Save game vs. "pause?"

[PULSEOX]

I was wondering if anyone routinely uses the "pause"- 0 time compression- to leave the game for long periods (such as overnight), instead of saving the game and exiting?
I was thinking that would save time with not having to go thru the long load and startup-but I'm afraid maybe the game crashes if you "pause" it for such a long time....Does anyone know for sure?

[sqk7744]

I was wondering if anyone routinely uses the "pause"- 0 time compression- to leave the game for long periods (such as overnight), instead of saving the game and exiting?
I was thinking that would save time with not having to go thru the long load and startup-but I'm afraid maybe the game crashes if you "pause" it for such a long time....Does anyone know for sure?

It's better to save and close those files nicely, assuring a solid restart point. Computers also like a reboot, vs. running all night (me thinks your electric bill would approve too) just to save 5 mins of time to resume play.

[SteamWake]

I have head storys of the game crashing after being left at 0 TC for a period of time.

[Nafod81]

I was wondering if anyone routinely uses the "pause"- 0 time compression- to leave the game for long periods (such as overnight), instead of saving the game and exiting?
I was thinking that would save time with not having to go thru the long load and startup-but I'm afraid maybe the game crashes if you "pause" it for such a long time....Does anyone know for sure?

It's better to save and close those files nicely, assuring a solid restart point. Computers also like a reboot, vs. running all night (me thinks your electric bill would approve too) just to save 5 mins of time to resume play.

Eh, depending on the computer: Restarting provides a surge of electricity and doing so frequently generally wears out components quicker than continued use. I typically only turn mine off if I won't be on for a day or longer. Your electricity bill will improve if you practice this however.

No idea on excessive pauses crashing SHIV. I know occasionally one shotting a small merchant will, and one time when I had sacked 3 kongo BB's my save got corrupted:damn:

No idea on

[SteamWake]

Eh, depending on the computer: Restarting provides a surge of electricity and doing so frequently generally wears out components quicker than continued use. I typically only turn mine off if I won't be on for a day or longer. Your electricity bill will improve if you practice this however.


Sorry being an electrical engineer I just have to jump in here and call BS.

Yes there is an inrush when the computer is started. It lasts approximatly 10 cycles out of 60 cycles per seconds so approximatly 1/60th of a second. After that it is a steady state draw which flucuates to some degree depending on how hard your system is working. Regardless of what the state of the computer... even in "sleep" mode, the power supply is still drawing current.

The inrush of a incandescent light bulb is probably on the order of 1,000 times that of your computers power supply but falls off much more quickly in only a few cycles. In fact when power is first applied to a cold filament it is literally a dead short circuit. When the filiment gets hot the current draw falls dramatically due to the increased resistance of the hot filiment.

Now is it more energy efficent to turn your lights on and leave them on or cut them off when not in use ?

Also consider while the computer is on the fans are constantly running and pulling in dust and debrie. Eventually the heat sinks will become plugged up and require cleaning. If there not cleaned eventually you will have catastrophic faiure. The more the machine runs the sooner the heat sinks get choked up.

As to component failure this is a wives tale which dates back to the days (circa 1950-1970) when electrolytic capacitors were made of wax paper and aluminum foil (sometimes mica would be used). They would indeed fail eventually and frequent inrushes made the problem worse. Modern components are designed to withstand inrush currents to avoid these problems. The biggest thing to remember is that if you do cut the power off to your machine wait a few moments before re-applying power. Doing so allows the caps to bleed off there current charge. Banging a fully charged capacitor with an inrush is not good for their health but they only take a few seconds (10 or so) to bleed off.

Now dont get me wrong you dont want to cut your machine off when you get up to go to the bathroom or whatever but leaving it on all night when not being used is just a waste of money.

Hows that for an off topic rant ! :know:

[John Channing]

Pretty darn good.

JCC

[sqk7744]

Amen SteamWake!

I always say, unless your computer is running the air traffic control system shut it off when not in use for extended periods of time (1+ hours) and after 12 years in IT Windows OS's still need a reboot every now and again to cure all the memory leaks.

After all, starting your car increases wear and burns fuel, but we don't leave our cars continuously running. (in temps above the Arctic that is)

[theluckyone17]

On the other hand, from a mechanical engineering stand point, when you power up a computer, it heats up. As things heat, they expand. When you shut the system down, it cools, and contracts. Things only expand and contract so many times before they fatigue and break. While we're talking about a low amount of fatigue (after all, the temperature differential across most of the system isn't all that high), we're also talking about a relatively tiny component.

Now I haven't studied this, keep in mind... but you might want to take a look at these:
Google Search: power computer off versus leave it on (http://www.google.com/search?q=power+computer+off+versus+leave+it+on&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)

[longam]

It is strange how I always shutdown at home, yet supporting more then 150 systems at a prior job and even few as 12 at current job, yet we still leave them run 24/7. (backup)

I guess it relates to users being more productive rather then waiting for boot up and update lag as you would with shutting down every night.

[SteamWake]

It is strange how I always shutdown at home, yet supporting more then 150 systems at a prior job and even few as 12 at current job, yet we still leave them run 24/7. (backup)

I guess it relates to users being more productive rather then waiting for boot up and update lag as you would with shutting down every night.

Not very "green" of you :p

No seriously if you got money to burn (shrug).

One other thing I forgot to mention is that depending on what part of the country you live in leaving your maching on while away at work or whatever can lead to heartbreak.

Here is the southeast US we have lightning storms on a daily basis. Im assuming being a buisness your behind some solid surge protection and also have back up power. The typical home 'player' is not. They may have surge protection but trust me the ulitimate surge protector is the power switch. :|\\

[ReallyDedPoet]

Save, save and yes save :yep:


RDP

[Snuffy]

I for one have been a firm believer in shutting down the system when I am not on it, so I save and get out of the game. (BTW, I save every 12 hours of game play.)

I'm not too worried about load times as I have a fairly robust system.

What I do worry about is the fact that as I am connected to the internet, (broadband cable, router with firewall, etc.) and knowing the types of idiots that are out there just looking for a ping, I figure the less time I leave my system open to something like that the better off I am going to be.

So for security reasons alone ... shut it down.

[sqk7744]

I for one have been a firm believer in shutting down the system when I am not on it, so I save and get out of the game. (BTW, I save every 12 hours of game play.)

I'm not too worried about load times as I have a fairly robust system.

What I do worry about is the fact that as I am connected to the internet, (broadband cable, router with firewall, etc.) and knowing the types of idiots that are out there just looking for a ping, I figure the less time I leave my system open to something like that the better off I am going to be.

So for security reasons alone ... shut it down.

SQK7744_SECURITY_RANT=ON

And 'if' someone figures out how to get your; dhcp IP from cable or dsl, makes it thru your modem and router w/firewall (check and set these settings)
Firewall Protection: Enable
IPSec Pass through: Disable
PPTP Pass through: Disable
L2TP Pass through: Disable
block WAN ping requests): Enable

It is still worth checking your bios and disabling 'wake on LAN ping'. A local internet protection suite is also a good: Norton, MacAfee, etc.

SQK7744_SECURITY_RANT=OFF

For clean power issues, would suggest a APC UPS (750es $80 usd) or similar. As stated by SteamWake, a good idea to unplug both power and internet connection from wall in lightning prone areas. After all a $2500+ computer will gladly give it's life to protect a 10 cent fuse.

No hacker in the world has figured-out how to plug your machine back into the wall via telekinesis ;)

Time for a coffee refill, -morning Gents