Question of The Week: Should the Date be shown by default?

[Hydromancerx]

We should just use the geologic timescale with MYA Then all the dates will say "Present" no matter if its today or during the Ancient Era its all just a blip in the geologic timescale.

Spoiler :

Note this was a joke. I was not serious about this suggestion.

 

[Afforess]

Best suggestion I've heard yet!

 

[fireclaw722]

AGREED!!

I actually like the dates as they are(for me they are pretty relative, but they should as I like to start during the Industrial Era[well technically I chose the Industrial Era, but I actually start in the Renniasannce]).

 

[Talin2009]

Strange debate discussing what personal tastes are best ... I believe vote was to figure out what most people prefer not why showing AD or not is better

 

[Afforess]

Ugh... I knew this would happen. Case in point:

I am a noob to this mod... played it for the first time because my comp couldn't handle it until I cleaned out the malware a couple of days ago. I found it extremely easy to conquer people on Monarch and was wondering if it was normal. Also, my tech was slow. I was on Quick Speed, but do you need Epic speed be up to date with techs given the year it is in the game? I was in 1900 and barely in the reinassance. Just too many techs or did the speed need to be slower or did I just suck, because I was tech leader for most of the game.

See this is why I think it should be hidden.

 

[Supercheese]

Does it really matter if the date is hidden or not by default? After all, users can just turn it on or off if they want, right?

 

[Arakhor]

Just because some people insist on some sort of "historical accuracy" (which is irrelevant), does not mean that the vast majority don't want the dates enabled.

Interestingly, MYA as a geological timescale is rapidly becoming obsolete. There is a new SI unit for this sort of thing - an Annum, equal to one year, so 5 Ma is 5 million years ago and 1 Ga is a billion years ago.

 

[CMKMStephens]

Every time you build a wonder or researched a tech on the right date you're meant to down a shot. Won't be able to do that anymore.

 

[Antmanbrooks]

I love it when a game runs parallel to real history, so the age of discovery coming in the late 1400's, the industrial revolution coming 1800's etc... the date is all importnant.

 

[MisterBenn]

Seems I managed to miss the actual poll, but as mentioned in the beta thread I was just about in favour of leaving the date out by default. As already mentioned the rate of the world's progress is quite dependent on the settings you choose and the dates will never tally with real history in all cases. I don't feel strongly though, I've been was happy just to "not really look at it" all the time until now!

If people really felt strongly about the benefits of tracking or comparing progress to our history, perhaps there is scope for a mod to be made here. Like when the circumnavigation of the globe is reported, perhaps a mod could report a great deal of historical milestones as they are achieved... like the arrival of the Stone Age, the Industrial Revolution and so forth. These would be triggered, I imagine, mainly by certain techs being discovered although I imagine other things to detect could be dreamt up like the first source of a resource being discovered. They'd be reported perhaps by event messages, or perhaps by splash screens such as the era messages that we receive now. This way, on top of the reported date (which is a neverending struggle to represent real history) - progress versus our history could be achieved, it would always track the correct pace of the game being played, and it might inject some flavour along the way.

 

[soup567]

MisterBenn, do you mean that the date should just go by how advanced the civ is with the most techs?

 

[Schwarzbart]

I find it interesting to compare the Empier development to the game date so a yes in the vote from me. (Even when I am complet away from the time line like in my curent game with 460 BC and already have Algebra & Navigation)
If Date displaying would be diabled by default the save game names have to be changed as well because then still having the date in the savegame names is a absolut no go for me.
Next thing I dislike is the term Turns. So if you change from a Date based to a turn based time counting then make something like year X after Empier founding without the term Turn.
Also the Golden Age Display souldent disabled.

 

[MisterBenn]

soup567 - I was considering the suggestion of leaving the date mechanism as it is, and supplementing it with more "flavour" events as key achievements are made like the circumnavigation. I guess if it were implemented you'd have a choice between informing the player as they specifically hit a milestone (like hitting a new era currently) or informing as anyone in the world completed it (like "Franco has proved the world is round", or "The Eiffel Tower has been completed in a distant land").

Personally I am happy with dates and such as the way they are, but there seems to be a craving for that kind of historical flavour and accuracy with some players, so I was just sticking that idea up a flagpole to see if anyone saluted it

 

[soup567]

soup567 - I was considering the suggestion of leaving the date mechanism as it is, and supplementing it with more "flavour" events as key achievements are made like the circumnavigation. I guess if it were implemented you'd have a choice between informing the player as they specifically hit a milestone (like hitting a new era currently) or informing as anyone in the world completed it (like "Franco has proved the world is round", or "The Eiffel Tower has been completed in a distant land").

Personally I am happy with dates and such as the way they are, but there seems to be a craving for that kind of historical flavour and accuracy with some players, so I was just sticking that idea up a flagpole to see if anyone saluted it

oh i see, ok thats a good idea.

 

[Randomness]

I don't really care about the date, as I never looked at it anyway. The only use I can see it having ( as it currently does not line up acuretly) is so I can remember which save is which. I could just save my saves as 1,2,3 though. So, yes it would be nice to have dates that line up historically, but do we want to waste Afforess' time, trying to do that, instead of making more amazing stuff NO!. I say the dates should go!

 

[Afforess]

A bit of closure on this thread. Since the support was overwhelmingly in favor of showing the date, All future versions of A New Dawn will leave the date shown by default.

 

[Arakhor]

Wooo! Power to the people!

 

[Thormodr]

I think the date should be hidden until you discover Calendar.

 

[Arakhor]

That's a clever idea, but a bit of a gimmick

 

[Danwood]

I know about how silly CE is compared to AD but at least it is a right step toward eliminating religion's influences on our lives. Hopefeully, religions will fade away in next hundreds of years or so.

However, it is not about real life religion but rather about how the game is coded. See, if other religion in a game become a dominant force, should not it be given a dating honor?
Answer: yes.
Practical answer: no.

Better to remove dates from the screen in the first place for above and other reasons I described.

However, it is so minor a thing that I'm surprised you even bothered listening to complaints from either side anyway. You could had told "dates are messed up" complainers to go **** off in polite way and realize that it is extremely difficult to calibrate dates because of variability in games played. Then it would had been settled for once and all.

You already have a very good reputation for a very superb mod that the complainers would had been slightly offended but moved on anyway .

Totally agree with luke skywalker

LAICISM FTW

i live near the center of christianity, and i'm really bored with the papal influence over my state, which SHOULD BE laic, based on our Constitution, in fact, we don't have a god reference in our currency
Actually our politics are really weak against the religious authority, it can be a good or a ill, but it's always a mistreatment for our FREE THINKING cause we are influenced since when we came to this world.

RELIGION and STATE apart plz