Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/09/13 08:38I'm about to add EVE support to ArcanistCCG, a card table that runs on Windows, Linux, and, so I'm told, Mac . It handles over thirty games, and once set up, it's deceptively simple to play with. http://vhati.spymac.com/ArcanistCCG/
I started with a dump of this site's db, then made extensive corrections and applied errata.
It uses images if available, rotates all 4 ways and has a very versatile deck builder (Searches per field can be like google: this -that "the other"). It has sidedecks, n-sided dierollers, counters (say for ISK), draggable tokens and draggable notes. It can do double-faced cards too, but EVE doesn't really need that yet.
Collecting the images isn't too hard, but it's not exactly a two-click process. You can run plain text with minimal effort to stay under a meg, or grab scans from here, or eve-foiled. To make it easier for newbs, one can zip up the images or the ArcanistCCG dir and pass it around, or burn a CD and run from that. The only req is Java 1.4 or later.
Three things that might not be obvious at first glance. * Rotating is done by dragging a card's corner. * Hands don't exist. I'll probably add them in the next major version, but believe it or not, you won't need em. Instead, by default cards you draw are face up only for you. Right-clicking one in a networked game lets you independently flip for yourself or opponents or both. * Lastly, you can shift-select multiple objects and manipulate the group.
If there are any special online practices you guys use, especially card layouts, please reply.
I only discovered this game a couple nights ago, and I haven't seen an example layout that shows both players' cards except for that OCTGN screenshot. That's probably an issue for the EVE webmasters, as for a while I thought one had to warp through outer regions to get at bases.
Post edited by: Vhati, at: 2007/09/13 10:07
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Brootal
User Battlecruiser
Posts: 464
Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/09/13 09:44Images shouldn't take too long to get, I got down the complete exiled set in under half an hour manually.
Layouts for Eve are relatively tricky, while it's not too bad on a table, squeezing it into a computer screen with decent sized images is difficult.
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Vhati
User Frigate
Posts: 25
Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/09/13 09:53Oh, I've already collected the images for myself, for the proofreading. I stepped through each one and compared with the text.
What I mean is my table is generic and as such, players setting up need to follow a pretty straightforward proceedure to mass-download the pics.
I collect urls to jpegs and host the list; then folks run a tool to download everything on the list. It's easy once you get the hang of it.
As for squeezing: not a problem. Infinite (well huge ), scrollable table size and a mini-map. The screenshots on the site show typical usage.
It is rather tight for 800x600 screens, but 1024x768 doesn't even need scrolling for most CCGs. One screenshot includes a particularly rediculous game of Magic.
If you're forunate enough to have two-monitors or one big one, it'll make efficient use of all the screen real-estate you can throw at it.
I'll make a new screenshot depicting EVE if I get a reply kinda like this (paste from notepad). At 1024, 8.5x6 fit end to end, but as I said, the table's scrollable. And overlapping will double the capacity...
Code:
/1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-\
1 D U S M|
| RL |
2LLBT |
| U U |
3UUU RL |
| |
4UUU RL |
| U U |
5LLBT |
| RL |
6 D U S M|
\----------------/
U-Undocked, D-Docked, T-Struct, B-Base, R-Region, L-Location, S-Scrap, M-Market. Remaining space is for hands and expansion. All four edges can stretch outward as if you're in the middle of a big real-world table.
Post edited by: Vhati, at: 2007/09/13 11:56
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Though both sites' images are available, I suggest using the EVE-foiled ones. Easier on the eyes, and sticking to just jpg or just gif avoids potential filename conflicts between players' decks.
A screenshot resembling the above layout has been uploaded, until a better one comes along.
Enjoy.
Post edited by: Vhati, at: 2007/09/13 13:42
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Maarud
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Posts: 25
Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/09/13 14:01Zooming in and out would be a cool feature, specially since its scrollable. Zoome out you can see all the cards, but small, you you get a better idea on the layout, but soomed in, it's normal size and scrollable.
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Vhati
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Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/09/13 14:17Maarud wrote: Zooming in and out would be a cool feature, specially since its scrollable. Zoome out you can see all the cards, but small, you you get a better idea on the layout, but soomed in, it's normal size and scrollable. Cool, yes. But, surprisingly, not especially useful. Zooming in would give you a larger view of partially obscurred cards and fewer of them. And technical stuff gets in the way like skyrocketing RAM usage.
If you want to read a card, just wave the mouse over any part of it, and it appears in the JumboView on the right at its full size.
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Karash
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Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/09/13 17:47How exactly do you go about getting images into the game? Can we get a writeup or step by step?
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Vhati
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Posts: 25
Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/09/13 18:34Karash wrote: How exactly do you go about getting images into the game? Can we get a writeup or step by step? On the left side of that site, you'll find 'Setup' and 'Spiders'. Are you looking for more? Here's a directory tree showing where everything goes.
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Elohim
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Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/09/21 10:47I´m sorry but I must be really a newb but how do I get the .jpg -image files dl´d from the site? If I just copy the files they come in gif format. Do I need to convert them myself somehow? How?
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Vhati
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Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/09/23 22:17Elohim wrote: I´m sorry but I must be really a newb but how do I get the .jpg -image files dl´d from the site? If I just copy the files they come in gif format. Do I need to convert them myself somehow? How?No conversion necessary. You have two sources to choose from: this site and eve-foiled. The former has gifs, and the latter has jpgs.
Just put scans of either type in folders with the expansions' names and they'll work.
When playing against someone, it's best to have the same type of image though.
If you really prefer the low-res gifs from here but want to convert them into jpgs, you can use Irfanview.
Post edited by: Vhati, at: 2007/09/23 22:18
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Elohim
User Frigate
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Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/10/03 16:28Ok I finally did it and scanned all the foiled card images and ran the renamer in the folder I scanned them in but they dont show up on Arcanist - card info does, but not the image... what am I doing wrong??
Btw is IRC the only way of finding people to play with? Since I´ve never used it I iz not pleased
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Vhati
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Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/10/05 04:00Elohim wrote: ..they dont show up on Arcanist - card info does, but not the image... what am I doing wrong?? Okay. You're nearly done. At this point you should have two, or three, directories: "CoreSet", "TheExiled", and "Promo" in your EVE dir, each containing images named after the cards' titles.
Btw is IRC the only way of finding people to play with?Not ncessarily. There's currently no built-in matchmaker.
This community does seem to favor IRC, but any 3rd party medium could work. Some games tend to use forum posts or PMs. I typically IM someone and send him my address from http://www.whatismyip.com
Hmm... An ambitious web developer could put an applet on this or another site that connects to the community's IRC channel to save players the need to install/configure a client.
Post edited by: Vhati, at: 2007/10/05 04:15
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Elohim
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Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/10/06 12:53Thanks alot for the nub help Vhati, couldn´t have done it without you. Anyways... got my first Amarr deck done and would like to try it out. So PM me if you wanna match against a total Newbie to EVE
P.S. ..still a few images doesnt show up but they´re only a few and far between.. mostly Core Set locations for some reason ...dunno what´s the problem with that.
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Vhati
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Re:Gaming Online with ArcanistCCG - 2007/10/07 06:21Elohim wrote: P.S. ..still a few images doesnt show up but they´re only a few and far between.. mostly Core Set locations for some reason ...dunno what´s the problem with that.
Not a lot about it that can break: missing, corrupt, or misnamed. Maybe a network hiccup when you were downloading?
See if pics for the cards exist in those folders, and try looking at them outside of ArcanistCCG. If they're named the same as their titles, they should appear in the deckbuilder (Veldspar, for example, lists 3 versions).
If they're missing or corrupt, try surfing to the imagelist and clicking some of the links as if it were a gallery (ctrl-f). You can right-click/save as to get em one by one, or you could spider the whole set again. *shrug*
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. It handles over thirty games, and once set up, it's deceptively simple to play with.
I'll probably add them in the next major version, but believe it or not, you won't need em. Instead, by default cards you draw are face up only for you. Right-clicking one in a networked game lets you independently flip for yourself or opponents or both.
), scrollable table size and a mini-map. The screenshots on the site show typical usage.
...dunno what´s the problem with that.
