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Is the game clock supposed to stop when the game is paused?

WanderonWanderon Member Posts: 1,418
in Archive (General Discussion)
Does pausing the game stop the game clock as well as the action or is it only designed to stop everyone from moving while time marches on...

I am doing some of the random challenge games and often pause the game while I post an update (or grab a sandwich) and I have been noting recently that time seems to continue passing while the game is paused.

Bug or feature?

Comments

  • LoremasterLoremaster Member Posts: 212
    edited May 2013
    The whole game is suppose to pause when you hit the clock or enter the inventory screen, the character screen or the journal screen. I hope they make it optional in the inventory screen.

    http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/18117/unpause-option-for-inventory-screen#latest
  • SkiaSkia Member Posts: 25
    I think it is supposed to be that way. When running the original BG2 and trying to get the Jahaira romance all the way through, about the only way to do it was to leave the game running and paused while doing other stuff to give enough time for the next conversation to come up.
  • LoremasterLoremaster Member Posts: 212
    @Skia You mean that just the game playing stops but not the game time?
  • lansounetlansounet Member Posts: 1,182
    There are two different types of timers in BG. One that only ticks when the game is playing (unpaused) and another that keeps ticking even during pause which is often used for romance progression.

    Old IESDP because G3 appears to be down : http://iesdp.com/IesdpOld/

    Check in Scripting > Extremist's remarks about IE timers for more info

    Not sure how it works when going into menus but it's what I do when I take a break (Options menu)
  • CerevantCerevant Member Posts: 2,314
    To expand on @lansounet: The two timers are game time (time in the game world, including unpaused time, resting, travel, etc) and real time (hours and minutes that the game is open and running regardless of state).
  • WanderonWanderon Member Posts: 1,418
    @Cerevant

    Well whats happening is the game timer - the one that calculates the number of days and hours the game has progressed that you see on a save game or by hovering over the little clock feature in the bottom left of the game screen seems to be moving forward when the game is paused.

    I quick saved the game - the game time was 14 days 11 hours - I paused the game to go do an update on my progress in the forums - I switched from one character to another in the character screen a few times to gather statistics during the process, The game was still paused when I finished the update but hovering over the clock read 14 days 17 hours.

    This doesn't sound like the game time/real time you are talking about this sounds like the game time is progressing while paused and I'm guessing it should not be - or am I misunderstanding this?
  • SkiaSkia Member Posts: 25
    That sounds like game time is moving forward when it shouldn't. It does sound like a glitch.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,675
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  • JalilyJalily Member Posts: 4,681
    Can you reproduce this?
  • WanderonWanderon Member Posts: 1,418
    @Jalily

    I was trying to reproduce it and discovered something else is happening here.

    I just started the game from an autopause that showed 14 days 2 hours on the load or save screen - but immediatly checking the game clock on the GUI showed 14 days 8 hours - however saving the game still saves it at 14 day 2 hours.

    I loaded several other saves and all do the same thing - the time displayed on the in game gui shows as 6 hours ahead of the time on the saved game - but resaving the game results in the save time being 6 hours less than what shows on the in game game clock

    So it's apparently not that time is progressing when paused - but that the save time and GUI time display are out of sync - in my case by 6 hours.

    I let a game sit unpaused until the GUI showed an hour gain and saved and the save game time was still 6 hours less than the GUI display - it should be easy enough to see if others are all showing this 6 hour difference.
  • JalilyJalily Member Posts: 4,681
    The game clock shows what time it is (Day X Hour Y), while the save time shows how long you've been playing in game terms (X Days Y Hours). The game starts early in the morning and not at midnight, hence the 6-hour difference. :)
  • ajwzajwz Member Posts: 4,122
    Personally, I don't think that the romances should work off the in game time tracker. I'd much rather they worked off the regular pauseable clock
  • SkiaSkia Member Posts: 25
    Jaheira's in BG2 is actually based off of both.
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