More immersive calendar

tl;dr: Give players the option to set the in-game calendar to something unique to their own games.

PROBLEM:

One of the most common complaints about Humankind specifically and 4X games in general is the way in-game calendars function. Players often end up in situations where they are researching something like Electricity in 1100. I will be the first to admit this is a purely aesthetic problem, but it's a big enough complaint that there are multiple mods out there attempting to fix it. Switching to HE is fine, but it doesn't feel very true to life to be in the year 11850 when there are no calendars currently existing in the world on a year nearly that high (that I am aware of, at least). The problem seems to get worse at different game speeds as well.

SOLUTION:

I propose a third option. Basically, the idea is to allow the player to set their own calendar. Here's how I envision it: Before the player researches the technology "Calendar," the in-game calendar functions the same as it does now, i.e. it does not appear on the screen. Once the tech is researched, that turn becomes Year 1. Years are counted the same as now, with more years per turn early in the game. If the player likes, he or she can just leave it as is, comfortable in the knowledge that the year displayed is both relevant to the current game and unrelated to the real world.

Beyond that, I suggest the player be given an option at any time to "reset" their calendar as happened in the real world. Once the option is taken, the player is prompted to fill in a 2 or 3 letter identifier for the two calendars (like BCE and CE) in order to keep them distinct. This has the added benefit of letting the player choose a meaningful in-game event to base the new calendar on. At least for me, it's unusual for something so significant to happen exactly in 1 C.E. as to warrant a change to the entire world's timekeeping. Giving the player control would add to the immersion. They can use the letter identifiers to further customize their world by giving their calendars specific names. At first, I thought there should only be one chance to do this reset, but upon reflection I don't see why the player shouldn't be allowed to do it as much as they want. It's their game and their story, after all.

POTENTIAL ISSUES:

What are some potential problems with this idea? For one thing, I don't know if the years are tied into the turn numbers in a functional, non-cosmetic way. It doesn't seem like it to me, but I am a dumdum who has no idea how anything works. Obviously, if I'm wrong, this idea is probably impossible to implement.

Assuming that is not the case, I envision two possible problems. First, I have no idea how this would work in multiplayer. I don't play multiplayer at all, so I don't know if all the human players having different calendars would mess stuff up (if it were even possible to let everyone do it in the first place). Of course, the players could simply not use this option, or perhaps one player could control it for everyone. In any case, I don't think this is insurmountable.

The second potential problem is that I'm not sure if it would be possible or even desirable to reverse the years in the previous calendar as we have done in our world. If calendar A runs from year 1 to year 3200, then the player decides to switch to calendar B, would the years in calendar A get reversed so that Year 1 is now the last year, as with 1 BCE? I don't have an answer. Like with anything, it would be best to give the player the option, but I don't know if that would be possible. In any case, this is a purely cosmetic issue. Personally, I'd be willing to live with it in exchange for a more immersive calendar.

Overall, I think giving the player some control over one of the most important pieces of world history, the calendar, would be a relatively easy way to increase immersion and enjoyment.