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        riddles >> general problem-solving / chatting / whatever >> How would you build a game with time travel?
        
(Message started by: amichail on Jul 7^th, 2007, 3:35pm)

Title: How would you build a game with time travel?
Post by amichail on Jul 7^th, 2007, 3:35pm

In particular, how would you build a multiplayer game that allows time travel into the past and future?

Title: Re: How would you build a game with time travel?
Post by rmsgrey on Jul 8^th, 2007, 4:16am

Short answer: I wouldn't.

Longer answer:

In order for decisions that have not yet been made to have an effect, you need something that can detect, or accurately anticipate the decisions in advance. Sufficiently scripted games will be able to anticipate certain decisions - for example, the Song of Storms time loop in Zelda: Ocarina - you learn the song from someone you taught it to in the world's past but your personal future - where you need to close the loop (or exploit a bug) in order to complete the game.

The other options for time-travel are to have sufficient separation between the time-zones that changes in one will be lost by the time the next happens (which also requires recognisable future landmarks to be indestructible in the present...)

Or you can have an inconsistent time-line where any changes to the past also change the present (and player characters are allowed to be aware of the changes for some reason) - at which point, the main problem is figuring out how to propagate the changes through time efficiently...

Title: Re: How would you build a game with time travel?
Post by towr on Jul 8^th, 2007, 8:13am

on 07/07/07 at 15:35:02, amichail wrote:

In particular, how would you build a multiplayer game that allows time travel into the past and future?

Depends on what you want from it. You could just have three versions of a world, one present one future and one past. Only really big (or specially chosen) events would need to change later worlds.

Something with a higher time-resolution where you can double-back on every decision you've made would be very hard to do. You would need a way to recalculate an entire world in real time based on changes in the past; weeding out all conflicting things people have done since (or find the nearest alternative).
For an RPG type game I don't think that in any way attainable; but for some types of 'empire-management' games it might be possible. Especially if you limit peoples input to strategies, rather than direct actions. Then you wouldn't need to worry about the fact they might have chosen a different specific action somewhere after the past was changes; you can just run their strategy on the changed scenario.

It'd still be hell to manage. At the very least you need to limit how much people can change the past (otherwise they'd go back and change something every time the present or future doesn't suit them).

Title: Re: How would you build a game with time travel?
Post by Grimbal on Jul 8^th, 2007, 2:51pm

Most games include time travel. It goes like:
"Game over. Do you want to play again?"
;)