Visibility & Fog of War
Status: Queued
This subsystem has not been designed yet. It is a prerequisite for meaningful tactical simulation (agents need to know what they can and can’t see) and interacts heavily with several existing systems.
Topics To Design
- Line-of-sight mechanics: Geometric (using the same spatial system as attack resolution)? Ray-based? Per-cell visibility on a grid?
- Detection / perception checks: Passive awareness (automatic, stat-based), active scanning (Focus channel action), equipment-assisted (sensors, drones, thermal)
- Information asymmetry: What do you know about enemies you can’t currently see? Last known position? Estimated count? Nothing?
- Concealment vs. detection: Smoke, darkness, and camouflage already widen the accuracy cone (see Attack Resolution). How do they interact with detection? Can you detect someone you can’t accurately shoot?
- Team information sharing: Is a spotted target visible to the whole squad, or only to the spotter? Does calling out a target (Voice channel) share the information? How accurate is shared intel?
- Sound-based detection: Gunfire reveals position. Suppressed weapons reduce this. Movement noise varies by speed and terrain.
- Stealth and ambush: How does stealth skill interact with detection? How does an ambush establish information advantage?
Interactions with Other Systems
- Attack Resolution: Concealment already widens the accuracy cone. Visibility determines whether you have a target to shoot at in the first place.
- Contact Phase: The surprise modifier is essentially a visibility/detection outcome. A more formalized visibility system would feed into how surprise is determined.
- Action Economy: Scanning uses the Focus channel. Active detection competes with aiming and other cognitive tasks.
- Reactions: Tracking a threat (reaction) requires knowing where the threat is. Visibility determines what threats you can react to.
- Simulation Strategy: Agents in the sim need a visibility model to make decisions. Without it, they have perfect information, which doesn’t reflect real gameplay.
This document will be expanded when we design the visibility system.