Price comparison of healing via skill vs. other method, etc...

muffins

Member
If it would be at all possible, I'd like to see a script that goes off of the data collected here to determine if it would be best to use a healing skill, or ailment ointments, and then use that skill or purchase and use ointment.

It would be nice if it would also *try* to use better healing items as well, but only if I actually have said items (I am about to start doing hardcore runs, so needing to buy anything other than ointment would be pointless, I just want to use the items if I already have them, depending on the amount of HP that needs to be healed, which, if at all possible, should scale with level?)

I know that prolly comes off as a bit confusing, as most of my posts do, heh. I just wanted to know, at the very least, if such a script would be possible?

If you need me to clarify anything, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!
 

Tirian

Member
There are two reasons I'd be leery of taking this on.

The first is that it is a very complex problem. Of the sixteen HP restoration techniques that KoLmafia manages, I don't think that more than three of them can immediately be ruled out as the wrong strategy for any situation. I'm not even sure that resting at your camsite is always irrational. So you're doing a lot of calculation every time you need to be healed. And figuring out what your healing goal should be isn't even easy. Is a cast always attractive just because it's more or less free? Do you need the stat boost from a phonics down at this point, and should you be casting a spell first because the MP boost would be wasted? Eek, it's all yuck, and you really have to manage MP at the same time so it's almost double the yuck.

Moreover, holatuwol is working really hard on the autohealer himself, and it's always easier to write in Java than ASH. So I think that, over the long haul, he is going to be more right than we could be, and when he reaches that point all the healing scripts we wrote will be wasted time. So I spend my time trying to test that autohealer and getting that optimized.
 
[quote author=Tirian link=topic=181.msg905#msg905 date=1148773451]
There are two reasons I'd be leery of taking this on.

The first is that it is a very complex problem.  Of the sixteen HP restoration techniques that KoLmafia manages, I don't think that more than three of them can immediately be ruled out as the wrong strategy for any situation.  I'm not even sure that resting at your camsite is always irrational.  So you're doing a lot of calculation every time you need to be healed.  And figuring out what your healing goal should be isn't even easy.  Is a cast always attractive just because it's more or less free?  Do you need the stat boost from a phonics down at this point, and should you be casting a spell first because the MP boost would be wasted?  Eek, it's all yuck, and you really have to manage MP at the same time so it's almost double the yuck.

Moreover, holatuwol is working really hard on the autohealer himself, and it's always easier to write in Java than ASH.  So I think that, over the long haul, he is going to be more right than we could be, and when he reaches that point all the healing scripts we wrote will be wasted time.  So I spend my time trying to test that autohealer and getting that optimized.
[/quote]

Though Holatuwol is trying very hard to write the best possible restoration methods into kolmafia, it is flat out impossible to write one that makes the correct decision at all times. Here is a perfect example:

I have 15 spleen per day which can be used. Character class seal clubber. In Ronin. No HP restorers in inventory. What choice does kolmafia use for HP currently? Medicinal herbs. Well I have a canned air in reserve, and may decide to go ahead and use it, to get myself out of ronin if the situation presents itself, or may use it to gain adventures so that I can go ahead and finish a 2 day run. Oops, being hit very hard in the castle led to the use of 15 Medicinal herbs, and now I don't have the remaining spleen to use my canned air.

OK so if kolmafia doesn't use Medicinal herbs if a canned air is present in inventory, or Hagnk's. Well maybe I want to save the canned air and sell it after ronin, and want kolmafia to go ahead and use up my spleen hits.

I'll throw another one out there for consideration. A hardcore character. Oyster egg day or after. Some Oyster eggs are restorers. This player may not care what their meat value is. He may want to go ahead and use them to save meat on restorers now. That is compared to a player who is farming them to sell.

Effectively, it is near impossible for 1 person to write a restoration plan for a large group of people, and have it making the right decisions for everyone all the time because people have different goals. Holatuwol has very very good plans for most situations, but can never perfect a plan for everyone and every situation.
 
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