distance measurements in the game

I'm just curious about something...

I was wondering about the japanese people who make the game, seeing that the imperial system for measurement (yards and miles), is used in Eorzean (as yalms and malms).

In Eorzea, have they not heard of the metric system for measurements? I wonder what kilometres and metres would sound like.

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Originally Posted by -DMR-

I'm just curious about something...

I was wondering about the japanese people who make the game, seeing that the imperial system for measurement (yards and miles), is used in Eorzean (as yalms and malms).

In Eorzea, have they not heard of the metric system for measurements? I wonder what kilometres and metres would sound like.

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I would have to say that they're probably not called 'yalms' and 'malms' in Japanese. This came about due to localization to English, and when they localization was done they picked the measurements from the English speaking country which was most likely to have the most subscribers (Which, of course, is the US) and used the measurements from there are the base to make it quasi-understandable. Of course, since it's a fictionalized quantification, it doesn't really matter... they could have called yalms 'turgles' and malms 'smurgles' and it would just be sillier to say.

It's a game which is set in "the past", back then there wasn't real, scientific instrumentation that would allow you to measure a mm, cm etc. so you made do with what you know. Mile comes from the Roman, a thousand paces. Weights, the stone (English measurement) is quite literally that, the weight of a stone (so you have different towns with different weighted stones, then it became standardised).

So, the measures could be X paces, longer ones X*Y paces etc. Of course, it gets messy when the Lala get involved, they pay by the Lala yalm and sell at the Roe.

/edit @ above - it's the same measurements used in FFXI, so it's standard to FF games.

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Originally Posted by Lexxuk

It's a game which is set in "the past", back then there wasn't real, scientific instrumentation that would allow you to measure a mm, cm etc. so you made do with what you know.

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I'm willing to bet the Garleans would argue with you. :P I'll bet it would be difficult to engineer complex machinery like mech suits and space ships without exact scientific instrumentation and measurement standards. :P

Left out "ilm" for an inch.

That said, I always assumed that a malm was closer to a kilometer, and a yalm was closer to a meter than a yard. It's not accurate to either of them, though - a malm a reference to a position on a virtual map, after all.

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Originally Posted by Teslo

I'm willing to bet the Garleans would argue with you. :P I'll bet it would be difficult to engineer complex machinery like mech suits and space ships without exact scientific instrumentation and measurement standards. :P

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They basically are stealing tech from an earlier civilisation, even the Greeks managed to make.........

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

It's an object over 2,000 years old, took another 1,600 years for objects of the same complexity to be reborn. Then we get into the "magic" of XIV, 2 lumps of cobalt ore and 1 lump of iron = 1 cobalt ingot, exactly 2 lumps of cobalt ore and 1 lump of iron, which means every lump has the same purity etc. But they don't, so we just magic up the right sized stuff.

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Originally Posted by Teslo

I'm willing to bet the Garleans would argue with you. :P I'll bet it would be difficult to engineer complex machinery like mech suits and space ships without exact scientific instrumentation and measurement standards. :P

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This. Even the Eorzeans have airships and guns, neither of which would function without precision measurement.

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Originally Posted by Lexxuk

They basically are stealing tech from an earlier civilisation, even the Greeks managed to make.........

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Yeah they are "stealing tech", but they're making it on their own. It still wouldn't function without precision parts.

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It's an object over 2,000 years old, took another 1,600 years for objects of the same complexity to be reborn. Then we get into the "magic" of XIV, 2 lumps of cobalt ore and 1 lump of iron = 1 cobalt ingot, exactly 2 lumps of cobalt ore and 1 lump of iron, which means every lump has the same purity etc. But they don't, so we just magic up the right sized stuff.

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That's just handwavey stuff to make crafting palatably easy instead of ridiculously complex imo.

Got to disagree with you, cannons and guns don't really require precision. US MBT's have smooth barrels which reduces accuracy (UK MBT's will have rifled barrels). In the olden days, you make a cast, pour the molten metal into it, wait for it to set. There is no need for measurements to the millimetre. The metric system (as we know it) really didn't come into use until pretty much the end of the 18th Century, the Musketeers (known for their, err, muskets) are from the early 17th century.

Modern weaponry will require precision, as they have precision parts. On the other hand, do we even know what sort of measurements Garl uses? The UK is a mix of metric and imperial, mainland Europe is metric, the US is imperial, so you can have disparate systems and they could actually use a standardised form of measurements which goes up or down by 10.

/edit - also, the bird men can make an airship, and they don't even have proper thumbs.

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Originally Posted by Lexxuk

They basically are stealing tech from an earlier civilisation, even the Greeks managed to make.........

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

Then we get into the "magic" of XIV, 2 lumps of cobalt ore and 1 lump of iron = 1 cobalt ingot, exactly 2 lumps of cobalt ore and 1 lump of iron, which means every lump has the same purity etc. But they don't, so we just magic up the right sized stuff.

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This was different in 1.0
There you had to find a recipe (or try combinations of materials out) to be able to craft an item. Had to make all the components with all the right materials. (IE: a chestpiece would have buttons you had to make, etc)

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Originally Posted by Lexxuk

also, the bird men can make an airship, and they don't even have proper thumbs.

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They did need a Lalafell engineer to figure it all out though. :P

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

This was different in 1.0
There you had to find a recipe (or try combinations of materials out) to be able to craft an item. Had to make all the components with all the right materials. (IE: a chestpiece would have buttons you had to make, etc)

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And that system was (I imagine as I didn't play in 1.0, though I'm wishing I had!) overcomplicated and quite a hassle, or they wouldn't have changed it to the simpler "Crystals + Stuff = Item!" format we use now.

My takeaway is that the current system is a truncated version of someone taking their time and actually putting effort and craftsmanship into their items, shortened into something that's enjoyable to someone who's playing a video game. ;)

I think the Eorzean measurement systems correspond most closely to the unit system because

a) We in the US make up a large portion of any widely released game's audience and
b) If you AREN'T in the US it has an even more fantasy flare to it. I think the UK still uses imperial units a bit but on a huge scale it's US, Liberia aaaand I think Myanmar.

Well Canada uses both... Officially it's metric, but I grew up with both and my parents grew up with imperial. Maybe the new generation won't have both though... Either way, it's old and archaic which suits the setting.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

Left out "ilm" for an inch.

That said, I always assumed that a malm was closer to a kilometer, and a yalm was closer to a meter than a yard. It's not accurate to either of them, though - a malm a reference to a position on a virtual map, after all.

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Also left out fulm for feet.

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Originally Posted by Teslo

I'm willing to bet the Garleans would argue with you. :P I'll bet it would be difficult to engineer complex machinery like mech suits and space ships without exact scientific instrumentation and measurement standards. :P

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Well, once we all become Garleans, I'm sure we'll change to their method of measurement within a few generations =)