Time

Time In Egypt

In Egypt you will find that time is rather important, but time in Egypt is not as simple as one might think. There are three kinds of "time" commonly used in Egypt:

Real Time

The time in the real world. All Events done in the game, as well as other things that are scheduled, are listed in Real Time. Real time is in short used to tell you when something will start but not how long something will happen.

Teppy Time (Also called "Plur Time" or "Duck Time")

"Teppy Time" is slightly slower than real time, this is the internal clock that the game runs on. Teppy Time is close to real time, but not exactly.

1 Teppy Minute = 1 Real Minute + Server Lag

Although server lag is highly variable, and so Teppy Time is not exactly predictable, a historical rule of thumb is Teppy Time is 110-115% of Real Time.

Teppy Time is used to measure duration. Many of the timers in the game are based on Teppy Time. If you are waiting for a chariot ride to be free and is says “5 minutes”, those are 5 Teppy Minutes. The same is true for the duration of food, or basically anything that is a length of time displayed within the game's various systems.

• A good example is the time at a chariot stop. If it says 3 minutes 30 seconds, that is Teppy Time. So with the 110% rule, it would be 3 minutes 51 seconds real time.

Why this complex system? Why can’t Teppy Time always remain synchronized with real time? The answer is actually quite simple. ATITD is an international game, and to allow the greatest participation in all aspects of the game by the most number of people, time must vary. For example, without Teppy Time, it would likely always be the same time of day in Egypt during the real-life hours you like to play - which would make activities such as mushroom hunting quite difficult!

Egypt Time

Egypt Time is the "in-game" time -- the day and night cycle. Generally used to reference anything that occurs on a repeating basis and is part of the day and night cycle in the game. e.g.: mushroom spawns, fresh leaves, etc...

Egypt Time is very simple, 1 Teppy Minute = 3 Egypt Minutes, so 1 Egypt Day = 8 Teppy Hours.

Approximate Egypt time to real-life time: (this can vary drastically, depending on server lag, as discussed above)

• Egypt Time = Real Time
  • 1m = 21s
  • 1h = 22m
  • 1d = 8h 48m

The Egyptian Calendar

The world of ATITD uses the traditional Egyptian calendar and it is remarkably simple!

• Each Egyptian year is exactly 360 days long (about 140 RL days), divided into three seasons: Akhet, Peret, and Shemu.
  • Wheat can only be grown in its designated season (there are different varieties of wheat for each season).

In actual Egyptian history, the three seasons described the annual cycle of the Nile -- Akhet, or Inundation, the time of flooding; Peret, or Emergence, when the waters receded and crops were planted; and Shemu, or Harvest, when crops were collected.  Since the Nile's flooding is not modeled in ATITD, seasons in the game are less important to daily existence.

• Each Egyptian season is exactly 120 days long (about 45 RL days), divided into four months, numbered using Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV).

• Each Egyptian month has exactly 30 days (about 12 RL days).
  • A new Wine vintage begins at the start of every month.

• Each Egyptian week has 7 days (about 2 1/3 RL days).
  • The required Fresh Leaves for an Ant Colony and the thistle voids, change every week.

As an example, "Year I, Shemu IV-25" is the 25th day of the 4th month of the 3rd season of year 1, or the 25th day of the 12th month of year 1, or the 355th day of year 1.

Communicating Real-Life Time to Others In Game

ATITD has a useful Chat feature to help display correct event times to people in time-zones different from your own.

{time:xxxx}

• To use: type {time:xxxx} where the xxxx is the time you wish to convey in YOUR timezone using a 24 hour clock format. As long as your in-game real time clock (shown at the top of your in-game calendar) is set correctly and matching your real life clock on say, your computer or your wall, it will broadcast to others in their own time zone (assuming they also have set their in-game real life clock correctly).

• To set your time zone in-game click your Avatar > Utility > Set my Time Zone

Example 1: The Acro Line starts when it will be 6:00pm where you live and you wish to tell your guildmate about the event. You type: {time:1800}. The time would then display to the guild mate as <17:00> if their time-zone is 1 hour ahead of yours or <13:00> if they are 5 hours behind.

Example 2: The big dig event is starting at 9:00am your time. You type {time:0900} and it displays as <00:00> to someone 9 hours behind you, and <12:00> to someone in a time-zone 3 hours ahead of you.

This function may not work correctly when attempting a conversion across the dateline.