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[MagicJuggler]

I know that Toady has plans for nighttime due to his devnotes regarding lighting, yet it would also be nice if we had a more absolute understanding of time in this game. At the moment, we abstract days and thus Dwarfs only sleep once a month or so, or drink/eat like camels, storing fat for later times.

My suggestion is that there be a clock on the top-right corner, allowing us to know if it's morning, day, or nighttime, and plan our Dwarfs to work accordingly. Additionally, it would make planning for when Dwarfs eat/go for dinner easier to plan. Each day should be longer accordingly (with an option to speed up the time as appropriate), and food requirements should increase to represent daily consumption...however, the starting gold should increase to take these additional costs into account...

Feedback?

[JohnieRWilkins]

So you want a countdown clock displaying the time you have left until every dwarf in the fortress goes to sleep?

[Idiom]

So you want a countdown clock displaying the time you have left until every dwarf in the fortress goes to sleep?

Wouldn't work. Every dwarf tires at a different rate depending on what they're doing, and all go to bed at different times. When I hit a population of 50+ there is always someone sleeping.

[MagicJuggler]

Hmm...one can't fix it so dwarfs all sleep at night save guards on patrol?

The other issue was lighting, since night would mean a lack of it...

[Warlord255]

Also, right now days pass in like a minute, so nights would be rather crazy. Extending the day/night cycle would make your years overall at least double in length, if not more.

[Milskidasith]

Not to mention the fact it would SEVERELY limit fortresses who relied on caravans for imports (in one of my better fortresses, I didn't strike hematite until 7 years into the fortress, and I had to viciously fight off invasions when they arrived in summer or spring to make sure the human and dwarf caravans came with my iron).

[Pilsu]

Caravan sizes could be increased to make up for the longer years. It's not like there has to be exactly one caravan per civ per year either

[Milskidasith]

So if we have more caravans and more time per day... All it seems to be doing is making each year longer with no real benefit. I'd prefer if we didn't make changes that don't affect much, and honestly, we can still have quick lighting changes to go with quick days.

[MagicJuggler]

Note that I also am in favor of time compression as an option, so that if things are going relatively peacefully, you can speed things up to normal DF speeds. Truth be told, one of the main reasons for slowing down time would be in the case of (insert thiefs/snatchers/etc. because as it stands, it can take several days to catch an intruder once they're detected, and that's rather silly...

[Nesoo]

I think most of the dev notes relating to lighting are specifically for adventure mode, with the possible exception of caves/mines/fortresses being dark and needing to be lit, so I'm not really sure that nighttime is being added to fortress mode at all.

I'm not the Toady One, however, so I can't say for sure.

[Warlord255]

I think most of the dev notes relating to lighting are specifically for adventure mode, with the possible exception of caves/mines/fortresses being dark and needing to be lit, so I'm not really sure that nighttime is being added to fortress mode at all.

I'm not the Toady One, however, so I can't say for sure.

You are right, though, in that lightning (for dark fortress/cave interiors) can be added without adding an awkward night cycle.

[Align]

Seeing what day and month it is all the time rather than just when checking Z screen seems good to me.

[DJ]

Make the DF worlds have a 30 day cycle instead of a 24 hour one. It may seem a bit lame and extremely unrealistic, but 12 day years bypass the issue of epilepsy inducing night/day cycle.

[Granite26]

Make the DF worlds have a 30 day cycle instead of a 24 hour one. It may seem a bit lame and extremely unrealistic, but 12 day years bypass the issue of epilepsy inducing night/day cycle.

I think this seems like the most reasonable answer.

Also, some form of sleep/meal standardization would be nice.  I dwarf eats once per 'day' regardless of whether he's hungry.  If he gets hungry between meals, he snacks.

(possibly eats once at night, and drinks whenever he gets hungry between meals....)

[Skid]

Do dwarves even value day and night at all though?  Once they've got a decent amount of cave adaption it seems like they wouldn't care what color the sky was through a hundred feet of rock.