Fog of war is extremely annoying and time consuming.

[Noobmaster42]

In the recent patch I’m sure many of you have played it, has this new feature called “fog of war” which is extremely annoying and time consuming. Pls TW revert this change or add a option to turn it on or off! Pls

 

[Cilcain]

As it stands, FoW is a box-ticking exercise (met so-and-so? then check them off the list) behind an in-game paywall (hoping to meet so-and-so? pay this keep-entry bribe).

 

[Goyyyio]

Fog of war is not a bad idea, it was just horribly applied and extremely annoying to go through. I suggested a long time an idea like this and the devs said "Well you wont get what you wanted but we're getting you FOG OF WAR" and it was this. It's like the devs listen, but at the same time they add horrible twists instead of making sure the ideas work for the game. Like, for example, if you're already BORN in a faction shouldnt you know everyone in it, because you ltierally lived there your whole life? It doesnt make sense having fog of war in a faction you're already part of

 

[Underuse2307]

i was very excited about this feature when i first heard about it.


but it was so badly implemented that its annoying af.

 

[Apocal]

This feature is exactly as good as I imagined it would be.

 

[Underuse2307]

This feature is exactly as good as I imagined it would be.

you have a rather sterile imagination then

 

[swally0ne]

why is fog of war annoying?

beside your spouse age it isnt covering any critical information.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

you have a rather sterile imagination then

This is the problem though. People's imagination about game mechanics often far surpasses what is actually possible, or how the idea would actually be like if implemented. Ive said this before but most, if not all of the really bad design decisions in bannerlord were met with praise and anticipation when they were first announced.

I had a ton of arguments here back in like 2016 because everyone was convinced the influence system was going to be great. They actually implemented it exactly how most people were suggesting, and it sucks miles of ****.

The fog of war thing is just a fundamental design contradiction. If Bannerlord didn't have some 1000 NPCs in the game and have to interact with dozens and dozens of them, then hiding stuff about them wouldnt be so bad. There is also the fact that its such a grindy minmax simulator that having some lost information isnt just a quaint dash of realism, it can make or break your campaign.

 

[saittam]

why is fog of war annoying?

beside your spouse age it isnt covering any critical information.

It kills the fun of the game. Half the game is planning next generation governors. To search for wife with good traits is now very annoying, Especially those that are in their teens in beginning of the campaign. It´s a constant roaming around. Lucky there is a mod to to fix this implanted bug.

 

[Apocal]

you have a rather sterile imagination then

More like I can imagine how doing something "immersive" can be cool one or two times but very rapidly become annoying after that.

 

[Underuse2307]

This is the problem though. People's imagination about game mechanics often far surpasses what is actually possible, or how the idea would actually be like if implemented.

dude this game is plagued with issues. lots of things dont work or dont work as intended.


if the developers cant implement a new feature PROPERLY, without you know, thinking it through, testing it, perhaps even asking for feedback... then this is the result.

 

[swally0ne]

It kills the fun of the game. Half the game is planning next generation governors. To search for wife with good traits is now very annoying, Especially those that are in their teens in beginning of the campaign. It´s a constant roaming around. Lucky there is a mod to to fix this implanted bug.

how does it kill the fun of the game :O? what are you actually doing?

why do you need a wife with any good skills/traits?
serious question as the game barely offers content for multi-generation playthrough. at least to me half of the game does not consist of planning for governours. i never felt in the need of a single one and i never felt in the need of getting any information of what the fog of war covers.

my ingame wife is only supposed to be there as a backup to produce children/to have an heir backup, if i accidently die during playthroughs. i never really cared for stats, just the age (the younger, the better pregnacy rate).
not saying that good skills/traits are bad or completely unnecessary, but really i couldnt care less as it barely affects anything important beside roleplay approaches.

and if you are going for the roleplay approach, how is it bad to not have any knowledge about characters if you haven't met them?

 

[JunKeteer]

FoW was needed, but not how they implemented it; it doesn't even come close to what I had thought was discussed when this first came about years ago.

It should obscure the enemy positions as well as hide the full breakdown of enemy unit count/troop types in castle/army - adding tweaks to it so scouting skill/perks have additional depth and importance to impact that. Give a bit of 'artificial' delay to army reactions to distant besieged towns to prevent the flipflopping (ie player coming in an out of a targeted town can force the enemy army to be 'stuck' changing their minds).
Tracking/spotting is already less useful in BL than it was in WB; half the perks in it don't even do 'scouting' things.

And some things the player should know without 'checking the box'; ie marriage proposal clan/member, allied kingdom clan leaders. Hiding just their character stats is not 'fog of war' at all.

For companions, I can see the gripes with it for those that depend on that list the second they start their game to pick their companions. Running around getting them from across the map, while double-checking the wiki GPS to make sure they didn't teleport to the other side of the world was dumb anyways (or if they haven't actually 'spawned' yet but still trackable for some reason).
Just have all the companions spawn regionally by the player (ie spawn in tavern or spill to the streets if overcrowded or within the 3 towns nearby).
You eliminate needing to 'hunt' them, their character stats can be provided all within that one or two load screens, or as simple as a dialogue/tip to barkeep that you are seeking a 'scout/surgeon/QM' or just a catch all (for X denars) 'give me info on all companions looking for party' if they don't happen to be in that tavern and is in the next town over.

FOW didn't need to affect the companions info, afaik, no one really asked for it to impact that end.

 

[Goyyyio]

This is the problem though. People's imagination about game mechanics often far surpasses what is actually possible, or how the idea would actually be like if implemented. Ive said this before but most, if not all of the really bad design decisions in bannerlord were met with praise and anticipation when they were first announced.

I had a ton of arguments here back in like 2016 because everyone was convinced the influence system was going to be great. They actually implemented it exactly how most people were suggesting, and it sucks miles of ****.

The fog of war thing is just a fundamental design contradiction. If Bannerlord didn't have some 1000 NPCs in the game and have to interact with dozens and dozens of them, then hiding stuff about them wouldnt be so bad. There is also the fact that its such a grindy minmax simulator that having some lost information isnt just a quaint dash of realism, it can make or break your campaign.

Well, the thing is there are thousand of ways of implementing a feature. Bannerlord has 100 NPCs, but imagine this: You could ask people, you could ask bartenders for money, you could ask soldiers, etc. You could talk with Lords and ask them about their families. You could get the information once you join a faction as a mercenary, or at least the big generals. See, there are so many ways they could deal with it and make it less annoying, instead, they added this. It's like they're doing the smallest effort and saying "Ah looks good enough" as if it was a highschool presentation they just have to deal with. I wonder if they even care to work there at all and if they even want to make Bannerlord a good game anymore. It feels as if they're adding the bare minimum to say "We're doing something, this game is worth its price". Again I'm not questioning their capabilities, I'm not questioning they work, I'm questioning if they care enough to make it good at all.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

why is fog of war annoying?

Most players seem to want to recruit wanderers with certain skills and not seeing the skills in the N is a problem for them. Of course if you played before you probably know what's what and if you're more jaded like me you don't even care what wanderers you get because their skills barely matter anyways.
Also they made the better wanderers worse in this version so it's even less important.

It's annoying to to me that they even call if FOW because IT DOESN'T FOG ANY OF THE WAR! It still tells you were everyone is and you can still inspect everything about enemy parties on the map. They should hide enemy locations and put generic models for all parties so you have to actual get close to see what's what, that would be cool. But just not knowing if Vlanalina is 20 or 50.... okay great feature thanks TW.

It's also stupid that the AI cheats and knows all the stats of the fiefs (and recruits/food) magically and the information is obscured from the N for the player.
It makes sense to obscure it for enemy fiefs, but the AI shouldn't know omnisciently either.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

Well, the thing is there are thousand of ways of implementing a feature. Bannerlord has 100 NPCs, but imagine this: You could ask people, you could ask bartenders for money, you could ask soldiers, etc. You could talk with Lords and ask them about their families. You could get the information once you join a faction as a mercenary, or at least the big generals. See, there are so many ways they could deal with it and make it less annoying.

Make it less annoying sure, but it would still be a feature that just mindlessly slows down the player rather than meaningfully changing the way you interact with the game.

Its a feature i think people like the idea of more than anything else. Bannerlord is at such a large scale but it forces you to go to every corner of the map dozens of times per playthrough. The idea of "getting to know" characters is just not applicable here, and there's no feasible way to design features around it without fundamentally changing the pacing. However they implemented the fog of war, it's always going to butt heads with this element of the game.

 

[Ningauble]

The In Game Encyclopaedia is exactly that, a compiled - behind - the - scene player ( but not player character ) resource, akin to that available to any educated Frenchman ( or woman ), in a library, in the 18th Century. It is a " textbook " of NPCs ( and Clans, castles, towns, etc ) including sex, age, traits, home, and, importantly ( for some ), appearance. It does not suit as a simulator re what is " known " to the player character as one progresses day by day.

If the TW Vision must ( must it ? ) now include " Fog of War ", that type of thing ( player character " organic " awareness ) would be better simulated by NPCs' daily locations simply NOT being in the Encyclopaedia. You know their faction, you know their home, go find them if you are interested to meet them. When you talk to a noble, resurrect the Warband conversation line " How goes the war ? ", which will help to point you to the frontlines to there, easily enough, track someone down, if necessary.
Similarly, have " Wanderers " wandering solely within their own culture's domain ( their back stories do tend to fit this ), so, if you would like to recruit one, you can hunt them down, not too inconveniently ( passing through only some towns ), likewise. Because one would have a fair idea of where you could pick up a Vlandian, or Khuzait, or Aserai, Companion .........

 

[saittam]

how does it kill the fun of the game :O? what are you actually doing?

why do you need a wife with any good skills/traits?
serious question as the game barely offers content for multi-generation playthrough. at least to me half of the game does not consist of planning for governours. i never felt in the need of a single one and i never felt in the need of getting any information of what the fog of war covers.

my ingame wife is only supposed to be there as a backup to produce children/to have an heir backup, if i accidently die during playthroughs. i never really cared for stats, just the age (the younger, the better pregnacy rate).
not saying that good skills/traits are bad or completely unnecessary, but really i couldnt care less as it barely affects anything important beside roleplay approaches.

and if you are going for the roleplay approach, how is it bad to not have any knowledge about characters if you haven't met them?

I am building a clan with good governor effects. Because it makes towns easier to manage. And who wants a cruel leader? Traits are nice there. Traits even goes to the children. Skill is not important at all. Because i think one should level them up to the desired skills. But traits are harder to change.
I don´t play multiplayer so i have no idea what goes on there.

If you pick a bride with 50-100 in several skills she will be at level 15 and more. Makes them harder to build better. But if you pick a lady with no skills or just 1 or 2. She will be at level 10. Now that is a character one can build to ones need. My first are always 50 in medicine. Thats first. Then build up engineering so building goes quicker. It does makes a difference in building. A wall defence at level 3 removes ladders. That makes defending against bigger forces easier.

Say you have a defensive position. And one of your captains is "Impulsive". That wife can charge a retreating force and make you loose the battle as she has your higher tier soldiers with her. So yes it does have importance.
I know because for the player i always pick Zuad as a wife. And she is Impulsive in her traits. Can´t have her commanding infantry. But archer works.

 

[Brentimus Maximus]

Personally I like it as a first step but sure it could use some polish especially with enemy troop compositions.

 

[Apocal]

If the TW Vision must ( must it ? ) now include " Fog of War ", that type of thing ( player character " organic " awareness ) would be better simulated by NPCs' daily locations simply NOT being in the Encyclopaedia.

That's the one thing TW could do to make this even worse, so I'm pretty sure they'll add it in another nine months.