[Suggestion] Metric measurements

[Night]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/351700/discussions/2/2646361461404033348/

Measurement System

Hi!

I have recently began to play the game, I tried out the free old version, fell in love with it, and rushed to buy the steam release as soon as I could. Thus far I have really been enjoying the game, but sadly for me the imperial measurement system says nothing. At the character generation I can see that they give me the numbers in metric too, but during gameplay I really cannot imagine what 1lb meat is, how much should I beleive I ate to be full? It is not a major problem, I'd just like there to be an option to use the metric system ingame.

If there is and I was just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and couldn't find it could anyone point me to where I can properly change the setting?

If not are there any potential mods for this?

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and answering!

[PALU]

As the US doesn't seem to be willing to adopt the metric system in the foreseeable future, we're stuck with imperial measurements even after the empire has gone metric. It can also be noted that UrW uses a somewhat odd rounding up system, which means that you can't know the correct measurement anyway.

You'll probably have to learn to use the more common imperial units eventually, or struggle with every game aimed at the US market. Note that this doesn't mean I wouldn't welcome the metric measurements in UrW, but given that the imperial ones is a mess of arbitrary values with limited relations to each other (as opposed to the metric one, where the values are arbitrary, but the relations are in powers of 10), you'd get even weirder values in the game if metric, as the base units will have to stay the same regardless of the display.

1 pound (lbs) = 454 grams, i.e. a little under ½ kg
1 inch = 2.54 cm (don't think this unit is used in UrW)
12 inches = 1 foot (ft) = 30.48 cm, or about 1/3 of a meter (when using 30 cm as an approximation for the height of people, the 0.48 cm parts add up, so someone who's 6 ft 2 inches tall is roughly an inch taller than the 180 cm plus the inch part of about 5 cm would indicate, or you could just add half a cm per foot)
3 feet = 1 yard, i.e. a little shorter than a meter (don't think this unit is used in UrW)
1 (English) mile = 1609.3 meters, i.e. a bit over 1½ km (not used in UrW, and no even relation to the smaller length measurements)

[Plotinus]

Since the game was made by Europeans I think it's more likely that the reason we don't have metric measurements is that metric measurements hadn't been invented in the iron age.

[PALU]

Since the game was made by Europeans I think it's more likely that the reason we don't have metric measurements is that metric measurements hadn't been invented in the iron age.

Apart from metric measurements being used in the game (world map distances are in km), the currently used values of the measurement units that are used most certainly weren't the ones used at the time, and probably differed by region anyway (the English propaganda about Napoleon being a short runt while he was at about average height for the time period in reality, was partially based on the French inch being longer than the British at the time, resulting in the French numeric values applied to British inches resulting in a short man; and the current length of an inch was nailed down by a Swede who sold various tools for measurements to industries, and had to come up with a standard value from the plethora of values used, leading to a de facto settlement of the value. Both of these examples are much later than the UrW time period, and it certainly wasn't more standardized at that time).

[Privateer]

Just guessing that pounds and feet worked best for the base 10 representation for items and consumption.

[Plotinus]

That's a good point, Palu. I forgot that we have kilometres on the worldmap. So I've changed my mind and now I think it would best to be able to toggle and have kilograms and centimetres as well

Probably it is best to imagine "1 ft" to mean "a bit of cord about as long as your literal foot" rather than "exactly 30.48cm", just like we have "small hours" instead of "4:32 am" and pounds as "about a half kilo"

[JEB Davis]

How about things such as...

An arm's length of cord.
The distance looks like about 30 paces to the target.
It's about a stone's throw away from you.
The cabin is a day's walk away.
The spear is about a man's height in length.
etc...

That's how I imagine people would judge things back then, but I'm not a historian.
I see them using common objects and things from daily life to relate distances.

[StefanPravda]

If this is easy to add I'd also like European units, kgs, meters, kms, whatever. It ruins a bit the immersion to see stuff I can't interpret on the spot.

[PALU]

If this is easy to add I'd also like European units, kgs, meters, kms, whatever. It ruins a bit the immersion to see stuff I can't interpret on the spot.

Those are metric units, which is what the original post suggested. The discussion within the thread has since deviated in the direction of authenticity rather than usability for the non US crowd...

[Bert Preast]

The kilometres used on the world map can't be the same as a modern kilometre though:

"There is a cave in the north east, it is 10 kilometres away, about an hour's walk"

10 km/h through unmanaged forest and up a mountain?  I don't think so!   

[JEB Davis]

If this is easy to add I'd also like European units, kgs, meters, kms, whatever. It ruins a bit the immersion to see stuff I can't interpret on the spot.

Those are metric units, which is what the original post suggested. The discussion within the thread has since deviated in the direction of authenticity rather than usability for the non US crowd...

Likewise, if the game was only in metric, the immersion would be ruined for me.
I have no problem with a metric option, as long as the option for English units remains.
How about a setting in the prefs so you can choose your default.

[PALU]

The kilometres used on the world map can't be the same as a modern kilometre though:

"There is a cave in the north east, it is 10 kilometres away, about an hour's walk"

10 km/h through unmanaged forest and up a mountain?  I don't think so!   

UrW uses a curious way of handling measurements: it rounds values up, so 10 km = 1-10, 20km = 11 - 21, etc. The same goes for inventory items.

[Night]

It may be possible that the code to get this working with the current system would be more work than its worth implementing for, depending on how the values are used in the code, it could mean rewriting anything involving measurements. Otherwise it would just be a matter of converting the values to metric and vis versa and making sure the UI displays appropriately. In the data that I've seen, the values are rounded when displayed on the UI in some cases. Particularly items under 1 lbs. Other items have the exact weight the UI shows you.

Making a mod for this would be time consuming and probably turn out ugly display wise.

Pretty interesting discussion though. Lots of bases covered, even for lores sake (they probably used amount of time to get to and from point a to b in most distance cases.) As an american, (at least where im from) you learn the imperial system throughout elementary and then when science is introduced as a subject you learn the metric system. Its mostly a lack of reference points for a particular measurement though. Body weight is a pretty good example, I have good reference points for imperial body weight but if you give me a metric body weight I'll have little to no clue how much you're talking about. Same thing with temperature, but I think that's easier to learn as I've seen many people who can relate fahrenheit and celsius accurately. Anywho that doesn't really suggest any ideas lol but I just thought the psychology of it was interesting.

[Sami]

I'd just like there to be an option to use the metric system ingame.

We’d like it too. And in addition also an option to choose in how detailed way the measurements are displayed. These features might be added in relatively near future.