Other Magic programs

[frwololo]

I've tested Wagic, Forge, Mage, and the AI sort of sucks.

I'm ashamed to hijack this topic but I like to defend my creation
Wagic's AI is probably not as good as Magarena's AI, but this is counterbalanced by the "progression" system in the game, which prevents you from getting all the cards you want immediately.
Wagic's AI also made significant improvements over the past 6 months, so if you haven't tried it in a while I suggest you give it a try again.

Granted, the intellectual challenge is probably more interesting in a game with minmax such as magarena, but I think you might be missing the point of a game such as Wagic, which is not only an MTG simulation, but a game with goals, challenges, etc... you start with a limited pool of cards and you need to improve your deck over time, to unlock cards, opponents, etc.... The difficulty of your opponents progresses with time, and I've already been contacted by long-time magic players who told me the AI was sometimes too difficult to beat for them.
In particular, Wagic is not made for you to immediately create whatever deck you want and play with it. You first have to unlock the cards, then "buy" them with the credits you earn, so building a competitive deck should take a fair amount of time (and be fun). Yes, if you play with a perfect deck, you will beat the AI. The point is that 1) it should take time (and fun) to reach the amount of credits required to build that deck, and 2) even when you reach that state, there are many more options in Wagic to still enjoy the game ("difficulty" mode where the AI starts with extra lands in play, "tasks" where you have to beat the AI with some additional conditions such as "beat the AI in less than XX turns", "story mode" in which you have to solve challenges/enigmas, etc..)

It's ok if what Wagic is offering is not what you are really looking for, but I'm a bit tired of people comparing my game to other MTG simulations, when clearly we don't all have the same goals (and may I shamelessly state that Wagic is much more than an MTG simulation?)

This has nothing to do with Magarena which is already very awesome and extremely promising, but just wanted to clear a few things up

[ubeefx]

Actually I thank you for this post. I moved it to a new topic.

I messaged the poster of that quote that I respect other Magic developers.
So I certainly did not like that post on the Forge forum, even if it was probably not meant in a bad way.
Key thing was that the amount of cards is not all that should matter. I firmly agree with that.

Magarena sacrifices flexibility and uses slightly different rules to get the AI to a challenging level.
I think it succeeded in doing that, but this will not please everyone.
The game was made to allow quick 15 to 45 minutes duels and not much more.
Also I think it does this well. Some people really like this, others don't.

Forge allows to to play with many cards and decks and also has a quest mode.
This also applies to Wagic. So these games offer progress and have probably a longer longetivity.
Their AI might be a bit less challenging, but this was not their main focus like it was for Magarena.
Programming Magic games is hard and I do not think it is feasible to make the one program that does all best.
So it is actually a good thing that there are options, like the promising Mage project.