Time flies when you're.. (Poll on reducing time compression)
Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 2:02 am
Should ALFA run a 2-week trial of a 14-minute game-hour?
There has been some discussion of changing the rate at which time passes on ALFA's servers. While we have maintained a seven-minute game-hour over most of ALFA's prodigious lifespan, it's always had drawbacks from an RP standpoint. Many of the features of the ACR with regards to resting, healing, and spell restoration were made to counteract some of the factors that made a short game-hour necessary.
The proposal on the table is to double the length of a game-hour from 7 minutes, to 14 minutes. This, if it carries broad support, would run for a trial of 2 weeks, from May 14th - May 31st. At or near the end of this trial period, we can gather impressions and decide whether to go back to the tried-and-true 7 minute hours, or stick with the 14 minute ones.
Some of the ramifications, for clarification:
[here, all references to minutes and hours are real-life (RL) time, while game-hours and game-days refer to in-game (IG) time as measured by the servers.]
1. "Offline resting", by which you arrive in the module with some amount of natural healing and spells fully prepared, would occur after 5.6 hours offline, rather than the current 2.8 hours. This also means the amount healed (1 HP/level/game-day rested) would be halved. A mauled 5th-level fighter logging out at midnight (RL time) with 15/60 HP, then logging back in at 6 PM (RL) the following day would be credited for 3 game-days healing, to 30/60, rather than 6 game-days of healing, for 45/60 HP.
2. A PC resting ingame (for renewal of innate spells, healing, etc) would have to wait another 5.8 RL hours to rest again (one game-day) instead of 2.8 hours.
3. Sunrise/sunset in-game would still be offset from real-life time. If you logged in at 18:00 (RL) after work monday, and found that it was also 18:00 onserver, you would have to wait 2 hours and 45 minutes (RL) until 20:48 for sunrise onserver. The next night, on Tuesday, logging in at the same time (after work, 18:00 RL), it would instead be 00:52 onserver, with a bit more than 1 hour (RL) until server-sunrise. This keeps members with set hours from perpetually playing during the world's nighttime (or daytime).
4. Spell durations. Hour/level spells would effectively be doubled in duration (Mage armor, False Life, etc.) as they will now last 14 RL minutes per caster level. This should encourage more RP on quests and outings, and less OOC impetus to hurry on to the next encounter before buffs wear down. Minute/level and round/level spells would be unaffected by the change (most of the 1-2 combat style buffs are in this category)
5. Effective capacity of spellcasting per session. Given a theoretical 3-4 hour action-packed playing session (of the sort that likely very rarely happens in ALFA, logistically speaking), PCs could use all of their spells, rest/study/pray etc, then use all their spells a second time, before having to contend with the 5.6 (RL) hour delay. Under the normal 7 minute game-hour, they would be able to work a third batch into the 3-4 hour session as well.
6. Respawn rates. [addition] As Teric points out, spawn points tend to refresh based on an (often randomized) number of game-hours. Doubling the length of the game-hour would also result in slower respawns of mobs (unless or until a server team rebalances their module to compensate, opinions will likely vary from team to team with regards to this.)
7. RPXP. [additon] The accumulation of script-awarded XP for active player client use would be unchanged by this. The number would remain 15 xp / RL hour. Increments would accumulate just as they do now (once every seven minutes RL), you'd just see 2 per game-hour instead of one.
Overall, this change makes RP surrounding being at certain places at certain times more manageable, and helps prevent a discussion over breakfast from lasting until sundown. It stretches certain spells' effectiveness, but reduces the ability of casters to use more than one or two full complements of spells per session. It reduces the availability of NPCs which spawn based on hours of the clock, but gives more generous windows in which to arrive "on time" for narrow time appointments.
I think the relative benefits merit a trial run, but I certainly don't mind things the way they are, either. The change is a tremendously simple one to achieve technically, and as we already treat the passage of time in an arbitrary fashion, it should be easy enough to try out with the Live servers. Please vote for one of the options below, the poll will run for 3 days, at the end of which a decision will be made whether to run the trial.
[edit: restated the poll question, and added point 6]
[edit: added point 7, re: RPXP]
There has been some discussion of changing the rate at which time passes on ALFA's servers. While we have maintained a seven-minute game-hour over most of ALFA's prodigious lifespan, it's always had drawbacks from an RP standpoint. Many of the features of the ACR with regards to resting, healing, and spell restoration were made to counteract some of the factors that made a short game-hour necessary.
The proposal on the table is to double the length of a game-hour from 7 minutes, to 14 minutes. This, if it carries broad support, would run for a trial of 2 weeks, from May 14th - May 31st. At or near the end of this trial period, we can gather impressions and decide whether to go back to the tried-and-true 7 minute hours, or stick with the 14 minute ones.
Some of the ramifications, for clarification:
[here, all references to minutes and hours are real-life (RL) time, while game-hours and game-days refer to in-game (IG) time as measured by the servers.]
1. "Offline resting", by which you arrive in the module with some amount of natural healing and spells fully prepared, would occur after 5.6 hours offline, rather than the current 2.8 hours. This also means the amount healed (1 HP/level/game-day rested) would be halved. A mauled 5th-level fighter logging out at midnight (RL time) with 15/60 HP, then logging back in at 6 PM (RL) the following day would be credited for 3 game-days healing, to 30/60, rather than 6 game-days of healing, for 45/60 HP.
2. A PC resting ingame (for renewal of innate spells, healing, etc) would have to wait another 5.8 RL hours to rest again (one game-day) instead of 2.8 hours.
3. Sunrise/sunset in-game would still be offset from real-life time. If you logged in at 18:00 (RL) after work monday, and found that it was also 18:00 onserver, you would have to wait 2 hours and 45 minutes (RL) until 20:48 for sunrise onserver. The next night, on Tuesday, logging in at the same time (after work, 18:00 RL), it would instead be 00:52 onserver, with a bit more than 1 hour (RL) until server-sunrise. This keeps members with set hours from perpetually playing during the world's nighttime (or daytime).
4. Spell durations. Hour/level spells would effectively be doubled in duration (Mage armor, False Life, etc.) as they will now last 14 RL minutes per caster level. This should encourage more RP on quests and outings, and less OOC impetus to hurry on to the next encounter before buffs wear down. Minute/level and round/level spells would be unaffected by the change (most of the 1-2 combat style buffs are in this category)
5. Effective capacity of spellcasting per session. Given a theoretical 3-4 hour action-packed playing session (of the sort that likely very rarely happens in ALFA, logistically speaking), PCs could use all of their spells, rest/study/pray etc, then use all their spells a second time, before having to contend with the 5.6 (RL) hour delay. Under the normal 7 minute game-hour, they would be able to work a third batch into the 3-4 hour session as well.
6. Respawn rates. [addition] As Teric points out, spawn points tend to refresh based on an (often randomized) number of game-hours. Doubling the length of the game-hour would also result in slower respawns of mobs (unless or until a server team rebalances their module to compensate, opinions will likely vary from team to team with regards to this.)
7. RPXP. [additon] The accumulation of script-awarded XP for active player client use would be unchanged by this. The number would remain 15 xp / RL hour. Increments would accumulate just as they do now (once every seven minutes RL), you'd just see 2 per game-hour instead of one.
Overall, this change makes RP surrounding being at certain places at certain times more manageable, and helps prevent a discussion over breakfast from lasting until sundown. It stretches certain spells' effectiveness, but reduces the ability of casters to use more than one or two full complements of spells per session. It reduces the availability of NPCs which spawn based on hours of the clock, but gives more generous windows in which to arrive "on time" for narrow time appointments.
I think the relative benefits merit a trial run, but I certainly don't mind things the way they are, either. The change is a tremendously simple one to achieve technically, and as we already treat the passage of time in an arbitrary fashion, it should be easy enough to try out with the Live servers. Please vote for one of the options below, the poll will run for 3 days, at the end of which a decision will be made whether to run the trial.
[edit: restated the poll question, and added point 6]
[edit: added point 7, re: RPXP]
