Time Traveling issues should really be fixed, especially on Switch

[GameAW]

Now before people say anything, I don't mean support time travelling. Its fine they don't want that in the game, that's their game. But leaving it actively harming the game is completely unacceptable either. This is doubly important on the Switch because that's where Animal Crossing, another game subject to this resides.

Consider if you will someone (we will call them Bob) has a younger sibling (who we will call Lily). Bob wants to play his game fairly, but Lily wants to cheat. They both play on the same system. So she time travels to get free ♥♥♥♥ early. Yes, Lily is punished for her cheating but so is Bob who had nothing to do with it. But it goes further than that. Say Lily cheats at Animal Crossing instead and gets her good stuff much faster in that game. Bob is punished yet again for time travelling when the event wasn't even really related to the game at all. Lily gets off scot free, and Bob's reward for trying to undo damages is he pretty much can get nothing until the time catches up with whatever Lily set it to (which could even be literal YEARS) Its just far too punishing as it is and needs a compromise to punish the player responsible and only that player, or alternatively a catch to render time travelling either impossible or too difficult to be worth it.

As for an alternative? How about a clock within the game itself that isn't attached to the system's clock? A clock that once set can never be changed again no matter what the system clock says? One that looks at the system clock exactly one time (when first setting it) and never again. It could even upload it to the server instead to make sure its still up-to-date. With a system like this, you don't even have to punish a player for time travelling; you make the practice completely impossible to begin with! And the best part is because the penalty is no longer existent, there is no chance for collateral damage to boot!

[GameAW]

tldr version: They don't need to support time traveling, just fix it so its not even possible anymore so that players other than the cheater don't need to be punished too

[HeartClock]

While I do find your idea good, it could become problematic if someone decides to move to a different country far away from their old home, since the timezone would cause the in-game time to no longer match the actual local time.

[GameAW]

Yeah I get what you're coming from. I just don't like to criticize something without trying to offer a better alternative. I was originally going to suggest use a universal server time but then that requires always being online

[HeartClock]

GameAW a écrit :

Yeah I get what you're coming from. I just don't like to criticize something without trying to offer a better alternative. I was originally going to suggest use a universal server time but then that requires always being online

Yeah, I don't think there is a perfect solution to the problem. The only thing we can really do now is to try and warn other players about this bug so that they try to avoid it.

However, if I remember correctly, according to some people, the devs said on Discord that they will fix the time travel issues eventually. It's just that it's a low priority. So there's no choice but to wait, I guess.

[GameAW]

Probably should fix it sooner rather than later imo. Not a good look to let it remain too long when there is still interest in the game when its in its early days, especially if they plan to go the free-to-play route which needs consistent revenue.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

AFAIK, you can only have one user on an account for a game. So if Lily is playing, how is Lily getting around that limit? Seems like that one user per account feature would solve the issue.

The time changing on a single device shared looks like an issue to be resolved by the users of the device.

[GameAW]

Mr. Bufferlow a écrit :

AFAIK, you can only have one user on an account for a game. So if Lily is playing, how is Lily getting around that limit? Seems like that one user per account feature would solve the issue.

The time changing on a single device shared looks like an issue to be resolved by the users of the device.

The system uses a universal time. If Bob and Lily play on the same Switch and Lily changes the time a few days forward, Bob time travels as well regardless. Bob would have to change the time back before he even starts the game or the damage is done. If he forgets for any reason or never even noticed the time change, he time travels.