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1666th post of the thread! There are lots of updating bugs -- Shades' P/T are refreshed in the card panel to the right but not in the combat panel to the left after their abilities are used multiple times consecutively, and I could not destroy my opponent's Mad Auntie and Goblin Ringleader when they blocked my 4/4 attacker together because damage on creatures apparently wasn't checked until the next turn.

Yeah, I think the P/T not updating in the actual cards is not that big of a deal... Something is just not updating those properly, I noticed when I play without pictures, when there are a lot of Glorious Anthemesque cards in play, those numbers keep just bouncing up and down... The card panel on the right will show the numbers that are actually used. Still, it would be good to fix, I'll see if I can.

My Emeria Angel is making green bird tokens. (Not that green birds wouldn't be awesome, but they're supposed to be white birds.)

I'm using the 11/25 version.

The computer likes to play Bribery and fetch my Flametongue Kavu only to have it scorch itself.

Seriously, the AI needs some better algorithms for this situation and combat than, y'know, sorting creatures by power.

1. Odun Oakenshield has his ability when his in hand.

freestorageaccount wrote:The computer likes to play Bribery and fetch my Flametongue Kavu only to have it scorch itself.

Seriously, the AI needs some better algorithms for this situation and combat than, y'know, sorting creatures by power.

Sheer brilliance

DennisBergkamp wrote:Sheer brilliance

But wait! There's more! Even with 'Stack AI Land' enabled, the computer sometimes starts the game by having to discard due to not finding a mana source.

On an unrelated note, I believe Brainstorm places cards in the graveyard instead of the library (at least when I watched the computer play it).

freestorageaccount wrote:The computer likes to play Bribery and fetch my Flametongue Kavu only to have it scorch itself.

Seriously, the AI needs some better algorithms for this situation and combat than, y'know, sorting creatures by power.

Well, the AI is only an illusion like a special effect and the computer get drunk sometimes (I think).

Hm, my Slippery Bogle was able to be targeted by the AI's Putrefy. Weird thing is, I looked at the spDestroyTgt code and it definitely checks for targetability... not sure what's going on.

I blocked an Essence Sliver with a Black Knight and a Slith Bloodletter, but no damage was assigned to my creatures. I assume the computer tried to kill the Knight (damage can indeed be assigned to it, though it's rarely a smart move) but zero assigned damage is a hack to emulate damage prevention until it's implemented, which explains why giving protection from a color to Knight of Dawn after it's assigned lethal combat damage doesn't rescue it. Still, even though the Knight can be assigned damage from a white source perfectly well, the computer should be smart enough (I wish ) to figure out that an alternative is more productive.

He gained three lives, nevertheless.

EDIT: Computer uses the haste ability of Thornling the turn after he plays it. Oh well, it's difficult enough for him to use one ability effectively, so why did I think he could do better with five?!

EDIT2: I think Solemn Simulacrum causes your library to be shuffled for both of its effects, since I didn't draw the card I was expecting from Vampiric Tutor after it died. Also, those abilities are examples of optional abilities that you really should be able to cancel (in order not to disturb the library as mentioned earlier, for instance).

In the current SVN, spDamageCP doesn't seem to work anymore. Haven't really looked into this (might be an easy fix), just thought I'd post it here though...

EDIT: I guess Rob replaced it with spDamageTgt And I guess I messed it up, somehow overwriting his changes in cards.txt

freestorageaccount wrote:I blocked an Essence Sliver with a Black Knight and a Slith Bloodletter, but no damage was assigned to my creatures. I assume the computer tried to kill the Knight (damage can indeed be assigned to it, though it's rarely a smart move) but zero assigned damage is a hack to emulate damage prevention until it's implemented, which explains why giving protection from a color to Knight of Dawn after it's assigned lethal combat damage doesn't rescue it. Still, even though the Knight can be assigned damage from a white source perfectly well, the computer should be smart enough (I wish ) to figure out that an alternative is more productive.

How hard is damage prevention?

I was thinking about it just the other day. In my mind, when damage is dealt, I see all those little points of damage hanging in the air for a frozen second. Each point is an object containing ID of source, ID of recipient, some flags marking it as combat, unpreventable, or unredirectable damage, and (and this is important), a list of all effects that were already applied on this point of damage. Points which have all these factors identical are equivalent.

Now, before the damage is actually done, various effects are applied. I suppose active player applies effects that affect him and his permanents in any order, then inactive player applies the rest.

Basic damage effects are:

Fixed prevention (like Samite Healer). This effect is a shield over recipient stating a number.
If there are any points of preventable damage aiming at the protected object, it prevents all of them or its stated number, whichever is less. If it prevents less than its stated number, the number is decreased. If it prevents as much, the shield disappears. If some points of damage are not equivalent, it can be chosen which ones will be prevented (for cases where, say, you take damage from Hypnotic Specter and one other creature, and you want to prevent the damage from specter).
All damage from source (like protection abilities). This effect prevents all damage from any source that matches description (the description can be so precise it only works for one source, for example in Circles of Protection). If there are any points of preventable damage aiming at the object with source matching the key, all of them are prevented. Some of these effects are one-shot, some permanent.
All damage by source (like Muzzle). Similar, but prevents damage dealt by specific source to recipients matching the key.
All combat damage (like Fog). Applies if there are any preventable points of combat damage around, and prevents them all at once.
Damage redirection. If there are redirectable points satisfying the condition, their recipient is changed, and the effect is written into their list so it wouldn't accidentally affect them twice. Planeswalker damage redirection is special case here. Can occur in specified amount incarnation (Harm's Way) or redirect all damage.

These are basic. Every system of damage prevention has to know how to do at least these. Then there are more complex things like Phantom creatures, Phytohydra, Equal Treatment, Furnace of Rath, etc. In a system like this, there should all be possible.

If Wizened Cenn's type was changed by Conspiracy. It's still get +/+ from other Wizened Cenns

Then there are more complex things like Phantom creatures...

Actually, funnily enough, these are the simplest ones in Forge's architecture. I just added Phantom Nishoba and Phantom Centaur

Reach of Branches looks glitchy in more situations than I had originally thought. A single instance of the card seems to be able to trigger only once, and multiple cards in a graveyard don't all trigger. Now I'm not sure of the root cause.

EDIT: When my Sandbar Serpent (3/4) and Charging Troll (3/3) block the computer's pumped Llanowar Behemoth (6/6), 0 damage is assigned to the Serpent and 3 to the Troll. Where'd the other 3 go?

EDIT2: I thought it was added, but the pump ability of Mishra's Factory is still missing.

EDIT3: The ability of Treva, the Renewer (and possibly similar cards) triggered when it destroyed a Serra Avenger in combat, without trample. Treva had double strike from Rafiq of the Many in case it matters. (I wish you could undo tapping certain lands without having to cancel the entire ability. I continually have to give up the life because I accidentally tap all of my mana sources of a color that I'll need later . . . )

EDIT4: Could you please make the player's own face-down cards visible to himself? Sometimes I can't remember which creature is which based on morph cost.