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meep-eep
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Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« on: May 07, 2004, 05:06:44 pm »

In this "Star Control II fact", I'll elaborate on about all the details about time.
This posting turned out longer than I expected, and it contains enough spoilers to reconstruct the game. Well, almost. Well, not nearly actually, but still a lot.

The clock speed is:
  • 5 real seconds per game day in HyperSpace and QuasiSpace
  • 30 real seconds per game day in interplanetary

    Time stops when
    • in orbit around a planet or moon
    • in a menu
    • the game is paused
    • waiting for confirmation on quit
    • exploring planets or moons
    • in communication
    • waiting for talk/attack decision in encounter
    • in the Starbase
    • in battle


There are a couple of points in the game when time is fast-forwarded:
  • When the starbase is being prepared so that it can service your precursor vessel, you lose 14 days.
  • When you get compelled by the Dnyarri to "Seek death at the hands of your enemy", you lose 15 days.
  • When the Chmmr install the Utwig bomb on your ship, you lose 14 days.

These days are approximate. '15 days' actually means 'until the start of the 15th game day after this one plus a real-time second', not necessarily 15 * 24 game hours.


Some game events happen at a specific date, others take place a certain time after the player triggers them.
  • The game starts at February 17, 2155.
  • The 17th of every month, a quasispace portal will open at (43.8, 637.2).
    It will close again at the 20th of the same month.
  • Every day, if you're in hyperspace, there's a chance that an alien ship (or group of ships) will appear.
  • February 17, 2159 (one year later if you've sent the Utwig and Supox on their mission against the Kohr-Ah), the Kohr-Ah have won the doctrinal war.
    7 days later, the Kohr-Ah will begin their death march, starting with the Druuge. The Kohr-Ah travel with a speed of 15.8 standard HyperSpace units per day. Once the Kohr-Ah fleet reaches the fleet of the victim race, the latter is destroyed instantaneously.
    The Kohr-Ah then immediately begin moving towards the nearest race with a fleet, until all of them are destroyed. Then they will head for Earth. When they reach it, the game is over. The exact time depends on where all the fleets are at the time of the cleansing, and how many fleets are still remaining, but it's somewhere in the last quarter of 2159 (or 2160 if you earned an extra year).
  • 10 days after you tell the Arilou that the Umgah are acting weird, they will tell you that the Umgah are under "psychic compulsion" originating from the Umgah home star.
  • When you command the Ilwrath to kill the Thraddash:
    • They immediately leave to (250.0, 807.0), a bit to the southwest of the Thraddash homeworld.
    • When they rach that location, after 90 days, the mutual genocide with the Thraddash commences, and both races slowly head for (251.7, 821.4), which is halfway between the location of the Ilwrath fleet and the Thraddash homeworld.
    • After 127 days, the last of the Ilwrath fleet will have reached that location and it ceases to exist. The Thraddash are still one day off from that location, but their fleet is gone at this time as well.

  • When you tell the Mycon to go to the Syreen trap,
    • the Mycon will immediately leave,
    • arrive at Organon 30 days later,
    • spend there 14 days getting slaughtered, after which all Mycon and the Syreen know about the massacre, and
    • the Mycon return to their homeworld, where they
    • arrive 30 days later

  • 6 months after you ally with the Pkunk, they leave (50.2, 40.1) (a bit southwest of their homeworld), heading towards (497.0, 40.0) (a bit northeast of the Yehat homeworld).
    If not stopped, they arrive there 182 days later to be instantaneously absorbed by the Yehat.
    If you meet them on there way and convince them to return, they will immediately head back to (50.2, 40.1). The way back takes as long as the journey so far took. Once they have arrived at their starting point, they will wait for 3 months, after which they head back to the Yehat.
    If convinced to return for a second time, the same thing happens.
  • 2 months after you bring the Shofixti maidens to Tanaka or Katana, Shofixti ships and crew will be at your service.
  • Every 182 days the chance at any day that a Slylandro probe will appear in hyperspace (2% at the start of the game) is increased by 2% to a maximum of 8%, until the Slylandro tell you about the probe's self-destruct code.
    Every 23 days after that, the chance is decreased by 2%, until it reaches 0%. If you haven't got access to the Starbase yet, this chance is ignored and a probe will appear every day.
  • 6 months after you've allied with the Spathi ("A Spathi delegation will depart immediately for the planet Earth."), they will return to a slave-shielded Spathiwa. If at that time the player is in their solar system, the move will be postponed by 7 days. This will happen as often as needed.
  • When you send the Thraddash to attack the Kohr-Ah, they will immediately leave to (487.9, 720.1), which takes 14 days. They will remain there fighting for 14 days as well, and and will then return to their homeworld in another 14 days.
  • When you give the repaired Ultron to the Utwig and it tells them to attack the Kohr-Ah, they will immediately leave to (720.8, 700.0), and the Supox leave for (746.8, 924.6). At this time you have earned the extra year before the Kohr-Ah win the war.
    After 21 days, the two races will arrive at their destination. They will then start fighting for 160 days, before returning home. The journey home takes another 21 days.
  • 3 months after you ally with the Zoq-Fot-Pik, they will send out a distress call, if you are not currently in their home system. If you are, the distress call will be postponed by 7 days. This is repeated as often as necessary.
    Unless you rescue the ZFP, they will be destroyed 6 months after the distress call. This can again be indefinitely delayed by 7 days at a time, if you are in their home system at the time the destruction is scheduled.
  • The first time you visit the Pkunk on Januari 1 2156 or later, if the Kohr-Ah have not started their death march yet, the Pkunk will report a dream where the Kohr-Ah is defeating the Kzer-Za.
  • When you ally with the Pkunk, they give you 4 of their ships. If there's not that much room in your fleet, they give as much as there is room for. If you can't accommodate any at all, nothing is lost; you'll get to say the same remark (including your introduction) again the next time you visit the Pkunk homeworld. Exactly one year after you've accepted at least 1 Pkunk ship (on Feb 28 if you got the ship(s) on Feb 29 in a leap-year), a new batch of 4 ships will be waiting for you. This can be repeated for as long as the Pkunk are available to you. Each time, if there is room in your fleet for at least one ship, you'll have to wait another year and if there's no room at all, you can ask again the next visit.
  • After you've started the Yehat revolution, you can ask any rebel ship for ships, and they'll give you 4. New ships will available after a month. If you last got ships on the 29th, 30th, or 31th a month, new ones will be available on the
    28th of the next month. For the rest, it works exactly in the same way as with the Pkunk.
  • If you visit the Zoq-Fot-Pik homeworld in the year 2158 (2159 if you gained the extra year), but before March, and you ask them about war news, they will report that the Kohr-Ah are winning the doctrinal war. If you visit them in March of that year, or later (but before the war is over), they'll report that the Ur-Quan are almost defeated.
    Note that if the Utwig are attacking the Kohr-Ah, the ZFP will report this instead. As each item is reported only once, they will report about the war if you leave and visiting the ZFP again.


Some general remarks about all the above:
  • The fleet locations mentioned are the centres of the respective spheres of influence.
  • Except where specified otherwise, "n months later" or "after n months means the same day of the month n months later; if that month doesn't have enough days, the rest will be added in days. (So 1 month later than Jan 30 on a non-leap year will be March 2)


Some of the reports you get from the Starbase commander are displayed if you visit after a specific time. These times depend on the time passed since you first visited the Starbase with the moon base on board. Only the day and month are recorded, which means that if you only visit with the moon base on some date after 2155, it will think you visited on the same date in 2155.
  • After 7 days, if you haven't met Fwiffo yet, the commander will report faint alien signals from the direction of Uranus.
  • After 42 days, if you haven't visited Rigel or the ZFP homeworld yet, the commander will report Hyperwave transmissions from the direction of Rigel.
  • After 3 months, if you haven't met the Melnorme yet, the commander will report that the Melnorme sought contact, and that you can find them at Alpha Centauri.
  • After 6 month, if you haven't met the Melnorme yet, the commander will report that the Melnorme have sought contact again, and that you can find them in any supergiant system.
  • After 7 months, if you haven't acquired the Slylandro probe self-destruct code yet, the commander will report his worries about the probes.

For the items where it says "after n months" and the original day of the month doesn't exist in the month n months later, the first day of the next month is used.

« Last Edit: August 08, 2004, 07:55:00 pm by meep-eep » Logged

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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2004, 01:05:12 pm »

verrry interesting
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2004, 07:26:06 pm »

The Righteous Crusade (TM) starts exactly 4 or 5 years before the war would be over ... interesting.

These facts are always fun and give a pinch of joy.
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2004, 11:04:46 pm »

So does sending the Thraddash against the Kohr-Ah not affect the time the Kohr-Ah when the war? I thought it pushed back the time, like the utwig/supox did.
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2004, 11:29:54 pm »

Quote
So does sending the Thraddash against the Kohr-Ah not affect the time the Kohr-Ah when the war? I thought it pushed back the time, like the utwig/supox did.

It doesn't help.
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2004, 07:06:18 am »

I changed the clock speed numbers in the original post. They were incorrect after all.
It used to say:
Quote
  • 6 real seconds per game day in HyperSpace and QuasiSpace
    (though from the code it looks like 5 seconds was intended)
  • 31 real seconds per game day in interplanetary
    (though from the code it looks like 30 seconds was intended)

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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2004, 12:00:48 pm »

meep-eep: this is a horribly stupid question, but when you retreat from a battle are you in stasis for 5 or 6 seconds? I've tried counting carefully and watching my watch but I can't tell which.

Also, you didn't mention at the start you kill 2 weeks time after obtaining the allegiance of the star base.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2004, 12:05:05 pm by Shiver » Logged
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2004, 01:05:52 pm »

You do? I never noticed, as usually i finish WELL ahead of the time limit.
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2004, 08:43:19 pm »

Quote
meep-eep: this is a horribly stupid question, but when you retreat from a battle are you in stasis for 5 or 6 seconds? I've tried counting carefully and watching my watch but I can't tell which.

Neither. It's about 131 frames (it could be one more or less), and battle is at 24 frames per second. So it's about 5.5 seconds.

Quote
Also, you didn't mention at the start you kill 2 weeks time after obtaining the allegiance of the star base.

Good point. I overlooked that one. I've added it now.

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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2005, 12:41:24 am »

Quote
6 months after you've allied with the Spathi ("A Spathi delegation will depart immediately for the planet Earth."), they will return to a slave-shielded Spathiwa. If at that time the player is in their solar system, the move will be postponed by 7 days. This will happen as often as needed.

So this basically means "if the player is within the system at the time, extend the deadlione by 7 days. If the player doesn't leave/return when the time expires, add another seven days, and so on, ad infinitum" right?
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #10 on: August 08, 2005, 01:19:57 am »

Quote
6 months after you've allied with the Spathi ("A Spathi delegation will depart immediately for the planet Earth."), they will return to a slave-shielded Spathiwa. If at that time the player is in their solar system, the move will be postponed by 7 days. This will happen as often as needed.

So this basically means "if the player is within the system at the time, extend the deadlione by 7 days. If the player doesn't leave/return when the time expires, add another seven days, and so on, ad infinitum" right?
Exactly.
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #11 on: August 08, 2005, 05:47:32 am »

Quote
So does sending the Thraddash against the Kohr-Ah not affect the time the Kohr-Ah when the war? I thought it pushed back the time, like the utwig/supox did.
It doesn't help.


After all, the Thraddash's "participation" in the Doctrinal War consists of warping in, sending some loud and belligerent message about how they're the greatest Battle Thralls and the favored servants of the Kzer-Za, and then getting blown away by ships on *both* sides.
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #12 on: August 11, 2005, 01:58:00 am »

Might be useful to know how long it takes the Kohr-Ah to wipe out each race once they start marching.
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #13 on: August 17, 2005, 07:20:09 pm »

Useful. So no more sitting around for 5 years in real life, then Cheesy
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Re: Star Control II fact #5 - Time
« Reply #14 on: August 17, 2005, 07:34:03 pm »

I did leave my computer on once, in Quasi-space for a few hours, just to warp back to Hyper-space and watch the Kohr-Ah go around the quardant and eliminate everyone in "real time", as the hyper-space map was updated for the lost time.

It was.. depressing   Grin
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