Fog of War

**abou** · 04-17-2006, 04:54

How many of you play with Fog of War turned on/off and what are your reasons?

I'm leaning more towards the decision of turning it off as that if news of alliances and war would spread, so would the capture of settlements and locations of other factions' units. Am I wrong to assume this? This is also specifically in reference to EB.

**Xanthippus** · 04-17-2006, 05:40

Sometimes I'll turn it off to get a global perspective of faction expansion. But I don't really have much of a need to for gameplay reasons as I make use of diplomats and spies for exploration purposes.

**orwell** · 04-17-2006, 05:54

I use spies and diplomats for exploration, I tried turning off fog of war once and it just felt more like cheating than anything else, it ruined any sort of surprise in my conquests.

**Wardo** · 04-17-2006, 06:20

On - for the surprise.

I also prefer it this way so the Spy is more useful. I like raising a spy network with a spy-loving character, for example.

I still wish you received random information about provinces every now and then though, sure the Romans may not know instantly what happened in Baktria even after 1 season/year or whatever time period if they are on the other side of the map, but it would be interesting if you received outdated information after a while, and less outdated information the closer the province was to your borders/trade routes + amount of trade shipping on a random basis.

**khelvan** · 04-17-2006, 07:22

Eventually all factions will begin the game with FoW opened for those areas they would reasonably have knowledge of in 272 BC.

**soibean** · 04-17-2006, 07:23

just a quick question involving this
How do you turn it off
and
Does EB plan on having it turned off initially on the final release or will it still need to be done manually through code?
just wondering

**khelvan** · 04-17-2006, 07:58

Well, I don't know the specifics, but basically we start the faction off with a number of spies, who are exterminated with a script before play begins. Thus their initial map reveal remains, but they're not available to the player.

It basically has the effect of revealing a select portion of the map to the player, representing factional knowledge gained through trade, invasions, and so on. Theoretically we will have one set of this for each faction in the final release, though that requires people to define what areas need to be viewable for each faction at the beginning. And, of course, more scripting help so that we can pick up where we left off.

**Proper Gander** · 04-17-2006, 09:46

Originally Posted by soibean

just a quick question involving this
How do you turn it off

open up the console be pressing § (the button under ESC) and type toggle_fow if you want to change it in-game.

otherwise it's another thing you can change in the preferences before you start the game too.

**Patriarch of Constantinople** · 05-13-2006, 18:31

I toggle fog alot. ill turn it off for tactical advantages when i see what my enemy is doing. but sometimes i turn it off so its fun to get surprises.

**Avicenna** · 05-13-2006, 20:49

I play default, with FoW on. It's more realistic, and the screen doesn't move around so much when the turn is ending.

**Simmons** · 05-14-2006, 00:13

Originally Posted by Tiberius

I play default, with FoW on. It's more realistic, and the screen doesn't move around so much when the turn is ending.

If your talking about following the AI when you end turn that can be turned off in the game options.

**vizigothe** · 05-16-2006, 20:45

I like to remain in the dark as to most of the map. I turn FoW off sometimes basically to see how the factions are expanding just to make sure they are actually doing stuff.

**Avicenna** · 05-17-2006, 19:30

It's easy enough to see if there's any change by the graph, without having to turn off FoW.

Descent: I find that if I don't follow the AI, I easily overlook the fact that some allies might be in my back yard, skimming through the map and looking at the city scroll most of the time. However, if I turn off FoW I have to follow the whole faction list and their movements, which gets quite frustrating. I want to be able to see what my neighbours are up to though, so I just leave it on.

**Mujalumbo** · 05-17-2006, 19:40

I leave Fog of War on. More realistic that way. If I really need to know what's going on at the Pillars of Herakles, I'll commision a spy to do some sniffing around for me. For instance.

Yeah, it does make managing all these agents (one diplomat in most towns to discourage bribing, various roaming assassins, spies in border towns to cut down on unrest due to enemy interference) a bit of a pain.. I've had spies and diplomats lingering in the wilderness for years awaiting orders until I finally remembered they were there... and what their mission was.

**Simmons** · 05-19-2006, 11:50

Originally Posted by Tiberius

It's easy enough to see if there's any change by the graph, without having to turn off FoW.

Descent: I find that if I don't follow the AI, I easily overlook the fact that some allies might be in my back yard, skimming through the map and looking at the city scroll most of the time. However, if I turn off FoW I have to follow the whole faction list and their movements, which gets quite frustrating. I want to be able to see what my neighbours are up to though, so I just leave it on.

Fair enough to each there own

**Rodion Romanovich** · 05-19-2006, 16:36

I always use FoW. It makes it more difficult and sometimes forces me to restrain myself from moving somewhere where I haven't scouted first, which can add a challenge. Plus it's fun to gradually learn about the game world by map information treaties. I usually trade map info for map info with most factions.