Magarena

[ubeefx]

Programming Magarena in Java was a natural choice to me.
I program already a long time in Java and like it tremendously.
Together with the great Eclipse IDE it is a very productive environment for me.
That it runs well on many platforms is of course a very nice benefit.

The equip hiccup you saw could probably be avoided by further tweaking the scoring system.
There is still room left to improve it.

In the preferences dialog there are some options to avoid skipping single choices or certain steps.
It also provides skin selection and you can even create your own skin by putting a couple of textures
in the Magarena textures data folder.

You estimated the effort quite correctly, I wrote Magarena in around 1.5 years in my spare time.
But I did have some previous attempts at creating a Magic game, so that experience helped out a lot.

The option to evaluate the deck strength is probably something unique.
Overall I think this gives a good indication about the potentional of the decks.
It is made possible thanks to the fast AI.

Thanks for posting an article on your blog and helping me to let people know about the game.

I will keep working on it. Main plans are fixing bugs, finetune AI, adding cards of future sets and
I will also consider implementing interesting features suggested by players when they fit the game.

I still need to check out the latest Forge release, but I was already following your blog for a while.
You probably noticed that the Google project name is actually inspired on the Forge project name.
The great thing about these projects is that they are very complementary in letting you play against AI.
Forge contains lots of cards and allows you to play with constructed decks. It also has the nice quest mode.
Magarena lets you play limited style games with a custom card set that is optimized for the AI.

[Huggybaby]

Deckbot also allowed you to automatically test decks against each other.

PS I'm giving magarena its own forum.

[mtgrares]

But I did have some previous attempts at creating a Magic game, so that experience helped out a lot.

I think Forge was the 3rd time I starting coding a Magic project. The first two project imploded because they couldn't deal with Magic insane rules/cards.

You probably noticed that the Google project name is actually inspired on the Forge project name.

I didn't notice but I do now. Like most things I got the name "Forge" from SourceForge.net and Google Projects needs a "project name" so I just sort of made something up.

I still need to check out the latest Forge release, but I was already following your blog for a while.

Truthfully I don't always play the latest release if I don't have the pictures for it. I sort of got burned out of programming and other people have been doing the coding for the last 2 years. (I think 2 years is right but it is an approximation.)

Blogging is interesting. It is hard to really know your audience but I enjoy talking about programming + Magic.

Keep having fun programming and playing your own game. Your game is inspirational.

--mtgrares

[ubeefx]

This forum will allow me to keep you updated on the game progress.
Something I will do is describing how the AI works in detail on the project Wiki page.

[Incantus]

Hey ubeefx, I'm really interested in hearing about how you've implemented your AI, and the limitations in what cards could be implemented based on the choices you made. Looking forward to reading that Wiki page when you've written it!

[ubeefx]

The latest version contains some user interface improvements.
The Unhinged basic lands were added next to the Zendikar basic lands.
The cards in the exile zone can now also be viewed.

Something that is really stressful for the AI speed is creature combat.
The number of possibilities once you have a couple of creatures on both sides quickly grows.
When Planeswalker cards would be added, this number would increase again because creatures can
either attack the player or the Planeswalker. So that is a nice example of a trade off for speed.

[Huggybaby]

Everybody here loves those big lands, thanks for adding them.

[Professor]

I tried it out, and it is a beautifully designed game.

Two questions: Is there any way to alter the decks or create decks, even within the supplied card pool?
Is there a key to what all the button icons do when there are no popup descriptions?

Thanks!

[ubeefx]

Altering decks is possible with the method described in Duel Customizing on project page.
For changing only a couple of cards, this is certainly doable.
Open tournament.txt in Magarena data folder with editor, search for cards to replace, replace with new card name and save.
Then load duel in Magarena and you can play.

The small buttons are indeed without help.
I will put adding help or tooltips as a change request on the page.

Updates to the card pool will usually be after a new set release.
Currently this is the release of Mirrodin Besieged in February.

[Aswan jaguar]

Congratulations for your very nice game,and especially for the superb AI!!! It kicked my ass! Its great to compete against an AI that wont make silly mistakes so you can take advantage to win.Thanks for the challenge.

[Boom2010]

Enjoying this! Thanks for sharing and already looking forward to Feb.

[ubeefx]

I am actually also looking forward to the next release scheduled in February.
Please give your input in the card wishlist topic.
Feature requests or bug reports can be made on the project page.
Besides adding cards from new or existing sets that I personally like,
most further development of Magarena will be driven by your input.

[jeffwadsworth]

I just wanted to pipe in and say thanks also for this outstanding project. I can't wait for the next release. Cheers.

[atar]

Excellent program i would say!Really challenging AI and very light for the pc!Keep improving it please.And by the way,where the downloaded pics exists?

[Huggybaby]

In C:\Users\******\Magarena\cards or hqcards.