I’m sorry I don’t getting your point . You start off by agreeing that you don’t like the extra complexity that the update statements give. Then do some pseudo code of something entirely different where we all already agree is not an issue.
Then at the end your conclusion is that it is totally feasible. Why? You still didn’t adress the problem of updating the state
Ok, I mentioned a state machine in another sub thread. It’s not as bad if you already have a state machine.
It’s still adding more complexity though - again when the value is updated. You still need to change the state when saving. You need to decide which state to use when starting the game.
There is still risk of screwing that up when refactoring. And still the value is nearly none.
Regarding state mchines, it’s a complexity in itaelf to add random flags ro the state machine. Next time you want to add another flag you need to double all the states again, e.g. PAUSED, PAUSED_AND_SAVED, PAUSED_AND_MUTED, PAUSED_AND_SAVED_AND_MUTED. I would never add mute to the logic of the menu but that’s the pnly example I could come up with. Maybe you see my point there, at least?
Plus all the lines to update the state, when the menu is closed, when the game is closed (i.e should it be true or false at startup), when the game is saved obviously.
That’s at least three more lines plus the one you mentioned for no extra value. And again it’s easier to screw it up e.g. while refactoring.
The state “the game is paused” is different from " the game is paused and saved". Sure that could be another key in some atate machine but like above: it’s the “not mess it up” part that is harder.
It’s the “don’t mess it up” part that is harder.
They solved that by having most of the game revert to starting positions frequently (e.g. every time you die, area load).
Maybe not as immersive as Bethesda games but their lore at least tries to make sense of it.
It’s more like playing the Edge of Tomorrow movie, you need to learn where everything is.
That’s harder to implement. Suddenly you need to store that extra state somewhere and don’t mess it up. The last save should already have a timestamp and is immutable. A lot less likely to get bugs that way.
How can you live with yourself?