I was a little iffy on NPC schedules from the start (good for immersion, possibly annoying if you want to trade/talk to a particular NPC and it happens to be past their bedtime), but was looking forward to the phases of the moon having an influence on magic, etc.
I always assumed the game would include some sort of "rest" function that would allow time to pass at extremely accelerated rates. Particularly a game like this one that has finite content in each area and no respawning encounters to occupy players with - it would be silly to expect the player to sit around and twiddle his or her thumbs for 30 (made up number) real-life minutes waiting for the town to wake up so he could continue with playing the adventure.
