I've been wrapping my head around the whole Eorzean to Earth conversion for time, piecing together just how best to interpret time in Eorzea so that it could, theoretically, flow 1::1 with Earth Time (i.e. like WoW). It hasn't been without it's set backs...but I believe I have found a solution.
The cornerstone of my hypothetical time system is that, by word of Yoshi-P, an Earth week and an Eorzean week share the same timeframe- that is, both weeks are 168 hours. This makes divvying time between days relatively simple- seven 24 hour days becomes eight 21 hour days.
The problem is how to scale the bell, minutes, and seconds that ensue. Do these scale down by the same factor as an Eorzean day? What about factoring in leap years? And what about all the in game clocks that are set to factors of 12? In that regard:
1). Impossible: Scaling down seconds alone is a complete mathematical mess that is, quite honestly, improbable to implement reliably. Seconds must remain 1::1 to be thesable to implement.
2). Thankfully, we can consider leap years unnecessary in Eorzean time. The Eorzean Calender can be considered 'perfect'- eight days a week, four weeks a month, and twelve months a year is a very neat and efficient management of time. Leap Years on Earth are basically adding back the 1/4th of a day that we round down from each year, so Earth would be 'catching up' once every four years.
As for clocks? That was my breakthrough moment.
I thought about it, and decided to divide the minutes of 21 hours by 12. That is to say, 1260\12 = 105. And I realized it. We didn't need Bells of an Eorzean day to equal one hour. We could simply have Twelve Bells- The First Astral Bell unto the Sixth Umbral Bell. It fits beautifully into Eorzea's concept of Moons and Cycles. The 3rd Umbral Bell, on the Second Fireday of the Sixth Astral Moon...wordy, perhaps, but elegantly high fantasy.
As for minutes and seconds? It would be toilsome to adjust clocks to compensate for anything else than sixty minutes...but we don't have to! 105 minutes is 6300 seconds, which means we can 60 minutes at 105 seconds each minute. So to recap:
1 Eorzean Week = Eight Eorzean Days = 168 Earth Hours
1 Eorzean Day = 21 Earth Hours = 1260 Earth Minutes
12 Eorzean Bells = 21 Earth Hours
1 Bell = 105 Earth Minutes = 60 Eorzean Minutes
1 Eorzean Minute = 105 Earth Seconds::Eorzean Ticks
What would this mean for the RP, if Yoshi-P found this page, went "Eureka!" and had the Dev Team calibrate Eorzean Time to flow to this system (which would make me have a cheshire grin for days)? It solves WoW's biggest problem with 1::1 time. Instead of having to log in and RP the same time every day (which sucks for folks at off hours, who have to RP nightowls), time rotates. If during the weekend you have RP hours at night, during the week you find yourself moving slowly through the day cycle, each day closer to the weekend having you start closer to the morning, then into the afternoon, and finally the evening once more as the cycle repeats itself.
Of course, I could just be a madman that RPs yet another catlad in the game. That wouldn't surprise me..which is why I post it here. What do you all think? Could this work? Should it be brought forward to Yoshi-P against the odds that it's too troublesome to implement? Should I just give myself a swirly?
The cornerstone of my hypothetical time system is that, by word of Yoshi-P, an Earth week and an Eorzean week share the same timeframe- that is, both weeks are 168 hours. This makes divvying time between days relatively simple- seven 24 hour days becomes eight 21 hour days.
The problem is how to scale the bell, minutes, and seconds that ensue. Do these scale down by the same factor as an Eorzean day? What about factoring in leap years? And what about all the in game clocks that are set to factors of 12? In that regard:
1). Impossible: Scaling down seconds alone is a complete mathematical mess that is, quite honestly, improbable to implement reliably. Seconds must remain 1::1 to be thesable to implement.
2). Thankfully, we can consider leap years unnecessary in Eorzean time. The Eorzean Calender can be considered 'perfect'- eight days a week, four weeks a month, and twelve months a year is a very neat and efficient management of time. Leap Years on Earth are basically adding back the 1/4th of a day that we round down from each year, so Earth would be 'catching up' once every four years.
As for clocks? That was my breakthrough moment.
I thought about it, and decided to divide the minutes of 21 hours by 12. That is to say, 1260\12 = 105. And I realized it. We didn't need Bells of an Eorzean day to equal one hour. We could simply have Twelve Bells- The First Astral Bell unto the Sixth Umbral Bell. It fits beautifully into Eorzea's concept of Moons and Cycles. The 3rd Umbral Bell, on the Second Fireday of the Sixth Astral Moon...wordy, perhaps, but elegantly high fantasy.
As for minutes and seconds? It would be toilsome to adjust clocks to compensate for anything else than sixty minutes...but we don't have to! 105 minutes is 6300 seconds, which means we can 60 minutes at 105 seconds each minute. So to recap:
1 Eorzean Week = Eight Eorzean Days = 168 Earth Hours
1 Eorzean Day = 21 Earth Hours = 1260 Earth Minutes
12 Eorzean Bells = 21 Earth Hours
1 Bell = 105 Earth Minutes = 60 Eorzean Minutes
1 Eorzean Minute = 105 Earth Seconds::Eorzean Ticks
What would this mean for the RP, if Yoshi-P found this page, went "Eureka!" and had the Dev Team calibrate Eorzean Time to flow to this system (which would make me have a cheshire grin for days)? It solves WoW's biggest problem with 1::1 time. Instead of having to log in and RP the same time every day (which sucks for folks at off hours, who have to RP nightowls), time rotates. If during the weekend you have RP hours at night, during the week you find yourself moving slowly through the day cycle, each day closer to the weekend having you start closer to the morning, then into the afternoon, and finally the evening once more as the cycle repeats itself.
Of course, I could just be a madman that RPs yet another catlad in the game. That wouldn't surprise me..which is why I post it here. What do you all think? Could this work? Should it be brought forward to Yoshi-P against the odds that it's too troublesome to implement? Should I just give myself a swirly?
