Updates on the way.

[Korath]

After backing up my original Rarity file, I replaced it with yours. No joy. This is the error message I received.

I tried it in both a Shandalar install & a ManaLink install as I wasn't sure which one this file was for. Neither of them worked. I tried running the program & separately, tried to start the deck builder as well. I always got this same error message.

It's not going to work in a Shandalar install. What version of Manalink?

[Bog Wraith]

Yea, I thought it wasn't going to work in Shandalar either but I wanted to make sure I tried everything after I had attempted to get it to run in ManaLink.

The version of ManaLink 3.0 I have is the latest one, update for March 25: Fate Reforged.

[Korath]

OK, hm. Deckdll.dll generates that error if any of three things are true about those files:

• It actually can't open one of them. Perhaps a permissions error? Or another casualty of Windows' horrific design decision to hide file extensions?
• It can't allocate enough memory to read them. Unlikely.
• The number of cards declared in each isn't the same. I'd have thought a mismatch between dev and the files included in the patch was the most likely culprit, but they match up. The first four bytes of each (including both the new and old Rarity.dat's) should be 88 3a 00 00, if you have a hex editor handy.

Is it broken for everyone else?

[Aswan jaguar]

No problem for me.

[Bog Wraith]

OK, hm. Deckdll.dll generates that error if any of three things are true about those files:

• It actually can't open one of them. Perhaps a permissions error? Or another casualty of Windows' horrific design decision to hide file extensions?
• It can't allocate enough memory to read them. Unlikely.
• The number of cards declared in each isn't the same. I'd have thought a mismatch between dev and the files included in the patch was the most likely culprit, but they match up. The first four bytes of each (including both the new and old Rarity.dat's) should be 88 3a 00 00, if you have a hex editor handy.

Is it broken for everyone else?

I'm running this on my Mac using Parallels to run windows. I will try this on my dedicated windows PC which I rarely use later this week when I have time & see if it works there.

[gmzombie]

Nope works here Windows 7 64bit

[Aswan jaguar]

A small fraction of help from me to eliminate J problem.

Korath said:
The deckbuilder is badly out-of-date. I'm not sure why offhand; at a glance, it looks like it calls deckdll.dll like it should.

I don't know why Sonic's db art that you like better isn't loaded in shandalar,too as default like it should.Maybe Sonic can answer to that.(As I like better the art as it is now,not as clean but more artistic imho - I do dislike especially the colour buttons though).
You can make it work like this though:
1- Take db art file from Sonic's Manalink3 Makeover: 2014 Edition.
2- Rename it to whatever you like.
3- Put the renamed file in your DBArt folder.
4- Open deck.exe once and exit.
5- Open Manalink.ini and in "skin=" enter the name you gave to the file.save of course.

Now you will have the same DBart both for Shandalar and Manalink3.0. Of course without the expansion buttons as Shandalar doesn't load those.
In shandalar though the graphics doesn't show as clear as in Manalink3.

[Bog Wraith]

Ok, got it working on an updated to FRF on my Windows machine and it seems to be working now.

If The first card in the deck builder you should see after applying the new rarity file is Abbey Gargoyles and the last card is Zuran Spellcaster, than I've got it working. Can someone verify for me that this is correct?

[Korath]

That's correct.

[Bog Wraith]

Ok, thank you.

Looking forward to building some decks with this when I can find some time to do so. They will just be some general decks for now, not really designed for the creatures in Shandalar, although I will experiment a bit with those as well. I know that new cards will be added as we go, so any decks we make for the Shandalar inhabitants will evolve with these additions of new cards.

[gmzombie]

The reason the graphics aren't up to date and using the newest is very simple. First if your not using the shandalar that Mok fixed up, and what I mean is I believe he put in the code for us to use updated graphics, much like manalink I believe it is image.dll or something to that extent. If you aren't using that then graphics are using the .pic file format. Second the menu is different that manalink due to it being hardcoded in deckbuilder dll file to use a menu without expansion buttons. This could be changed I believe just change where the jump is to the primary deckbuilder area..but korath would know more than I as I'm not a coder just a thinker.

[Korath]

The graphics are actually because they're looking in the wrong filenames - abilities.pic instead of abilities.bmp, for example. Most of them actually do work for bmps/pngs/etc. instead of actual pics, so long as the filename is correct.

That wasn't my concern with the deckbuilder, though; it was the lack of expansion buttons that fooled me, and I'd thought that there was a different right-click menu for the color buttons, too.

[Korath]

Shandalar.exe's duel is a pleasure to work with compared to magic.exe's, now that I know where most of the data and functions I'm interested in are: there aren't years' and years' worth of undocumented hacking to wade through. Said hacking in magic.exe is hugely more cryptic than the original program, is sometimes only barely functional or not functional at all, is often redundant, and on occasion closes off development possibilities nigh-permanently.

For example, it was much easier for whoever-it-was to add rampage by permanently claiming 16 bits of card_instance_t, the most important and least expandable struct in the program, than it was for us to eventually remove it. And we still haven't done the same for the 8 bits each for card_color or initial_color; the former isn't used at all, and the latter can be done without taking up space in card_instance_t. That's space for 32 abilities right there that can be added cleanly, without having to hack them in in each card's individual function.

The mechanism that Gloom uses to alter cards' casting and activation costs is also still fully present, so I expect I'll be able to expand it cleanly, instead of the hacked-together half measures we have to deal with in Manalink.

Similarly, now that I can see what the original icon functions look like, instead of the partially-rewritten ones I found in magic.exe, I can add as many different kinds as I can think of instead of having a hard limit of 32 as in Manalink:

All the icons I had artwork handy for, hacked to all display at once.

Of these - besides the 17 originally in the game - shroud, defender, vigilance, hexproof, haste, and flash work fully; unblockable, deathtouch, and lifelink still have to be added independently of the abilities themselves, so there's some potential for them to be out of sync; legendary exists in the game but the icon isn't displayed; and the infect, double strike, can't-block, indestructible, shadow, horsemanship, fear/intimidate, wither, flanking, bushido, rampage, exalted, and ninjutsu abilities don't exist in the game yet.

A more typical screenshot. (The corruption visible along the right side of the artwork in classic frames is because of too-aggressive resizing in Duel.dat that happens to round off correctly at higher resolution; while the non-round mana symbols on the far left are because the imagery I'm using is sized for widescreen instead of 1024x768.)

The edges of the circles are also alpha blended instead of being hard-edged, though it's hard to tell the difference at 1024x768 and with 20-pixel-wide icons instead of the 1920x1080, 40-pixel-wide ones I'm used to in Manalink.

On the other hand, the tooltips aren't localizeable; it could be done, but it'd be more effort than it's worth.

Cards | Open

All Is Dust
Ancient Tomb
Annihilate
Ascended Lawmage
Aven Fleetwing
Back to Basics
Bassara Tower Archer
Benthic Giant
Bojuka Bog
Broodwarden
Bull Cerodon
Cerodon Yearling
Charging Troll
Dark Confidant
Dark Hatchling
Defender of Chaos
Defender of Law
Deputy of Acquittals
Dictate of Karametra
Dictate of Kruphix
Doom Blade
Drogskol Captain
Dungrove Elder
Elixir of Immortality
Elvish Archdruid
Exotic Orchard
Faerie Invaders
Fellwar Stone (rewritten so it automatically taps for the right color when that's unambiguous)
Foriysian Interceptor
Gladecover Scout
Go for the Throat
Grisly Spectacle
Heartless Hidetsugu
Honden of Cleansing Fire
Honden of Infinite Rage
Honden of Life's Web
Honden of Night's Reach
Honden of Seeing Winds
Invisible Stalker
Jeskai Barricade
Kozilek's Predator
Leonin Abunas
Lightning Angel
Lord of the Unreal
Mantis Rider
Maze of Ith
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Nature's Resurgence
Needlebug
Nekrataal
Nest Invader
Phyrexian Arena
Plated Slagwurm
Price of Progress
Priest of Titania
Primal Huntbeast
Raging Kavu
Reflecting Pool
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Rubbleback Rhino
Sacred Wolf
Seizan, Perverter of Truth
Serpent Assassin
Siege-Gang Commander
Silhana Ledgewalker
Sizzle
Skittering Invasion
Slay
Star Compass
Steward of Valeron
Sylvan Caryatid
Sylvok Explorer
Temple of the False God
Tendrils of Corruption
Time Vault (rewritten to remove its power errata)
Troll Ascetic
Uril, the Miststalker
Utopia Tree
Visara the Dreadful
Voltaic Key
Werebear
Wirewood Channeler

Edit: removed rarity.dat download; use the one distributed with the current version.

[gmzombie]

So let me ask you a question korath. Would it be useable if I could get my hands on the original first hack 8.1 from the exe vault for a more cleaner exe for manalink? I don't know if it would be of help but I can get it he disassembly of magic.exe for you if you like. Not to get you sidetracked though as you are doing great work here.

[Korath]

Not really. Shandalar's mostly untouched, and current Manalink relies on the exe hacks (though mostly not the ones I'm whining about). If I do continue with native Shandalar duel, I'm going to have to backport those into Shandalar.exe, documenting them along the way.