Magic Workstation? What's that?MWS is an old, buggy, but
free to use program allowing you to play the card game of Magic the Gathering over the internet.
It provides you with a card database, a virtual "game table" to play on, and some basic mechanics; it's up to the players to follow and enforce rules as they play, quite like with the real life version.
Why would I want to use it?Because the alternative is official Magic Online, which costs pretty large money to play (you buy card packs just like IRL, except you don't end up with real cards in your paws).
I meant, why would I want to play MTG?Well, it's a fun game, albeit a complex one. Quite a few fuzzies in the chat do play it, or at least did at some point. I didn't play a match since quite a few months.
Okay, then...* Tvorsk grins.
InstallationOkay, so.
First of all,
grab the installer. Just click the "Magic Workstation 0.94f" link in the blue table near top.
Run the installer.
If you're using Vista, Seven, or newer, DO NOT INSTALL IN "Program Files". Use C:\MWS\ or other such location that's not a "protected directory".Do not run it yet (uncheck the box on last page of installer).
Get the
gamepack. Install it.
Now, just in case, run Start -> Programs -> Magic Workstation -> Autoupdate MWS.
Then we need the database and theme update. You will want to check this website every now and then, and get updates.
http://www.slightlymagic.net/software/mws/5-mtg-masterbaseThe RAR contains three files:
Master.mwBase
Data\Rulings.dat
Data\Sets.dat
You should extract it to the C:\MWS directory (or wherever you installed the program). NOT C:\MWS\MasterBase. It should ask whether to overwrite files for each of the three, you must say yes.
http://www.slightlymagic.net/software/mws/6-mtg-themesBoth of the ZIPs contain a single mwTheme file. You need to put these files in MWS\Themes, overwriting the old ones that are there.
Yes, theme updates are semi-mandatory.
Also, some guides may tell you to update rulings inside the program.
Do NOT do it. If you'll do it, you won't be able to load the program anymore, as it can't fit the current, huge card database and the rulings list in memory anymore.
Next step, run the program, and cross your fingers for it to load.
Wait for the "evaluation" countdown to go to 0 and turn into OK.
Close the tip of the day box.
Select View -> Deck Edit Mode. It's much more practical for actual playing; Library Mode is cool if you're using the program to catalog cards you have for real, and such.
Tools -> Preferences. Tick "High Quality Image Generation" on the first screen. Then on the Image View tab switch all three options in lower half to the opposite setting. That is, external pictures first, full image, fulls first, respectively. Click OK and hope the program won't crash. It does that sometimes.
If it did, restart, and do the settings and mode switch again.
Close it, start again, go to Tools -> Preferences -> Interface, and switch Graphic Theme to Old Magic or New Magic (depends if you like the "old style" card, or the new style cards more). If program crashes after clicking OK, delete the MWS\Custom Sets folder and try again.
All right, at this point you are ready to play, except all the cards will look bland, and ugly, with just text and no picture. If you're okay with this, you can skip the next section.
PicturesThere are two types of pictures available. Crops, and Fulls.
Crops contain only the art for the "picture window" at top of card. The card frame, and the text, is drawn by MWS, and looks, well, generic. On the other paw, it's easy to read, and the images take less disk space (and download time).
Fulls are scans of the whole card, in quite a high resolution, which then are displayed in their whole glory.
Eitherway, go here:
http://www.slightlymagic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=445 . Huge post is huge, but you're interested in links to two mediafire folders, soon below the "2. Direct Downloads" header. One has crops, other has fulls. Don't bother with the torrents, they're a hassle to rename and rearrange for MWS use later.
Preferably, you'd want all of the zips from the folders, but if you're going to play some particular card set for start, you can get just those and they'll be enough for a while. Rule is simple - when there's no card picture available, MWS displays the "generic" card with text.
Each of the downloaded ZIPs contains a single directory, called for example "M11" or "LRW". You need to put that directory in MWS\Pics. There can't be an additional directory level (like when you rightclick and do "Extract to <archivename>")!
Good path is for example C:\MWS\Pics\M11\<images here>.
Tokens are an exception (they're packed separately on the download site). Tokens from all editions go to a single folder, Pics\TK. If you have more than one file of the same name (and different pictures), just add numbers, and MWS will be choosing one at random. So, like Pics\TK\Dragon1.full.jpg, Pics\TK\Dragon2.full.jpg, so on.
Setting up a deckFile -> New Deck, Then choose cards from Library on the left, using the arrow buttons. Blue right-arrow adds card to deck, i.e. cards you will play. Green one adds card to sideboard, i.e. cards you may choose to swap cards from deck with in between games in a series of games. Red left arrow removes card. Gray up/down arrows switch cards between deck and sideboard.
Once you're happy with your choice, you should save your deck.
MAKE SURE the last list you clicked was the deck, not the library. The "(XX/X) Cards" at top should be blue. Then click File -> Save Deck/Library As. In the "Save As" window make sure the filetype says "
mwDeck". If it says mwBase, you're saving your library, not your deck. Cancel, click deck, try to save again. Yes, it's a stuuupid caveat.
Generally, you don't want to save your library, as we're working with the MasterBase of all the cards ever, not "own library" of cards you have for real.
Okay, hmm, what else here... There are quick search boxes at top of both lists. Also, there's a cool filter in View -> Simple (Apprentice-like) Card Filter. It lets you to limit the libray list to for example cards that are lands, cards from a particular edition, or creature cards with the creature type of "fox". It's a floating window, and sometimes likes to get hidden under the program, or such. At worst case, restart MWS, and it should appear somewhere you can catch it. Also, to reset the filter you nee to click Clear, then Apply. I was confused by it at start. ;)
Connecting.Game -> Connect to Opponent.
You have two choices. One is to do a direct connection. At least one of you two needs to know how to set up a server with port forwarding. The port in question is 4747. In that case, one person clicks Wait on the Wait tab, and gives the forwarded IP address to the other. The other player puts it in the text field and clicks Call.
The other choice is to use the mwsplay.net lobby. You just Call it, then set up a game. Other person also Calls it, and joins your game. The caveat here is that you can't make a password protected game, so a random someone can join your game before the intended player does. Disconnect in that case and try again.
CAVEAT: There is no "heartbeat" between the clients. If you don't move stuff on the table, don't use the internal chat, etc, the connection is idle. Some routers (ESPECIALLY LINKSYS) kill "idle" connections after barely 5 minutes. That's evil, yes. But it also means you may get silently disconnected, and not notice until you'll make your next move and get a "Player Lost" message. So, be active. Talk. Move cards on the table (or in hand) randomly. When connection is lost, you can't "rejoin" the game, it's ended.PLAYINGAll right, MWSPlay module is running, you are connected... what now?
Well, play like a real game. Roll who starts, draw cards, play them.
Generally, a good idea is to play for the first few times with someone who already knows the program, and can guide you.
Once you call a win, you can start a new game without restarting by choosing File -> New Game. In that window, you can change your nickname and the "I'm ready" message displayed in gamechat. Yes, that means in your first game ever you will start as "Player". You can also load a different saved deck, or swap sideboard cards (the Sideboarding button). Both of you two have to click File -> New Game to proceed, btw.
Few hints:
- Check out the menus at top.
- Right click each of the big icons on the left, to see options available.
- Right click the playfield, and the Hand area (row at bottom of screen) to see options available.
- Once you have cards in hand, and on table, rightclick them too.
- To end turn, doubleclick the end turn icon at end of the the center bar.
- Doubleclicking a card on field taps it.
- The options you have on cards change depending on what turn phase you are in - for example, you can highlight cards to attack (red outline) when you're in attack phase.
- To draw an attack arrow (red), rightclick a card, then drag to the target card (or the other player's head-and-life box) and release mouse button.
- To draw a defense arrow (yellow), rightclick a card, then drag to the target card (or the other player's head-and-life box) THEN press Shift, and release mouse button.
- Always first click the card in question, then, optionally, hold Shift and click other cards, then draw arrows. Otherwise, you may end up drawing arrows from a ton of card at the same time because Shift was considered to be selection.
- To clear all arrows so you can draw them again, press Control-Backspace or play with the turn stage bar back and forth.
- Enchantments can (and often should) be attached to other cards - drag and drop such card onto the target, and it'll "slide" under it. You can attach them to opponent's cards too, in the same way.
- You can also hand your cards to opponent by dragging them to his half of table. This happens when he took control of your card, for example.
- The little "..." button at bottom of chat box allows you to customize the predefined chat buttons below. Btw, the "End my turn" button is just that - a chat - it doesn't do anything to the game.
- ... maybe post your own tips in this topic?
