Fog of War in Link-Dead
I need to state my position on the idea of fog of war in Link-Dead.
I’m aiming to make LD as realistic AND fun as possible. FOW certainly is a realistic aspect and I can imagine it is fun. We know how it works from Soldat realistic and it allows for many things that would be impossible otherwise (like cutting someone’s throat from behind). Yet, I am not planning to add it as a standard feature. The reason is:
What different would Link-Dead be then from a 3D shooter?
My opinion is – nothing, besides that you see your character from the side. I want to make something that isn’t out there in the game market. The 2D side-view aspect should be embraced not mimicked to seem like a first-person game. Seeing your opponents adds fun and strategy to the game. Because it is more like a board game where you see what your opponents are doing and you can adjust your strategy at any time. I like seeing what my enemy is doing when he is not facing me directly. For example seeing him scavenging through someones inventory, or trying to flank me, or seeing what items he picks BEFORE he confronts me. This is something that will never appear in a first or third person perspective game. This can be both funny (like seeing someone trip over his own mine) and strategical cause you need to think more before actually fighting an enemy. And this is my big aim for this game, to make the player think.
This said, I am not totally ruling it out. I agree it could be a cool feature. I have thought about this a long time and even made attempts to do FOW (as seen on this video). So I might add it as server-side option in the future. Discussion is appreciated, you can list your own pros and cons list.