Game. Time and Date
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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.
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 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.
Since the time is represented in form of a dial clock it uses 1-12 AM + 1-12 PM hours instead of 24 hours cycle. But, for the ease of implementation, we are using 24 hours format in this documentation.
300 seconds of in-game time (5 minutes or one change on the clock) passes:
- every 17 seconds of real time (
17.5xratio) 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 (
30xratio) when in map mode:- idle (not moving map cursor),
- taking part in events (fighting snakes, Indians and outlaws),
- every 7 seconds of real time (
42.85xratio) when at the river and fishing, - every 3 seconds of real time (
100xratio) 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.
In-game time flow observes the following periods of the day that are denoted by different colors:
- Dawn: Starts at 05:00 and lasts two hours, until 06:55
- Day: Starts at 07:00 and last until 16:55
- Dusk: Starts at 17:00 and lasts two hours, until 18:55
- Night: Starts at 19:00 and lasts until 04:55 the next day
When new game starts, it starts on day one (Monday), at 09:00, so two hours into day.
All town's venues (except for Saloon and Stable) closes one hour before night (so at 18:00), and remains closed until end of dawn (so until 06:55).
It is not possible to enter the building or make use of any of its functionality, if it is closed.
Sleeping is possible since beginning of dusk, so since 17:00, until beginning of dawn, so until 5:00.
Sleeping advances clock until 09:00 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 23:00 advances you to Tuesday, 09:00 (correct)
- starting sleep on Tuesday at 01:00 advances you to... Wednesday, 09:00 (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, 09:00 even if you went to sleep three hours earlier.
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.
Here are some example images to show how various interface items are changing during three periods of the day.
We are, however, using only "day" images of each element. And the differences for "dusk or dawn" and "night" are achieved by filters, not by having images in separate variants. So consider those as just examples.
| Day | Dusk or Dawn | Night | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand |  |
 |
 |
| Day | Dusk or Dawn | Night | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty |  |
 |
 |
| Hands |  |
 |
 |
Here is an example of game map during various parts of the day.
| Period | Image |
|---|---|
| Day |  |
| Dusk or Dawn |  |
| Night | |
| Day | Dusk or Dawn | Night | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday |  |
 |
 |
| Tuesday |  |
 |
 |
| Wednesday |  |
 |
 |
| Thursday |  |
 |
 |
| Friday |  |
 |
 |
| Saturday |  |
 |
 |
| Sunday |  |
 |
 |
| [empty] |  |
 |
 |
The above are pure examples. For calendar we are not using even "day" images, but an empty frame with text printed using plain text. This is necessary in order to have day names translated to all the supported languages.
