Factorio Forums

Hello.

First-Thank you for making an amazing game! I'm amazed at the quality and support the devs give.

I'd like to suggest that players have the ability to chat while the game is paused. That way, the affected players can discuss what is going on, and why the server was paused.

Thanks for your consideration!

Seems like a no brainer, why can't you already do this?

I've not really played much multiplayer, so it's never come up for me before.

bobingabout wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 8:25 am Seems like a no brainer, why can't you already do this?

Because chat messages are part of the game state, they raise events etc. Which means any chat message would have to advance the game for at least one tick.

Is there a case here for making chat messages *not* part of the game state?

Commands can affect the game, but those could be separated out beforehand. And the game can of course produce chat messages, but it can't receive them, so that can just be an output merged with other players' messages.

ikarikeiji wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:21 pm but it can't receive them

But it can. Mods can watch chat.

quyxkh wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:30 pm

ikarikeiji wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:21 pm but it can't receive them

But it can. Mods can watch chat.

Then maybe send a copy of the chat messages to that API, and if chatting while the game is paused, send all such messages at once when the game is unpaused?

ikarikeiji wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:35 pm

quyxkh wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:30 pm

ikarikeiji wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:21 pm but it can't receive them

But it can. Mods can watch chat.

Then maybe send a copy of the chat messages to that API, and if chatting while the game is paused, send all such messages at once when the game is unpaused?

Seems to me that'd work really well, sold.

+1

quyxkh wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 1:10 pm

ikarikeiji wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:35 pm

quyxkh wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:30 pm

ikarikeiji wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:21 pm but it can't receive them

But it can. Mods can watch chat.

Then maybe send a copy of the chat messages to that API, and if chatting while the game is paused, send all such messages at once when the game is unpaused?

Seems to me that'd work really well, sold.

Yea, i just thought of that too. Should work for the game-state problem. Ofc as the whole network code is probably built with the assumption that it only needs to sync game state changes i have no clue how much work it'd be to actually implement that. Can chat even be rendered while the game is not running?

Apart form the technical difficults i'm all for it: +1