KoL Combat Item Catalog

Combat items are hard to use intelligently

Players have to consider many factors before using a combat item, including what they own, how powerful it is, and how rare or valuable it is. Today they must look items up manually, guessing at the best option, or rely on wiki lists that are likely out of date. Because of this, it often feels easier to ignore combat items entirely. The lack of per-item insight also increases the risk of using up a reserve of expensive or limited-time items that can’t easily be replaced, such as Bottle of Fire. Players may also overlook a cheaper item they own in large quantity, or waste a banish on a monster they wanted to fight again. An information system is appropriate because the data is large, structured, changes with the game, and needs to be queried by both people and scripts.

A structured catalog players and scripts can query

Vision: The system will give KolMafia users a structured catalog of combat items that lets them identify, categorize, and query items by their effects and other useful properties, so they can make better-informed decisions about how to use their inventory.

The initial build focuses on stat-based behaviors that are easy to quantify, such as damage and restoration, and looks for common patterns before adding categories for unusual items.

• A combat item database with basic properties and effects, where an item can belong to more than one category
• A companion script that queries by damage or restoration type, quantity owned, and current Mall price
• A data validation (“spading”) script that helps verify the data

• Integration into the Mafia codebase itself
• Every possible combat-item behavior; damage and restoration come first
• Non-combat items

• Users can find items that perform a specific function
• Similar items can be compared by quantity, strength, and Mall price
• Scripts can read the catalog when making combat decisions