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FFXV in English doesn't give the option to toggle Metric Units and that's dumb

Jisgsaw

Member
In a game like this, it really doesn't matter. Just knowing the numbers are going down, and how quickly they're going down, is what is important. Knowing that something is "2 miles" away, even if I know exactly how much a mile is in real life, is meaningless if I don't know how fast I can traverse that in the game (assuming it's probably faster than a real life person could).

Equating 2 miles to 2 kilometers is probably good enough for this purpose, when precise distances don't really matter.


Take a space game, for example. knowing the enemy ship is 25,000 kilometers away is absolutely meaningless knowledge. All I know is that when I hit my boosters (which I also have no real life concept for how fast I'm actually going), I know I can get to that ship in about 10 seconds. "miles" or "kilometers" are practically meaningless in a game world where speeds and distances don't really match to real life stuff.

I'll quote myself:
But that's exactly the problem: I will once see I'm 3.5m away from my objective, remember that and see how long I take to get there.
For another quest, I'll then be 870 ft away from the objective. How the hell am I suppose to know how long I'll take (approximately)? I'll know it's closer than the 3.5m, but by how much? That's exactly why everyone is saying that metric > imperial, because you can relate one unit to the other extremely easily.

It's not dealbraking, in the end I just learned to estimate once in miles, once in feets (or what those unit translate to in FF XV, as it doesn't seem to scale), but it's kinda dumb I had to do that when the metric system is already implemented.

Or to use your space analogy: imagine that under 20.000 km, the game inexplicably decides to use a unit called shrambluckled, and jumps to 3.243. Will you know how long you'll take to travel 1.649 shrambluckled, knowing only the time for 25.000 km?
Yes, you can convert it around, but it's annoying.
 
I'll quote myself:


Or to use your space analogy: imagine that under 20.000 km, the game inexplicably decides to use a unit called shrambluckled, and jumps to 3.243. Will you know how long you'll take to travel 1.649 shrambluckled, knowing only the time for 25.000 km?
Yes, you can convert it around, but it's annoying.

After I'd traveled 1.649 shrambluckles for the first (or tenth!) time, I would expect to have some idea of how far it is.
 

Jisgsaw

Member
After I'd traveled 1.649 shrambluckles for the first (or tenth!) time, I would expect to have some idea of how far it is.

Yes, meaning you have to ""learn"" two different time-distance relations, as I already noted in my post. Unlike having to learn fuck all as the metric system is already implemented.
It's nothing dramatic, but it is annoying (especially when you take a break from the game, and lose your feeling for the distances), and annoying things aren't exactly what I'm searching for in a game.
 

JP

Member
It is puzzling that it doesn't have the option to use the metric system.

It's worth pointing out that the USA doesn't actually use the Imperial system as such, what with them not want to be reminded about having been a colony of the British Empire. They now use the Customary system which is derived from the Imperial system but, you know, nothing to do with the Empire that they were a colony of.

Any measurements of volume in the two nations, even though they share the exact same names are actually different. Which makes it even worse when people talk about volumes but don't seem to know this.

Imperial units are a bit daft, and I can say that as somebody who grew up are up and lives in the UK.

Even though I was educated in the UK, I actually think in the Metric system rather than the Imperial system even though I was taught both of them in school. I have an interest in both Astronomy and Physics and using anything but the Metric system is nonsensical.

I am surprised when English language games use Imperial rather than Metric but I suppose most games sell more in the USA so it sort of makes sense although they more than likely use the Customary system rather than the Imperial system.
 
I'll quote myself:


Or to use your space analogy: imagine that under 20.000 km, the game inexplicably decides to use a unit called shrambluckled, and jumps to 3.243. Will you know how long you'll take to travel 1.649 shrambluckled, knowing only the time for 25.000 km?
Yes, you can convert it around, but it's annoying.

The miles/feet system in here aren't even to scale to real life, at least not seemingly.

Also you're curious how quick you'll get through 870 foot? Take a couple of steps running, look at the number. How fast is it going down?

It's not rocket science. You don't have to convert it. No mission asks you to do math to see how long it'll take you to get to point A. If you're in a car, the car trip tells you itself it'll take you X amount of minutes to get somewhere. If you're running or on a chocobo, once again just see how slowly the numbers are going down based on your speed to estimate how long it'll take you.
 

Rookhelm

Member
yeah, it's not about converting anything, it's just a number that is going down at a certain pace. The number changing to a different set of numbers as you get close might as well be trivial. Once the number changes to "feet" (or even ramshackles), you know you're close anyway.

If it were in kilometers and meters, it doesn't matter if I know there are 1000 meters in a KM. Once the unit changes, I know I'm close (having done it a couple times and learning this trend), and now it's just a new number counting down.

Knowing that 1km will change to 999m when I take another step is meaningless knowledge in this game. It's just our brains trying to "translate" the information we're given to real life situations, which is unnecessary.
 
800px-Metric_system_adoption_map.svg.png

Doesn't the UK still primarily use English measurements for distance (like MPH) and Stone for weight?

EDIT: Wow, question answered in the previous post. How about that.
 
Hell, the US isn't exactly completely imperial either... We measure our sodas in liters (but also ounces) and our medicines in grams. Also every car, scale, and tape measure all have their metric counter parts on them and metric IS taught in most of our schools on top of imperial.


Metric is just so much more pleasing to watch in a game though. Going from 1km to 999m flows nicer than .18 miles to 999 feet.
 
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