Factorio Forums

Suggestion: allow the player to pause the game while the map screen is open. Personally I would suggest that M pauses the game by default, with a pause/unpause button in the map GUI. By "pause" I mean that the game time stops, but you can still use all the map GUI functionality such as scroll, zoom, toggle pollution, etc.

Reason: I find it important to get things done quickly in Factorio and move efficiently from task to task. (Especially on Death World mode, which I am playing nowadays). However, I also find it necessary to spend significant amounts of time viewing the map screen, planning what to build where. The dilemma is that I want the game to be paused while I plan, but only the map screen contains all the information I need to do the planning. Currently the only solution is to save the game, open the map screen and plan, then load the save in order not to waste all those game cycles. For some reason this feels cheap, plus sometimes I might forget to save; I'd much rather have the game be paused instead.

Secondary reason: When you get alerts that you're under attack, sometimes it's necessary to run over to the area and help defend as quickly as possible. Being able to see the attack on your map while paused would help very significantly with this, so you don't waste precious seconds.

Being able to do things while paused is also something I miss. I don't think it would be overpowered, since as you say, nothing stops you from making a save, thinking/exploring and then loading the save and resuming (or even using a known seed and knowing in advance where everything is), and you can still get achievements like this.

The game pauses when on research screen.

You could say, wouldn't work with multiplier. Well it wouldn't! Lets go see what happens when you open the research screen, oh look, doesn't pause.

It can be done, and I'm not against the idea. So, why not make it an option.

Good point, the tech screen already pauses the game (in single player, but not multiplayer of course). Map screen should be just like that, although there should also be a way to view the map screen while unpaused.

LemonyFresh wrote:Suggestion: allow the player to pause the game while the map screen is open.

Did you.... go through the key bindings to make sure your feature request wasn't already implemented?

LemonyFresh wrote:Personally I would suggest that M pauses the game by default

I would prefer it didn't.

LemonyFresh wrote: with a pause/unpause button in the map GUI.

Instead of pausing by default, how about the pause button remembering the state it was in when you left the map view last time?

LemonyFresh wrote:By "pause" I mean that the game time stops, but you can still use all the map GUI functionality such as scroll, zoom, toggle pollution, etc.

Yes, this is still missing from the current pause feature. I agree that unpausing to toggle pollution might be a bit annoying.

Well, I've been playing Factorio for years and never knew about that SHIFT+SPACE pause. That's actually kind of nice, but I very much doubt that many people know about or use that. It feels wonky to use in the map screen though; for some reason you can zoom while paused but not pan, and none of the other GUI buttons work.

I agree that having the map screen remember whether it was paused or unpaused when it was last up would be a better option, hadn't thought of that.

LemonyFresh wrote:It feels wonky to use in the map screen though; for some reason you can zoom while paused but not pan, and none of the other GUI buttons work.

Obviously a bug, one way or another. You should report it... because I'm too lazy.