Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005
We get this question occasionally from people who have trouble connecting to the MWSPlay server. Is the problem on your end or is the MWS server down? You can always check the servers status by going here: http://mwsplay.net:4747/. If that page says the server is online then the problem is definitely on your end.
Nice! But clicking on each link is difficult. Easier to copy the entire links list, then paste it into jDownloader. Sort by host and delete the rapidshare links, leaving mediafire. Done.
The torrent is very easy also, maybe you could make a video for that when you learn how.
Install uTorrent.
Forward a port.
Download the tiny torrent file and double click on it.
Regardless, I'm not sure why these "how do I get pics" questions keep coming up over and over.
Well, first of all, there's nothing inherently wrong with a vanity project. If it makes its creators happy then it has served its purpose. Nobody here has a problem with works of passion, but being a work of passion and being a vanity project are not mutually exclusive.
Secondly, I used the word "IF" twice. I was not being rude, I think you're being hypersensitive.
I don't know what your experience with Octagon is, it sounds like you just found out about it. OTOH Octagon is not something I just stumbled across, I've been following it for years, since version one.
if I try to download the Masterbase from that site, when I try to open it it says "Windows doesn't recognize this file type". anyclue on how to get it opened?
That's because Windows only does zips. If you read the very short instructions on the page you downloaded the base from, you will see
Unpack masterbase. RAR is an archiver similar to ZIP but with much better comression. You'll need WinRAR or 7-zip to do it.
And why if mws or other programs have direct download sources everything is good, while if octgn2 has them, then it sucks because people "have to download each set one by one" ?
That thing i don't understand .
The point was (and a point initially made by someone else, not me) that Octagon provides no method of getting them all at once. We provide two different ways of getting all the sets at once. If users want to download them all one by one, that's their prerogative, and I don't care, but it seems like a lot of work.
You are basically saying that if those advices are not considered, octgn will not have wide acceptance? How can you know that?
Nope, I'm not saying that. There are many ways to skin a cat. But as the saying goes, you can do things the hard way or the easy way, and the advice you're getting is not coming from people who just made it up, they're giving you practical knowledge based on real world experience.
With this, i don't mean that they will not be considered, that would be just stupid.
Indeed.
So far, except a few posts, i have only read critics about features missing or handled in a different way than mws or other programs.
Well, how many posts do you want saying what a great program Octagon is? That doesn't help you improve the program at all.
This is also why projects are not usually promoted until they're ready for Beta testing. When you promote an Alpha product, you will get slammed with bug reports and feature requests, and telling people to leave you alone because it's still Alpha doesn't help does it? You asked for it, and the consequences are as predictable as the sun rising.
And BTW, I'm no shill for MWS, I'm not affiliated with it and never use it. You will get comparisons to MWS because it is the defacto standard, and the most people use it, not because it is inherently superior.
I appreciate too the tone you use, if every comment was like yours, i would not have been so harsh with my responses.
Aww, you're making me blush.
Thanks for calling me stupid because i have chosen a different way to do things.
I didn't call you stupid. I called the use of code numbers for pics stupid. I have no idea who did it. I do know that Octagon is the only current app (out of over 20) that does that. Every other app I'm aware of uses regularly named pics.
I stand by all my other comments on torrents, etc. I have more experience with this than anyone (just like Nico has more experience than anyone with running actual games for hundreds/thousands of people, not just a couple of buddies getting together). The two-year-old torrent I mentioned above has almost 40 seeds right now. There is more to creating a successful torrent than just uploading it somewhere. BTW, 1) torrents are immune to CRC errors and server failures, 2) an individual can pick single files from a torrent if that's all he needs, 3) a torrent only needs to be uploaded once, and can be done so over a period of days, 4) can be uploaded by someone who does have plenty of bandwidth, and there are lots of those 5) is very friendly to those with limited bandwidth, because it can be stopped and resumed as many times and over as long a period as necessary. I don't know why you fixate on those with a lack of bandwidth.
The thing is, there is lots of good advice in this thread for someone who wants wide acceptance of their app. If Octagon is just a vanity project, feel free to ignore it all. But if it's only a vanity project then it doesn't deserve so much publicity and should stay in the chat room away from the scrutiny and commentary of users who have broad experience with all card playing apps.
I value your opinion and appreciate your even handed-responses. I know some of the comments here must sting, but there is nothing mean spirited that I've read. Nobody here is in competition with Octagon or wishes to see it fail, quite the contrary.
Gaspare said "Otherwise, you are free to stick with a program which let you play only magic (as far as i know at least), not free, and semi-discontinued"
For all practical purposes, MWS is fully discontinued.
"about single sets separately, this has be done for some simple reasons
1) not everyone is interested in downloading every set."
Perhaps, but 99.9% of Magic users DO want every set. You're catering to the exception, not the rule. The majority only want a single set when it is first released, to update their collection.
"2) creating a torrent is not possible because who makes sets doesn't have time/upload speed/will to create a torrent and maintain it."
You don't understand how torrents work then. A proper torrent has a life of its own and requires no maintenance. I haven't seeded the HQ Pics torrent for two years but it is still extremely healthy.
In fact, I've seen Octagon torrents out there. The reason you guys don't have one is because you're afraid of being busted by WOTC.
"3) doing a single big zip/rar file means having for sure problems with crc errors and so on, no matter how many times one check the zip/rar file"
Huh? This also is untrue. I've served Terabytes of downloads without one CRC error. If you're really worried about errors, you can use the "Put recovery record option" of winrar.
Finally, the naming convention for Octagon pics, using numbers and spoilers, is stupid. I think it started with Magic Encyclopedia, and it's obsolete.
@Pichoro: There is no huge initial investment in images for MWS. You can play without pics, like with Apprentice, or use the Tiny Crops Set I made which is about 100 MB and looks great.
I've been following Octagon for years. I would love to see it finished one day, but the development is glacially slow, and the developers have a bunker mentality and exclusionary attitude which doesn't help.
Magic workstation allows you to build and playtest magic decks without paying for cards – You only need to pay $27 to buy the software
Which is wrong, you don't need to pay anything.
Second, he says his card images are "HQ". I guess HQ now means anything larger than a gatherer rip, but in fact all you will find is MQ pics. His are 265x370,
but the HQ team at MWSData (now Slightlymagic) invented the term HQ pics,
and theirs are 480x680, expertly scanned and processed.
and the new UHQ pics are 490x1040.
This UHQ pic is so large, you have to click it three times to get to the full size image.
Third, unless you scan your own collection (like the HQ team does), you must rip pics from another site, and when you do that you should give attribution, it's only polite.
Thanks Pichoro, you are correct. I don't know why the same questions keep getting asked, I know a search would bring up the same answer a million times.
Thanks for such a great program! Keep up the great work.
I've been having some problems with the program though. I get errors when I try to upload my deck to MTG Vault. It says that this function isn't available yet. Also attempting to update card values results in a log of errors. Is there a way to set the resolution of the program when it is launched? I'm on a Mac and I have to stretch the window beyond max resolution to get everything I want. Is there a way to turn this into an Application for a mac instead of launching the .jar file all the time. I don't wish to seem ungrateful or *****y. These were some questions that I had floating in my head.
Once again keep up the great work!
MTG Vault doesn't work because they never implemented the function on their site. There is talk of turning this into a mac application right now at slighlymagic.net forums.
http://www.magi-soft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5686
http://www.magi-soft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5694
The torrent is very easy also, maybe you could make a video for that when you learn how.
Install uTorrent.
Forward a port.
Download the tiny torrent file and double click on it.
Regardless, I'm not sure why these "how do I get pics" questions keep coming up over and over.
http://www.magi-soft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5684
Secondly, I used the word "IF" twice. I was not being rude, I think you're being hypersensitive.
I don't know what your experience with Octagon is, it sounds like you just found out about it. OTOH Octagon is not something I just stumbled across, I've been following it for years, since version one.
Magic Workstation.zip (10.5 MB)
http://www.mediafire.com/?nmyninmnggt
Also, strangely enough, the second links here still work:
http://www.mwsdata.com/forum
And why if mws or other programs have direct download sources everything is good, while if octgn2 has them, then it sucks because people "have to download each set one by one" ?
That thing i don't understand .
The point was (and a point initially made by someone else, not me) that Octagon provides no method of getting them all at once. We provide two different ways of getting all the sets at once. If users want to download them all one by one, that's their prerogative, and I don't care, but it seems like a lot of work.
You are basically saying that if those advices are not considered, octgn will not have wide acceptance? How can you know that?
Nope, I'm not saying that. There are many ways to skin a cat. But as the saying goes, you can do things the hard way or the easy way, and the advice you're getting is not coming from people who just made it up, they're giving you practical knowledge based on real world experience.
With this, i don't mean that they will not be considered, that would be just stupid.
Indeed.
So far, except a few posts, i have only read critics about features missing or handled in a different way than mws or other programs.
Well, how many posts do you want saying what a great program Octagon is? That doesn't help you improve the program at all.
This is also why projects are not usually promoted until they're ready for Beta testing. When you promote an Alpha product, you will get slammed with bug reports and feature requests, and telling people to leave you alone because it's still Alpha doesn't help does it? You asked for it, and the consequences are as predictable as the sun rising.
And BTW, I'm no shill for MWS, I'm not affiliated with it and never use it. You will get comparisons to MWS because it is the defacto standard, and the most people use it, not because it is inherently superior.
I appreciate too the tone you use, if every comment was like yours, i would not have been so harsh with my responses.
Aww, you're making me blush.
I stand by all my other comments on torrents, etc. I have more experience with this than anyone (just like Nico has more experience than anyone with running actual games for hundreds/thousands of people, not just a couple of buddies getting together). The two-year-old torrent I mentioned above has almost 40 seeds right now. There is more to creating a successful torrent than just uploading it somewhere. BTW, 1) torrents are immune to CRC errors and server failures, 2) an individual can pick single files from a torrent if that's all he needs, 3) a torrent only needs to be uploaded once, and can be done so over a period of days, 4) can be uploaded by someone who does have plenty of bandwidth, and there are lots of those 5) is very friendly to those with limited bandwidth, because it can be stopped and resumed as many times and over as long a period as necessary. I don't know why you fixate on those with a lack of bandwidth.
The thing is, there is lots of good advice in this thread for someone who wants wide acceptance of their app. If Octagon is just a vanity project, feel free to ignore it all. But if it's only a vanity project then it doesn't deserve so much publicity and should stay in the chat room away from the scrutiny and commentary of users who have broad experience with all card playing apps.
I value your opinion and appreciate your even handed-responses. I know some of the comments here must sting, but there is nothing mean spirited that I've read. Nobody here is in competition with Octagon or wishes to see it fail, quite the contrary.
MWS does have modules to play more than just Magic. Some I know of are Netrunner, The Spoils, Pokemon, etc.
See http://www.magi-soft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4065
MWS is free to use forever.
For all practical purposes, MWS is fully discontinued.
"about single sets separately, this has be done for some simple reasons
1) not everyone is interested in downloading every set."
Perhaps, but 99.9% of Magic users DO want every set. You're catering to the exception, not the rule. The majority only want a single set when it is first released, to update their collection.
"2) creating a torrent is not possible because who makes sets doesn't have time/upload speed/will to create a torrent and maintain it."
You don't understand how torrents work then. A proper torrent has a life of its own and requires no maintenance. I haven't seeded the HQ Pics torrent for two years but it is still extremely healthy.
In fact, I've seen Octagon torrents out there. The reason you guys don't have one is because you're afraid of being busted by WOTC.
"3) doing a single big zip/rar file means having for sure problems with crc errors and so on, no matter how many times one check the zip/rar file"
Huh? This also is untrue. I've served Terabytes of downloads without one CRC error. If you're really worried about errors, you can use the "Put recovery record option" of winrar.
Finally, the naming convention for Octagon pics, using numbers and spoilers, is stupid. I think it started with Magic Encyclopedia, and it's obsolete.
@Pichoro: There is no huge initial investment in images for MWS. You can play without pics, like with Apprentice, or use the Tiny Crops Set I made which is about 100 MB and looks great.
I've been following Octagon for years. I would love to see it finished one day, but the development is glacially slow, and the developers have a bunker mentality and exclusionary attitude which doesn't help.
Which is wrong, you don't need to pay anything.
Second, he says his card images are "HQ". I guess HQ now means anything larger than a gatherer rip, but in fact all you will find is MQ pics. His are 265x370,
but the HQ team at MWSData (now Slightlymagic) invented the term HQ pics,
and theirs are 480x680, expertly scanned and processed.
and the new UHQ pics are 490x1040.
This UHQ pic is so large, you have to click it three times to get to the full size image.
Third, unless you scan your own collection (like the HQ team does), you must rip pics from another site, and when you do that you should give attribution, it's only polite.
Goblin Hero's Zendikar base and themes were released Sept. 28.
http://www.slightlymagic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=20388#p20388
The pics will take a few more days.
http://www.slightlymagic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=20611#p20611