GearCity Executive Secretary - A Report Utility for GearCity

[JC_Denton]

June 2023 Update

GearCity Executive Secretary is back!  This update brings compatibility with FBS1, along with several new features.

You can download it from this link (8 MB).  Like previous versions, it requires the Azul or Bellsoft versions of Java 8 (Full JRE) in order to run.

FBS1 Compatibility [2nd Gear]

All reports are now compatible with FBS1.  This meant a significant update to the Market Trends report to add compatibility with the new integer-based IDs, but that is now complete.

The Executive Secretary will automatically detect whether your save is from the base game, or from 2nd Gear, and adjust its queries automatically.

Emissions Reports

There are two new reports under Market Trends, both dealing with emissions.  These are the Average Emissions report and the Average Emissions by Type report.





It is envisioned that in the future, more emission-based metrics will be available, such as comparing emissions by district.  One option that is already available is to view these reports for your individual marques.

Autosave-Based Refreshing

The Executive Secretary no longer has to be told by you to load new information - it will do so automatically.  Every 5 seconds, it checks for a new autosave file, and if it finds one, refreshes its information.  All you need to do is switch over from Gear City to the Executive Secretary, and you have information at your fingertips!

The Executive Secretary will also use the autosaves to monitor information that may not remain in the main database forever - so far, this means bond information (see that section later in this post), but in the future it may expand to annual snapshots of the stock market or company finances.

For this reason, it is recommended to set autosaves to the minimal 3-month frequency, and to leave the Executive Secretary running in the background while the game runs.  But no worries if you don't!  It can run on-demand just like previous versions as well.

Market Trends - Almost All Reports Support Viewing Your-Company-Only Results

In the previous update, three reports supported viewing the trends only for your company.  Now, all other than the Gear Count report support viewing both the entire industry's trends, or just your company's trends.  



Acquisition Advisor Improvements

The Acquisition Advisor now makes it easy to see which companies have shares available.  No more checking one-by-one, just ask the acquisition advisor if you're in the mood to buy some stocks!  The percentage of shares available and the amount that the company has not yet sold on the market are also visible, so you have a better idea of the likelihood of being able to acquire a majority stake.



Bonds Report

Considering buying a company but not sure about the quality of the debt you'd be acquiring?  Look at the Bonds report, which shows the bonds, when they're due, and their coupon rate for each company.  There's nothing worse than buying a company and finding out their billion-dollar bond is due next year.  Now your CFO can perform proper due diligence and help you avoid that surprise!



Market Summary Improvements

The Yearly Market Summary now displays the bonds issued and retired per year, and no longer counts bond repayments as an expense and against profits (coupon payments still count as an expense).  This gives a more accurate picture of the industry's profitability.



Company Profitability Improvements

Like the Yearly Market Summary, the Company Profitability Report now excludes bond repayments from profitability, both for single and multi-year views.  It didn't count as profit when you issued the bond, it shouldn't count as an expense when you repay it!

The "Runway" calculation also now better handles cases where companies have negative equity, but still have cash on hand.  Previously, this gave a result of 0 months of runway if the company was losing money.  Now, the runway is however long it will take until the cash reserves are depleted.



Defunct Companies Improvement

A small improvement has been made to the Defunct Companies Report as well - it is now properly noted if an acquired company was acquired by a parent that is now bankrupt.



Occasionally when an AI that owns multiple marques goes bankrupt, one of its acquired marques will be spun out and live on independently.  Like before, in these cases those spun-out companies will no longer be listed on the Defunct Companies Report.

Technical Note

This new version of the Executive Secretary will create a database file whose name begins with "GCES_" in its folder.  This is normal, and is where it keeps track of things that are not stored forever in the main Gear City database - for now that means historical bond information, which allows it to accurately show historical expenses and profitability.  You can browse this database with SQLite Studio or another SQLite-compatible database.

Download Now!

You can download the June 2023 version of GearCity Executive Secretary from this link (8 MB).  Like previous versions, it requires the Azul or Bellsoft versions of Java 8 (Full JRE) in order to run.

Comments are encouraged - this forum hasn't been the liveliest venue, but it doesn't have to remain that way.