This Sims 2 blog follows the lives of the Nuidya tribespeople of the southern plains, as they try to survive, thrive and figure out what exactly it means to be a dragonspark. Along the way, there'll be drama, romance, utter silliness, high-fantasy worldbuilder rambling and lots of cats. Just watch out for those storm demons - they're sneaky. :)

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Introducing the Solupian Calendar

Yes, the post on Li's visit is coming already. I've just been busy puzzling this one out for the last couple of days.

Those of you who remember my last post will know that I've been having problems explaining time differences since I started the blog. Thanks to the comments of Apple Valley and Em, the complaining companion I like to call my mother and several gallons of tea, there is now a solution so I can get back to playing, blogging and finishing that post.

Introducing the Solupian calendar, the new way of dealing with time, seasons and aging in this blog.

How does it work? Well, basically I have decided to adapt the systems used by other Simmers (see "thanks" section above) to suit my playstyle. One rotation in Kulo Seeri is still a day long, but the houses won't all be on the same day and season any more. I'm doing what Em does, setting the first few houses to spring, the next few to summer and so on, and incorporating months like AV does. Only I've gone the whole hog and come up with an entire calendar. With days and weeks and everything. Wow, right?

In more detail: Each season is now three days long, making the seasonal year 12 days long. My calendar has 12 months, three for each season, and each month is 28 days long (because I'm also using a seven-day week and I don't want to have to do complicated calculations every time I finish a rotation!).  Each household represents one day of whatever year it is. The seasonal "date" - whether it's the first day of autumn, third day of spring etc. - determines the month, and the day of the week is simply the Nuidya equivalent of whatever day the game says it is. From there, I look at my actual Nuidya calendar, and pick one of the four dates that match the month and day. That household is then set to that date, and I play in order of the dates. If a Sim moves out to another lot, the new lot is set to at least three weeks after the move-out, depending on what dates are free.

What are the months and days? The three "days" of Spring correspond to the Nuidya months of Snowmelt, Newbud and Greentree. Bluesky, Longday and Warmsun are the summer months, followed by Redleaf, Coldwind and Cropstore in autumn and finally Frostlake, Darknight and Burnflame are the winter months.
A week is actually called a "quarter" by the Nuidya, and the seven days of the Nuidya quarter are: Startquarter (the equivalent of Monday, as that's what day it always is when a Sim moves to a new lot), followed by Seaday, Skyday, Midquarter, Fireday, Stoneday and Quarterend.
I am hopeless with names but doing it all that way just seemed to fit the tribal lifestyle of the Nuidya without being too goofy-sounding.

The Solupian Calendar in action: Let's say Vari zan-Example (Vari being a word in Maltiazi, my "universal naming language" meaning "year") has just moved out of her parents' house. When she moved out, it was a Thursday on the third and final day of Summer, which translates to a Midquarter day in the month of Warmsun. Because dates always fall on the same day of the week, Midquarter is always either the 4th, 11th, 18th or 25th of the month; for the purpose of this example, it was the 18th.
So, since my rule is that new households start at least three weeks after the one they left, Vari's new house will be played as the 11th of Redleaf at the earliest. Since she moves in on Monday/Startquarter and I have decided to play the new house as soon as possible, that means it is either the 15th or 22nd of Redleaf when I play the lot. Looking at my calendar, I have another household scheduled for the 22nd, so I write Vari down for the 15th and play her before the other household to keep things in the right order.
This also means that families will move about in the calendar each year, so that Vari's parents will be in Redleaf themselves next rotation, and it will be any of the four Firedays in the month.

Anything else? I intend to add in holiday dates, birthdays, that sort of thing later. For now, I'm keeping it simple so I can set it up and play again. The only drawback is I've lost my original coming of age idea, as I can't see a way of making it work when one rotation goes through all the seasons. But I am working on a replacement.

OK, why "Solupian"? Because, for the purposes of the blog, the calendar was devised by Apprentice Shaman Soleil zan-Ace and her cousin Wolfie, who is not a shaman or stargazer of any sort, but he is good with numbers. :)

Cookie for you if you read through all that waffling, and double choc chip cookie if you understood it, because I'm not sure I do myself. XD

- VT

3 comments:

  1. Wow, sounds great, can't wait to see it in action.

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  2. Sounds interesting, very detailed. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works for you.

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  3. It sounds so detailed, confusing (or maybe I am just having a blonde moment) but wow! I can't wait to read on to see how it is in action.

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