Time Keeping Skill

[John]

Wow, I come back to Arm and not only do we now have scores next to each skill (I'm of two minds if I like them there or if I should remove them). But we suddenly have direction sense as a visible skill, instead of a hidden one (rangers were reputedly the only ones who could traverse a sandstorm once upon a time).

Something that's really irked me is that whether you can tell the time is a binary flag on each room. Either you know the time in that room, in which case you know the time perfectly. Or you don't know the time in which case you never know the time, even if there's an outdoor room right next to it and all you need to do is look <direction> to see where the sun is at.

What if we got a Time Keeping Skill where it became harder and harder to determine the time the longer you had been underground. So if you've just entered underground, you should be able to know what the time is regardless of your level in the skill. The more time spent underground, the more difficult it would be to accurately guess the time. Instead of getting "you don't know" you could instead get more and more inaccurate answers until after a few months you just have no idea whatsoever what the time is and it gives you a completely random time.

This would make it a bit easier for all those Under Tuluki inhabitants.

What do people think?

[Qzzrbl]

Wow, I come back to Arm and not only do we now have scores next to each skill (I'm of two minds if I like them there or if I should remove them). But we suddenly have direction sense as a visible skill, instead of a hidden one (rangers were reputedly the only ones who could traverse a sandstorm once upon a time).

Something that's really irked me is that whether you can tell the time is a binary flag on each room. Either you know the time in that room, in which case you know the time perfectly. Or you don't know the time in which case you never know the time, even if there's an outdoor room right next to it and all you need to do is look <direction> to see where the sun is at.

What if we got a Time Keeping Skill where it became harder and harder to determine the time the longer you had been underground. So if you've just entered underground, you should be able to know what the time is regardless of your level in the skill. The more time spent underground, the more difficult it would be to accurately guess the time. Instead of getting "you don't know" you could instead get more and more inaccurate answers until after a few months you just have no idea whatsoever what the time is and it gives you a completely random time.

This would make it a bit easier for all those Under Tuluki inhabitants.

What do people think?

While Undertuluk is no more, I kinda actually like the idea of a way to keep track of time underground.... Perhaps not in the form of a skill, but I dunno.

[Case]

This would be an annoying amount of effort to code for relatively no payoff. The way it currently works is pretty close to how you want it - but you the player/character have to use your memory and estimate based on elapsed time from your last reference time.

[hyzhenhok]

Too little pay-off, seeing as if you want to play as though your PC is a master at tracking the passage of time all you have to do is remember an IG hour is 10 RL minutes.

[FantasyWriter]

the only thing I would like to change about the way the code lets you tell time is to make the time available to cave/underground rooms were one of the exits is an outside room.

[musashi]

... you um ... you guys know the current IG time is on the main page, right?

[Qzzrbl]

... you um ... you guys know the current IG time is on the main page, right?

But that's ooc information. ;p

[Nyr]

The "underground time thingy" isn't set automatically on all underground rooms.  It requires the attention of a staffer to manually add a program to the room.  Adding a new skill to represent a character's understanding of the passage of time in an underground room (particularly when it is merely a bit of IC flavor in the first place) seems like a lot of work for little payoff.  The areas of the game in which this script even applies are few and far between (comparatively speaking--close to maybe 140 rooms or so total).

If you feel that you should be able to tell time in a room in which the outdoors are visible via "look direction," bug the room and we can review it for removal of that script.

[John]

The "underground time thingy" isn't set automatically on all underground rooms.

Aaah okay. I didn't realise that (or if I did know it, I've forgotten it since).

If you feel that you should be able to tell time in a room in which the outdoors are visible via "look direction," bug the room and we can review it for removal of that script.

Will do Thanks.

[FantasyWriter]

If you feel that you should be able to tell time in a room in which the outdoors are visible via "look direction," bug the room and we can review it for removal of that script.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!