KoLmafia Praise

No matter how it may appear, I really enjoy Mafia.

It has kept me in KoL for a long time after I would have just left the game.

And because of that, I have been privileged to witness the new content. (Even that which I do not agree with. ;) )

Every one who works on Mafia has my respect, and admiration.


Now... If there was just a way to keep the KoL developers from altering code to make the Mafia development easier. :p
 
Stands up and walks to the front of the group. To begin speaking.
I speak for a group of others who are unable to be here when I say that kolmafia has saved their interest in the game. Often these players might very well have had their accounts deleted if kolmafia didn't exist. That very aspect would have caused them to lose interest.
Overall, I can say that they all really appreciate what the developers of kolmafia have done.

Now I will speak for myself when I say that I think I might appreciate what you have done a little more than any of them. My reason for saying that is I not only get the benefit of using this great program, but some of the people mentioned above wanted me to write a program to do these things in pascal. The start of that program is somewhere on my computer, and all it does is log on to kol. I was searching for some form of database of info about kol to port into my program when I found kolmafia. After checking out the functionality of kolmafia I found that it had all the features I was planning to write into my program, and many more that I never thought of adding. The feature I use the most was one of them, and that feature is scripting. :D

Thanks a million!

I have noticed in the internal databases that it appears as though information was obtained from external sources for parts of kolmafia. I would like to extend my thanks even further to include those people, and any other person who has aided in the development of this program.
 

Veracity

Developer
Staff member
[quote author=efilnikufecin link=topic=221.msg1113#msg1113 date=1150431657]I have noticed in the internal databases that it appears as though information was obtained from external sources for parts of kolmafia. I would like to extend my thanks even further to include those people, and any other person who has aided in the development of this program.[/quote]

This is a good point.

Thank you to Max Demian (even though I intensely dislike many other things he's done) for his Item Number Database. We used it to seed our item description database with the original data. I haven't used it for a long time; I now have other ways to directly get itemdescs (mall stores, display cases, ...) but his work was important for us.

Thank you to Kittiwake for his Monster Attack/Defense/HP database, and what he discovered about XP, monster levels, and so much more that we now display in the Location Details pane.

Thank you to Yiab for his many months of tireless investigation to collect Combat info, Item Drops, and Meat Drops for (almost) all the monsters in the kingdom. That info also now appears in the Location Details pane.

Thank you to Vladjimir for coming up with the 0-3 star system for rating familars in Arena contests. That data is at the heart of the Familiar Trainer. We now have a way to discover that data directly ourselves when a new familiar comes out, so we haven't used his recent data, but his work was key. (Some of our own investigation leads me to think that more granularity is appropriate for some familiars; 0-3 is generally pretty good, but not always...)
 

holatuwol

Developer
My ever-short thank-you list of data contributors is conveniently stored on the KoLmafia Sourceforge website, and I'd feel rather silly copy-pasting that list here.

http://kolmafia.sourceforge.net/credits.html

There are other people I'd like to thank, too -- daychilde, for coming up with the idea for a Praise forum, efilnikufecin and Presto Ragu for taking the time to drop by and say something positive eventhough it might seem a little hokey to do so.

I'd also like to thank Veracity for breaking the developer ice so I don't feel hokey for posting here, and everyone who swung by this forum, thought about posting thanks, but felt a little awkward in doing so.

But, I thought I'd let you know how this forum will help in the development of KoLmafia -- you don't have to come in here and sing praises of KoLmafia.  Essentially, the basis of the next big project for KoLmafia is how you, yes you use KoLmafia.  You guessed it: the mythical KoLmafia end-user manual!

What you can do is (without putting down the developers or anything) create a post in this thread which describes how you use KoLmafia.  You can either be creative about it (turn it into a short story about a single day's use), methodical about it (make it look like an ascension log that might be posted to Hardcore OxygeNation), or vague about it (I use it for this, this and this.  Thanks so much for those features!).  Or, if you wanted, and you felt that the result was cockle-warming, you could attach your name to it and send it to my gmail account (yes, it's what you think it is -- attach my forum handle to gmail) and I'll use it as part of my portfolio letters.

I'll be taking all of that information into account when writing the KoLmafia user manual -- in short, new users should be introduced to existing uses of KoLmafia in addition to theoretical uses of KoLmafia based on my own experiences (since I use KoLmafia differently from most people).  So, no need to write some amazing, cockle-warming thank you (I know some people hesitate because they want to write something like that, but don't worry!) -- something straightforward and personal is more than enough.

Incentive: your thank you will actually help the project in non-hokey, tangible ways.  Seriously!  So, if you ever felt guilty for never giving anything tangible to the project, this is your chance to make up for it. ^_~
 
Well now I stop by again because I want to thank the developers for offering us the chance to provide input into the design of kolmafia. Anyone who uses a program often develops ideas that would be great to add to the program that other people might just love, but not think of themselves. Some might seem silly, or even off the wall, but may just prove beneficial. It's great to be able to offer these ideas, and have them implemented.

Now as for Holatuwol's post above. I read the post just after it was first made, but didn't reply right away. I planned to do so, but had some things I had to do so I didn't have time. This lead to my forgetting to post later. Sorry about that.

What I do the most of with kolmafia is take care of other people's accounts. Though I know that kolmafia isn't intended to totally run a character, I prefer to not even log on to the account other than in strictly cli mode. The ability to print some data to a file affords me enough basic info about the account to know when something goes wrong. Then I log on normally if need be, but most of my scripts are written so that they can just be re-ran to fix any error.

I also have a script for my DC which automattically builds a list of items I have in my inventory which need to go into my DC. It then puts them in. I sit in trade a lot buying items, and the same script that handles my DC handles my store too saving me a ton of time. I prefer using the relay browser for chat, but I switch to kolmafia after buying several items so I can run the script.

I'll toss this in here just for the humor of it. I have sometimes wished that kolmafia would add an extra chat command when in relay browser mode. That command would be something like "/run script.ash" which obviously kolmafia would take that command out before it was sent to the server, and of course run the script.

Now does anyone wanna feel weird?? How much more weird can one be than to make a bug report on kol because "the new feature where a use link is added when obtaining an item only seems to work part of the time." I did it. :eek: That feature fit so well into kol that I did not realize it was a feature of kolmafia. I really wish I could find a way of making people feel more comfortable posting their thanks here. I know I am grateful enough to get past feeling uncomfortable and I think everyone else should be too.
 

macman104

Member
This is going to be short cause it's early, and I still have the letter that I've been writing for some time now to send to you Hola, it's sittin' there, almost done. Anyway, I've come to the point where if mafia ceased to exist, I'm not sure what would happen. One of the biggest things I use mafia for is inventory handling. That is, moving items from one place to another, sending items, DCing them, etc.

Now, that may not seem like a huge deal, but there are quite a few things that I do after I complete an ascension. For example, I have a massive list of people that I give gifts to. This list is close to 25+ people long, and if I had to send out all those gifts by hand after every ascension, I'd be doing it forever, and most likely, I would stop and only give gifts (usually DC collections) to those that I felt really close with. I like being able to give the items out to everyone, and I'm thankful that mafia is able to do this for me.

DCing things is also tedious. I have a nice little script that DC's my current collection stuff, and allows me to run it, and be done. It's something that would again, become tedious, and especially when I do it after every ascension.

Kmailing items. I send all my remaining items and meat to be sold to my mall/trade multi, and mafia lets me specify all the items I want to send, and then sends as many messages as it takes to do so. Sometimes, those items make for 4-5 separate kmails.

Ok, so this wasn't as short as I was thinking it would be, but that just goes to show, how much mafia means to me. These are simply the most consistent ways that I use mafia, however, I do use it for other things from time-to-time.

Since, Holatuwol mentioned it...

KoLMafia warms my cockles every time I use it :eek:

Thanks KoLMafia developers for all the work you do. :)
 
[me=Presto Ragu]feels the prodding guilt to post.[/me]

Right. I did mean to answer Holatuwol earlier than this... I did. But I had trouble putting my common usage of mafia into words. So I decided to think on it. Somewhere between then and now, I forgot about it. :S Sorry Holatuwol.

My primary usage of mafia... HMmm..

First, let me say that for a free, no frills game, KoL kicks major ass. It is a great game - the first 20 or so times that you see it. After that, it gets tedious to do even the most simple tasks. I am sure this is due in part to the language that KoL has to be programed in. I am, by no means, a HTML/XML/Javascript guru... But from my limited forays into that arena, I know it isn't as flexible as it should be for a project like KoL.

But I digress.

Mafia saved my interest in KoL. I stumbled upon it many, many months before ascension was rolled out. During a time when all there was to do was to level. It kept me around. In fact, it is likely the only reason I still stay with the game...

It is the scripting that holds my attention. I know, I haven't been posting many new scripts... But that is because what I need scripts to do at this point has become more complex than I can easily translate to either of the scripting languages.... In other words, Mafia lets me challenge myself as much as I want to. And that is a great little addition.


And I still haven't listed how I usually use Mafia... I guess I still can't put it into words...


Mostly I use it for everyday tasks. I use it almost exclusively. I only go through a browser when I have to work around a Mafia - KoL interface problem, or I am in a browser anyway, and just want to check one or two things.

A lot of the early content I do "by hand" through the mini browser, but once you get to about level 5, things start to get tedious... Spend 50 turns leveling up in the Treasury, to get the next quest, to finish it in 20 turns, to spend the next 70 turns leveling up in the friars gate...

That would be damn annoying without Mafia.

I also really enjoy the item crafting aspect of Mafia. The ability to have Mafia tell me what I can make with my given ingredients is very nice. Now all I need for it to do is to recommend the best food / booze item it can make given my ingredients, level, and class. :p

Beyond that, I use the chat window. The tabbed chatting is great. Not having to worry about the leading /r has greatly reduced the amount of misfires into the wrong chat pane.


Mafia still isn't "perfect." I mean, it can't save me from my own stupidity... I made a quick foray into the Tavern yesterday to get some lenses, and forgot about the 1 drunkenness I picked up while there. And then proceeded to overdrink... But weighed out to the multitude of times I would have overdrank due to lag, or accidental over-clickage... I still think Mafia is the best way to play KoL after you have "seen it all."
 

asturia

Minion
since I don't own a credit card, I can't donate to get a Mr. A.
So I use Kolmafia to farm for enough meat to buy one and after that I use it to do my ascensions.

Kolmafia makes this real easy, so I want to thank the developers for making this wonderfull program.
 

deusnoctum

New member
KOLmafia has been a godsend for me. There's no way I'd have the time or patience to play through 300 adventures a day on my two characters, particularly because one of them uses a stasis strategy. The information and automation provided (especially when trying to figure out what food and booze I can make) has saved me a huge amount of time--quite frankly, without this program I wouldn't have the patience to be still playing this game, even though I've had an account for less than a year.
 

Veracity

Developer
Staff member
I'd like to emphasize that "figuring out what food or drink you can make" comment.

I originally pointed out that one of the main thing I did that required a whole bunch of manual intevention was figuring out what drinks I could make, given the cocktailcrafting accessories and booze and fruit I had available. It's all very well that I could use my single Little Paper Umbrella to make drink A or drink B - but I obviously couldn't make drink A AND drink B. I was looking at drink recipes and manually doing the calculations.

holatuwol responded with the "queue" feature in the item manager - and I think it's pure genius. When I queue up a creation that uses my single LPU, all other creations that need an LPU disappear, and I can see it immediately and consider if that's what I want. I speculatively queue a concoction, undo it, queue another, and eventually end up with exactly the set of drinks that use what I have available and give me what I want.

It's incredible. I've heard others say that they think it's useless because it doesn't do what they want to do - but I shrug. It does exactly what I need, and I find the interface intuitive and easy to use.

Holatuwol has said that "everything that people like was done by Veracity" - but it just ain't true. I do things that I (and others) like - but he's the driving force behind the whole program and has done plenty of (seemingly easy) things like the concoction queue which are just perfect, in my opinion.

Thank you!
 

HoW

New member
As many of you might have already guessed, I am a Man of very few words, not that I don't know a lot of words, mind you, Its just that I really really hate typing.. :-X

So's, without further ado.

Thank you one and all who have been and mayhap will be, a part of this most glorious project known as KoLmafia.

Thank you.
 

rainacake

New member
Thank you all! As, always..
We appreciate you guys so much.
It feels a little annoying/weird to saying it so much, but it's just.. true.
It seems like you all do sooo much work.
One of my favorite things about Kolmafia is seeing inventory and creatable items.
And I, personally, would have never known the things I could have been making!
On that note, I am very happy with your level of Crimbo involvement. Of course I'd love to adventure without clicking 1,0000 times, but it's totally understandable to not want to include this. What I DO think is awesome, is that you include everything else about it, like the items and foods, what we can create!
OK I'm going to shut up now.
 
I just noticed something new in a daily build that I really like! For a long time now I have been going to the bounty hunter hunter in the relay browser, accepting a bounty, then spending 1 adventure in that location and letting kolmafia take over. Now I see that I cont have to take the time to spend the adventure because kolmafia already knows where I am about to have it do my work. It's already selected! Yet another great feature! Thanks everyone!
 

vicgolgo13

New member
I cannot thank you enough for all the time and hard work spent on creating this!
KoLMafia definitely helps save sooooo much time in so many areas, but I mainly use it for item creation and management. I'm sure that most everyone that uses the daily builds are as appreciative as I am!

Thanks!
 

Raven434

Member
I just wanted to thank all of the Devs and all of the community members for all of their hard work and tireless support.

I can't imagine playing KoL without Mafia. I am coming up on my 1st KoL-versary and would have hung it up long ago without Mafia.

Thanks!

/toast
 

mcsmackton

New member
i use this everyday and am so glad people are keeping it up to date. it make tons of things slightly easier for me. i mainly use it in relay browser mode for my hardcore/badmoon character I play daily. thank you so much for continually improving this awesome program.
 

etheralled

New member
I just wanted to share with you a K-mail I received this morning and thought all of you who donate your time, effort and obsession to make KolMafia such an awesome tool would enjoy.



Date: Thursday, March 13, 2008, 12:15PM

Haha and wow!!!

For some reason, your clans website has totally got me interested in using KoLMafia. I'll let you know when the keyboard starts smoking!



If anyone does check out my clans website, I promote Mafia on the page "About E_D". Seriously hope you don't mind the free advertisement.
The other thing of note is our Links page. If anyone knows of any other helpful and informative sites for the Kingdom, I would love to know so I can add them.
The intention is simply to make a handy location that has all the many useful links of informative KOL sites that were otherwise cluttering my bookmarks. Hopefully others too may find it a useful resource.

Note: This is NOT an advertisement for my clan. This is a THANK YOU MAFIA ROCKS and has been what keeps me playing KOL for some time now. PLEASE KNOW YOU ARE LOVED!!!
 

NardoLoopa

Member
I've said this several times on the main KoL forum, but I would like to mention it again: thank you to all the developers who have spent time on KoLMafia. I really wouldn't have played KoL more than 1 ascension if I didn't discover this client. Your rapid response to bugs and changes in KoL's interface are always appreciated.

Thanks again for spending so much time to save us so much time.
 
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