Updates on the way.

[lujo]

I though so. What does it mean though, for a card like Penumbra Kavu or Penumbra Spider? They're simmilar in function to Penumbra Bobcat, so the technical part could be mostly copy-pasting and adjusting the numbers as far as the ability is concerned. Could someone do all the prepwork to get them into manalink (or even just shandalar)?

If it's just tedious, I could very likely do things like that.

[Korath]

(Penumbra Spider is in Manalink and (the next version of) Shandalar both.)

Getting a card into Manalink involves:

1. Verifying the Manalink.csv row (if it's already there) or creating it (if it isn't). Just about all cards in normal sets up to Fate Reforged are there, but once in a while one got left out by accident and never added, and there's plenty of schemes/planes/phenomena/vanguard/promo-only cards that aren't there either.
2. Collecting all the artwork.
3. Creating a ct_all.csv line.
4. Unless the card exactly duplicates another in all respects, including all the numbers that don't come from the csv rows, assigning a function address and writing the card's function. The latter can range from trivial (Penumbra Kavu) to tedious (Memnarch) to extremely difficult (Circular Logic) to flatly impossible (Cavern of Souls).
5. Do all of the above for the card's alternate form if it changes card type (like a manland) or flips (Kamigawa block) or is double-sided (Innistrad block/Magic Origins), and do it all again for any tokens it makes if it's not a token type that's already in Manalink (Kavu tokens aren't).
6. Wait for a Manalink release.

Getting into Shandalar means

1. Steps 1-3 from the above
2. Writing the card's function - again, it can range from trivial to tedious to difficult to impossible, though which cards fall into which categories is different from Manalink.
3. Artwork and Manalink.csv and ct_all.csv rows for tokens (if they're not already there for another card) and transformed/flipped cards. Cards that just change type don't need any extra work in Shandalar.
4. Either wait for a Manalink release, as above, or create the ct_all.csv row in already-processed form in memory at runtime. That takes a lot longer, and some of the limitations of that approach are described here.

A concrete example:
jiansonz requested Feast of the Unicorn. It's not in Manalink; that makes me sad, because I got multiple copies among the first few boosters I ever opened. If it were already in Manalink, putting it into Shandalar would be easy, and take all of thirty seconds: put

Code: Select all

CARD(card_enchanted_creature_gets_4_0, CARD_ID_FEAST_OF_THE_UNICORN)
{
  { /* Feast of the Unicorn   |3|B
     * Enchantment - Aura
     * Enchant creature
     * Enchanted creature gets +4/+0. */
  }
  return AURA_PT(4, 0);
}

into src/shandalar/cards/auras.cpp and it's done. (I've got an emacs macro that pastes the card text and stats into that comment, so that part is just one keypress.)

If I were content to wait for a Manalink release but didn't want to go to the trouble of actually adding it to Manalink (and so could skip step 4), it would take about twenty minutes; putting it into Manalink would be another five or so - it's a trivial card, but assigning a function address and putting it in all the right places is always a hassle. If I didn't want to wait for a Manalink release, it would take another ten or so minutes to create the ct_all.csv row in memory, and then it still wouldn't work quite right in the deckbuilder. And none of those scenarious include tracking down and processing the artwork.

[lujo]

Thank you very much, this made things quite clear for the most part. I actually feel bad for pestering you, I'm really only looking to help. And I can imagine anyone trying to do what you're doing could use some.

So in other words, tracking down and processing the artwork could potentially help with yet unimplemented cards (especially if they're simple ones similar to allready existing ones), and the main reason stuff has to be in manalink first is the deck builder?

[Korath]

The main reason has more to do with it turning 30-second cards into half-hour ones. Having the art already dealt with would help, yes, but I'm not going to let anyone use that to guilt-trip me into spending the extra time on a card I otherwise don't care about.

[lujo]

No intention of attempting that, but whoever decides they care about whatever cards being in or simply plugging the easier holes in mana link at whatever point would have an easier time if the art part was done. Whoever's doing the implementation is gonna care about something more than they care about other things, but if I can help anyone who's interests intersect with mine at some point, why not? Thank you for telling me how it works.

[Korath]

That came out a bit wrong, I think. The obvious situation to avoid is:

• I say, "I won't even consider putting in a non-Manalink card unless you've already assembled the art. (No guarantees even if you do.)"
• Someone finds some card that's had a dozen reprints, and isn't in Manalink because it's genuinely difficult to do in this engine, not just because it's an easy but unimpressive card like Aysen Bureaucrats that nobody's gotten around to doing yet.
• He cleans up the scans for all 12 different versions of the art, resizes them properly, makes the color balances match, etc.
• He makes a request, attaches all the art, and makes everyone concerned miserable because the card still won't go in.

The idea I was trying to get across is that I want to avoid this for a card like Aysen Bureaucrats, too, where I'd feel I could either make everyone miserable for refusing to implement it, or put the card in and have the only miserable person be me.

[lujo]

I understand you. You're doing a, frankly, monumental job. At some point there'll be less bulk stuff to get in, and you (or someone else) might accumulate a number of things that they'd want to see in Shandalar but that have to be in Manalink first, and there'll be an update or something. No need to spend more time on this, the sooner you get the stuff you're currently working on the sooner equipment gets in the game

[Rawky]

Greetings!

I just made my account for three reasons.

1. Thank you for all the enjoyment I had with past iterations of Shandalar and ManaLink. There are no words for how much I like this project. I've dumped literally days/weeks/months-played into this game. I have a tiny bit of programming experience and I'm mildly adept with programming logic, so if there is ever a need then I am quite willing to lend a hand if such a meager hand can be lent to this great beast of a project. Either way, I'll still be coming back to pick up the latest output. While I don't tap mana anymore IRL, I still love playing solo. I'd even contribute to the AI if that's a possibility, since I can always use a better opponent. If I could make the AI play like me, I would have a much harder time winning this game. I've been playing Magic off and on since the release of Fallen Empires and I my first experience coding anything was in a persistent world project on a private Neverwinter Nights server called Shroud World. I since studied a bit more at school about 10 years ago, thought out of practice lately.

2. For some reason I always forget the correct way to install a fresh copy of new iterations and this time I am having a hell of a time. I can get ManaLink working without issue, but for some reason I am unable to get Shandalar to run. I've tried repeated installs, in the manner posted by either Korath or CirothUngol. I can always get ManaLink to run, but never Shandalar. I suspect I am making a stupidly basic mistake and I am just overlooking it every time. Perhaps I need to go over each step with a fine-toothed comb to find my mistake. When you say to "Install Shandalar from any of the recent versions posted in this forum", do you mean the file named "Shandalar Korath preAlpha ThievesHideout1.7z"?

3. Questions! I always have questions, but often I let them linger to see if I can answer them myself without bothering anyone. Let's start with these. What is "Loremaster's Tower"? Is it just a fancy name for a polished release or is there actually a fancy tower somewhere and a loremaster within? Same question for "Thieves Hideout". Sorry if I missed the answer somewhere else.

Anyway, thanks again for all the awesomeness of this project.

[Korath]

It means any of the working, standalone, unaltered versions of Shandalar - the ones labelled 2010 or 2012 in (other) stickied threads in this forum, or similar. You should be able to run the game with just the original Alpha through The Dark/4th Edition cards immediately after that step, though it'll most likely break temporarily after the next step (installing Manalink on top of it).

The release codenames - Ruined Tower, Loremaster's Tower, Thieves Hideout, Nomad's Bazaar - are just more memorable ways to say "May 2015 release", "June 2015 release", "August 2015 release", and "October 2015 release" respectively. (The actual names are pulled from the names of lairs, in the same order as in AdvStrings.txt.)

[Rawky]

Thanks for the reply! I'm still a bit confused though.

Do you mean this?

The sticky for the 2012 release says that it "is now defunct" and directs to this post, which then does not seem to have anything but patches.

Okay, so I got Shandalar running. Had to add some exe files to the DEP (Win7 64). Found a doozie of a bug in there too. Apparently you can't remove an exception from that list if the file was deleted. You have to put the file back (at least in name and location) to remove the exception attached to it. This seems to interfere with other same-name exceptions. I think this may be what was messing me up so much before I made this account.

I made a new game and I can walk around in the world. However, I can't edit my deck. I get the error Fatal: Couldn't load deck builder bitmaps. I can still walk up to an enemy, but the gameplay screen is missing art for the battlefield and card hand - it's just black. Also, when I go to the store in town and open a card image the colored mana symbols are missing.

Running Deck.exe gives the same error message as above.

Any idea where I went wrong?

[Aswan jaguar]

If you want to try another install since you still have problems try these steps here:
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=17003&start=150#p180478

However in last 4th step get the newer version of Shandalar instead of the old one I mention there either the bit unstable Thieves Hideout 2:
download/file.php?id=23127
or the more stable Loremaster's Tower 4:
download/file.php?id=23164

[Rawky]

If you want to try another install since you still have problems try these steps here:
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=17003&start=150#p180478

However in last 4th step get the newer version of Shandalar instead of the old one I mention there either the bit unstable Thieves Hideout 2:
download/file.php?id=23127
or the more stable Loremaster's Tower 4:
download/file.php?id=23164

Did all that (after a complete uninstall and before & after reboot), used Loremaster's Tower 4, exact same issues occurred. No colored mana symbols on cards, can't edit my deck, play screen background (aka Battlefield) and card hand border are black. Otherwise, I was able to run around, fight a guy, grab some random free things and flee to town and save.

BTW, the speed that the actions are processed in the duel screen is very nice and smooth. I bet I will screw myself up by going too fast just because it lets me.

The first town I went to had a Terramorphic Expanse for sale and I cheered out loud.

Also, am I supposed to put more than Shandalar.exe and MTGLauncher.exe in the DEP?

Edit: Oh, and the same error message occurs for Deck.exe (Fatal: Couldn't load deck builder bitmaps)

Thanks for any assistance you might be able to offer!

[Korath]

That's all symptomatic of a bad Manalink install. Some common ways to shoot yourself in the foot there:

• Installing it before (the original) Shandalar instead of after.
• Installing it into a different directory. It should be trying to overwrite shandalar.exe and many other files.
• Not preserving the directory structure when you extract. That there's an easily-accessible option to do so is a sign of a badly misdesigned archival program; that it's actually the default of some is criminal.
• Attempting to install into C:\Program Files or some other directory that Windows cripples without elevating to administrator privileges. Again, whoever designed this to silently break instead of prompting for admin credentials was criminally incompetent.

You shouldn't need mtglauncher.exe at all, either for Manalink or Shandalar - just run Magic.exe and Shandalar.exe directly, respectively. Starting with Nomad's Bazaar you'll need to permit deckdll.dll to execute data in addition to those two.

[Rawky]

Apparently I was using the wrong "Manalink 3" file

I downloaded a fresh copy of "Journey into Nyx"

Aside from a strange occurrence on the screen where you name your character, things are running well.

Thanks again for all your help!

Edit: Yeah, there seems to be a graphical bug with the player face. I can give a screen shot if it matters, but I'm ignoring it and playing anyway.

Also, is it possible to remake/edit the enemy decks? If so, I wouldn't mind taking on the task of laying out a proposal, given some time of course.

[stassy]

Also, is it possible to remake/edit the enemy decks? If so, I wouldn't mind taking on the task of laying out a proposal, given some time of course.

Yup, here you go.