Need Help Coding?

[Marty]

Hey Everyone,

I really enjoy this game, and would love to help code more cards if someone can give me an idea about how to do it. I'm very good with computers, but I've never programed anything in Java or actually anything else. Has anyone made a "How to" doc or anything?

[DennisBergkamp]

We could use all the help we could get with coding

I think there might be some document rares released a long time ago with some of his releases, which shows some code examples and talks about them.
Probably the best way is just to read through some of the code and attempt to understand it (this is how I started out).

But it may be a good idea to write some how to doc, I might give this a shot.

[Chris H.]

Hey Everyone,

I really enjoy this game, and would love to help code more cards if someone can give me an idea about how to do it. I'm very good with computers, but I've never programed anything in Java or actually anything else. Has anyone made a "How to" doc or anything?

Several months ago someone suggested that people could visit the http://java.sun.com/ site and they would find a java development kit and would also find some fairly simple to follow tutorials on how to write java programs.

[Marty]

I was thinking about trying to reverse engineer it, but I figured if it's already a stable program, I didn't want to screw it up because I guessed wrong.

[Rob Cashwalker]

I'm a programmer by trade, as is Dennis. I have no formal training in Java, (I'm pretty sure rares does) but I have a sixth-sense when it comes to programming. So I'm learning Java solely because and in context of of MTGForge. I'm getting the hang of it and I use references from the net a lot. I think a big chunk of my understanding Java is that I have a better understanding of what the app does and how the game of magic works.. In other words, don't ask me to start a new Java app from scratch though... I haven't even done a "hello world" project yet....

All new code usually is posted on the board, for all of us to review before release, unless Dennis or rares writes it between releases... so don't worry about screwing anything up.

[Chris H.]

I think there might be some document rares released a long time ago with some of his releases, which shows some code examples and talks about them.

Most of the previous documentation has been combined into a single archive which can be found on this google page:

http://code.google.com/p/cardforge/downloads/list

There is a document included with the beta distribution found here at CCGH titled "readme-compile.htm" and this doc contains some useful information to help Marty get started.

[Huggybaby]

So is it Card Forge or MTG Forge?

[mtgrares]

My previous project at sourceforge.net got in trouble mostly because of the name "MTG Forge" so that is why the Google project isn't named that. Supposedly Wizards owns the abbreviation "MTG". I wouldn't mind renaming MTG Forge but I have no idea what name to use.

I put together a tutorial about MTG Forge and coding cards. It presumes that you know Java. I've tried to make it an "easy" introduction but it is probably a little hard.

[Chris H.]

So is it Card Forge or MTG Forge?

There was a time in the past when Rares changed the name of a (variant/off-shoot of Forge) to "Card Warrior".

[Huggybaby]

Card Warrior is an excellent name.

[Rob Cashwalker]

Card Warrior is an excellent name.

Yeah, but us old-timers have been typing MTGForge for so long that our fingers won't know Card Warrior....

[Chris H.]

Card Warrior is an excellent name.

The Card Warrior name has a depressing history associated with the other variant. I do not think that we should use a "Raise Dead" spell on this name.

We may want to consider ditching the MTG portion of the name and use Forge {date} as most people who use this product should be able to recognize this name.

[Rob Cashwalker]

We may want to consider ditching the MTG portion of the name and use Forge {date} as most people who use this product should be able to recognize this name.

The only trouble I have with Calling it "Forge", is that on his blog, "Forge" is rares' name.....

How about "Spell-Slinger" or "Virtual Wizard" or something.... Generic and easy to type as acronyms....

[GandoTheBard]

I like "Card Forge"
Card Wizard is a possibility.
Card Savant (indicating an intelligent computer player :p *smirks*)
Wizard Forge (implying that the player is what gets crafted not just the decks)

The difficulty with any name is not just infringment but branding it. I know it as MTG Forge because I came across it through Rare's blog. (Notice I dont call him Forge.) But people who came across it through google probably are confused by the name. It would be smart if all the names coincided to be the same.

[mtgrares]

The project could be called just "Forge". I like the name "AI Mage" but it might look funny if you don't know what AI stood for. Incantus sounded funny at first but then it sounded ok, so all names take some time to grow on you. "MTG Forge" was a default name. I was using SourceForge at the time and I might have subconsciously used Forge as both my nickname and project name.