Forge's success

[mtgrares]

In college we wrote programs but they were only 100 lines long. Since Forge is around 30,000 lines long, it was a whole different ballgame. Also Forge is a "end user" program and is used by people who don't know computer programming, so the user interface is very important. I'm glad because people seem to understand Forge's limitations (with bugs, user interface, etc...) and seem to really enjoy just having a good game of Magic against the computer.

[Bog Wraith]

You've accomplished so much with Forge. You should be very proud of what you, and the many great folks who have helped with & tested this great app, have given to all of us who love MTG so very much.

I have not been very active at CCGHQ for a good part of this year due to health & other concerns, but even when I was here on a daily basis, I was remiss in expressing my appreciation and admiration for what you & the guys have succeeded in doing to get Forge to where it is today!

I've been so out of the loop here that I am just now becoming aware of the Quest mode that is part of Forge. As a HUGE fan of the Shandalar module that is part of the Microprose MTG game, I can't tell you how excited I am about this after reading the threads that pertain to it and after having dipped my toe into my first foray of Quest mode.

I am very proud of what ManaLink has evolved into as well as in all of the people that have contributed to where it is today. That is where my passion & effort has been for many years.

I just wanted to express my gratitude & appreciation for those same qualities & dedication that I see coming from you & all the other wonderful people who continue to develop Forge. I can't wait to see what you guys have in store for us all!

Thank you, all!

[DennisBergkamp]

Thanks for the kind words, Bog Wraith

There are actually also attempts at making a Shandalar clone: viewtopic.php?f=52&t=2907 (a "map" which ties into the existing forge code).

[Bog Wraith]

Oh man! Is this Christmas or what?

Unfreakin' believable!

Thanks for the heads up and link to the above topic. I've got a whole lotta catching up to do as the thread is quite extensive.

Awesome news. I am very fired up about all I see that is being done in this Shandalar style project.

You guys have made my summer!

This year has been very tough on me as I continue to deal with health issues that have been with me since March.

I hope I'm not becoming too maudlin, but the news just keeps getting better 'n better. You guys just keep blowing my mind with what you're doing!

You guys saved 2010 for me. Thanks!

[DennisBergkamp]

Whoa, well I doubt it would even come close to Shandalar's awesomeness, I'm sad to say that it'll be very hard to top that implementation...

I'm sure you, being a a Shandalar veteran, could provide us with some insights though of what made that game so great. I get the whole card collection and deck improvement aspect, but Shandalar has so much more, I just can't put my finger on what it is exactly.

[Bog Wraith]

The very fact that we can play with the card pool that is now in Forge is exciting for me as well as what I saw that was being discussed in the thread for it. The back and forth ideas of what could be done is very promising, so I stand by my initial excitement level!

Look, I realize that this is in it's early stages and that Shandalar does have that special something that has kept me and a lot of other people still playing after all these years, but Forge and the quest module have shown me just in this brief period, what a great implementation that has been done with it. I think what you are attempting to add into this as well as all of the great ideas I read in the thread coming from the same enthusiastic and talented people who have brought Forge to this point, bodes very well for the future of this game.

I look forward to helping in anyway that I can and in seeing what comes of this. I think, IMHO, that we are all in for a real treat as time goes by!

[xanrag]

Great game this, I'm having a blast with the quest mode (well, once I figured out that the "quest length" had no effect and I only got my first quest after 25 wins or so).

I just got a great combo by combining Doubling Season, Mycoloth (Spawn 1 Saproling per +1 token) and Gilder Bairn (For each token on creature, create another).

I'm currently waiting for the Mycoloth to spawn 864 Saprolings, it has taken a few minutes so far. (The Mycoltoh has 432 +1 tokens, and would get 1296 next turn if I bother.)

It just finished in fact and I just cast Muraganda Petroglyphs (+2 all tokens) so my army of 1000+ 3/3 Saprolings are ready to take down the last 4 hit points of my enemy.

I tried the Shandalar interface that's under development and that has some real potential. Although it felt a bit weird when I did the first quest of defending the town that just when I was victorious I had to do everything again. I know that's the default setting in forge but it didn't feel like it made sense in an RPG setting.

The AI needs some work though, it doesn't seem to handle the Flanking effect of the wolf pet too good since it insists on defending with creatures that have 1 health, but overall it is great fun playing against.

[DennisBergkamp]

Xanrag,

Glad you're having a good time! As for the town quest restarting... do you mean it starts a second game (I think it's a BO 3 match)?
Once you beat the computer, the quest should definitely not repeat again.

[xanrag]

Yeah, I mean the regular best of three. From an RPG perspective it makes sense to have another shot if you fail (depending on how nice the game is) but having to redo a success isn't usual.

[DennisBergkamp]

True, some of the quests might be better off being BO1...

[Mr.Chaos]

Great game this, I'm having a blast with the quest mode (well, once I figured out that the "quest length" had no effect and I only got my first quest after 25 wins or so).

I just got a great combo by combining Doubling Season, Mycoloth (Spawn 1 Saproling per +1 token) and Gilder Bairn (For each token on creature, create another).

I'm currently waiting for the Mycoloth to spawn 864 Saprolings, it has taken a few minutes so far. (The Mycoltoh has 432 +1 tokens, and would get 1296 next turn if I bother.)

It just finished in fact and I just cast Muraganda Petroglyphs (+2 all tokens) so my army of 1000+ 3/3 Saprolings are ready to take down the last 4 hit points of my enemy.

I tried the Shandalar interface that's under development and that has some real potential. Although it felt a bit weird when I did the first quest of defending the town that just when I was victorious I had to do everything again. I know that's the default setting in forge but it didn't feel like it made sense in an RPG setting.

The AI needs some work though, it doesn't seem to handle the Flanking effect of the wolf pet too good since it insists on defending with creatures that have 1 health, but overall it is great fun playing against.

For a real slowwwwwwwwwdown, add Rhys the Redeemed into the mix. That is what I did with my Saproling deck (it is in the decks section somewhere, I uploaded it here once) With Mycoloth at 800+ counters and then using Rhys 2 turns in a row, you can take the dog for a walk or do the dishes before Forge is done putting all the new tokens into play. I once managed to get Rhys to duplicate 1200 tokens with 2 Doubling Season in play, that really took over 30 minutes to resolve. (Or was it 50 minutes?) Anyway, I left it to work that out while I had luch and when I came back, the tokens where there.
So much for "a quick game of Magic"