Fog of war

[Ykkrosh]

I added some. Thoughts? Bugs? Missing features? etc

[WhiteTreePaladin]

It's very similar to AoK, which is better than we had before. If performance isn't bad, then I'd say it's quite good enough for now.

[Shield Bearer]

ahh, yes. i said this on the other topic.

I think its quite good, performance wise. but i hope we can smoothen those edges before the release.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Brian: Philip-: I've got some comments about the FoW.

Brian: First, I don't think an enemy or Gaia unit should stay selected when they go back into the FoW or SoD.

Philip-: Good point

Brian: Also, I don't think you should be able to click on things visible in FoW. For example, if you click a tree and see that its resources are going down, you know where the enemy is gathering wood.

Philip-: Hmm

Philip-: If there's an enemy building, you should probably still be able to click it and see its name

Philip-: (otherwise it'll be annoying because you'd have to memorise what all the buildings look like)

Philip-: but maybe shouldn't see its hitpoints etc

Philip-: What if a tree/building in the fog gets destroyed?

Brian: I don't think enemy buildings behind FoW were clickable in AoK. I know that sometimes buildings hidden behind FoW would disappear when you got to them because they were no longer there (someone else had destroyed it since you had been there.)

Philip-: If we want to hide that information and keep displaying it until you get close enough to see, it's a bit of a pain when you tell a unit to gather/attack a target that doesn't really exist

Philip-: I suppose we'd have to create fake placeholder entities in fog, and then set up things (GUI, UnitAI, etc) so it automatically switches its selection to the real entity (if any) when it comes into view again

Brian: If trees disappeared as they were exhausted, then that's the same problem. All you would have to do would be to look for a cleared out area. If any trees were missing when you looked again later, then you know something is happening there.

Brian: I don't think you should be able to target things in FoW, trees or otherwise (since they may not even exist anymore).

Philip-: That doesn't sound nice for players

Philip-: If I've previously seen the enemy city, and then built a new army and want to attack, I want to be able to click on the fogged enemy buildings to give attack orders

Philip-: I think the current approach is probably okay for the next release, but it should be improved later to do proper information-hiding if that's what we want

[Shield Bearer]

I agree with Philip on the clickable thing. and i don't think we should show that the building is destroyed when its destroyed. the state of the area in fog should represent the state it was in when it was last explored, that makes sense and its more realistic. if a building is destroyed when its in fog it should still be clickable since the player(you) when it was last explored thinks that it still is alive...

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Clicking on an entity that doesn't really exist just for ease of targeting is ok I guess as long as no critical information is revealed. We would need to keep the HP, resources remaining, etc. the same since it was last seen and not update that.

[plumo]

No left clicking for information on items in the fog of war please.

[Shield Bearer]

after thinking about this a bit more, i think plumo is right. no left clicking, but right click targeting only.

[plumo]

About the fog of war: the edges are quite rough. Should be a more smooth curve.

[Shield Bearer]

thats only for the time being. we hope to fix that.

[Mythos_Ruler]

About the fog of war: the edges are quite rough. Should be a more smooth curve.

Right. The AOM vision edges were jagged too, but they covered it up with some kind of gradient or feathering. We're not sure how they did that yet, but the programmers are working on it.

[dementor]

can you guys show screenshots?

[Mythos_Ruler]

I'll see what I can do.

I'll post a better shot of the edge of the LOS ring here in a minute.

Here you go:

[dementor]

good but what about when your not in an area but you have been there any fog then?

[feneur]

good but what about when your not in an area but you have been there any fog then?

Yep, if you look closely in the lower + top left areas of the first screenshot, and middle bottom on the second, you can get an idea of what it looks like. I guess it's a bit clearer in-game though

[Mythos_Ruler]

This one shows FOW and SOD (Shroud of Darkness).

[Pureon]

Having the FOW will certainly make it feel much more like an RTS, and makes exploring a lot more fun!

Thanks for the screenies Mythos_Ruler

[Mythos_Ruler]

Having the FOW will certainly make it feel much more like an RTS, and makes exploring a lot more fun!

Exactly!

[SMST]

Hm, somehow FOW screws up sky textures. At least with me.

[Arthur_D]

I think SOD could be a little darker, though it's mostly because that's what I'm used to, not that it's a necessity.

Great work, as always.

[Ykkrosh]

Hm, somehow FOW screws up sky textures. At least with me.

Could you post a screenshot of what you mean?

[Mythos_Ruler]

I think SOD could be a little darker, though it's mostly because that's what I'm used to, not that it's a necessity.

Great work, as always.

I always thought Shround of Darkness was the black part and the "Fog of War" was the gray part. lol... I've probably been wrong for years.

[Ykkrosh]

I've been using it the same way as you (SoD = black unexplored regions, FoW = grey previously-explored regions where you have only partial knowledge), and it looks like that's the way most people on the web use it, and we can define things to mean whatever we want within our own game, so I'll say you're right

[Mythos_Ruler]

Oh, then good!

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Yes, I've always thought SoD was the black and FoW was the foggy area also.