How often do you use the Pause button?

**hoom** · 08-12-2005, 17:15

I used to be a 'chess player' with STW & MTW but not RTW.
It doesn't help at all that the pause button is bugged.
With RTR the battles are slow enough to do most stuff live.

Basically I only pause RTW when a supposedly simple move or sequence somehow gets munged by the game & eg my entire army decides to about face just as the enemy charges or my gateway blocking phalanx up spears & runs headlong out the gate.

I guess also because phalanxes take a long time to reform after a move I often take the army movement step by step where in the previous games my army movement would often be one smooth advancing movement if the pauses were removed.

Also large selections of units told to move stay in formation much better in RTW, requiring less micromanagement. Lots of my previous pauses were setting up the formation at the new location.

**gardibolt** · 08-12-2005, 19:11

Aesculapius, I don't use pause (except in case of mouse trouble, as I said above), but I'm not a particularly fast player---I'm an old guy. I'm pretty much in Bubbanator's boat. In addition, I do use grouping a lot to move multiple units and keep things organized, and tend to put everyone who can fire at will on FAW. That usually buys me time to get back to a situation that's developing. And I've taken to shutting off skirmish for just about everyone because in the chaos it led to losing track of units who got forced to the edge and routed.

But yes, when I started I experienced enormous casualties and many defeats. That has progressively gotten better, but in a pitched battle of any size I'll still lose 100-150 troops though I do win consistently now. Real generals don't have a pause button so I don't see why I should. You don't have infinite time to contemplate on the battlefield once things begin.

**Viking** · 08-12-2005, 19:45

I use the pause button occasionally, when I want to issue alot of orders at once or when I want to have a look at what`s going on, on different places on the battlefield.

So it`s 'Basketballer' for me.

**screwtype** · 08-13-2005, 13:18

Originally Posted by gardibolt

Real generals don't have a pause button so I don't see why I should.

I think that's a very false analogy, which a lot of people seem to fall for.

In a game like RTW, as often as not you have mere seconds to make a decision before the battle is over one way or another. Real ancient battles typically lasted many hours, sometimes all day. It's just wrong to imagine you are having a more authentic experience by avoiding the use of the pause button.

Also in a real battle there are many brains at work. Unit commanders generally know what to do and will do something sensible. In a game like RTW your brain is the only brain your army has, it's pretty silly for example if you end up losing a battle because you failed to switch a unit back into phalanx mode before it was charged or something.

Apart from that, there is the appalling unreliability of the interface in RTW, where grouped commands are hopelessly bugged, and where units frequently ignore orders completely or go places or do things you didn't order or intend them to do. For me, the pause button is mainly a tool to avoid the frustration of struggling with a clumsy interface when I want to concentrate solely on my tactics. I don't want to lose battles because I couldn't manage to click on the right unit in a bunch, or because I didn't double click quite fast enough to make the unit run, or because the camera scrolled too slowly from one flank to another.

**TB666** · 08-12-2005, 20:59

I don't think I ever used the pause button in battles.
I like it when it get chaotic, feels more realistic.

**Jammin** · 08-12-2005, 21:57

I'm a little of all three but am now an arcade player.
I started out as a chess player, to learn units and formation strengths and such and to react with detail and learn the strength and weaknesses of units.
That and to look at the cool skins...
But once that lost its touch and I started to learn the units I became more of a basketball player where I'd pause in order to rally and organize parts of a battle that got out of control.

But after playing Multiplayer, pausing just seems so wrong.....so I hardly ever pause, unless I'm in a seige battle, which makes it necessary to pause with all the path finding issues and such.

I voted Arcade, FYI.

**jerby** · 08-12-2005, 22:26

'real generals didnt have pause buttons"

true, but real units weren't ass half-arsed as RTW's . i pause almost constantly because it's moving to damn fast. i dont need time to lay out my moves, i need time to see wth is happening.
example: in the historical battle of Trebia. your supposedto wait until teh first line buckels to sent in the Cav. in RTW, this absolutly impossibel with out. Pause a: bukling? no...puase b: cav lined up yes pause c: line buckeling almost... pause d:elephants in place. pause e: ah yes, strike strike strike!!!

without pause:
clicking like hell with a camera thats doenst move fast enough, ligning up cav, ellies, switching skirmisher from skirmish mode. checking cav, get back to see the line buckeled...sweating liek a pigg over a battle that historically lasted half a day, but took 2 minutes

**LordKhaine** · 08-13-2005, 00:40

I find myself pausing less in RTW generally, with the exception of phalanx based armies. In MTW/STW I would often fiddle around trying to get formations perfect and it's not so important to do it in RTW. Unless it's a phalanx army... in which case I'm hitting that pause button like you wouldn't believe ;)

**screwtype** · 08-13-2005, 13:22

Originally Posted by jerby

without pause:
clicking like hell with a camera thats doenst move fast enough, ligning up cav, ellies, switching skirmisher from skirmish mode. checking cav, get back to see the line buckeled...sweating liek a pigg over a battle that historically lasted half a day, but took 2 minutes

Yup. That's exactly how I feel about it!