Allow pause while "catching up" / Server setting - auto pause on join

[Sacredd]

First of all thank you for this great and the great work you did with improvements.

Now the Problem and the suggestion:
Our savegame reached a very big size (over 60MB).

The download is ok (1-2 min).

But after download the "catching up" takes with 12mbit/s connection around 20 Minutes.

What REALLY could help, if I could pause the game while I am "catching up".
Then it would take just a few minutes to join the game.

Also we noticed that some (other) players could not pause the multiplayer game anymore.
Please allow to pause for everyone, at least when someone is "catching up".

Thank you very much.

P.S.: Not sure it is write place to mention: please autopause server if first player joins. It make no sense to let game running, when no player joined (while after he will have to catch up, where no one played).

[mcgoff360]

i completely agree. on older systems, even with a decent internet connection, as the factory gets larger it becomes more necessary to pause when entering the game. it would be nice if there was a setting to allow for the game to auto-pause on a player joining the server

[Zeblote]

The catching up has nothing to do with your internet connection, it's limited by how fast your computer can simulate the map

[ssilk]

The slower the connection, the longer catching up.

[Sacredd]

bigger problem is when server is running, if its empty (when first player joins) and first player has to catchup not played part of the game...

[mcgoff360]

Hello,

I would love to have a server setting that would force the server to auto-pause on anyone joining. It would make things a lot easier when joining a large map from an older computer or weaker connection.

TL;DR
in server-settings.json, "server_auto_pause_on_join" (yes, no)

[mcgoff360]

still think this would be a great idea for when i play on my laptop versus my desktop

[ssilk]

Thought a bit: This makes no sense. It makes sense to pause the game completely if someone tries to join the game and download the save, cause the longer he needs to download, the longer he needs to catch up.

[mcgoff360]

Thought a bit: This makes no sense. It makes sense to pause the game completely if someone tries to join the game and download the save, cause the longer he needs to download, the longer he needs to catch up.

did you mean to say no sense? im confused ...

[ssilk]

Well, as I understood this suggestion, the scenario is this: the player connects download map and then catches up. But he has either
- a slow internet connection
- a slow computer
- or both.

If he has a slow computer (which i think is the idea behind this suggestion): either the speed of his computer is more the double of game speed or he has to wait. In any way it's questionable to automate that, cause it makes no sense to stop for catching up cause the game will soon take more and more CPU power. It makes much more sense to pause it manually.

If he has a slow connection: the catch up takes long, cause the download takes long and need now to catch up much.
And for that case it makes sense to pause the game sooner. Before downloading the map. If Factorio is able to find out download seed, it can automate that, when turned on by option.

Well, maybe I didn't understand the use case good enough, but that's why we discuss here.

[mcgoff360]

The problem with manual pausing is on a dedicated server for the first person to join. I forsee the setting being set up as follows.

Auto pause on join: first only, always, never

Once a person joins, they can always pause it for the next people if needed. You just can't pause the dedicated servers until someone is connected

[ssilk]

Auto pause on join: first only, always, never
Once a person joins, they can always pause it for the next people if needed. You just can't pause the dedicated servers until someone is connected

Makes much more sense.

And with the second sentence you mean: Any player can pause the game when someone joins? I'm not sure if that's really a good idea... I think this can be abused somehow...

[BenSeidel]

A person joining should be able to ask for a pause, using a button under the "catch-up" bar. If there is an admin on the server they should get a popup notifying them of the request. If there isn't an admin then it should be put to the vote of the common people.

Of course there should be multiple settings, including "always vote", "Never pause", "Pause for admins", etc.

[mattj256]

I think the best way to implement this:
1. If there are no players on the server and someone wants to join, always pause for him/her. (Only pause for the first player joining the map.)
2. Create a simple yes/no option: should the server pause for new players when other people are playing?

[BenSeidel]

Another possible option, to prevent griefers on servers with no admin present, is to only allow one connection pause per player within X duration of the previous one. So for example if you DC after 30 minutes you can get back in with a pause, but if you DC straight away you will have to catch up. Would help prevent compounding issues with desync loops (not much of an issue anymore).

Also a "Max pause time" would also be needed to prevent griefers from indefinitely pausing the game because they are able to slow their catchup down to a crawl.

[mcgoff360]

hmm i suppose i wasnt thinking of the griefing issues that might happen on a public server since i only play on a private server with people i know (who are always promoted to admin).

either way, i like the idea of having a few different settings similar to those that have been suggested here: "always pause on join", "only pause on first join", and "never pause" with the admin level pausing server setting staying the same. as i said previously, my biggest issue is just that FIRST connection when you cant pause the game at all. after that, you can just have another person on the server pause it.

[mcgoff360]

another thing that i was thinking about was that you could just make it so that when you were connecting, if you pushed escape to bring up the menu, that you would be able to pause the server if you had the permissions to do so. that way i could pause my own server because i have admin rights on it.

i still think it would be nice to have the ability to have the server auto-pause via the server settings file but it would be a step in the right direction at least