The "2000 limit no more" CSV

[Dave]

Thank you, Aswan, but the csv i allready have for experimenting. I hoped to get a database, where a card can be linked to multiple expansions, as i believe Sonic has one.

[Sonic]

Thank you, Aswan, but the csv i allready have for experimenting. I hoped to get a database, where a card can be linked to multiple expansions, as i believe Sonic has one.

The original Oracle file I used is here:

http://ark42.com/mtg/MTGCardInfo/

I don't think the spreadsheet I produce from it to create the beta manalink.csv would be much use to you as it is. It just acts a lookup sheet to compile the basic manalink data converted from the oracle into a blank csv template. It doesn't contain any usable data relating to the expansions at present as the form, or indeed, how the card sets will be ordered within the replacement manalink expansions codes has yet to be established.
For the current beta manalink file, I just pasted the 'expansion' column from Orion79's card order file into it. As, it contained the correct positioning of the token codes - and for the initial release, the expansion code for the tokens was important just to get the game up and running for testing.

[Dave]

Thanks Sonic. That was what i was looking for. With one of the files in the link i can easily extract the expansions per card. In combination with the manalink-csv's FullName i always get the correct Card_ID and other manalink-info (card is coded or not). Don't hold your breath for this project of mine. It could take a while, but i will share my thoughts/project as soon as i have a bit working.

[foolosopher]

Hello gang,
About testing: finally managed to run Mok's v1 fix with snacko's v2 cardartlib following gmzombie's instructions (thx)
and run OK it seems. A few images were just missing. Good work people.
About coding:

It's not vague at all : if you know that the "animated" version of something is just in its CID+1, everything could be done with only 1 function with only player and card as arguments, without need to know specific CIDS.
Really, I don't see any problem. I'm missing something ?

Yes. It's fragile. What you find "natural" to do, might as well be unnatural to someone else. Especially in a project with almost no documentation. If you need 1 function, then just pass an extra argument with a token card_id. Oh well whatever, I have no idea why I argue here, it's not like I'll be touching that c code so do as you like. Maybe it's because I find the asm easier to read than the new code.

IMHO it would be better to use enumed card_ids. That way we avoid hardcoding, which is something we 've been complaining about all along.
Even if the order changes now we can have the card_id.h for reference and not go searching the csv. I understand that referencing id+1, might be useful for scanning tables and loops but from what examples I can think of (deck buliding, scanning library or graveyard) you don't need the full functionality of a card. Since the csv is fragmented that way due to old cards some exceptions would be required anyway.
I don't see any other news around the forum, so is any other help needed about this?

[Gargaroz]

Guys, I don't want to seem selfish, but I'll really like that the CSV will be arranged as I requested : being the main coder, that little arrangement will really save me a lot of work, as I could "standardize" the process of tranforming / animating stuff.
And with all the "flip" cards from Kamigawa and the "double faced" cards of Innistrad's expansions yet to code, it's an huge amount of work off my shoulders.

Foolosopher, Mok told me he's working on the CSV and the tool to insert the cards_dat via a CSV-like file, so we had to wait.

[Mok]

Foolosopher, Mok told me he's working on the CSV and the tool to insert the cards_dat via a CSV-like file, so we had to wait.

Yes, editing these csvs takes more patience and time than I expected. Will let you know shortly I hope.

[Mok]

Ugh. I have sent new injecting tools to Gargaroz but it seems I'll not have it as easy as I thought... the limit of cards in manalink csv is more or less gone, but it seems there's another limit and that one might be more annoying to get rid of. Card_data which is located in exe file is limited to 4095 entries, and our current version is already longer than that There are some structures/lists that store only 12 bits of id in card_data and the upper 4 bits are used as flags of some kind.

Edit: Hopefully it's not as bad as I thought. The most used struct of that type uses only 2 upper bits for flags, so I'll extend the ID range to 14 bits and the rest will show up in tests. While 16383 seems like another "close" limit, it's still 4k+ cards more than all real cards at the moment.

[Gargaroz]

Whops, that's bad. So, I have to wait to another version, right ?
Edit : Even with only 16384 different card, it's still a lot of available space. Even when we'll finish the actual "empty" space, se could "compact" the expansion that are not completly coded (like the ones from Golden Years, and I doubt I'll never complete them) and make more space. With the new "Expansion" fields, there will be no problems at all. And about that, Mok, you could remove all the "Duel decks" fields, they're all reprints and there are no new cards in there.

[Sonic]

Any chance we might get to look at the new csv file?

[Mok]

And about that, Mok, you could remove all the "Duel decks" fields, they're all reprints and there are no new cards in there.

Yes, but why? It's not like having a couple of extra "useless" expansions will do any harm. And in case anyone ever rewrites deck builder, it's just another option to allow the user viewing the cards even from reprints-type expansions. For now, the whole rarity.dat is unused anyway.

Any chance we might get to look at the new csv file?

Sure, here: http://www.mediafire.com/?sx3ysyti2et078m

This is the current version of 2k fix and not only the csv. Unpack the whole thing into a copy of your magic/program as new csv is incompatible with old versions of files. The xls files are located in !Data subdirectory. Running conv.bat (having excel installed) will convert these and copy into parent magic dir. The main csv didn't change much except it was rearanged a bit. Important fields are now first (up to card text). All AI* stuff in next, these are only used by the sealed deck constructor which is broken anyway. Deck Builder data is next (used only by old deckbuilder and now dumped into it's own file dbinfo.dat), and expansion rarity is at the end (dumped into rarity.dat, unused at the moment).

Edit: Just for fun, I included Sonic's alternative card backgrounds into this one. Not sure if all of them are better or not but they look quite good. Anyone can prepare backgrounds for colored and multicolored artifacts?

[Gargaroz]

Mok and everyone, I'm going to release a "beta" which is you file completed with all the stuff for a "standard" release.
However, since we got some problems in the conversion of XLS to CSV, in my version I modified the converter to use only CSV files, plut it will not dump directly the updated files in the main directory, so one could immediately notice if something went bad.
I'll try that program you e-mailed me about, but for now let's try to make things simpler for n00bs.

[Mok]

Mok and everyone, I'm going to release a "beta" which is you file completed with all the stuff for a "standard" release.
However, since we got some problems in the conversion of XLS to CSV, in my version I modified the converter to use only CSV files, plut it will not dump directly the updated files in the main directory, so one could immediately notice if something went bad.
I'll try that program you e-mailed me about, but for now let's try to make things simpler for n00bs.

Then do not include the xls/csv into any releases. Put sources into an additional file (both asm/C and csv/xls). The xls/csv files are *not* needed for manalink to operate at all, after you removed the dependency from C code. Everything that's needed is in .dat files. Let the people who want to play only("noobs"), use the precompiled/preconverted stuff.

[Gargaroz]

I prefer to keep on our tradition of "full" updates, so the n00bs could get only the game and the developers all the useful files. Plus, I made some little changes in these last days (enabled the "Germ" token, fixed all the magic numbers you pinpointed and so on...).

[Mok]

I prefer to keep on our tradition of "full" updates, so the n00bs could get only the game and the developers all the useful files. Plus, I made some little changes in these last days (enabled the "Germ" token, fixed all the magic numbers you pinpointed and so on...).

As you want. Maybe just keep the sources in a subdirectory just like Src before and that's all, no need to clutter the main dir with extra files unused by the game. And sure, go ahead with any changes, I won't touch the files anymore unless you requests any changes in the format.

[Aswan jaguar]

Can't the Deck Editor now show cards with special characters like Æther Vial?