One 24h is a day or is a month ?!?!

[missingpiece]

Now I am totally confused !  Every now and then -- even in my existing savegame of pak64 -- the time bar changes : sometimes, one day cycle from 0h00 to 23h59 is one day, but sometimes it represents a whole month; jumping from January to February at 23h49, and the day of the month is not even shown in the status bar.

I do not know where that can be a setting. And it seems to behave....non-deterministic as to when I see days pass and when a day ( in terms of 24 in-game hours as displayed in the time bar ) is a whole month.

I am currently trying out map generation and other paks, but I do not see how that relates to this behaviour....

[Fabio]

IIRC, there are 3 days to a month.

As an extension request:
there could be an entry in simuconf.tab

Code Select Expand

days_per_month=3

This could enable players to choose longer or shorter months.

Also a day counter could be shown, where the actual day is a fraction of the month. Assuming months are standard 30 days:

days_per_month=3 (default)
day 1 = 1 January = round(30/3*0)+1
day 2 = 11 January = round(30/3*1)+1
day 3 = 21 January = round(30/3*2)+1

days_per_month=4
day 1 = 1 January = round(30/4*0)+1
day 2 = 9 January = round(30/4*1)+1
day 3 = 16 January = round(30/4*2)+1
day 4 = 24 January = round(30/4*3)+1

days_per_month=5
day 1 = 1 January = round(30/5*0)+1
day 2 = 7 January = round(30/5*1)+1
day 3 = 13 January = round(30/5*2)+1
day 4 = 19 January = round(30/5*3)+1
day 5 = 25 January = round(30/5*4)+1

and so on, but also

days_per_month=2
day 1 = 1 January = round(30/2*0)+1
day 2 = 16 January = round(30/2*1)+1

days_per_month=1
day 1 = 1 January = round(30/1*0)+1

[missingpiece]

Let me detail my question : the status bar, which I highlighted in red in the attachment to my OP, changes sometimes. It happens from start to start of the game, but not every time, and I do not know how I am influencing that.

The status bar sometimes does not show a day of month, like "1. January", but simply "January". And once the day is over, it switches to February. What is causing this ?

[Václav]

Also a day counter could be shown, where the actual day is a fraction of the month. Assuming months are standard 30 days:

days_per_month=3 (default)
...
days_per_month=4
...
days_per_month=5
...
and so on

So, if I understand right, finally month would may has almost right number of days - for example 28 (that is standard length of lunar month, not calendar month) - and planning of city mass transit and short track intercity passenger trains could go closer to real world.

[Fabio]

It COULD be possible to set month's length from 1 day to 30, if anybody implements it the way I suggested

[Václav]

Thanks. But this is work for somebody else (than me )

[Combuijs]

Let me detail my question : the status bar, which I highlighted in red in the attachment to my OP, changes sometimes. It happens from start to start of the game, but not every time, and I do not know how I am influencing that.

The status bar sometimes does not show a day of month, like "1. January", but simply "January". And once the day is over, it switches to February. What is causing this ?

This display is influenced by a parameter: (from the simuconf.tab file):

# Should month be shown in date?
# 0=no, 1=yes
# 2>=show day in japan format=2, us format=3, german=4
# 5>=show no season but everything else in japan format=5, us format=5, german=6
# This is most useful, if you use longer months than the default length (see below)
#show_month = 1

The default is read from the file and stored in the savegame the first time. The display mode should not change in a game, but it can be different for different games. Is that what you are experiencing?

[TurfIt]

Actually this setting is *not* saved in the savegame, only in settings.xml.

The OP mentions trying different paks. If a pak specifies this parameter in its simuconf.tab, then that new setting will take effect. If different pak is then loaded that doesn't specify the parameter, the one from the other pak persists. That would explain the behavior experienced by the OP.

IMO this parameter should only be present in the main simuconf.tab. It's really a global game preference. paks should leave it alone...

[Václav]

Combuijs, TurfIt, I think that each of us talk about something else.

You talk about settings of showing of date in game - and idea of showing of gamedate also in loadgame dialogue.

But missingpiece talks about quite odd length of month - 24 hours (like if month and day is the same time unit). So, me and Fabio call for extension (?patch) that could lead to re-setting of length of months to exact number of days.

... and various flowing of time (length of one day) could be set by option bits_per_month. So month could have 28 days and take 28*60 seconds.

[VS]

Concerning the original question and explanations by Combuijs & Ters... Pak128 simuconf did have this setting present (set to 1) I'm going to read the whole file and see what else could be dropped. I'm really sorry for cases like this, but there's lots of legacy stuff from times when the pak needed its own config file with everything.

[TurfIt]

Simutrans has no concept of anything shorter than a month. Seconds/Minutes/Hours/Days/Weeks are only created for the status line display in the format as specified by show_month. This display is exactly what the OP was talking about, hence the response from Combuijs and I actually answering the help request rather than OT extension requests...

[VS]

Heh, sure, I wanted to emphasize that I'm also addressing the actual OP's problem rather than the extension request rampage

[prissi]

With show_month=1 a month consist of three days with darkening. Otherwise, with shorter settings of bit_per_month (like the original 18) the screen would flicker too much. Insofar this might also be set by a certain pak, like pakHajo, if bits_per_month is set to 18 or shorter.

[missingpiece]

Ah, I see ! Thanks for the remarks. So me jiggling with paks and also preset pak in simuconf.tab may have caused this status line display to change appearance. Will give your suggestions a try tomorrow.

I never saw night graphics, actually. Neither in pak64 nor pak128 with simutrans 111 all in default values. Maybe tossing around the parameters which you pointed out to me will do me that favour as well...

[TurfIt]

There's no .tab file settings for the day/night mode.

In the game options menu, select "Display" to open the Display settings menu, select "day and night change" to enable automatic day/night mode.
Or, in pak64, use '(' and ')' to manually adjust the permanent daylight level. Other paks, well they like mucking with the key bindings... subject of a whole other rant.