Career Planning Spreadsheet(s)

[fndrbndr]

Ah...I love scatterplots.  I really need to get into SPSS and run a few tracks with a few cars of different PI's and see what I can create.

[GBO Possum]

OK, the Career Planner is complete, or at least ready for beta testing!

It is attached and is intended to help you to track the progress against each of the career events, and provide answers to the following questions:-

How much more driving time do I have before I complete all Career events?
What will my final Career Time be when I finish?
Will I end up in the Top Ten?
What do I have to do to be ranked in the Top Ten in the world?
What is the best time in each event?
What car did the hottest player use in that event?
If I was to re-run an event, which event should I choose to gain me the greatest reduction in my overall Career Time?

In the ZIP file attached, you will find two Excel files.  The "Example" one contains some of my own data so you can browse through the sheets and charts to see where it will take you.  The "Master" file is for you to enter your own data into.

Please Protect the sheets "Overview" and "Race List" before using, and this will simplify your navigation when you start to use the sheets.  Protection will allow you to use the Tab key to go from cell to cell, but only the cells that you would normally change.

Please feel free to ask questions or suggest improvements.

The link to this file has been moved to the Spreadsheet Archive above.

[Detrick]

Wow.  Incredible work done here GBO.  Seeing as I'm starting my Career over and just started running the races this should help incredibly.  Now, can this spreadsheet make me a better driver......hmmmm.   

[Blooze]

At the very least, you should get a standing O for the work involved.

This should be a great help to anyone who is wanting to work the Career with requards to standings.  Also, for those of us who had our times wiped, once the sheet is updated with our times, it makes a pretty good punch list for "What Remains."

Would it be okay for me to add this to the Spreadsheet Archive?

$

[GBO Possum]

Would it be okay for me to add this to the Spreadsheet Archive?

Of course.  I'd be flattered! 
We might need to work out a mechanism for updating as the data or other content changes.  Let me know.

[Blooze]

The way we have been working it is that when there is a major version change, it gets pointed out to me and I move it to the archive.

You might consider un-protecting the Top Time column in your sheet so that folks can update that as they go. They will always see the current number 1 time each time they go to join a race, they could update the time at that time.  I wouldn't ever consider fresher number one times as a reason for a document update, or formatting either, for that matter.  No body wants to turn these spread sheets into a job.

$

[GBO Possum]

Blooze, excellent suggestions.  I'll hold off changes until other people have had a chance to digest the concept and request enhancements.  If it's good enough as is then that's super.  Meanwhile, everyone, if you are using this, you might like to implement Blooze's suggestion about unlocking the Top Time column.

[R2P TALIESIN]

Hey Possum great job, I used it last night fantastic tool and you are right about how humbleing the whole procees is I did one track with a very unsuitable car still won but I was 88504 I did know that many people had played the game that far.

I especially liked the different colours for the percentage time variation very useful a great motivator to get rid of the reds.

Next job, Exibition, Time trail oh and I forgot hot lap

[GBO Possum]

Glad you like it.

The Career top ten have improved since this was published, so be sure to check the leaderboards.  It's a moving target.

If you want a tool for Exhibition, Time Trials and Hot laps, you'll have to wait until I finish Career to my satisfaction unless you want to build it yourself!   

[R2P TALIESIN]

If you want a tool for Exhibition, Time Trials and Hot laps, you'll have to wait until I finish Career to my satisfaction unless you want to build it yourself!  

The mind is willing but the mind is not capable or something like that

[GBO Possum]

Building the spreadsheet was the easy bit for me.  Collecting the data from the scoreboards drove me crazy, so if someone was to volunteer to record that data... 

[Blooze]

My leaderboard sheet has a mechansim for collecting the times and generating the goal as you go.

$

[GBO Possum]

A heads-up to users of the Career planner spreadsheet.

It appears that the scoreboard statistics available via your Xbox do not necessarily match those you get through the web interface at http://forzamotorsport.net/scoreboards/Forza2/

According to the sum of my times from the Xbox, I am at the #3 position with a total aggregated time of 45h57:27

However, the web interface shows my time at 47h57:27, 2 hours longer, putting me at position 36 instead.

I have laboriously checked every one of the 314 events to ensure no data entry errors or missing events (the 2 hour difference is suspicious), and the data is clean.

The initial response from Landin Williams of Turn 10 is as follows:-

I will look into this on Monday after reviewing your e-mail.  Usually if your times are not matching up or if your time is showing much longer or shorter than it really is it means that somehow the rollup calculation has failed., and unfortunately there is no way to reverse it.

I will e-mail you back with more details, once I have a chance to check our servers.

Not sounding too good   

I'm not alone with this problem, I found one posting on fm2.net forums with another person having an extra two hours added.

I'll provide an update when I know more, but this raises concerns about the FM2 scoreboard database system.

It also means that the spreadsheet may provide you with an over-optimistic estimate of your position in the leaderboards if you, like me, have to overcome an extra 2 hour handicap.

[Blooze]

Oh mercy!!  And I thought it was just me!   I have been searching through my own Career Planner for 3 months trying to find the 2 hour error.  The size of a single default race.  Checked and rechecked.

They shouldn't have any trouble with the rollup - just locate the bogus race and delete it.

$

[TheTechnobear]

horrible, you might well find alot of people around your # have the same issue then

does your xbox show a different time to the web? or just the rollup does not add up to the sum of your times?
does xbox show all your race times? ... not just local.

one thing, if its 2 hours exactly, it cant just have missed a race, otherwise it would be 2 hours MINUS the race time not registered.. so sounds like a screwup where its registered ALL your times but still has one penalty left (odd logic for them to have but there you have it)

i reckon you should push T10 to do a manual adjustment, there devs could easily(!) recalculate your summed up times if they have the individual race times.
(wouldnt be too hard for them to do it for everyone who is within (say) 2.5 hours of top time)

its no where near as difficult as trying to adjust the hotlap times would have been, as you are talking about a single rollup figure (unlike hotlaps which are per class, track type etc)

if they refuse, go kick up a fuss on FM2.com, and they might reconsider