Making your own power cards

eloquentaction · Oct 10, 2008

defendi said:
Hirahito,

I think the Barbarian powers are missing keywords in 4.3. Just an FYI.

I'll take a look at it. If they are I'll try and get them fixed for the 4.4 release.

Fedifensor said:
Great job, guys! One question, as I have a game coming up this Sunday - has anyone done a card set that includes the Swordmage powers from the latest Dragon Magazine? I was hoping to retrain into one of the new daily powers from the article.

Dragon #368? I don't think so. I can see you guys (meaning the users of my cards) are going to force me to buy the Dragon and Dungeon subscriptions. You are, don't lie about it. I can hear you guys already...

Grandpa said:
You're super-duper welcome. It's been a pleasure to see them get so much use. If others are lurking and use different sets, I hope they weigh in. Having gone through what I did to make the 1500+ core set cards, I know what an enormous amount of life people like Hiro are putting into their projects and making available to the community, and in a timely manner, no less.

Thanks!

Thank you Grandpa. If I come across as thorough, it's only because I follow in the footsteps of veritable wonders such as yourself. Plus, if anyone really wants to thank me, they should be thanking the patience of my girlfriend, Jojo. She's a saint.

-- Hirahito

Ghaerdon Fain · Oct 10, 2008

eloquentaction said:
... if anyone really wants to thank me, they should be thanking the patience of my girlfriend, Jojo. She's a saint.

-- Hirahito

Thank You, Jojo!

praetorian75 · Oct 10, 2008

I have quite literally spent ALL DAY on this project of mine (since 9am), and I can't get it to work, so I'm going to ask for your collective help.

Goal:

To be able to print power, feat, and certain types of equipment cards through MSE using Tirian's layout, using the most current data.

Problems Encountered:

Primarily, there seems to be a disconnect/incompatibility between Randolph's files (that I download here) and Tirian's tirian.zip (which I can't link because I can't search through the posts and I'm not scrolling manually through 20+ pages). The tirian.zip file is dated 5/5/08. The only actual "mse-set" file I found with Randolph's files is for DDXP (whatever that means) and doesn't include any core powers.

I've tried using Anders' set (which has a later date), but that gives me a "word type 'class' not found" error, which leads me to believe there's a compatibility problem between versions, perhaps.

I am no good at editing the actual 'set' files, apparently, since I get all kinds of erroneous errors and nothing works right, if it loads at all.

I realize that even if I get Tirian's layout working with Randolph's data, it wouldn't include many things (such as the gear, armor, and other things included in Hirahito's set). I can add those myself, later, if necessary.

Ideally, I'd like to see the Tirian style work with Hirahito's data, but I'm not confident enough in my coding to make that happen.

ARGH! Too many options + too little knowledge =

x 10.

eloquentaction · Oct 10, 2008

praetorian75 said:
I have quite literally spent ALL DAY on this project of mine (since 9am), and I can't get it to work, so I'm going to ask for your collective help.

Goal:

To be able to print power, feat, and certain types of equipment cards through MSE using Tirian's layout, using the most current data.

Problems Encountered:

Primarily, there seems to be a disconnect/incompatibility between Randolph's files (that I download here) and Tirian's tirian.zip (which I can't link because I can't search through the posts and I'm not scrolling manually through 20+ pages). The tirian.zip file is dated 5/5/08. The only actual "mse-set" file I found with Randolph's files is for DDXP (whatever that means) and doesn't include any core powers.

I've tried using Anders' set (which has a later date), but that gives me a "word type 'class' not found" error, which leads me to believe there's a compatibility problem between versions, perhaps.

I am no good at editing the actual 'set' files, apparently, since I get all kinds of erroneous errors and nothing works right, if it loads at all.

I realize that even if I get Tirian's layout working with Randolph's data, it wouldn't include many things (such as the gear, armor, and other things included in Hirahito's set). I can add those myself, later, if necessary.

Ideally, I'd like to see the Tirian style work with Hirahito's data, but I'm not confident enough in my coding to make that happen.

ARGH! Too many options + too little knowledge = x 10.

MSE uses two main files to determine how to read / display MSE-SET information.

The first is the GAME file which is a flat-file that tells MSE what the fields are and how to treat them. This is your biggest hurdle because most sets are incompatible unless the GAME files are nearly identical. MSE itself shows you this by showing the groupings of compatible GAME files when you open MSE and say 'NEW SET'.

The second file is the STYLE file found in the template directory. It's nowhere near as important but it does tell MSE how to draw the fields onto the cards and which background file(s) to use and where.

If you want a Tirian set, you need to find someone that uses Tirian's GAME file. Unfortunately, Tirian took an Ander's set and went his own direction (as most of us did, including myself).

You best bet is to take Tirians template directories and move them over into someone elses GAME template styles. Once you do this, you have to go in and modify all of Tirian's STYLE files to show the new fields. Then you'll have to massage the MSE-SET info to get it to work. It's a painful process, to say the least. But it's definitely do-able.

Last, but not least, if you can wait a month or so - my 5.0 release will have Tirian-like backgrounds for Ander-style cards (as an option - it won't be that way by default). The juries still out if I'll be updating ALL of my set's in the same fashion, but I'm kinda leaning that way. Once I do this, I'm probably going to stop updating my templates and just release new data updates as this will satisfy 90% of the people who use the MSE type cards.

If you need more specific help on something, please feel free to ask me questions - I'll certainly help where I can.

-- Hirahito

praetorian75 · Oct 10, 2008

eloquentaction said:
MSE uses two main files to determine how to read / display MSE-SET information.

The first is the GAME file which is a flat-file that tells MSE what the fields are and how to treat them. This is your biggest hurdle because most sets are incompatible unless the GAME files are nearly identical. MSE itself shows you this by showing the groupings of compatible GAME files when you open MSE and say 'NEW SET'.

The second file is the STYLE file found in the template directory. It's nowhere near as important but it does tell MSE how to draw the fields onto the cards and which background file(s) to use and where.

If you want a Tirian set, you need to find someone that uses Tirian's GAME file. Unfortunately, Tirian took an Ander's set and went his own direction (as most of us did, including myself).

You best bet is to take Tirians template directories and move them over into someone elses GAME template styles. Once you do this, you have to go in and modify all of Tirian's STYLE files to show the new fields. Then you'll have to massage the MSE-SET info to get it to work. It's a painful process, to say the least. But it's definitely do-able.

Last, but not least, if you can wait a month or so - my 5.0 release will have Tirian-like backgrounds for Ander-style cards (as an option - it won't be that way by default). The juries still out if I'll be updating ALL of my set's in the same fashion, but I'm kinda leaning that way. Once I do this, I'm probably going to stop updating my templates and just release new data updates as this will satisfy 90% of the people who use the MSE type cards.

If you need more specific help on something, please feel free to ask me questions - I'll certainly help where I can.

-- Hirahito

I had a feeling that was going to be the crux of it. *sigh* I guess I'm just too picky about the design for these things, given that I didn't even know they existed until this morning, either.

I like Anders stuff, but when I saw Tirian's something just clicked and I said that's the one I want. Ah, well.

I'll let you know if I actually manage a working version of this - perhaps you can include it in a future release (or not, as you like). If I get stuck, I'll ask for help - I ain't too proud to beg.

Thanks for the headsup on where to start, though. I thought I was going nuts.

Drabix · Oct 11, 2008

Genasi powers

Here are the Genasi racial powers using Grandpa's template.

Drabix

soulkeeper · Oct 12, 2008

A favor to ask to all the card developers, esp Ander00 and Hirahito.

I love the cards, and the colors and designs are great, but I'm a black and white printer person, as I assume many folks are. Can folks include a basic, non-fancy, pretty much black and white version in the future?

I didn't see a version like this, and I'll be honest, I don't really know how to use the MSE very well, so if you already have, and I am missing it, I'll be happy for a little re-education.

Thanks!

Dash · Oct 12, 2008

Josiah, I love your style the best and have been trying to get it to work with the MSE.

I consistantly am getting an error upon opening on your set, which states, "Package not found: [Dir]\D&D-symbol-josiah.mse-symbol-font', followed by another error, "Package not found: "D&D-symbol-josiah.mse-symbol-font".

I've downloaded all of the items on your website and have most of the other sets working.

What am I doing wrong?

Maxum · Oct 13, 2008

I like to thank Ander00, Hirahito and Grandpa and all the rest of the hard working people making and updating the cards sets. They are such a big help playing the game.

I could use some help printing out the cards in a PDF file. When ever I make a PDF its file size is so large. I just did a PDF set of Hirahito Barbarian powers, It was around 49MB. Am I missing a setting somewere? I am using CutePDF Writer. I know I have seen whole card set smaller then that 49MB size.

I like to make PDF files because , Printing out of the Magic Card Program is a pain in the ass. So I like to do it as little as I can.

Thanks

eloquentaction · Oct 13, 2008

Maxum said:
I like to thank Ander00, Hirahito and Grandpa and all the rest of the hard working people making and updating the cards sets. They are such a big help playing the game.

I could use some help printing out the cards in a PDF file. When ever I make a PDF its file size is so large. I just did a PDF set of Hirahito Barbarian powers, It was around 49MB. Am I missing a setting somewere? I am using CutePDF Writer. I know I have seen whole card set smaller then that 49MB size.

I like to make PDF files because , Printing out of the Magic Card Program is a pain in the ass. So I like to do it as little as I can.

Thanks

Nope. You have the right of it.

Printing cards to PDF is a royal pain in the arse.

And the file sizes are mammoth.

I was going to print all of my cards to PDF and upload them to my site. I kept trying this some 5 or 6 times now.

Each time I tried, the size of the PDF file increased from "Wow-too-large" to the latest "OMFGWTFBBQ-sized".

Needless to say, over 3000 cards does not make a small PDF file.

So I've given up on PDF's for the moment and have started putting them into Word files when I want to heavily control their position on a page. Just go into MSE and export the cards you want into a JPG file and then paste them into a word document as a text-box. In this way, you have complete control over where it goes on the page.

If someone finds a better way, please tell me.

-- Hirahito