Idle Pause
Watches your currently selected crew member and pauses the game the moment they run out of things to do. No more looking up to find your character has been standing around doing nothing while real time ticked by. It pauses once per idle stretch, so if you un-pause on purpose it respects that and will not keep fighting you.
Features
- Pauses on idle — when your selected crew member has nothing real left to do, the game pauses automatically so you do not waste time.
- Pauses only once per idle stretch — after a manual un-pause it re-arms only when that crew gets busy again or you pick a different idle character. It never spams the pause.
- Un-pauses when you give an order — issue any order (right-click, walk, or a quick-bar action) and the game un-pauses automatically so the order runs. No more manual un-pausing. Can be disabled.
- Speed-independent grace period — waits a short moment before pausing so the AI can line up the next task. The wait is measured on the game clock, so it behaves the same at 1x, 2x, or 3x speed; if real work shows up during the wait, the pause is cancelled.
- Does not fight autonomous work — Auto-Task crew get a separate, longer idle grace so the game AI has time to surface its next action (flagged tasks, repair/restore scans, eating and drinking) before the mod decides they are idle. Manual crew pause promptly. Both delays are adjustable.
- Smart idle detection — standing still and waiting count as idle, but a crew member who is walking somewhere stays busy until they arrive, so you are never paused mid-stride.
- Stays out of the way — it will not pause while you are editing your ship, typing, or in situations where the game has pausing locked.
- Optional player-only mode — restrict pausing to only when your own character is selected.
- Native crew-bar button — adds an IDLE PAUSE toggle right alongside the game’s own AUTOTASK and AUTOPAUSE controls, matching the game’s UI. Click it or use the hotkey (F8 by default) to turn the mod on and off without opening any menus.
Configuration (edit the mod’s file in BepInEx/config after first launch)
- Enabled — master on/off switch for the whole mod. Default on.
- ToggleKey — the hotkey that turns Idle Pause on and off in-game. Default F8.
- OnlyWhenPlayerSelected — only pause when the selected crew member is your own character. Default off.
- AutoUnpauseOnOrder — automatically un-pause whenever you issue an order, so it runs. Default on.
- IdlePauseDelay — game-seconds a manual crew member (Auto Task off) must stay idle before pausing; measured on the game clock, so it behaves the same at any speed. Set 0 to pause immediately. Default 5.0.
- AutoTaskIdlePauseDelay — game-seconds an Auto-Task crew member must stay idle before pausing; larger than the above so the game AI has time to surface its next action first. Default 15.0.
- IdleInteractions — the activities treated as doing nothing. Default QuickWait, Wait, Idle.
- UseGameAutoPause — use the game’s built-in auto-pause instead of pausing directly; leaving it off is the most reliable. Default off.
- VerboseLogging — extra detail about idle and pause decisions in the log, for troubleshooting. Default off.
Requires the BepInEx Mod Loader (free, on the Workshop). Subscribe to it and complete its one-time setup or this mod will not load: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3741030124
