Game-Date could always start in the "near future"

[anonilsus]

1999 is retro-future and the original setting, I know that.
But it was chosen because it was close enough for the people in 1993/1994 to imagine this could maybe happen in their lifetime, in the near future.

So why not keep this intention and set the starting date always one or two years from the current month, based on the system time? AFAIK nothing is tied to the game month, aka. there are no seasons, right? Or is there a yearly summary? Then of course it has to start in January, not in the current month, of the next year.

Someone in the IRC channel warned that people like to compare their status by comparing the date. If you get laser-weapons earlier than another player. But at the same time it was said that there is a month-counter anyway, which just needed displaying for inter-game comparison.

Nils

[Yankes]

AFAIK nothing is tied to the game month, aka. there are no seasons, right?

in OpenXcom you can have day/night duration change with seasons.

Starting not from 1999 is good idea, current start time is bit outdated

[alienfood]

Dude, this is XCOM! Livin in the past, baby, livin in the past.

[Volutar]

Until whole game story will be rewritten, as well as graphics, I believe leaving 1999 as start date is more than authentic and logical. So I vote for "leave 1999"

[DiceMaster]

Maybe move the date back?
To 19th century for example.
Steampunk X-Com will be nice.

[Daiky]

It's a fictional story, with dates that are set by the author. Like the story of the Lord Of The Rings has set dates, which have been used in the movie. I don't think you should just go ahead and change them around a bit, purists with pitchforks might come out of their caves and burn your house down.

The First Alien War (AW-I) started 1999, January 1st.
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Background_(Enemy_Unknown)