question about how to use schedules

[thehef]

Let's say I wanted to setup a game to play the PCL from it's early years through the 50's. By my rough count, there are about 15 historical schedules available for the PCL (through the 50's), and there are a few generic ones that could also be used.

My goal isn't to have exact schedules for each year. Rather, I just want plausible ones each year. Matching the exact number of total games each year and the exact number of games vs teams is not important. What is important to me is having the 7-game series in most years (as per history), and not having series' start & end on weird days (as an example, not sure if I recall the actual years, but if use a schedule for 1932 that was made for the 1930 season, I'll get series' ending on a Friday, maybe a travel day on Saturday, and a new series starting Sunday; that's just whacky).

So I'm wondering if I can take a schedule for any year, make a minor modification or two to it, and use it for another year. Or if it actually requires a lot of modification in order to use as desired.

Thanks in advance

[gmo]

I believe you will what you are looking for and with doing nothing after you do the initial import of the schedule file you got like you wanted.

There are parameters that can be set at the top of the file in a line like:

<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G162_T28_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="162" start_month="3" start_day="25" start_day_of_week="6" allstar_game_day="103">

The start_month and start_day define when the schedule starts - in that example it is March 25th (3rd month, 25th day). Except, not necessarily.

The start_day_of_week parameter forces the schedule to start on that day of the week as close to but not before the start date. Sun=1, Mon=2, etc. In this example the 6 means Friday.

So if you were using that schedule, and your league was on 2023, the season would begin on March 31 because that is the first Friday on or after Mar25. In 2024 the first Friday on or after Mar25 is the 29th, so the season would start there.

Thus you would not have to worry about your series starting on Mondays shifting to starting on Sunday the next year. There is the parameter "Force Start on Certain Weekday" under League Settings > Options. I believe that importing a schedule with start_day_of_week will turn that on with the selected day.

Next is how the game automatically juggles matchups year-to-year if you use the same schedule without reloading. The "games" are locked into places, but the teams that slot into those games randomly change year-to-year. If you have 6 games on the first day of the season, those six games will be there next year. But who plays in them is likely to change.

The game randomly mixes the "slots" for teams in each division. One division may have four teams - A, B, C, D. Initially those teams may fill slots like A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4. Where the schedule has 1vs2 and 3vs4, that would mean AvsB and CvsD. The next year that is juggled - perhaps it comes out as A=3, B=2, C=4, D=1. So wherever it is 1vs2 and 3vs4 would become DvsB and AvsC. The following year will have a different combination. Teams can stay in the same slot year-to-year (like B in my example), but odds are most things get mixed up, especially the more teams in a division.

[thehef]

Thanks gmo. I'll do some testing on this

[joefromchicago]

The "classic" PCL schedule had teams play seven-game series, with single games Tuesday through Saturday and a double-header on Sunday. Mondays were travel days. So, as you note, it's important to make sure that your schedule starts on the right day of the week, which means you'll most likely want to set your schedule to start on a Tuesday.

But it's equally important to line up the holidays, since the PCL always had double-headers on Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day (and, in some years, Admission Day in California). That will be a lot trickier if you just take a schedule for one year and try to use it for a different year. You might start on the right weekday, but you also might end up with double-headers on July 7 instead of July 4. Take a look at this post to see which years can share schedules. For instance, if you have a schedule that you like from 1933, you can also use it without any edits for 1922 and 1939.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

The "classic" PCL schedule had teams play seven-game series, with single games Tuesday through Saturday and a double-header on Sunday. Mondays were travel days. So, as you note, it's important to make sure that your schedule starts on the right day of the week, which means you'll most likely want to set your schedule to start on a Tuesday.

Those historic PCL schedules - especially the 7 day series - fascinate me. So cool

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

But it's equally important to line up the holidays, since the PCL always had double-headers on Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day (and, in some years, Admission Day in California). That will be a lot trickier if you just take a schedule for one year and try to use it for a different year. You might start on the right weekday, but you also might end up with double-headers on July 7 instead of July 4. Take a look at this post to see which years can share schedules. For instance, if you have a schedule that you like from 1933, you can also use it without any edits for 1922 and 1939.

This is great stuff, Joe! I think you are confirming what I thought was the case with these schedules, but wasn't sure; and between what you & gmo wrote, and the cool link (re-using schedules for other like-calendar years - I had already noted some of those PCL schedules that can be used for other years ), I should be in good shape. Thanks again!

[thehef]

Originally Posted by gmo

The start_month and start_day define when the schedule starts - in that example it is March 25th (3rd month, 25th day). Except, not necessarily.

The start_day_of_week parameter forces the schedule to start on that day of the week as close to but not before the start date. Sun=1, Mon=2, etc. In this example the 6 means Friday.

So based upon the above, if the schedule parameters are...

<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G196_T8_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="196" start_month="3" start_day="17" start_day_of_week="1" >

... then that means the season will start on or after March 17th. With start_day_of_week="1" that means it will start on a Sunday. If March 17th is a Sunday, then that's the start date. If March 17th is NOT a Sunday, then it will start the very next Sunday after the 17th in March. Correct?

So then looking at the actual schedule of games in the file...

<GAMES>
<GAME day="2" time="1905" away="8" home="1" />
<GAME day="2" time="1905" away="7" home="2" />
<GAME day="2" time="1905" away="6" home="3" />
<GAME day="2" time="1905" away="5" home="4" />
<GAME day="3" time="1905" away="8" home="1" />

... what does the GAME day mean? Is it literally the numbered day of the schedule, so if the schedule were to start on Sunday, March 17th, then since there is not GAME day = 1, does that mean the schedule is actually starting on Monday, day 2? Or?

Originally Posted by gmo

Next is how the game automatically juggles matchups year-to-year if you use the same schedule without reloading. The "games" are locked into places, but the teams that slot into those games randomly change year-to-year. If you have 6 games on the first day of the season, those six games will be there next year. But who plays in them is likely to change.

The game randomly mixes the "slots" for teams in each division. One division may have four teams - A, B, C, D. Initially those teams may fill slots like A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4. Where the schedule has 1vs2 and 3vs4, that would mean AvsB and CvsD. The next year that is juggled - perhaps it comes out as A=3, B=2, C=4, D=1. So wherever it is 1vs2 and 3vs4 would become DvsB and AvsC. The following year will have a different combination. Teams can stay in the same slot year-to-year (like B in my example), but odds are most things get mixed up, especially the more teams in a division.

Originally Posted by gmo

The start_month and start_day define when the schedule starts - in that example it is March 25th (3rd month, 25th day). Except, not necessarily.

The start_day_of_week parameter forces the schedule to start on that day of the week as close to but not before the start date. Sun=1, Mon=2, etc. In this example the 6 means Friday.

So are you saying that if you use the same schedule from one year to the next the game will juggle matchups, but if you are loading a specific schedule, the game will not randomize?

IOW, if I use the same schedule for 1920 and 1921, then for 1921 it's going to randomize the team numbers in the schedule. But if for 1921 I import a different schedule, it won't randomize. Correct? Or?

Thanks in advance!

[thehef]

Also, I see that there are OOTP-delivered schedule files for most minor leagues since 2015. So, using the IL & PCL as example, I see these files:

international_league_aaa_c_2015
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_2015
(And files of the same naming convention, but for years 2016 thru 2022.)

Does that mean if I were to come up with a slate of schedules that I want to use for historical years, I could simply rename them as...

international_league_aaa_c_1955
international_league_aaa_c_1956
international_league_aaa_c_1957
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_1930
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_1931
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_1932

... and so forth, and then those files (assuming that the data in the files were correct) would auto-load for those years and work just fine?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by thehef

So based upon the above, if the schedule parameters are...

<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G196_T8_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="196" start_month="3" start_day="17" start_day_of_week="1" >

... then that means the season will start on or after March 17th. With start_day_of_week="1" that means it will start on a Sunday. If March 17th is a Sunday, then that's the start date. If March 17th is NOT a Sunday, then it will start the very next Sunday after the 17th in March. Correct?

I believe that is correct.

Originally Posted by thehef

So then looking at the actual schedule of games in the file...

<GAMES>
<GAME day="2" time="1905" away="8" home="1" />
<GAME day="2" time="1905" away="7" home="2" />
<GAME day="2" time="1905" away="6" home="3" />
<GAME day="2" time="1905" away="5" home="4" />
<GAME day="3" time="1905" away="8" home="1" />

... what does the GAME day mean? Is it literally the numbered day of the schedule, so if the schedule were to start on Sunday, March 17th, then since there is not GAME day = 1, does that mean the schedule is actually starting on Monday, day 2? Or?

Well, "game day" means just that - the place in the sequence of days that the game occupies. So if a game is scheduled for "game day 2," then it will take place on the second day of the season. I don't know why this particular schedule starts on "Game Day 2" - that makes no sense to me, but I've seen it in other schedules as well. It's certainly not the way I make schedules.

Originally Posted by thehef

So are you saying that if you use the same schedule from one year to the next the game will juggle matchups, but if you are loading a specific schedule, the game will not randomize?

IOW, if I use the same schedule for 1920 and 1921, then for 1921 it's going to randomize the team numbers in the schedule. But if for 1921 I import a different schedule, it won't randomize. Correct? Or?

Yes, that's how I understand it to work.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by thehef

Also, I see that there are OOP-delivered schedule files for most minor leagues since 2015. So, using the IL & PCL as example, I see these files:

international_league_aaa_c_2015
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_2015
(And files of the same naming convention, but for years 2016 thru 2022.)

Does that mean if I were to come up with a slate of schedules that I want to use for historical years, I could simply rename them as...

international_league_aaa_c_1955
international_league_aaa_c_1956
international_league_aaa_c_1957
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_1930
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_1931
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_1932

... and so forth, and then those files (assuming that the data in the files were correct) would auto-load for those years and work just fine?

I've never tried that, but I think the answer is yes.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

I believe that is correct.
Well, "game day" means just that - the place in the sequence of days that the game occupies. So if a game is scheduled for "game day 2," then it will take place on the second day of the season. I don't know why this particular schedule starts on "Game Day 2" - that makes no sense to me, but I've seen it in other schedules as well. It's certainly not the way I make schedules.

I would take this to mean that if you had your schedule - per start_month / start_day... - set to, say, the beginning of March, but started off the actual schedule with game day = 32, then your game would transition from pre-season to regular season at the beginning of March, but the first games wouldn't be played until the beginning of April. Or something like that... I'm not sure why we'd want to do that, but that might be how that would work...

Thanks for all of your other answers I will test the last one about schedule naming convention, and report back here.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by thehef

I will test the last one about schedule naming convention, and report back here.

Well, it didn't work... I took the 1930, 1931, and 1921 (that is the same as the 1932 calendar year) PCL schedules from the Schedule List - Updated thread, and named those files as follows:

pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_1930
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_1931
pacific_coast_league_aaa_c_1932

I then created a game starting with 1930. The PCL schedule for 1930 indicated above did not import. Not sure if the game used one of the ILN... schedules or if generated a schedule... At any rate, I then attempted to manually import the 1930 PCL schedule file (thinking that maybe if I imported the correct schedule file for '30, that maybe OOTP would then grab the correct file for the '31 PCL season) and was unable due to a mismatch between the number of games specified in League Settings > Options, under Schedule Settings (210, which is sourced from the milbleagues.csv file: it has 210 for 1930 PCL) and the number of games specified in the schedule file (201). Once I updated the number of games in Options to 201, I was able to import the 1930 schedule. However, moving forward to 1931, OOTP did not update the schedule. It kept the 1930 schedule in play.

So I tried a 2nd test, first modifying the milbleagues.csv so the # of games in that file matched the number of games in the schedule files (201 for '30, 187 for '31, and 188 for '32). That did not work, either, even though the # of games was correct in OOTP - it matched the updated numbers I placed in milbleagues.csv - on the Options page...

FWIW, I tried one of the seasons where OOTP provides a modern PCL schedule - 2016 - and that schedule also did not import at game creation... and when I tried to manually import the 2016 PCL schedule, I rec'd an error regarding the the schedule having a different structure as the OOTP league...

So I don't know if this is not working as intended, if it's not intended to work as I'm expecting, or if there is something else involved...

[No Pepper]

thehef, for your schedule to load automatically and use the correct file by year, your Saved Game Name has to be "pacific coast league" as well as match the other league and schedule structure parameters between said saved league and the schedule you are trying to load. Keep in mind that the "aaa" designation in your filename also intends the schedule to be used for the AAA league in your game save. This is explained more thoroughly in the online OOTP manual. Now if that function does not work, let us know!

[thehef]

Originally Posted by No Pepper

thehef, for your schedule to load automatically and use the correct file by year, your Saved Game Name has to be "pacific coast league" as well as match the other league and schedule structure parameters between said saved league and the schedule you are trying to load. Keep in mind that the "aaa" designation in your filename also intends the schedule to be used for the AAA league in your game save. This is explained more thoroughly in the online OOTP manual. Now if that function does not work, let us know!

So what your saying is that if I have historical schedules for, say, all of my AAA (PCL, Int'l League, Am Assoc), then I have to save my entire game with the name of one of those leagues, essentially picking one to load automatically and then I'd still need to load the other two manually. Correct?

And this logic apparently doesn't apply to MLB, because those load automatically every time, even though I never name my game Major League Baseball...

Do I have all of that right?

[No Pepper]

Sorry, I've never tested this myself. Just going on what the manual says. But yes, you have that "right".

[thehef]

Originally Posted by No Pepper

Sorry, I've never tested this myself. Just going on what the manual says. But yes, you have that "right".

Seems kind of limiting... Perhaps an area for improvement. But thanks for your reply!