What about a pause button?

[Edrin]

I mean, a real one. Not a pause toggle. One that only pauses the game, that does not unpause it. I'm pretty tired of trying to pause, and then an automatic pause occurs, just at the right moment, and in effect, I unpaused the game. As often as not, if I hit space again, I may unpause it again. This often happen several times in a row, and it's quite annoying.

Now, I suppose some will think that I don't like automatic pause, for some reason. But mind you, if I did activate them, it's because I do want them!

Hope someone with some power will read this, like it, and make it happen. I know, I'm a bit of a  dreamer…

[LaSpeakeasi]

Keep playing. You'll get better at it. It's a skill I learnt 15 years ago. I started out just like you. Then I forgot all about the learning curve when I first play BG1. Now that you mentioned it it's all coming back to me.

[Edrin]

Well, I didn't get it finishing BG, BG 2 and its expansion twice, and 80 hours of pillars. I don't think I ever will. And this shortcut key seems so easy to implement…

[unfriendly_cat]

Have to agree with the OP, this is a good idea. The accidental un-pause happens way too often (especially when using some of the less predictable autopause options, such as low health/endurance), and unlike in the IE games it can have quite annoying consequences due to the fast pace of the combat. So a dedicated pause-only key would be great.

[Zaret Voruta]

If  that unpausing  happening then you simply don't need auto pause option any more. Just turn it off.

[Hugo Rune]

If  that unpausing  happening then you simply don't need auto pause option any more. Just turn it off.

What are you talking about? If unpausing is happening in 20% of the cases it can be really annoying but the autopause still has it's use in 80%. That's obvious.

 

I agree with the OP. It's just a minor annoyance for me but I have noticed it too. Adding an option for a pause button that doesn't unpause would fix this problem completely and very efficiently. It's a good suggestion.

[wanderon]

Seriously? What exactly happens during that millisecond between hitting the pause key after an autopause - the game unpausing - you realizing it and repausing - that you just can't deal with? 

[Fenixp]

Well, wanderon, Pillars of Eternity should not really have any aspect requiring quick reflexes at all. Adding this aspect, even if it's not intentional, is never really great - I know that when something they did not expect happens, some people just have difficulty adjusting in time, and Pillars can kill a character within seconds. Halving combat speed would probably help.

 

Anyway, adding a dedicated pause button would be cool, but since I would be using spacebar to toggle pause automatically anyway, I think a better solution would be to start a countdown in the background for half a second or so whenever the game autopauses and disallow unpausing while it is running. Ideally allow length of the countdown to be adjustable via options including disabling it completely. Now that would really make me happy.

[Ymarsakar]

Use the slow mode instead of all these auto pauses.

[wanderon]

Well, wanderon, Pillars of Eternity should not really have any aspect requiring quick reflexes at all. Adding this aspect, even if it's not intentional, is never really great - I know that when something they did not expect happens, some people just have difficulty adjusting in time, and Pillars can kill a character within seconds. Halving combat speed would probably help.

 

Anyway, adding a dedicated pause button would be cool, but since I would be using spacebar to toggle pause automatically anyway, I think a better solution would be to start a countdown in the background for half a second or so whenever the game autopauses and disallow unpausing while it is running. Ideally allow length of the countdown to be adjustable via options including disabling it completely. Now that would really make me happy.

 

Pretty much exactly the same pause/autopause system used in the IE games** - I don't ever recall anyone asking for a dedicated pause button on those forums wonder what's up with that?

 

** BG2 at least - I can't recall for certain which other IE games had auto pause options.

[sapientNode]

So I am a bit confused.

You are looking for a button that does not toggle pause but simply just pauses the game?

So you can go away from the game?

Or you are accidentally pressing the space bar again and unpausing and that is causing frustration?

 

I myself have 0 auto pause features set because they are way too annoying for me.

 

You could take a look autohotkey where you can make a script function.

Perhaps a script that locks the pause button from being used for some seconds after you hit it the first time

I use this awesome script from nexus:

http://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/89/?

 

If you have a 5 button mouse you put pause to one of the side buttons.

I do not have one so I use my middle mouse button as pause.

It lets me hold mouse button to toggle interactives in the environment

and when I double click I can go into scout mode

[tinysalamander]

For those who don't get it, it goes like this.

1. You need to pause your game for something and press pause, but…
2. Fraction of a second before one party member of yours hit low health and game autopaused just before you hit the button, so you just unpaused it.
3. Seeing that you press pause again, but…
4. Fraction of a second before that…

Pretty annoying, actually.

[daver]

In the options menu, you can change all your auto-pause options so that the game never auto-pauses.  Then just strictly use the current pause button (space bar).  Tapping the space bar with your thumb really doesn't require lightning reflexes, I find it pretty instinctive.

[Edrin]

Seriously? What exactly happens during that millisecond between hitting the pause key after an autopause - the game unpausing - you realizing it and repausing - that you just can't deal with?

If  that unpausing  happening then you simply don't need auto pause option any more. Just turn it off.

Use the slow mode instead of all these auto pauses.

I knew these kind of remarks would come, whatever efforts I would make to avoid it. Still, it's annoying and a bit disappointing. I understand it's difficult to see how I feel these things when you don't feel them the same way. But please, do not presume how I should feel, or how anyone (including yourself) should feel about anything. Please know that this kind of remarks tend to be felt as offensive, and sometime can result into conflict. It's not like I chose to feel things this way or that way. Or did you chose to feel the way you do?

I just feel the need of the autopause options, and I am annoyed by the lack of control of the current manual pause.

And Ymarsakar, thank you for obviously thinking I am not smart enough to have made use that feature by myself. It's not like this game is intended for five years olds as their first approach in using computers…

 

 

Anyway, adding a dedicated pause button would be cool, but since I would be using spacebar to toggle pause automatically anyway, I think a better solution would be to start a countdown in the background for half a second or so whenever the game autopauses and disallow unpausing while it is running.

I don't thing I would like not being able to pause just because of such a cooldown, but why not?

 

 

You are looking for a button that does not toggle pause but simply just pauses the game?

Precisely.

 

So you can go away from the game?

Or you are accidentally pressing the space bar again and unpausing and that is causing frustration?

Not to go away, nor because motor impairment, but because the autopause sometimes pauses the game just on the millisecond I try to pause it, making me unpause it instead, often several times in a row, which is annoying.

 

You could take a look autohotkey where you can make a script function.

Thank you for your suggestion, seems like Fenixp could like it.

 

In the options menu, you can change all your auto-pause options so that the game never auto-pauses.  Then just strictly use the current pause button (space bar).  Tapping the space bar with your thumb really doesn't require lightning reflexes, I find it pretty instinctive.

I tried to be as clear as possible in my OP, with redundancy to be sure, with simple words. Unless my English is way worse than I thought you didn't read or understand what I wrote. Which mean you probably wont read this, but still. It would be wise of you to actually do both, and then read the other replies before posting. Otherwise, you will end up role-playing a voice recorder / parrot, or answer a question no one asked. Although parapraxis can happen to anyone, even while reading / answering forums posts (hope it's the right word in English). Thanks for your kind efforts anyway.

 

To unfriendly_cat and Hugo Rune and Fenixp, who agreed such an unpause button is a good idea: Thank you, it's good to find out I'm not the only one!

 

Edit: typo

Edited October 2, 2015 by Edrin

[MunoValente]

A separate button that pauses without unpausing, sounds good to me, I definitely do run into the situation where I accidentally unpause enough for it to occasionally annoying, but not enough want to turn off the auto-pauses that I do use.  It seems like it would probably be easy implement and there are plenty of free keys on the board.