The "2000 limit no more" CSV

[Gargaroz]

Ok, here's the dedicated thread for ideas and experiments on creating the new CSV that will come with the updated Magic.exe with 30.000 available slots.

Here's my idea :

1) The slots until 1194 (all original cards + 8th edition) needs to be left alone, there is too much hardcoded stuff that is going on there.

2) starting from slot 1195, we should add all the available cards arranged as expansions (leave basic sets alone for now). There is one special condition to follow : any cards that has a "double" (land that can be animated, flip card and double cards) needs its double on the slot that immediately follows him, this will save a lot of time in the coding department.
An example would be :
1195 Treetop Village
1196 Treetop Village Ape

[0rion79]

Orion, you'll have your part of work, don't be shy
Anyway, any discussion aboutb the new CSV now should be posted here : viewtopic.php?f=56&t=5911

Damn... I was looking for excuses to avoid job! lol
Anyway, Gargaroz, I'm doubtful: what is the task that we have to create?
Also, can't we get rid of 8th edition and re-listd those cards within their true original expansion set?

[Aswan jaguar]

The rule you say about animated cards and rest should be followed for cards that generate tokens,too?
What's the idea?to split csv to blocks and people take a block to make?Will people have to know how many slots each block needs or which numbers to use?

[Mok]

I believe there's a bit more than 1194 entries used directly, as the first person who hacked magic.exe (after my last version) added more. CIDs 1200-1219 are definitely used in the code that leads to your get_color_of_mana_produced_by_id and there are some extra hacks like 1499/1632-1639 and a couple more in the code that recalculates number of available mana source type lands. Some probably can be removed but finding all of them might be tricky.

As for 8th edition... Each expansion takes 1 bit, so in theory each card can be in all expansions it was released in. The problem is 32 expansions is not enough. The 2nd problem is rarity field takes 4 bits per expansion, so there's really only space for 8 expansions in the current csv. These fields aren't used often by the game engine though. Expansion Rarity is used by the Jewelled Bird code that uses it to help picking up the card by the AI (very stupidly done too) and similar code. Second use is in Sealed Deck selecting code. Expansion field is copied to card_data_t after loading .dat (the value is changed). And then together with rarity value helps to "rate" cards when "thinking". Overall I'd say the engine doesn't use these fields much. If you want to use all expansions, I think choosing another column (or even a 0/1 "1-bit" column for each expansion) would still work better now than trying to expand the current values. Rarity could be compressed to 2 bits per expansion as common/uncommon/rare fits.

[Gargaroz]

@Mok : I see. So we'll begin from slot 1700, there should be no problem, right ? And are you referring to the C code for Drafting ? I could change that, in case we decide to modify the Rarity value.

@Orion : the task is create a new CSV file, probably the best idea is to split the works among several persons, but before we need to do a "master list", so we can divide the work in a safe way. I'll do the master list and post it here in the next days. And no, the cards that already occupy the slot of the 8th edition should not be moved, as there is hardcoded stuff that looks for that specific slots.

@ Aswan Jaguar : No, I'm referring only to this kind of cards :
1) Land that could be animated.
2) Flip cards in the Kamigawa block
3) Card with Transform from Innistrad.
About tokens and special cards, I think it's best to put them on the bottom of the CSV, after Innistrad.

[0rion79]

I understand, but Excel has some very comfortable options to quickly browse among cards. Editing a CSV with, let's say, Notepad would be a pain in the ...! And I'm not considering compatibility issues... anyway, I'll make you guys make the work. I'm not expert here.

I use Excel 2003 myself - but for the manalink.csv I now use Open Office Calc, which is free for personal use.

Like I said; for some reason, Excel has a problem with the long text fields in the manalink.csv format - the Planewalkers Rules Text is the most obvious. I spent ages looking through the Microsoft knowledge base trying to find out why - but to no avail.
In the end I downloaded Open Office to give that a try. Calc handles the csv files flawlessly - and it gives you the option to custom select the field and text delimiters when you export the file. All you do then is load it into the Skymagic editor and save the file in the manalink format.

Calc isn't as fast as Excel, admittedly - but at least you don't have to check every time you save a file to see if it's mangled your text entries.

Yes, but is still a new program that requires a mental effort to be used over its basic functions. From the other side, Excel is just GREAT with filters and "copy & paste" options. I've found it very useful while editing previous versions!

[Sonic]

OK - I've managed to come up with a way to create a default csv file using Ark42's MTGCardInfo csv. This file contains all the cards in all sets/expansions up to Magic 2012.

So far I've isolated and extracted all the single card entries in order of their set/expansion release.
Reformated the 'Card type' and 'Rarity' entries into the Manalink format.
Reformated the Rules and Flavor Text into the manalink format.
Nearly finished creating the 'Req Mana Color' entries.

The P/T entries should prove no problem - but the 'subtype' and 'subtype2' entries will probably have to be done manually.

I'll carry on with it - if you guys think this is worth pursuing.

[Gargaroz]

Ah, thanx Sonic, I was doing a basic list but you're 10 steps ahead of me.
But are you sorted the cards with the hints I give on this thread ? And have you removed the "doubles" : cards that are already coded before slot 1700 needs to stay on that slots, so they should be removed from their original expansions.

[Sonic]

Ah, thanx Sonic, I was doing a basic list but you're 10 steps ahead of me.
But are you sorted the cards with the hints I give on this thread ? And have you removed the "doubles" : cards that are already coded before slot 1700 needs to stay on that slots, so they should be removed from their original expansions.

I'm not ordering the cards for the final csv yet.
I extracted the cards in order of sets/expansion release - so the cards currently appear in the file in the sets/expansion they were first released in. This could be changed if required.

At the moment the intention is to create a card manalink.csv formatted resource file with the basic card parameters already set up. The ordering of the cards in this file can be arranged later - or cut and pasted as required into another. I'll add the manalink specific data for cards already coded at a later stage.

Obviously this file doesn't currently hold data for the 'Animated' cards - as these are exclusive to the game itself, not the MTG card database - so I would need to add them later in an order you determine.
It would be useful for someone to identify all of the cards, apart from those we already have coded, which would need a Animated equivalent, though.

When we talk about the cards before slot 1700 - in which current csv file are we talking about?

[0rion79]

If you use Excel to isolat the strings with the word "token" or "becomes", you should be able to see them all with one eyeshoot

[Sonic]

...

[Sonic]

If you use Excel to isolat the strings with the word "token" or "becomes", you should be able to see them all with one eyeshoot

I know - (it works in Calc too, by the way).

But it would be nice if someone else chipped in and did this. I've got enough to be going on with for the moment just converting the basic card data into manalink.csv format entries.

[Gargaroz]

When we talk about the cards before slot 1700 - in which current csv file are we talking about?

Is the one posted here : viewtopic.php?f=56&t=5815&start=135#p76737

Let's arrange the work in this way : continue on preparing your CSV, I'll work on the master list and when we've finished, we'll merge our works.
Edit : I'll take care of animated stuff and tokens too.

[foolosopher]

I can take up one block or set if you want, just post a version of your csv for me to follow you.

[Gargaroz]

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...