View source for DotP 2013: Deck Builder: FAQ

These are questions that I have either been asked frequently enough (about the builder) or thought were important enough to list here.

== General ==
=== Do you expect this program to completely replace the way modders make decks? ===
No, modders tend to be creatures of habit (as is human nature), unless they personally see value in changing their methods they are unlikely to change the way they make mods.  If some modders/users find this program useful then I will have succeeded in what I set out to do.  Additionally this program does not do some things that regular modders might want, like creating a "Core" wad from custom cards, allow for editing of cards, creating of cards, etc....  This program is intended mainly for non-modders and those who are looking to get into modding.

=== Is this builder bug free? ===
Probably not. I hope it is free from major bugs as I put in a fairly decent amount of time testing it, but it is virtually impossible to make a bug free program.

=== Can I use this program to build cards? ===
No, this is a deck builder, it is designed to build decks not cards.

=== Is it possible this could be modified to build cards as well as decks? ===
Sure, but that is a huge amount of changes I'm not yet prepared to make.  Even if those changes were made it would still have the same limitations of other card generators in that it would only be able to fully generate simple cards and more complex cards/abilities would have to be manually coded.

=== I can sort the cards in the card listing and for the deck cards, why can't I sort the cards in the unlocks? ===
The order in which cards appear in the deck is unimportant, but the order in which cards appear in the unlocks is important as it controls which unlockOrderId a card will get when exporting and can control when you get a card in game.  For example if you have 10 promo unlock cards, but only 8 promo codes then you will only get 8 of the promo unlocks with the last two remaining locked.  Now this will probably be unimportant for most people as all 10 of the promo codes are known and can be found out easily.  I imagine most people also unlock most of unlocks for decks using either the Promo method or through AppId Linking so that they always have all the cards unlocked.

=== Why did the deck builder generate an "Errors.log" file? ===
This file is generated any time the program runs into any error that I don't consider a zero priority error.  Sometimes looking at this file can give you extra information on certain things.  For example you try to load a modder's deck that is supposed to have 36 non-basic-land cards in it, but it only loads 34 cards if you look at the error log you might see an entry that states that it "Can't find referenced card" for a deck which could indicate that the card is missing (for example a typo in the deck XML) or that there is a problem with the card (malformed XML, etc...).

=== The Deck Builder generated an error log, will this cause problems? ===
In most cases, no, this will not cause a problem.  Though if the error log is generated then you should look at the log to see what errors were encountered.  If you see errors with "High" or "Critical" priorities then please report them to me because it means something really bad happened and I need to figure out what.  If you see "Low" or "Medium" errors then that means something couldn't be loaded or there is something important that needs your attention (bad card XML, a serious UID conflict, couldn't find a card that was referenced by a deck or unlocks, etc...).

=== The readme for the Deck Builder is only in English why didn't you make one for each of the supported languages? ===
Because I only truly understand English (and a little bit of Japanese) so I can't properly translate the readme to each of those languages.  This is also why the other localizations of this program are only partial when I released this builder.

=== The error log is in English, but I've selected that the program run in <Insert Language here>, how can I change that? ===
You can't, I purposely made the program so that the error log will always be in English as that is my native language and I am the developer.  This way if someone is reporting a bug and I request the error log I will be able to understand what the log is telling me.

=== Will this work with all versions of Duels of the Planeswalkers? ===
No, it only works for Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013.  Each version of the game changes bits and pieces that are required for modding so if you want this for an older version of the game you're going to need to make the changes yourself.  If you want this for a newer version of the game (like DotP 2014 which will be released shortly) then either you will have to wait for me to update this myself, you can make the changes yourself, or wait for someone else to do it.

== Program Runs Slowly ==
=== Why does this program take so long to start up? ===
It takes a while because of all the data it is reading from the game directory to ensure that it is running with current information.  The more wads that are present in the game directory then the longer it is going to take to load this program.  Small wads load pretty quickly so having a lot of small deck wads is not usually a big problem.

=== Scrolling the card list is slow, why is that and how can I speed it up? ===
The slowest part of scrolling the card list in the default configuration is the image casting cost column, the images have to be built before the list can display them and it takes a small amount of time to build it (not an issue with 1 card, but when you start talking about hundreds to thousands it can eat up a good amount of time).  You can flip of the Image Casting Cost column and flip on the Text Casting Cost column (that will allow you to scroll faster).

== Deck Building ==
=== Can I make a 40 card deck? ===
No, the game will always add basic land until the deck reaches a total of 60 cards.  This means if you put in 25 cards and leave room for 15 lands (basic or otherwise) the game will put in an additional 20 basic lands when you try and play it.  The program will keep track of how many total basic lands the deck will have (noted by the "Basic Land" counter above the main deck) so that you know how much basic land the deck will have in game.

=== Can I make a deck with no basic land? ===
Yes, you most certainly can make a deck with no basic land (myself and other modders have done so successfully several times).  This program will also have no problems if you create a deck with no basic land.

=== Can I make a deck with more than 60 cards in it? ===
Yes, you can make a deck with more than 60 cards, but it should be noted that if you make a deck with more than 60 cards you will need to manually add the appropriate amount of land to the deck.  By default the builder will not show basic lands in the master card list, but you can show them by either allowing them in the filters window or by clearing all the filters (which will show all cards).

=== Can I make a deck that has more than 4 copies of a given card in it? ===
Yes, the builder does not restrict how many of a specific card you put into a deck, so feel free to put in 10+ copies of Relentless Rats.  You should be aware though that if the card does not state that you can have more than the standard number of copies in a deck, then you will be in violation of MtG constructed deck building rules if you put in more than 4 copies.

=== Do I have to create an AI Personality? ===
No, you can use one of the many that have already been created, but creating one for your deck is a nice touch.

=== Can I add my own music mixes to use for personalities? ===
Yes, but this program can't really help you with that.  All of the music goes into the Music directory under the main game directory and it needs to be in Ogg format.  Once it is in the directory then you can choose it for your custom personalities, though if you distribute those personalities then you need to make sure you also include that music file as well (it will not be put into the WAD).

=== I only speak one language, do I have to enter strings in all languages? ===
No, the Deck Builder will try to auto-fill any blank strings with the English string.  If possible you should always include an English string.  Failure to include an English string could cause odd behavior such as generating a wad like: DECK_100000_.wad and lacking names or strings for other missing languages.

=== Why won't the builder let me set the card preview images? ===
That is because this builder generates those images for each language based on a card in the deck that you select.  If a card is not localized in a specific language it will use the English strings from that card.  In other words you set which "Card" to use for the preview instead of setting individual "Images" to use for the preview.

== Features ==
=== Why does this builder not have <insert feature>? ===
This can be due to several reasons including (but not limited to):
* I had not thought about that feature.
* The feature is not really technically feasible at the moment.
* I specifically disallow it due to one reason or another.
* I haven't gotten around to putting it in.

=== I have an idea for a great new feature, how do I request it? ===
The best way is to mention it in the release thread for utility.  If I agree that it is a great idea then I'll likely add it to the list of planned improvements.

== Id Schemes ==
=== Why do the Id Scheme fields show with a pink background? ===
It is because you have either left the values at the defaults or you have set values that conflict with each other or with the defaults.  If every-thing is good then the fields will display with a light green background for prefix type Id Schemes or will display with the same background colour as the other fields.

=== Why do the Id Scheme fields show with a green background? ===
It means everything looks good for those fields.  See above question for a more detailed answer.

== Images ==
=== Why does the deck image and preview card show up as white boxes in the game? ===
This is because you did not set/create them in the Deck Information.

=== Why do the AI Personality images show up as white boxes in game? ===
See above answer.

=== I don't like the template images you use for building the deck box image and the AI Personality images, can I change them? ===
Yes, you can, but there are a few things you need to be aware of:
* The Overlay and Mask images MUST be the same dimensions to work properly.
* The images must have the appropriate file names (case does not matter, at least in Windows).
* The Mask does not properly support variable Alpha values.  If you use variable alpha values then you will get part of the mask in the final image (which will be visible when building an image).
* The Mask should use a colour that is not likely to be in any chosen user image as any pixel that is found using that colour will be made transparent.
* The top left most pixel in the mask is what is used to determine the mask colour so it should always be of the colour you want to be transparent.
* The initial resizing and positioning of chosen images is based on my templates so if you change them you will likely need to adjust the position and size when building images to match your templates.
* If your template and mask images are not sized in Multiples of Four (MoF) then the images built from them may get stretched or shrunk to the closest MoF size.  If I can't find a MoF size with a width 200 pixels in either direction I will resize to 512x512 and horribly stretch the image to fit.

== Missing/Multiple Cards ==
=== I have a wad that has cards in it that are not being loaded by the builder, why is this happening? ===
There are a few reasons this can happen including:
* The card has a bad XML structure and has caused the loading of that card to error out. (Forgot to close a tag, typo, etc....)
* The card either does not have all required tags or has an incorrect required attribute in one of the tags.
* The wad it is in is not being loaded because it does not start with "DECK_" or "DATA_DLC_" (which means it's also not read by the game).
* That card hits a bug in my code.  If this is the case please let me know.

=== Why are there multiple cards with the same name and filename in the card listing? ===
This is because the builder loads all cards from all wads, this means if a card is present in multiple wads it will show multiple times in the card listing.

=== There are some cards that just will not show up in the card list until I clear all the filters, why does this happen? ===
Some cards like invisible tokens will not show in the list because they have no types.

== Saving/Exporting ==
=== I've saved a deck, why is it not showing in game? ===
You have to "Export" a deck for it to show up properly in game.

=== I can't export because the menu option is grayed-out, what's wrong? ===
The builder determined that it did not have write access to the game directory and therefore there is no point in trying to export because it will fail.  You can try running the Deck Builder as Administrator to give it the permissions it needs to export.

=== When I export it gives me a message saying a Uid conflict has been detected, what does this mean?  How can I stop this from happening? ===
This means that based on the settings of the Id scheme it has found that the Id you chose for the deck (or one of the files that will be created) is already being used by another deck, unlock file, or land pool and this can cause problems in the game if you try to run the game while the conflict exists.  This can be easily rectified by either going into Deck Information and clicking "Get Next Available Id" or by changing your Id Scheme settings to something more unique to you.  By default the Id Scheme settings put the ids in the 1000 prefixed block, so you could decide you want to put your decks in the 9834 prefixed block or 2358 prefixed block.  With about two billion possible uids it should be fairly easy to find some combination of settings that will be unique to you.

=== Will the builder create "independent" wads when it exports? ===
No, it will not try to create an "independent" wad at this time as that would mean duplicating cards, images, and all function files from all wads that this one would be dependent on.  This could be done, but I opted not to because this could lead to old and/or conflicting function files/cards being used which could make people believe there is something wrong with your mod.  It is ultimately best to keep the number of duplicate cards to a minimum.

=== When exporting will it compress the images it creates? ===
Yes, the builder will now compress the images it creates to DXT5 compressed TDX files.

== Localizations ==
=== I chose <Insert Language Here> for my language, but most strings are in English, how do I fix this? ===
This means you chose a language for which the localization has not been finished (and/or started).  The only language I can really help out with is English so that is the localization I completed.  For the Italian localization we can thank thefiremind for completing it.  As for other languages either you can work on the localization or wait for someone else to do it (could be a very long wait).

[http://mtg.dragonanime.org/DotP2013/DeckBuilderLocalizations/ Updated localizations can be found here.]

=== How do I work on translating for a localization? ===
You pick the XML file in the langs directory for the language you will be translating open it up in either a text editor (like NotePad) or an XML editor and start translating the data.

If you are using a text editor then the data will look something like this:
 <nowiki><STRING key="COLUMN_TEXT_NAME"><![CDATA[Name]]></STRING>
<STRING key="COLUMN_TEXT_FILE_NAME"><![CDATA[File Name]]></STRING>
<STRING key="COLUMN_TEXT_COLOUR"><![CDATA[Colour]]></STRING>
<STRING key="COLUMN_TEXT_CASTING_COST"><![CDATA[Cost]]></STRING></nowiki>

The only part that you need to translate is the part inside of the square brackets inside: <code><![CDATA[]]></code>

So as an example in Italian the same section looks like:
 <nowiki><STRING key="COLUMN_TEXT_NAME"><![CDATA[Nome]]></STRING>
<STRING key="COLUMN_TEXT_FILE_NAME"><![CDATA[Nome file]]></STRING>
<STRING key="COLUMN_TEXT_COLOUR"><![CDATA[Colore]]></STRING>
<STRING key="COLUMN_TEXT_CASTING_COST"><![CDATA[Costo]]></STRING></nowiki>

=== How do I contribute a Localization? ===
If you want to contribute to the localizations then you can upload them directly to this FTP site (will automatically put them in the above directory).

 FTP Username: localization2013@dragonanime.org
 FTP Password: DotP2013
 FTP Server: ftp.dragonanime.org
 FTP & Explicit FTPS port: 21

A rudimentary web page is generated everytime someone goes to download the updated localizations which will pull the LOCALIZATION_VERSION and LOCALIZED_BY out of the xml files automatically. So if you update via FTP you can get virtually instant credit for your localization.

== Questions for the Developer ==
=== What if you disappear off the forums or stop developing this program?  How will I get support or will bugs get fixed? ===
I've released the full source code of this program so any programmer should be able to pick this up and examine the code, make bug fixes, updates, or even release their own version of this program.  I only ask that credit be given where credit is due.

=== Can I use parts of your code in my own programs? ===
Yes, just give credit where credit is due.

=== Is Riiak Shi Nal your real name? ===
No, but it is my preferred handle and it is highly unique.  If you see a Riiak Shi Nal or Riiak elsewhere then likely that person is also me, but if you want to confirm it then ask me either via PM or E-Mail.  Before I started using this handle many years ago I did a Google search on it and it came up with no results.  Now though there are several thousand more results for "Riiak" and little more than a thousand for "Riiak Shi Nal".