Subsets - a number of Suggestions

[Greg the Yeti]

Hi Richard, I promised to test out "Subsets". Here are a few thoughts:-

0) Pretty well everything working very nicely! Thanks!
Shuffling and Spreading all working very well.(in version 10.0.2.8)
Opening the "Subsets" seemed reasonably fast. All actions WITHIN the Deck are now very rapid!

1) Shift Select, selected cards in the "Subset Creation Tool" but did not "tick" them.
It isn't very intuitive that you have to click on the First Tick Box as well. I had to think about that for at least a few minutes before trying it. Not a serious problem.

2) With the very simple change of the Save Location from the Default or User Selected location for the "Subsets" Folder 2 the Deck's own Folder in "Packs", one could then AUTOMATICALLY share the Subsets when one shares the Deck!
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I predict that this will be one of the next most desireable updates to Orphalese!
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I believe that those Tarot "Subsets", which I suggested last year and are now "buzzing the airwaves" on the Facebook Page, will become ubiquitous and "Standard" - and so rightly contained in the "Subsets" Folder, away from the Deck's own folder.
But probably for all OTHER Decks, the location I have suggested, in the Deck's own folder would be much better!

ALT idea:- When a Deck is uploaded you could automatically search and suggest the inclusion of any relevant "Sub-Sets" (and Spreads)? Just like currently happens for Backgrounds!

ALT idea 2:- For the Rebellious who want to share "Subsets" right now, they could simply copy and paste the relevant files into the Deck Folder before "Updating". I think that should work.
Then a simple note on the "Comments" in the P2P to alert users that they are there - and they need to copy them to the "Subsets" Folder. (See note at the bottom - currently this does not work)

3) Perhaps the selection of the Tarot Standard Subsets of "Majors", "Minors" and the Four "Suits" could be very easily accessed in the "Quick Options" Drop Down. That should be intuitive.

4) For any Decks, that have "Standard Subsets", shared with the Deck, or "Standard within Orphalese", I suggest that it would be an idea for Deck Creators to be able to modify the Card Back, leaving the original for "Default" use, but having a specially "Titled" one for each of the "Subsets". Then the user would be in no doubt which open Deck was which.
Perhaps such alternate "Subset Backs" could be entitled:-
backS1.format, backS2.format, backS3.format etc.
That's just a suggestion. Perhaps you have a better one?
Perhaps "back[Name of Subset].format" might make it easier to link the Backs with the Subsets automatically??

5) While I have no problem with "Tarot" being the "Default" under "View Names For", it would be rather nice if - for any Deck that has Names Specified in it's CardData.xml - that the Deck Specific Schema took precedence over the "Default" - automatically.

6) Perhaps similar ideas to above, in #2, would also apply to Spreads that are specific to Decks. The user could simply copy the files to the Folder before "Uploading" or you could enable a tool to allow that inclusion on the "Uploading" dialogue...

7) Since this was one of my suggestions last year (it's my baby!) I'm working on a "complete" version of a Deck, with 5 Subsets, 5 Alternate Backs and more than half a dozen Spreads which are specific to particular "Subsets".
It's the Spreads which will take the time, so I will probably get the rest done (Subsets and Backs already done!) and produce at least one of the Spreads for each "Subset" - to make them "Usable"!

8) On uploading that updated Deck that included all the features I mention above (CardData with Card Names, Alternate Backs for the "Subsets", a Spread and "Subset" files) However the Spread and the "Subset" files did not "Pass the Test" and the P2P cut their heads off with the spinning sword!.
Is there any chance that this could be changed - soon! To give you time to work on any other updates!

Keep up the very good work!
Having now tried them out (and guided by the new videos on the Facebook Page!) I think that "Subsets" are brilliant!

Regards
Greg

[Greg the Yeti]

Just a tiny addendum to the above:-
Most of my Decks have full Card Notes already - and the task to update all those with the new "Card Name" feature is going to take quite some time!!

I was thinking that also most of those Card Notes have the name of the card already there IN them.
Now I know that there would be no way of automatically "Grabbing" those, since probably everybody has used a different WAY of putting in those Card Titles!
It COULD be ALL of the top line or
It MIGHT BE only a PART of the top line...
But what if there could be a part of the Card Notes Editing Tool, that allowed the user to select a part of the Notes (normally the top line or part of it) and USE that as the Card Name.

Not sure how easy that would be?
Just thought that we have to keep the Programmer God busy for each of the 25 hours of each day!
(Those Greek Gods had a habbit of getting up to mischief whenever they were unoccupied!)

Regards
Greg