Timezone fix for 1.10?

[Tenma_4suka]

can the new OSM map update planning also fix timezone problem as well for 1.10?

[Weird and Wry]

It is not a bug, it is a deliberate decision to keep timezone math fast and simple. That's why you can customize timezones on a per-line and per-train basis.

[Tenma_4suka]

Originally posted by Weird and Wry:

It is not a bug, it is a deliberate decision to keep timezone math fast and simple. That's why you can customize timezones on a per-line and per-train basis.

Well.
Can I have an option to maintain certain time zone I choose globally when editing timetables?
And shows the fixed time I choose and current local time on top info bar?

[david_neibig]

Originally posted by Tenma_4suka:

Originally posted by Weird and Wry:

It is not a bug, it is a deliberate decision to keep timezone math fast and simple. That's why you can customize timezones on a per-line and per-train basis.

Well.
Can I have an option to maintain certain time zone I choose globally when editing timetables?
And shows the fixed time I choose and current local time on top info bar?

Having the ability to tie all of your scheduling (if not the game time), to a given time zone would be really useful.

[Tenma_4suka]

Originally posted by david_neibig:

Originally posted by Tenma_4suka:

Well.
Can I have an option to maintain certain time zone I choose globally when editing timetables?
And shows the fixed time I choose and current local time on top info bar?

Having the ability to tie all of your scheduling (if not the game time), to a given time zone would be really useful.

For some country like China goes across 4 geographical time zones but only using +8 to cover the whole country, fixed time zone is more useful.
Same for the train system for the whole country.
Also like Spain is within 0GMT time zone but using +1 for whole country, a fixed time zone setting for creating new train timetables is useful.

[MirkoC407]

Have not yet tested the time zone change but can imagine it is only confusing as of now. My fictitious county uses parts of France and Spain, so it should be in CET. However, by its geographical position it is in GMT (luckily all of it). So if I would set lines into CET, I guess they would be one hour off the local time, right?
If so I will stick with the wrong time zone. That's much better than an offset between train time and local time at the position of the map window. Best would however still be correct time zones.

[adlet]

How much practical impact is there if your time zone is off by 1 hour (but the entire network in the same time zone)?

How can I tell which station is in which time zone?

Is a possible "easy" fix to be able to specify the time zone of each station to solve the time zone issue? (as opposed to split the map into custom buitl time zones based on country borders and such). And be able to mass edit i.e. select a bunch of stations and set the time zone to what you want, so you can change all your network to what you think is the right time zone. I am putting easy into quotation marks because when this is done, if not done properly, timetables may be disrupted.

[MirkoC407]

I accept that the whole country is in another time zone, luckily it is in just one. So all that does not fit is the time distance to the overseas territory in Southeast Asia being one hour too much.
Seems 12 year old me was lucky when stretching the country from 7.18°W to 4.88°E And fair to say by this geographical position GMT would not even be the wrong one.

Even if you place the station into the correct time zone, the issue will probably remain that the plainly longitude based clock will show the wrong time.

[MirkoC407]

Having collected some information on time zones, in the US the counties can decide the time zone, which leads to some cases of counties taking the time zone of the neighbour state because that's where the next big city is and local life is focused. So I'm afraid real data would require an overlay of a really low level and therefore a lot of data to add to the map and eventually process on at least loading a savegame - a process that is becoming longer and longer already.
Plus it is a dynamic process with changes from time to time, so real data would always have the risk of outdating and requiring updates. And finally, if now real time zones were introduced what would happen to existing gamesaves? The next case of writing all schedules new from scratch?
So maybe the current compromise, as unconvenient it may be in some cases, is not that bad at all.

[Tenma_4suka]

Originally posted by MirkoC407:

Having collected some information on time zones, in the US the counties can decide the time zone, which leads to some cases of counties taking the time zone of the neighbour state because that's where the next big city is and local life is focused. So I'm afraid real data would require an overlay of a really low level and therefore a lot of data to add to the map and eventually process on at least loading a savegame - a process that is becoming longer and longer already.
Plus it is a dynamic process with changes from time to time, so real data would always have the risk of outdating and requiring updates. And finally, if now real time zones were introduced what would happen to existing gamesaves? The next case of writing all schedules new from scratch?
So maybe the current compromise, as unconvenient it may be in some cases, is not that bad at all.

You don’t have to set another layout for the map, as I mentioned, give an option to set custom default time zone on menu, and the game should not change exist line’s time zone setting, only affect to new lines you create, also after you select any custom time zone, display both selected time zone and regular time zone on top info bar, this shouldn’t having any impact to exist save data anyway.

[MirkoC407]

Right, a single time zone for the whole map would at least make those happy who build in only one (small) country and cover many cases where only part of it is cut off. I think we had complaints here from Germany and Ireland recently, which all would work perfectly this way.

[adlet]

Setting a single time zone would probably be totally fine for 90%+ of all players and games.

Being able to set up custom time zones for individual stations will probably be good for everyone else, if you can bulk-edit them. This would also be easy for software update compared to drawingt actual time zones on the map, which is tedious and can change in real life on a regular basis.

[Tenma_4suka]

Originally posted by adlet:

Setting a single time zone would probably be totally fine for 90%+ of all players and games.

Being able to set up custom time zones for individual stations will probably be good for everyone else, if you can bulk-edit them. This would also be easy for software update compared to drawingt actual time zones on the map, which is tedious and can change in real life on a regular basis.

That requires huge amounts of work for the network, and I don’t think that’s worthy consider of simulation speed players using.
(The only reason I can think about time zone settings for individual stations is those country has multiple time zone and also using daylight saving time)

[MirkoC407]

Can we please not talk about DST? I think then this topic completely derails (pun intended). DST use is even more inconsistent than zoning itself. Due to the tilt of the earth it is set off by half a year in northern and southern hemispheres, some countries don't use it at all. Those which do implement it on different dates, etc. Pandora's box should kept well closed...

[adlet]

Originally posted by Tenma_4suka:

Originally posted by adlet:

Setting a single time zone would probably be totally fine for 90%+ of all players and games.

Being able to set up custom time zones for individual stations will probably be good for everyone else, if you can bulk-edit them. This would also be easy for software update compared to drawingt actual time zones on the map, which is tedious and can change in real life on a regular basis.

That requires huge amounts of work for the network, and I don’t think that’s worthy consider of simulation speed players using.
(The only reason I can think about time zone settings for individual stations is those country has multiple time zone and also using daylight saving time)

Yes that's why I said 90% should be good with the ability to set a single time zone.

The level of effort should not be high if bulk-editing is possible - select large areas of track and then use one button click to convert all stations inside the selection into the desired time zone. You may need to do it a few times if the network is large, but it should be feasible to do everything in less than half an hour. Especially if by default each station is assigned a geographical time zone, which will be accurate probably 80% of the time. This is likely easier than trying to program time zones into the code, because then you need to introduce administrative borders which currently are not included, and time zones can also change over time.

The reason I think it's a helpful option is because when you operate across more than 2 time zones, traffic starts being affected by the time of the day patterns. I will use airplane travel for easier illustation. LA to NYC is about 5-6 hours flight plus or minus 3 hours time change. So you arrive into a time that is either 8-9 hours later or 2-3 hours later from the time you departed. One can be rush hour, and the other not. So you probably want to build a timetable taking time of the day into account.

DST should not be relevant because the game is for one week only, hopefully everyone can pick a week that does not include a shift from winter to summer time.