Project Zendikar

[jatill]

Ok, the Zendikar patch is ready for beta testing. Post bugs in the bugs thread, which is now hidden in development.
http://rapidshare.com/files/293326564/20091015.zip

The images are all wrong, but that's fine. If you want to test these cards in Sealed Deck, use 4th edition packs.

Salbei-
I have a favor to ask. Could you make a .dck file of all cards that are in Zendikar? Then we can add that to the list of custom sets and we can draft Zendikar too.

Triadsoul-
Thanks again so much for your help. Hopefully Zendikar limited will be fun so this will all be worth it

[Salbei]

read it too late

starting to work on it now.

regular deck file with author etc or just the IDs w/o name ?

[jatill]

read it too late

starting to work on it now.

regular deck file with author etc or just the IDs w/o name ?

Regular deck file.

[Salbei]

k , gonna take a while to sort out

1500-1680 is easy but there are quite a lot singles spread all over . it is very likly i´m going to miss at least one card.

the list on page 1 helps a ton

[jatill]

k , gonna take a while to sort out

1500-1680 is easy but there are quite a lot singles spread all over . it is very likly i´m going to miss at least one card.

the list on page 1 helps a ton

I don't know how you are at excel (or notepad ), but you can look at the csv. All the zendikar cards have an ext rarity of 00010h, 00050h, or 00090h

[Salbei]

problem is that there are cards between that don´t belong to the set
1536 Man-o'-War
1577 Gifts Ungiven
1539 Sanctum Gargoyle
and prolly more i haven´t found yet . you better recheck my list.

i used the list on page 1 . added the files from 1500 - 1680 . then sort by ID / removed duplicate cards and thats pretty much it.

i´m sure i´ve missed a few cards while browsing through the csv

btw i didn´t include basic lands and tokens . you´ll have to add them manually. (wasn´t sure if you need em or not)

[Salbei]

i got a couple ideas and questions :

is it nessecary to to start the csv card IDs with 0 ?
lets say we start at 2000 instead - would the game recognize this ?
If 2000+ wont work how about A1 A2 A3 etc ?

one problem about project zendikar i see is that you would need to have at least 2 installations/CardArtNew folders or you would mess up the artwork. one for the normal game and one for this projekt.( image name = card ID = artwork for the card ) both are currently using the same IDs.

if this would be possible then i could just add the cards normally - just beginning from lets say ID 2000 instead of 0 - and store the images for the cards in the same CardArtNew folder - just having to link the images to higher ID´s and each card would keep its unique ID.

->

this led me to the next thoughts:

is it possible to make the magic.exe read a different filename ?
from my understanding the game is reading card.dat and/or manalink.csv.
this would make it possible to just place a different magic.exe (lets say zendikar.exe for this) that will load cardszen.csv. instead of manalink.csv -> and voila we´ve just found a way to "bend" the 2k card barrier.

In case that won´t work a simple .bat or launcher could just rename the manalink.csv / card.dat / CardArtNew folder (when its impossible to start with higher IDs) just before you start the game.

hope you can follow my thoughts and i´m not talking BS here.

[jatill]

i got a couple ideas and questions :

is it nessecary to to start the csv card IDs with 0 ?
lets say we start at 2000 instead - would the game recognize this ?

As soon as you enter card #2000 into the CSV, magic.exe crashes, so no luck there.

is it possible to make the magic.exe read a different filename ?
from my understanding the game is reading card.dat and/or manalink.csv.
this would make it possible to just place a different magic.exe (lets say zendikar.exe for this) that will load cardszen.csv. instead of manalink.csv -> and voila we´ve just found a way to "bend" the 2k card barrier.

I haven't tried, but I bet this would work. You'd still have the wrong art, though. You would need the launcher to fix the art for you. And if it's going to do that, you might as well have the launcher just copy around the 2 different magic.exe and cards.dat files too, right?

It's nice to hear new idea. I might test reading a file other than cards.dat and see what happens.

Here's another idea for the art that I don't know how to do. All the "new" cards we've added only have 1 art. But the game supports multiple arts per id. So in theory we could write some code to say 'if this is a new cards and we're reading from zendikar.dat, then use the 1st copy of the art. Otherwise only use the 2nd copy. I just don't know where that code would go.

[Salbei]

it would be way easier to just adjust the CardIDs somehow.

already tried stuff like "A1 A2 A3" or "100a 101a 102a" ?

[Marek14]

i got a couple ideas and questions :

is it nessecary to to start the csv card IDs with 0 ?
lets say we start at 2000 instead - would the game recognize this ?

As soon as you enter card #2000 into the CSV, magic.exe crashes, so no luck there.

is it possible to make the magic.exe read a different filename ?
from my understanding the game is reading card.dat and/or manalink.csv.
this would make it possible to just place a different magic.exe (lets say zendikar.exe for this) that will load cardszen.csv. instead of manalink.csv -> and voila we´ve just found a way to "bend" the 2k card barrier.

I haven't tried, but I bet this would work. You'd still have the wrong art, though. You would need the launcher to fix the art for you. And if it's going to do that, you might as well have the launcher just copy around the 2 different magic.exe and cards.dat files too, right?

It's nice to hear new idea. I might test reading a file other than cards.dat and see what happens.

Here's another idea for the art that I don't know how to do. All the "new" cards we've added only have 1 art. But the game supports multiple arts per id. So in theory we could write some code to say 'if this is a new cards and we're reading from zendikar.dat, then use the 1st copy of the art. Otherwise only use the 2nd copy. I just don't know where that code would go.

How about simply making the zendikar version read pictures from different directory?

[Salbei]

i´ve just tried it.
changed ancestrals recall id from "1" to 2001. used csv2dat and the deckbuilder recognizes it.
i can also play the card. so it is definatly possible.

ah rats . the csv2dat didn´t make the entry so nothing got changed. my bad

[jatill]

Re: change art folder

That's a great idea, actually. The problem is that I don't know where that directory is set. It's not in Magic.exe or DrawCardLib.dll from what I can tell.

[aww1979]

I had my Bloodbraid Elf countered by Rewind, and I still got to play the cascaded spell for free. This seems very strange to me, but I think it might be a result of the new rules, so it probably is intentional. I remember debating Demigod of Revenge with someone else on this forum, and this effect is quite similar.

[Marek14]

I had my Bloodbraid Elf countered by Rewind, and I still got to play the cascaded spell for free. This seems very strange to me, but I think it might be a result of the new rules, so it probably is intentional. I remember debating Demigod of Revenge with someone else on this forum, and this effect is quite similar.

Yes, that's right. Cascade triggers on casting a spell, so countering the spell makes no difference. You'd have to Stifle the trigger in response.

[Salbei]

Re: change art folder

That's a great idea, actually. The problem is that I don't know where that directory is set. It's not in Magic.exe or DrawCardLib.dll from what I can tell.

i´m currently writing a simple .bat that will allow you to switch versions.

finished it:

Version Switcher 1.0

description :
you got 3 options when you start this
1 play magic
2 patch to "normal"
3 patch to "zendikar"

You will get promted what you want to do.
1 - will start magic
2 - will patch your game to the stable version (20091014) and exchange the pictures of CardArtNew and CardArtNormal
3 - will patch your game to the Zendikar beta release (20091015) and exchange the pictures of CardArtNew and CardArtNormal

the game will launch after this.

Installation :
1.download the file Version Switcher and unzip it.
2.copy the files into your game folder (c:\magic)
should look like this :
c:\magic\version switcher.bat
c:\magic\Patch
c:\magic\CardArtNormal
3.add images to the CardArtNormal folder (or leave it blank if you want to test if it works)
3a.adjust the file directions in the bat if you are not having magic installed at c:\magic

Code: Select all

set gamefolder=C:\Magic     
set define_normal_folder=C:\Magic\Patch\normal
set define_zendikar_folder=C:\Magic\Patch\zendikar


gamefolder = where your magic.exe is located
define_normal_folder = the location of the "stable" patch (i´ve used version 20091014 for this)
define_zendikar_folder = the location with the Zendikar patch (i´ve used version 20091015 for this)
4.start the version switcher.bat

manually updating :
1. download + unzip the patch you want to change
2. copy magic.exe , cards.dat and manalink.csv into the patch folder that you want to exchange.
(patch1 for the stable version-> c:\magic\patch\normal and patch2 for the beta version -> c:\magic\patch\zendikar )
3. don´t forget to adjust the image files in the CardArtNew and CardArtNormal folders to the patch you want to use.


Note: once you´ve patched you don´t have to use this again - unless you want to change the version again.
whenever you use option 2+3 the folder CardArtNew and CardArtNormal will get exchanged with each other - so don´t use it twice.


---

so in theory you got 4000 virtual cards now.
(you can just play with 2000 per version - but there is no need to use duplicate cards in the zen version).
you can add versions at will - even do a mod with made up cards and just add it to the switcher. would just have to rewrite the CardArt exchange then.
the new available options with this are crazy !