Magic 2015 PC

[chieuduong]

I don't know in term of modding it would be better than 2014 or not (easier to code), but I already gave it up after 14 mins of trying. The UI is a mess. They should learn from Riak (or hire him) how to make a decent "deck builder"

[RiiakShiNal]

Well, unless they make me a great offer they won't be able to hire me as I just recently started a new job and am fitting in quite nicely. Though there are definitely things that could be better about the in-game editor such as being able to see more cards at a glance (either by shrinking the cards so more will fit on the screen or by having a linked screen where you could view a larger portion and select from to "Jump" to that selection in the Deck editing screen). As for features I would really like to see in deck editing/creation would be the ability to create a quick-reference sideboard (that could be accessed in-match by "Wish" cards and the like), search/filter by ability and/or keyword (this would make putting together theme decks easier, such as filter by Scavenge, Lifelink, or Miracle). They probably don't want to allow for searching/filtering like that as it would not necessarily be as accessible for console users.

As for what I would like to see them do with this series:

• A Mana Pool. Then using auto-tap/manual tap could even be made an option with the default set to auto-tap. It's not like this is very difficult to code, it's just 6 variables that get cleared every step and only get added to if someone manually taps a mana source (this could be skipped for auto-tapping) and removed from (down to a minimum 0 then auto-tapping kicks in for any missing mana) when a spell is cast or mana is needed for an ability. The concept is not difficult and the mana pool could even be hidden from view on the UI if using "Simplified Mana".
• Open it up some for modders to have a sort-of sandbox area for playing with Magic. Even if they disallowed editing of the UI/Game Modes/Features, they could still allow us to easily add cards and use them in-game (and online if the other player has the same mods) as a test bed to try out different cards/decks. Then if a player really likes a deck or card they could even put in a link to purchase the card/deck physically or digital versions in Magic Online (opportunity for more revenue for them, they are already using DotP as an advertisement engine to get people playing the physical game). Even better is that they could make cards portable between games (have the engine recognize cards by a format version or something and be able to port it in so that only minor changes or updates would need to be made to adjust for additional features, at least for most cards).
• Listen to bug reports and actually fix the problems (many card bugs have been reported for different versions of the game, but most are ignored by the company and are fixed here on the forums, but we can't fix the engine bugs).
• Get rid of any non-Magic restrictions on cards (such as having to buy boosters to get the "premium" cards). If people want to pay for cards they will do so either physically or in Magic Online (they could even improve graphics/UI for Magic Online if they want to attract the DotP customer base). This would allow full deck building with any available cards (they could still use the campaign for unlocking cards/sets, such as beat Innistrad to get access to Innistrad cards, etc...) at up to 4x of each card (Magic restriction, or less depending on game mode such as Commander).

One of the big problems I see with where they are going with DotP is that they are artificially dumbing-down the game (when they don't need to), one of the draws for people to Magic is the deep game play, if they want simpler games there are many other alternatives out there. The lack of a mana pool is just dumb in my opinion, as I said before they can still simplify it by keeping in auto-tapping and mainly make use of it invisibly in the background (such as only showing items from the mana pool when there is more than there and even then only showing the colours/types present in the pool).

One argument against making it open for modders is that the modders would then make all the cards/decks present in an expansion and offer it for free, but most of us try to avoid re-creating official cards because it is a waste of time and effort, if the game is good then people will buy the expansions so there is no point in us making a mod version. Even then they could make the expansions more worthwhile to players by including additional game modes (Archenemy, Commander, etc...) or features that aren't already present. If someone really wants something but refuses to pay for it, they will generally find a way to get it for free, so nothing is going to stop piracy, but if the company isn't going to listen to and cater to their customers (at least somewhat) they are only going to hurt themselves because they are going to lose customers.

I'm going to stop now as I had originally intended for this to be a short post and I got on a tangent/rant and turned it into a wall of text.

[Huggybaby]

But it's a good wall of text.

[damienx45]

so riiak any thoughts on making a 2015 editor like 2014?

[RiiakShiNal]

so riiak any thoughts on making a 2015 editor like 2014?

Until we have access to the ZED files and can play around with them like WADs, there won't be any new utilities from me. Once we can access them and I can see what's going on inside and what files we have access to and can create ourselves then I'll see what makes sense to update/build for the new game. For DotP 2014 we basically had access to the new files immediately since very little had changed from DotP 2013 (so I was able to update the Deck Builder very quickly), but there are some major changes in DotP 2015 so it may take a while before much if anything happens.

So since in DotP 2015 we have deck building already it may not be optimal to build a Deck Builder for user decks, but it might still be appropriate for AI decks then again it may not be. Depending it may be more appropriate to build a different utility such as a set converter to convert from premium cards to regular cards, or a set builder which will allow the building of the files needed to build card collections like the Innistrad and Shandalar collections in-game. Or failing all that it may be appropriate to just build an error checker which will check for xml, card, and/or other errors which could cause problems.

But again this is all moot until we have unpack/pack access to the ZED files.

[damienx45]

well with the thread that has all the mtg pics from all the sets it shouldn't be too hard to make a good set builder, maybe try looking into making a utility that can give the game access to a custom card collection that will allow players to make their custom decks that way.but then again what do i know i'm still trying to fully learn how to make my own cards, just thought i would give ya an idea.

[RiiakShiNal]

Maybe, but until we have access to the ZED files there's no way to even know if it could even be done.

[chieuduong]

I spent hundreds of hours making deck using your Deckbuilder with all of our mods here and play test it with other modder's deck and it's a passion. (drl3gend deck is too OP btw). I was so amazed by how dedicated you guys are to make each card playable. Looking at it, it's over 9000 cards we have in the database if we put all the mods in here together and I can't help but love love love the PLANESWALKER wad. . That's why when this 2015 come out it was really hollow. The what they call "deck builder" (with a car pool of .. 300 cards ? )won't even cut it because you can't call "Swap bad cards out, put Rare/mythic rare in" as "building a deck". They can't even put a single planeswalker in a game named duel of the PLANESWALKERS.
And yes, the mana pool or just Manual mana. I really get used to your MM cards now, even when I make the deck I just filled the lands with land cards from MM wads. Mana tapping is just vital playing magic, so I really hoped they would just at least "copy" your code to put it in 2015 but guess what, they didn't. I doubt that Stainless even play test their product. If they do, sure someone at least will notice "Hey it takes like 2 minutes just to go from the splash page to disable a single box in the option."

[demeitri1]

Well, unless they make me a great offer they won't be able to hire me as I just recently started a new job and am fitting in quite nicely. Though there are definitely things that could be better about the in-game editor such as being able to see more cards at a glance (either by shrinking the cards so more will fit on the screen or by having a linked screen where you could view a larger portion and select from to "Jump" to that selection in the Deck editing screen). As for features I would really like to see in deck editing/creation would be the ability to create a quick-reference sideboard (that could be accessed in-match by "Wish" cards and the like), search/filter by ability and/or keyword (this would make putting together theme decks easier, such as filter by Scavenge, Lifelink, or Miracle). They probably don't want to allow for searching/filtering like that as it would not necessarily be as accessible for console users.

As for what I would like to see them do with this series:

• A Mana Pool. Then using auto-tap/manual tap could even be made an option with the default set to auto-tap. It's not like this is very difficult to code, it's just 6 variables that get cleared every step and only get added to if someone manually taps a mana source (this could be skipped for auto-tapping) and removed from (down to a minimum 0 then auto-tapping kicks in for any missing mana) when a spell is cast or mana is needed for an ability. The concept is not difficult and the mana pool could even be hidden from view on the UI if using "Simplified Mana".
• Open it up some for modders to have a sort-of sandbox area for playing with Magic. Even if they disallowed editing of the UI/Game Modes/Features, they could still allow us to easily add cards and use them in-game (and online if the other player has the same mods) as a test bed to try out different cards/decks. Then if a player really likes a deck or card they could even put in a link to purchase the card/deck physically or digital versions in Magic Online (opportunity for more revenue for them, they are already using DotP as an advertisement engine to get people playing the physical game). Even better is that they could make cards portable between games (have the engine recognize cards by a format version or something and be able to port it in so that only minor changes or updates would need to be made to adjust for additional features, at least for most cards).
• Listen to bug reports and actually fix the problems (many card bugs have been reported for different versions of the game, but most are ignored by the company and are fixed here on the forums, but we can't fix the engine bugs).
• Get rid of any non-Magic restrictions on cards (such as having to buy boosters to get the "premium" cards). If people want to pay for cards they will do so either physically or in Magic Online (they could even improve graphics/UI for Magic Online if they want to attract the DotP customer base). This would allow full deck building with any available cards (they could still use the campaign for unlocking cards/sets, such as beat Innistrad to get access to Innistrad cards, etc...) at up to 4x of each card (Magic restriction, or less depending on game mode such as Commander).

One of the big problems I see with where they are going with DotP is that they are artificially dumbing-down the game (when they don't need to), one of the draws for people to Magic is the deep game play, if they want simpler games there are many other alternatives out there. The lack of a mana pool is just dumb in my opinion, as I said before they can still simplify it by keeping in auto-tapping and mainly make use of it invisibly in the background (such as only showing items from the mana pool when there is more than there and even then only showing the colours/types present in the pool).

One argument against making it open for modders is that the modders would then make all the cards/decks present in an expansion and offer it for free, but most of us try to avoid re-creating official cards because it is a waste of time and effort, if the game is good then people will buy the expansions so there is no point in us making a mod version. Even then they could make the expansions more worthwhile to players by including additional game modes (Archenemy, Commander, etc...) or features that aren't already present. If someone really wants something but refuses to pay for it, they will generally find a way to get it for free, so nothing is going to stop piracy, but if the company isn't going to listen to and cater to their customers (at least somewhat) they are only going to hurt themselves because they are going to lose customers.

I'm going to stop now as I had originally intended for this to be a short post and I got on a tangent/rant and turned it into a wall of text.

not at all sir... well said

[WolfTracker83]

Hello. If one were to have a file with the whole DATA_000.ZED in hexidecimal, would someone be able to reconstruct a decrypted version? I'm able to do this, and can see that there's a .WAD in the MOVIES_000.ZED, but don't know what to do with anything after that.

[thefiremind]

Hello. If one were to have a file with the whole DATA_000.ZED in hexidecimal, would someone be able to reconstruct a decrypted version? I'm able to do this, and can see that there's a .WAD in the MOVIES_000.ZED, but don't know what to do with anything after that.

Wait, I'm not sure if I understood correctly...

would someone be able to reconstruct a decrypted version? I'm able to do this

Do you mean you can decrypt it? If so, please explain how! Or are you referring to what you can do with MOVIES_000.ZED? Because if that's the case, I can do that as well, and it doesn't help. We are discussing about the decryption problem here, but still no result.

[RiiakShiNal]

Getting the hexadecimal version of a file is extremely easy (it's just another way of looking at the file, there is no actual difference in data).

For example:
Apple = 0x4170 706C 65 = 01000001 01110000 01110000 01101100 01100101

If I encrypt it with RC4 using the key "Testing" then I get this:
0xB6DA 727E 04 = 10110110 11011010 01110010 01111110 00000100

Note that there is no accurate ASCII representation for the encrypted text. Also the encrypted text does not have the decryption key or method contained inside it. If you don't know the encryption method or key you would have to try to decrypt it using all known decryption methods with all possible keys until you get something that might be the original text (or you could get something completely different, like Trout instead of Apple). If it is encrypted with an unknown method then trying to brute force the decryption would just be a colossal waste of time.

[NeoAnderson]

Getting the hexadecimal version of a file is extremely easy (it's just another way of looking at the file, there is no actual difference in data).

For example:
Apple = 0x4170 706C 65 = 01000001 01110000 01110000 01101100 01100101

If I encrypt it with RC4 using the key "Testing" then I get this:
0xB6DA 727E 04 = 10110110 11011010 01110010 01111110 00000100

Note that there is no accurate ASCII representation for the encrypted text. Also the encrypted text does not have the decryption key or method contained inside it. If you don't know the encryption method or key you would have to try to decrypt it using all known decryption methods with all possible keys until you get something that might be the original text (or you could get something completely different, like Trout instead of Apple). If it is encrypted with an unknown method then trying to brute force the decryption would just be a colossal waste of time.

I totally agree with Riiak Explaination, or you could ask to the S.E.T.I. if you can use their servers to try a brute force, and i still think it will need some years!.
Anyway i think that the only hope could be when they release expansions for Dotp 2015 if they don't use encrypted ZED files we could try something.