Game modes: Timed mode and goal mode

[Madmanquail]

I was thinking of simple ways to make the game a bit more challenging or to add some new dimensions, and I thought of speedruns. There is currently a trend on Reddit (and in these forums) for people to show of their "3 hour game" or their "5 hour game". It would be cool if there was an official in-game way to show what you can achieve in a short time (yay speedruns!)

There are a few multiplayer servers for OpenTTD which make use of a "racing" goal (e.g. first to make XXX amount of money) to make the game competitive. These work as single player experiences too, as they allow you to test yourself against the clock (how quickly can you complete the goal... etc). Another option they use in OpenTTD is to run the game for a fixed amount of time (e.g. 3 hours) and see how much money you can get - or in the case of factorio, maybe how far you can get down the tech tree you can get, or how many chests you can fill with science pack 3s...etc. Either way, the overall concept is that there is a time pressure added to the game, and this leads to a fun challenge of optimising your build (similar to a speedrun). You could even show off your best "3 hour game" with some kind of in-game measurement of achievement.

It would only require a few things:

- in-game clock showing count down to finish (after which the game ends/enters into freeplay mode)

or:

- set goal to achieve (first tech 3 research, or, manufacture 500,000 units of regular magazine, etc)
- an in-game timer counting how long it takes to get there

When you hit your goal, you would get a reward screen with "congratulations, you reached the goal in 3 hours and 12 minutes"

[slpwnd]

Supply challenge (available for Furnace attendant or higher) is a kind of continuous time mode challenge.