Please Post Deck Editor Feedback

[Jeck]

I thought it might be handy to get some information about how different people use the deck editor, and the kind of features that they'd like to see in it. Please note that there is no guarantee that anything in this thread will be implemented, but I promise to read everything . I've invited the rest of the team (hi everyone!) to watch and comment on this thread, so there's a chance you'll have more than one ear listening

Before I get started, I'd like to clear up an obvious improvement that I have heard before, for those of you using the SVN-- I will be adding a save/load feature to filters eventually, but it requires a bit of work and won't be in this upcoming release. Please be patient

Alright, so now an example, so everyone knows the kind of information I'm looking for, here's my own usage data:

How I use the deck editor:
Current use: I like the deck statistics, and most often check the "no lands in first X turns" section, page 8. The mana curve histogram is also consulted regularly, though I don't really usually bother with the detail pages. I never view the victory/loss page, as one "deck" might be rebuilt several times, so these stats aren't accurate... I'd like it if there was a way to see victory/loss just for the current name, but don't really consider it important.

Problems:I don't have any trouble finding the cards I need while browsing the collection, but feel that the way it displays cards is a little useless-- usually, the right half of a card contains no identifying information. It might be different if the upcoming cards were "tapped", so I could read their names, but I'm not sure how that'd work out in practice.

Features: I find it hard to get an overview of what's in my deck and what's not, so my biggest wish for the deck editor is a full text listing. I'd really like it if scrolling worked like on an ipod, with speed increasing over time until it hits a point where you get a big alphabet letter and it starts stepping by that, but I know that'd be a pain in the a** to code.

There's nothing I really see that needs to be "optionally configured", though I wouldn't mind if scrolling speed was slightly faster.

[bcdiscman]

I love the new filter system, but I wish the deck editor was more like this one:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1180

but more uniquely Wagic in its look and with the filter & with the deck statistics

I don't really usually bother with the detail pages. I never view the victory/loss page, as one "deck" might be rebuilt several times, so these stats aren't accurate...

I agree totally with Jeck on this...but it is very easy for me to ignore these pages that someone may feel are useful.

I don't have any trouble finding the cards I need while browsing the collection, but feel that the way it displays cards is a little useless-- usually, the right half of a card contains no identifying information. It might be different if the upcoming cards were "tapped", so I could read their names, but I'm not sure how that'd work out in practice.

This I do disagree with this... with all the new cards & with all the custom games, my collection is now in excess of 5000 unique cards (well over 10,000 in my complete collection) and this will only grow... The svn verson runs faster but on the PSP it takes forever to scroll through this collection (although I feel the new filter system will take care of this problem).

Also, I'm not sure what you mean about the right half of the cards? I play with the card art on all of my collection & even if I didn't... aren't the mana cost and the power/toughness of a card on the right hand side? I don't think I'd like it if these weren't displayed.

[abrasax]

Hi,

Deck statistic: I use most of the deck stats, all are pretty usefull, but I agree on the WIN/LOSS ratio screen, especially when you have fight against the 100 different AI deck.. . I would prefer to see this information in the AI deck selection screen… together with some possible customization for this screen, also something like:



Regarding the filtering system, some filter are (for me) more usefull than others, especially the “basic ability” filter and the rarity filter are very usefull to build deck. In addition the way the filter are made is great because it’s allowing you to put and/or in you selection, I didn’t have the opportunity to test it completely, but my understanding of the way it work is the following if you add a filter horizontally (e.g. you say red AND white) then you will have all cards that are red AND white, if you add it vertically you will have all the cards that are red OR white… and that’s pretty usefull, especially if you want to build some bicolored deck.

Some are not usefull at all like power/thoughness and converted manacost. The only thing that would be nice for theses parameters would be instead a sort ascending/descending function. It could be also used for rarity.

Most of these functions have already been suggested in the forum, I just copy some link of interest:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=718
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=452
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=470

Finally, it would be great, as in the filtering system proposed by Dimoutzi, to have a graphical interface for some of the filter.


Grüssi

A.

[Jeck]

Also, I'm not sure what you mean about the right half of the cards? I play with the card art on all of my collection & even if I didn't... aren't the mana cost and the power/toughness of a card on the right hand side? I don't think I'd like it if these weren't displayed.

Wow, thanks for this comment. I hadn't even thought about that aspect of it- When I browse cards, I usually want to know the name and the mana cost, but don't think about PT until I've read the card's abilities... so for me, having upcoming cards display "tapped" sideways, so the name is visible, would be nice. For you it sounds like that would be taking away an important part of how you use the editor, so I'm glad you've added that comment .

I would prefer to see this information in the AI deck selection screen… together with some possible customization for this screen...

Abra, thanks for this. There are plans for a very similar layout (actually supposed to have been in this release, but I got sidetracked by filters which were a higher priority imho).

I do agree about the linked deck editor being very nice graphically, so I wish I'd seen it before we'd finalized the feature list this release. There will definitely be something like that in the following one, though.

Some are not usefull at all like power/thoughness and converted manacost. The only thing that would be nice for theses parameters would be instead a sort ascending/descending function. It could be also used for rarity.

There's actually some code already used in the shop for sorting (by first letter, collector's number, or rarity), but it didn't make it into the deck editor yet. That'll be the first thing that goes in the following release... along with more sort modes. It's interesting to hear that you don't use the PT and CMC filter. I use CMC a lot to fill mana curve gaps, but I halfway agree about filtering by Power/Toughness. It's still occasionally useful, but I think it'd be better if I added "greater than X" instead of "exactly equals X". Gut zu wissen.

Thanks for the linked threads. I'll definitely be looking in to all of these soon.

[Daddy32]

Filtering
In my opinion, there's little that need to be added to the filtering functionality, so just few little things:
- I think I remember seeing talk about filtering based on types (elf, goblin etc.) - will we see it? Would be great for building themed decks.
- Most simple, but very useful thing: in the filter dialog, pressing start should jump to confirm button, as it does in OSK.

Out of time, will post my thoughts on other aspects later.