Rough Draft of Proposed Release Schedule
----------------------
0.7 first snapshot under sourceforge development
supports OMD format
0.8 Spectating of a live game
- including a "current game directory?"
- this is pretty tricky
Replay a NetMage game
- able to back up
- able to jump ahead
Replay an Apprentice game
replace DeckChooser with OMD DeckMentor
integrate OMD SetViewer
display table immediately (i.e, before connection is established)
- can mess with cards, ..., before connecting or getting
connection
0.9 Can play Apprentice<->NetMage
Beginnings of Scripting
- maybe a macro that draws 7 cards
"Mana Pool" graphics
- a crutch
- shows how much you have to work with
- game config can require that you not use it
1.0 Functionally equivalent to Apprentice
- maybe without the skinning yet?
- is sideboarding easy? i've never gotten that far in an
appr game
Successfully used by a Judge to resolve a dispute ???
1.1 the 0.6.7 look of NetMage is just one of many possible
"table descriptions/layouts"
"Game directory/lookup" support
- don't have to arrange
JavaWebStart support
- esp. useful for spectators, who don't need to load/save
1.2 Graphical helpers with game state
- show a "+3/+3" card as "5/5" in some highlight color
- card that gained flying shows "flying" in highlight color
- show counters on cards
1.3 Draw lines from attacker to targets
Draw lines for blockers
1.4 display hand as just another zone on table
- not a special window
- drag from library to hand to draw
1.5 "Live" introduction/strategy article
- like something you would see at magiccampus.com
- instruction/text, sprinkled with game snapshots that
you can play forward, or back up, ...
- this is a big one. need to break it down some
2.0 Supports another game
3.0 Supports creating a game on the fly, from scratch (?)
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0.7 tasks (details)
- finish the OMD loader
- release tool
- tags CVS tree (so we can revert)
- exports from CVS to netmage-.x.y.tar.gz
----------------
new ideas (since baseline)
- able to play with the new cards as the dribble in to the various sites
- e.g. the PlaneShift cards
----
unsorted stuff (from "baseline")
- special cell for rendering a card line in DeckChooser:
- Blah 1 2R 3B ...
- with the right background color?
- may not be necessary, if OMD has something
- netmage <-> apprentice
- first step: may be easier to put bridge in in_between
(until Game and GameWatchers is working)
- able to rearrange hand
- drag/drop
- finish source reorg
- really move stuff into different packages
game/model
----------
- separate gui from game
- gui is just a view into game state
- can have different types of views
- required for a robot
- all changes to game are via Commands
- makes replay much easier
- helps robots
gui
---
- skinning, like apprentice
- display zones on table
- show effects on a card
- e.g., +3/+3 until end of turn: show it as 5/5 in red
- must add to network protocol
- show counters on cards
scripting
---------
- develop/update/debug scripts for cards right in the game
server/networking
-----------------
- multiplayer
- including different "table layouts"
ai
--
card database
-------------
- web-based, down to card granularity
- cache locally
- check for new cards occasionally
- allows "off-line" play
- can we make OMD decks self-contained?
- no need for the deck database?
misc
----
- support judges
- can stop a game, as a judge to hook in, replay
- special chat area
- voice support, if everyone has microphones
- can watch what judge is doing
- capturing/replaying game transcripts
- my main goal is to learn by example
- possibly with annotations, even discussions
- note: not just complete games, but examples of using a specific
card, or illustration of a specific mechanic, or
solve puzzles, ...
- note: the OMD folks are sort of discussing the same thing
(at least the xml format for transcripts)
- scripting
- simple
- macros (like drawing seven cards to start)
- maybe create them by example? (hard)
- effects of/on cards
- when you play "target gets +3/+3", pick a target, and the
gui actually changes from "2/2", to "5/5" (in a different
color, to show that it's temporary).
- as a first step, players will have to undo these effects
themselves. (in my python experiments, i have a nice
event/turn-based scheduler, so you can have such effects
canceled automatically. that may take a while to migrate
to NetMage)
- "Magic lessons"
- small snippets of games, where an author can demonstrate how
to use a particular card/combo, or how to defend against something
(note that, since these lessons would be live, you could
also use them for daily puzzles, judge certification,
etc.)
misc crap from previous version
-------------------------------
Network Play/Multi-Player
--------------------------
- draft the xml for a multiplayer game
Game Play
---------
- call player.game_over()
- turn-track-test: make sure the only events that we learn about are
from either actions on our objects, or through another players event
stream
- i.e., no direct manipulation by another player
- trace out full path
- game turn event -> player
- player transfer
- player calls scripts
- note: not everyone can exeucte the script
- player must execute, and distribute the effects
- scripts get stuff from other players, or from their player
- ManagedGame, Game
- Player, MagicRobotsPlayer, magic-robots-test
- capture full game in xml
- spit out results of running magic-robots-test
- game scribe is a listener on the game state/player states
- need to capture everything
- switch cards.py to xml
- write out the CardDB
- transcripts/replay:
- able to annotate transcripts after a game
- player can add commets
- anyone can criticize/comment
- can nest them, start conversations
- note: the basic transcript is immutable
- xsl, to render to a pretty report
GUI
---
- ui/tests/turn-tracker-test
- illustrate choices
- both the choices available, and the choice made
- coercion
- choose player
- don't even display in two-player case
- choose cards:
- display the choices in a new "window"
- flash the choice made
- angelic blessing
- "activate" the possible choices
- gigantic growth
- run turn-track-test as two clients
- player b is non-gui, just waiting to connect
- incorp apache batik
- SVG-based cards
AI
--
- baby step: rank cards in hand
- baby step: pick best card that is currently playable, see if
its prereqs are meetable
- prototype a spaz player
- plays the first card playable
Flexibility/Multiple Game Support
---------------------------------
- framework for library of common scripts
- even across game systems, probably
- develop a prototype l5r schema, and sample game
- develop a prototype Pokemon schema, and sample game
- develop a prototype starwars schema, and sample game
Card Databases
--------------
- support using web-based "databases"
- may even be html pages, that we internalize
- our database may be a cached "join" of multiple pages
- e.g., basic data from wizards
cost from somewhere,
scripts from somewhere else
- takes a really long time to load a fairly small card db
- need to use mysql or bsddb
- handle card-name conflicts with extensions
- forestTE, forestPR, forestFOIL (???)
- cards can have aliases in CardDB
- forest points to the whatever newest version of forest there is
Deck Building
-------------
- tool to convert typical deck text/html to xml
- cut/paste (or drag/drop)
- problem: there appears to be several pages that you cannot do a
simple cut/paste from - can't select the text
- to automatically parse html might be a pain, if there are no
standardized deck html formats
- could make the tool resilient to html noise, and cut/paste from
the html source ???
- find decks that you can really build, or come close
- i.e., with the cards you currently own
- how much would finishing the deck cost?
- report the "distance" from any deck
- requires interface with a card manager database
- then, develop a trading strategy to get the rest of the way
- tool that adds missing info to a deck description
- and, presents it in a uniform way
- probably stuff that an expert already knows, but i have no clue
- options:
- text (either below, complex-row-style, or ballooning)
- what set/block did the card come from
- mana cost
- price
- categories
- augment ide, support arbitrary tools
- mana curves, mana %, ...
Drafting
--------
- support the different formats within the game
- part of schema
- drills
Skill Building
--------------
- specific quizzes, ...
- allow user to turn on hypothetical mode, play into future, without
committing changes
-
- robot opponents can use "unfair" shuffles of decks
- user can specify
Game Workshop
-------------
Adding new cards within the ide
Rule Modification
New Game Mechanics, ...
- need a good debugger
- gui: add a live inspector
- for debugging
- card editor
- choose type first
- name, cost, text, scripts
- maybe even picture
- IDE for prototyping/debugging cards
- show the card, with the text
- allow easy setup, ..., for testing
- try out a new game mechanic - progeny?
- certain cards can breed
- requires identifying the genetics of mtg
- maybe not even possible without software?
Judge
-----
- sits in the middle of a game, can reject a play
- supplies reasons for rejection
- rule #
- (rather than sitting, can tap in and replay)
- baby step: play willow elf, by the rules
- elf can't attack the turn it is played
- constraint:
can_attack(card?) <- turn(game?) = turn_played(card?) + 1
- needs to know when the turn
- automated judge
Misc
----
- 365-day magic quizzes, puzzles
- all games captured as a set of rules, contraints, scripts, and effects
- hopefully i can use a language with declarative semantics,
so that the rules are executable without "situated logic"
- the logic/rules have multiple uses:
- actually run the game ("whose turn is it, ...)
- decide if a move is legal
- AI can search through sequences
- incremental
- easy to make games deltas off of other games, or slowly turn
on the more complex rules
- deck building/analysis/trading/validation
- skill building
- quizzes
- trade
- rules
- strategy
- view/replay games
- generic AI to compete at any game
- play over internet
- incl chat, ...
- rule testing/balancing
- create new rules, new cards
- print proxy cards
- experiment with viewing deck xml in mozilla
- watch dojo's decks to beat
- http://www.thedojo.com/backpage-deckstobeat.shtml
- seems to change every month
- play with integrating xml into a full publishing package
- use xslt to make pretty rendering
- i.e., a point/lesson
- e.g., goal is to reproduce the glossy magic strategy books
- can do much prettier cards than on screen, ...
- handle funky rules
- blocking sorcery/instant can block unblockable creatures
- e.g., Fog Patch (from Nemesis)
- ideas from microprose
- shandalar: buy/sell/trade cards
- "super-game"
- good way to slowly learn about cards/powers/...
- find the magic-based (email?) game where you have to buy cards at a virtual
shop, only get more money by winning
- can you trade?
- you start with $26, can buy cards
- sounds like chaos/x, sort of
- sealed deck practice
- pull from net
- http://www.meridianmagic.com/sealed/
- but also support:
- choosing some amount of land
- using a complete well known starter deck
- argo-style critics
- other games to support
- sanctum: digitaladdiction.com
- dragonelves.com
- make up your own cards
- palm pilot as a tool for trading cards
- has current prices
- has your current wish list
- challenge may be that you cannot store all cards
- have to do a per-event sync
- palm/gesture based transcription tool
- while you are at a tournament, capture what's going on quickly
- probably need deck lists ahead of time