One of the only places to test Legacy decks, for me, is Magic Workstation. I don't have much of a Legacy scene where I live (most players around here play Standard and Casual), so if I want to test various deck configurations in my free time, I turn to MWS. I can't afford to buy all the stuff I want to test with on MTGO, and MWS lets my try everything for free.
The problem? The default MWS servers, mwsplay.net and mwsgames.net, are gigantic pieces of dung. The software itself is somewhat suspect and slightly shoddy, but the servers are consistently unstable and unresponsive. More than 50% of the games I play end up lagged to oblivion, often with one of the participants dropping the match. Much of the time, the mwsplay/mwsgames servers are even completely down and when I attempt to connect, I get the "Connection reset by peer" message.
The problem is not that it isn't easy to set up a decent server, because the app itself uses minimal bandwidth. I suspect that at certain times of the day, a huge flood of Brazilians connects all at once and overloads the server. Some computer with a relatively decent upstream could easily support 50+ players at once. In fact, there is a perfectly good server (mws.ligamagic.com) that is always empty because it is not in the default server list of the MWS program.
Maybe the players on the Source who wish to test Legacy decks could use a separate server just for Legacy testing? If no one wants to set up their own MWS server (I understand bandwidth is expensive), let's all just start using "mws.ligamagic.com", as it is always empty anyway, and test there?
You know, let's just make a project to create our own application to play Magic on that's better than MWS. Then we don't have to worry about a sketchy program or servers anymore.
Who's in? :P
That'd work... if we all lived in a magical world where we had 8+ hours of free time every day.Originally Posted by Valtrix
:p
Seriously though, MWS software itself isn't *too* bad, it's just the servers that are crap. So if all Legacy players from The Source started using a separate server, away from the masses of T2 players clogging up the public servers, we could probably get alot better, more stable gameplay.
And like I said, there are some empty servers out there just waiting for players, like "mws.ligamagic.com".
I'm always on ligamagic for testing purposes if I already have a partner. mwsgames is a necessary evil if I don't, but I like the idea of putting all the source players on one server.
So it's settled! The source has its own MWS server: mws.ligamagic.com
Sounds good to me atleast =P (maybe this needs more attention? Mods/Adepts?)
"I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize!"
Nice! I'm in!
"You're English is terrible and inconsistent."
-DownSyndromeKarl
Servers aren't the problem with MWS. The problem is the extraordinary drop rate of people when they're facing a matchup they don't like. It's next to useless for testing based solely on that problem.
Creating a client to emulate a tabletop isn't actually very hard. Making it nice enough to use and getting people to actually use it is the hard part. If memory serves, OCTGN exists, is free, and is pretty stable. Apprentice/M.A. both exist as well implementing a mutually compatible protocol. If you want something stable for testing you could always use one of those. Alternately, I've been liking a voice chat client and a webcam pointing at a table.
BZK! - Storm Boards
Been there, tried that, still casting Doomsday.
Drawing my deck for 0 mana since 2013.
Actually, I've had very few problems with individual players on MWS. I know alot of people have horror stories, but I've been playing MWS pretty regularly for about a year now, and I'd say less than 5% of my encounters are negative in any way. Some players will quit after one game if you beat them pretty badly, but that's ok; I'll just move on to another player.
It helps if you strictly avoid "Player" and people without any kind of join notes, though.
Users connected: 1
Quite disappointing...
"My sky is darker than thine!"
SENTENCED - 1993
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