Suggestion: Change game time - Real time ratio

[chad878262]

Only hour/level spells would be impacted. 10 min/lvl, 1 min/lvl and round(6 sec)/lvl are real-time and therefore not impacted by the in game time ratio. So the impact to spells is somewhat less than folks make out since you're generally going to rest before those spells run out except maybe at very low levels. Taking a mage gish as an example you are probably going to want to rest when your shield, bulls strength, greater heroism, etc runs out, so making your improved mage armor last longer is largely irrelevant. It does make mage armor, barkskin potions, protection from evil and other consumables last longer (mage armor casts as a 2nd level spell so would last 30 minutes instead of 10). This isn't a major issue in the grand scheme with the dispel fix, but it does make things much easier on new players going through the hilltop ruins. +9 AC for 30 minutes (+4 mage armor, +3 barkskin, +2 protection from evil) would really change the difficulty and make the lower levels pretty trivial for a relatively inexpensive investment.

[Considerate_]

1:1 would be insane! There would be characters who were entirely nocturnal! I find that quite immersion breaking.

It's kinda immersion breaking that one day in our current timeline lasts twelve dawns. It'll still be immersion breaking that some of them last four dawns. No matter what we do, it'll be immersion breaking.

Currently we got a time ratio on the server that's called 1:1. For every real life day that passes, one day will pass in game. But on the server, twelve days passes while we have to pretend it's actually only one. Even with the change, it'll be four days passing despite only one having passed.


My point is, I'd be very happy if it's moved to 4:1. I'd be even happier if they move it closer to 1:1



As for spells, well... spells lasting hours are supposed to last hours! I don't see anything wrong with that. I was of the impression it also affected seconds/rounds/minute spells. Hence I thought it wouldn't be changed.

[thids]

This would actually fix the silly situation where 10min/level spells last twice as long as the 1hr/level ones.

[Dagesh]

Some other games actually have shorter nights. For example, 4 hours of daylight and 2 of night. Instead of doing 1:1 we could do 2:1 or even 3:1. That would help the 0 GMT folk but still have longer hours in general.

Changing spell scripts could be a pain although there are ways to hook into the main hours/level function (see nwscript) that may or may not be kosher with builders.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

Some other games actually have shorter nights. For example, 4 hours of daylight and 2 of night. Instead of doing 1:1 we could do 2:1 or even 3:1. That would help the 0 GMT folk but still have longer hours in general.

3:1 is my vote for variety offset each RL day. Dawn/Dusk hour module property flag, with the scale to RL is minutes per game hour.

Changing spell scripts could be a pain although there are ways to hook into the main hours/level function (see nwscript) that may or may not be kosher with builders.

Yes, though that would impact many more systems than spells.

Powerbar supports searching through all of the scripts, which would shorten the amount of labor involved to make the adjustment.

[Merlaran]

I love the idea! 3:1 or 4:1 seems best to let everyone see some times of the day. Further spell duration would be more of a fix, Its always crazy when the hour buff runs out before then ten min buff xD.

[grymhild]

I might be in the minority, but shorter nights wouldn't help my character's RP.

I like the idea of days and nights lasting 2-4 hours each, that is ig-to-real time ratios of 6:1 (10 minute hours), 4:1 (15 minute hours), or 3:1 (20 minute hours)

actually 3:1 might be a little too long, and I'm really not in favor of 2:1 or 1:1 ratios

[Hoihe]

Seems to me people like the 4:1 ratio the most. For an average adventure, around 2-3 hours, it is perfect.

[grymhild]

Seems to me people like the 4:1 ratio the most. For an average adventure, around 2-3 hours, it is perfect.

I created another poll to try to collect more detailed information.

http://bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=49107

[Snarfy]

I like this idea too, and I'd lean towards a 3:1 or 2:1 time ratio. The only concern I have is how this might fast forward the time line lore-wise, as this speeds things towards events that transpire in the actual game, and also towards the Time of Troubles. Aside from that, I think longer days and nights would definitely provide better immersion.

Question: Would adjusting the time ratio also slow down the weather effects? Having it rain on and off a dozen times within an hour, like it does now, is a bit annoying.

[chad878262]

I think the ratio is just about the in game cycle. Pretty sure this want a request to speed up the timeline, though I know we're all waiting for the time of troubles when wizard and priests will feel the wrath of us mere mortals!

[Ithilan]

With this proposed ratio what would the daily cycle be like in game? In real life numbers.

If it was brought to a synchronized cycle with our real time, it would impact really badly on some people. And what timezone would it be centered about?

Edit: NVM grym's topic explains it.

[grymhild]

right! I think I understand what might be confusing...

so currently the way things are set up right now is that we have a 12:1 day/night cycle of the the server itself, ie 5 real min per game hour

however despite the server's accelerated clock, our campaign calendar still only progresses at 1:1 time ratio - ie, one ig day is real day

this mixmatch is a little confusing requires some double-think, and while I'm not completely clear on when and why the decision was made, it allows a few different things
1) it allows players from different timezones to experience both day and night cycles, instead of being locked into perpetual day or night

2) it allows players' pcs who aren't able to play every day,
to experience and rp the passage of time

3) it makes at least a small (but ultimately insignificant) nod towards the fact that our server zones in theory represent a much larger area than is represented on the maps, and distance = rate(velocity) x time ( or time = distance / rate). I wont try to get into all of the math, but even at our current very fast ig time scale, PCs are able to travel great distances in a very short time. it gets more than silly and immersion breaking when you think about that part of it very much - and fully talking about that is its own topic and beyond there scope of this thread.

...

what I believe these suggestions are about, is changing ig server day/night cycle speeds, not changing campaign calendar progression - which should probably be its own thread.

does that make sense? (and please let me know if I'm wrong!)