Hiding Planet Ownership

[I_like_pie]

@Belg has been working on a Sneak preview system monitoring tool, and is planning to extend it to provide warnings of system intruders:

Sneak preview

I plan on building some early-warning alerts for my family - so rather than relying on family members watching all systems nearby, now we’ll start to get alerts when other families start encroaching on our space…

@Torqez asked an important question here:

Sneak preview

I wonder what that would mean for gameplay. Is that a direction we should head?

This is a great question.

A counter-intel op comes to mind. Cloaking technology could impact how the map (and these kinds of tools) present this data. @Terror_of_the_Night was describing a wider map fog idea that would specifically hide who owns a planet as a galaxy setting.

Even without map fog though, a similar concept could be applied as an op cast on a planet or system instead of an empire. That way, even if it changes hands, its activity would still be hidden until the op wears off.

With either wider map fog or a more limited op, affected planets would only show ownership for the player who owns them. This would make Find Targets Planets useful once again, while also allowing players a chance to sneak into systems if they’re skilled enough.

[Torqez]

Oh wow, I like the idea of a ‘Fog of War’.

e.g. you only have visibility of systems within 5 ticks radius (ticks, rather than distance, so can tie to speed).

Could open up some interesting developments, as you are unaware of movements. And I like that Find Target Planets would be useful again. Fams would need to work again on intel gathering.

[Translucent]

Sneak preview

I proposed the FoW in our podcast, If it gets implemented I want a badge

On a separate note, I don’t think it needs to be a op, rather all planets owned should be shrouded unless 1) they are your ally, 2) nap, 3) you’ve attacked it, then it should reveal who it is, 4) would make FTP more useful

[Terror_of_the_Night]

@Translucent I first proposed a FoW concept in the #think-tank back in February and to date it is the most commented on idea in there. Still not fully fleshed out and is something that will need numerous variations tested before settling on a final implementation of it.

And, as for who gets credit for it, pretty certain there is a long line of people who have advocated for it over the years and could place a valid claim on the idea. I’m far from the first to propose it.

[I_like_pie]

Yeah, it first came up in here in 2013 from a player named discrete. It’s very possible others discussed it prior to that too.

We should be careful about chasing the badges, often times players come up with the same ideas independently of each other.

That’s why credit usually goes specifically to the person who starts the forum thread. FoW credit will likely go to discrete for the 2013 thread. Keep in mind we’re also planning a “contributor” badge for players that help flesh these things out too. That will also be forum based though.

These are forum badges, so they require forum actions.