Schedule Generator Issues

[gordyhulten]

I don't know if this is the right place to put this.

I know automatic schedule generation is a nightmare, so the sooner we can get information about importing schedules, and how to import the amazing GMO/LGO OOTP6.5 schedules, the better.

I have a custom fictional universe that I've been setting up all day (don't get me started on the clunkiness of that, but why can't we copy settings from a parent league to a child?), The major league has two leagues, two divisions per league, with six teams in each division (ala MLB circa 1986 or so).

I changed some team names and such, and so have generated a new fictional schedule. Balanced, no interleague, 3 game series, nothing fancy. The analysis tools are handy, but reveal some glaring problems:

1. One team plays another team 16 times - all on the road.
2. Every team plays 12 days in a row - four three-game series) and then has the same day off. All season long. Sometimes the off day is a Saturday.

Thanks!

[battists]

Gordy, I suggest you post this in the schedule forum. I'll move it there for you. I haven't seen much of LGO or GMO today, but we really need their help to get more customization info out there.

Unfortunately, schedule generation is just so complex...

[gordyhulten]

Originally Posted by battists

Gordy, I suggest you post this in the schedule forum. I'll move it there for you. I haven't seen much of LGO or GMO today, but we really need their help to get more customization info out there.

Unfortunately, schedule generation is just so complex...

Understood, Steve. Thanks for moving it, and I'll wait for the gurus.

[Carplos]

2. Every team plays 12 days in a row - four three-game series) and then has the same day off. All season long. Sometimes the off day is a Saturday.

I understand the scheduling is hard to make work, but is it actually that hard to get somewhat staggered schedules so this doesn't happen?

[gordyhulten]

OK, I found the "data/schedules" folder, which has MLB schedules for every past season (and a bunch of others), but importing is a royal PITA because the dialog box window isn't wide enough to see the entire file name, so it cuts off the year.

Would it have been so hard to use a regular, resizable windows "Open File" dialog box?

[DerekT]

I mentioned this in the tech support but had no response so I might as well mention it here.

I've noticed that the teams are playing the same number of game at home and on the road.

I have a 28 team (14 teams each league, no interconference) league. And many of the team has 84/78 splits in home/road games.

I would love to fix it manually, but the way the interface is stuructred makes me dread it.

[gordyhulten]

Originally Posted by DerekT

I mentioned this in the tech support but had no response so I might as well mention it here.

I've noticed that the teams are playing the same number of game at home and on the road.

I have a 28 team (14 teams each league, no interconference) league. And many of the team has 84/78 splits in home/road games.

I would love to fix it manually, but the way the interface is stuructred makes me dread it.

There's probably a custom-made schedule in the data/schedules folder that will fit your league with everything OK, but good luck figuring out which is which.

[gmo]

Making good, nice-looking schedules with numbers breaking down evenly and as desired is a very difficult problem for almost any league configuration. Do not expect big leaps in schedule generator capabilities. Offdays not falling in the "right" places, unbalanced home/away, too long or too short streaks playing home or away, too many games against the same opponents in too short a time frame... Nobody wishes more than me that these were easy things to program and solve.

Agreed on the dialog box for loading the files. That should be improved to make it easier to see the whole file name. As it is now selecting a file shows you the tough-to-read word-wrapped file name, then you have to find that again highlighted in the folder list to the left if you want to choose something else.

[gordyhulten]

Originally Posted by gmo

Making good, nice-looking schedules with numbers breaking down evenly and as desired is a very difficult problem for almost any league configuration. Do not expect big leaps in schedule generator capabilities. Offdays not falling in the "right" places, unbalanced home/away, too long or too short streaks playing home or away, too many games against the same opponents in too short a time frame... Nobody wishes more than me that these were easy things to program and solve.

Understood. And I appreciate the custom schedules that have been included with the game.

I just wish I could figure out better how to make my own custom schedules or find more, and how to more easily use them in-game.

Thanks for all you do.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by gordyhulten

I just wish I could figure out better how to make my own custom schedules or find more, and how to more easily use them in-game.

There's a huge selection of fictional schedule files in the OOTP6 Mods forum, but naturally they're all for OOTP6 and are not compatible with the new game.

They will be converted over, gmo has a utility which can do that, but he's been kept rather busy of late with real-world stuff so it may be awhile before the converted files start filling up the threads here (there's also the problem where the OOTP2006 schedule files are quite a bit larger than their OOTP6 counterparts due to the different format).

Late into development I came up with the idea to put together what might be termed the "ultimate minor league schedule pack" which would consist of several dozen schedule files derived from real-world minor league schedules, past and present. But this project is quite a large undertaking that could literally take several months to complete (there's a lot of research associated with this that needs to be done).

Rest assured when it is done at some point you'll have the most realistic collection of schedules for your minor leagues possible.

[Andreas Raht]

Originally Posted by gmo

Do not expect big leaps in schedule generator capabilities. Offdays not falling in the "right" places, unbalanced home/away, too long or too short streaks playing home or away, too many games against the same opponents in too short a time frame... Nobody wishes more than me that these were easy things to program and solve.

Well, I know one person who has this wish too...

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by gordyhulten

OK, I found the "data/schedules" folder, which has MLB schedules for every past season (and a bunch of others), but importing is a royal PITA because the dialog box window isn't wide enough to see the entire file name, so it cuts off the year.

If you're doing a historical league, you don't have to worry about it as the game will automatically import the proper major league schedule for that year.

For fictional use, keep in mind most major league seasons used the same format when in that particular alignment. So just pick out one year which is representative of what you want to use.

Though I do agree the files names for the schedule files can get rather long...

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

Well, I know one person who has this wish too...

Well, you had a lot of other things on your plate to deal with as well.

Hopefully for next year you can have a bit more time to devote to just this item. Perhaps you, gmo, and myself can have a proper get-together to really flesh out different ideas and concepts which might help the generator improve its abilities. We didn't really have too much of a chance to do that for this year.

[DerekT]

Well, I sort of found the schedule I wanted, but I wanted to make a small change and couldn't.

If I want to edit the files, what should I do (I tried Wordperfect, the problem was when I saved the changed file it became a text document that couldn't be used)

[SSG Troyer]

Originally Posted by DerekT

Well, I sort of found the schedule I wanted, but I wanted to make a small change and couldn't.

If I want to edit the files, what should I do (I tried Wordperfect, the problem was when I saved the changed file it became a text document that couldn't be used)

Download Metapad (something I heartily recommend for every Windows user) and do your editing there. If the program changes the name on you, highlight the file in the Schedules directory, hit F2, and rename it.

[DerekT]

Originally Posted by SSG Troyer

Download Metapad (something I heartily recommend for every Windows user) and do your editing there. If the program changes the name on you, highlight the file in the Schedules directory, hit F2, and rename it.

Thanks for the info, going to try it now