[Discuss] java clock

[ronnie]

i played another tick based game recently which allowed for a java clock to be turned on or off.

the clock updated itself by the second and didnt require an entire page refresh to check the game time.

would a feature like this reduce the amount of refreshing people do before a tick to launch and would it prove to be useful as it did for people in the other game where it was implemented?


thoughts...

[pig]

excellent idea in my opinion, I too have experienced this feature and grew rather fond of it!

[Cochese]

Sounds cool...

[furball]

Make it a countdown to the tick

[wakey]

But we are pretty much using pc's. We have a nice clock in the corner of the screen in most cases. Is it really any use?

[TheRat]

Why on earth would you do it in java? I made a tick based game, had the feature, was a javascript.

[Anakin]

i couldnt agree more the java clock would be excelent )

please add this to the game it would be so useful

[GReaper]

After refreshing a few times, the clock on jpaweb01 is about 5-7 seconds slower compared to various syncronised servers I've checked.

If you've got an accurate clock then theres no need to have an ingame version in something like Java. Just make sure your clock is set accurately!

[Kal]

assuming this can be done easily in javascript as opposed to java I see no reason why we couldn't do this

[noah02]

Originally Posted by wakey

But we are pretty much using pc's. We have a nice clock in the corner of the screen in most cases. Is it really any use?

I agree with wakey.

[wakey]

Originally Posted by Kal

assuming this can be done easily in javascript as opposed to java I see no reason why we couldn't do this

Ok i'm not a javascript expert BUT to my knowledge this wouldnt be possible. Javascript ISNT somthing running server side, its an embeded script thats run LOCALLY on the users machine. As such the time this clock would show would be the users time not the PA time. So what would be the point?

[TheRat]

Originally Posted by wakey

Ok i'm not a javascript expert BUT to my knowledge this wouldnt be possible. Javascript ISNT somthing running server side, its an embeded script thats run LOCALLY on the users machine. As such the time this clock would show would be the users time not the PA time. So what would be the point?

And to my knowledge, exactly the same applies to Java. Besides, fix the timezone ofset and javascript is good to go.

Kal, pm me on irc and Ill see if I can hook you up with the opensource one I used.

[ronnie]

they implemented it in Spaceminers so i cant see why they cant implement it in PA.

even in that game tho it was optional.

like you said, there is a clock in the corner of your pc BUT that doesnt always run at the same time as the game either by hour or second.

[wakey]

Originally Posted by TheRat

And to my knowledge, exactly the same applies to Java. Besides, fix the timezone ofset and javascript is good to go.

Kal, pm me on irc and Ill see if I can hook you up with the opensource one I used.

I didnt try to argue it did.

And yes its easy to add an offset in preferences for every person that will apply the right time difference to adjust it to the time PA is running at but then your left with the problem that this is a BROWSER BASED game. Not an internet explorer browser game, or a Firefox browser game, or a Opera browser game or a Custom brower game. To play this game theres a multitude way of playing the game, some which support Java or Javascript out of the box, others which dont and pretty much all giving you the option to disable it. Hey its not that uncommon for educational establishments, places of work and such like to have such features disabled by default and locked down so you cant enable it .

The idea just adds compatability issues to the game and what for to appeae a few people whom arent happy because their computer clock is a max of 10 seconds either way out. Its hardly as if PA is a game where 10 seconds makes that much of a difference.

As for the hours, it hardly matters if the game time is 21:58 and your clock says 18:58 with the pa page saying 21:50 as thats when you loaded the page. You know the minute time to within a few seconds by your pc clock, you know the hour time by the static time at the bottom of the page so wheres the need for this. It just doesnt exist

[ronnie]

Originally Posted by wakey

The idea just adds compatability issues to the game

like i said in my post above, it has been implemented in a game called spaceminers as an optional feature, if they can implement it i dont see how a game like PA couldnt and as stated, it could be made an OPTIONAL feature so if you didnt want to use it, you didnt have to.

*shrug*

[wakey]

Originally Posted by ronnie

like i said in my post above, it has been implemented in a game called spaceminers as an optional feature, if they can implement it i dont see how a game like PA couldnt and as stated, it could be made an OPTIONAL feature so if you didnt want to use it, you didnt have to.

*shrug*

But why bother. Whats the point of making the skin changes needed to accomadate it , coding the preferance scripts to enable disable it ect ect for something that offers NO real use. Its a cosmetic change and not even a good one.

If we played a game where every second was vital then maybe it would have some use, PA however is a game built more around hours than seconds and as long as we have a clock that shows the hour (current ingame one for example) and a clock that shows the minutes (our OS ones) we are sorted

[ronnie]

Originally Posted by wakey

But why bother. Whats the point of making the skin changes needed to accomadate it , coding the preferance scripts to enable disable it ect ect for something that offers NO real use. Its a cosmetic change and not even a good one.

im no techie but im told its not difficult to do at all, its pretty easy infact (so im told) so saying 'this wud change, this wud change etc' isnt really that much of an argument.

in regards to practicality even when u flick away from the PA window and go back the time would be the correct time and now 'wrong' saving a refresh every time u want an update on the server time.

like i said, i'd seen it in other games, people said it was useful, i suggested it

[SYMM]

It'd be quite trivial to send the server time when starting such a javascript clock, and let the client-clock take over from there (simply keeping the time-difference). It wouldn't stay in-sync forever, but probably enough for PA's purposes?

[wakey]

Originally Posted by ronnie

im no techie but im told its not difficult to do at all, its pretty easy infact (so im told) so saying 'this wud change, this wud change etc' isnt really that much of an argument.

in regards to practicality even when u flick away from the PA window and go back the time would be the correct time and now 'wrong' saving a refresh every time u want an update on the server time.

like i said, i'd seen it in other games, people said it was useful, i suggested it

Its not the largest coding task no, but there are a fair few things that will potentially have to be changed to accomadate it. All for something thats really very little use and something which really isnt going to save bandwith (not that bandwith is an issue anyway)

Someone justify WHY we need a second by second clock in game like PA? It simply doesnt matter if the time is xx:58:45 or xx:55:46 it makes no difference whatso ever. TBH if anything the more suitable debate would be do we need a clock with the minute on it. We all have our clock in the taskbar to give us the minutes, we all know the tick happens around the hour mark so all we need is the Hours for arranging attacks and even thats becoming redundant with PT times

if your going to support something atleast justify its actually usefulness to the game before asking for time to be wasted implementing it

[Kal]

the game is allready full of javascript, so adding mroe really isn't a problem. We can simply refresh the time with each page refresh and simply add time on using the system clock seconds information. This is not prefectly accurate, but its not going to be innacurate over say an hour.

[Rc mayhem]

i'm with Wakey on this and no before you think it, its not cos we are both Fcrew. Where is the need? 2 mins makes very little difference. You still have 58 more mins to arrange defence or whatever. If you get the clock then I want an alarm to go off 15 mins from the tick to warn me that the tick is approaching and then one 5 mins to tell me to get a move on if I want to do anything. Again, this feature will have as much use as this clock one has

Cm

[pig]

I think the main thing is why a java clock would be a good idea is purely because when the tick is coming up, you know that you wont miss it, eg im posting here and then realise its about to tick, so go to my pa screen see that i have 30 secs left to launch a fleet and launch.

Its a trivial request but one that is viable imo.

Only downside is some computers react badly to java so this cud be a problem...

[wakey]

Originally Posted by pig

I think the main thing is why a java clock would be a good idea is purely because when the tick is coming up, you know that you wont miss it, eg im posting here and then realise its about to tick, so go to my pa screen see that i have 30 secs left to launch a fleet and launch.

Its a trivial request but one that is viable imo.

Only downside is some computers react badly to java so this cud be a problem...

Except you dont because the clocks off the screen in most cases. certainly is on your standard 1024x768 desktop. You wont see it without scrolling down and by that time you could have sent your fleets and made the tick whereas scrolling down you wont. Seconds in this game are really pretty insignifcant If your really worried about the last couple of seconds buy yourself a watch or clock with an alarm and have it warn you when you only have a minute to send

[TheRat]

"I dont care about this feature, hence I am against it" <- Great.

Compatibility
As Kal allready said, theres allready a bunch of js in it, so thats not an issue at all. Browsers that does not support javascript generaly ignores it, and for those browsers who DO support js but not this kind its piece of cake to run a basic detection script to enable it. You are creating problems that does not exist.

Timezones
JavaScript is perfectly capable of detecting the timezonesettings on the computer, and apply the correct offset. This is not an issue at all.

Usefulnes
You dont find it useful, well dont watch it then. Some users will like it (I know I would), and for such an extremely simple change I see no reason for it not to be implemented.


Quite frankly wakey, I think you are just trying to create problems because you just dont have any need for the feature yourself.

[noah02]

My moto is to try anything once.

(planetarion wise ppl)

[wakey]

Originally Posted by TheRat

"I dont care about this feature, hence I am against it" <- Great.

Compatibility
As Kal allready said, theres allready a bunch of js in it, so thats not an issue at all. Browsers that does not support javascript generaly ignores it, and for those browsers who DO support js but not this kind its piece of cake to run a basic detection script to enable it. You are creating problems that does not exist.

Timezones
JavaScript is perfectly capable of detecting the timezonesettings on the computer, and apply the correct offset. This is not an issue at all.

Usefulnes
You dont find it useful, well dont watch it then. Some users will like it (I know I would), and for such an extremely simple change I see no reason for it not to be implemented.


Quite frankly wakey, I think you are just trying to create problems because you just dont have any need for the feature yourself.

Yes i'm against the idea soley because I dont need it after all I have such a history of being self centered and thinking about me me me. Oh wait a mo, I was getting myself confused with certain others there. If the idea had some use then id be all for it but we are playing a bloody tick based stratergy game with 1 hour ticks. The clock is only there now for legacy reasons and as such is hidden well off the screen. There is no practical use for this and the only people whom would find it useful either have too much time on their hands that they can waste time sitting there watching a clock tick or are simply deluded into thinking its of use. In a speed game where seconds are of the essence then a big clock ticking like this has its use, in the main game its a waste of time

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally Posted by wakey

in the main game its a waste of time

nice pun

[furball]

I'm a DC for my alliance. I get a call come in at xx:50 (my time) and I'm thinking shit!! Gotta get this covered.

Someone pms me defence at xx:58 (again my time) and I tell them to send. According to my clock, they should be able to make it in time.

But they don't. Because the universe has already ticked.

This is why I'd like a countdown clock, working on PA time. Optional, ofc. But one that's continuously running, not just refreshable. For those with low bandwidth, make it disableable though.

[Rc mayhem]

Originally Posted by Nonentity

I'm a DC for my alliance. I get a call come in at xx:50 (my time) and I'm thinking shit!! Gotta get this covered.

Someone pms me defence at xx:58 (again my time) and I tell them to send. According to my clock, they should be able to make it in time.

But they don't. Because the universe has already ticked.

This is why I'd like a countdown clock, working on PA time. Optional, ofc. But one that's continuously running, not just refreshable. For those with low bandwidth, make it disableable though.

So if you have it in what changes? still no defence changed, just 10-15 seconds of that 2 mins are wasted looking at a clock/

[Kal]

i think the key point is when this is going to be very easy to do, why not do it?

[wakey]

Originally Posted by Kal

i think the key point is when this is going to be very easy to do, why not do it?

So anything simple should be added then, ok then Kal id like a bar somewhere on the page that shows the last posted on threads on these forums so I can still mod while sending ships. Id also like a ticker style marquee running across the top of the page so i can see incoming without clicking galaxy status. Id also like the page to sound an alarm at 10 to the hour so if im busy doing something else i dont miss the tick. But your not going to do any of those are you kal, no because the are largly a waste of time and add little to the game.

Its the same here and actually with this clock you could argue it takes the game back a step. Many of the changes over the rounds have been to reduce the dependancy on a local time and instead focus on a universal unit of time that isnt effected by your location or things like daylight savings time. Now if you were to introduce this java clock it would have to be placed back up at the top of the page because its current location requires you to waste those vital seconds that those in favour of this think are so vital to check it. And what time do you then use as a player, simply because its more natural you have to think any new player to the game is going to be talking about the true times rather than the PT time and it potentially leads to confusing.

It simply doesnt add to the game one bit, we dont need to know the seconds and we dont even really need a clock at all (as i keep saying its off the screen now on anyone running 1024*768 or lower so harly anyone is taking their time to check it as its easier to look into taskbar than scroll down and then have to scroll back up again)

[Rc mayhem]

I think wakey just had a point there. I hate PT time. I never work it out right and it takes me time to do. Everyone works in real times, mainly GMT. People not in the UK would have to convert to GMT and then convert that into PT. Thhis is just too confusing.

[Kal]

I'm undecided on this - I did want a java script clock, but then I realsied having a static clock with server time does allow us to debug more easily - as by using the back button in the browser people can tell us exactly when they did things.