[maxmsp] Advice with maintaining state / data structs

Hello! Newbie to Max here.

So I'm implementing a patch that's meant to accept a command string via a message, parse the arguments, and then send a series of messages to a play~ object.

For example, the initial message might look something like "snare 100 200 127 255 3" meaning the 'snare' buffer~ should be played for 200 ms, starting at 100 ms into the buffer, starting at half volume (127) and ending at full volume (255), and this should loop 3 times. What I'm implementing actually involves a lot more variables and dynamics so this may not be the best example, but it's the basis. The point is that I have a lot of changing variables, math operations, and order-important evaluation going on my current method (a giant mess of cords) it's increasingly difficult to understand, modify, et c.

My question is: what is the best way, or is there a convention in maintaining state and variables? I come from a background in textual programming languages, and can't help but to think in terms of for loops, while loops, conditionals statements, small math operations, all of which I know are supported by Max, but when I go to actually implement these seemingly simple algorithms, I end up with these giant confusing cord orgies, constantly worrying about what is going to get evaluated first, and unable to figure out what I even did the previous day.

Is there any sort of object that I can use to get, set, compare, and manipulate variables via messages? This post is getting lengthy and tangential, but I envision something that I can send a message to like "x = 5" to assign a value to x, or "x = x + 1" or any other math operation to increment x, or "get x" which would send the value of x through its outlet, or "clear" which would clear the symbol table. Does anything like that exist?

Any tips are much appreciated. Thank you in advance!