Yeah, you read the title right. I'll explain in a minute.
I had an idea for a strategy game, similar to Metal Knights in a few ways. (Tile-based, turn-based). This game would have 2 people taking turns on one computer building up bases, and using various tactics to take over the enemy's base. Now here's the catch:
The game is real-time.
Each player would get an alloted amount of game time (3 hours or so) which would translate into about 2 or 3 minutes of real time.
So, Player 1 would go first, ordering the production and movement of units, etc; while the clock ticks and eventually reaches the end of his time. The game would record all of Player 1's actions, go back in time, and let player 2 take his turn. Player 1's actions would execute themselves as if he was playing, while Player 2 takes his turn, and the clock ticks. If 2 enemy units came in range of each other, they would automatically begin combat, unless one player ordered his units beforehand to not attack. (This would be useful for commando teams, snipers, etc.)
Obviously, Player 2 has a significant advantage as he is able to actively react to Player 1's movements (If he can see them.. there would be LOS, etc.) so, the turn order would reverse, and Player 2 would go again; and so on and so forth until a player is the victor.
Now, my question.
Is this game POSSIBLE in the games factory? Would it be capable of making this game, or would the 'time shifts', and hordes of units and mathematical calculations required for combat be too much for it?
And, on the side, would you play and enjoy this game?
I reakon thats a real good idea. Though 2-3 hours maybe a bit much. You should have a battle in rounds. Each round would be a few minutes long. eg. Player 1 starts, orders his units until his time runs out, then player 2 has the same time to react to the player 1's orders. Then the next round begins with player 2 being the first to order. That way it would be fair, wouldn't bore the other player who isn't doing anything because the rounds are short, and would probably be a little easier to code as you wouldn't have to record 2-3 hours of orders.
I believe this game could be made in tgf, just the amount of units wouldn't be too great. Instead you should focus on making it revolve around say a few elite commandos and their base, rather than having a huge army.
read what he said "Each player would get an alloted amount of game time (3 hours or so) which would translate into about 2 or 3 minutes of real time." i.e the game clock ticks down 1 minute every second
Whats the point in him saying anything about 2-3 hours then if your still only going to play for 2-3 minutes. It makes no sense in having a clock that ticks down a minute every second unless you actually play for 2-3 hours then when the orders execute they do it faster.
It sounds interesting. It's POSSIBLE, but not easy at all, unless you drop the time reversal.
Let's see. You'll need:
1. a lot of storage stuff to store X and Y and values and stuff for the original position & values of the stuff before the real-time movement
2. a 'time counter' to count the time being used
And, yeah, that's about it. But (1) can be either easy or horribly complicated, depending on how complicated your game is. But with MMF, you can just use the Save Game object included with one of the MMF bonus packs.
But if you're seriously trying to do something like this, mind giving me the engine? I could have a few ideas to use it with.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
I have an idea similar to this. Each player has their own round where they can move their units a certain amount of squares. But each player has Action Points that they can spend for different units to attack, or to counterattack or defend his own units. I thought this might be a good idea.
"Actually sir, we found a tiny unicorn in your exhaust. It was jumping around poking holes in your gas tank." "Oh thank you I did not know that. A tiny unicorn? Wow."