How to remove the black fog?

Arthas

I'm not referring to the fog of war (I can remove it via the explorearea command), or just by using the great menu that appears via ctrl+spacebar, I'm referring to the fact that the map is explored but not visible. I want it to be visible and see where hostiles are located. Can that be done?

sarevok57

kind of in a way, there are level 4 mage/priest spells called farsight and wizard eye, and what happens is you cast that spell on a section of the map, and it will become visible, but just remember you will not be able to save your game with hostiles on visible range, farsight/ wizard eye spells are great for scouting out ahead and then sending in your summoned monsters to help weaken the enemy before you go up and battle them yourself

semiticgoddess

It's possible to apply a special effect to your characters to increase their visual range. Obstacles (like a wall) will still get in the way, but you can set their visual range to 100 (say) and they will be able to see far across the map.

You could apply the effect in Near Infinity. Or I could attach a custom item that you could have your characters equip once, and their visual range would be extended permanently.

romkansk

@Arthas Check out this thread https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/60767/no-fog-mod
I sort of managed to do what you need in BG:EE and would be grateful for any help with testing.

jesterdesu

Rangers get tracking as a HLA

gorgonzola

Tracking and the spells like @sarevok57 and @jesterdesu told before.
But also, and mainly, your thief or ranger hidden in shadows or someone equipped with SotM or invisible in some other way (rings, spells, potions). An item or spell of not detection protect from trough sight and other similar spells, if used in combination with the staff and rings or while hiding in shadows. And you can use hide in shadows or the invisibility from SotM how many times you want.

Scouting and the knowledge of the battlefield and the enemy's position give a huge tactical superiority that you can use for cheap tactics like bombing an enemy that can't see you and doesn't react. But also for creative, challenging and fair ones. You "earn" the right to buff the party in an effective way against that enemies, set traps, summon helpers effective against that enemies (like skeletons against mages, fire elementals against gauths and mordy swords against fighters) and so on. Finding a dark spot in the map where your thief have a hight chance to hide in shadows, maybe right after a corner, can lead to very effective multiple backstabs tactics, a bottleneck can often be used to deal with multiple strong mlee fighters taking them one by one.
You decide when and how the battle begin and if you choose a sound tactic also how the fight will continue and end.

The only problem are the enemies that can naturally see through invisibility, but that ability is part of their strength and power, so part of the fun of the game, and farsight is the solution.

All this can add a lot of depth an fun to the game, giving you the same advantages of the cheat* you are looking for and, if you are not an experienced player, others that you will discover by yourself. And imho add creativity and help you to become a better player because as you are exploring you have time to think to new tactics suited for that situation. You constantly train yourself to use at te best your knowledge of the game (spell system, class abilities and so on, I am not talking of metagame) to solve the problem posed by the terrain and the tipe of enemy, in ways you know and trust, but also trying new ways.
I feel that if I had used only metagame and point and click tactics or other people's recipes now I would be a much more bored and weak player.

* in this post I am using the word cheat in a technical way, without any morale judgment added.