Time Compression For Aurora?

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Skull has told me that if I like the idea of time compression so much to just go ahead and make a poll before he goes forward, because this major change is being put up to a community vote. I worked with shadow on how the voting will go. Another instance where I'm told to make a poll but still not given suggestions subforum poll perms. Thanks, Skull!

This is the first vote that will determine if time compression is something we want to do. If the yes vote wins, we will hold a second vote to determine what speed the time compression takes place with. This vote isn't meant to change any speed right now or determine any other changes. This is strictly to determine if we are going ahead with time compression.

The second vote, if yes wins, will have the following options for Aurora's timespeed:

 

• [ ] Fast Compression (2 Hour Day: 1 Hour day 1 Hour Night)
  
  [ ] Medium Compression (Cyclical, 1 Round Day Next Round Night)
  
  [ ] Slow Compression (1 IRL day = 3 IC days)

 

Then the one of the three that wins will be worked out, stream-lined, and implemented.

If the no vote wins, we will not do time compression, and we will remain sync'd with real-time.

[veradox]

Reminder time compression is a really dorky dumb thing because it directly impacts your characters' aging process (should you choose to humor it) and if you don't want to humor it, then you're just making that cartoon who never grows up. Time compression will implement the crossing of stretches and gaps from rounds where your character had some grade of groundbreaking moment into virtual hyperspeed, which will either render your character becoming a stale meme of 'he's been depressed about that one shift where he slipped for 5.5 months, wtf is wrong' away from 'it's been a week and he's still depressed he slipped really hard, almost comical'. This can also range from inactivity periods of not being staffed at station, but these are all just minute details that don't necessarily have to be accounted for, but have a decent chance of coming up somewhere down the line. As you may have also noticed, there are significant variations in day/night staffing available, but that all just drains down to the previous statement of accommodating for your character(s) with the new compression aspects.

I'm not shitposting the idea, I really like time compression at some points in time because it means I can just get over something that happened and move on with my life, but it'll also make days go perpetually REALLY fast and inhibit your interactions to a degree if you are not a consistent player. Just keep that in mind, if this change was implemented, you'll likely have to modify the methods you base your interactions.

[Guest Complete Garbage]

I'm for compression as long as there's an easy way to tell the current date/time, either server-side, or on the WI, or whatever.

[XenosTiger]

Personally, I believe that time compression might be best left untouched. I ascribe to a perfect 1:1 ratio of time. One minute IRL is one minute in game. That seems to be how a lot of people do it.

Not going to make a big wall of text, just wanted to throw in my one and a half cents.

[VileFault]

Can you please make a case for time compression, since you seem to be for it Jackboot? I don't really understand the argument for it, and it seems like it would just be a pain to remember. Maybe you want the lore to progress more rapidly? After all, in real time, wars or conflicts are unlikely to be resolved. If that is the reason, I could kind of get behind it. We should have more IC ways of finding the date without relying on the wiki, though. Calendars, computers, something like that.

[Loow]

Is this some sort of prank?

[Nikov]

I'm very hesitant. Time compression leads to the no-lifers dominating all the social aspects of the game. I'd rather keep it real time, or one shift = 8 hours, and episodic. Pile together all our rounds for the day into one actual shift we all vaguely remember and move the date forward.

[NebulaFlare]

I'm...not in favor of this.

[Nanako]

I'm somewhat in the middle, but definitely not indifferent, i leaned towards real time.

I can see both certain opportunities it would open, and certain problems it would cause, i believe the overall tradeoff is in favour of not changing.

And if it were implemented, this would take a lot of developer work that we don't need right now.

[Guest]

Not in favor. I want my characters to age day-by-day and year-by-year. Immediate jumps in time leaves glaring gaps not too dissimilar from missing link-type stories that are overall dissatisfying to experience when loose ends aren't properly tied up.

[Zundy]

OH BOY OH BOY

 

Further for the record, this would mean:

1 IG day = 1 IRL hour

1 IG hour = 2.5 IRL minutes

1 IG min = 2.5 IRL seconds

I'd recommend that the time on PDA's is pulled from a constantly running clock server side that runs at this speed oh which people can check up on via the wiki and or the forums to see the current date.

You'll have to rev up those news articles though guis.

 

The OOC IRL time would be 20 minutes but the IG time would be 8 hours. The timer would show the OOC time in my opinion to avoid confusion, likewise the crew transfer/escape shuttle and any OOC cool downs. Might also be worth having a tool in OOC or something which allows the player to convert IRL time to Aurora time and visa versa.

But that's like, my opinion man.

 

I like this idea. Personally, I'd rather make one hour into four hours, as that would make standard two-your shifts into standard 8-hour shifts, with overtime (i.e. transfer was voted against) in intervals of 2 hours (30 minute timer between votes)

I understand if this is more complex than the 1-hour=1 day, though.

 

Though I totes get where you're coming from I prefer the 1 hour = 1 day as it allows good character and round progression speed and I don't think a stint on the aurora is supposed to be a 9-5. I'd assume it be more like a navy boat in regards to work and down time.

 

Remembered this today, I'm putting Andrew Grimes on trial for this (1 day=24 days IG) in regards to aging to see how it flows, even made some funky excel spread sheetsfor myself and everything. If any one wants to join me with this please feel free.

 

FYI the trail became permanent since it works like a charm. I'm doing Ella Smith on increased time too. Shit's pretty good famalams.

 

I prefer the 4 hours to an IRL hour idea so that progressions isn't too fast, if you want to speed it up, make it eight hours.

Personally, hour to a day seems a bit overkill.

 

You'd think, but 1 hour= 1 day means the character ages by 24 years an IRL year which is perfect. 4 IG hours to 1 real hour means they'd only age up by 4 years in an IRL year which is actually very very slow when you think about it. A sec cadet would only be able to be an Officer Level One in a 1 hour-4 hour, while with 24 days an IRL day they could be a HoS with a kid who's doing a cadetship after a IRL year.

 

I'm actually against this Idea. The standpoint has a few implications, DOs would be changing their DO characters every few years and constantly making younger ones. IRs would take over a year to complete. "You have 7 days to respond to us or you're getting fucked for not doing so" become "you have 6 months." IR interviews now take half a day or more to complete when all you had was a few questions.

Beyond DO stuff, what about people who play once a week? "Dude? Where have you been for the last 6 months?" Better yet, I play my captain for a day. then I don't play him at all for a few then play him straight again for a few days. Where is that consistancy?

DTG would be fucked and I'd be constantly looking up the date/time for faxes IRs, and the like.

In the longrun it turns into book keeping for the player. I'm not willing to play a game that I have to put more time into preparing for than I do when I run DnD games. Not happening at all.

Also, I type slow. So you get a sentence from me every hour or so in game. Nah.

 

Have you had the same character for an IRL year? Do you expect to have the same character for two IRL years? If so fair enough. I don't mind rolling up new characters myself as I like to keep it fresh.

IR's already take over a year to complete :^) gg ez

It's just about suspension of disbelief. In this system you won't be saying to the Captain "MUH GAWD I HAVN'T SEEN YOU IN MONTHS" because we know about the system so we'd just deal with it in the same way we don't keep saying "WOW WE ONLY WORK TWO HOURS A DAY THIS IS A HELLA SWEET JOB BRUH" or "HOLY SHIT THIS INFECTION IS WORKING AT AN ACCELERATED RATE" and my fav', "THAT COMPLEX SURGERY TOOK TWO SECONDS, YOU MUST BE A SUPER SURGEON". Don't draw attention to it.

In the case of the IR's, again just don't draw attention to it like we already do with the other numerious unrealistic things.

I've already been using it IG with Andrew Grimes and now one's noticed either.

 

It's all here boys and ghouls!

If you think it's retarded I ask you to create a character and give it a trail run yourself, you might like it you fluffy hamburgers <3~'*

[Tequilajoe]

I am against time compression, I'd rather not change something that doesnt need to be changed.

[TrickingTrapster]

Ehhh. Idk about this. I would like time to go a little faster than 1:1 to RL time, but too fast isn't the way to go either. Besides, the time right now is wonky too. One shift the time on the status tab is 12:35, while the next shift is... 8:20. What? So that means, if you ARE doing 1:1 to RL, that's a shift from BEFORE the round prior to it. So that would technically mean you cannot reference the previous round unless you make a loophole. I would lean in favor of time compression to actually get a bit of progression going with my characters (I don't think any of them would transit off and on the station 5 times a day.) . I would be in favor of the medium compression, that seems like a nice progression to me, not too fast, not too slow.

[MoondancerPony]

This seems like a bad idea. I want characters to age faster, but I think time compression like this is a bad idea. Maybe the 'one shift is day, one shift is night' thing, but... no. It'd unnecessarily complicate things.

[Nikov]

The game was coded with all actions and systems in real time. This is a much bigger change than people realize, and the extent of the change won't become apparent until we sit down to chat with our friends and talk for seventeen hours.

[Synnono]

I think I saw these threads in the wrong order. I put my thoughts on this down in a suggestion thread.

The TL;DR of that post is that I voted no. I find much more value in taking things slow, and investing in why a character exists in the world at a certain time in their life.

[whiterabit]

I'm personally against time compression, the memeing about it fucking with DTG is nice and all but I couldn't care less about that.

Basically Synnono's post hit the nail right on the head, characters with personalities based heavily on circumstance will be effectively butchered, either they resolve too quickly or they simply don't get explored, probably both. Not every character needs a life story, because that probably wouldn't be very interesting, some characters are designed for their circumstance. With time compression I can only see these sorts of characters being filtered out, as players are unable to fully develop them.

While some people may like the appeal of playing the epilogue, I can't see everyone else being the same way. Either they'll ignore this feature entirely, modifying age as necessary and invalidating it entirely, or they'll simply replace the character once it's outlived its use.

[Zundy]

Though I can see where you're all coming from and I personally think sped up time would make for a more interesting setting. I will still roll up the characters who advance at normal speed and those that advance at turbo speed. Hell, my Unathi character app' applies to a character that would advance at normal speed (unless this goes ahead, then TOOT TOOT turbo time). I was going to write a big ol' wall of text but what a TL;DR that would've been.

It effecting your characters is a moot point as you can retcon everything about them out the ass with no IG or OOC repercussions. It's not even painful as no one bats an eye lid at all and if they do, then they're being silly sausages because it's a well established trait of this server's culture. You do not need to have your characters current goals (as you designed them) or dilemmas spiral out of control because of the speed increase, you yourself (and other players if you're interacting with them) set the pace for those interactions. You can still be a grizzled alcoholic going for a divorce for the sake of story even though months have passed in IG time. No one will care. No one will go "WOW I HAVN'T SEEN YOU IN MONTHS" in the same way no one goes "WOW THAT WAS A QUICK 5 MINUTES TRIP TO THE ODIN TO IMMEDIATELY GET BACK ONTO THE STATION". People that do are just being difficult. They are choosing to tear down the curtain of 'suspension of disbelief' for whatever reason and that's a pretty big dick move as far as role-play goes.

Antag operations are also a moot point because they're not canon anyway, and of the ones that are, they fall under the previously mentioned: You do not need to have your characters current goals (as you designed them) or dilemmas spiral out of control because of the speed increase.

The whole point of the time compression is to advance the setting in the astropolitical case and the technological case.

The only relevant dilemma is that yes, characters that have been specifically built on dealing with incidents currently occurring will not be able to use that as their main focus for excessive amounts of time. Bear in mind that the time compression, though fast, is not that fast. I use a 1 in game day is 1 IRL hour formula which gives me 15 days of IRL year to play with which works for me. It may not work for you to bring stories to an end and that's fine, that's where the meat of this argument lies. I wrote a fucking wall o'text anyway, damn.

TL;DR Do you have issues with the astropolitical landscape and technology advancing at this enhanced speed? If so why? Forget about having to age your characters and the effects that would have on IG relationships as that only matters if you make it matter.

[Synnono]

In the context of playing in a community that labels itself as "Heavy Roleplay," I believe that we are somewhat obligated to make it matter, yes. Observance of the setting and how it's implemented, playing characters faithful to the canon, and not excessively handwaving details we don't like, is part of what the 'heavy' means to me.

To me, the backstory of the game world is there to serve the player characters and help drive their interactions. Sidelining character-driven stories in service of advancing the timeline at large feels backwards to me. And I do feel like it's sidelining them. The fifteen days you're okay with for a year is not enough time for me.

Even if there were some really awesome events planned for the lore off-station, if we rushed to get to them, they'd be gone just as fast, and then we'd just be looking to the next thing. What happened an RL month ago? Ah, who cares, it's been two years, move on.

I don't like the idea of taking a week off from the game and missing six months of extremely-relevant politics. And if I were a lore-writer (not that I can speak for any of them) I would not like feeling compelled to fill those six months with meaningful storylines every seven days.

[Skull132]

TL;DR Do you have issues with the astropolitical landscape and technology advancing at this enhanced speed? If so why? Forget about having to age your characters and the effects that would have on IG relationships as that only matters if you make it matter.

 

A dishonest way to look at this poll.

The intent of this poll is 100% to figure out if the players are interested in time compression that applies to all IC events as standard. It should not be treated as a, "It only applies here and there." Not yet, anyways. The implementation should be treated as the standard to meet by all players. Plus, how much of a weird discord would it create if, characters that are played in real time need to keep up with superspeed news events? It'd be a way bigger issue than the [potential] suspension of disbelief required to understand brig timers being counted in minutes, and not hours.

The one thing I'll say is. If the vote passes with a majority, "Yes", there'll be another one which will determine the actual pace of the speed. Jackboot wants to run things fast, my alternative will be a slower deal. Kinda like, 1 IRL day = 2 to 3 IC days.

But, that's if people are actually interested in the idea. I guess the best way to look at this poll is: Are you interested in official and standardized time compression, or not?

[incognitojesus]

I am very much against this, it seems unnecessary and honestly, doesn't feel "right."

I believe one of the points brought up was that it would allow for IC events to be carried out better, however, I have heard from at least one lore team member that this wouldn't really change or help anything. This feels like a wall in terms of development. If you want to run an organic IC world, use real-time pacing so that things can actually feel like they're developing instead of just railroading an entire civil war into the span of like, a month.

[Reyjakai]

Real time seems to make more sense to me. Everything is already messed up with station time being the way it is, but everybody sort of "gets" it as it currently stands. Changing the way things are meant to flow might mess up some people.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

FINE GEEZE

[Zundy]

FINE GEEZE

 

I KNOW RIGHT. WHATEVER I GUESS.

[Bedshaped]

You went full time compression, never go full time compression.

Seriously if you had sold this as a minor 1:3 or 1:2 change this would have been taken much better. 1:12 is fairly silly imo.

When we start having features adding more persistence to the world and characters, these features will be much more attractive for balance and to push things the heck along.