Gemp-LotR enters public beta

[MarcinS]

Lol, yeah.

I'm an aspiring-to-be-pro Magic player, which requires travelling. Not that I'm complaining - I'm loving it!

[MarcinS]

Progress report:
- done - 1c, 1d, 1e, 3a, 3c, 3e, 3f, 4b
- remaining - 3d, 4a

[MarcinS]

Example deck list produced by the server:

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer
Ring: The One Ring, The Ruling Ring

Adventure deck:
Farmer Maggot's Fields
Trollshaw Forest
Frodo's Bedroom
Balin's Tomb
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Dimrill Dale
Anduin Confluence
Shores of Nen Hithoel
Summit of Amon Hen

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x Arwen, Elven Rider
2x Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood
2x Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim
3x Boromir, Son of Denethor
2x Merry, From O'er the Brandywine
1x Sam, Proper Poet
1x Thrarin, Dwarven Smith
1x Dinendal, Silent Scout
1x Golradir, Councilor of Imladris
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal
1x Rosie Cotton, Hobbiton Lass
2x Wizard Staff
1x Flaming Brand
1x Shield of Boromir
1x Frying Pan
2x Hobbit Sword
3x Intimidate
4x Mysterious Wizard
3x Strength of Spirit
2x Swordarm of the White Tower
2x Deft in Their Movements
2x Hobbit Intuition
1x Hobbit Stealth
1x Hobbit Sword-play
1x There and Back Again

Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Goblin Backstabber
4x Goblin Flankers
3x Goblin Runner
4x Goblin Scavengers
3x Goblin Spearman
1x The Balrog, Durin's Bane
2x Orc Butcher
3x Orc Guard
1x Orc Pillager
1x Orc Scout
1x Orc Soldier
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Ringwraith in Twilight
1x Úlairë Otsëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Goblin Scimitar
4x Goblin Spear
2x Drums in the Deep
2x Host of Thousands
3x Old Differences
1x The Long Dark
1x Orc Bowmen
2x Under the Watching Eye

[Rhyme]

Hello... I love you site... may I suggest the following....

1)  Deck builder : since there will be many new leagues going on soon... it will save a lot of time for players to build deck if you include the filter for such league in the pull down button to filter out the card for a specific league (e.g. set 4 and 5 only)

2) Game hall : when creating a game table, I think it will be better to have a box for let us to input a short description/comment (let say max 30 characters) for that game.  it make us find player to test decks easier...

3) Merchant :  it's great that now you already have all sets included.   and we can purchase boosters too... will it be very trouble to also have starter deck for sale too?  I can see that you will eventually host leagues that only use self-owned cards... it will be faster for us to start collecting starting with starter deck??

[hsiale]

One more thing I forgot about previously, but would be very useful, especially when playing on public computers (and I guess not hard to implement either). We need a "Logout" button somewhere in the game hall

[hsiale]

I remember you said once that "Collector's" leagues and tournaments will have higher prize support. First of such events is coming, could you tell us what are the current prize support schemes in Gemp? All I know 100% is a non-collector's weekly prizes:

1st win - a booster choice,
2nd win - a foil common,
3rd win - a booster choice,
4th win - a non-foil promo,
5th win - a booster choice,
6th win - a foil promo,
7th win - a foil uncommon,
8th win - a booster choice,
9th win - a foil common and a non-foil promo,
10th win - a booster choice.

Knowing what prizes are possible to win would help us choose the leagues to join when we have limited time to play

[MarcinS]

The prizes for individual game wins are the same. The only difference is the end of the league booster count. It will be twice as much as sealed leagues, and over 5 times as many as non-collector's constructed (excluding current one).

[hsiale]

Is there a reason for exact numbers/formulae not to be revealed (and added to League Rules on Gemp site). It is of course clear that it's worth entering a league if you are going to play all games (unless you lose (close to) all games), but with many leagues available people will need this knowledge to decide if they should enter a league when they know they will have time only to play part of the games.

Why do the sealed leagues have better prize support than non-collector's constructed now that the only difference is card pool available - as the cards you use in sealed league no longer go to your collection after it is finished?

[MarcinS]

Is there a reason for exact numbers/formulae not to be revealed (and added to League Rules on Gemp site). It is of course clear that it's worth entering a league if you are going to play all games (unless you lose (close to) all games), but with many leagues available people will need this knowledge to decide if they should enter a league when they know they will have time only to play part of the games.

Why do the sealed leagues have better prize support than non-collector's constructed now that the only difference is card pool available - as the cards you use in sealed league no longer go to your collection after it is finished?

Here is the formula:
        int count = (int) Math.floor((2 * playersCount + 24) / (position + 9) - 2.4);
        if (count > 0)
            count = 1 + (int) Math.floor((count - 1) * multiplier);

Where the multipliers are:
0.35 - for constructed leagues (excluding the current one)
1 - for sealed league
2 - for collector's constructed leagues

The reason for sealed leagues having better prize support than non-collector's constructed being, that there is no way of making collector's sealed events.

[jahataku]

Thanks for implementing starter decks

When can we expect starters for ROTK, SoG and MD to be added?

Are you planning to add anything else to the merchant option? New products or something like that?

[MarcinS]

Thanks for implementing starter decks

When can we expect starters for ROTK, SoG and MD to be added?

Are you planning to add anything else to the merchant option? New products or something like that?

I'll get all the other starters, when I find a monkey to type them in the format I need.

I'm planning to add the promo collections to the merchant at some point.

[bibfortuna25]

One suggestion for the program:

Could you make it so when a card is played to a player's support area, it is placed next to all other cards of that title? It would be much more convenient if, say all the copies of Goblin Armory or A Promise or whatever are grouped together on the playing surface.

[MarcinS]

One suggestion for the program:

Could you make it so when a card is played to a player's support area, it is placed next to all other cards of that title? It would be much more convenient it, say all the copies of Goblin Armory or A Promise or whatever are grouped together on the playing surface.

That would mean, that the client side has to know the name of the card (it doesn't at the moment). This would have to be sent to the client, which might increase the amount of information sent too much.

Anyway - at the moment you can easily drag the cards around their zones (hand, support, minions, companions) with your mouse, so you can arrange them anyway you want.

[bibfortuna25]

Oh, I didn't know I could drag cards around. That's a good solution!

[hsiale]

I feel that with multiple leagues running simultaneously we need a more predictable league system. Currently we don't know what leagues are coming next, when do they come and how long will they last. And all those things must be decided each time for a single league, which increases maintenance time.

A proposal of a simple system that would require only decisions on what format a new league uses:

1. Each league consists of 4 series. Each serie lasts 9 days.
2. At any given time, 3 leagues are running. One sealed, one constructed, one collector's constructed. As soon as a league ends, another one (of the same type, but with different format) starts.
3. A league starts every 12 days.

This gives us a system that spreads events evenly on the calendar (a league series would start exactly every third day). People know what to expect and they can prepare.

How to start this:

Current Towers Constructed league ends on 22.04. Let's call this Day 0.

Day 0 (22.04.2012) TTT Constructed #1 ends.            
Day 1 (23.04.2012) New Constructed Serie 1 starts.
Day 2 (24.04.2012)                  
Day 3 (25.04.2012)                  
Day 4 (26.04.2012) FotR Collector's Constructed Serie 3 starts.               
Day 5 (27.04.2012)                  
Day 6 (28.04.2012) TTT Sealed #2 Serie 4 starts.         
Day 7 (29.04.2012)                  
Day 8 (30.04.2012)                  
Day 9 (1.05.2012)                  
Day 10 (2.05.2012) FotR Collector's Constructed ends. New Constructed Serie 2 starts.
Day 11 (3.05.2012)                  
Day 12 (4.05.2012) TTT Sealed #2 ends.         
Day 13 (5.05.2012) New Sealed Serie 1 starts.   
Day 14 (6.05.2012)                  
Day 15 (7.05.2012)                  
Day 16 (8.05.2012)                  
Day 17 (9.05.2012)                  
Day 18 (10.05.2012)                  
Day 19 (11.05.2012) New Constructed Serie 3 starts.
Day 20 (12.05.2012)                  
Day 21 (13.05.2012)                  
Day 22 (14.05.2012) New Sealed Serie 2 starts.   
Day 23 (15.05.2012)                  
Day 24 (16.05.2012)                  
Day 25 (17.05.2012) New Collector's Serie 1 starts. System fully working from now on.      
Day 26 (18.05.2012)                  
Day 27 (19.05.2012)                  
Day 28 (20.05.2012) New Constructed Serie 4 starts.
Day 29 (21.05.2012)                  
Day 30 (22.05.2012)                  
Day 31 (23.05.2012) New Sealed Serie 3 starts.   
Day 32 (24.05.2012)                  
Day 33 (25.05.2012)                  
Day 34 (26.05.2012) New Collector's Serie 2 starts.      
Day 35 (27.05.2012)                  
Day 36 (28.05.2012) New Constructed ends.

Transition costs are two weeks without a Collector's league running (both Constructed and Sealed leagues fit into the schedule and a new can start as soon as the current finishes). I think that's not a lot, especially as two weeks more for people to get cards and build decks will not do any harm. This league still would start less than a month from now, so its format should be announced soon, collector's leagues need to be announced well in advance.

What do you think of this?