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Hey, I was wondering if there's any way you can use custom art for your cards without having to replace the actual art for them. So for example, Embermaw Hellion has a single art in the list, but what I'd like to be able to do is add a second Embermaw Hellion that works exactly like the first without having to erase the art for the first. Is this something that's possible or do I have to overwrite the art on the one that's there?

Billeh007 wrote:Hey, I was wondering if there's any way you can use custom art for your cards without having to replace the actual art for them. So for example, Embermaw Hellion has a single art in the list, but what I'd like to be able to do is add a second Embermaw Hellion that works exactly like the first without having to erase the art for the first. Is this something that's possible or do I have to overwrite the art on the one that's there?

It seems currently the pointers that tell the client where to look for the picture files and the name of the file to look for are coded into the card data on a one to one basis. As such what you are asking for is impossible without adding code to the respective Embermaw Hellion's card data. You may use whatever picture you like by replacing the file, at the location that the card data is trying to access.

Unfortunately if there is only 1 visual version of the card there will only have been 1 file name with 1 location programmed into the data.

Is it easy to add code to a card? And would that affect online play if the person on the other end doesn't have the same code as me?

You can read more about coding for xmage at our github page (Developer Getting Started at the bottom). It uses java. Once you implement a card, you can issue a pull request and other devs will look at it and if it looks correct, it will be added to xmage for the following update so it would be available to all players.

Billeh007 wrote:Is it easy to add code to a card?

This depends heavily on the card ( I suppose you mean to code a missing card).
Otherwise add code to a card is no problem, but it has to be code that fits to the things the card should do.

Billeh007 wrote:And would that affect online play if the person on the other end doesn't have the same code as me?

The game code of the card is always only used on the xmage server. So as long as you both are connected to the same server, you can't have different code for a card.
The xmage client is simplified said, only a game state viewer that gets its data to show completely from the xmage server. The client only knows how to match the correct card image for a card the servers demands from the client to show.

Billeh007 wrote:Hey, I was wondering if there's any way you can use custom art for your cards without having to replace the actual art for them. So for example, Embermaw Hellion has a single art in the list, but what I'd like to be able to do is add a second Embermaw Hellion that works exactly like the first without having to erase the art for the first. Is this something that's possible or do I have to overwrite the art on the one that's there?

The problem is, that there is no way to select the first or the second art, because the deck editor or game does only know about one art and you can't control which art you prefer to use.
Such a feature hsa to implemented as a own function that would be needed to add to a lot of structures that interchange data between xmage server and client.
Or if you only want to switch the image for your client at least changes to the way the client handles to select the correct image file for a card.