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Half rules enforcement?

PostPosted: 07 Dec 2014, 19:24
by BiasedDice
Is it feasiable to make half rules enforcement? That is, a client that enforces the global effects but not the specific cards?

For ex: automatize damage taken during combat, automatize card draw, upkeep costs, protection from color, lose the game, destroy all creatures, etc.

Or is MTG a do or don't case, enforce everything or not?

Re: Half rules enforcement?

PostPosted: 08 Dec 2014, 17:23
by MageKing17
BiasedDice wrote:Is it feasiable to make half rules enforcement? That is, a client that enforces the global effects but not the specific cards?

For ex: automatize damage taken during combat, automatize card draw, upkeep costs, protection from color, lose the game, destroy all creatures, etc.

Or is MTG a do or don't case, enforce everything or not?
My first thought was "maybe", but all of your examples are a pretty good argument for it being "everything or nothing". Damage taken during combat is heavily affected by specific cards; you could almost automate drawing a card at the beginning of your turn, except there are cards that stop that from happening. There is no such thing as a non-card-specific "upkeep cost" (excepting echo and maybe a couple of other keywords, but again, it can be affected by other cards). Without other things being automatic, automating protection doesn't make sense ("we'll automatically not do the thing we weren't going to handle anyway"). Even losing the game can't be automated, thanks to cards like Lich.

Re: Half rules enforcement?

PostPosted: 09 Dec 2014, 22:35
by rocketnia
BiasedDice wrote:Is it feasiable to make half rules enforcement? That is, a client that enforces the global effects but not the specific cards?

For ex: automatize damage taken during combat, automatize card draw, upkeep costs, protection from color, lose the game, destroy all creatures, etc.

Or is MTG a do or don't case, enforce everything or not?
It's clearly possible to do a little bit of enforcement: You can prevent people from building illegal decks, changing a Plains to a Black Lotus partway through the game, setting their life total to a platypus, etc.

The trick would be to automate/enforce appropriate things so that the automation almost always helps, and when it doesn't, there's an easy way around it. Maybe combat damage can be mostly automated, with some cards triggering a warning that guides the players to manage the damage themselves. You'd probably need to maintain a database of which cards trigger which warnings.