MArcomage

It is supposed that descarded cards are shown in the empty area...

http://i30.tinypic.com/29glff5.jpg

Did your opponent draw the same card that was discarded? That's been known to confuse the discard representation. It would be easier to tell what happened if you let us see the entire game screen.

There is one situation when discard pile doesn't work correctly and that is when a card with newcard flag is discarded and is replaced with the same card as was discarded.

Since the system works on comparing hands before and after the card was played, this is it's flaw that cannot be fixed. We are keeping this system, because it's really simple and probability of this flaw is really low.

I just played the intrigue card but it didn´t have any effect.

Screenshot please. Btw wasn't that the situation where opponent got the same card as you discarded?

I'm a little confused here. Maybe someone can explain.

Before: All facilities at 3.
14 gems
30 recruits

Played Lich to get rid of Darkforge (which got rid of my Mummy and flipped my undead counter)

After:
Got Corpses behemoth and fallen knight (no rares)
28 gems
34 recruits

The only things in the "Discard" pile are Mummy and Darkforge

If someone could explain that, I'd appreciate it.

Did you take a screenshot? Also, what part is it that you didn't expect? Or, rather, what values were you expecting to have? It's hard to work it out without being able to see the cards, their effects, and their costs.

I expected to get a rare from the Lich sacrificing Darkforge then that rare be sacrificed for the resources. But the only rare in the discard pile was Darkforge and my mummy (which was supposed to be replaced with my new rare).

I took a screenshot, but decided that was too much trouble... :)

Alright, looking over the cards, I see what's unusual. You say you gained the Undead token effect, but it doesn't appear to have discarded one of your Undead cards. Yet, it clearly gave you an influx of gems as if it had. You also gained ten extra recruits in the process after subtracting the cost of Lich.

I wonder if the card discarded by the Undead effect was the one you received from playing Lich. It may have been added to and removed from your hand without ever actually appearing there, possibly confusing the Discard pile. This is just speculation. I'm going to look at the cards some more and see if I can't figure this out. My first thought was that it gave you gems and recruits based on both Mummy and the opponent's discard of Darkforge, but that wouldn't give the number of gems you gained.

Was there anything unusual with your Bricks total?

But if it were discarded through the keyword flipping, it would have been in the discard pile. But the only cards were:

Mummy: which was discarded because Darkforge was in that spot
Darkforge: from lich's action

Possibly what happened was that I got a rare and it was discarded but never showed up? I don't know...

I don't remember the brick count...

I did the math. You gained 20 gems and 10 recruits. You drew and immediately discarded Bone Dragon! (It costs 30 gems, but the effect is capped at 20.)

So, yeah, when it all comes down to it, you experienced an oddity in the Discard pile, probably owing to the fact that the card was never shown to be in hand.

Nice. Thanks. At least we know now that it happens.

I believe it was like this:
The discard pile compares your hand before and after 1 Round. So, if a card effect draws a card, which is inmedeatly(?) discarded by the keywordeffect of that same card (Keywordeffcts are end-of-round), it is not shown.

DPsycho and Progressor are right. The system works just as they figured ;). The discard pile is based on comparing your hand before and after card is played, so it has some limitations.

I was still expecting to see something:
Steps:
1. Subtract resources
2. Lich moved to Played
3. New card for Lich
4. Effects of lich:
a. Move Darkforge to Discard pile
b. Move Mummy to Discard pile
c. Insert Bone Dragon into hand
5. Sacrifice Bone Dragon
a. Move Bone Dragon to Discard pile
b. Give resources
c. Draw new card

But I guess it doesn't work like that...

This also relates to a problem with Barbarian keyword. When the wall is at 0 (or will be reduced to 0 with the barbarian attack), there's no benefit for flipping their counter. Why not make the counter flip before the effects of the card are played?

I think the discard pile mechanism could be adjusted to compute changes for card effect and keyword effect individually, so they would not mix up.

Regarding the Barbarian side-effect - that's the drawback of the wall damage. It is less powerful then standard attack. Making some keywords to take place before the card effects would be unsystematical and confusing, so I keep the current system for the time being.

It seems that discard pile doesn't work correctly in these two cases:

1 - when a card with newcard flag is discarded and is replaced with same card

2 - when card is added to player's hand through card effect and then is removed from his hand through keyword effect

To remove these issues is impossible without completely redesigning current discard pile system. 1 is a very rare event, so it can be tolerated. 2 can be handled by adjusting keywords side-effects (not to permit a side-effect to discard cards from your hand). Currently only Undead have such effect.

It is now impossible for opponent to draw the same card as was discarded by a "focus discard" card - https://netvor.sk/trac/arcomage/changeset/781

This will prevent bugs with discard pile in mentioned rare situations. Cards effected by this change: Ambush, Bounty hunter, Dragon slayer, Intrigue, Lich, Master hunter, Mediator, Moon priestess, Samurai, Sphinx.