recent UI updates

[Lodici]

• deck editor is now available from the main menu.
• added Load, Save and Clear deck options to deck editor action bar.
• deck statistics now show the percentage of each card type as well as the count.
• added a tooltip to each card type icon in deck statistics in case it is not clear from the icon image.
• preferences dialog is now tabbed.
• new setting that affects the card explorer and deck editor screens. Currently when you move the mouse cursor over an entry in the card table the card image preview is immediately updated. This new option will only change the image when you actually select the entry in the card table.
• you can now close the preferences dialog using the ESCape key.

snapshot build

[Lodici]

• fixed [#431]: Unable to close Deck Editor if deck is invalid.
• fixed [#439]: card explorer - table titlebar displaying total cards is missing.
• fixed [#440]: deck editor/card explorer - mana cost filter does not show all possible costs.

[ember hauler]

It would be great to have the possibility to hide/show new log with button click. Most of the time I don't need this log, but sometimes during the game it is necessary to view latest actions.

Could you please do this?

[Lodici]

It would be great to have the possibility to hide/show new log with button click. Most of the time I don't need this log, but sometimes during the game it is necessary to view latest actions.

Could you please do this?

tracking: Issue 449: hide/disable game log

[Lodici]

Splash screen can now display startup progress messages.

On my relatively ancient Acer AspireOne netbook the startup time seems to be getting longer possibly because of all the new cards recently added. The first time it is taking about 90 seconds before the UI appears! Subsequent startup times are much quicker at around 15 seconds. I wondered what it was doing so I have added the capability to display status messages on the splash screen. At least it gives you something to read while you wait...

ps. it does seem related to the loading of the card txt files and then the extraction of the card definitions.
pps. hopefully it will still work with Launch4j but I have yet been unable to run that particular process so can not test.

[Huggybaby]

IMO the lengthy loading times should be addressed as it hurts the experience that ubeefx crafted. NTM, more cards will be added, making the situation worse.

Can't all this stuff load in the background without interrupting the startup? What is the first moment in the game when cards are actually needed? Isn't it once the game commences? Because at that point you only need the cards that are in two decks.

[Lodici]

- new Sample Hand screen available via the Deck Editor (see screen shot).
- similar view can be accessed for the hand, graveyard and exile zones by clicking on already selected icon in duel screen.

[Lodici]

Just published...

Mulligan Screen

• displayed on game start.
• displays cards in hand alphabetically using all screen space available so is much easier to read.
• cards are sized based on space available up to a maximum of 480 x 680 which generally is the standard size of card images downloaded from http://mtgimage.com.
• the screen is enabled by default but I have temporarily added an option to disable it via a new setting in the preferences dialog under the Experimental tab. This can be used should you experience any problems but ultimately once any unforseen issues have been ironed out I would expect the Mulligan screen to become a permanent fixture and the experimental option will be removed.

Cards Viewer (got to come up with a better name!)

• the Mulligan screen uses the same library as is used for -
• generating sample Hands from the Deck Editor
• displaying the cards in hand, graveyard and exile zones by clicking twice on the appropriate zone icon.
• it enhances existing functionality but does not replace it. In the case of the Mulligan screen, clicking the Close action or Escape key will return to the main game screen where you can step through the mulligan process as before if you wish.
• I think it has the potential to be useful whenever the user is prompted to do something or make a choice.

Loading Transition Screen
As part of this update, I have also added a kind of "loading screen" mechanism for actions that may take a while to complete - this tends to be quite common in games, usually displaying some (random) artwork with a progress indicator and sometimes hints and tips if the wait is relatively long. The point is that it provides immediate feedback to the user that something is happening which is very useful on lower spec machines.

Currently this occurs in Magarena when you click on the Start game action. In this case, I simply display the default background with the default busy indicator but this is open for improvement. For example, the busy indicator is just an animated gif and I am sure someone more creative than myself could come up with a bigger and better Magarena-specific gif. One idea I had was a gif which shows the 5 colored circles that appear on the back of an MTG card spinning but I've no idea how to do that.

[Lodici]

This update replaces the new duel dialog and introduces persistent AI personas. It is now available from build #805 or later (Magarena-1.48.zip) via https://buildhive.cloudbees.com/job/melvinzhang/job/magarena/. Thanks to @melvin for fixing the automated testing which this update broke! Sorry.

Main changes & screenshots

• Replaced DuelDialog with new DuelPlayersScreen. Improves management of player profiles (both human and AI).
• Improved player stats presentation.
• Persistent AI personas with their own stats.
• Creates three default AI personas that represent the three main AI implementations.
• New avatar selection screen.
• Auto saves at start of duel and at end of every game.
• If a duel is defined as X games then it is played as best of X instead of first to X.
• Can now play a single game duel.
• Improved layout of player tabs in Duel Decks Screen. Current score is now integrated into the tabs. Duel winner is displayed in action bar (this is kind of temporary but is still more than it did previously).

[ubeefx]

Those screens look great Lodici!

[jerichopumpkin]

That's awesome!!!

[Lodici]

This has been irritating me (and others, see issue 260) for so long!

Now you can select both preconstructed and custom decks as well as random from the duel setup screen. Previously, if you had a favourite deck you wanted to play each time you would have no choice but to first select a random deck and then from the Duel Decks screen load the actual deck you wanted to play in the first place.

It is a fairly rudimentary update and the idea is to eventually evolve the deck selection into something more powerful (see discussion at viewtopic.php?f=82&t=13997#p148075). It is available in build 1.48.831 or greater.

[hong yie]

sometime i need to read a message log that has scrolled away caused by many events. a scroll bar maybe would do. just to be more informative. thanx

[Lodici]

sometime i need to read a message log that has scrolled away caused by many events. a scroll bar maybe would do. just to be more informative. thanx

Thanks. Tracking as issue 519

[Lodici]

Some new UI stuff -

• cards in the deck view screen can now be filtered by creature, lands and other
  spells.
• deck name is now shown in header of most deck related screens.
• during a game, the "game log" file can be viewed via the game menu (ESC -> Game Log) or by right clicking anywhere on the screen log.