The Clock

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:35 pm

I've been meaning to ask this for ages - what method of time keeping does the clock in Oolite use?

I understand the hours mins and seconds, but what are all the numbers before then?

aegidian · Post by **aegidian** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:55 pm

Standard days (24hrs) since the reference date for time in the Oolite/GalCop era.

Post by **winston** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:56 pm

The ship's clock is started at a defined value (PLAYER_SHIP_CLOCK_START) plus the current time of day. It is stored as a double precision number.

PLAYER_SHIP_CLOCK_START is defined as 2084004 * 86400

86400 is the number of seconds in a day, so the clock itself stores seconds since a (presumably arbitrary) epoch. 2084004 is the number of days since this epoch. This means the epoch starts 5705 (Earth) years before Oolite starts. Giles will have to tell you why he chose the epoch he did

aegidian · Post by **aegidian** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 1:09 pm

2084004 is 1st Jan 3015

So.. 0000000 is sometime around 2690BC

2690BC Standout moments:-

Chinese begin silk manufacture.
Egyptians construct the great pyramid of Cheops.
Ibusaki volcano erupts in Japan creating enormous caldera (VEI 5).

But I think I'll plump for the great Pyramid.

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:46 pm

Could be the 3015 isn’t on our current scale, though.

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:07 pm

yes it is, the Stargazer 'Observer's Guide to Ships in Serice' gives inservice dates in years AD (for Anno Domini) our timescale.
The mark3 was first released unto the market in the year 3100AD for example.

Maybe in the Ooniverse starfaring humanity has finally settled for the decimal universal timekeeping?
(something like: 100seconds in an hour, 10hours/day, 10days/month, 10months/year.) years would pass 5 times faster that way.

(decimal timekeeping, incidentally, would be an equally convincing reason for the backward Federation and Empire to ban contact with the outside Ooniverse as fraternisation with aliens would.)

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:20 pm

100 seconds per hour?

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:32 pm

heh lol.
typo.
100 sec/minute obviously.
names would be different also.
pips/hectopips/cycle/week/demester/year or somesuch.

Murgh · Post by **Murgh** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:43 pm

I like pips.

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 9:01 pm

The Dark Wheel states that a day is 20 hours long.

There's an inconsistency too... The Observer's Guide to Ships In Service carries the legend "pub 3205". Could this be Lavian date?

3015 is too early though - the Cobra Mk 3 doesn't enter service until 3100.

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 9:27 pm

pub date must be recent, it's given to you as a handout together with your pilot's licence.

3101 is the inservice date of the worm, which is the newest model in that outdated 5th edition.

Lord Winslow · Post by **Lord Winslow** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:43 pm

i think there should be a OXP that converts it to normal d/m/y or m/d/y