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Posted by: Renee Oct 12 2016, 01:58 AM

What timescale do you folks prefer in your various games? and why? I will answer first, since I am the first one to ask. (duh)

I jumped from 30 to 10 when I first started Oblivion, because I wanted something closer to Earth, but not too close. And I enjoyed the feeling of finally being able to see days & nights stretch out. PC gamers grew up with changing timescale, I assume, but for me (as a console gamer for nearly 30 years) just that one facet alone made a huge difference.

I did the same thing in Fallout 3 recently, when I began my first PC game. And this feels right, since Fallout games are supposed to actually be on Earth. But.....

BUT (and this is a rather BIG BUT), recently in Oblivion I switched from 10 to 20. I know, shocking right? ... It's because after playing Arena and now Daggerfall, in which it's supposed to take a long time to get from Point A to Point B, I want my Cyrodiil experience to feel 'larger' than it is.

For instance: walking from (let's say) Cheydinhal to Aleswell...it'd go from morning to maybe early afternoon with timescale of 10, and by the time we get to the Imperial City it's still not even dark yet. But with timescale at 20, now the sky's getting dark by the time we're at Aleswell (especially factoring in all the random moments, combat and such), giving me a feeling like the party should rest for the night.

Silly thread, but I'm curious about you all..

Posted by: Grits Oct 12 2016, 02:09 AM

Interesting thread!

In Oblivion I think I used 15, and while I liked it for underground I did find it made the world feel a little small.

In Skyrim I use 12 or 15, I'll have to check to be sure. Setting up camp, gathering wood, and cooking takes time, so looking for a campsite by mid-afternoon helps me not feel like my characters could run across the whole province in a day when they're traveling. I use the mod A Matter of Time to display the time when I hit a key. That helped me get used to the longer days.

Posted by: SubRosa Oct 12 2016, 02:54 AM

I stick to 1:10 in all the ES and FO games. For me it just feels right. The default is way too quick.

Posted by: mirocu Oct 12 2016, 09:22 AM

10 here as well, but after reading your post, Renee, I´m almost thinking of speeding it up too. But then again I´m rather used to my current setup


In Fallout 3 I have default.

Posted by: Decrepit Oct 12 2016, 09:50 AM

Timescale = 10 in Oblivion. It was set to approximately that for my brief foray into Skyrim. The only other game I alter time flow in is ARK: Survival Evolved. There I took the opposite approach. The game provides options to adjust both daylight and nighttime time flow separately. I did not touch daylight time flow, it lasting plenty long enough. Nights are sped up! Not coz I particularly like shorter nights. Rather, the game, even in single-player mode, does not allow us to sleep the night away if we so choose. With the game's night sky as dark as it is (which I approve of) I found the default nighttimes too long to watch my avatar twiddle his thumbs waiting for the sun to come up. That said, my original adjustment proved too drastic. Where I have it set now is better but might still be a bit on the abrupt side.

Posted by: Lopov Oct 12 2016, 03:51 PM

17.5 in all games. Before that it was either 15 or 20 but now I find 17.5 the perfect for my tastes.

Posted by: mirocu Oct 12 2016, 03:52 PM

How fast would you say 24 hours in-game take in real life with that setting?

Posted by: Lopov Oct 12 2016, 03:59 PM

I think it's about two hours.

Posted by: ghastley Oct 12 2016, 04:15 PM

I don't touch that setting. This is Nirn, and if their day is only a few hours long, that's part of the fantasy. There's almost a case for not wanting the timescale to match what I'm used to IRL.

Posted by: Acadian Oct 12 2016, 08:38 PM

I used 12 in OB and 8 in Sky. I much prefer the slower speed else Buffy starts looking for a campsite right after breakfast. Lol. I know what you mean about the lower timescales being able to make the world feel smaller while traveling. Even worse for horse riders. That is why Superian always walks unless tactics require a burst of running and Buffy dismounts to investigate any/everything - particularly any body of water. We intentionally have her dawdle en route and that slows the amount of ground she covers during a day of travel nicely.

Posted by: PhonAntiPhon Nov 16 2016, 10:35 AM

Actually I'm currently running at 20, as actually the default was a bit too quick for us...

Posted by: RandalllAredy Jan 5 2017, 11:22 AM

Any leads as to what criteria you expect people to specify, or should we answer with whatever comes to mind?

Posted by: Cain Jan 5 2017, 03:35 PM

I think I'm running at 10 in Skyrim. It seems to work for me, so far. Days actually feel long enough to warrant pitching a tent at nightfall.

Posted by: Lopov Jan 5 2017, 07:22 PM

Lately I switched to 20 and I like it the most. When walking to some place it actually feels that some time passes by the time you reach the destination. Also, with my limited time for gaming, I can't "afford" to have too long days.

Posted by: Winter Wolf Jan 26 2017, 05:38 AM

8-12 works best for me.

Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Mar 25 2017, 12:45 AM

What the whaa? How do you change the timescale?

Posted by: Renee Mar 25 2017, 01:13 AM

If you are on PC, open up the console, and type "set timescale to X" without quotes. Press enter and close the console. The X can be whatever you'd like. 30 = vanilla, while 1 = real-life Earth time (so 24 hours in game would take 24 hours of Earth time). Most of us choose somewhere between 10 and 30.

Posted by: ghastley Mar 25 2017, 01:13 AM

Usually with the console command "set timescale to nn" but I think there's also an ini setting that does it. A mod could set the corresponding variable, too.

The command is the same for Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim.

Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Mar 25 2017, 01:59 AM

Khajiit must've seen this thread title a hundred times without really thinking about what it meant. Glad he decided to check it out! Thanks for the info!

Posted by: Acadian Mar 25 2017, 02:56 AM

Default is 30 in Ob and 20 in Sky. I settled in to using 12 in Ob and 10 in Sky. Very handy console command.

Posted by: Renee Mar 25 2017, 06:52 PM

No kidding? I didn't know that Skyrim's is 20. Maybe when I set Oblivion's to 20 awhile back, this was some sort of subconscious thing so that both worlds match in regards to time-passage.

Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Mar 25 2017, 07:08 PM

Playing Fallout4, this one set it to 16 from 20. Even that little change made a big difference!

Posted by: Adella May 27 2021, 11:36 PM

Thread necromancy

Well, it is rather old, but I am new here and seeing these for the first time so...

Ok, on XB1S I use BradenM’s Cheat Room (as a tool, not to cheat) and it has several preset options for time scale. I use 13:1 which provides a usefully much longer day than Skyrim’s default 20:1. I can generally do a tomb and still get out in day light....Which makes getting home much safer.

I have heard that extreme timescales can really mess up your game, but I find 13:1 has had no detrimental affect on my game.

Adella

Posted by: Pseron Wyrd May 28 2021, 12:06 AM

I've heard that too, but I can't say I've ever noticed any issue when lowering it in Skyrim. Then again maybe Mom was right: I don't pay close attention to what's going on around me, lol.

Posted by: Renee May 28 2021, 12:13 AM

Please, go for it! When I was new here I necro'd a few threads from like 2006 and stuff. It's fun!

And on topic now. After all the fuss I made in the OP about how I wanted a slower timescale, I have actually reverted back to 30 in TES IV: Oblivion, for the same reason I stated 4 years ago: it makes the world feel bigger. I use 10 for Fallout 3.

I tried switching Skyrim to 30 as well but this caused numerous crashes.

Posted by: Acadian May 28 2021, 12:16 AM

Oblivion. I wanted Buffy's fairly routine trips between Bravil and the Arcane University to take her (riding Superian at a walk with plenty of chasing butterfly distractions) to take from about sunup to sundown. As I recall, that worked out to a timescale of around 10 or 12.

Skyrim. I ended up running around the same timescale in Skyrim. Vanilla felt like Buffy no more than got up and sorted out what she was going to do for the day before she had to start thinking about arrangements for the night.

ESO. You can't adjust the timescale since it is a dynamic world and shared by other players. To compensate for this, the impact of day/night is much less than in TES IV and V and it works quite well.

Posted by: macole May 28 2021, 05:15 AM

How can I tell what the timescale is set to? This Oblivion game is so old I don't remember if I reset the timescale or not. I do recall that I used to set the timescale at 15.

Posted by: Lena_Wolf May 28 2021, 08:44 AM

Default is 30 in Oblivion, 20 in Skyrim. To change it use:



where XX is the number, of course.

I've got 15 in Oblivion and 10 in Skyrim. I find that timescale needs to be proportionate to the size of the world (in pixels), so that it doesn't take you ridiculously short or long time to travel from A to B (which is what the others have also said in this thread). Oblivion world is a bit smaller than Skyrim, so a higher time scale feels better to me. But the original felt too fast in both games anyway - again, what the others said: if you are actually making it a point to eat and sleep roughly daily, then those time scales are too fast. And if you're playing Skyrim with Survival Mode on (CC Survival), then even with half severity, it's still way too annoying, and unrealistic. Like, you are in the middle of a battle, your adrenaline is sky high, yet suddenly the voice from the sky tells you: you are tired, you are now going to fall asleep... I don't think so...

Posted by: Renee May 28 2021, 01:51 PM

Interesting method there, Lena. It's funny how we all have our individual reasons and theories and motives for changing that number.

What would the timescale be in Elder Scrolls Online? I don't think it's 30, right?

Posted by: Lena_Wolf May 28 2021, 01:56 PM

Don't ask me - I never played ESO. It's a multiplayer...

Posted by: ghastley May 28 2021, 02:18 PM

I believe it's three.

Posted by: Renee May 28 2021, 02:55 PM

That's incredibly slow! Now that I think of it, I seem to remember never seen night time in the game since I often played at the same time, Earth time.

Posted by: ghastley May 28 2021, 03:13 PM

The big difference is that a single player game freezes time when you log off, so the effective average rate is lower. If you only play for one day-cycle each time you log on, then the average rate is only one.

With MMO's the clock keeps going when you're offline, because others are still playing. I suspect the only reason they don't just use real time is that most players would only experience evening if they did so, except at weekends.

Posted by: Decrepit May 28 2021, 09:39 PM

As I believe I said in my original response, in TES4 I prefer timescale=10. That lets the gang patrol the Gold Road between the Imperial City and Anvil in one day of daylight, traveling at a horse's walking pace, stopping at Skingrad to conduct business and grab a bite to eat before continuing on. Depending on what they encounter or don't encounter on the road, their patrol can extend into darkness. On an Anvil patrol during which they experience unanticipated delays, they might well spend the night at one of those roadside campsites.

This seems 'right' to me, time passage wise. A lower timescale would make game-Cyrodiil's actual minuscule size, compared to what a 'real-world' Cyrodiil ought to be, too obvious. Faster timescales throw off my sense of time passage. No way should a person take an entire waking day to travel the short distance between Imperial City and Skingrad at a walking horse's pace. Ergo, timescale=10 is a compromise, a happy medium as it were.

Am I the only one who sometimes ponders time/size inconsistency? A bridge at default timescale=30 takes, say, a minute to cross at a walk. In a properly proportioned Cyrodiil with timescale=1, would that same bridge be 30 time longer? Of course not. Yes, Cyrodill theoretically ought to be 30 times larger, based solely on timescale. But individual objects would remain more or less as they are, regardless of Cyrodiil's expansion. Yeah, you roll your eyes, and rightly so. Yet I often think on such things while observing the gang on their travels.

Posted by: Acadian May 28 2021, 10:52 PM

Decrepit, not sure about pondering inconsistencies, but I certainly share your keen interest in the details of travel. Here are a couple excerpts from Buffy's fanfic stylesheet relating to travel in TES IV:

Land Travel. Land = 30-50 mi btwn cities, 7.5-12 hours travel at 4 mph. Note: Cyrodiil = 225 mi across at widest point. League = ~3 miles (English Medieval) based on how far one can walk in an hour. {or ~1.5 miles (Roman Empire)}.

Water Travel. It is about 300 miles from the IC to Anvil by ship. At about 6 mph, this equals 50 hours of sailing. Port stops at Bravil, Leyawiin, two stops in Elsweyr (Duncori Walk and Senchal), four ports in Valenwood (Haven, Southpoint, Greenheart, Woodhearth, one stop in Summerset Isle (Skywatch) at about 6 hours per stop add almost another 50 hours. This makes for roughly a four day trip IC-Anvil. IC-Leyawiin=20 hrs. The Imperial Trading Company operates six ships from the IC to Anvil: Nymph of the Niben, Mara’s Tear, The Black Swan, The Peony Princess (Buffy’s fave), The Dragon’s Tongue, and Barenziah’s Breeze. The East Empire Trading Company runs ships from Anvil northward. Shipping between Solitude and Windhelm = 2 days with a brief stop in Dawnstar.

Posted by: Adella May 29 2021, 12:46 AM

In Skyrim, when running (not sprinting), by my leg action, I would call that jogging....which is broadly about 6mph irl.

Farengar comments that Riverwood is “a miserable little village a few miles down the road” . We jog there in three minutes thirty seconds (measured) irl from the WR main gate to the RW gate arch, which equates to 13x3.5or just over an Three Quarters of an hour in game....so 4.5 miles. Or with original 20:1 timescale it equates to 3.5x20 minutes or 70 mins, which at 6mph would be 7 miles.

These both seem broadly congruent with Farengar’s comment, although 7 is more than ‘a few’ in my book hmmm!

A.
Edited for data accuracy and spellings...

Posted by: Kane May 29 2021, 01:11 AM

Necro thread indeed! I always set Skyrim and Fallout 4 to 15 - I like the longer days because I explore on the way and stop to eat, rest, and set up camps. I don't think I messed with it when I played Oblivion, as it was very lightly modded.

Posted by: macole May 29 2021, 01:26 AM

Found out I hadn't change the timescale in my current Oblivion game. After 4-years at 30 as fast as my character runs these days I think I'll just leave it alone.

Posted by: Lena Wolf May 29 2021, 11:55 AM

Jandaga probably has high Athletics, right? I keep lowering Lena's artificially (through console).

Posted by: macole May 29 2021, 04:33 PM

Yes, Athletics a major skill, is fairly high at 76.
The Jandaga is now at level 36. His highest skills are, major skill Conjuration at 104 and minor skill Alteration at 105. His highest attribute is Willpower at 99. The lowest is Personality at 72. The rest of his attributes are in the 80's.