Hey there,
Multiplayer comes with the issue, that the individual players lose control over the gamespeed setting. Since it’s not possible to give every player their individual game speed, a solution must be found. Here is my suggestion:
- All the players have a bar on the right side of the screen that indicates the current game speed they have chosen.
- Next to the speed level you will see which player has chosen which gamespeed.
- The game will run in the slowest speed setting a player has chosen.
So if three players have chosen the gamespeed 2x and one player has chosen 1x, the game will run with the gamespeed 1x until this one player has also chosen 2x. The advantage of the shown names is, that other players can see if someone has chosen a lower gamespeed and can directly communicate to him and ask him to raise the speed. So it enhances communication between players, which is a good thing in multiplayer. 
Edit1: Thanks to the feedback of @Fornjotr I realized, that my suggestion has the flaw when it comes to pausing the game. There are players who literally abuse it and overuse it within a few seconds, which can be annoying for other players. Therefore I additionally suggest, that the host can deactivate the control over gamespeed AND the pause function (which should be sepparated options) for specific players. So if you have a player in the game who pauses the game every 30 seconds, the host then can decide to deactivate the pause function for this player. In this case, this player has to ask someone else to pause the game for him.
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There is certainly some issues with this “everyone has control over the gamespeed”.
What if it was only the host that could determin the speed? Then maybe a votingsystem? Or simply just normal communication about it in the chat?
What i find as the biggest issue, is not what speed it is run on, but the fact that players are so used to pressing pause in singleplayer, that people press it without even noticing? And with lag included, it can be hard to detect if the game is paused or just lagging?
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All though that could easily be fixed with a large ui-based pause icon in red in the right top corner @fornjotr
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Well, let me explain why I think it’s bad that the host has full control over it: Imagine you are not the host and a large army attacks you. In singleplayer, you would probably press pause and then scout the enemies strength and plan countermeasures. But since you are not in control over the gamespeed, it is possible that the host does not pause the game or reacts way to slow.
But you are right that the pause function can be a problem when everyone starts randomly pausing the game. I would suggest that the host can deactivate the control over gamespeed for specific players when they “abuse” it to much.
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Or, well, keep the system as it is, but clearly indicate that it’s paused, and who did it. If it gets abused the host kan kick that player anyway
Then again being able to toggle pause rights from the hosts point of view isn’t a bad thing.
Do note that that also means the host could just take away everyone’s pause rights, Basicly making that he could only pause anyway, the thing you did not want.
This is true, but what I want to achieve is, that players communicate with each other and don’t feel like having a disadvantage compared to the host. Don’t forget that most people will play with people they know or play with people they want to play with, so kicking may be not an option for most hosts. Also don’t forget that many people out there pause the game instinctively without noticing that they are annoying to others. That’s why I think it would be a good idea to let the host decide if someone should have the right to pause or not.
im in the other camp, if you are playing with known people anyway: inform them that they are pausing and shouldnt. i noticed that even in the 7 player games ive tested so far and the game with a friend or my girlfriend that as soon as you enlighten people that everyone controlls the time it usualy just stays at 1x, which is enough time to fight things.
For some reason I really want to see all of these systems(current, vote, host only, and slowest player) available as an option for the host to select in the multiplayer menu, but it seems like a lot of work to put in to just one small facet of the game.
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That’s Basicly my thoughts aswell, nice… But other things are nice-er
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It would be better if it was the average speed, or the most chosen. So when the majority is using a specific speed, that will be the game speed, and in case of a tie, it defaults to normal speed.
The problem with this is, that someone needs a quick pause function sometimes, for example when enemies attack. If 7 people choose 3x gamespeed and you choose pause as the only person, the game will still run at 2x gamespeed. Probably messing up your town before everyone else presses pause.
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But why everyone wants high speed? And how someone gets defeated by enemies while having 7 other allies?
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Granted, I haven’t gotten very far into the campaign in my MP world, but so far, I haven’t had a problem just leaving it at 1x most of the time.
All of our pausing has been on accident, but that happens all the time.
I’m bringing this up to support/reinforce the suggestion of a “democratic” game speed setting.
Or at least allow the host to see which speed the other players would like to be. When they press the keys for speeds (1, 2, 3 or 4 if enabled) the host could maybe see a little colored (player color) dot near the speed controls, indicating which speed people require. That way they can know when to pause or when everyone is ok with fast speed or if someone needs a slower speed.
I’d actually prefer something like the OP suggests, having the lowest chosen speed be the valid one but if all players are on a certain speed, it changes to that speed. That would allow for you to quickly slow down or pause a fast game if needed without someone else just punching it to fast again - and then going back to fast when you’re done, and so on.
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