Toggle for Fog of War

[Lightzy]

Fog of War!!

Some won't like it, some, like myself, would absolutely love it. So at the very least, a toggle option when selecting difficulty levels.

I don't want to know where those raiders are coming from. I don't want to know where that space ship part crashed, and I don't want to know where the manhunter pack is unless my scout spotted it, or unless I build watch towers with spycams (and I think it's very appropriate to the game setting to need to have guys on patrol duty).

Much more exciting game and more difficult.

[schizmo]

I love it. I probably wouldn't use it but it's a great idea

[Lightzy]

Would also set the stage for sniper/artillery spotters to make those less all-powerful.
Also allows for items like binoculars and glasses.
Also allows more interesting pawn qualities (whatever pertains to sight range) and eye implants.


Though I think sight should be a radius rather than directional, because you don't generally have enough pawns and considering the time/size scale of the game it would just feel 'off' to have directional sight.

[schizmo]

This also opens up the possibility of colonists vision distance being directly impacted by their eyesight and whether or not they have a bionic eye, colonists with damaged eyesight would obviously have reduced vision based on an arbitrary tile distance, however bionic eyes could not only improve that distance but perhaps the enhancements would eliminate the need for spotters. Or maybe spotters with bionic eyes would provide huge bonuses

[Lightzy]

Oh, and maybe the MOST IMPORTANT THING:

Now with us being able to raid enemy camps, being able to see everything and everyone makes it very, very easy and almost stupid.
I imagine raiding an enemy camp with fog-of-war on would be a truly fun experience, requiring you to truly scout out the place with expert spotters with long visions or binoculars, etc.
Go commando

[schizmo]

YES. If anything fog of war should be required for raiding.

[JesterHell]

I like me some fog of war, I'd personally put it in the scenario setting rather then options but that's because I'm against thing like being able to change game difficulty halfway though.

[Lightzy]

So how about fog of war?
It seems it's something absolutely everyone is +1ing and has many topics posted on it.
Do you +1 fog of war?

[Limdood]

I'm against it.  the idea of the fog of war hurts the "story management survival sim" feel of the game.  Being LESS aware of threats inbound doesn't make for a better story, it makes for a worse one.

Further, rounding a corner and dying to a threat you never could have known was there is what makes people rage and never play a game again.

[Lightzy]

That's why I offer that it be a toggle. For the pussies who can't handle the pressure, you know.

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[Limdood]

That's why I offer that it be a toggle. For the pussies who can't handle the pressure, you know.

Thanks for adding a dose of personal assholery to the discussion

[Lightzy]

I don't recall doing that, but people take offense to anything these days

[jamaicancastle]

Maybe someone with some history here can correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this a feature in one of the earlier alphas? In which case I can only imagine it was removed for causing problems, whether technical or gameplay.

[A Friend]

This was actually part of the earliest stages of the game. It was a Fog Of War system like the ones usually seen in RTS games.

It didn't do any good for the game though. AI couldn't use it. Players were frustrated. Ultimately it was almost completely ditched. The only remnant of this feature is the "New Area Revealed".

Possible? Of course. Would break the AI? 99% sure it would. Would take years to properly patch up the AI for it? Probably.

Obligatory "I was killed by a sniper raider from the fog of war!" example.

Also

I don't recall doing that, but people take offense to anything these days

That's why I offer that it be a toggle. For the pussies who can't handle the pressure, you know.

Because that is an offense. You basically just insulted everyone who would refuse to play your way.
It's unnecessary and just promotes namecalling. Stop it.

But anyways,
A problem with this is with balance. Current AI with a fog of war would just become more frustrating than fun. Any attempts to fix that may instead screw over the non-FOW players. What will happen is either:

A. The AI will just be tuned to one mode and the other suffers creating a bad look for the game.
B. They get their own separate AI at the cost of dev time that could be used on more significant features.

If there's gonna be FOW, then follow it through all the way or don't bother.

[Lightzy]

It's only offensive to pussies. And they'll be triggered by anything. So no problem there.

Anyway, regarding AI, I don't see anything you wrote as a thing. The game plays the exact same way. You just need to make sure you can see stuff.  Send patrols, build guard towers, build security cameras etc.

Whatever tech you got and however you're willing to invest.

It's actually a bit silly for this stuff NOT to be in a game where you're basically building a self-contained, fortified colony. Patrols and guard posts are like, the first thing you need realistically.

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