Adding starters to the card shop?

[timmermac]

I'd like to propose adding starters to the card shop. Starters from Alpha through Tempest would have 60 cards per pack. Tournament packs from Urza's Saga to Shards of Alara contained 75 cards.

card distribution should work like this:
LEA/LEB/2ED/3ED: 45 C, 13 U, 2 R, with some basic lands in the common (38% chance) and uncommon (21% chance) slots
4ED-TMP: 26 C, 9 U, 3 R, 22 basic lands divided as evenly as possible between the 5 colors
USG-ALA: 32 C, 10 U, 3 M/R, 30 basic lands divided evenly between the 5 colors

The sets that would have starters would be:

| Open

LEA
LEB
2ED
3ED
4ED
ICE
MIR
5ED
TMP
USG
6ED
MMQ
INV
ODY
ONS
MRD
CHK
RAV
TSP
LRW
SHM
ALA

Prices should be 1200 credits for the newer sets to 15000 credits for LEA/LEB.

I'm thinking this could be done similarly to BoosterGenerator.java

[Agetian]

I'm all for it, I like the idea, I think it will add to the variety and the deckbuilding possibilities.

[timmermac]

I'm taking a stab at doing this myself, since it's something I really want to see, but I have no experience at coding in Java. I have no idea if this will work, or if just copy/pasting the BoosterGenerator.java code and find/replacing "Booster" with "Starter", changing some numbers and creating a couple of text files will do the trick. If anyone's got any ideas on how to make this work, I'd appreciate the help.

Here's my stab at it. There are two files. A text file with the code, and a text file with the card distribution per starter.

[Max mtg]

The idea is good, but the copying code over from one class to another adding some side-functionality is a very bad practice.

1. Do read tourmanent pack settings outside of the Generator class. Why? Because the generator's target is to randomly pick cards, given the parameters. Reading the settings file should be done outside of generator to keep classes simple and perform only their specific tasks.

2. There is no need to create a different BoosterGenerator class right now. Why? Because you can initialize the class you have with the set needed (see constructor BoosterGenerator(final CardSet cardSet) ) and then call getBoosterPack with the number of commons/uncommons/rares you would like to receive ( List<CardPrinted> getBoosterPack(final int nCom, final int nUnc, final int nRareSlots, final int nRares ... )

As an option you can inilialize the generator with a of List<CardPrinted>. This code will get you all cards from the given set to set up a pool to pick cards from. CardPrinted.Predicates.printedInSets("ALA").select(CardDb.instance().getAllCards());

[timmermac]

I figured my attempt wouldn't be too good, as I've never coded Java before. I'm hoping someone with the ability to actually do it right will get it coded and added at some point. Since you're the one that did the original booster code, maybe you could do it?

[Max mtg]

Of course, I can handle this... however, if you want to implement that functionality by yourself, I would love to help. Unfortunatelly, as we start everyone makes some errors, that might be too frustrating to see, but should be no reason to stop.

[timmermac]

It would best if you did it. I would have no idea how to code any of it without making a big mess of it. My last programming experience was in Basic 15+ years ago.

[Max mtg]

implemented in 14367
price is hardcoded at 995. To alter, edit the same file where booster price are.

[Sloth]

implemented in 14367
price is hardcoded at 995. To alter, edit the same file where booster price are.

Thank you Max! I will take care of the prices.

[Agetian]

It's really awesome to see this being worked on! However, I have a little question - I've noticed that per version 14373, all of the starter and tournament packs available are called "Tournament Packs", but as far as I remember (and the first post in this thread seems to confirm it), let's say, in the days of 4th Edition, the 4th edition pack was not known as the "Fourth Edition Tournament Pack" but the "Fourth Edition Starter Pack" (in the original post, it seems like the editions between Alpha and Tempest had Starter Packs, and from then on - Tournament Packs, but personally I can't confirm or deny this information in any way - the only thing I know of is that I've never heard of a 4th Ed tournament pack before, but I've sure heard of a 4th Ed starter pack, and likewise, I've never heard of a Shards of Alara starter pack, but I've indeed heard of a Shards of Alara tournament pack... hope I'm not confusing anything). A minor thing, but possibly worth looking into for authenticity? Thanks a lot for your efforts, guys!

[timmermac]

Max, if I could hit the thanks button multiple times for that post, I would. Alpha-Tempest did have starters, with Urza's Saga-Shards of Alara having tournament packs. I'm not too overwhelmingly worried about how they're named, though. I'm just thrilled they're in the game.

[Agetian]

Thanks for adding the Starter Pack/Tournament Pack differentiation, Max!

[Max mtg]

(rename) done 14379, have fun with "starter decks"

Maybe, let's add Fat Packs as well? )

[Agetian]

Maybe, let's add Fat Packs as well? )

That sounds like a plan! A good idea, in my opinion!

[timmermac]

I've started gathering up images for the various starters/tournament packs. So far, I just need ODY, ONS, SHM, LRW, RAV, and ALA to have them all. Once I do, I'll zip 'em up and post them so they can be added in for the images to show up in the shop.

Edit: Okay... got 'em all. Here's the archive with .png files.