Implemented - Game Time Clock Discussion

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Game Time Clock Discussion

Printed From: Illyriad
Category: Miscellaneous
Forum Name: Implemented
Forum Description: Suggestions which have been implemented or resolved.
URL: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=302
Printed Date: 17 Apr 2022 at 09:13
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Game Time Clock Discussion

Posted By: Illyriad Admin
Subject: Game Time Clock Discussion
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2009 at 11:01

Scene opens over a Bladerunner-esque cityscape - a commercial apocalypse version of London in 2025.

The camera pans over the skyscrapers to a large ziggurat labelled "Illyriad Global Corp" in mile-high neon-letters, before zooming slowly up to an illuminated window, high in the peak of the pyramid.

Through the glass, inside a room dominated by vast computer monitors and 3-D holgraphic displays of the Kingdom of Illyriad, GM's ThunderCat and Stormcrow sit at either ends of a 20-ft long boardroom table, deep in a discussion about the future direction of Illyriad.

ThunderCat continues his last point.

"Stormcrow, I do understand the need to turn Orcs into a race of intergalactic space aliens... and I guess we can run with your idea for a 'Win All Battles' Prestige spend option as well... but the consensus is that your plan to merge 'Illyriad' into 'Hello Kitty Online' might be a step too far...

Research shows that the playerbase don't want a world of sunshine, rainbows and doe-eyed puppies!"

Responding wearily, Stormcrow speaks slowly.

"After our merger the interface will be in Japanese; the players won't actually know what's going on anyway.

So will they even care that we replaced Siege Engines with roaming bands of mischievous pixies who spread huggle-points to everyone on the map?"

A brief silence.

"Well, if it must be done... then it must be done." says ThunderCat, his face a mask of dismay.

"But how will we break the news to the players?

The forums will go mental!"

A much longer silence, punctuated only by the pendulous raindrops hitting the glass roof of the pyramid's apex, a nexus above their heads.

Stormcrow's fingers tap the boardroom table as he wonders how they can slip this past the players.

And then suddenly, the moment of clarity is visible in his deep-set eyes.

"I have it! This just might work...!" he says, punching the air with his fist.

"We publish all the changes on the Announcements section of the forum..."

ThunderCat's harsh bark of laughter interrupts Stormcrow's sentence.

Raising a hand for silence, Stormcrow continues on.

"But at the same - and this is the clever bit...

We make a post a few seconds later in the Suggestions Forum...

Saying that we are going to change the server clock and unit arrival times to Daylight Savings Time."

Moments pass - an eon stretched out in seconds - as a visibly shaken ThunderCat stares at Stormcrow as if he had sprouted wings and flown out of the window.

"But... but..." he stammers. And pauses, as it suddenly dawns on him, too.

"But... that's genius!" he shouts joyously at this Deus Ex Machina.

"The Playerbase don't seem to care particularly about anything we do to the game unless it involves the server clock!

Just look at the forum!

From the introduction of Siege Warfare to the nerfing of diplomatic units, from new spell schools to graphic patches, from map icons to, well, anything and everything we do - no single topic has received so many posts and attention from the users than the apparently crucial issues of how the server clock displays itself onscreen!

Simply by starting a topic with the word "time" or "clock" in it, we can slip every change we've ever wanted - no matter how mad and ill-conceived it might be - under the radar and no one will ever notice it!

Wait till we introduce a discussion about whether or not to recognise leap seconds: the thread could run forever!

This is genius!"

Basking in the euphoric glow of brilliance, Stormcrow and ThunderCat crack open a well deserved bottle of 1952 Petrus and guzzle it down, marvelling at their new understanding of what makes Illyriad's players quite literally "tick".

-------

We return you to your previous scheduled service, below:

Replies:

Posted By: Larry
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 01:15

@12hr clock: From my eve experience at least 24hr clocks offer a pretty easy, unambiguous means by which to ensure everyone from all different TZ is on the same page, not entirely sure what the benefit of the 12hr clock would be other than conceivably minor aesthetics.

Other than that, it looks like a very promising list, will be cool to see the game develop.

Posted By: Diablito
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 01:20

i'm a fan of the 24:00 hour clock myself, makes organicing much easier.

Posted By: KillerPoodle
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 02:04

Diablito wrote:

i'm a fan of the 24:00 hour clock myself, makes organicing much easier.

3rd'd.

Posted By: GM Gryphon
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 02:34

4thed on the 24hr clock.

Can't wait to see the new female race images... Do the Dwarf women have mustaches?

Posted By: bow locks
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 08:18

horror!!!!

The one thing that made we worry on this list was the 12hr clock.

24hrs pls, in agreement with Diablito!!!

(blackberry app)

VERY impressive list, good to see you so dedicated!

(did i mention blackberry app?)

them buggers can use their iphones i believe.

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 08:25

Heh. The thing is (and I don't mean this as any sort of implied criticism) - many of our cousins across the pond simply do not understand 24hr clock. We've already had multiple petitions asking us why this game uses "Military Time", and requesting us to change to 12hr.

I guess one option would be to allow style of clock (12 or 24) to be a user-profile-settable option, so people can make (and save) their own preference; and this might be the route we go down.

And no, Dwarf women do not have moustaches.

Posted By: Diablito
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 08:40

Aye, this much is true...americans do seem to have a problem with counting to 24, despite half of them apparantly being busy invading some middle eastern nation.

How about letting us chose somewhere?

Posted By: Wuzzel
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 10:07

Thats what SC said Diablito!

I guess one option would be to allow style of clock (12 or 24) to be a user-profile-settable option, so people can make (and save) their own preference; and this might be the route we go down.

Posted By: Gila
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 20:06

Diablito wrote:

Aye, this much is true...americans do seem to have a problem with counting to 24, despite half of them apparantly being busy invading some middle eastern nation.

-,-

American, voting for the 24 hour clock...

-,-

Posted By: Wuzzel
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 20:11

I am European... 24h way to go :).

Not that hard to understand how it works :).

Posted By: smarm
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 20:22

So... 14 o'clock is what in real time?

Posted By: Wuzzel
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 20:29

2 pm for you guys.

14 - 12 = 2 :)

Posted By: smarm
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 20:35

So I have to do MATH to find out what time it is!?

bummer.

Posted By: Wuzzel
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 20:49

Its easy once you get it.
Will be automatically.
Now its 21:48
21:48 - 12 = 9:48pm (for me in The Netherlands).

Basic math :).

But SC is going to give us the option to have am/pm or 24 so dont be worried smarm :)

Posted By: smarm
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 20:54

Ah good... I'm one of those dumb Americans that Stormcrow was talking about. I'd hate to have to do even simple math... if I don't have too!

;)

Posted By: Kumomoto
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 21:42

Wuzzel wrote:

Thats what SC said Diablito!

I guess one option would be to allow style of clock (12 or 24) to be a user-profile-settable option, so people can make (and save) their own preference; and this might be the route we go down.

Europeans have a hard time reading... Cut Diablo some slack... The post wasn't a cartoon...

Posted By: Wuzzel
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 22:00

What about Americans having a hard time to read the 24hour clock? :)

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 22:21

smarm wrote:

Ah good... I'm one of those dumb Americans that Stormcrow was talking about. I'd hate to have to do even simple math... if I don't have too!

;)

Hey, hey - no criticism implied! - I'm married to a Yank and I've lived out across the pond for a good number of years (though back in Her Brittanic Maj's Sceptred Isle nowadays).

Living over thataways, though, I did discover that 24hr clock isn't as universally ubiquitous over there as it is over here, which weirdly seemed to depend largely on which State you lived in (I never found out why).

-------------
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Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2010 at 22:23

But, on another note: we now have pages of responses to the dev list, and pretty much the key talking point seems to be the 12 vs 24hr clock display.

If that's the big issue here, this could be an easier development list than we previously thought Wink

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Posted By: Arcturas
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2010 at 02:49

I don't actually know what math is. LEAVE THE 24 HR CLOCK!

Posted By: Larry
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2010 at 04:33

haha SC and Diablito's comments are somewhat ironic given that I, an American, was the first to protest the proposed change to a 12 hour clock.

On other stuff: It all looks pretty good to be honest, thats probably why we're all left to just bicker over nit picks.

Posted By: The_Dude
Date Posted: 09 Apr 2010 at 16:03

Is there a way to set the game clock to my local time for my System Alerts, Etc.? Being stuck on UK time messes with my feeble little excuse of a brain.

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 09 Apr 2010 at 16:55

Not currently, I'm afraid.

It is, however an item on the publically available http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/current-dev-list_topic98.html - Current Development List , as follows:

SERVER TIME AND CLOCKS

12HR Clock Option on Player Profile
Local Time Offset option on Player Profile
Server Clock (top right hand corner) to Tick

Regards,

GM Stormcrow

Posted By: Kumomoto
Date Posted: 09 Apr 2010 at 21:33

I don't think this is a good idea. If everyone's clock is different, then coordinating maneuvers will be a nightmare... (ie there is real utility in having a "Game Time" or maybe call it "I-Time")

Posted By: The_Dude
Date Posted: 09 Apr 2010 at 23:27

Kumomoto wrote:

I don't think this is a good idea. If everyone's clock is different, then coordinating maneuvers will be a nightmare... (ie there is real utility in having a "Game Time" or maybe call it "I-Time")

Disagree wholeheartedly. For alliance cooridination, just use Zulu (GMT) for a global standard.

Dev Team - I suggest a GMT display concurrent with player's local time.

Posted By: HonoredMule
Date Posted: 10 Apr 2010 at 00:46

Screw GMT, UTC is where it's at.

Posted By: The_Dude
Date Posted: 10 Apr 2010 at 01:19

HonoredMule wrote:

Screw GMT, UTC is where it's at.

Stumped this Chump again. What is "UTC"?

Posted By: Tubana
Date Posted: 10 Apr 2010 at 02:42

Wow - I think I agree with The_Dude this time.

Posted By: rescendent
Date Posted: 10 Apr 2010 at 10:44

The_Dude wrote:

HonoredMule wrote:

Screw GMT, UTC is where it's at.

Stumped this Chump again. What is "UTC"?

UTC can differ to GMT by over 0.9 seconds Shocked

Posted By: waylander69
Date Posted: 10 Apr 2010 at 11:47

Sorry GMT is the time the whole world ticks by then different countries mess about with...i live in spain and am just fine with GMT...mind you i do miss scotland and all that rain...

Posted By: HonoredMule
Date Posted: 10 Apr 2010 at 13:55

GMT is offset by daylight savings time. UTS is true "base time," and never jumps around on you no matter where you are OR what time of year it is. I've seen a lot of time-sensitive tech projects use GMT only to have various operations and functions totally screwed up when daylight savings time comes in or out of effect somewhere and suddenly everything goes out of sync with international sources.

Technically, UTC can differ from GMT by up to .9 seconds, but that's generally not a noteworthy issue. Having logs, timestamps, or data snapshots off by an hour is.

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 10 Apr 2010 at 14:16

It's also worth noting that Zulu time is UTC, not GMT.

Personally, I favour a move to JD (please note, specifically JD - and not MJD, RJD or that Nasa-introduced abomination, TJD). Parts of the game (the lunar phase) for example, run off JD currently so it wouldn't be hard to introduce.

And what's not to love about the simplicity of the JD at the time of this post, a beautifully simple 2455297.09414 ?

Posted By: Wuzzel
Date Posted: 10 Apr 2010 at 14:22

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1VlRqeTkE0 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1VlRqeTkE0

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 10 Apr 2010 at 14:26

HonoredMule wrote:

UTS is true "base time," and never jumps around on you no matter where you are OR what time of year it is.

Ah... but it does jump (or rather, slip) around on you, HM - dependent on inertial frame and gravitational dilation.

Posted By: HonoredMule
Date Posted: 11 Apr 2010 at 06:40

Posted By: The_Dude
Date Posted: 11 Apr 2010 at 15:51

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Does anybody really care?

Posted By: Kumomoto
Date Posted: 12 Apr 2010 at 16:50

The_Dude wrote:

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Does anybody really care?

It's time to take back this thread from the squints!

Posted By: ivyleaves
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2010 at 17:28

GM Stormcrow wrote:

Heh. The thing is (and I don't mean this as any sort of implied criticism) - many of our cousins across the pond simply do not understand 24hr clock. We've already had multiple petitions asking us why this game uses "Military Time", and requesting us to change to 12hr.

American here, and for that reason I believe a 24hr clock is essential - it's already hard enough to deal with the 7-8 hr time difference without getting am and pm mixed up.

GM Stormcrow wrote:

And no, Dwarf women do not have moustaches.

Only beards, right?