Time Zones

[St George]

Time Zones
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Should the map have timezones? How many should there be? Where is the centre point, our equivalent of GMT? How does this tie-in with the off map?

These are all questions we need to be asking ourselves in relation to time zones, and I welcome any other input or approach to this issue.

 

[Flakey]

https://jumpshare.com/v/VXWCualtfwUo8vpVu8Pl
I stole this from the old RP map, and it uses time zones. Maybe we could use the timezones on this map for our map.

 

[Felis]

While a system like that of which Skittles posted would be ideal in a perfect world, I feel it’s much too linear in comparison to our real world one (https://imgur.com/a/2lDPy) where countries which cross over several bands use one single time zone or, in some cases, use time zones entirely outside of the band they belong to.

 

[St George]

While a system like that of which Skittles posted would be ideal in a perfect world, I feel it’s much too linear in comparison to our real world one (https://imgur.com/a/2lDPy) where countries which cross over several use one single time zone or, in some cases, use time zones entirely outside of the band hey belong to.

This is the major problem with things like time zones mark. They're a bit of a palaver to make and require updating with the claims map, which would greatly increase the time taken for update. Its possible if we get more cartographers and more active people in general, but there are limits to what any one person can put towards the game and Lore already does a very good job.

 

[Felis]

While a system like that of which Skittles posted would be ideal in a perfect world, I feel it’s much too linear in comparison to our real world one (https://imgur.com/a/2lDPy) where countries which cross over several use one single time zone or, in some cases, use time zones entirely outside of the band hey belong to.

This is the major problem with things like time zones mark. They're a bit of a palaver to make and require updating with the claims map, which would greatly increase the time taken for update. Its possible if we get more cartographers and more active people in general, but there are limits to what any one person can put towards the game and Lore already does a very good job.

I agree with what you’ve said and, to add to it, some information would be entirely dependant on what the RPer wants IC and many of them don’t continue using the forum after making a claim. A fix to this would be to add time zone section into the application process but it may make newer RPers less willing to join the map due to the extra steps.

 

[Sil Dorsett]

When I made the ruling on Christianity and created the off-map concept, I assumed that Eras was the same size as Earth, meaning at the equator a time zone would cover 1669.79 km on average, and that the rotational speed of the planet would be identical to Earth. There should be 24 time zones since we're on a 24 hour clock, which means with our region's 13,500 linear km, we would have between 8 and 9 time zones covering our section of the world.

Now, if we decide that the off-map area isn't as big as the area of Earth not covered by the map, then the zones would have to be smaller, and the rotation speed of Eras would slow down as well if we wanted time to be similar to Earth.

As far as where to place the UTC zone, I would propose either the capital city of Imperium Augustum or the capital of McMasterdonia as the center of the UTC time zone. For the sake of simplicity, just draw the time zones as if the world was flat and just use straight lines. Don't adjust for distance to the poles, as the zones would be closer together as it approached the pole, in our case only serving to complicate the calculations.

 

[Notboss Dragonking]

If I may like to join the team in the math and measurements area, I hope i could be of help I Really want to

 

[Ceretis]

I suppose once the decision comes down on the exact size of Eras from the other thread, then we can know how big our areas is / number of zones and can debate if we want any change in planetary rotation.

After that maybe we can update a timezone map maybe twice a year using an overlay if the cartographers are willing.

I also like Sil's suggestion of UTC starting in the capital of McMasterdonia.

 

[Syrixia]

Why McMasterdonia? The Kianese Empire is not as big in this current map as it once was, not to mention McMasterdonia is in the far southeast of the map. It should start in the center of the map, around, say, Janapadha City, Syrixia, or somewhere in Demescia, if there's a city on the line.

 

[Nightsong]

I'm in full support of the UTC line being in McM's nation. Sure, the nation is down south but you can argue the same thing about the fact that the UK is up north in relation to pretty much everything else in the world and yet they are the center point of GMT/UTC.

 

[Syrixia]

I'm in full support of the UTC line being in McM's nation. Sure, the nation is down south but you can argue the same thing about the fact that the UK is up north in relation to pretty much everything else in the world and yet they are the center point of GMT/UTC.

Greenwich, where the line is, is at the center of most maps. McMasterdonia is clearly not. We'd have to orient the entire map to fit to the UTC line being in his nation.

And again, why would it be in McMasterdonia? As I said before, the historical Kianese Empire is not as big in this current canon as it once was in the previous map's canon. The use of Mercanti as a lingua franca is about the only major thing attributed to the McMasterdonians left, and language alone didn't get Britain to be the UTC center. SEE: British Empire.

That said, despite my own empire being quite large, that does not mean that's why I'd advocate for the UTC line to cross through Syrixia, because I know someone here's gonna argue that that's my intention. My proposed UTC line crosses right through the center of the map, and it crosses through a city in Syrixia. Who knows, it may also cross through ones in Demescia or Naizerre, which the line also passes through. But why I proposed it is because, as I just said, it crosses right through the center of the map.

 

[Syrixia]

Boo.

So I thought about it a bit more- I suppose I'm fine with it- but we'd need to redo the map to put McM in the center.

 

[Xentherida]

McMasterdonia is clearly not. We'd have to orient the entire map to fit to the UTC line being in his nation.

or we could, y'know, add ocean on one side (and possibly take some away off the other side to keep the map square) to make McMasterdonia the centre...

Personally, I'm quite against timezones in Eras that extend the full 24 hours; our map is not wide enough to count as a planet, and it if were, then everything would be stretched horribly. I would personally only advocate for this map having 6 time zones, seeing as the map would need to be about 3x wide as it is tall to be remotely spherical.

 

[Nightsong]

If we do want to do time zones, I think we should have it count the full twenty four hours. The best way to go about doing it. Set UT-0 somewhere on the map (McM, etc.)... determine the size of the planet we are all on... determine how much of said planet size the current RP map makes up... determine how wide each time zone should be and then apply the right number of time zones to the RP map. Would involve a bit of math and having to determine how big Eras actually is but I feel like this is the best way to go about doing it.

 

[Syrixia]

If we do want to do time zones, I think we should have it count the full twenty four hours. The best way to go about doing it. Set UT-0 somewhere on the map (McM, etc.)... determine the size of the planet we are all on... determine how much of said planet size the current RP map makes up... determine how wide each time zone should be and then apply the right number of time zones to the RP map. Would involve a bit of math and having to determine how big Eras actually is but I feel like this is the best way to go about doing it.

 

[Xentherida]

Putting 24 hours assumes that our map is a sphere and that won't do because the map as a sphere heavily distorts it (making things much wider than usual). The maths doesn't work out, having a square map but a spherical world.

 

[St George]

If the UTC is in McM we wouldn't need to redo the map, we'd just have a different number of timezones on one side, which is completely fine.

 

[Ceretis]

I'm for the time zones being the correct size for TNP's portion of Eras and for TNP having the correct number of hours in a day. I don't think we should have a full world size map because I don't thin we shouldn't try and design out the other regions on the globe.

So if it's 24 hours in a day, and let's say TNP's portion is 6 zones wide, I would like to see TNP have 6 correctly portioned zones placed where they should. I don't think we should show the nitty gritty details of other regions on the map or design their landmasses but instead leave this to the general imagination of the players. As far as RP goes our characters could pull out a map and look at the information and see the other continents, other nation names, what their vital statistics are, etc. The characters would know all the details of the other regions and have detailed maps of the land and water, but that's not information available to the RP Writers. I think the details should be left vague other than the total size / area the rest of the world contains.

As far as we know as writers 'there are landmasses out there (that our characters can look at and see and they know information about if needed,) they can visit these far off lands that exist in other regions, and can be interacted with to a reasonable degree.'

 

[Cogoria]

Dunno why everyone is getting so hung up on the fact that its a flat map of a spherical worls. After all, thats what all maps are. Timezones are easily solver. In real life 15 degrees of longitude makes a time difference of one hour, and a degree of longitude at equator is 111km-ish. So, what we do is we decide where we are on the globe, and I propose where we are on that globe be such that the bottom border of the map is the equator. Decide how large our planet is arbitrarilly ie, set the distance of our lines of longitude at equator as 115km apart at the equator, and then transfer that to the map. Simple

 

[Just a Lore]

Im just putting this out there right here and now. If we have time zones. They will be perfectly straight on any map. Cuz that is just too much damn maintenance as much as 2-3 hours per update to try to mess with them to be based around personal preference for little if any real pay off for the work. A nation can use whatever they want but any representation on the map will always stay the same.

 

[Esplandia]

Im just putting this out there right here and now. If we have time zones. They will be perfectly straight on any map. Cuz that is just too much damn maintenance as much as 2-3 hours per update to try to mess with them to be based around personal preference for little if any real pay off for the work. A nation can use whatever they want but any representation on the map will always stay the same.

Sounds fair to me

 

[Lorbank]

I support the idea.

 

[Rocketdog]

not even bending them a little if a nation overlaps a different time zone by a small amount?

 

[Nightsong]

Im just putting this out there right here and now. If we have time zones. They will be perfectly straight on any map. Cuz that is just too much damn maintenance as much as 2-3 hours per update to try to mess with them to be based around personal preference for little if any real pay off for the work. A nation can use whatever they want but any representation on the map will always stay the same.

I think a fair compromise between the Cartographers and the RP'ers would be to have time zones on the map in a perfectly straight line so as to cut down on the amount of work done by the Cartographers while allowing the RP'ers who have a time zone that runs through their nation to choose which time zone to be in, thus bending the time zone line even if it won't be apparent on the map due to the extra work that it would require by the Cartography team.

 

[St George]

not even bending them a little if a nation overlaps a different time zone by a small amount?

It's a question of time management. I used to do a time zone map that kept the entirety of a nation in one timezone. Initially creating it took around an hour and a half, and updating it everytime we add or remove nations becomes a chore to the already lengthy process of updating the map.

What we could start to do is to release the .xcf file of the map update (i.e. the layered file) and allow the community to play around with things relating to topography, time zones, shipping, stuff like that.