Schedule Suggestions

[vale]

I've noticed whenever I try to do a realignment in the game, a couple of problems crop up. First the scheduler must take a massive hit of the old crack pipe, because I will find myself doing things like playing 6 different teams in 6 days and such. Moreover, the regular season ends up lasting until the end of October.

More annoying is the fact that when I do any sort of realignment, all of a sudden the interleague play is greyed out and automatically checked. I understand for the first season it might be difficult to do anything about the scheduling, but this problem persists across seasons. One big benefit (to me) of logical realignment is that I can feel free to dispense with IL play as many of the big IL rivalries are geographical (the only important one I can think of that isn't is Dodgers Yankees).

In conclusion:

Boo to IL
Boo to the stupid scheduler

[Jeff Olsen]

Originally posted by vale
I've noticed whenever I try to do a realignment in the game, a couple of problems crop up. First the scheduler must take a massive hit of the old crack pipe, because I will find myself doing things like playing 6 different teams in 6 days and such. Moreover, the regular season ends up lasting until the end of October. Do you leave an even number of teams in each league?
More annoying is the fact that when I do any sort of realignment, all of a sudden the interleague play is greyed out and automatically checked.Try setting the team to the one you control, this should give you access to the interleague box.

[vale]

Hmm, no I end up with 15 teams in each league (I guess thats odd, or did you mean equal division). If I could turn off IL (I have it set on the team I control) It would be perfect to schedule 9 games against each non division foe and 18 games against each division foe. This also has the benefit of breaking everything nicely into potential 3 game series if you don't mind having a small issue with the non division home and away stuff being unbalanced. I don't really care so much about home and away outside of the division as it all comes out to 81 games at home anyway and in the division.

Maybe the answer is to allow some sort of custom scheduler.

[Jeff Olsen]

Originally posted by vale
Hmm, no I end up with 15 teams in each league (I guess thats odd, or did you mean equal division).No, I meant league.
Maybe the answer is to allow some sort of custom scheduler. Yes, that should work best for you. As it stands now, having an odd number of teams in each league means one team in each league will always have a day off.

[GSpencer]

With the Reds, I played all 162 games, plus one tie-breaking game for the Wild-Card spot. There were three teams competing for the one wild-card spot. Coincidentally, (AFAIK), the only teams that have played more than 162 games were the Astros, Reds, and Phillies. I ended up losing my game to the Phillies, and I still made the playoffs, while the Phillies were ousted. Can anybody explain this to me?

I have a .MOG file saved a few days (in Mogul time) before I started the playoffs, and another .MOG file from immediately after this, if anybody is interested.

[jjtheindianboy]

try explaining again... or look closer. You played 166 games. thats 4 games more for the tie breaker. And your record is better than Phillies....but i still dont know exactly what happened. Maybe when 3 teams are tied they each play the other 2 twice. and whoever has the best record after that gets the playoff spot. So you lose to philly first, but then beat them, then beat the astros twice. While Philly split both of their series. Something like that? need to see the calendar.

[21C]

http://www.sportsmogul.com/baseballcd/faq.htm#3way

[dps]

Two questions:

First, what was the record of each of the 3 teams after 162 games? Was it 90-72 or 91-71?

Second, are you sure the second-place team in the NL West didn't have the same record after 162 games?

[GSpencer]

http://www.sportsmogul.com/baseballcd/faq.htm#3way

You're right. I should have looked more into this. Would the three way round robin create four games, though?

Thanks to everyone else who commented!

[adam]

One thought: I'd like to play the old PCL schedule of about 200 games.

What's stopping the system from letting me change the length of the season?

[Mach 1]

I've never tried adding more than 162 to a schedule, but I noticed that the least you can have is 154. Even when you start a game in 1901 which should be a 140 game season IRL (and according to the league editor) when you sim a season it plays 154 games.

Just tried it, and you can't go over 162 games or under 154 (even though the pop-up window when you try to set a schedule at less 140 games says 140 is the minimum).


<Using Ver 8.38>

[mrdrewblue]

Ok, this is my league that im running on V8.38:
2 Leagues
3 Divisions/ League
3 Teams/ Divisons
(18 total teams)

I'm in my 1st year and I can never complete the playoffs because the computer schedules the season series like 3 days apart (3 days on, 3 off), and when it comes time to playoffs, its December! The game won't sim past Dec 12 for some reason. How do I fix this schedule problem? Does this make sense? Thanks a lot.

[daves]

Sorry, but the game can't handle too many changes to the League editor. Some changes can be handled, but your case seems too much for the game to handle. Three teams per division seems to be the problem. You need to have more teams added. At least four teams per division. Also the unbalanced schedule may need to be unchecked.

[PadresFan104]

I started up a new game and made some changes in the League editor, while the schedule was visible in the background. I noticed that when I confirmed the changes, the schedule totally changed for the month of April (and probably the rest of the year).

This seems to hold true, even if you don't make any changes, but only hit the "Done" button in the League Editor.

Fortunately, the game seems to handle the situation just fine if some games have already been played. I don't think this is a major problem, just an observation.

Al

[Clay Dreslough]

IF the season hasn't started yet, it's supposed to re-build the schedule because it never knows for sure if you moved a team, changed division setups etc.

It SHOULDN'T change the schedule if you've already played games. And vice versa, it shouldn't let you CHANGE anything that would require re-doing the schedule.

So I'll have to look into that.

Clay

[PadresFan104]

IF the season hasn't started yet, it's supposed to re-build the schedule because it never knows for sure if you moved a team, changed division setups etc.

It SHOULDN'T change the schedule if you've already played games. And vice versa, it shouldn't let you CHANGE anything that would require re-doing the schedule.

So I'll have to look into that.

Clay

Clay, that makes sense... And like I mentioned in my first post, if any games have been played, it doesn't seem to let you do anything that will let you change the schedule... So things may be ok...

Al

[cws2006]

Can you change the schdule of the teams or import them to match the real schedules and calendars of the teams?

Thanks

[Jeff Olsen]

Sorry, no. The game doesn't even change calendars every year anymore because it was causing problems; it's stuck on whatever calendar is correct for the current season.

[cws2006]

Thank you for the quick response. Im not really sure what you mean by the "correct schedule for the current season" . Is the schedule determined randomly every time you play a new season?


Thanks

[Jeff Olsen]

Is the schedule determined randomly every time you play a new season?Not quite randomly, the generated schedules do use a algorithm based on each team's final standing the previous season but it also always uses the same calendar for each season (i.e.: the season will always start on Saturday, April 1).

[cws2006]

Thanks very much Jeff.

[dukedevil0]

maybe i'm missing something here, but i couldn't figure out how to change this...

i started the game with the cincinnati reds and the very first thing i noticed (this being opening day) was that the reds were scheduled to play the brewers rather than the cubs. also, the calendar is off by a day...today monday april 3rd is actually monday april 4th in the game

i've checked using v9.07 and v9.09

is there a way for me to fix this or will it be/need to be fixed in a patch?

[Clay Dreslough]

It will need to be fixed in a patch. In previous years I've always been able to find the real schedule in text format before opening day but not this year, so for 2006 we're using a few variations on the 2005 schedule (this explains why I had to change which day was a Monday).

Clay

[QHowes]

I discovered this in my game. All the other months so far check out, and have no problems like this one. But as you can see all of my games this month were home games.

[SirKodiak]

Also, why so many game in October?

[QHowes]

You are right, there were alot of games in October, the last two were playoff games.

[petrel]

This seems to happen a lot. Even if you refresh the league and generate a brand new schedule that isn't an entire month at home or entire month away, other teams get the benefit (or deficit) of similar scheduling.

The worst kind of schedule is when the computer generates about 8-10 games against the same team at the end of the season, all home (or away).

--Pet

[SirKodiak]

Making a schedule is not easy, even if you don't have the extra constraints these guys do.


Michael Hiestand, USA Today Article (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-biz/2004-12-09-hiestand-mlb-sked_x.htm) 12/9/2004

Hard to cover all bases when creating schedule

Michael Trick teaches operations research, specializing in "computational methods in optimization," at Carnegie Mellon's graduate business school. So his first reaction to helping make the Major League Baseball schedule wasn't to feel intimidated.

"I figured how hard could that be?" he says. "I figured I'd pull out a couple standard approaches and come out with it quickly."

Then Trick discovered MLB scheduling was far more difficult than many other statistical challenges.

As a partner in the Sports Scheduling Group, a Butler, Pa., firm that created MLB's soon-to-be-released 2005 schedule, Trick found the math almost heartless.

"I promised myself I'd have a Pittsburgh home game on my birthday. But it was so hard to have any extra constraints, I couldn't even do that."

Henry and Holly Stephenson, a married couple in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., could have told him that.

For 23 seasons they made MLB's schedule until SSG won the 2005 contract.

Stephenson was an architect who worked as an urban planner for the New York City government before a chance meeting with NBA executives led to the couple making NBA schedules from 1978 to 1984.

While nobody "thinks they'll be a schedule-maker when they grow up," he says, the pair saw it as a way to start a business and get out of the city. They began working on a suitcase-sized PC.

The Stephensons want to make a comeback and, like SSG, will start this month to work on MLB's 2006 schedule hoping to win a contract.

Neither side will say how much the job pays or how they approach it. While Trick says "nobody can look at our schedule and backfill what we did," methodology is hard to protect. "It's unusual to patent algorithms, and that's the heart of what we do."

The basics are easy. Take 2,430 games over 26 weeks. Factor in interleague play, dates when stadiums aren't available, keeping road trips short and restrictions such as keeping teams from playing more than 20 consecutive days.

Then, avoid "semi-repeaters," where two teams play each other back-to-back in home and away series.

And, Stephenson says, TV's needs have taken on more urgency — "although broadcasters don't see games in terms of the physical reality of players having to travel."

Doug Bureman, an SSG partner and ex-Pittsburgh Pirates executive, says the bottom line is simple: "Don't let the schedule determine who wins."

[TGwynn]

The calendar does not fit with 2006. It is a day behind. I would have like to see the actual major league schedule as well.

[GJweasel]

I would have like to see the actual major league schedule as well.

I was thinking of that last night as well. I was surprised when i started my 2006 seasons they weren't all the same.

[HoustonGM]

Clay's said that he couldn't get the actual MLB schedule in time for the release of the game. It could probably get fixed with a patch though.

[MJB_919]

Would it be possible to release a patch with the real mlb schedule like last year. I personally would perfer a real schedule because it allows seasons to have intercity and interstate rivalries during interleague play. How about it?

[Songsdream]

I started a 1901 equalized league. I deleted teams until I was down to 9. I put them all in the American league, 3 per division. Sweet sweet wild card action. (and DH!)

Tried to sim and game crashed without simming a single game.
Tried again and again. Unchecked "unbalanced schedule".
Still crashes.
Deleted a team and made it just 2 divisions of 4 teams each.
Still crashes.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? I don't mind starting from scratch, I just want to know if I'm beating a dead duck here. Does the game not like having just one league? Not with DH? Not so few teams? Do I need to sim one season before changing the league structure?

[Jeff Olsen]

Yeah, I think the problem is you only have the one league and the game doesn't know what to do. 2K4 was the only version that could handle a single-league setup, AFAIK.

[Songsdream]

AFAIK?

I thought at certain years the game was set up with only 1 league...

[petrel]

Here's a solution:

1) Choose your favorite nine teams in one league,
2) Put "placeholder teams" in the other lead. Call them Team1, Team2, etc. Who cares what they're called, since you won't be paying attention to them, anyway.
3) Take ownership of all placeholder teams, so that they can't trade with each other and teams in your "real league" can't trade with them.
4) Have fun with your "real times" and forget about the other league, which only takes up space to keep the computer happy.

This was how I solved the "one league" problem.

--Pet

[Jeff Olsen]

AFAIK?As far as I know. :)


I thought at certain years the game was set up with only 1 league...Only when the starting year was 1900, which I only remember seeing in 2K4.

[Clay Dreslough]

I don't mind starting from scratch, I just want to know if I'm beating a dead duck here.This should work. And we should be able to fix it. I'm just guessing that since Lahman has 2 leagues going back to 1901, you are probably one of the first people to test this scenario with this version.

Clay

[Songsdream]

Cool! What should I do next?

petrel that is a good solution by the way. Thanks! I probably won't end up going that route but I appreciate you taking the time to put that information out there. :)

Just for experimentation's sake I divided up my (now) 8 teams into 2 leagues, 2 divisions each. And same result the game just crashes.

Is this something that is fixed in 9.26?

[Clay Dreslough]

Is this something that is fixed in 9.26?Nope. But I'm working on it now. 1 league with 8 teams seems to be okay. I'll try your 9-team 3-div configuration.

Clay

[Songsdream]

9-team 3-div doesn't work.

8 teams in two different leagues, 2 divisions each also does not work.

8 teams in same league, but 2 divisions also doesn't even work for me.

Could it be another setting that I'm using?

PS: 8 teams in same league same division didn't work either. I'm really wondering if it's just me. I am using 9.27.

*bump*

[Clay Dreslough]

We're working on this bug. It looks like the function that deletes teams is corrupting data. So it's not that Mogul can't handle small leagues per se. But that the process of making the league creates a bad file.

In any case, we're tracking down the bug and should have it fixed fairly soon (more than a day, hopefully less than a week).

Clay

[slappy]

when i finished the season it never made a playoff schedule. I selected to sim through the playoffs it just skipped the daft and continued through to the other season. So i just stopped. How do i fix this?

[still71]

I just started year two of a historical sim started in 1997. The league expanded with Arizona and TB in the offseason. Detroit has no scheduled games for the entire season!!!! what the heck...

Also, just after the expansion draft ended it went directly into the amateur draft. Then when the actual time for the amateur draft came along, it tried to run the draft, but there were no players there to be drafted!!!!!

[SF_Giants]

i had the draft theing happen to me twice in my 1980 dodgers chise. anyways it annoying but not really that big of a problem, just leave the transaction screen, click whatever has the CPU do the draft. Nothing bad will happen from it, just an annoying little bug.

[boomboom]

I just started year two of a historical sim started in 1997. The league expanded with Arizona and TB in the offseason. Detroit has no scheduled games for the entire season!!!! what the heck...

Also, just after the expansion draft ended it went directly into the amateur draft. Then when the actual time for the amateur draft came along, it tried to run the draft, but there were no players there to be drafted!!!!!

just make sure that all the teams are in the right divisions...make sure that they are in the right cities. when you are done...it should remake your schedule if you havent simmed any games.

[still71]

fixed it. awesome, thanks!

[Gaedel]

Before the leagues subdivided into divisions, there were "divisions" for scheduling purposes. This was back when railroad travel was used. The AL was divided as follows:

East: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington

West: Chicago, Detroit, St Louis, Cleveland.

Each division would play home and home series with its divisional rivals. The eastern teams would then go on a "western swing" and visit each western team in turn. The western teams would then come east and the eastern teams would all have a long "home stand". This would be followed by another round-robin home-and-home intra-division play. With 22 games (11 home and 11 away) between each team, there would be three "western swings" and three "homestands" each year.

The BBM scheduling engine does not recognize these "divisions" in pre-divisional scheduling.

[dolfanar]

That would mean some tweaking since, "divisions" in BBM would mean another playoff round, which as I undertand it, did NOt happen... correct?

[Gaedel]

That would mean some tweaking since, "divisions" in BBM would mean another playoff round, which as I undertand it, did NOt happen... correct?

There was no playoff round, just the scheduling was you played all of your "division" rivals, then went west, then had a long homestand against the west, then played all of your division rivals again, and so forth.

You could generally get to your division rivals without too much of a train ride. There was a "day off" when you went west or came back home for a long train ride. When you were "out west" you could generally get from one city to another with an overnight ride.

In the NL, New York, Brooklyn, Boston, and Philadelphia were "east" and Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St Louis were "west. When the Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953, they became "west" and Pittsburgh became "east".

In the AL, the movement of the Browns from St louis to Baltimore (Orioles) caused a probelm with Baltimore having to play a "west" schedule. A year later, the Athletics moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City and became a "west" team allowing Baltimore to become "east".

What got me on this was playing 1951 as the Red Sox and having my first games with Chicago. Boston usually began and ended the season with the Yankees while Chicago began and ended with the Browns.

[HoustonGM]

The schedules arent historically accurate.

It's not a bug, it's just how iti s.

[bobert]

This might have been adressed before but when an new team is entered into a league(i.e. expantion draft) one of the teams in the division sometimes plays no games throughout the year and their overall record will be 0-0. Is there a way to fix this or is this just a bug that cant be fixed?

[gibby1984]

Not sure if this has been brought up before, but when replaying a historical year ex:1984, the scheduling of games is ridiculous. I set up to play the Tigers in 1984 and they play 4 home dates in June then 6 home dates in July
and then I go to September and they play 3 road games the entire month.
I tried again with 1978,1993 and pretty much the same thing happened. It's not a major issue, but I find it to be very unrealistic scheduling. Is there a way to alter the schedule before playing games, or am I stuck playing this way?
Thanks

[billybobjoe]

once i had a game where i had no off days for two months and finished the season on september 15th

[MrMackie]

The scheduling aspect does seem rather complicated, both in actual baseball and in the game. I'm not sure how even of a schedule a random generator can determine. I believe something like 35 of my first 42 games are on the road in the season I'm playing now, which is pretty silly. I lost a tremendous amount of money after playing my first 16 games away from home, though I should stand to make a neat profit in August, when I play 23 games in the friendly confines. :rolleyes:

[ohms_law]

using the real league, or have you all customised it at all? if customised, how many teams and how many teams in each division?

[billybobjoe]

my league had 40 teams so thats probably the problem

4 six team divisions and two eight teams

[ohms_law]

40 teams isn't usually a problem that i've noticed. having divisions unbalance by more than on team I have seen create problems like you're talkig about though.

[HoustonGM]

I don't think you can really be completely safe with the schedule generator unless you use the regular MLB setups,.

[ohms_law]

well, all I can really talk about is my own experience. I tend to regularly make 40 team leagues, and don't see these problems. I beleave that it's because I tend to keep the divisions fairly equal. Either that or i've just been luckey to not notice the problems, since I don't really look at the scedules of other teams too in depth.

[pacers7isback]

Whenever I add teams that were never really added, the interleague schedule is all messed up and a lot of times teams would play 1 game series against teams from the opposite league at all possible times in the season and there's never a time where all the teams play an interleague schedule.

[gibby1984]

Thanks for the replies. I haven't customized the leagues in any way. I use the ones that are in the game. Oh well guess I'll have to get used to it.

[barrenger1]

I am currently stuck in a season where I completed the LCS on December 8th and it won't go any further. No World Series and I can't go into the 1968 season.

[ohms_law]

I'm going to bump this thread, because it would be really nice to have a more even schedule. I'm currently playing through a grueling month of nothing but away games as the expansion Portland Lumberjacks, and it really sucks.

ps.: great story that you've dug up there SirKodiak.
:)

pps: here's a thought: would it be possible to allow the human player to adjust the schedules some before the season starts? This is only a half formed thought though, so opinions welcomed.

[bmoseley07]

how would they be able to do that? the article just mentioned how hard it was. if you change just one series for two teams you gotta change it or another two and then so on. and that wouldnt be a drag or anything. plus i dont even know how the interface for that would look like. id rather them focus on making a better AI.

[ohms_law]

yea well, with all the work done reacently on the AI I think it's in pretty deacent shape. hardly perfect by any means, but it's good enough now that I notice the schedule problems more now than I notice problems with the AI/roster.

in order to move the AI roster management forward any more will probably require more rules, as we were talking about in the other thread.

[HoustonGM]

I think that these nutty schedules might be the game not knowing how to precisely deal with expansion, or the addition of new teams.

[MrMackie]

If my team has a thoroughly uneven schedule then I just reset it by opening and closing the League Editor screen until it's kosher. Several computer-controlled teams may be stuck with wacky schedules but that ain't my prob no more.

BTW, the weirdest scheduling thing I've witnessed, outside of a month's worth of away/home games, was a stretch in the middle of April in which my team had an entire weekend off--Friday through Sunday! :rolleyes:

[ohms_law]

If my team has a thoroughly uneven schedule then I just reset it by opening and closing the League Editor screen until it's kosher. Several computer-controlled teams may be stuck with wacky schedules but that ain't my prob no more.
yea, I do that as well when I notice the problem ahead of time. I'll start the season forgetting to cheack sometimes though.


BTW, the weirdest scheduling thing I've witnessed, outside of a month's worth of away/home games, was a stretch in the middle of April in which my team had an entire weekend off--Friday through Sunday! :rolleyes:
I see this happen at least once a season.


I think that these nutty schedules might be the game not knowing how to precisely deal with expansion, or the addition of new teams.
I don't think so, although you can certainly make the problem more extreme depending on how you structure the leagues. I've seen the same problems playing the Angels in a standard league setup though.

[jonnymo]

pps: here's a thought: would it be possible to allow the human player to adjust the scedules some before the season starts? This is only a half formed thought though, so opinions welcomed.
Another good idea, O.L. I can't attest to how difficult this is to program, but it isn't without precedent. The old APBA Baseball for Windows (http://www.answers.com/topic/apba-baseball-for-windows-broadcast-blast-1997) came with a utility called League Manager that let you tinker w/ the auto schedule. The player had the option to reschedule any games (BBW also had rain-outs), including as doubleheaders.

For example, I don't like that my Rockies are scheduled to play the Padres eight consecutive times the first week-and-a-half of August. I could pick the game(s) that I want to move, and the program would tell me what dates during the season Colorado and Sand Dog are both free. Click, and voila! :cool:

[ohms_law]

The thing about the scedule is that most games (except interleague games) are played in 3 game, and occasionally 4 game series, either away or at home. Simply being able to switch around a pair of series being at home or away will usually do the trick.
For example, say that the Angels play Oakland 3 games at home in April and three games away in August. The problem will sometimes occur that either every game, or all but 3 games is away for the Angels in August, but April seems to be a normal mix. Usually, simply switching that once series around so that it's an away series in April, but a homestand in August will basically fix everything.

Anyway, the point is that it would be nice to be able to edit the scedule, even if there are alot of restrictions on how you could do it. If it's impractical to do that, then it's ok; it's just a problem that I think should get some attention at some point.

[TGwynn]

Clay have you ever edited the calendar for 2006 because it is a day behind the regular not to mention that it would have been nice to see the actual schedule for every team. Unless you have created this post 9.40

A second possible bug or oversight. I am running 9.40 and I have seen that the only month that displays a teams monthly record was in August, but it does not show up in any other month.

[TheNamelessPoet]

Clay have you ever edited the calendar for 2006 because it is a day behind the regular not to mention that it would have been nice to see the actual schedule for every team. Unless you have created this post 9.40

A second possible bug or oversight. I am running 9.40 and I have seen that the only month that displays a teams monthly record was in August, but it does not show up in any other month.

The problem with the schedule thing is that it woudl change due to a variety of editable things in the game so there is no point in setting up the real schedule. If you make it a balanced schedule, or no interleague play, move/add/remove teams/divisions it changes the schedule. I'm assuming that it woud be to hard to program the original schedule and then have another whole programming section to do the edited leagues or future leagues.

[HoustonGM]

See the links at http://forum.sportsmogul.com/showpost.php?p=581138&postcount=26 for schedule information.


As for the monthly records, http://forum.sportsmogul.com/showthread.php?t=112595&highlight=monthly

[TGwynn]

thank you

[Clay Dreslough]

I'm starting this thread to try to assemble scheduling issues that we need to fix.

A brief web search will reveal that building the MLB schedule is not an easy task. It's complicated enough that they have to outsource it to a dedicated firm that specializes in writing schedules. Alas, Sports Mogul doesn't have this kind of focus on schedules.

I'd like to break down the scheduling issues into three types:

Severity A: Configurations that cause the game to crash, or to create a schedule that stops or severely interferes with gameplay (for example if the schedule runs past November causing the playoffs or free agent deadline to be skipped or similarly messed up).

Severity B: Configurations that don't follow the rules you expect them to follow. For example, schedules where home games and away games are unequal for one or more teams. Or where you check the 'Interleague Play' box and still don't get any interleague games.

Severity C: Aesthetic issues. For example if you see 3 days off in a row. Or back-to-back series between the same two teams. Or 42 straight road games without a day off.

By "configuration" I simply mean the league configuration. For example:

"When I start a new game with the Lahman data from 1917, the Tigers don't play any games. This problem goes away in 1918." (Severity A)

"When use the League Editor to put 15 teams in each league, with 5 teams in each division, the game hangs when I leave the League Editor." (Severity A)

(If you haven't figured it out by now, Baseball Mogul builds a new schedule whenever you leave the League Editor after having changed the league configuration).

Its likely that we will leverage some external data, such as the Retrosheet schedules, to solve some of these issues. But I'd like to get a handle of what's broken first.

Thanks!

Clay

[HoustonGM]

The optimal solution would be, for historical/2006 leagues, import the schedule for the given year.

As for future seasons, or seasons with non-historical teams (although the same MLB setup), the only problem I have noticed myself would be Severity C.

There are too many two-game series. It seems every year, there's 2 or 3 two-game series in April alone. In real life, I'm not sure how many two-game series there are every year, but I'd imagine not a lot.

As for your examples of Severity C, they aren't purely aesthetic, although they are more aesthetic than Severity A and B. With multiple off-days in a row, it allows you to skip right from your number 2 starter back to your number 1 starter, with full rest. Once positional player fatigue is introduced, it becomes a slightly bigger problem.

With a bunch of road games in a row (and by a bunch, i don't mean a long road trip, i mean, like you said entire months of road games), it makes you lose money. I'm sure by the end of the season it evens out, but it makes it look like you're going broke.

[Honus]

The optimal solution would be, for historical/2006 leagues, import the schedule for the given year.

As for future seasons, or seasons with non-historical teams (although the same MLB setup), the only problem I have noticed myself would be Severity C.

There are too many two-game series. It seems every year, there's 2 or 3 two-game series in April alone. In real life, I'm not sure how many two-game series there are every year, but I'd imagine not a lot.

As for your examples of Severity C, they aren't purely aesthetic, although they are more aesthetic than Severity A and B. With multiple off-days in a row, it allows you to skip right from your number 2 starter back to your number 1 starter, with full rest. Once positional player fatigue is introduced, it becomes a slightly bigger problem.

With a bunch of road games in a row (and by a bunch, i don't mean a long road trip, i mean, like you said entire months of road games), it makes you lose money. I'm sure by the end of the season it evens out, but it makes it look like you're going broke.


High Heat was a pretty good sim back in the day (although the dynasties tended to crash after 10 years or so). But that game didn't have scheduling problems. It would certainly make sense to use actual schedules as templates for the fictional ones (at least those that have historical league configurations). As for those idiots who inist on creating their own configurations, their schedule problems would be merely cosmetic to me. :eek:

[HoustonGM]

As for those idiots who inist on creating their own configurations, their schedule problems would be merely cosmetic to me. :eek:
I don't ever want to see any effort put into allowing the user to create his own schedules. Nobody would do it, and those that do would give up. It'd be wasted development time.

[Honus]

I don't ever want to see any effort put into allowing the user to create his own schedules. Nobody would do it, and those that do would give up. It'd be wasted development time.

I made no such suggestion. The program should use templates is what I'm saying.
It would seem pretty straightforward to implement a table lookup algorithm for this purpose.
I was assuming that one could create a fictional league with a different structure from historical MLB. Is that not the case?

[HoustonGM]

I made no such suggestion. The program should use templates is what I'm saying.
Oh, I know. I was agreeing with you, since you called them idiots :p.


I was assuming that one could create a fictional league with a different structure from historical MLB. Is that not the case?
You can. My suggestions were for MLB-structure leagues.

[ohms_law]

As long as you're using a completely historic MLB league, importing the real schedules would be great.

we'd still need a scheduler for expansion, non-historic leagues, and even historic leagues for players who get tired of knowing ahead of time exactly when their going to play what teams.

I know that there are some reports of "create team, no scedule until the next year". I haven't been able to recreate that one myself though, so i'll leave it to someone else who can.

overall though, there needs to be tighter scheduling. there should be rules set in stone for:

home/away games per month should be as close to equil as possible.
everything should be a series. 3 games ought to be the norm of course, with interleague play games as the exception.
days off should always be a component to the games that follow that day. ie.: travel days.
series against the same team should probably never touch each other.

With that list, the scedule breaks down into 4 day blocks (day off, three games), 3 day blocks (no day off (team already at home), three games), 2 day blocks (day off, interleague game), or 1 day block (no travel day, interleague play). then it's becomes an excersize in shuffling those series around to ensure the above list of rules.

One thing that should probably be done away with it the 162 game limit. It seems that there's a limit there to simplify the scheduler, but I'm willing to bet that taking that limit out would make the scheduler easier.
In it's place, I would come up with a list of possible scheduling options that could be selected from the League Editor. ie.: X games vs. division, Y non-division; X games vs. league, Y games interleague; X games vs. everyone; etc... That way, depending on the number of teams in the league and it's structure you would end up with 154, 162, 180, or however many games are required to meet the schedule structure.

[Brewersfan]

Everything thing ive seen with the scheldues is category c. ive had numerous months with no days off, long stretches of home/away games. multiple times having 3 days off in a row. ALWAYS at least a week off around the all star break and playing the same team like 10 times in a row. Also have seen it where ive finished my season like 2 weeks before other teams. Like i said only minor problems, NOTHING that really affects game play. All these problems occur while im playin historical seasons before 2006.

[HoustonGM]

All these problems occur while im playin historical seasons before 2006.
That's what I've said before. I'ev never seen such crazy things, but I never play historical.

[ohms_law]

it can happen with unchanged 2006 leagues as well though. It's simply less noticeable due to the schedule not being generated as much. If you just open the league editor (and enter commish mode) and close it, it'll make up a new schedule. so, you can do that a number of times and I guarantee that you'll see it happen. simply play through enough years and you'll see it happen as well.

[jgurney]

I play with fictional teams and a fictional structure (15 in AL and 15 in NL - with 5 teams in each division). The only issues I see are Category C, and as others have mentioned its mostly an aesthetic problem (sometimes you get a chance to use a #1 starter 2 out of 3 games because of a long break, but you probably only get 2 long breaks per month at most). I guess the only thing I'm unsure about is whether the AI teams take advantage of these breaks or not.

[daves]

Is there any way to modify the schedules in BBM07??

[ohms_law]

unfortunately, no. I've requested it myself though.

even more unfortunate, there's a split amongst some of us as to the utility of this possible feature.
*sigh*

anyway, check out: http://forum.sportsmogul.com/showthread.php?t=115642

[denismn]

I know it's not real in MLB but could there be a "league option" in future to add more playoff teams. Here are my 2 ideas.

1. 6 Teams make playoffs, 4 Teams play in first round and 2 best record teams have a bye. Then then 2 wining teams play the 2 bye Teams in the second round, then comes the league championship game, then the WorldSer.

2. 8 Teams Make playoffs, and it's played out like NBA playoffs.

I don't understand why MLB baseball doesn't add at least 2 more teams to the playoffs, in the end the wild card winner is only separated by less then 5 games. In my Baseball Mogul my division has been decided by 1 or 2 games for 4 straight years. Last year it was 97 Wins, 96 Wins, 95. there were 3 teams with 90+ wins that missed the playoffs.

P.S Great feature where i can realign the Divisions, now they all have an equal amount of teams 5. I moved San Diego to AL West and Huston to NL West.

[HoustonGM]

I don't understand why MLB baseball doesn't add at least 2 more teams to the playoffs, in the end the wild card winner is only separated by less then 5 games. In my Baseball Mogul my division has been decided by 1 or 2 games for 4 straight years. Last year it was 97 Wins, 96 Wins, 95. there were 3 teams with 90+ wins that missed the playoffs.
Because then the playoffs wouldn't be special. 8 teams already make it - nearly a third of the whole league. If you had 2 more teams, well...first off, it's uneven. And byes aren't a good thing for the MLB. What makes MLB special is that it's playoffs are special. It takes a really good team to make the playoffs (usually). It's not something any team can get into. In order to even make the playoffs even an dnot require byes, you'd have to add 8 more teams...

[denismn]

i don't think you understood me, both options are for 1 league, so option 1 would have 6 teams from AL and 6 from NL. this option makes a lot of sense.

you say MLB is special by haveing 4 teams per league, well it would be special if they didn't play 162 some games. see in the end you'll have a team miss the playoffs that have lost 1 game more then someone that made it. playing 162+ games and not makeing it because you lost 1 more game then the other team doesn't mean that other team is better then you. and the wors thing is only 1 team is a non divison winner, the other 2 divisons may have teams with a worst record then you, but still make it, this is why MLB needs more wildcard teams in the playoffs. This would make it more fun, i mean look at the real life AL Wildcard race, the top 4 teams in the wildcard are all playoff teams, but only 1 will make it and they all will most likely win 90+ games. Just doesn't make any sense to have 1 team in.

[TheNamelessPoet]

P.S Great feature where i can realign the Divisions, now they all have an equal amount of teams 5. I moved San Diego to AL West and Huston to NL West.
The reason they did it the way they did was because then there would ALWAYS be 2 teams that were off every day and it would be heII on the schedules. Nobody wants to be off for 3 strait days.

[HoustonGM]

i don't think you understood me, both options are for 1 league, so option 1 would have 6 teams from AL and 6 from NL. this option makes a lot of sense.
I'm referring to your statements about the real MLB.


you say MLB is special by haveing 4 teams per league, well it would be special if they didn't play 162 some games. see in the end you'll have a team miss the playoffs that have lost 1 game more then someone that made it.
Playing less than 162 games makes it less special, as you can easily just go on a small hot streak and get in...playing 162 games means you have to sustain good performance longer.


playing 162+ games and not makeing it because you lost 1 more game then the other team doesn't mean that other team is better then you.
No, it means you won more games...


and the wors thing is only 1 team is a non divison winner, the other 2 divisons may have teams with a worst record then you, but still make it, this is why MLB needs more wildcard teams in the playoffs.
Yeah, you have to play good enough to win your division....making it even more special, I'd say.


This would make it more fun, i mean look at the real life AL Wildcard race, the top 4 teams in the wildcard are all playoff teams, but only 1 will make it and they all will most likely win 90+ games. Just doesn't make any sense to have 1 team in.
That's what makes it so fun. Tons of teams have a shot at the wild card, but in the end, only one team comes out on top. I don't know about you, but I'd feel a lot better about getting into the playoffs if I was on the one team that came out on top. If I was 2nd place and made it, it wouldn't be as special.

Look at the NBA, over half the league gets in the **** playoffs. What's so special about that?

[denismn]

And like I sad, this is optional to the user, i'm just asking if there would be an option like this in the future.

On MLB side i hope that something like this is added to the real life game.

[HoustonGM]

And like I sad, this is optional to the user, i'm just asking if there would be an option like this in the future.
I wouldn't mind an option. I wouldn't use it, but I wouldn't mind it.


On MLB side i hope that something like this is added to the real life game.
Don't get your hopes up.

[denismn]

i disagree you, if my team is the 2nd or 3 wildcard team that made id i'd be happy, the playoffs are a diferent times your best pichers will pich, there would be a shoreter rotation. I don't want less games in MLB, my point is because ther are that many games a 95-67 record team should make it as a 96-66 Team. that is my point too many good teams don't make the playoffs, why they lost more then the others coud be a lot of reasons, but it doesn't mean they coudn't win the ring.

[HoustonGM]

i disagree you, if my team is the 2nd or 3 wildcard team that made id i'd be happy, the playoffs are a diferent times your best pichers will pich, there would be a shoreter rotation. I don't want less games in MLB, my point is because ther are that many games a 95-67 record team should make it as a 96-66 Team. that is my point too many good teams don't make the playoffs, why they lost more then the others coud be a lot of reasons, but it doesn't mean they coudn't win the ring.
Theoretically, a last palce team could be put into the playoffs and end up winning the world series.

Of course, I'd be happy if i was #2 wild card team. However, if I was the first place wild card team, and 3 other teams made it, i'd think to myself, "We played our asses off to make it here, when we could've just half-assed it and made it in anyway."

The more teams that are in, the less special getting into the playoffs is. Obviously. Also, how od you propose they make time in the schedule for mroe playoff rounds? Do you go half way into November?


And yes, there's teams with good records that don't get in. But just because that happens doesn't mean we should allow more teams in. They didn't win enough games to get in, even if they maybe won more than another team that did get in. You have to to the best in YOUR DIVISION. The whole point of the divisions is that the team from the AL East represents the east coast in the playoffs, etc. That's why you play more games against your division rivals than against other teams. You have to do the best in your division in order to represent that division in the playoffs.

[denismn]

I wouldn't mind an option. I wouldn't use it, but I wouldn't mind it.


Don't get your hopes up.

I'll always have hopes, ones a new Cornish is in he might realize that something like that would make a lot of sense. The league would get more revenue and some teams that can't spend the money like the Yankees would still have a shot at the title.

[HoustonGM]

I'll always have hopes, ones a new Cornish is in he might realize that something like that would make a lot of sense. The league would get more revenue and some teams that can't spend the money like the Yankees would still have a shot at the title.
You do realize that the Yankees haven't won the World Series since 2000? Since then, the Diamondbacks, Angels, Red Sox, Marlins, and White Sox have all had a world series title.

That's what revenue sharing and the like is for.

[redsrule2500]

I just bought bm2k7 and was wondering why the 2006 schedule isn't the official MLB schedule??

Thanks

[denismn]

The more teams that are in, the less special getting into the playoffs is. Obviously. Also, how od you propose they make time in the schedule for mroe playoff rounds? Do you go half way into November?


Yes, what is 1 more week of baseball. 6 Teams per league, 4 Rounds of baseball, only adds 1 more round then now. and the top 2 team are guaranteed to be in 2nd round by the way of bye week.

[HoustonGM]

Yes, what is 1 more week of baseball. 6 Teams per league, 4 Rounds of baseball, only adds 1 more round then now. and the top 2 team are guaranteed to be in 2nd round by the way of bye week.
A whole week away from a game is completely unfair to those teams. Byes suck, plain and simple. Football can get away with it - they only play one game per series. In baseball, a whole week off can be devastating to your momentum.

[denismn]

You do realize that the Yankees haven't won the World Series since 2000? Since then, the Diamondbacks, Angels, Red Sox, Marlins, and White Sox have all had a world series title.

That's what revenue sharing and the like is for.


Yes but they make it in each year, and have won 50% of the titles. What sport has one team dominated that much. And i don't like to use the dominate word, when it is so simple to just go out an buy a Position you need. If the Yankees can find a pitcher that is still in his prime and buy him for 20 Mil a year then you should see them get back to the championship after championship. And we all know this will happen.

[denismn]

A whole week away from a game is completely unfair to those teams. Byes suck, plain and simple. Football can get away with it - they only play one game per series. In baseball, a whole week off can be devastating to your momentum.


Well then simple have 8 teams per league like the NBA and same amout of rounds 4 Total.

[HoustonGM]

Yes but they make it in each year, and have won 50% of the titles. What sport has one team dominated that much.
Last year, it was Chicago vs. Houston. Year prior, Boston vs. St Louis. Year before that, yeah the Yankees made it. 2002..Angels vs. Giants........yeah....

There's been 103 world series or so. The Yankees have one about a quarter of the, not half.


And i don't like to use the dominate word, when it is so simple to just go out an buy a Position you need.
Yeah, like the Dodgers, Red Sox, etc etc also can't do that? Also, small market teams can win. It's not like the Yankees have a stranglehold on the MLB.


If the Yankees can find a pitcher that is still in his prime and buy him for 20 Mil a year then you should see them get back to the championship after championship. And we all know this will happen.
And we all know how well that worked out with Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano!

[HoustonGM]

Well then simple have 8 teams per league like the NBA and same amout of rounds 4 Total.
Yeah, so put in half of the teams. Real special.

[Jeff Olsen]

Clay wasn't able to get the real schedule in time for release.

The reason it's not in any of patches is that they've been busy with more important stuff.

[denismn]

Yeah, so put in half of the teams. Real special.

Yes and most of those team will deserve to be in there, 6 would be a perfect #. I believe each year 6 teams shod make the playoffs but you don't like byes, so it has to be 8. And why not, let the fans of some of the lesser known teams experience the playoffs, seems to me MLB is the only sport where your team has soo many games to play and when they are down by 5 games in the standings they are out. I can understand if they played 80 games then if you fall behind by 5 they you shouldn't be in it but 160+ games that is too many games to not make they playoffs if you are the 6th best team in your league. Look at the standing in previous years you'll see so many great teams left out of it because, some division winner is one of the 4 teams and they have the worst record, even worst than you.

[HoustonGM]

Yes and most of those team will deserve to be in there
Probably not. let's take the standings how they are now. We'll take the top 2 from each division, and then the next best 2 in each league.

AL:
New York (67-45)
Boston (66-48)
Detroit (76-39)
Chicago (68-46)
Oakland (62-52)
Los Angeles (60-56)
Minnesota (67-48)
Toronto (62-54)

NL:
New York (69-45)
Philadelphia (56-58)
St. Louis (62-53)
Cincinatti (59-57)
Los Angeles (59-56)
San Diego (58-57)
Arizona (58-57)
Houston (57-58)

Admittedly, an argument can be made that all the AL teams deserve to be in. But look at the NL. You'll get 2 sub-500 teams, along with 2 teams just 1 game over .500....



6 would be a perfect #. I believe each year 6 teams shod make the playoffs but you don't like byes, so it has to be 8.
Do you think it's fair to force a team to take a whole week (or possibly more) off? Do you realize the consequences that can have?


And why not, let the fans of some of the lesser known teams experience the playoffs
So just because the fans of Pittsburgh and Kansas City don't get to experience the playoffs, we should let them in? No. This isn't about making the fans of bad teams experience playoff baseball. It's about having the best of the best play "off."


seems to me MLB is the only sport where your team has soo many games to play and when they are down by 5 games in the standings they are out.
Yeah. Tough luck. Your team is 5 games worse than the best team. Suck it up and face it.


I can understand if they played 80 games then if you fall behind by 5 they you shouldn't be in it but 160+ games that is too many games to not make they playoffs if you are the 6th best team in your league.
And you have more time to make up lost ground.


Look at the standing in previous years you'll see so many great teams left out of it because, some division winner is one of the 4 teams and they have the worst record, even worst than you.
And the yhave the best record in their division, which is why they repersent their division in the playoffs. During the regular season, you're competing to represent your division in the playoffs. Again, that's why you play your division more oftne.

[denismn]

Wild card + 2 Teams That shoud have been in.

2005
AL
x-Boston 95 67 -- 0
Cleveland 93 69 2.0 0
Oakland 88 74 7.0 0

NL
x-Houston 89 73 -- 0
Philadelphia 88 74 1.0 0
NY Mets 83 79 6.0 0

2004
AL
x-Boston 98 64 -- 0
Oakland 91 71 7.0 0
Texas 89 73 9.0 0

NL
x-Houston 92 70 -- 0
San Francisco 91 71 1.0 0
Chi Cubs 89 73 3.0 0

2003
AL
x-Boston 95 67 -- 0
Seattle 93 69 2.0 0
Chicago 86 76 9.0 0

NL
x-Florida 91 71 -- 0
Houston 87 75 4.0 0
Philadelphia 86 76 5.0 0

2002
AL
x-Anaheim 99 63
Boston (0) 93 69
Seattle (0) 93 69

NL
x-San Francisco 95 66
Los Angeles (15) 92 70
Houston (15) 84 78

So whats wrong with seeing some of these teames that didn't make it thoes years.

[HoustonGM]

Wild card + 2 Teams That shoud have been in.

2005
AL
x-Boston 95 67 -- 0
Cleveland 93 69 2.0 0
Oakland 88 74 7.0 0

NL
x-Houston 89 73 -- 0
Philadelphia 88 74 1.0 0
NY Mets 83 79 6.0 0
Why the helll should an 83-79 team deserve to be in?



So whats wrong with seeing some of these teames that didn't make it thoes years.
They didn't win enough games to represent their division, or get in on the wild card.

[denismn]

Probably not. let's take the standings how they are now. We'll take the top 2 from each division, and then the next best 2 in each league.

AL:
New York (67-45)
Boston (66-48)
Detroit (76-39)
Chicago (68-46)
Oakland (62-52)
Los Angeles (60-56)
Minnesota (67-48)
Toronto (62-54)

NL:
New York (69-45)
Philadelphia (56-58)
St. Louis (62-53)
Cincinatti (59-57)
Los Angeles (59-56)
San Diego (58-57)
Arizona (58-57)
Houston (57-58)

Admittedly, an argument can be made that all the AL teams deserve to be in. But look at the NL. You'll get 2 sub-500 teams, along with 2 teams just 1 game over .500....

The NL this year sucks, so does that mean they shoudn't send any teams in i mean what is the point, they are all bunch of loosers, i know that the AL will win this year so why send the NL to the playoffs at all. When the AL playd the NL this year they killed them, and teams like the Mats are overated, because they play the NL. But the NL will go to the playoffs even tho the teams suck, why not just sent the best 8 teams overall then, best 8 out of the 30 teams, don't look at the division or league. Play as even as posible schedule and send the best 8 teams.

[QUOTE=HoustonGM]Why the helll should an 83-79 team deserve to be in?



They didn't win enough games to represent their division, or get in on the wild card.


why shoudn'ta 90+ win team be in?

[HoustonGM]

The NL this year sucks, so does that mean they shoudn't send any teams in i mean what is the point, they are all bunch of loosers, i know that the AL will win this year so why send the NL to the playoffs at all. When the AL playd the NL this year they killed them, and teams like the Mats are overated, because they play the NL. But the NL will go to the playoffs even tho the teams suck.
I'm not really sure what you're trying to get at here....

The NL doesn't suck. They have their share of good teams.


why not just sent the best 8 teams overall then, best 8 out of the 30 teams, don't look at the division or league. Play as even as posible schedule and send the best 8 teams
Because that's not the point of the playoffs!


why shoudn'ta 90+ win team be in?
Because they didn't play good enough in their division to represent said division in the playoffs!



What is the benefit of adding 8 more teams to the playoffs? It shortens the offseason. It forces the players to play extra unnecessary games, thereby increasing their risk of injury. Etc.

[denismn]

I'm not really sure what you're trying to get at here....

The NL doesn't suck. They have their share of good teams.


Because that's not the point of the playoffs!

VS. the AL they do, look at the record played this year. The best team out of the NL couldn beat the 6 best in the AL in the playoffs.

I guess we'll never agree, so lets get back to the point, would a option like this be available in future patches or versions of BBM ?

[HoustonGM]

VS. the AL they do, look at the record played this year. The best team out of the NL couldn beat the 6 best in the AL in the playoffs.
I'm sure they could.


I guess we'll never agree, so lets get back to the point, would a option like this be available in future patches or versions of BBM ?
Who knows. Personally, I don't care one way or the other. However, I am always for a maximum level of customization, so as long as it doesn't take time away from more important issues, such as adding 40-men rosters, waivers, a better trading block, improving the Ai, etc., sure.

[TheNamelessPoet]

Thats why u play 19 games agains each team in your division. Remember, second place is the first loser. Not if you are in second place but only by 2 games, there are no conditions. I personaly think we should go back to 2 division format and take only the 2 bets teams for a league championship and then a world series.

[TheNamelessPoet]

The schedule gets messed up by lots of players anyway. As soon as you go into league editor (I know everybody doessn't im not saying they do) and change something the scheduler has to fix it so it would be a tough thing to impliment. I for one remove interleague play so the schedule has to be changed anyway. To me it seems like many people play into the future so whats the difference about a schedule u know??? Personal preferance tho... I can understand.

[ohms_law]

heh, you an Houston are funny.

Anyway yea, there should be an option to determine how many teams can be in the playoffs. Same as there should be an option for a third or fourth league and a fourth division in each league, as well as options to play more games per season, or far fewer games.

[Electricbassguy]

I added two new AL teams to make it 16-16 even for both leagues

Yet somehow, this causes my game's schedule to mess up. for example teams have stretches of being at home for a month straight, and will often play 7 game series or one games...

is there a way to fix it? it doesn't ruin the game but it's frustrating.

[pacers7isback]

It'll be 2k9 or 2k10 before they'll have a perfect schedule generator that doesn't schedule any more than 4 game series, no more than 20 games at home straight, and no more than 20 straight games without an off-day.

[solitary]

(If this has been mentioned already, I apologize - all of my searches came up blank)
I have been starting my season in 1901 and am trying to change the games per season from 140 to 162. It worked previously (circa 9.29), but it is not working now (9.43). I have tried it with every setting on and off (interleague play, unbalanced schedule, etc.) but nothing changes. Is this a bug or is there some step I am missing? Thanks!

[ohms_law]

be sure to press refresh before pressing done, and it works.

[solitary]

The refresh hasn't been working - it did previously but it isn't working now. (I have been away from the game for a few months, so the last version I had was 9.29 before I just updated to 9.43) The first time I changed it I just assumed it worked, but I noticed at the end of the season that it only had 140 games. I have even tried it on a brand new install on a computer that never had the game on it before - still stuck on 140. I haven't updated to 9.44A. Do you know anything else I can try? Thanks!

EDIT: The refresh works for everything else, but it is not working for the games per season.

[ohms_law]

humm... seems to be working for me. check back here in 10 minutes or so, I'll do a test.

ah, I see it. it'll keep 162 games in the League -> Options dialog, but it doesn't redo the schedule. Indeed, when you play though the season, the most # of games any player gets is 140.

The only way to get 162 games is by checking Inter-league Play, which sort of makes sense as it gives the scheduler enough teams to create a schedule with. You're correct that it used to work though. I remember setting 162 games without inter-league play in 9.40 and 9.42.

[Radiocranium]

I just got the game as well, and this was my first question. I would hope that maybe this could move up on the list of things to be fixed/updated??

[HoustonGM]

I just got the game as well, and this was my first question. I would hope that maybe this could move up on the list of things to be fixed/updated??
Likely not. It's not as important as other things.

[ohms_law]

oh, I don't know about that. I don't think that it's being touched in 9.44 (or .45 for that matter), but based on Clay posting questions about the scheduler a couple of weeks ago I think that he's planning to work on it.
I'm guessing that we'll get a new scheduler in early beta.

[HoustonGM]

oh, I don't know about that. I don't think that it's being touched in 9.44 (or .45 for that matter), but based on Clay posting questions about the scheduler a couple of weeks ago I think that he's planning to work on it.
I'm guessing that we'll get a new scheduler in early beta.
Well, I took Radiocranium's post as asking for the 2006 schedule...which probably wont ever be added. Hopefully Clay getsthe 2007 schedule in time for 2k8 though.

[Radiocranium]

It's not as important as other things.
I was asking for the whole schedule. It may not be important to you, but it's important enough to at least a couple of us to ask the question. I do appreciate the extensive list of other fixes.

[HoustonGM]

It seems that the schedule generator will get work, but I don't think that we'll have the 2006 real-life schedule in BBM2k7. So long as Clay gets the 2007 MLB Schedule prior to the BBM2k8 release, we should have the real schedule in 2k8.

[ohms_law]

well... maybe not "officially" in 2k7. if it's in one of the stable beta versions of 2k8 though, that ammounts to the same thing.

Even if it does wait until 2k8... well, I guess that's about 7 months away. still, it's not that far off. and with an open beta, as long as you own 2k7 you can get to it.

[solitary]

I found a 9.29 update file, so I installed it. The games per season box said 140, but it had 154 games scheduled (never noticed that before). When I try 162 games (balanced or unbalanced), it says "unable to generate schedule for this league configuration" (which makes sense, but stay with me...).

I installed 9.44D and tried again. It starts at 140 and says 140 in the games per season box. When I switch to 162, it still doesn't work but I don't get the "unable to generate..." message. When I try 154, which should work, the schedule does not generate - and I don't get an "unable to generate..." message. Same with 2 4-team divisions in each league. Interleague play solves all this.

With 9.44D, I also tried an unbalanced 160 game schedule with 2 4-team divisions (which should work...?) and I get the same no-go with no message

[MrMackie]

I've had a similar problem. I started in 1901 with a 140-game schedule as the default (correct for 1901). I tried changing it to a 144-game schedule, which I wanted to keep indefinitely, but it after trying to make that change it keeps defaulting to a 154-game schedule and won't change back. :(

[Mach 1]

Even in BBM 2006 it would not play less than 154 games (regardless of what it says in the league editor for 1901 - 1903), and it is still that way in BBM2007. I believe that you can schedule within the range of 154 and 162 games per season ... (and being someone who plays mostly fictional leagues, I'd like a little more flexibility)...

[Beek]

My Cincinnati Reds had to go on a 27 game road trip in the month of June in 1988. Two home games in June. You guys ever seen a road trip like that on this game? Was there something going on in Cincinnati's during 1988?

My attendence is bad enough, by the time I get back home my record will be terrible and nobody will come.

[RAW]

It would be really great, especially to those of us who play historical only, to have the actual schedules. Even those are not perfect, but MLB lived with them. I know there would be a problem for those of you who reconfigure the leagues, or play all fictional, but that's something Clay and the gang can work out.

[RAW]

Do you think we'll ever get historical schedules added? I know this has been discussed before, but I don't see anything recent on this. I just started the 2001 season, on April 11 my team, and several others have played 10 games, but Atlanta has only played 5. They had the first three days of the season off, then had two more, back to back off days, while my team has no days off in April. Any news on scheduling?

[RAW]

First time I've really checked this, but my 2002 schedule for my team has 79 home games and 83 road games. Shouldn't every team have and equral 81-81 home/away split? Is this one of those schedule bugs that we have been discussing for awhile? Hopefully, we'll be using historical schedules in a newer version.

[HoustonGM]

Yes, it's probably a scheduling bug due to interleague/historical play.

I'm sorry, but I don't foresee historical schedules being added any time soon. It requires an immense amount of work. The best we'll get is the 2007 schedule.

However, I do hope the bugs are fixed, so the schedules in historical play are at least believable.

[RAW]

Thanks Houston..sorry to hear about the historical schedules. By the way, went into league editor and noticed "unbalanced schedule" was checked. Uncheched it and went back to look at the new 2002 schedule that was generated and now its balanced 81 home-81 away. Guess I've been playing "unbalanced" since day one..oh well.

[HoustonGM]

Thanks Houston..sorry to hear about the historical schedules. By the way, went into league editor and noticed "unbalanced schedule" was checked. Uncheched it and went back to look at the new 2002 schedule that was generated and now its balanced 81 home-81 away. Guess I've been playing "unbalanced" since day one..oh well.
Unbalanced means that teams play their division rivals more often than other teams, which is exactly how its done in real life.

[ohms_law]

I'm sorry, but I don't foresee historical schedules being added any time soon. It requires an immense amount of work. The best we'll get is the 2007 schedule.

that's not true. Retrosheet has historical schedules from... well, forever. There in a text format, and Clay already mentioned adding them. I'm hopefull that he does.

I'm going to merge this thread with his schedule problems thread though. it seems most appropriate there.

[beerchaser]

With my Raleigh expansion team, I haven't really noticed anything in terms of multiple days off (3 or more) in mid-schedule, but there have been a LOT of single games worked into the schedule, usually against AL teams (my team is in NL East). For example, sometimes I may see a stretch where I have 3 games at San Francisco, then a home game against Boston, then 4 road games at Arizona, with no break in between any of them. I don't think this impacts the BM players in terms of fatigue (?) but it sure looks unrealistic.

Haven't had any of those 40 road games in a row streaks (ugh) but I do remember seeing a 24 of 25 road game stretch. And my regular season has lasted into late October the past couple of seasons.

[Xen_Antares]

Thats good my Orioles Dynasty has been traveling alot, we play a road series, then a home series, then a road series, then a home series, etc. Often times we will play in Chicago then the next day we are playing the same team in Baltimore, thats happened three times already and Im only at mid-season.

[RAW]

True, Houston, but, at least in my case, it also gives my team more home games than away, or more away games than home, and, in real life, all teams have a balance of the same amount of home games as away. Personally, I would like to use the "unbalanced" schedule, but only if it would also give me a balance of home/away games, like the "balance" schedule does.

As to Clay's post. It seems a relatively simple thing to import actual schedules for those of us who play "historical" only. If you play fictional only or a combination of historical and fictional, just sub the fictional teams for "real" teams as long as the number of teams and divisions are consistant with real life. If playing with more, or fewer, teams than in real life, a simple round robin schedule would work, using 3 game series, alternating home and away, with all Mondays (or Tuesdays) off and one day off before and after the All Star/Home Run Derby days.

I'm suggesting a simple schedule method for those playing fictional teams and a real (historical) schedule for those playing historical teams/leagues. As we go into the future, just recycle those historical schedules, or, post actual schedules when they are released by MLB each year for us to download.

Actually, historical schedules are not that critical to the enjoyment of the game for me, but would be 100% better than the schedules currently being created in the game.

[beerchaser]

Here's an example of the weird scheduling I saw over the weekend. Actually this particular game doesn't have as many of these anomolies as I've seen in other games, but this one jumped out at me. Usually it involves interleague games.

[beerchaser]

And one more screenshot, for the beginning of my 2008 season:

[boomboom]

A better scheduler.

At first I was totally against this...thinking it was a cosmetic bug.

Really it has become an annoying bug...I cant stand it.

I hate having 2 game series, or 3 games on, 3 games off, 3 games on...ect...

[ohms_law]

yea, the scheduling problems really are detrimental to the game. both in terms of the user's experience, and to some team's performances.

I'm pretty confidant that Clay's gonna kick the schedule code in the butt over the next couple months. He did start that thread a month or so ago, afterall.

[HoustonGM]

Yeah, adding expansion teams in future years also messes with the schedule..in worse ways than 3 days off...I mena like, tons of one game series. That's really annoying.

[ohms_law]

the trick there is to always add in even numbers. league and division don't matter too much (although keeping them as even as possible helps), but having an even number of teams overall is key. you get all the one game series by going to odd teams, because you're forcing interleague play.

[knockahoma715]

Amen, brother.

Just out of curiousity, how difficult would it be to export the real life schedules into the game?

[HoustonGM]

the trick there is to always add in even numbers. league and division don't matter too much (although keeping them as even as possible helps), but having an even number of teams overall is key. you get all the one game series by going to odd teams, because you're forcing interleague play.
I added two teams to the league in my test...

[ohms_law]

Amen, brother.

Just out of curiousity, how difficult would it be to export the real life schedules into the game?

impossible right now. it's been talked about as a possibility for 2008 though.

[beerchaser]

Since it doesn't appear to affect the players, fixing the schedule isn't as big a deal to me as some of the other features we have requested for 2008. But since Clay himself brought it up in another thread, we should at least point out what we see.

[boomboom]

well it could...if you play in 3 games have 3 games off.

Would your starters get more days off...and wouldn't your Ace get more starts while your #5 pitcher would get less cause there is more days off....

ect...I am really tired of it, it does effect games rested...

[beerchaser]

Would your starters get more days off...and wouldn't your Ace get more starts while your #5 pitcher would get less cause there is more days off....

That's true, good point.

[RHPT]

My 2007 runs until the end of October. The playoffs are going to run through December. Will this cause issues with the free-agency/draft period?

[ohms_law]

I don't think so. I had that happen to me once, but I can't remember what ended up happening. save the game and simulate the whole season to find out.

[ScorpioPrimus]

What I have noticed, playing a historical league, is that after the leagues were split into divisions, the regular season doesn't end until early to mid-October, although some teams end their season as much as a week before others. (There is also a weeklong break between the league championship & the World Series, even if the LCS were to go the full five games.)

In the season just concluded (1978), the Giants were "away" from August 19 to Sept 19, with the only off day being September 16. During that stretch I played three separate series against the Cubs, and a 3-game & 5-game series against the Cards. I had NO off days at all between July 29 & September 16. Prior to the monthlong road trip, I had a single three-game series at home, preceded by an 11-game road trip, a three-game set at home, and an 8-game road trip. I was home for 16 games prior to the All-Star break, and two games after. Checking other schedules at random, it's not uncommon to find teams playing 30-35 days straight, with long stretches either home or away.

One thing I notice that is very common is a lot of "home-&-away" weeks: the Reds come to town, then we go to Cincinatti for the next series. There are also two- & three-day breaks during the regular season, and it appears that there is a two-day break for all teams before the All-Star break.

[Raven2490]

Is this ever going to be fixed?

thanks in advance :)

[DeViLzzz2006]

uhmmm I think Clay is going to try to fix these things in the beta .... is aiming for 2008 ....

with that said and with the error you are talking of well I have found some that are more annoying than that and I am usually patient person and tolerable of mistakes but when I play sims like MicroLeague Baseball (different versions) and this game well I have had my fill of this ... bleh ... I am going to toss these games in the garbage or sell them to someone cuz what is the point of having something if it doesn't work properly ?!?!!? A baseball sim isn't like a dinky car where you can still play with it and have fun even if it only has 3 wheels. A baseball sim is to be realistic and all the inexpensive ones I have tried to give a chance have failed me ..... except for the one MicroLeague game on c64 and the one that was ported for pc ..... also uhmmm people hate the EA games and personally I want to steer clear of the them but at least they get the basics down right.

I am ranting .... cuz I am pissed to have spent $20 for nothing and then to think about throwing out things I thought were going to be fun. Baseball sims are fun but not like this ..........

[ohms_law]

More discussion on thi issue can be found here: Schedule Anomolies (http://forum.sportsmogul.com/showthread.php?t=115642).

[Alloutwar]

Just to weigh in (it's a forum, after all) - I spent $20 on this game as well, but I cannot dismiss it as "nothing." PC games are real hit and miss - ever spend $50 on one that just absolutely sucked? You never know!

After playing two seasons or so, yes, it is alarming that this game has more issues regarding gameplay and bugs than your average market release. Also the general faults with contracts and AI is somewhat large.

But, if you look at the people on this forum, and the loyalty and fanbase that this game has accrued, it's pretty obvious that there are a lot of good people out here hoping for a more finished product sometime soon. If you play the game for even a season, it fulfills what you're looking for - either fixing up a team of your choice, or being a GM for all-simulated players. You get to feel the game, the economics, management, and pressure from players. It's nowhere near perfect, but it's definitely playable.

[Raven2490]

I used to play micro league baseball on the c64 ... man u really took me back with that 1 lol

In my opinion no game will ever be perfect but I like this game it keeps me busy it's just them little things that need tweaking. I wouldn't go as far as to say I wasted 20 bucks on this. It's entertaining and I look forward to my next game :)

thx for the replies folks and honest opinions :)

[DeViLzzz2006]

Well with other options out there like APBA and more I don't see taking the chance that these problems are going to be fixed ... heck APBA Baseball for Windows has Broadcast Blast with Ernie Harwell announcing !!!

[hoosiergoody]

DeVil..... next time try the demo before purchasing if you are that annoyed- or pay attention to the forums to see what errors/issues exist (and note how many are fixed/frequency of patches). Post your "bugs" or "gripes" in a polite way and chances are with this game they will get addressed sooner or later

[DeViLzzz2006]

I think I have been polite. Also uhmmm you should recognize my frustration as being a person who is passionate for sports sims as like I have said in other posts I have been playing them for a long time ... back to c-64 days and I have even played the Strat-O-Matic board games too. I am just hoping for a better product cuz I think this has more potential than APBA and Strat as they seem to stick to the same thing every year.

[ohms_law]

Complaining about problems that you do find in every thread that you can find that is even somewhat related is not polite nor is it constructive.

To add insult to injury, You started posting in unrelated threads saying that the subjects of those threads were unimportant. This sort of behavior is destructive and anti-social, which is why people are making statements against your bahavior now.

The proper, constructive reponse to finding a bug wold be to post once in the Bug Reporting forum, either in a new thread or in an existing thread. After that, you are perfectly within your rights to respond to what others say within that thread.

[RHPT]

How about this for a schedule anomaly? An entire month on the road. The last month of the season, no less. I wonder if the Republican Convention is going on that month in my home stadium. :p

[ohms_law]

There it is. The schedule bug!
:)

ps.: New Genesis New Gods?
:confused:
lol

[jonnymo]

Okay, here's my 2¢. Playing 1993-97 (i.e., 28 teams, standard alignment), there are usually two teams that start the season three-to-four days after the rest of the league. However, that's nothing, compared to the end of the season. For my 1997 sim, the following is a tally of the number of teams that played their 162nd game on each day:

September
27: 1
29: 1
30: 2

October
1: 5
2: 4
3: 3
4: 6
5: 2
7: 2
8: 2

Kind of takes some of the excitement out of the playoff races when the 1st-place team gets to sit and wait for a week to see if the 2nd-place team can pass it. In this example, the Tigers (last game 27 Sep) and A's (last game 5 Oct) each finished 91-71, so they played a tiebreaker on 9 Oct -- 4 days after Oakland's 162nd game and 12 days after Detroit's.

I don't care about 1-game series or road trips that go from Miami to L.A. to Montreal anywhere near as much as I would like every team's season to begin and end on the same day, +/-1 day. Thank you.

/steps off soapbox :D

[BoeingDriver]

Is there any way to use the real schedule from say 1985? My schedule generator on a new season is giving some very weird results.

ie - 5 game series 2nd week of April, 3 game sets starting on Sunday etc.

Chuck

[ohms_law]

Nope, not currently. We're hoping for the ability to do so with Mogul 2008. The beta for '08 should be starting in a couple weeks, and will be open to everyone with Mogul 2007.

Oh, and welcome to the community, and welcome to Baseball Mogul!
:)

[BoeingDriver]

Thanks for the replies and the honesty guys. Not sure who are developers and who are users around here yet.

I just built a Dodgers schedule for 2006 and of course it was spot on. Also going in and unchecking unbalanced schedules helps slightly with the historic schedules.

I fully understand the depth of creating a MLB schedule from any season. I say find some way simply to import the real schedules for those years. Of course problems will still exsist for custom leagues but not for the guys like me who simply want to recreate the 85 Dodgers or 86 Orioles for example.

Is there anyway to edit the fact that by default the "unbalanced schedules" is checked. I am no commisioner, just a manager and in order to go in and uncheck that it has to enable commisioner mode then I do not know how to turn it back off.

Thanks in advance,
Chuck

PS - If any help is ever needed on the schedules just let me know, I am a historical schedule nut.

[Freak of Nature]

Speaking of schedules.....

I was thinking of creating a league with 5 divisons, 6 teams per division. West,East,South,Mid-west,Central divisions......

Each divison plays each other 24 times. Thats 4 outside divisions times 6 teams at 4 games each, which equals 24 games per division times 4 divisons equals 96 games. Then each divison plays within there own division 66 times. 12 times per team. And then each team plays there major rival within each division 18 times, equaling a total of 162 games....

Is it possible for baseball Mogul to create a schedule for this fantasy 5 division league I would like to create?

Thanks...:)

[ohms_law]

Well, let's see. Clay Dreslough and Ian Smith are the developers of Baseball Mogul (Clay is the owner of the company, as well).

When you say that you just built a schedule, what do you mean? You just went into League Editor and out again until the schedule looked OK or something?

Clay mentioned that he may just start importing the historical schedules next season, in the Schedule Anomalies thread linked to above. I think that that's a good idea as well (along with a resource file that can be modified if the user desires). Unbalanced Schedules shouldn't turn on by default until it's supposed to, but I think that that currently only works properly if you start your universe in 1901. There's no method to keep it from turning on automatically, but once you turn it off the game doesn't turn it back on (or at least, it's not supposed to).

When you go into League editor, it asks you if you want to turn on commish mode. If you say no, you can still adjust most of the options, and I think that the unbalanced schedules is one of them. You just can't edit the teams at all. If you do turn on commish mode, you can go to the Tools -> Options dialog and there's a check box in the upper right corner to turn commissioner mode on and off.

Retrosheet (www.retrosheet.org) has historic schedules available for most (all?) seasons, so I'm not sure if Clay would need help with that or not. I'm sure that he appreciated the offer though, I know I do. If it helps the game out, it helps all of us have fun.
:)


Speaking of schedules.....

I was thinking of creating a league with 5 divisons, 6 teams per division. West,East,South,Mid-west,Central divisions......

Is it possible for baseball Mogul to create a schedule for this fantasy 5 division league I would like to create?

Thanks...:)

You can currently only have 3 divisions per league, so that won't really work. You could do 5 divisions total though, 3 in one league, 2 in another, and it'll work out OK. The scheduler only has real trouble when there are many more or fewer teams in one or two divisions. It's important to keep the divisions as balanced as possible.

[Freak of Nature]

Oh I see,Thanks. So you cannot have 1 league? You need to have two leagues? Like the national and american?

So I could have 1 league with 3 divisions? I dont have to have two leagues?


Is it possible to create another 2 teams lets say,totally new franchises that I can add to the real teams of major league baseball..? Making for 32 teams in total? Thanks...

[BoeingDriver]

Sorry when I said "built a schedule" I simply meant I started a new "game" using the 2006 Dodgers and the schedule layout was then perfect. And also when making the change to "unbalanced schedules" it rebuilds the schedule and it is then better but still way off in terms of a real baseball schedule. Again I understand and appreciate why this happens.

Thanks for the info on the developers as well as the info about not having to turn on commish mode to make the change to unbalanced schedules.

Hopefully we will see real historic schedules in 2008. BTW when is this supposed to be released?

Chuck

[Raven2490]

Like the older version ... I'm still getting 7 consecutive games against the same team and consecutive series home and home vs same team.

thanks :)

[daves]

Ok i see that BBM08 is coming. I'm sure the improvements will be great, BUT can you edit the schedule or play exhibition games in BBM08? This is the only improvement I am looking for. :)

[ohms_law]

Probably not, unless Clay was working on it earlier and simply hasn't added it into the beta yet. It was discussed at some length last year, and I know that (based on what he said) he wants to do something with the schedule. I'm betting that he will during the season as well. I just don't see it making the shipping product at this point.

[daves]

Drat:(

[salam5]

Playing the 2008 Mogul, 2 new teams, computer generated fantasy draft, unbalanced schedule....
The schedules I'm getting are pretty far off. There are single game series stuck here and there, some home some away...some that aren't realistic at all (concerning the travel time). One team's schedule had 27 straight games to open the season, then a week-and-a-half off in September before the final two series.
I realize adding the two new teams probably throws the program off, but still seems it ought to be fixed somehow.

This is what I'm talking about...

[ohms_law]

This is as good a post as any to reopen this issue from last year. I still think that this needs a whole lot of attention personally, but... *shrug*

The travel time issue isn't really important. It's a game after all. Importing real schedules for accurate leagues would be a great addition as well, even if it become predictable. Using real schedules when available should be optional of course, with my usual caveats regarding options (namely that they should be reduced. This is pretty obvious though).

[LetsGoYanks]

I haven't really seen the issue discussed much, but does it annoy anyone else that the World Series is regularly showing up in November?

I mean sure it happened in 2001, but that was only because baseball took a break after 9/11. I don't see why in regular 162 game seasons that it's taking so long for the postseason to end.

[dabluebery]

You guys are kidding, right? Travel times? Worrying about the November World Series? Overkill definitely, and possibly completely irrelevent.

I do think historically accurate schedules would be cool.

I'd like to say that I'd use them unequivocally over generated schedules, but I don't think it's true.

It would be true in seasons before 1969 and if I trusted the sim engine enough to unbalance schedules. But I don't trust its accuracy enough and therefore balance the schedules ALWAYS in the sims I'm running now.

In other words, for me to actually use this cool feature, it'd come after the financial and simulation engines were more accurate. I won't delve into what I mean by that in this thread because I think it's on a tangent.

[Borker]

I would like to be able to eliminate interleague play, and have it stay eliminated! As it stands now, if I make any moves like creating an expansion team, it locks the interleague play box, with the box checked.

As a Commissioner trying to preserve the integrity of the sport, that quirk bugs the heck out of me. Its not a big deal, but I figured with this thread already up and all...

[ohms_law]

I would like to be able to eliminate interleague play, and have it stay eliminated! As it stands now, if I make any moves like creating an expansion team, it locks the interleague play box, with the box checked.

That only happens because of the way that you're adding expansion teams. You need to make both leagues have even number of teams, is all.

[jonnymo]

I haven't really seen the issue discussed much, but does it annoy anyone else that the World Series is regularly showing up in November? ... I don't see why in regular 162 game seasons that it's taking so long for the postseason to end.
It seems as if the scheduler is optimized for 30-team leagues w/ a 16-14 split. Occasionally in BM2K7/8, Game 7 of the World Series falls on 1 November, but the postseason tends to end later in pre-1998 (i.e., <30 teams) leagues, which is related to the issue of regular season schedules ending on different days for different teams in the same league.

The one-day-into-November issue could be solved by scheduling just one off day between series, as IRL, instead of the two days that BM2K7 and BM2K8 currently use.

Yanks: are you seeing something different from what I described?

[JimHCT]

I saw some older posts but none that seem to address this directly...is there no way to have the same schedule as the current MLB season, and/or at least have the generated schedule actually start on 4/1 with the correct 2007 calendar?

Thanks,

Jim

[ohms_law]

Nope, no way to use the real schedules. I'm still hoping that that gets added sometime this year.

[LetsGoYanks]

It seems as if the scheduler is optimized for 30-team leagues w/ a 16-14 split. Occasionally in BM2K7/8, Game 7 of the World Series falls on 1 November, but the postseason tends to end later in pre-1998 (i.e., <30 teams) leagues, which is related to the issue of regular season schedules ending on different days for different teams in the same league.

The one-day-into-November issue could be solved by scheduling just one off day between series, as IRL, instead of the two days that BM2K7 and BM2K8 currently use.

Yanks: are you seeing something different from what I described?



Indeed, I'm seeing regular season games ending on October 10-12th and the World Series being pushed back a week or more into November. This is more frequent when the Division Series and LCS go long. But even if both are swept, the WS sometimes has Game 7 on November 1st.

To me it'd seem that there's too many days off in the schedule.

I don't have time to go through a few seasons and look at it closer, but I'll try to by next week.

[jonnymo]

This is more frequent when the Division Series and LCS go long. But even if both are swept, the WS sometimes has Game 7 on November 1st... To me it'd seem that there's too many days off in the schedule.
Don't forget that IRL, MLB postseason series are always scheduled as if all series run full length. For example, in the 2002 postseason (http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/), the Angels and Giants each won their respective LCS 4-1, w/ the last game played on 14 October. However, Game 1 of the World Series was 19 October. I think that the NBA used to be different, but baseball has always been this way: in the first year of the LCS, 1969, the Orioles and Mets, each of whom pulled off sweeps, had four off-days before Game 1 of the WS.

However, BM2K8 schedules an additional off-day between series, so that even if both LCS run seven games, the two teams will still have two days off before WS Game 1. I think that it would be more realistic to cut this (and the period between DS and LCS) to one day off. If my count is correct, any season that begins before 7 April will finish NLT 31 October. :cool:

[ohms_law]

Currently, everything during the season occurs at set dates regardless of how many games long the season is. the ASG and amateur draft is always in June, Expanded Rosters is always September 1st, trade deadline is always July 31st, etc...

The dates should be set from the date of the last game of the regular season... or something.

[ltt]

Couldn't find a post about this in the known list:

Started a new game, 2007, entered league editor to hide peak ratings, done - whole schedule changes.

This happens every time you click "done" in the league editor - even if you haven't changed anything - as long as you're in commisioner mode.

[ohms_law]

That's actually not a bug, it's working as designed. When you enter commissioner mode and open the league editor, the game recreates the schedule in order to prevent other problems from occurring.

[ltt]

That's actually not a bug, it's working as designed. When you enter commissioner mode and open the league editor, the game recreates the schedule in order to prevent other problems from occurring.

Okay.

Then everything that cannot create schedule conflicts should be moved to a different menu.

I'd like the option to play the actual 2007 schedule with peak ratings hidden and players not getting injured every other day...

[ohms_law]

Yea...

[Willettd]

I transferred Tampa Bay to Las Vegas and Moved them to the AL West. Since then at least one team is left unscheduled and the teams play an uneven number of games.

Have version 10.17. When I try to run the 10.18 installer it tries to unzip to the E: drive which is a DVD drive.

[jeffg]

I just noticed this yesterday. I'm playing as the yankees (please don't chuck tomatoes at my head Sox nation!), and noticed that their inter-league schedule doesn't include the Mets. The year is 2008.

I'm not sure if this is a bug, per se, or just a limitation of the Scheduling AI, but it's my feeling that teams should have their "natural rival" series included in their schedules.

NOt sure if this is a problem for other teams, since, as a Yankee fan, I don';t care about other teams enough to check. :D

[salam5]

I have to officially complain about the scheduling. Granted, I've added 3 expansion teams and switched cities for a few others, but during this last year it (in part) actually cost my team a division title because they had to play on the road for the final 25 games, including 12 straight to finish the year.
During the year there are a lot of odd games...one interleague game on the other coast sandwiched between two divisional series. This happens every year, I guess because of the expansion teams. Seems like it ought to be fixed. I don't mind unrealistic travel, but the one game series or blocks of home or away games are kind of dumb.

[Rongar]

I have to officially complain about the scheduling. Granted, I've added 3 expansion teams and switched cities for a few others, but during this last year it (in part) actually cost my team a division title because they had to play on the road for the final 25 games, including 12 straight to finish the year.

Come now, Salam...d'you really think that home or away makes any difference to BM teams? I, personally, prefer playing away games...I have the impression that my starting pitcher warms up during our first inning (does anyone out there share this impression?)

Mind you, I agree that if the schedule, overall, gives you fewer home games during the season, than away fixtures, that this is unfair, affecting your revenue, which is a vital part of the game.

I've never counted the number of home & away games in a season, so I wouldn't know.

[jonnymo]

I've never counted the number of home & away games in a season, so I wouldn't know.
"Away Record" and "Home Record" are two of the statistical display options on the Standings page. :) I have never seen anyone report that, short of a tiebreaker, the number of games played on the road and at home were unequal.

[Dwright5]

I transferred Tampa Bay to Las Vegas and Moved them to the AL West. Since then at least one team is left unscheduled and the teams play an uneven number of games.

Have version 10.17. When I try to run the 10.18 installer it tries to unzip to the E: drive which is a DVD drive.
I did this same thing with Tampa to Vegas. I put them in the west resulting in a divisional 4-5-5 alignment east to west. The schedule is very sensitive to the number of teams per division. Any change from the AL 5-5-4 and NL 5-6-5 resulted in a team left out of scheduling. What I did was move another team from west to central, and one from central to east, and everyone was scheduled again.

[RAW]

In BBM07, if you have an unbalanced schedule, the scheduler would give you more home games, or vise versa, more away games. Don't know if this has changed in BBM08 or not, as I set the leagues to balanced schedule and no interleague games. Others who play unbalanced and/or interleague may have the same problem as too few home games, etc.

[Rongar]

"Away Record" and "Home Record" are two of the statistical display options on the Standings page. :)


Of course, you're right...I had forgotten that...Thank you, Jonnymow.

[Clay Dreslough]

You're right. I should have looked more into this. Would the three way round robin create four games, though?The 3-way round robin adds 2 games to everyone's schedule. But if every team goes 1-1, it does the round robin again...