2 schedules requested. 1 ea for 2S/2D/5T and 2S/3D/4T

[ZepTepi]

I'm requesting 2 because my current save has 20 teams but I am planning to expand to 24 teams in apx 9 years hence the second requested schedule. I looked through the schedules already existing in the Schedules List sub but didn't find the particular configurations i was looking for. These schedules are based on teams playing the other 4 teams in their division 13 times, the 5 teams in the other division withing their conference 7 times, and each of the teams in the other sub-league 3 times each. This will obviously mean the series lengths will be 3 & 4 games each. I don't have a particular point in time I would like the All-Star Game to be other than around the halfway point in the season and I would like to have both the HR derby and prospects game. I would also like each team to have the same # of weekend games. I don't have an particular desire regarding game start times though I would like both day & night games. The only other request is that no team plays more than 12 games between days off though 10 days would be ideal.


If I'm leaving out anything pertinent please let me know. One of these days I would like to try making a schedule myself but I'm not likely to have the time to do that anytime soon. I appreciate the time you all take when making these schedule for the rest of us!

[gmo]

I have some questions, and I think there are some tensions that keep the combination of all the parameters from working.

First question is number of games... For 20-team, you say 4*13+5*7+10*3=117. That number seems odd. Well, it literally is odd too - do you really want an uneven number of games such that home & away counts are not equal? Could have one more or one less game against a non-division conference opponent to even things out.

For the 24 teams there is no number of games nor breakdown by opponent type.

Back on the 20-team, as it sits now each of the 9 conference opponents involve a 4-game series. That is relatively a lot of 4-game series. If you have a schedule with all 3-games series, then there is an offday every week. When you have weeks with a 3-game series plus a 4-game series, then there are no offdays in the week. So with lots of 4-games series, offdays cannot be as common as you want.

One way around that is doubleheaders, but that feels like it goes against the spirit of the frequent offdays.

Another way around that is forcing more offdays in and not adhering to the 2-series-per-week paradigm. E.g., have an 8-day period during which every team will play two series. Then it is sure every team gets an offday (unless there are instances of two 4-game series).

That could make offdays at least as common as you want, but then the problem is the number of weekend games. I assume you mean you want the matching counts of home games on weekends. That becomes difficult to control when series are no longer early week (some span in Mon-Thu) and weekend (some span in Thu-Sun). If series can fall in, e.g., Tue-Fri or Sun-Wed, then they can be part-weekend and part-not, which likely makes it untenable to keep teams even in how many home Fri/Sat/Sun games they have.

[ZepTepi]

Originally Posted by gmo

I have some questions, and I think there are some tensions that keep the combination of all the parameters from working.

First question is number of games... For 20-team, you say 4*13+5*7+10*3=117. That number seems odd. Well, it literally is odd too - do you really want an uneven number of games such that home & away counts are not equal? Could have one more or one less game against a non-division conference opponent to even things out. I honestly did not think about the home/away counts issue. As for getting the schedule to an even # of games I will defer to your experience for that but I like your idea of having one more or less game against a non-division conference opponent but would it be possible to have that opponent rotate season to season so it's not the same team each year?

For the 24 teams there is no number of games nor breakdown by opponent type. 2S/3D/4T I would like the breakdown to be similar to the 20 team schedule so 3*13+8*7+12*3=131+1 game against a non-division conference opponent for a total of 132 games.

Back on the 20-team, as it sits now each of the 9 conference opponents involve a 4-game series. That is relatively a lot of 4-game series. If you have a schedule with all 3-games series, then there is an offday every week. When you have weeks with a 3-game series plus a 4-game series, then there are no offdays in the week. So with lots of 4-games series, offdays cannot be as common as you want. I'm fine with having doubleheaders as a way to maintain the frequency of offdays I requested as long as the OOTP25 AI manages them reasonably well. If it is known to not do that then I would ask that you change the schedule to have only 3 game series which would look like this:
4*12+5*9+3*10+1=124.


One way around that is doubleheaders, but that feels like it goes against the spirit of the frequent offdays.

Another way around that is forcing more offdays in and not adhering to the 2-series-per-week paradigm. E.g., have an 8-day period during which every team will play two series. Then it is sure every team gets an offday (unless there are instances of two 4-game series).

That could make offdays at least as common as you want, but then the problem is the number of weekend games. I assume you mean you want the matching counts of home games on weekends. That becomes difficult to control when series are no longer early week (some span in Mon-Thu) and weekend (some span in Thu-Sun). If series can fall in, e.g., Tue-Fri or Sun-Wed, then they can be part-weekend and part-not, which likely makes it untenable to keep teams even in how many home Fri/Sat/Sun games they have.

At the end of the day whatever you feel is the best way to go for these 2 schedules I will appreciate.

[gmo]

I took a couple different approaches below, similar to as discussed but different in various details. For each league configuration there is one case of having very regular offdays but not quite as frequently as you were wanting and one case with more offdays though a few instances with slightly longer streaks without an offday. These allowed for keeping the "baseball week" in order and making so all teams have the same number of weekend games.

I cannot speak to the game's handling of doubleheaders. I tend to avoid using them unless requested because they are uncommon these days. Setting them is also more effort in my process.

[gmo]

#
# 20 team schedule, 116 games
# Designed for the following configuration:
# 2 subleagues each with 2 divisions, each with 5 teams
#
#
# 13 games against 4 other teams in division (6-7H/6-7A)
# 6-7 games against 5 other teams in league (3-4H/3-4A)
# 3 games against 10 teams in other league (3H or 3A)
#
#
# All teams share same offdays Thursdays every other week
# So teams generally play 13-14 consecutive days then have offday 
#
# Homestands/roadtrips as long as 17 games
# All-Star break counted as ending homestands/roadtrips
#
# Teams play 9 home weekend series
#
# All weekday game times set at 7:05pm
# Saturday game times 30% 1:05pm, 20% 4:05pm, 50% 7:05pm
# Sunday game times 60% 1:05pm, 25% 4:05pm, 15% 7:05pm
# Except 1:05pm game time for all getaway days for both teams
#
# Season begins first Monday of April
# Season ends first Wednesday on or after Aug7
# Season spans 129 days
#
# All-Star Game set for first Tuesday on or after Jun4 (day num 65)
#
# Built on 2024-06-01
#

[gmo]

#
# 20 team schedule, 122 games
# Designed for the following configuration:
# 2 subleagues each with 2 divisions, each with 5 teams
#
#
# 12 games against 4 other teams in division (6H/6A)
# 8-9 games against 5 other teams in league (3-6H/3-6A)
# 3 games against 10 teams in other league (3H or 3A)
#
#
# All teams have an offday almost every week (all but two weeks)
# Most teams have 1 or 2 instances with as many as 13 consecutive days playing
#
# No homestands or roadtrips longer than 13 games
# All-Star break counted as ending homestands/roadtrips
#
# Teams play 10 home weekend series
#
# All weekday game times set at 7:05pm
# Saturday game times 30% 1:05pm, 20% 4:05pm, 50% 7:05pm
# Sunday game times 60% 1:05pm, 25% 4:05pm, 15% 7:05pm
# Except 1:05pm game time for all getaway days for both teams
#
# Season begins first Monday of April
# Season ends first Wednesday on or after Aug21
# Season spans 143 days
#
# All-Star Game set for first Tuesday on or after Jun11 (day num 72)
#
# Built on 2024-06-01
#

[gmo]

#
# 24 team schedule, 130 games
# Designed for the following configuration:
# 2 subleagues each with 3 divisions, each with 4 teams
#
#
# 12-13 games against 3 other teams in division (6-7H/6-7A)
# 7 games against 8 other teams in league (3-4H/3-4A)
# 3 games against 12 teams in other league (3H or 3A)
#
#
# All teams share same offdays Thursdays every other week
# So teams generally play 13 consecutive days then have offday 
#
# A few cases of 16 or 17 consecutive home/away but otherwise
# homestands or roadtrips longer than 13 games
# All-Star break counted as ending homestands/roadtrips
#
# Teams play 10 home weekend series
#
# All weekday game times set at 7:05pm
# Saturday game times 30% 1:05pm, 20% 4:05pm, 50% 7:05pm
# Sunday game times 60% 1:05pm, 25% 4:05pm, 15% 7:05pm
# Except 1:05pm game time for all getaway days for both teams
#
# Season begins first Monday of April
# Season ends first Wednesday on or after Aug21
# Season spans 143 days
#
# All-Star Game set for first Tuesday on or after Jun11 (day num 72)
#
# Built on 2024-06-01
#

[gmo]

#
# 24 team schedule, 130 games
# Designed for the following configuration:
# 2 subleagues each with 3 divisions, each with 4 teams
#
#
# 12-13 games against 3 other teams in division (6-7H/6-7A)
# 7 games against 8 other teams in league (3-4H/3-4A)
# 3 games against 12 teams in other league (3H or 3A)
#
#
# All teams have an offday almost every week (all but four weeks)
# Teams generally have a few instances with 13 consecutive days playing
#
# No homestands or roadtrips longer than 13 games
# All-Star break counted as ending homestands/roadtrips
#
# Teams play 11 home weekend series
#
# All weekday game times set at 7:05pm
# Saturday game times 30% 1:05pm, 20% 4:05pm, 50% 7:05pm
# Sunday game times 60% 1:05pm, 25% 4:05pm, 15% 7:05pm
# Except 1:05pm game time for all getaway days for both teams
#
# Season begins first Friday of April
# Season ends first Sunday on or after Aug28
# Season spans 143 days
#
# All-Star Game set for first Tuesday on or after Jun14 (day num 72)
#
# Built on 2024-06-01
#

[ZepTepi]

Thank you very much gmo! Much appreciated!