Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

[Pagerron]

I just thought I'd share what I'd found for what it's worth. I have a couple of questions, too.

Here's what I've found.

TIME OF DAY
Morning begins at 6:00
Noon begins at 11:00 (I triple checked this)
Evening begins at 16:00
Night begins at 20:00

My little experiment.

I had my game start settings set to morning
and my field time settings at default.
Apparently the game begins at 8:00 if you do that.
I didn't move my player. I just stood in one place. One time I did check the game clock by going to the menu screen. This may have delayed the time of day for a few seconds, I'm not sure.

Actual time of play is on the left, time of day is on the right.

0:00 - TIME OF DAY 8:00
(3 min. 32 sec. passed)

3:32 - Noon 11:00
(5 min. 39 sec. passed)

9:11 - Evening 16:00
(4 min. 29 sec.passed)

13:39 - Night 20:00
(11 min. 6 sec. passed)

24:45 - Morning 6:00
(5 min. 33 sec. passed)

30:18 - Noon 11:00

For every minute and seven seconds or so, one hour passes in the game. That being the case, you can give timed quests to your player.

Therefore, I thought...
In a dungeon you can have a player press the button at an event which changes the time of day to 6:30. Then bring up a message that states that you have five minutes (4 1/2 "time of day" hours) to find a treasure or whatever.

Then have an invisible event somewhere on the same floor set to auto, with a condition being that it won't start until "noon" When noon (11:00) comes five minutes later, have this event do whatever you'd like.

When I just walked or ran around and didn't interact much with other events or doors on the dungeon floor, it worked out just about right - 5 minutes and 18 seconds until the effect. When I tried again, this time setting off some traps and opening doors, it was a little more than that.

QUESTIONS
1- I guess interacting with other events causes a lag in the internal time of day but not the time of gameplay. Any suggestions?

2- Is there a way for the player to see more than just morning, noon, evening and night when it comes to the time of day - like the exact time on the clock? I know one indicator is the position of the sun and moon in the sky map above the words "morning" and "evening," which are constantly moving, but I was hoping that there was a way the player could see the actual passing of the minutes of the "time of day." I haven't found one, but maybe someone else knows how.

Thank you for any input.
Pagerron

[WilliamKirk]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

I don't have RPGM3 yet, but I'm quite sure I know the first answer.
I don't know if RPGM3 gives you access to 'Action Scripts', but in RPGM2 'Action Scripts' ran when the player wasn't in a menu/in a battle/in a 'Content Script' ('Content Script' is just a fancy word for something interactable with such as warping from screen to screen, seeing a storyteller, or seeing a message window, etc.). Anyways, it sounds to me that RPGM3 keeps track of the time of day with an 'Action Script'. If that wasn't clear enough, please say so. Otherwise, if RPGM3 gives you access to 'Action Scripts', I have an idea that might work.

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

Unfortunately RPGM3 doesn't give you access to any of the game engine scripts.

[Wavelength]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

This bump is half because I think it's a great topic that could use some more discussion if anyone's figured out anything else about the mechanisms of time-of-day in the last three years, and half to thank Pagerron for the number of times this thread has saved my ass while making my game.

[Ωbright]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

That '11 o'clock = noon' thing is just weird. I guess it's because time is divided into sections. The divisions between them become the triggers, so 'noon' (the span of time) actually begins a little before 12 o'clock, so that noon wouldn't go too far into 'afternoon', presumably. Still, it's unintuitive when you get into coding, and destined to lead to frustration. Thanks for clearing this up.

[Wavelength]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

Hey Pagerron, do you mind if I add a little of this info to the "Read before asking a Question" thread, particular the specific times where time-of-day changes?

(Hito, let me know if this is a problem or if you'd rather do it.)

[Pagerron]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

No, I don't mind at all. I'd be honored!! Thanks.

A nondescript crowd chants hauntingly in the background
"Noon is Eleven!! Noon is Eleven!!"

[MagusMartovich]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

You could still use the "timed treasure" idea but you would need to either not mention a specific time frame ("...find the Orb within minutes...") or alert the player that they are timed ("...somthing within the wall begings to move: better hurry!") and/or that the time has run out and they need to kickstart the puzzle again ("...a loud crash is heard from some far off quarter...")

I like the idea of being timed beause it adds another side to what RM3 is capable of. As far as the lag from interactoin with events, that can be fairly negligable. There are plenty of media wherein something happens in a different part of the world at the same time and although the audience sees these events, we are back with what was going on in the first place as if no time had passed. Just because it takes the payer time to read and interact with the in-game switches, doesn't mean that the characters spent an equal ammount of time in doing so.

[Spirit]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

you could also use it to time esqapes: the dungion begins to fill up with water!!.
if they dont get out fast you could kill the player and make them start over!!
thanks love this thread

[Wavelength]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

You could still use the "timed treasure" idea but you would need to either not mention a specific time frame ("...find the Orb within minutes...") or alert the player that they are timed ("...somthing within the wall begings to move: better hurry!") and/or that the time has run out and they need to kickstart the puzzle again ("...a loud crash is heard from some far off quarter...")

I'm just curious as to what the "timed treasure" setup is. Is that where things you do (such as getting into battles) that have nothing to do with actual time cause you to gain a Treasure, which in turn activates an Auto Event that causes a countdown timer to move, and you have to accomplish something before that countdown timer hits zero?

[MagusMartovich]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

That'd be cool, but a bit "if-y" to pull off.

I was thinking along the lines of Prince of Persia (the newer ones, not the classics for NES/SNES) wherein hero pulls lever, activates door lift across room and needs to drop several bridges/etc each with its own cinema scene but only has about 5 actual seconds until said door closes itself again causing you to need to start the process over again.

The "ZOMFG water!!!" is a great idea too! FF7 did a few (2 or 3 if I'm not mistaken) sets of "...and now you're timed" but the timer was active and ran through cinema and battles and everything. Sometimes you died and had to start from a save, and sometimes you just didn't get the item or whatever, but that actually makes me wonder if "time" runs through battles or not. Like would there be a way to wait it out in a battle if you didn't quite make the door until its "evening" again and have a fresh 5 minutes to make a break 2 more steps?

The more I think about it the more I want to exploit this idea (as a player) and the more I want to dust off some of my old game scripts and see if I can't make one or two of the workable.

[Wavelength]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

Thanks for the clarification on timed treasures, MM.

Also, I don't think the RM3 timer runs through battle. I'd actually like it to. But it doesn't.

[MagusMartovich]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

No, right, which is what I figured. It'd make games play like action movies where the fight is in slo-motion but really only takes half a second to conclude and the hero always makes it "just in time" but its still a neat idea.

Shorten the timer so that battles "seem" to make a difference or just make there be no battles so that the player needs to get his/her/its concentration on.

[Wavelength]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

Assuming you're either using scripted battles or the Treasure Drop trick, you can reduce the player's time every time they complete a battle.

[MagusMartovich]

Re: Time of Day, Game Play Time, and Actual Time

Though, again, if you happen to be unlucky and get into 3 fights instead of 2 or whatever you have to go and do it all over again.

Plus, if the player thinks they need to hit all the fights, they'll never solve the puzzle.

I would think thta you could even extend the time if the player hits all the fights, like, "...killing off the guards might buy us some extra time..."