Schedule generation suggestions

[Scruff]

For auto-generated schedules, have options:

End date (in addition to start date) - will allow shorter schedules that still last 6 months if wanted.

Typical number off off days between series

Typical number of off days between games

Typical road trip/home stand length

Typical number of days off after road trip/home stand

Option for teams to not play home games on Sundays (historically this was an issue in a few cities)

Typical number of double-headers played by each team - this is the main reason standard "rotations" were so screwy to the point of not existing before the 1950s, teams played insane numbers of doubleheaders, sometimes as many as 20-30 a year. Teams would play 5 games in 3 days and then have 3 days off. A lot of this was due to cancelations for darkness and weather.

Making schedules is hell, but I think the best way to have the game replicate teams having one or two pitchers make as many starts as possible and having the rest of the staff fill in behind them realistically, and without manual intervention is to have a schedule that gives the AI no other choice.

[Le Grande Orange]

All I can tell you is that if Markus was able to code a schedule generator which could adequately handle all the options you suggest, he could take over the scheduling contract for MLB and make get paid a quite nice annual sum.

[Scruff]

Couldn't disagree more. The items I asked for aren't that difficult. They would not generate an MLB caliber schedule, but they would make for much less manual intervention than what is needed now, if you want say an 84 game schedule (8 team league 12 game against each team) that takes 5 months (which is basically what the NL had in 1879).

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Scruff

Couldn't disagree more. The items I asked for aren't that difficult.

I'll put it this way: if you can sit down and easily create by hand schedules that include different examples of the options you suggest, then you'd have a point.

Originally Posted by Scruff

... if you want say an 84 game schedule (8 team league 12 game against each team) that takes 5 months (which is basically what the NL had in 1879).

You're overlooking the fact that the schedule generator must be flexible enough to handle almost any league size, alignment, and schedule length. That's the issue.

Now, this is not to say the game's current schedule generator is perfect. It certainly could do a better job. But the ability to import hand-crafted schedule files compensates for a lot of that. The best bet will always be to create desired schedules by hand or use an existing real-world schedule.