Yeah, I use a Spreadsheet as well, I just needed to check a few things.
So. Optimization. Its theoretically an optional step in character creation because in ATOW the character is considered evolving with its XP. Take Pathfinder for example. Its a clear step between having 1 rank in a skill, and having 2 ranks. You put a skill point into the skill, and the skill increases. ATOW isn't like that. You don't have to dump enough XP into a skill to raise it to the next level all at once. You can gradually increase it over time, until you finally raise the level.
For example, when we look at the Stage 4 post, we see that the character has 110 XP going towards their Leadership skill. Since there's no Fast or Slow Learner trait, we use the Standard skill level column and see that while Leadership has enough points to make it to Level 3 (80 points), it doesn't quite have enough to reach Level 4 (120 points). That's fine. You just note the skill as being Level 3, and mark that you have 110 XP in the skill, showing your progression to Level 4. Get 10 more XP, and you can increase the skill.
Optimization is the process in taking all of these "almosts" and shaving the points off and returning them to your XP pool. So in our Leadership example, you would subtract 30 points (110-80) from the skill, and return it to your XP pool, where you can spend it on whatever you like. You can do this with Attributes, Skills and Traits, but there are a couple of caveats. You always subtract from the bit in question and add it back to the XP pool. The second caveat is that you can only optimize down to the next closest level. So in the case of Leadership, you can subtract points from it down to 80 (the next closest level), but you can't go past 80, say down to 50, to get extra points. For negative traits, you can optimize down to the next viable negative level (so our Compulsion/Xenophobia at -50 could be optimized down to -100, but not to -200). You can optimize positive traits and skills down to 0 to remove them, as long as they haven't reached the threshold necessary to hit the lowest level of the trait or skill.
So, with that bit of explanation, away we go. I've optimized the entire character, Attributes, Traits and Skills, but you don't have to do all three if you don't want to.
ATTRIBUTES
STR: +100
BOD: +100
RFL: +200
DEX: +100
INT: +200
WIL: +100
CHA: +300
EDG: -100
Traits
Compulsion/Xenophobia: -100
Wealth: +200
Combat Sense: 0
Connections: +100
Enemy: -100
Equipped: +200
Enemy: -100
Extra Income: 0
Glass Jaw: -300
Reputation: +100
Fit: 0
Rank: +500
Custom Vehicle: +200
Vehicle: +200
Unlucky: -200
Skills
Perception: +50
Language/English: +20
Language/Japanese: +50
Arts/Oral Tradition: +30
Martial Arts: +120
Protocol/Draconis Combine: +120
Thrown Weapons/Blade: +20
Interest/Star League History: +20
Negotiation: +0
Swimming: +50
Career/Soldier: +80
Computers: +30
Interest/Any: +30
Interest/Military History: +50
Leadership: +80
MedTech General: +50
Melee Weapons: +50
Running: +30
Small Arms: +80
Strategy: +0
Driving/Ground: +20
Navigation Ground: +50
Gunnery/`Mech: +50
Piloting/'Mech: +50
Sensor Operations: +50
Tactics/Land: +30
Technician/Any: +30
Administration: +30
Training: +30
See, nice round numbers. I was going to invest in enough XP to raise the attributes to the minimum level that I need at this stage, but I figured that might just confuse people, so I just left them as they are right now. Edge is still negative, and will have to have points spent on it.
You can see that Combat Sense, Extra Income and Fit were optimized down to 0, since they didn't make it to the lowest "activated" level of the skill. If I don't spend points on them later, those will be gone. Negotiation and Strategy were also likewise optimized into oblivion.
Keep in mind you don't have to optimize everything. For instance, I optimized Glass Jaw all the way down to -300, but I didn't have to. I could've left it at -50 and bought it off later. But it serves as a good example. After all this number crunching I've got about 2000 XP left to spend, but most of it is going to be going towards Attributes, since I have to meet the minimum requirement by the end of character generation.
Though technically we're not there yet, next up is "Buying additional XP"