SecretAgentMan

Let's do a January update! Development Log 6: Fine-Tuning Athlete Creation Process I was able to get back into the swing of things this month in terms of working on Going For Gold. I spent a significant amount of time tightening and improving the player creation system. I've been working in recent months on getting data into a database to generate ranking values for countries in each sport (0-99, with 99 being the best). However, those rankings weren't translating well to actual athlete creation. The top countries often would not have the best athletes (they'd be high up, but not the best), and that was definitely a problem that needed to be fixed. I basically overhauled the process and put several fixes in place, and I'm happy to report that it's going much better. The top countries in a given sport now receive more athletes for that sport, and the athletes are more consistently of better quality, and they are closer to their "prime" age. (The way I have athlete generation setup, players are created with a "top" skill level that is then adjusted based on the player's age) I have to do some further testing on it in February to make sure that the results are relatively consistent, and then it's on to fine-tuning how those individual player rankings translate into results. It should provide for a much better-quality (and much less-random) actual simulation, so I'm pleased that I was able to progress on it. Here's an example (below) from a recent test. This particular event is a skiing event, and you can see that Austria is near the top of the rankings (as they should be). However, other top countries (USA, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, etc.) still have some representation near the top, while countries that are less strong in terms of skiing do still have strong athletes, but they're still clearly further down the list. It leads to a distribution that I'm happier with that than in the past (which often saw athletes from seemingly random countries near the top) 000111697 |Austria |70a|27|F|0|Kerstin_Schuetzenuer |7001-97(0) 000111677 |Austria |70a|26|F|0|Kerstin_Koretnaar |7001-96(0) 000111776 |Austria |70b|26|F|0|Marie_Wallner |7001-95(0) 000004132 |USA |70a|27|F|0|Ava_Brown |7001-94(0) 000074656 |Switzerland |70a|24|F|0|Milena_Abdi |7001-94(0) 000004129 |USA |70a|26|F|0|Mary_Adams |7001-93(0) 000004134 |USA |70a|26|F|0|Margaret_Diaz |7001-93(0) 000022763 |Germany |70a|25|F|0|AnnaMaria_Fischer |7001-93(0) 000111716 |Austria |70a|27|F|0|Anna_Badem |7001-92(0) 000004135 |USA |70a|25|F|0|Elizabeth_Lewis |7001-91(0) 000027227 |Italy |70a|26|F|0|Chiara_Gallo |7001-91(0) 000074651 |Switzerland |70a|23|F|0|Anna_Spycher |7001-91(0) 000111689 |Austria |70a|24|F|0|Laura_Klor |7001-91(0) 000004140 |USA |70a|26|F|0|Olivia_Martin |7001-90(0) 000027218 |Italy |70a|27|F|0|Federica_Rizzo |7001-90(0) 000031137 |Sweden |70a|26|F|0|Julia_Gustafsson |7001-90(0) 000031143 |Sweden |70a|25|F|0|Alva_Petersson |7001-90(0) 000074664 |Switzerland |70a|27|F|0|Laura_Ziegler |7001-90(0) 000074763 |Switzerland |70b|27|F|0|Elisa_Abdi |7001-90(0) 000111675 |Austria |70a|23|F|0|Marie_Stadisch |7001-90(0) 000111681 |Austria |70a|27|F|0|Hannah_Peiper |7001-90(0) 000111734 |Austria |70b|26|F|0|Kerstin_Mayer |7001-90(0) 000145972 |Croatia |70a|27|F|0|Zoja_Horvat |7001-90(0) 000004138 |USA |70a|27|F|0|Abigail_Moore |7001-89(0) 000017934 |France |70a|24|F|0|Louise_Bruneau |7001-89(0) 000027244 |Italy |70a|27|F|0|Sofia_Bianchi |7001-89(0) 000074676 |Switzerland |70a|25|F|0|Elina_Ziegler |7001-89(0) 000074678 |Switzerland |70a|23|F|0|Emma_Vonlanthen |7001-89(0) 000004171 |USA |70b|28|F|0|Zoe_Nelson |7001-88(0) 000027232 |Italy |70a|22|F|0|Paola_Bruno |7001-88(0) 000027324 |Italy |70b|27|F|0|Chiara_Rossi |7001-88(0) 000031147 |Sweden |70a|26|F|0|Ebba_Eriksson |7001-88(0) 000031155 |Sweden |70a|25|F|0|Charlotte_Andersson |7001-88(0) 000145964 |Croatia |70a|25|F|0|Andreja_Zupancic |7001-88(0) 000004114 |USA |70a|28|F|0|Maria_Parker |7001-87(0) 000004188 |USA |70b|24|F|0|Mia_Cook |7001-87(0) 000017910 |France |70a|27|F|0|Marion_Petit |7001-87(0) 000027239 |Italy |70a|27|F|0|Aurora_Bruno |7001-87(0) 000027240 |Italy |70a|27|F|0|Melania_De_Luca |7001-87(0) 000027266 |Italy |70a|28|F|0|Federica_Moretti |7001-87(0) 000027271 |Italy |70a|25|F|0|Cristiana_Esposito |7001-87(0) 000031197 |Sweden |70b|26|F|0|Jessica_Bengtsson |7001-87(0) 000074653 |Switzerland |70a|23|F|0|Sofia_Maurer |7001-87(0) 000111696 |Austria |70a|27|F|0|Sarah_Ebner |7001-87(0) 000111705 |Austria |70a|27|F|0|Nicole_Stoger |7001-87(0) 000111707 |Austria |70a|26|F|0|Charlotte_Wagner |7001-87(0) 000146000 |Croatia |70b|25|F|0|Fata_Zupancic |7001-87(0) 000004143 |USA |70a|27|F|0|Patricia_Cook |7001-86(0) 000017905 |France |70a|22|F|0|Marion_Vasseur |7001-86(0) 000017922 |France |70a|23|F|0|Léna_Pernet |7001-86(0) 000017961 |France |70b|26|F|0|Virginie_Richard |7001-86(0) 000022760 |Germany |70a|23|F|0|Anna_Hoffmann |7001-86(0) 000022772 |Germany |70a|25|F|0|Leah_Schmidt |7001-86(0) 000027229 |Italy |70a|22|F|0|Laura_Rizzo |7001-86(0) 000031153 |Sweden |70a|25|F|0|Alva_Larsson |7001-86(0) 000031209 |Sweden |70b|27|F|0|Charlotte_Carlsson |7001-86(0) 000074647 |Switzerland |70a|24|F|0|Sofia_Inler |7001-86(0) 000074649 |Switzerland |70a|28|F|0|Emma_Vonlanthen |7001-86(0) 000074670 |Switzerland |70a|29|F|0|Aurora_Huggel |7001-86(0) 000081264 |Norway |70a|23|F|0|Leah_Dahl |7001-86(0) 000111704 |Austria |70a|26|F|0|Anna_Wimmer |7001-86(0) 000111723 |Austria |70a|25|F|0|Kerstin_Dorn |7001-86(0) 000111778 |Austria |70b|25|F|0|Sarah_Wimmer |7001-86(0) 000004122 |USA |70a|28|F|0|Isabella_Moore |7001-85(0) 000004124 |USA |70a|25|F|0|Rachel_Williams |7001-85(0) 000017913 |France |70a|28|F|0|Inès_Bernard |7001-85(0) 000017923 |France |70a|27|F|0|Marie_Bethune |7001-85(0) 000022773 |Germany |70a|21|F|0|Sofia_Schmidt |7001-85(0) 000031140 |Sweden |70a|23|F|0|Alva_Jansson |7001-85(0) 000074662 |Switzerland |70a|24|F|0|Anna_Ziegler |7001-85(0) 000074701 |Switzerland |70a|22|F|0|Elina_Abdi |7001-85(0) 000074707 |Switzerland |70b|25|F|0|Emma_Spycher |7001-85(0) 000111682 |Austria |70a|23|F|0|Marie_Heregger |7001-85(0) 000111691 |Austria |70a|29|F|0|Charlotte_Feiersinger |7001-85(0) 000111757 |Austria |70b|28|F|0|Lena_Wangermann |7001-85(0) 000145967 |Croatia |70a|28|F|0|Andreja_Rozman |7001-85(0) 000145993 |Croatia |70b|26|F|0|Dragica_Golob |7001-85(0) 000189866 |Slovenia |70a|27|F|0|Tanja_Kovac |7001-85(0) 000189882 |Slovenia |70a|28|F|0|Tanja_Kos |7001-85(0) 000017890 |France |70a|29|F|0|Chloé_Baume |7001-84(0) 000017897 |France |70a|23|F|0|Marie_Bruneau |7001-84(0) 000017903 |France |70a|26|F|0|Emma_Giraud |7001-84(0) 000017944 |France |70b|23|F|0|Doriane_Barbeau |7001-84(0) 000017980 |France |70b|27|F|0|Jade_Giraud |7001-84(0) 000017989 |France |70b|28|F|0|Aline_Girard |7001-84(0) 000027231 |Italy |70a|30|F|0|Martina_Greco |7001-84(0) 000055763 |Canada |70a|28|F|0|Sara_Hall |7001-84(0) 000055790 |Canada |70a|23|F|0|Alice_Anderson |7001-84(0) 000074710 |Switzerland |70b|24|F|0|Chloe_Maurer |7001-84(0) 000074748 |Switzerland |70b|24|F|0|Ladina_Vonlanthen |7001-84(0) 000074751 |Switzerland |70b|26|F|0|Alina_Maurer |7001-84(0) 000111679 |Austria |70a|24|F|0|Laura_Wertheim |7001-84(0) 000111686 |Austria |70a|25|F|0|Nina_Peithner |7001-84(0) 000111755 |Austria |70b|27|F|0|Kerstin_Binder |7001-84(0) 000111759 |Austria |70b|26|F|0|Hannah_Schneider |7001-84(0) 000145968 |Croatia |70a|24|F|0|Anisa_Kralj |7001-84(0) 000189905 |Slovenia |70a|28|F|0|Dragica_Novak |7001-84(0) 000004120 |USA |70a|27|F|0|Patricia_Adams |7001-83(0) 000004127 |USA |70a|24|F|0|Jennifer_White |7001-83(0) 000004151 |USA |70a|24|F|0|Isabella_Adams |7001-83(0) 000017964 |France |70b|25|F|0|Louise_Petit |7001-83(0) 000017973 |France |70b|26|F|0|Lina_Coron |7001-83(0) 000027223 |Italy |70a|22|F|0|Laura_Colombo |7001-83(0) 000027230 |Italy |70a|24|F|0|Alice_Lombardi |7001-83(0) 000027241 |Italy |70a|24|F|0|Federica_Rizzo |7001-83(0) 000031141 |Sweden |70a|25|F|0|Kristin_Petersson |7001-83(0) 000031179 |Sweden |70b|24|F|0|Marie_Jonsson |7001-83(0) 000031195 |Sweden |70b|27|F|0|Julia_Jansson |7001-83(0) 000055757 |Canada |70a|26|F|0|Alice_Johnson |7001-83(0) 000066519 |South_Korea |70a|26|F|0|Yeeun_Jin |7001-83(0) 000074697 |Switzerland |70a|25|F|0|Zoe_Maurer |7001-83(0) 000074744 |Switzerland |70b|27|F|0|Martina_Walker |7001-83(0) 000111694 |Austria |70a|22|F|0|Julia_Koell |7001-83(0) 000111764 |Austria |70b|26|F|0|Nina_Stadisch |7001-83(0) 000004116 |USA |70a|29|F|0|Ava_Garcia |7001-82(0) 000004121 |USA |70a|24|F|0|Dorothy_Price |7001-82(0) 000004123 |USA |70a|28|F|0|Emma_Johnson |7001-82(0) 000009287 |Russia |70a|26|F|0|Irina_Stolin |7001-82(0) 000017907 |France |70a|30|F|0|Alix_Landry |7001-82(0) 000017912 |France |70a|24|F|0|Nathalie_Bethune |7001-82(0) 000017926 |France |70a|25|F|0|Elodie_Bethune |7001-82(0) 000017955 |France |70b|28|F|0|Lola_Caillat |7001-82(0) 000017958 |France |70b|23|F|0|Sandrine_Barbeau |7001-82(0) 000022793 |Germany |70a|21|F|0|Caroline_Wagner |7001-82(0) 000022816 |Germany |70b|28|F|0|Leoni_Hoffmann |7001-82(0) 000027221 |Italy |70a|26|F|0|Cecilia_Mancini |7001-82(0) 000027238 |Italy |70a|24|F|0|Alice_Mancini |7001-82(0) 000027252 |Italy |70a|27|F|0|Melania_Rizzo |7001-82(0) 000031167 |Sweden |70a|28|F|0|Antonia_Magnusson |7001-82(0) 000074674 |Switzerland |70a|24|F|0|Alina_Vonlanthen |7001-82(0) 000074680 |Switzerland |70a|27|F|0|Giada_Inler |7001-82(0) 000074714 |Switzerland |70b|27|F|0|Emma_Kuhn |7001-82(0) 000081258 |Norway |70a|25|F|0|Emilie_Andersen |7001-82(0) 000081278 |Norway |70a|28|F|0|Thea_Berg |7001-82(0) 000111708 |Austria |70a|29|F|0|Hannah_Fessler |7001-82(0) 000145973 |Croatia |70a|22|F|0|Dragica_Zupan |7001-82(0) 000181941 |Liechtenstein |70a|25|F|0|Leah_Fischer |7001-82(0) 000186881 |Slovakia |70a|25|F|0|Denisa_Svoboda |7001-82(0) 000186893 |Slovakia |70a|26|F|0|Eliška_Němec |7001-82(0) 000189871 |Slovenia |70a|24|F|0|Nika_Zupancic |7001-82(0) 000189880 |Slovenia |70a|25|F|0|Anja_Zupan |7001-82(0) 000189900 |Slovenia |70a|24|F|0|Eva_Potocnik |7001-82(0) 000004119 |USA |70a|26|F|0|Madison_Smith |7001-81(0) 000004125 |USA |70a|28|F|0|Rachel_Perez |7001-81(0) 000017906 |France |70a|25|F|0|Alix_Bouthillier |7001-81(0) 000017935 |France |70a|27|F|0|Sandrine_Boutin |7001-81(0) 000017956 |France |70b|23|F|0|Alix_Moreau |7001-81(0) 000027219 |Italy |70a|28|F|0|Roberta_Ricci |7001-81(0) 000027265 |Italy |70a|29|F|0|Giulia_Greco |7001-81(0) 000031210 |Sweden |70b|28|F|0|Jessica_Svensson |7001-81(0) 000055759 |Canada |70a|24|F|0|Rosalie_Hall |7001-81(0) 000055767 |Canada |70a|24|F|0|Leah_Côté |7001-81(0) 000059728 |Poland |70b|26|F|0|Hanna_Lewandowski |7001-81(0) 000074665 |Switzerland |70a|21|F|0|Aurora_Spycher |7001-81(0) 000074669 |Switzerland |70a|29|F|0|Lara_Neumann |7001-81(0) 000081256 |Norway |70a|26|F|0|Ingvild_Johannesen |7001-81(0) 000081266 |Norway |70a|30|F|0|Caroline_Johannesen |7001-81(0) 000081280 |Norway |70a|23|F|0|Emma_Hagen |7001-81(0) 000111779 |Austria |70b|27|F|0|Kerstin_Stoeckel |7001-81(0) 000181951 |Liechtenstein |70a|26|F|0|Anna_Schmidt |7001-81(0) 000189890 |Slovenia |70a|27|F|0|Julija_Kralj |7001-81(0) 000004202 |USA |70b|28|F|0|Emma_Richardson |7001-80(0) 000017888 |France |70a|29|F|0|Emmanuelle_Hachette |7001-80(0) 000017889 |France |70a|29|F|0|Chantal_Vasseur |7001-80(0) 000017909 |France |70a|25|F|0|Sandrine_Bonnel |7001-80(0) 000022770 |Germany |70a|26|F|0|Nina_Schneider |7001-80(0) 000022771 |Germany |70a|26|F|0|Anna_Wagner |7001-80(0) 000027222 |Italy |70a|23|F|0|Paola_Rizzo |7001-80(0) 000027233 |Italy |70a|24|F|0|Chiara_Gallo |7001-80(0) 000027294 |Italy |70b|25|F|0|Emma_Ferrari |7001-80(0) 000027312 |Italy |70b|26|F|0|Cristiana_Costa |7001-80(0) 000031156 |Sweden |70a|25|F|0|Nilla_Nilsson |7001-80(0) 000055761 |Canada |70a|28|F|0|Sarah_Bouchard |7001-80(0) 000059724 |Poland |70b|26|F|0|Justyna_Kaczmarek |7001-80(0) 000074667 |Switzerland |70a|24|F|0|Zoe_Inler |7001-80(0) 000074673 |Switzerland |70a|30|F|0|Lea_Inler |7001-80(0) 000074689 |Switzerland |70a|26|F|0|Elisa_Abdi |7001-80(0) 000111693 |Austria |70a|28|F|0|Marie_Wilfing |7001-80(0) 000111698 |Austria |70a|31|F|0|Claudia_Dorner |7001-80(0) 000111713 |Austria |70a|27|F|0|Lena_Eckhel |7001-80(0) 000111737 |Austria |70b|27|F|0|Hannah_Obermoser |7001-80(0) 000145961 |Croatia |70a|24|F|0|Fata_Kos |7001-80(0) 000145965 |Croatia |70a|25|F|0|Lucija_Kovacic |7001-80(0) 000145969 |Croatia |70a|27|F|0|Lana_Bozic |7001-80(0) 000181940 |Liechtenstein |70a|27|F|0|Nina_Weber |7001-80(0) 000189865 |Slovenia |70a|30|F|0|Dragica_Zupan |7001-80(0) 000189875 |Slovenia |70a|27|F|0|Zoja_Krajnc |7001-80(0) 000189887 |Slovenia |70a|27|F|0|Ana_Hribar |7001-80(0) (The event rankings go all the way down to 35, so there's a lot more athletes, but I didn't want a gigantic list here in the thread. All 65 countries currently programmed into the game have athletes in the sport, provided that they have a national ski federation, which some countries do not) At any rate, that's the update. Thanks for reading...see you in a month!

I didn't see the new posts on the topic- thanks so much for chiming in! It is heartening for me to see that I'm not the only person interested in this kind of sim! Now, with that in mind, my January update is pretty bare. I had a busy month between holidays, a side business I am starting, and a very large job interview my wife had, and didn't get a whole lot done. Olympics are getting ever closer, so I definitely have some work to do!

I'm going to bump this topic up....we currently have 6 managers for our college soccer league over at SimNation and would like to get to 8 before we start (which will be soon). Game is free to play, and I am happy to teach anybody how to play if they are interested in joining. If you are interested, please say so here or message me- we would love to have you join us!

Going to update quickly to say that....not much to add this month. There is work being done (both by myself and Bernie, another forum member here) on the summer sports rankings database, but still slow going this month. I'm hoping I will have more to update in December/January. Will let you know either way!

Awesome!

Hi all, I am starting a college soccer league over at SimNation called Weekend Warriors College Soccer (WWCS). It's a brand-new league that will use ESMS+, a freeware soccer simulation that is pretty easy to use, and has been used successfully in online leagues for almost 2 decades. We currently have 5 managers signed up for the league, and we are looking for a few more before we get started. I would be happy to explain details of the league and answer any questions that people might have, but it's designed to be a fairly low-intensity league. If you are interested, please post in this thread over at SimNation https://www.simnation.net/forums/showthread.php?49472-Weekend-Warriors-College-Soccer-Sign-Up-Here!&p=278983#post278983 We hope to see you in the WWCS! -Jeff (SecretAgentMan)

I believe in updating this thread every month, but because this is a hobby project (and not my only hobby, nor certainly not a career of mine), there are some months where I don't end up doing much. This month is one of those months- I am kind of stuck right now and need to get some progress going again. So, I'll give another update in a month, but in the meantime, if anybody has any questions about this project, feel free to ask. I would be more than happy to answer!

Fun topic! I started with board games, though as a '90s kid, this was moreso a matter that it was what my Dad shared and played with me. Specifically, that meant All-Star Baseball (I saw someone else here had played that, too!), and Bowl Bound College Football (the old board game). Played a lot of sports video games as a kid and teen, and then got more into the sports sim world in college by searching online for Bowl Bowl College Football (the old board game) and stumbling across Bowl Bound College Football (the more modern Grey Dog sim game). Played in some leagues, and also played and ran a soccer league using the freeware ESMS+ software. Not a lot of time to play anymore, but I like trying to develop stuff, and I'm hoping that as my young son gets older, I can do a 3rd generation of All-Star Baseball with him.

It's time for a September update, and a new development log! Not a ton of progress this month, but I thought it would be interesting to share some information on the goals I have for customizing Going for Gold Development Log 5: Adding New Sports into the Game One of my goals for this game is to make a flexible enough infrastructure that users can easily edit the game to add or change events, giving them opportunities to customize the game as they see fit. At present this is done via editing text files, though I would love to get the game to the point where users can work within the game to achieve the customization options that they would like to see. To that end, I'd like to talk you through something I've been doing recently: adding new sports into the game. As I'm preparing for next summer's Olympics, I am needing to modify my events and schedules from the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. Part of the issue is that new sports have been added in, including baseball and softball, which I have been working out for demonstration purposes. At present, the system is a bit unwieldy, as I have to edit something like 15 different text files? In the process of doing that, I establish a two-digit code for each sport, and then add data for each sport, such as each country's rankings and facilities values, as well as a general "age range" for the sport that establishes the minimum age for an international-level player of that sport, a maximum age, and a "peak age" whereby most players would reach their absolute best skill level (obviously, it's an average and not a hard rule) After that, I have to put in place some event information for the specific events in that sport. (This is fairly simple for baseball and softball in particular, but other sports I have to end later, like Karate, will have different events and weight classes to deal with). As part of this process, I end up putting a decent amount of data into the text file. (As can be seen in the image file below) In the file above, I've got each of the Baseball and Softball Tournaments placed with an event code, which gets repeated twice. It's a "Y" for team event, and each team has 25 players. 6 teams qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics. There are a maximum # of teams that can qualify (again, 6), and the actual structure of the event is listed as "TBD", because I have yet to put that into the text files (because they are using an odd double-elimination format for baseball). Each country has a maximum of one team that can qualify, and a minimum of 0. Even with that little bit of information, I have a lot of customization potential- I can easily change the size or structure of the tournament, or the size of each nation's roster. After that, I also put in information into a different text file about records/standard scores, so that the program can create an accurate result for the game. (That way you won't be seeing any 35-25 sorts of scores in a baseball game) Then, I have a few more text files to add that relate to the event structure being used in the Olympics. Baseball and Softball particular will involve new structures, as they are 6-team tournaments, which is rather unusual for the Olympics. But, for many sports, there are some fairly standard structures that get used again and again and again. (For example, 12 teams in 2 groups works for Olympic Basketball and Olympic Handball, and most timed events such as swimming/track and field/skiing/etc. can use the exact same general event structure as well) I end up with new, customized sports and events that can be inserted into the game. As I said, I'm hoping that I can eventually streamline this process a bit so that anyone can easily do it, but for right now, it's at least possible. I figured I would take you under the hood a bit this month so you can see more about how I intend the game to work. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in another month with another update!

Thank you! I will make sure to do that!

Great to hear! Keep an eye on this thread...the plan is to have an alpha/beta version available for testing in early 2021, and I hope to run a test league on the forums here (as well as over at SimNation).

One of my goals with these development logs is to post every month....even if I don't have much. This month is one of those months. Development Log 4: Splash Screen Thoughts So, I didn't get a whole lot done on Going for Gold in August, but what little I did do was important (I came up with a trial formula to create an actual 0-99 rating system for each country based on their coefficients). What I'm working on next is a splash screen for the beginning of the Olympics. It will show you what information you need to know prior to each summer or winter Olympics. I would be curious to hear your thoughts. What information could I put on the splash screen that will benefit the player? I am going to have some basics about your country's rating, expectations, and top athletes, but I'm intrigued to see what other ideas people might have.

Hello all! I would like to share a little bit of what I have done this month working on Going for Gold. Development Log 3: Creating Country Ratings from Real-World Results I'm a few days late, but I wanted to get in my July update. I have been continuing to build databases, and in July, I finally finished all of the results for Winter Sports, so I wanted to share those here. Basically, I took each of the game's 65 countries, and inputted real-life records regarding medal total, qualifications (for both Winter Games and World Championships), and most recent yearly results for the winter sports season. Then, a coefficient value is calculated. The coefficient is a decimal between 0 and 1. 1, a perfect score, is basically not possible in real life. It indicates a country that wins every possible medal in every possible situation, every time for the entire history of a sport. In reality, a coefficient above .9 reflects historical dominance in a sport, and I have only seen two examples thus far (Chinese table tennis and American basketball). A coefficient in the range of .7 usually indicates that the country is the best in their given sport at that time, while a coefficient of above .5 indicates that the country will be a consistent producer of medal winners. Coefficients around .15 indicate that the country is average, while a coefficient of 0 indicates that nobody from that country ever medals or even places at international events. What I'd like to share today is the top-rated country, and the corresponding coefficient value, in each winter sport. These are based on real-world data, and should be a good indicator of future performance in real-world winter games as well. Alpine Skiing (Speed) = Austria (.6705) Alpine Skiing (Slalom) = Austria (.6850) Biathlon = Germany (.6582) Bobsleigh = Germany (.7502) Cross-Country Skiing (Distance) = Norway (.7204) Cross-Country Skiing (Sprint) = Norway (.7653) Curling = Canada (.7711) Figure Skating = Russia (.6491) Freestyle Skiing (Moguls) = Canada (.6809) Freestyle Skiing (Aerials) = China (.6908) Freestyle Skiing (Skicross) = Canada (.6930) Freestyle Skiing (General) = USA (.7217) Ice Hockey = Canada (.8302) Luge = Germany (.8201) Nordic Combined = Germany (.6578) Short Track Speed Skating = South Korea (.7165) Skeleton = Germany (.5088) Ski Jumping = Germany (.5899) Freestyle Snowboarding = USA (.7185) Snowboardcross = France (.5795) Alpine Snowboarding = Austria (.6414) Speed Skating (Sprint ) = Netherlands (.6602) Speed Skating (Distance) = Netherlands (.7403) These coefficients will eventually be used to give each team a numerical rating number between 20 and 99, with 99 being the highest possible value. No one seen here would receive a 99, as that will be reserved for the aforementioned outliers (Chinese table tennis/USA basketball/etc.) . If you're curious about how a particular country does in a particular sport, just let me know, or if you'd like to see the whole table, I would be happy to share.

Will do!

Over at SimNation, I like to update my development thread once a month, so I'm going to try to do likewise here! I'd like to talk a little bit more about some of the things I have done to this point in programming Going for Gold. Development Log 2: Player Ratings One of the things that I have looked to do in developing an international sports simulation is to put in a LOT of flexibility. If you look at a traditional Olympic Games, there are so many different formats for events and so many different qualifying processes, and then the events themselves have many, many different ways to keep score. (Timed events, point events, multi-stage events, direct head-to-head competitions, and so on...) So it would be an immense effort to code all of the detailed situations and strategies for every sport. I may get to that point eventually, but I'm not there at present. So, instead, player ratings are done in a very simplistic manner, so that there is more room to be flexible with the actual event structures. How simplistic? Well, each player has a rating (0-99) for each event that they take part in. Some players are in sports that contain multiple regular events, and those players may have different ratings for each event. However, that's the extent of the rating. One number, indicating how good the player is at that sport. (Team sports are set up the same way- the team's rating is just an average of everybody on the team) Obviously, this system has some benefits and some drawbacks, with one drawback being that you don't get into much detail with each individual athlete. What that ends up meaning is that as the player, you are overseeing a SYSTEM more than you are overseeing individual athletes. In a lot of sports sims, you effectively get to be the "coach", choosing strategies, gameplans, and the like. Going for Gold is a layer above that...it's more about tracking athlete skills and results, and seeing how to exploit areas of strength for your country in a way that leads to a bigger medal haul every summer or winter games. I guess that makes it a bit more "casual" of a sports sim in some ways, but it's a system that I have been happy with so far, because I can adapt it quickly to ANY sport that needs to be added in, and it gives me a chance to add more detail in the future because I have a flexible infrastructure in place. At any rate, the player would see something like this. In the example below, the player (as Canada) can use the Athlete window to see who their top Athletes are. Then, as the head of Canada's athletics program, you can break things down farther and see an individual sport/gender. So, breaking that down farther, here's the top Men's Divers in Canada. Then, when looking at event schedules and results, you'll be able to see specific athletes, and how they rate compared to the rest of the world for that particular event. So that's a basic overview of player ratings. I do eventually intend to have individual athlete pages, but that's not currently a feature I have in place. (This is very much a "hobby" venture at the moment, after all). At any rate, I wanted to share. Let me know your thoughts, or if you have any questions, please feel free to let me know! -SecretAgentMan

Thank you! It's much appreciated. I'm glad to be able to share what I am doing, and I hope that there are others who find it interesting.

Hi all, My name is Jeff, but I go by SecretAgentMan on a couple of sports forums sites. In my very limited free time, I am developing a game called Going for Gold. It is, basically, an Olympics sim. You take control of a country's athletics program, and work to build up your athletes and teams so that they can win medals at the Summer Games and Winter Games. I post a regular progress thread at SimNation, and I wanted to do likewise here, so that I can share development with others. So, with that in mind...here's my first development log here at GMGames. Development Log 1: A basic overview of Going for Gold Where did the idea come from? After participating in online leagues in college, I found myself with a little bit too much time (and too little employment) on hands after graduation. I started pursuing the idea of making a sport sim of my own, and after a couple of false starts, I got introduced to GameMaker, a programming system I still employ. That was early in 2010, and the Winter Olympics in Vancouver were fast approaching. I decided I was going to make sims for several sports in time for the Winter Games, to celebrate my favorite sporting event. I started small, with ski jumping, figuring that it would be one of the easier sports to program. Good call. I barely got something done, but I did get something done. I had a good experience with it and decided to expand it into a full-fledged ski jumping game, Going for Gold: Ski Jumping. I developed that until 2013, and got it into some sort of "finished" state, though it was never released or published. From there, with the 2014 Winter Games approaching, I started to make a rudimentary Olympics sim, titled "Going for Gold: Winter Games". I took the same ideas and, in 2016, made "Going for Gold: Summer Games". After that, I combined the two into one game, Going for Gold, prior to the 2018 Winter Games. I have continued to work on it intermittently ever since, with a particular focus being an addition of a career mode. (None of the previous versions had had that) Currently, the career mode, summer games, and winter games are all operational, though far from polished. I was, of course, intending to have another trial run this year with the Tokyo Olympics, but with those being postponed, I am continuing to refine features with the hope being that I have a stronger career mode in time for the double whammy of two Olympics in a 6-month span in 2021 and 2022. How does it work? As I mentioned above, I have 3 modes: Summer Games, Winter Games, and Career. The individual "Summer Games" and "Winter Games" modes are designed to be a short-term sim. You drop in to the Games, pick a country, and take a look at the athletes that you will have competing in the games. You then take "Training Points" (which basically simulate coaching and other such factors) and allocate them to certain athletes to boost their chances of success. You go through the games, win medals (or not), and see how you do. Career mode, though, has a little bit more detail to it. You start by selecting one of 65 countries from a list, allowing you to represent many of the most successful athletic nations from throughout the world. From there, you get a chance to simulate through a full year that includes both the summer and winter sports. As you play, you'll be able to see the schedule for the year and how your athletes are doing, and you can check the standings for each event throughout the season. At the end of each year, you get to go through the Finances, where you can decide, sport by sport and athlete by athlete, just how much you are going to support them and their ability to train and improve. As the years go by, you can build your country's athletic association into a powerhouse, growing in World Ranking and dominating more and more sports. (Or, you know, fall into disrepair. That part's up to the player, after all!) Athletes grow and decline, then retire, and new athletes come into the fold as you play year after year. Your ability to manage finding and find strengths and future stars will constantly be tested, but you have the opportunity to lead your country to glory at the Winter and Summer Games quadrennial after quadrennial. I'll try to dig into more specifics in the weeks and months to come as I continue to grow and update this game, but I wanted to at least start out by introducing myself and by introducing what I have to offer. I hope that you enjoy, and I would welcome your thoughts and feedback! Thanks sincerely, Jeff (SAM)

Hi, my name is Jeff, but I go by SecretAgentMan on a couple of different sports sim forums. I think I technically joined here like 5 years ago, but I never posted anything other than an intro post at that time. So, I'm "re-joining", as it were, and saying hello again. I have been playing/programming sports sims for almost a decade and a half, but my primary involvement now is in programming. I currently am developing an Olympics-style simulator titled "Going for Gold", and I tend to trot it out for beta tests every 2 or so years when we have a Summer or Winter Games. My intent here is to post updates for "Going for Gold" as I work to program and polish it. I am hoping that in sharing how things are going, I can find other interested parties who are willing to try it out and offer feedback. A few people here might know me from other places. I can also be found posting occasionally over at SimNation's forums, and I used to run an ESMS+ soccer league called the IFF over there. I was also actively involved with TotalSportsWorld.net back in the day, and before that was an active participant in Gridiron Glory, one of the biggest BBCF leagues around at the time. (Man, I miss the kind of free time I had in college) I've also played OOTP, but sparingly, simply because I am a big baseball fan and I worry about losing every ounce of my limited free time if I get too involved with it! So, yeah, hello! I hope to connect with some Olympics fans over here and share what I'm doing. Hope you like!

Watching the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics? Want to sim alongside it? Well, look no further! Hi all, my name is SecretAgentMan, and I like to program sports sims in my spare time. In particular, I like to program games tied to the Olympics. I've recently creating Going for Gold: Summer Games, a summer Olympics Sim. Over at SimNation, we're currently running a Summer Olympics sim, and we are still taking/looking for signups. So if that seems like something that would be up your alley, head on over and check it out! I've created a post with some links and information here: http://www.simnation.net/forums/showthread.php?39324-SimNation-Summer-Olympics-Thread Hope to see you in Rio!

Hi, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name's Jeff, but online I go by SAM (SecretAgentMan). I'm an active member of the SimNation sports community, and I've participated in college football (BBCF) and soccer (ESMS+) leagues in the past, and I'm a former commissioner of the IFF (International Football Federation), and ESMS+ league. I also do some programming in my spare time, and I'm interested in unique sports simulation ideas, including olympic sports. I'm in the process of creating a game I call Going for Gold: Winter Games. It's a Winter Olympics simulation where you control a National Olympics Committee and manage the budgets and other aspects of your winter sports athletics program. I'm hoping to meet some fellow sim fans here, particularly people who are interested in international sports like I am.