Feature - Implemented Tracking Colosseum Round

It would be very helpful to save, to a property, the Mer-kin Colosseum round when we go into it and when we win. By updating it when we go in, we'd be able to have it update for people who mix mafia and vanilla or if something went wrong with their properties and they had to revert it. By updating it when we win, we'd be able to track when we've completed the Colosseum and are ready for the boss, and therefore have locked ourselves out of the Hatred boss.

It would also be then available to accurately calculate the monsters stats for those who lack Manuel.

Having just gone through this, I saved the HTML you get when entering a new round, and propose to do the following

Property: lastColosseumRoundWon
Set to 0 when you ascend
Set to (current round - 1) when you start a battle, based on text
Incremented when you win

When you are about to enter the Colosseum in the Relay Browser, if lastColosseumRoundWon < 15, figure out which weapon is "best" - dragnet, switchblade, dodgeball - and if you do not have it equipped, put up a warning screen of the sort used for saving kung-fu buffs, 100% familiar runs, and so on: suggest that you equip the "best" weapon, click on left image to do it, click on right image to proceed anyway.

I've been equipping weapons in the CLI, cycling through them, but there were several rounds where I forgot to do that and was surprised when the opponent did a special move and I did not have the correct counter available, since I didn't have the right weapon equipped.

I will not ascend today; I want to get the arena parameters of the feral kobold and the reanimated reanimator, which will take most of tomorrow's turns, but I will ascend tomorrow and be back to the Colosseum on Sunday.

Perhaps only provide the warning for someone that has the weapon available? I always went through the Colosseum without using those weapons (though I probably won't ever have a reason to do that path again, so it won't affect me no matter what), and I know there are other people that do the same.

Maybe only when the skills have been learned, as some (many?) players just use spells to kill, and probably won't have learned them.

Obviously, if you don't have the weapon, it will not suggest that you switch to it.

Considering that it takes 0 resources to have all the skills mastered before you get there, it surprises me to learn that some people don't bother, but, not everybody plays like I do, as I've learned repeatedly over the years, so, again - even if you have the weapon (why would you, if you weren't going to use the skills?) we can check for skills.

Wearing those weapons instead of a chefstaff and rain-doh green lantern would make it harder to kill stuff in the sea at level 13. I would also have to figure out how to fit in that many critical hits while doing the sea stuff, which might not actually be that hard but I've never bothered to figure it out. On the other hand, I end up using some volcanic ash on Volcanometeor Showeruption to avoid caring about which Colosseum monster I'm fighting. I think mafia selects the right counter already if you're wearing the appropriate weapon, but I got into my habits before that was the case.

Regardless of which way is better (one could put together a spreadsheet comparing the costs associated with each method depending on a variety of factors, but it might also be argued that spending the time on that is suboptimal...), there are obviously a lot of people that use those weapons as intended that will appreciate the warnings.

Yeah, definitely. I've done it both ways, and when I'd taken the trouble to train I'd really appreciate the warnings, and they'd have helped me. When I was planning to spellsling, but still had the weapons from previous ascensions, I wouldn't have appreciated warnings. Hence my suggesting using the skills learned to trigger the warnings, rather than having the weapons.

You can always closet the weapons. Also, not that I know from experience, but I think there's no need for the weapons during the first 3 rounds, right?

I believe that is correct, also.

Revision 12778 does this:

- lastColosseumRoundWon is set to 0 at ascension.
- When you adventure in the Colosseum, the "Round X!" message is parsed and the setting is set to that round - 1
- If you win the fight, the setting is incremented.

That should take care of what this feature request asked for. I will add the Relay Browser warning screen, by and by.

Thanks Veracity!

Heh.

KoLmafia has detected that you are about to fight round 4 in the Mer-kin Colosseum, where you will face a Mer-kin balldodger. If you are sure you wish to battle him without your Mer-kin dragnet equipped, click the icon on the left to adventure. If this was an accident, click the icon in the center to equip your Mer-kin dragnet. If you want to battle in the Mer-kin Colosseum and not be nagged about your Mer-kin dragnet, click the icon on the right to closet it.

Click to expand...

and

KoLmafia has detected that you are about to fight round 15 in the Mer-kin Colosseum, where you will face Ringogeorge, the Bladeswitcher. If you are sure you wish to battle him without your Mer-kin dodgeball equipped, click the icon on the left to adventure. If this was an accident, click the icon in the center to equip your Mer-kin dodgeball. If you want to battle in the Mer-kin Colosseum and not be nagged about your Mer-kin dodgeball, click the icon on the right to closet it.

Click to expand...

I decided not to check the skills; if you don't want to be nagged, closet the weapon. It's like Drunkula's wineglass.

Revision 12780 - and I declare this Feature to be done.

I'm on r12787, and doing the gladiators. I have all three weapons. I didn't get a warning on my first fight entering without a gladiator weapon equipped. I did the second fight with the correct weapon. I did the third fight with the wrong weapon, still no warnings.

Any info I can give that'll be helpful?

From the Wiki:

You fight 12 normal Mer-kin and then the bosses. It starts as balldodgers, then netdraggers, then bladeswitchers. There are 4 sets of the Mer-kin in that order that are repeatedly fought until won. The first set has no special moves, the second 1, the third 2, and the fourth all 3. The bosses are fought in the same order, and use one of the three special moves in every round of combat.

Click to expand...

Since the first three combatants never use a special move, it doesn't matter what weapon you have equipped. Therefore, the warning only kicks in starting on round 4.

Oh, I didn't know that. Sorry for the false alarm.