Pausing A Multiplayer Match

[evecolonycamander]

i recently discovered something here in the op2 game... i was playing against highlander and i needed to do something so i said i need to pause the game... i did in my own way by clicking the X button in the corner. when i got back an selected the "no" option i found out i was dropped. apparently you all didn't know you could pause that way. he said he got the "you have lost <player ID> for x seconds" message
ill add pictures latter

[Highlander]

First time this method gave a pretty instant disconnent and I lost contact with ECC.

When recreated later though, it seemed to work without disconnecting.
Perhaps some more testing is required before one tries this out in an important game.

 

[evecolonycamander]

i have uesed it multiple times before. most of them with my bothers and flashy and i think a few with hidot

[Sirbomber]

Known about this (and other ways to pause/lag/break multiplayer games) for years.  No, we won't tell you what they are.

[evecolonycamander]

And the pause trick wasn't posted? that sounds stupid.  

[CK9]

We used to just leave afk people alone and fought the others while we waited, lol

[Sirbomber]

And the exploit that would allow idiots to get themselves dropped by other idiots wasn't posted? that sounds stupid.

Fixed.

[BlackBox]

As far as most people are concerned, it's a cheat. If you start doing this with other players from OPU, expect to have a hard time finding people to play with as no one is going to play with someone who abuses bugs in the game so that other players can get dropped.

If you do it enough you might end up being banned as far as I am concerned this falls under "cheating."

[TH300]

Maybe its, because I never did this, but as far as I understand clicking the X will cause the "lost contact" message to appear until the player who clicked the X clicks "no". I don't see how the player who clicks the X can drop other players this way (and if he gets dropped... well, he could have avoided it).

[evecolonycamander]

before i go and use my version of pausing i ALWAYS tell the other players. unfortunately highlander was the first who did not realize it was a way to pause a multiplayer mach. that is what sparked me to do this thread cause i figured that if he did not know mabie there was others. so not to ague, i say this is a valuable tool but should only be used with experienced members and only then if you warn the other players.

[Spikerocks101]

Thou it is annoying to get disconnected, considering the length of an average "good game" of op2, a pause is sometimes needed. I see no reason to believe it's cheating, since all it does is pause the game, but as Highlander said, maybe some more testing is needed.

[Arklon]

Changing the game speed to 1 is an effective workaround.

[Sirbomber]

I don't see how the player who clicks the X can drop other players this way (and if he gets dropped... well, he could have avoided it).

The issue is more creating artificial lag (having the game freeze for 5 seconds at a time and being unable to do anything about it), forcing unit creation to fail, making an army of unkillable units, and causing desyncs.

[Highlander]

The reason ECC got dropped first game was more due to my ignorance than anything else I guess. What seem to happen is that the game freezes and you lose contact with the player who has taken a break. Game resumes once the player clicks "No" on his end.


I suppose you could say this is a bug, but it's not like you can exploit it really, as it "hurts" both the user and the receiver.
Neither can you force certain players to be dropped this way, like you could with a certain other program.

Though, I must say, I prefer the "old" way of just dropping gamespeed for some time.

[CK9]

and unless the latest person to attempt a re-make pulls through, it's not something we can do much about.

[TH300]

Yea, I also prefer the old way. But if someone used this, just to pause the game, I personally would not mind too much. Just be careful that you notify me early enough, or I may drop you.

[evecolonycamander]

and that makes perfect since. now if a user(like my brother) where to abuse it with off, on, off, on, he he, ha ha, then yes it would be a problem.  

[CK9]

If only there was a system that allowed the players in game to vote someone out if they're abusing bugs etc.

[evecolonycamander]

that can be done but only for new multiplayer games.

[Freeza-CII]

I have paused op2 for days and reconnected.

Me and my friend used to play and make rediculous colonies on ATW. But when i had to leave his place i would unplug the lan line. and either one of us wouldnt drop the player 2 or 3 days later we would plug it in and given we were using static ips and the game hadnt crashed we could continue playing.

[CK9]

wow, you bridged the gap between OP2 and Monopoly, lol.

[Freeza-CII]

yes yes i have