can we have an official 'this is what you need' topic?

[sopcich04]

i think it would be great if in one topic there was a list of exacally what you need to be up to date. ie: mok2.0, non-card art.zip, 20100109.zip and so on....it seems im missing alot of card art.

[Helkael]

I second the request! (hope thats the way to spell it) i can say that im an experienced player but its hard to follow all updates (btw thanks to all the people working on it). maybe a torrent with all the necessary files? im sure some of us have a pc 24/7 online

[blotto]

I agree. I reinstalled from the Wiki but it is missing a bunch of stuff. I had to search around to get all the files or at least most of them. The custom editor says I only have 2288 cards and I believe there are 2354..ish and I have no idea were to get the rest. Great job on the editor by the way. This is in no way a complaint. With all the new changes and upgrades over the last month or so, it all needs to be reorganized into one giant download or several small ones that have everything you need to be fully up to date from a fresh start.

[jatill]

Right now the wiki covers this, at least up to 12/25. Since it's a giant hassle to re-upload all those files frequently, I plan on updating the master list about once per month only. So people have 2 choices. You can either follow the forums closely to keep yourself cutting edge, or you can get the major updates once a month.

[sopcich04]

first off. we should forget this donation stuff to haiti and send it to the people that work on mok2.0 haha

anyways this is what i have on my comp, maybe we can compare
mok2.0 part 1 and 2
cartartlim
noncard_art
20100109

[jatill]

you also need cardartnew

[sopcich04]

this is why im always missing card art!! haha thanks!

[mathusalem]

maybe at some point it would be a good idea to make a single package with everything one needs in it. ant count that as a starting point.

It's true that for the guys who have been following the project from the start it's a matter of fact, but we have a lot of new followers lataly and I can understand things are very confusing fo them with so many differnt files to download and install.

for example wouldn't it be a better idea to include the arts with the files. the programmers could give a call to the guys who prepare the arts a little in advance and make the package before relaese.
what do you think ?

[jatill]

I don't know of any site that lets you post files larger than 100K. (torrent is not an option for me). If there are, merging everything together makes some sense.

[stassy]

Some thread ago there was a CD lite compilation project but due to the update frenzy it got delayed. The total size is already considered as moderate to huge (something like 300 mio?)

[Bog Wraith]

Ok folks, listen up!

Huggy & I are in the throws of getting a one stop shop for everything ManaLink together and I hope I will have it finished sometime later next week or early the week after.

First off, we will be using the CD install that Stassy mentioned. It will be broken into 7 parts using the rar file format. This is the way that it was made available to us when it was used for test purposes and it still is in this format. 6 of the parts are 100 MB's each with the 7th at around 34 MB. When all the parts are downloaded, you combine them together and if I remember correctly, it becomes the full iso file that is then burned to a CD which you then use to install the game from.

I want to download, compile & test the iso to make sure it works as I remember it. This is the same iso that I already burned to CD from when we first got it & I've used it to install the game many times already. I just want to test the download content and burn procedure of the iso to CD again before I give the green light to make sure all is ok. I want to make sure that when someone downloads these 630+ MB files, they will work as advertised! The install procedure is as easy as cake & it's very fast & convenient.

Just want to say a BIG THANKS to HIP63 for authoring the CD and for getting all the tutorials working and building the GUI for it as well. He did a fantastic job in getting this all together!

All the pertinent info will be made available in easy to follow instructions once we've got it all together so don't worry about it. This install will include everything that was current at the time of the CD's creation, which was about 10 months ago or so if my memory serves. This was as far as we got with the CD idea and we were hoping to add more, but this seems like a great time to get this out as it seems to work well and there is no use waiting any further.

After that, the new graphic files for the redesigned GUI and all the instructions for installing it & getting it to run correctly will be available in another link.

Next, the card art, from the current zip that contains ALL of art the will be made available too.

Lastly, the latest ManaLink game files update will be linked to as well.

Hopefully, all of these files will be posted in one folder at MediaFire where some of them reside already. As I said, my goal is to have everything needed for a fresh install to be made available on one page. I also want anyone, whether a newbie or ManaLink vet, to be able to download, install and setup the game as easy as it will be to follow the step by step instructions in the accompanying ReadMe file.

One thing I want to stress is that this whole procedure works on my 2 Windows, (Desktop and Laptop) & iMac computers. The Win desktop and my iMac both use XP Pro, while the laptop runs XP Home, so it should work for XP users and the like. The only ones I'm not sure about are Vista & Windows 7 users as I don't have those OS versions. I suspect that those users will still run into the same difficulties we've all seen posted about in other threads.

With everything available in one place and following the instructions, anyone should be able to get the game up and running. It's really not that hard folks, just make sure you follow the steps that will be laid out in the ReadMe file!

From that step forward, the only thing left will be to download and install any of the new game & art files that will come out in future whenever an update is released. Those links will replace the older game update ones on this same one stop shop page for everything ManaLink.

So, I hope to have this stuff ready soon, so please be patient. I'll probably ask for a few "Volunteers" to then download the files, burn the iso and do an install just to see how it works on other folk's computers!

Once it's ready and if all is ok, we'll post it in the "New Users Start Here" section and we'll link to it here in the main ManaLink section!

[jatill]

I'm confused. How is this alternative better than the wiki install, which requires fewer downloads ( 6 total vs at least ? Even the CD is going to be immediately out of date when the next patch is released, right? Also, why would the redesigned UI be a separate download? Those are tied to the exe's now, so they need to be together.

Finally, if there is going to be a 1-stop download spot (bedies what we already have), it's probably best to include My2000 and SkyMagicEditor too.

[Bog Wraith]

The New GUI had not even been created when the CD was made. Therefore the need to add this as a separate download to apply the new graphics, just as it is necessary to get these files for the way it is done now!
Of course, the My2000 and SkyMagicEditor will be included too along with the other additional links I posted above.

This will be an alternative method especially for newer players. It's fairly obvious by the myriad of posts concerning this topic that the current method is not working for a large portion of the users, and that is only the surface of the amounts of inquiries we get via PM's on what to do and where to get the files.

The CD install works better and easier than ANY of the other ways to get the game going, and again I stress, especially for the new players. Please keep in mind that we are catering to a large portion of newer players and it is of paramount importance to get this install and setup procedure to work as easily as possible for these people.

Please remember that the CD gets you to where the original Micropose version that is needed to setup the game was, and it also includes all of the updates up to about a year ago. It simply is easier to install the game this way, again, especially for new users. It is then patched the exact same way it is for the current method.

If people , especially veteran players choose to use the wiki, that will be there for them too. However, this will be to address the concerns of all of the rest of our users.

And let me close with this fact. I'm as veteran a user of this game as you can get and this CD install is BY FAR the easiest way to get the game installed and working correctly! Yes it has to be patched to get the rest of the updates to the GUI, cards & art plus your custom set editor working, but that is also true for the way things are done now!

[jatill]

My opinion has always been that the reason people get confused is because there's not a giant link to the wiki installation page, not because the wiki itself is unclear or difficult to use.

If it were up to me the link to the wiki would be an announcement so new users would find it easier. The main advantage the wiki has is that the developers can update it when the patches update. Any system that does not allow for that will not work, I think.

[Bog Wraith]

You're still missing the point. All the other links for art, game files, custom set editor etc.. will always be in flux, so what you describe makes sense for that. Those links will always be changed with the latest upgrades whether it is on the wiki or on this one page.

The CD is simply for getting the game state installed and up & running to where it was when it was created. Regardless of which method one uses to install the initial original Magic game which is needed to get started, all updates and new features still have to be applied. This CD is to make it easier for anyone to get to that game state, ready to be upgraded, in an easier method via the install procedure on the CD.

For those of us who have used this CD installer, it is definitely superior to any other method of getting to that point than we have tried to date!

Again this is an alternative method that will not replace the wiki method. However I repeat yet again, it's not working for a large portion of users so the CD install will be made available for those who want it.