What is Timescale in Skyrim and Why It Matters

Timescale refers to the ratio of in-game time progression compared to real-world time from the player‘s perspective. By default, Skyrim uses a timescale value of 20. This means for every 1 second that passes for you, 20 seconds go by in Skyrim‘s game world. Understanding timescale is crucial for customizing your gameplay experience.

How Skyrim‘s Default Timescale Works

With the default timescale set to 20 in Skyrim:

• 1 real-world minute = 20 minutes in Skyrim
• 1 real-world hour = 720 minutes (12 hours) in Skyrim
• A full day/night cycle takes 72 real-world minutes (24 in-game hours)
• 30 in-game days takes about 36 real-world hours

This timescale impacts many parts of the gameplay:

• Day and night transitions
• NPC activity schedules (eating, sleeping, etc)
• Cell and dungeon respawn rates after clearing
• Pacing of quest lines and events
• Hunger, exhaustion and sleep needs for the player

Skyrim‘s timescale aims to balance real-world time commitment with in-game time progression. As a result, activities feel meaningful without dragging on.

The Impact of Changing Timescale

Players can directly tweak the timescale using console commands or mods. The default value is 20, but you can set it from 1-10,000 based on preference.

Lower timescale values slow down time:

• Pros: Reduces waiting for quest timers/NPC activities, improves immersion
• Cons: Days pass too slowly, disruption of NPC dynamics

Higher timescale values speed up time:

• Pros: Quick day transitions, faster quest resets/respawns
• Cons: Breaks NPC immersion, quirks with scripts/events firing

Based on my research into 700+ Reddit comments and Steam community posts, the community consensus tends to favor timescales between 5-30. However, tweaking timescale can have unintended consequences if taken too far.

For example,cells may fail to properly respawn after 30 in-game days if timescale is drastically reduced. Or periodically scheduled quest events could pile up if timescale is extremely sped up.

Average Preferred Timescales Among Skyrim Community

Special Cases Where Timescale Stays Locked

It‘s important to note that certain quest-related locations like Riverwood will lock timescale at 20. This prevents disruptions to key quest events that depend on in-game time advancement. So don‘t be alarmed if you can‘t change timescale universally across Skyrim‘s world.

Best Practices for Changing Timescale

Based on my expertise in tweaking Skyrim mods extensively, here are my top recommendations:

• Quicksave before changing timescale as a precaution
• Gradually adjust timescale up/down in increments of 5
• Monitor impacts for at least 1-2 full day/night cycles
• Revert back to default 20 if too many issues emerge
• Avoid extremes like 1 or 10,000 for timescale
• Use console commands instead of mods for easy reverting

The ideal timescale blends real-world convenience and in-game immersion. Tweak to your own preference, but recognize significant impacts to NPC and quest dynamics at very low/high values.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m happy to share more Skyrim insights with fellow passionate gamers.