Tracking Time

[Tuna]

In my game, the player has the ability to use a special weapon. once this weapon is used up, i want to force them to wait a set amount of time before they can re use that weapon (15 minutes perhaps). In fact, they can build up a cache of this weapon (up to 3) based on how long they wait (earn one every 15 min). BUT, i want this time to keep moving even if the player isn't playing.

As i write this, i'm thinking I can just record the time since the last one was added (in an ini file) and just check the current time against it... but it feels a bit crude.

Have any of you done anything like this? Am I missing something obvious?

[SolarB]

"AAA" games work like this, I think, which is why you can usually move your device's clock forward and cheat. If anyone knows a workaround I would also be interested.

[AyreGuitar]

Not sure exactly who to do this, but if you have internet access you might be able to poll some internet page for the time rather than use the device's clock - that should stop user from changing it (but frankly if they're that desperate, just let them!)
Another alternative would be to keep your program running in the background somehow...

[Tuna]

Yeah, well, I am not so much worried about cheats. Like you said, if someone wants to cheat, i don't care... but no, i don't think the right idea is to keep it running.

I'll try storing a date and time since the uses ran out (maybe as gamecenter data or just in the ini) and see if i can make it work.

[RhysD]

The only work around is pulling the time from a server clock that can't be altered by simply changing the device date/time.