forge/CHANGES.txt

Forge Beta: 06-##-2013 ver 1.4.1


12### cards in total.


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Release Notes
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- Java 7 -
The devs are discussing a plan to update the battlefield display code with Java FX 2.2 and this should help to improve a few things. Java FX 2.2 requires Java 7 so it is important for members of our user base to update in the near future as Forge at the time of the update will no longer run under Java 6.


- New M14 cards -
We have added a branch to our SVN for the new cards that are currently being scripted. These cards are not yet available in this build of forge. Please be patient and they will soon become available.


- The AI Drafting has been improved -
The AI evaluated the basic lands higher than anything else. Fixed. The AI would pick cards with RemAIDeck but only at a much lowered pick rate. For example the best pick in a 250 card set would become the 75th best pick, the 20th best pick would become the 95th and so on. Divided this factor by 3 (so the first pick would become the 25th pick). Please test whether this has improved the draft experience.


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New Cards
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Patron of the Akki
Patron of the Kitsune
Patron of the Moon
Patron of the Orochi
Grimoire Thief
Minion of Leshrac
Patron of the Nezumi
Prowling Pangolin
Gemstone Caverns


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New Planes
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Furnace Layer
Mirrored Depths
Kharasha Foothills
Mimano


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New M14 branch Cards
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Advocate of the Beast
Ajani's Chosen
Archangel of Thune
Awaken the Ancient
Battle Sliver
Blur Sliver
Bonescythe Sliver
Charging Grffin
Dawnstrike Paladin
Devout Invocation
Enlarge
Glimpse the Future
Grim Return
Groundshaker Sliver
Guardian of the Ages
Hive Stirrings
Hunt the Weak
Jace's Mindseeker
Kalonian Tusker
Liliana's Reaver
Master of Diversion
Megantic Sliver
Molten Birth
Ogre Battledriver
Predatory Sliver
Primeval Bounty
Regathan Firecat
Ring of Three Wishes
Rise of the Dark Realms
Scourge of Valkas
Sentinel Sliver
Seraph of the Sword
Shadowborn Apostle
Shadowborn Demon
Sliver Construct
Soulmender
Sporemound
Staff of the Death Magus
Staff of the Flame Magus
Staff of the Mind Magus
Staff of the Wild Magus
Steelform Sliver
Stonehorn Chanter
Striking Sliver
Thorncaster Sliver
Undead Minotaur
Vastwood Hydra
Vial of Poison
Windreader Sphinx
Woodborn Behemoth
Young Pyromancer


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Known Issues
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We have received several reports about a Null Pointer Exception crash report which contains the following info:

java.lang.NullPointerException
   at forge.gui.match.VMatchUI.populate(VMatchUI.java:###)
   at forge.control.FControl.changeState(FControl.java:###)

We currently suspect that this is a thread misuse issue. This will cause forge to crash eventually on some systems. Once the SwingWorkers that start different types of matches are refactored this problem should be fixed. The problem with a match starting with a blank screen will also be gone.

A small number of cards including Wall of Corpses, Abu Ja'far and others with a similar ability are not functional. The common issue here is actually that they check the blocker/attacker after being removed from the battlefield. Probably need to use LKI. Regular destroy/destroy all effects work just fine. The problem cards are caring about battlefield specific properties, that no longer apply when the base card is no longer on the battlefield.

On several occasions people have noticed that the Forge deck editor and/or quest mode card shop would not open or display. We have also received reports that some of the tabs/panels in the deck editor are missing. There has also been reports that Forge will crash while creating/populating display components during start up or crash when a match is started. One or both of your layout xml files may be corrupted in some fashion. Try deleting the file(s) named "editor.xml" and/or "match.xml" that are now located in your userDir/preferences/ directory. This should force Forge to then use the default layout xml files instead.

Several people have noticed that the cards displayed on the battlefield will fail to be displayed when the number of cards on the battlefield increases. Maximizing the human panel can help to re-display the cards.

Some time was spent turning the static ETB triggers into the proper ETB replacement effects they should be, mainly to interact correctly with each other. This work is not yet finished. As a result there is currently some inconsistencies with "Enters the battlefield with counters" (Not incredibly noticeable).

A recent contribution to the code base should fix some of the bugs that people noticed with cloning type abilities. At this time there are two remaining issues that we hope will be addressed in the near future.

1. Leave play triggers don't work correct for clones.
2. Copies of cards that setup Zone Change triggers via addComesIntoPlayCommand and addLeavesPlayCommand will not function correctly.

There is currently a known issue with some of the cards that have effects triggering after the card goes to graveyard (e.g. Wall of Corpses, Abu Ja'Far) not working correctly.

Forge is likely to be compatible with Java 7 at this time. Some people have used forge with Java 7 and have not reported any problems that are related to Java 7. If you would like to upgrade to Java 7 and have held off because of Forge then you may upgrade as we do not think that it will cause an incompatibility type of problem. We will continue to try to maintain compatibility with Java 6 for the foreseeable future.

The Forge archive includes a readme.txt file and we ask that you spend a few minutes reading this file as it contains some information that may prove useful. We do tend to update this file at times and you should quickly read this file and look for new information for each and every new release. Thank you.

The archive format used for the Forge distribution is ".tar.bz2". There are utilities for Windows, Mac OS and the various *nix's that can be used to extract/decompress these ".tar.bz2" archives. We recommend that you extract/decompress the Forge archive into a new and unused folder.

Some people use the Windows application 7zip. This utility can be found at http://www.7-zip.org/download.html. Mac users can double click on the archive and the application Archive Utility will launch and extract the archive. Mac users do not need to download a separate utility.


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Contributors to This Release
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(Quest icons used created by Teekatas, from his Legendora set http://raindropmemory.deviantart.com)
(Thanks to the MAGE team for permission to use their targeting arrows.)
(Thanks to http://www.freesound.org/browse/ for providing some sound files.)


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