A question for experienced modders (MtG SHandalar)

[scherbchen]

Hi.

The old Magic the Gathering game by Microprose was one of the best approximations to the game (albeit with a horrible AI) and I was surprised, whenever I revisited the game and looked for inofficial updates that there were no mods out there. If you have never played the game you will probably have no clue what I am talking about nor be able to help

It should have abandonware status some time soon I figure (no basis for that) so I thought: If nobody does it you might as well make it a pet project of yours. What would be the requirements, you think, to mod basic cards (so-called "vanilla" cards or cards that only use keywords that have been used up to 4th edition).

 

[ravensfire]

It should have abandonware status some time soon

FYI - no such legal concept. It's HIGHLY unlikely that anyone will ever object, but just realize that you would be violating copyright law.

-- Ravensfire

 

[Till]

If you look into the game directory, you'll find:
Master.csv hold the following information for every card:
ID,Card Name,Type Description,Artist Name,Rule Text,Quote

Info.csv allows you to edit:
ID,Card Name,Short Name,Card Set,Color,Type,Subtype,Group,Occuran.,Mana Costs,Pow,Tuff

But the real prize appears to be rarity.csv, which contains the effects for each card.

All you need for editing is notepad, or something comparable. Changing the existing cards seems to be fairly straightforward. Some trial and error might be required to find out what exactly each modifier does.
Adding new ones is probably possible, as well, but might be a little trickier.

In any case, there doesn't appear to be any hex-wizardry required, so all you need is knowledge of MtG (which i no longer have).

 

[scherbchen]

something I came across: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=99409&highlight=shandalar

will let you know how it developes.

 

[Abaddon]

Oh how much I LOVE shandalar.

Bit broken, but I am amazed it didnt get updated

 

[scherbchen]

new update: http://www.manalink.de/manalink-talk/0/

manalink 2.0 inofficial patch

adds about 200 (I could be off) cards for Player versus Player only. These cards are, atm, sadly not available for Shandalar (the tricks I tried to get them to work there didn't work... prove me wrong). They will work - oddly enough - in sealed deck mode, gauntlet mode and PvP.

Now, if somebody knows how to connect players for a nice game of type I... please be so kind and let me know.

@ Abaddon: I agree, the brokenness of Shandalar was part of the fun, though.

 

[Rod]

Hello,

I just checked the .csv files. It seems you can add creatures and the like with standard abilities. But as soon as it comes to new abilities you cannot (whatta surprise). In general you can only add cards that have abilities that can be described easily with a few keywords

e.g. name:Air Elemental, mana cost:3UU, card type :creature, Power:4, Toughness:4, flying

you get the idea.

But this project of FlappyCat sounds awesome !! (mtgsalvation link)

Unfortunately there seems to be no update since December 2007 and he describes it as an ambitious hobby project that also aims at teaching him VB (2008). So he is obviously in no hurry.
Let's just cross the fingers that he IS releasing some version soon AND releases his source code as well, so that other users can contribute to the same project, without doing all the groundwork by themselves.

 

[Abaddon]

I don't know why there wasn't a follow up to shandalar.. I guess they worried it would somehome distract from MtG:O

 

[scherbchen]

not trying to necro this thread, just wanted to give the info that the Manalink 2.0 community is now found at http://www.slightlymagic.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=25 . the old forum is no longer active.