Projects

This is the list of projects I have in mind to expand and improve our sites, in no particular order. Please enter a comment with your favorite ones.

Small-medium scope:

  • Establish some kind of ranking of players based on the games won and lost online. Don’t know yet if just subtracting the losts from the wins or a more complicated evaluation.
  • If a player in an online game gets disconnected, allow him to return to the game and continue playing it.
  • Include a chat window in the gaming room so players can talk before challenging each other.
  • Allow sorting of results in ’search for trades’ and on the matching of lists in the message form. The parameters would be Set and Number, Name, and Rarity.
  • Allow uploading of haves and wants with just a list of card names in a file (or even a text box), by previously selecting the corresponding set from a drop-down list.
  • Add the options ‘Not in your wanted list’ and ‘Not already in your haves’ when adding cards to your haves. Add the option ‘Not already in your want list’ when adding cards to your wants.
  • Allow the creation of a new card based on an existing one, so that we only need to change one or two data. For example when the same card is printed in more than one set.
  • Search cards/miniatures by number? Would it be useful to include the number among the parameters in the Card/Miniature Search form?
  • Allow for an optional message when giving a reference
  • Make the main menu slide-down and contract to occupy less space and be more organized (each of the four main sections should also have their own page with options in more detail)
  • Do not show the foil option in card lists for games where it is not optional. Do the same with language? so that it is displayed also for some miniature games, and maybe hidden for games we know are not being published in multiples languages?
  • Hide private decks in the deck lists, except for their authors.
  • Limit the number of dream cards a single user may create (e.g. 10 each week)
  • Show (through a search interface) the postal address of confirmed bad traders
  • Allow blank values for amount, foil, and language when uploading haves/wants lists.
  • Allow sorting of users lists by number of references and by last-login date/time.
  • What game are you? Personality test that tells you what game you are (are you a Magic type? a Yu-Gi-Oh! kid? etc), and gives you an html code to show off your results on your web page.
  • Page the movements in the money accounts
  • Add an information page about publicity on the sites
  • In the references section: Add the list of people you have given a reference to.
  • Allow sorting by date of the references in the public user page.
  • Option to export collection/haves/wants to tab-delimited (or cvs) text files. Maybe only for Premium members.
  • Select all or check all in card lists
  • Extended error info when uploading haves/wants lists (similar to when uploading expansion sets)

Large scope:

  • Allow adding cards to your lists by just entering names (or part thereof) in a text area and, optionally, selecting a set. It implies two steps: If any of the names match more than one card, the system would have to show a radio-button list of matches and let you choose one.
  • When adding cards to your collection, include the option to remove these cards from your wants. The idea is that when you get some of the cards your are looking for, then you can add them to your collection and remove them from your wants in one go. A user has proposed to do it the other way around: from the list of wants, to be able to move items to your collection (or to your haves? I guess this does not make sense). Which way is best? Should both be offered?
  • Related with the previous one: allow the use of the Card Search engine to search among the cards in your list (haves or wants) so that you can delete (or modify) the cards you find instead of having to browse the complete list.
  • Option to verify whether you have all the cards needed to build a given deck. From the deck page you’ll have a link that says ‘Can you build this deck?’. This link will check if you have in your collection all the cards in the deck. If not, it will show you the list of cards you are still missing, and it will give you the option to add those cards to your wants (if not already there). If you have some of the cards in your haves, then it would also give you the option to move those cards from your haves to your collection so as to use them to build the deck.
  • Related with the previous feature: give the option, when adding cards to your deck, to choose only among the cards you have in your collection (maybe even visually from the binder view).
  • Registering and managing trades in a way similar to Protected Trades
  • Add more options to search for trades: include miniatures/cards, include a single game, minimum number of matches, only new matches (from a given date?), users to ignore, etc. Also, allow collapsing of the users with whom you don’t want to trade to clean up the list.
  • Add section for card combos.
  • Add spell-checking to texts in card reviews (and dream cards?)
  • Generate images automatically for dream cards (the author would provide the image for the card art, if any) based on the stats and texts entered.
  • Add a link on the detail window of each card to decks using that card
  • Check on email messages that bounce and deactivate the corresponding user

6 Responses to “Projects”

  1. redneckjedi Says:

    As far as your “collection manager” goes, I don’t know how the have and want counts are stored in the database.

    It occurs to me that there’s a database of cards, and either a user “have and want” database that has a set, card ID, have, and want columns, OR a user “haves” database that has set, card ID, and have columns and a user “wants” database that has set, card ID, and want columns.

    If it’s just a single database, why not add a collection column? If it’s two databases, then add another database as a user “collection” database.

  2. Clemente Zamora Says:

    Yes, I have a clear design on how to implement the collection manager (it’s just a third type of relation between a user and a “card item” (or miniature item): trades, wants, and now “owns”).

    But the question would be more like, would this be a feature that people would appreciate? Do you think it would be useful?

    Thanks a lot.

  3. redneckjedi Says:

    From my personal standpoint, I need to know how many cards I actually have before I know how many I need and how many I want. I’ve had to track all this in my own database, before updating my have/want entries on TCO.

  4. redneckjedi Says:

    Two things. First, the automatic generation of a card image from dream card text. Are there tools that do this? If so… NEAT. I also know that for some TCGs, accurate fonts are either impossible,, or expensive, to come by.

    Second, we had some email regarding dream cards available for online gaming. While that seems like fun, all your online players will need to verify with their opponent(s) whether or not (and which) dream cards are viable in their game. Nothing like one person using “legal” cards when another starts playing with undercosted and overpowered dream cards.

  5. Clemente Zamora Says:

    I’m not aware of generic card image generating software, so my intention was to build my own. For several reasons, one of which you wisely mention yourself, the images will not be perfect, but should look real enough. After all, it’s just an add-on feature to the dream cards section.

    I have also received emails requesting that dream cards can be used in decks, and therefore in online games, but I don’t intend to do that in the short term. In any case, decks containing any dream card would have to be clearly marked, so you would know before hand who is playing with realistic decks and who is not.

  6. cord234 Says:

    I think that there needs to be an easier way for people to contact you Clemente rather than sending you an email through the give your opinion option. I know many users have several problems that go unanswered because they do not know who to ask. Also, it has come to my attention that the heralds for yugioh (ggshall and nchantddragon) have gone inactive for quite sometime, which has become their typcial habit. I am not suggesting you remove their position, but perhaps you should appoint another forum moderator who is on frequently and who can control the forum content as well as answer any questions. I think that this would be very helpful.

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