Let's improve the Battletech CCG Plugin!

[VictorSteiner]

Hi guys, as you might have seen I post a lot because I really liked that game and want to play it with a friend that had to move away.

I found this link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32011559/LackeyCCGBetaWin.rar

On a Battletech page but I can't remember which ... maybe I'll find it by googling during the next days. It's an old Lackey client but has the Battletech Plugin in it.

It seems to be a version with a lot of cards in good quality, but some are really small and close to unreadable.


So, if you are interested in the game: Do you have high-res artwork of the game?

FOR THE PLUGIN:

Can anyone of you program plugins? The Battletech plugin doesn't have an "untapp all" button. The phases of the game that you can click do nothing (at least that is what I see from a few days with Lackey, maybe I'm missing something).

Is it possible to "program" the phases so stuff happens automatically or just certain stuff is allowed in each phase?

Happy to hear from some Battletech fans.

Victor.

[VictorSteiner]

A question so I can start improving the card images on my own ... I found a folder that has the card with its name Advanced Manufacturing Techniques.jpg and again as AR001.jpg

So the image is there twice. How do I find out which one lackey is using? I guess it is the AR001.jpg since all cards are listed that way ... so someone might have thrown in a highres-version of the card and forgot to replace the old one .. but the AR001.jpg is from 2009 and the Advanced Manufacturing Techniques.jpg is from 2008 so ... hm.... How do I find out which one is used by Lackey?

[VictorSteiner]

Hm, sorry to post so much, but I just found out that a lot, maybe all cards exist twice ... once with the AR0XX.jpg name and once with their card name ... how does that work in  Lackey?

[VictorSteiner]

Another question concerning how the cards are handled in the plugin (or Lackey):

There are cards in Battletech that let you ignore certain rules (those cards let you play with combinations of factions that normally are only allowed to be played alone).

Normally that card is placed in the playing area from the start of the game. Is there a way that I can draw a certain card out of the cardpile before the game starts in Lackey?

[Trevor]

FOR THE PLUGIN:

Can anyone of you program plugins? The Battletech plugin doesn't have an "untapp all" button. The phases of the game that you can click do nothing (at least that is what I see from a few days with Lackey, maybe I'm missing something).

Is it possible to "program" the phases so stuff happens automatically or just certain stuff is allowed in each phase?

Happy to hear from some Battletech fans.

Victor.

Clicking the phase of the turn buttons is optional and only is used to communicate with other players when you intend to do things. This actually speeds up gameplay often because you can skip through phases where nothing happens. In lackey, you mostly need to do things yourself just like you would with physical cards. You CAN program scripts to automate a lot of things, but I suggest you be very careful to not make something happen automatically that might not be intended.
For example, say a card gains you 5 life points when you play it. If you drag the card to the table to show it to an opponent, for example, that will be interpreted incorrectly as "playing it", so if it automatically alters life points, that will be annoying. It is especially annoying if the action that is performed automatically cannot be undone. For example, if a card is accidentally drawn, you can't "unsee" the card, even if you put it back.

[Trevor]

I'm taking a look at that plugin. They were distributing it in a terrible way. They were zipping the whole lackey folder, rather than just the plugin. Autoupdate URLs are the preferred way to install plugin, and if that is not possible, a simple zip of the plugin itself is usable.

He was also using the outdated plugin format. I would suggest taking the card data file "setinfo.txt" and the card images from that old plugin, and start from scratch.

All the card images should be the same dimensions. And I strongly advise against using spaces or non-alphanumerics in file names.

[Trevor]

Another question concerning how the cards are handled in the plugin (or Lackey):

There are cards in Battletech that let you ignore certain rules (those cards let you play with combinations of factions that normally are only allowed to be played alone).

Normally that card is placed in the playing area from the start of the game. Is there a way that I can draw a certain card out of the cardpile before the game starts in Lackey?

It sounds like you're talking about a deck zone. Some games define different piles of cards before the game even starts, like a "sideboard" or a "starting" or a "adventure deck" that aren't part of the main deck. This is done with deck zones, which can be loaded into game zones, which are piles of cards during the game.

[VictorSteiner]

If I try this by reading through your how-to do a plugin as a non-programmer, what would be the fundemantal steps to create a new plugin where I as a player would do 90 % of the things myself ... just untapping stuff and the building counters that the game needs added?

[VictorSteiner]

I'm taking a look at that plugin. They were distributing it in a terrible way. They were zipping the whole lackey folder, rather than just the plugin. Autoupdate URLs are the preferred way to install plugin, and if that is not possible, a simple zip of the plugin itself is usable.

He was also using the outdated plugin format. I would suggest taking the card data file "setinfo.txt" and the card images from that old plugin, and start from scratch.

All the card images should be the same dimensions. And I strongly advise against using spaces or non-alphanumerics in file names.

What about the cards existing twice? Once as 0001.something and once with their original game card name? Does that make sense? To me it looks like someone got better pictures but never renamed them properly?

I really wonder why the images look so bad in Lackey when they are crisp and easy to read via the finder on my Mac. Some images exist in 60 kb, some in 250 kb quality, but even the 250 kb ones that look very good in the Finder look very bad in Lackey. How come?

[Gordon228]

let me see what i can do to help.

Edit: it appers the maker of this added the low and med scans together but i still need to investigate.

[Gordon228]

here is an updated plugin info

Code Select Expand

<plugin>

<deckzone>
     <label>Deck</label>
     <gamezonetoloadto>Stockpile</gamezonetoloadto>
     <shuffle>yes</shuffle>
</deckzone>

<gamezone>
     <label>Hand</label>
     <visibletoowner>yes</visibletoowner>
     <visibletoothers>no</visibletoothers>
</gamezone>

<gamezone>
     <label>Stockpile</label>
     <visibletoowner>no</visibletoowner>
     <visibletoothers>no</visibletoothers>
</gamezone>

<gamezone>
     <label>Scrapheap</label>
     <visibletoowner>no</visibletoowner>
     <visibletoothers>no</visibletoothers>
</gamezone>

<phase>
<label>Untap</label>
</phase>

<phase>
<label>Draw</label>
</phase>

<phase>
<label>Repair Reload</label>
</phase>

<phase>
<label>Deploy</label>
</phase>

<phase>
<label>Missions</label>
</phase>

<phase>
<label>End of Turn</label>
</phase>

<generalfunction>
<label>Draw Card</label>
<kind>DRAWCARD</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
</generalfunction>

<generalfunction>
<label>Spawn Card</label>
<kind>SPAWNCARD</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
</generalfunction>

<generalfunction>
<label>Roll D6</label>
<kind>ROLLD6</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
</generalfunction>


<cardfunction>
<label>Untap</label>
<kind>MAKERIGHT0DEGREES</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
</cardfunction>


<cardfunction>
<label>Tap</label>
<kind>MAKERIGHT90DEGREES</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
</cardfunction>


<cardfunction>
<label>Damage +1</label>
<kind>ADDCOUNTERRED</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
<PositionX>.75</PositionX>
<PositionY>.04</PositionY>
</cardfunction>


<cardfunction>
<label>Repair</label>
<kind>REMOVECOUNTERRED</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
</cardfunction>
<cardfunction>
<label>Construction +1</label>
<kind>ADDCOUNTERBLUE</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
<PositionX>.5</PositionX>
<PositionY>.04</PositionY>
</cardfunction>



<cardfunction>
<label>Construction -1</label>
<kind>REMOVECOUNTERBLUE</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
</cardfunction>


<cardfunction>
<label>Turn Over</label>
<kind>TURNOVER</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
</cardfunction>

<cardfunction>
<label>Change Owner</label>
<kind>CHANGEOWNER</kind>
</cardfunction>

<cardfunction>
<label>Edit Note</label>
<kind>EDITNOTE</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
<PositionX>.4</PositionX>
<PositionY>.95</PositionY>
</cardfunction>

<cardfunction>
<label>Clear</label>
<kind>CLEARCARD</kind>
<includeasbutton>yes</includeasbutton>
</cardfunction>


<definition>
<kind>ISYOURFACEDOWNVISIBLE</kind>
</definition>

</plugin> i am slowly working on the card images. here is an updated card back + spawn card.

http://nikulas.webs.com/cardback.jpg
http://nikulas.webs.com/spawned.jpg

[Gordon228]

once i get the cards to the hi-res versions i will get all the images onto a site and then make an updatelistsurl.txt i will also be making some custom counters for damage and repair.

[VictorSteiner]

Thanks, this sounds great, but I only can guess some of what you are doing (I could help if you share more about your process on a metalevel).

Are you just deleting the low-res images and renaming the medium-size ones? Or what are you doing atm?

[Gordon228]

no i will provide a low res version of the plugin i just need to figure out photobucket and then i can continue.

[VictorSteiner]

I want a high-res, this is already low-res .. why do you want to do a low-res? I have a lot of the cards in 250 kbit quality, but a lot of them in the plugin folder you are working on are already about 250 kbit ... so I can give you the few that are missing.