Sealed - possible fix

[Sonic]

Don't bother with the pack/booster artwork, it's not going to work anyway. I think I've just worked out why the pack/booster strips aren't cycling properly.

If you count the number of images in the strips, not including the mask, there's one less than there needs to be. It would seem that the added coding for the additional 8th Pack/Booster didn't include updating the existing coding to allow for adding the extra artwork needed in the image strips.

I've tried horizontally resizing the PACKSTARTERSsmall16.bmp image - giving it enough space to add a booster image at the beginning of the strip. And it simply throws all the images out of alignment as you scroll though the boosters.

Looks like the artwork will have to wait till Sealed gets recoded as well.

[billyhewlett]

Suppose that I want to set up my own packs for sealed, for example a cube sealed. I would be happy having the "cube sealed" pack instead of the 8th edition pack, and it could say "8th Edition" for the packs as long as the contents would be the ones I selected. Is there a way I could hand edit some file somewhere to change the associations of cards so that they are in "8th edition" while moving cards currently in "8th edition" elsewhere?

I'm comfortable using something like emacs/python/cygwin, I just don't know what the steps might be. I apologize if this is the wrong thread for this question.

[Sonic]

All of the information you need to adapt the sealed game is actually in this thread - you just need to read your way through it.

You need to bear in mind, however, any user made modifications to the files that hold the data for the sealed game will simply be undone whenever we release a game update.

[billyhewlett]

I'm having some difficulty getting my changes to show up in game.

I edited the Rarity.csv file so that the 10th column (aka 4th edition) is set to R for Ancestral Recall, U for Craw Wurm, and C for Air Elemental. Every other line gets a ",,". So:

$ head -8 Rarity.csv | tail -3
1,Air Elemental,0000,Yes,,,,Unlimited,U,C,U,U,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,
-,-,-,-,-,-,-, ,-,-,-,-,-,1,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,0,4,4,-,-,-,1,-,-,-,-,-
2,Ancestral Recall,0001,Yes,,,,Unlimited,R,R,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-
,-,-,-,-,1,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,100,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-
3,Animate Artifact,0002,Yes,,,,Unlimited,U,,U,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,1,
-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,1,-,1,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,75,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-

However, my changes do not show up in game. When I open a 4th edition pack I see the same old cards.

Am I altering the right file? It looks like your changes are in Cards.dat, a binary file. Is there some process I need to run to turn my Rarity.csv into a Cards.dat, or am I altering the wrong file (aka it's supposed to be some other csv, not Rarity.csv).

At this point, I'm happy opening a pack that says "4th edition", I just want the appropriate cards in there.

Thank you very much.

[Sonic]

I'm having some difficulty getting my changes to show up in game.

I edited the Rarity.csv file so that the 10th column (aka 4th edition) is set to R for Ancestral Recall, U for Craw Wurm, and C for Air Elemental. Every other line gets a ",,". So:

$ head -8 Rarity.csv | tail -3
1,Air Elemental,0000,Yes,,,,Unlimited,U,C,U,U,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,
-,-,-,-,-,-,-, ,-,-,-,-,-,1,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,0,4,4,-,-,-,1,-,-,-,-,-
2,Ancestral Recall,0001,Yes,,,,Unlimited,R,R,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-
,-,-,-,-,1,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,100,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-
3,Animate Artifact,0002,Yes,,,,Unlimited,U,,U,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,1,
-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,1,-,1,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,75,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-

However, my changes do not show up in game. When I open a 4th edition pack I see the same old cards.

Am I altering the right file? It looks like your changes are in Cards.dat, a binary file. Is there some process I need to run to turn my Rarity.csv into a Cards.dat, or am I altering the wrong file (aka it's supposed to be some other csv, not Rarity.csv).

At this point, I'm happy opening a pack that says "4th edition", I just want the appropriate cards in there.

Thank you very much.

The Rarity.csv is in fact little more than a legacy from when the game was entirely coded in ASM. It needs to be retained as the remaining ASM code still looks for it at start up. But apart from that the cards which appear in Sealed are currently setup via the Manalink.csv file.

You really need to read the whole thread to get a handle on the whole issue surrounding the current state of the Sealed game. And be fully aware that any modifications you do make to the Sealed game will ultimately be undone when installing any new patch. There's nothing we can do about this at the present time.

[billyhewlett]

I have read this thread several times and I'm still struggling. I understand that any changes I make will be destroyed when I update, my plan is to write a script that you can pass a bunch of cardnames to and it will update the appropriate packs for you, that way I can run the script after each update. Ideally I'd like to mess with something like 4th edition (where you can also get the sealed deck), but to start I'm just trying to create a custom Arabian Nights pack with 3 specific cards in it.

Per your suggestion, I've been messing around with Manalink.csv, but my changes don't seem to have any effect. For example, I changed the expansion of Ancestral Recall to Arabian Nights by changing Ancestral Recall/Air Elemental/Craw Wurm 'Expansion' field to 4h, everything else to 2h. I also changed the end expansion fields so that those three cards were in Arabian Nights (i.e. ;Limited Edition Alpha;Limited Edition Beta;Unlimited Edition;Arabian Nights;), they weren't in any other sets, and every other card was not in Arabian Knights (every other card got a ;-; for the 130th column).

Still no change in the game. When I run the sealed editor and open an Arabian Nights pack I see all the old cards.

Maybe I'm updating the wrong Manalink.csv? I'm changing the one in:
/Manalink_3.0-Update_2014-05-06/Manalink_3.0-Update_2014-05-06/Manalink 3.0/Program/Manalink.csv
my "play" shortcut points to:
Manalink_3.0-Update_2014-05-06\Manalink_3.0-Update_2014-05-06\Manalink 3.0\Play_Manalink.cmd

Or do I need to run something to "pack" my Manalink.csv into Cards.dat?

Thank you very much.

[Korath]

Yes. The Manalink.csv directly in your Program directory isn't used for anything at all, and shouldn't be in either base installations or patches. (Guys, stop putting it there. No, really.) The Manalink.csv and ct_all.csv in Program/magic_updater aren't read at runtime; the former gets processed into Cards.dat (about half of the main card data, including all text, and eventually becoming cards_ptr[], cards_txt[], ), Rarity.dat (each card's rarity in each expansion), and DBinfo.dat (ability flags for the deckbuilder filters) by csv2dat.exe, and the latter gets spliced directly into magic.exe by ct2exe (the other half of the main card data, becoming cards_data[]).

For sealed, the program looks only at its own expansion field - the "Expansion" column in Manalink.csv - and not at the individual expansion columns that were added for the deckbuilder and are now also used by the Draft card and for card display.

Some data is still read from Rarity.csv at runtime, but it's unclear what it's used for, and in any case, only lines #3-5 are looked at, and only columns starting at "Dependencies Artifact" and going to the end of each line, skipping "Base Value".

[gmzombie]

So is there anything that could be done to change the system from reading the old column and have it read the new expansion column?

[foolosopher]

Hi, now that the draft GUI is working, so to speak, I was thinking of trying something similar to sealed.
The GUI would also be similar to the one in draft. A text file can be used for passing the necessary values to sealed. The GUI could have two columns for selecting the sets for decks and four for the possible packs. Default selection will be "none" for not using and the player would select a set if one is to be used. A check can be made if the minimum for cards is not selected. Another column can be added to show how many cards are in each pack. Maybe the total cards, based on the selections, can be shown on the fly.
If we can add a button in the rectangular "Turnament setup", probably somewhere to the right, the GUi could be invoked from there, otherwise from the "start tournament" button.
I looked a bit but couldn 't find the code for sealed, but I found the code for the deckbuilder and it probably can be fed the selected cards. This is happening already. What I don't know how to do is to pass functions to certain points of memory to the magic.exe if required. Anyway, it's a first thought. Do you think it's doable?

[Nekradamus]

so u got 6 total pack? 1 born 1 theros and 4 journey?? did u use a sealed deck as 3 packs? also i can get the artwork for the packs working but only half way. seriously if we could just have a pack per pack pic this wouldnt be a problem lol.

I'm not really sure what you're referring to when you say '6 total packs'.

The game only allows for a maximum of 2 'starter packs' and 4 'boosters' in total.
Each starter pack holds 60 cards, including about 11 basic land cards, and each booster holds 15 without lands.

The way I had the game setup was with Theros in one of the starter packs and Born of the Gods in the other and Journey into Nyx in all of the 4 available boosters. See pic below.



I did some work in an attempt to improve the pack/booster images when I started work on the manalink makeover. But in the end I gave up, as there was very little point at the time because of the state the sealed game was in.
I'll see if I can find my original image files.

I'm probably missing something.
I read all the thread, but I'm not able to modify the Sealed Deck screen, I'm stuck with the default one.
I tried to install the Sealed Theros Block but I'm not able to make it work.
I'm not able to find the instructions on how to use different sets, i.e. Urza Saga block or Tempest block or whatever block.

Can someone please help on this 'old' topic?

[Aswan jaguar]

You have to ask from drool66 the source files from the release and overwrite the ones you have. Then go to magic_updater file and edit the appropriate files as this topic suggests. When you do you have to run the magic_updater.bat then take the files produced from updated_files and overwrite the ones in your main magic folder where magic.exe, deck editor, is.

[rianannalan]

Hoping it's appropriate to bump this rather than start a new sealed topic.

Is there somewhere noting what sets/cards are currently in sealed? Short of scrolling the .csv, I mean.

Also regarding the mention early on in this thread of creating a pack with all 8000 cards - has anyone had any luck with this? Kind of wouldn't mind a sealed format with a single pack of absolute randomness.