Accounting for time of year?

What do you think of these changes?

  • Forget about it - makes little difference.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Worth thinking about for games in the future.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Do it and start playtesting ASAP!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1
  • Poll closed .

caepio

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Hello all

Just a thought that occurred to me while playing Rzhev '42. I thought it curious that the times of daylight and darkness seemed to be pretty much exactly the same for November as in June, but this is in the northern part of European Russia.

I researched the sunrise and sunset information for November in Rzhev and Vyazma, and found some interesting differences between what historically happened and what happens in the game.

Typical for mid-to late November my rounding):

Dawn: 0800 to 0848
Sunrise: 0848

Sunset: 1617
Dusk: 1617 to 1700

Here, I am using the common meanings for "dawn", that period just before sunrise, "sunrise", as the time when the sun breaks the horizon and day officially begins, "sunset". as that time when the sun dips entirely below the horizon, and "dusk", as that time after sunset when the sky is still light but becoming progressively darker. In winter, days are shorter, nights are longer, and dawn and dusk are also shorter than in summer.

I think this ought to be reflected in the game by adjusting the blocks of time so that they better match reality (or historical times). For example, consider 0800 dawn, 0900 day, 1600 dusk, and night 1700. That changes the game to 0600 - 0800 fully dark (night), as well as 1600 dusk, and 1700 full night.

The new time segments would be 0000 - 0400 (night); 0400 - 0800 (night); 0800 - 0900 (dawn); 0900 - 1100 (day); 1100 - 1300 (day); 1300 - 1500 (day); 1500 - 1600 (day); 1600 - 1700 (dusk); 1700 - 1800 (night); 1800 - 2000 (night); and 2000 - 0000 (night).

As for the lengths of turns, the game already incorporates 2-hour and 4-hour block of time as equal, and with these changes we'd have 4-hour, 2-hour, and 1-hour blocks.

I'd suggest that to accommodate this increase in the number of night hours, the night turns be split into 2-hour segments as well. This helps compensate for the two 1-hour blocks newly introduced, so that time is in 1-hour or 2-hour blocks only. This means that there would be 11 turns per 24 hours instead of the current 10 (if I remember correctly).

A final observation. Winter storms in Russia are serious storms, meaning high winds, snow, and thick cloud cover. Storms already reduce visibility, but I suggest that storm turns be treated exactly the same as night turns for visibility but not necessarily fatigue recovery.

Just an observation.
 

Old Dog

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I like it. What are your thoughts on the frequency of adjusting the hours ? Quarterly ? Monthly ?
Having lived in Buffalo, NY for years I can attest to visibility during snowstorms.
 
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