What period does a tick cover?

Snowymonk

Snowymonk
Does anyone know exactly what period of time a tick covers?

We know it is a daily tick, covering a 24 hour period, but do we know timeframes for the call?
is it Midnight to midnight? Midday to Midday? 2pm to 2pm etc?

Just trying to get our head around how UK and non-UK members can work together (given the time differences etc)
 

Snowymonk

Snowymonk
Factabulous said:
Look up ^^^^ https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/400292-When-and-what-is-the-tick
Click to expand...

thanks, but not quite what I was asking. (I think)

the link (currently) suggests that the server tick is 15:50 each day.
...but it doesn't confirm what timeperiod it covers.

I highly doubt that the servers will allow changes upto a minute before the tick-over.
What FDev will more likely do (hence my question) is what cut the data at a point in time and then calculate the changes before posting the changes to the game.

The obvious cut point would be midnight, but could be 2am or midday (or other) depending on how long it takes to process the information.

If our American colleagues (GMT+8 etc) were carrying out some BGS work in the wee small hours of the UK morning (01:00 - 04:00 etc), would I expect to see their impact in the BGS tick at lunchtime that day or at lunchtime the following day?
 

Jane Turner

Volunteer Moderator
Jane Turner
Snowymonk said:
thanks, but not quite what I was asking. (I think)

the link (currently) suggests that the server tick is 15:50 each day.
...but it doesn't confirm what timeperiod it covers.

I highly doubt that the servers will allow changes upto a minute before the tick-over.
What FDev will more likely do (hence my question) is what cut the data at a point in time and then calculate the changes before posting the changes to the game.

The obvious cut point would be midnight, but could be 2am or midday (or other) depending on how long it takes to process the information.

If our American colleagues (GMT+8 etc) were carrying out some BGS work in the wee small hours of the UK morning (01:00 - 04:00 etc), would I expect to see their impact in the BGS tick at lunchtime that day or at lunchtime the following day?
Click to expand...

The influence of minor factions is updated approximately once every 24 hours as a result of actions taken in that period. So its the equivalent of the Thursday morning Power Play update... it just happens more often.


it is currently approximately 15:50 Server time


The tick appears to filter through the galaxy, with some systems ticking later than others (up to 15 minutes). You may need to log out of the game (to desktop) to clear your cache if you are in the system you are checking. State changes related sometimes show a little ahead of the influence changes, but this might be for the same reason.


There has been much debate about when last actions should be completed before a tick. We (CIU) work on 30 mins before if you want to be sure that the action counts for that day, other groups go right to the wire whilst some operate a one hour window.
Click to expand...




so if that isn't clear - it needs re-writing until it makes sense
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Snowymonk said:
I highly doubt that the servers will allow changes upto a minute before the tick-over.
What FDev will more likely do (hence my question) is what cut the data at a point in time and then calculate the changes before posting the changes to the game.
Click to expand...

What data leads you to think that? While the time the tick happens can vary I don't believe there is a 'dead time' (unlike, for example, the Thargoid invasion, where the updating of Flight Plans of the Aegis ships gives us reason to believe that there is a period when kills don't count, but that's a weekly change, and far more likely manual).
 

Rutg3rO

R
I think it's a very valid question. We've also noticed sometimes INF transactions done a few hours before the tick were not used by that tick itself, but by the next one. But with the tick now being later, we're not sure if we need to change our buffer time or not.

btw is there already a reason known for the tick being later these days?
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Rutg3rO said:
btw is there already a reason known for the tick being later these days?
Click to expand...
It's always had a tendency to slip here and there - 2.4 to 3.1 was I think exceptionally stable by comparison - but when it does slip they seem to keep it at "about 24 hours since the last one" rather than having e.g. a 26 hour tick followed by a 22 hour tick.
 

Rutg3rO

R
Ian Doncaster said:
It's always had a tendency to slip here and there - 2.4 to 3.1 was I think exceptionally stable by comparison - but when it does slip they seem to keep it at "about 24 hours since the last one" rather than having e.g. a 26 hour tick followed by a 22 hour tick.
Click to expand...

That does make sense. My BGS crew was always on alert around 14:00 game time.. so now we have to throw around or entire planning schedule :D
 

Dommarraa

Dommarraa
When dav was pestered about having a fixed time for the tick, there were 2 reasons why not :
1. It's supposed to be background, we shouldn't be focusing on exact times (tough luck we do)
2. It's fairer to people in other timezones so they are not permanently disadvantaged. (hogwash, even people in the same time zone prefer the tick at different times depending on their availability)

I love dav, but it sounds like excuses to me. Imho better to just be honest and say, not going to fix it, no reason to.

If we are expecting a state change, we stop about 1 hour before the tick, just in case.
 

cmdr kruzer70

C
Dommarraa said:
1. It's supposed to be background, we shouldn't be focusing on exact times
Click to expand...

Literally, about the only thing that works like this in the real world is taking a dumb..... unless I suspect, you're Dav.


2. It's fairer to people in other timezones so they are not permanently disadvantaged.
Click to expand...

I'm calling on that. If the timing of the tick was changing in 4 hour increments I'd buy this excuse.


More and more it's becoming obvious that the fatal flaw with ED is FD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom