New MTG Software: Mox

[BlackMamba]

Hi,

For a couple of months now, I've been working on my own MTG rule engine, with networking capabilities and a WPF client. Until now, I've kept it in the dark, but last month, I created a blog about the issues involved with the development. It has a decent amount of content now, so I'm posting the link I'm updating the blog once a week or so.

http://moxdev.wordpress.com/

From the blog:

This blog is about the development of Mox, a WPF next-generation Magic the Gathering® software. It features a multiplayer mode over a network and single player mode against AI opponents. It is developed in C# (.Net 3.5) and the network engine is built on top of WCF. All rules are enforced server-side.

One of the things I think distinguishes Mox from the other MTG software out there is the strongly test-driven approach I take. Even the UI is tested because of the usage of the Model-View-ViewModel pattern, which works really well with WPF. That means that when fixing a card that didn’t behave like the rules say it should in an awfully complicated case that only DCI judges can understand, we can actually write a test to make sure that the bug never comes back. I think this can be a real advantage when you implement thousands of cards.

The MTG engine is pretty much standalone so people could, one day, only use the rule engine and do something else with it.. or just do their own game with it or something. Not yet though

It is nowhere near a finished product. The UI is temporary. The server/client part is deficient at best. No cards have been totally implemented (expect maybe the basic lands...). So it's still a long way before it reaches the status of the other MTG software in these forums. Don't expect a downloadable version anytime soon

I hope it can be useful or give inspiration to some people... If you have questions, I'll be happy to answer them.
Frank

PS: I call it Mox. I know that Firemox exists. But I had Mox in mind way before the magic project became Firemox so I'm keeping the name

[Huggybaby]

Thanks for letting us know. Your layout is nice!

It's true that Mox and Firemox could be confusing, but it's survival of the fittest!

[frwololo]

good luck with your further work, and welcome to the great world of rules enforcement.
One piece of advice: don't make the same mistake as me, always use the comp rules as your specifications book!

[BlackMamba]

One piece of advice: don't make the same mistake as me, always use the comp rules as your specifications book!

I am, although it is pretty much an impossible task to implement all the rules at once, so at some point, I'm finding that you have to say: "ok, this part I won't do right now, but I'll come back to it and keep it in mind".

[Huggybaby]

BlackMamba, check your PM.

[juzamjedi]

Very cool indeed!

I will also keep a watch for this project. Be sure to come back to the forum here and let us all know when you do have a version that is playable. I may start reading your blog posts because I have a lot more learning to do about what makes for good programming.

[mtgrares]

BlackMamba,

Yes everybody hits walls and you aren’t sure what to do. Hopefully something comes together in your head, (thats how I get through walls.)

I laughed at your min-max AI tic-tac-toe stuff that when the board was like:

X X _
_ O _
_ _ _

and the AI wouldn’t block the 2 Xs. I guess the evaluate board function was the same no matter where the AI put the X so the AI puts the X in the first place that it searched. (This is just a guess since I haven’t used min-max yet but I want no.)

I want to use min-max for the AI on future versions of MTG Forge. Even a very shallow search tree would improve MTG Forge’s AI.

I also view the creature combat min-max is separate from the “play a card” min-max, although I know that Magic entangles both parts making everything more complex but harder to code.

Keep up the good work and thanks for the link to my blog,
Forge

[frwololo]

I laughed at your min-max AI tic-tac-toe stuff that when the board was like:

X X _
_ O _
_ _ _

and the AI wouldn’t block the 2 Xs.

Funny, I read that article a few days ago and laughed too.
Being corrected by your own AI is cool and freaky at the same time