Who doesn't want a flying DeLorean?

I had this really awesome idea for someone to work on. Find a decent 3d model of the time machine DeLorean from Back to the Future and make it into a spaceship. Then, add time travelling outfits. I figure it would need two outfits with ammunition. The first on would use 1 unit of ammo to travel forward in time and the second would use 1 unit of ammo to travel back in time (ala overloading the time value until it resets, then adding more to bring the date to about 50 years before you left). A Mr. Fusion outfit would create ammuntion (if possible) so that either time jump could be made without purchasing the plutonium "ammunition" required. Is it possible? Anyone wanna try it?

while I think you could come up with a way to make time go forward, how would you make it go backwards?

To make it go forward, you just add a mission (silent if neccessary) to take x amount of days.

I wonder if you would go backwards with -x amount of days.

The idea in general wouldn't work though, as you would fail the mission as you got it, and going back in time wouldn't fix that.

It would also mess up every other mission in the game, so without it being a total conversion of the scenario of the game, it wouldn't work.

SeattleLightning, on May 2 2005, 09:19 PM, said:

while I think you could come up with a way to make time go forward, how would you make it go backwards?
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Like I said, overload the time value. I know, it's the wrong terminology. Basically, you increase time until the variable that holds it rolls over to zero again. Then you add a ton of years so that you end up before you started.

Example:
Year is 1900.
Advance time to 10000, assuming time only goes to 9999. Time is now 0.
Add 1800 more years. It is now 1800. Time has gone back 100 years.

Oh, and about that mission problem, there would be no missions involving time travel. And you would only use it for fun, not for accomplishing missions.

This post has been edited by purple1 : 02 May 2005 - 04:31 PM

purple1, on May 2 2005, 10:29 PM, said:

Like I said, overload the time value. I know, it's the wrong terminology. Basically, you increase time until the variable that holds it rolls over to zero again. Then you add a ton of years so that you end up before you started.

Example:
Year is 1900.
Advance time to 10000, assuming time only goes to 9999. Time is now 0.
Add 1800 more years. It is now 1800. Time has gone back 100 years.
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overloading it would just cause errors.

Didn't someone theorize that it could be done?

Yes, it can and has been done by Edwards but the process was too slow to be effective. The engine had to recalculate the date with every passing day or something like that so a single mission with a datepostinc of 32767 would take a couple of seconds or so to complete. Trying to make thousands of years pass like this would mean the player would have to sit there for absolutely ages while the engine does its stuff.

Guy, on May 2 2005, 03:55 PM, said:

Yes, it can and has been done by Edwards but the process was too slow to be effective. The engine had to recalculate the date with every passing day or something like that so a single mission with a datepostinc of 32767 would take a couple of seconds or so to complete. Trying to make thousands of years pass like this would mean the player would have to sit there for absolutely ages while the engine does its stuff.View Post

Yup. Read all about it here.
On my new-as-of-January iBook G4 with 256 MB RAM, the number I came up with for going back 500 years (forward around 65,000 years) was two and a half fun-filled hours of frozen game. If you aren't running OSX, the entire computer may be frozen for that time.

It's a nice idea, though. Too bad the game engine doesn't allow it (under playable circumstances).

Edwards

Alrighty, scrap the reverse time travel. But could forward time travel be accomplished with an outfit + ammo?

purple1, on May 3 2005, 12:56 AM, said:

Alrighty, scrap the reverse time travel. But could forward time travel be accomplished with an outfit + ammo?
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I think it would have to be made into a mission which took money from you when completed.

i.e. you could have a mission which has a 100% chance of popping up in every mission BBS which is called "Time Travel" (for example). When you create this mission, you put a long time span on landing, with a negative reward. Hence when you accept the mission, you are thrown forwards in time and lose money. This idea is rather like in major strings when you go to train with people, and time moves forward six months or so.

Screw actual time-travel. You could still make a DeLorean spaceship which travels between systems at sublight speeds, but uses some kind of "temporal jump" to make you arrive just after you left anyway.

In essence, it would just mean using cool-looking "time-jump-effect" engine glows during hypering, but it'd still be cool.

Wow, Lindley. I didn't even realize that! I totally forgot that you can use engine glows! But can I use an alternate glow for hyperjumping? Because that would totally ROCK!

Yup. There's a flag in the shan to let you use extra frames in the base set to do that. Only problem is it will also show them when you land/take-off. I believe the Argosy does this.

Ah, that's not a problem.

Running Lights:
Headlights
Tail-lights
Possibly some small flashy things on the back end

Jump/Landing Lights:
Same as Running, +
Neon blue tubes around front and back (slow pulse)

Nothing too complicated. Nothing too out-of-place. Now I just need an artist. I can take care of the stats, but I would need someone willing to make the actual model or create the animations, add running lights, and work with the turret position junk. I have a 3d model, but it is in .RAR format and StuffIt doesn't like whatever particular encoding it is. Maybe it isn't .RAR. I dont know what form the model itself is actually in, but anyone is welcome to try. Just ask me for it.

I like the idea of a Back to the Future plugin, but the only way you could construct a coherent narrative, would be to hard-code the time jumps with missions.

Hudson, on May 3 2005, 08:07 AM, said:

I like the idea of a Back to the Future plugin, but the only way you could construct a coherent narrative, would be to hard-code the time jumps with missions.
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And have the date be your relativistic date, rather than the absolute date, which you could refer to in the narrative.

I didn't really think about a TC or a mission series for BttF. I just wanted to ride in a pimping DeLorean with some fancy-schmancy outfits. And simulated time travel for looks. But as of now, I can't make the graphics cuz my drawing skills suck and I can't even open the compressed BttF DeLorean model that I downloaded.

Regardless; Huey Lewis roxorz my soxorz

Hudson, on May 3 2005, 11:20 AM, said:

Regardless; Huey Lewis roxorz my soxorz
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OMG YES! GO mullets!

So I figured that the ship would have two outfits available - the Plutonium Reactor (gives 1 fuel, limit 1) and the Fusion Reactor (gives 4 fuel, adds recharge rate of about double of the Fission Reactor) limit 1).

The turning would be like the Shuttle, with the banking, but if possible, I want to liven it up a bit. If you turn to the right or left, I want it to swerve like it does in the movie.

well, banking and folding use the same sprites, so you cant have both. And i think if its a player ship, the folding doesnt show up when you land (though maybe for takeoff). When would it know when to cycle, anyway?