Fog of War
Welcome Pioneers to your weekly shot of all news Dawn Apart - we're over the moon to have you! In this edition brace yourselves for a deep dive into a small but important feature of many RTS and base building games, namely (in fancy words) the dimmer switch that keeps the battlefield either partially illuminated or cloaked in darkness - or (to put it more bluntly) our fog of war feature.
Speaking of visibility, please help us further lift the cloud of obscurity and shine the light on Dawn Apart by joining our Discord server (to get exclusive initial access to our upcoming demo) or liking and following us on our various social media channels!
[h3]Out of the shadows[/h3]
Granted, the majority of you will probably know what a Fog of War (FOW) feature in a strategy or RTS game is. But in case not, here is quick explainer, just so we are on the same page: FOW, usually represented by a greyed or black area on the map, conceals certain regions or sections from view and determines portions of the map that are currently visible to the player, creating distinct zones that are either "in sight" or remain shrouded in mystery.
For Dawn Apart, we have opted for three different FOW states. The first state is active, meaning you have set up some form of base, with space marines protecting the compound, engineers working on their tasks and automated turrets ready to put holes into everything that slightly looks like an intruder. Essentially this means that everything the player builds makes an area around it 'active' and visible on the map.
[h3]Known Unknowns[/h3]
As opposed to the active state there is the unknown state, dark clouds that literally loom over sections of the map you haven't discovered yet (cartographers of the 16th century would probably have drawn giant sea creatures on those sections). The good thing is that you can use your pioneers as guiding lights, meaning the dark layer vanishes as soon as an engineer or soldier walks into the unknown. Their field of view/vision radius will encompass five map tiles.
Finally there is the so-called 'discovered state', places on the map that you have previously visited without activating or activated but then abandoned. Those sections will be marked as a little foggy; however activities and settlements by the It'ak, Auroras friendly or (depending on your actions) very unfriendly alien population will remain invisible to you unless you send a new team of explorers to check it out.
Overall, nothing groundbreaking really but we wanted to a) let you know what we've been working on this week (as always) and since it's such a key feature b) explain how we are tackling exploration and visibility in the world of Dawn Apart. What do you think of FOW? Fan or foe of the mechanic? Let us know in the comments and - magically disappearing in a puff of smoke - see you next week!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Speaking of visibility, please help us further lift the cloud of obscurity and shine the light on Dawn Apart by joining our Discord server (to get exclusive initial access to our upcoming demo) or liking and following us on our various social media channels!
[h3]Out of the shadows[/h3]
Granted, the majority of you will probably know what a Fog of War (FOW) feature in a strategy or RTS game is. But in case not, here is quick explainer, just so we are on the same page: FOW, usually represented by a greyed or black area on the map, conceals certain regions or sections from view and determines portions of the map that are currently visible to the player, creating distinct zones that are either "in sight" or remain shrouded in mystery.
For Dawn Apart, we have opted for three different FOW states. The first state is active, meaning you have set up some form of base, with space marines protecting the compound, engineers working on their tasks and automated turrets ready to put holes into everything that slightly looks like an intruder. Essentially this means that everything the player builds makes an area around it 'active' and visible on the map.
[h3]Known Unknowns[/h3]
As opposed to the active state there is the unknown state, dark clouds that literally loom over sections of the map you haven't discovered yet (cartographers of the 16th century would probably have drawn giant sea creatures on those sections). The good thing is that you can use your pioneers as guiding lights, meaning the dark layer vanishes as soon as an engineer or soldier walks into the unknown. Their field of view/vision radius will encompass five map tiles.
Finally there is the so-called 'discovered state', places on the map that you have previously visited without activating or activated but then abandoned. Those sections will be marked as a little foggy; however activities and settlements by the It'ak, Auroras friendly or (depending on your actions) very unfriendly alien population will remain invisible to you unless you send a new team of explorers to check it out.
Overall, nothing groundbreaking really but we wanted to a) let you know what we've been working on this week (as always) and since it's such a key feature b) explain how we are tackling exploration and visibility in the world of Dawn Apart. What do you think of FOW? Fan or foe of the mechanic? Let us know in the comments and - magically disappearing in a puff of smoke - see you next week!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]