Pause mechanic adjustment: september edition

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
#1

When pressing pause, automatically place the chat set to all (player may manually deselect)
And have it automatically select to team only afterwards, similar to chat sort of congregates to everyone when ping gets really bad or someone attempts to end the game via desync

Better yet, upon pause, bring us to that screen.
That way it’s more obvious that everyone is chatting with everyone.

This will ensure that there is no lack of communication to the enemy team/s upon pausing about why it was paused in same-language situations

Another adjustment would be to provide a 5 minute timer where the person who paused will be the only one able to unpause, after of which anyone may unpause. Reduce pauses per game to 3 times per player

Or 2 times per game if pauses may be increased to 10 minute timers

(better yet, make it an adjustable feature) 15 minute pause time total, and use a slider to select how long of a pause you wish to use, which deducts from your total pause time, to allow the 15 minute break needed to take care of something truly important, like megumin suddenly casting explosion upon the rear flanking castle

For the slider feature I’d suggest anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 minutes per player

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#2

?? Is it not obvious how this is an insanely abusable feature? I’ve played against more than a few sore losers who would be very happy to make me wait another 15 or 20 minutes. Or rather even take the win, because I can’t be bothered to wait that long for a few points

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#3

I’ve seen the opposite where someone pauses to do something and without question someone else unpauses repeatedly. It’s unacceptable.

Depending on how long one wants the ability to pause to be, can reduce it via vote of all other players, in team games only, and it must be of all players, not just the enemy

And it may be balanced to find a middle ground in terms of how long a single player may pause the game - for instance, a team who has a player who has paused may not pause again until the opposite team pauses. Tho that has some consequences when one player on the team takes a restroom break, he basically steals his team’s ability to do the same, cause you don’t know when he will return to end the pause and someone else may need to use the restroom or do something important- communication between teams would be important in this

I’d suggest that we use a voting feature to say ‘yes I am present, continue the game’

Upon the player who paused disconnects, the game automatically resumes to prevent those petty ones who pause just to leave and have others wait for no reason

another way is this: a single player whose population drops below 30 after the 30 minute mark and stays below 30 pop may not pause again until after regaining pop above 30 and tieing that in with other rules will help prevent abuse (does not apply to his teammates above this pop mark)

Upon pausing, the rules of pauses appear as a readable feature in the language selected by each individual player

#4

Imo a voting system would be wacky and would end up functionally equivalent to what we have today.

Having teammates participate in the vote is pointless. They will 99% of the time vote for their teammate, unless they want to continue 3v4 and lose.

You are not entitled to pause. It is a mechanism that should require full agreement of BOTH players. There are several major abuses that would be possible otherwise. I’m not opposed to having a small limited time of uncancellable pause, let’s say 1 minute. But even if you allowed just that, you can be sure there will be some people who pause the full 1 min when they lose just to be annoying.

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#5

If it’s that much of a hassle, we can limit pause limit to be 5 minutes per player+ any amount of time that no one presses the unpause button.
And only one pause per game per player.

Regardless of possible abuse, a middle ground should be found, especially to be rid of the much more annoying abuse of people unpausing just because they may be inclined to use the absence of a player for their own gain

I’ve had a ‘pro’ team unpause repeatedly without question and it was annoying af. And in ranked to boot. Yet they paused right at the start to check the seed of the map.

One 5 minute pause per player plus extra time gained by no one pressing unpause - and each player has the ability to gift an extra pause ability to someone on the opposite team once - which would ensure communication.

Unlimited unpauses remain, but with proper balance

#6

The pause times you suggest are way too long.
I understand you play very long games, but my games are like 30 minutes. 2-3 minutes of unlockable pause is the maximum I’d want to play with.

I’ve also had experience with people who immediately unpause, and it felt bad.

But I haven’t actually had the need to pause in a couple of months. Hence the advantages should weigh against the disadvantages, and for me (and most other players) the advantages are small.
Trolls are rare, but they do exists, and they can abuse pauses for annoyance. Hence the pauser shouldn’t have too much power.

I like this suggestion, haven’t seen it before.

Funny use of language

But I do agree with your reasoning and conclusion.

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#7

What’s wrong with the sentence ? Genuine question (I’m not a native). Basically to say pausing is not something you should take for granted

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#8

i mean would it be too much if someone from the enemy team for example wants to pause and a window pops up asking for it i mean the person could explain it beforehand in chat why he has to go afk for a second

but im more curious about the fact that imo 80% of the community would be jerks and straight up denying it

#9

To me the sentiments “a pause mechanism should require the full agreement of both players” and “I’m not opposed to having a small limited time of uncancelable pause” seem contradictory.

Also I would usually read “you are not entitled to a pause” as “there shouldn’t be a small limited time of uncancelable pause” rather than “you’re only entitled to a pause in so far as the rules/mechanics say you are”, which is how I have to interpret it in the context of your post.

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#10

adding to atafas’ suggestion: another possible suggestion would be upon pausing, the player may put a reason within a description box as to what the reason is he/she is pausing for and that reason will automatically be translated using one of microsoft’s or third party software for all users within their native tongue

#11

Of all that discussions we’ve had im pretty certain this is one that should stay in its own thread instead of having 4 threads about exactly the same topic with people having to re explain the arguments for both sides.

For crying out loud that one bro made an exhaustive poll on what the community might prefer as an alternative.

#12

I also believe pausing is a privilege, not a right. By entering a competitive game, you’re agreeing to be available for a set amount of time to play it through. That said, it’s good sportsmanship to allow your opponent to keep the game paused if he has a quick interruption, and I am glad it has become common etiquette in our community, but I don’t think anyone is doing anything wrong (other than violating etiquette) if they unpause your pause during a competitive game.

I don’t think it’s respectful of the other player’s time to ask them to wait for me while I take a 10-15 minute break during the game, especially if he or she has already budgeted this time to enjoying the game. In that case I would often ask to save and restore later, if I need to leave that long and still want to finish the game. (And just give up the ELO if it’s competitive.)

I know more often than not pauses are due to things outside our control (connection issues, lag, etc), but I don’t think my opponent is obligated to wait for these issues to iron themselves out; he or she didn’t cause them.

#13

While I agree with the sentiment, this game can run upwards a few hours when the going gets good enough - it’s like football, and should have time-outs when called/asked for by each team
A limited timeframe for timeouts is preferred it seems, especially when at the hour mark, bathroom breaks are never unheard of, and considering the type of game this is, players must expect such breaks to be made/had- anything less is not only unsportsman-like, it’s unrealistic. People need water, food, to take care of random things that pop up through the day, this isn’t a game like call of duty where each game is short enough so all players can just hold it or put something off. The time of everyone must be respected, and in a game like this where it can run long, that includes time to take care of something irl

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