XT's Chrono Trigger XP/TP grinding run calculation script

<#
.SYNOPSIS
Calculates how much grinding you have left until your next milestone in four
possible locations in Chrono Trigger.
.DESCRIPTION
DISCLAIMER: This was written with the SNES/PS1 item names and terminology.
Where relevant, I've made notes for the DS version, though.

When grinding XP/TP in Chrono Trigger, there are four locations that I use:
1000AD Guardia Forest, 600AD Guardia Forest, 65000000BC Forest Maze, and 2300AD
Geno Dome.  There are other locations that the community uses (such as Rubbles
in 12000BC Mt. Woe for their juicy 100 TP reward), but I specifically chose
these four for their ease of getting your party there, ease of repetition, and
proximity to the world map.  Proximity to a free source of HP/MP recovery was
also a factor.  I consider Shelters free since you can get as many as you want
from 600AD Guardia Forest, and they can be used on the world map.

Given the amount of experience and tech points left for a single character's
next level and next tech, this script will calculate how many times you must
perform each grinding run to get that next level and that next tech.

Grinding in the first three locations will get you all techs as early as
possible.  Technically, you could grind in other locations, but these three
locations are the most efficient, so it's a better use of your time to just
stick with them.  When Magus joins, he should be 20-30 levels behind.

When grinding for XP, you can use regular attacks or techs.  It comes down to
your personal preference.  I generally prefer to use regular attacks, since I
can take the counterattack accessories to speed things up, but if you have three
Gold Studs (DS: Golden Studs) available, techs become a viable option.  You can
obtain the Gold Studs easily in Black Omen, just charm Flyclops until you have
three of them.

Here's a few notes on both regular attacks, and techs:
    * If using regular attacks, leave Marle and Lucca out of the party at all
      times.  The reduced rate of XP gain when they're out of party is faster than
      having them in the party and having them deal their horrible attack damage.
      Also, never ever have the two of them in the party at the same time while
      grinding with regular attacks.
      * On the DS version, you should grab the new ultimate weapons out of the
        Dimensional Vortex areas.  This will net you, among other things, Marle's
        Venus Bow (always deals 777 damage), and Lucca's Spellslinger (damage
        calculation based on the last digit of her MP, 9 = best).  With these
        weapons, Marle and Lucca can be in the party using regular attacks for XP
        grinding.  This is best capped off by getting the new ending (complete all
        three Dimensional Vortex areas, then go to the End of Time, use the bucket,
        and select "Time's Eclipse"), so you can grab Crono's Dreamseeker, and then
        reload your save to do your XP grinding.
    * If you're using techs, Marle and Lucca can both be in the party, and you
      should probably have the two of them spam Antipode 3.  If just Lucca is in
      the party, have her use Flare.  Avoid having just Marle in the party, because
      the damage from Ice 2 is pretty low, and it's her highest damage single tech.

One 'run' refers to the following actions, depending on location:

1000AD Guardia Forest: (-location guardia, -location 1000)
    1. Enter from Truce Village side
    2. Kill everything
    3. Leave on Guardia Castle side
    4. Re-enter
    5. Kill everything
    6. Leave on Truce Village side
    7. Replenish HP/MP by sleeping in Crono's bed, save if desired
Reward: 92 XP, 30 TP
Items: Tonic (DS: Potion)
Gold: 474

600AD Guardia Forest: (-location 600)
Note: On your second visit to 600 AD, the Knights of the Square Table have been
      deployed to defend Zenan Bridge, and in the process of going there, they
      wiped out all but two encounters here.  Get that grinding done on the
      first visit!
    1. Enter from Guardia Castle side
    2. Kill everything, grab free Shelter
    3. Leave on Truce Village side
    4. Re-enter
    5. Kill everything, grab free Shelter
    6. Leave on Guardia Castle side
    7. Replenish HP/MP by sleeping in the castle basement infirmary type place,
       save if desired
Reward: 126 XP, 46 TP
Items: Tonic, Heal (DS: Potion, Panacea)
Gold: 1050

65000000BC Forest Maze: (-location maze)
    1. Enter from Ioka Village side
    2. Kill everything
    3. Leave on Reptite Lair side
    4. Re-enter
    5. Kill everything
    6. Leave on Ioka Village side
    7. Replenish HP/MP with sweet water (DS: happy water), or if it's gone,
       sleep in Ayla's hut, save if desired
Reward: 2154-2274 XP, 70 TP (XP reward varies because Gold Eaglets turn into Red
        Eaglets if they're still alive after being hit twice, and the Red
        Eaglets give more XP than the Gold Eaglets)
Items: Petal, Fang, Feather, and Horn
Gold: 0

2300AD Geno Dome: (-location geno)
    1. Enter from world map (Robo first in party)
    2. Kill everything on the conveyor belt
    3. Run to the right, dodging the robot (or kill it your first time, it won't
       respawn)
    4. Use the sparkle, go through the dust chute
    5. If you need to replenish HP/MP, leave and use a shelter, save if desired,
       re-enter
Reward: 8286 XP, 144 TP
Items: Barrier, Shield (DS: Barrier Sphere, Shield Sphere)
Gold: 10200

My recommendations (or, my "route", if you will):
    * Grind Crono+Marle for their first two techs in 1000AD Guardia Forest, before
      sending Marle off to 600 AD.
    * Grind Lucca+Frog for their first two techs in 600AD Guardia Forest,
      immediately after Frog joins, before going any further into the Cathedral.
    * Introduce Crono+Marle+Lucca to Spekkio, so they get magic and can resume
      getting tech points.
    * Grind Crono+Ayla+Robo+Lucca for all techs in 6500000BC Forest Maze.  Do
      Crono+Ayla+Robo first, then Crono+Ayla+Lucca.  Do all this before the Reptite
      Lair.
    * Introduce Frog to Spekkio after giving him the Hero Badge and repaired
      Masamune.
    * Grind Frog+Marle for all techs in 6500000BC Forest Maze, before proceeding
      with the story.
    * Once you get Ayla back, swap everyone around and get all the dual and triple
      techs. (copy/paste this checklist into a text editor!)
      [ ] Crono+Marle+Lucca  [ ] Crono+Lucca+Ayla  [ ] Crono+Ayla+Robo
      [ ] Crono+Marle+Ayla   [ ] Crono+Lucca+Robo  [ ] Crono+Ayla+Frog
      [ ] Crono+Marle+Robo   [ ] Crono+Lucca+Frog  [ ] Crono+Frog+Robo
      [ ] Crono+Marle+Frog
    * Optional equipment acquisition on the DS version:
      * Complete Lost Sanctum and the three Dimensional Vortex areas, making sure
        to grab all the chests with all the delicious new loot.
      * Go to the End of Time and use the bucket to go to Time's Eclipse.
      * Defeat the Dream Devourer and get the Dreamseeker for Crono.
      * Reload your save (don't select New Game +!) and continue.
    * Optional equipment acquisition:
      * Do side quests and get people's ultimate equipment.
      * The only exception is Robo, whose ultimate equipment comes from the end of
        Geno Dome.
      * We want to use the beginning of Geno Dome to grind, and finishing the place
        to get Robo's ultimate equipment makes Geno Dome inaccessible.
    * Grind Magus for all techs in 2300AD Geno Dome, while you're grinding for XP.
    * XP grind everyone to level 99 in Geno Dome, leaving Lucca+Marle out of party
      at all times.  Accessory recommendation is Berserker/Rage Band/Fury Band.
    * DS version accessory recommendation:
      * Ayla in party: equip Valor Crest on her, and Rage Band/Wrath Band on the
        other two.
      * Ayla not in party: Berserker Ring/Rage Band/Wrath Band
      * Optionally, Berserker/Berserker/Berserker lol (this is only possible on
        first playthrough in the DS version)
    * If you're using regular attacks for grinding, and you aren't playing the DS
      version, then once everyone but Marle and Lucca reaches level 99, set your
      party as Robo/Crono/Ayla and get Marle and Lucca to level 99 on out-of-party
      experience.
    * Now go pwn Lavos and use New Game + to get all the endings.

Note that if you have another location you prefer to use, you can add it to the
script.  I've tried to make that process as simple as possible.  Open the script
in your favorite text editor (I recommend Notepad++), and scroll down to the
comment that says 'ADDING YOUR OWN LOCATIONS' for the process.
.PARAMETER location
Five possible values: 'guardia', '1000', '600', 'maze', and 'geno'.

'guardia' and '1000' refer to 1000AD Guardia Forest.
'600' refers to 600AD Guardia Forest.
'maze' refers to 65000000BC Forest Maze.
'geno' refers to 2300AD Geno Dome.
.PARAMETER xp
The amount of experience left for the character's next level.
.PARAMETER tp
The amount of tech points left for the character's next tech.  Defaults to 0.
If they're out of party or have all their techs, you can omit this entirely.
.PARAMETER outofparty
Specify this if the character you're levelling is out of party.  Out-of-party
characters receive 75% XP and 0 TP.  This is the fastest way to level Marle and
Lucca, on SNES/PS1, if you're using regular attacks.

If a character is out of party and you specify how much TP they have left for
their next tech, the number of runs it would take is still calculated, just so
you know what they're missing out on.

PROTIP: you can shorten this to -oop
.PARAMETER name
The character's name.  Purely for display purposes.  Defaults to "Crono", so
you only really need to specify it for the other characters.
.INPUTS
Pipe in one or more objects whose property names and values match the
parameters.
.OUTPUTS
Plain text lol.
.NOTES
Author: XT-8147
E-Mail: xt8147@gmail.com - put "ctgrind.ps1" in the subject line
.LINK
Twitter: @XT8147
 Reddit: /u/XT-8147
   Blog: https://xt-8147.blogspot.com/
.EXAMPLE
ctgrind -location geno -name Magus -xp 9830 -tp 124

Output of the above command will be:

2300AD Geno Dome grinding runs for Magus:
Next level: 2 runs
Next tech: 1 runs

...yeah, I didn't bother to only pluralize when it was absolutely necessary.
Deal with it.
.EXAMPLE
Jumbled mess of code go:
@( ( new-object psobject -property @{ name = 'Crono'; location = 'maze';
     xp = 1338; tp = 336; outofparty = $false; } ),
   ( new-object psobject -property @{ name = 'Ayla'; location = 'maze';
     xp = 2344; tp = 20; outofparty = $false; } ),
   ( new-object psobject -property @{ name = 'Robo'; location = 'maze';
     xp = 2032; tp = 205; outofparty = $false; } ) ) | ctgrind

65000000BC Forest Maze grinding for Crono:
Next level: 1 runs
Next tech: 5 runs
65000000BC Forest Maze grinding for Ayla:
Next level: 2 runs
Next tech: 1 runs
65000000BC Forest Maze grinding for Robo:
Next level: 1 runs
Next tech: 3 runs

As you can see, you can pipe objects in via the command line that have property
names identical to our parameter names, and get an entire party done at once.
It's kinda janky because you have to make a hashtable with the shortcut syntax
and then convert it to an object because NOOO WE CAN'T JUST LET PEOPLE PIPE IN
HASHTABLES THAT WOULD BE TOO EASY and also the extra parentheses are entirely
necessary because powershell says "oh hi I see this perfectly good code but I'm
going to throw an exception even though it should just work" if you omit them.

I mean, I could have just made there be one parameter that can be piped in
that's of type [System.Collections.Hashtable[]] and then just explicitly let you
pipe in a hashtable, but I didn't really feel like writing it that way.  I'd
have to write validation code to verify the structure of the hashtable, and I'm
lazy.

Also, I decided to make location settable per party member instead of having it
passed as a parameter and apply to everyone.  The tradeoff is that the way I did
it, you can compare different grinding runs in one function call, but the other
way is far more convenient.
#>
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
    [Parameter( Mandatory = $true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true )]
    [ValidateSet( 'guardia', '1000', '600', 'maze', 'geno' )]
    [string]$location,
    [Parameter( Mandatory = $false, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true )]
    [string]$name = 'Crono',
    [Parameter( Mandatory = $true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true )]
    [int]$xp,
    [Parameter( Mandatory = $false, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true )]
    [int]$tp = 0,
    [Parameter( Mandatory = $false, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true )]
    [Alias( 'oop' )]
    [bool]$outofparty = $false
)

begin {
    # relevant data
    # constant used below
    new-variable -name LOW_HIGH -value -1 -option readonly

    ###############################################################################
    # ADDING YOUR OWN LOCATIONS
    # 1. Decide on a location name.  It should be short, because you'll have to
    #    enter it when using the script.  It's used as the index into $rewards.xp
    #    and $rewards.tp, as well as the index into $names.
    # 2. Add your chosen location name to the ValidateSet in the param block above.
    # 3. Add XP and TP rewards to $rewards.xp and $rewards.tp, respectively.
    # 4. Add a friendly name to $names.
    #
    # NOTE: If there's a low and high amount of XP, make three entries as shown
    # here.
    # 'locationname' = $LOW_HIGH;
    # 'locationnamelow' = <low amount of XP>;
    # 'locationnamehigh' = <high amount of XP>;
    #
    # The low amount of XP should be calculated as if you only ever get the low
    # reward, and same for the high reward.  The 65000000 BC Forest Maze run is an
    # example of how it should look.  There, the Gold Eaglets give a lower amount
    # of XP, and if you don't kill them after two hits, they turn into Red Eaglets,
    # which give more XP.  In practice, some will become Red Eaglets and others
    # won't, so the actual XP reward experienced by the player will be somewhere
    # between the two extremes.  This is why the script outputs a low and high
    # number of runs left as necessary.
    #
    # This can be tough if you have a run with enemies that randomly leave the
    # fight.  In that case, why are you trying to grind there?  It's a horrible
    # location.
    #
    # I don't believe it's necessary to be able to handle low and high TP rewards,
    # because I don't think there's anything that changes TP reward during a fight.
    ###############################################################################

    # This will be referenced in the form $rewards.xp[$location] or
    # $rewards.tp[$location]. Note that -location guardia and -location 1000
    # produce the same results intentionally (for historic reasons)
    # (i.e. I added 1000 AD Guardia Forest first and didn't think about 600 AD
    # Guardia Forest until much later even though I always use it)
    new-variable rewards @{
                            'xp' = @{
                                'guardia' = 92;
                                '1000' = 92;
                                '600' = 126;
                                'maze' = $LOW_HIGH;
                                'mazelow' = 2154;
                                'mazehigh' = 2274;
                                'geno' = 8286;
                            };
                            'tp' = @{
                                'guardia' = 30;
                                '1000' = 30;
                                '600' = 46;
                                'maze' = 70;
                                'geno' = 144;
                            };
                         }

    # lookup table for printing friendly location names
    new-variable names @{
                        'guardia' = '1000AD Guardia Forest';
                        '1000' = '1000AD Guardia Forest';
                        '600' = '600AD Guardia Forest';
                        'maze' = '65000000BC Forest Maze';
                        'geno' = '2300AD Geno Dome';
                       }

    # technically we don't have to provide values for these, but I feel better
    # doing it.
    new-variable xplow 0
    new-variable xphigh 0
    new-variable xpout ''
    new-variable tpout ''
}

process {
    # if this party member is out-of-party, adjust xp reward (tp reward being 0 is
    # handled differently (shows what they'd have left if they were in party))
    if( $outofparty ) {
        if( $rewards.xp[$location] -eq $LOW_HIGH ) {
            $rewards.xp['{0}low' -f $location] *= 0.75
            $rewards.xp['{0}high' -f $location] *= 0.75
        }
        else {
            $rewards.xp[$location] *= 0.75
        }
    }

    # calculate runs left for next level

    # see if there's a low and high reward for the area
    # we use [math]::ceiling() because we don't care about fractional runs
    if( $rewards.xp[$location] -eq $LOW_HIGH ) {
        $xplow = [math]::ceiling( $xp / $rewards.xp['{0}low' -f $location] )
        $xphigh = [math]::ceiling( $xp / $rewards.xp['{0}high' -f $location] )

        # if the low and high XP rewards result in the same number of runs, simplify
        # output
        if( $xplow -eq $xphigh ) {
            $xpout = $xplow
        }
        else { # otherwise, output the range.
            $xpout = ( '{0}-{1}' -f $xphigh, $xplow )
        }
    }
    else { # nope, just one unchanging reward.
        $xpout = [math]::ceiling( $xp / $rewards.xp[$location] )
    }

    # for consistency
    $xpout = ( '{0} runs' -f $xpout )

    # for clarity
    if( $outofparty ) {
        $xpout = ( '{0} (out-of-party)' -f $xpout )
    }

    # calculate runs left for next tech

    # if there's a TP reward to be had, output it (omitting -tp should signal that
    # the user doesn't care about it)
    if( $tp -ne 0 ) {
        $tpout = ( '{0} runs' -f [math]::ceiling( $tp / $rewards.tp[$location] ) )
        if( $outofparty ) {
            $tpout = ( '{0} (No TP gain when out-of-party)' -f $tpout )
        }
    }

    # ...aaaaaaaaand output.

    write-output ( '{0} grinding for {1}:' -f $names[$location], $name )
    write-output ( 'Next level: {0}' -f $xpout )
    if( $tp -ne 0 ) {
        write-output ( 'Next tech: {0}' -f $tpout )
    }
}

end {}