Upcoming Calendar/Time Changes

[Flower Power]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but am I reading the spoiler correctly: 1 IG hour will soon be 18 RL minutes?

Will Hour/lvl spells be changed to keep their durations at (roughly) their current length, or will everyone be receiving a nice QoL change with longer lasting buffs (which, admittedly, probably wouldn't hurt too much from a balance perspective given how trivial dispelling/breaching people is.)

Will the IG Calendar also be adjusted to conform to the Calendar of Harptos (3 weeks of 10 days each per month, with 5 extra holidays tossed in) or is that something that's unchangeable?

[Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia]

So. The timescale reduction from 10x to 3x is currently being worked on (or really, being prepped for us to flip the Big Frankenstein Switch), and there will be both a comprehensive 'what the heck is going on' post with all the detail, as well as a quick reference post, leading up to the switchover. The short version I'll give now:

- RP and state (hunger/thirst/rest) ticks will continue to be 6 RL minutes apart, with each third one marking the passing of one IG hour (18 RL minutes).

- Hour/level spells will all be correspondingly longer-lasting (though any one-off exceptions to that will be at the discretion of Garrbear & co). Round-/Turn-based spells will be unchanged.

- We are not likely going to exactly match up to the Calendar of Harptos, but we'll get as close as is reasonably possible.

- For things like quarter/shop timers, landbroker bidding periods, etc.: We're going to keep everything as close to the same durations and times (in RL terms) as possible. A 7 RL day quarter will still be a 7 RL day quarter, but over that period of RL time, 21 (3x) in-game days will have passed, not 70 (10x).

I hate confusing time and timeline stuff. I like simple. It'll certainly still take some getting used to, but we want the smallest amount of potential confusion as possible from the outset of the change, and we want people to have to re-learn as little as possible. Again: you guys will have more details/handy reference sheet leading up to the switchover.

[Nitro]

- Hour/level spells will all be correspondingly longer-lasting (though any one-off exceptions to that will be at the discretion of Garrbear & co). Round-/Turn-based spells will be unchanged.

I for one would greatly appreciate if it was an all or nothing affair. Having to go on a wiki to check if a spell labeled hrs/level is 6 or 18 minutes per level would add a lot to the already considerable wiki-trawling necessary to understand Arelith custom content. I hope the team can settle on one, the other, or a compromise that applies across the board for the sake of consistency.

[Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia]

- Hour/level spells will all be correspondingly longer-lasting (though any one-off exceptions to that will be at the discretion of Garrbear & co). Round-/Turn-based spells will be unchanged.

I for one would greatly appreciate if it was an all or nothing affair. Having to go on a wiki to check if a spell labeled hrs/level is 6 or 18 minutes per level would add a lot to the already considerable wiki-trawling necessary to understand Arelith custom content. I hope the team can settle on one, the other, or a compromise that applies across the board for the sake of consistency.

Hard agree. As I said above, the simpler, the better.

[triaddraykin]

Long as it's in the spell description for reference, as I think it is for many tweaked vanilla spells, should be fine.

[Exordius]

18 seems a bit much, i was thinking maybe 12 at most. But we will see how it goes, should be interesting.

[mirvv]

Well it will be heplfull a certain races to stay around at certain period of time on certain server
gogogo.. hordes of drows and vampires

[Dalenger]

Well it will be heplfull a certain races to stay around at certain period of time on certain server
gogogo.. hordes of drows and vampires

There is a flip side to this though... if I only have a couple hours to play and the sun just started to rise, I'm SOL. While I agree that sometimes the short nights can be annoying for light-adverse races, it does lend itself to a sense of urgency. I'm also worried for all the commoners/traders who depend on the caravan network to get around: waiting for the next train is already annoying enough as it is, but having to wait RL hours for the first caravan of the day will be debilitating. I hope that they greatly increase the frequency of departures, perhaps every hour during the day and every second hour hour during the night.

All told, I think this will be a good change. If turn/level spells get buffed, it'll certainly be a QoL boon to casters and may bring in an end of Extend Spell (which, tbf, has already been muscled out of a lot of builds). However, I don't see extending round/level spells to mean something *different* than an combat round to lead to anything other than confusion and some serious balance issues... more to follow, I guess.

[mirvv]

well, i had got long ago a caravan user commoner-merchant (it was MoD rogue back than for me) so i know the pain, but maybe you can ask/hire escort (rp) instead waiting. And our last raid was interrupted by sunrise before it would even started really...