Hobbit Game on Gemp - Current Status and Bugs

[Durin's Heir]

NEWS: The new Constructed Restriction list was just implemented! It gives true freedom for players, and new players won't be repeled or hindered anymore by a lengthy list. Magnificent!

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I'm honoured to carry the news to you all, that the Hobbit Draft Game is finally on Gemp! Cheers!  

But being its implementation still in development, it still has some bugs. So this will be the place where the current state of things will be informed to the public. And if someone wants to lend in a hand and help to find errors, you'd be very welcome to submit here any bug you catch.

The info is divided in 3 categories: 1) rules, 2) card restrictions, and 3) current bugs.


1) Rules: The rules are exactly the same as FotR block (the simplest and earliest of formats), except for the addition of followers (which came much later). Besides that:
    - followers have a race, which provides more interaction (like "spot X Dwarves"),
    - Bilbo doesn't start with The One Ring (which is a FP artifact here),
    - some terms changed names (only in card images) but the functionality is the same: Bilbo is your "burglar" instead of your "Ring-bearer," and "burdens" are called "doubts."

That's all about rule differences.


2) Card Restrictions: Some few cards are restricted to 1x or 2x maximum copies. That's meant to reduce overpowered combos, which simply cannot occur in the much more limited Draft Format where the game was born.

FREE PEOPLES:

* Shire:
    - 1x •Bilbo as "Burglar" (and 0x in draw deck).
    - 1x •The One Ring
    - 2x An Acorn from Beorn's House

* Dwarven:
    - 1x of each Dwarf companion: •Thorin, •Balin, •Dwalin, •Nori, •Glóin, •Kili, •Fili.
    - 1x of 3 followers: •Dori, •Bifur, •Bombur.
    - 2x Dwarven Axe
    - 2x Ancestral Knowledge

* Gandalf:
    - 1x •Gandalf in total (regardless of subtitles).
    - 1x •Beorn, Skin-Changer
    - 1x •Glamdring
    - 1x The Eagles Are Coming

SHADOW:

* Smaug (new culture):
    - 1x •Smaug, The Golden
    - 1x •The Arkenstone, King's Jewel

So every card not mentioned here has a maximum of (you guessed right!) 4 copies!


3) Current Bugs: Some cards don't work as they should. Bugs listed in blue were fixed in code and are waiting only for a server update; bugs listed in red still haven't been worked in code.

Free Peoples:
   - Gandalf, Leader of the Company and Gandalf, Leader of Dwarves lack the Wise keyword.
   - He Gives Me Courage can exert Gandalf event if you cannot exert an Wise ally (removes no burden).
   - Beorn can be discarded, whether borne or not.
   - Gandalf, Leader of Dwarves discards NO follower when returning from discard pile.
   - Dawn Take You All delivers NO wound if all minions are exhausted.
   - The Eagles Are Coming cannot attach a follower.

Shadow:
   - Goblin Song makes you pay the regular cost before the special cost, when played from discard pile.
   - Riddles in the Dark prompts "Would you like to - null to prevent - Choose a SHIRE card."
   - Caught in a Sack should be unique.

Sites:
   - Site 2 Trollshaw Forest sometimes cannot be used by one or both players.


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- Fixed Bugs log:

* Nov 13, 2017:
   - All the 13 Missing Cards were included. Cheers!
   - Fixed Gandalf, Friend of Thorin's gametext.
   - Fixed Smaug's self-discard (when not at an underground).
   - Fixed Elrond's subtitle and self-healing (could heal once only per turn).
   - Fixed twilight cost: The One Ring, Caught in a Sack and Fimbul.
   - Fixed twilight cost reduction: Smaug, Spider Nest and Crazy Cob.
   - Fixed wrong phase: Tauriel and Watchful Orc (regroup); Dawn Take You All (maneuver).
   - Fixed exertion cost: Thranduil and Threatening Warg (only once); Caught in a Sack and Enchanted River (discarded even when exerting).
   - Fixed effect's duration: Gollum (same phase) and Caught in a Sack (end of the turn).
   - Fixed strength bonus: of Noble Intentions (+5); Oakenshield and Gollum (+0).
   - Fixed playing from discard: Goblin Song, Gandalf Leader of Dwarves and site 5 Old Forest Road.
   - Fixed wrong targets of AWINL, Wizard Staff, Not At Home and Anger.
   - Fixed race: Goblin Runner.
   - Fixed revealing hand on the Great Goblin.
   - Fixed Thorin's resistance.
   - Fixed sites: site 4 Underground Lake and site 5 Old Forest Road.

* Nov 13-14: very short lived bugs:
   - Fixed game crashes: Gwaihir (if was used from support area); Great Barricade and Ancestral Knowledge (tried to exert Dwarf followers).
   - Fixed wrong phase: Bolg, Servant of Sauron.
   - Fixed Burglar's Contract (the skirmish skill couldn't be used).

* Nov 23-24:
   - Fixed game crashes: Battle of Azanulbizar (tried to exert Dwarf followers); Emeralds of Girion (if there was no Man); Crazy Cob (if an Orc was killed).
   - Fixed limits: Bilbo, Reliable Companion; Rhudaur; Underground Lake .
   - Fixed wrong targets: Smaug, The Evil Becomes Stronger and He Gives Me Courage.
   - Fixed Site 8 Smaug's Den.
   - Fixed wrong phase trigger: The Arkenstone, King's Jewel (start of maneuver).
   - Fixed twilight addition: Mithril Coat.
   - Fixed twilight cost: If He Loses.
   - Fixed strength modifying skills: Bilbo, Master in Riddles; Wicked Spider.
   - Fixed Old Thrush (could self-discard from support area).
   - Fixed Bert (triggered to discarding by the Shadow player).

* Jan 4, 2018:
   - Added a limit for Ancestral Feuds.
   - Fixed Beorn's discard negation.
   - Fixed wrong player's decision: Tauriel (Shadow player decided).
   - Fixed strength modifiers: Bilbo, Master in Riddles (-4 by a single use) and Battle Fury (+4 with non- followers).
   - Fixed twilight cost: Dori (), Dwarven Song () and Great Barricade ().
   - Fixed Thranduil's skil (allowed him to take archery wounds).
   - Fixed wrong phase: Nori (Skirmish instead of Maneuver).

                                      ...and we're still working for the Greater Good.

-----------------                                                                           (the Greater Good!)

That's all by now. Please comment, and lend us your aid!

And feel free to experience the Hobbit Draft Game on Gemp.

[Durin's Heir]

"Game was cancelled due to an error, the error was logged and will be fixed soon.
Please post the replay game link and description of what happened on the TLHH forum."

Have you ever received this happy message? Here's the thread to post the replay links, and this is the post where I compile them all!

...

Crashed Games (6 links by now):
            (the order is NOT chronological, there is no order actually, the numbers are merely to identify them)

1.- deckhunter vs Makinwa: On Makinwa's site 8. (No Bolg/Great Goblin)
2.- daisukeman vs botox600: On botox600's site 4. (Great Goblin vs Dwalin)
3.- daisukeman vs Caram: On Caram's site 6. (No Bolg/Great Goblin)
4.- LlamaHero vs Chrom: On LlamaHero's site 3. (Bolg vs Thorin)
5.- deckhunter vs Caram: On deckhunter's site 7. (Great Goblin vs Gandalf)
6.- DurinsHeir vs JimSawyer: On my site 4. (Bolg vs Thorin)

Most of them involve Bolg OR the Great Goblin. I suspected it had to do with the fierce keyword, since the GG is naturally fierce and Bolg often mounts a Warg; but game #4 shows both Thorin and Bolg barehanded and unmounted.

Still, games #1 and #3 do not involve those cost unique Orcses. #1 has 2 fierce minions (a Spider & Smaug), while #3 has none...

Quite strange.

[Phallen Cassidy]

Here's what I've gathered:

•Fimbil twilight's cost is  erroneously 3, rather than 2
•Goblin Runner was erroneously given the race of "Goblin," rather than "Orc," breaking most interactions with this card (Other Orcs should respond properly)
•Noble Intentions grants +5 strength to Bilbo, rather than +3
•Not at Home may place any card at the top of the draw deck, rather than just Shadow cards

[Durin's Heir]

Alright, added them to the list. Forgot totally the Not At Home one!


Hobbit_Lad's 2E has the commoners with the race of Goblin. Perhaps that's the origin of the confusion.


EDIT: Spider Nest, Crazy Cob and Enchanted River are added to the list.

[MarcinS]

Just to report real quick - "Better Than Nothing" is currently bugged, so that it crashes the game, do not include it in your deck.

[Durin's Heir]

I added it at the start of the 1st post...

Still, it must be under certain circumstances, 'cause Enola played it vs me in the very 1st match, and it didn't crash. Here's the replay (be patient, he used it at site 8!): http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=DurinsHeir$e40itplke4nacmvw

[MarcinS]

Also, Thranduil allows to be activated when you can exert Thorin once only.

[Durin's Heir]

Added each and every discordance in maximum copies allowed, per card.

Alright, added that Thranduil bug.

Deeply thanks for all your time and effort!

[MarcinS]

I've fixed all card bugs reported so far in code, not on the website yet. I'll wait a bit for some more reports to come in.

https://github.com/MarcinSc/gemp-lotr/commits/master

[-Enola-]

Great news!

The new link of Smaug's Den is now
http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/Cards_Good_def/8_Smaug_s_den.png

For the maximum number of cards allowed, the best way for players to handle it is to make the Hobbit only a My cards format and give each player this number of copies for each card. That way, player will know how much copies they can put in their deck.

Gandalf, Friend of Thorin is different from last year (it was the only change among the existing cards). So the card doesn't work in the right way.

[Durin's Heir]

How could I forget the Gandalf FoT change? Added it above to the bugs, in red.

Also, checked each and every card title in the deckbuilder (FP, Shadow and site), to measure their answer to their proper names. Only 1 card failed: Elrond, who answers well to the title, but rather to the subtitle "Herald to Gil-Galad"! Added it above to the bugs, in blue.


I like the idea of a fixed My Cards collection. But those would need to be excluded from the Merchant (from selling and buying; showing is innocuous). Also, might be better that those cards are delivered in single a pack to each player, so only active players open their respective pack; I believe that might save some server disk and/or transfer resources (but I'm guessing again).

[Phallen Cassidy]

Corrected Elrond, Elven Lord and the card restrictions. Fixed Troll Campfire spot cost.

Caught in a Sack discards a Troll, rather than exerting him

[Durin's Heir]

Added Caught in a Sack to the list above, in red. (Since new detected bugs are few, all will be in colors so it's easier to get updated.)

When correcting it, the options must be "exert a [Troll] cultured Troll" or "discard a minion." Not "exert any Troll," because the Extensions #2 and #3 will too have Trolls present but ones, and the Sack provides too much power to a Swarm having Trolls (so then must discard a swarming minion).


In Card Restrictions, does 1x copy of Gandalf/Bilbo exclude the other versions? (It's not enough to add them to the R-list.) If not, that'd be the only thing left respecting the 1st list. Seems like the lists 1 and 3 will be very empty after the next reset.

But the list 2 (Missing Cards) is still unworked.

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EDIT: Dictionary and I playtested, and found 2 bugs. (Both happened on cards under Dictionary's control, so his replay in more valious than mine.)

- Gandalf, Leader of Dwarves doesn't play himself from discard pile. Dictionary had 2 Dwarf followers in play at site 5, and still could never replay him there or onwards.
- Caught in a Sack's effect lasted until the end of the turn (should last only during that assignment). Apparently, it's Shelob, Her Ladyship's code. It was used on Dwalin at the non-fierce assignment at site 9, and he was still blocked at the fierce one. Moreover, Fili was "caught" at site 8 (fierce assignment) and couldn't fight at all at site 9!

Here's the replay.

Also, we found 2 good things: 1) Goblin Runner cannot spot himself to add , which is the way it was always meant; and 2) I used Anger to pump a site (Esgaroth was strength +2!)... but still, the game didn't crash!

[Dictionary]

In a game with Durin's Heir, we found Caught in a Sack lasts until end of turn, rather than for 1 assignment (See replay at site 9). Gandalf, Leader of Dwarves was not replayable (Site 6). Also Sack's prompt says "null to prevent null"

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=Dictionary$6u2gbuzg6r712kjm

[Durin's Heir]

Found another one: Thorin's resistance is strangely always 0 (while all other and companions have a base of 6).

That matters absolutely nothing by now, but if someday in the far future "the cards of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings will be able to be played together at a table of brotherhood," then it will need to be fixed. So let's not leave for tomorrow what we can fix today!