Auto Pause Options vs Turn Based?

[Megiddo]

Good day! I had purchased Baldur's Gate 3 in early access as soon as it became available here on Steam. I also have DoS and DoS2 in my library, but I'm quite unfamiliar with them. To avoid spoiling too much, I've avoided playing very deeply into Baldur's Gate 3 here. I'm still very unsure about how any of these supposed turn based titles actually work.

I've quite thoroughly played all of the titles that were created with the Infinity and Aurora engines. I'm also a player that used the hell out of almost every auto pause option that was available. For combat, at least, I was basically playing all of these titles turn based already, but I also used auto pause options to trigger pause for several things that would happen in real time.

I haven't played them much yet and want to give all them an honest go, but DoS, DoS2, Baldur's Gate 3, at least, all seem to have several things happening in real time that players have no real way of pausing. Not just cosmetic or irrelevant things, but several things happening in real time that can effect the players, their party members, and/or their environments. I completely get that all of these titles have multiplayer options available, but it seems as though the single player mode wasn't given a lot of consideration here. It's quite likely that I've overlooked auto pausing features that might be available for these titles, though. I'm hoping that anyone here might refer me towards possible solutions for properly pausing here. It seems that even the mod communities have found it impossible to provide pausing options for single players here. I'm familiar with a few external programs that can hack into games to pause them, but are there better options available that I may be overlooking here? Thank you in advance for any feedback and suggestions.

[Megiddo]

Somewhat related, it may be, too, that I'm quite unfamiliar with how multiplayer and coop titles and engines are normally built. If I see a "multiplayer" or "coop" tag on any title here on Steam, is it safe to assume that the single player mode (if one even exists) isn't going to have a proper pause option available? I know that Elden Ring, Souls, Monster Hunter, and several other titles have no real ways of pausing for their single players, too. Is that just the norm for these sorts of games now, where single players aren't given much thought?

[ComradePreacher]

If I understand your question, there sadly isn't a pause button. You could technically pause the game by activating turn base mode.

Game was made with co-op in mind, being a D&D game you know playing with a party of adventurers.

[Megiddo]

Thank you for the reply. Again, I can completely understand why pausing would be limited for multiplayer use. It's the single player mode that I'm struggling with. The original titles, as well as Neverwinter Nights were all built with multiplayer and single player modes available. They all had parties, too. I think that it may be the "co-op" tag that I'm quite unfamiliar with. That means that the engines and titles weren't really created with single players or offline play in mind?

[Recjawjind]

You can press Shift + Space to enter forced turn based mode. It immediately freezes the world and breaks it down into turns, as if you were in combat. You can take one turn each on your characters, then either exit the mode, or end your turn, which gives the world a turn during which you are paused.

[Sonic Titan]

Can you give an example of where several things are happening at once and you'd find a pause function useful?

[Linde]

Game enters turn based mode when combat starts.(and NPC participants for said combat that ain't in range move to their scripted starting positions out of turn order and join combat) Player controlled characters that are not close to the combat, aren't forced into turn based and can therefore be moved into range of combat in a single turn regardless of distance (same as NPC participants did). Can you come with an example of when you would like to pause the game entirely and assuming it has to do with combat, then how that feature would benefit without breaking the balance of allowing both pc controlled and NPC controlled characters to reach the combat in question?

[KingOfFriedChicken]

I mean turn based mode can be activated at anytime but I'm not sure what you specifically want paused automatically?

[Linde]

Originally posted by Recjawjind:

You can press Shift + Space to enter forced turn based mode. It immediately freezes the world and breaks it down into turns, as if you were in combat. You can take one turn each on your characters, then either exit the mode, or end your turn, which gives the world a turn during which you are paused.

It doesn't freeze npcs in the world, it just freezes effects triggered on your characters, so you can run away from the fire trap you triggered without taking too much damage and such. (try entering turn based mode stealth near npc characters and watch them walk around unaffected by your turn based shenanigans)

[Recjawjind]

Originally posted by Linde:

It doesn't freeze npcs in the world, it just freezes effects triggered on your characters, so you can run away from the fire trap you triggered without taking too much damage and such. (try entering turn based mode stealth near npc characters and watch them walk around unaffected by your turn based shenanigans)

I have frozen npcs to pickpocket them *countless* times, or to get a cheeky first hit in. Idk what you're talking about.

[Linde]

Originally posted by Recjawjind:

Originally posted by Linde:

It doesn't freeze npcs in the world, it just freezes effects triggered on your characters, so you can run away from the fire trap you triggered without taking too much damage and such. (try entering turn based mode stealth near npc characters and watch them walk around unaffected by your turn based shenanigans)

I have frozen npcs to pickpocket them *countless* times, or to get a cheeky first hit in. Idk what you're talking about.

I will check to see if they fixed that, in one of the last few ea versions, because I've had plenty of plays where I walk in turn based, and world walk on by in its own pace.

[Megiddo]

Again, I think that it's just the "co-op" tag that I'm completely unfamiliar with here. No, pressing escape to bring up the main menu and/or entering full turn based mode *don't* properly pause many of the things that were happening in real time. At least not within my very limited experience with EA here. It's quite possible (and likely) that I've overlooked several pausing options that may be available here, though. Outside of a very small and limited range, though, barely anything was pausing at all. Even within that small range, several things were occurring that wouldn't pause properly. Beneficial spells counting down, damage over time effects from spells and/or environment. Those sorts of things were effecting my single player game and I had no real way of pausing any of them. I'm familiar with a few external programs that hack into these "co-op" titles that will properly pause everything, but I'm unsure if reasonable options exist otherwise. I know that the mod communities for DoS, DoS2, and Baldur's Gate 3 (so far) have all found it impossible to provide real pausing options for single players. What am I overlooking?

[Sonic Titan]

Originally posted by Megiddo:

Even within that small range, several things were occurring that wouldn't pause properly. Beneficial spells counting down, damage over time effects from spells and/or environment. Those sorts of things were effecting my single player game and I had no real way of pausing any of them.

Turn-based mode will stop those things.

[Ozius]

Originally posted by Linde:

Originally posted by Recjawjind:

I have frozen npcs to pickpocket them *countless* times, or to get a cheeky first hit in. Idk what you're talking about.

I will check to see if they fixed that, in one of the last few ea versions, because I've had plenty of plays where I walk in turn based, and world walk on by in its own pace.

I can confirm that entering turn-based mode with shift-space does freeze the world around you. I do it all the time.

[Megiddo]

Thank you! So, outside of cosmetic and completely irrelevant things happening, nothing in real time cannot be properly paused that will effect my game? The NPCs all appearing to do thier own thing outside of that very limited pause range is all purely cosmetic?

[Cirrus]

Originally posted by Megiddo:

Thank you! So, outside of cosmetic and completely irrelevant things happening, nothing in real time cannot be properly paused that will effect my game? The NPCs all appearing to do thier own thing outside of that very limited pause range is all purely cosmetic?

Correct.

Maybe most notable exception is that if there are lots of wandering enemies they could enter your combat zone while you have paused. This could be problem if you were planning some ambush etc that require not combat mode for them.

Edit: I think this has happened once for me...