11-29-2015, 07:27 PM
(11-29-2015, 08:39 AM)YDH Wrote: Okay, I dug this up:
RyuujinZERO Wrote:Avali timekeeping must be a little odd, but I havn't set into stone how it works. The problem in avali timekeeping arises from the fact Avalon is a moon and it is also tidally locked. That means 1 Avalon day = 1 full orbit of it's parent planet, based on Avalon size that'll be between 15 and 30 days depending on orbittal distance/speed (Again another precise detail i have no set in stone), that also means that an Avalon "day" and "night" last over a week of Earth time. if the Avali require regular sleep, then their activity cycle can't be connected to the day/night cycle (Which is one reason they arn't so reliant on eyesight, as it wouldn't do them much good for a week at a time).I'm on the fence as to whether a "day" and "night" would actually mean anything, given the opacity of Avalon's atmosphere and distance from the sun (as a corollary, I'm going to contend that Avali weren't aware of the stars before reaching space). Unless I'm misunderstanding--I was under the impression that the Avali's poor eyesight was due to the fact that even when fully exposed to the sun, Avalon's atmosphere blocks most light from reaching the surface.
Obviously the Avali were aware of the stars and that they had a repeated cycle too (A year) giving them two cycles to work against, but again, based on the size of their parent planet and orbital distance this could be several earth years long.
From here, I think I'm just going to start making stuff up unless someone has a better idea. I'm thinking that the basic equivalent of a "year" for Avalon is based on their sun's solar activity cycle--not the rising and setting that we observe, but cyclic changes in the star's radiation output and amount of ejecta. On Avalon, the peak of this cycle is characterized by increased slightly increased temperatures, but mostly by a season of auroras. For simplicity's sake, I think I'll set this cycle to 1.2 Earth years to make it easy to do rough translations. Unless the science doesn't work.
If day and night do have a noticeable effect, then I imagine that they would form the basis of an Avali "week" or "month."
Consequently, I would expect either some smaller unit of time to be used the way we use days, or for Avali to have long-running "week" or "month" clocks instead of daily ones, and be active at any time according to their personal schedules.
I think I'll go with base 6 for the Avali number system. Thus, they might have a system like this (just pulling numbers out of a hat)
1 "day" = 1/24 of an Avali year = 18.25 Earth days
1 "year" = 438 Earth days = 1.2 Earth years
1 "decade" = 6 Avali years = 7.2 Earth years
1 "century" = 36 Avali years = 43.2 Earth years
1 "millenia" = 144 Avali years = 172.8 Earth years
1 "whatever" = 864 Avali years = 1,036.8 Earth years
Using base 6 really gives a different set of numbers that what we're used to...
Man, this was supposed to be a simple project to serve as a proof of concept for making machinimas! Now I'm delving into stellar phenomena and interstellar timekeeping!
Don't think too much about it! When in doubt, cheese an answer. Heck, an answer isn't even needed. Is there a point in the story where anyone will be on Avalon? If not, doesn't matter. If it is, then they probably won't be around long enough for it to matter.