[thehef]

Originally Posted by thehef

Thanks, Joe. I tested it out and here's what I was able to determine:

Where I suggested that the only steps were...
1. Import schedule
2. Under Schedule Settings, check the box to Enable Split Season Format

... it's not quite that simple. There are actually two initial steps:

1. Set the number of games in OOTP (League Settings > Options, under Schedule Settings) to match the number of games in the schedule to be imported.*
2. Make sure the balanced/unbalanced setting matches the indicator in the schedule to be imported.*
3. Import schedule
4. Under Schedule Settings, check the box to Enable Split Season Format (I think this step can be done earlier; might not matter exactly when)
*otherwise you'll get an error message when you attempt to import the schedule

As far as my specific questions:

At that point the game will know where to split the season and know what to do at the end of each half of the season? Apparently so. In my test of the 1930 PCL, where the imported schedule is 201 games, OOTP split the season at 100 games. So I'm guessing that for determining where to split the season, OOTP divides the total number of games in half, and in the case where the total number of games is an odd number, it rounds down.

It'll reset the standings (keep the 1st half standings somewhere so they can be viewed?)... Once you start the 2nd half of the split-season, on the Standings panel the standings will continue to reflect the cumulative standings, but this can be changed via the dropdown in the vicinity of the top left of the panel, where you can choose Overall, First Half, or Second Half standings. Beneath the main standings the team & record of the 1st half winner will be shown, and beneath that the team & record of the 2nd half leader. In addition, overall, 1st half, and 2nd half records/standings can be found on the Expanded Standings panel, although the teams are locked-listed in the order of the first half standings.

... and come playoff time will know to match the first half winner vs second half winner? With default settings, yep.

Will it give HFA to the half-winner with the best record? With default settings, yep. Although you can of course edit this.

In the case of the same team winning both halves, will it match the overall 1st place team against the overall 2nd place team? Again, with default settings, yes. In my test, Hollywood won both halves, and Seattle had the 2nd best overall record. They were matched up in the championship series.

Note: The Custom Playoff option is disabled when Split Season is enabled. So, for example, if you wanted to have something whacky like the top two finishers in the first half qualifying, along with the top two finishers for the 2nd half, you can't do that. At least not that I can figure out. (And I guess this makes sense: In a split-season format, the options offered, and what do in the case of 1, 2, or 3 of the teams being repeat winners in each half, well that would be a programming nightmare, I'd think.

An important follow up on how split schedules work in OOTP. To cut to the chase, if the teams in a league are scheduled for different amounts of total games played (a common occurrence in early minor leagues) OOTP does not split the schedule at the same point for each team. Rather, it's splits the schedule for each team based upon the number of games on each team's schedule. I'll use the 1904 PCL as an example:

- I have a 1904 PCL schedule (that I will post soon) that has total number of games per team ranging from a low of 226 (LA & Portland) to a high of 241 (Oakland).
- When Oakland reached 121 games, it's next game - a loss to LA - was counted in the 2nd half standings. Since no other team had reached it's own halfway point of the season, Oakland was the only team listed in the 2nd half standings (with a record of 0-1).
- A few days later, Seattle reached it's halfway point, and the following day the 2nd half standings showed Seattle on top at 1-0, all other teams at 0-0, and Oakland at 0-3.
- So basically, by the end of the full season I'll end up with probably a couple dozen games where the result counted in the first half for one team and in the second half for the other team.

In addition, if you look at the main Play dropdown menu (that typicaly gives you Finish Today, and various Auto-Play Until... and Auto-Play to Event... options, there is no option at any time to play until the end of the 1st half. So, in effect, unless the gamer were to do some significant research and calculations, he'll have no real idea as to the when the first half of the schedule actually ends. And the nature of teams not finishing the first half at the same time makes any sort of pennant race - for the 1st half title - a mystery that can only be understood & appreciated after the fact...

The solution to all of this should be pretty simply, IMO.

First, OOTP would need to be programmed to recognize the split point if it's specified in the schedule. So if Split Schedule were selected on the Options panel, then OOTP would recognize something like this...

<GAME day="90" time="1500" away="6" home="3"/>
<GAME day="90" time="1500" away="4" home="1"/>
<GAME day="90" "SPLIT"
<GAME day="92" time="1500" away="1" home="6"/>
<GAME day="92" time="1500" away="5" home="7"/>

... and split the schedule accordingly (after the games of game day 90 in the above example). If Split Schedule were not enabled on the Options panel and the "Split" indicator were included in the schedule file, OOTP would ignore the indication in the file and not split the schedule.

If, however, Split Schedule is enabled on the Options panel and there is no "Split" indicator in the schedule file, then rather than calculating each team's number of games and splitting each team's schedule at each team's halfway point, OOTP would find the total number of days in a schedule file (in my example above it is 249; in the 2018 Northwest League schedule that is delivered with OOTP it is 81) and divided that number in half to determine the day in the schedule that it would be split in half. In this manner, the split would apply to all teams regardless of how many games each team has played at that point.

Second, regardless of the manner in which the Split Date is determined by OOTP - whether it finds the split date in the schedule or calculates it based upon the number of days, OOTP should add a League Event that would appear in the PLAY dropdown, under the AUTO-PLAY TO EVENT sub-heading. Something like 6/29/1904: 1st Half of Season Ends.

Make sense? Any suggestions on how OOTP might be able to better handle this?