In this series of articles, we will inform you of special features Emperor Edition will be bringing to you.
The topic of our focus on Emperor Edition today is the Oracle of the Void, a project Bryan Reese and a team of very dedicated volunteers have been working on tirelessly for two years.
The Oracle of the Void is an official, online, searchable database launching with Emperor Edition. Long overdue, we have worked tirelessly to create this database for the convenience of you, the player. It is our goal to constantly improve every aspect of this game and this is simply he next step.
In the Oracle, you be able to search the following fields:
Force
Chi
Honor Requirement
Gold Cost
Personal Honor
Focus Value
Province Strength
Gold Production (strongholds only)
Family Honor
Card Title
Keywords
Text Box
Artist Name
Set
Rarity
Card Type
Clan
Legality
Erratum/MRP
Every card will have a scan of the card to go with it. And not only will every card image be in the Oracle, but every version of every card will be available for you to view. This is over 15,000 images which have been manually scanned, one by one, so you can see what, for instance, the Emerald Edition Iron Mine looked like. This feature is unprecedented in L5R’s history, giving you the capability to relive your favorites artists, pieces of art, flavor text, and more.
Beyond being able to search for all cards in the game’s history, every single card has had its wording updated as if it had been printed in Emperor Edition, while maintaining, to the best of our ability, it’s original function. Close to 10,000 cards have painstakingly been updated to today’s templating. This will make playing older formats much easier, as the cards will be much easier to read and comprehend exactly how they function. This also means when playing older formats, you will not need to know how the card’s functioned at the time and the rules of the era. Can I use this ability any number of times per turn? Can I use this Open action in battle? What were the rules on Formations? These questions and more are all now updated, and written on, the cards directly. And, if you prefer, the printed text for the Most Recent Printing of every card will also be available.
The next benefit of the Oracle will be readily available online checklists for every set. You will be able to manipulate these to reflect the cards in your personal collection. This will allow you to keep track of your collection, marking off which cards you do and do not own. The checklists will also, at a glance, give you all of the information about a set, from card number to rarity to artist.
Another benefit of the Oracle will be the linking. There will be hyperlinks in card entries which will link to other relevant cards. So, for example, if you search the card Utaku Meadows, the text will link you to the Proxy card Dutiful Cavalry. If you are looking at the card Moto Chagatai, there will be a link to every experienced version of him. Artist names will link either directly to their website, or to a Google search of their name. We are also working on other useful links to include, such as linking a card to all relevant rulings on that card, making it as easy as possible to know any and all of the latest rulings on a card. This particular feature, as well as others we are working on, may not be available when the Oracle first releases.
On top of these benefits, Imperial Assembly members will also be able to print proxies and use the Oracle as a deck builder. When searching the Oracle, you will be able to add and remove cards to and from your decks, making it easier than ever to construct and update your decks. You will also have the ability to print proxies, either the card image or just the text, and you can choose either the printed text or updated text.
All of this would not be possible without some very dedicated people that AEG would like to take the time to thank. Brandon Snyder and Bern Pedit were kind enough to lend Bryan Reese their collections so he could scan the images of the cards. In addition to lending us their collections, they helped us to find each and every different version of every card. Did you know that pre-Imperial Dairya had two different names when printed? Bern did and he helped us find all of these oddities so they can be archived. Brandon also helped compile all the checklists, and is in the process of working on the next stage of the Oracle.
James Freeman-Hargis, Kevin Donovan, Matt Harrison, Sarah Koz, Ben Wang, and David Wright were all exceptional help, working to proof read every single card, searching for any errors. Searching every little detail of almost 10,000 cards for errors is a rigorous process and these men and women did so without complaint.
Don Eisele, the owner of the Imperial Auction Block, is the programmer of the Oracle of the Void. Not only has he worked very hard programming the Oracle, he has continually thought of new ways to tackle problems and new additions to be made. Many of the features you will come to know and love about the Oracle were thought of, and then implemented by, Don. This project would have been worse off without him, without question.
Last, but certainly not least, we would like to thank Brook Cunningham. Brook is a member of the Rules Team, and the man responsible for making sure all of the cards we updated from their printed versions to be compatible with Emperor Edition templating. Initially starting with the Legacy project over four years ago, Brook has almost single-handedly updated these cards. It may not take a long time to explain the work he did, but I assure you it took him a very long time to do it. Where most people would have given up months ago, Brook continued on, never faltering, until the job was done.
Without the people mentioned above, the Oracle would have never come together in the amazing product that AEG is happy to deliver to its players, completely free. This is just another one of the ways AEG continues to make Emperor Edition worthy of the title Premium.
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