Difference between revisions of "Time"

Revision as of 23:20, 19 July 2011

Time in Doom RL is measured in seconds (abbreviated s). Most actions take about 1.0s.

Some durations are not measured in time, but rather in number of player actions regardless of their length in time. The durations of effects follow this rule.

In previous versions of the game, the turns were used to measure time. The length of a turn was the the same as 0.1s under the current system.

Player Actions

Note that certain traits affect the cost of specific actions as well. Using the right combination of tactics and traits can make a big difference sometimes.

Movement: 1.0s

• Diagonal directions also have a cost of 1.0s!
• This can be reduced by the Hellrunner trait.
• Boots and armor also apply modifiers to movement speed.

Waiting in place: 1.0s

• This is not affected by movement speed modifiers.

Opening and closing doors: 0.5s

Firing: varies depending on the weapon.

• Firing time can be reduced by the Finesse trait, or by applying technical mod packs.
• Pistols' firing time can also be reduced by the Son of a Gun trait.

Reloading: varies depending on the weapon.

• These values can be reduced by the Reloader trait.

Changing tactics to running: 0.1s

Changing tactics to tired: instant

Equipping and unequipping: 1.0s

Swapping in prepared weapon: 0.8s

Picking up anything: 1.0s.

• Side effects of the action (e.g. recovered health from a small health globe) are applied instantly.

Dropping: 0.5s

Using an item from the inventory: 1.0s

Unloading: 1.0s, both from the ground or from your inventory.

Descending stairs to next level: 1.0s

Pushing a barrel: 1.0s

Pulling a lever: instant

Using a teleporter: 1.0s (in addition to the cost of moving onto the teleporter)

Monster Actions

Each enemy page has a speed listed as a percentage. This percentage modifies the time it takes the enemy to perform all actions. The enemy actions that overlap with player actions have the same base time. Thus, an enemy with 100% speed will take 0.5s to open a door, and an enemy with 200% speed will take 0.25s to open the same door. All natural enemy weapons have a firing time of 1.0s (as do all the player weapons that enemies can equip).

Note that monsters get a 4 turn delay before they start acting (relative to their speed; don't expect a lost soul to hold still for 4 seconds).

Speed Modifiers

Various traits and items modify the speeds of movement, firing, and reloading. The way that these modifiers are applied and the way they stack is slightly unintuitive.

A single modifier of +X% has the effect of multiplying the time by (1 - X/100). This is not actually an X% increase: for example, what is called a +50% bonus would change a time from 1.0s to (1 - 50/100)×1.0s = 0.5s. This is actually a 100% increase as speed is normally measured.

When modifiers come from the same source, they are added together before being applied as described above. When modifiers come from different sources, their factors are multiplied in separately. For example, a +10% modifier combined with a -10% modifier from a separate source would result in a time of 1.0s being reduced to (1 - 0.1)×(1 + 0.1)×1.0s = 0.99s. In general, +X% modifiers from are less effective when they are separate and -X% modifiers are more effective when they are separate.

For movement speed, modifier sources are classified as follows: all levels of Hellrunner count as the same source. The modifier from armor (including mods to the armor) is a separate source. The modifier from boots (including mods) is another source. The modifier from running is yet another source.

For firing speed and reload time, mods require special consideration. Mods are applied individually to the firing/reload time and the result is rounded to the nearest 0.1s (rounding of 0.05 is to the nearest even) after each mod.

For firing speed, all levels of Finesse count as one source, and all levels of Son of a Gun count as another source.

For reloading, all levels of Reloader count as one source.

Berserking affects all actions, and works independently of all other modifiers as described below.

Fractional Time

Every action takes some multiple of 0.1s. For actions that need a higher degree of precision, the length of the action varies such that on average it takes its reported length. For example, a player with Hellrunner takes 0.85s to move. This is realized by alternating between 0.8s and 0.9s moves.

This is implemented via an energy system that keeps track of time to the nearest 0.001s = 1ms. Every creature has an energy value. Time passes in 0.1s intervals. Every 0.1s, each creature adds its speed score to its energy. The player has a speed score of 100 (this cannot be changed). Enemies' speed scores are the same as their speed percentage (ie 80 for an enemy with 80% speed). When a creature's energy becomes greater than or equal to 5000, that creature gets to take an action. The length of that action in ms is then subtracted from the energy, so the creature will have to wait before it acts again.

Each being's starting energy is randomly chosen from the range 900-989. Since going down stairs takes 1.0s, this accounts for the fact that the player seems to get around 3 free turns at the start of the level. However, on the very first level, the player's energy is also set to one of these low values, so fast enemies like lost souls can swarm the player before he has a chance to act.

Berserk reduces the time for the player to perform actions in a strange way. Whenever a berserking player reaches 5000 energy, 400 extra energy is added to his total. This has the effect of reducing the time of the next action by 400ms. However, if the action does not drop the player's total energy below 5000, then the bonus is not given again until it does. Thus, a player performing speedy actions might get several instantaneous turns (as he might anyway), but in the average case he will always take some positive amount of time.