Schedule File Naming Conventions

What Factors Affect Schedules?

Schedules are constructed on a per-league basis (not per-saved game), and schedule creation relies on the following six league settings:

1. # of subleagues
2. # of divisions
3. # of teams
4. # of games in a season
5. Balanced schedule, or not (A "balanced schedule" is one where teams play all other teams in their subleague approximately the same number of times.)
6. Interleague play, or not ("Interleague play" is when teams are scheduled to play some games against teams that are in a different subleague.)

When creating a new league, the # of subleagues, divisions, and teams are set on the Structure page. Schedule balance, interleague play, and the # of games in a season are set on the Options page.

Schedule files are stored in the dataschedules folder within your OOTP installation. OOTP's schedule files are named with a long string of confusing letters and numbers that we'll make clear in a moment. In order for OOTP to automatically identify and use a schedule file, it must follow one of the two OOTP schedule naming conventions. Files that do not use the standard naming conventions can still be loaded manually via the in-game Schedule Editor, but OOTP will not automatically find and use those files.

OOTP schedule files always have a .ldsl file extension.

"Code" Naming Convention

One naming convention for OOTP schedule files uses a series of codes, and looks like this:

ILN_BGY_G162_SL1_D1_T4_D2_T4_SL2_D1_T4_D2_T4_C_empty.lsdl

So, what the heck does all of that jibberish mean? Well, the name is broken up into numerous sections that tell OOTP what kind of schedule it is. This allows OOTP to automatically select the correct schedule. The file name has the following sections, each separated by underscores ("_"):

• Interleague Play - Set to "ILY" for "yes, interleague play," or "ILN" for "no interleague play"
• Balanced Schedule - Set to "BGY" for a balanced schedule, or "BGN" for a non-balanced schedule
• # of Games - Set to "G" immediately followed by the # of games in the regular season, ex. "G162"
• Subleague # - Set to "SL" plus the # of the subleague, ex. "SL1"
• Divisions # - Set to "D" plus the # of the division within the previously mentioned subleague, ex. "D1"
• # of Teams - Set to "T" plus the # of teams in the previous division, ex. "T4"
• *At this point in the file name, the Division # and Team # fields will repeat as many times as necessary to describe all divisions in the subleague
• *At this point in the file name, the Subleague #, Division #, and Team # fields will all repeat to describe the second subleague (if one exists).
• Comment - Set to "C_" plus a mandatory comment to describe the schedule

So, let's look at our file name example from above and interpret it:

ILN_BGY_G162_SL1_D1_T4_D2_T4_SL2_D1_T4_D2_T4_C_empty.lsdl

• "ILN" tells us that this schedule has no interleague play.
• "BGY" tells us that this schedule is balanced.
• "G162" tells us that this is a 162-game schedule.
• "SL1_D1_T4_D2_T4" tells us that there are two divisions of four teams each in subleague 1.
• "SL2_D1_T4_D2_T4" tells us that there are two divisions of four teams each in subleague 2.
• "C_empty" tells us that the comment for this schedule is "empty."

"Saved Game" Naming Convention

The second schedule file naming convention is based on the name of the saved game for which you wish to use the schedule, like this:

my_fantasy_game_ml_c_2006.lsdl

With a file name in this format, OOTP will load this schedule automatically any time you create a saved game wmatching the name in the file name, using the following conventions:

• Saved Game Name - Set to the name of your saved game. Spaces are replaced with underscores, and capitalization does not matter. Ex. A saved game called "My Fantasy Game" would become "my_fantasy_game".
• League Level - Set to an abbreviation of the league level, from the following options: "ml" (major league), "aaa" (AAA), "aa" (AA), "a" (A), "s_a" (short-season A), "r" (rookie), "int" (international), "wl" (winter league)
• Comment - Set to "C_" plus a mandatory comment to describe the schedule

So, let's look at our file name example from above and interpret it:

my_fantasy_game_ml_c_2006.lsdl

• "my_fantasy_game" tells us that this schedule will only be loaded if the saved game name is "My Fantasy Game".
• "ml" tells us that this schedule will only be loaded into the major league of "My Fantasy Game".
• "c_2006" tells us that the comment for this schedule is "2006."

About Comments in OOTP Schedule File Names

Many of the schedules that come with OOTP have either a year or additional information in the comment block:

If you put the year in the comment block of a file name, and you start a league that has a matching schedule with the same year number in the league file as the comment block, then that file will be used over the alphabetical rotation mentioned above. For example, if the file name is "my_fantasy_game_ml_c_2006.lsdl" and you are starting a league called "My Fantasy Game," and the game year is 2006, then this schedule file will automatically be used, even if there are other matching schedules available.

Other files have some special codes in the comment block, as follows:

• T-### is the total number of teams in the league. This was added to allow a quick view of the file name and determine the teams without adding the Division and Teams lines from the filename.
• L### is the total number of league games. This is only used if there are only league games and the league has no divisions.
• D### and N### are the number of games played in the league by Division and Non-Division.
• I### are the interleague games played.
• A0 means that there is no all-star break in the schedule.
• S# and V# are for "Sibling" and "Version" files. Sibling files should be used in sequence, loading a different file each year in number sequence. These are usually files that have an uneven number of games against opponents and the following year the schedule is evened out. Version files are not sequential files and are simply files that would have the same filename, even though the opponents are different in the schedule. The version files only need to be loaded once, just select the version your league requires.

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