Idea: Syncing In-game Time With Computer's Clock

[Fantist]

So I just got to thinking, with the easy to change timescale of Oblivion. making one day last 24 real life hours is easy. Would it then be possible to make a script or some such thing that could read your computer's clock and calendar and sync the time of day as well as day of the month to match in-game so that Oblivion basically becomes an epic version of Animal Crossing?

[WastelandAssassin]

So I just got to thinking, with the easy to change timescale of Oblivion. making one day last 24 real life hours is easy. Would it then be possible to make a script or some such thing that could read your computer's clock and calendar and sync the time of day as well as day of the month to match in-game so that Oblivion basically becomes an epic version of Animal Crossing?

 

how exactly are you planning to make this work??

because every time you wait or sleep, the time moves much faster in the game, but it doesn't happen in real time (unless of course you want to make sleep time last the same amount, so that to sleep one hour would mean that you have to actually wait for an hour to play)

 

also, i'm not exactly sure that the game can draw information from your computer

i think it can only draw information from it's own files

[Fantist]

Well there would have to be a work around for the whole "sleep before you get to level up" thing. I think that's just so that the stat distribution menu can load up, so it seems like it would be fairly easy to enable the menu to just pop up (or take a few seconds to load, then pop up) when you raise your skills high enough. It would be awesome, though not to everyone, as it would set limitations to your activities in an interesting way. Most people probably do or could play between the hours of 8 a.m - 10 p.m. so the limited time to buy and sell wouldn't be crippling. You could sell your loot (from the previous night's profitable thievery of a few Imperial City citizens' homes, hehe) and stock up on potions and other supplies for that new dungeon you plan on exploring this evening. Also night would be encouraged as the time to run around aimlessly exploring or other things such as gathering up ingredients for alchemy, since most npcs will be in bed. As far as the game only reading from itself I'm not sure but that sounds right. It would have to involve something extra to work, like maybe some tiny program that worked with Oblivion Script Extender, but I do think it could be done.

[WastelandAssassin]

well, removing sleep and all will be quite a problem

 

the thing is, one of the best mod feature (at least in my opinion) is realistic needs, which includes eating, drinking and sleeping

so if you remove sleeping, it ruins a lot of the immersion of the game

and also the same for waiting

also, this will cause many problems in terms of playing, because if you are using OOO or such mods, and are at a low level, you can't really do many things most of the time

so if you can't wait for what you need to do, you will have to wander around aimlessly

also, for the best thievery, you will have to stay up all night

 

also, if you play in the morning, like 6am to 7am, than go about your day, and start playing again at 7pm, the game's time will still be 7am

and it can't just sync into your time (well, it may be able to if the whole idea is possible, but you will lose many hours of the day)

 

so all in all, i think that there are too many problems with such an idea, to make it worth doing

but that's just my opinion

i wouldn't say that others shouldn't do this, if someone can

but i know that i won't be using such a thing (especially if it has all these problems)

 

as a simple suggestion to you Fantist, this is a list of all the functions for Oblivion

if you want, you could try finding ones that could make your idea come true (i mean, if you can't find any way that this concept could work, than it probably won't be able to work)

[Fantist]

A lot of good points. It would suck waiting till all hours of the night just to enter some npcs house to steal from them. I was thinking it would add a lot of immersion but I guess it would actually take away from it. I'll just will have to stick with other mods. One mod combination I've been enjoying recently is Portable Campsite + Enhanced Weather with 80% darker nights. Around midnight you have to either have a spell or a torch to travel because it's so dark or you have to set up camp so you can have light from the campfire and a bed. Bathing Mod is a good one too. It even adds a bathroom extension to each of the vanilla houses you can buy. I know about the eat/drink/sleep one but do you recommend any others? I've been searching for a mod that lets you run and get out of sight so you can hide while the guards look for you but I haven't found any.

[WastelandAssassin]

well, as it appears, i'm not much of an Oblivion guy

i mean, i found lots of mods to use, and played many hours, but in the end, Fallout is more my thing

 

the reason i am saying this is that the eat\drink\sleep mod that i am using is for Fallout 3, not Oblivion

i never tried one like this for Oblivion

and i didn't try most of the big overhaul mods or immersion mods on Oblivion, so i can't really recommend any of them

 

i know of one guard overhaul that may allow you to do what you said (but i can't remember for sure)

the name was something Guard Overhaul (can't remember the first word of the name, but it was the maker's profile name)

so if you search for Guard Overhaul, i'm sure you'll fine the one i am referring to

 

also, you may want to look into the stealth section in the TESNexus, but the mods you have there will affect stealth in general, not just from guards (and you probably don't want an easier sneaking possibility)

[Maskar]

So I just got to thinking, with the easy to change timescale of Oblivion. making one day last 24 real life hours is easy. Would it then be possible to make a script or some such thing that could read your computer's clock and calendar and sync the time of day as well as day of the month to match in-game so that Oblivion basically becomes an epic version of Animal Crossing?

 

Eventhough there seems to be some skepticism in the viability of such a mod I decided to create it anyway. Download Synchronized Date and Time and have fun, heh.

Edited February 2, 2011 by Maskar