Schedules -- requiem for the random shuffle

[LloydLungs]

In previous versions of the game, when the game would re-use the previous season's schedule (i.e. major_league_ml_c_2023.ldsl), it would shuffle each division's teams RANDOMLY. Although this would alter the special interleague rivalry schedule, it would otherwise mostly approximate the generation of a fresh, new, realistic MLB schedule for each year. Not completely, but well enough.

Starting with OOTP25, it no longer does this. It shuffles the schedule in about five different PRE-SET ways and doesn't deviate at all.

So, my question is... does anybody know of a manual, and preferably not excruciatingly time-consuming, way to do what the game used to do?
Generating reasonably realistic unique MLB schedules well into the future is something the game used to closely approximate, and it no longer does so and it bugs me a lot. I do not want to replay the same exact schedules over and over.

I do realize this is the most niche of the niche concerns, but I would truly appreciate any advice if anyone has some.

[dawg1isclear]

Have you tried this forum?

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...lay.php?f=3632

[bwburke94]

I believe Ruwisc made a tool to rotate the schedule manually, but I can't find it.

(As with most schedule-related stuff, I forked it for my own needs, so my own copy of the file isn't useful to others.)

[Le Grande Orange]

If you create the schedule variants manually you can exercise complete control over the swaps and preserve the 'traditional rival' interleague match-ups. Reposting what I posted in another thread:


The easiest variant to make is by reversing all the home and away teams. That is, make all the 2023 home teams the road teams, and all the road teams the home teams. Granted, this is not a big difference, but the schedule will at least look a little different. It also has the advantage of keeping the 'traditional rivals' playing their four interleague games against each other, and the three interleague games either home or away against the other interleague opponents will be properly alternated.

If you want a more robust variant, then swap around the teams within the schedule slots. But don't do this randomly. Instead, carefully choose the swaps. Doing so will mean the 'traditional rivals' will keep playing their four interleague games against each other, i.e. the Yankees will play the Mets four times, the Cubs will play the White Sox four times, etc. Here's how to do that.

First, take note of the 'traditional rival' match-ups in effect from 2018 onward.

BAL-WAS
BOS-ATL
NYA-NYN
TBA-MIA
TOR-PHI
---------------
CHA-CHN
CLE-CIN
DET-PIT
KCA-SLN
MIN-MIL
---------------
ANA-LAN
HOU-COL
OAK-SFN
SEA-SDN
TEX-ARI

When swapping teams, have the above pairs swap together. For example, if you're creating a variant by giving NYA the schedule of TOR, then be sure to give NYN the schedule of PHI. The result will be the Mets and Yankees playing four times in your completed variant. Swap the teams in a division around the schedule slots with the foregoing in mind and you'll end up with a schedule that looks fairly different but with the 'traditional rival' interleague games intact.

The drawback to team swapping is that the three interleague games home or away probably won't be correctly alternated compared to the base 2023 schedule. This can be addressed by making a straight home team/away team reversal of the finished team swapped variant. You'll now have four schedule files (2023 and its home/away reversal, and the team swap variant plus its home/away reversal). Over the course of the four schedules the three interleague games home or away will be properly alternated.

If you want more schedule variation then create yet another team swap variant along with its home/away reversal. Now you have six schedule files to cycle through for your MLB league.

You can use any spreadsheet app to edit OOTP schedule files.

[LloydLungs]

LGO, thank you, this is great information.

Truthfully, I'm not even that concerned about preserving the interleague rivalry series. A straight random shuffle would suit me fine. However, at least for the short term, I think I've found a workaround:

For the league I'm converting to OOTP25, I created a copy of it for OOTP24, advanced it, and saved it the day before the schedule creation phase in OOTP24. Then I have OOTP24 generate the old-fashioned random shuffled schedule. I export it and "ctrl-alt-delete" out of OOTP24 without saving (leaving it saved the day before schedule creation). Then I import that schedule into OOTP25. Now I can create a randomly shuffled version of that schedule anytime I need one. It's a pain but better than nothing.

This won't work forever, but it should work as long as MLB uses the current schedule format and as long as future versions of OOTP accept an OOTP24-generated schedule.

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

You can use any spreadsheet app to edit OOTP schedule files.

If I should look into doing this manually, though, what specifically is the spreadsheet app you use to do this?

[bailey]

A posted a variety of schedules a while back here

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by LloydLungs

This won't work forever, but it should work as long as MLB uses the current schedule format and as long as future versions of OOTP accept an OOTP24-generated schedule.

MLB is changing the format slightly for 2025. The 'traditional rival' match-ups are switching from two 2-game series to two 3-game series, meaning all teams will be playing 48 interleague games instead of 46. The number of games against non-division opponents is consequently being reduced by two games.

Originally Posted by LloydLungs

If I should look into doing this manually, though, what specifically is the spreadsheet app you use to do this?

Doesn't matter, they'll all work. You could even open and edit the schedule file in WordPad if you wanted. Swapping teams around is just a matter of running a series of Search & Replace operations. This is not difficult, just tedious. You do have to plan ahead to avoid accidental incorrect swaps.

With a spreadsheet app you could use its formula functions to handle some of the swapping.