Elements the Game Forum - Free Online Fantasy Card Game

Elements the Game => Game Suggestions and Feedback => Topic started by: Malechi on December 15, 2009, 10:09:29 pm

Title: Deck saving
Post by: Malechi on December 15, 2009, 10:09:29 pm

I absolutely agree! As it is set up now, all of the Elements have a "page" to hold their respective cards so I don't see a problem (I am not a programmer so my vision may be way off here) with creating Deck 1, Deck 2, Deck 3, etc. slots ...
Title: Deck saving
Post by: opfinistic on December 15, 2009, 10:09:29 pm

I think having the ability to save a deck would be a great feature in the game.  At the moment, I have a spreadsheet I use to track my deck's evolution, but it would be nice to save it off in game.  That way we could keep multiple decks on hand, ready for use.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: opfinistic on December 15, 2009, 10:09:29 pm

Also, opfinistic, I would love to see a copy of your spreadsheet or even just the basic layout.
Emailed you a copy.  It's real basic and easy to read, I'll add newer versions to the sheet as it changes (in fact I cut it down to 40 cards already).
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Osmposm on December 15, 2009, 10:09:29 pm

I agree. Sounds like something good.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: SamSmart on December 15, 2009, 10:09:29 pm

I think only having a few deck slots would be fine, maybe 3-5.  I can't imagine why anyone would realistically want more than that many anyway.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: seditiousbroom on December 15, 2009, 10:09:29 pm

Slots for saving decks as Malechi suggested would be fine but, if you'll pardon the alliterative pun, finite. I imagine only a certain number of slots could be fit on a screen.

I thought of saving the decks a la Guild Wars and keeping client-side plain text lists. Flash cannot do that without security risks though, right?

So how about similar lists server-side? I don't know what DB is used for ETG but maybe add a table for decks with:

To look something like:

0500 | seditiousbroom | Ice Deck 5 | freeze  | 4 | y
0501 | seditiousbroom | Ice Deck 5 | icebolt | 3 | y
0502 | seditiousbroom | Ice Deck 5 | purify   | 1 | y

Then add two buttons on the top left portion of the deck management user interface (Your Deck button). Maybe so the menu looks like:

Not sure about the Player Owns Card (y/n) bit above. How would you limit saved decks to allow only cards a player owns? Using a y/n flag like that would have to be updated every time someone entered the bazaar. To say nothing of tracking how many of a given card a player owns. So that Player Owns Card (y/n) part likely would not cut it.

Any additional ideas? Suggestions for improving? Different stuff altogether?

Also, opfinistic, I would love to see a copy of your spreadsheet or even just the basic layout.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: opfinistic on December 15, 2009, 10:09:30 pm

Once more, saved decks would be very useful. Personally, I can't see a reason to have more than 3-4 of them, usefully (a couple for specific purposes and one for experimentation).

Though that said, if they were implemented, it would probably also be necessary to fiddle with the cards displayed in the bazaar... After all, presumably cards could be in multiple decks (since only one deck is active at any one time), but that is likely to mean that with the current code, only the cards in the active deck are hidden in the bazaar - meaning you could accidentally sell cards in an inactive deck and then have trouble switching to it later...

Hopefully that would be an easy fix, though.
It wouldn't have to be a saved 'physical' deck, just a quick loading deck from your pool of cards.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Tobriand on December 15, 2009, 10:09:30 pm

Once more, saved decks would be very useful. Personally, I can't see a reason to have more than 3-4 of them, usefully (a couple for specific purposes and one for experimentation).

Though that said, if they were implemented, it would probably also be necessary to fiddle with the cards displayed in the bazaar... After all, presumably cards could be in multiple decks (since only one deck is active at any one time), but that is likely to mean that with the current code, only the cards in the active deck are hidden in the bazaar - meaning you could accidentally sell cards in an inactive deck and then have trouble switching to it later...

Hopefully that would be an easy fix, though.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: vice123 on December 15, 2009, 10:09:30 pm

+1 for deck saving.
There are many card games that support this - e.g. kongregate's kongai. Multiple decks using 1 instance of a card, you can only play 1 game with 1 deck at once anyway.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Forfeit on December 15, 2009, 10:09:32 pm

This kinda fits here, the option to sort your cards in the order you want would help, and you could have one deck in the 'your cards' area that way, without having to sort through all of them.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Mikhail Mengsk on December 15, 2009, 10:09:33 pm

good idea
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Cow2001 on December 15, 2009, 10:09:34 pm

I support that idea. I would say I need 3 decks:
and maybe a deck for T50 or L3 farming.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Cisco on December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm

yeah it´s long overdue
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Nihilus on December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm

Great Idea!
Title: Deck saving
Post by: perflubon on December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm

Seconded
Title: Deck saving
Post by: taneugene on December 15, 2009, 10:09:35 pm

I say give us 5 deck slots to play with. (PVP, Level 3 Farm, God Farm, Test Deck 1, Test Deck 2)

Grey-out cards that are in one of our deck list in the Bazaar, and maybe put in a sort of warning similar to rare cards when we are trying to sell cards from our decklist.



Title: Deck saving
Post by: LordAGo on December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm

well, you could encrypt the text files, there are quite a few good AS3 crypto libs out there ;)
Use public key encryption and it would be pretty failsafe. if you take a few additional security mechanics into account cheating might even be impossible
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Site Administrator on December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm

Yeah, but the problem with that is that if it was a text file that you could take, then it wouldn't take long for people to figure out the code, then the game will be full of uber-decks that are just made by cheats that have too much time on their hands.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: zzz123 on December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm

a somewhat simpler solution, similar to something proposed earlier in this thread:

encode the current deck as an alphanumeric string (e.g. 3:42.5:46.4:33.... and so on, so you have 3 instances of card#42, 5 instances of card#46, etc - any encoding scheme will work)

allow the player to save this (pop up a textbox with the value in it on demand)
allow the player to load it (pop up an empty textbox where the player can paste this value)
* for loading, do pre-validation to ensure all characters are valid and all cards still exist - if something is missing, either do a best-effort load (i.e. if you need 5 otys but only have 3, load the 3 and keep going) or abort the load completely with an appropriate error message ("missing 2 otys")


(idea stol borrowed from some game on kongregate)
Title: Deck saving
Post by: tycomp on December 15, 2009, 10:09:51 pm

I vote for this feature.  I say keep it simple, deck list could be a button you save to in the 'my deck' screen, and when you select one it removes all cards from the current deck and selects the cards you have which are in the saved deck.  If you are missing some of the cards you originally selected, you'd have to add more cards from your existing cards.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Uzra on December 15, 2009, 10:09:51 pm

Yeah, but the problem with that is that if it was a text file that you could take, then it wouldn't take long for people to figure out the code, then the game will be full of uber-decks that are just made by cheats that have too much time on their hands.
Why does it have to be a text file?  How does the game currently save our 'one' deck? With a text file? If not, then there's no need to make the 2nd deck a text file.  If so, then you already have that problem and adding decks does NOT compound the problem at all.  Sorry but this is a lame excuse for laziness at best.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Evil Hamster on December 15, 2009, 10:09:52 pm

Yeah, but the problem with that is that if it was a text file that you could take, then it wouldn't take long for people to figure out the code, then the game will be full of uber-decks that are just made by cheats that have too much time on their hands.
What? It's just a list the game can read. You'd still need to HAVE the cards. All it does is automate the decks listed (for example) here in the forum by card name or pictures.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Scaredgirl on December 15, 2009, 10:09:52 pm

Yeah, but the problem with that is that if it was a text file that you could take, then it wouldn't take long for people to figure out the code, then the game will be full of uber-decks that are just made by cheats that have too much time on their hands.
What? It's just a list the game can read. You'd still need to HAVE the cards. All it does is automate the decks listed (for example) here in the forum by card name or pictures.
Yeah. Same system is used in Guild Wars. They have this short line of text or code that you can give your friend and that code will build the deck, IF you have the cards. If you don't, it will leave that slot blank.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Uncle Jellyfish on December 15, 2009, 10:09:52 pm

Perhaps looking at other online card games like Armor Wars and Masteria would help. They both have deck saving features, although, not being a programmer, I've no idea how they do it exactly, but I think it's worth looking into.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: Uzra on December 15, 2009, 10:09:53 pm

Yeah, but the problem with that is that if it was a text file that you could take, then it wouldn't take long for people to figure out the code, then the game will be full of uber-decks that are just made by cheats that have too much time on their hands.
Why does it have to be a text file?  How does the game currently save our 'one' deck? With a text file? If not, then there's no need to make the 2nd deck a text file.  If so, then you already have that problem and adding decks does NOT compound the problem at all.  Sorry but this is a lame excuse for laziness at best.
this isn't as complicated as you guys let it be.  The game already saves your cards, and your deck.
Title: Deck saving
Post by: The conartist on December 15, 2009, 10:10:20 pm

Perhaps looking at other online card games like Armor Wars and Masteria would help. They both have deck saving features, although, not being a programmer, I've no idea how they do it exactly, but I think it's worth looking into.
I believe you mean mytheria
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: Avenger on December 19, 2009, 02:00:01 pm
It would be good if i could set some cards aside so i won't accidentally sell them. A place which isn't the current deck, nor the 'your cards' stack.
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: RRS1980 on February 18, 2010, 03:18:46 am
Kongai (http://www.kongregate.com/games/Kongregate/kongai) has this feature (saving multiple decks under a custom name) even though they only have 3-5 cards. With 30-60 cards this feature would be even more welcome.
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: dingo on February 18, 2010, 06:17:46 pm
Having the ability to save/load 3-5 decks would be a great improvement over the current system.
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: 918273645 on February 20, 2010, 05:12:52 am
I'm all for it! Then we wouldn't have to make alts! :D
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: PuppyChow on February 20, 2010, 07:40:45 am
I'm all for it! Then we wouldn't have to make alts! :D
Why do you need alts anyway? Almost everybody simply has one account with all their cards on it, since....

-You don't need to grind up from 0 for every deck (the 2nd+ decks you upgrade are much easier than the first)
-You don't need to log out and log back in
-You don't need to remember names and passwords
-You don't need to regrind for rares
-With one account your upgraded cards begin to overlap (use 6x quicksand in 5 different decks, for instance)

So you're sacrificing all of that for

-Don't have to switch marks and cards
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: W_H_L on February 20, 2010, 03:40:37 pm
A feature to save and load decks would be a brilliant feature.
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: Xinef on February 20, 2010, 03:49:04 pm
I am a programmer (NOT an elements developer to make it clear I am not impersonating anyone ;) )
and I know a bit about security, so basically there is no need to encode the saved decks. The only thing necessary is to check whether the file is correct (does not contain any SQL code for example), and check with the server if the player has the necessary cards.

There should obviously be no limit on the number of decks you can save. Most players will have 2, 3 maybe 5, but there are players who make decks against certain strategies, decks for fun, decks for certain events, saving deck with every change they make and so on.

The option to save decks as a text file that you have to save manually to your disc and paste back to load a deck would probably be very easy to implement, but has one disadvantage - no way to check if you are selling a card used in one of your decks.

I have one idea though - you could have one special deck (than can never be loaded, but can contain over 60 cards) that would contain a list of cards you do not want to sell. When saving any other deck you could specify that these cards should be added (if not already there) to that deck. Removing them would be done manually, card by card. This would also make possible to add a button to bazar - "sell all cards except the ones 'protected'"

This mechanism would allow us to have both decks that we want to protect from sale and ones (eg. some very old deck you keep only for sentiment reasons ;) ) that you do not protect. Also some way to add cards manually would be nice to eg. add rares we do not use in any deck.
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: PuppyChow on February 20, 2010, 07:32:28 pm
Zanz has said that at most there will be 3 or so saved deck spots available, since any more would make the game way too big and would take a long time to load.

(Edit: He just said he's thinking of making an export deck to a text file command)
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: assassim on February 22, 2010, 04:58:28 am
Deck saving is out in beta (sort-of), zanz made it so all the cards are turned into code so you can save you deck in a small notepad file.

test it out here

elementsthegame.com/beta
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: stage on April 29, 2010, 11:26:30 pm
Any news on the "Save Deck" feature? I think its absolutely needed for any CCG with many cards. Even if its only 3 slots it will help managing the decks.
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: icybraker on April 29, 2010, 11:33:38 pm
Deck saving is out in beta (sort-of), zanz made it so all the cards are turned into code so you can save you deck in a small notepad file.

test it out here

elementsthegame.com/beta
This. Deck codes are saved in deck files and exported. This system allows for faster game and conservation of server space and faster loading time. Plus, this is an infinite number of decks you can save ;)
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: xxxdeathxxx on April 30, 2010, 12:52:38 am
there should be 8 slots for deck saving: 2 for mono, duo, trio and rainbow
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: salsaheaven on April 30, 2010, 01:38:10 am
I really don't care in which form it comes, but a deck saving idea is one of the most needed features right now I think!
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: coinich on April 30, 2010, 02:18:31 am
We have that already.  The Import/Export button allows you to copy code to and from the client, storing the deck you want.  Simply because you save it in a text file on your own computer doesn't mean its not a save game thing.
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: Wisemage on April 30, 2010, 02:38:22 am
necro ftl.

Even if its only 3 months, thats a big deal when this is already implemented.
Title: Re: Deck saving
Post by: jmizzle7 on April 30, 2010, 05:27:19 am
Topic locked. Friends don't let friends perform thread necromancy.
blarg: