Collectible Card Game Headquarters

Also FYI (and we should probably have a post on this somewhere), but if you didn't know, this is how the bug fixing process works in a nutshell.

If a user discovers a bug they go to the 'Bug Reports' folder and search for the card to see if it has been reported already. If it hasn't, they post a report (read this for instructions on how to report a bug). A mod will then test the reported bug, and if they can duplicate it will mark the bug '[confirmed]' (and give it a star icon). Once a bug is confirmed the developers will try to fix it. When a developer reports it fixed, the mods will label the report '[fixed]' (and give it a heart icon). Approximately 24 hours later, if there are no further comments on the bug, the mods will move it to the 'Pending Reports' subfolder of the 'Archived Reports' subfolder of the 'Bug Reports' folder. So if you look there you will see every bug that the developers have fixed since the last patch was released (but these will not be active until the next patch). Once a patch is released the mods move all reports from 'Pending Reports' to 'Archived Reports' (making room for new ones). We then retest every report to make sure the fix was successful. If it was we mark the report '[fixed/closed]' and it remains in the 'Archived Reports' folder as a record of bugs that have been fixed. If it wasn't, we mark it as '[still bugged]' and move it back to the 'Bug Reports' folder so the developers can take another crack at it.

*cough* wall of text *cough*

Also, I only have 2 ways of knowing what new cards are introduced each patch :
- The AI base value list that Sonic send me before patch release, usually from new set
- The cardimage list, after removing dupe and special card but I know that this is a bad way to do it

I don't have others mean to see if previously coded but not flagged as available are available in the next patch, or if cards from Limited/Golden Age are back (until Gilbert said it I didn't know that the Glyph series were available).

I no longer use the AI base value trick since I already flagged all of them, regardless of their coded status.

Even though I am a mod I am not in touch with the devs so all I do is what any user can do, so please bear with us

Let's put it this way.

'A History of the CardArtManalink Folder'
A series of lectures given by the eminent Manalink card art compiler, editor, and historian - Sonic.

...won't be happening any time soon.

So here's the short version

There isn't, and never has been, a necessary link between when a card was added to the game and when it's card art was first issued. Even the original Microprose game included card art for cards which were never later coded.

As I explained earlier - when Manalink3 was first released it carried over card artwork from previous versions of the game. Some of which were for cards which had been coded but were later removed because of Manalink2's 2000 card limit, but were then later reactivated in Manalink3 with some coding changes, and some which had been included in the original Microprose game but they had never got round to coding before the game was abandoned, and it was then decided could be coded in Manalink3 at a later date.

Also, at the time we were finalising the entries in the beta Manalink3 xls file, I made a decision to edit and add all the known split, flip, animated and token card artwork regardless of whether it had been coded or not - this artwork needed special attention and it was just easier to do it all in one go. Gargaroz had planned to code many of the cards at a later date but was unsure at the time when. Most have been done now.

Another issue is that over the course of the yearly updates I may issue replacement artwork for a card which had been added to the game months or even years previously, as I did back in September with Nimbus Maze (requested by Korath), Woodfall Primus and Ratchet Bomb, and I will be doing again in the next update with all the Basic Land artwork for Korath's adaptation to the land card art randomising coding.
This replacement artwork would normally overwrite the current files in your installed CardArtManalink folder during an update. But at the end of the year when I collate all the updates into a larger archive file, all the old artwork is removed.

This year, when I collated all the updates and the base card art folder into two primary archives. The replacement artwork was forced to overwrite the original files in their originally stored archives and was subsequently removed from the archive in which it was first issued.

The point being - I make many of the decisions concerning the card artwork, most of which are entirely invisible to most users. But whether I make any decision to make my job a little easier, or due to a coding team decision to deactivate, remove or add a coded card in a later patch made late during the current update process, the priority has always been that with any update released the end user merely has to drop the artwork into the card art folder, check the number of files is correct, and play the game with all the newly available cards complete with artwork - the artwork maintenance should be all but invisible.

So there you have it - a short insight to the mystical secrets of the files in the card art folder.

For the uninitiated - if you go routing around in the game you will find many things you may have been unaware of when playing it, but the team cannot be expected to explain each and every decision that's taken during the course of maintaining the game. We do in the main keep people abreast of development decisions - most of which are posted with a new patch, as is a list of replacement and alternative artwork included with the patch. But the history of each and every file currently found in the game is a bit much to ask.

Sorry had to

stassy wrote:(until Gilbert said it I didn't know that the Glyph series were available)

OK then - just for you.

‘A History of the CardArtManalink Folder’
A series of lectures in Manalink card art history - Part One… of one.

The Glyph Cards

In the beginning...

BAgate wrote:And PS - gmzombie knew about Desecration Demon because he was the one who first reported the bug and has been hounding the developers about it ever since. So when it was reported as fixed he threw a party.

Not that i hounded anybody but just politely asked about it..very greatful that it was implemented so quick

Hello,

First huge thanks for all the work that has been put through time to lead me into having so much fun with Manalink.

Then a question, i used the file about legacy text&tooltips

Update 30/01/2014
CIAv2 up to date Text.res file available here, extract the archive to the main Magic folder, this correct hint bar issues :
download/file.php?id=15490

Then as i was trying to experiment with decks in the deckbuilder, i noticed that none of the buttons/filters have any tooltip when i move the mouse over them (right click on them still work).

In the original game (and in the "2010 custom" version reworked to run on modern OS available on the board) those tooltips existed when you moved the mouse on those buttons.

It's no big deal fortunately, but as i have no idea if it's intended or a possible bug, i prefer to mention it.

Tool tips are working fine for me in windows 8 x64.

Working for me too in xp sp3, there is also to note that some button were modified to add/replace options (the author one and the expansion one).

"Show Cue Cards" in duel options, unintuitively enough, turns them on or off.

stassy wrote:Yup, they are all here with their cardimage.

You need to delete your entire CardartManalink and restart copying the image files from this thread, if you just copy over it will be messed up

Please post a screenshot of your DeckEditor with Glyph of Delusion

you are welcome stassy

Most of the cards you mentioned are in the file 2012_CardArtManalink.zip, indeed the new cardimage file like 2012_2013_CardArtUpdates.zip or CardArtManalink_Jan2014.zip does not have them because of the reasons given by Sonic.

Those last updates are special because not only we have cards for new expansion (Theros), but also there were coded cards (with card art ready) but not integrated in the game because of the 2k card limit, so unless you have an old version of Manalink in Limited mode (which I don't), there will be a lot of "newly accessible" cards which I won't be able to list...

I think the best way to know which card is available is to edit the Manalink.ini file and modify the line:
ViewAll=0
to
ViewAll=1

This way you will know that all the cards with cardimage is playable and all the cards without cardimage is not.

BAgate wrote:Gilber, your english isn't very good which is probably what is causing the communication problems

you are the first person have ever said that my english isn't good
let me clear this to you:
i'm not american or british (but i admit i wish i was)
i'm syrian and most of you (if not all of you) know that because i said that in the first post i posted from long time ago in this great site
but that's don't necessarily mean that my english isn't good and i admit that sometimes i use translation software to translate some words that i don't know it means

what the word or phrase i wrote that didn't you understand ???
and if my english isn't good and can't be understanded, how Crazy9000 understand me ???

BAgate wrote: It isn't that we 'don't want to tell you', but that we didn't understand what you were asking.

when i said " you don't want to tell me" i was mean gmzombie not you or anybody else
and you can know that from quoting his talk when i said that
when i asked my question about Desecration Demon, i expect that gmzombie will reply to me
but when he (gmzombie) didn't reply to me, i thought he don't want to tell me how he figure out Desecration Demon
so, i became sad and disappointed and said to gmzombie "you don't want to tell me"
and now i want to apology to gmzombie for my bad thought about him and say "i'm so sorry gmzombie"

BAgate wrote:it certainly is not as user friendly as commercial software

commercial software ??? what do you mean by that ???
this game is free, right ???