Advanced Option: Slider Bar for Fog of War
Bhryaen
Member Posts: 2,874
This would look like (from left to right):
1- Fog of War removed from game.
2- Fog of War removed only from towns/ villages.
3- Fog of War remains across the world, plaguing all travel and exploration.(DEFAULT)
This term "Fog of War" is like a euphemism for a game mechanic that forces one to, as it were, mow the lawn back and forth in order to clear the swaths of black pixelization off the screen. This dense-viewed, tedious exploration applies to complete wilderness and bright cities equally. Even Candlekeep which was presumably our home for many years requires this tedious de-blackpixel routine. It probably exists in order to make the uncovering of a new area that much more revelatory, but for advanced players it is nothing more than a nuisance, and in either case it will always result in portions of every area that are not able to be cleared of the blackpixel botches. For an enhanced version of BG that enables greater appreciation of BG's background art- old and new- it's just offensive to leave the blackpixel smears all over it.
This is an option, however, so if one prefers mowing the lawn through every game it remains, and it doesn't affect the viewable area or whether creatures outside the viewable area can be seen, only whether the area outside one's viewable area is blackpixellated by default and where. There are means of getting around this through area-by-area .ini edit ("CLUAConsole: ExploreArea()") and the Clairvoyance spell, but I'd rather not endure it at all, and to make a perfectly reasonable DnD spell like Clairvoyance into a mere compensation tool for a belaboring game mechanic just seems lame.
This is one in a series of game features I'd like added in a separate settings section called Advanced Options. It would be entirely optional to even peruse it, clearly designated as "Advanced Options" (even throwing in "Intended for more experienced players" if that's deemed necessary). It would mean an in-game tweaking mechanism.
1- Fog of War removed from game.
2- Fog of War removed only from towns/ villages.
3- Fog of War remains across the world, plaguing all travel and exploration.(DEFAULT)
This term "Fog of War" is like a euphemism for a game mechanic that forces one to, as it were, mow the lawn back and forth in order to clear the swaths of black pixelization off the screen. This dense-viewed, tedious exploration applies to complete wilderness and bright cities equally. Even Candlekeep which was presumably our home for many years requires this tedious de-blackpixel routine. It probably exists in order to make the uncovering of a new area that much more revelatory, but for advanced players it is nothing more than a nuisance, and in either case it will always result in portions of every area that are not able to be cleared of the blackpixel botches. For an enhanced version of BG that enables greater appreciation of BG's background art- old and new- it's just offensive to leave the blackpixel smears all over it.
This is an option, however, so if one prefers mowing the lawn through every game it remains, and it doesn't affect the viewable area or whether creatures outside the viewable area can be seen, only whether the area outside one's viewable area is blackpixellated by default and where. There are means of getting around this through area-by-area .ini edit ("CLUAConsole: ExploreArea()") and the Clairvoyance spell, but I'd rather not endure it at all, and to make a perfectly reasonable DnD spell like Clairvoyance into a mere compensation tool for a belaboring game mechanic just seems lame.
This is one in a series of game features I'd like added in a separate settings section called Advanced Options. It would be entirely optional to even peruse it, clearly designated as "Advanced Options" (even throwing in "Intended for more experienced players" if that's deemed necessary). It would mean an in-game tweaking mechanism.
Post edited by Bhryaen on
5
Comments
I wouldn't mind this option, though personally I use the FoW as a way to keep track of the places I've already explored on the map.
But I agree with Tanthalas I would go for towns only explored. I also use FoW as an exploration indicator in other areas.
I think it'd be impossible due to lag, but if there was no secondary (out of sight) fog, I could screen cap bit by bit of the terrain and make a map.
The city maps of Athkatla are already explored when you go to them. I'd like to request the same thing for BG1.
Major locations explored upon visit: Baldur's Gate, Beregost, Candlekeep, Nashkel
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/136/advanced-option-slider-bar-for-fog-of-war
I'd merge the discussions but I must rest 8 hours before I can use that power again.