Time

Oolite game time

The ship's clock is started at a defined value (PLAYER_SHIP_CLOCK_START) plus the current time of day. It is stored as a double precision number.

PLAYER_SHIP_CLOCK_START is defined as 2084004 * 86400

86400 is the number of seconds in a day, so the clock itself stores seconds since a (presumably arbitrary) epoch. 2084004 is the number of days since this  epoch. This means the epoch starts 5705 (Earth) years before Oolite starts. Winston

2084004 is 1st Jan 3015

So.. 0000000 is sometime around 2690BC

2690BC Standout moments:-

Chinese begin silk manufacture.
Egyptians construct the great pyramid of Cheops.
Ibusaki volcano erupts in Japan creating enormous caldera (VEI 5).

But I think I'll plump for the great Pyramid. Aegidian

The above quotes are from The Clock (2006)

First view

Aegidian's above: the date indicated by your ship's clock (2084004 * 86400) is 1st Jan 3015

Second view

Selezen's: the date is 21st March 3142 (based on dates given in The Space Traders Flight Training Manual) and others culled from Frontier etc. One major determinant is Commander Jameson from Classic Elite gifting a ship to his grandson in Frontier (which is dated at 3200).

 3015 is too early though - the Cobra Mk 3 doesn't enter service until 3100. Selezen's critique of Aegidian - see the link above.

Third view

Cim's: the date is 5709 years after the Birds & Frogs of Galaxy 6 communicated with each other! Based on his reasoning in "Not in the manual" - setting and canon in the eight charts.

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OXPs

• Useful MFDs shows the time in the more usual format, but starting from 21st March 3142 (to fit in with Selezen's timelines!). It can be tweaked.

Links

• History for Cim's history.
• Lore for the conceptual differences between Selezen's & Cim's approaches.
• Oolite timeline for Selezen's and Cim's histories.
• Time scales in Oolite for programming notes.