2000 cards limit

[0rion79]

@ Mok, yes: in fact Shroud ability replaced the "cannot be the target of enchant creature spells" ability owned by some legendary creatures from Legends set.
Anyway, I'm glad that I don't understand anything anymore: it means that things are getting serious!

[Mok]

@ Mok, yes: in fact Shroud ability replaced the "cannot be the target of enchant creature spells" ability owned by some legendary creatures from Legends set.
Anyway, I'm glad that I don't understand anything anymore: it means that things are getting serious!

Yeah, hard to tell what's working properly and what was redefined just because 'nothing seems to be broken' or 'these cards are not needed' and without checking the actual engine code that references the same values in plenty of other places.

In any case what I meant by my previous message is that Magic.exe and ManalinkEx.dll that I'll try to post later today will not work until you put in (with that editor) the proper (combined?) card_data_t prepared for the csv you choose. And prepare new ManalinkEh.dll with _cards_ptr changed to new address and hopefully 2k fixed.

[foolosopher]

Mok if it's not too much trouble, is there any chance that you also try to produce a clean version of broken and unused code?
We 'll keep it if working properly, otherwise we 'll have it for reference.

[Mok]

Mok if it's not too much trouble, is there any chance that you also try to produce a clean version of broken and unused code?
We 'll keep it if working properly, otherwise we 'll have it for reference.

Nope. I'm bad in C and what's worse the current code is hardly readable for me. Besides I guess without all these hacks half of the things wouldn't work at all but doing it cleanly would require analyzing the original engine, extending structs, and so on. That means even more hacking the exes, replacing struct sizes, allocating things on the fly... too much work. Too bad someone who created the original C framework didn't mark all the unknown values as private. Maybe then someone would actually try to do things properly. Now... with the amount of already added "working" code? Unlikely.

[foolosopher]

I was talking about cleaning up the exe. If you have any sources in C we 'll clear them over time. exe and asm are mostly our problem.

[Mok]

I was talking about cleaning up the exe. If you have any sources in C we 'll clear them over time. exe and asm are mostly our problem.

That's even more work. I'd have to resource exe in ida again add all labels, structs, enums and so on... and then try to understand what the engine actually does and some parts were hard to read, it's a LOT of code. That's almost no different than starting from scratch I'm not interested in the project that much (or have enough time), sorry.

[foolosopher]

Back to basics then...

[gmzombie]

a question for ya mok is it alot of work to add new set allocations like 100,80,40,800 that are already there. that way there can be more organization in the csv and ultimately in the deck editor. im just thinking of the little things that are bothersome as we are fixing this 2k problem. also I was playing with the deck builder that you updated and copied some of the new buttons just renamed them whatever.pic and they worked great. thanks for that.
edit: I will have the next 4 days off of work so I will work on getting a good ultimate csv. one other question is if you want to remove card code from exe woyld it be possible to move it to manalinkex.dll since that is an asm dll anyways

[Gargaroz]

Mok, if you're curious, all the new cards seems to have a pretty decent AI with the correct CSV data and Reserved Infos.
Perhaps that hardcoded stuff you was talking about is needed only for older cards and it's embedded in the card code. Obviously, basic lands have to be left were they are or the engine will go ape, and Clone / Vesuvan Doppleganger seems to ignore every single try I did for improving their code if I leave them on their orginal slots.

[Mok]

Mok, if you're curious, all the new cards seems to have a pretty decent AI with the correct CSV data and Reserved Infos.
Perhaps that hardcoded stuff you was talking about is needed only for older cards and it's embedded in the card code. Obviously, basic lands have to be left were they are or the engine will go ape, and Clone / Vesuvan Doppleganger seems to ignore every single try I did for improving their code if I leave them on their orginal slots.

Seriously, this is "I don't see the problem so it doesn't exist" attitude only. The engine is working the same for all cards and even if you don't see exactly AI making stupid moves that doesn't mean it works like it should. In theory it's supposed to make hundreds of virtual moves and choosing the best one... so no wonder that something that gives bad results is discarded anyway. Regardless if it's redefined variables that should have been left alone or card_data_t that got trashed just because it's a bunch of numbers in some editor Whatever. I really shouldn't care

Unfortunately I'll delay new exe/dll... seems I have to modify that deck choosing stuff (that I thought it's disabled) as it seems to be used in Sealed Deck mode

[Mok]

a question for ya mok is it alot of work to add new set allocations like 100,80,40,800 that are already there. that way there can be more organization in the csv and ultimately in the deck editor.

Uhm, as far as I remember it's safe to add new expansions there as the value is 32 bit long. Most likely it will require some changes to deck builder to display/disable new expansions but it should be fine... just make sure to leave the old cards in their old expansions too (ie. these that were in the 1st csv and not only the latest ones). AFAIR it was something like:
1 = data cards etc.
2 = antiquities
4 = arabian nights
8 = astral
10 = ? (fallen empires)
20 = dark
40 = 8th edition
80 = ? (tempest)
100 = legends
200 = promo
400 = ?
800 = unlimited
so there's plenty of space to expand the list... EDIT: This is how it was in the past, no idea what's defined here now.

I will have the next 4 days off of work so I will work on getting a good ultimate csv. one other question is if you want to remove card code from exe woyld it be possible to move it to manalinkex.dll since that is an asm dll anyways

Why would you want to remove card code from exe? If it's not chosen in card_data_t it won't be used anyway...

[Gargaroz]

Mok, I really didn't want to upset you, I just reported that for information sake.

[gmzombie]

I'm thinking of dumping the cards from exes and doing something similar as with csv ie. join them together, that's why I asked for other versions as some cards were definitely left out of both current versions.

Why would you want to remove card code from exe? If it's not chosen in card_data_t it won't be used anyway...

Sorry i thought that was what you were talking about..i sometimes misunderstand stuff when im reading it from my phone but i will be working on the csv this week.

oh so we could in theory just create more set allocations in the csv but how does that work in the deck editor? im assuming there is a place for that in there as well that will need to be added..

oh one more thing i seem to remember there used to be a way to in the deck editor to choose between unlimited, revised and 4th in one button..how did this work was that one of the other csvs that linked that stuff up?

[Mok]

Mok, I really didn't want to upset you, I just reported that for information sake.

I'm not upset and sorry if it seemed that way. I'm guilty of the same coding attitude on so many occasions in the past that's is just laughable. It's just that fixing this would be a lot of effort for doubtful results - extended engine? update of the rules? Not happening with 1 person working on the asm side. Too bad all the people who actually resourced the exe worked mostly alone and left the project before others joined or lost interest.

[Mok]

I'm thinking of dumping the cards from exes and doing something similar as with csv ie. join them together, that's why I asked for other versions as some cards were definitely left out of both current versions.

Why would you want to remove card code from exe? If it's not chosen in card_data_t it won't be used anyway...

Sorry i thought that was what you were talking about..i sometimes misunderstand stuff when im reading it from my phone but i will be working on the csv this week.

Ah. By dumping I meant converting the card_data_t to a .csv similar to cards.dat but a bit more extended like each bit of card type/abilities/flags/etc. given a single column to avoid "entering random numbers by mistake" problem of the sky editor. But I'll likely not bother.

oh so we could in theory just create more set allocations in the csv but how does that work in the deck editor? im assuming there is a place for that in there as well that will need to be added..

If you choose an extra expansion values, I can probably add it to deck builder. And see if magic.exe needs any updates about it too.

oh one more thing i seem to remember there used to be a way to in the deck editor to choose between unlimited, revised and 4th in one button..how did this work was that one of the other csvs that linked that stuff up?

Hm, it's likely pre-expansions in the original game... AFAIR I didn't modify deck builder that much, simply added that 1 button for multicolored cards and another one for 8th edition (with optional sub-menu enabling extra expansions that you may add).