Fog of War

Anthoni · January 2010

I though it would be interesting if each commander would have a fog of war type of effect over the map, as used in almost all RTS games.

Example: The Marine Commander hops into the Command Station, yet he can only see a few meters around the Marines. As the marines progress the fog of war is lifted and the commander can see more, as shown in the Figure Below.

<a href="http://img707.imageshack.us/i/figure.png/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/60/figure.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
The Box with the X in it is the Command Post, the Blue Dots are TSA Marines. This would be the Top-Down view that the commander sees.

Renegade. · January 2010

That's going to mess up gameplay way too much - everything from giving waypoints to dropping structures would need to be revamped. All it does is encourage rote memorization of maps, and penalize those who cannot remember the layout of every single room, which only increases frustration of an already frustration-prone role.

Jirodyne · January 2010

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (R_e_n_e_g_a_d_e @ Jan 12 2010, 10:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1747056"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>That's going to mess up gameplay way too much - everything from giving waypoints to dropping structures would need to be revamped. All it does is encourage rote memorization of maps, and penalize those who cannot remember the layout of every single room, which only increases frustration of an already frustration-prone role.</div>

I actually like this. Not a true fog of war, but if the map is completely black, and when the marines explore, the areas become available to you. Not if there is no marine in the area you can't place something. But also, this would get people to explore the maps! And keep rooms that are hidden from plain side out of view, like vents rooms behind doors. After all, this are spose to be new marines going into a place they never been to before. They wouldn't instantly have a map of the whole area. Yes, would make is frustrating, but only to people who demand the best of the best and want to rush and do everything one way! The point of an RTS is strategy, not every time we going into this map rush to this area and this area to block off aliens and assault hive! It gives more depth to the game, and makes people think before rushing in. Especially if the aliens could block off doors like Marines can with welders, so they can block off an access way, so marines can not see whats going on behind it, and the commander can't spawn things into it to see if it gets attacked knowing that the aliens are behind it.

BCSeph · January 2010

Or how about it works just like in NS1, where the commander can see the entire map, but no 'things' (players, structures, etc). That way, no information is given about unoccupied areas, but at the same time, it doesn't encourage brute memorization. People are going to know the maps whether it is shown or not. A 'fog if war' just penalizes new players more than they already are. After all, we are designing a game to be played as much as possible, not a game that only appeals to the first couple of game hours (eg. exploration, not gunna happen).

Also, the reason RTS games sometimes use fog of war is because the maps are **RANDOMIZED**. Resources are moved, and so on. In NS2, this is not the case. No use for fog of war.

pallie · January 2010

Kinda retarded to give the com FoW when marines can press a button and get a minimap :p

Anthoni · January 2010

It's not about knowing the map, it's about knowing where your enemies are, and what resource nodes they have captured. It's better than not being able to see the Marines and Kahraa because you need to be able to see your units to know how to command properly.

RobB · January 2010

To successfully plan his next move a commander needs to see the full map.
Backgroundwise I doubt that this military operation would be assembled on the fly as the CC hacks into the installation after all, so the com would have access to sensors and schematics of the map easily.

The only thing is that those sensors might not pick up any form of kharaa signs, that's why they only show up around marines and their buildings.

Case closed.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>They wouldn't instantly have a map of the whole area.</div> Big news: Yes they do.

Terr · January 2010

Fog of war, sure, but "blackness of undiscovered areas" shouldn't be the case.

Bacillus · January 2010

Well, a fog of war to illustrate the marine line of sight wouldn't be such a bad thing. Right now I can't always be sure the comm view shows everything the marines see because of the weird detection method. Having a fog of war to demostrate the detected area sure would help sometimes.

Otherwise I don't know. I love the sound scouting as it is. It allows you to see incoming baserushes and detect alien nodes, but only if you've got game sense and them coming. Moving the scouting more to the marines would certainly add some stuff, but it also adds up some potentially less fun roles (even more need for guards, a lot of pure sight range scouting). I'm not sure if the teamwork could handle the player scouting either, it seems to be difficult enough to find players interested in strategy as a whole, not to speak of organising scouting patterns and team wide reactions to scouting information.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Also, the reason RTS games sometimes use fog of war is because the maps are **RANDOMIZED**. Resources are moved, and so on. In NS2, this is not the case. No use for fog of war.</div>

Haven't seen any real RTSes use randomization apart from spawning in ages. It's more about not knowing what your opponent is up to than anything else. Sure random spawns add some extra tension, especially for early game buildups, but the main thingy has always been not seeing your enemy strategical buildings.

Fog of War

Comments