Disable background pause?

[VoidEngineer]

Any time my game window loses focus the game pauses. I didn't see any obvious place to change this behavior in the options. Is there a way to stop it from happening? I see settings for background FPS, which implies there is.

[Wizard of Woz]

Why wouldn't you want the game to pause?

[Alessondria]

It does that as default. Yes there's an option, as I asked the same thing. I forget what it was or under what setting. It is in there.

[VoidEngineer]

Originally posted by Alessondria:

It does that as default. Yes there's an option, as I asked the same thing. I forget what it was or under what setting. It is in there.

Thanks. I will look again. These settings can be pretty esoteric and poorly labeled.

[crazykiddeath]

I'd like to know how to do this too if anyone figures it out, thanks in advance.

[Alessondria]

Huh. I launched the game to see (not played this in ages) and turns out that one of the patches done seems to have removed this? Or maybe it was an ini tweak that got rest? Regardless, I too would be interested in another fix for this in 2024!

[Wizard of Woz]

I am still curious why anyone wouldn't want the game to pause when they switch windows.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by Wizard of Woz:

I am still curious why anyone wouldn't want the game to pause when they switch windows.

Hmm.. I can only guess some very niche scenarios. Niche, but oh so very nostalgic. I needed what OP asked for about 20 years ago, when I was playing through HotU for the first time. And I discovered that Vikstra's cult lair with infinitely respawning vampires - it was the first mechanic of the kind at the time that I've faced in the context of an official campaign.

So of course I wanted to get the most of it and level up as much as I could. It gets really fast till level 25..26, but then it slows down. Still doable till 27, but then it's really a slog. So I wanted to "Alt-TAB it and do something else while the game farms itself" (naturally the PC was so strong by that point that those vampires stood no chance + they were scripted to beeline at PC's location which is just perfect for AFK farming)

It makes no sense now in hindsight of course - because that process can be just brought to reason of my own conscience where I'd answer "well, what do I think, which level is reasonable to get here?" - and then just give XP through console to get it. Be it as it may - I didn't know console even existed back then, let alone any scripting commands. And that was my reason for wishing the game didn't pause when minimized.

[crazykiddeath]

Originally posted by Wizard of Woz:

I am still curious why anyone wouldn't want the game to pause when they switch windows.

So I can do stuff outside of the game without it pausing.
Wizard spends a lot of time resting and buffing and I can use that time for finding the next thing I'm going to listen to in the background.

Originally posted by id795078477:

Originally posted by Wizard of Woz:

I am still curious why anyone wouldn't want the game to pause when they switch windows.

Hmm.. I can only guess some very niche scenarios. Niche, but oh so very nostalgic. I needed what OP asked for about 20 years ago, when I was playing through HotU for the first time. And I discovered that Vikstra's cult lair with infinitely respawning vampires - it was the first mechanic of the kind at the time that I've faced in the context of an official campaign.

So of course I wanted to get the most of it and level up as much as I could. It gets really fast till level 25..26, but then it slows down. Still doable till 27, but then it's really a slog. So I wanted to "Alt-TAB it and do something else while the game farms itself" (naturally the PC was so strong by that point that those vampires stood no chance + they were scripted to beeline at PC's location which is just perfect for AFK farming)

It makes no sense now in hindsight of course - because that process can be just brought to reason of my own conscience where I'd answer "well, what do I think, which level is reasonable to get here?" - and then just give XP through console to get it. Be it as it may - I didn't know console even existed back then, let alone any scripting commands. And that was my reason for wishing the game didn't pause when minimized.

You can actually do that as early as Luskan if you are patient enough, though if I was going to do that I'd just leave the game running overnight.
As for using console commands to cheat xp, I suppose a lot of people would see a difference between doing that and just making use of what is in the game.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by crazykiddeath:

As for using console commands to cheat xp, I suppose a lot of people would see a difference between doing that and just making use of what is in the game.

Not .. really? Using infinite respawns to level up is already a clearly cheese move - not something intended by devs. Estimating "okay, what's the realistic limits I can get to with this" and then giving self that amount of XP at that point in SP context is just saving time.

[crazykiddeath]

Originally posted by id795078477:

Originally posted by crazykiddeath:

As for using console commands to cheat xp, I suppose a lot of people would see a difference between doing that and just making use of what is in the game.

Not .. really? Using infinite respawns to level up is already a clearly cheese move - not something intended by devs. Estimating "okay, what's the realistic limits I can get to with this" and then giving self that amount of XP at that point in SP context is just saving time.

I mean, you have entire communities built on making use of exploits but they don't use console commands and cheats. You might not see a difference but go try tell that to the speedrunning communities.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by crazykiddeath:

Originally posted by id795078477:

Not .. really? Using infinite respawns to level up is already a clearly cheese move - not something intended by devs. Estimating "okay, what's the realistic limits I can get to with this" and then giving self that amount of XP at that point in SP context is just saving time.

I mean, you have entire communities built on making use of exploits but they don't use console commands and cheats. You might not see a difference but go try tell that to the speedrunning communities.

Well, whatever floats their boats. I could "understand" it in MP (not to confuse with me condoning it), but in SP it's really just wasting time knowing what will be the result of the repetition of the process. But - eh, we are okay to have different takes on this.

[crazykiddeath]

Originally posted by id795078477:

Originally posted by crazykiddeath:

I mean, you have entire communities built on making use of exploits but they don't use console commands and cheats. You might not see a difference but go try tell that to the speedrunning communities.

Well, whatever floats their boats. I could "understand" it in MP (not to confuse with me condoning it), but in SP it's really just wasting time knowing what will be the result of the repetition of the process. But - eh, we are okay to have different takes on this.

Sure.
Now back to the topic on hand. I'd still like to be able to tab out for resting or buffing so if anyone figures it out, I'd be very appreciative if you share the know-how.

[VoidEngineer]

Originally posted by crazykiddeath:

Sure.
Now back to the topic on hand. I'd still like to be able to tab out for resting or buffing so if anyone figures it out, I'd be very appreciative if you share the know-how.

I never found a solve for it, unfortunately. :'(

[id795078477]

The brute force solution would be to run it in a virtual desktop. Most Linux GUI allow doing that and I guess Windows has some options for that too.