Fog is annoying. Suggestion for different method

[cat]

I find the fog of war sort of annoying. It feels too much "in the way". I would suggest a different fog that would work like this:

fogged areas should desaturate in color and hide people but still show objects as they were like when the fog appeared. This way the fog is not as much in your face all the time.

[steviebuk]

I think Company of Heroes did fog of war like that and was a good idea.

[Faracus]

I have no problems with FoW, I have over 40 guards, at least 2 per room, and patrols so that the FoW never kicks in.

[Zarkow]

I have no problems with FoW, I have over 40 guards, at least 2 per room, and patrols so that the FoW never kicks in.

So your post doesn't address the issue raised by the work-around in how to not have it affect you.


I agree that the fog or war is 'odd' now - it fogs out my equipment etc.

Fog of war should block updates of information, not fade out the equipment (but I will not detect if it was destroyed/removed)
Fog of war should fade out prisoners

Currently it seems like fog of war for equipment is lifted if I hover the rooms with the mouse-cursor, which is also 'odd' as only staff should lift it.

[ronanc]

Currently it seems like fog of war for equipment is lifted if I hover the rooms with the mouse-cursor, which is also 'odd' as only staff should lift it.

Chis programmed it so you could peak under the fog. The game isn't meant to be entirely realistic so having 'odd' things happen is to be expected.

[Nixiam]

Is annoying when you try to build something, the fog hides the "pattern" of the future walls (objects too seems) and that's bad for me, beside the problems is a good thing for the gameplay, give a sense to the patrolling mechanic and to the cameras forcing you to plan things in a most accurate way, but sure need some adjustment.

[ronanc]

See this tweet:

https://twitter.com/IVSoftware/status/2 ... 5052466176

[Over]

I find the fog of war sort of annoying. It feels too much "in the way". I would suggest a different fog that would work like this:

fogged areas should desaturate in color and hide people but still show objects as they were like when the fog appeared. This way the fog is not as much in your face all the time.

I agree with this. The fog is really annoying, specially in the early stages of prison construction. I think the FoW should only fade a little bit the scenario and hide any people/movement/changes.

[Collic001]

I agree that desaturated colour, with objects represented as they were the last time you had vision of the area is the best way to handle fog of war. This would eliminate the need to have a cursor highlight to 'peek' under the fog of war as well. The idea of fog of war is brilliant, but I would like to see it graphically represented in a way similar to this rather than what we have now.

If it did work like this you could be looking at a cell you dont have vision of with its regulation bed and toilet as normal, only to discover when a guard walks by that the prisoner is kicking his bed to pieces and the toilet is smashed and flooding out into the corridor. It would look better, create brilliant 'oh crap' moments, and just be a lot cooler.

Colour desaturation would conflict with the current lockdown effect, but honestly, I think that (or somethimg similar) is best used for the fog of war with another effect used for lockdown somewhere down the line.

[RMJ1984]

I mean the current option is okay, but i think it would be interesting to see a fog of war that shows what you saw last or just shows everything in that room but people, it could trigger by fading from color to grey. something like that.

The fog of war is definitely a step in the right direction so that you cannot constantly keep an eye on everything.

[koshensky]

I agree that it shouldn't happen until your first prisoners arrive, or somehow work out if prisoners have any access to it at all if you happen to build large cell blocks in segments.

That said, once the fog rolls I agree that you shouldn't be able to see anything underneath it. As demonstrated in the Eurogamer video - when riots happen the prisoners will start to shift the furniture to block off the doors, so not even they are static. Walls are, I guess, but it seems a bit redundant to just show you the walls.

[City Builder]

I agree.

Like mentioned above (for some of them anyway)...

1. Fog of war should not occur until your first prisoner has arrived.
2. Fog of war should still show the prison itself with everything inside, but should hide the prisoners if they are not in view of a guard or camera. We should not see if the prisoners have broken something unless a guard is in the area, or a camera can see it. Kind of like a static view of the prison and the only areas that are viewed in real time are those covered by employees of the prison and or cameras.
3. I believe that every employee of the prison should lift the fog of war to at least some degree. I find it ultimately wasteful that I need to put a camera inside of the chief guards office, after all this guy is the chief of guards yet he's in total fog. But don't just limit it to him, make all employees lift the fog to a certain degree.
4. Camera need to be represented better by their icon when placing them, I can't tell you how many times I place a camera down to find that it's facing the wrong way and so it doesn't lift any fog except for what is in the corner behind it.

[dsiOne]

I like the idea of different employees affecting FoW differently.

Guards are the best of course, the chief among them, second best is all of your other administrators. Third best are nurses and chefs, while fourth, not really giving a fuck, are janitors and groundskeepers.

[TsungUK]

Yes at the moment I agree FoW is broken. Try building a new prison with FoW and it is SO frustrating. Rooms fading out before you can really build them. In the end I had to use a guard and move him to each room as I was building it just so I can see what is going on. CCTV / patrols & Security takes time/money to research and unlock, it's not really practical early game to have rooms disappear with no way to see (other than sending guards to the room).

City Builder summed up the way it should work perfectly...

[AMV]

I will third the comments made by City Builder.

At least with what I could see in a greyed out area, you can still plan, develop and build into the area - just you don't know if everything is smooth or someone has created an escape tunnel. It's a great idea, but it just needs some tweaking.