Time Travel RTS

[Warlord Zsinj]

Thanks to tomcat_ha for the link in gnug IRC

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57911

Seems like a clever idea, and one worth pursuing. The 'time wave' approach is a reasonably good way to do things, though I can think of other approaches.

The total description of the game seems very overwhelming; I think with a game like this the premise itself adds all the complexity you need, and they've gotta stay the hell away from any other complexity, but it seems like they're planning for a fully-fledged RTS with mechs and aircraft and so on. To me it would make a lot more sense for it to be a very simple Kernel Panic style game - few to no units, little to no UI or need for a UI, or even base building, very simplified resources, etc.

[SwiftSpear]

It seems to me like this kind of thing would make the game totally unplayable for multiplayer... But they apparently have an exhaustive multiplayer system... Definitely an interesting concept for a single player game though. I hope they aren't expecting AAA status, a game like this will be too neiche to break a couple million sales. Has a good chance of reviewing well though I would think if they take time to put the polish on it.

I'll consider getting based on reviews.

[Boirunner]

This game sounds awesome and I really want to play it.

[Warlord Zsinj]

I'd be really disappointed if this didn't have a multiplayer mode; something of this design definitely needs the ability to play against other humans, otherwise it would feel like a cop out.

[SwiftSpear]

I'd be really disappointed if this didn't have a multiplayer mode; something of this design definitely needs the ability to play against other humans, otherwise it would feel like a cop out.

Well, looking into it a bit they have some really interesting ways of dealing with the time variations. When I think of time duration changes in multiplayer games I always get the idea of the specialists style bullet time, where the whole game slows down for everyone because someone goes into bullet time. Time modification represented accurately usually breaks the flow of a multiplayer game... but this game is more quantum manipulation RTS than it is a game where you knock it into bullet time when the combat gets too fast paced to micromanage.

[Boirunner]

I'm not sure if I like the appreach they take to resolve paradoxes:

Q. I wonder how the game would resolve this complex example: Player A sends units back in time and destroys player B's factories. Before the timewaves reach the present, player B sends his army back in time and destroys player A's factories.
A. This is definitely a paradox. It will oscillate between these two states. If you're as good of a player as you claim, you might be able to time everything just so such that the paradox falls off the timeline in your favor. At worst, it's worth trying, as you have a 50-50 shot of getting your units back. While I told the person whose head was exploding that such paradoxes aren't too common in games, they can definitely happen much more frequently in games between advanced players (if we crank up the AI difficulty to 11, this does happen frequently).

edit: not that i can come up with a better solution.

[zwzsg]

They are stupid. What the market want is not an innovative game with new mind challenging clever mechanics. What the market want is yet another Red Alert clone, only this time Staline is 50m tall and dancing.

Anyway, doesn't matter, any news about this game release will generate far less interest than OMG! Blizzard posted TWO! new screnshots of StarcraftII! Awesome! I really like the new textures of the zerg, they're soooo dark and desatured, like they should be! Can't wait! I'm jizzing all over the place because StarcraftII will be such a good game. LoL!

[Acidd_UK]

Crazy stuff, looks interesting!

[[TS]Lollocide]

Players who master the Time-space mechanics of this game will suddenly 'be found dead' but instead of dying, they'll be whisked away to serve as Timecops.

Pwned.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

what the hell

[Teutooni]

Ehh, ability to time travel in an rts? Sure sounds intresting. Seems a bit silly though... I imagine games will turn into lengthy counter-races where you send units back in time to kill your enemy, he sends his units to counter your move, you prevent your units from being sent to the slaughter, etc. Also, would be quite silly to be able to send resources to the past - you think TA had exponential economy growth?

[1v0ry_k1ng]

so if i rush at start he can go back in time and make a turret where my rush comes, then i go back in time to never rush at all and use my rush to make a huge attack wave in the future but he drags armies from a later future to fight my armies so i never attack at all and instead send all my armies to the future than BAM my whole army is there but in the past he raided my factory so none of army even existed which means he suddenly has the whole map then go back in time and plant mines across the whole map and sleep with my own mom and im my own dad so what if I went back and oh my fucking god

/brainfuck

[Warlord Zsinj]

Don't forget that the ability to timetravel is limited by some sort of resource, and it takes more resources to adjust things further in the past, and the amount of time that you can adjust is still moving forward, so that beyond a certain point you can no longer adjust time. Also, the further back you go, the more time your enemy has to respond to your actions (because he has a lot of time before the 'time wave' will arrive)

[Acidd_UK]

Yah, Zsinj seems to have a handle on how they're managing the complexity. I really really want to play this game, the concept is brilliant!

[rattle]

Reminds me of playing a console RTS on emulator with savestates

[Boirunner]

hmm, do you think a street fighter clone with this method of time travel would work?

[Spawn_Retard]

Q. Dude, paradoxes?! You know, grandfather paradox, units fighting side by side?
A. Paradoxes can exist, but since the window of time is limited (e.g., an 8 minute window) all events eventually fall off. A paradox will oscillate between its different states until one of the states reaches the edge of the time window, leaving the players locked into one of the two states. Example: in the case of the grandfather paradox (where you use a factory to build a tank, have the tank time travel to before it was built, and then use it to destroy the factory) you will play with the paradox until it 'falls off' the time window, at which point there is a 50/50 chance of either the tank lives and the factory is destroyed, or the factory remains and the tank was never created. All paradoxes are nicely resolved with time.

I think this is a logical way of dealing with paradoxes with the limited knowledge we have on time as it is. I couldn't think of a better way to solve this unless you favoured one team alot more for having more rescourses or points for example.

[Acidd_UK]

Presumably by making more 'time waves', or adding some random factor (speed/separation) to their propogation, you could make it harder/easier to 'game' the time wave mechanic to your advantage...

[SwiftSpear]

If you divide time by zero the game blows up your computer.

[Acidd_UK]

Not quite, in fact the timeline you exist on ceases to exist or ever have existed, ensuring that the divide by zero never happens. You still lose the game.