UPDATED: Developer-Friendly & Condensed Proposal for an In-Game Pause: Pausing Character, Not Game

@HeavyMetalGear:
What you quoted is me talking about how singleplayer and multiplayer currently are in PoE, not how your system is. So your first three paragraphs are moot. This is yet another time that you've made an erroneous assumption and levied accusations of me not reading your post.

I am on my phone right now, so quoting is difficult. I will instead refer to a paragraph by a keyword:

@"Immediateness" - this is a core function of any pause system. You take that away to prevent projectile dodging, and what are you left with? When you have to balance a feature into the ground, it is no longer that feature and has become something else entirely.

And yes, I know your multiplayer pause does not stop monsters from moving/attacking. I know that it makes the player invulnerable and ignored by the AI. I have known all of this, and everything else, since my first post. I suggest you re-read my posts with that thought in mind, because I suspect your assumption of my not having read your post thoroughly colored your interpretation of what I said. I also know Nurvus suggested most of the balancing, but that doesn't matter because you chose to present them in the main post as how your idea would be implemented.

What you wrote for the bolded 1. doesn't make sense, so I wonder if you mistyped something. When your character is the only thing "paused", projectiles that were already en route would continue moving toward your character. If pausing gave immediate invulnerability, it could be used to avoid damage, as described by the other poster. What would circumvent this problem is if you became immediately untargetable, not invulnerable. Meaning those projectiles would still hit and damage you, along with any other attack that was initiated with you as a target, but you would take no further damage from any source created after you paused and became untargetable. This would be far more consistent than a 5 second delay.


@Bandwidth - Just as with Nurvus's suggestions, it doesn't matter who said what. You chose to adopt their 'problem/solution' into your main post, and I am replying to your main post.


@ESC key - Yes, in your multiplayer pause, you would hit the ESC key as one action to pause. Pointing this out is irrelevant; you are not addressing everything I wrote after what you quoted. Namely how the 5 second delay, 15 second double-pause delay, and 2-3 pause cap changed the entire dynamic and reduced multiplayer pausing to something no better that using a TP.


@P.S. - If you think Town Portals are not relevant to your idea, you are deluding yourself. You do not convince anyone other than yourself by hand-waving it away. You must recognize that your idea is competing against TP'ing. Your idea must be superior to the existing system, or it is not worth implementing. I have already demonstrated how the current "balancing" done to multiplayer pausing has taken away nearly every benefit it had over TP'ing. It is not immediate, due to the 5 second delay, nor is it unlimited, due to the pause cap.


@Quoting - If I were to quote everything, the length of my post would balloon to obscene lengths. What is missing from the quotes was either unnecessary or not relevant. If you feel a specific example was taken out of context and treated unfairly, point it out and I will explain why I cut out what I did.

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Hercanic wrote:

@HeavyMetalGear:
What you quoted is me talking about how singleplayer and multiplayer currently are in PoE, not how your system is. So your first three paragraphs are moot. This is yet another time that you've made an erroneous assumption and levied accusations of me not reading your post.

You made it sound like as if you were suggesting that my idea makes it so everything around the AFKed player can move around and not be paused. I then said in return this is already the case, and in a nutshell, there was no need to point that out.

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Hercanic wrote:

"Immediateness" - this is a core function of any pause system. You take that away to prevent projectile dodging, and what are you left with? When you have to balance a feature into the ground, it is no longer that feature and has become something else entirely.

There you go with exaggerations again. No, it doesn't become something entirely different just because there are wait times put in place, and not because of dodging projectile attacks only, but all attacks, be it through invulnerability given to the AFKed player, or making it so an area doesn't recognize a player is on the map, temporarily. Whether immediate or not, once paused, it's not really going to matter. I also said (given reasons already explained) why I changed the details of immediateness in my Thread.

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Hercanic wrote:

And yes, I know your multiplayer pause does not stop monsters from moving/attacking. I know that it makes the player invulnerable and ignored by the AI. I have known all of this, and everything else, since my first post. I suggest you re-read my posts with that thought in mind, because I suspect your assumption of my not having read your post thoroughly colored your interpretation of what I said. I also know Nurvus suggested most of the balancing, but that doesn't matter because you chose to present them in the main post as how your idea would be implemented.

Again, you made it sound like as if this was a flaw in my Thread that the above was not the case in that enemies and Party Members would not be able to move around if someone AFKs.

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Hercanic wrote:

What you wrote for the bolded 1. doesn't make sense, so I wonder if you mistyped something. When your character is the only thing "paused", projectiles that were already en route would continue moving toward your character. If pausing gave immediate invulnerability, it could be used to avoid damage, as described by the other poster. What would circumvent this problem is if you became immediately untargetable, not invulnerable. Meaning those projectiles would still hit and damage you, along with any other attack that was initiated with you as a target, but you would take no further damage from any source created after you paused and became untargetable. This would be far more consistent than a 5 second delay.

This is what I am talking about, the misunderstanding on your part. It will not matter if projectiles are around because once you're paused, you won't be affected by any attacks, including projectile attacks. This can be done in that the AFK player is given invulnerability while paused, or the map area simply doesn't recognize the AFKed player is there at all until the game is resumed.

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Hercanic wrote:

@ESC key - Yes, in your multiplayer pause, you would hit the ESC key as one action to pause. Pointing this out is irrelevant; you are not addressing everything I wrote after what you quoted. Namely how the 5 second delay, 15 second double-pause delay, and 2-3 pause cap changed the entire dynamic and reduced multiplayer pausing to something no better that using a TP.

My idiocy is the need to make sense. I sometimes wonder why I bother. The reason I say or repeat what doesn't need to be said is because I still think you're misunderstanding things in certain areas in this Thread. Also, the 2-3 Pause Cap idea for the HC and Onslaught Leagues was omitted, if you read my EDIT on my previous Reply to you.

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Hercanic wrote:

@P.S. - If you think Town Portals are not relevant to your idea, you are deluding yourself. You do not convince anyone other than yourself by hand-waving it away. You must recognize that your idea is competing against TP'ing. Your idea must be superior to the existing system, or it is not worth implementing. I have already demonstrated how the current "balancing" done to multiplayer pausing has taken away nearly every benefit it had over TP'ing. It is not immediate, due to the 5 second delay, nor is it unlimited, due to the pause cap.

You got nothing on me in that you cannot quote me anywhere I said my proposal for an in-game Pause was equal to or greater than using Portal Scrolls. Try hard! you won't find it. All you can do is assume (as you have) that it is so when it's not.

All my Thread here says is that the upperhand in what I propose has over Portal Scrolls is that you can safely (no matter what) perform a pause during battle be it you're single playing or multi playing without affecting anything around the AFKed player.

No one needs to quote you saying that your ill conceived pause feature is better than portals, and if you reread what Hercanic wrote you would see that isn't what was being said.

The point is that in terms of the way people currently use portals, this "pause" idea is something that for many would serve a similar purpose as one of the ways people use portals. In the way that players actually use portals right now, one of the many uses is when something comes up that requires you to duck out of the game for a moment. So, if you are looking to do something similar, you will have to convince players (like me) that your "pause" serves the function of "ducking out for a moment button" than a portal does. Otherwise, even if it gets implemented, no one would use it because portals do the same thing better.

In your list in the OP, items #3-12 are all true of portals already. I hope I don't actually have to go through them point by point for you to see this.

So, all you have that's different than a portal scroll is a delay before I can use it and a cool down before I can use it again. In addition, if I use a portal instead of pausing, my flasks are refilled, I can vendor/stash my inventory, and pick up any quest rewards I may be due. How is pausing more convenient or efficient than a portal? Why should I or anyone else use your pause feature instead if just porting to town? What added functionality does it actually give? The net effect is virtually identical, but I have to wait longer between uses and devs have to write code for something that serves no useful function.

We aren't arguing that you've claimed it's better than portals, we are arguing that in reality your pause is made completely irrelevant and useless by portals, which are already in the game and even have a handy gem if you really hate having to open up your inventory.

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Hulkcore wrote:

No one needs to quote you saying that your ill conceived pause feature is better than portals, and if you reread what Hercanic wrote you would see that isn't what was being said.

Let's not take what I said out of context. I said nowhere can Hercanic quote I said my proposal for an in-game Pause was equal to OR greater than Portal Scrolls. That just said means my proposal for a Pause is not entirely related to Portal Scrolls or greater than Portal Scrolls so as to render it useless, or vice versa. Hercanic was under the impression in previous comments made that I believed my idea works better than Portal Scrolls.

I said no such thing.

Anyway, I am not going to quote every single thing you said (it's getting tiring now quoting everything everyone says,) but I'll touch up on things you and everyone else here do not understand.

My proposal for an in-game pause to GGG is useful because:

1. For whatever reason you're without Scrolls be it late-game or not, or if you need to step out for a moment due to outside reasons, you can then use the Pause instead. It would be especially useful for people who only AFK for 30 seconds to a minute in that they don't have to waste Portal Scrolls just to AFK.

Yes, you can vendor items, refill your flasks, etc. using a Portal Scroll, but that's what makes Portal Scrolls vs. a Pause different. They are technically not the same in that the same things happen or are allowed.

2. The Pause would also not be liked by many players as a means for exploitation because when paused, you do not get items, do not complete quest(s), do not gain experience, and do not provide item quality or quantity boost to Party Members. Not only that, there are wait times before and between each Pause a player makes. The pause times can easily be changed.

P.S. If anything my Thread achieved, it demonstrates how a fair, balanced and legit Pause could be implemented, and why (depending on varying opinions) it would be a good or bad idea to implement.

Therefore, this Thread should be the END of Pause recommendations to GGG. It covers everything and includes in-depth feedback of all kinds.

I acknowledge no system is perfect, and never did I say this Thread's proposal to GGG is perfect. I admit there is a loophole here and there as there is with Portal Scrolls. That said, I hold it true the minor loopholes don't outweigh the benefits.