Updates on the way.

[lujo]

I have to give a big congratulations - the AI is handling general stuff much, much better in Shandalar than in Manalink ^^ And the new infinite duels mode is exactly what I've been looking for, now I can playtest cards and decks at the same time

A question - when I enable debug mode I see the option of adding life to the opponent and myself, but not subtracting it. I know I can calculate it by heart, but I could get a much better assessment of how powerful / appropriate a deck is if IT could also be aware of how much life we have. Is there a way to lower it? Set my/opponents life total? Am I being an idiot again?

[Aswan jaguar]

question - when I enable debug mode I see the option of adding life to the opponent and myself, but not subtracting it. I know I can calculate it by heart, but I could get a much better assessment of how powerful / appropriate a deck is if IT could also be aware of how much life we have. Is there a way to lower it? Set my/opponents life total? Am I being an idiot again?

If you enable the debug mode then click L or the menu button to change your life (type how much you want totally) or Alt L to change AI's life.

[stassy]

It's still interesting to have a peek at the latest Shandalar.ini file, because many options are added every release, so don't discard it already while updating your Shandalar folder

Shandalar -d is a godsend, because expansion filter do work with it so you can theme deck faster !

[lujo]

Awesome, and don't worry - I did my best to carefully look through evrything - gitlog, the ini (backed up the old one, too), it's just that there's so much to take in and I'm doing too many things at once + real life

All the new stuff is inpossibly cool - the test-friendly duels, the deckbuilder, the fact that I learned how you use command prompt (that is I figured out that it's the old dos interface finally, doooooh, I'm a moron -.-')

I just hope you guys don't end up strangling me because of the bug/AI report spam and stupid questions I try not to carpet bomb you guys with them, although it doesn't look that way, and there's a bunch of them in my notes that I notice but don't report. On the other hand, volume does mean I get to hit plenty of them

[stassy]

A small notice about cmd argument : the stdout etc comment about the -c function mean you need to output manually the name of the file which will hold the card list, for example :

Code: Select all

shandalar.exe -c > cardlist.txt

will create a text file called cardlist which will list the whole shandalar card list in the shandalar folder (if you put > aaa instead, it will create a file with no extension called aaa which contain the list).
Also I just noticed that Shandalar seems to be holding 5798 cards already...wow

For some reason, --help or -h does not work in cmd mode, the others command line with argument are working fine though (xp pro in admin mode, process pop for a second then depop)

Sometimes in shandalar duel gauntlet mode, in order to exit the game ALT+F4 need to be done twice, maybe that is what the gitub said about the game wanting to force a loss first before exiting.

Talking about shandalar duel gauntlet mod, if you point a non shandalar valid deck, the game will not run at all (which is a good indication that one card or more is unsupported)

Not sure if it matters or not, but -test will output a shandalar_dll.log with the following :

| Open

Card 734:Avacyn, Angel of Hope has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Flying, vigilance
Avacyn, Angel of Hope and other permanents you control are indestructible."

Card 1077:Blightsteel Colossus has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Trample, infect
Blightsteel Colossus is indestructible.
If Blightsteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Blightsteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead."

Card 2045:Creepy Doll has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Creepy Doll is indestructible.
Whenever Creepy Doll deals combat damage to a creature, flip a coin. If you win the flip, destroy that creature."

Card 2249:Darksteel Colossus has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Trample
Darksteel Colossus is indestructible.
If Darksteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Darksteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead."

Card 2252:Darksteel Juggernaut has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Darksteel Juggernaut's power and toughness are each equal to the number of artifacts you control.
Darksteel Juggernaut is indestructible and attacks each turn if able."

Card 2255:Darksteel Myr has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Darksteel Myr is indestructible. (Lethal damage and effects that say “destroy” don't destroy it. If its toughness is 0 or less, it's still put into its owner's graveyard.)"

Card 2260:Darksteel Sentinel has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
Vigilance
Darksteel Sentinel is indestructible. (Lethal damage and effects that say “destroy” don't destroy it. If its toughness is 0 or less, it's still put into its owner's graveyard.)"

Card 5346:Konda, Lord of Eiganjo has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Vigilance (Attacking doesn't cause this creature to tap.)
Bushido 5 (When this blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +5/+5 until end of turn.)
Konda, Lord of Eiganjo is indestructible."

Card 7326:Predator Ooze has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Predator Ooze is indestructible.
Whenever Predator Ooze attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Whenever a creature dealt damage by Predator Ooze this turn dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Predator Ooze."

Card 8226:Sapling of Colfenor has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Sapling of Colfenor is indestructible.
Whenever Sapling of Colfenor attacks, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a creature card, you gain life equal to that card's toughness, lose life equal to its power, then put it into your hand."

Card 9091:Spearbreaker Behemoth has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Spearbreaker Behemoth is indestructible.
|1: Target creature with power 5 or greater is indestructible this turn."

Card 9462:Stuffy Doll has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"As Stuffy Doll enters the battlefield, choose a player.
Stuffy Doll is indestructible.
Whenever Stuffy Doll is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to the chosen player.
|T: Stuffy Doll deals 1 damage to itself."

Card 9666:Tajic, Blade of the Legion has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"Tajic, Blade of the Legion is indestructible.
Battalion — Whenever Tajic and at least two other creatures attack, Tajic gets +5/+5 until end of turn."

Card 10308:Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre has indestructible but no 'indestructible' in rules text:
"When you cast Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, destroy target permanent.
Annihilator 4 (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices four permanents.)
Ulamog is indestructible.
When Ulamog is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles his or her graveyard into his or her library."

Goblin Artisans card_data_t::extra_ability & EA_ACT_INTERRUPT card_data_t::extra_ability & EA_UNK4000 - activated counterspell
Priest of Yawgmoth card_data_t::extra_ability & EA_ACT_INTERRUPT
Card Apprentice Wizard is both mana source and act_ability (paid mana source):
"|U, |T: Add |3 to your mana pool."

Card Celestial Prism is both mana source and act_ability (paid mana source):
"|2, |T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."

Card Coal Golem is both mana source and act_ability (paid mana source):
"|3, Sacrifice Coal Golem: Add |R|R|R to your mana pool."

Card Fire Sprites is both mana source and act_ability (paid mana source):
"Flying
|G, |T: Add |R to your mana pool."

[Korath]

Missing console output: see here for the technical explanation. My dev environment hid the problem from me, so I didn't notice and fix it until just after releasing.

Alt-F4 twice: usually caused by having the prompt window active. It should really forward WM_CLOSE to the main window, and I'll do something about that; I've just gotten used to this behavior from Manalink.

The test failures about indestructible are caused by outdated wording - they all pass when tested against current Oracle text. (Speaking of which, the reason I haven't handed the csvs off to you is because I've been waiting until I start seeing commits to Manalink again; I keep finding minor issues to fix in the meantime. Unless you'd care to learn git so you can edit it concurrently?)

[stassy]

It's ok if it's minor issue that can be easily solved, I can wait

About shandalar.exe -c, is it possible to make a list by expansion or others filters?

[damicore]

This is the Nomad's Bazaar 1 ("NB1") release, containing 1186 new cards compared to the Thieves Hideout series [...]

This is incredible.
May I ask what the criterion is behind the order in which cards are being added? I know whenever you add a certain keyword or semikeyword you program most cards of all sets you can with the functions you've added but how do you pick those keyword abilities? Do you pick them in a historical order? Or do you pick them in an order of primitivity and ubiquity?

[Korath]

For abilities and mechanics, it's a rough combination of how many cards it'll let me add, and how difficult it is to program completely enough that I can reasonably expect never to have to come back and do it over. (For cards that aren't strongly dependent on a specific mechanic, usually it's because I notice them while searching for ones that are.)

On the other hand, I'll occasionally put in a mechanic that I know I'll have to rewrite eventually if the common case is quite easy, the prerequisites for a proper implementation seem a long way off, and I can compartmentalize it in such a way that it won't be difficult to update. Rampage, Bushido, and Flanking in this last version are a good example; to do them properly, "when [something] blocks/becomes blocked" needs to become a real trigger instead of just happening all at once after blockers are declared, and to do that properly, I've got to generalize Two-Headed Giant of Foriys so I can do all of the various "[x] can block [y] additional creatures" cards. I remember just enough of doing that for Manalink that I know it'll be unpleasant, not enough to make it any easier the second time around.

[Aswan jaguar]

Korath,I want to thank you very,very much for the poison/infect hack trick you made for AI as AI in most cases now makes great attack choices.Even an experienced manalink junky like me way too familiar with how the engine acts,gets the feeling that AI gets poison/infect for the first time which is so,so great!!!

AI is way to lethal with it and a deck full with boosts to back it up.

I can't find where you said about that development trick you used maybe it was in a release log.text. but if I remember correctly the basic line is that infect/poison damage is =(x2 normal damage for AI) is there any way to expand it to something like that:
25-35 life = x3 damage for AI,
35-45 = x4 damage for AI,
and etc until 100,(or even bigger if that is not way too difficult).
to cover more scenarios at least until 100 life which some gain life decks reach easily?

edit Also Korath great work for the autocard show feature to work in the bug tracker!!! previously it made me furious and reluctant to post bugs at times,it made unpleasant to read the bug reports and of course it was causing serious time loss and irritation to see the card in gatherer or in deck builder,huge improvement!

[Korath]

...I can't think of what I might have done. I haven't changed the weighting for infect since before RT1, and it was for the noncombat AI. To the minor extent that influences the combat AI, it should be more reluctant to attack with them, not less - it'll see a creature with infect as worth about 1.75x as much of an otherwise-identical creature without, but not as having additional power or attack effectiveness.

[Aswan jaguar]

it'll see a creature with infect as worth about 1.75x as much of an otherwise-identical creature

I meant this change.I knew you made changes back then but I had many games against infect/poison last 2 months.I have mistaken what you did it by a lot.

Maybe it is the mix of a deck with small infect creatures with lots of boosts (rodils deck I don't remember which creature)that made me feel like AI knows that will win if AI makes 10 point of damage with infect/poison.
Because I can't understand otherwise the AI plays I saw.AI would boost the free creature instead of the usual saving his blocked creature & killing mine creature,too when AI needs/thinks that is ~15 points normal damage away of winning but only ~5 away of dealing 10 poison damage and AI always made the correct choice to boost the unblocked when AI was going to make a win through poison counters.That is why I thought that you gave AI think infect creatures do double damage to player.
It seems to me there is a big difference and improvement in comparison with Manalink's AI and infect/poison.I haven't tested much though.

[stassy]

Before I continue card testing I need to know if my upgrade from TH2 to NB1 version is ok or broken : can someone test if Followed Footsteps is bugged?
(currently for me, Followed Footsteps is castable with no valid target and duplicate land instead while it worked before)

It seems to be that bugs I report cannot be replicated elsewhere so I wonder if my upgrade went ok...

[Korath]

It's broken for me too. (And it can't have worked before, the card was only added for NB1.)

[jiansonz]

Before I begin my next playthrough, I want to know which blocking rule is in the game now. Will declared blockers that become tapped before combat damage is resolved deal their combat damage or not?