SimulationCraft Model Development - Page 25

Latas · 01/07/10, 7:07 PM

If I save my own profiles as their own simc files is there a way to open them with simc or do I have to pretty much copy and paste the guts of them into the simulate tab? If all I can do is copy and paste them into the simulate tab could a feature be added to open your own simc files on the import tab? It would make running sims for all our caster dps, who I have to make offline simc profiles for as they don't always log out in their raiding gear, a lot smoother.

One other thing, also to help speed this up is there a way I can plug all of the caster dps in to one sim so I only have to run it once and get one big result showing each of them?

dedmonwakeen · 01/07/10, 8:03 PM

Originally Posted by Latas

If I save my own profiles as their own simc files is there a way to open them with simc or do I have to pretty much copy and paste the guts of them into the simulate tab? If all I can do is copy and paste them into the simulate tab could a feature be added to open your own simc files on the import tab? It would make running sims for all our caster dps, who I have to make offline simc profiles for as they don't always log out in their raiding gear, a lot smoother.

One other thing, also to help speed this up is there a way I can plug all of the caster dps in to one sim so I only have to run it once and get one big result showing each of them?

You should be able to drag-n-drop a simc file onto the simcqt.exe icon and it will start the program and load up the Simulate tab. I'm afraid my Qt mojo was not strong enough to get drag-n-drop working into an open simcqt window. I'll take another shot at it soon.....

The easiest thing to do is to just create a meta-script calling out each of the players:

Create a file My_Raid.simc with a line for each of your saved profiles:
Name1.simc
Name2.simc
Name3.simc
etc

If you are using windows I think you can associate the .simc file extension with the simcqt executable so that you do not even have to drag-n-drop. Just double-click and it will pop open the simcqt window with your file sitting at Simulate tab.

A note on performance: I optimized the crap out of the core event handler. I did horrible horrible horrible things in the name of performance. Event creation, insertion, iteration, and deletion is about as fast as it can get. However, my best efforts still resulted in a slightly-more-than-linear (imagine n-log-n base 100) performance curve. Dropping all the geek-speak: A sequence of N single-player runs will be ever-so-slightly faster than a multi-player sim with N players.

Latas · 01/07/10, 10:14 PM

Ah I meant it more as far as organization rather than the speed it runs the sims. One last thing though, is there any way to get rid of a single results tab to help with organization of multiple results?

dedmonwakeen · 01/08/10, 7:08 AM

Originally Posted by Latas

Ah I meant it more as far as organization rather than the speed it runs the sims. One last thing though, is there any way to get rid of a single results tab to help with organization of multiple results?

Not yet I am afraid. It is on my to-do list to allow you to name/delete them.

Ashraman · 01/09/10, 8:18 AM

I have successfully imported my character from Armory to Simulationcraft, and have run the simulation tool, but stat weight modeling is failing--all stats show a value of zero and the message "Simulation failed!" appears at the bottom.

Any advice regarding how I may resolve this problem is appreciated.

EDIT: I imported several other characters, and was able to simulate them and their stat weightings successfully. I then went back, and tried again with my main, the DK Ashraman on Emerald Dream. Finally I was successful. Not sure why there was initially a problem.

Maje · 01/10/10, 9:39 AM

I've been checking simcraft output to some fight logs, what seems to jump out is the mage 2t10 uptime, it shows as around 74% while I have yet to see a parse log with a higher then 50% uptime.

The action list seems to be correct (ie. use AM as soon as MB procs). So I'm not certain why the significant difference. The fights I checked were closer to Patchwerk style.

Aestis · 01/10/10, 4:20 PM

Maje, Pongueur did the math and got similar theoretical results--72.2% uptime. Simcraft had me at 73% as well after I put on the 264 head and 251 shoulders. Calculations are below--hopefully this provides some insight.

The Arcane thread

Ashraman · 01/11/10, 4:31 AM

Question: Have stat weightings such as are used in this simulator correctly adjusted the value of crit rating as it scales in accordance with DPS?

The following is my understanding:

Eventually Crit will outperform Str, because the more str you have your dps will only raise a certain amount. On the other hand, for every 1 point increase in crit percentage, your damage will raise by 1 percent.

Str gives 2 ap before talents/buffs (for the sake of this hypothetical, let's just say 1 str gives 3 dps).
1 percent crit will always increase your dps by 1 percent.

Example A

So let's say you do 4500 DPS and 20 str gives you 60 dps.
1 percent crit will give you 45dps so Str is better by a wide margin at this level of DPS.

Example B

You do 6000 DPS and 20 str gives you 60 more dps.
1 percent crit gives 60 dps.
Str = crit (*before accounting for talents / buffs*)

Example C

You do 9000 dps.

20str gives 60 dps.
1 percent crit gives 90 dps.

Crit>str

(Again, this is without considering talents / buffs.)

We now have some Blood and many Unholy DK's doing 9k or more dps in ICC. In light of that, why hasn't crit rating increased in value more significantly than it has? And does this simulator assign differing weights to crit rating depending on expected raid dps for the individual in question?

Thanks in advance.

(My point here is not to argue that we should, e.g., be gemming all crit. It's simply whether commonly accepted stat weighting models and simulators such as this one have taken into consideration the way crit scales with dps.)

Allev · 01/11/10, 10:12 AM

You're oversimplifying to a degree I won't try to explain. But I will explain how Strength/AP and Crit interact, at a basic level. My apologies if you haven't taken an Algebra class.

AP does increase your damage a fixed amount per point when you have constant crit, hit, haste, ArP, and expertise. However, increasing the values of any of those stats increases the value of AP. The only way your examples are true is if you go from example A to example B to example C by only adding AP.

The good way to think about it, in your case:

(Base Damage) = (Constant) + (Benefit from AP)
(Total Damage) = (Base Damage) x (1+Crit)
(Total Damage) = ((Constant) + (Benefit from AP)) x (1+Crit)
(Total Damage) = (Constant) + ((Constant) x (Crit)) + (Benefit from AP) + ((Benefit from AP) x (Crit))

So let's explain what we're adding in the end...

(Constant) - The damage you'd do if you had zero stats. It's essentially your base weapon damage.
((Constant) x (Crit)) - The benefit you get from critting with your base weapon damage.
(Benefit from AP) - The benefit you get from increasing your damage.
((Benefit from AP) x (Crit)) - The relevant part when talking about scaling. As you increase either factor,

So, you actually get a constant amount of damage from adding either just crit or just AP. But as each of them go up, each of them get better. And it's not a straight addition of 1% more damage, either-- the attacks you already crit don't get a chance to crit again.

tripp6sic6 · 01/13/10, 2:59 PM

I had a couple of thoughts concerning cooldown management in Simulationcraft last night.

For most cooldowns, it is better to wait to use them during Heroism/Bloodlust, if it does not affect the uptime of the cooldown. In order to make this happen in SimC, you need to make your action list take into account the length of the fight through the use of if=target.time_to_die>=, if=target.time_to_die<=, time<= or time>= perimeters in the action list. This works great, if the length of combat remains constant.

However, you run into problems when you use vary_combat_length= or change the max_time= value. This means that you must edit your action list to accommodate the new combat length.

If you use vary_combat_length=0.2 and max_time=300 (the default), the length of combat can range from 200-seconds to 400-seconds. Bloodlust is used at roughly 24% to go in combat.

Let's use Summon Gargoyle as an example. It is on a 180-second (3-minute) cooldown. During a 200-second fight, in order to maximize Gargoyle uptime, you cannot use it with Bloodlust. Using no conditions on the action, would provide the most DPS. During a 300-second fight, you should be able to use it during Bloodlust, thus there should a condition on the action to only use it early (time<=20) or during Bloodlust (if=buff.bloodlust.react). During a 400-second fight, it is again beneficial to use it on cooldown and not wait for Bloodlust, because it means that it can be used three times in the fight.

I don't have a complete solution to suggest, I just thought it was something to think about.

Also, I was wondering if there could be a raid event for a burn phase, a time when all cooldowns should be saved. Certain boss fights (XT-002 Hard comes to mind) require this sort of short burst. Maybe even include in the report the DPS during the burn phase.

dedmonwakeen · 01/13/10, 3:40 PM

Originally Posted by tripp6sic6

I don't have a complete solution to suggest, I just thought it was something to think about.

Also, I was wondering if there could be a raid event for a burn phase, a time when all cooldowns should be saved. Certain boss fights (XT-002 Hard comes to mind) require this sort of short burst. Maybe even include in the report the DPS during the burn phase.

Cooldown management is certainly hard on the AI...... I'll take any ideas I can get.

There already exists a "vulnerability" raid event in which players do double-damage, but no matching conditional yet.

tripp6sic6 · 01/13/10, 5:23 PM

This is a pretty big topic it looks like.

Finding the correct logical operators to make this work will take a lot of effort.

Essentially what you are looking for in cooldown management is the following and the priority is likely different for each class:

Damage ramp-ups have finished. (Seal of Vengeance, Diseases active, etc.)
Enough time between interfereing raid events (stun/movement/distraction/invulnerability).
Use during burn phases (Bloodlust active, vulnerability raid event)
Abilities that benefit from the cooldown are going to be used the most. (Eclipse and Speed Potion/Bloodlust)

It seems like action lists can be made in the current way for using cooldowns, if a variable is available for when the next raid event for each type will happen. However, this will make profiles very tough to read and edit, but may provide better performance in non-ideal situations.

Another thing that may help is to make Bloodlust a raid event. This will allow you to change when it is cast based on the current encounter. Give it a variable for which player will cast it and an option for that variable to be no one. It would likely need a variable to tell when it is going to be cast, as well.

There is still a little bit of a problem with trying maximize uptime, in longer or complex encounters. I'll keep thinking.

Edit: Maybe it would be wise to add a single condition to add to each action on the list that will manage the cooldown effectively. This would make the action lists continue to look nice, but also allow the cooldown to "manage itself," so to speak, based on encounter specific factors. Then it would just take a little bit of time to come up with a formula that would determine the best use of all cooldowns. Just another idea.

Latas · 01/16/10, 12:30 AM

When you specify a list of simc files to be run as a batch in the overrides tab, where does it exactly look for those? I want to make sure I keep updated versions of the profiles in the place it looks for those so I don't have to worry about obsolete data.

dedmonwakeen · 01/16/10, 3:48 PM

Originally Posted by Latas

When you specify a list of simc files to be run as a batch in the overrides tab, where does it exactly look for those? I want to make sure I keep updated versions of the profiles in the place it looks for those so I don't have to worry about obsolete data.

Default is path=.:profiles

path can be set to be a colon-separated list of directories

where "." is "current directory".

To be honest, I am not totally sure what that means on Windows.

Starfox · 01/16/10, 7:24 PM

Originally Posted by dedmonwakeen

Default is path=.:profiles

path can be set to be a colon-separated list of directories

where "." is "current directory".

To be honest, I am not totally sure what that means on Windows.

should be the directory where the executable is, or the working directory of it, if set