pausing: remove -or- make server side option -or- fix it

[tvon]

When I'm king, I'll remove pausing entirely....but untill then I'd love to see it as a server-side option (then I could just harass the admins to disable it *g* ).

I have a few arguments against pausing....but it all comes down to 1 main point which is....

Paused players interefere with players who arent paused.

- Targetting is fouled up by paused tanks (esp the ones paused on top of a building in the middle of the map). GM's cant lock tanks behind paused players, nor can they tell what flag they have.

- You always have to account for paused tanks. Paused ST's are the most annoying since you dont know when they unpause unless you watch the log window.

- People abuse pausing. Some even consider it a legit tactic.

The most common argument I hear for keeping pausing is:

"but what if my phone rings and I have to go answer it? I cant plan for that"

This is true, you cant help some interruptions. So, make a choice. If you're kicking butt, then maybe the phone call isnt that important to you. If you have to get the phone, fine, you can handle 1 measley little death. Hell, most people cant hold a positive score anyways, is 1 death too high a price for your phone call? That GM or ST flag that hard to find?

So, IMO it should be removed entirely...but I'm sure people will object so how about making it a server-side option?

-T

[Dutchrai]

Since pausing has a 5 second countdown (1.7g0) before taking effect, I don't think it's a problem. And when I'm playing for 2 or 3 hours on one server I am sure to need to go to the toilet, make coffee, open the door, answer the phone, and do some server admin (register IP's of bad guys).

However, when I am about to use pause, I always type something like 'brb' or 'phone' first, and when I am back I type 'back'. Just some common courtesy.

Anyway, I really need that pause. On another note, it would be nice to see any of the technical pause problems fixed.

[SGI]

-People abuse pausing. Some even consider it a legit tactic.

Pause is very necessary "Brb,phone,etc"
can we have a message before and after* like:

SGI pausing in 5s ..4s..3s...
SGI rejoint from pause in 5s........

Probably no more abuse

*someone will be waiting your "brb" return for kill "unfair,codard" you

I think if the people don't use for "legit tactic" it's OK