This concerns me, since there is no pause function (as far as I've understood things?). As far as I am aware, the clock keeps ticking even when we've pressed "ESC". Now, granted that the time is very generous - but I really want to be able to go empty the washer, vacuum, walk the dog, tab in and out of the game wiki etc as I am playing. Knowing that the game DOES infact have a time function but NOT a pause function makes me slightly uneasy...
Yes, the game keeps on counting time, even if you're on ESC screen. But in the same time looks like at the moment the game doesn't use that flow for anything but Dialogues journal entries. So be at ease, it doesn't seem to be something really impactful.
Also, before breaking down into details I'd like to add that no matter the options - there are MANY things tied to long rest that have to be fixed in order for either option to work, like the conversation camp triggers. We can't have companions demanding camp spamming (AHEM, GALE) when using a more realistic / immersive rest system. They'd have to rework the entire camp/conversation thing from scratch. Anyhow, here goes nothing.
That I considered to be an obvious thing. If you have an adventure that takes only 5 days always, you need to take that into account on all levels.
So here are my suggestion on how to fix that with possible implementation of so desired D/N cycle:
Option 1. Complicated, but more immersive:
1. Speed up our character’s running animation or slow down the GWT clock a bit so that our running speed by GWT would be perfectly equal to walking at normal speed in D&D.
2. Create additional time flow modes for dialogues (PT=GWT) and turn-based mode (1 turn = 6 GWT seconds) or stop clocks in those, cause it's just a few minutes anyway.
3. Add GWT skip to the short (1 hour) and long (8 hours) rests.
4. Add lighting changes every few hours.
5. After 14 GWT hours since the last long rest our characters should demand the long rest.
I believe in this option the most, AS LONG AS Larian chooses to go with slowing down the GWT instead of speeding up our running animations. And, I believe the easiest way to handle step 2 would be to just "pause" the GWT completely, since people do sometimes go AFK during conversations / battle. I'd be rather bummed out if I returned to my computer to find myself having spent like 30min GWT staring at the vendor...
Actually I would vote for speed up running animation, because we have very comfortable 1 GWT day without night = 3.5+ PT hours that way. And we still won't run too fast, our characters are like 25% slower that they should be to reach that equation. And yes, pause may be the best option for step 2. It will also allow them to address that "no pause for AFK" problem, turn-based mode would work as one.
I am also slightly curious what you mean by "demanding" a long rest? As in our characters start complaining? Or that the game refuses to let you go on without long resting?
Actually both. First to ensure that the illusion doesn't break, second to help Larian avoid creating full night part of cycle for all maps. After all in TT a DM would also say from time to time that the party is too tired and sleepy to proceed.
Option 2. Easier and may help to maintain solid story flow:
1. Remove GWT clock at all.
2. Add script day time for major events as in “Met Shadowheart at 8AM. Met Astarion at 9AM. Entered Overgrown ruins at 3PM...”
3. Set and change lighting on each location according to that scripted time-flow. If we wake up on the beach early in the morning it should look like early in the morning. If we leave the Ruins late in the evening, the scenery around us should get a late evening look.
4. When we get to some scripted late evening moment our characters should demand the long rest.
Mmmh, do you mean that each zone has a set time? Like it is always noon in the grove, it is always night in the ruins etc? That's troublesome and can lead to multiple weird instances as it is impossible to know which zone PC will head into and in which order. This will result in very weird and "off" GWT unless the PC goes *EXACTLY* as the game has planned them to. Imagine if the game tells you to go to goblin camp after visiting the grove (where it is midday), but you choose to go to the swamp. The game thinks you'll go into the swamp AFTER the goblin camp, resulting in goblin camp being evening and swamp being midday because the game assumes you'll stop by the druid grove before going there. Suddenly - the ingame clock would go from midday to midday to late evening. Imagine involving the northern route as well!
I can't imagine a smooth solution for neither the journal system nor the scenery with this option. :X
As I wrote "set and
change". So if we know for sure (and we do) that we wake up after crash on the beach in the morning it should be set to morning by default, but if we go somewhere, do something than return to the beach, the game should count the amount of events passed, connect them to time and set the beach area to the proper day-time. It's just you move the time by actions, instead of time goes on it's own. I think I better rephrase the 2nd step: replace "day time" with "time duration" and the journal fake-quote should be “Meeting Shadowheart and all events after took 1 hour from 8AM, so met Astarion at 9AM. Events after meeting Astarion took 6 hours, so entered Overgrown ruins at 3PM...”. Fixed that in original post.
By the way at the moment you always go through the area around Blighted Village and then either to the camp or the swamp or the northern route. So it's quite possible to set the village to midday for example and those 3 areas to evening by default.
