Gorlom Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I was thinking it would be interesting if, during day missions, the closest or 2 closest tiles for the black FoW to "fade into it" (the effect is already inside the game in night missions it just needs to be more rapid and not be dispelled/undone by lightscources). I want theese darkened tiles to somewhat hide the aliens standing just in range of your vision (makeing them a black silluette, tile should be as dark as possible if not completly balck) to add a bit of atmosphere of faceing the unknown. Simmilar to the effect you get in UFO:EU during night missions when you cant acctually see the alien as a player but your soldeirs can and you can mouseover to spot the tile it's on. (played a night mission in Xenonauts not sure that the darkness blends that well in this game) This idea is a cosmetic change and should not apply any penalties, its just for the atmosphere. It also doesn't apply to going around corners and spotting aliens or anything like that it's just the edge of the black FoW that still hids the alien from the player, but still lets the soldeirs to spot it and fire at it without penalties. Some modification to the crusor might be needed to bring out the full potential. The idea is to not be able to see the colours of the alien model but still be able to see tne contours/silluete. This might have interesteing sideffects where you can't decern if you have spotted a non combatant, guard or soldier, also raises the impact of meeting a new alien race for the first time. Is this a good idea? Would the community be interested in this or is it just a hassle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamkyon Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 As a matter of fact, something along the lines of what you described popped into my mind the other day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherdevil Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 i like it if it's possible! =] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 Btw the alien spotted icon. Is there any way to make that only pop up when the character that can see the alien is selected? Would be nice to see which of your chars has line of sight (without "aiming" at the alien). Or has this already been discussed and decided against? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherdevil Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 if your character can't see it then the icon is slightly faded/less bright Perhaps the difference needs to be more obvious/extreme? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTuninator Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 The "faded" or "graduated" FoW a la XCOM should really be done if at all possible, as it added a ton to the eerie atmosphere of the original to have that layer of almost-visible tiles lingering on the edge of your vision. Hope Chris sees this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sathra Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Indeed. I think in X-com it was done by having the soldiers able to see slightly further than the light propagated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okim Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Liked that stalking presence of alien silhouettes in XCOM a lot. Would be really great to see it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 The problem here is that EU did its gradients in quite a strange way (we were looking at them recently). In Xenonauts we just overlay a black tile with varying levels of opacity on each square, which gives the night / FOW effect. This is what most games do, because its easy. UFO:EU actually seems to have different numbers of pixels display their colours (as opposed to being black) depending on how far from the soldier they are. So the fading of the tiles is not uniform as it is on Xenonauts, but sorta random. It looks much better for it though. Perhaps we could mimic it by having an overlay for each 'fade level' where each pixel is either transparent or blacked out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sathra Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I hope it works out. The night combat is a much loved (feared) part of X-com and I'd love to have the nights similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Username Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Is it possible to have the fog of war not return to complete darkness after a unit leaves? I mean, if you've explored an area but don't have anyone there, can it just be greyed out? For it to be completely dark suggests that you've completely forgot a street you just left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 (edited) Currently that is in effect. black is unexplored areas (light) grey is areas you ahve explored but arent currently in any soldiers line of sight/ field of vision. PS.Isn't this visible on a lot of screenshots available? DS. Edit: Looking on the 3 groundcombat screenshots on the xenonaut pages 1 completly lacks grey FoW, one barely has any. Only the factory exploration screenshot showcases the grey FoW. Edited January 22, 2012 by Gorlom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b15h09 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Been pondering this a lot when I check out the alpha builds. It's definitely a piece of polish that helped with the mood of X-COM, having the oily black Chrysalid barely visible at the edge of FoW. Curious if the possibility of an overlay has been explored yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bibidibop Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Could a gradient be incorporated into the black tiles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyRoT Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Would it be possible to have an overlay that acts like a filter. This could affect contrast and how different shades of each color come through. I really think this Fog of War suggestion is a crucial aspect of UFO:EU which made it very scary. As well as its grittiness. The current Xenonauts screenshots on the other hand make everything look very clean, polished.. sterilized. The way everything looks perfectly visible even when far just takes away the suspense. There really needs to be more darkness to create a fearful mood. I'm going so far as to say that the main reason I haven't preordered is because of this issue. It is the main flaw with every single x-com remake I've seen. I'd also add that perhaps smoke should be used more generously. I remember the liberal use of smoke in EU made things look more chaotic and also added fear as it limited visibility. However, the rest of the game looks absolutely wonderful, and even better than the original I'd say. So please try and get the fog of war right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted May 13, 2012 Author Share Posted May 13, 2012 I like how you reference EU but post a screenshot of TFTD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Smoke will be provided by all the explosives you are carrying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The New Romance Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 There was once a nice polished suggestion screenshot by a community member, which Chris seemed to like quite well. Can't find it now... Edit:Ah-ha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arturius Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Gorlom, you idea is good. I think that cosmetic change you propose will add even more athmosphere to the game. It would be cool to have fade effect in the final release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted May 13, 2012 Author Share Posted May 13, 2012 Buzubuzu's example is pretty spot on what I was imagining when I posted this. I'm just hopeing for the "alien silluetes" as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitso Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 (edited) My only experience on Xenonauts is the old Kickstarter demo, but I also noticed the jarringly bad FOW effect. The black isn't that good looking atmosphere wise. The other thing is smoke: there should be lots of it around the downed ufo. And fire too. While Xenonauts is smart looking game and captures the original X-com feel better than any other game yet, it lacks some of the atmosphere and ambience. This is mostly because too sterile and clean looking surroundings. There needs to be more random crap, blood, rocks etc. all over the place over the normal tiles. FOW effect also plays a role in this and I think it's a really important thing to fix in polish phase. Please get it right and you have a gem in your hands. Edited August 29, 2012 by Skitso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antr4cite Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 +1 I really don't like the tetris fog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erutan Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 I'm pretty sure this is something that will be addressed in the beta, but it's probably not a priority right now with them trying to get a fully functioning game for people to playtest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted September 25, 2013 Author Share Posted September 25, 2013 Sorry for necroing this, but Is there any plans for playing around with the cosmetics of the fog of war? I was especially hoping for something along the line of Buzubuzu's mockup: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/1243-V9.1-Ground-Combat-Fog-of-War?p=15507&viewfull=1#post15507 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoitessier Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 Yeah I loved that mockup too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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