Reminders

A reminder is a standing instruction to tell you when something is about to happen in the world, said in the game while you are playing and by your phone while you are not.

Why they exist

The world runs on one clock nobody can push forward, so the things worth being awake for arrive on their own schedule. An apoapsis four hours out, a capture burn tomorrow morning, a crossing into another world's pull next week: all of them happen whether the game is open or shut. A reminder is how you stop having to remember them yourself.

What a reminder is made of

Each one is a moment, a few words, and how far ahead of the moment to speak. There are three kinds, and the list marks each with its own glyph: a point on your trajectory, a maneuver burn, and a time you picked for yourself. Set a reminder is the how-to for all three.

The Reminders list: an Apoapsis reminder for Your ship at EARTH 102.0 km, in 9 min and 15 min early, above a plain reminder called Check the transfer window set 2 h ahead. — A trajectory reminder and a plain one. The amber line is the countdown, then how early it speaks.

The moment belongs to the world clock, not to your phone's, because the world clock is what your trajectory is worked out against. When the game is in the shared world it can turn that into a time of day, so every choice you are offered says what time it lands on.

How far ahead it speaks

The lead is the gap between the reminder speaking and the thing itself happening. For something on your trajectory you are offered as it happens, then 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours and 1 day before it. A lead longer than the wait is not offered, so a burn eight minutes away never invites you to be told an hour early. A reminder about nothing in particular is set as a delay from now instead: 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, 1 day or 3 days.

Note

A reminder is a snapshot of the moment it was made for, the way a calendar entry is. Burn after setting one and the apoapsis it was about moves, but the reminder stays where you put it. The row still says what it was for, so you can drop it and set another.

What your phone does with it

Setting your first reminder is when the game asks the phone for permission to notify you. From then on, every reminder waiting is an alarm on the phone as well as a row in the list, so it speaks with the game closed, killed, or the phone rebooted since.

It is said three times over, the same words each time, because one chime through a pocket is how a burn gets missed. There is no dismiss button. Opening the game is what ends the nag: a reminder that has spoken is no longer waiting, and the follow-ups leave your phone within a second. While the game is on screen the phone stays quiet and the game says it instead, in a toast.

The Reminders screen with its explanation at the top, one reminder waiting, and the + Remind me later and Clear passed buttons along the bottom. — The list, reached from Settings or from the flight menu. The same list either way.

Reminders that have already spoken stay in the list, greyed, for a day, so you can see what you were told while you were away. Clear passed sweeps them early. You may keep 21 waiting at once, which is as many as a phone will hold once each has its repeats.

Sandbox has none

A sandbox world has a clock of its own that only moves while you are playing, so a time in it means nothing to your phone. Reminders set there speak in the game and nowhere else, and the lead choices show no time of day. In the shared world, where the clock keeps running without you, they do the job they were built for.