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Visibility affected by Terrain

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 4:51 pm
by mcman
Hey guys, this is probably the feature I've most wished to see in Freeciv. I'm not sure which recent editions of Civilization had this, if any (it's been a while since I played, due to the annoying DRM), but I know Civ II didn't. I think C-evo has something along these lines (though in pretty much all other respects I prefer Freeciv, which is why I'm here).

Anyway, what I'm talking about is that certain terrain features block the units' view of the surrounding area, while perhaps scaling high ground increases their view by a block or two. It should be easiest to see across flat plains or desert, with forest and hills blocking a unit's view somewhat, and mountains preventing any visibility whatsoever. Once a unit made it up the hills, though, it should be able to see for a slightly longer distance. I'm not really sure what else to say as this is a pretty simple idea, but obviously it could be optional so that Civ II retro purists aren't disrupted or whatever. I just think this, in conjunction with the national borders that already exist as an option in Freeciv and the larger urban areas already suggested by that other guy, would add a lot to the gameplay. Thanks.

Re: Visibility affected by Terrain

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 5:24 pm
by ifaesfu
Civ2-3 ruleset has this feature, but I think it's limited to a unit in a mountain. It can see one extra tile away. But nothing about hills, forests, plains...

Re: Visibility affected by Terrain

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 4:19 am
by mcman
Ah, right then. Didn't know even that was supported by the current build. In that case I suppose it's just a question of finding/creating the right ruleset, where visibility is affected by more different terrains, for myself, then? Sorry if this is in the wrong subforum then.

Re: Visibility affected by Terrain

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 4:32 pm
by Alien Valkyrie
I don't think it's (currently) possible to have terrain "block" the vision of far-sighted units. While it's possible to increase a units vision range using effects.ruleset, I'm not sure if one can decrease it. I might try that out.

Re: Visibility affected by Terrain

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:32 pm
by mcman
Oh, I see the distinction. I think it would be an interesting mechanic, though for the terrain of surrounding tiles (not the tile the unit is standing on) to affect visibility in a significant way, the default view range would have to be extended beyond the current default of directly adjacent tiles for most units (with terrain obstacle visibility penalties balancing this increase out).

Re: Visibility affected by Terrain

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 4:12 pm
by Alien Valkyrie
I already tried out decreasing the vision radius using effects based on the terrain the unit is on. It worked and I found this out: You can still move your units to invisible tiles, but when using auto-explore, the AI is too stupid to do so, since it will try to move to the next tile that will uncover something, thus causing the unit to jump back and forth between two forest tiles(because being in a forest made your vision bad).
One way to prevent having invisible tile to move to would be by splitting land units into two unit classes, the short-sighted, which aren't affected, and those with longer vision range, they would be affected.

Re: Visibility affected by Terrain

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:48 am
by mcman
Lol, I see what you mean about the auto-explore, but personally I never use that option anyway. I would think it would ideally be set up so that the current default view range for most ground units would be the bare minimum after the application of penalties. And some if not all ground units would have to have their base view range increased. I don't think there's much in the way of convincing grounds to distinguish units as high- or low- visibility until you reach the technology of the modern era, and I prefer the earlier phases of the game, so I'd be inclined to raise all units' view range by at least one. The terrain-based penalties should balance it somewhat, and I really can't think of any big reason why this would be terribly unbalancing.

Re: Visibility affected by Terrain

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2023 3:47 pm
by Molo_Parko
Update on this topic... It is possible (now) to show/hide ( edit.tile_show(tile,player) and edit.tile_hide(tile,player) ) tiles in Freeciv 3.1 via Lua script within an individual scenario file (as opposed to changing a ruleset.)

"ExtendVision" Lua script for older Freeciv 2.4 or later (should also work in 3) -- extends vision without obstruction due to hills, mountains, etc. since there is no method in the older versions of Freeciv of "hiding" tiles that are revealed.
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