Game. Time and Date

The in-game time passes much quicker than real time, but difference ratio is different depending on which task prospector is actually performing or in which location it is.

Time

To make in-game time in our reboot as close to original game as possible we must implement:

• a regular clock, running standard 24 hours (or actually 1-12 AM + 1-12 PM) only running much faster, based on below ratios,
• a regular calendar running for standard 7 days of week only again running much faster (adjusted to current time ratio.

Implementing a regular clock, instead of some timestamp or seconds count should ease implementing changing time-related events in game:

• periods of day: day, dusk, night and dawn are based on appropriate hours,
• most of the town's building are open during office hours only,
• sleeping through night is also available during certain period of time only.

Resources

Time and date are represented in-game on the main panel, in its right side, in form of clock and a named day of week label.

Above mentioned three periods of the day are represented using different color sets:

	Day	Dusk or Dawn	Night
Empty
Hands

These differences will be however achieved by filters, not by having images in three variants. Consider above as just examples.

Time Speed

300 seconds of in-game time (5 minutes or one change on the clock) passes:

• every 17 seconds of real time (17.5x ratio) when:
  • doing any activity inside the town (#34),
  • panning gold or watering at river,
  • digging gold in caves and mines.
• every 10 seconds of real time (30x ratio) when in map mode:
  • idle (not moving map cursor),
  • taking part in events (fighting snakes, Indians and outlaws),
• every 7 seconds of real time (42.85x ratio) when at the river and fishing,
• every 3 seconds of real time (100x ratio) when in map mode and moving around map.

Time does not passes when game loses focus and is put to the background by the system.

Periods of the Day

Day

Day starts at 7 AM and last until 4:55 PM.

Day is represented by a standard color set. Here is an example of game map during the day.

When new game starts, it starts on day one, at 9 AM, so two hours into day.

Dusk and Down

Dusk starts at 5 PM and lasts two hours, until 6:55 PM.

Down analogously starts at 5 AM and lasts two hours, until 6:55 AM.

There is a first (lighter) colors' modifier / filter to illustrate dusk and down:

Night

Similarly to day, night starts at 7 PM and lasts until 4:55 AM.

There is a second (darker) colors' modifier / filter to illustrate night:

Office Hours

All town's venues (except for Saloon and Livery Stable) closes one hour before night, so at 6 PM, and remains closed until end of dawn. It is not possible to enter or make use of any closed building's functionality.

Yes, there are stories of a players dying at 8:55 AM, minutes before opening hours starts, at the very brink of doctor's office! :)

Sleeping

Sleeping is possible since beginning of dusk, so since 5 PM, until beginning of dawn, so until 7 AM.

Sleeping advances clock until 9 AM next day and also influences player's characteristics (health, hunger and thirst).

Note, that there's a bug (or a very weird intentional functionality) in the original game. If you click Sleep button after midnight, you are advanced not to the next day's morning, but two days later. For example:

• using sleep functionality on Monday at 11 PM advances you to Tuesday, 9 AM (correct)
• waiting two hours and using sleep functionality on Tuesday at 1 AM advances you to... Wednesday, 9 AM (wrong), causing you to sleep for 20 hours!

Not only this is wrong, but also un-natural. Even though you were sleeping through entire extra day and through two nights, your characteristics changes as you would sleep through single night only.

We don't want this functionality to be implemented in our reboot. You must be advanced to the morning, 9 AM even if you went to sleep three hours earlier.

Date

There is no real calendar in the game, expect for advancing around seven days of the week, since Monday until Saturday.

Story, User Guide and some game descriptions says that game represents time around 1860. But this is neither represented in anyway inside the game nor it influence anything through the gameplay.

Day of the week is not influencing anything within the game as well. It is just a graphical representation of days advancing.

Time and date are represented in-game on the main panel, in its right side, in form of clock and a named day of week label.

Above mentioned three periods of the day are represented using different color sets:

	Day	Dusk or Dawn	Night
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
[empty]

These differences will be however achieved by filters, not by having images in three variants. Consider above as just examples.

Cursor

In-game cursor is also period-of-the-day-dependent:

	Day	Dusk or Dawn	Night
Hand