Forge Beta: 01-29-2017 ver 1.5.59


16451 cards in total.


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Release Notes
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- Aether Revolt -
This release features all Aether Revolt cards that you can play with in all game modes. There are still some remaining caveats and issues that are hopefully going to be addressed soon. Please report any issues you encounter with the new cards.

- Commander 2016 -
This release features most Commander 2016 cards scripted and ready to play. The few remaining cards that are not currently supported may be scripted in the upcoming versions of Forge.

- User interface updates and changes -
Some notable modifications were made to the Forge UI for desktop computers. First of all, many pop-up prompts have been replaced with prompt window queries - for example, Scry 1 now shows the request to put the card on the top or bottom of the library in the prompt window instead of a pop-up dialog window, and allows to view the card in question by moving the mouse over the prompt window, which is more convenient. Second of all, in both desktop and mobile Forge, there is now an option in Forge Preferences called "Preselect Last Order of Abilities" that preselects the last known order of simultaneous abilities, thus making it possible to just use "Space" once to confirm the previous order instead of having to press Space for each ability or clicking the ">>" button to add the previous order once more. This option is currently disabled by default to avoid being confusing to users who are used to doing it the way it used to be before. Also, there is now an option to view detailed spell ability descriptions in the prompt window during mana payment and targeting, which is enabled by default but can be enabled/disabled in Forge preferences ("Spell Description in Payment Prompt" under the "Gameplay" preference group).

- Targeting Overlay Optional Optimization -
Throttling-based targeting overlay optimization aimed at eliminating continuous CPU use has been made optional (but enabled by default). Most users running modern hardware will want this option enabled because it will significantly reduce CPU use when playing Forge, especially when playing with the targeting overlay always on. However, some users running older hardware at slower CPU clock speed may experience choppiness (for example, when dragging card panels in hand), in which case we advise you to try disabling the option "Enabled Targeting Overlay Optimization" in Forge preferences under "Graphic Options".

- AI updates - 
Artificial intelligence received several improvements and fixes. The AI should now be able to use mana ritual cards (Dark Ritual and similar cards), sacrifice-and-upgrade cards (Birthing Pod, Eldritch Evolution, Natural Order). AI for some other card groups has been improved. The AI should no longer animate manlands with other manlands that were animated during the same turn, it should not instantly sac Bomat Courier, no longer kill itself by activating Smallpox and Pox at 1 life. The AI should now be able to use Spellskite correctly (at least when redirecting a single targeted ability). Some other improvements and modifications were made as well, hopefully making the AI more fun to play against.

- Bug fixes -
As always, this release of Forge features an assortment of bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback during the 1.5.58 Beta release run.

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Known Issues
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Images for the latest sets will be available soon.

There is a known issue with the cost reduction for cards that have color-locked X in their mana cost (e.g. Drain Life, Soul Burn). Cost reduction will not apply correctly to these cards if the amount by which the cost is reduced is greater than the amount of colorless mana in the mana cost specified on the card (e.g. 1 for Drain Life, 2 for Soul Burn). Fixing this issue likely requires rewriting the way announced color-locked X is interpreted and paid (most likely it has to be represented with colorless mana shards but still locked to the colors required by the card).

Currently Improvise is implemented as a "clone" of Convoke keyword, which does not work correctly in corner cases (for example, together with an instance of Convoke or Delve). This is planned to be addressed soon.

Replacement effects that happen when a card moves from zone to zone (e.g. ETB replacement effect of Essence of the Wild; Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet replacement effect for a dying creature) need some rework to allow all of them to work in a rule-exact way without the need for special exclusions and hacks (see ReplacementHandler.java:120).

There is a known issue that allows Qasali Ambusher to be cast from any zone for its ambush ability (requires MayPlay update to be fixed). For now, a temporary measure was set up to prevent the AI from abusing this issue, but it is up to the human player to deliberately choose not to abuse this when possible.

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 is one remaining issue that we hope will be addressed in the near future:
Copies of cards that setup Zone Change triggers via addComesIntoPlayCommand and addLeavesPlayCommand will not function correctly.

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Forge Archive Instructions
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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.

Once the Forge archive has been decompressed you should then be able to launch Forge by using the included launcher. Launching Forge by double clicking on the forge jar file in the past caused a java heap space error. Forge's memory requirements have increased over time and the launchers increase the java heap space available to Forge. Currently you can launch Forge by double clicking on the forge jar file without a java heap space error but this is likely to change as we add in more sounds, icons, etc.

(Unfortunately, until our Release Manager who owns a Mac is back, the Mac application of Forge can not be distributed. Hopefully it'll be back sooner rather than later.)
- The Mac OS application version -
We can now package Forge as a Mac OS application. You can double click the Forge.app icon to launch the forge application on your Apple computer running Mac OS. This application will automatically increase the java heap space memory for you as it launches. This version does not require the forge.command file and it does not need to start the Terminal application as part of the start up process.

The Mac OS X app version apparently requires the Mavericks OS and is not compatible with earlier OS X versions. People with earlier OS X versions should use the Windows and Linux version and launch forge on their Mac by double clicking on the included "forge.command" file.


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Contributors to This Release
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Agetian
DrDev
excessum
Gos
Hanmac
KrazyTheFox
Marek14
mcrawford620
Myrd
nefigah
pfps
Sloth
slyfox7777777
Sol
Swordshine
tjtillman
tojammot
torridus
Xyx
Zuchinni


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