Lands with Add _ to mana pool need help

by **ZebraGum** » 21 Oct 2013, 22:34

Just started playing and learning the game, got alot of the mods for practice. What my problem is alot of the decks come with land + land in hand that say "tap to add forest to mana pool" etc, but for me nothing happens when I try to activate this ability on the land. I have tried using "Manual Mana Functions" but that doesnt seem to do anything as well, ctrl for manual tap key doesnt do anything when i hold ctrl+click on a land, or im doing it wrong? What do i need to do or can anyone help me out, with 1 or both of these problems? much appreciated!

by **RiiakShiNal** » 22 Oct 2013, 00:01

First off, most lands (at the moment anyway) that say " {T}

: add ... to your mana pool." make use of the Manual Mana Functions mod which means you need both my Manual Mana Functions and the ObjectDC Functions mod (requirement of Manual Mana Functions).

Second, Manual Mana does not function like the base game's auto-tap mana. To use Manual Mana you must click on the card and select the mana ability to use (just like you would to select any regular activated ability). The card will then tap and the appropriate mana will be added to you mana pool (in the form of an invisible token, you can't see it but it is there assuming you have it installed properly and the land using it is made properly). Once you have tapped the mana sources you want then you can cast a spell or use an ability that requires mana. The mana tapping button (used for auto-tap mana) is not used nor does it work for Manual Mana.

Manual Mana has many advantages compared to auto-tap mana, but it is less convenient to use for the player as it works differently.

by **thefiremind** » 22 Oct 2013, 00:14

I think there's a bit of confusion in the terms: in this forum we got used to call "manual tapping" when you need to click on the ability (as with RiiakShiNal's DotP2014 mana functions), while since DotP2013 the game has been advertised as capable of "manual tapping" because of the CTRL button function that chooses a color combination. I like the meaning we give on this forum a lot more, because using CTRL isn't really manual tapping, you only pre-select a combination and you have some restraints on it.

by **ZebraGum** » 22 Oct 2013, 00:47

Got it! Thanks, I guess I must have just missed it but when I tried to use the manual mana on the land ability I must have not seen that a card requiring that mana was able to be used, tested now and it is indeed working!

by **ZebraGum** » 22 Oct 2013, 00:50

Any possible way of adding a counter or something for visual?

by **RiiakShiNal** » 22 Oct 2013, 02:24

I haven't added any kind of visual display to my cards (since for some reason DisplayMessage() doesn't seem to work on my machine so I can't test a display mechanism), but sumomole and other modders have some code that they have put into their cards that will show a message to the player that tells them how much mana is in their pool.

thefiremind wrote:I think there's a bit of confusion in the terms: in this forum we got used to call "manual tapping" when you need to click on the ability (as with RiiakShiNal's DotP2014 mana functions), while since DotP2013 the game has been advertised as capable of "manual tapping" because of the CTRL button function that chooses a color combination. I like the meaning we give on this forum a lot more, because using CTRL isn't really manual tapping, you only pre-select a combination and you have some restraints on it.

I agree, there is some confusion, if you look at the actual functionality the base game does not have "manual tapping" they have "auto-tap choices" since in the base game you don't have a "mana pool" and you can't actually "tap" mana (it gets tapped for you). The "Mana Choice" button doesn't even give you a full range of choices as it only looks at colours and not actual sources; this may cause the game to force you tap a non-basic land that produces mana instead of a basic land that you specifically left untapped so that you could use the ability on the non-basic land.

True "Manual Mana" allows for tapping any combination of sources that you want, but requires you to actually tap the source you want to use. It may seem cumbersome, but it allows for many more possibilities than "Auto-Tap" as with "Manual-Tap" you can tap a land for mana, untap it using some other effect, then tap it for mana again to cast a spell that otherwise you would not have the mana for.

For example: You have a Forest, an untapped Arbor Elf (without summoning sickness) in play, and Llanowar Elves, and an Elvish Warrior in your hand.

Using "Auto-Tap" the best you can do is bring out the Llanowar Elves then next turn bring out the Elvish Warrior.
With "Manual-Tap" you can tap the Forest, use Arbor Elf to untap the Forest, tap the Forest again and cast Elvish Warrior without waiting for the next turn.

Another difference is with how the mana can be used. Take Cloudpost for example:

If coded for "Auto-Tap" then no matter how much mana it produces it can only be used for 1 spell or ability (you can't split it up).
If coded for "Manual-Tap" then the mana goes into the fake "Mana Pool" and can be split amongst any number of spells or abilities as the amount of mana allows for.