Forge Android App: 11-13-2016 Alpha 1.5.58.002

[Traldar]

Hello Dan!

That is shaping up incredibly fast! Amazing

Are you still going forward with that idea of choosing a Planeswalker to represent the player and then picking an initial commander, then "recruiting" others as you go? The chosen Planeswalker will have to be part of every deck? Will you be able to gather more Planeswalker allies (cards) and use them during the game?

We saw Alara on the screenshots, and it seems some o the Panorama arts for the tiles, that looks like an excellent idea to use arts in lands from that Plane to depict the map. How many tiles do you think there will be per Plane?

You mentioned one can fight in a given tile multiple times, to get extra rewards. Did you define what kind of things you will be able to do in each tile? Will you still use that idea of giving multiple commanders simultaneous orders on each "turn" on the map?

Cheers, and keep up the good work!
-traldar

[drdev]

Are you still going forward with that idea of choosing a Planeswalker to represent the player and then picking an initial commander, then "recruiting" others as you go? The chosen Planeswalker will have to be part of every deck? Will you be able to gather more Planeswalker allies (cards) and use them during the game?

If you go back a page or two, I posted screenshots for the 3 steps of creating a new Planar Conquest game. You pick a planeswalker to represent you, a starting plane, and a starting commander. Your given a pre-built deck based on your commander and the starting plane, and your chosen planeswalker starts out unlocked, so you can add it to your starting deck if it fits in the commanders colors. Your planeswalker does not automatically have to be in every deck. And as far as recruiting commanders, I've simplified that down so you just unlock them like every other card, which then gives you the option to build a deck for them.

We saw Alara on the screenshots, and it seems some o the Panorama arts for the tiles, that looks like an excellent idea to use arts in lands from that Plane to depict the map. How many tiles do you think there will be per Plane?

That's exactly right. Each plane is split into regions, with each region displaying the art for a single land, which is then subdivided into 9 event squares. The number of regions varies from plane to plane, as it all depends on how the plane is best divided. For example, Alara has 5 regions, ones for each shard (Bant, Esper, Grixis, Jund and Naya). Ravnica on the other hand has 10 regions, one for each guild (Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos, Gruul, Selesnya, Orzhov, Izzet, Golgari, Boros, Simic).

In addition to defining the art for that piece of the map, each region also determines what types of opponents you'll face on its squares. So in the Bant region of Alara, you're likely to face GWU decks and commanders.

At some point I'll release the full breakdown of the planes, their regions, and their card pools, so people can use that information when deciding which plane to start on.

You mentioned one can fight in a given tile multiple times, to get extra rewards. Did you define what kind of things you will be able to do in each tile? Will you still use that idea of giving multiple commanders simultaneous orders on each "turn" on the map?

I've gotten rid of the whole "turns" concept. What I'm more thinking is that, much like achievements, each square will have a common, uncommon, rare, and mythic "emblem" that you can earn for that square. Earning the common emblem will simply require defeating the opponent with normal rules. This will then unlock the "uncommon emblem challenge" of sorts, which will involve some variation of the rules that gives your opponent an advantage, puts you at a disadvantage, or requires you to play a certain style of deck. Beating uncommon will unlock the rare challenge, and beating the rare will unlock the mythic challenge.

This is just the concept I have for this, but I will note it likely won't be included with the initial release of Planar Conquest and will instead be added on later.

[tasteful]

dr dev, just want to check in and make sure that you know you are a god

[jureidinim]

@DrDev,
The card flip animation looks cool.

Not sure how expensive it works out to be to do a pull from the AEther, but maybe it should get slightly more expensive with each subsequent "pull" so that players don't just turn it into playing slot machine until they get the card they want. The cost could reset after some time has passed or maybe if they change planes.

How long would a game be likely to last - as you have stated the end goal is to collect all cards. Could an alternate be coded as well to say find a set of (randomized) rare cards? Being rare they would be hard enough to get. This would be optional and selected at game startup.

Anyway - its looking great and I am looking forward to trying it out when you have it ready for release.

[drdev]

Not sure how expensive it works out to be to do a pull from the AEther, but maybe it should get slightly more expensive with each subsequent "pull" so that players don't just turn it into playing slot machine until they get the card they want. The cost could reset after some time has passed or maybe if they change planes.

You're not going to be swimming in AEther shards, so you'll be limited on how many pulls you can do. That's part of why you can apply filters to improve your odds of getting a specific card (or one of a subset of cards), but at a higher cost.

How long would a game be likely to last - as you have stated the end goal is to collect all cards. Could an alternate be coded as well to say find a set of (randomized) rare cards? Being rare they would be hard enough to get. This would be optional and selected at game startup.

I really have no idea how long the game will last, but let me reiterate that collecting all the cards from all the planes is a stretch goal. The primary goal is to defeat every square of every plane at least once.

I should also note that Planar Conquest events are going to be only a single game, not best of 3. There will be no need to build sideboards or do any sideboarding. You simply won't be penalized for losing other than it affecting your record and not getting any prizes. This should speed up the game considerably, as well as be one more way to make it feel different from Quest mode.

I'll definitely be interested in collecting feedback from people once I release the mode so I can get a sense of whether the difficulty and time spent are balanced well.

[jureidinim]

I really have no idea how long the game will last, but let me reiterate that collecting all the cards from all the planes is a stretch goal. The primary goal is to defeat every square of every plane at least once.

Oh ok - I missed that part. I somehow thought it was a total card collection goal.

Sounds good then

[Traldar]

I've gotten rid of the whole "turns" concept. What I'm more thinking is that, much like achievements, each square will have a common, uncommon, rare, and mythic "emblem" that you can earn for that square. Earning the common emblem will simply require defeating the opponent with normal rules. This will then unlock the "uncommon emblem challenge" of sorts, which will involve some variation of the rules that gives your opponent an advantage, puts you at a disadvantage, or requires you to play a certain style of deck. Beating uncommon will unlock the rare challenge, and beating the rare will unlock the mythic challenge.

This is just the concept I have for this, but I will note it likely won't be included with the initial release of Planar Conquest and will instead be added on later.

That looks simple enough to allow for an early release and complex enough to allow modifications later, I like it!

So, just to recap, what we know so far:
1- Starting screen - choose a starting PW, Commander and Plane, you deck is generated for you
2- Plane map screen - fight through the tiles to unlock other tiles and more challenges in the titles you have open. I assume travel is instant between tiles and nothing can happen while you travel, right?
3- Victory screen - get cards and AEther shards
4- Edit deck screen - basically the deck editor we already know and love, using only cards you have in your collection, you can have as many Commander decks you want per quest
5- Pull from AEther screen - while editing your deck you can pull cards from the plane you are in, by filtering and spending AEther shards, the more you filter for better cards the more expensive it is
6- Planar travel - you mentioned there will be a sort of Chaos Plane where you can get any card from the AEther, and it allows to travel between planes

Cheeers,
Traldar

[Vulgard]

I'm pretty sure I've reported this before, but since I haven't seen any changes, I'll write it again.

Please fix playing 2 humans on one phone. It is impossible. Some things show on the wrong side of the "table"(for example - when player 1 casts a scry spell, the scrying interface will be shown on player 2's side), some cards with choices are broken - some choices can't be made. (with fetchlands, it's even impossible to scroll down the list of eligible lands). Also, sometimes the priority order gets broken and each player has to pass priority more times than needed. Finally, activated abilities on lands are broken. For example, I couldn't turn Creeping Tar Pit into a manland, whenever I clicked on that choice, it either showed me Creeping Tar Pit's card image or selected one of the other two options(give B or U).

Please, repair the system of playing with more than one "human" player on the same phone. It's a great way to test decks - and to have fun. Make it possible.

[drdev]

I'm pretty sure I've reported this before, but since I haven't seen any changes, I'll write it again.

Please fix playing 2 humans on one phone. It is impossible. Some things show on the wrong side of the "table"(for example - when player 1 casts a scry spell, the scrying interface will be shown on player 2's side), some cards with choices are broken - some choices can't be made. (with fetchlands, it's even impossible to scroll down the list of eligible lands). Also, sometimes the priority order gets broken and each player has to pass priority more times than needed. Finally, activated abilities on lands are broken. For example, I couldn't turn Creeping Tar Pit into a manland, whenever I clicked on that choice, it either showed me Creeping Tar Pit's card image or selected one of the other two options(give B or U).

Please, repair the system of playing with more than one "human" player on the same phone. It's a great way to test decks - and to have fun. Make it possible.

Are you playing in Landscape or Portrait mode? If Landscape (which is the default for tablets), I'd suggest switching to Portrait (under Settings) when you want to play Head-To-Head, as that's the layout I designed the mode to be played on. I haven't yet figured out a way to make it work properly for Landscape mode.

[Vulgard]

I am playing on a smartphone with landscape mode off, so the problem exists there as well. All my settings are default, actually.

[batcha]

I've played a lot, but two days ago my Forge keeps hanging in loading screen.

Today i've see the log in Android Monitor and founded this:

9/? W/System.err: Game BT1 > java.lang.RuntimeException: cannot create profile directory:
9/? W/System.err: at forge.model.FModel.initialize(FModel.java:146)
9/? W/System.err: at forge.Forge$1.run(Forge.java:95)
9/? W/System.err: at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:818)

Can you help me?

[1mrlee]

I just had another bug, where I Thoughtseized the AI:

And she had two cards in hand. I accidently clicked >>, meaning make her discard both cards. But that was invalid, since TS only takes one card.

But both cards were highlighted. Not just one. I wasn't able to tap only one card. Two cards were selected at the time.

So i was stuck in a loop or either chosing zero cards or two cards. Both options are invalid, therefore the ok or cancel card was greyed out.

I was stuck on the choosing a card screen.

[batcha]

I've played a lot, but two days ago my Forge keeps hanging in loading screen.

Today i've see the log in Android Monitor and founded this:

9/? W/System.err: Game BT1 > java.lang.RuntimeException: cannot create profile directory:
9/? W/System.err: at forge.model.FModel.initialize(FModel.java:146)
9/? W/System.err: at forge.Forge$1.run(Forge.java:95)
9/? W/System.err: at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:818)

Can you help me?

Resolved.

Deleted the Forge/forge.profile.properties and now it's been recreated and ok.

[drdev]

Happy New Year everyone. I just wanted to give an update on Planar Conquest since it's been a bit since my last one. I've been busy recently refactoring and optimizing the backend for the game, including creating a custom XML reader and writer for loading and saving the game data. This should avoid people experiencing corrupt conquest files, which is something that has sadly been a common issue for Quest mode. I feel the most important thing for a game mode like this is ensuring your progress won't be lost, especially as patches are rolled out following the mode's initial release.

Another large effort I have worked on is going through all the core sets, Origins, and speciality sets like Commander to categorize those cards into their corresponding planes. This not only serves to greatly increase the number of commanders and other cards available on each plane, but also should allow for some more challenging opponents to be created. I did my best with this based on the origin of names and locations referenced by card names, abilities, and flavor text. It may not be perfect, so if you spot cards that are on the wrong plane or notice cards that you feel should be on a given plane, let me know (once Planar Conquest is available of course).

Now that I'm done with these efforts, my next step is start fleshing out all the events/opponents for each plane. Hopefully I'll have some new screenshots soon.

Thanks for your patience.
-Dan

[Agetian]

Thanks a lot for your effort, Dan! Happy New Year to you and good luck with your further progress!

- Agetian