New Feature Addition · Chronicles · Created by
Fociño
closed
Chronicles Timelines Eras CE BCE first-year year-0 year-1 eras-start
What functionality is missing? What is unsatisfying with the current situation?
Currently, all Timelines and Chronicles have a "0 year" as a starting point of the Current Era. This is very unusual, though, as most used calendars, both in the real world and in fantasy settings, start their eras in "year 1".
Simple Google search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ages+don%27t+start+on+year+0&oq=ages+don%27t+start+on+year+0&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160l4.656j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
How does this feature request address the current situation?
There could be an option in each Timeline and each Calendar to have a 0 year between CE and BCE or not, and I suggest that new ones start without the 0 year by default, not only because it's the common manner, but because this adding of a year 0 is a common mistake and misconception that already plagues a lot of wikis and open information spaces (the UESP wiki of The Elder Scrolls, per example, still calls the 1st year of an era as year "0" in some places, while their very sources to do so call it literally "the first year of the First Era").
What are other uses for this feature request?
One way to shift from one era to the next would be to simply add/subtract 1 year to all the events in that Timeline/Chronicle whenever that option is toogled (events that coincide with leap years stuff would have to be moved to the closest possible date in the same month as priorly, I guess, to avoid weird behavior).
Follow up
If you disagree with year 0 not being the default but support having an option to change it, please say so in your vote.
Changing the default to start on "year 1" is just my personal preference, but I'm fine with the default not being modified as long as we at least get the option to erase the "year 0". I hope we can get as much support as possible so we can finally have that possibility.
CORRECTION of wording: "One way to shift from one MODE to the other would be to simply add/subtract 1 year to all the events in that Timeline/Chronicle whenever that option is toggled"
I'm not referring to Timeline's Eras (which are objects within Timelines I know those have that option. I'm talking about the Timelines themselves; they have a CE and BCE count by default, and between them there's a 0 year that you can't erase. New eras can accommodate to this by creating that offset you mention, but as soon as they're over, the counting of years goes back to the default one, which is still counting from the original "0 CE", and there's nothing to do about it. If I want to go back to the original year counting for whatever reason at the end of a specific Era, I'm stuck with that. And even when using an Era's "offset", to create new events and all you need to specify the year as per the original count, which adds that one extra year, and it's unnecessarily messy.
Plus, in Chronicles there's not even that offset option, since you can't create new Eras there; you're stuck with the counting from "0 CE" whatever you do.
The Team's Response
Thanks for the suggestion! This is already an option—look for the "count offset" option in the era settings (you need to open advanced settings), which you can use to make eras start either with year 0 or year 1.
Current score
20/300 Votes · +5102 points