ESC pausing the game

[Rodger]

I feel like it goes against convention for the esc menu to not also pause the game, which makes it feel “weird” that it doesn’t pause. I get that it’s just a different button to pause, but people will instinctively press esc when they want to pause.

Other controls could even still be active while the esc menu is up, just have it set time warp to 0 when opened.

[modus]

Totally agree

[Baleine]

It's not really a bug. More likely an habit to take or a suggestion to change that

[Rodger]

That’s why it’s not in the bug report forum, but the suggestion/feedback forum

[Tazooka]

Agreed, its more a habit really.

The amount of times I've pressed ESC and then realise I need to press the Pause button or "<" is stacking up quite a bit

[The Aziz]

Matter of getting used to it.

Like pretty much with most of the new that was different old.

[LoSBoL]

I rather like seeing the game progress when pressing escape. You can still pause by setting time warp to zero, so it's just some muscle memory that needs developing. 

I do have questions on being able to configure parts when the game is paused, it comes across as cheating somewhat. 

[Superfluous J]

I don't like that < pauses the game and ESC doesn't. I'd personally like < to stop slowing down at 1x and have the game require ESC to explicitly pause.

Saying this as someone who hasn't played yet, but has experienced similar in other games.

 

[Rodger]

In my op I did suggest it could just automatically set warp to 0, but still allow you to use other controls, by which I meant you could resume time if wanted.

And while yes, it is just a different set of buttons to get used to, I feel making the esc menu pause the game /time would be the default expected behaviour for basically everyone, making it more intuitive for new players, or even old ones returning from ksp1. It doesn’t impact gameplay much either way, so why not choose the option that is generally going to be expected by people? 

There currently also isn’t actually a pause time button. If you’re warping you have to stop warp with / then lower it one more step to stop, or just spam the slow time key. so maybe just a single button pause time key would be a good addition too.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Rodger

[Baleine]

2 hours ago, Rodger said:

That’s why it’s not in the bug report forum, but the suggestion/feedback forum

Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I forgot what I was looking at. Good point. Again, my appologies

[LoSBoL]

I think the decision not to pause when hitting ESC is a feature helping the immersion. 

When do people hit ESC, mostly when the excrements hits the fan, and instead of just 'stopping' the game before it happens, you can now see the disaster unfold in full glory. 

[Mutex]

I believe the reason for it is for multiplayer - one person going into their settings menu shouldn't pause the game for everyone.

Perhaps for single-player it would be better if it pauses the game, though.