Time Down
Time Down is a multiplayer arena game with an intriguing game mechanic: Time Control.
Rewind time and stop time while engaging opponents with potential and control equal
to your own. Time is both your greatest utility and your most abhor rival.

Map Information
128x128
6 Player
Twilight Tileset
VHP health system
Kill enemies with spells
5 Heroes to choose from
15 Spells
4 Gametypes

Gametypes
- Slayer
- Capture the Flag
- King of the Hill
- Bases (Still undecided)

Spells (Descriptions taken directly from game)
Every player has access to the same spells, though each player
picks 7 different spells of the 14 available (everyone gets quickshot).

Spells are cast by moving a unit assigned to represent the spell. After
casting the spell (or failing to) the representing unit is deselected.
The idea is that you team your hero unit and the spell unit together
and cast by pressing the team number and clicking anywhere. Then,
the spell unit being deselected, you are left selected on only your
hero unit. It is designed this way for fluid game play.

[ Time Down ] Near completion
Globally stops time. Caster will have mobility
while everything is in standstill. Casting is enabled
although not active until time is resumed. Casting
Time Down while opponent's have it active will
also allow you to move and act while they do.

[ Time Reverse ] Done
Globally rewinds the game by eight seconds.
This time, don't die.

[ Warp Fire ] Done
Warps the caster to nearby enemies, dealing
damage to them

[ Immolation ] Done
Periodically engulfs the caster in flame
to burn enemies in immediate range

[ Rift Bind ] In Production
Fire hails from the sky in unpredictable bursts

[ Void Anchor ] Finished
Place an invisible trap for the
unwary enemy

[ Meltdown ] Done
Accumulate and release immense reverses of
energy to enact a vast amount of damage
around you

[ Regeneration ] Done
Increases physical capabilities to
quickly recover from injury.

[ Evocation ] Completed / Fine tuning
Doubles mana regeneration as long as caster remains immobile

[ Counter ] Done
Syphons enemy offensive spells in motion
or while charging into energy for the caster

[ Threshold ] Done
Protects the caster by invoking a physical
barrier around him.

[ Revoke ] Done
Instantly relocates user to a position five
seconds in the past to retreat or confuse.

[ Veil ] Fine tuning
Description pending

[ Abrasion ] Done / Changing aesthetic
Description pending

[ Rendshot ] Done
Single projectile fire




Note From the Author / Other rants
The reason for me putting this in the production forum is
not for hype or glory at all, but purely for feedback, suggestions
ideas and questions from the community. In fact, I think hype is
the quickest way for a map to become disappointing.

Now, when the game rewinds, it simulates the last 8 seconds of
the game backwards. The map records 10 seconds of gameplay,
and player position every second during those 10 seconds. This
means that when a player rewinds, the players move backwards to
these seconds cutting corners that the player originally made. But
since the player state data is recorded perfectly, this doesn't really
matter, as the simulation is purely aesthetic. The reason I tell you
this, is that of course it isn't perfect looking, but it is the best
that can be done with the map limitations, and with this knowledge
you could better help me make this the best I can.

I'm not near finishing but I want ideas early while the game is very
malleable, though I've designed this thing to be very flexible and
specifically malleable (I.E. I could change it from an 8 second rewind
to 5 seconds by changing a single number)

You won't be attacking with your unit at all, spells are your only
method for killing people. Unit abilities won't be used and energy
is kept track of in your ore.

I hope you like the concept, beta will be released as soon as I can
Which could be weeks.
-Kaias

Post has been edited 11 time(s), last time on Oct 17 2008, 12:21 am by Kaias.

Why an arena? Because recording the movements of so many units otherwise is entirely impractical. Plus I want this to be purely a player on player battle of tactics and strategy, with everyone at equal potential.

Heh, that's a pretty cool concept. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Do rewind and revoke undo energy drain/health damage? Otherwise, I can see them having only limited use in manouvering.

Time Reverse rewinds the game in everything:
Damage/Health
Spell/unit/flag position
Status (i.e Stasised, Blinded, Infravisioned)
Cooldowns
Energy
Death

Revoke is only meant for movement, it is instantaneous and recorded. That means if your use it, and then rewind, you will revoke backwards to the place you cast revoke initially. Revoke is more of quick, low cooldown, low energy cost get away. It also has some synergetic type tactics- for instance, you could do run up to someone, threshold barrier and revoke out. Then they'd be stuck in a circle without anyone to kill.

If you use a spell with a long minute cooldown and then the game is rewound before you ever used it, then you can use it again.

Me likey a LOT. How are you going to record the last 8 seconds, tho? And I assume you'll be using EUDS to detect energy and health and stuff?

Nope, the game does not use EUD's. I want this to last longer than patches.

Health is done with vhp, damage is done completely by spells. You won't be using your unit to attack.
And you won't be using unit abilities like storm.

I'm interested in how the players will be casting spells. This makes or breaks the game as controls need to be fluid. If the gameplay isn't fast for arenas then it most likely isn't fun. Neat concept though.

Thanks.

Spells are cast by moving the said unit. It detects the movement near instantaneously, and deselects the unit after casting.

Essentially, the idea behind it is that you team the spell unit and your hero together. So to cast you do the team number and just click. Since the unit is deselected after casting, you are left selected only on your hero and can resume your activities immediately.

Of course you don't need to team your hero with the spell. (like with Time Reverse I wouldn't bother since it will deselect your hero as well anyway)

In my testing it is quite effective.

Have you considered using the gateways and barracks method like in Naruto? It seems like it would be easier because then you don't have to go to your corner of the map just to cast a spell, you can just hit "1" and "f." The fact that you have to avert your vision from the playing field isn't very good IMO.

Edit also if you team select your guys and send them towards a beacon, then the hero will try to move there as well.

No I've never player Naruto
No I'm not considering that
Yes I've seen it
No you don't need to look away from where you are. You can click anywhere.

In my opinion my system is both better and faster.

P.S. The reason I'm not considering it is because I already have.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 31 2008, 7:12 pm by Kaias.

O I think i understand now... So you will have hotkey "1" on time thing and hero, hotkey "2" on reversal thing and hero, and etc? But you have more than 10 spells..?

I do like your method alot.

That is correct.

Right now I've got it set up so that you pick 8 spells, I can just as easily set it to 6 or 10 but I chose 8. I would also suggest numbering your hero by itself as 1 and then start the spell teams at 2 up. But that's just preference.

Plus there are tactics in choosing the best most synergetic spells and most suited for the gametype. For instance I would recommend Storm Trap on capture the flag but only get it on Slayer if the bridges end up being a popular battle zone.

Got it. I like that a lot.

Since it's early in the production stage, maybe you should have choices to select what hero you'll have, rather than them all being the same. Maybe every hero could have the basic spells like the rewind and stop, but each one would have different other spells. I think that would make it more interesting.

I've thought a lot about that and I could have different units as the hero's and specific spellsets per hero, but I don't like the idea much.

I want everyone to be equal in this and different spells per hero isn't appealing to that idea.

I could have different hero options though with minor differences like life, maximum energy and energy regen speed (along with given things like unit speed).

That isn't planned right now though and considering the set up now, I would have to ditch Storm Snare or make it visible to everyone always.

I can be convinced otherwise though.

Ever played the game "Gravitass"? It's got a pretty funky time travel twist...you can actually interact with your past self to affect the outcome of previously attempted rescue missions. Will you be able to do anything like that in this, or is the original timeline simply wiped out when you go back in time?

I like the control system. It's like a non-EUD version of one that I've got built into a current project; keeping the player's main unit selected really makes things much smoother. Are you using inverted locations to detect movement really quickly?

No I haven't played it and no its not like that. It's an arena game so there isn't a story to effect or a reason to interact with past self esp a self of 8 seconds ago.

It rewinds, so you go through the motions backwards and thus the original time line is wiped out like you said and immediately the new one begins. I've got it set to record 12 seconds though, which means that the last 4 seconds of the replacing time line are vulnerable to being rewound as well, while the first 4 aren't.

Thanks, and it really does. No I'm not using inverted locations, although I originally intended to. I can't spare that many locations, I'd have to have an inverted location for every spell x 6 (players) since any player can get any spell. Which would end up being 96 locations. I could reduce that down a few with great pains but not much.

The current system is almost just as fast and only uses 2 locations.

It's not like that.

I should probably describe it in the main post.

Actually, I changed my mind. I'm having 6 different heroes with varying stats in speed, energy regen, health, and max energy.

And I did. I updated the spells section to describe the casting method and spell number limits.

Although a very unique concept, you most likely will experience alot of problems with the ammount of locations you have.