Deck editor & Deck save format
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 23:29
This is a general thought that could be implemented wherever:
A client/server will somehow allow the players to build and save their decks. In most (all?) programs I've seen the save files are very simple and readble. Readability is a feature and should be kept intact. What has been poorly handled are two things:
1. Meta-data
Usually there is no meta-data gathering going on. For example it would be good to know for the patch-creators how many times a card occurs in the decks that are beeing built, which x y z cards that usually tend to end up in the same deck(s), what the average amount of creatures cards of faction y is in a deck and so on. The possibities are many and the info can be of great assitance for a game developer for example balancing reasons, as well as the community of players in general.
Meta-data also allows "global" deck registration via for example hashes where a user that is first to "invent" and register a deck will always be given credit for that deck online within the community. This stimulates deck pubic building, which in return stimulates competitive play as well as casual.
(In addition deck derivatives can also be followed up. If I for example am the first to register a deck with cards x y z in it and we then see an almost identic deck that has x y z-2 w in it, it is clearly a derivative (regardless if the author really derived it or not from the previous deck). )
2. Revision handling
What happens in many games/patches is that people build a deck, put some cards in it, and six months later the card(s) they put in it have, to some degree, changed. So if I would have "4 x Darth Vader" in my deck and the only info about which card I put in the deck is that teh card name is "Darth Vader", there is no easy way of knowing of the deck is still doing what it was intended to, or if it has, due to some balancing from the game devs or some card bans etc, become obsolote or ineffective. To handle that I suggest that the deck-save files also have info about exactly which version of the card that was actually used when building the deck. When you then load a deck where the cards have changed you would be warned for the potential danger of surprise that awaits you, and it would point out which cards have changed since you built the deck. Youi are then either expected to fix that on your own in whatever deck editor, or, the program can update your deck-save-file if you just "accept" the changes and mark them as "reviewed" or "accepted".
A client/server will somehow allow the players to build and save their decks. In most (all?) programs I've seen the save files are very simple and readble. Readability is a feature and should be kept intact. What has been poorly handled are two things:
1. Meta-data
Usually there is no meta-data gathering going on. For example it would be good to know for the patch-creators how many times a card occurs in the decks that are beeing built, which x y z cards that usually tend to end up in the same deck(s), what the average amount of creatures cards of faction y is in a deck and so on. The possibities are many and the info can be of great assitance for a game developer for example balancing reasons, as well as the community of players in general.
Meta-data also allows "global" deck registration via for example hashes where a user that is first to "invent" and register a deck will always be given credit for that deck online within the community. This stimulates deck pubic building, which in return stimulates competitive play as well as casual.
(In addition deck derivatives can also be followed up. If I for example am the first to register a deck with cards x y z in it and we then see an almost identic deck that has x y z-2 w in it, it is clearly a derivative (regardless if the author really derived it or not from the previous deck). )
2. Revision handling
What happens in many games/patches is that people build a deck, put some cards in it, and six months later the card(s) they put in it have, to some degree, changed. So if I would have "4 x Darth Vader" in my deck and the only info about which card I put in the deck is that teh card name is "Darth Vader", there is no easy way of knowing of the deck is still doing what it was intended to, or if it has, due to some balancing from the game devs or some card bans etc, become obsolote or ineffective. To handle that I suggest that the deck-save files also have info about exactly which version of the card that was actually used when building the deck. When you then load a deck where the cards have changed you would be warned for the potential danger of surprise that awaits you, and it would point out which cards have changed since you built the deck. Youi are then either expected to fix that on your own in whatever deck editor, or, the program can update your deck-save-file if you just "accept" the changes and mark them as "reviewed" or "accepted".