Pauses and game speed in MP?

[Wombat101]

Although I've been playing Paradox games since EU, I've yet to play a MP game. I have been thinking of joining in a game for HOI2 and read through some of the FAQ on etiquette but I am not sure how pauses (and game speed) are handled in general.

Normally when I play I have the game auto pause for certain conditions (research completed, unit completed, etc) so I can choose a new project or place an unit. But how does this work in MP? Are auto-pauses allowed? Or any pause in general (hopefully at least for bathroom breaks)? Or are pauses just house rule?

And what of game speed? Without pauses, it would seem to have to run fairly slow to keep control of units across multiple battles. But playing from 1936 onward could get very tedious at that speed for most players.

 

[Durruti (A)]

Although I've been playing Paradox games since EU, I've yet to play a MP game. I have been thinking of joining in a game for HOI2 and read through some of the FAQ on etiquette but I am not sure how pauses (and game speed) are handled in general.

Normally when I play I have the game auto pause for certain conditions (research completed, unit completed, etc) so I can choose a new project or place an unit. But how does this work in MP? Are auto-pauses allowed? Or any pause in general (hopefully at least for bathroom breaks)? Or are pauses just house rule?

And what of game speed? Without pauses, it would seem to have to run fairly slow to keep control of units across multiple battles. But playing from 1936 onward could get very tedious at that speed for most players.

in the 36 scenario game is often run on above normal unless the japan player needs a slower speed to take care of china when general war starts the game is run on below normal / slow. Now ofcourse the slower the speed the lower the acceptance is for pausing for tech for example. In hoi1 the optimal speed was below normal imo... hoi2 might need slow speed to let the players get the most out of their nations. I'd suggest slow speed when the fighting is intense and below normal when not.

 

[Brasidas]

Although I've been playing Paradox games since EU, I've yet to play a MP game. I have been thinking of joining in a game for HOI2 and read through some of the FAQ on etiquette but I am not sure how pauses (and game speed) are handled in general.

Normally when I play I have the game auto pause for certain conditions (research completed, unit completed, etc) so I can choose a new project or place an unit. But how does this work in MP? Are auto-pauses allowed? Or any pause in general (hopefully at least for bathroom breaks)? Or are pauses just house rule?

And what of game speed? Without pauses, it would seem to have to run fairly slow to keep control of units across multiple battles. But playing from 1936 onward could get very tedious at that speed for most players.

House rules. I haven't really noticed auto-pauses, but I've found that pauses during industry build phases and research are usually acceptable. During critical combat phases pauses are usually okay, but don't push it.

Folks will generally aim to grab food/ go to the bathroom during "quiet times", so the game isn't paused. If you're playing Germany, aim to do so before Fall '39. The others will generally hit pause when they DoW you. Regardless, nobody's going to yell at you to use a bedpan.

For stability, we generally run at below normal and slow down to slow during heavy campaigning.

What really bugs people is "Mr. Pausy". Being in pause half the time is really annoying. Being in pause so that Mr. Hitler can have career counselling sessions with each and every one of his single-division-korpscommanders can be considered inconsiderate if he can't do so by multitasking in real-time.

Another thing for starting MP: can you commit to a game? Folks in a series will frequently come down with bouts of conflicting personal commitments. When you're dealing with a group of 6, you can sometimes find subs for 2 people by trolling Vnet. If you have more than 2 people miss that week, it's probably too much to continue the game that week. If that happens two or more weeks in a row, the game is probably dead.

If personal stuff comes up, the other players will understand. But if you frequently pick up shifts that night or you think you might blow off the game to do something else, find a better timeslot.

 

[Wishing_Well]

I can only concur with the experts. Just wanted to state that auto-pause is disabled in MP; even for the host.

 

[Wombat101]

Thanks for the replies

Commitment to MP shouldn't be a problem, as I tend to play in the early hours (4am-6am where I'm from) and some evenings on almost a daily basis and moreso on the weekends (sometimes 5-6 hours - again early hours).

Its good to hear that at least some pauses are allowed and is not something that is set in stone. I'd miss not being able to pause on 1/1 to select new leaders for my government and change the sliders, but I'm getting faster at selecting who I want in power now so even that I guess wouldn't be too much of a problem.

I'm thinking the part that I actually pause the longest on is the 1st week of play. This is when I make alot of trade set-ups, start production, initiate research, change/promote military leaders, and general restructuring. As long as this 1st week can be paused, everything else would work fine on a slow to normal setting. I'll just have to play through a couple SP games that way to get used to the flow before trying MP.

This is a little off-topic but does relationship level make any difference between player nations? If not, I'm going to be able to save a lot of cash on influence. Well at least if the game is not being roleplayed like countries would likely act.

 

[Durruti (A)]

at start of game there's always a pause for setup, this is where you can easily separate the noobs from the newbs from the experienced players.......: unpausing is a serious annoyance, in the 39 scenario in particular where orders have to be set correctly right away... players make their setup and then sound off when rdy, when everyone's done the host unpauses the game.. typically there's a pause for tech at jan1 and then a longer pause on jan2 to make trades and handle resources.. dont be fooled here by the " game is resumeable in 30 secs" counting down, game shouldnt be unpaused until everyone's rdy or people will get mad.

 

[Oleg Gordievsky]

...etiquette

I don't think there are any rules set in stone for pausing but this is how we handle it in our group, generally with a max of six players all with good cable/dsl connections** Note 1: excessive pausing is usually linked to lag and lag is generally caused by a combination of players with slower or mismatched connections combined with faster game speeds.

Like Durutti says above, a pause at setup is standard, each player 'sounding off' when ready and the last person ready unpauses. Often we'll play for a day to setup basic trades then pause again. Then we start again, usually below normal speed gradually building up speed if all players agree. We tend to get to fast until Japan (if they're in the game) attack China, at which point speed is dropped to whatever the Japanese player wants. Note 2: Here's another best practice - the speed is best determined by the player 'in combat'. Other players will respect that.

From this point on we vary the speed to war, sometimes going back up to fast again but averaging above normal / normal. If Japan aren't in the game we regularly play fast until August 39. Pauses, when they come, are accepted. It's obvious that when someone pauses they're doing it for a reason, to catch up and change tech or to fix something, etc. so we all just sit and wait.

In the past I've see people get really irritated by too much pausing and ask for an explanation, I guess that's fair enough but if you get a group that's familiar with eachother an explanation isn't really nedeed as it's taken for granted there's a good reason to pause.

My advice is to make sure you're playing with a good host and other players have similar internet connections. That tends to get rid of the need to pause too much and even if you do want to pause, good players will accept it.

 

[unmerged(41322)]

I have another newb mp question. . .can you play a 2 player game with both players controlling the same country? I'm trying to help a friend learn how to play and it would be easier to do it online then having him hang out my house. . .

 

[Brasidas]

You can indeed. It's called "co-op". The host has to set "allow co-op" to "yes" in the options screen during MP game set-up tough.

 

[Mr Lag]

I find one of the best ways to avoid pausing in an MP game (especially if you are a newer player like myself) is to run through at least the first 6 months as the country you intend to play single player - jot down a list of all the things you need to do (including critical ones) then when it comes to the multiplayer game you can run down your checklist and you never have those panicky hit-pause=too-often moments.

I know this really helps especially when you are playing as say, Japan which has units all the over the shop and fleets everywhere - and you have to gear up for war as soon as possible.

 

[airboy]

When I and my friend are playing we often gets a "Connection lost, the host has left the game" when the game is paused. Anybody else who has this problem? Annoying.

 

[unmerged(13894)]

Something I found helpful for HoI MP (haven't tried HoI2 MP yet) is to first play a game or two in SP at the mentioned MP speeds, without pausing. It gave me a better idea of what to expect and how to prioritise.

 

[Mr Lag]

When I and my friend are playing we often gets a "Connection lost, the host has left the game" when the game is paused. Anybody else who has this problem? Annoying.

Yes exactly that problem. Haven't found a solution at all. Over a lan it works fine.

Gonna try some virtual lan software over the net, I will let you know how it goes.