NationStates Jolt Archive

Wouldn't it make sense to establish timelines for all of the different tech eras? It would be easier for historical value of RP and also just make things better coordinated. What I mean is, PT, MT, PMT, FT would all have different timelines, but all nations in each tech era would follow the same timeline.

don't we do that already in general?

Also, instead of using AD years (many people start at different years in all eras), we could adopt the NSY (NationStates Year) system so you would not have any problems with AD year starts.

Big Problem: People would be arguing over what year it was. All the time. Example: My nation achieved FT technology around 2080 AD, and it's currently around 2090 AD. They left Earth about 60 years earlier. Other nations would dispute this, saying it's been thousands of years since the year 2000 AD. This would also conflict with how old many FT characters are, and screw up backstories. So most of the time, nations dont ask questions and just RP.

Also, instead of using AD years (many people start at different years in all eras), we could adopt the NSY (NationStates Year) system so you would not have any problems with AD year starts.

To respond to that, let me build upon this. Your 2090 A.D. would be 1 N.S.Y. Their 3000 A.D. would also be N.S.Y. A.D. would basically be thrown out. We actually sort of do have this already, since nations that, for example are in the 21st century can and do interact nations in the 31st century. N.S.Y. system would basically just keep track of RP events. For example, it's 15 N.S.Y. I want to start a war over a previous conflict in 5 N.S.Y. We know exactly what happened and also how long it was since the last conflict (instead of fudged numbers) and what the effect of the previous war would have on the current one.

So its a dating system for story lines?

While I commend your idea, it would not work and would simply confuse everyone. For example, in the first RP I ever took part in, the person who started the thread had it around 2010. However, my nation's storyline puts the war in the mid 70's.

Third Spanish States, as its name says, has a background story linked with a certain RL Earth nation and with certain RL Earth events. It makes no In-character sense for me to adopt anything besides the western A.D. for their calendar. They use the A.D. dating system, and an OOC dating is just pointless.

Indeed, it's unnecessary and would just cause confusion. I like not having to deal with dates at all and being able to fit them into my nation's recent history as I see fit. I know it's unrealistic and totally messing with time, but since the way time is measured changes from thread to thread anyway, we're already messing with it. Hell, some nations' leaders would be hundreds of years old based on generally-accepted NS-time : real-time ratios. Better that we don't ever have to worry about it.

According to Vojvodina-Nihon's calendar, the year is something like 4789. I generally assume this to be 4789 AD, as V-N was established by humans from Earth long enough ago to lose and then rediscover FTL travel. Whenever I interact with other nations, they might be set in 2100 AD, or 40000 AD. I simply assume this is a temporal anomaly caused by traveling in the Speed of Plot Device, and we are in fact interacting with this other nation in their own time (thousands of years before my characters were born, or after they died) and return to our own time when traveling back. Similarly, when people from other nations travel to Vojvodina-Nihon, they are moving forward or backward in time as well.

This theory also explains how so many nations manage to occupy planets like Earth, Mars, and Coruscant at apparently the same time, without causing conflicts of interest. (Of course, it could also be that there are many planets named Earth, Mars, or Coruscant, but it wouldn't explain why so many of their inhabitants are so similar.)

The Empire uses real time and at that AD/BC. This won't change for us either.

The Swarm is eternal, and does not pay heed to the passage of time. To adopt ANY sort of a system would not make any sense at all.