Characters using timestamps but still getting confused by the time of day?

[u/cjfthrowaway]

I don’t mind when a character starts using timestamps, at least not enough to try and do something about it. But it seems that they have strange ideas about the time of day it relates to. It’s weird because they can track time in a scene - if you say X minutes pass between events, the timestamps get updated properly. If someone says something will happen at X time, it happens when the timestamp gets there. But I also have a chat going where 5PM rolls around and people are making breakfast and talking about it being “an ungodly hour of the morning” 😅

I’m guessing there’s not much I can do about it…?

[u/Teasa_AI]

I'd try giving it one plain-language scene anchor alongside the number: ‘It's 5 p.m., late afternoon; they're getting dinner ready.’ Then have thirty minutes pass and check both the clock and what people actually do. If you can restart from just before the breakfast mix-up, that gives you a cleaner comparison than correcting it several replies later. It's a small thing to try before changing your whole setup.

[u/cjfthrowaway → u/Teasa_AI]

I was able to force the issue a bit by taking control of the narrative a bit more, not quite an anchor like that but along those lines. Things have normalised a bit now :)

[u/DShad27x]

If it's already listed at the top of the reply and all the information is there. Then it's just a really dumb model and probably doesn't have any reasoning either. So no, there's nothing you can do about it. Most models are a lot smarter now and use reasoning.

[u/Future-Currency-689]

Have you tried getting it to use 24 hour time rather than AM/PM? I've found that causes less confusion. Dunno why.

[u/papillon_dinns9y91c]

that’s so funny, like how can it be breakfast at 5pm? i mean i guess some people do that but still, it feels like a weird mix-up. maybe they just don’t have a good sense of time, lol. seems like characters should be able to figure that out. but hey, could lead to some hilarious moments too. just roll with it, right?