FAQS
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FAQS
by wiseman » 22 Apr 2010, 18:54
(Edited by FranAvalon & taken from Marek post. Thanks.)
Some of the questions for the FAQ now have obsolete answers, so I'm going to repost it and write new answers:
What is BotArena?
Botarena is an in development game that emulates Magic the Gathering. The great goal of the applicative is offer the most possible number of cards with a decent A.I.
Is BotArena freely distributed?
Yes, as of version 1.25.1 we're posting the link here on Slightlymagic as well
Can I join the development as a coder?
Yes, you can, send a PM to FranAvalon or wiseman, and you will receive a response.
How many cards does BotArena have?
Now we have over 10000 distinct cards.
Do you have Planeswalkers?
Yes, we have almost all planeswalkers, with exception of Sorin Markov.
Will BotArena have any limit of coded cards, or cards restrictions?
No, we don't have any limitations of implemented cards. There are cards that would be really hard to implement, though (like Artificial Evolution), so you probably won't see those anytime soon. The envelope is always being pushed, though.
Does BotArena have more features?
Yes, we have a sealed deck generator that allows infinite possibilities of decks, in any edition combinations, with or without boosters.
Can I play online with a friend?
Yes, we have two players network support.
How much time will I waste to learn how to use BotArena's GUI?
Less than a half hour and will be a nice player, the app does almost all for you.
Some important gameplay tips:
After you start BotArena, it starts loading the sets. This may take some time on slower computers. You can also run BotArena with /developer command, which will allowing you to set the seed for RNG, but this will cause the game to seemingly hang on startup (hard app check). It might take a few minutes, so don't worry about it, it will eventually start.
Windows - most of the game windows are detachable. Personally, I play BotArena by moving some windows to the other monitor to have a nice big playing field. The windows are:
Actions - When you have priority, all possible actions will show here. It has three switches, All Actions, Untap and Auto.
All Actions switches whether "stupid" actions (like casting Doom Blade on your own creature or tapping a land for mana when you have nothing to spend it on) will be shown in the window. If they will, they will have a question mark next to them.
Untap switches whether the cards will be automatically untapped during your untap step or whether you have to manually select them. You should probably have this on.
Auto switches whether an action is selected automatically when it's the only possible action in the list. Usually better to have on, sometimes you might have to look into the log to see what the heck just happened.
Preview window: this shows the card that was last under the cursor. Situations like selecting a card from list usually have their own previews. BotArena is capable of using the full card pictures from slightlymagic but you need to copy them into its image directory (Images\Cards\MWS)and some of the set codes (directory names) differ. When in doubt, open the deckbuilder by Ctrl+D, find the card you want, and name the directory according to the displayed set code.
Messages: shows the log of events that happened during the game. Use it when computer does something unclear (what was that card he revealed to play Silvergill Adept?). Some information (like top card of your library, when revealed, or the number of poison counters) is currently only displayed here.
Stack: this window opens only when stack is nonempty.
Turn: shows the turn number and active player, also shows the current phase/step and allows you to set flags on them (similar to Manalink). At the bottom of this window are two important icons, Pass and Combat. "Pass" (Space) means that you don't want to do anything now and you pass priority to the other player. "Combat" (C) is used in your main phase to signify that you wish to go into combat phase. Current implementation has an optional combat phase so beware -- one of my common mistakes is to accidentally press Space in Main phase and lose the chance to attack.
Ctrl+Space can be used to say that you wish to pass continuously. This will end either when something goes on the stack, when you have to declare blockers or when your turn starts. Be careful, the pass loop will NOT break when opponent attacks! If you have some manlands you wish to activate in response to being attacked, don't use Ctrl+Space!
Player: Shows the life totals of both players, the number of cards in their hands, libraries and graveyards, as well as the current content of their mana pools.
During the game, the names of players, their life totals and their mana pool is displayed on the right of the playfield.
Card frames: The card frames in the game can change colors to signify some events. Standardly they are white or black to fit with the scans (Portal: Three Kingdoms seems to have the wrong color of frames when used with slightlymagic scans).
A green frame around a card means that there are possible actions for that card. You can right-click such cards in order to get a list of actions for that card. The action window still lists ALL possible actions, and if the number of actions for the card is large, not all of them will be displayed on right-click and you'll have to use the action window.
A red frame around a card means that it participates in combat. It will be also shown with a Sword icon (attacker) or Shield icon (blocker). Also, attackers and blockers are connected with lines to signify who blocks whom.
Other interface marks:
Power and toughness of creatures is displayed in their bottom right corner, so it typically overlays their normal P/T box. When a creature takes damage or has a temporary P/T boost/penalty, its unmodified P/T is displayed in parenthesis. When a creature has summoning sickness, the P/T box is black, otherwise it's white. Creatures with summoning sickness are also grouped separately on the table.
Counters on cards are also displayed in bottom right corner of the card. They are symbolized with the first letter of their name, so Garruk Wildspeaker will enter the battlefield with "LLL" in his lower right. P/T affecting counters are signified with "+" or "-". The convention is that once there are four or more counters of the same kind, they show with a number (like "4L" or "5+"), if there are three or less, they all show as individual symbols.
Animating:
Animating is currently not very optimal. When you animate a card (say, an Inkmoth Nexus), a creature token will be created behind the card. While they behave as a single card for most purposes (for example, they will share counters so Raging Ravine works as it's supposed to), you must, for example, aim Doom Blade at the "creature half" and the "land half" can have no summoning sickness while the "creature half" has. The animated versions of cards use special images. If I'm permitted, I'll post the link to token file so tokens would work corretly for you (while normal tokens use scans from here, they are renamed according to the token's internal number).
Menus, I think, don't need much explanation. Gameplay Settings is probably the most important one, as the quality of AI is directly dependent on how much time to think you give it. I usually keep it on 5 seconds because I mainly playtest decks from Deckcheck and I want to play fast. However, if you set it on, say, 2 minutes, the AI actually poses a decent challenge. As a rule of thumb, if you think the AI is dumb and plays badly, try increasing this value.
Important buttons on the top:
Start Game (Ctrl+S): starts a game.
Wait, there's more!
In the dialogue you can select the deck directory and either select a deck or check "Random" to play a random deck from that directory. You can do this for both players, although if you give them different deck directories, you might be forced to reselect them often as they tend to synchronize. You can decide who goes first and you can also decide whether to use mulligan or not.
Decide now - allows you to interrupt the AI thinking and force it to execute an action. Useful if you set the AI level too high.
End Game (Ctrl+E) - Ends the game. It's interpreted as conceding, though, so sometimes your pride might not allow it.
Other useful keys:
G - views your graveyard. Graveyards are normally shown on the bottom right (yours) and top right (opponent), but it's pretty hard to see them when there's a lot of cards there, as they overlap. Ctrl+G shows opponent's graveyard.
R - shows your exile zone. Ctrl+R shows opponent's. Cards that are exiled face-down (like those in Windbrisk Heights) are currently implemented as a different zone, and so they won't show here.
This should be all basic info, play away
Some of the questions for the FAQ now have obsolete answers, so I'm going to repost it and write new answers:
What is BotArena?
Botarena is an in development game that emulates Magic the Gathering. The great goal of the applicative is offer the most possible number of cards with a decent A.I.
Is BotArena freely distributed?
Yes, as of version 1.25.1 we're posting the link here on Slightlymagic as well
Can I join the development as a coder?
Yes, you can, send a PM to FranAvalon or wiseman, and you will receive a response.
How many cards does BotArena have?
Now we have over 10000 distinct cards.
Do you have Planeswalkers?
Yes, we have almost all planeswalkers, with exception of Sorin Markov.
Will BotArena have any limit of coded cards, or cards restrictions?
No, we don't have any limitations of implemented cards. There are cards that would be really hard to implement, though (like Artificial Evolution), so you probably won't see those anytime soon. The envelope is always being pushed, though.
Does BotArena have more features?
Yes, we have a sealed deck generator that allows infinite possibilities of decks, in any edition combinations, with or without boosters.
Can I play online with a friend?
Yes, we have two players network support.
How much time will I waste to learn how to use BotArena's GUI?
Less than a half hour and will be a nice player, the app does almost all for you.
Some important gameplay tips:
After you start BotArena, it starts loading the sets. This may take some time on slower computers. You can also run BotArena with /developer command, which will allowing you to set the seed for RNG, but this will cause the game to seemingly hang on startup (hard app check). It might take a few minutes, so don't worry about it, it will eventually start.
Windows - most of the game windows are detachable. Personally, I play BotArena by moving some windows to the other monitor to have a nice big playing field. The windows are:
Actions - When you have priority, all possible actions will show here. It has three switches, All Actions, Untap and Auto.
All Actions switches whether "stupid" actions (like casting Doom Blade on your own creature or tapping a land for mana when you have nothing to spend it on) will be shown in the window. If they will, they will have a question mark next to them.
Untap switches whether the cards will be automatically untapped during your untap step or whether you have to manually select them. You should probably have this on.
Auto switches whether an action is selected automatically when it's the only possible action in the list. Usually better to have on, sometimes you might have to look into the log to see what the heck just happened.
Preview window: this shows the card that was last under the cursor. Situations like selecting a card from list usually have their own previews. BotArena is capable of using the full card pictures from slightlymagic but you need to copy them into its image directory (Images\Cards\MWS)and some of the set codes (directory names) differ. When in doubt, open the deckbuilder by Ctrl+D, find the card you want, and name the directory according to the displayed set code.
Messages: shows the log of events that happened during the game. Use it when computer does something unclear (what was that card he revealed to play Silvergill Adept?). Some information (like top card of your library, when revealed, or the number of poison counters) is currently only displayed here.
Stack: this window opens only when stack is nonempty.
Turn: shows the turn number and active player, also shows the current phase/step and allows you to set flags on them (similar to Manalink). At the bottom of this window are two important icons, Pass and Combat. "Pass" (Space) means that you don't want to do anything now and you pass priority to the other player. "Combat" (C) is used in your main phase to signify that you wish to go into combat phase. Current implementation has an optional combat phase so beware -- one of my common mistakes is to accidentally press Space in Main phase and lose the chance to attack.
Ctrl+Space can be used to say that you wish to pass continuously. This will end either when something goes on the stack, when you have to declare blockers or when your turn starts. Be careful, the pass loop will NOT break when opponent attacks! If you have some manlands you wish to activate in response to being attacked, don't use Ctrl+Space!
Player: Shows the life totals of both players, the number of cards in their hands, libraries and graveyards, as well as the current content of their mana pools.
During the game, the names of players, their life totals and their mana pool is displayed on the right of the playfield.
Card frames: The card frames in the game can change colors to signify some events. Standardly they are white or black to fit with the scans (Portal: Three Kingdoms seems to have the wrong color of frames when used with slightlymagic scans).
A green frame around a card means that there are possible actions for that card. You can right-click such cards in order to get a list of actions for that card. The action window still lists ALL possible actions, and if the number of actions for the card is large, not all of them will be displayed on right-click and you'll have to use the action window.
A red frame around a card means that it participates in combat. It will be also shown with a Sword icon (attacker) or Shield icon (blocker). Also, attackers and blockers are connected with lines to signify who blocks whom.
Other interface marks:
Power and toughness of creatures is displayed in their bottom right corner, so it typically overlays their normal P/T box. When a creature takes damage or has a temporary P/T boost/penalty, its unmodified P/T is displayed in parenthesis. When a creature has summoning sickness, the P/T box is black, otherwise it's white. Creatures with summoning sickness are also grouped separately on the table.
Counters on cards are also displayed in bottom right corner of the card. They are symbolized with the first letter of their name, so Garruk Wildspeaker will enter the battlefield with "LLL" in his lower right. P/T affecting counters are signified with "+" or "-". The convention is that once there are four or more counters of the same kind, they show with a number (like "4L" or "5+"), if there are three or less, they all show as individual symbols.
Animating:
Animating is currently not very optimal. When you animate a card (say, an Inkmoth Nexus), a creature token will be created behind the card. While they behave as a single card for most purposes (for example, they will share counters so Raging Ravine works as it's supposed to), you must, for example, aim Doom Blade at the "creature half" and the "land half" can have no summoning sickness while the "creature half" has. The animated versions of cards use special images. If I'm permitted, I'll post the link to token file so tokens would work corretly for you (while normal tokens use scans from here, they are renamed according to the token's internal number).
Menus, I think, don't need much explanation. Gameplay Settings is probably the most important one, as the quality of AI is directly dependent on how much time to think you give it. I usually keep it on 5 seconds because I mainly playtest decks from Deckcheck and I want to play fast. However, if you set it on, say, 2 minutes, the AI actually poses a decent challenge. As a rule of thumb, if you think the AI is dumb and plays badly, try increasing this value.
Important buttons on the top:
Start Game (Ctrl+S): starts a game.
Wait, there's more!
In the dialogue you can select the deck directory and either select a deck or check "Random" to play a random deck from that directory. You can do this for both players, although if you give them different deck directories, you might be forced to reselect them often as they tend to synchronize. You can decide who goes first and you can also decide whether to use mulligan or not.
Decide now - allows you to interrupt the AI thinking and force it to execute an action. Useful if you set the AI level too high.
End Game (Ctrl+E) - Ends the game. It's interpreted as conceding, though, so sometimes your pride might not allow it.
Other useful keys:
G - views your graveyard. Graveyards are normally shown on the bottom right (yours) and top right (opponent), but it's pretty hard to see them when there's a lot of cards there, as they overlap. Ctrl+G shows opponent's graveyard.
R - shows your exile zone. Ctrl+R shows opponent's. Cards that are exiled face-down (like those in Windbrisk Heights) are currently implemented as a different zone, and so they won't show here.
This should be all basic info, play away
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Re: FAQS
by FranAvalon » 22 Jun 2010, 09:26
Well, tezzeret was added on last release, and current card pool is +7000 unique cards.
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Re: FAQS
by MageKing17 » 22 Jun 2010, 09:54
It's incredible you've managed to get so many cards working with an AI. Of course, I'd be willing to bet there are corner-case interactions that aren't handled properly (aren't there always? 
) but over 7000 cards is nothing to sneer at (even with Incantus's v0.591 card pool, we were only in the 6000s, and that included some pretty bald-faced hacks).
If you don't mind my asking, is there a functionality problem with Chandra Ablaze? I'm always interested in learning about other projects' problems and solutions, if you're willing to discuss it.
) but over 7000 cards is nothing to sneer at (even with Incantus's v0.591 card pool, we were only in the 6000s, and that included some pretty bald-faced hacks).If you don't mind my asking, is there a functionality problem with Chandra Ablaze? I'm always interested in learning about other projects' problems and solutions, if you're willing to discuss it.
-
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Re: FAQS
by FranAvalon » 22 Jun 2010, 15:55
Main problem with Chandra ablaze is that for now we can't cast spells for free. Then some mechanisms as for example storm and cascade are impossible for now. We hope solve this problem a medium term.
If you want try the app and see how it works, only ask me.
Thanks for your comments
If you want try the app and see how it works, only ask me.
Thanks for your comments
- FranAvalon
- Programmer
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- Joined: 02 Jul 2008, 06:54
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- Been thanked: 64 times
Re: FAQS
by MageKing17 » 22 Jun 2010, 21:07
Ah. Yes, that stumped us for a while. Even the current system is probably more than a little hackish, but it works (so far). Of course, some thing related to spells are still off the table for us...FranAvalon wrote:Main problem with Chandra ablaze is that for now we can't cast spells for free.
A perfect example. For us, Storm is currently impossible because while we can create copies of spells (using a similar approach to tokens), we can't create them on the stack, so there's no way for us to copy a spell that's already been played (but we can do, say, Panoptic Mirror (although our "linked abilities" are pretty hackish themselves)). Cascade was impossible until we got alternative and additional costs working (because the system included "special" costs... like playing for free). If you're interested in how we solved it, I think Incantus's code (Incantus the person, this time) is quite ingenious, and of course Incantus (the program) is open source.FranAvalon wrote:Then some mechanisms as for example storm and cascade are impossible for now. We hope solve this problem a medium term.
Hmm. We really need a better way to distinguish between the person and the program.
I've tried Deckbot before (long ago, to be honest), and was impressed with the AI (especially considering that Incantus can never have an AI due to being written in Python), but any time that could be spent playing with other people's programs is time I reeeally ought to be spending working on Incantus (unless, of course, I can justify it as "research"FranAvalon wrote:If you want try the app and see how it works, only ask me.
Thanks for your comments
).-
MageKing17 - Programmer
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Re: FAQS
by Marek14 » 31 Jan 2011, 09:07
Some of the questions for the FAQ now have obsolete answers, so I'm going to repost it and write new answers:
What is BotArena?
Botarena is an in development game that emulates Magic the Gathering. The great goal of the applicative is offer the most possible number of cards with a decent A.I.
Is BotArena freely distributed?
Yes, as of version 1.25.1 we're posting the link here on Slightlymagic as well/
Can I join the development as a coder?
Yes, you can, send a PM to FranAvalon or wiseman, and you will receive a response.
How many cards does BotArena have?
Now we have over 8000 distinct cards.
Do you have Planeswalkers?
Yes, we have almost all planeswalkers (including Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas!), with exception of Sorin and Chandra Ablaze.
Will BotArena have any limit of coded cards, or cards restrictions?
No, we don't have any limitations of implemented cards. There are cards that would be really hard to implement, though (like Artificial Evolution), so you probably won't see those anytime soon. The envelope is always being pushed, though.
Does BotArena have more features?
Yes, we have a sealed deck generator that allows infinite possibilities of decks, in any edition combinations, with or without boosters.
Can I play online with a friend?
Yes, we have two players network support.
How much time will I waste to learn how to use BotArena's GUI?
Less than a half hour and will be a nice player, the app does almost all for you.
Some important gameplay tips:
After you start BotArena, it starts loading the sets. This may take some time on slower computers. You can also run BotArena with /developer command, which will enable AI vs. AI matches as well as allowing you to set the seed for RNG, but this will cause the game to seemingly hang on startup. It might take a few minutes, so don't worry about it, it will eventually start.
Windows - most of the game windows are detachable. Personally, I play BotArena by moving some windows to the other monitor to have a nice big playing field. The windows are:
Actions - When you have priority, all possible actions will show here. It has three switches, All Actions, Untap and Auto.
All Actions switches whether "stupid" actions (like casting Doom Blade on your own creature or tapping a land for mana when you have nothing to spend it on) will be shown in the window. If they will, they will have a question mark next to them.
Untap switches whether the cards will be automatically untapped during your untap step or whether you have to manually select them. You should probably have this on.
Auto switches whether an action is selected automatically when it's the only possible action in the list. Usually better to have on, sometimes you might have to look into the log to see what the heck just happened.
Preview window: this shows the card that was last under the cursor. Situations like selecting a card from list usually have their own previews. BotArena is capable of using the full card pictures from slightlymagic but you need to copy them into its image directory (Images\Cards\MWS)and some of the set codes (directory names) differ. When in doubt, open the deckbuilder by Ctrl+D, find the card you want, and name the directory according to the displayed set code.
Messages: shows the log of events that happened during the game. Use it when computer does something unclear (what was that card he revealed to play Silvergill Adept?). Some information (like top card of your library, when revealed, or the number of poison counters) is currently only displayed here.
Stack: this window opens only when stack is nonempty.
Turn: shows the turn number and active player, also shows the current phase/step and allows you to set flags on them (similar to Manalink). At the bottom of this window are two important icons, Pass and Combat. "Pass" (Space) means that you don't want to do anything now and you pass priority to the other player. "Combat" (C) is used in your main phase to signify that you wish to go into combat phase. Current implementation has an optional combat phase so beware -- one of my common mistakes is to accidentally press Space in Main phase and lose the chance to attack.
Ctrl+Space can be used to say that you wish to pass continuously. This will end either when something goes on the stack, when you have to declare blockers or when your turn starts. Be careful, the pass loop will NOT break when opponent attacks! If you have some manlands you wish to activate in response to being attacked, don't use Ctrl+Space!
Player: Shows the life totals of both players, the number of cards in their hands, libraries and graveyards, as well as the current content of their mana pools.
During the game, the names of players, their life totals and their mana pool is displayed on the right of the playfield.
Card frames: The card frames in the game can change colors to signify some events. Standardly they are white or black to fit with the scans (Portal: Three Kingdoms seems to have the wrong color of frames when used with slightlymagic scans).
A green frame around a card means that there are possible actions for that card. You can right-click such cards in order to get a list of actions for that card. The action window still lists ALL possible actions, and if the number of actions for the card is large, not all of them will be displayed on right-click and you'll have to use the action window.
A red frame around a card means that it participates in combat. It will be also shown with a Sword icon (attacker) or Shield icon (blocker). Also, attackers and blockers are connected with lines to signify who blocks whom.
Other interface marks:
Power and toughness of creatures is displayed in their bottom right corner, so it typically overlays their normal P/T box. When a creature takes damage or has a temporary P/T boost/penalty, its unmodified P/T is displayed in parenthesis. When a creature has summoning sickness, the P/T box is black, otherwise it's white. Creatures with summoning sickness are also grouped separately on the table.
Counters on cards are also displayed in bottom right corner of the card. They are symbolized with the first letter of their name, so Garruk Wildspeaker will enter the battlefield with "LLL" in his lower right. P/T affecting counters are signified with "+" or "-". The convention is that once there are four or more counters of the same kind, they show with a number (like "4L" or "5+"), if there are three or less, they all show as individual symbols.
Animating:
Animating is currently not very optimal. When you animate a card (say, an Inkmoth Nexus), a creature token will be created behind the card. While they behave as a single card for most purposes (for example, they will share counters so Raging Ravine works as it's supposed to), you must, for example, aim Doom Blade at the "creature half" and the "land half" can have no summoning sickness while the "creature half" has. The animated versions of cards use special images. If I'm permitted, I'll post the link to token file so tokens would work corretly for you (while normal tokens use scans from here, they are renamed according to the token's internal number).
Menus, I think, don't need much explanation. Gameplay Settings is probably the most important one, as the quality of AI is directly dependent on how much time to think you give it. I usually keep it on 5 seconds because I mainly playtest decks from Deckcheck and I want to play fast. However, if you set it on, say, 2 minutes, the AI actually poses a decent challenge. As a rule of thumb, if you think the AI is dumb and plays badly, try increasing this value.
Important buttons on the top:
Start Game (Ctrl+S): starts a game.
Wait, there's more!
In the dialogue you can select the deck directory and either select a deck or check "Random" to play a random deck from that directory. You can do this for both players, although if you give them different deck directories, you might be forced to reselect them often as they tend to synchronize. You can decide who goes first and you can also decide whether to use mulligan or not.
Decide now - allows you to interrupt the AI thinking and force it to execute an action. Useful if you set the AI level too high.
End Game (Ctrl+E) - Ends the game. It's interpreted as conceding, though, so sometimes your pride might not allow it.
Other useful keys:
G - views your graveyard. Graveyards are normally shown on the bottom right (yours) and top right (opponent), but it's pretty hard to see them when there's a lot of cards there, as they overlap. Ctrl+G shows opponent's graveyard.
R - shows your exile zone. Ctrl+R shows opponent's. Cards that are exiled face-down (like those in Windbrisk Heights) are currently implemented as a different zone, and so they won't show here.
This should be all basic info, play away
What is BotArena?
Botarena is an in development game that emulates Magic the Gathering. The great goal of the applicative is offer the most possible number of cards with a decent A.I.
Is BotArena freely distributed?
Yes, as of version 1.25.1 we're posting the link here on Slightlymagic as well/
Can I join the development as a coder?
Yes, you can, send a PM to FranAvalon or wiseman, and you will receive a response.
How many cards does BotArena have?
Now we have over 8000 distinct cards.
Do you have Planeswalkers?
Yes, we have almost all planeswalkers (including Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas!), with exception of Sorin and Chandra Ablaze.
Will BotArena have any limit of coded cards, or cards restrictions?
No, we don't have any limitations of implemented cards. There are cards that would be really hard to implement, though (like Artificial Evolution), so you probably won't see those anytime soon. The envelope is always being pushed, though.
Does BotArena have more features?
Yes, we have a sealed deck generator that allows infinite possibilities of decks, in any edition combinations, with or without boosters.
Can I play online with a friend?
Yes, we have two players network support.
How much time will I waste to learn how to use BotArena's GUI?
Less than a half hour and will be a nice player, the app does almost all for you.
Some important gameplay tips:
After you start BotArena, it starts loading the sets. This may take some time on slower computers. You can also run BotArena with /developer command, which will enable AI vs. AI matches as well as allowing you to set the seed for RNG, but this will cause the game to seemingly hang on startup. It might take a few minutes, so don't worry about it, it will eventually start.
Windows - most of the game windows are detachable. Personally, I play BotArena by moving some windows to the other monitor to have a nice big playing field. The windows are:
Actions - When you have priority, all possible actions will show here. It has three switches, All Actions, Untap and Auto.
All Actions switches whether "stupid" actions (like casting Doom Blade on your own creature or tapping a land for mana when you have nothing to spend it on) will be shown in the window. If they will, they will have a question mark next to them.
Untap switches whether the cards will be automatically untapped during your untap step or whether you have to manually select them. You should probably have this on.
Auto switches whether an action is selected automatically when it's the only possible action in the list. Usually better to have on, sometimes you might have to look into the log to see what the heck just happened.
Preview window: this shows the card that was last under the cursor. Situations like selecting a card from list usually have their own previews. BotArena is capable of using the full card pictures from slightlymagic but you need to copy them into its image directory (Images\Cards\MWS)and some of the set codes (directory names) differ. When in doubt, open the deckbuilder by Ctrl+D, find the card you want, and name the directory according to the displayed set code.
Messages: shows the log of events that happened during the game. Use it when computer does something unclear (what was that card he revealed to play Silvergill Adept?). Some information (like top card of your library, when revealed, or the number of poison counters) is currently only displayed here.
Stack: this window opens only when stack is nonempty.
Turn: shows the turn number and active player, also shows the current phase/step and allows you to set flags on them (similar to Manalink). At the bottom of this window are two important icons, Pass and Combat. "Pass" (Space) means that you don't want to do anything now and you pass priority to the other player. "Combat" (C) is used in your main phase to signify that you wish to go into combat phase. Current implementation has an optional combat phase so beware -- one of my common mistakes is to accidentally press Space in Main phase and lose the chance to attack.
Ctrl+Space can be used to say that you wish to pass continuously. This will end either when something goes on the stack, when you have to declare blockers or when your turn starts. Be careful, the pass loop will NOT break when opponent attacks! If you have some manlands you wish to activate in response to being attacked, don't use Ctrl+Space!
Player: Shows the life totals of both players, the number of cards in their hands, libraries and graveyards, as well as the current content of their mana pools.
During the game, the names of players, their life totals and their mana pool is displayed on the right of the playfield.
Card frames: The card frames in the game can change colors to signify some events. Standardly they are white or black to fit with the scans (Portal: Three Kingdoms seems to have the wrong color of frames when used with slightlymagic scans).
A green frame around a card means that there are possible actions for that card. You can right-click such cards in order to get a list of actions for that card. The action window still lists ALL possible actions, and if the number of actions for the card is large, not all of them will be displayed on right-click and you'll have to use the action window.
A red frame around a card means that it participates in combat. It will be also shown with a Sword icon (attacker) or Shield icon (blocker). Also, attackers and blockers are connected with lines to signify who blocks whom.
Other interface marks:
Power and toughness of creatures is displayed in their bottom right corner, so it typically overlays their normal P/T box. When a creature takes damage or has a temporary P/T boost/penalty, its unmodified P/T is displayed in parenthesis. When a creature has summoning sickness, the P/T box is black, otherwise it's white. Creatures with summoning sickness are also grouped separately on the table.
Counters on cards are also displayed in bottom right corner of the card. They are symbolized with the first letter of their name, so Garruk Wildspeaker will enter the battlefield with "LLL" in his lower right. P/T affecting counters are signified with "+" or "-". The convention is that once there are four or more counters of the same kind, they show with a number (like "4L" or "5+"), if there are three or less, they all show as individual symbols.
Animating:
Animating is currently not very optimal. When you animate a card (say, an Inkmoth Nexus), a creature token will be created behind the card. While they behave as a single card for most purposes (for example, they will share counters so Raging Ravine works as it's supposed to), you must, for example, aim Doom Blade at the "creature half" and the "land half" can have no summoning sickness while the "creature half" has. The animated versions of cards use special images. If I'm permitted, I'll post the link to token file so tokens would work corretly for you (while normal tokens use scans from here, they are renamed according to the token's internal number).
Menus, I think, don't need much explanation. Gameplay Settings is probably the most important one, as the quality of AI is directly dependent on how much time to think you give it. I usually keep it on 5 seconds because I mainly playtest decks from Deckcheck and I want to play fast. However, if you set it on, say, 2 minutes, the AI actually poses a decent challenge. As a rule of thumb, if you think the AI is dumb and plays badly, try increasing this value.
Important buttons on the top:
Start Game (Ctrl+S): starts a game.
Wait, there's more!
In the dialogue you can select the deck directory and either select a deck or check "Random" to play a random deck from that directory. You can do this for both players, although if you give them different deck directories, you might be forced to reselect them often as they tend to synchronize. You can decide who goes first and you can also decide whether to use mulligan or not.
Decide now - allows you to interrupt the AI thinking and force it to execute an action. Useful if you set the AI level too high.
End Game (Ctrl+E) - Ends the game. It's interpreted as conceding, though, so sometimes your pride might not allow it.
Other useful keys:
G - views your graveyard. Graveyards are normally shown on the bottom right (yours) and top right (opponent), but it's pretty hard to see them when there's a lot of cards there, as they overlap. Ctrl+G shows opponent's graveyard.
R - shows your exile zone. Ctrl+R shows opponent's. Cards that are exiled face-down (like those in Windbrisk Heights) are currently implemented as a different zone, and so they won't show here.
This should be all basic info, play away
Re: FAQS
by FranAvalon » 31 Jan 2011, 13:54
Thanks Marek for all info. 
I will overwrite first post with this info
I will overwrite first post with this info
- FranAvalon
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- FranAvalon
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Re: FAQS
by Marek14 » 27 Jan 2012, 10:28
A few corrections: from planeswalkers, we also lack Chandra, the Firebrand in addition to those you listed. The wrong borders on PTK cards bug was fixed. We should also mention the dragging of cards to targets (something I found about only a while ago!)
Re: FAQS
by FranAvalon » 09 Feb 2012, 14:27
Maybe a uncompress/copy/paste file can be added to release. So, if you have already installed BA, copy that files will update the app, without the tedious of un-install and re-install.
I will think about it.
I will think about it.
- FranAvalon
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Re: FAQS
by Emfatic » 24 Sep 2012, 11:18
What exactly does the "Allows overkills" box in the game play options menu mean?
Also, how do I add token images to the game? The link to these images in the installation thread is broken. I tried to just use the token images I used for Forge and put them in a subdirectory called TK, but that didn't work.
Also, how do I add token images to the game? The link to these images in the installation thread is broken. I tried to just use the token images I used for Forge and put them in a subdirectory called TK, but that didn't work.
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Re: FAQS
by FranAvalon » 24 Sep 2012, 14:45
"Allow overkills option". If you uncheck it, AI will calculate the way to dealt enough damage to the player to left the player exactly to zero life. When you checked it, the AI will try to do the maximum damage possible to kill you.
When BA's AI was designed in first time, it always try to set players life to zero, attacking with only one creature for example. You can take advantage of this behaviour, bouncing the attacking creature for example, so cards as boomerang and unsummon worked as "time walks".
About the tokens pictures, their need a number to define the token image. I will update this post and "Install card images,wallpapers & avatars" one with the new link. Thx for report it.
Tokens for 1.40.1 release:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1sz1d19z0qn2fyd
When BA's AI was designed in first time, it always try to set players life to zero, attacking with only one creature for example. You can take advantage of this behaviour, bouncing the attacking creature for example, so cards as boomerang and unsummon worked as "time walks".
About the tokens pictures, their need a number to define the token image. I will update this post and "Install card images,wallpapers & avatars" one with the new link. Thx for report it.
Tokens for 1.40.1 release:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1sz1d19z0qn2fyd
- FranAvalon
- Programmer
- Posts: 568
- Joined: 02 Jul 2008, 06:54
- Has thanked: 44 times
- Been thanked: 64 times
- FranAvalon
- Programmer
- Posts: 568
- Joined: 02 Jul 2008, 06:54
- Has thanked: 44 times
- Been thanked: 64 times
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