How exactly does time work in the constant

[Coolmop09]

So I have been thinking about this for a while now but it still confuses me. So i heard that maxwell said something like they don't age in the constant? But time still passes in the real world(proved by winona looking for charlie while she is in the constant) so when they come back into the real world, will the people that used to be younger than them possibly be older? Or does time just pass slower in the constant, so for example 10 years in the constant would actually be two years in the real world? Tell me what you think.

[Paxtonnnn]

It works strangely.

[NormalPinkerton]

I think it flows faster or something like that.

[maciu67]

Time flows different in every realm but it is linear.

[Whisperlisc]

Winona was added to the game after new reign update when Charlie's form was a stabile one but in the Winona's short we see Charlie brought her to the Constant when her form still was fighting between her bad and good side. So she had been in the Constant before new reign so where was she all this time?

[PunkShark]

8 minutes ago, Kuba5565 said:

Winona was added to the game after new reign update when Charlie's form was a stabile one but in the Winona's short we see Charlie brought her to the Constant when her form still was fighting between her bad and good side. So she had been in the Constant before new reign so where was she all this time?

She was in the loading vortex

[Owlrust]

I believe the best example as to how time works in the constant is similar to how we play the game. Both aspects of time are quite possibly linear (time moves both in the game and time moves in real life at the same time); obviously a day in the real world does not equate to about 8 minutes, nor does seasons last for 15-20 days but this is how the constant measures time. In short, I believe that time is the same both in and out of the constant; rather the "natural occurrences" (such as the revolutions of the sun, plant growth, and constant based animal behavior such as beefalo reproduction) are what is sped up. This could also explain a few other things such as why no character "needs" sleep, why animals mobs return home at dusk or leave at night, or even why no one (especially the children) seem to age even when at 2,555 days (exactly 7 years). It could be that the characters are the only things that do not change with the constant, but rely on the rules of their own dimension. Considering that in the real world we measure time based on the revolutions around the sun, we could say that the life expectancy rate in the constant went from say 80-ish years to about 900 years because time is measured differently. A little detail I like that you see everywhere in the games (even in DLC's like Hamlet) is that the natural fauna and ecosystem responds to these changes; pigs go home at dusk (trader pigs as well) and certain plants both grow or not in certain seasons because it is natural to them. The circumstances may seem like the characters never need to sleep even with 3 years passing however the passage of time may only have been but a couple days for their internal clock (2-3 hours will probably get you from the start of autumn to winter, with say 48 hours you would be very tired in real life but in the constant you may have gone through a few years at that point). I find the concept of how time works to be very interesting as even characters like Wagstaff will point out the inconsistencies (primarily with the ecosystem):

* Dusk- "A conspicuously rapid sunset! Time must flow strangely here."

* Evergreen (sapling)- "I suspect it will grow quickly, like most things in this world."

* Grass Tuft (picked)- "Luckily the growth rate here is extraordinarily rapid."

[SouthTom]

It's quite simple, time in the constant moves in a Jeremy Bearimy.

Spoiler

 

 

[-Variant]

Yes.

[Rinkusan]

Is there any concrete evidence that time actually flows differently in the Constant compared to the real world? I mean, fast day-night cycles and plant growth aren't definite evidence of unusual time flow. Jupiter's day-night cycle lasts 10 hours for example, and we know that's because of planetary rotation speed and not distortions in the fabric of spacetime.

Also, considering how relatively quickly winter arrives thanks to the short day-night cycle, wouldn't it make sense that plants would adapt, with natural selection favoring plants that mature and reproduce quickly over the metabolically slow plants?

[GetNerfedOn]

the only thing i can offer is Wagstaff's quote stating that the day cycle, specifically the sunset, is "conspicuously rapid".

[L. Ringmaster]

The constant follows Narnia rules

[CameoAppearance]

My interpretation is that a day in the Constant feels the same length as an Earth day from the inside, but the seasons are much shorter, since even when set to Extra Long they're still only about a month and a half long each. I think Wagstaff was talking about the way it instantly goes from full daylight to twilight at the beginning of dusk, rather than the day-night cycle in general.

I figure the survivors do age but their ages reset to when they were first brought into the Constant every time they die and resurrect themselves. That's not backed by hard evidence, though, it's just speculation.

[YesterdaysMindr]

On 12/2/2019 at 11:48 PM, CameoAppearance said:

I figure the survivors do age but their ages reset to when they were first brought into the Constant every time they die and resurrect themselves. That's not backed by hard evidence, though, it's just speculation.

I think there was a fanfiction based off that concept.

[minespatch]

My idea is that when you arrive on the throne, the world resets to fit its rng worldbuilding. The world will rebuild itself when another person replaces you.

[Clownyshush]

I'm gonna go off on a limb here and say that in-game time and passings of seasons have nothing to do with the passing of time in the constant, as they are just game mechanics and stuff. i wanna put that out there beforehand. my thought is that despite the fact that seasons change in the constant, actual time there passes   incredibly   slow. for example,  one minute in the constant is equal to 1 year on earth. since time passes so slow, the survivors would barely age a day even if they were there for 50 years. by the time they've  gotten out of the constant, it's probably further into the future on earth than we are in the preset day. 

does this make sense? i don't know if it makes sense. 

[CaptainChaotica]

On 12/2/2019 at 9:26 PM, L. Ringmaster said:

The constant follows Narnia rules

YES and you might _literally_ be right.  One of the first things I thought of, in fact, with the "time flows strangely here" thing, was the whole Fairyland time thing.  You know, like how you spend a lovely day partying with the Queen of the Fairies and her court, and then once you step off the island to go home...everyone you know is old or dead and someone else has been living in your house for decades.  It ain't just Narnia.  LOTS of older stories have rules like that. For another specific example, I think the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen also had some kind of a time-jump/stasis thing goin' on.  (If you've never read that before...do NOT go in expecting "Frozen".  It is different.  Oh HOW it is different.  And creepy!)  But that "time flows differently in the Other World" thing goes back to old folklore traditions from _way_ back.

...all of this is just to say:  If that's true in the Constant, then Don't Starve is just kinda sorta following that tradition. 

I've also never at all thought that our percieved real-world time IS the same as their in-game time.  Their days do NOT take eight minutes for _them_ (fast sunsets aside; and really if you've lived in mountains for any good amount of time that wouldn't seem so weird) but we're shown everything they do sped up, because, ya know, game convenience.  That's not to say the days are the same (subjective) lengh as Earth days, however.  If you decide to think of each segment of the clock as an "hour" (because with no evidence to the contrary, why not?) we've already got a shorter day.  It'd be only 16 hours long!

...Notorious

[maradyne]

There appears to be a forward flow given that events can occur, but I think that the rules for which parts of Constant time connect to which parts of Real time are very loose; there doesn't necessarily need to be an exact rate of time passage, rather, the speed may ebb and flow. Like a Sine wave graphing pattern, if that helps for visualizing it. So long as the flow is forward, it works.

It may also be a similar case to W40k and the Warp dimension; one plane has rules, one doesn't, but the two influence and change one-another. If the Constant is a world of 'nothing' originally, the periodic connections to the real world (Maxwell/survivors being brought in, Clockworks have been seen in the 'real' world implying the possibility of a Gateway) may be a cause for 'something' concepts like Matter and Time existing. With the connection being inconsistent, the nature of said concepts would be in a constant state of flux.

 

As for the characters, there's a possibility of something entirely different. It's confirmed that Wendy is at an age where any passage of time would be noticeable at least assuming that one or two team members actually thought that announcement through...implying that people don't age in the Constant. At least, the people we've seen.
Yet, Maxwell aged/changed with time over his stay on the Throne.
So, aging and change with time can occur in the Constant among the Survivors...but normally doesn't.
Which leads me to think that they all have a blueprint.

We know that character death and rebirth is somewhat canon due to Maxwell's ending in Adventure Mode. Some characters (Wendy mostly IIRC) also imply that some forms of teleportation are also death and rebirth at a different location.
Rebuilding something requires some form of design for it; a blueprint.

It seems a lot like they're being 'restored to a previous state' each time they 'perma-die'. Likely with all of their memories, but in whatever body they started the current...phase of the world with.
In any case, Maxwell's current blueprint was established after his fall from the Throne. So, it isn't necessarily set when a person enters the Constant, or there are ways of it changing.

[CaptainChaotica]

...that post is kinda like if PBS Spacetime and Kurzgesagt (somehow) had an unholy love-child with Don't Starve, and I love it.  XD 

The "being restored to a previous state" thing...huh.  I hate to say this, but I'm kinda thinking of my old semi-joke theory about the survivors actually being Duplicants, here.  They "reset" by just...rePRINTING them!  My silly theory then went on to say that some "real" people, with more normal proportions (ever notice how characters don't look _that_ weird until they get Survivor status?  Look at Maxwell in Adventure Mode!  However, Duplicants _are_ the same chibi stubbiness as Survivors) way the hell in the future are making up little critters, putting them into dangerous virtual (to them) environments, and betting on them, out of boredom. 

The Constant/related dimensions, in this story, are basically a virtual gameboard with optional pieces you can put on and take off according to the gameplay (this'd be like, the Forge and Gorge).  Whichever Survivor/pawn makes it to the Nightmare Throne is the one who..."won"...that round, and then that pawn's player gets to pick the style of the next game.  Hence, why things started changing when Charlie came in...

No I'm not SERIOUSLY saying that "Hey, look, it's the same art style and the same company so it MUST be the same universe!" but it's still a fun idea, it still works for _some_ things, and...for Them's sake we now have a freaking Puft in DST!  (Ish.  It's actually a Glomglom skin.)  I'm tellin' ya, SOME random demigod trans-human character got drunk one night and put one of their game-pieces through the wrong portal...

(but really I'm not that kind of conspiracy theorist.  I'm just havin' fun.  ;))

...Notorious

[Coolmop09]

 

10 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

...that post is kinda like if PBS Spacetime and Kurzgesagt (somehow) had an unholy love-child with Don't Starve, and I love it.  XD 

The "being restored to a previous state" thing...huh.  I hate to say this, but I'm kinda thinking of my old semi-joke theory about the survivors actually being Duplicants, here.  They "reset" by just...rePRINTING them!  My silly theory then went on to say that some "real" people, with more normal proportions (ever notice how characters don't look _that_ weird until they get Survivor status?  Look at Maxwell in Adventure Mode!  However, Duplicants _are_ the same chibi stubbiness as Survivors) way the hell in the future are making up little critters, putting them into dangerous virtual (to them) environments, and betting on them, out of boredom. 

The Constant/related dimensions, in this story, are basically a virtual gameboard with optional pieces you can put on and take off according to the gameplay (this'd be like, the Forge and Gorge).  Whichever Survivor/pawn makes it to the Nightmare Throne is the one who..."won"...that round, and then that pawn's player gets to pick the style of the next game.  Hence, why things started changing when Charlie came in...

No I'm not SERIOUSLY saying that "Hey, look, it's the same art style and the same company so it MUST be the same universe!" but it's still a fun idea, it still works for _some_ things, and...for Them's sake we now have a freaking Puft in DST!  (Ish.  It's actually a Glomglom skin.)  I'm tellin' ya, SOME random demigod trans-human character got drunk one night and put one of their game-pieces through the wrong portal...

(but really I'm not that kind of conspiracy theorist.  I'm just havin' fun.  ;))

...Notorious

Yea that reminds dosent the printing pod kinda look like the floid postern?

[maradyne]

7 hours ago, Coolmop09 said:

 

Yea that reminds dosent the printing pod kinda look like the floid postern?

To the point that they could make it a skin for the Celestial Portal, yea.

[O_Atoba_Azul]

"A conspicuously rapid sunset! Time must flow strangely here."
- Wagstaff, when Dusk comes.
"My torch spontaneously decombusted"
Wagstaff, when torch runs out.
It flows wierdly!