IIRC in SMAC the option for FOV doesn't disable it, but just disables the graphical "covered by fog" impression : you still can't see the units if they aren't in range of your sensors. (Or there might be a setting in the .ini files I forgot about, but then it's more of a modding option than a setting.)

Fog of war is an intricate part of 4x games, and not alot of them seem to implement it anymore.



i agree whole heartedly, although i am a religious omniscience (amoeba affinity) player, so im quite biased, i'd benefit a ton from it lol



as MG said, FOV should be an OPTION in game settings - just as it was in Civnet, orignial civ, alpha centurai, moo and wc3, i could go on.

ThatMG wrote:
I don't want them to force players to have Fog of war

I don't mind them giving players options to have FOW

Clearly no one should have anything FORCED upon them, that's pretty much a given. If a kind of fog of war was ever implemented - which I hope it will be - then obviously it would have to be "toggable"...

I don't want them to force players to have Fog of war



I don't mind them giving players options to have FOW

This has undoubtedly been said before but: I like the fog of war suggestion, so voted 'No', but actually am really in favour of making it a setting you can choose for yourself.



EDIT: okay... I was still on the first page when I quickreplied but now I just *have* to edit this post because this just looks too silly haha.



-> Yes I agree with the above, both would be nice!

Choucane wrote:
Personnaly, I would be happy to have the choice in the new game options between "fog of war" or not.

On one side, I would love to have a usefull use of scouts all along the game, but I would then suggest to have like a cloak ship module and a special sensor planet improvement to detect scouts.

Because in fact, in the mid/end game, there is quite a lot of fleets everywhere, so it would be very difficult to scout in an enemy territory without being intercepted very soon ! I just think that having a scout discovered in an allied territory could be considered as an offense... which offers nice gameplay developpement.



On the other hand, I like also the way it works now, because it is more strategic, you can always have a jugment of the other empires, and then have a good help to define your diplomatic standings, risks, etc. It makes me feel a little bit like playing a boardgame, and I like that.



So, eventually, having both options would be very nice !

agreed, if fog of war comes i would like to have an option to disable it.

raccoon_tof wrote:
Agreed in theory, but I'd prefer to see it as a perpetual view as you last observed it - basically a permanent fog of war that still shows the most recent information you have, for anywhere that is outside your current combined "vision" of scouts and systems. Currently, I actually find scouts to be useless - in fact the first two changes I make at the start of every game is to ditch the basic colony ship design and make a new one on the corvette hull (same cost, 1 pt faster move) as well as to redesign the scout ship to strip off the scout module and add additional weapons and armor instead. Unless you are in an active siege situation, ship vision radius is basically pointless (it won't reveal "new" systems in the radius until you actually visit them anyway) and even in an active siege you are better off with "picket" ships than "scout" ships. The only current advantage of scouts is faster movement speed, not the increased vision radius...

What he said.

Dropfish wrote:
Easy as that: Jetkar askes for a poll to make sure that enough people are interested in a certain topic.

Seems logic. As said before, suggestions that have no support should not be implemented (or at least altered) and a poll gives a quick overlook on that.

What if there were two different sensor ranges? One for seeing/maintaining sight of systems, and a second one for seeing fleets? I know some games have the ability to sense fleets be based on the size of the fleet, or how big of a warp signature it leaves, so that opens a door for "cloaking" or "stealth" technology that reduces a ships warp signature...

n18991c wrote:
okaaaay. I don't really see myself doing that to be honest... although I hope someone else does! lol

Let Ail do that *cough*

Igncom1 wrote:
Dev's are crafty, we must root out all in code notes!

okaaaay. I don't really see myself doing that to be honest... although I hope someone else does! lol

n18991c wrote:
Perhaps that line of programming is for something else entirely? Perhaps cloaking in a different sense (other than a visible fog of war kind of cloaking?



Igncom1 what's your take Admiral? You found it after all!

This fog of war stuff seems to be nice

n18991c wrote:
Perhaps that line of programming is for something else entirely? Perhaps cloaking in a different sense (other than a visible fog of war kind of cloaking?



Igncom1 what's your take Admiral? You found it after all!

Dev's are crafty, we must root out all in code notes!

Tredecim wrote:
A conspiracy?

Perhaps that line of programming is for something else entirely? Perhaps cloaking in a different sense (other than a visible fog of war kind of cloaking?



Igncom1 what's your take Admiral? You found it after all!

n18991c wrote:
Interesting find, Admiral. Perhaps it's to do with the Pilgrims thingy Strudo76 mentioned and not actual "cloaking" in the sense of systems graying out after a while etc.?



Perhaps the Devs already have something planned and they just didn't get round to incorporating it yet...syne they could post a hint in this thread....?

A conspiracy?

there is already fog of war, you cannot see any fleets out of sensor range. and a star/bordermap is kinda realistic



i think visibility is okay, maybe nerf sensor range boosts as they tend to be ridiculously big in mid-lategame

I like the concept. But it needs to work in with trade. If you are trading with a system, then you should know something about it. Even if it is a minimal level. I often play a trading race, and have trade routes to half the systems in the galaxy. Why would I lose information about these systems that I am regularly trading with?

That's along the lines of what I was thinking. Besides, what gets me is that we have the sensor modules and the scout ships but in fact you don't really need them.



If systems located further away were slightly shrouded, it would prompt people to send scout ships out and, should the Devs implement something like that, to build stations with long range scanners etc to act as early warning systems... There's so much potential there to make it all a bit more murky and exciting!



So I'm wondering, should visited systems re-shroud / re-fog if one hasn't visited them in a while?

BlueTemplar wrote:
I'm sure that if the fog of war was a little bit more "foggy", or if the visited systems that you don't have a sensor in range in were somehow a bit grayed out, there wouldn't be any confusion...

That is a nice idea BlueTemplar.

I'm sure that if the fog of war was a little bit more "foggy", or if the visited systems that you don't have a sensor in range in were somehow a bit grayed out, there wouldn't be any confusion...