Solving Multiplayer Pausing
EnderA
Member Posts: 5
I propose that a hotkey be added for a Hard Unpause, much like the already available Hard Pause. Ideally, also make it so one person's Hard Pause overrides other players' Hard Unpause.
Pausing is an integral part of games like Baldur's Gate. As it stands, time management can get very annoying in multiplayer. The the game may auto-pause due to a set trigger (which we want!), but then the party may want to unpause. Because of the mandatory delay during the pause, the lag between synchronizing players actions, and the dual-function of spacebar as both the pause and the unpause key, often the game will become paused immediately after unpausing on accident. Both players were trying to unpause (or one player double-inputs spacebar because they think the first unpause was ignored), but now they're stuck in another unwanted pause and have to navigate who will unpause, ad nauseum.
Other possible solutions:
* Remove the delay for unpausing *for the player that paused*. This automatically assigns responsibility for the pause to them. Leave the short delay in which no one else can pause/unpause. The others cannot accidentally pause using spacebar (so if they hit their unpause button it won't accidentally pause), but you can allow Hard Pauses to override, in case they actually wanted to pause.
* Completely remove any delay for all players pausing and unpausing when using spacebar, but leave it in place when someone Hard Pauses.
* Allow players to choose how long of a delay they have in place for pauses during which spacebar doesn't unpause. Could have a different delay when Hard-Paused.
The goal is to help players construct a system so they can work fluidly together. Right now every time the game is paused I'm wondering how or when I should try to unpause to minimize the likelihood of re-pausing. Sometimes I even know that I'm expected to unpause the game, but the first "unpause" is ignored because of the forced delay, so then I throw in a second one. And then there are the times where I think my first one didn't go through, but it DID, so now that second unpause actually pauses the game again. All it takes is a little lag.
Pausing is an integral part of games like Baldur's Gate. As it stands, time management can get very annoying in multiplayer. The the game may auto-pause due to a set trigger (which we want!), but then the party may want to unpause. Because of the mandatory delay during the pause, the lag between synchronizing players actions, and the dual-function of spacebar as both the pause and the unpause key, often the game will become paused immediately after unpausing on accident. Both players were trying to unpause (or one player double-inputs spacebar because they think the first unpause was ignored), but now they're stuck in another unwanted pause and have to navigate who will unpause, ad nauseum.
Other possible solutions:
* Remove the delay for unpausing *for the player that paused*. This automatically assigns responsibility for the pause to them. Leave the short delay in which no one else can pause/unpause. The others cannot accidentally pause using spacebar (so if they hit their unpause button it won't accidentally pause), but you can allow Hard Pauses to override, in case they actually wanted to pause.
* Completely remove any delay for all players pausing and unpausing when using spacebar, but leave it in place when someone Hard Pauses.
* Allow players to choose how long of a delay they have in place for pauses during which spacebar doesn't unpause. Could have a different delay when Hard-Paused.
The goal is to help players construct a system so they can work fluidly together. Right now every time the game is paused I'm wondering how or when I should try to unpause to minimize the likelihood of re-pausing. Sometimes I even know that I'm expected to unpause the game, but the first "unpause" is ignored because of the forced delay, so then I throw in a second one. And then there are the times where I think my first one didn't go through, but it DID, so now that second unpause actually pauses the game again. All it takes is a little lag.
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