Card Shuffle

Card Shuffle has originally been a custom map for Warcraft 3 [1] [2] and features two wizard parties casting spells to extinguish the enemy team.

This game is a standalone port of the map. It features an abstract simulation of the match and a telnet interface to the game machinery.

[1]	http://www.epicwar.com/maps/1414/

[2]	http://www.epicwar.com/maps/128550/

Installing

Install the package through the standard Python packaging mechanisms:

python setup.py install

Setuptools will automatically pull in Twisted which provides the networking part of the software. It is built against Python 2.6.

You can then run a server using twistd which will listen for incoming connections on port 1030 by default:

twistd cardshuffle

Playing

When you connect to a Card Shuffle server you start with no cards associated to you. While I strongly advise rolling your own custom deck you can let the server generate a deck randomly for you by typing random. You can always see which players are connected to the server by issuing list.

Once your deck is complete (and satisfies the conditions imposed by the server) you can type ready. If there are enough players marked as ready the server will start a new match. See players for information on how the teams ended up.

To uniquely identify every character on the battleground there is a number attached to her -- the so called field ID. Keep that in mind because spells such as Fireball (or any other direct attack spell for that matter) require an explicit target to be cast.

There are three significant quantities you should keep an eye on: health, mana, and draw points (HP, MP, and DP respectively.) You can always see those values by typing stats or glimpse upon other players by typing stats N where N is the field ID of the player.

Your health determines how vital you are. Once your health points drop to zero you are dead and can not continue participating in the game. Mana is spent when invoking magic; almost all cards require you to sacrifice some mana in order to use them. Your draw points allow you to load your hand. You will only ever draw cards which you have added to your deck. Use hand to see your current inventory.

When you wish to cast a spell which you have on your hand you have to type its slot followed by any arguments it might require to work. For example, invoking a Fireball spell which you have in your hand in position 1 on another player with the field ID 4 you have to type 1 4.

The game was built with spectators in mind: if you do not feel like participating in the game you are free to omit flagging yourself as ready and you will receive broadcasts like all other players and can issue passive commands as well.

Try help to see a short description of commands you can use if you feel lost.

Hacking

I have tried to separate the game logic from the networking part because I would love to control the game through a full-fledged GUI some day in the future. If you feel like hacking something up please contact me.