Quote:
|
Originally Posted by theking121
I have the following request. 36 teams, 144 games. Two games, one home, one away versus each of the teams in the other league, for 36 games. Four games, two home, two away against each opponent in the other two divisions within the league, for 48 games. Twelve games, 6 home and 6 away against each of the division rivals, for 60 games. An all-star game mid season, and typical days off...
Also, can you tell me what program you use to make the schedules?
|
Wow, that is an unusual request with such short series! I hope the teams are close together so the travel does not wear them out.
Basically when I do when working on them is to lay down all the games in series in a spreadsheet, then I order them as best I can like requested and/or seems logical - maybe spread out interdivision games, put interleague games in scattered blocks, try to end the season with lots of intradivision games. In the spreadsheet I have over time developed some methods for tracking how "pretty" the schedule is for all the teams - making sure offdays are spread out and that homestands & roadtrips are not too long, etc. I fiddle around with it until it reach a point of being "pretty" enough, then I have the spreadsheet spit the games out from the series, and I pile those games into a text file where I can make a few more tweaks to try to better position offdays. I have one more set of tools (industry secret
) outside the spreadsheet I now use as a last check.
I wish I had a real program that really did the working automatically. I am still amazed by the Stickware schedule generator program, which is awesome overall, though does not allow the specification of precise details that people seem particularly fond of like having the exact same number of games against various sets of opponents. For making schedules I think just knowing a few tricks for laying out the games takes one most of the way to being able to produce something that will work, and I have learned ways to make things "prettier" like I described. So the most important tool I'd say is experience, with patience and enjoying the problem solving aspects good to have too.