grateful & confused

[PGM]

My friends... especially Gargaroz, Korath, Sonic, Aswan Jaguar, Stassy and many others, I just can't thank everybody enough for the great work that has been produced in the last years. So, this is not a complaint! This is as an effort to improve an already fantastic job... and also a request for help.

I just formatted my computer and in my opinion installing and updating the game can be extremely confusing due to conflicting information and large number of links scattered over different areas. This should really be simplified and streamlined.

For instance, there's a lot of different versions of the game here:
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=6401
Which should one choose? I have no idea what the differences are, or even how to check my own version.
And if I install any of these, will moving the card art updates to the CardArtManalink folder be enough to "install" them? My guess is that it won't because they're simple image files and don't include encoding. Am I wrong? Where can the code for the new cards be found?

The patches - let's say December's patch. Again, a lot of links.
What is "the usual Sonic corner"? https://www.mediafire.com/?r7cgtuc4w3t3pa6
And what's this file for, is it the code? I just extracted it to my main folder and the game stopped working, ie, no cards appear during the gauntlet. Any help please?
Afterwards there's two links for the same file: ManalinkDec2014.zip, but a few post later Sonic posted:
"Ignore the 'ManalinkDec2014.zip' file - this was the archive for the edited manalink files I sent to Gargaroz for the patch update. I think he included the link in the announcement post by mistake."
Of course, by the time I had read this I had already installed it. I think the first post of these topics should be clearer and always updated.

Again, not complaining! Thank you for your efforts and I appreciate any answers to my questions.

[BAgate]

1) The 'lots of different games' are simply copies of the game that certain people assembled at different times. The only differences between them are some themes (that only affect how the start up screen looks) and what level of patch is installed. It doesn't matter which one you use, although we highly recomend you use one of the first 2.

2) Copying the card art files to the proper folder simply makes the art available to the game. It doesn't affect what cards are available to play. That is the province of the code which is updated in the patches. So after you install the base game (one of the 1st 2 from the list above) you then need to patch it. Go to the patch folder, find the most recent patch (generally pinned at the top) and download it. Unzip it (with virus scanner turned off, some of the dll's alter files and so give a false positive) to the program directory of the game. This will update the code and give you the most up to date cards available.

3) Then there is the matter of artwork. At the bottom of every patch post is a collection of artwork archives and instructions for installing them. Follow those and you should be good to go.

Sometimes mistakes get made and sometimes we talk in code that stems from doing this forever. Sorry, but that is something you just have to deal with. As to always updating, it is. That is what the patches are for, and since that is all that changes, that is generally all that needs updating. Combine that with a lack of manpower and it's not likely to get done.