Modifier Maximizer

Attention KoLmafia Experts!

We need your help; some details of this function's operation are unknown or unclear.

I keep getting questions from clannies, especially, on how to use this tool. Unfortunately, I don't know much beyond the basics, myself. So, if someone who DOES know the ins-and-outs could jot some info down, it would be much appreciated. --StDoodle (#1059825) 22:36, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

The core functionality is to maximize various modifiers according to certain parameters. A number preceding the modifier determines its weight -- this number (not restricted to integers) can be negative (for discouraged modifiers), zero (to ignore certain modifiers' effect), or positive (duh).

There's something about the +, but I'm not completely sure what it is. I think it's used to force an outfit (e.g. "item drop, +outfit hodg" when boss-killing), but I'm pretty sure there's something else to it. --Heeheehee 02:33, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Also, if anyone's interested, this is used as tiebreaker:

"1 familiar weight, 1 familiar experience, 1 initiative, 5 exp, 1 item, 1 meat, 0.1 DA 1000 max, 1 DR, 0.5 all res, -10 mana cost, 1.0 mus, 0.5 mys, 1.0 mox, 1.5 mainstat, 1 HP, 1 MP, 1 weapon damage, 1 ranged damage, 1 spell damage, 1 cold damage, 1 hot damage, 1 sleaze damage, 1 spooky damage, 1 stench damage, 1 cold spell damage, 1 hot spell damage, 1 sleaze spell damage, 1 spooky spell damage, 1 stench spell damage, 1 critical, -1 fumble, 1 HP regen max, 3 MP regen max, 1 critical hit percent, 0.1 food drop, 0.1 booze drop, 0.1 hat drop, 0.1 weapon drop, 0.1 offhand drop, 0.1 shirt drop, 0.1 pants drop, 0.1 accessory drop, 1 DB combat damage";

Also, the help thingy when you click on "help" in the modifier maximizer should help lots. (Reproduced below:)

General

The specification of what attributes to maximize is made by a comma-separated list of keywords, each possibly preceded by a numeric weight. Commas can be omitted if the next item starts with a +, -, or digit. Using just a +, or omitting the weight entirely, is equivalent to a weight of 1. Likewise, using just a - is equivalent to a weight of -1. Non-integer weights can be used, but may not be meaningful with all keywords.

Numeric Modifiers

The full name of any numeric modifier (as shown by the modref CLI command) is a valid keyword, requesting that its value be maximized. If multiple modifiers are given, their weights specify their relative importance. Negative weights mean that smaller values are more desirable for that modifier.

Shorter forms are allowed for many commonly used modifiers. They can be abbreviated down to just the bold letters:
mus, mys, mox, mainstat, HP, MP, ML, DA, DR, combat rate, item drop, meat drop, experience, adventures
Also, resistance (of any type) can be abbreviated as res, and damage can be abbreviated as dmg. all resistance is a shortcut for giving the same weight to all five basic elements. Likewise, elemental dmg is a shortcut for the five elemental damage types.

Note that many modifiers come in pairs: a base value, plus a percentage boost (such as Moxie and Moxie Percent), or a penalty value. In general, you only need to specify the base modifier, and any related modifiers will automatically be taken into account.

Limits

Any numeric modifier keyword can be followed by one or both of these special keywords:
min - The weight specifies the minimum acceptable value for the preceding modifier. If the value is lower, the results will be flagged as a failure.+
max - The weight specifies the largest useful value for the preceding modifier. Larger values will be ignored in the score calculation, allowing other specified modifiers to be boosted instead.
Note that the limit keywords won't quite work as expected for a modifier that you're trying to minimize.
If min or max is specified at the start of the expression, it applies to the total score (the sum of each modifier value times its weight). A global max may allow equipment maximization to finish faster, since no further combinations will be considered once the specified value is reached.+

Other Modifiers

Boolean modifiers can also be used as keywords. With positive weight, the modifier is required to be true; with negative weight, it is required to be false. There is one shortcut available: sea requires both Adventure Underwater and Underwater Familiar to be true.

The only bitmap modifiers that currently appear useful for maximization are Clownosity and Raveosity, so they are allowed as a special case. The weight specifies the required minimum value; only one value is actually meaningful for each keyword, so 4 clownosity and 7 raveosity are the only useful forms.

String modifiers are not currently meaningful for maximization.

Equipment

Slot names can be used as keywords:
hat, weapon, offhand, shirt, pants, acc1, acc2, acc3, familiar (stickers and fake hands are not currently planned.)
With positive weights, only the specified slots will be considered for maximization. With negative weights, all but the specified slots will be considered.
empty - With positive weight, consider only slots that are currently empty; with negative weight, only those that aren't empty. Either way, +slot and -slot can be used to further refine the selected slots.
handed - With a weight of 1, only 1-handed weapons will be considered. With a larger weight, only weapons with at least that handedness will be considered.
melee - With positive weight, only melee weapons will be considered. With negative weight, only ranged weapons will be considered.
type text - Only weapons with a type containing text are considered; for example, type club if you plan to do some Seal Clubbing.
shield - With positive weight, only shields will be considered for your off-hand. Implies 1 handed.
equip item - The specified item is required (positive weight) or forbidden (negative weight). Multiple uses of +equip require all of the items to be equipped.
outfit name - The specified standard outfit is required or forbidden. If the name is omitted, the currently equipped outfit is used. Multiple uses of +outfit are satisfied by any one of the outfits (since you can't be wearing more than one at a time).
If both +equip and +outfit are used together, either one will satisfy the condition - all of the items, or one of the outfits. This special case is needed to be able to specify the conditions for adventuring in the Pirate Cove.
tiebreaker - With negative weight, disables the use of a tiebreaker function that tries to choose equipment with generally beneficial attributes, even if not explicitly requested. There are only a few cases where this would be desirable: maximizing +combat or -combat (since there's usually only one item that can help), adv and/or PvP fights at rollover, and familiar weight when facing the Naughty Sorceress familiars.

Familiars

By default, the Modifier Maximizer does not recommend familiars, since there are many possible factors in choosing one beyond those that can be expressed via modifiers. However, you can request that specific familiars be compared with your current one:
switch familiar - With positive weight, the familiar is added to the list to be considered (unless the player lacks that familiar, or is already using it, in which case there is no effect). With negative weight, the familiar is added to the list only if the player lacks the previously specified familiar. For example, switch hobo monkey, -switch leprechaun will only consider the leprechaun if the player doesn't have the monkey.

Assumptions

All suggestions are based on the assumption that you will be adventuring in the currently selected location, with all your current effects, prior to the next rollover (since some things depend on the moon phases). For best results, make sure the proper location is selected before maximizing. This is especially true in The Sea and clan dungeons, which have many location-specific modifiers.

Among effects, stat equalizer potions have a major effect on the suggested boosts, since they change the relative importance of additive and percentage stat boosts. Likewise, elemental phials make certain resistance boosts pointless. If you plan to use an equalizer or phial while adventuring, please use them first so that the suggestions take them into account.

GUI Use

If the Max Price field is zero or blank, the limit will be the smaller of your available meat, or your autoBuyPriceLimit (default 20,000). The other options should be self-explanatory.

You can select multiple boosts, and the title of the list will indicate the net effect of applying them all - note that this isn't always just the sum of their individual effects.

CLI Use

The Modifier Maximizer can be invoked from the gCLI or a script via maximize expression, and will behave as if you'd selected Equipment: on-hand only, Max Price: don't check, and turned off the Include option. The best equipment will automatically be equipped (unless you invoked the command as maximize? expression), but you'll still need to visit the GUI to apply effect boosts - there are too many factors in choosing between the available boosts for that to be safely automated. An error will be generated if the equipment changes weren't sufficient to fulfill all min keywords in the expression.

Limitations & Bugs

This is still a work-in-progress, so don't expect everything to work perfectly at the moment. However, here are some details that are especially broken:

• Items that can be installed at your campground for a bonus (such as Hobopolis bedding) aren't considered.
• Your song limit isn't considered when recommending buffs, nor are any daily casting limits.
• Mutually exclusive effects aren't handled properly.
• Weapon Damage, Ranged Damage, and Spell Damage are calculated assuming 100 points of base damage - in other words, additive and percentage boosts are considered to have exactly equal worth. It's possible that Weapon and Ranged damage might use a better estimate of the base damage in the future, but for Spell Damage, the proper base depends on which spell you end up using.
• Effects which vary in power based on how many turns are left (love songs, Mallowed Out, etc.) are handled poorly. If you don't have the effect, they'll be suggested based on the results you'd get from having a single turn of it. If you have the effect already, extending it to raise the power won't even be considered. Similar problems occur with effects that are based on how full or drunk you currently are.