sort of "seal of approval" so I don't code something that won't be accepted by developers community

I'll update the OP with more detailed ideas as I think of them

[KrazyTheFox]

I quite like this idea. One thing you could do to limit some of the 'better' transmutations could be a 'tech tree' of sorts, where you start with some transmutations and unlock others later on. That would likely be a fair bit harder to do, though.

A couple ideas for transmutations off the top of my head:
[*] Transmute back a set (3 rares of a single set + fee + something = rare from the next oldest set).
[*] Same as above, but forward a set
[*] 2 rares, 6 uncommons, 22 commons (for example) of the same set = booster pack
[*] Convert an existing draft tournament into a draft token

[friarsol]

I quite like this idea. One thing you could do to limit some of the 'better' transmutations could be a 'tech tree' of sorts, where you start with some transmutations and unlock others later on.

It doesn't need to be a tree, just levels. So transmutation level 1 can do simple transmutes (less expensive transmutes, more random transmutes, lower power level transmutes). In the external file that defines the required transmutation level is also defined. You pay the alchemist a bit more to train his abilities now, he can do even better stuff. If you attempt a transmute that is above the alchemists level, can you "force" him to do it with a failure percentage based on how many levels he's missing?

[lazylockie]

slightly offtopic, but is this Wiki up to date? http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Forge:How_to_Get_Started_Developing_Forge

[Marek14]

Basically, there could be a global rarity system where "upgrading" a card would give a card with higher rarity from the same block or a card of the same rarity from previous block.

Ideas:

Timeshift shuffle: You input a timeshifted card from Time Spiral, and you get a completely random card from a set that card is originally from.

Materials/additions: Have separate inputs for "materials" and "additions". Additions would modify the rules acting on materials. If only one addition is allowed, the rules can be pretty complex. For example:
Celestial Dawn as an addition converts the material card into a white card with the same mana cost.
Glasses of Urza (or similar "look at hand" cards) will show you the result of the transformation in advance. At this point, you can cancel it if it's something you don't want, and you get all materials back, except for Glasses of Urza.
M15 Souls enforce blocks (Soul of Theros forces the result to be from Theros block.)
Shards of Alara Heralds as additions can spawn their "lord" (Angel's Herald will spawn Empyrial Archangel when you use a green, white and blue creature cards as materials)
Tribal lords as additions will force the result to be a card with the given creature type (but there is always a chance to spawn changelings or Mistform Ultimus).
Clone and such, used as addition for a creature card, will output two copies of that card. Similarly, Fork would duplicate spell cards. These only work if the card copied has equal or lower rarity (on global scale) than the card used to duplicate it.
Myr Landshaper can transform a basic land into its artifact land counterpart.
Sacrifice or Burnt Offering can transform a creature card into money.

And those are just off-top-of-head ideas. I could delve deep with the cardlists and come up with something even weirder.

[lazylockie]

Basically, there could be a global rarity system where "upgrading" a card would give a card with higher rarity from the same block or a card of the same rarity from previous block.

Ideas:

Timeshift shuffle: You input a timeshifted card from Time Spiral, and you get a completely random card from a set that card is originally from.

Materials/additions: Have separate inputs for "materials" and "additions". Additions would modify the rules acting on materials. If only one addition is allowed, the rules can be pretty complex. For example:
Celestial Dawn as an addition converts the material card into a white card with the same mana cost.
Glasses of Urza (or similar "look at hand" cards) will show you the result of the transformation in advance. At this point, you can cancel it if it's something you don't want, and you get all materials back, except for Glasses of Urza.
M15 Souls enforce blocks (Soul of Theros forces the result to be from Theros block.)
Shards of Alara Heralds as additions can spawn their "lord" (Angel's Herald will spawn Empyrial Archangel when you use a green, white and blue creature cards as materials)
Tribal lords as additions will force the result to be a card with the given creature type (but there is always a chance to spawn changelings or Mistform Ultimus).
Clone and such, used as addition for a creature card, will output two copies of that card. Similarly, Fork would duplicate spell cards. These only work if the card copied has equal or lower rarity (on global scale) than the card used to duplicate it.
Myr Landshaper can transform a basic land into its artifact land counterpart.
Sacrifice or Burnt Offering can transform a creature card into money.

And those are just off-top-of-head ideas. I could delve deep with the cardlists and come up with something even weirder.

I like the idea of being able to see multiple output cards and choose one of them. I think I'll use it but as a bazaar item enhancer.

These specific rules would probably need a way to tag cards in their script - which is way beyond my scope. Hardcoding the specific card is too clunky, the same way Fork can be used, so could Reverberate or any other copy spell.