Fog of war

[Imp]

Cross
yes was taking to extremes & more than a bit anal but someone would be.
Agree in pricipal as an option turning info so its blank for infantry makes sense & vehicle guns should not list crews on first screen.
This will have a slight impact on gameplay if it was ever actioned I suppose, as do often look at other side first so know the sort of range they might be dangerous to armour its never realy occured to me.
If its a big game quite often set the range to engage infantry in the op filter I use for tanks & save it so in the instances I want it its already set.
As you say the temptation is there if one squad in the platoon has a longer ranged AT weapon to look.
It does mean I would need to pay more attention to replays as at the moment thats when I use it, see a squad fire something nasty I remember its one of by that terrain feature & look which rather than remembering its specific hex. Sieve like brain like mine might have to watch replay twice if things got a bit exiting.

[Marek_Tucan]

Just my .02 CZK...
1) Fog of War - I like it. I would like "FoW" unit names - as for ID, it'snot that easy as many people make it to be. Not all vehicles are so cut and dried as Abrams (and even then, distinguishing M1 from M1A1 from M1A2SEP at 3 km is a bit hard I would say), the same for various BMPs. Enter the domain of T-64-72-80-84-90 family and you're lost. I guess in the heat of battle no crew would stop to count the roadwheels and measure their diameters. Let alone getting info on ammo used and so on.
However I think not everyone would like it, so it is clearly a question for individual OOB mods. Come one, if someone wants to do this, I'm game, rename units and show correct names in encyclopaedia texts. So, say, no more T-55, T-55A, T-55AM1, T-55AM2, T-55AM2B, T-55MV, but just "T-55", "T-55 ERA", "T-55 BDD". Same for infantry - no more "FO", "Scouts", "Mech section", "Militia section", just say "Infantry", "Light Infantry", "RPG Infantry", "Machinegun"... However I won't like say renaming PzII to Tiger or vice versa. Though it is true that for many Allied soldiers every German tank was "Tiger", "Panther" and every SPG "Ferdinand"
As for editing ency texts, I have found out how to make it en masse and posted it in the TOE section some time ago.
One of the "benefits" of FoW is

2) "forbiddning use" - why? Why not just have a gentleman's agreement about say "no right-clicking", "no unit info screen"... I personally do not use right-click at the enemy too often, I like fighting partially blind

[Cross]

Yes, the crew number can be a bit gamey. I have often right clicked on enemy tanks to get an indication of how badly it's damaged. I also want to know if it's the same tank I damaged earlier, and then I can better decide if I want to approach it.

That said, it can be realistic to know if a specific tank is damaged. I've read quite a few accounts of tank battles where hit tanks has visible signs of damage, like trailing smoke.

You may be right about the replay becoming more important. That may even be the wrinkle that torpedoes this idea. If it makes the game frustrating, regardless of realism, then who'd want to use it...

But it may just make the game better, like not knowing where unspotted units are. What you don't know can enhance the game, rather than making it frustrating.

It just has to be tested to see how it plays and 'feels'.

[Marek_Tucan]

Originally Posted by Cross

That said, it can be realistic to know if a specific tank is damaged. I've read quite a few accounts of tank battles where hit tanks has visible signs of damage, like trailing smoke.

OTOH I daresay I have read a number of accounts where the tank showed no visible signs of damage yet the crew was killed or knocked out. And the basic rule of ground combat is "shoot till it changes shape and stops moving". Just have a look at the famous Cajone Eh. Burned after a freak SPG-82 hit, then subsequently burned some more by crew, then attacked by Paveways and directly hit by a Maverick... Yet from 3-km it would still look to you like one Abrams keeping guard over the road crossing.
EDIT: And to counter "Yeah, from 3 km maybe, but if I get scouts close..." - would you try to close in to few hundred (max) meters to Abrams? And anyway, you would at the very least stop till the scouts make sure the tank is dead.


Same situation, a tank is reported. You take a look through binocs and if you're lucky, you identify the typical egg-shaped turret. Now what is it? T-54? T-55? Type 59? Type 69? With night sights? With modern ammo? With LRF? Damaged by previous airstrike, suppressed by arty, with green crew not seeing you, with experienced crew playing dead, with experienced crew having a brewski time?