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Discussion about In-game Time vs Real world Time and how it may affects areas / weather / seasons
novercalis
Member, Founder, Kickstarter
So in EverQuest - every REAL LIFE 6 minutes = 1 hour of in-game time.
Every 72 mins = 1 day cycle.
Discussion 1 - Instead of having weekly/montly season changes based on REAL LIFE - shouldn't this be focus around in-game day/time cycle?
This the question becomes - does AoC have a time determined already? How long is a day cycle in REAL LIFE?
Discussion 2 - With that said - in EQ there is a zone called "Kithicor Forest" but overall - throughout the world - spawns are determine by night/day. In Kithicor Forest - it is the most notable one. It forced many newbies to wait for the day to attempt to pass the zone safely. At night, it was a very high lvl zone with high aggro ranges, making it near impossible for player to pass without Invisibility to Undead.
Day time - low amount of undead, beast, orcs, etc.
Night time - Undead army (literally) & wolves
There was another zone - Mistimoore Castle, a place filled with vampires and undead. However the time determines the type of spawns you may see. Rare spawns occurs during the night only. So players had to wait 36 mins for a chance for a rare named spawn to pop.
Should or Does AoC have something like this going on. If not, should they?
MATH Side Note:
By EQ standards:
72 mins = 1 in-game day
24 hours = 20 in-game Days
168 hours (7days) = 140 in-game days
If ashes of creation went with a 6 min = 1 hr. 168 hours will result in 140 -ingame days
Thus a calender year in AOC looks to have 560 days
560/4 seasons = 140 days per season
140 / 3 months = 46.666666
A month would be 47 followed by 46
47-46-47 = 3 month cycle
Every 72 mins = 1 day cycle.
Discussion 1 - Instead of having weekly/montly season changes based on REAL LIFE - shouldn't this be focus around in-game day/time cycle?
This the question becomes - does AoC have a time determined already? How long is a day cycle in REAL LIFE?
Discussion 2 - With that said - in EQ there is a zone called "Kithicor Forest" but overall - throughout the world - spawns are determine by night/day. In Kithicor Forest - it is the most notable one. It forced many newbies to wait for the day to attempt to pass the zone safely. At night, it was a very high lvl zone with high aggro ranges, making it near impossible for player to pass without Invisibility to Undead.
Day time - low amount of undead, beast, orcs, etc.
Night time - Undead army (literally) & wolves
There was another zone - Mistimoore Castle, a place filled with vampires and undead. However the time determines the type of spawns you may see. Rare spawns occurs during the night only. So players had to wait 36 mins for a chance for a rare named spawn to pop.
Should or Does AoC have something like this going on. If not, should they?
MATH Side Note:
By EQ standards:
72 mins = 1 in-game day
24 hours = 20 in-game Days
168 hours (7days) = 140 in-game days
If ashes of creation went with a 6 min = 1 hr. 168 hours will result in 140 -ingame days
Thus a calender year in AOC looks to have 560 days
560/4 seasons = 140 days per season
140 / 3 months = 46.666666
A month would be 47 followed by 46
47-46-47 = 3 month cycle
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Comments
so a week consist of tendays?
A real life week would be roughly 21 in game days
If it were me I'd round it so if each season is 1 weeks it would be 2 hours irl/1 day in game or if each season is 2 weeks then 4 hours irl/ 1 day in game.
1 week seasons are too fast of a rotation to make any seasonal resources in the game worth anything. I say make a season 1 real month. Allowing for 3 annual rotations in game with 1 real year.
I used 1 and 2 weeks as an example because on the wiki it says season are supposed to be 1-2 weeks. If it were up to me i think each season being 2 weeks is best and 4 hours irl/1 day in game. Imo 1 month is too slow
The season change to happen in the middle of the week.
That would help if seasons are important and I cannot play in one of the weekends.
But 3 weekends for a season would make the year a bit long if I play every day.
not necessarily, different regions have different biomes and are affected in different ways by each season. There is plenty to keep the scenery fresh throughout a month
Some people don't have time to be tourists. Those legendary dishes and drinks need skilled chefs... and the crops need care too.
Thats true but you dont cater to the player with the least amount of time to play the game.
With that said, I think that what really matters is how long each season will be, because we know that Node sieges, Castle sieges and other similar in-game events will have different cooldowns and countdowns based in real life days and prime time hours, which is fine.
So, coming back to seasons, I believe that Ashes really needs to nail this. Seasons can't be too short so that it doesn't impact the game as it should and they can't be too long so that it impacts the game more than it should.
I will understand if Intrepid chooses to make seasons one week long for Alpha 2 for testing purposes, however, in my opinion, the sweet spot is going to be one month long seasons. What that means is that some events which only happen in a season will, maybe, only happen again 3 real life months later, and each season will be played three times a year.
I don't know how many in-game days one real life day will translate to, but I believe that how long seasons will last is more relevant.
100% agree, it will also keep a manageable worth on seasonal resources
this is what it would be
So I'm just pulling numbers out of my butt, but If I were to put numbers to how long people play, 0-2 hours is casual 2-4 hours is average and 4+ hours is hard-core. If each day was 8 hours then only the hard-core players would be able to experience a whole day in game. If it was 4 hours than at least most people will be able to experience the full day in their playtime which is good if you can only log in certain times of the day. My thoughts on playtime could be way off though since I didn't look any numbers up.
That is also true.
But depends how the game is balanced.
If a legendary is easy to get, then is not a legendary anymore.
If some players like to stay close to their node, where their business is, the game might be balanced based on how resilient they are. Based on such data, developers can set progress so that only 5% of crafters will reach the level required to produce legendary gear. And those might not have time to visit the other side of the map often.
And how does a players choice to invest all of their time into crafting have anything to do with how long a season lasts? They can pursue that and choose to forgo other content, but that doesnt mean you should make seasons worthless for the sake of convenience. If you make seasons too short, everything related to them will have to quick of a turnaround
If you have crops which you harvest once per year, then you get them once every 4 months in real life if seasons are long. The dynamic of the economy slows down.
Anyway, I have no idea how things are or will be balanced.
If you say there is a lot to do for a crafter all the time, independent of seasons, then any option is good.
I dont expect you having to wait in game months for farming to produce crops. Otherwise youd be waiting forever to breed mounts in animal husbandry
As I said before, in Everquest
72 REAL LIFE MINUTES = 1 IN-GAME Day.
If we went with that standard - the world of verra has 560 days in a calender year.
Based on that - it would translate to seasons looking to be about 1 week (140 in-game days)
Is this the lore AoC wants? The world of Verra having 560 calender year, 4 seasons consisting of 140 days at a (47-46-47) month cycles?
It has not been decided, they have only stated they want feedback and to test it as far as I know
I mean, those are everquest numbers, not AoC numbers. It could be anything. They could even have day/night cycles in real time.
A few of us addressed that. I don't think there are any official numbers except on the wiki it says 1-2 irl weeks per season, subject to change.
I still like my suggestion of 4 hours irl = 1 day in game and 2 weeks irl = 1 season in game. I guess it doesn't have to match the 365 days irl, but we don't have anything else to go off of right now.
Seasons affect crops and other herbology resources available for gathering or planting, including how crop rotation is managed.
Seasons may not directly affect certain gatherables, such as veins of ore, but access to those resources may be blocked during certain weather conditions.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Resources
Yes it says seasons affect the type of resources available. Not that you cant grow anything. You should be able to grow things in every season, just not the same thing.
Seasonal variations in resource availability will impact the economy and necessitate the transit of goods between different regions.[12]
One of the things that is huge about the season system and how it affects crops and the gatherables in the game is the impact it will have on the economy. When a particular area no longer is capable for a week's period of time, or even potentially longer, of producing a certain type of crop or harvestable; and that has to change across the world regionally, now the transit system of those materials of those gatherables they become more relevant, and they're subject to potential risk; and the prices might go up in certain areas. It is something that is actually very instrumental in the overall design of the economy in the game.[12] – Steven Sharif