Advanced Fog of War

[HolisticGod]

All,

I don't expect CK II to have a spotting mechanism. It's too much and not terribly appropriate to the period.

However, might we be given an option, when starting a game, to turn on "Advanced Fog of War," which would reduce line of sight to counties one owns/occupied (including through vassalage) or where one has an army in the field? This would put all neighboring provinces in the fog of war, which is far more realistic. Even having complete information about the armies located in the same province as one's own, and the state of the garrisons, is a significant abstraction, if a necessary one.

This would also help with the stack of doom problem, as it would become strategically advantageous in many circumstances to use actual vanguards (making contact just ahead of the main body, so that there is an option to rapidly retreat if outnumbered), rearguards (especially with a real line of supply mechanism, but even just to keep an eye on approaching armies), scouts (to determine the actual strength of the enemy in the field) and pickets (to watch for approaching enemy armies).

I don't know how hard this option would be to implement. At first glance, it seems it would be easy enough. I assume LOS is defined relatively simply and an alternative (dropping it to owned, occupied, vassal, and army present when the option is selected) could be implemented the same way no-fog is implemented.

 

[Laffertytig]

doesnt FOW already exist?

 

[siis]

doesnt FOW already exist?

yes, it does

 

[Hroppa]

If some more advanced fog of war WAS implemented, there should be an opinion cut off below which vassals don't provide LOS.

 

[praguepride]

I wouldn't mind some kind of FoW for characters and national info. So right now I can find anyone, anywhere. I can propose a marriage to someone on the opposite side of the world. Would be nice if I had to "uncover" prime marriage candidates rather then wade through the world...

/meh

 

[HolisticGod]

Right, but unless I'm crazy (and I suppose I could be-I've stopped playing the demo in preparation for the real thing) LOS is provided in all neighboring provinces of the provinces that meet the conditions I outlined above.

I'm suggesting that it should be pulled back by one: To have LOS, a province must be owned, occupied, a vassal or contain an army or vassal army. The neighboring provinces remain dark. This would be merely an option for those of us who would prefer it.

Hroppa,

Agreed. That might have the disadvantage of taking up more CPU time, though.

 

[Walas]

A further problem besides the cpu time is that you cant effectively split armies in the game. You get a levy from 1 place and thats it. If you have just one how do you fight a war? Even with multiple ones i can say from my experience with the demo that troop numbers are massively important, just 50 men can mean the difference between defeat and victory. Would you really sacrifice them or would you rather keep grouped in the hopes of actually winning the battle? I can only see the idea leading to me ducking into the shadows and the all seeing AI jumping on me wihout any warning. Not my idea of enticing gameplay. If you can mod it in why not but not worth devs time IMO.

 

[HolisticGod]

Walas,

Depends upon how difficult it is for the developers to add the option, but given that fog of war has always itself been optional, I'd say there's some chance that it would be easy.

As for the scenario you outline, it might turn you off, but it sounds great to me. The AI is already at a big disadvantage (although it is quite good given what it has to do, especially militarily), it's pretty easy to expand even as a count, this would be lightyears more realistic and it would be wickedly fun in multiplayer.

Again, I'm not saying change the fog of war rules. I'm saying, if it's reasonably simple, add an option for Advanced Fog of War, or Heavy Fog of War, for those of us who'd like to use it.

 

[HolisticGod]

Bumping.