Inspiration Time: Line of Sight/Fog of War

There’s been quite a mixed opinion on line of sight and fog of war in Wayward. And while my screenshot wasn’t 100% there visually, it still illustrated a solution to a new issue. Most grid/tile/turn-based games have some form of line of sight and fog of war present. Don’t believe me? Take a look through the gallery below:

All of these games employ this model:

Fog of War

Tiles you’ve never seen; they are black and completely hidden. After seeing them, the tile will be revealed along with any object on them.

Line of Sight

Tiles and objects you can see within your realistic vision. Ones you cannot see (but previously revealed) are a slightly darker shade, visualizing that you can’t see them. NPCs are hidden, although most games will show items even out of line of sight as long as you revealed them previously. Some games instead of hidding NPCs will make them transparent to show you where they were “last seen”, kind of like a memory buffer.

So what’s different in Wayward? Well, in the screenshot I shared, the line of sight looked more like fog of war – it was way too dark. Also, most graphical games employ some type of dithering, blurring or gradient effect to these elements so it looks better visually. I’m not sure if that one is realistic to implement quite yet – but we are still working on it.

Part of the Wayward philosophy is allowing players to play how they want to play, so of course if there enough force against these features, I may consider adding it as a mod, or adding it as a mod to remove – depending on which side the the player-base is split.

Original Image Locations:

X-COM: UFO Defense, Brogue, Dungeons of DredmoreMonacoProject Zomboid, ToME4Doom, the Roguelike

5 thoughts on “Inspiration Time: Line of Sight/Fog of War”

  1. I know I definitely find that with the larger view the LOS in it’s current form works well. You don’t see the berries on the tree or the vein of ore in the mountain unless your line of sight lets you. Without it you see everything all the time and the survival aspects are diminished.

    Wayward is not meant to be an easy game and without it, it feels way to easy.

    My .2

    O.

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  2. That makes sense, that you shouldn’t be able to see every resource

    Maybe have a memory stats that lets you remember (appear outside LOS) where resources are?

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  3. Initially cartography could “SLOWLY” increase the chance that you “remember” the placement of items you can’t directly see. and only late game should it allow you to make a map.

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