30-07-2004 12:09									#1
	Turn Rate Spreadsheet Full PM-box? Change here!

Figuring out and analyzing the time it takes the other factions to play their turns could be a useful tool. For instance, if a faction is suddenly consistenly taking a lot of time to play their turn, then maybe they've met another faction. I don't know. Or, if you are just curious about who is taking the longest to play the turns, this let's you find out really easy. Anyway, I created a spreadsheet that does all of the computing. The timestamps for the posts are all that's required, and the spreadsheet does the rest. I'll attach it in a zip file and explain how to use it in a second...

BTW, for you curiousity, here are the average times used to play turns as of Turn 2120:

Everyone: 474 minutes/turn - really fast for an ACDG!

Gaians: 327 minutes/turn

Data Angles: 268 minutes/turn Some fast turnplayers!

Morganites: 773 minutes/turn the Morgans are slowpokes. Relatively speaking, of course. Everyone's going at a breakneck speed right now.

Spartans: 521 minutes/turn - not too shabby.

	30-07-2004 12:24									#2
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Pretty neat

The Angels will slow right down now that Geo Modder has replaced Maki as the turn player. She was gfast as a Pirate and has been fast these 20 turns

But from the above it appears that we are 2nd slowest, and below average

	30-07-2004 12:26									#3
	Put an end to popups!

Over the average though. Not that I can complain, since I don't play the turns at all. Anything under 12 hours is great really.

But don't bring out the champagne yet, that 474 minutes will start to stretch once the empires grow.

	30-07-2004 12:28									#4
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Here's the spreadsheet. I'll explain how to use it in a minute.

Edit: I've made a ton of revisions and improvements, including more analysis and graphs. It's also easier to follow now. Here's version 2.0:

Attachment: turn rate spreadsheet - ver. 2.0.zip
This has been downloaded 1 time(s).

Last edited by Zeiter on 30-07-2004 at 15:47

	30-07-2004 12:33									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Okay, first of all, I made this spreadsheet on my home computer, which runs on windows 98, which is quite a bit different than 2000 or XP (gah, I need to get XP!). I don't know if they programmed 2000 and XP to handle files from 98 and earlier. Hopefully they did, and everyone won't have any trouble opening this file.

This spreasheet computes how long it takes each turn for each team to play their turn. It also computes a running average of each teams turn playing length. All values are usually in minutes unless I specified otherwise.

All that is needed is for the user to enter in the timestamps of the ACDG turn tracking thread posts. It's relatively simple. Just enter the day of the month in the day column (column I), the hour where it says hour, (in military time. Thus, 11 pm is 23) which would be in column J, and then the minute in the minute column (column K). A couple of important notes when entering in the time stamp:

*My time stamps are in CDT, -6 hours from GMT. If you want to enter or edit data into the spreadsheet, you will either have to mentally change the time, change your time zone in your profile on Apolyton, or change all of the data.

*When you enter a new month, you'll have to change column H too. What you'll have to do is add however many days were in the previous month to the running total. Thus, if a turn is posted on August 1st at 10:34 pm, you would enter the following data:

Column H: 31
Column I: 1
Column J: 22 (remember, military time. You can change your timestamps to be displayed in military time in your profile on Apolyton. This will save you some mental effort).
Column K: 34

The number 31 will remain in the H column all throught the timestamps in August. Then, in September, you'll add another 31 to that column, so a timestap for September 4 at 7:43 am would be...

Column H: 62
Column I: 4
Column J: 7
Column K: 43

What do you do when you get finished with a month that has only 30 days? Just add 30 instead of 31 to column H. Thus, a timestamp for October 16 at 9:23 am would look like:

Column H: 92
Column I: 16
Column J: 9
Column K: 23

You get the idea.

Column C displays what turn it is, and column A displays which team it applies to. Column B displays the amount of time the corresponding team used to play the corresponding turn. For example, it took the Data Angels 296 minutes to play turn 2104.

Columns D through G show the exact same information, except the information is organized by teams for easier analysis.

Columns M through Q show running averages for time taken playing turns for each faction. Data in these columns is only valid up to the point where timestamps are entered in. You'll notice that past turn 2121 Morgan's averages are negative. Those values will change as new information is entered in.

I'll be updating this spreadsheet and posting the revised versions at 10 turn intervals, but feel free to edit it for yourself. If anyone wants more features (like standard deviation or something) just let me know and I'll add them to the spreadsheet. I'll also be monitoring the values for trends and unexpected spikes. If I see anything interesting I'll let you guys know. If anyone wants any specific info, I'll be happy to divulge it. I'm also going to construct some graphs based on this data, maybe tonight, if I can stay awake, or maybe tomorrow.

And if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Last edited by Zeiter on 30-07-2004 at 13:08

	30-07-2004 13:10									#6
	Support Apolyton

Operation system doesn't figure into it. It depends on whether you have MS Works and what version. I sadly don't have MS Works. (Microsoft Works... tee hee, the oxymoron program suite)

	30-07-2004 13:36									#7
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Here are the running averages for turn playing rates in graphical form:

Attachment: turn rates running averages.jpg
This has been downloaded 34 time(s).

	30-07-2004 13:44									#8
	Full PM-box? Change here!

It appears the Gaians have been in a steady decline since Planetfall. Not a surprise

	30-07-2004 13:46									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Yes, I believe my computer uses microsoft works, sadly. At least I can post these graphs.

	30-07-2004 14:29									#10
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Here's a graph showing 5-turn weighted averages for turn playing rates. What this means is that the average for each turn is computed from the last 5 turns. As the turns progress, the old ones get thrown out of the computations. The first 5 turns are handled a bit differently, of course, as they don't have 5 previous turns to factor in.

This method does a much better job of showing trends. We'll be able to spot any spikes in the data very easily with this method.

Attachment: 5-turn rates running averages.jpg
This has been downloaded 31 time(s).

	30-07-2004 14:36									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

5-turn weighted averages for turn 2120:

Everyone: 483 minutes/turn
Gaians: 165 minutes/turn
Data Angels: 449 minutes/turn
Morgans: 632 minutes/turn
Spartans: 694 minutes/turn

	30-07-2004 14:55									#12
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Total time spent turnplaying by 2120:

Gaians: 6,563 minutes
Data Angels: 6,553 minutes
Morgans: 15,451 minutes
Spartans: 10,426 minutes

Average: 9,748 minutes

Last edited by Zeiter on 30-07-2004 at 15:05

	30-07-2004 15:08									#13
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Here's the graph to illustrate:

Attachment: total turnplaying time.jpg
This has been downloaded 26 time(s).

	30-07-2004 18:58									#14
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

This is good stuff. How about publishing the total time spent, runing average and the 5-year weighted graphs (even if the latter does show us in a poor light) in the general ACDG-3 forum (then it becomes a bit of a "badge of honour" to at least beat the average)

(btw, I downloaded but couldn't open the .wks (XP has a wks.2 recognizer, but that didn't work with the sheet)

	30-07-2004 19:46									#15
	Inflate your Upload Space

Zeiter do you have MS Office? Excel (Lotus, Quatro, etal) are better spreadsheet applications. fyi everyone, i have beyond powerful software to determine function behavior, forcast trends, etc (use it for laser design to keep paying my beer tab). i can load these apps on my home PC if y'all want me to do any engineering for the game...btw, as Lead Spear, i'm greatly concerned about adequate 'beverage' rations for my troops. although discipline must be maintained within the ranks, a good sousing is deserved after kicking enemy butt. so, a 'virtual' mineral nut or 2 should be used for the continued operation of the Spartan Spirits Refinery no more FUNGAL 'JUICE' on the front lines!!!

	30-07-2004 22:06									#17
	Get a bigger avatar today!

No, my computer doesn't have MS office, Lotus, excel or any of those.

Ah, here we go, try downloading this. I saved the spreadsheet in .xls format. Maybe this will help:

Attachment: turn rate spreadsheet xls format - ver. 2.2.zip
This has been downloaded 2 time(s).

Last edited by Zeiter on 30-07-2004 at 22:48

	01-08-2004 00:15									#18
	Increase the size of your Attachments

ok, i got your spreadsheet and will look at it.