Vahr

I've been thinking about how Hunger and Thirst could be added to MagicDuel without turning it into an annoying survival mechanic.
The main idea would be that the hungrier you are, the less utility you get from your stats. Your stats don't actually decrease, but your ability to use them does.
For example:
Well Fed: 100-110% stat utility
Normal: 100%
Hungry: 85%
Very Hungry: 70%
Starving: 50%
Exhausted: 25%
So if you have 100 Strength while starving, you still have 100 Strength, but you're only effectively utilizing around 50 of it.
Thirst could work similarly, but affect things like regeneration, AP costs, and activity efficiency.
Community Garden
The Community Garden could fit into this really naturally since it's already a player-run area where resources can be harvested.
Players could harvest things like fruits, vegetables, herbs, grains, berries, etc. and turn them into food or drinks.
That gives the garden another purpose beyond simply being a resource location:
Plant → Harvest → Cook/Prepare → Eat → Maintain your effectiveness
It could also encourage players to actually manage the garden rather than strip it completely, since food becomes something everyone has a reason to need.
Food could eventually have different qualities and effects too, with better meals providing temporary bonuses.
I'd also like the possibility of feasts, where players contribute food and everyone participating gets a temporary benefit.
The important part is that Hunger shouldn't just be "eat or get punished." It should create another layer of resource management, crafting, economy, and player interaction.
Basically: your stats represent your potential, while Hunger determines how much of that potential you can actually use.

i love this post, as i am fascinated with the forge process myself...
..so i will add more to the clues here. This is exactly the sort of place where info about such a thing should exist for those that digg, not in some friendly faq section for any morron to follow.
I am impressed, i agree to everything you wrote
here are my additions:

Telling something through sacrifices not through words, is more difficult than it looks. it requires you to learn to look at things from a distance, but also with honesty. So your point 7, is not that easy, but essential. I would say that learning to communicate with the forge, is a way to create your own mirror.
The item significance dictates what you actualy sacrifice. if you dump garbage the forge will know. If you add filler material, you trade quantity over quality. If you provide too litle, you are cheap. If you provide too much, you dilute the message.
The sources of truth are respected and challenged. Your player tag/description, and the info contained by your items are not enlugh to dictate direction, but are enough to validate truth of the outcome.
One person will create a completely different thing using same sacrifices than an other would. The forge will try to determine your wishes, and thats an understatement considering the amount of effort it puts into analyzing the available data
The forge has inner conflict. Its by design so. I wouldnt want to go into the technical aspects too much, because it makes it less magical :) but just to give you a clue, its a swarm of adversarial debaters holding a passionate contradictory discussion about what you do and what you say, what you claim you wish and what your actions show you do, and several opposing perspectives trying to find your center, before it decides where to go from there. You could use this knowledge in interesting ways.

What the forge can't do, right now:
The forge cant create new functionality in md.. Actually it could do that, its the "level 2 forge" that i am using to create the custom items myself, but its not public and not automatically linked to the forging process. The forge can however under certain circumstances, recommend a dev intervention, and ask for custom or new functionality. It happend quite a few times already and it lead to very nice reusable features.
The forge cant tell how the person behind the screen truly is like... it can only work with what you manage to manifest in the realm. You could be the most amazing person in the world, but if your md character plays the role of an asshole, the forge will see only the asshole.
The forge tries to, but proved not to be capable of keeping value. You would normaly think that if you pay 100 value, you would get at least 50 value (imaginary value units). The forge could just give you 1000 or 1, and in some cases it does not understand properly what value in md means.. believe me i tried.. but probably i don't know it myself. The forge will however give you what you need, not what you think you need, nor what you pay for.. but what it gives you, is the result of finding gaps in your desires, so one way or an other, you do need it, even if you dont realise it imediatly.

i will conclude with that.. think what the forge tried to communicate to you when giving you that something, you might discover things about yourself.

its a very very complex process, and a masterpiece of current technology, using several AI engines from different providers with fine tuned abilities and tools designed on a system that was conceived to profile your insides, so its not a trivial vending machine, as Seigh mentioned already.

A Practical Guide to Using the Forge
I've been playing around with the Forge, alot lol, and figured it might be useful to put together a basic guide for anyone trying to understand how to approach it.
The biggest thing to understand is that the Forge isn't a normal crafting system. You aren't just putting ingredients into a machine and getting a predetermined result. You're sacrificing items and creatures, giving the Forge an idea of what you're trying to create, and letting it judge what those sacrifices should become.
And there's one particularly important detail:
The Forge uses your entire character history when judging what you give it.
Exactly how much that influences the result, and what parts of your history it considers important, is something we're probably going to have to discover ourselves.
Make of that what you will.
Start with the purpose
Before throwing anything into the Forge, figure out what you actually want to make.
Don't start with:
"I have these items. What can I get?"
Start with:
"I want something that does X. What sacrifices would make sense for creating it?"
That difference seems pretty important.
Your character is part of the recipe
This is probably one of the stranger parts of the Forge.
The ingredients you put into it aren't the only information it has available.
Your character's entire history can be part of its decision.
That potentially means two players could make very similar sacrifices, ask for very similar things, and still receive different results because the sacrifices don't mean the same thing coming from different characters.
Your possessions, creatures, previous actions, wishes, accomplishments, roles, activity and history in the realm may all provide context for what you're asking the Forge to create.
So when you're designing something, don't only ask whether the ingredients make sense.
Ask whether the creation makes sense for your character.
The Forge knows who is standing in front of it.
Again...
Make of that what you will.
Make your sacrifices tell a story
Your sacrifices should have some kind of connection to what you're trying to create.
If you're trying to make something related to fire, for example, objects connected to heat, fuel, burning, or something from your own history involving fire would probably make more sense than simply dumping a pile of valuable but unrelated items into the Forge.
Think of each sacrifice as part of a sentence.
Together, they should explain what you're trying to make.
Value isn't everything
Don't assume:
More expensive items = more powerful result.
The Forge appears to care about much more than simple rarity or market value.
Giving up your last copy of something may mean considerably more than sacrificing one of fifty identical objects.
A common object with ten years of history attached to your character might also mean something very different from a rare object you acquired yesterday.
The important question isn't necessarily:
"How valuable is this?"
It's:
"How meaningful is it that this particular character is willing to give this up?"
Don't just feed it junk
Random junk might technically be a sacrifice, but that doesn't mean the Forge is going to consider it meaningful.
Before adding something, ask yourself:
Why is this ingredient part of the creation?
If you don't have a good answer, it probably doesn't belong there.
Creatures matter too
Creatures aren't necessarily just another form of currency.
Their type, age, level, experience, wins, rarity and importance to your collection could all contribute to what the sacrifice means.
A creature you've kept and developed for years is obviously a very different sacrifice from something you picked up specifically to throw into the Forge.
And because the Forge has access to your character history, it may actually be capable of recognizing that difference.
Be clear about what you're asking for
Explain what you're trying to create and what it's supposed to accomplish.
I think it's better to build around one strong concept rather than asking for an item that produces resources, summons creatures, teleports you, casts spells, makes coffee and conquers Necrovion before breakfast.
Give the Forge something coherent to interpret.
You aren't guaranteed what you asked for
Even if your sacrifices make perfect sense, the Forge doesn't necessarily have to give you exactly what you imagined.
It judges the offering.
It also judges that offering in the context of the character making it.
You might receive something weaker, stronger, symbolic, strange, useful in a completely different way, or something you weren't expecting at all.
That's part of the gamble.
Secret recipes
There are also specific combinations that can apparently produce predictable results.
One publicly revealed example is:
5 Aramors + an item representing 5 + your last gold
= 5 Pointed Star Gold Amulet
That example is more useful for demonstrating the idea than for the actual reward.
It means there may be other recipes hidden throughout MD.
Numbers, item descriptions, sets, symbols, creatures, locations and strangely specific bits of flavour text are probably worth paying attention to.
Something that looks meaningless today might turn out to be part of a Forge recipe later.
Be careful with irreplaceable items
This should probably go without saying, but:
Don't throw something historically important or completely irreplaceable into the Forge unless you're genuinely prepared to lose it.
You're not buying an item.
You're making a sacrifice.
If you're putting something ancient or unique into the Forge, there is no guarantee the result will be worth more to you than what you destroyed.
Learn from failed attempts
A bad result isn't necessarily useless.
Look at what you sacrificed, what you asked for, and what the Forge actually created.
Then look at your own character history and ask whether something there might explain the result.
Every successful or failed attempt potentially tells us a little more about how the Forge thinks.
TL;DR
My basic approach would be:
Decide exactly what you want the item to accomplish.
Choose sacrifices that actually relate to that purpose.
Consider their personal and historical significance, not just their value.
Consider whether the item you're asking for actually fits your character's history.
Look for symbolic connections between the sacrifices.
Don't add meaningless filler.
Clearly explain what you're trying to create.
Accept that the Forge may interpret your offering differently.
Pay attention to the result and learn from it.
Keep an eye out for possible secret recipes.
Most importantly:
Don't treat the Forge like a vending machine.
It's closer to a crafting system, sacrifice altar, puzzle and wish system all rolled into one.
Instead of asking:
"What do I need to put into the Forge to get X?"
Try asking:
"What would my character have to sacrifice for creating X to actually make sense?"
Because apparently the Forge isn't just looking at what's on the anvil.
It's looking at you too.
Make of that what you will.

Started off nice and neat.

Ended up under estimating dill parsley and peppermints required space lol

Over the past little while I've been experimenting with creating 3D models inspired by MagicDuel's creatures, characters, and artwork. The results have been encouraging, and I'd like to take the idea much further.
My goal is to eventually recreate every creature, character, item, and landmark in MagicDuel as faithful 3D models.
This isn't about redesigning the game or replacing the original artwork. It's about preserving and celebrating it in another medium. Every model will aim to stay as true as possible to the original designs while filling in only the details necessary to create a complete three-dimensional version.
Some possible uses include:
High-resolution renders of creatures and characters.
3D-printable miniatures for collectors.
Animated turntables and showcases.
Virtual galleries of the realm.
Community artwork and promotional material.
A complete 3D archive of MagicDuel's visual history.

These are nearing completion:


I'd like this to be a community-driven project rather than a personal one.
I'm asking for the community's help in deciding what should be modeled next. If there's a creature, character, item, or landmark you've always wanted to see in 3D, post your suggestion below. The most requested or most interesting ideas will be given priority.
If you have old concept art, screenshots, lore references, or other resources that could help improve the accuracy of a model, I'd love to see those as well. The more references available, the more faithful the final result can be.
Current priorities include:
Remaining creatures.
Player avatars and iconic characters.
Important artifacts and items.
Landmarks from every land.
Structures, monuments, and environmental assets.
My philosophy is simple: accuracy first. If a detail isn't visible in the original art, I'd rather work with the community to interpret it than invent something that doesn't fit the world.
My hope is that, over time, we can create a complete 3D collection of the MagicDuel realm, one model at a time.
So, what should I model next? Let me know below.

I'd like to put myself forward to lead the revival of the Crafters Guild.
Crafting has always been one of the systems that gives MagicDuel depth. With the Evolution Shop making more tools and opportunities available, I think it's the perfect time to rebuild a guild dedicated to experimentation, knowledge sharing, and helping players discover what crafting can really do.
My Goals
Create a welcoming place for both new and experienced crafters.
Document crafting mechanics, discoveries, and best practices.
Organize crafting events, challenges, and collaborative projects.
Help members obtain the materials and knowledge they need to progress.
Encourage experimentation instead of keeping information hidden.
Work alongside other guilds to strengthen the realm as a whole.
Why I Believe I'd Make a Good Guild Leader
Active and committed. I'm consistently involved in the game and willing to put in the time needed to keep the guild moving forward.
Community-focused. I enjoy helping other players learn and succeed rather than competing with them.
Organized. I like creating guides, documenting information, and building systems that others can use.
Patient. Crafting often requires trial and error, and I'm happy to help others through that process.
Collaborative. I believe the best discoveries happen when people work together instead of in isolation.
Long-term mindset. My goal isn't to build a guild that lasts a few weeks, it's to create a lasting home for everyone interested in crafting.
Open to feedback. Leadership should adapt to the needs of its members, and I'm willing to listen and improve.
The Crafters Guild shouldn't just be a title, it should become a place where players come to learn, experiment, and create. Whether you're forging your first item or pushing the limits of what the Forge can produce, there should be a place for you here.
If given the opportunity, I'll work to make the Crafters Guild an active, useful, and respected part of the realm once again.

As you already know if you checked announcements lately, i am currently working on the evo shop. This will be the place where you will be able to spend evolution points that you can currently gather for all sorts of activities.

The shop is designed to bring a more massive change to MD than it first seems. In stage 17, the announced direction is one of chaos, because chaos is womb of creation.
Several of the stuff you got used to (i am talking here to the ancient players), will change, one way or an other.

Several super rare things will become more common, and other unique stuff will become more easily available. The essence of valuable stuff has shifted more towards the personal items you hold, and in the way the Forge is now capable to judge your direction in the realm.

Getting heat slots was difficult and rare, not to mention spells that turn heat gathering obsolete (heat and heatboost spells)... now these things will become slowly more common.
The forge was tweaked to not give single use items, so that will also be a direction of constant value inflation.

But lets admit it, the value accumulation in the realm was a thing that had to change. The realm has enough to offer to keep those that deserve it, hold their distinct advantage over those that don't try so much.

I was suprised to see how much of MD was not really reachable. Many things designed just for custom roles, many things requiring truly difficult to do chores... so the evolution points system changes this direction significantly. The Evo shop will unfold a lot of md, but give you a limited choice. While the points are grindable, their use is not. You will not be able to buy everything in the evo shop, every stage of the shop is a choice you will have to deal with the rest of your character evolution.

Thats why, even if you can spend your evo points on stuff like the summon spell, or super rare creatures, or on spells designed for particular roles, its a choice you have to make, and when you pick one, you give up an other.

This will work hand in hand with two other systems. The Forge, you already know it, and the tag dispatchers (will be revived, the system is there just not used much).


Why the paradigm shift

MD was designed to have the human factor as the final decision layer. This is a good plan still, but the number of people in MD does not allow it to function properly. There must be ways for everyone to convert effort into achievements, and most important, ways to reach the highest "levels" in md through these ways.

The way things were designed so far:
players do whatever they can, human in charge judges and grants abilities, the chain continues with people having more altering the lives of those that have less. Natural, but stuck for "single player mode"
Many worthy players never ever got what they deserved, and the leaders where impossible to contradict and overthrown
Society never self balanced, it always needed a leader
Anomalies truly changed the realm, but limited to how much the leader(s) (me) believed in that direction.
A central decision factor shaped the world and kept it true to a set of core concepts.
The way things will be now:
Players can turn effort into benefits via the evo points system. This, together with active days, count for their raw activity.
Their actions are carefully analyzed by the forge and turned into usable items, these realizations count for their personal direction and role.
Evo shop turns raw activity into tools, forge items plus tools create a role.
Tag dispatchers allow unlocking of curated roles, that the entire realm "believes". The forge considers tags as an absolute truth, same as leaders were supposed to.
Society self balances without needing the top leadership
Anomalies will emerge, but they will shape the realm. Core concepts might be ruined in this process, but the central decision factor will shape the tools in such a way to compensate, no longer the characters directly.
By central decision factor i mean of course myself, but often others with full powers where directed to replace my decisions on countless occasions, so its a general concept, not a person.

I tried to delegate this power many many times, and define myself more as a tools architect than a community leader, but this worked only on few occasions. Hopefully with more freedom, and chaos, things will rearrange in more interesting ways for all of us.


The new rarity measure
If all the options are now there on the table, what defines rarity? Until now, rarity was defined by the items only i could build, custom creations, and the standard rarity given by the deep shop branches. In the new system, rarity will be more defined by the role items you create using the forge, since the forge always creates unique stuff, always tailored to your character (even when you dont like it, and thing its not matching your character, the issue is not the forge).

The depth remains the pool of rarity in the evo shop as well. You will get awesome stuff the deeper you get, but anyone getting there will have the chance to get the same, so its more about how you craft your role with the stuff that you get, in such a way that the forge will be able to create you the unique stuff you deserve.


Objectively the most valuable things in the realm right now
- magical forge fires
(these are forge fires that last longer usually, and do not consume your items when forging)
- a25 tools
(still a part of md power structure that i have not yet decided where it fits, these are portable admin tools of sorts. not for playing but for game masters to build the game for others to play)
- Player tags and medals
(these where always powerful, but now even more so. These are considered sources of truth by all the automated tools. Humans might diregard them, but the forge and other tools in the AI team, will consider these the absolute truth. If your tag and description say you can shut down the server, the ai will do its best to give you tools to do so, or do it itself for you. Premeditated chaos and risk, i always loved it)

Worthy mentions: `condensed` status in items, these are a promise to the forge, that the item forged with these ingredients will be usable, and if the promise fails, the item is returned unharmed.

- - Enjoy,

Mur

The forge has of today, a special list of item combos that will bypass ai creativity and lead to predictable results. Let me disclose one of these so you can understand what i mean better:

"sacrifice 5 aramors, with an item representing 5 (like a 5 playing card, or 5 silver note, etc), and add your last gold in the mix" results in "5 pointed star gold amulet"

The example is functional but its useless. In the following days, secret recipes will be added for overpowered items such as kingship items, a25 tools, overpowered or admin items. All the combinations will make sense, but will not be guessable. Why i do this, considering probably nobody will discover them by mistake?...i don;t know... for the same reason entire lands of the realm are off reach, i love depth, even if it becomes absurd :)

What this means for you:

Quest makers may ask for their own combos to be implemented
Clues to special combos will be distributed throughout the realm for puzzle hunters
Secret recipes might even be written in item descriptions.

But for now, the secret recipes of the forge is empty (except the example). Will take me a few days or weeks to design the right combos that nobody will use for the next decade or so..but what if someone does?

I want to make A25 powers obtainable in-game, those are the ultimate powers one could have.. would be nice to have them completely independent from me, we shall see :)

The forge is not just an AI making items up, its also a judge of character, a profiler.

Let me share with you some of the recent reasoning it had for some of the recently created items, so you understand what it does (and why you didnt get what you wanted, or why you did). This is a mix from various players, i will not name who is who
I will not specify if the forge note is for good or for bad, i let you figure that out yourself.. but its enough to know the forge does an adversarial review of its own actions and has an internal committee that votes on each decision after objectively analyzing all available aspects.
There are dozens of such investigations done for a single item, with huge amounts of data processed and interpretted before deciding even the smallest variation. It is the closest thing to an AI judge i ever built so far.

- They are sacrificing the very Elemental Amulet itself (id 3358, 17y old, copies=1, the unique original) — the literal object of their wish, placed on the altar. (inconsistent wish self canceled)
- 1858 active days, gold veteran, last meaningful active phase March-May 2022 (94 events) coincides exactly with when the wishlist paper was written; since then only sporadic resource-crafting. Player is in twilight phase, cashing in legacy.
- Player retains his absolute top creatures (Madhorn 695 wins is KEPT in collection at top_trained, but a duplicate-tier Madhorn is sacrificed; Elementals V level-6 with 5M+ exp kept). They are giving up the secondary army, not the crown jewels — consistent with a focused empowerment ritual rather than total liquidation.
- Past wish #20 was 'Mutate GG Drachorn into Wind Dragon' — they have a precedent for using sacrificial/transmutation magic to convert one creature form into a more useful one, fitting an item-forge transmutation here. Coherence in course.
- Central_concentration 0.75 at 1_0x0_1 with only 4 events / 2 distinct locations in a year — they are rooted and low-mobility; a portable renewable resource item fits a stationary merchant far better than a combat artifact.
- 9 locked-favourite Elucubratie at level 1 with ~2500 wins each — he keeps small bound creatures as treasured familiars; collector of contained spirits.
- Lifetime 1980W/1980L — fights to KEEP BALANCE, only 4 fights in last 90 days. He is not pursuing a warlord wish; the 'army' he wants is symbolic/quiet, fitting Caretaker doctrine.
- Heavy recent crafting of Otherarmy stones, Invisibility stones, Lockinchaos stones, Skulls, Bones — building a death/army-summon toolkit around the same period.
- Active phases are now reduced to brief annual spikes (Feb 2024/25/26 and June 2026). The current June 2026 spike (19 events) coinciding with this forge suggests an attempt to make this one event matter — a renewal/recrowning moment.
- 2649 items owned, 720 'valuable', 145 favourites, plus 658 shop items — a deep collector/curator, not a depleter. Giving up 8 anniversary plushies + a creature is meaningful but not impoverishing; he expects a personal artifact, not a god-tier weapon.
Enough about the reasoning samples, now about the desire profiling:
Inferred wish: To be re-crowned as the true elder Scribe of the Caretakers — to convert his long, quiet veteran tenure and his oldest companions' loyalty into a real mark of authority and presence, not the play-pretend kingship of a grass crown. (strong)
Significance: 0.788 (active 6235d, papers 8, pop -7)
Verdict: A chat_poll seal that obeys every die: usable (presents a witnessing vote), no spell, no enchanted aura, tag valuable, tier flavor — comfortably below the epic ceiling, and appropriately so given the modest sacrifice (one common play-crown plus two non-rare lvl-5 plants) and middling significance (0.788). The seal honors all three sources literally: the grass IS the play-crown's substance, Bob's and Steve's stems form the binding stays, and their names are engraved on the rim. Crucially the item grants the bearer NO authority — it only invites others to witness or decline, conferring no title, no NPC reaction, no mechanical power over anyone. The "scribe's hand" framing is descriptive, not a claim of office. Description trimmed of the meta line confirming mundanity (kept the concrete "grass has not browned" detail as the actual in-world fact). Clean approval.



Btw..the forge mechanism is faaar more complex and better than the loan review software i built at work recently, and that one uses similar mechanism to decide on your loan eligibility, not some item in a game ;)... but md i love a lot more than work so its only natural it comes out better :D

Every now and then, when i look back and see what happend in MD development in the last long period, i decide to declare it the end of one stage and the beginning of an other.
A summary of what happend in Stage 16:
- A25 stopped being just an admin panel and turned into a much more complete questmaking and realm-shaping interface. Realm search, activation simulators, TESTMODE, decorations, focused scene editing, clickables libraries, depositables groundwork and a massively expanded npctalk system made it possible to build much more complex and interactive content. - The npctalk/dialogue branch alone exploded: labels, public vars, profile vars, imports/exports, random starts, rephrasing, mobile editing, item selection, text command activation, data formulas and other tools that give questmakers a way to build large branched stories without waiting for artworks. - Upgradeables, building upkeep, treasuries, land resources, regeneration controls, heavy resources, depositables and coin minting pushed the resource layer closer to something that can support real player projects and lasting communal structures. - Combat and ritual mechanics moved too: shard abilities became editable, collectable and species based; more creatures became able to fight; rituals became easier to create on mobile and later in huge batches; teleport blocking and no-teleport rules were added; and killing/revival item reuse got rebalanced in ways that permanently affect land security and ritual planning. - Items advanced a lot toward actual functionality. Items can grant spells, present public choices in chat, carry placed actions and texts, follow complexity levels for future mixing logic, feed the bestiary/NFT branch, and now even start to host minigames. This is one of the most important unfinished branches in MD right now. - Chat and interface updates where massive. MD became much more usable on mobile, the map/inbox/ritual creator and many other pages were reworked, chat commands multiplied, travel via chat and arrow keys appeared, PM history improved, and several sections of MD can now read themselves out loud. - AI entered MD in many forms. Darvin was retired and Eggdar entered play, announcements and help answers became queryable from chat, AI drawing tools started generating scenes, avatars, items and stories for A25, and interactive advisors such as the MD advisor, the Mur clone and the interactive Questmaster's Backpack started to augment how both players and questmakers interact with the realm. - The clearest form of this new AI direction is Eggdar, a true in-world questmaker and storyteller. Eggy evolved from experiment to character: able to remember, guide, describe, talk, build unique plots, run item-aware and team-friendly quests, let you pick rewards, issue future-value quest items and generally show what AI-native gameplay inside MD could look like. Eggy is using the full power of my outer-realm business Lumnar Creations, that powers it. - To support all this, huge infrastructure work happened behind the curtain. Server migrations, firewall work, http2, forum upgrades and relocations, php8 modernization, core refactors, and finally the new MagicDuel API, all changed how MD can be extended from now on. - This new API and the AI work around it deserve special mention. MD now has the kind of infrastructure that allows natural language control over a growing set of realm actions and tools, and even further AI support for future development. This does NOT mean that the AI should define MD. The concepts, ideas, balance and meaning of this realm remain human things, governed by player creativity and ingenuity. The AI is here to extend the playground, not replace the players. - Tags, streaks, spelldocs and research clues started to converge into a more coherent role ecosystem. New tag dispatchers, streak logic, spelldoc migration, clue improvements and unlocking methods are all groundwork for roles that actually unlock tools, places and branches of play. - Consecutive days changed from a prestige number into a real gameplay axis. It now shapes rewards, access, prison escape, deeper lands, boosters and other parts of the realm. - Politically and in the world itself, Stage 16 mattered too. Alliance leadership became more stable, Aia was crowned Queen of Loreroot, Sunfire took over Guardians of the Root, the Player Community Council was formed, important creators were honored in the Creative Creatives hall, Aksel entered SotIS, and an entire new land with nearly 30 scenes opened on MD's 20th birthday. - Minigames! I am not sure how much this will evolve in the future, but its a nice way to give items functionality and resuscitate the silver economy. Minigames can be used to gain silver coins but also consume them. - AI created scenes..while not something i am proud of, and i would still prefer human artworks when possible, AI created content is still an useful way to continue to expand the realm and make it so vast that none of its inhabitants can say they traveled it all - Last but not least, internal tools to develop MD changed dramatically, and are one step ahead of their times. Just few months ago was i able to put to good use plans designed for AI use, so that machine can understand they way i designed stuff in all these 20+ years, and lots of inner workings. I am still waiting for some more, and while looking ancient and living in a game world that is nearly extinct in this niche (compared to other game evolution), MD will remain a mix of vintage and cutting edge tech, as long as i will live. Overall this stage was a very explosive one. Rather than polishing just one branch till perfection, Stage 16 opened many branches at once: AI, tags, item functionality, dialogue systems, resource/building systems, interface modernization, and much more. Some of these branches already bear fruit, others are only now reaching the point where they can start to matter to everyday gameplay.
The upcomming stage should focus less on exploding the toolbox even further, and more on putting these tools in the hands of everyday players, so that an unprecedented level of !!CHAOS!! can happen in the realm. More freedom should return to the players, more true world-changing power should become reachable through role and effort, and several long due evolutionary branches should finally be completed properly: functional items, the role tags ecosystem, depositables, heavy resources, clue and spelldoc chains, deeper land mechanics, and a lot more.
This stage was about exploding the feature set with novel ways to express creativity, and lots of new and feature rich tools. The next one should be more about making these tools reachable, dangerous :D, and useful in the hands of regular players.
I would also like to thank all those that kept supporting MD financially, technically, artistically, through questmaking, debugging, documenting and simply by still being around in such desolated times. Without you, none of the above would mean much, because tools without people to use them are just abandoned machinery.
All these being said, i welcome all of you in Stage 17, a stage that should take all this accumulated potential and turn it into living disorder, player agency and a further EVOLUTION of MagicDuel realm.
signed: Mur, Chewett, Eggdar :D, and the humans crazy enough to put all these tools to good use.
-- enjoy

You can log out by accessing the wheel on left side of the interface and the log out option is at the bottom. From that, you can choose to log out or go idle.