Adjusts the in-game date so that your next playthrough will begin chronologically after your previous playthrough.
How it works
There are two parts to this mod: The timekeeper, and the year display patch.
The timekeeper is simple. Every once in a while, it saves the current in-game date.
Loading an early save will mean "travelling" to an earlier point in time, so there are multiple different timekeepers you can choose from in the mod settings:
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[*] [b]Use Latest[/b] (default): The in-game date will be stored if it is later than the current stored date, and will be ignored otherwise.
[*] [b]Use Current[/b]: The in-game date will always be stored, regardless of the current stored date.
[*] [b]Cumulative[/b]: The in-game date is ignored. Instead, the stored date is incremented whenever a day passes.
[*] [b]Disabled[/b]: The stored date will never be altered automatically. New games will still begin after the stored date, so you can still use the mod to set a custom start date.
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The second component of this mod is the Harmony patch that adjusts the date displayed in-game.
For stability reasons, this patch does not actually alter the variable that stores the current time. Instead, it applies an offset to the code that calculates the year. This approach should be compatible with the vast majority of mods, but may cause minor cosmetic issues with some new-game+ mods.
Notes
The stored date can be adjusted manually in the mod settings. The date range is actually quite broad; you can start a game in the year 2000 if you want.
If you don't want the timekeeper to count playthroughs that you abandoned after a few days, then you can set a minimum playthrough length in the mod settings before the timekeeper activates.
Cumulative mode works on a timer based on game ticks, meaning that it cannot account for skipping long periods of time.
Why make this?
Two reasons. First of all, I just like the idea of having some visible reminder of my past experiences. I like thinking that my previous playthroughs actually took place at some point in the past.
The second reason is that I have plans for some new-game+-type mods of my own in the future, and want there to be a way to avoid items "time-travelling" between playthroughs.
Source Code and Non-Workshop Download
[url=https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FTurnovus%2Fpersistent-start-date%2Freleases%2Flatest]https://github.com/Turnovus/persistent-start-date/releases/latest[/url]
