I'll second, fifth, eight, whatever the suggestion of a pause option, and the idea of a vote system sounds ideal, at least for games with a small number of players. Perhaps it's a running tally - one player requests a pause, but it doesn't occur until all other players agree. And then either the same kind of vote could occur to resume the game, or perhaps a time limit could be set. This would be a very nice feature.
Wow, it has been month since I asked this and nothing happened apart from a tournament failing a few games because of a missing pause feature. I demand a nice technical text why this has not happened yet if there are technical difficulties, cause I fail to understand how this can be hard to implement. Alternatively you could implement it for the next patch.
I think you know there is "simulation pause" button in developer sandbox so most it's implemented for long time. I suppose main problem it's who should able to control it in-game and what limitation that feature should have to avoid abusing.
No I have never tried out setting up devmode, because I assumed there is no point. But if they have a pause feature included they should give it to us. The missing pause feature is worse than a missing unit cannon imho. Like far worse. Like when my doorbell rings while playing all I can do is go afk, knowing that the game is lost vs any good opponent. It basically breaks a game every now and then when a crash occurs or a internet dies or real life comes in the way. Just AT LEAST make the game autopause whenever somebody is disconnected. (Allow a kick and continue after 60s). Seriously integrating pause in a way that is okay to use without too much abuse is a long solved problem and if we had just a call "pause game" and "unpause game" to the engine I am confident we could come up with a mod that does it within 24h, so that at least in the competitive player circles we could use it. So yeah. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBER. PLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEASE.
I just think you seen it in UI long time ago. Obviously there no point to even try to enable dev mode because this simulation option require server in sandbox mode.
Oh I just mean you put lot effort in modding so I supposed you possible seen it long time ago because this "sandbox" panel was here for long time.
Whenever I see code that states "devmode" or "sandbox" my eyes just ignore it, assuming we cannot use it anyway.
Dota 2 has probably my favorite method. Though, it would require adding a fair amount of support into the UI.
The way I think about setting it up would be a button to call a vote for it. In 1v1 it will just pause automatically for 60 seconds. You should only be able to do this every 1o minutes or have like 3 pauses per match per player. For bigger games ,3 + player, it should be a majority vote and then pause for 60 seconds with a cooldown or 3 pauses per match per player.
Having limits or restrictions on the pause would be just as bad as having no pause, yes it's competitive play but it still needs a pause on demand function.... I have 3 kids,, a 3 month old newborn, a 2 year old and an 8 year old.... I rarely get more than 30min of me time during the day, i can surf forums and chat as that doesnt need someone to be at the keyboard with dedicated focus on the screen... but taking the dedicated time to play a game that has no pause (PA, Farcry 3 co-op, CoD Ghost's Extinction) really kills my gaming when i have to get up mid game and tend to children leaving my game running un-attended (AFK)... Honestly the person whom thought that not having a pause in server based co-op games or massive online games is a good idea, needs a bullet between the eyes...
its not the only basic feature missing, that should not be much work imo^^ a lot of things, that in my opinion could be done by a single person in 1-2 days, are missing. Look at what the mods do, where semi professionals spend their free time.
As long as Uber host every server there have to be limits and restrictions. When you'll run server on your own PC you'll able to pause it and leave running for months, but Uber don't have advanced load balancing so lot of idle servers will be a problem. Anyway I suppose that for ladder games @cola_colin talk about pause with strict low limits will be more than enough. This always happen with limited manpower when devs have to prioritize some features or bugs. I see Uber post updates on topics with higher demand by community, but they can't explain status of each small feature because it's will take too much time.
2nd this. right now i only play bot games, mainly due to family commitments BUT none have completed ... i come back and the bot has won...
This is sort of "wtf why are we discussing this?" There are millions of games that solved this good enough. I.e. FA: The host can select how many pauses a player has, so i.e. 3 and every play can then pause the game 3 times. Anyone can press "continue" anytime. Can still turn bad when bad people just continue your pause, but it is still a million times better than no pauses at all and quick to implement as well. Most people are not that bad anyway and will wait for a few minutes at least. Also automatic pauses on i.e. disconnects for maybe 60s or so are completely without downsides and would save a lot of games from falling apart due to technical issues.
How HeroesOfNewerth manage this is 1) every side gets 2 PAUSES 2) All active players are needed to pause. Activity is determined by last action order. This way someone that is afk/dc don't end up blocking a pause 3) a pause lasts indefinitely 4) The pausing team can unpause at anytime 5) The opposition can unpause after 3min if they so wish (unfortunately with HoN filled with trolls 99.999% of pauses last 3min... every now and again you get a nice team & opposition and the pause lasts the time needed todo ... whatever)
