Time of day
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In-game representation
- The time of day is divided into 2 major and 10 minor periods of time.
- These time periods can be seen on the "Radar," by mousing over the sun or moon icon. The icon will show the sun during the day-time and the moon during the night-time.
- The icon changes to a clock in the 11 o'clock position in certain kinds of instances, since it may take place at any time of day. For example, the Helm's Deep Epic Battles take place Before Midnight, After Midnight, Before Dawn, and Sunrise.
- Note that of the 10 periods, some are much shorter than others.
- Time of in-game day may change after maintenance or an update to the game. This may be noticed if using lua plugins that tells when the next in-game time period starts.
Period Length Accumulated Span Daytime (Σ 1 h 42 m 18 s) Dawn 9 m 18 s 9 m 18 s 6 am - 7 am Morning 27 m 54 s 37 m 12 s 7 am - 11 am Noon 18 m 36 s 55 m 48 s 11 am - 1 pm Afternoon 27 m 54 s 1 h 23 m 42 s 1 pm - 5 pm Dusk 18 m 36 s 1 h 42 m 18 s 5 pm - 7 pm Nighttime (Σ 1 h 23 m 42 s) Gloaming 9 m 18 s 1 h 51 m 36 s 7 pm - 8 pm Evening 27 m 54 s 2 h 19 m 30 s 8 pm - 12 pm Midnight 9 m 18 s 2 h 28 m 48 s 12 pm - 2 am Late Watches 18 m 36 s 2 h 47 m 24 s 2 am - 4 am Foredawn 18 m 36 s 3 h 06 m 00 s 4 am - 6 am
Background representation
The in-game time of Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) is represented by a floating point value. This value, denoted as t, is defined as:
- t = t mod 1, where t ∈ [0.0, 1.0)
By sampling the game while it is running, we can measure the rate at which the in-game time changes in real life, called Δt. The observed value is:
- Δt = 0.0000897
To find the speed multiplier "s" that relates in-game time to real time, we use the formula:
- s = Δt × 24 × 3600 = 0.0000897 × 24 × 3600 = 7.75
Here:
- 24 × 3600 converts 24 hours into seconds (86,400 seconds),
- Multiplying Δt by this converts the fraction of an in-game day passed per second into a real-time speed multiplier.
Let t_day be the duration of one full in-game day in real life. It is calculated by:
- t_day = 24 hours / s = 24 hours / 7.75 ≈ 3.10 hours
Therefore, one full day in LotRO takes approximately 3 hours and 6 minutes in real life.
Notes
- Some quests may only be available during certain times of day (or night).
- Various creatures in Middle-earth tend to have different spawn patterns over the game-day, such as certain trolls are only roaming at night.
- In smaller towns, craftspeople not required for quests go to bed (disappear). Towns where this occurs include Duillond and several in the Shire.
- The actual time factor is approximately 0.0000896454[…], which results in a multiplier of about 7.74536256. This causes a drift when 7.75 is used in a plugin where regular synchronization isn't possible. The value was determined by sampling the time progression 100,000 times and averaging the result.
| RL Time Span | Game Time Span (days) | Total Error (seconds) | Total Error (min:sec) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | 0.3227 | 2.26 | 0:02 |
| 1 day | 7.745 | 54.2 | 0:54 |
| 1 week | 54.22 | 379.5 | 6:20 |
| 1 month (30d) | 232.36 | 1626.5 | 27:07 |