Quick q about commander line of sight

Diogenes_Dog

Is there a visual indication of the parts of the map that aren't covered by your troops' sight (ie, fog of war)?


-dio

Spyder_Monkey

Currently, you can still see the entire map. You just can't see any alien beings or buildings until a marine is in the area, or it is scanned.

S.T.C. -- <span style='color:222222'>Subject To Change</span>

^^^ Guess what that means?

<i>answer hidden beside</i>



<!--EDIT|Spyder Monkey|May 16 2002,20:27-->

TychoCelchuuu

oooo, new acronym!

Reaver_Pryde

S.T.C. = Sadistic, Tactless, Cryptic - in reference to giving people acronyms without telling them what it means. : )

*mimics british accent* Oh, I know an acronym that you don't. Look how sophisticated and intelligent I am. Bip bip cheerio! Would you like a cup of tea?
<!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
But I get it. Subject to change. Whenever a newbie posts an appropriate message, everyone should just reply with S.T.C. in the text!

Not like I exactly qualify as a veteran tho. : P

The ever crafty and elitist,
Reaver

Diogenes_Dog

Yeah, I understand that you can see the whole map.  What I mean is, are the areas NOT covered by marine sight shaded somehow?  Think of how an RTS works once you've explored the whole map - you can see all the terrain, but the areas that aren't currently in sight are sort of greyed out so that you can more easily tell exactly what is and isn't in view.

If not, I imagine that there will often be times that you *think* one of your men as looked at an area that they really haven't.  Dig?


-dio

Moleculor

No. There's no fog of war.

STC

Diogenes_Dog

Why not?

Technical limitations?


-dio

Moleculor

Dunno. Technical limitations probably, and just general lack of time.

Also too much work for too little gain. In Starcraft and similar games, the range that units could see was fixed at certain distances, and each unit could see a different distance than others.

In NS, that sort of limitation doesn't exist. The only place it might is where a mapper had placed sprite based fog in the game, which only effects the human player's sight line, not the code's sight line. So even in really thick fog, the commander will see everything. Marines can see as far as you can draw a straight line from their head. There are no distance limitations. So fog of war isn't needed as much in this game as it is in Starcraft/Warcraft/C&C. So it would be too much work for too little gain.



<!--EDIT|Moleculor|May 17 2002,14:58-->

The_Butcher

I think for of war would have looked weird because usually it only cover units and not buildings and since there are no "real" buildings, it'll be useless. It would have to be either you see the map or pitch black which would be weird too since marines have been briefed for the mission and they surely have map, especially the commander.

And quick hide this topic or newbies will know everything about NS communication codes.

Darkness

but i thought the fog of war only affected the commadners are of view?, so i dont see why there are any problems in addind sme shade to the map that is not scanned or got marines present

MonsieurEvil

There *is* fog of war of a sort - the Commander can't see anything of the enemy team (hives, structures, players) unless one of his own Marines can see it, it's near the command console, or he has researched the 'scanner'.

There isn't much point to hiding the map itself, except to confuse and irritate new commanders, who are already as busy as one-armed ditch diggers.

Moleculor

To do so would require special brushes probably. They'd need to be numerous small brushes, or large brushes that would look ugly. Flayra can't mess with the actual graphics engine, so it'd have to be semi-transparent brushes that would disappear. This'd raise r_speeds, and basically look ugly anywho.

Freestyler

It could maybe done with sprites placed between the map and the CM view height by the engine, not by the mapper.  I think it would add more lag though with it constantly checking if the sprite can be seen by a marine.  If it can be seen, then it goes invisible.

Just a theory.

BioHaz

Im with the devs, why hide the map when you can just hide the enemy.  And also this takes place on Human built areas thus far, so it would be a safe assumption that the human side would already know the map, just not where the aliens are hiding.  "Fog of war" would be a wasted effort on this mod.  Besides, I would rather see that effort go into more worthwhile coding endevors that the devs can come up with.

Flayra

I could always add this, but who wants to wait another couple days?  Any hands?

:)

Silver_Fox

I personaly would like to see the fog of war.

I think the current system works fine.

MariNe

<!--QuoteBegin--Moleculor+May 17 2002,15:57--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Moleculor @ May 17 2002,15:57)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->Dunno. Technical limitations probably, and just general lack of time.

Also too much work for too little gain. In Starcraft and similar games, the range that units could see was fixed at certain distances, and each unit could see a different distance than others.

In NS, that sort of limitation doesn't exist. The only place it might is where a mapper had placed sprite based fog in the game, which only effects the human player's sight line, not the code's sight line. So even in really thick fog, the commander will see everything. Marines can see as far as you can draw a straight line from their head. There are no distance limitations. So fog of war isn't needed as much in this game as it is in Starcraft/Warcraft/C&C. So it would be too much work for too little gain.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I totally Agree.

MariNe

*chops off everyones Hands*

Sgt_X

whyd u do that i was putting my hand down. sheesh <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->

MariNe

oops *tries to sow hand back on to Sgt.X* ummmmm....oh well you can just get one of those nice handy dandy robotic arms <!--emo&???--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo-->

SNAFU

O.K...

I think I understand this... somewhat.

<b>Naturally</b> (oops, bad pun. And this my 1st real post too.)the commander should have a map of the entire the map. Unless, of course, that was meant to be one of the challenges of the map...

But what I am concerned about is this: How would the Commander know whether or not he can see what is in an area? Without some sort of "fog of war" system, it looks like he <i>can</i> see that area. So how can he tell the difference?

Bah. Just my two cents.

Hellocke

My POV on Fog of War. It's not needed. It'll take too long to get it done. If you wanna fluff it (Make it make sense with the story) the marines would have a blueprint or somtehing of the map. It just doesn't make sense, to me. And if anybody raises there hands, I'll grind you up and feed you to Narby! So he has food.