Fog Of War Getting Redone For Civilization VI
Much like in a real world scenario, in Civilization you can’t see far beyond where you are at first. As you’ve never explored what’s beyond your immediate area. This is called the “Fog Of War”, and is prevalent in many video game titles. Especially strategy RPG’s. In Civilization VI though, the Fog Of War is getting tweaked to add more detail and realism, while also adding some mystery to it all.
“The big difference in our Fog of War from Civ 5 is that Civ 5 had the clouds. Now we’re treating the totally unexplored areas as a blank parchment with longitude and latitude lines on it,” says Brian Busatti to IGN. “But as you explore that you start to open things up. The mid-fog, instead of being a darker version of the visible terrain, is now drawn in a map style. So we have shaders on it that simulate a pen-and-ink cross-hatch style map. It’s really cool and I’m excited to show that off. And in the empty spaces we have hand-drawn ships and sort of ‘here be dragons’ kind of stuff.”
Civilization VI comes out October 21st.
It is a different approach, but doesn´t add much gameplay. I was thinking they were going to add more levels of CoW where the distance into the fog you could see items would be different for different types of items. If I am understanding it correcly, they are just replacing the fog with a map.
Looks like a really good idea. I was always annoyed by the FOW in previous games. Curious how they will change it.
I don't really have a problem with how Fog of War worked in the previous games, I guess it's good that they polished it up a little bit but it's not a necessary change.
I like the idea of unexplored distant areas being shown as blank parchment. I think it's a pretty cool choice stylistically, but as others have said, it doesn't really change up gameplay that much. So, certainly a cool aesthetic, but not game changing decision.
Same here, while it actually doesn't add much to the game (at least to my understanding) the aesthetic change is a welcome one, despite being unnecessary. It would be nice if you could choose which style of FoW you can use.
I don't see why they have to change it, the fog of war has been a staple in strategy games for so long and they really haven't done anything to it. It's just darkness until you explore it. It basically is the sense of the unknown, and you have to expand your territory overtime to see as much of the world as possible. That's the appeal of the game though, and I think there are other things to change other than one of the most basic elements in strategy games.
I think a revamp in the fog of war area gives some more strategical depth and possibilities, which is something I enjoy. But I agree, I haven't had problems with it in Civ V.
That's interesting, in my opinion the fog of war mechanics in Civ V were on point.
I don't really see the reasoning behind revamping the Fog of War, for me it's just like the day-night cycle: it doesn't really change anything and it's just used to make the game feel different from the previous Civilizations. Don't think it's needed – but if they feel like changing it, we can only adapt.
It might make it more interesting but it could just end up making it frustrating not being able to see what is going on. The ideal would be to have a option to play with or with out it.
Seems to be a minor change, but I really dig the style that they chose. At first sight I thought it looked dreadful for whatever reason, but since then it grew on me a lot. It adds authenticity and character to the map, and therefore to the game itself. It seems to blend in great with the other UI elements of the game. Overall, I can say the nailed the artstyle they were going for with this game.
Seems like this is a minor change that is being made just for the sake of change. It doesn't seem like it's going to make much difference to the game at all. We'll just have to wait and see.
Well, as I have seen they're been enhancing the graphics a lot, it will be a good game we all know that but, hopefully, they focus on game mechanics the same way they're focusing on graphics and how the game looks itself, they should remember that it could have the best graphics in the industry but if the gameplay sucks then everything will fall down real quick.
I'll have to wait to try out the new version but the old one wasn't really bothering me that much. Maybe once I get used to this new one I'll find out how much I was missing eventually but so far I don't think there should be much to change though I'm glad they are trying to do new things.
Isn't this simply about introducing some new aesthetic choices that go well with the rest of the design that developers had in mind for Civilization 6? Fog of war won't be a literal fog anymore, I get it that some people might be upset, but how is this a major change? Am I missing something?
I doubt the game play will suck, they have shown that they can build a good game. That's how come civilisations has been around forever.
Sometimes games are not like the developers make them look like before the release, the same happens with movies, books, series, programs and everything related to entertainment itself, it is what it is.
It is what it is indeed. The trailers that some of these games have these days are crazy, and they do look more and more like mini movies. That said, you cannot expect the game play to be anything like that, or you are in for a big disappointment. It is funny to think about how much things have changed.
Exactly, at least you udnerstand my point, there are many videos which are only for advertisement purposes and all these videos do is attract more players to spend money on their game and play the "amazing" game that mostly ends up being something way different.
Thanks for the interesting and helpful information bro
I think of this as a subtle change, honestly don't see it adding or taking away much depth from the game nor influencing the gameplay in such a big way to make it worthy of a feature.
It doesnt sound like they are changing anything other than replacing the current clouds with a blank map with lat and lon lines. The way I read it everything else will remain the same.
There has to be someone or at least a comity that has to do the final decision what the game is going to be like before it get released. Who ever that is or they are they have done a good job so far.
After reading some more about it, there's honestly nothing that interesting about this so called "new" fog of war, they're literally making a small change and trying to advertise it as something important.
Of course, that's why we have IGN, however, we still have to wait and check it out by ourselves, it's the best way to make sure.
That is true, the biggest critics will be the people that buy the game. If they don't like it they won't recommend it. Word of mouth is still the best way to promote a game.
That's for sure, that's why those people who do not really know any extense information about what's up coming should not spread fake rumors around.