Use of a Database file over the current card adding system.

[Snowfire Music]

Just a thought.

Currently, whenever CFA updates, new card images are downloaded for 3 sizes based on the client window size. The corresponding clan file for the card images is also updated accordingly, however this is where things get time consuming. Let's say that another Fighter's Collection was released, putting out 5 cards for every clan (including Etranger), one for each grade. That's 27-29 different files that have to be updated by hand. Then, these changes need to be read by the game client itself, which takes more time.

Why are we going through so many different files to add maybe 10-15 cards?

An easier way would be to use a single database file. This would store card name, grade, power, abilities, and whatever automated abilities or trigger effects happen as applicable.
This would make it so the game itself wouldn't have to update with cards AND bugfixes AND feature additions (where necessary). Instead, the client would read updated card info from the database file, cutting out the need for a separate file for every single clan, as well as the need for separate files for unit power and trigger effects. Everything related to card text would be stored and read from the database file, and since it's all coming from one file instead of multiple files, performance would increase. This would also allow for people to much more easily add new cards without having to wait for the main game to update, since the client would just read in the new cards from the database and load in the image attached to it, either by associated number or name of the card itself.  Heck, you could even split it up so there would be a download for database updates and a download for client updates.

This practice was used when Cray Online was still being updated. If implemented here, it'd make things much easier on the programmer, as s/he'd be able to focus solely on adding gameplay features and fixing bugs, while someone else would focus on updating the card database. Heck, the whole CFA community could help out with keeping the database up-to-date.


tl;dr
Current form of reading data is inefficient and can cause more headaches than necessary. Using a single database file to replace the 29 files currently used for card text would boost game performance and allow for focusing on more important issues code-side. It would also allow for a more efficient naming schema for images, as searching for a card by name is easier than searching for it by index value.