Rarities

[GandoTheBard]

So I am working on a much reduced rarities collection of files but I have run into a snag. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this but for some reason only the original files are usable with the client. I got tired of searching through the enormous (and yet tiny compared to all the cards ever created) files for each card I consider worthy of drafting and so I started over with a brand new notepad file. Everything in my file seems to be spelled correctly and I left no trailing LF/CRs that I know of but still the file causes MTG Forge to come up empty on load. The Client just doesnt load any cards at all so I cant even see what culprit if any is responsible. Any suggestions will be appreciated. I really dont want to have to clone the old files to work from.

[GandoTheBard]

By the way editing the original common.txt to see if I could induce the no load error I even deleted all the content of the file and it loaded fine...though of course the draft/sealed deck functions dont work. I made a new common.txt file and it also loaded fine. Then I added some card names.

Darksteel Ingot
Obelisk of Bant
Obelisk of Esper
Obelisk of Grixis
Obelisk of Jund
Obelisk of Naya

just to see if it would crash...all the names copied and pasted from cards.txt so that its not a matter of human error (since cards.txt worked previously and hasnt been altered by me since.) No crash but also no functionality either...so I decided that maybe it needed a minimum number of cards...and copied and pasted the above list of cards over and over making sure not to overlap or create extra Carriage Returns or LineFeeds. No go...no crash thankfully but no functionality either.

[Chris H.]

I just launched the 01 04 beta version of forge. I went to the deck editor and chose New Deck - Sealed. It is working with your modified rarities that were included in the beta distribution.

I did my best to replicate your problem. I added a blank line to the end of the file and this did not cause a problem.

I added a blank line near the beginning and this this lead to the problem that you are describing. Having only one slash rather than two slashes at the start of a line might also cause this problem.

//you can edit this file
//this file is used for sealed and draft games to generate booster packs
//all cards in this file are considered common
//no blank lines
//lines beginning with // are ignored

//Angelfire Crusader
//Aven Flock
//Azimaet Drake
//Breathstealer
//Capashen Templar
Cavern Crawler
Colos Yearling

[GandoTheBard]

Yeah the file I uploaded is a direct copy of the original not a new copy.

With the new file I did not make many comments. Nor were any of them typoed. (Im quite familiar with that particular problem) Nor was there a blank line anywhere in the new file.

Anyway making a new file and then adding card names (very carefully) to it leads to the 2nd problem. Not being able to test it or use it. Apparently the draft routine requires a very specific amount of cards in the file to work. Without knowing what this threshold is, I wont know if Im wasting my time making specific drafting files.

My goal/aim is to make specific draft files for different ways of drafting in MTGForge that just require some name swapping to make them functional. But I do NOT want to have to wade through 1100+ card names that are in NO order at all in order to make them work correctly.

[Chris H.]

Yeah the file I uploaded is a direct copy of the original not a new copy.

With the new file I did not make many comments. Nor were any of them typoed. (Im quite familiar with that particular problem) Nor was there a blank line anywhere in the new file.

Anyway making a new file and then adding card names (very carefully) to it leads to the 2nd problem. Not being able to test it or use it. Apparently the draft routine requires a very specific amount of cards in the file to work. Without knowing what this threshold is, I wont know if Im wasting my time making specific drafting files.

My goal/aim is to make specific draft files for different ways of drafting in MTGForge that just require some name swapping to make them functional. But I do NOT want to have to wade through 1100+ card names that are in NO order at all in order to make them work correctly.

I ran a test where I had just a single / at the start of a line. Nothing appeared in the listing window of the Deck editor.

Lines must start with either no slashes or only two slashes. Lines starting with only one slash caused the problem for me.

[Chris H.]

I ran a test where I had just a single / at the start of a line. Nothing appeared in the listing window of the Deck editor.

Lines must start with either no slashes or only two slashes. Lines starting with only one slash caused the problem for me.

I had another idea and tried a different approach.

I went into the Deck Editor and selected Deck Actions -> New Deck - Sealed. Clicked on the rarity column and discovered that there was a total of 5 rare cards listed. I reduced the rare.txt file to just the first 5 cards listed and deleted the rest.

I relaunched MTG Forge and I went into the Deck Editor and selected Deck Actions -> New Deck - Sealed. It worked.

I looked at the rarity column and discovered that there was a total of 15 uncommon cards listed. I reduced the uncommon.txt file to just the first 15 cards listed and deleted the rest.

I relaunched MTG Forge and I went into the Deck Editor and selected Deck Actions -> New Deck - Sealed. And again, it worked.

How many commons minimum are needed? I stopped at this point. Good luck.

[Rob Cashwalker]

Gando, you'll be pleased to know that I am almost done with a Cardset editor. It currently handles the rarities just fine, I just have a few things I want to polish up on it.

It can sort by any column - name, common, uncommon, rare and count. If you sort by count, you can immediately identify when a card has been listed twice, or not at all in the rarity files. In your case, there will be many cards listed as zero.....

It displays the image and the cards.txt entry, so you can better recall the actual rarity or if you want to remove it from circulation. While I was at it, I provided a means to view and change the URL for the card-picture. I added a button next to the URL to launch a gatherer search for the selected card, for easy copy/paste updates or newly added cards. I'm debating whether I should allow you to add new cards, but I did provide a means to modify the cards.txt entry for the selected card, for the odd spelling errors or whatnot, that may come up.

@ ChrisH - I think you just discovered a slight bug in the sealed deck functionality.... Sealed deck... should be 1 tournament pack and 2 boosters, right? a TP has 3 rares, and 10 uncommons. Each booster has 1 rare and 3 uncommons (foils don't count). So a sealed deck SHOULD contain 16 uncommons 10+3+3..... UNTIL the fall, when they stop printing TP's, and sealed deck will use 5 boosters, with 15 uncommons.

[Chris H.]

I'm debating whether I should allow you to add new cards, but I did provide a means to modify the cards.txt entry for the selected card, for the odd spelling errors or whatnot, that may come up.

@ ChrisH - I think you just discovered a slight bug in the sealed deck functionality.... Sealed deck... should be 1 tournament pack and 2 boosters, right? a TP has 3 rares, and 10 uncommons. Each booster has 1 rare and 3 uncommons (foils don't count). So a sealed deck SHOULD contain 16 uncommons 10+3+3..... UNTIL the fall, when they stop printing TP's, and sealed deck will use 5 boosters, with 15 uncommons.

I could have miscounted. Looking back I believe that I was 1 card short for a total of only 74 cards.

I noticed today that there is a minor cometic bug with the Aven Riftwatcher in cards.txt. If your program could handle this type of editing, awesome. Will your program be coded in Java or something that will only run under Microsoft Windows?

For the curious:

Aven Riftwatcher
2 W
Creature - Bird Rebel Soldier
Flying. Vanishing 3. When Aven Riftwatcher comes into play or leaves play, you gain 2 life.
2/3
Flying

[Rob Cashwalker]

Unfortuantely, my best programming is done in Visual Basic 6. I have run some similarly constructed programs under WinE, if that helps with the non-windows among us.... I'm not good enough in java to do it natively. I can only imagine how much extra code would be needed to handle a number of the simple things I take for granted using VB with OCX controls....

[GandoTheBard]

Rob excellent news! I look forward to seeing the prototype

[Chris H.]

Unfortuantely, my best programming is done in Visual Basic 6. I have run some similarly constructed programs under WinE, if that helps with the non-windows among us.... I'm not good enough in java to do it natively. I can only imagine how much extra code would be needed to handle a number of the simple things I take for granted using VB with OCX controls....

That is OK. You need to be familiar with your programming language to be effective. I'm guessing that Gando uses Windows and will be able to make use of your application. Nonetheless, thank you for your help.