DotP2013 OFFICIAL CARDS Bug Fixes (last update 13/8/2013)

[thefiremind]

Hi. I'm using Theta version with Ravnica DLC installed and I've found a bug within this mod/patch. When you use Voracious Dragon (present in Goblin Gangland f.e.) and you devour any Goblins as its ETB triggers, the target of his ability (the one that should be dealt damage to) receives 0 damage everytime, no matter how many Goblins were sacrificed! Well, I hope its a simple thing to fix as it worked like a charm till I installed thefiremind's mod. So, thefiremind, could you fix this little issue, please? Also, am I really the only one who noticed this?

You are absolutely right, and I really wonder why you have been the only one to notice. Since Voracious Dragon needed the "goblin counting" part that I couldn't insert in my external functions, I preserved that part from the original card, but forgot to change the target chest to the one I was using in my functions. Now it's fixed.

What's the difference between Archmage and Planeswalker difficulties, when using this mod? Is it only the latter AI cheat-drawing cards it desires? I care only for gameplay-wise differencies. If it is unknown, well, thanks in advance for responding anyways.

I'm sure about only 2 things pertaining game difficulty: lower difficulties make the AI spend less time considering possible future scenarios, and move some cards to a lower place in the deck (for example, when the AI uses Ajani's life-gaining deck, lower difficulties move Serra Ascendant deeper in the deck). This latter decision is controlled by those "@1", "@2", "@3" that you can find in the original deck XML files near some cards' names.
The fact that the AI knows the first card of the decks when needed and/or the opponents' hands when playing on the highest difficulty could be true or not: nothing official proves it, even if some experiments would suggest it's true.
The core-fixing mod has no effect on this, anyway.

[Firehelp]

Thanks a lot for being so quick, you're awesome! It's working once more, just tested it myself tp be sure. And about the AI, well, it seemed to me that the mod changed it a bit, but that might be because the cards are better understood by the AI, I guess. It just irritates me that because the AI knows things it shouldn't, it's playing worse! AKA as long as you have a land on top of your deck, the AI rarely attacks with Goblin Guide, even for several turns in a row (as long as there's a land), even though you might control no blockers at all. Or try holding Wilt-Leaf Liege on your hand against Rakdos, you'll never have to discard a card (even though the AI clearly has multiple spells that would cause you to discard, making the AI sometimes stuck at playing nothing for many turns...). That's why I switched to Archmage, as it seems to help with this case a bit. But I digress. Thanks again.

[GamerXYZ0]

I too play on Archmage, as I too noticed less cheating. My suggestion when playing Archmage is: edit all the decks and remove the @[number]'s. It's quite some work unfortunately, but otherwise, they will NEVER get to use several cards of their decks, which of course sucks! Also, I forgot exactly in which folder in the main wad it is, but there's also a XML file you can edit to make the AI on Archmage as tough as in Planeswalker (but without the cheating).

Gotta love how they did that... Either you have AI that will never get to use multiple cards and plays purposely worse, or you get AI that's cheating, no middle-ground available without making edits of your own...

[thefiremind]

Gotta love how they did that... Either you have AI that will never get to use multiple cards and plays purposely worse, or you get AI that's cheating, no middle-ground available without making edits of your own...

I'd say that the most stupid thing is that DEFAULT_AI_SETTINGS.XML and DIFFICULTY_SETTINGS let us edit lots of AI-related features except the ones that we really need to edit!

[GamerXYZ0]

Are there even things worth changing in DEFAULT_AI_SETTINGS.XML? I only edited DIFFICULTY_SETTINGS. If so, would really love to know.

And yeah, lots of things we unfortunately can't change. Hence I play Archmage and not Mage to ensure there's as little cheating as possible: on Mage, they seem to make errors that DIFFICULTY_SETTINGS doesn't fix (perhaps that's also the case on Archmage, but they appear to play fine there).

And on a whole other note: something I always wanted to edit was to disallow mulligans. AI mulligans too much for great hands, meaning I can either face them with fewer cards which is too easy, or I must restart the game everytime, but if I do that I simply always see similar plays of that AI which is quite boring.

[thefiremind]

Are there even things worth changing in DEFAULT_AI_SETTINGS.XML?

No, there aren't: that's exactly what I meant.

Back on topic, I made a small update just for Disciple of Bolas whose ability was targetting the creature while it shouldn't (noticed the bug while I was using the card as a base for another one).

[Vavali]

I'm actually surprised you're still doing updates for this, thefiremind. Kudos to you, and thanks.

[thefiremind]

I'm actually surprised you're still doing updates for this, thefiremind. Kudos to you, and thanks.

I'll update this everytime I find a bug in a core card, don't worry. This time, for example, I discovered a bug in a custom card that could manifest also in some core cards, so I applied a fix to them.

[loookaz]

i've noticed that in Eldrazi decks their ability to shuffle to library from graveyard makes all cards shuffle from graveyard to library.
does anyone else seem to have similar issues?

[thefiremind]

i've noticed that in Eldrazi decks their ability to shuffle to library from graveyard makes all cards shuffle from graveyard to library.
does anyone else seem to have similar issues?

If you read the text carefully, you'll see that it's exactly what they should do. For example Ulamog says: "When Ulamog is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles his or her graveyard into his or her library." That's the whole graveyard, not just Ulamog.
(And even if it was a bug, Eldrazi aren't in the core so this wouldn't be the place to fix them. )

[loookaz]

my mistake, i feel stupid now...
just ignore my post, sorry

[NEMESiS]

I am not sure if this was ever posted or fixed but a few weeks ago I had an issue with draining whelk and Mystic Snake not countering target spells if they get killed as they are resolving on to the battlefield. I may have to double check that again.

[Aarala]

That's not a flaw, that's part of the game. I initially thought the same thing when that kind of stuff happened in dotp12

Here's what it says in the official rules (I inserted italics)

603.6. Trigger events that involve objects changing zones are called "zone-change triggers." Many abilities with zone-change triggers attempt to do something to that object after it changes zones. During resolution, these abilities look for the object in the zone that it moved to. If the object is unable to be found in the zone it went to, the part of the ability attempting to do something to the object will fail to do anything. The ability could be unable to find the object because the object never entered the specified zone, because it left the zone before the ability resolved, or because it is in a zone that is hidden from a player, such as a library or an opponent's hand. (This rule applies even if the object leaves the zone and returns again before the ability resolves.) The most common zone-change triggers are enters-the-battlefield triggers and leaves-the-battlefield triggers.

[thefiremind]

That was part of the game in DotP2012, but in DotP2013 there are different triggers that take that into account. The problem is, Mystic Snake and Draining Whelk are coded in a weird way for the part that counters the spell:

Code: Select all

    <RESOLUTION_TIME_ACTION>
    if EffectSource():GetTargetCard() ~= nil then 
       EffectSource():GetTargetCard():CounterSpell() 
    end
    </RESOLUTION_TIME_ACTION>

EffectSource() is a pointer and it gets deleted when the card changes zone, so if Mystic Snake or Draining Whelk change zone, EffectSource() becomes nil, and GetTargetCard() cannot be called. I think those cards should also write something into SCRIPT_LOG.TXT. The fix is easy, I'll code it in a couple of minutes.

The funny part is that there were cards that should have used EffectSource() instead of Object() and I had to fix them. And now they are abusing EffectSource()... those developers really need to talk to each other some time.

EDIT: Fix included.

[NEMESiS]

That's not a flaw, that's part of the game. I initially thought the same thing when that kind of stuff happened in dotp12

Here's what it says in the official rules (I inserted italics)

603.6. Trigger events that involve objects changing zones are called "zone-change triggers." Many abilities with zone-change triggers attempt to do something to that object after it changes zones. During resolution, these abilities look for the object in the zone that it moved to. If the object is unable to be found in the zone it went to, the part of the ability attempting to do something to the object will fail to do anything. The ability could be unable to find the object because the object never entered the specified zone, because it left the zone before the ability resolved, or because it is in a zone that is hidden from a player, such as a library or an opponent's hand. (This rule applies even if the object leaves the zone and returns again before the ability resolves.) The most common zone-change triggers are enters-the-battlefield triggers and leaves-the-battlefield triggers.

But in order for you to kill/destroy Mystic Snake it would need to have already entered the battlefield (a zone) which means the ability will trigger unless "The ability could be unable to find the object because the object never entered the specified zone". So unless that same spell gets countered spelled before mystic snake gets to counter it. The only way for the ability to not trigger is if Mystic Snake doesn't enter the battlefield (gets countered spelled in response). Killing Mystic Snake in response to having it enter the battlefield doesn't stop it from already having entered that zone.