Massive CSV upgrade and new cards preview

[0rion79]

Hello dear friends, how're u all?

it is with great pleasure, that I warn you all that a new CSV version is ready for download (the link is still the same: http://www.savefile.com/files/2082961 ) and it contains more than 100 new cards already perfectly merged with the older ones, that the dear Jatill will code soon.
(note that the last bunch of cards - fom thrulls until 1999 - are just suggestions from me, not in programm by Jatill)

But, of course, I didn't stop here but made more extensive studies on the manalink.csv file that have allowed me to check several associations and flags that were probably confusing the AI, maybe with lands linked to the wrong mana production or missing "use" for some cards. Now, in fact, I hope that the AI will use Pacifism, at last, and that it will be more efficient with some older cards and in sealed deck building. Also, I have fixed a lot of text (as the Sleigh of Mind tags).

It has taken more or less 10 hours of hard working but I'm really satisfied of that. Please, warn me if you see some mispelling with the cards text (not flavor text) due to some unproper automatic scripts by Excell.

Last but not least, I have fixed a minor bug with Wall of Kelp mana and... I have to tell you that there is only one card slot left. After that we use it, we have to remove other cards because the game gives an error if I add the 2000 card and doesn't start at all.

BogW and Mathy, if you want you can start to prepare art

PS: does anybody of you has Jatill's version WITHOUT the "reach 0 and instantly die" rule? I hate when the AI concedes or forces me to concede the game!!

[Zeek]

Which ones are new? Will they just not have a picture on them if they're not playable?

I wonder how far you can go with editing the AI's judgement. When I had it trying to play my Goblin deck, it would cast Goblin Ringleader (which automatically has haste) after combat when I had no blockers and was tapped out after a Wrath of God . Basically they just gave up 2 free damage. It also doesn't use Skullclamp, either on 1 or 2 toughness creatures, but will gladly cast the artifact. And when casting Arcbound Ravager, it sees this as an opportunity to make the single largest artifact creature possible, sacrificing artifact lands and moxes until there's only one artifact left, either itself or a Myr Enforcer. While an 11/11 Enforcer looks nice, it's not good to put all your eggs into one basket, especially when that basket is the target of a Disenchant spell.

The only deck I've created the AI plays well is a Sliver deck. Although it's not terrible at the opening part of a Biorythym deck, but can't comprehend the finishing move of tapping 9 to animate a Mishra's Factory and casting Biorythym just after when the opponent has no creatures.

[0rion79]

Actually there are no new cards that you can *PLAY* but you can use Excell to open the manalink.csv and see what's boiling in the pot. In this way you will already have a working and bug-free (99,9% ^_^ ) CSV dat that you can already begin to use now, without any trouble.

About AI, I'm proud to say that I've seen some enhancement during sealed deck game in the selection of cards: I've seen that id does not add ONLY creatures and lands, but uses those important anti-permanents that are always useful. I mean, from Terror to Shatter, accordingly to what it does find.
Also, I can't predict how the AI will will behave in the future, because there are 2000 cards and it is difficult for a single human person to check each card one by one but I think that some missing association will lightly increase gaming experience.

Anyway, the AI is not clever enough to use combo decks, but now it should use in a better way our (manalink 2.0) single cards in vanilla deck without any combo. Then, for further improvements, we would need some expert that would "explain" to the AI how to use single cards coding extra informations in the Magic.exe files.

[Nachomancer]

Cool, Mind Over Matter will make my Tim deck happy. A thrull deck looks like fun. Also, it seems like there are enough poison creatures to make a poison deck now.

How much bugfixing did you do? My game used to crash when casting some creatures (Aysen Crusader, Ihsan's Shade, Order of the Ebon Hand) but doesn't any more. I don't know if it's because of the new CSV, or if Vista decided to cooperate suddenly.

[jshahmiran]

I had this installed today and had to remove it. The game kept hanging and crashing while i was in the deck editor. Not sure if this is important since i am a newbie but i thought i would let you know.

[Zeek]

I had this installed today and had to remove it. The game kept hanging and crashing while i was in the deck editor. Not sure if this is important since i am a newbie but i thought i would let you know.

Try not having any other windows open at the same time. I know I tried building decks with a firefox window open to a card search engine, going back and forth between the two. Suddenly, Windows Explorer will encounter an error and be forced to close, but it won't end explorer.exe and I basically have to restart my computer to get anything running again. Without anything else open, it works just fine though.

[0rion79]

I had this installed today and had to remove it. The game kept hanging and crashing while i was in the deck editor. Not sure if this is important since i am a newbie but i thought i would let you know.

Zeek has already given you a good advice. Also,the CSV2DAt.exe file would prevent the creation of a new cards.dat file if the edited manalink.csv has some uncompatibile information inside.

About bugfixing, the revision has been really important because I've checked also those colums that are normally ignored so you can't directly see the results of the fixing (it is not like when you add new cards) but you will probably experience them with time. Anyway, I have no idea if this can interact with crashes related to single cards with Vista but honestly I doubt that they may be related somehow! It is just Vista that is a Junk... get Windows7 as soon as you can, or get the RCI version now

[Zeek]

Hmm, I've gotten an occasional window explorer freezeup with only Magic.exe open. I don't know what crashes it, but when it does, the debugger thing is what freezes most of the computer. The task manager still works, but it fails at doing a whole lot, until I finally figured out which process was the stuck debugger and was able to end that without restarting.

Anyway, I ultimately decided it was better to just close explorer.exe through the task manager since I know how to bring it back up and can alt-tab between the game and Firefox window. I'm not getting any problems this way except when the game itself errors and just simply exits itself.

[0rion79]

Hmm, I've gotten an occasional window explorer freezeup with only Magic.exe open.

If you mean that the game freezes when you switch to deck editor mode to another software (maybe to MSN or to check your e-mail), yes: it is an old-as-the-world bug. It does not depends from the CSV.

[gmzombie]

good job man...i looked at the csv and i can only hope that we can get past the 2000 card barrier.

[mathusalem]

I've prepared the pics.
This looks like a great update. if we get stuck on that 2000 card limit, well.... we sure will have regrets but we will have a really nice card pool.

does anyone knows the reason for the empty slots between some of the old sets : there are about 20 empty slots between legends and 8th edition. Does the game require those empty slots to play ?

[jatill]

I've prepared the pics.
This looks like a great update. if we get stuck on that 2000 card limit, well.... we sure will have regrets but we will have a really nice card pool.

does anyone knows the reason for the empty slots between some of the old sets : there are about 20 empty slots between legends and 8th edition. Does the game require those empty slots to play ?

Would you mind posting the pics now, so I don't have to look at duds while I'm modding?
Thanks.

[mathusalem]

There you go sir !

http://rapidshare.com/files/239717007/CardArtNew_.rar

[grizox657]

About that when windows ecounters an error, you can ctrl-alt-del and end drwatson32 task and it allows you to continue using the deckbuilder without closing it, and explorer usually restarts, but I have seen it not restart a few times...

[scythe000]

About that when windows ecounters an error, you can ctrl-alt-del and end drwatson32 task and it allows you to continue using the deckbuilder without closing it, and explorer usually restarts, but I have seen it not restart a few times...

Not for Vista or Windows 7. I can report BTW, that things run well on my Windows 7 box, nonetheless.