Celestial information

Do you know what the RL date/time was for game year zero?

 

No, but I think it might be in the wiki somewhere.

 

September 2nd, 1997 00:00 UTC

@Barugon

 

Awesome, same epoch as the lunar rifts.

 

Should be. The only change I'm aware of would be Dishonor having its orbit altered to actually allow for a full alignment. It just wasn't possible the way they had it originally.

 

So, it did get changed. I kept meaning to verify it when I played regularly, but always forgot.

 

What's the maximum number of cabalists that can be in a siege? All eight? If not all eight then what's the priority?

 

Technically 8 but that would require an alignment of all 8 planets, which with the current orbits is still some real world years off? In old Britannia time the alignment happened once every 2000 years but after the cataclysm that period has been significantly extended. I'm sure I might have posted it once ages ago but I never bothered to remember.

Yup. Though in all honestly it's all very much a vague memory now. I forget if there were any other reasons to change it. I feel like there was but I've no idea now.

 

I suspect OCD. Personally, having that one oddball annoyed the crap out of me.

 

Well, there should be an alignment in around 21,000 real earth years, unless I'm dumb at math. (590,000 years if you want Daedalus aligned too. Or maybe just 148,000, I'm less certain about that.) I think it was a big mistake not to have constructed it such that we would get one every few (real) years, just so it could be an event in the game. Apocalypse party at Cora's place! BYOAB

 

i would have thought they'd aim for the 2024 solar eclipse that passes over austin

 

Well, I would imagine shooting for a particular date/time would involve a lot of non-integer orbital periods, which likely means tricky math, and more difficulty in seeing if things are actually working properly. Plus, I suspect a goal was a system which a dedicated observer could figure out without needing to be an actual astronomer. In which case orbits that are whole days make more sense.

 

The only reason I can think of as to why they went with such a long period between full alignments is it might have made multi- cabalist sieges much more common, and they're already pretty common as it is.

 

I was pretty disappointed by that as well. Though I thought there would be at least 1 in a 10-15 year period but that might have been wishful thinking or something I might have suggested back in the day. Probably the latter.

 

I assumed they simply didn't plan at all in that regard. If a full 8 planet alignment would not be part of the story then there is no reason for them to care about one happening, or even more so a reason to have them NOT happen during the life of the game. I mean, look at what happened last time! SOMEONE moved the moons and didn't put them back properly *(*cough* *Ultima IX* *cough*) and they crashed during the next alignment. Who wants THAT happening again? I mean, would they really want to be reminded of such an embarrassing moment?

 

So, basically, if a planet aligns with a constellation then that cabalist will be in the siege for that town? Are Order and Chaos also constellations, for a total of 14?

 

Not to hijack Barugon's thread too much more, but do we have a list of the planets in the order they appear in orbit? (Or is the list I linked to earlier correct?) It shouldn't be too hard to work out on my own, but it'd save me some time. Was putting about with the ornery design earlier, and realized I don't actually know if any of the lists are in order.

 

Yes to the first part. Also yes to the second part- order and chaos are constellations, but they play no part in siege calculating.

 

Okay, so the only time a cabalist won't be active is if his planet is aligned with the Ethos constellation?

 

Correct.