NationStates Jolt Archive

Hello all,

After playing around in Excel for a bit, I came up with a little spreadsheet to calculate the number of various army divisions that you have, plus the number of IFVs, tanks, and reserves. I require feedback on the calculations, their accuracy, whether you like it or not, etc. etc. See the attachment.

It should work with Office 2003, '07, and OpenOffice 3.0. Dunno about the 2.0 series, I don't have that available. I'd imagine it would.

EDIT:

Updated to the latest version, which adds Mechanized Infantry and Motorised Infantry, as well as Towed Artillery. Numbers adjusted to be more realistic. Tables made somewhat sexier than the old drab colors.

The use of divisions and regiments is a little confusing, as many people (including me, with my 26,000 man divisions) tamper with the sizes or placement of those formations. Fixed ratios would probably work better with equipment numbers, if that's possible. Or, if its possible, make it so the number of people in the units can be tampered with, to suit individual nations, or include instructions on how to do that without screwing it up. i apologize if any of this stuff is on there and I just didn't see it.

Other than that, its very good. Detailed.

I assume blue is what you edit?

The regiments are in place in the division level breakdown because I wanted to give an example of what a division is composed of to newer players, which is what this calculator is geared towards. The regiments really don't do anything in the calculation at this point. Eventually I hope to have it so that you can add your own regiments/ battalions / brigades to a division and have it calculate the number of men per division. Right now you can change the number of men per division, tanks per division, IFVs per division, and have them do something. All categories with blue headlines can be edited and provide useful results. Ones in black are calculated results, and editing them would remove equations.

Ok. That cleared up a lot. Thanks. Good job on the Calculator. I think this should be stickied, once you're happy with the result.

The Fanboyists, thanks for the support. I don't know about the sticky part, but thanks.

The next version, which I've played around with for a little bit, will use your NS military budget as determined by the NS Economy (I actually helped with the formulas for this, way back in the day...) or Sunset calculators to determine how many troops you can afford. This will make the calculator a bit more accurate, I think.

The question is, how is this better then the calculator Yani already made?

Yanitaria already made one?

The question is, how is this better then the calculator Yani already made?

This calculator breaks down your Army (and only your army, at this point) down into smaller logical subgroups, such as divisions. Knowing how many divisions you have, what they are composed of, and (in the next version) how much it costs to run a division is where this calculator differs from the Yanitarian version.

My thing is where are you suppose to put your numbers, cause i've put numbers in and nothing have happened what gives?

I've changed the numbers of personal because a division in my army/marines are 31,500 and 575 tanks in a armored division and 400 and something APCs.

Nothing changes outside of the first colum i mean if i'm doing something wrong please tell.

You change the Population, Population in Military, Military in Army, and Army in Reserves variables under the blue heading to do your most basic calculation. If you put numbers in any of the black heading tables, then you probably overwrote equations. Hold on a minute and I'll add a picture.

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/5530/excelhelper.png

Wait for the picture, it can be slow to load.

Everything i add was either in blue or the first column.

Could you please attach your spreadsheet or a picture of it? I just want to see exactly what you changed so I can help you.

Ok thats what I edited and nothing happened in any other column like how many divisions I have or number of tanks and apcs I have nothing in any other column changed. Are you suppose to add any other numbers to any other column?

What are you using to open the file? On my end, entering your population changes everything

Ok you want to tell me how to do that cause what i just did didn't work

Microsoft excel 2007

well the pop changes but the number of divisions and units never changes. like 250 tanks in a armored division there are 384 tanks in a U.S. Army division so if i had 31500 soldiers in a my division with the cal there are no more than 250 tanks and 350 apcs none of those change

Ah, I went downstairs to a PC with Office 2007 and I see where the confusion is. I made the spreadsheet with OpenOffice Calc, and when I changed the backgrounds to black, the text appeared as white in OO. In Excel downstairs, the text for the armies, divisions, etc. shows up as black on black. So the numbers are changing, it's just that because you cannot read the headings, you don't know where to look. I'll upload a new version in a second with fixed text.

The new version, 0.2, has been uploaded. Amongst other things, it *should* fix the text. It also uses different calculations to arrive at the total military, this time using your budget vs. your population, whichever is smaller.

I would recommend changing the colors (the black and navy bars), because you can't see the words - which is very confusing until one realizes they're blacked out. I suppose just changing the font to white for the subtitles would work.

But nice calculator. I like it - I'd be interested to see if you could use the XML feed feature in Excel to do the stats more in depth.

I would recommend changing the colors (the black and navy bars), because you can't see the words - which is very confusing until one realizes they're blacked out. I suppose just changing the font to white for the subtitles would work.

But nice calculator. I like it - I'd be interested to see if you could use the XML feed feature in Excel to do the stats more in depth.

Thanks for the kind words! I just noticed a few posts ago the text problem, because OpenOffice automatically changes the font color to something readable, which Office does not. The latest download should, *should* have that fixed, but if anyone else still experiences issues, please let me know.

Also, when I fixed the font I accidentally fixed it and uploaded the wrong file, a semi-completed version of 0.2. Now the completed 0.2 is uploaded. So if anyone is missing the tank/helicopter/IFV/artillery section, that would be why.

Also, when I fixed the font I accidentally fixed it and uploaded the wrong file, a semi-completed version of 0.2. Now the completed 0.2 is uploaded. So if anyone is missing the tank/helicopter/IFV/artillery section, that would be why.

Yeah - I've done that before. :)

And that's interesting about Openoffice. Good luck on the Calc.

Version 0.25 has been uploaded, it adds lists for things such as missile defense rockets, transport helicopters.

The next version, which will be a rather major version, will focus on adding naval units.

Version 0.3 has been uploaded, with new sexiness for the tables, more information of divisions, now 3 kinds of divisions, information on towed artillery.

With the next update I hope to add a cost calculation for every division and have the spreadsheet then decide how many you can afford. There is a rudimentary level of support for this now, but it is based on the cost per man as opposed to all the goodness in your armored units.

That was pretty cool, thanks.

Thanks for the comment! As I continue to work on it, it should get more realistic and featureful. Right now my primary focus is adding in costs and units for the maintenance battalions. If anyone has any information, that would be greatly appreciated.

If only those without spreadsheet programs could use this... Is there anyway to put this in a online format?

I could work on putting a simple program together for you to use