Re: [Ardanet-developers] Project Roadmap

[Ris M. <rm...@ne...>]

I looked at random example cards in each of those 3 websites to compare the
way they show the information.

 

Of those 3, the one I liked the best was this one:
http://www.swccgpc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Major_Haash%27n.  It has the
basic structure I had in mind, but of course I would add lots more
subsections.

 

However, the http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/ site starts to approach the
card search engine I'd like to build into Ardanet, so it also makes a good
example of the kind of stuff I have in mind.

 

I can imagine a super-powerful tool if we could combine those two sets of
functionality - the ability to search the cards with an interface like
http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/ and then click on the results to get info
that is detailed like
http://www.swccgpc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Major_Haash%27n.

 

The last one http://cards.swccgpc.com/  <http://cards.swccgpc.com/>  doesn't
have enough info IMO - all it shows is the card name, a scan of the card,
and the rarity.  But it makes me think it is important to have access to a
simplified view like this for when you don't need all the extra info, so
Ardanet should support this kind of interface too.  Ideally, the user could
customize how much info to show in the summaries shown from the search
results, and then clicking would always take you to a more detailed page
like http://www.swccgpc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Major_Haash%27n.

 

Now this all gets me thinking.

 

We planned a searchable card database for Ardanet already.  It's necessary
data.  We had planned to implement this data as a proprietary file format
using custom C++ data structures, a sort of do-it-yourself card database, in
order to have maximum control over the way the data was organized and how we
implemented the searches.  Also because I've never written SQL code before
:P  But I am starting to think that SQL may be a better way to go, for
reasons I will get into, so let's discuss this.

 

Rather than focus a lot of effort on developing web-based documentation for
all this info, maybe we should focus on the card database interface that
will eventually be in-game, and make it also serve as the help system, and
the rules database!  This would enable the in-game card database to include
self-contained links to the actual rules, and we could also use Ardanet
(read: bug test Ardanet) while entering all the info we would otherwise
enter into the wiki or Josh H's MySQL database or any of these other
websites.  I mean, to spend all this time entering all this info, we should
do it in a way that can be used at play-time by Ardanet.

 

Also, I'm intrigued that you already have a lot of info a MySQL database,
which sounds like a very good starting point for what I'm suggesting.

 

Another thought I have is that. Josh H is doing MySQL stuff with PHP to make
websites. we can do MySQL stuff with C++ or .NET to implement the game play
in Ardanet . hmmm. can they share the same database file?  Presumably yes.
Most of the same SQL statements too I would imagine. So it sounds to me like
it would be a good idea to share a SQL database between Ardanet and a
web-based search engine which yields results with details like
http://www.swccgpc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Major_Haash%27n which I assume
we can render in any custom interface on either a website or in Ardanet.  In
my ignorance of SQL programming, I think it's just a matter of adding data
fields to include all the extra info we want, in order to reference the
additional sections we'd want to put on wiki pages like references to the
rules, examples, walkthroughs, strategy tips, errata, card stats,
everything.  The rules themselves should be able to go in a separate table
within the same SQL database, using a different format for the columns and
records in the rules table than in the card info table, right?

 

We wanted to make the card database editable, searchable, and detailed
within Ardanet anyway, in our runtime data, so I'm thinking we should make
this the first priority for the user interface windows (after I figure out
dockable frames as a general framework issue, or even before that) and make
both the card database viewer, searcher, and editor windows, as well as the
game rules viewer, searcher, and editor windows, and do all those windows
before we get into the game-play windows.  We need the data at runtime
before we can render it in game-play windows anyway, and if we use SQL, it
seems like we should be able to share all the data between a web interface
and the Ardanet in-game interfaces.  Does that make sense?  Does it sound
like a good idea?

 

I think both of you know more about SQL than I do.  What do you think of
this approach?

 

The two main drawbacks I see are that I've never done anything with SQL
before, and also that I've never done anything with SQL before.  LOL.  But I
can learn.

 

What about licensing, can we use it for free?  I assume there's something
available somewhere that we're allowed to use in an open-source project,
right?

 

-- Ris

 

 

  _____  

From: ard...@li...
[mailto:ard...@li...] On Behalf Of Josh
Hunholz
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 1:53 PM
To: Developer discussion
Subject: Re: [Ardanet-developers] Project Roadmap

 

 

Funny you should mention this one too...I'm currently working on this as a
tool. :)

 

Again, awesome!  I'd love to take a look at what you've done with that so
far, do you have a link I can visit?


I've gone back and forth in my mind with how I want to implement this: a
wiki or a database.  There are advantages to both.  As a wiki, we can show
Card of the Day articles that are for that card, as well as strategy tips,
decks built around the card, and lots of other things like that.  As a
database, it's easy to integrate into the forums on councilofelrond.org and
meccg.net (which was my original goal).  Here are the two sites I'm modeling
it after: 

http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/
http://www.swccgpc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://cards.swccgpc.com/  <http://cards.swccgpc.com/> 

The second site, the Star Wars CCG (decipher game) Player's Committee site,
has both a database and a wiki, which is cool.  

I had started working on code for the database, then realized I should come
up with the database structure before I went too far with it.  So currently
I have a lot of the info in a mysql database, but still haven't gotten
around to making a nice view for it.  

Okay, I've gotta get back to work, but wanted to get some updates out on
this stuff.  

--Josh