Have kids, need a damn pause button for AI games!

If everyone took a 5 minute pee break or random event break for each and every match, after half a dozen rounds, we're now delayed half an hour which might be a big deal for some and not for others. What if your break causes someone else to forfeit because of their limited allocated time by being responsible and managing their tighter time limits? Then what? Should they have to suffer because you had to pee? Or because Johnny454RTS's dog was barking? Because you couldn't let your neighbor come back at a different time or let that phone call go to voicemail?

It just adds unnecessary complications imho. I honestly feel there'd be fewer issues and injured prides if there was a forfeit/rematch system versus a pause system. But maybe 3-5 minutes would work...maybe it would get abused and removed. Not everyone will be pleased either way, but which way will work best for most?

On another aspect, who's to question or rate the severity of these necessary breaks for random issues or emergencies? Everyone will feel their situation is the most important to them, which is expected. But what about the other side of this coin where someone else loses out because of the current individual's issues. Who should be most important here? Again, everyone will feel themselves and their situations are most important at the time they're affected. So do we cater to those that can't control their bladders or have limited time? Do we cater to the select few or the masses? Do we add complication where it isn't needed for said catering? Or do we enable a simplistic system of auto-pause for disconnects and keep it simple?

If there was no pause in competition, everyone would be treated equally, and mismanagement and issues would happen and pass and be done with. Those with negative attitudes about it might walk away, those that learn from it will be more prepared. Real life issues should always be more important than any video game competition, I really don't see the issue with that. Many real life situations will also take longer than five minutes. If one loses out on their time allotment, it's not the end of the line forever, just in that competition...oh well. A player like you would surely get right back in the fight quite easily.

Nobody would ever abuse a pause system in a casted match. That makes no sense.
I am not talking about a need to go pee at all. If my doorbell goes of I have to get up, open a door and talk to whoever is in front of it. Even if I am super unfriendly it will take me far too much time. Especially competitive games should value equal chances for all players. This includes that they may not lose to random rl happenings that are not of an actually problematic length. All other RTS have these kind of pause system. All of them. It works.
Also I think you fail to consider the effect a failed game due to some random thing has on a competition for the viewers. Do you want to watch a game that ends with some rl thing breaking it for one of the players?
Tournaments also have no time limit and there are far bigger time eaters than players who may be allowed 3 minutes of breaks really. Like games that need to be rehosted because player A had to go afk for 2 min only 3 minutes after a game started.

I admire your trust in everyone, and while that might be true now...if it's there, someone will take advantage of it in a less than ethical way. If you must check your door, then go check it. I have no issue letting my significant other or even 12yo answer the door if I'm tied up or in a match. Maybe you have no such option.

I am all for equal chances for all players, I'm also for a system that keeps things simple. Randomness will happen..but issues should be far less when pause is implemented in the first place for this title. Last I checked, SupCom2 doesn't support MP pausing, sure it never took off or was as great as 1 or FA which did feature it, also quite a few C&C titles did not support this option either as well, so not ALL RTS games have such a feature as you have claimed. Sure many have, I've never used it. If I'm on to play, I play...if I gotta go, I gotta go. Keeps it simple, issue free, and I am not a poor sport if I have to take a loss about it. I'm also not a higher tier player nor do I play for $$$. Maybe that's where my perspective on this comes in to play.

Tournaments might have no time limits but the competitors players might, and what happens should their match come up and there's only ten minutes left of their availability because of all these pauses from rl pauses happening? Do they forfeit? Does the tourney stop until they're available again? Does it replace them? What does this do for the spectators? Other competitors?

You make a good point on being a spectator and watching rl events end a game early. Sure I don't want to see a loss due to a rl situation, I'd rather see everyone have a fair chance at a fair game and everyone is happy...I'd also rather watch a game uninterrupted by anything in the first place. I also feel half the rl "issues" that could happen would come from mismanagement. If people have to make a decision to step away, fine...step away. If they can't keep their managed time interruption-free, which is understandable, that's where a managed pause solution might work out just fine.

It just seems to me a tool that would get more in the way than not. Map reloads don't seem to take all that long either, so rematches could be set and ready to go in the same amount of time it takes many to take that 3-5 minute break. If it could be something that truly adds more benefit to competitions than issues, then yes it seems like it might be okay. I see it fit for SP and standard MP...still not seeing how it makes competitions better. Even with mistakes, errors, crashes, rl issues...sure it might help there, might not...what if the game can't resync, well they'll have to reload anyways. What if a server goes down...well that doesn't solve much. I'm hoping that once the Pause feature and whatever it entails is implemented around the time this title goes gold, that a lot of the issues and glitches with the game are minimal. That would really leave the need for an auto-pause for a disconnect/resync issue and a possible managed pause for those that need a moment...at least the way I see it.

As you said it's been implemented in other games and worked, but you have failed to convince me.

I life alone so no, I indeed have no option apart from getting up myself and taking care of whatever comes up.
Personally I don't think the interruptions I have in mind and that have happened to me were missmanagement.

Yes someone might always abuse everything you implement. By that logic PA rather should not exist and we should all turn off our computers right now

I can't really follow your thinking really. Especially competitive matches need a pause match. Nobody likes it when a competition ends with a random rl issue killing it and especially competitive players that might even play for $ are very serious about not getting interrupted anyway. I am quite sure a pause feature would only be used in very few games in competitive tournaments and then again you do have the tournament hosts. If a players pauses and leaves for 15 min they can just declare a winner at any time. Really no difference to one of the players going afk without having a possibility to pause and the game just continues, breaking it all for sure anyway.

I never imagined this would be controversial in competitive play. I was actually planning to talk with the other kotp organizers about allowing players to pause once a game (not round) to take a breath, look at the map, and plan their next move. KOTP is currently as competitive as you can get for top-level play right now, so I'm not sure where the argument against pausing is coming from...

*Edit*
I'm not saying kotp would actually do that since I think a lot of people would be against it. I just think it could actually increase the level of strategy rather than be something that makes the game unfair.

I can see how nobody likes an end match because of real-life situations. And as I said before, I'm sure that if you think it would work to a beneficial cause, that it's probably a good thing to implement. I just see it becoming something that could be abused later on.

The 15-min rule wouldn't be bad...but then again..who likes waiting 15 minutes to see if the opponent is going to return or not? Right now you guys are more tightly knit in competitions, but what happens when the hopefully tens of thousands or more people buy this title and there's competitions all over the place?

As I also said before, I'm used to playing when I'm in MP till the session is over or until I do have to leave. I've had folks leave early in a game...I move onto the next one.

But if people keep a better mentality about it as you do, I could see it being more useful I suppose. I step back and see the positive aspects you have argued, and I also see the other side of the coin of where things could go wrong or frustrate other folks and can't agree that it's a 100% good solution to improve the overall experience. Maybe it won't be that bad...and if more people in the community like you guys that are currently playing KotP and other competitions for PA, it probably won't be a problem. Cheers.

And don't forget, competitive matches and tournaments in the end always want to be about the many viewers, not the actual players. If they want to make it successful anyway.

So someone winning because the competition needed to go afk to sign for a parcel wouldn't exactly be the most viewed thing on the interwebs ever, and ultimately would hurt the game becoming a successful esport.

simplest reason for needing a pausebutton:

when nature calls ....

Definitely need a pause button. Even StarCraft 2 has a pause option in its online ranked matches.

@Kursah all of your ideas about the pause button come from a lack of experience with it. I play on a day-to-day basis a game that has an unlimited pause feature, a grand scale RTS too! Supreme Commander Forged Alliance.

it just so happens that the interaction with the online community that has access to this feature is nothing like you describe.

On big 8 player games it is one out of every two of those games that the button is used once or twice.

It bothers nobody.

often when people pause everyone takes that opportunity to get some things (like going to the restroom) out of the way themselves.

you should try it and see what I mean.

So far you have no real occurrence to back how you think it will be whereas the side that believes all will be fine has examples of it working well in colossal amounts.

@tatsujb

I'll have to try it...my MP experience even if SupCom FA was in live sessions, unpaused. It's a preferred play-style...maybe something that's stuck with me from the 90's. When I'm online to game, I don't pause...if I need to step away, I leave the game or try to finish it up. Just what I've always done for MP and how I've treated my sessions of it in every game I choose to play online.

I did state my lack of experience with the feature a few times prior though, so you're right, that is absolutely the case. That can also be expanded to lack of experience with PA MP competitions.

It's not that I'm against of for pausing MP at all (I stated that early on and repeatedly afterwards too that I'm for pausing MP and SP games)...I just felt for competition games, and barring any auto-pause from disconnections, I didn't feel it was necessary or appropriate. But I do see the positive points made from you guys. I think if the players involved agree it to be useful/necessary, then it should be allowed in that competition...and maybe accepted to a point it's just a general feature. It sounds like a good thing when people need it and more widely accepted, which leads to it being more appropriate for competition.

I am talking about a competitive context.

this is with ranking, and in the case of ladder it also works well. Our N°2 Lu_Xun and N°1 Blackheart are perfectly fine with it when one of them asks to pause in one of their championship matches.

I'm glad you've come to better terms with it.

you'll see, all that's required for good features packed into a game to not be abused is a good community. And that's our job!

I totally agree! A good community makes all the difference, that what attracts me to this forum and to this game. Uber got me interested, took my money, gave me a great value for my investment and the community took it all from there and made it all EPIC.

we haven't followed up on this....

honestly if there were a pause button i'd save up tons of server power.

most of the games i ran to test my icons wern't on instant sandbox because i needed naval or because a sandbox i started didn't connect so I had to alternate between sandbox and vs AI (well by now I've figured out that i can reduce ai multiplier) my point being a lot of games i would've left at a standstill with only the units i needed (while i reconnected a hundred bazillion times to check if my icon looks that much better instead of letting the AI run wild and rampant and hog server resources.)

1. Add pause button to UI
2. Add networking support to inform server when client wants to pause
3. Make server skip simulating the game logic if the client has paused and if some conditions are met (eg. its an AI only game for starters)
4. Poke around the client code to make sure there are no weird timeouts or such that would trigger if the game state is not changing

Id say theres a high chance they could implement this in 15 mins if they dont have any particular weirdnesses in their architecture, which I doubt. More features (like multiplayer pause) would be easy to slap on later.