Help learning to program cards

by **Xander9009** » 03 Jul 2013, 13:40

Could explain briefly how to make an ability only able to be activated once. The card I'm trying to do is Beetleform Mage. I can do the rest of the ability, but I don't know how to make it only available for use once. Or, just point out a card either officially available or through a dlc (and which dlc) which also does that? I can't think of any which I know are available.

On a somewhat related note, where can go to learn the basics of making a card unrelated to specific abilities? Like, how to make the art for a card. Or, should I just use the tutorial for 2013? I don't know how much is the same and how much has changed, so I don't know if the one made for 2013 will work.

by **thefiremind** » 03 Jul 2013, 14:21

Xander9009 wrote:Could explain briefly how to make an ability only able to be activated once. The card I'm trying to do is Beetleform Mage. I can do the rest of the ability, but I don't know how to make it only available for use once. Or, just point out a card either officially available or through a dlc (and which dlc) which also does that? I can't think of any which I know are available.

Look at the Quirion Ranger in the official cards. You need to add a block inside the ability:

Code: Select all: <AVAILABILITY per_turn_limit="1" />

Xander9009 wrote:On a somewhat related note, where can go to learn the basics of making a card unrelated to specific abilities? Like, how to make the art for a card. Or, should I just use the tutorial for 2013? I don't know how much is the same and how much has changed, so I don't know if the one made for 2013 will work.

Making art for the cards is always the same since the first DotP, so any tutorial you find in the Documentation section is still good. Some directory or name could have changed, but TDX files are always the same. If you are talking about programming a card, something always changes... for DotP2014, we are all still in learning. The best thing to do is to observe the code of the official cards and see how things are done.

by **Xander9009** » 03 Jul 2013, 15:36

Okay. Thank you. I was mostly wondering about the art, so it's good to know the method I was going to try will work. I program often enough that I can figure that bit out on my own for the most part. I'm having some trouble with a few trickier ones, but for the most part, I figured I'd just see how other cards do similar things, like you suggested. I just couldn't think of any that had abilities only usable once per turn (and I hadn't yet seen Quirion Ranger in the game).