'Pause' button must be responsive at all times

ScubaMD

The Pause button, which allows you to quit a matchup, becomes unresponsive even between turns.

This button MUST be made available at all times to reduce the amount of time wasted by cheating AI, and so that a new game can be restarted quickly.

Nightglider1

The AI doesn't cheat.

If your team will be downed before the AI turn is over (which has already been played, it's just the animation is catching up) you cannot back out.

ScubaMD

Oh, no - it does. This has been well-established. That's not the point of the post.

The animation should not prevent the pause button from being used, and allow a player to back out at any point during the game. A pause is just that, a pause - whether it be animation or gameplay. Otherwise there's actually very little point of a pause, since players turns are not timed.

MojoWild

If it's not the point of the post, no need to bring it up and degrade your own argument.

It's not that much time lost, it's a non-issue.

ScubaMD

Yeah, no. I'm not going to sit through a 10-match cascade followed by the AI launching every power on their team.

Stop arguing and just agree that the pause button must be responsive. If it doesn't affect you, great. It affects me, and needs to be changed.

MojoWild

I don't have to agree with it. It's silly.

ScubaMD

It may be 'silly' to you, but I am confident I am not the only one frustrated by this behavior. Nobody wants to sit through that when you're getting screwed over by the AI. I want to cancel and restart the game as quickly as possible. There's absolutely no impact to anyone who thinks it's "silly", so there's no reason for you to comment. It only adds value.

Gryffle

When you get a massive cascade that fills every ap bar: game working as intended.

When the AI gets the same: obvious cheating.

Smudge

So... did you know that if your team is going to KO the AI in one fell swoop after you make your initial match, you cannot retreat either? It even works if you cannot see an obvious way your team will win until you get control back.

I have had matches end unexpectedly because I made a quick match-3 that caused a small cascade, figured I'd have to fire a power the next turn, and then POOF, Scarlet Witch's countdown generates a match-5 when my turn starts that causes a Professor X power trigger, leads to 2 more match-5s, and suddenly it's game over.

Funny how it works both ways in this scenario... try it if you don't believe me. Complain all you want, but this does not appear to be a bug, and it's not going anywhere (nor should it be anywhere near the top of the "bug fix" pile).

ScubaMD

It is a bug because it represents unresponsive UI.

Don't personally like it or don't see the point? Then don't comment. This post isn't for you; it's for developers to fix.

BlackSheep101

Or, it's a Suggestion--perhaps Feedback?--as to how you feel the UI should work.

The pause button changes, visually, when it is disabled, suggesting it is functioning as intended.

If you happen to be playing on an Android device, attempting to switch apps or pressing the Home button and then returning to the game will bring up the pause menu and allow you to retreat.

abmoraz

MojoWild wrote:

If it's not the point of the post, no need to bring it up and degrade your own argument.

It's not that much time lost, it's a non-issue.

You say that, but it can be. I lost over 10 minutes during a match in the simulator where (due to going into the battle at less than full team health), I ended up 1-on-1 with a lot of buffed protect tiles (over 3000 damage worth) vs their Scarlet Witch. She got a Reality crush off that did 1 damage and stunned me for 5 turns. I immediately hit the back button and got no response. "Oh tinykitty" was muttered out loud. The computer then proceeded to make no less than 30 moves that I witnessed (many more, as you will infer, were not witnessed), as her Arcane Incantation proceeded to go off, then she reality crushed, then arcane incantation, then reality crush... over and over and over and over, not really doing damage, just perma-stunning me for eons. At one point I set the tablet down and went to the bathroom (of course I washed my hands. I'm not a heathen), then came back, saw it was still the AI's turn. Let the dog out. Went to the kitchen and got a drink. Went back to the living room and checked on the game (still the AI grinding away). Went outside. Played fetch with the dog for a few tosses. Let the dog back in. Checked (still AI's turn). Turned on the TV, hit the web-launcher and queued up some Achievement Hunter vids, checked back and I had about half of my protect tiles left and about 1/3rd life. took 2 more reality crushes and she finally killed me.

I know this was rare case, but I've had other instances (not necessarily to this comical of an extreme) where extended stun meant watching the AI play for minutes on end. Ususally it involves Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch, or Cap going against 1 player on my team in late game where I was using players with a lot of protect tiles or some with self-stun (like Battery-man's recharge going off at the least opportune moments).

I don't think it's too much to ask for the pause/retreat to work in those scenarios. As you said, the match is already over, we're just watching the animations. I don't need to see 10 minutes of animation. Just let me end the match and go back to playing the game.

abmoraz

ScubaMD wrote:

The Pause button, which allows you to quit a matchup, becomes unresponsive even between turns.

This button MUST be made available at all times to reduce the amount of time wasted by cheating AI, and so that a new game can be restarted quickly.

Yeah, you have a good point in that the pause/retreat UI needs to be available at all times.

You weaken your own argument by claiming the AI is "cheating". That is a separate, albeit very weak, argument that should be in a separate post, especially if you want to gain any traction in this thread to get the UI to be responsive.

fun bit of trivia: the pause button USED to work at all times. I noticed it changed to the current method during a patch release sometime last summer/autumn. My guess is it was either updated to prevent cheating on the player's end (quitting early to avoid damage) or it was an unintended consequence of making the battle calculations more efficient (meaning that the entire AI's turn(s) are now calculated at once rather than turn by turn, even if there is no opportunity for the player to make a move due to cascades + chained attacks + stuns + airborn + etc...)

JVReal

What I would recommend is that the pause button be available at all times, but if you are going to inevitably die as the AI knows, there should be a "skip animation" button, and you can then get to your "DEATH" banner, then heal your team and try again.

You should not be able to "pause", then retreat and only take a portion of the health penalty when you were inevitably going to lose that match. I imagine that is viewed as gaming the system to the devs.

AI cares not about your dignity, they will play out the death throng to the end.

I see it from both sides, I've sat and watched my team get stunned for 5 turns while SW, Prof X and Jean Grey gang up and commit mob violence to my poor innocent Hulk Buster until he's a pile of scrap. I wish I could have paused it and skipped the animations and click the "mercy kill" option.

Unfortunately, if people skip the animations, they will accuse the AI of cheating even more because they will only see their health bars drop to zero, their characters turn grey, and then they will swear at the screen and wonder how their team just died... and not really know how or why. They won't know about the giant cascade, they won't know what powers were used, they won't know the unlikely series of events that did just happen behind the scenes if they don't see it with their own eyes... would you?

As inconvenient as it is, I think we need to see it play out so that we can see that it did just happen, it happened legitimately, no matter how much we don't like it.