Editing 23a:Time

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Time in Dwarf Fortress can be a somewhat complicated subject, but learning the ins and outs of the system is essential for modders and can be of great use to players, as time tracks everything from [[syndrome]]s to crop growth.

== Breakdown ==
Time is measured in unnamed units, which are commonly referred to as "time units" or "ticks."  Time units are equal to different lengths of time, depending on the game mode.

In fortress mode, there are 1200 time units in a day; in adventurer mode, there are 86400 time units in a day.  Thus, a dwarf in adventure mode is capable of moving, fighting, and interacting 72 times as fast as a dwarf in fortress mode assuming the same statistics.  Assuming 24 hours per day, 60 minutes per hour, and 60 seconds per minute, this means that a time unit lasts 1 second in adventurer mode and 1.2 minutes in fortress mode.  Regardless of mode, there are 28 days in a month and 12 months in a year.

In fortress mode, there are 403200 time units every year.  At 100 fps, it would take just over an hour in real-time to play through one year.

The amount of time it takes a creature to move, fight, or interact is directly proportional to its [[speed]] and inversely proportional to its [[agility]] and its [[strength]].  All creatures with default speed, regardless of their strength or agility, take between 5 and 16 time units per orthogonal tile traveled, with a median travel time of 10.5 time units. Triggered devices can be affected by delays of up to 100 time units; see [[lever]].

== Plants ==
Plants use a tag called GROWDUR. The GROWDUR value is generally set to 300 or 500, which is actually 30000 time units or 50000 time units.  One growdur is equal to 100 time units.

== Lifespan and Development ==

See [[Age]].

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-'''Time''' is an integral part of any simulation, none the least in a simulation as complex as Dwarf Fortress. Time is measured internally in unnamed units, commonly dubbed "ticks" by the community. Each tick represents one step in the Dwarf Fortress program, requiring calculations related to [[speed|unit movement]], [[flow|fluid movement]], [[temperature|temperature transfer]], various event checks, [[combat|combat checks]], [[path|pathing checks]], [[job|job changes]] - basically everything required to run the program, broken up between individual lumps of time. These ticks are then bundled up against days, months, seasons, and then years under the dwarven [[calendar]]. For a discussion on the greater passage of time, see [[Calendar]]; this page is focused on the lower-level, "unit-based", in-game passage of time.
+Time in Dwarf Fortress can be a somewhat complicated subject, but learning the ins and outs of the system is essential for modders and can be of great use to players, as time tracks everything from [[syndrome]]s to crop growth.
-== Basic mechanics ==
+== Breakdown ==
-How much a tick in time is worth against the yearly dwarven [[calendar]] depends on the game mode, as time in fortress mode is much more heavily accelerated than it is in adventurer mode. Fortress mode counts 1200 ticks per day and 403,200 per year, while adventurer mode counts 86,400 ticks to a day and therefore 29,030,400 ticks per year. According to these rates, each tick is equivalent to a real-world second in adventurer mode, but 1.2 ''minutes'' in fortress mode, making adventurers ''72'' times faster than your dwarves tick-for-tick. This is intended behavior, as the pacing in fortress mode is much, ''much'' faster than when adventuring.
+Time is measured in unnamed units, which are commonly referred to as "time units" or "ticks."  Time units are equal to different lengths of time, depending on the game mode.
-How quickly time ''appears'' to pass in your game, especially in fortress mode, has as much to do with your hardware as with the number of ticks in a year. The number of [[frames per second]] is a direct reflection of how many ticks a second your processor is working through. This should be distinguished from the frame ''refresh'' rate, which is how many frames appear on your ''screen'' per second - since there's a limit to how many frame changes the human eye can see, there's not much purpose to displaying every single one of them on-screen. You can set your FPS to be visible by changing {{tt|[FPS:NO]}} to {{tt|[FPS:YES]}} in your [[Init.txt]] file, which will display your framerate in the top-right corner of your game window. By default the framerate is capped at 100 FPS, but this setting can be changed or even removed: see [[Frames per second#Controlling FPS]] for a technical discussion. For tips on maximizing framerate, see the (topically named) [[Maximizing framerate]] article.
+In fortress mode, there are 1200 time units in a day; in adventurer mode, there are 86400 time units in a day.  Thus, a dwarf in adventure mode is capable of moving, fighting, and interacting 72 times as fast as a dwarf in fortress mode assuming the same statistics.  Assuming 24 hours per day, 60 minutes per hour, and 60 seconds per minute, this means that a time unit lasts 1 second in adventurer mode and 1.2 minutes in fortress mode.  Regardless of mode, there are 28 days in a month and 12 months in a year.
-Dwarf Fortress is an ''extremely'' processor-intensive game, and so how many frames you actually get per second will depend on the strength of your machine, how far into the game and how clutter there is in it, whether or not you are not taking any fps-saving measures, what mods or other programs you are running, and so on. Regardless of mode, there are 28 days in a month and 12 months in a year. Assuming an FPS of 100, not counting pauses an hour of fortress mode gameplay will translate into a year in-game.
+In fortress mode, there are 403200 time units every year.  At 100 fps, it would take just over an hour in real-time to play through one year.
-== Applied mechanics ==
+The amount of time it takes a creature to move, fight, or interact is directly proportional to its [[speed]] and inversely proportional to its [[agility]] and its [[strength]].  All creatures with default speed, regardless of their strength or agility, take between 5 and 16 time units per orthogonal tile traveled, with a median travel time of 10.5 time units. Triggered devices can be affected by delays of up to 100 time units; see [[lever]].
-=== Creature actions ===
-{{main|speed}}
-The amount of time in between a [[creature]]'s actions is at its root directly proportional to its [[speed]]. The default base speed is 900, though this value can be changed with a {{tt|[SPEED:#]}} [[creature token]] in the creature [[raw file]]s. A median creature with default speed will be capable of performing an action roughly every 10 ticks. The creature's actual performance is subject to many other modifiers (agility, strength, encumbrance, etc.).
+== Plants ==
+Plants use a tag called GROWDUR. The GROWDUR value is generally set to 300 or 500, which is actually 30000 time units or 50000 time units.  One growdur is equal to 100 time units.
-=== Plant growth ===
+== Lifespan and Development ==
-Plants use a {{tt|[GROWDUR:#]}} [[plant token]] to constrain their growth times. Each {{tt|GROWDUR}} unit (short for "grow duration) is equivalent to a hundred ticks. The default value is 300 and it is usually set to 300 or 500 (30000 or 50000 ticks) for [[crop]]s; there are 1008 {{tt|GROWDUR}} units per [[calendar|season]].
-=== Aging and lifespan ===
 See [[Age]].
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 {{Category|Physics}}