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Author Topic: Do we have to pause when designating?  (Read 707 times)

Gnomechomsky

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Do we have to pause when designating?
« on: January 20, 2010, 12:02:28 am »

This is a really simple suggestion (I mean, simple to think of and ask for--who knows how hard it would be to implement?).  I tried searching for it but didn't find any mention of it, so here goes:

Could DF not automatically enter *PAUSED* mode whenever I designate anything, e.g. mining, building construction, smoothing, hiding, dumping, and so forth?  If I need it to pause, I can always press the spacebar first.  But usually I'd prefer things to keep moving while I do my thing.

I think I'd prefer auto-pause to remain when doing things like trading, checking the z-status window, and other places where the *PAUSED* indicator is not visible.
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ungulateman

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Re: Do we have to pause when designating?
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2010, 12:47:02 am »

Imagine the pathfinding cost as you added new areas to dig out in realtime, or similar - it would overtax the machine and be more of a hassle, especially if you had to stop designating halfway through to fix something if you forgot to pause your game.
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Gnomechomsky

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Re: Do we have to pause when designating?
« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2010, 02:09:16 am »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the actual mining does occur in realtime, and doesn't the pathing have to be updated during the actual digging, not the designating?
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Footkerchief

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Re: Do we have to pause when designating?
« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2010, 02:36:27 am »

Imagine the pathfinding cost as you added new areas to dig out in realtime, or similar - it would overtax the machine and be more of a hassle, especially if you had to stop designating halfway through to fix something if you forgot to pause your game.

This is a non-issue.  One pathfind per miner is nothing, and the game could just prevent pathfinding for those designations until the player has stopped designating for a half second or however long.

edit: and yeah, this suggestion is a good one.  Mining out a vein would be much less frustrating if you didn't have to pause the game every couple seconds.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2010, 04:36:54 am by Footkerchief »
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Impaler[WrG]

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Re: Do we have to pause when designating?
« Reply #4 on: January 20, 2010, 04:32:31 am »

Footkerchief is right, their is absolutely no reason to think designating outside of being paused would be any kind of technical issue.  I'm quite tired of people who obviously don't know the technical side of things making assertions far beyond their knowledge particularly to shoot down reasonable suggestions like the one by the OP.
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jfs

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Re: Do we have to pause when designating?
« Reply #5 on: January 20, 2010, 05:00:52 am »

If anyone have noticed, using the mouse to designate actually runs the game a step for each tile you click.
Seriously annoying if there's a diplomat visiting and he decides to hold the meeting while you designate. <click> <click> <click> "Hello my good dwarf!" <ARGH!> :P
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