Forge Android App: 11-13-2016 Alpha 1.5.58.002

[sorinmarkov]

Thanks Dan,

Very excited by this. Let us know if you need testers or if there's anything we can do to help.

Sorin.

[drdev]

Thanks Dan,

Very excited by this. Let us know if you need testers or if there's anything we can do to help.

Sorin.

Testers will be most helpful, and hopefully I'll have something playable soon that I can release, even if it's not the final game. And let's be honest, it will probably never be the "final" version anyway.

Another thing I could use help with is building decks for all the opponents. There are 14 total planes (for now), with anywhere between 1 and 10 regions each. At 9 events per region, that means I need to create 684 decks.

I thought of just generating the decks from the region's card pool, but that likely will lead to some very boring or uninteresting games where the AI is playing a non-synergistic deck. I'd rather each opponent be playing something that's had some thought put into it. There's also enough opponents and flexibility in the order you play them where its not an issue if the decks are constant.

If you're interested in helping with this, PM me and I can assign you a plane or region help me flesh out. Keep in mind we'll want to avoid cards that the AI has trouble with if possible. Also keep in mind the decks will be 40 card singleton decks, with some having an associated Commander card, some having an associated Vanguard avatar, and some having an associated Planeswalker card that lives in the command zone (more information on that game format soon, as it's something new I'm looking to add). The decks should ideally synergize with the Commander, Vanguard avatar, or Planeswalker.

Note that I'm not making a configurable difficulty setting for this game, so unlike Quest mode, each deck doesn't need multiple versions of increasing difficulty. Also, as the games are individual and not best 2 out of 3, they don't need sideboards (not that we have logic for AI sideboarding at the moment anyway).

Thanks.
-Dan

[friarsol]

I thought of just generating the decks from the region's card pool, but that likely will lead to some very boring or uninteresting games where the AI is playing a non-synergistic deck. I'd rather each opponent be playing something that's had some thought put into it. There's also enough opponents and flexibility in the order you play them where its not an issue if the decks are constant.

Have you considered the option of using the .thm decks that Forge uses? This allows for some variation between the same named opponent, and a little bit coarser deck building, since you just provide a bunch of cards that could synergize, and let it partial generate the exact decklist.

[drdev]

I thought of just generating the decks from the region's card pool, but that likely will lead to some very boring or uninteresting games where the AI is playing a non-synergistic deck. I'd rather each opponent be playing something that's had some thought put into it. There's also enough opponents and flexibility in the order you play them where its not an issue if the decks are constant.

Have you considered the option of using the .thm decks that Forge uses? This allows for some variation between the same named opponent, and a little bit coarser deck building, since you just provide a bunch of cards that could synergize, and let it partial generate the exact decklist.

That's an option, but at that point we might as well have constant decklists. Plus, then we can have them be selectable like Quest Opponent Decks are in Constructed.

[friarsol]

That's an option, but at that point we might as well have constant decklists. Plus, then we can have them be selectable like Quest Opponent Decks are in Constructed.

Well, theme decks are available in constructed mode already, that's not any different. It would just remove the last step of finetuning the decks and might be easier to get volunteers to do.

[1mrlee]

Any eta when oath will be updated?

Thanks again.

Amazing work

[drdev]

Any eta when oath will be updated?

Thanks again.

Amazing work

Which Oath are you referring to. Also, you'd probably want to post this comment in the Feature Requests or Forge Beta threads.

[Godchild1888]

Hello! I have a problem with the apk. My new nexus 6 says: "can´t open the file". I allowed "Unknown sources" in setting, but i can´t open the file. know someone whats the problem? On my old galaxy s3 it works fine. (sorry cause of my bad english ) Thanks for help

OK. Now all is fine again. I used an extraapp and it works.

[friarsol]

Any eta when oath will be updated?

Thanks again.

Amazing work

Which Oath are you referring to. Also, you'd probably want to post this comment in the Feature Requests or Forge Beta threads.

OP is talking about the most recent set release Oath of the Gatewatch. Typically we try to release the latest set in the week between pre-release Friday to actual release Friday of that set. Generally we wait for the set to hit Gatherer since we have some edition related text files that need to be present for parsing into Forge. The Android release (assuming Dan fires one off) can start having OGW cards once they get merged back into the primary trunk as early as the week preceding the prelease.

[drdev]

First of all, thank you to the two volunteers I've gotten so far, who are hard at work building decks for Alara and Theros. It's not too late to help out if you're interested, so let me know.

With that out of the way, time for an exciting Planar Conquest reveal, again presented in GIF form. Introducing the Chaos Wheel!

I've mentioned briefly about the Chaos Realm and traveling between planes, but hadn't yet mentioned how traveling would work. The Chaos Wheel is the key.

At its simplest, the Chaos Wheel is a prize wheel that spins after every win. There are 8 spots on the wheel, with each having an equal 1/8 or 12.5% chance of being landed on. Each spin of the wheel will start on a random spot, with a random speed and deceleration. Here's a breakdown of the spots:

• The 3 booster pack spots reward a single booster pack
• The double booster pack spot rewards two booster packs
• The single AEther shard spot rewards 1000 AEther shards (configurable in preferences)
• The double AEther shard spot rewards twice the shards (so 2000 by default)
• The green spot with the Planeswalker symbol rewards a travel credit, which can be used immediately or later to travel to another plane (besides the Chaos Realm). When in the Chaos Realm, you can use a credit to return to the plane you were on previously, but not to travel anywhere else. Note that I haven't finalized the name for these credits, so let me know if you have ideas.
• The red spot with the Chaos symbol immediately transports you to the Chaos Realm. If you're already in the Chaos Realm, it transports you back to the plane you were on previously. Either way, this transport is not optional.

So basically, half the time you'll get a booster pack (or two), a quarter of the time you'll get AEther shards, and the rest of the time you'll get to (or be forced to) travel. Also, although you have a 1/8 chance of being sent to the Chaos Realm, you have a 1/4 chance to return (if that's what you want), since hitting green will give you a credit you can use to return. So you should never feel like you're stuck in the Chaos Realm for too long.

As you may have guessed, the inspiration for this wheel is the planar die used for the Planechase format. Hence the one Chaos symbol and one Planeswalker symbol. I wanted Planar Conquest to capture a little of the Planechase format in its basic structure, and this seemed like the perfect way to do it, while also adding a little spice to reward distribution after wins. I also felt the non-optional Chaos Realm travel was a nice way to capture the element of chaos.

Let me know if you have any feedback on the Chaos Wheel, and stay tuned for more Planar Conquest updates.

Thanks.
-Dan

[Traldar]

This looks very interesting, but I'm not sure I understand how it works.

Whenever you are on a plane, fighting, after each duel, besides the duel prizes, you always spin the Wheel, then you have a 1/8 chance to be casted of to Chaos Ream? Should't planeswalking be something that Planeswalkers do voluntarily (unless under grave stress or mortally wounded)? If I really want to travel, this means I will have to be fighting over and over until hitting the Green mark? And if I just want to fight, what being transported to Chaos Realm means, will any progress be lost? (Even if just a minor setback, this could be disruptive in terms of gameplay, IMHO)

What does it mean to be in the Chaos Realm? Can I get back to exactly where I was? What can I do while on that Realm?

How do I spend the Travel credit? Can they be accumulated so I can travel whenever I want?

If I get it right, to avoid this "disruption" to gameplay, I would just replace the negative Red "travel to Chaos Realm" slice in the Wheel with another Green "Travel credit", so you can keep accumulating credits to travel a bit more easier, but if you keep traveling too much without fighting (for instance, to buy spells) you may have to fight off for a while to get a credit to get back to where you were. And then, you get to travel to (or back from) Chaos Realm anytime you want, without needing a credit (this depends on whether the Chaos Realm is a good or bad place).

This is, of course, just a humble suggestion based on my poor, incomplete vision of the whole idea.

Cheers,
Traldar

[drdev]

Thanks for the feedback Traldar. I'll try to address your concerns.

First of all, I should clarify that the wheel spin is the only source of rewards after winning a game. There's no automatic booster pack like in Quest mode. Keep in mind however that Planar Conquest events are single games, not best 2 out of 3, so the rewards should still come fast.

The travel credits you receive when landing on the green spot can be accumulated, so you don't have to travel right away. I mostly just wanted to implement something to prevent constantly traveling. That said, I'm open to making landing on the spot drop more than 1 credit at a time in case averaging one travel every 8 wins isn't enough. If nothing else I can make it a preference how many credits that spot drops in case you want to be able to travel more.

As for the Chaos Realm, you brought up a good point about forced travel being out of flavor with Planeswalkers in the lore. I also wasn't entirely sure how this realm was going to work, so I'm thinking I'm going to just scrap that idea and find another meaning for landing on Chaos. Even though my original plan involved being able to travel back to your original square and not lose progress, I also don't want to create a negative experience from hitting Chaos. If anything, I want Chaos to elicit some excitement.

With that in mind, I think what I'm going to do instead is have landing on Chaos launch a special "Chaos battle" against a challenging opponent whose deck has access to cards from all the planes. If you win, you'll receive the equivalent of landing on Double-Booster, Double-Shards, and Planeswalk all at once (so 2 boosters, 2000 shards, and 1+ travel credits), with the slight difference being that the boosters can contain cards from any plane. Also, "Chaos battles" will be best 2 out of 3 since you won't get the option to replay them if you lose. That said, if you lose, you just don't get anything. Either way, you still get credit for the original win, so no progress is lost. And afterward, you'll still be on the same plane and location you were before, and can just proceed from there.

How does that sound?

Thanks.
-Dan

[drdev]

So a quick update on Chaos battles. I came up with a great idea for them, which is to use Quest Opponents for them. So it's a crossover with Quest mode, where you'll face off with your Planar Conquest commander's deck against a Quest mode opponent in a normal Constructed match. Something about having a crossover really fits the idea of Chaos. Plus it saves us having to create even more decks for Chaos battles.

Basically, how it will work, when you hit Chaos on the wheel, the deck you just played will have to face off against a randomly chosen Quest opponent immediately in a best 2 of 3 match. You won't have the option to change decks or pick your opponent. The opponent will be selected by first randomly picking a Quest world and then randomly picking an opponent from that world from among all opponents of a given difficulty. Your first couple Chaos battles will face off against Easy quest opponents, and then as you win more Chaos battles, the difficulty will ramp up to Medium, Hard, then Expert. The win thresholds at which the difficulty is ramped up will be configurable in preferences, with the defaults being 2 for medium, 5 for hard, and 10 for expert.

If you win the match, you'll receive 3 boosters generated from the quest world of your opponent, regardless of what plane you're on. I decided to do this rather than my previous idea of 2 boosters, 2000 shards, and travel credits, as the main cool factor of these Chaos battles is a chance to unlock cards from planes you haven't traveled to yet.

If you lose the match or quit before finishing it, you won't be given the option to retry, and you simply won't receive any rewards. You will not be penalized in any way.

Hopefully this implementation will capture the element of Chaos without ever being something negative. If anything, I expect hitting Chaos on the wheel to be something you hope for.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.
-Dan

[Traldar]

Hey there, Dan!

Ooh, I think I get it now, very interesting ideas!

This got me thinking about something a bit different, perhaps you will like it:

What if there was a real threat to be defeated on your Planar Conquest, the perfect enemy that is very within the lore and is spiking in interest now would be the Eldrazi! Creatures from a place between the planes that are beyond time and space that are devouring entire planes and leaving wastes behind.
What if this Chaos Battle would be against a deck from some easy/medium/hard/expert Eldrazi decks. And if you lose the battle, one of the regions of the plane you are currently in gets "wasted" by the Eldrazi, replacing the challenges from that region with one or more Eldrazi battles on that region that you must defeat to restore the region, this could represent the Eldrazi incursion through the planes, and after you conquer all the planes there could be a special Chaos Plane that you go to face the Eldrazi on their home, to finally destroy them if you want.

This is a bit crazy, and I don't know if you want to add this sort of pressure to the exploration an conquest in this new mode, but would certainly be fun as hell!

Cheers,
Traldar

[drdev]

Although Planar Conquest isn't quite ready, I am excited to release 1.5.48.008, which includes most of the new set, Oath of the Gatewatch. There are a few cards that still need to be scripted, at which point I'll release an update (as should the desktop Beta application). Meanwhile, enjoy getting an early chance to play with the new set.

In addition, this release includes two new Advanced Search filters: Plane and Region. Feel free to check these out if you want a preview of the planes and regions of Planar Conquest. Also, those who are helping with creating decks for Planar Conquest should definitely check these out, as they should make deck building easier.

Let us know if you find any issues with the new set, as it'd be good get those fixed before we release the Beta update if possible. Also, if you find any cards that are listed under the wrong plane or not listed under the proper plane, please let me know so I can update those lists before the initial Planar Conquest release.

Thanks.
-Dan