Generic CCG

[TheJord]

I received a PM from Manuel, a Spanish member on our board with the following post.

Hi, TheJord,

In these last months, there have been a couple persons working in the adaptation of GCCG (Generic Collectible Card Game) to the game-systems of LOTR.

GCCG has been extensively used for other games, such as MtG, and especially Middle Earth CCG, which has an active and yet living community built around the game.

I used to play SDA a lot in the LOTR WWL days, and have been using a lot GCCG in the past years with MECCG, and in my experience, GCCG is superior for a lot for reasons, and will help having the community unite.

I have extracted this information from the GCCG webpage:

Generic Collectible Card Game is a multiplayer multiplatform implementation of a card game engine. The card game engine is designed to be of general purpose core for several modules each defining the game specific behaviour. Players download a client for their platform and all modules of interest. After launching the client for one of the games, it connects to the central server of the game chosen. When connected, all aspects of the collecting, trading and playing are availble to the player. Here is a brief summary of features

    * Deck editor including import and export from/to a text file.
    * Fast game play: bureaucracy not implemented (on purpose).
    * 1-4 players.
    * You can watch games while not playing yourself.
    * Highly customizeable: macros and scripting language included.
    * Servers have a knowledge of several game formats (for example Type 1, Type 1.5, etc. in Mtg). Own game formats can be defined. (in the case of LOTR, every format has been taking into account)
    * Sell cards by determining a price and the number of cards for sale. Clients can see always the best offer.
    * Easy trading: create your want list and the server helps you to find a trade.
    * Sealed deck games.
    * Export and import to/from existing deck formats.


You can download the client and the images for the game, as well as some screenshots here:

http://dl.free.fr/czWsNC/gccg-lotr

And this is the webpage for GCCG:

http://gccg.sourceforge.net/


I write this message to you because I would like to know what do you think of presenting this tool to the LOTR community, as the admin of the Online Section of this forum, and if you think it is a good idea, introducing it yourself to the players.

I really believe this will be a very helpful tool to keep and increase the LOTR gaming community.

Manuel

The links are sound, no viruses etc so dont worry about that.
Anyway, I havent had a chance to playtest this platform, but as long as the admin dont see a problem with me promoting it in the Green Dragon then I will.

[DáinIronfoot]

I see no problem with it whatsoever. Do you think he might be open to linking to each other? Wouldn't hurt to get our name out if there's an opportunity and he's willing. If not, I still have no problem at all linking to GCCG.

[Kralik]

Sounds fine. Here are my two cents:

For a LotR community to survive, you need to keep playing games. Since this is an online community, the majority of the games will be online as well. However, The Green Dragon and TLHH in general have been seeing less and less participation as people are getting busy, moving on with their lives, etc. Anything that could spark more interest would be rather helpful.

GCCG looks interesting, and I'm curious to see what it offers in comparison to SdA and Lackey. Obviously I favor Lackey since I developed the LotR plugin for it. However, I wouldn't mind supporting another program if it was quality work. The difficulty in promoting a new product is that even if GCCG was a great program, longtime SdA users seem hesitant to switch to another system. People like to stick with what they know.

I would ask that GCCG does not link directly to this site for images. Looks like they are being distributed as an independent archive, so that's fine. I would just like to minimize liability in case Decipher decides they aren't so keen on the LotR TCG DB's existence. I've already seen a few sites with image lists for leeching off of this site.

Is there any interest in an updated SdA.xml with all of the cards from the LotR TCG DB?

[Kralik]

Update: Speaking of leeching... I haven't had a chance to try the program yet, but noticed in the image archive that they have Hawkeye's upper promo scans.

[Kralik]

Update II: I like it! Nice fullscreen interface, customizable controls... experimenting a bit now.

[Kralik]

Update III: My brother and I played a game, and, after getting used to the controls, it went great! We had no problem connecting to the chat server and sitting down at a table. At one point, his internet connection died, and the game automatically saved it for when he got back. Restored it flawlessly. Both SdA and Lackey have their share of bugs and irritations, but we didn't notice anything awry in GCCG. If you feel up to something new, I'd recommend giving it a shot! I even went as far as to write a program to convert my existing Zorbec's decks to GCCG and it's posted in Useful Resources.

[TheJord]

I am struggling with it on Windows... I assume you use Linux Kralik?

[Kralik]

I am struggling with it on Windows... I assume you use Linux Kralik?

No, I am using Windows. What seems to be the problem? I've run both Lotr.bat and Lotr-fullscreen.bat with no difficulties. Did you download from the free.fr links or the official website? (Go with the free.fr links)

[Kralik]

I'm excited about GCCG as it seems to be a very nice system. I have been chatting quite a bit with the developer of the LotR module, WLK, and he is very open to feedback, taking requests, and adding features. For example, he spent a few hours coding in a feature to support importing decks from Zorbec's Decklist Builder. Sounds like he will add the ability to import your SdA decks as well.

If you mods want to try out the program, here's what you can do:
--Download from the free.fr links above and extract to a folder.
--Run Lotr.bat and pick a username by following the onscreen instructions.
--After restarting, know this: right-click is your friend! Right-click to "Import deck" and choose a starter deck.
--Click on Table 0 (1 player) to "sit down" and then middle-click to start a solitaire game.

You can now experiment a bit with the interface. Remember to right click on a variety of things: the table, your adventure deck, your draw deck, your hand, the twilight pool, etc. to see your options. I prefer to use a lot of the keyboard shortcuts as they are quite handy. You need to hover over a card to use the appropriate shortcut, but do not need to click it. For example, you can hover over a minion and push the DELETE key on your keyboard to send him to discard. Nice!

SHIFT will show a zoomed card image and F5 will toggle a permanent card viewer.

Maybe give it a few more days for testing before posting the download information to the general forum populace?

[DáinIronfoot]

I'll play around with it a bit this weekend. Sounds very nice.

Once any bugs seem to be worked out, then yes, I'd say we should go ahead and spread the word.

[Kralik]

Once any bugs seem to be worked out, then yes, I'd say we should go ahead and spread the word.

Actually, I'm not really seeing any bugs. Just a few suggestions from me for menu items, controls, etc. Have used it for a couple of games now.

The lobby will show you which players are on, and it has a messaging system. If you catch me there, let me know if you want a game.

[AgentDrake]

Sounds awesome, actually...

Will have to try it out once I get enough free time.

[Kralik]

I just popped in to Middle Earth CCG on GCCG which has an active playerbase. 14 players online, 4-6 playing games, a couple watching, and the rest were hanging out chatting. 'Twould be great to not have to post in "Looking for a game," but instead, to just pop in and see who's on and around.