How Long Is A 'Turn'?

[bethany81707]

This is a rather interesting issue that very definitely changes between games- how long are these battles actually taking? When you park down your units to grind supports, how long does it take for them to actually become friends?

I know Genealogy's is generally considered to be longer than other games, and is almost definitely longer than Radiant Dawn (which has 2-E and Geoffrey's surprise appearance to look at). I'm asking this question for the ulterior benefit of Sacred Stones, but really, I might as well make this a topic about all of them and what differences might be there while I'm at it. After all, if we can't answer the question in one case, maybe the answer for another case will be 'good enough'.

[Magical Glace]

The best frame of reference is probably the on/off of weather conditions in FE7.  About how many turns do they last again?

Assuming a storm is a few hours.

[Extrasolar]

This is an interesting topic, in my opinion, because a lot of the time it's not something I've thought about before.

My immediate kneejerk reaction when someone asks me how long a "turn" of anything is 6 seconds, because I'm a tabletop player. But I think from what we see in the games themselves, it's clearly not the case.

I'd definitely say that in FE, the turns are at least a few minutes each if not somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 20 minutes, just due to how much ground that units can cover in a single turn, depending on the map, which are already scaled-down versions of the real deal. Seeing as we never get anything as dramatic as a day to night turn during a map at any point (or vice versa), I don't think that any battle lasts longer than roughly 8 or 9 hours, though, so one turn = one hour is too extreme imo. And all of this is barring Genealogy's gigantic maps, since it would logically take far longer to cross from one side of an entire country to the other.

Speaking of Chapter 1 of Shadow Dragon, for example, which is the complete map of Talys island. Each unit can cover it from coast to coast in roughly 4 or so turns. And that island has got to be at least a few miles long, if we're talking realism, for things like a castle, several forts, a few villages, and forest.

A person on foot moving at a reasonably fast pace can cover a mile's distance in roughly 8 to 10 minutes, and when on a horse or flying the amount of time needed to cover the same distance is dramatically shortened. Not to mention, real-life battles were very often hours-long, so having each turn take up 10 to 20 minutes makes sense imo.

Edited March 25, 2017 by Extrasolar

[Zapp Branniglenn]

How funny, I was just contemplating how large a tile is yesterday. Only one unit can stand in a tile, but that unit can be human sized or be a wyvern rider or ballistician. Even more variable is when units pair up and can occupy a single space. I want to say it's a 5 by 5 meter tile for indoor maps, which makes the presence of horses and wyverns a little hard to imagine occupying even before pair up. But any larger, then the idea that one unit could wall off enemies by standing in a one tile opening becomes a little absurd.

If you knew how large a tile was, you can guage how large a turn was based on how quickly a normal person could clear five tiles worth of distance in a basic jog/power walk. I assume your units aren't sprinting everywhere when adorned with armor and swinging heavy weapons. Character tiles are the same size but you have outside maps where the castles are as large as the thrones of indoor maps. Implying that a turn within an indoors maps is considerably quicker than an outdoors battle. I feel like indoors turns can't be any longer than 5 seconds, even if the battle animations alone occupy more time than that.

[AlexArtsHere]

To cite the Middle Ages in England, which seems closest to Fire Emblem's setting, battles were often fought and won in a single day, or a few days, mainly because the bulk of armies consisted of infantry and cavalry which distilled fighting into cutting down the other side until they could no longer fight, hence why things like terrain were so important in warfare back then.

However, I think mileage may vary with Fire Emblem. As already noted, scale is inconsistent in maps, so it's difficult to give a set time period for a turn itself, but I'd say a battle such as the one in Fates Chapter 6 would take between 8 and 12 hours real time, but that's a very rough estimation. I can't stress enough how hard it is to prescribe logic to Fire Emblem in this way.

[RJWalker]

Every turn in Genealogy is probably one whole day.

[Interdimensional Observer]

It is too difficult to say. Things definitely vary per game and even per map. Factors to consider:

Size of map- larger generally will mean longer turns.

Scope of battle- an FE7 battle will probably be shorter than FE6 or 4 battle.

Location: outdoors generally can be assumed to be a longer fight.

Mission objective- an indoor escape might be shorter than an indoor defend or seize.

Also, in the case of FE4, a chapter in the 1st Generation is might be longer than a 2nd Generation fight, seeing how Gen 1 spans four years, while Gen 2 takes only two years at most.

[Dragrath]

This is an interesting question though I have to agree that there probably is not a standard turn length between each game as it would likely be a function of how long the battle is lore wise expected to take(normalized) given particular terrain weather objectives etc...

[KliffIsTheOG]

In Gaiden, one turn is one day. When you move on the world map or move in battle the game saves them both as one move. In Shadows of Valentia, we see that each time someone moves on the map, the game progresses one day. Because the time it takes to move in the map is equal to the time it takes to move in battle, we can confirm that one turn takes one day in Gaiden. (assuming that time flows the same in the remake as in the original)

 

[LB44]

3 hours ago, KliffIsTheOG said:

In Gaiden, one turn is one day. When you move on the world map or move in battle the game saves them both as one move. In Shadows of Valentia, we see that each time someone moves on the map, the game progresses one day. Because the time it takes to move in the map is equal to the time it takes to move in battle, we can confirm that one turn takes one day in Gaiden. (assuming that time flows the same in the remake as in the original)

 

That just refers to the world map however, and does not necessarily translate to turns within a battle because of the scope in which they operate in are contextually different. The 10ish turns it takes to take out that last shaman dicking around on a boat that you're on wouldn't take 10 days lol. What the world map calender shows, I would argue, is that turns in a gaiden battle could reasonably be anything from minutes to a few hours.

[SullyMcGully]

It definitely depends on the game. In PoR, everything is designed at a fairly reasonable scale with the actual unit map sprites, so turns are probably only taking a few minutes at the most. In Genealogy, that is definitely not the case, and a turn would probably represent about a day. It's worth noting, however, that in some games (FE7 for instance) you have maps where you are fighting in a village or castle and everything is properly scaled, but then you have outdoor maps where villages and castles are only about 6-9 tiles in size. So I guess it depends on the map as well.

It would certainly be an interesting mechanic to see in future games, though, where a day/night cycle operates in relation to how many turns you take. 

[JJ48]

On ‎3‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 11:38 AM, Extrasolar said:

A person on foot moving at a reasonably fast pace can cover a mile's distance in roughly 8 to 10 minutes, and when on a horse or flying the amount of time needed to cover the same distance is dramatically shortened. Not to mention, real-life battles were very often hours-long, so having each turn take up 10 to 20 minutes makes sense imo.

Granted I'm a bit out of shape, but I would think 6+ MPH would be pretty tough to maintain throughout an entire battle while decked out in battle gear, even if said gear doesn't include heavy armor.  Players of the Total War series know that you can make troops run the entire length of a battlefield, but then they won't be in any condition to fight when they get there!

I'd say about half that speed would be more reasonable, or maybe 4 MPH tops.

[henrymidfields]

Depends on the setting, I suppose. To use my current Fates Conquest LP on my signature as an example, I had 1hr/turn in one chapter (I think that was Chapter 10), but 6hr/turn in Chapter 23.

[Refa]

It's deliberately vague so that you don't notice weird inconsistencies, which would happen if turns had a defined time.