Hey folks,

This update is mostly bug fixes. To be more specific it's over 100+ fixes across many of the CGC plugins and a large number of changes to accommodate the new Card Summons expansion plugin. Before you grab the new plugin files and toss them into your project, we ask:

Please make a backup of your game project before updating to v1.6.3. This update may break old save files and parameter settings.

Good news is that we have improved our Error Logging system so if something goes wrong that we know how to detect, we will automatically open up the Console log and post a nice little message for you to know where the issue may be happening and how to fix it.

Alright, let's get into what all has changed in Version 1.6.3:

Main Plugin Suite

MYTH_CGC_CoreEngine

• Added Wrap Window Text parameter.
• Added End Turn/Discard/Remove description parameters instead of using the End Turn Button Skill's description for all 3.
• Added "None" option to Card Removal Animation.
• Added several Card Library parameters that were previously in Card Library Plus.
• Changing classes now replaces learned cards from the previous class with cards belonging to the new class.
• Added compatibility with YEP_ClassChangeCore.
• Added Scale parameters to the Hand Zone.
• Fixed crash if MV users are using the old ShowCard plugin.
• Fixed default bitmap loading properly in MZ if Default.png is not present in project.
• Cards now appear properly in the Deck on battle start if the Deck's "Show cards?" parameter isn't set to "No."
• Cards now properly shuffle while their zones' "Show cards?" parameter isn't set to "No."
• Added image culling along the edges of Library windows, should be a huge visual improvement for MZ in particular.
• Fixed Deck zone not using the Skew property.
• Fixed typo in MZ plugin command
• Fixed crash if using YEP_SkillCore but not YEP_MessageCore.
• Help Window now always displays proper ICV values regardless of scene.
• Fixed bug where actors will execute their start-of-battle Card Actions twice if the actor before them is dead or cannot move.
• The Action Failure message in the Battle Log no longer displays when using a skill that has Card Actions. In other words, the Battle Log will no longer say a skill "failed" if it does something.
• Setting Origin Badges parameter to false now prevents cards being separated by their Origin in Library type scenes.
• Fixed bug where the If Action wouldn't work inside Empty Zone Actions.
• Fixed bug with Card Target Actions that would cause two actors to swap hands in MZ. This bug would also cause the used card to go to the wrong discard in MV. Same cause, different outcomes!
• Fixed MZ bug where "Move This to Hand" wouldn't allow you to use the card twice in a row.
• Fixed bug where extra zones wouldn't update what cards were visible when it was a different actor's turn.
• Fixed MZ touch input bug that would strangely let you hover over and click cards/buttons/zones when your mouse was at the top of the screen in battle or the Library scenes.
• Temp Fix for forced actions that end the turn not properly ending it. The code is bad and will be improved in the future.
• Forced Actions are now either better or worse.
• New warning system comes with error codes so that warnings can be translated into multiple languages.

MYTH_CGC_CardTypes

• Added parameter to change the text for "All" in the Card Types Window.
• Added utility functions Myth.CGC.getIDsOfTypesOR and Myth.CGC.getIDsOfTypesAND.
• Added Card Back parameter to Type settings to prepare for MYTH_CGC_CardArtLayers.
• Fixed bug where Move X of Type Action would sometimes grab cards not of that type.
• Slight refactoring.

MYTH_CGC_PartyUI_TypeA

• Fixed bug where text would still be drawn if Display Card Icons was set to false.
• Fixed bug that would cut off gauges in MZ at higher resolutions.
• Fixed MZ bug with Window_BattleActor and Window_BattleEnemy that   would cut off parts of their drawing areas at higher resolutions.
• Updated for compatibility with MYTH_CGC_CardSummonsCore

MYTH_CGC_ActionPack1

• Added Card Action: Select All Type typeName from zoneName.
• Added Card Action: Select Any from zoneName.
• Added Card Actions: Add/Move/Remove Unselected actions, which move the cards that were not selected.
• Added Card Actions: Select Upper Text and Select Lower Text, which change the UI text of the Selection Window.
• Exposed text components to plugin parameters.
• Moved highlight sprite loading to img/CGC/highlights
• Fixed crash when Removing Selected cards by type and you had fewer cards than the Card Action allowed for.

MYTH_CGC_TextFormatPlus

• Added word wrap support for Japanese, Korean and Chinese languages.
• Fixed bug where SFont index 0 wouldn't display.
• Fixed bug where Amount would always use index 0.
• Added tryParse calls to TextFormatPlus, supplying default values and preventing errors.
• Fixed plugin parameter organization bug with Card Cost Text Alignment

MYTH_CGC_BlockGenerate

• Changed parameters to accomodate multiple Block/Resource States
•  Changed Notetags, Card Actions and Script Calls to work with new params
•  Added Param to turn on/off Battle Log Messages for Block States
• Added Param to turn on/off Damge Popups for Block States
• Added Param letting you set the Damage Popup colors per Block State
• Added Param for whether Slip Damage reduces Block value before HP
• Added Param to let you set Resource States to HP, MP, TP or others
• Added Params to turn on/off State Icons on Actors and Windows
• Block Font Color does not change with Actor HP State in Windows
• Allowed using State Names instead of ID for Card Actions and Notetags
• Changed <Block Change> Notetag syntax to <Change Block>
• Added <Fill Block> and <Clear Block> State Notetags
• Added support for Variable Input in Card Actions and Notetags

MYTH_CGC_HelpBoxControl

• Word wrapping now uses the Core Engine solution for multi-language support
• Top/Bottom Card Alignment now properly accounts for Hand Selected Y Offset
• Fixed bug where hiding Help Window was hiding ALL Help Windows in the game
• Converted Window Height and Width params to struct

MYTH_UTIL_WindowResizer

• Added compatibility with the upcoming Card Summons.

Expansion Plugins

MYTH_CGC_DeckEditorCore

• Fixed Parameter Descriptions referring to Simple Library.
• Fixed bug where removing a card from the decklist would cause a card sprite to appear in the Card List Window even while the window was filtering by card types which the removed card doesn't have.
• Added utility function: Game_Actor.prototype.removeExcessCards(deck), which removes cards until a deck all max size/copies restrictions.
• Added support for negative DP costs for cards.
• Added plugin parameters to change Deck Selection Command names. If any Command is absent, it will not be present within the Deck Selection scene.
• Fixed MZ bug where the AddCardToDeck and RemoveCardFromDeck Plugin Commands would not work.
• Changed the "Deck Preset Error" Card sprite/text to "Under Deck Size Error" for better conveyance on how to fix the error.

MYTH_CGC_CardShopCore

• Added <Prevent Card Buy/Sell/Remove> notetag.
• Added several parameters to change text components.
• One event can now contain multiple shops - one per event page.
• Added variable support to the <card shop> settings.
• Fixed bug where Help Window would still appear when its Rows parameter was 0.
• Fixed Param Descriptions in CardShopCore referring to Simple Library
• Fixed crash when trying to sell cards that don't exist.
• Fixed crash when leaving the Shop within a few frames of entering it.
• Card Preview now hidden when opening Card Packs.

MYTH_CGC_Fusion

• Fixed bad error handling resulting in crashes at start of battle in niche cases
• Invisible cards now become visible when fusing.
• Slight refactoring.

MYTH_CGC_CardSummonsCore

• Added extra error handling when PartyUI_A is missing/below Card Summons, and when notetags reference an Enemy ID higher than is present in the project.
• Fixed bug where Help Window would not open after using a Selection skill on the Field while using HelpBoxControl.
• Fixed Use Skill on This Card Action targeting the wrong Creature when the Creature was not the most recently played Card.
• It's complete!

MYTH_CGC_Independent Card Variables

• Added Eval variants on Var Card Actions.
• Fixed bug where extra zones' cards wouldn't have their Var values changed when using All Skill Var(X) Set Card Action.
• Added Preserve Var Values on Transform parameter.
• Fixed bug where skill description would always reference the first Var value for all Vars.

MYTH_CGC_ActionPack2

• Fixed crash when enemies force the player to discard.
• Fixed Modifier case-sensitivity error. 
• Fixed crash when shuffling zones that don't display card sprites. 
• Fixed crash when getting the "smooth target" for the first card in the Hand. 
• Fixed crash when card battle is disabled. 
• Fixed crash if actions are taken before the player gets to select cards. 
• Fixed Perma Remove compatibility with DeckEditorCore. 
• Fixed Perma Remove removing an extra copy from the Deck in battle. 
• Fixed Prevent Discard failing when discarding all cards. 
• Fixed crash with the Random Middle Modifier. 
• Perma Remove will now only regularly remove temporary cards, preventing a duplicate removal Fixed Move to zoneName Top failing to properly reorder sprites, causing the wrong card to be drawn.

MYTH_CGC_CardParticleFX

• Fixed crash if Particles Plugin Parameter is blank

... so yeah, we've been busy. Hope these changes help with your card game making endeavors  :)

Future Plans

Version 1.6.3 is likely the longest amount of time in between updates we have spent so far. This is in part because Version 1.6.2 released twice, first on itch and then a few months later on Steam. Making sure the Steam launch was not an unmitigated disaster took a lot of time and back and forths with Gotcha Gotcha Games (current license holders of the RPG Maker engine) to make it happen. Despite our best efforts the Steam launch was still pretty rough, hence why we took the extra time to fix a lot of the major issues users had with the CGC plugins.

Rest assured that the wait for Version 1.6.4 will not be nearly as long. In fact we have some plans in motion to help make Version 1.6.4 a major QoL update and implement the ability for us to get to your bug reports and feature requests faster. So, let's go over them ...

• Multiline Support for Eval and Conditional Card Actions

We're currently testing this out, and it needs some tinkering but it drastically improves the readability of Eval statements. Plan on the following syntax:

<Card Actions> 
Eval{
code
code  
code  
}  
</Card Actions>

And this:

<Card Actions>   
If [expression] {  
Draw 1  
Discard 1  
//Comment
Other Card Action  
}   
</Card Actions> 

And you'll be able to nest them!

<Card Actions>    
If [expression] {   
    Eval{
    code
    code
    }
}    
</Card Actions> 

• Card Actions in Plugin Commands & Card Selection Window on the Map

You'll be able to use the aforementioned Card Actions in Plugin Commands to make the user Select cards from the map, and do whatever you want with the selection. That means it'll be much easier to let a player choose cards to add to their deck as a battle reward, and things like that. These Card Actions via Plugin Commands can also be called in Troop and Common Events in case you want to spice things up mid-battle.

• Template Skills

Many of you have embarked on the daunting task of making 1000+ Cards for your games. We salute your brave efforts but its a task that will require a lot of time copying and pasting Notetags from one Skill to another. Maintaing such a large card pool and being able to make changes to it at scale is something that has been very difficult to do with CGC. Until ... Template Skills.

We're looking at something like this:

<Card Actions>     
Inherit Skill X Actions
Draw 1 
</Card Actions> 
<Card Target Actions>
Inherit Skill X Target Actions
</Card Target Actions>
<Card Passives>
Inherit Skill X Passives
</Card Passives>

This would let you create a "Parent" skill that has a list of Card Actions that other skills can inherit and add their own CAs on top of. This system gives people the most flexibility for inheritance compared to other systems we tried out. Now, you can make changes at scale by simply editing the "Parent" skill and knowing that those that are inheriting its Card Actions and Passives will change accordingly as well. Using this system should save you a lot of time which you can use to work on other cool parts of your games :)

• A proper Version system (and more consistent patches)

Look, all rules are made up, but in software it's generally standard that version numbers go like X.Y.Z, where X is major updates, Y is minor updates, and Z is patches. The patches are typically just bug fixes, while the minor updates add features. This is great! This is not what we've been doing. We've been treating the patch number like minor numbers and adding features to them.

In the past, we've talked about "version 1.7" being the Enemy Decks update, but that only makes sense if either we continue to use our nonsense system of incrementing whatever number we feel like in each update. The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of features that need to be implemented to make way for Enemy Decks, and each one of those features could be their own minor update/version number.

To give you a peek behind the curtain, we've been migrating all of our plugins on itch to use Butler, which makes the process of patching them much easier. In our next update, we're going to do the same with CGC, and after that patching out bugs can be a much more frequent thing. Instead of waiting months for several different bugs to be patched out at once, patch updates can come out the same week the bug is spotted.

• More Languages
  

Once we have the revisions on the JP language localization of CGC, we plan to make that available to all users not just the ones on Steam. We plan to cover KR and CN language groups next. If you have any experience with those languages, please let us know and we'll loop you into the process. We could really use folks that are native speakers or well versed in these languages to give feedback on whether a translation communicates ideas across in an understandable manner. Once we have KR and CN down, the goal is to support FR and ES next!

So, yeah, that about does for Version 16.3 update. Steam folks should be getting their update in the coming weeks. Itch folks should also look forward to the revised JP language update after which we should have plugin parity across platforms. 

Special Thanks to our Wonderful Patrons from helping to make this happen:

If you run into any issues (and you likely will) with CGC v1.6.3, please feel free to make a thread in our Discord.  The community has grown quite a bit while we have been working on this update so there is always someone that can help you out no matter the timezone or the complexity of your problem. We are honored to host such a wonderful group of creatives :D

Thanks,

MythAtelier Team