NationStates Jolt Archive

What time does the game update? I've tired to figure out the time and I can't.

Before the move, it's been 5pm and am ET, IIRC. Not sure now though.

I think between 7-9am GMT time.

around the 2's on the us east coast of the us

IIRC, there are two separate updates; there are regional updates and their are United Nations updates. The latter takes place in the evening... I don't know what time, at least from what I've observed.

IIRC, there are two separate updates; there are regional updates and their are United Nations updates. The latter takes place in the evening... I don't know what time, at least from what I've observed.
i thought that un only happend in the morning update but nations and regions would die at both

i thought that un only happend in the morning update but nations and regions would die at both

It might... like I said, I'm not entirely sure, just basing on what I think.

I thought they had set it to be random - Mainly to screw up invaders, but it actually ended up helping them... At least it did while Great Bight was the Delegate of The North Pacific for a month. I wasn't aware that they had set it back to a standardized time yet.

I thought they had set it to be random

I know that the Warzone regions are random... I didn't think the rest of the game was... maybe a mod will pop in and let us know... * crosses fingers *

The order in which regions update is random. The time of the update is not random.

was i right on the times though

edit: and how long dose it take from start to finish

:mp5:

cool

Oooh-kay...? What's the point of making the regions random if it's always at the same basic time? :confused:

its not at the same basic time. It starts at a certain time and updates regions randomly for a while and then ends at a certain time. there are a ton of regions so unless they want to overload the server with instant updates they have to take a while.

I'm gonna use arbitrary times here, as I don't know the exact second the update starts.

This example will use two regions that I'm in: The Coalition of the Culinary (TCC) and That Place Over There (TPOT).

Say the update starts at 03:30:01 Central Time. Before, the game would go through the list of regions alphabetically, and hit each in turn. This means that TPOT would update before TCC ("That" comes before "The"). However, both being in the 'T's, they would update towards the end of the cycle, say at 03:58:02 for TPOT and 03:58:51 for TCC.

With random update times, the game randomly moves from region to region (or, more likely, compiles a list of all regions and randomizes it). This means that TCC could be updated before TPOT, or TPOT could update first. Or last.

When the update ends depends on the number of nations and regions being updated, of course.

Why? Well, this makes split second invasions much more difficult. When one could predict almost the exact moment of update, one could move in right before the update and seize the delegacy before natives or defenders would have a chance to respond.

I'm gonna use arbitrary times here, as I don't know the exact second the update starts.

This example will use two regions that I'm in: The Coalition of the Culinary (TCC) and That Place Over There (TPOT).

Say the update starts at 03:30:01 Central Time. Before, the game would go through the list of regions alphabetically, and hit each in turn. This means that TPOT would update before TCC ("That" comes before "The"). However, both being in the 'T's, they would update towards the end of the cycle, say at 03:58:02 for TPOT and 03:58:51 for TCC.

With random update times, the game randomly moves from region to region (or, more likely, compiles a list of all regions and randomizes it). This means that TCC could be updated before TPOT, or TPOT could update first. Or last.

When the update ends depends on the number of nations and regions being updated, of course.

Why? Well, this makes split second invasions much more difficult. When one could predict almost the exact moment of update, one could move in right before the update and seize the delegacy before natives or defenders would have a chance to respond.

The prior order wasn't alphabetical, trust me on that one ;)

Such quick invasions hardly ever happened before. When it was done that way it was mostly done by defenders in an attempt to liberate a region from invader occupation. I know, I've done a few of those myself :D. Invaders generally avoid the extra effort and pick a target where the natives aren't paying attention anyway. Now that the order is 'random', invasion/defense play starts at the beginning of the update cycle. Natives still have little time to respond (little over 1 hour on average), but quick manouvering by defenders to get invaders out is no longer an option due to the randomness in the update. IMHO, the randomization killed a fun aspect of the game. The above should also make clear that invaders have always had the upper hand in the invader/defense games, yet ended up losing most often simply because they were unwilling to spend the time and effort. Now it's more easy for invaders to hold on to regions (and they still fail at that quite often...) and there's still a strategy possible which allows them to completely avoid defenders altogether in taking the region in the first place. That they are still having trouble beating defenders speaks volumes on those invaders' tactical skills.

In regards to the original question:
- The major update (which alters delegacy) starts at about 6:00 GMT, and completes somewhere around 8:30 GMT.
- The minor update I'm less sure of, but should be in the neighbourhood of 18:00 - 21:00 GMT.

Note that soon we'll switch from Daylight Savings Time, and I do not know yet whether this means the NS system will switch along when the USA does (as the old system did), switch when Europe does, or maybe that under Jolt it'll ignore DST altogether.

Ballotonia

Jolt runs on GMT, so I would assume the server's clock does whatever GMT does.