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Pause button?

Started by HarrierST, December 04, 2017, 02:36:10 AM

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HarrierST

What is the recommended way to play Simutrans. So as not to cheat. I have an idea.  ;D

You have a pause button, plus  normal speed (unclick pause) and fast forward.

Fast forward, I can understand when you are testing something which takes time or have not got anything new to do.

The question is about the pause button?

I can see the logic in using it while I decide what to do next.  Checking the map, congestion, new industries etc.

But having decided what to do, should I un-pause and then carry out my plans? Or do them while still in pause. To me this feels like a cheat.

If you agree, why not change the pause button, so that you can not do anything but look at the game.

No additions, deletions. alterations etc.  Just a thought.

jameskuyper

I tend to take the attitude that anything a computer game allows you to do without explicitly labeling it a cheat is something that it's OK to do, unless it's clearly a bug. However, you are free to  impose any arbitrary limits you want, as needed to make the game adequately challenging.

In principle, use of the pause button during construction is unrealistic, and carries some unrealistic advantages. You pay maintenance costs on your facilities from the moment they're built, so if you pause until you've got an addition to your track network complete, you don't have to pay maintenance costs during construction. It's a pretty minor benefit, really.
However, new factories suddenly pop-up without advance notice, so I think it's only fair that I be able to quickly build new facilities to serve those factories; in reality, the factory owners would be busy making sure that there's adequate transport capacity already in place by the time the factory starts production.

Isaac Eiland-Hall

I don't see the pause button as a cheat at all. Construction times are instant anyway, and I don't think any balancing takes into account how long the average player might take to actually build a network. It's also useful if you see a mistake - convois about to deadlock or something.

So basically.... I just don't see how it's cheating. I usually don't pause just because I usually play freeplay anyway, but the times I don't, I certainly pause especially at the beginning of the game to look around and build stuff and buy vehicles and get things all set up with no time ticking so I don't lose/waste money when it's most important.

Also, the AI builds whole routes instantly, too.

Leartin

Why would pausing the game to build anything be cheating? Many games pause automatically when you enter "build mode", as to seperate changes in environment from normal gameplay.

Imagine the simple act of destroying and reconnecting a piece of track, in just a second, inbetween trains. For trains already on the route, they wouldn't even notice, or reroute once they notice. However, what if in that second a train in another corner of the map was about to start it's journey, which would have routed over that tile? Since the tile is missing, best case you get an info about a stuck train - and wouldn't be able to understand why that train has issues while all others on the same route are okay. But perhaps there is still a valid route somewhere else, via two more map corners. A route never intended to be travelled, but in that moment, it's the best route and a train will use it, potentially causing trouble along the way and losing you credits. Again, no chance you would guess what caused that.

Of course, this can be prevented if you actually prepare for these things. Build an additional track to keep traffic flowing while changing something about the main track - sure. But such a procedure needs to be communicated to the player. Simutrans has no accidents - if it had, and they could be caused by carelessly rebuilding tracks, the player would get sensitive for how to properly do trackwork in a running game, and it might become interesting gameplay in it's own right. But that's a different game - as far as I am concerned, building in pause mode is not a cheat, but intended, I'd go as far as saying it's recommended. But hey, you can only do it in singleplayer anyway, where you can restrict yourself however you want; in multiplayer, there is no pause.

pumuckl999

I play the game by switching between fast forward and pause. So I don´t need normal speed :).

You can see the main reason for pause (for all games) on the button in some paks: A coffee cup.

Ters

Quote from: pumuckl999 on December 04, 2017, 11:46:16 AM
You can see the main reason for pause (for all games) on the button in some paks: A coffee cup.

Such things are the only things that don't last long enough for me to have to pause Simutrans. But if I need to stay away from Simutrans longer than that, I would usually save the game and exit Simutrans. The pause function used to seem rather resource intensive, and the habit sticks. I only use it when I need to fix lots of things in very little in-game time, or when I do something that might confuse the routing (which I often do unintentionally, and therefore unfortunately while the game is unpaused).

Quote from: pumuckl999 on December 04, 2017, 11:46:16 AM
I play the game by switching between fast forward and pause. So I don´t need normal speed :).

I never use fast forward. That would send my game into chaos. (Arguably, it is always chaos. At normal speed, I just barely manage to put one thing right before the next problem crops up.)