Fog of War in 0.9.1
Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:04 am
Now I’m getting very close to finishing 0.8.9, I’m starting to look at how I’m planning to have Fog of War work, which is the first major thing I need to work on for 0.9.0. Once Fog of War is done, it will then be possible to add in attacking units walking around the map, and attacking cities.
For each player, various bits of the map can be in one of 3 states. Either you can see it right now (you have a city or unit there, or you have a Awareness cast and you’re looking near a city), you’ve never seen it, or you’ve seen it at one time but now can’t (say, you sent a unit out across the map scouting, and it got killed so now there’s a fair size area you can no longer see).
The first two of these are straightforward, its the areas you’ve seen at one stage but can no longer see that are interesting. There’s a bunch of different items that I’m wondering how to handle, and I’m not sure how the original MoM handles most of these either, and its very difficult to test these when you can’t play the original MoM multiplayer. So if anyone can clarify any of these or has any other thoughts about them, I’d appreciate the feedback.
Terrain (the landscape, minerals, monster lairs, nodes and towers of wizardry): This can be changed by Change Terrain, Transmute, Corruption, Great Wasting, Raise Volcano, Armageddon and similar spells, as well as new mineral deposits being discovered and old ones drying up, and monster lairs being captured. If you’ve say scouted an enemy city in the desert, can no longer see it, and the enemy starts casting Change Terrain to change it to grasslands, should you be able to see it until you send another scout there? If you’ve scouted a monster lair with Great Drakes in it (so you didn’t feel like attacking it!) should you be able to see when another wizard successfully clears it without looking at that map area again? I would say not. I’ve no idea how the original MoM works.
Cities: If you’ve say scouted an enemy city when it was an outpost, should you know without looking at it again that its now grown to population 20,000? Or monsters have levelled it? Or another player captured it or razed it? Or know what buildings they’ve built there? Or know what spells they’ve cast there? I would say not. I’ve no idea how the original MoM works.
Units: If you’ve seen enemy units walking around, and you then run away or get killed, should the game remember for you that you had seen units there, even though you can’t see there anymore so don’t know if they’re still in the same place or not? I believe in the original MoM, any units you can’t see anymore simply disappear, and I’m thinking I’ll do this the same way.
Nodes: If you’ve seen a node but can’t see it anymore, should you be able to tell when someone else clears out the node and takes it with a magic spirit? Or say you’ve seen a node captured by one enemy, but another enemy wizard manages to take it over with their own spirit, should you be able to tell when you don’t have a unit there to see it? I would say not. I’ve no idea how the original MoM works.
There are several interesting side effects of this. If you can’t see when someone casts Raise Volcano and you try to send units there, the path finding routine will have to pick the shortest route based on what terrain you *think* is there, not what is actually there. If you’ve seen an enemy city, but can no longer see it, then you won’t be able to cast Famine, Call the Void, etc. on it because you don’t really know the city is even still there – someone could have captured and razed it.
Any thoughts/feedback?
Thanks,
Implode.
For each player, various bits of the map can be in one of 3 states. Either you can see it right now (you have a city or unit there, or you have a Awareness cast and you’re looking near a city), you’ve never seen it, or you’ve seen it at one time but now can’t (say, you sent a unit out across the map scouting, and it got killed so now there’s a fair size area you can no longer see).
The first two of these are straightforward, its the areas you’ve seen at one stage but can no longer see that are interesting. There’s a bunch of different items that I’m wondering how to handle, and I’m not sure how the original MoM handles most of these either, and its very difficult to test these when you can’t play the original MoM multiplayer. So if anyone can clarify any of these or has any other thoughts about them, I’d appreciate the feedback.
Terrain (the landscape, minerals, monster lairs, nodes and towers of wizardry): This can be changed by Change Terrain, Transmute, Corruption, Great Wasting, Raise Volcano, Armageddon and similar spells, as well as new mineral deposits being discovered and old ones drying up, and monster lairs being captured. If you’ve say scouted an enemy city in the desert, can no longer see it, and the enemy starts casting Change Terrain to change it to grasslands, should you be able to see it until you send another scout there? If you’ve scouted a monster lair with Great Drakes in it (so you didn’t feel like attacking it!) should you be able to see when another wizard successfully clears it without looking at that map area again? I would say not. I’ve no idea how the original MoM works.
Cities: If you’ve say scouted an enemy city when it was an outpost, should you know without looking at it again that its now grown to population 20,000? Or monsters have levelled it? Or another player captured it or razed it? Or know what buildings they’ve built there? Or know what spells they’ve cast there? I would say not. I’ve no idea how the original MoM works.
Units: If you’ve seen enemy units walking around, and you then run away or get killed, should the game remember for you that you had seen units there, even though you can’t see there anymore so don’t know if they’re still in the same place or not? I believe in the original MoM, any units you can’t see anymore simply disappear, and I’m thinking I’ll do this the same way.
Nodes: If you’ve seen a node but can’t see it anymore, should you be able to tell when someone else clears out the node and takes it with a magic spirit? Or say you’ve seen a node captured by one enemy, but another enemy wizard manages to take it over with their own spirit, should you be able to tell when you don’t have a unit there to see it? I would say not. I’ve no idea how the original MoM works.
There are several interesting side effects of this. If you can’t see when someone casts Raise Volcano and you try to send units there, the path finding routine will have to pick the shortest route based on what terrain you *think* is there, not what is actually there. If you’ve seen an enemy city, but can no longer see it, then you won’t be able to cast Famine, Call the Void, etc. on it because you don’t really know the city is even still there – someone could have captured and razed it.
Any thoughts/feedback?
Thanks,
Implode.