Flux Capacitor Mod

[steelplate]

Hey gang,

 

I'm fairly new on these boards but I'm really begining to figure out the scripting and all that that's in Fallout 3. So recently I was talking to a mate of mine about how rad Back To The Future was and how all that awesome paradox poo that gets attached to it can be. It naturally got me thinking about Time Travel in Fallout 3.

 

Last night whilst working on another mod of mine I'm building, I encountered (and not for the first time) the concept of Wait. How you can physically stand in one spot and trigger time to pass (you can see where this is going). My theory is, if the game can make time go forward, why can't it make it go backwards?

 

Looking through the G.E.C.K. stuff online, I've found various commands and varibles that could help me out. At the moment I'm acting under two ideas.

 

Option 1: The Game basically loads an old save, teleports you to where you are before the load, and you keep all your current gear, stats and levels.

 

or

 

Option 2: The game factors in where you are and at what time, then essentially winds back the in-game clock.

 

So far the problems I see with both are that with option 1, I've no idea how to currently save all "player" information, let alone call it back over the top of what would essentially be a "new" player. And with option 2, well where to begin? Theoretically the game can constantly go forward in time, seemingly indefinetly. Problem is that if you were to wind the clock back, even if setting GameYear/Month/Hour/DaysPassed/Day was possible, you would have to have some sort of back dated record of Quests completed, just so you could reset them again.

 

What do you think?

 

Is time travel possible in Fallout 3?

[neok182]

well option one is just impossible (as far as i know)

 

And option 2, though you could do it, the massive amount of bugs and possibilities for screwing things up probably would make it not worth doing.

 

though i could be wrong but i just don't see any flawless way for this to happen. if even at all.

[steelplate]

Yeah that's what I'm figuring, having looked into the tech of it all. But I'm not complete adept with what the G.E.C.K. system has to offer, so I'm wondering if anything thinks it'd be possible.

[BadPenney]

Yeah that's what I'm figuring, having looked into the tech of it all. But I'm not complete adept with what the G.E.C.K. system has to offer, so I'm wondering if anything thinks it'd be possible.

I'm thinking ot the late, great painter Salvador Dali who was a surrealist but also a classically trained painter, when he said something to the effect that "You must learn all of the rules before you can properly break them."

 

Learning how the GECK works is complicated enough. Setting out to make the GECK create a mod that works counter to the way that the game engine is designed to work before knowing how to make a mod that works with the game engine might be a maddening experience.

 

There are commands that let you reset quests. There are also commands that let you additems to your inventory. I don't know why I would want to replay quests without creating a new character, or why I would download a mod to give me certain inbentory items, perks or character levels on one of my savegames when I can already do that with the console if I choose to do so. But it might be possible to automate the process.

[steelplate]

Whilst yes, ultimately there'd be little point to a mod such as this, I'm simply wondering if it's at all possible. From my perusal of the wiki stuff availible online, I'm guess that it's possible, but not exactly plausible. As you've said, you can visit the past with a save game anyways :P

 

At the very least, you could probably wind back the time of day, but since there doesn't seem to be any consequence to time (at least nothing damaging that I know of), what would be the point of that too? Besides, being an interesting experiment.

[gsmanners]

We've been over this before, and it's all really a simple matter of how many maps you want to have to redraw. This dictates the extent and the number of time periods you can travel to.

 

For example, a simple way to implement time travel would be to create a vault which has a time machine in it that allows you to travel within the vault. When you show up, the vault is rusty and filled with creatures. You travel to the future, and you find that an earthquake has occurred, and you are basically trapped until you go back to the past. You travel too far into the past, and you find yourself in a cave with no way to escape and you basically have to reload a previous save. You travel to various time periods, and you find yourself instantly killed by guards or you maybe have a chance to visit a few areas in the vault and interact with vault dwellers, etc. Each time period would simply be a different set of interiors that you would teleport to, and all you would need to do is track everything that has happened or will happen.

 

Even a simple implementation like the above would likely require at least 4 or 5 new locations to represent 1 location, and require a good deal of scripting and such.

[jackpack]

i dont see it working unless you spend atleast a year doing everything that needs added or takeing away.

 

unless you make a single worldspace with the past or future in it. its a lot of work.

 

but dont let me discourage you & ill even thow this your way :), the rest you can do yourself :thumbsup:

 

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9269/84218059.png

[Callighan]

I time travel possible in FO3?

No.

 

Can you do a creative trick for time travel?

Perhaps.

[steelplate]

Yeah, after spending a few hours experimenting tonight, I've come to the conclusion that IF it were possible to go back and fowards in time, the sheer amount of varibles and problems this could cause would be astronomical. Ultimately, IF it is possible (with enough time and energy spent), it would still be impracticle. So yeah, I'm ditching the idea.

 

However, gsmanners maybe on to something there. Feels like a very rad scenario, maybe setup some sort special Options menu for an equipped time travel item:

 

Option 1 leads to October 23rd, 1877 - Just a cave, some era items.

Option 2 leads to October 23rd, 2077 - Brand new Vault, the day the bombs hit.

Option 3 leads to October 23rd, 2277 - Present time.

Option 4 leads to October 23rd, 2477 - Future space, Vault is dusty as hell, you see your skeleton.

 

Could be quite funs :)

[gsmanners]

I think of it as the "Zork III" type time machine. If you could push a time machine from one room to another, you could make it almost exactly like Zork III's time machine. And if an old game designed to be run on a Z-machine with 16KB of RAM can do it, I'm sure a modder here could, too.