Time is an Illusion! Please, slow down the illusion.

[levism84]

I love the fact time speeds up when you perform certain tasks, such as lighting a fire, searching containers, harvesting/gathering, and such. However, I really wish the normal game time would be minute for minute, after all you are exploring, fighting, starving, dying in real time, so why not treat it as such?

Just curious.

[Hoseman143]

Even if you didn't make it a true 1:1 - because you'd have to slow EVERYTHING down at that point, which would become tedious and boring IMHO, You could slow the passage of time down a little and not really interfere with the current game mechanics.

[Bill Tarling]

The original very early pre-alpha editions (around v.002) were much slower (though not in real time) -- all activities had to be slowed down as well. I don't think you want to walk for a couple of hours or more in real time just to reach two locations.

Another change very early on was the day/night hours (you spent almost half the game in the dark of night originally) -- it was adjusted so players would have more active time available within the game.

[Kelbert]

I would love it, if they brought it back as an option you can enable if you want to.

Enabling that mode could give you realistic night lengths and spawn way more more lantern oil and flares on the map than usual.

That would be the true northern experience.

[levism84]

While I understand the problem with having it in real time, even with certain actions "fast-forwarding" you, is that there isn't a lot to do other than freeze to death and watch your calorie counter deplete at an unforsaken speed. However, as it is now, I feel like 150% of my time in game is dedicated towards eating scavenged food, drinking water, and foraging for enough firewood so I can make more water and not completely freeze to death.

Getting rid of the pause to think menu is great, in my humble opinion, but I think the trade off needs to be a realistic amount of time to think about the next move, forage (hopefully in a much larger map), and make the hard choices of survival. Right now, however, all of the choices are hard choices and I feel more overwhelmed than immersed.

[Sioux]

I agree, I also would like to have an option to 'slow down' the passing of time. It should be an option, so you can switch to 'fast time' if you please. But right now, like levism84 said, I feel rushed; especially when cooking etc. Time flies by superfast when cooking/boiling, even faster then the 'normal' gametime when walking outside. Like I've said before I'd like to sit at my fire, feel safe and warm at last, and think about my situation and plan my next move; more immersion for me.

[Fearsclave]

The original very early pre-alpha editions (around v.002) were much slower (though not in real time) -- all activities had to be slowed down as well. I don't think you want to walk for a couple of hours or more in real time just to reach two locations.

Another change very early on was the day/night hours (you spent almost half the game in the dark of night originally) -- it was adjusted so players would have more active time available within the game.

I'd argue in favour of fixing the day/night cycle to realistic Canadian winter values. This and potable liquids not re-freezing in the cold are a couple of major realism breaches that hurt suspension of disbelief.

If you run into bottles full of unfrozen liquids in the winter odds are they're full of either hard liquor or a far worse survival decision

[levism84]

I'd argue in favour of fixing the day/night cycle to realistic Canadian winter values. This and potable liquids not re-freezing in the cold are a couple of major realism breaches that hurt suspension of disbelief.

If you run into bottles full of unfrozen liquids in the winter odds are they're full of either hard liquor or a far worse survival decision

I didn't even think about my water supply refreezing in the cold. It would be an interesting mechanic, for sure. I suppose you could assign a value to the inventoried potable and unsanitized water supplies based on volume, assign either a static decay rate based on ambient temperature or a flexible decay rate based on volume (takes larger volumes longer to freeze), and finally transfer "decayed water" back into your inventory as "potable ice" or "unsanitized ice". I would assume it would be more work to melt unsanitized ice back into water only to boil it, but it shouldn't be starting from scratch to melt potable ice back on the stove for potable water.

Of course, then you have to fix decay rates to water items found in the environment which I can only imagine would be a programming nightmare. Maybe this is something they will get to down the road, but for right now I'd rather they focus on other aspects of the game.

[TheRealNFK]

If we can't have a slider to control time acceleration, it would be much appreciated if the time acceleration was reduced or off once the character entered a cabin or other indoor environment. It could still speed up for the regular activities (melting, boiling, cooking, crafting, sleeping, etc.), but I would love to have some downtime to just go over my inventory and plan my next move without worrying that I was running out of calories in the next real-life three minutes.

[levism84]

If we can't have a slider to control time acceleration, it would be much appreciated if the time acceleration was reduced or off once the character entered a cabin or other indoor environment. It could still speed up for the regular activities (melting, boiling, cooking, crafting, sleeping, etc.), but I would love to have some downtime to just go over my inventory and plan my next move without worrying that I was running out of calories in the next real-life three minutes.

If something like this, an accelerated time model for exploring outside in the elements combined with a real time model for inside, was implemented, there could be some unforeseen issues. However, there are some benefits I can see right now.

1. The exploration map could be more limited in size/detail if it was perceived in "faster time" (basically the time scale used right now) as it would represent how much time it would take to reach an area or deal with a life/death encounter with a wild animal. The advantage is less programming labor focused on creating the outside which means more potential programming labor focused on game play, mechanics, interior areas, storytelling opportunities, and the like.

2. The adjusting of time between exterior areas and interior areas should be fairly simple (says the non-programmer). Changing certain values depending upon when someone is inside or outside seems reasonably straight forward.

3. As mentioned before, by keeping the "activity speed" of performing certain tasks where the protagonists disappears into a blank screen (such as foraging for wood) consistent, there should be no issues whether your character is gathering wood in the wilderness or repurposing wood inside a structure. Certain searching activities that take place both outside and inside (such as searching frozen corpses and containers for items) would have to be adjusted, taking less real time outside and more real time inside.

4. Activities where the protagonist remains in place but time speeds up, such as cooking, harvesting, repairing, eating, igniting a flare would all have to have their times adjusted based on being outside or inside. The adjustment would probably be small, just to make sure an action taken outside doesn't take longer than an action that would be taken inside based on the amount of game time spent on the activity.

Issues that could occur include:

1. Shifting from one time rate to another could leave a player feeling confused about how much time they actually have. However, players will eventually adapt to this so long as it remains constant between the outside and inside areas.

2. Less time outside means less time foraging for food and supplies to use inside, as well as less time for all activities that occur outside. This would include NPC interactions. That being said, if time stopped or slowed to normal during NPC cut scenes, that could easily allow for scripted NPC events outside during story mode (or added to the sandbox as a random spawn event).

Just a few thoughts.