!!! What happened to DOTP 2014 Community !!!

[etphonehome]

HI

Probably some of you are interrogating what happened to DOTP2014 and if this game is still being updated by the community.

I only recently become involved in this project, just about a year ago. I started to code my own cards and correcting bugs.

As I write this post, I’m coding card from Modern Horizons 2. I have already coded cards from Khaldeim, Commander 2021, Strixhaven: School of Mages and some others. Modern Horizons 2 is the most recent I’m coding and next I’ll be moving to” Adventures in the Forgotten Realms”. By now, this game has more than 1200 new cards, coded and tested by me (A big THX for all the past coders of DOTP2014 for their released cards that are a resource of inspiration and knowledge for coding new cards.)

A year ago, I posted that I was creating new cards for DOTP2014 but there was no much of a reaction. I tried to quit this game a lot of times, but I always come back to some coding on cards. I love to create new cards, even if it takes a lot of my daily time.

This game has its own problems as a lot of you know. I tried to quit DOTP2014 and join Manalink 3.0 project, but it also has its own share of problems and I’ll never be half as good creating cards as I’m here inDOTP2014. I’m a Rookie but I understand the code. The good coders were RiiakShiNal(sorry:), theFiremind, Xander909, Splinterverse, NeoAnderson… These guys were the best source for good card code.

So, what happened to this game?

I think the shifting point it’s when Xander909 passed away. He was the main guy who kept the community active. He created cards, answered posts, kept an update version of the game…
After his death, the community behind DOTP2014 also become slowly dying, and now it’s almost dead.
Actually, I maintain active on this game for my own joy as the community never showed great interest in a new update for this game. I only like to play MTG against the AI, so Magic Arena was never an option and the other options around to play MTG all have their own problems including bad AI (Forge), lots of bugs (Manalink 3.0), bad UI (XMage).


So, since I started involved in DOTP2014 what have I already done?

LINK FOR DOWNLOAD LATEST RELEASE:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/3lcneuy3wg1zp/DOTP2014

"PLEASE CHECK PDF FILE ATTACHED FOR COMPLETE POST. THX"

Discord: discord.gg/4AXvHzW

[migookman]

Thank you for all of your hard work and sorry for my poor coding skills (I've always considered myseelf as a stitcher).

[etphonehome]

Hi Migookman!

You did what you could with the skills you had at the time. The main sin with "ALL" the coders is that they didn't test (even a basic one) the cards they coded. I do a basic test on all the cards i code. And, they probably have some bad coding still. But, by testing them i've corrected a lot of bugs and learn a lot doing so.

Still, you did a nice job, at least i have the backbone for more than 5000 cards.

[Finnical]

I left for Forge. Never coded anything, did a little testing here and there. I actually did code most of the cards from the Netropolis custom set in Forge for fun. They're accessible in the Forge discord in a thread.

I got tired of 2014's slow pace. I love playing against AI but Forge is just so much faster and still against AI. The new adventure mode is a ton of fun, very much old school Shandalar.

[etphonehome]

I use to play Forge, but exchanged for DOTP 2014.

Forge is great because it's open source and allows to code all cards without restritions. It's fast, has most of the cards, but is Dumb.

Forge plays Pre-made decks decently, but put some random generated decks and it just shows you how bad the AI is.

The day Forge has a Tree Search engine for AI, i'll probably leave DOTP 2014 for Forge, but i like to feel that i'm playing against an true AI and not just against pre-made decision tree of plays.

[RiiakShiNal]

A bit disappointed that I didn't qualify for the good coders list (especially since I helped some of those on the list with code problems they encountered and was one of the pioneers for DotP 2014), but while I'm technically still here, I'm not really active with MtG anymore. Though, I do still try to respond to questions (when I notice them, though PMs due e-mail me to notify me faster).

Though I do resent that you say that "ALL the coders" didn't test. I tested every card I made and plenty of cards I didn't make finding bugs, fixing them, and reporting them to those who made the cards if I didn't make them. I even made an entire mod simply fixing bugs in many of the base game cards (didn't fix all of them since some were specifically for challenges or special use cases). Since I am a professional software developer I do know and understand the need for good testing.

[etphonehome]

HI RiiakShiNal:)

You're totally right. You were one of the most influential, if not the most influent people behind DOTP2014. Your work and dedication is totaly reconized. You even created the Deck builder!

Your name deserves to be among the ones i cited before (It was a bug, now patched).

I'm a Healthcare Worker, not a professional software developer. I've never created a program by "writting" my own code.

I usually use Fusion 2.5 to create my programs (visual coding), but i understand the basis of coding.


A very special THX for all the work you've done in DOT2014. Probably, thanks to you i'm adding my own cards to this game.

Sorry;)

If i ever need the help from a professional, i'll be getting you!

[RiiakShiNal]

I can't claim to be the most influential as I think that honor goes to Gibbed (creator of Gibbed Tools and the Wad Check Disabler). Though Gibbed did not code any cards it was because of his work that modding on many of the DotP games could be done.

As for card coding, most of us learned by extracting the WADs and examining the cards already included in the game not because we're in software (I just happen to be a professional software developer) many of the other card coders were not coders at all. And for that I think any lack of testing can probably be forgiven. While developers like myself understand the importance of testing, people who have never developed code or software can't truly understand just how much testing is necessary to try and catch most bugs/defects (you can never catch all of them in anything with sufficient complexity) so we can probably cut them some slack on not fully testing. Not to mention that we've had to work around bugs in Stainless' code (which have caused more than a few headaches).

Note that while I'm okay with Lua (used by DotP for cards) my primary coding languages are C++ and C#.

[kevlahnota]

I can't claim to be the most influential as I think that honor goes to Gibbed (creator of Gibbed Tools and the Wad Check Disabler). Though Gibbed did not code any cards it was because of his work that modding on many of the DotP games could be done.

As for card coding, most of us learned by extracting the WADs and examining the cards already included in the game not because we're in software (I just happen to be a professional software developer) many of the other card coders were not coders at all. And for that I think any lack of testing can probably be forgiven. While developers like myself understand the importance of testing, people who have never developed code or software can't truly understand just how much testing is necessary to try and catch most bugs/defects (you can never catch all of them in anything with sufficient complexity) so we can probably cut them some slack on not fully testing. Not to mention that we've had to work around bugs in Stainless' code (which have caused more than a few headaches).

Note that while I'm okay with Lua (used by DotP for cards) my primary coding languages are C++ and C#.

yeah without Gibbed Tools and Wad Check, modding DOTP will not exist. There are also unknown contributors (also foreign ones) that provide good input when modding DOTP at early stages. So yeah, credit should also goes to all contributor that makes DOTP modding possible.

[Azuris]

I was browsing through games that say they work well on the steam deck and turns out M14 is one of them. I never realized there was a community working on adding cards! I went through the steps on the page to get the required files but noticed the post is... very old. Is it still the same process?

[zysron]

yes its the same process just matters is everything is still sourced or not

[Lillysdad2009]

I don't usually post on forums, I have uploaded some custom deck packs in the past. I am desperately trying to get back into the community. I can only get a copy of 2013 that is working. I mean that is something. I need DOTP 2014 in my life, that's the version that has the most nostalgia for me. But it doesn't exist anywhere. Not that is actually usable. I lost all of my files when my last pc HD didn't appreciate all of my hard work, it went on strike. Forever.

[Boge]

RiiakShiNal, is your deck builder available at another link? The one I found in these forums doesn't do anything when I click on it.

[RiiakShiNal]

RiiakShiNal, is your deck builder available at another link? The one I found in these forums doesn't do anything when I click on it.

The links were still correct and valid, browsers are simply now complaining about unsecured links (http links) and only really want to download using secured links (https links). So I've updated the links (simply by adding the 's' to the protocol specifier) for both Deck Builders (2013 and 2014). They should be "working" for you now.

Note that I have not gone through all of my posts to update all links. I have only updated the links in the Deck Builder original posts. If you find a link to other resources I've posted that are "broken" try changing the "http" to "https" in the link and in most cases it will probably start "working".

[magius74]

Appreciate all the hard work past and present. 2014 is my favorite way to play magic. Thanks for keeping it alive, even if for just awhile longer.