No pause, adjustable speed controls ?

[SteahmChip]

Noticed this game is on sale and it interests me!
However, search indicates no pause that allowes interaction with units and did not find information on adjustable speed controls

Pause Tactically
RTS game, whatever it is, should have Pause Tactically/ Pause and Give Orders / Active Pause(goes by different names) function for single player, list here:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/pausetacticality/discussions/0/2906376154321402758/

Pause Tactically means in single player games, one can pause, look around map and select units and direct them (give orders)
unpause and action unfolds.
good for setting up special attacks that may not be used otherwise because of usual frantic pace of default RTs

Adjustable game speed is also good to have in single player RTS games ranging from very slow to very fast (useful if have massive overwhelming forces and need to destroy all the remaining enemy buildings etc)

For example playing Dawn of War for slower game speeds can be set in autoexec.lua
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2955144612

Startopia a game from 2001; has a console command F11 where speed can be adjusted faster or slower
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1104801571

While various individuals have no issues with these games "as is," there are a multitude of reasons others want these features because of hooks for hands, substandard reflexes, out of coffee etc.
Thanks

[Saint Graz]

if u hit the menu button it pause the game for tea .other than that there's no special attacks that you have to use/spam and as they are ants the war is pheromone? based and mostly comes down to who has more ant and what Lv they are . Also i suck at RTS but can beat the Lv's on hard and most of the story is timed (get past x days or collect x amount of stuff) very few require you to kill the enemy queen.

There has been times where i would have liked a pause or a 2x speed but not that often most times i just watch my dude kill n transport the food in a weirdly hypnotic line

[PSTDENIS]

While various individuals have no issues with these games "as is," there are a multitude of reasons others want these features because of hooks for hands, substandard reflexes, out of coffee etc.
Thanks

I think this should be thought of as an accessibility issue. No store should be built without ramps, and doornobs should be handles for those with hooks for hands.

[midnightShade29]

disappointing. I see it on sale and I say nope... I love city building but I am not into twitch rts anymore.

[Meewec]

Originally posted by midnightShade29:

disappointing. I see it on sale and I say nope... I love city building but I am not into twitch rts anymore.

it really doesn't need that fast of reflexes, your pheromone marker takes a few seconds for your ants to respond to it anyways depending upon the size of the ants in the group.

[druzilsupreme]

OP is correct this is an accessibility issue

[Large_Gremlin]

As someone with a frankly ungodly amount of hours in this game, yes, I do also think this is an accessibility issue and that it would be much less irritating for others to play this game if it had a proper pause function (no, the ESC key *does not count* as one.) and adjustable speed controls.
Nearly every single RTS I've played has had a proper pause function, with C&C 3 and RA3 (and their expansions, Kane's Wrath and Uprising) being the sole exceptions.
The only excuses I can possibly thing of for these accessibility features *not* being in this game is that the developers simply never thought about it or that it was not considered important to add to the game.
Which, if the latter option is true, is incredibly disappointing.

[Large_Gremlin]

I also find it disappointing that this game only has 1 campaign despite marketing that it's an RTS.
Most RTS games either have one campaign with *a lot* of levels to make up for the lack of other campaigns, or have multiple campaigns with differences between them (usually different factions, such as in C&C with GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod, or Supreme Commander with the Aeon, UEF, and Cybran factions.) that allow for each one of the campaigns to feel drastically different from one another.
The fact this game somehow manages to do *neither* of these things is pretty baffling to me, in all honesty.
*How* there is only *ONE* campaign with *16 levels* (some of which can be utter nightmares to play, like the third Formicarium Challenge or Triage.) is beyond my understanding.

[Zmora]

Game save and active pause would be really nice, without save replaying the same levels over and over is annoying (almost any lvl is 1hr < x long, do IT would be nice to save in Safe times

[Sloul Des Tucs]

+1 for tactical pause

[Large_Gremlin]

Returning here just to say that it feels rather telling that there seemingly hasn't been any acknowledgement that the lack of an actual pause feature or adjustable game speed controls is an issue. Either the developers don't think these are features worth having in the game or they never considered adding them in the first place.

[Sloul Des Tucs]

The worst part is that I believe Empire of the Ants from which this game is inspired had a tactical pause (cannot 100% confirm it). I would have to try to find a copy of that game (which is probably Abandonware atm).

[Sloul Des Tucs]

And what an inspiration, while not well-known Empire of the Ants was a critical success of its time, full of ideas and creativity!
I probably still have a joystick review of that game
That time was precious.