Here’s a blog post about timetravel in RTS. Check out the video – it goes pretty darn complex. (Thanks GBGames and Ryan Wiancko)
Anyone understands what was said during “3:25 – 3:37″ on that video?
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Ok, so if I understand this correctly, this game is retarded, let me explain.
Lets assume I have a unit in the present. If I wait a little and then take this same unit to the past where it meets itself, I now have two units. If I send these two units to the present, I now have four units. If I take these four units back into a time where they can meet themselves, I now have 8 units, and so on…
I wouldn’t be needing much _chrono energy_ because I would find myself in the present half the time, and it seems that time travel doesn’t cost anything so I could do it indefinitely.
This game would only make sense if I, the player, was the only one capable of going back in time, and time was linear. But then again, what’s the point of playing a game in which the enemy lies two millimetres away from you.
“3:25 – 3:37?
Oh, how cool it would be, if only these time-waves (actually different instances of games? that probably somehow merge?).. if only these time-waves were denser. If the changes would propagate instantly (which i guess is hell of a complex algorithm).
So you could look into future what’s the outcome of current gameplay going to be, and get back and adjust the actions appropriately.
Though there is a problem with the fact that it would have to simulate your playing in order to predicate the future. Well, maybe that can be solved by shifting the ‘core of the gameplay’ from total control of all units, to just simple planning and delegating fighting patterns to some high-level “commander”-like units..
Which reminds me of the article I read years ago at:
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/Articles/HierarchalAI.html
Yeah, my friend showed me this a while back. Looks pretty cool and complicated.
Well, if reality based on m-theory is 11 dimensional, and everything is possible, so why should games have less freedom than reality?
You might want to check out the game Braid too. xD
I actually checked out Braid… but it’s just not my type of game.. I know it sells a lot so gotta appreciate that.
Propogating from the present to the past… dunno, takes time to actually do something? surely if you change something in the past it would be catastrophic to future events… I’m confused…
Oh, and another thing.. is it multiplayer? lol
Hmm, I wonder if I could lose the game the in the future, but win it in the past…
Andy: I thought the same. Didn’t even try to answer that…
That looks like the most boringly complicated RTS ever… Couldn’t you just permanently keep going to the past and restarting battles if you lost in the present?
I think this goes beyond “save” & “load” but… I don’t know. It’s interesting concept nevertheless.
possibly relevant: http://greyaliengames.com/blog/future-ghosts/
I want a large trout.