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[Virtz]

I'm curious if there's any more action-adventure/adventure/RPG games where the main storyline goes on regardless of the player's action. As in, world events do not freeze in anticipation of the player's next script triggering (with the minor exception of moving between maps making time advance).

Examples:
Way of the Samurai 2
Pathologic
The Void
Kamyran's Eye 1 and 2 (not sure if the main storyline actually doesn't wait, but the world events apparently don't)
To a lesser extent, Harvest Moon series (since most events are dependent on relations with NPCs), Mount & Blade and Dwarf Fortress (neither of these actually has a main storyline, but the world events may influence gameplay).

So are there any other games like that?

[Sowelu]

Darklands is the first one that comes to my mind...but honestly, there's only so much "storyline" that game has.  World events happen all the time, dragons come and ravage the counryside and go on their own, witches meet in the woods whether you go after them or not, but...

The big problem with this kind of game:  Discovering that you're five minutes late to save the world, after sixty hours of play time, the last twenty of which you rushed as hard as you can.

[olemars]

Star Control 2 / Ur-quan masters is a prime example. Whole species can and will disappear before you even find them if you don't follow the leads. Spend too much time and the game is essentially over.

[Earthquake Damage]

If you're into oldies (early 90s or so), check out Quest for Glory IV:  Shadows of Darkness.  It's something of a cross between an RPG and a classic adventure game (e.g. King's Quest, Monkey Island).  The series is awesome (minus the fifth one, which is apparently crap), but the only one I know firsthand doesn't entirely wait for you is the fourth.  There are several minor events I can think of that occur on various days, whether you see them or not.  There's also a major event around day 3-4 that can ruin your save if you don't resolve it (in one of two ways IIRC) by day 6-7.  Finally, there's a bug, not addressed by the official patch, that makes a certain plot-essential puzzle unsolvable if you don't finish it by day 11-13 or so, and it takes a good 3-5 days to solve (mostly because you have to return to the same place once a day for several days).  Sure, most of the content is triggered by the player as per usual, but several neat little scenes occur only on specific days, including at least one plot-essential event.

So yeah.  Adventure game.  Timed events that aren't triggered by the player.  Very awesome.  Bonus if you find the CD release with full voice-acting (the narrator's easily the best feature, and the most frequently heard).

[Siquo]

Not what you asked, but I kinda liked The Experiment, where, when you log on, the character tells you something like "It's been three days since we last spoke. I've managed to locate some fruit and water. Let's go." It doesn't really do anything, but the feeling that things have happened while you were offline is kind of cool.

[Pathos]

http://www.avernum.com/avernum3/index.html

Not sure about the rest of the games, but in Avernum 3 towns get destroyed permanently if you wait too long taking down the monster threats etc etc.

[Jude]

The Last Express. It takes place more or less in real time, even to the point that two crucial clues could appear in two separate conversations, at the same exact time. However, you can rewind time to be able to go back and collect whatever information/redo whatever thing you need to.

With one extremely irritating exception...turns out I couldn't finish the game because I needed some random item that only appeared about 1/3 of the way in, and it was never indicated how to get it...I looked up a walkthrough and the way to get the item was so ridiculously roundabout and obscure that I never ever would have figured it out, even though I tried to do the first step without knowing it was part of a puzzle. Urgggh

[Alexhans]

I'm going to go with some abandonware:

Try beating "It came from the desert"

If you do... Congrats

"Sword of the Samurai" is an awesome game.

The Graphical Adventure of Dune was like this too.  Hard game.

[Jack_Bread]

Virtual Village - A New Home
My sister played it once months ago and came back to find her village incredibly hungry and 2 dead babies.
You could also cheat by messing with the computer clock.

[Shadowgandor]

Space Ranger 2 (and most likely 1, haven't played it) immediately popped into my mind. You have an effect on the galaxy, but everyone still continues to fight. Systems are getting conquered, wars are started and ended and all that. It's awesome ^^
 I remember being put in jail for smuggling drugs and when I came out after a few months, the world was really changed. My ship didn't have the best weapons anymore, my favorite systems had been conquered and all that.
You can take as long as you like finishing the game, but the world dynamically changes around you. It's just awesome

[Vattic]

I haven't played too many games like this but one game that is similar yet most likely not what you are looking for is Zelda Majoras Mask. You have three days to save the world but you can jump back to the dawn of the first day at will.

The main story is ok but the side quests are the meat of the game. Oh and it's not just a matter of killing x number of this creature each side quest is a fairly involved little story in it's own right.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Space Ranger 2 (and most likely 1, haven't played it) immediately popped into my mind. You have an effect on the galaxy, but everyone still continues to fight. Systems are getting conquered, wars are started and ended and all that. It's awesome ^^
 I remember being put in jail for smuggling drugs and when I came out after a few months, the world was really changed. My ship didn't have the best weapons anymore, my favorite systems had been conquered and all that.
You can take as long as you like finishing the game, but the world dynamically changes around you. It's just awesome

Yeah, SR/SR2 are probably the biggest games like this that I'm aware of. It should be noted that if you play on easy difficulty, the main quest will be resolved without the player interfering. On medium, it'll take some player participation to round up the story, and on hard it'll take the player tremendous effort to keep the universe from being overrun.

[Pandarsenic]

Space Ranger 2 (and most likely 1, haven't played it) immediately popped into my mind. You have an effect on the galaxy, but everyone still continues to fight. Systems are getting conquered, wars are started and ended and all that. It's awesome ^^
 I remember being put in jail for smuggling drugs and when I came out after a few months, the world was really changed. My ship didn't have the best weapons anymore, my favorite systems had been conquered and all that.
You can take as long as you like finishing the game, but the world dynamically changes around you. It's just awesome

Yeah, SR/SR2 are probably the biggest games like this that I'm aware of. It should be noted that if you play on easy difficulty, the main quest will be resolved without the player interfering. On medium, it'll take some player participation to round up the story, and on hard it'll take the player tremendous effort to keep the universe from being overrun.

O_O

[Sean Mirrsen]

Well, the main quest in both games is beating back the attackers, basically. There are different options for winning, but at its most basic it's just killing the oppressors. On easy difficulty, there aren't enough oppressors to overthrow NPC armies and rangers once they get their assets in gear, so the game resolves itself after a certain technology level is reached. It's only natural with the way the game works.

[Pandarsenic]

That's awesome.