I just wanted to advertise a new blog http://mtgrares.blogspot.com/ It talks about Magic and some about computer programming. All of the articles are short, around 2 paragraphs. The article below is representative about the stuff that I write about. You can also post anonymous comments
Wizard’s Folly – Rav Duel Lands
I’m going to begin and end this article with the same question, “Why is Hallowed Fountain rare?” The cycle of 10 duel lands from the Ravnica Block like Hallowed Fountain and Steam Vents are great, everyone wants 4 of them. The only problem is that they are rare, and are the highest priced cards in the whole set. They are so powerful that they are even used in Extended. If Wizards of the Coast is trying give the majority of players use the best cards, why isn’t this cycle of rare lands common?
Wizards has admitted that the casual player is the lifeblood of Magic. Wizards doesn’t control or gain money from the secondary market. They don’t make any money if you buy Temple Garden for $14, its current value. Wizards would be encouraging thousands (millions?) of players if they would have made these lands common or at least uncommon. I know they are really cool cards, and really cool cards automatically become rare, but printing a few cards like these as common would really help the community. My question to Wizards is this, “Why is Hallowed Fountain rare?”
Well I'm glad someone is liking it. I used to draft alot, but then I got bored. Currently I play Sealed games, with the "Generate Deck" option. For some reason I like winning with an unknown deck, maybe I just like surprises.
Drafting is nice. Hopefully all of the cards are "playables." You can draft mono-colored decks because there are so many good cards.
I might try to program all of 9th Edition, so you could draft a "real" block. I would love to know all of the 10 Edition cards so I could get started programming them.
Yeah I don't have flashback working yet. I read Tribal Flames incorrectly, as well as Wandering Stream that lets you gain 2 life for each land type, NOT each land, by bad.
I might be able to do grandeaur, I'm not sure. I'm trying to work on version 2 which will have trample and a bunch of other stuff. Thanks for your message.
My program lets you play Magic against the computer using the all rules of a real game. It has 365 cards and can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=156543 just click on the file named "04-24-forge.exe" This is a nice Windows installer, if you are using Mac or Linux click on "04-24-forge.zip" Java is required to run it, but that isn't usually a problem. --Forge
The AI is simple. The computer randomly plays a card, and it only counts the converted mana cost of the card. It might tap a Mountain to play Birds of Paradise. This was programmed as quick fix, and I never changed it. In version 2 this will be improved.
There are upkeep errors with Juzam Djinn and the like. They trigger in the next game even though I clear the stack. I haven't been able to fix them sorry, I've tried.
The program presume that you have a resolution of at least 1024 by 768. In Windows you can right click, click on the Properties tab and then change the Screen Resolution. The card layout isn't perfect but it is usable, so that was my goal. To target the computer you have to click on his life points.
Drafting was included because it is too hard to do it in real life, or pay for the money on Magic Online. I really played around with the drafting and sealed card rarities. But good news, you can change them!!! Just move the card name from "common.txt" or "rare.txt" and it is now rare. These files are read at runtime, so you have to stop and re-start the program. And if you hate playing with/against a card, just delete it from "uncommon.txt"
Thanks for your comments. I really enjoy playing against the computer and if I am not paying attention, the computer will kill me. The program turned out very well and I am happy other people enjoy it also.
I haven't used the CVS at SourceForge since it is just a one man operation. All the source code is in the installation directory in a file called "source.zip" I know for sure the source code is the "04-24-forge.zip" that you can download.
The source code isn't too easy to read, any big project is hard to understand. I am working on version 2 and once it gets stable, I'll write documents so that people can program and submit their own cards.
The computer is dumb, it was the best I could do The computer doesn't play anything in response, it was too complicated to currently do that, which implies that the computer can't play counter spells.
Programming T2, or the standard environment, would be great, super. I hope sometimes do that, but it is just impossible for one man to do. If i had spoilers for 1 or 2 years in the future, maybe.
This is a totally self-promotion article, I hope it isn't too long.
Article Name: More fun than Apprentice
I’m writing this article to promote a program I wrote called “MTG Forge” that lets you play Magic against a computer opponent using all the rules of a real game, and it’s really fun. (Self promotion is horrible I know. J) Currently there are 350 cards available and you can play in three modes: constructed (all the cards), sealed, or draft. Can you believe it, free drafting? Yes, the best things in life are sometimes free.
Side Note: If you want to play against another human player, you have to use this other free software project, called the Magic-Project. Like Apprentice, you have to know the other person’s Internet IP address in order to play them, but unlike Apprentice, the Magic-Project enforces all of the rules of a real game.
Good News: The card set is the best of Magic, and includes such cards like Ancestral Recall, Juzam Djinn, Serendib Efreet, Flametongue Kavu, Man-o'-War, all the moxes, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Keiga, the Tide Star, as well as old favorites like Wrath of God, Psychic Blast, Serra Angel, and a few Planar Chaos cards like Pyrohemia, Serra Sphinx, Damnation.
More good news, you can automatically download all of the card pictures with just one click, which makes playing more fun.
This project is written in Java (so you have to have Java installed) and has been tested on Windows and Linux. It should work on Macintosh but I don’t know for sure. You have the option of downloading either a full-featured Window’s installation program, or a plain zip file. To install using the zip file, unzip all the files into a directory and double-click on the file “run-forge.jar”
Limited Good News: You can play in sealed deck format or draft, cool I know. J The sealed deck format works like usual, you get 5 booster packs, 75 cards, and you have to put your deck together. To make a sealed deck, open the “Deck Editor” and from the menu select “New Deck – Sealed” and your card pool is generated for you. If you want a different card pool, just select “New Deck – Sealed” again.
In the sealed format you can optionally select “Generate Deck” for both you and the computer’s deck. This generates a 2 color deck with at least 15 creatures from a card pool of 5 booster packs like normal. The deck has 18 lands, a little high I know, with 9 lands of each basic type. I like this option because I don’t know what cards are in my deck and I definitely don’t know what cards the computer has. It is really surprising but fun. You can still win 95% of the time using the “Generate Deck” option.
Drafting is fun, but I’ve never drafted in real life and only once on Magic Online. It seems like a really enjoyable format, but a little too money intensive for me. Drafting works like normal, you open 1 pack, choose a card, and pass the rest to your neighbor. The computer selects cards for the other 7 players and actually constructs their decks using the chosen cards, something that took way too much programming. You can then play your draft deck against the other 7 players that drafted with you. After you have drafted all of your cards and saved them to a file, you have to open the Deck Editor, and then open the file that you just saved in order to actually make your deck.
Bonus Limited News: You can edit which cards are classified as common, uncommon, and rare for sealed and draft!!!! If that news isn’t great, what is? Chocolate covered deck protectors? The file “common.txt” contains all of the card names that are considered common, so if you are tired of playing against Wellwisher, just delete it. If you want to play with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker more, make him uncommon by adding him to the file “uncommon.txt” The files “common.txt”, “uncommon.txt”, and “rare.txt” have no blank lines, lines starting with “//” are ignored, and the card names must be valid. I suggest cutting and pasting card names from the file “cards.txt”, which holds all of the programmed cards, in order to avoid any messy errors.
Bad News: Since this is the work of one programmer and freely distributed at no cost, the user interface (how stuff looks on the screen) is simple, but very usable. You can see a screenshot here.
The computer intelligence (AI) is simple. The computer only plays cards during its turn, and will play Giant Growth before declaring attackers much like a beginner. Even though the AI is basic, the computer can top deck some great cards, so I think it feels realistic. Honestly, I forget I’m playing a simple computer opponent sometimes since I am so into the game, and focused on winning. Because people enjoy winning – yea!!! – having a challenging yet beatable computer opponent works out really good.
With the limited card pool and basic computer intelligence you will not be able to test your deck for a tournament. I’m just saying this in case anyone has that idea. That was one of my ideas when starting with this project, but one man can only code so much. So features were cut, and although you can’t play your favorite deck, you can make new decks with all those banned cards like Ancestral Recall, Wheel of Time as well as other expensive rares like Adarkar Valkyrie and Visara the Dreadful. Here is a recipe for fun, mix in Ancestral Recall with a pinch of Eternal Witness for insane card drawing and make sure you don’t deck yourself. One of my favorites is Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, which is fun to play and really silly to pronounce. And who can tell me what Fire Imp does? Well, he is Flametongue Kavu’s little brother, costs 2R, creature, 2/1, that deals 2 damage to target creature when he comes into play. Fire Imp is a fun Portal card that no one has heard of, but it’s a great casual card. And who out there really has enough money to buy 20-30 copies of Relentless Rats, well put away that wallet, since you can play with them for free.
Extra Ramblings: If you like Magic, and I bet you do, MTG Forge is really fun. Games are a quick 5-10 minutes and your opponent never gives up. Don’t you hate it when you are winning and your opponent has connection failure, curse you Magic Online. And you can play land destruction and other hate decks without annoying people.
I wrote MTG Forge because I wanted to play fast, quick games against the computer, using cool rare cards that I could never afford in this life time. I’m looking at you Ancestral Recall and Juzam Djinn. Even though the AI is basic, the computer plays a challenging game.
For more information consult the user manual that is included when you install MTG Forge.
Thanks for your comments. I still have many problems to work out. Currently the project is as long as 500 page novel, so alot of effort went in to. And yes I've heard many comments about the less-than-perfect visual interface. I'm working on version 2 which aims to have all of the cards in the Ravnica block, but no plans for updating the interface. The visual interface is 1,000+ lines of code, so although it may be ugly, it wasn't easy to program. Maybe someone will program a better interface for me
Well I got some feedback and thanks for that. It seems I have a few issues to address.
1. Your program is violating copyright laws and SourceForge's Terms of Use.
If you search SourceForge for the words "Magic" and "Gathering" you get 50 results. The most popular Magic the Gathering program on SourceForge is http://sourceforge.net/projects/magic-project/ which lets you play with the rules against another human player other the Internet. It has been downloaded 50,000 times. So it doesn't seems like SourceForge really minds.
As a side note, no cards pictures are included in the download, not even the pictures of mana. I am not distributing copyrighted Wizards of the Coast material.
2.How does the computer draft?
I implemented draft as a very rought approximation of a "real draft." I was able to progam it, so I did. The computer players pick 2 colors and first draft creatures in those colors until they have 15+ creatures, then they randomly pick a card that is one of their chosen colors. No card evaluation is currently done. The computer then adds 9 basic lands of the chosen colors, pumping the land count up to a healthly 18.
I'm glad people are a little interested in my project. It is fun just to do as a hobby.
For fun I made Savannah Lions and Isamura common, it didn't really seem to matter. You can change their rarity by moving the card names from "common.txt" to "rare.txt" You can add/remove cards and change their rarity easily.
I have posted this elsewhere, but I wrote a great program that lets you play Magic against the computer using all the rules of a real game. It even features sealed and drafting. YES, you can draft for free!!! You can also add/remove cards and change a card's rarity for limited games. Just add/remove the card names from the file "common.txt", "uncommon.txt" and "rare.txt" This program is a great way to practice drafting, althought it doesn't have any suspend cards. It does feature a few Future Sight cards and Llanowar Mentor is a GREAT card.
I have posted this elsewhere, but I wrote a great program that lets you play Magic against the computer using all the rules of a real game. It even features sealed and drafting. YES, you can draft for free!!! You can also add/remove cards and change a card's rarity for limited games. Just add/remove the card names from the file "common.txt", "uncommon.txt" and "rare.txt" This program is a great way to practice drafting, althought it doesn't have any suspend cards. It does feature a few Future Sight cards and Llanowar Mentor is a GREAT card.
Hi all, I'm new to MTG Salvation, but I love the Future Sight spoiler. Also, I wrote this new program that lets you play Magic against the computer using all the rules of a real game. I love playing it and you probably will also. It requires Java and runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, etc...
It has:
1. 365 Cards, including a few Future Sight cards
2. Automatic download of card pictures
3. Constructed, Sealed, and Draft -- YES, you can practice drafting.
I also posted this in the Magic Software forum. I thought regular Magic players would be intereted also.
MTG Forge lets you play against the computer using all the rules of a real game. Currently it has 365 cards and it even includes some Future Sight cards. You can play in constructed, sealed, and draft modes. It also automatically downloads all of the card pictures. It is free, and only requires Java. It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, etc...
The card set is the best of Magic, and includes such cards like Ancestral Recall, Juzam Djinn, Flametongue Kavu, Man-O'-War, all the moxes, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Keiga, the Tide Star, as well as favorites likes Wrath of God, Psychic Blast, Serra Angel, and even the new Planar Chaos card black Wrath of God, Damnation.
You can edit which cards are in the sealed and draft modes by editing which cards are in the files "common.txt", "uncommon.txt", and "rare.txt" so you add or subtract cards.
I wrote this program because I wanted to play fast, quick games against the computer. Even though the AI is basic, the computer can topdeck some great cards, so I think it feels realistic.
E-mail me any comments good and bad, I want to make it the best I can. mtgrares at yahoo com
Wizard’s Folly – Rav Duel Lands
I’m going to begin and end this article with the same question, “Why is Hallowed Fountain rare?” The cycle of 10 duel lands from the Ravnica Block like Hallowed Fountain and Steam Vents are great, everyone wants 4 of them. The only problem is that they are rare, and are the highest priced cards in the whole set. They are so powerful that they are even used in Extended. If Wizards of the Coast is trying give the majority of players use the best cards, why isn’t this cycle of rare lands common?
Wizards has admitted that the casual player is the lifeblood of Magic. Wizards doesn’t control or gain money from the secondary market. They don’t make any money if you buy Temple Garden for $14, its current value. Wizards would be encouraging thousands (millions?) of players if they would have made these lands common or at least uncommon. I know they are really cool cards, and really cool cards automatically become rare, but printing a few cards like these as common would really help the community. My question to Wizards is this, “Why is Hallowed Fountain rare?”
Drafting is nice. Hopefully all of the cards are "playables." You can draft mono-colored decks because there are so many good cards.
I might try to program all of 9th Edition, so you could draft a "real" block. I would love to know all of the 10 Edition cards so I could get started programming them.
For what's it worth, I started up a blog at http://mtgrares.blogspot.com/ that talks about Magic and Programming.
--Forge
I might be able to do grandeaur, I'm not sure. I'm trying to work on version 2 which will have trample and a bunch of other stuff. Thanks for your message.
Main Webpage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtgforge
Blog talking about Magic and Programming: http://mtgrares.blogspot.com
The AI is simple. The computer randomly plays a card, and it only counts the converted mana cost of the card. It might tap a Mountain to play Birds of Paradise. This was programmed as quick fix, and I never changed it. In version 2 this will be improved.
There are upkeep errors with Juzam Djinn and the like. They trigger in the next game even though I clear the stack. I haven't been able to fix them sorry, I've tried.
The program presume that you have a resolution of at least 1024 by 768. In Windows you can right click, click on the Properties tab and then change the Screen Resolution. The card layout isn't perfect but it is usable, so that was my goal. To target the computer you have to click on his life points.
Drafting was included because it is too hard to do it in real life, or pay for the money on Magic Online. I really played around with the drafting and sealed card rarities. But good news, you can change them!!! Just move the card name from "common.txt" or "rare.txt" and it is now rare. These files are read at runtime, so you have to stop and re-start the program. And if you hate playing with/against a card, just delete it from "uncommon.txt"
Thanks for the feedback, Forge
The source code isn't too easy to read, any big project is hard to understand. I am working on version 2 and once it gets stable, I'll write documents so that people can program and submit their own cards.
Thanks for your interest. --Forge
Programming T2, or the standard environment, would be great, super. I hope sometimes do that, but it is just impossible for one man to do. If i had spoilers for 1 or 2 years in the future, maybe.
This is a totally self-promotion article, I hope it isn't too long.
Article Name: More fun than Apprentice
I’m writing this article to promote a program I wrote called “MTG Forge” that lets you play Magic against a computer opponent using all the rules of a real game, and it’s really fun. (Self promotion is horrible I know. J) Currently there are 350 cards available and you can play in three modes: constructed (all the cards), sealed, or draft. Can you believe it, free drafting? Yes, the best things in life are sometimes free.
Side Note: If you want to play against another human player, you have to use this other free software project, called the Magic-Project. Like Apprentice, you have to know the other person’s Internet IP address in order to play them, but unlike Apprentice, the Magic-Project enforces all of the rules of a real game.
Homepage: sourceforge.net/projects/mtgforge
Good News:
The card set is the best of Magic, and includes such cards like Ancestral Recall, Juzam Djinn, Serendib Efreet, Flametongue Kavu, Man-o'-War, all the moxes, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Keiga, the Tide Star, as well as old favorites like Wrath of God, Psychic Blast, Serra Angel, and a few Planar Chaos cards like Pyrohemia, Serra Sphinx, Damnation.
More good news, you can automatically download all of the card pictures with just one click, which makes playing more fun.
This project is written in Java (so you have to have Java installed) and has been tested on Windows and Linux. It should work on Macintosh but I don’t know for sure. You have the option of downloading either a full-featured Window’s installation program, or a plain zip file. To install using the zip file, unzip all the files into a directory and double-click on the file “run-forge.jar”
Main Download Site: sourceforge.net/projects/mtgforge
Java: www.java.com/getjava
Limited Good News:
You can play in sealed deck format or draft, cool I know. J The sealed deck format works like usual, you get 5 booster packs, 75 cards, and you have to put your deck together. To make a sealed deck, open the “Deck Editor” and from the menu select “New Deck – Sealed” and your card pool is generated for you. If you want a different card pool, just select “New Deck – Sealed” again.
In the sealed format you can optionally select “Generate Deck” for both you and the computer’s deck. This generates a 2 color deck with at least 15 creatures from a card pool of 5 booster packs like normal. The deck has 18 lands, a little high I know, with 9 lands of each basic type. I like this option because I don’t know what cards are in my deck and I definitely don’t know what cards the computer has. It is really surprising but fun. You can still win 95% of the time using the “Generate Deck” option.
Drafting is fun, but I’ve never drafted in real life and only once on Magic Online. It seems like a really enjoyable format, but a little too money intensive for me. Drafting works like normal, you open 1 pack, choose a card, and pass the rest to your neighbor. The computer selects cards for the other 7 players and actually constructs their decks using the chosen cards, something that took way too much programming. You can then play your draft deck against the other 7 players that drafted with you. After you have drafted all of your cards and saved them to a file, you have to open the Deck Editor, and then open the file that you just saved in order to actually make your deck.
Bonus Limited News:
You can edit which cards are classified as common, uncommon, and rare for sealed and draft!!!! If that news isn’t great, what is? Chocolate covered deck protectors? The file “common.txt” contains all of the card names that are considered common, so if you are tired of playing against Wellwisher, just delete it. If you want to play with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker more, make him uncommon by adding him to the file “uncommon.txt” The files “common.txt”, “uncommon.txt”, and “rare.txt” have no blank lines, lines starting with “//” are ignored, and the card names must be valid. I suggest cutting and pasting card names from the file “cards.txt”, which holds all of the programmed cards, in order to avoid any messy errors.
Bad News:
Since this is the work of one programmer and freely distributed at no cost, the user interface (how stuff looks on the screen) is simple, but very usable. You can see a screenshot here.
The computer intelligence (AI) is simple. The computer only plays cards during its turn, and will play Giant Growth before declaring attackers much like a beginner. Even though the AI is basic, the computer can top deck some great cards, so I think it feels realistic. Honestly, I forget I’m playing a simple computer opponent sometimes since I am so into the game, and focused on winning. Because people enjoy winning – yea!!! –
having a challenging yet beatable computer opponent works out really good.
With the limited card pool and basic computer intelligence you will not be able to test your deck for a tournament. I’m just saying this in case anyone has that idea. That was one of my ideas when starting with this project, but one man can only code so much. So features were cut, and although you can’t play your favorite deck, you can make new decks with all those banned cards like Ancestral Recall, Wheel of Time as well as other expensive rares like Adarkar Valkyrie and Visara the Dreadful. Here is a recipe for fun, mix in Ancestral Recall with a pinch of Eternal Witness for insane card drawing and make sure you don’t deck yourself. One of my favorites is Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, which is fun to play and really silly to pronounce. And who can tell me what Fire Imp does? Well, he is Flametongue Kavu’s little brother, costs 2R, creature, 2/1, that deals 2 damage to target creature when he comes into play. Fire Imp is a fun Portal card that no one has heard of, but it’s a great casual card. And who out there really has enough money to buy 20-30 copies of Relentless Rats, well put away that wallet, since you can play with them for free.
Extra Ramblings:
If you like Magic, and I bet you do, MTG Forge is really fun. Games are a quick 5-10 minutes and your opponent never gives up. Don’t you hate it when you are winning and your opponent has connection failure, curse you Magic Online. And you can play land destruction and other hate decks without annoying people.
I wrote MTG Forge because I wanted to play fast, quick games against the computer, using cool rare cards that I could never afford in this life time. I’m looking at you Ancestral Recall and Juzam Djinn. Even though the AI is basic, the computer plays a challenging game.
For more information consult the user manual that is included when you install MTG Forge.
Download Me J: sourceforge.net/projects/mtgforge
E-mail me any comments good or bad; I want to make MTG Forge the best I can.
1. Your program is violating copyright laws and SourceForge's Terms of Use.
If you search SourceForge for the words "Magic" and "Gathering" you get 50 results. The most popular Magic the Gathering program on SourceForge is http://sourceforge.net/projects/magic-project/ which lets you play with the rules against another human player other the Internet. It has been downloaded 50,000 times. So it doesn't seems like SourceForge really minds.
As a side note, no cards pictures are included in the download, not even the pictures of mana. I am not distributing copyrighted Wizards of the Coast material.
2.How does the computer draft?
I implemented draft as a very rought approximation of a "real draft." I was able to progam it, so I did. The computer players pick 2 colors and first draft creatures in those colors until they have 15+ creatures, then they randomly pick a card that is one of their chosen colors. No card evaluation is currently done. The computer then adds 9 basic lands of the chosen colors, pumping the land count up to a healthly 18.
I'm glad people are a little interested in my project. It is fun just to do as a hobby.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtgforge
-Requires Java, runs on Windows, Macs, Linux, etc...
-Automatic download of all card pictures
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtgforge
-Requires Java, runs on Windows, Macs, Linux, etc...
-Automatic download of all card pictures
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtgforge
It has:
1. 365 Cards, including a few Future Sight cards
2. Automatic download of card pictures
3. Constructed, Sealed, and Draft -- YES, you can practice drafting.
MTG Forge lets you play against the computer using all the rules of a real game. Currently it has 365 cards and it even includes some Future Sight cards. You can play in constructed, sealed, and draft modes. It also automatically downloads all of the card pictures. It is free, and only requires Java. It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, etc...
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtgforge/
The card set is the best of Magic, and includes such cards like Ancestral Recall, Juzam Djinn, Flametongue Kavu, Man-O'-War, all the moxes, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Keiga, the Tide Star, as well as favorites likes Wrath of God, Psychic Blast, Serra Angel, and even the new Planar Chaos card black Wrath of God, Damnation.
You can edit which cards are in the sealed and draft modes by editing which cards are in the files "common.txt", "uncommon.txt", and "rare.txt" so you add or subtract cards.
I wrote this program because I wanted to play fast, quick games against the computer. Even though the AI is basic, the computer can topdeck some great cards, so I think it feels realistic.
E-mail me any comments good and bad, I want to make it the best I can. mtgrares at yahoo com