Discovery and Fog of War (FOW)

[Sonsalt]

Idea: Introduce undiscovered areas and Fog of war.

Introduction:

Rimworld already partially uses a discovery system for hidden areas within Rocks and buildings, however the remaining Map is fully discovered and all active animals and units are always visible to the player. Since this game is focused on survival, adding the element of discovery and line of sight would further increase the immersion.

Gameplay Effects.

1. Discovery
Starting with an undiscovered map would provide the player with the opportunity to look for all kinds of mineral deposits, lakes etc. Step by step revealing the map and its hidden treasures.

2. Fog of War, line of sight
This is certainly the most ambitious part of the proposal. If all living creatures and also changes, like growth to plants etc are only visible within a line of sight element, several key aspects of the game-play would change quite drastically.

- Hunting would be much more also about finding the prey
- Ambushes and Sieges would be much more of a surprise
- Regular discovery would be required to discover new plants etc.

Changes to the AI

Like for many other RTS games (Starcraft2...) the AI would have to limit his engagement range and other tactical decisions. The line of sight would determine the attack range and the knowledge about defenses etc. would dictate the strategy.

Animal Hunting would also occur in a different manor, as animals would attack their prey within the line of sight, causing the hunter to be attacked by a bear if he steps within a certain range and the animal is hungry...

Research and Tools

By researching and unlocking technology items, like binoculars, Observation towers, motion tracking sensors etc, one could increase the line of sight.

Pro:
- More tactical depth
- hunting and discovery become more urgent and surprising
- Attacks and defense is more based on reconnaissance
- A whole range of items can improve knowledge about the area and increase line of sight
- Improvements to performance on large maps

Con:
- Drastic changes to AI required
- Less control over what is happening on the map
- Players do not have full map knowledge at the beginning of the game
- Discovering and finding certain animals can become much harder.

One could implement Discovery and FoW or either one individually.


What do you think?

[Granitecosmos]

I love how the thread below this one is literally the same request.    When you don't even have to use the search function, yet still post basically the same thing... 

Probably won't be reimplemented into the core game.

This will have to remain in mod territory for now.

[Sola]