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Post by fallen on Sept 29, 2017 22:32:24 GMT -5
One thing that bothers me regarding the clock. Please zero-pad the weeks. It seems odd that 211.9 comes before 211.10. It would look better if 211.09 comes before 211.10. Or else use something other than a '.' as the seperator. Those of us raised using '.' as a decimal point really expect it to be a decimal point, not a date seperator. I'd be OK with 211/9 coming before 211/10, or 211-9 before 211-10, but 211.9 should be followed by 211.91. Thanks, great request. Done!
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 30, 2017 8:52:00 GMT -5
Not a problem. This is how we do things here -- we make and admit a lot of mistakes. It isn't anything big, though, so I shouldn't have made it sound like it was. Plus, I made a mistake I knew to avoid as a professor, which is that I mentioned the problems I perceived but not the qualities I saw. In the present case, the fact that those activities are programmed to take time is already more realistic than if they were instantaneous (which, I realize, would be much simpler to program). One thing that bothers me regarding the clock. Please zero-pad the weeks. It seems odd that 211.9 comes before 211.10. It would look better if 211.09 comes before 211.10. Or else use something other than a '.' as the seperator. Those of us raised using '.' as a decimal point really expect it to be a decimal point, not a date seperator. I'd be OK with 211/9 coming before 211/10, or 211-9 before 211-10, but 211.9 should be followed by 211.91. Good point. Though I'd like this even better: A-211 W-27 D-07 It would be a lot clearer, though, I realize, not as flavorful.
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Post by fallen on Sept 30, 2017 10:09:45 GMT -5
Now reads 211.09.
That is the way Star Traders record their date, always has been
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 30, 2017 10:32:32 GMT -5
Now reads 211.09. That is the way Star Traders record their date, always has been They don't mark days at all?
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Post by fallen on Sept 30, 2017 13:34:16 GMT -5
Just commenting on the format of the date. Year.Week, not Year/Week/Day, etc.
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 30, 2017 14:10:36 GMT -5
Yes, I understand, but how do they mark the day of an event? In our world, we use Year-Month-Day (in computer order). They use Year.Week -- so does that mean they don't specify the day of an event, as a rule, just as we don't normally specify the hour? Someone's birthday, for instance, would be his or her week of birth? (Happy birthweek!)
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Post by Cory Trese on Oct 1, 2017 10:17:04 GMT -5
That's the date format that they use, and up until now we have left out the time element of the date-time What we are trying to communicate is that we are showing the Star Trader's date information in the UI. However, for the Star Traders, no -- they use the date format the game uses. They're travelers on long haul journeys with a heavy dose of time dilation. This isn't the format of time that the gravs use. Most of them live on some modified planetary clock and use a Faction date format. The only ones who use chart notation are the Star Traders. Since each week week aboard the ship is divided into 20 rotating up/down shifts the "time" element of a Star Trader datetime is probably Y.W.Shift
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Post by Sinocelt on Oct 1, 2017 11:45:37 GMT -5
So when we see that only five days are left to finish a mission, does that actually mean five shifts?
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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Oct 1, 2017 11:52:24 GMT -5
That's the date format that they use, and up until now we have left out the time element of the date-time What we are trying to communicate is that we are showing the Star Trader's date information in the UI. However, for the Star Traders, no -- they use the date format the game uses. They're travelers on long haul journeys with a heavy dose of time dilation. This isn't the format of time that the gravs use. Most of them live on some modified planetary clock and use a Faction date format. The only ones who use chart notation are the Star Traders. Since each week week aboard the ship is divided into 20 rotating up/down shifts the "time" element of a Star Trader datetime is probably Y.W.Shift I love learning tidbits like this. It also makes a lot of sense. Why live by a day-night clock when most of the time you are in the void?
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Post by Sinocelt on Oct 1, 2017 12:05:18 GMT -5
It also makes a lot of sense. Why live by a day-night clock when most of the time you are in the void? Yup. But they could be entirely logical and use only decimals, instead of months (20 shifts) and years (12 months, I surmise, so 240 shits). Not that it's unrealistic, mind you. Look at the United States, where you still have to convert ounces to cups to pints to quarts to gallons. (That does complicate the players' tasks, though; they'd better be good a mental calculations, especially if they've got half a dozen missions running in parallel.)
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Post by fallen on Oct 1, 2017 12:08:06 GMT -5
Sorry its such a point of confusion for you. Have fun playing the game!
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Post by Sinocelt on Oct 6, 2017 4:19:46 GMT -5
Airily dismissing my concern won't make the issue disappear. How time works within the game should be made clear within the game, not just here in a forum thread. You seem to believe that in-game time can only be "such a point of confusion" for me. That means that you expect that new players, just by glancing at "210.3AE," will guess the following tidbits: 1. The first number represents the year and the second the week (not the month). 2. Each year comprises 50 weeks (not 56). 3. Each week comprises 20 shifts, which are equivalent to 20 days (see first screenshot below), which are equivalent to 20 turns (see second screenshot below). Not bloody likely. Clarity needs consistency, so "shift" should always be "shift" -- not sometimes "day" and sometimes "turn." Also, hovering above the date should provide some information, as does hovering above icons: Players should know which number means what, and how those numbers are related (number of shifts in a week, numbers of weeks in a year). Players shouldn't have to try to reconstruct this information, which their character knows, from how missions are timed. It is all the more important that you might elect not to trade, or explore, or spy, or patrol, or blockade, or even fight (to some extent), but you can't be successful if you don't learn to manage your resources: ship health, crew health, crew morale, credits, and, underlying all the other resources, time.
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Post by fallen on Oct 6, 2017 9:27:50 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback! We'll keep working to improve.
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Post by Sinocelt on Oct 6, 2017 9:55:41 GMT -5
Red arrows added to both screenshots in my previous post (though too late to be of any use, I guess).
Being able to track shifts on the main screen, rather than having to exit to obtain that information (see second screenshot in my previous post), would also help us players get a better handle on how time passes during space travel, spicing, etc.
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