Use Earth time by default

[Mitchz95]

I really think the game should use Earth time by default, as opposed to Kerbal time (which has 6 hour days). The current system confused me when I updated to 0.23, and I imagine new players will be similarly puzzled when they start playing around with maneuver nodes.

[Kasuha]

I think it's good that we have Earth time available but IMO Kerbal time is natural to their system and should stay as default.

[Red Iron Crown]

I prefer kerbal time, too. A day is a rotation of Kerbin, a year is a revolution of Kerbin. Earth days and years don't really have any in game relevance or significance.

[Tw1]

I prefer using Earth time, as I can relate to it. Six hour days are so short, I can't imagine getting much done in so little time.

[rtxoff]

Who needs time at all in this game?? You can use timewarp in this game which makes the concept of time somehow irrelevant.

I really do not care if i warp a kerbal year or earth year until there is an window open for Duna transfer i am not orienting how much time has passed rather i am looking how the planets are in relation for an optimal transfer.

It would be perfectly fine for me without any time display at all.

[maltesh]

I think it's good that we have Earth time available but IMO Kerbal time is natural to their system and should stay as default.

The problem is that it isn't. Not really. They synced "Kerbal Time" to the sidereal rotation of Kerbin, instead of the solar day of Kerbin. As a result that every "k-day", the sun rises a little later, so after each Kerbin orbit, the game clock has counted one more K-Day than there have been sunrises.

As a result, the "K-Day" doesn't do the most important job of a calendar day, which is, to represent a 1:1 count of solar days viewed from the surface, and thus, the "K-Day" isn't more useful individual living on Kerbin than an Earth Day is.

[Kasuha]

The problem is that it isn't. Not really. They synced "Kerbal Time" to the sidereal rotation of Kerbin, instead of the solar day of Kerbin. As a result that every "k-day", the sun rises a little later, so after each Kerbin orbit, the game clock has counted one more K-Day than there have been sunrises.

As a result, the "K-Day" doesn't do the most important job of a calendar day, which is, to represent a 1:1 count of solar days viewed from the surface, and thus, the "K-Day" isn't more useful individual living on Kerbin than an Earth Day is.

That does not change anything on my opinion. I don't work on Kerbin to be bothered by the fact that I need to get up at a slightly different time each day and for most gameplay purposes the difference (6 hours vs. 6 hours 50 seconds) is irrelevant. It is even more comfortable for manual setting up of stationary satellites.

[regex]

I agree with the OP, Earth time is more useful and should be the default.

[BudgetHedgehog]

I agree with the OP, Earth time is more useful and should be the default.

In fact, I don't know why they bothered to make a different planet for KSP - why not use Earth? Like you've said in the past, people should be forced to progress the same way as humans, encounter the same planets and everything. Earth time, real world places and worlds.. it makes the most sense, after all.

[Red Iron Crown]

The forum desperately needs sarcasm tags. I just can't tell sometimes.

[r4pt0r]

In fact, I don't know why they bothered to make a different planet for KSP - why not use Earth? Like you've said in the past, people should be forced to progress the same way as humans, encounter the same planets and everything. Earth time, real world places and worlds.. it makes the most sense, after all.

while i think here regex is being serious, the other of his points you mention were, i believe, sarcasm. that is his forte after all. very hard to read that fellow....

[regex]

I'm quite serious. Having Kerbal time by default is painful, it's the first thing I change in the settings when I roll a new install.

[Kasuha]

In fact, I don't know why they bothered to make a different planet for KSP - why not use Earth? Like you've said in the past, people should be forced to progress the same way as humans, encounter the same planets and everything. Earth time, real world places and worlds.. it makes the most sense, after all.

Definitely. And nobody should be allowed to reach orbit without playing for at least 100 hours.

[regex]

That does not change anything on my opinion. I don't work on Kerbin to be bothered by the fact that I need to get up at a slightly different time each day and for most gameplay purposes the difference (6 hours vs. 6 hours 50 seconds) is irrelevant.

The point being that it's as completely useless in the game as Earth time. If it's just as useless, use something the user is already familiar with by default and then let them enable Kerbal time if they want to "role play" or whatever.

[r4pt0r]

The point being that it's as completely useless in the game as Earth time. If it's just as useless, use something the user is already familiar with by default and then let them enable Kerbal time if they want to "role play" or whatever.

that is logical

[Mitchz95]

The forum desperately needs sarcasm tags. I just can't tell sometimes.

Agreed. I honestly can't gauge how many people in this thread agree with me and how many don't.

[Jouni]

Using Kerbal time is like travelling to yet another country with yet another currency. The exchange rate is convenient, so I got used to it in a few minutes.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Jouni

[HarvesteR]

I did tweak the Kerbin day slightly here so that 6h is now the length of a solar day, not a sidereal one. As a result, the sidereal days are now 51 seconds shorter, and you may get an eastward launch velocity boost of around 0.01 m/s.

However, over many days, the time of 'noon' still drifts. I suspect that this is related to the year not really being an integer number of days, and there being no accounting for leap years...

Anyhow, 6h for solar or sidereal doesn't really matter in any case, becuase the UT clock doens't measure local time. It measures time elapsed since game start, which is the only solid epoch really, in a game where you not only have a planetful of timezones, you have several planets, each with different day/year lengths...

Really, it's much much easier to just measure local time at your position as a function of sun angle. UT time is useful though, not because it relates to any particular natural cycle, but because it is consistent.

Cheers

[Greenfire32]

I don't really look at the time when playing KSP. Missions go until they're done in my world.

But having Earth-time as the default for a planet (and it's inhabitants!) that does not follow Earth-time is a bad bad bad idea. Seeing as how we are launching from Kerbin, Kerbin-time should be the default setting don't you think? Sure, you can change to Earth-time if you relate to it better, but if I have a transfer burn scheduled in 3 days from Kerbin, then I want it to be 3 days from Kerbin and not 12 days.

[regex]

UT time is useful though, not because it relates to any particular natural cycle, but because it is consistent.

Why isn't UT a display option for time, then? It's quite useful for things like planning launch windows because it doesn't depend on the human-readable display.

[Eric S]

Why isn't UT a display option for time, then? It's quite useful for things like planning launch windows because it doesn't depend on the human-readable display.

I'll second that. The number of times I'm doing multi-craft missions, converting the "human readable" times into UT to do math and then convert it all back to human readable times so that I could adjust my orbital periods so that a craft hits its mark right on the spot gets silly :-)

[Kasuha]

Why isn't UT a display option for time, then? It's quite useful for things like planning launch windows because it doesn't depend on the human-readable display.

Have you tried clicking on the "MET" in MET timer? Because it works for me...

Or did you mean "default" option? Or perhaps different format?

Edited June 11, 2014 by Kasuha

[regex]

Have you tried clicking on the "MET" in MET timer? Because it works for me...

Or did you mean "default" option? Or perhaps different format?

The UT HarvesteR is talking about is the time since the save game started, in seconds. It's a double-precision value that you can get from the Planetarium class and it's quite useful because it hasn't been mangled by human-readable formats (or lovingly cast to an integer). MET isn't UT, it's something like "Mission Elapsed Time", or how long the mission itself has been running. That's pretty useless outside of the tracking station. Unless something has changed, the raw UT isn't available to the user unless they do some math.

[Kasuha]

The UT HarvesteR is talking about is the time since the save game started, in seconds. It's a double-precision value that you can get from the Planetarium class and it's quite useful because it hasn't been mangled by human-readable formats (or lovingly cast to an integer). MET isn't UT, it's something like "Mission Elapsed Time", or how long the mission itself has been running. That's pretty useless outside of the tracking station. Unless something has changed, the raw UT isn't available to the user unless they do some math.

That figure is UT enough for me, multiplying by 426, 6, 60, and 60 is not that hard math in my opinion if I ever want that as a number (and I never needed it in that format in fact). The only case where I work with UT timestamp is when I'm waiting for a launch window and that comes from alexmoon's calculator conveniently prepared in matching format.

Timestamp broken into several meaningful number groups is also easier to remember and work with than a long featureless number. As mcuh as poelpe hvae tedncney to sikp mdilde prats of wrods, they often have tendency not distinguish long similar number strings.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Kasuha

[LethalDose]

Man, I wish the biggest issue with KSP was a default setting.