First Edition Card-List Overhaul

by Chris Lobban, Chief Programmer

17th May 2010

It's a good time to play First Edition around here. We've had lots of working going on in all areas of The Continuing Committee, new cards being developed, new rules being ironed out. Even new toys being developed for the website.

Yes, I know a lot of you are hoping for a new First Edition Deckbuilder. And don't worry, that's still coming. But the first step in getting it ready was a major clean-up of the old card lists, to make sure that we had a proper base to work with when constructing the Deckbuilder. And luckily, I didn't have to perform that clean-up alone. Many thanks to all the dedicated volunteers who donated a few minutes, or a few hours, of their time helping to proofread the cards and make any changes required to get them all in line and ready for the new database. And thanks especially to the top five contributors: SirDan, nickybaby, Iron Prime, Redgar, and Dukat, who each proofread over 200 individual card entries. Each of these five will be receiving a free six-month Premium membership as thanks for their hard work. And with a new First Edition Premium Deckbuilder just around the corner, I'm sure they'll find good use for it! If you still want to help, there's still lore missing from quite a few of the cards, so just jump into the editor and see how you can help, too.

So, now for the big question... what does all of this helping mean? What has it gotten us? Well, it's gotten us a brand-new, shiny database, which will be a lot easier to manipulate data from, and run searches on. And it comes with a whole suite of new tools. First off, it obviously comes with some new cards, because the first round of cards for Life From Lifelessness is already visible in it. So why don't I use those cards to demonstrate some of the new features?

One new feature now available is the ability to jump directly from a card to the other cards that they reference, just by clicking on a link in the gametext. So, for example, if you're looking at the brand new Sela card, you'll see that her special download of Romulan "Reunification" is a link now. So you can just click on it, and you'll jump straight to the card. No more worrying about remembering what old set that card was first presented in, because it'll show you directly. Of course sometimes that link will give you "no results". I guess that brings new meaning to the term "broken link", doesn't it? Don't worry, I'm pretty sure that this particular link will work just fine before the set is released. ;-)

Another feature is that the cards in the database are now flagged with certain "traits", generally defined by their lore or gametext. So when you're looking at the new card Critical Assistance, you can see that it requires you to stop a Nurse. Don't strain your brain, a quick click will show you exactly which personnel in the game count as Nurses. The same card will also let you download a MEDICAL-related equipment. And again, a full list of what qualifies is right at your fingertips. And the relationship goes both ways too! So if you're thinking about putting mission specialist Ogawa in your deck, you can see from her card that she's a Nurse. Don't remember what that means for her? Click on the link and it'll show you what cards can take advantage of that trait, so that you can consider adding them to your deck.

Aside from all that, the card lists will also show you at a glance which other versions of a card already exist, whether it's a verb with the same name, or a different persona of the same personnel. And of course, it's always useful to have Matching Commander information handy as well (as seen on Kurn and Sela in the new set). Later in the set, you'll also see some of the other features that can appear on personnel, like their Mirror Universe versions, or who they can expose (or be exposed by). So if you really want to see proof that the designers like Kira Nerys, you've got plenty of it.

I hope that you enjoy using the new cardlist as much as I do, and that you find it really useful. If you do find it useful, consider contributing to help us get the last of the lore in there, and make the database complete. And keep your eyes open: a powerful new card-search and a brand-new deck-builder are just around the corner, building on the solid foundation that we now have available, thanks to the efforts of the entire First Edition community.

-djl-