Fog of War - interface

[SlowThinker]

(I don't know whether Fog changed in version 1.5)
Why the Fog is showed in a RTS style?
I don't get the reason why all uncovered hexes should not remain visible during all player's turn (next I will call it a TBS style).
(The current system of Fog view should be still accessible with a hotkey (so that a player knows which hexes will be visible during turn of other players))

[Turuk]

I think the whole idea is not that if you have uncovered it once, you can continue to see it, but rather what you can see is based on your units' line of sight. That way you do not get to magically see everything, even if there is no longer a unit in that corner of the map.

[SlowThinker]

There is no real difference between the RTS fog style and the TBS fog style . Yes, visibility is different, but knowledge of the map is equal. With the RTS style a player must remember where were units on the map (and this is a bit annoying), while the TBS style is more comfortable.

BTW we can "magically" undo turns, and this option is also because of a comfort, so I don't see why not to have more comfort with Fog.

[Mica]

Um because it means you know your opponent's enemy was there or not there? Oh okay, there's 5 paths covered in fog - I'll just see which one leads to the enemy by going there and undoing til I see him.

[SlowThinker]

Um because it means you know your opponent's enemy was there or not there? Oh okay, there's 5 paths covered in fog - I'll just see which one leads to the enemy by going there and undoing til I see him.

I don't understand, could you rephrase?

[SlowThinker]

Maybe I was not clear enough. An example:

I know about the orc:



...then I move my elf one square. I still know about orc's presence (he cannot move during my turn), but he is not visible anymore.



So with current RTS fog style I must remember all squares revealed during my turn and position of enemy units, or I can use labels. Anyway it annoys.

[Mica]

Fog of War is the farthest any unit can see. If you move from one city to a different city that's a good distance away, can you still see what is at that first city or do you have to remember what is there?

[zookeeper]

What you're describing would be called "smart fog", I guess. It's been proposed and I don't think any devs are really against having fog work like that.

[SlowThinker]

Mica: I think everything covered by fog is hidden and must be remembered.

zoekeeper: thx for the info

[MDG]

Mica: I think everything covered by fog is hidden and must be remembered.

There's fog of war and shroud of war, one is completely black and covers everything but, normally once something is revealed it stays revealed, the other is somewhat transparent gray and you should always be able to see the underlying terrain but once units are revealed they can still be 're-covered' if you move out of sight. Given the above quote from you, can you clarify which one you are talking about please?

[SlowThinker]

MDG, in this thread I speak about Fog only.
Sorry for the confusion. By "everything" I meant "everything that was revealed but is covered again".

[Yogibear]

What you're describing would be called "smart fog", I guess. It's been proposed and I don't think any devs are really against having fog work like that.

*yogi thinks this is a good idea *

[Mica]

I had misunderstood the idea, and I too think it's a good idea. [Had thought second picture was an undo - not moving again] It would also change after the side turn ends right? But not until then?

[SlowThinker]

Mica, after the side turn ends, time stops to be "frozen" for opponents (enemy units start moving), so fog must return to the real-time view.

But I remind what I said in 1st post:
The real-time view should be still accessible during player's turn with a hotkey, in order that the player knows which hexes will be visible after his turn ends: the player may want to keep some important hex in his view, for example he wants to see whether enemy units will traverse a ford; so he must place his units appropriate way.

[ilor]

Instead of a hotkey we could just have a semi-fog type of overlay (say fog with extra transparency) for the terrain that's visible now but won't be in the next turn.