Beginner Guide?

[Capp00]

I only recently found out about this forum. For some reason, the notion of modding Magic 2014 never occurred to me.

I have tried to find the necessary info, but it's all confusing when you are new.

I have 2-3 friends I play with. we always play either standard circle magic online in a private room, or two-headed giant in a private room. That's it. No campaign or random online lobbies.

Can someone please direct me to exactly what needs to be done for us to utilize decks from previous versions and/or custom decks? What to install first, second, etc..

I've read through some of the deck descriptions and they start mention WAD files and having to have certain installers and then I see updates and patch notes galore for each one and have no idea what I need.

I have to learn how to do this so I can walk the other guys through how to do the same, so we can play online.

Thank you for your assistance and pardon the noobness

*Edit* I did look through the wiki too, but it seems to be geared more towards how to code and design/release your own mods. I'm only looking to just use decks from previous versions that you awesome people made and released.

[RiiakShiNal]

To use any mods or do any modding you have to have Rick's (a.k.a. Gibbed) dll patcher as it is required to allow any custom WADs to be recognized by the game. The .dll goes in the same directory as the game's executable (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Magic 2014).

Now most mods have been merged into the Community Wad (maintained by Xander9009) and it is best to follow his installation instructions, this will give you virtually all of the modded cards available for DotP 2014. Don't grab all of the available decks though (there are simply too many and there is an upper limit in the game as to how many decks can be supported).

Optionally, if you want to be able to manually tap basic lands you can also grab my Manual Mana mod (download at bottom of page).

If you want to be able to create your own decks then grab my Deck Builder (link in my signature) and unzip it into any directory. NOTE: You should reserve an Id Block to use with the Deck Builder if you think you might ever release or share a Deck that you created (this will help prevent Deck Id conflicts as well). The Deck Builder itself does not count for mod configuration so it does not matter for online play.

To play with people online All players must have the exact same mod configuration and you have to use private room invites (if you leave an open spot for random people or try to join a random game with mods you will crash). This means that everyone must have exactly the same mods (if one person has the Manual Mana mod then everyone needs it, someone has a deck they created all players need it as well, etc...) and all Wads must be exactly the same version. Online play with mods is the most difficult piece to set up correctly.

[Capp00]

Thank you so much!

[Capp00]

To use any mods or do any modding you have to have Rick's (a.k.a. Gibbed) dll patcher as it is required to allow any custom WADs to be recognized by the game. The .dll goes in the same directory as the game's executable (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Magic 2014).

Now most mods have been merged into the Community Wad (maintained by Xander9009) and it is best to follow his installation instructions, this will give you virtually all of the modded cards available for DotP 2014. Don't grab all of the available decks though (there are simply too many and there is an upper limit in the game as to how many decks can be supported).

Ok, two of us have tried to no avail. Please help.

For starters, steam is installed at:
G:\Software\Steam\SteamApps\common\Magic 2014

I copied the following files to the Magic 2014 folder
(See attachment)

Now, when I tried to join a friend with no modded files, it said I couldn't play, had to delete the files, so it's on the right track. But there were no extra decks to be found, even in a single player match. And it didn't skip the splash screens as it was mentioned.

Am I missing something?

[RiiakShiNal]

There are no extra decks because you haven't installed any yet. The CW post I linked you to has links to decks for multiplayer use (basically they use just the CW so it's much easier to get things working with them because of fewer dependencies).

I didn't link you to any mods that change the or remove the splash screens so I would hope that hasn't changed.

As for Multiplayer connectivity as I said before all players must have the exact same mod configuration. This means that every WAD must be identical down to the last bit and no player has any extra or missing WADs. WAD Directories (these are special directories set up and named to work like mods) should not be present as they can interfere with multiplayer. This means that none of the players should be using the "Custom Data Folder" which can be created from within the Deck Builder. If any such directories exist they should be moved out prior to trying to start any multiplayer games.

Even small mods which do very little (such as one to disable the splash screens) is taken into account when trying to set up multiplayer games and must be identical between all players.

Again online play with mods is the most difficult piece to set up correctly.

[Capp00]

Well that makes sense then. As I stated, I am brand-spanking-new to modding this game, so I needed some hand-holding guides as to exactly what needed to go where

So, I should visit this thread here (viewtopic.php?f=109&t=16703) for the list of multiplayer decks we can actually use, and manually download them?
For instance, I go to that thread, click the deck link titled "Archetype of Victory", it takes me to a post within the thread that lists all the cards, but I don't see any info as to where to download it, what files are needed, etc..
This is all very confusing to a new person. Since we all have to have the same exact files to play together, I need to know exactly which decks we can use to play together, so that we all get the same ones, and then how to install them.

I misread the community wad thread, where it says "Now, for what's inside. This mod contains all cards found in all mods for which I was able to obtain permission". Thought that it meant it was a collective community wad assembled with all the decks that had been available at that point.

I also misread the d3dx9_43.dll posting where it says it should boot up faster since it isn't have to hash every wad. For some reason thought I read something about intro screens. lol


I do know and understand that concept that every player has to have the same exact files. I was testing all of this solo and couldn't see any indicator that it had worked at all. So when my friends jumped online, I joined them and that is when it told me I couldn't play and booted me from the lobby. That was the indicator that I was at least on the right track.
I am trying to get all the testing done so I can tell each of them exactly which files to download to get it to work, versus all of us just randomly trying to get it to work and nothing matching

Thank you for your help!!

[Xander9009]

The very first test in the very first post is a link. If you click that link, it'll open a google drive webpage with all of the decks in that thread. If you wanted Archetype of Victory, you'd need to open that link and find ARCHETYPE_OF_VICTORY. Easiest way is: once the page is open, look in the top right for the three-lined-button to switch to list view, and then use CTRL-F. to search the page for "archetype". That's the file you need.

Mind you, to use any deck made by a user, you'll need that user's Content Pack Enabler. In that same folder, you'll find them all. CTRL-F for "content_pack" and you'll find them (they're all listed together).

Archetype of Victory, when you see the actual file, is named "Data_Decks_9009006_ARCHETYPE_OF_VICTORY.wad". The numbers there are what you need to look at: 9009006. 9009 is my Content Pack Enabler ID, and this is my 6th deck. So, you'd need to find the CPE "Data_DLC_9009_Content_Pack_Enabler.wad" and put it in your game folder before the deck will show up in game. It should be safe to simply put ALL of the CPEs in your game folder. It shouldn't hurt anything. Just make sure whoever you're playing with does the same thing.

For a quick rundown: the files you've downloaded so far are needed by everyone. Then, everyone needs to download the CPEs (there's actually a folder within the CW Decks Google Drive folder just for the enablers if you want). Finally, everyone needs the decks they intend to use. Not all of the decks in the folder/webpage are listed in that forum thread. Many are simply dropped in.

Finally, keep in mind that the CW updates every day. A new wad file is uploaded every single day. If your friends download the latest one, you'll need to update to their version before you'll be able to play together.