Korath's Shandalar Updates: Bug Reports

[Bog Wraith]

Ok, thanks jiansonz for pointing out the info about Necropotence. It seems that it will be impossible to build a real Necro deck as getting 4 of these cards will be near impossible.

I hope that it becomes a card that we can buy, win, trade for, etc... so that I can have an opportunity to build a true Necro deck.

Hint, hint Korath!

Either way, I'm glad to know that it is in the game, thanks again jiansonz!

[gmzombie]

not really cause you can still get the you win duplicate card of choice. that is how i got 2 black lotus's

[Korath]

One of my primary goals was to track down and remove all the ways you can end up with more than one of any given dungeon treasure, and I've gone to a fair amount of trouble to do so. So far as I know, the only way left is, as gmzombie says, the get-a-duplicate-card-of-your-choice duel reward. I suppose I can make that last fix configurable when I get around to it; unlike the other ways, you at least have to legitimately get the card from the dungeon first.

For the record, since the only place they're documented is spread out throughout the main updates thread (where, really, these last half dozen or so posts belong), the current 30 dungeon treasures are:
Ancestral Recall
Balance
Black Lotus
Channel
Contract from Below
Demonic Tutor
Fastbond
Imperial Seal
Library of Alexandria
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Mishra's Workshop
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Mystical Tutor
Necropotence
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
Time Vault
Time Walk
Timetwister
Tinker
Tolarian Academy
Vampiric Tutor
Wheel of Fortune
Windfall
Yawgmoth's Bargain

[Bog Wraith]

not really cause you can still get the you win duplicate card of choice. that is how i got 2 black lotus's

Yes like in defeating a Mind Stealer or other creatures that give you a duplicate card of your choice.

Korath, as for making the availability of these treasure cards configurable, that would be nice as it would be up to each individual how they would want to play the game. Making the game customizable as you mentioned with being able to turn on/off cards as we like, would fit into us also having to play with certain cards that are treasure type cards as much as we would want.

[quatrocentos-e-vinte]

Does the AI attack with walls enchanted by Animate Wall?

From my experience playing against the Priestess in the current version, yes.

Just found out another (reproducible) bug: Dark Confidant seems to always *copy* the top card of the library.

It's easier to explain with an example...

Imagine the top card of your library is Ancestral Recall and you have 1 Dark Confidant in play: during upkeep, you will reveal the Ancestral Recall, lose 1 life and put it in your hand. Then, with 100% chance, during your draw step, you will draw Ancestral Recall AGAIN (so you'll end up with TWO Ancestral Recalls). If you have 2 Dark Confidants in play, you'll end up drawing THREE Ancestral Recalls, etc.

(Korath: If a savegame or screenshot is needed to illustrate or pinpoint the issue, just say so.)

[Korath]

Dark Confidant (and Dark Tutelage) already reported and fixed.

AI's attacking properly with Rolling Stones for me.

[Elemental]

Yes, I don´t know why but this time AI attacked me too with Rolling Stones in play.

By the way I would like to ask which cards I can put in a Shandalar deck.
Priestess was my first I changed with the deckeditor from magic. But some cards seem to crash the game and I couldnt say which of them, thought they where on AIs hand and I could not look at it
So I reduced the deck* by using a few new cards for her (like Rolling Stones , One-Eyed Scarecrow and Armored Pegasus)

* I reduced the new cards I put in I mean

[jiansonz]

A thing about Jihad that I thought was weird.
Green was the chosen color and the AI had a White Knight out. I blocked with a spider, my only green permanent, which the White Knight killed. As far as I know, Jihad should immediately go the graveyard in this case, but it didn't.
Jihad was still around (and the knight still had +2/+1), not only during the rest of the AIs turn, but also during my next turn:
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m156/jiansonz/Jihad_zpscaolst2o.jpg

Jihad then went to the graveyard at the start of the AIs next turn.

[Korath]

Elemental: All cards should be ok to put in an AI deck; I've been making a concerted effort to make them all AI-friendly, or at least as AI-friendly as the original MicroProse cards are, or I'd have had at least twice as many new cards in the game in the first release. You can see the AI's hand by enabling debug mode in Shandalar.ini, then pushing F12 then F8 in a duel. Alternately, enabling LogAIAssessment in Shandalar.ini will output lots of data to shandalar_dll.log, including the AI's hand. Please try to narrow down which card or cards it's choking on; they'll all need fixing.

Jihad: I haven't touched this card directly; but the changes I've made to the engine should, if anything, make it more likely to promptly leave play, not less. The MicroProse implementation buries the card instead of sacrificing it, and I made it possible for enchantments to be regenerated (for e.g. the Theros block enchantment creatures and eventually Enchanted Evening); so there's some chance that it's getting delayed for a damage prevention step; I can't tell from your screenshot whether this is the case. Is it getting the "this card's been destroyed but you may be able to regenerate it" graphic on it?

[Aswan jaguar]

Festergloom affects only it's owner's creatures.

Merfolk Sovereign doesn't boost p/t of other or any Merfolks at least owners.

[jiansonz]

The MicroProse implementation buries the card instead of sacrificing it, and I made it possible for enchantments to be regenerated (for e.g. the Theros block enchantment creatures and eventually Enchanted Evening); so there's some chance that it's getting delayed for a damage prevention step; I can't tell from your screenshot whether this is the case.

My only green permanent was killed during the AI's combat phase. The screenshot is taken during my upkeep the next turn.

Is it getting the "this card's been destroyed but you may be able to regenerate it" graphic on it?

No idea. It wasn't my card, so I would not have been the one getting prompted for possible regeneration. I just noticed during my opponent's next main phase that it had finally been moved to the graveyard.

[cholulaablongata]

Honden of Seeing Winds doesn't count itself as a Shrine, unless there's another Shrine in play.

[Korath]

Festergloom, Merfolk Sovereign - fixed.

Jiansonz - if the bug had been what I thought it was (it's not), you'd have still been able to see the "this card is dying" graphic; in the default game, it makes the card look torn, while in the common graphic mods it draws as a skull. The skull would have been covered up in your screenshot.

Honden of Seeing Winds - works for me.

[Korath]

Mana Crypt: the base selling price (before modifications for where you're selling it) for a non-creature artifact is (rarity_mod * 250) / (colorless_mana_cost + creature_rating_mod + 2); Mana Crypt has a colorless_mana_cost of 0 and a creature_rating_mod of -2 (as set in ct_all.csv), so it's dividing by 0.

The formulae for base selling price in general don't make a whole lot of sense. Pseudocode below. Anyone care to redesign them? You've got access to anything in the card's row in each of Manalink.csv and ct_all.csv (except for the rarities in specific expansions), plus any abilities that get icons; AI Base Value in particular would make a good starting point.

Code: Select all

int base_sell_price(card)
{
  switch (card type)
    {
      case TYPE_CREATURE:       case TYPE_ARTIFACT|TYPE_CREATURE:
        power_value = base_power + 3;
        toughness_value = base_toughness + 3;

        value =  5 * toughness_value * (power_value + creature_rating_mod);

        if (creature has plainswalk, mountainwalk, forestwalk, islandwalk, and/or swampwalk)
          value = value * 1.5;

        if (creature has regeneration)
          value = value * 1.5;

        if (creature isnt vanilla or french vanilla)
          value = value * 1.5;

        if (creature has first strike, trample, and/or banding)
          value = value * 1.5;

        if (creature can activate to pump its own power)
          value = value * 3;

        if (creature can activate to pump its own toughness)
          value = value * 3;

        value = value / (converted_mana_cost + 1);

      case TYPE_ENCHANTMENT:
        value = 25 + 25*(creature_rating_mod + converted_mana_cost);

        if (card is activateable)
          value = value * 2;

      case TYPE_SORCERY:
        value = 20 + 20*(creature_rating_mod + converted_mana_cost);

      case TYPE_ARTIFACT:
        value = 250 / (colorless_mana_cost + creature_rating_mod + 2);

      case TYPE_INSTANT:        case TYPE_INTERRUPT:
        value = 40 + 20*creature_rating_mod + 40*converted_mana_cost;
        if (card has X cost)
          value = value * 1.5;

      default:  // This includes all enchantment creatures, all permanents with flash, and all sorceries castable at instant speed, etc. - anything that isn't exactly matched above
        value = 40;
    }

  switch (card rarity)
    {
      // Unlike all other rarities, common cards can have a value all the way down to 0, or above 10000 if they somehow get that high from the formulas above

      case uncommon:
        value = value * 2;

        if (value < 100)
          value = 100;
        else if (value > 9999)
          value = 9999;

      case rare:
        value = value * 4;

        if (value < 200)
          value = 200;
        else if (value > 9999)
          value = 9999;

      case mythic_rare:
        value = value * 8;

        if (value < 200)
          value = 200;
        else if (value > 9999)
          value = 9999;
    }

  if (card has the first ability marked "Flags: Unknown (Shandalar)")
    value = value * 2;

  if (card has the second ability marked "Flags: Unknown (Shandalar)")
    value = value * 1.5;

  return value;
}

[jiansonz]

Not sure if this qualifies as a bug or just an AI weakness. I was duelling a Priestess who chose to play with a copy of my deck (Priestess and Mind Stealer have this ability). She played a Stingerfling Spider and did not use its 'enters the battlefield' ability to destroy my Rorix Bladewing.