[darkcloud4579]

Today I'm releasing an updated version of MarketCalc for OOTPX. I haven't made any real improvements to it since last year, but there might be some to come later, as I can think of a few things I'd like to do with it, integrating some of the things from MarketCalc8 into the new version to allow people running fictional leagues to do more.

In any case, here's what it does:

On the first line you'll see a year. Replace that year for whatever year you're playing in starting in 1901 and going onto well past 2020 (I think it goes up to 2050, but I don't recall offhand.)

I've taken the liberty of inputting MLB teams for you. But you can put any team you want in the TEAM section of the tool.

In the CITY NAME section, use the drop-down menus to pick the city you're looking for. You'll have to scroll, but they're there. Or at least, the metropolitan or micropolitan place name of the place you're looking for. I took it straight from Census data. (If you're looking for Canadian metro areas, you'll need to scroll all the way to the bottom. I put those in last.)

Once you click on a city, it'll automatically populate the City Pop area.

Do the same thing for DMA Name. DMA is the TV market for the area you've selected. You choose the DMA from the drop down and again, Canadian DMAs are at the bottom. It'll give you the DMA Size.

With that information and modifiers, it'll automatically generate a MARKET SIZE number, that you can input into the game. That'll work for a decade and the game will alter that up or down based on its mechanisms, but you can leave it alone and won't need to change it again until ten years after you did it.

MarketCalc originated with OOTP2007, when I was annoyed that I couldn't get OOTP to model finances like real life.

What I mean by "real life" is, I wanted to be able to play in New York and see the modern day, non-revenue sharing effects of that largess versus say, playing in Portland, Maine or Winnemucca, Nevada. OOTP doesn't do this naturally, you have to tweak it to make it work.

It's for use in Excel, but OpenOffice also opens .xls files.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
Included in GMEXcel is a little tool called Fire MGR X. It's basically a tool for solo players to determine owner confidence. Want to find out when you're not doing well enough and need to fire yourself and get a new job? This tool does just that.

It comes with instructions and is easy to use. Basically, you get awarded points for regular season performance and post-season appearances. But the better you get, the more challenging it is to keep your job if you start to slack over a period of time.

Future improvements for this will eventually allow you to figure what sort of teams you can take over and other house rule calculations to make solo play more immersive.

Let me know if you have questions and enjoy!

[CBLCardinals]

Good stuff!
When do we need to "fire" ourselves? When the confidence is negative?

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by CBLCardinals

Good stuff!
When do we need to "fire" ourselves? When the confidence is negative?

Yeah, when the number is negative, you're fired.

I've worked on an update to allow it to tell you when you go to a new team, too. You can check out the "beta" of that on the dynasty in my signature if you're interested.

[darkcloud4579]

Here's an updated version of GMEXcel. It's really the product of a bunch of updated to the FIREMGR tool.

I've updated this file to the newest version of GMEXcel, which is FireMgr 2.0, including some tweaks to the formula for how you fire a manager, has a new algorithm that allows you to see when you can go to a new team, as well. You input the number of wins that team has into the following season's box and it'll tell you where you can go.

I've been tweaking it for the past two days and it seems to work as intended and the formula for what teams you can go to, etc., seems to work without a hitch too. Lemme know if you have problems, if you check out this updated version (and you should, the older one has a wonky formula.)

Post any questions you have and I'll answer them for you.

[endgame]

Thanks for the contribution, darkcloud. I opened up the program yesterday for a brief initial look-see and thought it looked great. Question here. Maybe I'm overlooking the application read-me or just missing the avenue altogether. Can I, with my fictional league mostly based in very small communities, with some metro exceptions, plug these in individually and adapt it to my world? I tried with a couple, and it let me locate the column where the population is extrapolated, but ran into problems trying to use the dropdown in the DMA (?) section as the corresponding areas were not listed there.

Do you have a step by step for replacing the existing teams with fictional teams, but with real market locations? Thanks in advance.

FWIW, I'll give you one example. Bridgewater, IA. I'd probably use the Des Moines area data as it's the largest metro area, but how would I complete the process?

[darkcloud4579]

You have to use the drop down to find the metropolitan area you're looking for in terms of population and TV market size. It's really not a particular super great tool for people looking for small communities, in that, it was really designed for people operating MLB-like leagues trying to get fairly realistic market data for the years. The TV market data is only real world, I couldn't go back and do it for the past, because well...it'd have been a lot. So, instead, the only thing that alters backwards is the population stuff.

But yeah, the only information/cities in the tool are metropolitan areas, so you usually have to search for the MSA that city is within in order to get a good gauge of what to do. Another idea is to perhaps use a percentage, so if a particular area is a 10, then make it a 5 to simulate the smaller area you've chosen.

Hope that helps a little bit.

[darkcloud4579]

I've updated GMeXcel to a new version called GMeXcel Suite v10.5

It comes equipped with a few tools:

MarketCalc 10 helps you figure out modern media and TV market numbers. It's not particularly useful for using it for anything other than modern numbers, though it will adjust market size numbers backwards for older years, it's really a modern tool meant for a modern age.

FireMGR is a ultimate solo management tool. Instead of jumping from team to team across your career or staying in a job well after you've stunk up the joint, FireMGR forces you to win or go home. When your Owner Confidence score is lower than zero, you have to fire yourself. A great new way to keep your solo games interesting.

NEW! Accountant X: This is a return to MarketCalc's roots. I've integrated the MarketCalc 8 historical tool into the modern suite of GMeXcel with some improvements. Accountant X will revive your solo play by giving you a budget and cash to work with annually, which factors in your market size and team success. Best of all, Accountant X works for every year from 1901 until 2100! You just enter the year you want to play into the AcctXYear tab and the numbers will automatically adjust for the proper generation. (Props to ctorg for building this functionality into MarketCalc 8.)

If you've already used the latest edition of GMExcel, then this is just like it, but with all of the updates to FireMGR and the new addition of Accountant X, that has a ton of improvements from the old version that was released probably about two years ago now. Let me know if you have questions and enjoy!

[darkcloud4579]

I managed to screw up something that you can fix yourself. I put WIN PCT, LAST YEAR AND 2 YEARS AGO, but the actual figure is wins, not win percentage. So you shouldn't input a % because it'll still work, but it won't work how it's intended.

[damientheomen3]

Can the FIREMGR file be configured for a schedule other than 162 games?

[damientheomen3]

Another question. Is it possible to extend the FireMGR slots to more than 24?

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by damientheomen3

Can the FIREMGR file be configured for a schedule other than 162 games?

Umm...not without some major modifications. I need to swap wins for win percentage. That was my original plan and somewhere along the way, I think it got easier to do it with wins. I'll eventually release a new update with the wins column replaced with win percentage, because it would make it more usable, but I need to figure out how I want to do that, because it'll require me to change the entire formula of how the tool works.

So it might be a week or might not be until OOTP XI. Just depends on my motivation to figure it out.

Originally Posted by damientheomen3

Another question. Is it possible to extend the FireMGR slots to more than 24?

I've attached a new copy for you that has more than 24 slots. Now there should be +/- 100 slots.

[darkcloud4579]

Ok, I've made an update that should solve your problem though it's just a bandaid.

This new version has another tool called WINEQ which will take your win pct and turn it into a win total that you can then use in the FIREMGR to equiv. the number of wins you'd have in the normal 162-game setup that I originally based this off of.

Should help a bit.

[darkcloud4579]

There was a calculation error in this latest version, so I reuploaded it to the thread above. The formula for whether you get to go or stay was backwards. But it works now.

[EMSoccerCoach]

Thank you for this. As I'm trying to advance the financial aspect of my Pastime Baseball League, this is a welcome tool.

[damientheomen3]

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

There was a calculation error in this latest version, so I reuploaded it to the thread above. The formula for whether you get to go or stay was backwards. But it works now.

whenever I enter a value in the WINswap section, the can/no section always says no

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by damientheomen3

whenever I enter a value in the WINswap section, the can/no section always says no

I found a math problem with my initial calculation that apparently gets out of whack over time or if you do certain kinds of scenarios. I need to fix the tool completely it seems. I'm working on it.