Suggestion: Fog of war on minimap

Dorn · Post by **Dorn** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 7:58 am

Is there any way of having the minimap with fog of war in it?

As in you can only see where you've actually been like in NWN1?

I find that with the large outdoor areas some of the DMs have gone to lengths trying to hide dens of gnolls or caves and so on and people can make bee lines for them as they're all visable to some level or other on the map screen.

If so

I suggest we include it.

Whoever's in charge of these type of things DMA/TA etc can you let me know what you think after whatever consideration you have to give it?

cheers guys

hollyfant · Post by **hollyfant** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 11:54 am

Fog of war would be great, but don't you want it on both maps? Having a fully functional regular map sort of defeats the purpose.

Dorn · Post by **Dorn** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 12:08 pm

uh
yea

White Warlock · Post by **White Warlock** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 11:12 pm

What Teric presented in the other thread would do well in that area. regarding putting a black matte over certain areas.

http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... hp?t=40288

Dorn · Post by **Dorn** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:45 am

Yep saw that and all for that idead in certain circumstances liek whjat Kest suggests..

But i was actually thinking about a fog of war concept rather than a totally blacked out concept (which some people may not like).

Something that peels back as you explore and remember the area.Nothing new, it'as on almost all games there are with maps including nwn1. In NWN1 you used to buy maps sometimes to expose city areas (including map pins) and so on. Otherwise you'd have to learn it..

Just wondering if ther was an easy way to implement it here.

Especially if we ever go to world map:)

White Warlock · Post by **White Warlock** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:01 am

Hmm... the only fog i have seen in NWN2, has been that of opening a door and seeing what's on the other side. Not visible before opening the door.

So, if something can be derived from that, maybe....

Lusipher · Post by **Lusipher** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:38 am

You guys might want to take a look at this:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... 310&id=106

Seems its kinda like what you were discussing.

Arkan Bladesinger · Post by **Arkan Bladesinger** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:26 am

Sadly it still looks like blocking out whole area whether you explored it or not opposed to the Fog of War idea.

Post by **paazin** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:47 pm

Lusipher wrote:You guys might want to take a look at this:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... 310&id=106

Seems its kinda like what you were discussing.

It's an absolute pain if you're trying to get around in a city but maybe we should have a discussion about just using it flat-out.

I've heard a number of complaints from DMs that people tend to 'run ahead' in sessions because they see the entire map. This would definitely put a stop to that.

Kest · Post by **Kest** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:25 pm

Getting lost in cities might not be a bad thing.

psycho_leo · Post by **psycho_leo** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:17 pm

Kest wrote:Getting lost in cities might not be a bad thing.

Depends on wether you should get lost or not. A barbarian leaving the wilds to set foot in WD for the first time, would probably be lost for a while. For a PC that lived his entire life there would be less likely.

I'd be more confortable with disabling maps with a hak if it wasn't done across the board. Playing a PC in NWN that is the party tracker I rely heavily on the use of maps to avoid getting lost where my PC wouldn't.

White Warlock · Post by **White Warlock** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:30 pm

As Teric stated earlier, the block of view is a roof over everything. The camera for the map is above the roof.

My thoughts are... is there a way for the map camera to be 'lower' for DMs or 'higher' for players... so the roof can be placed between said camera heights?

Teric neDhalir · Post by **Teric neDhalir** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 12:09 am

White Warlock wrote:As Teric stated earlier, the block of view is a roof over everything. The camera for the map is above the roof.

My thoughts are... is there a way for the map camera to be 'lower' for DMs or 'higher' for players... so the roof can be placed between said camera heights?

I don't know for sure, but I would guess that there *is* no camera above the map. I would think that the map is a bitmap saved when you save the area that is then placed in the gui. It's not "real-time".

I'd like to point out that I'm not advocating removing all maps completely, BTW. I'm just smug that I've worked out how to do it.

White Warlock · Post by **White Warlock** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 1:20 am

would be nice to find out if it is a bitmap, but that would not explain how a dm can 'click' on a part of the map and transport there. A feature of the map gui perhaps? And, if so... then maybe it is possible to allow for two different bitmaps, that way you don't even have to put the roof. Just provide a limited view of the map, or even a hand-drawn version that the players see.

Keryn · Post by **Keryn** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:45 am

I play a Ranger and seriously... this would simply kill alot of the fun and actually ability of the class which I may add is already gimped...

NwN1 would be the perfect solution even because there was an option where after visiting the area X times it would be all exposed, which makes sense for PCs who know those areas like the palm of their hands.

Otherwise, it will be very hard to find the ways, like psyco_leo said, some PCs know their ways around some dont, this resumes to a case of pure metagaming... and nothing else.