Pause button for builders / Factories

Agnus · Post by **Agnus** » 18 Jul 2007, 16:15

Its possibly in already, please flame me / tell me how if so:

Basically I'd love it if you could pause the building process of factories and builders.

Maybe combined with a small "maintenance" cost in energy while in pause mode.

FLOZi · Post by **FLOZi** » 18 Jul 2007, 16:30

Might I suggest you try pressing 'W'

Agnus · Post by **Agnus** » 18 Jul 2007, 16:32

Excellent idea.

Sometimes my mind misses to make the connection between things.

Ok, now flame me or close this thread

LOrDo · Post by **LOrDo** » 18 Jul 2007, 21:12

So THATS what wait is supposed to do? I never did get that...

Felix the Cat · Post by **Felix the Cat** » 23 Jul 2007, 01:55

LOrDo wrote:So THATS what wait is supposed to do? I never did get that...

Wait is one of the most useful commands out there.

It can be used for lots of things.

Just one example. I built a bunch of bombers in an AA game. I knew from previous scouting where my enemy's missile towers were. I decided to take them out. I selected two bombers per missile tower, queued the wait order, then queued up an attack on the assigned missile tower. This left me with ~6 bombers to hit his economy with, which I assigned to a hotkey for easy use. I then selected all of my bombers, pressed W, and watched my plan unfold.

Unfortunately, I got Dubya'd* - the enemy had built a Pack0.

(*Dubya'd (v): initiating a misguided attack based on outdated intelligence.)

YokoZar · Post by **YokoZar** » 25 Jul 2007, 12:22

There really needs to be a button for this. Even I didn't know about this feature - most users don't edit their keys, for instance.

LBPB · Post by **LBPB** » 25 Jul 2007, 14:29

YokoZar wrote:There really needs to be a button for this.

true

Neddie · Post by **Neddie** » 25 Jul 2007, 18:18

It's an incredibly useful little trick which comes in handy if you can't calculate movement times and group convergence in your head - in the heat of battle, it can be a godsend. I seldom use it, however, as it doesn't have a button, and I eschew hotkeys for the most part.

tombom · Post by **tombom** » 25 Jul 2007, 18:21

i know what you mean, pressing w is a horrible strain

Neddie · Post by **Neddie** » 25 Jul 2007, 18:47

tombom wrote:i know what you mean, pressing w is a horrible strain

Sarcasm, but he has a point.

It doesn't need a button. It might be convenient, but it doesn't need one. Most RTS players have no reason not to use hotkeys - and those who do, like myself, generally have the skills to manage without them.

Felix the Cat · Post by **Felix the Cat** » 25 Jul 2007, 20:41

I was under the impression that most players above mediocre level used hotkeys because hotkeys are much more efficient and effective...

Neddie · Post by **Neddie** » 25 Jul 2007, 20:44

They generally do. I don't, due to my carpal I would rather only type when writing. Hotkeys are not necessary to perform well, though I could probably push a few dozen more APM out with them.

Snipawolf · Post by **Snipawolf** » 25 Jul 2007, 21:02

Bah, I never use hotkeys and I do fine.

I hate hotkeys anyways. I drink tea and play, I don't want to risk dumping tea on my keyboard by switching my hand to drink and keyboard too fast.

SwiftSpear · Post by **SwiftSpear** » 26 Jul 2007, 05:18

It needs a button. The reason is not that the hotkey is too difficult, the reason is that without a button there is no way for new players to learn the hot key in the first place. That's what all buttons are used for. You mouseover the button and it tells you the hotkey bound to it, so while you don't know the hotkey you can still use the button, and after you learn it it's just there for new players.

It's horrendous horrendous design to have any action element not have a point and click method of execution as well as the faster easier hot key method. One is for learning the other is for streamlining. They are mutually necessary.

Post by **trepan** » 26 Jul 2007, 05:59

LuaUI can be setup to "unhide" the hidden commands.
Strange that nobody has mentionned how critical it is that
the SelfD command also get a button

SwiftSpear · Post by **SwiftSpear** » 26 Jul 2007, 06:52

trepan wrote:LuaUI can be setup to "unhide" the hidden commands.
Strange that nobody has mentionned how critical it is that
the SelfD command also get a button

It's equally critical. I didn't think it was necessary to list the other hidden commands.

Felix the Cat · Post by **Felix the Cat** » 26 Jul 2007, 07:37

SwiftSpear wrote:It's horrendous horrendous design to have any action element not have a point and click method of execution as well as the faster easier hot key method. One is for learning the other is for streamlining. They are mutually necessary.

It's equally horrendous design to have a gazillion buttons cluttering up the playing area and the commands that are actually used via button regularly (i.e. buildings, fire status, move status, repeat status).

Also, the Wait order is quite unique in that it requires another hotkey (Shift) to be at all useful. Because of that, it would be sort of useless to give it a button "for learning", because nubs will press it and be like "HAY WTF DIS DO ??!?!??!!11/"

I say that documentation is how to solve the issue of unknown commands, to which you will say that nubs won't read documentation, to which I say that we're not trying to run the Special Olympics here.

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 26 Jul 2007, 07:44

Apropos, a way to hide buttons you don't need would be nice.

AF · Post by AF » 26 Jul 2007, 11:38

Renaming Wait to Wait/Pause might make it a little more intuitive, aswell as giving it a pause icon.

Agnus · Post by **Agnus** » 26 Jul 2007, 14:08

AF wrote:Renaming Wait to Wait/Pause might make it a little more intuitive, aswell as giving it a pause icon.

I think I would have gotten it if it was labeled pause.

Also, I would rly like it if you could see the "Wait-State" on factories without pressing shift

Spring RTS Engine

Pause button for builders / Factories

Pause button for builders / Factories