Hi, I tried to figure something new in strategy games and I came with this Idea: Time recourse. Its not something like "gold" with a different name it would be recourse to control time. Time recourse would stop your enemy for phew moments so you could make some defensive adjustments. I don't want to spread out much so I wont write how it would be incorporated in the actual game. Hope to hear your thoughts.

Actually this could be an interesting mechanic.

MY first thought was that it could be rather jarring in a multiplayer game when you are suddenly frozen it might seem like the network has just dropped out and something has gone wrong. But if you made it clear that it was a game effect rather than a bug, then this could be quite fun.

Thus my second thought was: how could you use this. Well, if I could cast a spell/use a time vortex generator (or whatever you want to call it), that slowed down the actions of my enemies and allowed my units to move at the normal rate, then this could let me move units around quickly (relative to the enemy), or let them fire faster and do more damage.

In Starcraft, they had "Stim Packs" for the marines that let them fire faster, this is just the same, but you use the resource "Time" (or Chronotons - for the standard Sci-Fi nomenclature) to do the same thing (or slow the enemy down). You could also ahve it the more Chronotons you pump into the effect, the longer or more drastic the effect.

The game could be called "Time Wars" or something.

So, Mega Man's Time Stopper applied to a strategy game.

Do tell how you plan to incorporate it into the game. It seems like something that will suck if it's just put in naively; if you activate your time stop, obviously you stand to gain a lot from it; is there any reason the enemy won't just activate his if he has it too?

Well not quite, MM had it against computer controlled pixels. I agree with you when you say that this has plenty of potential to go wrong.

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Original post by Edtharan In Starcraft, they had "Stim Packs" for the marines that let them fire faster, this is just the same, but you use the resource "Time" (or Chronotons - for the standard Sci-Fi nomenclature) to do the same thing (or slow the enemy down). You could also have it the more Chronotons you pump into the effect, the longer or more drastic the effect.

I know that one game called "Time shift" that was a first person shooter. In it you had the ability to stop time, but in multiplayer they made some hand grenades that make slow motion field in which everyone moves slow. And that worked out not bad.

My solution would be to make the distance between you and the enemy bigger:
If you have more time to react, its the same as the enemy forces need to travel longer, I dont know how to put this into the game, but I think only making someone move faster/slower wouldnt make something unique. You could make many out of this idea, but you also need to make a playable game.

I also have in mind that time traveling would be also a minus:
If there would be a city and half of the city lives phew months in a second- the society of it would be ruined: people come out different than they were before. Or if the city is under attack people would be very unpredictable because of waiting for the time to continue.
If there is one man in the field and you let him to stand for ten minutes and than he is suddenly back in the field, he will be disorientated.
Also there could be some anomalies made by this time slowing effect.
So this makes many strategies: use "Chronotons" for faster construction or to use in battle.

The game wouldn't be just Starcraft with some time bending, because some players would just say its the same game, but a little slower because of time stopping. If you would need to look for morale of the troops it would make the game much more deeper.

[Edited by - xfront on October 19, 2009 11:12:25 PM]

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Original post by Stroppy Katamari Is there any reason the enemy won't just activate his if he has it too?

Stopping a half of the map would use a very large amount of "chronotons". If you have a tank factory and an ore mine you would need to choose what to do:
Mine more ore so you can build lots of things early in the game or buy upgrades that would be instant;
Wait for resources to build up and than build troops appropriate to your enemy's forces;
Or to build your buildings faster and then send your first troops early in the game to attack enemy's base.

Using chronotons for facilities wouldn't make any bigger problems for the multiplayer.

Also as I mentioned chronotons would be used in battle for enemy disturbance.

I would be very entertained if time was a literal resource that you have to mine or else your entire operation simply slows down. There could even be a supply chain for time, where you actually have to ship time to bases if they do not have an immediately available time mine. You don't even really have to conquer your enemy's base in that case, because if you completely cut off their time supply then they can't move.

Achron is attempting to create an RTS where time-travel is possible, and time acts sort-of like a resource. You can actually go back in time up to 2 minutes ago, depending on how much time-travel energy you have, and destroy enemies units. Causality waves can destroy those units, or in the case of factories and all, units that the buildings produced.

Its a fairly interesting idea, and I hope it pans out. Apparently, you can play the game like a normal RTS (no time-travel) quite successfully too.

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Original post by Edtharan MY first thought was that it could be rather jarring in a multiplayer game when you are suddenly frozen it might seem like the network has just dropped out and something has gone wrong. But if you made it clear that it was a game effect rather than a bug, then this could be quite fun.

This actually reminds me off the days off old Neverwinter Nights Persistant World Servers. There was a spell called "Time Stop" that by default would freeze everything but the caster. This works great in single playet, but when multplayer kicked in, you would freeze the entire world. There was a graphic effect that appeared right where the caster was, but anyone else would just freeze in place for like 30 seconds with little to no explination.

How about this: there is a lag between unit orders and when the order it carried out. Start it off with a 1 sec delay. It can be modified to more or less by the time resource.