Uplink in Real Time

[Iwudacus]

OK, I'm sorry if this idea has already been posted, but I got tired of going through all the topics to see. It's really not my fault that most of the topics say "more realistic uplink" or "this would be cool!" or various other titles that tells you nothing of what it might be about.

Right. Enough bitching. I feel better.

Now, my idea is this: running Uplink in real world time. I.e when you quit the game and continue playing tomorrow, a day would have passed in Uplink.

I have given this idea much thought, and although I am by all means no good programmer (I know the bare basics), I think it's very possible, and not even too hard. Unless using your computer's actual clock is hard to do - I've never tried...

Anyway, the concept works like this: When you quit and everything gets saved, the program checks the date & time on your CPU clock and save ti with everything else. When you continue your game, the program checks the time of your CPU clock and determines how much time had elapsed since the recorded time of the last save. At the hand of this determined time, the game determines the changes that would have happened in that time, such as new missions, password changes, etc. This all means that the game can run in realworld time, and if you don't play for a week, you basically miss a week in the game as well. And all this without making some satellite program run in the background eating your resources.

I would attempt this myself, but as I said, I'm NOT a good programmer, and besides, I don't even know what's on the DevCD, because I don't have it. Anyone out there wanna give it a bash?

Ra for bitching! Ra for real world time!

[Stewsburntmonkey]

The problem with this is that it makes people have to play. You would easily miss the plot and getting caught would be possible if you had to save before you could get all your logs. It is an interesting idea (one that is used in Flight Simulator actually) but it causes several issues that largely out weigh any benefits.

[abigbagofcrap]

using the system clock is easy, but like *monkey (yay for wildcard characters) says, if you wanted a storyline to be time based, that would be very difficult since then you would have to play often and at the right times so as not to miss any of the storyline. also, if missions are not time based, then there is not much of a point in running certain functions based on real time.

[Iwudacus]

Very true, very true. Once again I didn't see further than my love of freedom and freeform gaming. I agree that, yes, it would make the story element odd. As for the "have to play" thing to avoid getting caught: that's the kind of thing I like.

Maybe if there's an added option that just circumvents the story and make the game just a total freeform game? And of course, the "real time" option should be an option somewhere. It shouldn't force players to play the game like that. I thought it might work if you have a choice between "normal" and "realtime" mode when you start a new character.

And those are my amended ideas to solve the problems mentioned with the original idea. Anyone wanna try it now?

Ra for helpful people!