I was just thinking, and maybe someone has tried this but what if you were to shorten the light exposure of the plants but keep the ratio the same. IE instead of doing 18hrs of light and 6 hrs of dark what if you were to do 9hrs on and 3 hrs off still keeping the same light exposure over a 24 hr time period....

No... chemicals are made in the plant that trigger it to flower and light breaks down those chemicals. The plants generally need at least 10 hours of darkness before those levels reach high enough to trigger flowering. You can make extended light cycles of say 30 hours on and 12 hours off... but you always need those minimum of 10 hours before your plant can flower. Generally anything more than 14/10 takes longer and anything less doesn't work. Sorry bud, I've already thought of it and looked into it.