Achron

[TheOneFreeMan]

Hasn't been a thread on this in a while, and the Alpha release is out, so the question asks itself ...

How can a game be so friggin' confusing AND simultaneously awesome sounding at the same time? An RTS where both players can travel in time and effect each others moves in the past and future?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6PuVyZGrYE&feature=player_embedded

I read a guy on bit-tech trying to explain how the mechanics work. When you get too confused, skip the rest and just know that it gets more confusing the further you read:

Time travel in Achron is manifested a timeline chart at the bottom of the screen which, by clicking on it, you can jump to any point in the past or future of the game. A vertical line on the timeline tells you where every player is in time and a small chart keeps track of all game actions, such as damage dealt to your units. A glance at the timeline tells you where big battles have been fought and where you opponents have gone (in time) to try to influence their outcome.

Crucial to time travel is the idea of chronoenergy, the resource by which you can manipulate the timeline. Chronoenergy regenerates on it’s own, but the further you are in the past the slower it does so and the more energy you’ll need to do anything. In the future you need less and it regenerates fast, while giving orders in the present doesn’t require any at all. The system prevents you from just going to the very start of the timeline and killing the enemy then using and introduces a puzzle game element – how can you most effectively damage your enemy in the past with your limited resources?

The most important thing to understand about Achron though are the timewaves – regular updates to the timeline that can be seen sweeping across the game at intervals of 30 seconds. When a timewave moves through the game then it collects all the events it comes across and carries them forwards, altering the continuity as it goes. If you think it’s something that’s hard to get your head around then, well, join the club.

Here’s an example of how timewaves work. You start a game with a small collection of robots in the present. You haven’t given any orders, so the game assumes that it’s stayed that way for the preset length of the match – so in the future your units are patrolling the same path over and over, just as they are in the present. The same rule applies to the past, where your units are also patrolling.

You decide to change this by undertaking some retroactive recon, so you journey two minutes into the past and tell one of your units to move to the furthest corner of the map, then you return to the present. There, you see that nothing has happened – your unit is still patrolling the original position, the map is unexplored.

That is until a timewave pulses forth, starting in the past and moving forwards. It passes the two minute point where you issued your order and moves forwards. If you went back to a time that timewave had already passed then you’d see your unit moving as you told him to, the event incorporated into history. If you wait in the present for the timewave to catch you then you’ll see the change happen the moment it hits - the unit will vanish before you eyes and reappear where you told it go, the route explored.

That is, as simply as possible, how time travel works in Achron and, for those of you wondering how the game stops you from just wiping enemies out in the past to win, there’s your answer. Remember: players can see where each other are on the timeline, so if an opponent looks at the timeline then they can see when you are. If you’re attacking them and the unit AI isn’t up to the task then they can journey back to defend themselves – they just have to do it before the timewave runs the length of the match.

Hell, if they wanted they could pull off some seriously clever stunts. Say, for example, I saw you were destroying my base in the past and didn’t want to simply defend in a direct battle with you on the timeline. What I could do is look at where you’re attacking me and then journey even further back to try and fortify that point. Then, when the timewave hits, your victory could become your defeat. Or I could pre-empt your attack with a raid of my own, targeting specific units that I’d know you’d need. Or I could use a chrono-porter to teleport my future units back in time as reinforcements.

Or, because there’s not just one timewave but a dozen of them on the timeline as a whole (but only one at any one time, haha) I could try to battle you in the future while you are waging war in past. I’d just have to make sure I won the future battle before the timewave which catches your battle reaches me – so that a timewave that’s already in the future can carry my changes forwards.

At least, I think that’s how it works. If your head is spinning from trying to keep track of all this then don’t imagine I’m faring much better! Just be grateful I’ve decided not to delve too deeply into how the game handles grandfather paradoxes – that’s when a unit prevents itself from ever being created.

So ... would you play this game? Do you think it'll be fun, or even work at all?

 

[ríomhaire]

I've made two threads on this, both of which were largely ignored. I for one think this sounds pretty damn awesome. I can image eight player free for alls being incredibly brain melting though.

 

[Quixoticism]

This does indeed sound awesome! I'll definitely be looking forward to playing this.

 

[TheOneFreeMan]

Yeah, I was confused by nobody being excited about this too. In a world where RTS games all seem to fall into the same strict conventions with minor changes, this is mindblowingly awesome.

Of course, it sounds mindblowingly confusing to play, as well.

 

[Stormy]

what is this? some kind of mod

 

[ríomhaire]

It's a fully independent game with its own engine built from scratch to accommodate smooth and easy time manipulation.

Note, some of this information may be changed from the last time I looked up the game: You can look a certain amount into the past and future (I think ~7 minutes is the limit). There is a resource called chronoenergy that regenerates automatically while you're in the present.

There is a little timeline chart at the bottom of the HUD that displays the last and next seven minutes of game time by a couple of different sets of data. It shows a histogram (bar chart) of resources past, present and future and damage inflicted upon you and caused by you by/to the enemy. Clicking any part of the timeline will instantly take you to that point in time where you can make the exact same orders as you do in the present: Build units, order units, destroy enemies, etc.

IIRC viewing the future costs chronoenergy but ordering units in the future costs none. Viewing the past costs no energy but costs energy to order units in the past (the further back the more it costs, to the point where ordering a unit at the very end of the alterable timeline costs most of your energy). You can also use chronoportals to send units back into the past.

An enemy can order an attack on you in the past, you can then queue up some units to build in the present and then use your chronoporter in the future to send them back to the past to help in the fight. But you have to be careful then. If you forget that you need to send those units back in time in the future and order them to attack the enemy in the present, when they're destroyed they can no longer go back to the past in the future and their contribution to the past defence will be lost. HAS YOUR MIND EXPLODED YET?

BTW, changes in the past are not carried on to the present instantly. There are timewaves that you can see on the timeline graph that bring the changes forward. They run at about 1.5 to 2.5 times normal speed. So changes made several minutes ago will take a couple of minutes to catch up. The player also acts as a timewave and can bring changes forward quickly or to precise moments you need it if you manipulate it well.

 

[Stigmata]

The timewaves aren't as complicated as they're made out to be. It seems like a really interesting mechanic.

Question: If the match length is, say, 30 minutes, does that mean there are 15 timewaves moving across the timeline?

 

[ríomhaire]

There is a limit to the alterable timeline. Like I said I think it's seven minutes backwards and forwards but that could have been changed. If the timewaves are two minutes apart there would always be seven timewaves on the timeline (fourteen divided by two). Anything more than seven minutes in the past is fixed and cannot be changed, therefore there are not affected by timewaves.

Interestingly you can go seven minutes into the past at any point in the game, even as soon as the round starts. You can start building your base a few minutes before the start point of the game.