Noob Questions/Issues Here!

[Spork]

Hi everyone, I was recently poking around trying to get this shandalar thing working and maybe grabbing the updates but it seems to be all over the place, as expected from a very active project. I couldn't quite get it running with the posts here so I found a video with a download link. (Youtube: Shandalar 2015, third result)

This is inside the "readme" text file in the version from this video:
---------------------------
Manalink 3.0
January 5, 2013 v2 Update
---------------------------

From here, I believe I had a bunch of the new card additions however all of the enemy decks were still what they were, which as fun as it would be to run around smashing all the old decks, I wanted to scale those as well. I poked around and found some new decklists for the AI and swapped the old ones for these.

The new issue...

After doing this, whenever I would start a duel in shandalar, the game would crash, right as the AI would play it's first land, leaving the game currently unplayable if I want updated enemy decks.

I'm more than willing to do a completely fresh install or whatever I have to do to get the most up to date shandalar setup + AI deck update. If someone wouldn't mind taking a little bit of time to link to the correct order/instructions on getting the latest shandalar patch/expansion/etc that would be fantastic. I am curious if the version I have is fine but just need to install some patch or something?

I don't want all the regulars here to put all this effort just to help me get this together but rather have a redirect for people to ask noob questions and use this thread as a sort of big Q+A and issues thread...I guess?

Just some quotable questions to tldr this and then we'll be done!
Hopefully these are similar questions people have and can scroll down for answers.

Q: Can I add my own cards to shandalar by using the same format in the txt file with the card info or is there way more to it? (Assuming there's a lot more to it)
Edit: (Answered)


Q: How do I restrict a card to 1 art as it appears to select one at random?
Ex: I want to use unhinged island art if possible so would I just leave 1 art in the folder titled "Island"? I would like to use art of my choice for some cards!
Edit: (Unanswered)

Q: What's the difference between the Manalink Updates and the Shandalar expansions?
Edit: (Answered Below)

And the big one:

Q: What's the current group and order of stuff I have to install to get the current up to date shandalar, expansion, enemy lists, etc etc etc and any special instructions that come with it? And what thread has the upcoming shandalar expansions with more cards/patches, hopefully with the special instructions to go with them
(Answered)
A: Manalink (Currently 3.0), Latest Manalink Patch, Graphics Patch (Optional), Artwork Packages, Shandalar

Would be a great help to myself and probably many people who may get lost and confused at the tons of links everywhere in threads all over the place!

Thanks ahead of time for anyone that quotes and helps with a question!

EDIT: Only 1 unanswered question left!

[stassy]

Manalink (current latest version is 3.0 BFZv2) is the Duel mode in Shandalar without its RPG part (no map, no character, no quest).
It has also several custom duel mode like Gauntlet, Tournament, Avatar, Archenemy and had multiplayer (which is currently disabled).
Current main developpers are Gargaroz and Korath
Latest update and install instruction can be found here :
viewtopic.php?f=85&t=8001

Shandalar (current latest version is DL1) is the whole game which is a solo RPG dueling monsters.
Current main developper is Korath.
Latest update and install instruction can be found here :
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=17183

[Spork]

Thank you very much! I have a working Shandalar with enemy deck overhauls as of now! (With the latest patches I believe)
I only have 1 issue and 1 question/preference left

I am missing a noticable amount of card art. At first I thought it was just the newer stuff so I didn't grab the latest card art but then I noticed in a test game, Kabal Ghoul didn't have the art. I went in the CardArtManaLink folder and obviously noticed the arts that were missing were not there. Is this a known issue right now?
(1st screenshot: Kabal Ghoul missing art)

The second thing is the look of the dueling. In this patch, it goes back to the original skin of the shandalar duel but when I got the download from the youtube video it looked like this. (2nd Screenshot) This isn't a huge issue of course, but I really like this look, and the new sounds that come with it. Is there any way to make it look like that again with the current patch?

Thanks again! All I need to do is fix the card art and hopefully reskin the duel and I should be set!

[Rawky]

Card Art archive as of March 2016 can be found here. You need all 4 zip files.

[Spork]

Thanks, got the 16,000+ artwork and for some reason forgot to realize I could swap the sound files from the other version onto this one and now I have them. I just found these much less distracting as they were shorter and the AI plays much faster with the newer versions of the game.

[stassy]

In the latest patch, the AI thinking delay has been greatly reduced, but at the cost of its ability to make good decisions.

You can however tweak many options and AI tactics in the Shandalar.ini file located in the root folder

[Rawky]

This is my best guess for the answers. For those "in the know", feel free to correct my errors.

is adding cards to the game just copying the format in the manalink .txt file with the card info and adding the card picture? Or is there a lot more to it?

Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that. In the original Microprose game, they were one in the same. However, when the game went defunct and became a mod project, ManaLink and Shandalar became two separate but co-existing entities.

Also, what is the difference between "Manalink" and the Shandalar game? Is Manalink just the game itself with the drafting and single game/gauntlet, etc? I don't need this if there's no supported multiplayer for it.

If you played the original game, they were all part of one package. However, when the game went defunct, private modders developed everything but Shandalar into what we call ManaLink. A different group of modders who wanted to still play Shandalar went to work on bridging what the original game would allow (which is different from what ManaLink would allow) from what was already in-game for ManaLink. For example, in a ManaLink duel, there is a "card" looking object in play (with Richard Garfield's image on it, all hail!) that manages all the new and wonderful card functions that didn't exist when the game was first produced by Microprose. Some of those functions, such as Cycling or Dredge (the ability, not the card), are still not possible in Shandalar. For the time being, if you want a certain card, post it in the Wish List thread and hope it's possible (search first, it might not be). As far as I can tell, development for ManaLink has fallen behind and Shandalar development is still going.

IMO Shandalar is fun as hell and even if people abandon it completely, I will still play with whatever is left.

[Spork]

Thank you both of you, game has been running and it's so much fun to be playing it again! I only have one last question and that's if I can choose which art to use on cards. For example, let's say I want to only use the original sol ring picture not the FtV/Commander one. I should be able to just delete the alternative and make sure the one I want is labeled by just the card name, right?

[Rawky]

correct order/instructions on getting the latest shandalar patch/expansion/etc

This is how I deal with making sure I get the install order correct whenever I need to do a reinstall, do card art updates, or patch updates. I even keep a picture like this in my phone, just in case I have a hard drive failure. Doing the research to get back to this point is a nightmare, as I'm sure you are aware.

Patch updates are the easiest, because you don't need to reinstall everything prior. Since it's the last step, and the same files are reinstalled, just overwrite. Same idea for card art, since they just go directly into the CardArtManaLink folder (at present).

Inside each folder are the actual files I use to reinstall.

One other non-standard thing I do is, after step 1 (install the original game into PrimaryFolder), is make a copy of PrimaryFolder named SecondaryFolder. Then I uninstall the game from Control Panel to remove all remnants from the Widnows Registry, which also guts most of the contents of PrimaryFolder so I just delete that. Then I can ruin the remaining install folder as much as I want, or make copies of it for different patch or mod installs. The game still runs just fine.

[Spork]

Yup, how I have it now is fine and I'll just update shandalar every few patches or so. Thanks! Do you know anything about reserving specific artwork? (Above) Also, one thing I was wondering about is maybe making my own soundpacks for the game. But when I tried to replace one of the sound files with one of a very similar size, it came out very slow and distorted. (It was in the same format too) All I'm trying to work on at the moment is the artwork reserving and the sound thing that maybe I could do. (Mostly small, customizing stuff I'd like to do for fun mostly)

[Rawky]

I'm not sure what you mean by "reserving specific artwork"

[Korath]

There's documentation about the card art files here.

The format of the sound files is very particular; ".wav" is just a container format, not an actual sound format, and Manalink/Shandalar's sound system is comparatively primitive. All of the standard files identify as "RIFF (little-endian) data, WAVE audio, Microsoft PCM, 16 bit" with a 22050Hz sample rate, so that's likely all necessary; there's an even mix of mono and stereo files, so that likely isn't.

[Spork]

Thanks! All I had to do was download the sound file as an mp3 off of youtube, convert it to .wav, and convert the sample rate and it plays like it should.