Questa discussione ha avuto 4 risposte

[JATR1X]

Hi there,

 

recently the topic of Mass Effect timekeeping system caught my eye. And, there're possible problems with it...

 

Yes, the Galactic Standard Time is defined in the codex. But does this mean that all the dates in the plot are described in the GST and if not, why are they described in Earth Time?

 

But the biggest problem of them all - how come the Prothean-year is the same length as Galactic-year or Earth-year. The Protheans was a "Previous Cycle Species" so shouldn't they have had a timekeeping system that was completely different?

 

Thanks!

[SuperJogi]

Yes, the Galactic Standard Time is defined in the codex. But does this mean that all the dates in the plot are described in the GST and if not, why are they described in Earth Time?

 

All dates (unless specifically mentioned otherwise) are in the gregorian calendar. Why? For convenience, I guess.

 

But the biggest problem of them all - how come the Prothean-year is the same length as Galactic-year or Earth-year. The Protheans was a "Previous Cycle Species" so shouldn't they have had a timekeeping system that was completely different?

 

Why? Basing your timekeeping system on the rotational and orbital period of your planet is a very logical thing to do. Since the development of complex life probably requires the planet to lie somewhere in the habitable zone (semi-major axis of about 0.75-1.75 AU), the lenght of one orbital period and with that one year, should be roughly the same for all species.

[Linkenski]

And why do all aliens speak english?

[Jay P]

Hi there,

recently the topic of Mass Effect timekeeping system caught my eye. And, there're possible problems with it...

Yes, the Galactic Standard Time is defined in the codex. But does this mean that all the dates in the plot are described in the GST and if not, why are they described in Earth Time?

But the biggest problem of them all - how come the Prothean-year is the same length as Galactic-year or Earth-year. The Protheans was a "Previous Cycle Species" so shouldn't they have had a timekeeping system that was completely different?

Thanks!

The Protheans, as a species, originated from earth before they became space faring.

When the reapers were reaping, they wiped out the Protheans, but left humanity.

Of course, I just made that up.

[dgcatanisiri]

I always assume that 'fifty thousand years' is a rough estimate rounded to the nearest equvilent unit of time measurement - there's already Translation Convention in place anyway, with aliens speaking English fluently and lore saying that it's been translated for convenience, even though the aliens' mouths are moving in sync with their words. This isn't that much more of a stretch, considering.

 

Plus, all the major homeworlds seem to have roughly similar day/year lengths, give or take a handful of hours/days, which implies that the 'goldilocks zone' for the development of life as we know it functions best within roughly similar orbital periods of their planet of origin.