The "2000 limit no more" CSV

[0rion79]

Ok, so there are 3 main tasks:
1 - include those cards in the CSV
2 - copy & paste values of pre-existing cards
3 - check mistakes in the tables, using the guide to CSV that I have created months ago.
I'm gonna to upload here a file... please wait for my reply.

ERRORS:
12264 Spirit
12283 Spirit
Missing Kelp token (for wall of kelps)
Slot 1441: duplicate (line not removed)

[0rion79]

Ok pals, sorry for doube-posting but it may be useful for e-mail notifications.
I'm posting here 2 different files in 97-2003 Excel format.
The one named "Manalink.xls" Hosts 12,000 cards more or less: it is the full version where all cards have been listed accordingly to Gargaroz's requests.
The beije columns on the very left have been added by me as support to check the cards. Then there are real CSV columns, where the part colored in Green are the cards that have their right values on the CSV. It is already done and just need to be checked for pre-Mok errors.
Then, there are all the new cards: they have all values as zero.
The file named "To_Be_Re-Added.xls" hosts all cards from our previous expansion set that are already coded but have an ID that does NOT match anymore with Gargaroz's list. They need to be re-added.
I've taken the chance to fix some minor issues about text too (e.g. Thrun, the Last Troll now has hexproof as ability rather than ability description).
Once cards are re-added, maybe by a routine or by splitting the job among many of us, the first 2 columns must be deleted, save the file as CSV and turn it into our useful cards.dat file.

Please, also check the errors I've found and marked right in my previous reply.

Gargaroz, a few questions.
Now there are more empty slots than before: are they hardcoded? Can we give them a name to know to which effect are they related? I've also created some card arts for those effects, just to remember myself that I shouldn't touch them. I'm sharing them too.

Also, I may understand that you don't want to change slots for 8th edition cards, but we may still change their set to have the Deckbuiler to show them in their first print. But why you didn't do that with Manalink 2.0 cards too? Are they hardcoded too? Imho, since we are doing the job, it would be much better to list cards in the CSV grouping them together accordingly with their set of first printing. It would really help for future jobs and checks.
Also, may we use any empty slot to store effects as EDH, Rules Engine, Momir & stuff? It would have an insignificant positive effect on game load at startup but I would do it mostly for not getting confused when we'll add even more cards.

[Mok]

Also, I may understand that you don't want to change slots for 8th edition cards, but we may still change their set to have the Deckbuiler to show them in their first print. But why you didn't do that with Manalink 2.0 cards too? Are they hardcoded too?

"Hardcoded" cards means only that their number is used directly by magic.exe (and currently by C code but that will change). So you can modify them, including their expansion, but if you change their positions, other cards that take their spot will be used by the engine in their place. That doesn't mean it will be directly visible to the user but it's still wrong. It's possible to find all such hardcoded places and say, do a replacement od cids at start of the exe, but it will take time and effort. 8th edition is also used in most likely non-working at the moment sealed deck. BTW: I hope you left the info about other expansions the cards were in too, and not only their 1st one? That info could be useful later.

[0rion79]

Hi Mok. I understand that about 8th edition, but I wonder why about the cards that we coded after you!
Also, Only the descriptive column in beije, on the very left, tells the cards original printing set and is just descriptive but the data stored in the Excel document is still the same from the latest version. So, no changes.

[Sonic]

Ok, here it is, the "backbone" or the new CSV : there should be everything and PLEASE DON'T MODIFY THE SLOTS ORDER. As you'll see, I slided a bit the new entries, since I remembered that there's hardcoded stuff devised for Ravnica "2 mana lands" and signets, and for avoiding future problems I slided all until "Frozen Aether", which seems to be the last card coded using pure ASM.

Inside the ZIP there is a plain text files you could simply copy & paste in Excel or whatever you're using.

The main priority now is inserting the correct values for all the already coded cards, so we could test with slots > 2000.

And after that, there will be the editing of Magic.exe, the true nightmare. Hope Mok or Snacko could devise something that'll ease our work...

I have an observation. Wouldn't it be better to arrange the tokens in a block immediately after the 1700 slot with, say 100, blank slots after the current tokens for future tokens entries.

Also, there are more than one type of currently named tokens - a '5/5 Dragon' a '4/4 Dragon' and a 'Flying Spirit' and a 'NonFlying Spirit' for example. Wouldn't it be easier just to create a token entry to account for the tokens individual abilities or P/T?

Are the cards that may require an Animated equivalent in the future marked, because if not we could be looking at a lot of ID shuffling in the future.
Can't the Animated cards be treated like the tokens, and stored in a block? This could be done with the 'Special Effect' card entries as well.

[Gargaroz]

Hi Mok. I understand that about 8th edition, but I wonder why about the cards that we coded after you!

Orion, I've already sais this, but I remembered that there is stuff hardcoded for Ravnica's "2 mana lands", so I suspect there is something for signets too. To cut out all the possible problems, I slided the cards to add until the slot following "Frozen Aether", which is (in my knowledge) the last card coded directly in ASM.
As for the many "Empty" slot : some contained tokens moved to the bottom, the others are empty from the beginning. In both case, they're in the "harcoded stuff zone", so leave them alone. We've 30.000 slots now, you shouldn't really bother.
Also, all tokens should be "compacted" in their main form, so all "Dragon (4/4)" and "Dragon (5/5)" should become only "Dragon" and so on. I've already implemented the code for the "morphing" tokens, as you've seen in Costructed, so there is no problem. All this will be for the sake of simplicity.

@ Sonic : Tokens should really remain on bottom, it will be more easy to add more of them later. And for "animated stuff" and similar : for the sake of making the coding work more simple, they should remain as I arranged them. Nobody mentioned it, but I've also compacted all the "split cards" using only one card for both parts, like in real magic.

[Mok]

Regardless of format/order I'd like to propose the following for the expansions. Add new column for every released version/expansion in order of expansion release date. It should accept 4 values. 0, -1 or N whatever you prefer for "card was not available in the expansion" and C, U or R for "card available as common, uncommon or rare". Then we'll convert it to 2 bits per expansion and add a new structure at the end of Cards.dat with expansion/rarity for each card. Let's assume 64 expansions * 2 bits = 16 bytes per card. Ok, I read now the mtg wikipedia entry and see that there's now more rarities than 3 (mythic rare?). But even if we use 3 bits per expansion, it's 24 bytes per card for 64 expansions. I'll modify the exe to read the extra struct (or make a hook for C code to do it) and convert the current code to use it where it currently uses old values. The old expansion value can be replaced as an index to the "original" expansion or something like that. That's just an idea though.

BTW: Empty/None slots in CSV can usually be moved/deleted except for the effect slots and original tokens at 870-930. These should stay in their original position. There's another empty card at 31 but I don't remember if it's used at all.

[0rion79]

Thanks for explaination: I've really forgot about Ravinca's lands and other cards!

[0rion79]

Ah, sorry: I've forgot to mention one matter in my CSV.
@Gargaroz, I've found some errors and duplicates that I have already mentioned. Tell us when that version is ready for us to do the job.
@All the crew: it is really too much time that I don't play pen & paper game, so I have been unable to track just by my memory the set of first priting for most of the cards in 8th edition and our releases (marked as Manalink 2.0). If some of you can do the job, it would be very appreciated.

[Yggdrasil]

I'll do that.

[foolosopher]

So we take the cards from Gargaroz's txt and put the info from Orion's Manalink.xls. We also put what Mok said: two columns Availability, Rarity.
How do we split cards, say in ID groups
0-100: gargaroz
101-200: Orion
201-300: foolosopher
?

[0rion79]

Gargaroz's list is already within the manalink I've released.
The work to do is to copy the cards from To_Be_Re-Added.xls to Manalink.xls. I wonder if there is the chance to add a program that may do the job for us, maybe just by car'ds name... else we have to manually split the job. The best idea is to know how many volunteers we have, then deals X damage divided evenly, rounded down, among any number of target creatures and/or players... oh, no: sorry, it was Fireball But still, we have to split the job evenly. Cards are 2232, but we also have to share the job without overwriting progresses made by others. Have to think about that...
In the mean time, please write here if you are willing to help.

[Gargaroz]

Guys, please don't involve me in this work : I tried some times to edit the CSV with Excel and such and never got good results.
Plus, I'm very busy adjusting the code.
However, I noticed the list is missing 2 tokens : "Elemental" and "Wurm". Add them at the bottom.

[0rion79]

Sure. Anyway, it is just a matter of copy & paste: no harm may be done....

[Sonic]

So I've been wasting my time creating a csv with the manalink basic card parameters for all 11,000+ cards then?