Suggestions

[justme]

Even if it's just me 8for now) posting in here, I figured you wanted feature requests in one thread.

I've fiddled some more with JPortal, mostly the Heap and the shop, and I've got a few suggestions, and I stress SUGGESTIONS
These are by no means demands, just my thoughts on what could possibly improve an otherwise great MtG application.

> Shop: The ability to sell bulk cards
There are times when I want to clean up my collection, and make a little money. As it is now, that's not possible, since I can only offer one card (or several if they're exactly the same) for sale. I would be great, if I could choose several cards of varying color even, and get an offer for those.

> Shop: Show stats, text etc. on cards while in the shop, and considering selling.
Just a nifty little detail, so we don't have to move back and forth between the shop and our collection while bargaining

> Reload button in Collection (under persisent player) when you sell a card.
Eg. selling Sylvan Tutor and only having Rare ticked, the card's still there after the sale.

> "Remember" tick boxes in collection
Eg. when ticking common and card counter in collection, it would be great if the game remembers this selection (perhaps even if the game is closed completely down)

> "Remember" selected columns in Deck editor
I find that drop down boxes aren't as crammed when the column Text is excluded from the Deck editor. now, this column is back, after the deck editor is closed and reopended.

[Malban]

Hi again...

This is more like a Dialog !

I welcome suggestions... So just keep 'em coming.

1) Shop
The shop was "quick and dirty" - I don´t like it as it is now. It is really uncomfortable. I know. Some day I will change it. It is just a matter of priorities.

2) Good idea. But will be included in 1)

3) Good point. Will do it.

4) Yes, can easily be done...

5) The selected columns should be remembered - otherwise it is a bug.
In the context menu of the table there should be an entry called "Save Tablestate".
If you "execute" that item the configuration of the table should be saved and be remembered by the game for the next time.

Regards

Malban

[justme]

Sounds good.

Bigger cards is perhaps more cosmetic than anything else, since the text is easily read when switching to the Text tab in the Card panel.

More suggestions ... actually suggestion (singular)

I have no clue, how big the interest is for JPortal, but judging from this forum, not much (unfortunately). Perhaps more people would be attracted by newer sets like M10-12. Of course, due to rule changes, this opens up a truckload of work for you in form of code changes and refacturing.

5) The selected columns should be remembered - otherwise it is a bug.
In the context menu of the table there should be an entry called "Save Tablestate".
If you "execute" that item the configuration of the table should be saved and be remembered by the game for the next time.

Hmm ... I missed that one. Will try it later today.

[justme]

Woohoo, first double post on CCGHQ

More suggestion coming your way Malban

When starting a new match, you're asked if you wish to mulligan. It would be great if the player was able to see through his hand before deciding.
That's not possible as it is now because the yes/no prompt locks the screen, and the hand is very small. For a relative MtG newbie like me, that can at times be a bit problematic.

*edit*
No need for a triple post.

Instead of ony being able to click the 'phase done' button, would it be possible to implement the space key as well. this could also double as an end match trigger, once a winner is found. Now, it seems you have to select game > Quit to exit the victory screen.

Again, a small suggestion (not much else is needed), that's more of a convinience thing.

[justme]

Guess it is time for a triple post after all

Setup gameboard exactly as desired
What i'm suggesting here, is an option to setup a custom game right down to who's turn it is, what phase, how many and what cards are in play, what's each players library, graveyard and hand. Pretty much set the game up for very specific situations.

This is mostly for testing purposes, both decks, AI og general bugs in JPortal.
For instance, a few times I've seen the AI not blocking my attack even if it meant loosing the match. This only seem to occur when the attacking creature has the 'can't block' "ability". Unfortunately I haven't been able to confirm this yet, but a feature like the one above would help tremendously in this regard.

[Malban]

Hiho!

I agree that would be very usefull indeed.
And that is exactly the reason why it is already implemented !

Read The docs !
The Menu: AI -> AI Test Center
Includes all you need for this.

How to use it can be found in the documentation, online:
http://www.deamonsouls.de/jportal//06e54131.html
(Actually the help is not all up to date, the issue described at the bottom is fixed, also you can change the ordering of cards... (read the help to understand what I mean...)

Or in game.

Note:
The above was made for debugging.

Since Version 1.2 you can also include completely editable game situations also for quest mode games (one such quest is included).

Also Note:
AI settings very much influence the "smartness" of an AI. If it is not set to Intelligence 10 - it is bound to sometimes make stupid mistakes.

Also:
Current Dev:
Actually I´m playing much WoW at the moment - and I am not very into programming.
Nonetheless I fixed following:
- spacebare settings like you mentioned - included
- refresh button for booklet - included
- save state of booklet - included
- the things with the mulligans (looking at cards) is not as easy as it might look, since it is a blocking call to a question to an player making the whole setuproutine of a game asynchrone is quite a bit -> meaning it will have to wait

It is for now included in SVN only.

Also discovered a bug which I must fix... won´t tell you ...

Malban

[justme]

I agree that would be very usefull indeed.
And that is exactly the reason why it is already implemented !

Read The docs !

Do'h ... Guilty as charged. I didn't read up on that, I just reverted to the old trusty trial-and-error method (which incidently wasn't so trusty in this instance)


I see what you mean about the Mulligan.
Could a quick and (very) dirty fix be:

Code: Select all

void mulliganPrompt(){
  if (yes) {
     showHand;  // or close prompt and lock table for input except right click
     KeyboardEventListener.press D;  // D for done
     Make call to Function: 'Do you want to mulligan?';
} else {
     Make call to Function: 'Do you want to mulligan?';;
     }
}

As you can see, I'm not good with java, but I do understand programming logic. That said, this would be a very dirty fix.

Also discovered a bug which I must fix... won´t tell you ...

#¤%#@£$5&%¤%# ... is that any way to treat the no. 1 fan of your app?
Looking forward to both that and the next release ... take your time, play all the WoW you need to. Working on JPortal should be fun, and not a chore

[Malban]

Ok...

You want to know what bug I found?
Probably nobody besides me would have discovered it.

In order to fix AI endless loops (which should not occur in the first place), I implemented two "watch" mechanisms.

One of them is, that when a card is played out and the AI is ordered to find a target for that card it is checked whether that same target was befor chosen in that round for that card. And if repeatedly the same target is chosen for one card the AI interrupts itself (now) as not to try the same again and again and again...

Now - the bug by implementing this occurs when a card like "Chain Lightning" is played where you can chose SEPERATLY for each of the 4 points of damage a target.

NOW with the above savety strategie AI can not anymore destroy a creature with more than two HP´s, since the safety measure intervenes and AI is cut off and can´t kill ...

Malban

PS
Implemeted configuration of the length of messages on screen (svn).

[Malban]

About the "mulligan".

As I have coded the initialization of a match now... it looks more or less like this:

Code: Select all

            // draw 7 cards an mulligan...
            // 7 -> should perhaps be made configuarable....
            for (int i = 0; i < mPlayers.length; i++)
            {
                int drawSize = 7;
                boolean mulligan = false;
                do
                {
                    mLibrary[i].addList(mHand[i], true);
                    mLibrary[i].shuffle();
                    mHand[i] = mLibrary[i].drawRandom(drawSize);
                    drawSize--;
                    displayMatch(true);

                    mulligan = mPlayers[i].wantMulligan();
                }while ((drawSize>0) && (mulligan));
            }

(The actual method look more complicated)

The wantMulligan() method is a synchronous call. Making that
asynchrone means rebuilding the whole initialization of match.

Making the wantMulligan() synchronous call in a way, that the "right" click of cards is enabled - might be even more complicated.

Don´t know if you ever looked into modal dialogs - in order to do that you would have to build a whole event handler system yourself as to accept only events which are allowed.
(which I actually did for JPortal otherwise fullscreen modals would not work at all) - but to "half open" a modal dialog just for that specific case is VERY cumbersome.
And - until I get a better idea - won´t be implemented.

After all - the one thing you are usually interested in your first hand is:
- are there any lands?
- are there only lands?

If neither of that is true, you usually won´t mulligan, the penalty of losing a card alltogether quite "large".

And a decision whether enough or to many lands are available - CAN be made as it is.

I will think on this further more - but as said - until I get a practical idea - you won´t get this feature - sry .

BB

Malban

[justme]

Don´t know if you ever looked into modal dialogs

If I remember correctly, they stop the app, which can't continue w/o user input, rigt?

I will think on this further more - but as said - until I get a practical idea - you won´t get this feature - sry .

No need for apologies.
As I said in my previous post, this should never be a chore. I'm sure you do this for fun, a nice sideeffect is that someone else (eg. me) also benefits from this

[justme]

Nonetheless I fixed following:
- refresh button for booklet - included
- save state of booklet - included

While on the topic of booklet.
Could you add check boxes for colors, so only checked colors are shown?
Unless of course this would clutter up the GUI. It's certainly not a must have, but another one in the category: nice to have when browsing card collection

[Malban]

Colorselection for Booklet... done

[justme]

Damn, you're fast (even if is just small updates)

More suggestions, this time for the Quest Designer (great, great feature).

I've created a Quest, where the player will have to battle the 5 starter decks of the Second Age. It's setup with some new NamedAIs (one for each starter), and one task lead into the next. Only "problem" is setting some sort of precondition for this quest. As it is now, it will not open untill the player completes 'Explore new lands' (so not to give access to Second Age cards too soon ).

What I would love to see, was a way to setup a precondition that isn't dependant on other quests. Eg. I want the second Age starterdecks quest to be availbe as soon as the player owns at least one second age card, has X number of victories or stuff like that.

Is this possible?

*edit*
Yet another suggestion, and probably an easy one to implement.
In the Card collection booklet it would also be great, if cards could be sorted by 'number owned'. The card counter is great, but when I want to sell excess cards (more than 4 owned), I could locate them easier with this sort option

[Malban]

@New Suggestions:

Yep, both easily possible... sometime this week


Malban

[Malban]

Actually, both implemented already (see SVN).

Malban