Submitted by The Development Team on
Hello everyone!
Today we would like to tell you about some changes which we intend to make to the Line of sight (LOS) feature, and in particular to the way it will be distributed. As you guys know, LOS is a very important feature because it determines how much information a particular player has about what goes on in a battle. Our goal is to implement LOS and its distribution in such a way that it results in a proper balance. We want players to have enough information about each other to function as a team, but at the same time experience all the confusion and suspense that is typical in any battle.
General rules
A soldier’s LOS was and will be cone shaped. The amount of information received about enemy soldiers (i.e. rank, the weapons they are carrying, etc.) will depend on two factors. Firstly, the distance between the soldier and any enemies. And secondly the degree of visibility (visibility could be decreased by trees blocking a part of the enemy for example). We also intend to implement a feature which narrows a soldiers’ LOS while he is doing something specific, like aiming or firing. While this would nicely model something like tunnel vision, we will do extensive testing to see if it has added value from a gameplay perspective.
Distribution
The same goes for the new LOS distribution method. We’d like to stress that even though we really like this idea, some proper testing is required in order to find out whether it will work out or not. The new distribution method is as follows: through the chain of command players will receive snapshots from other players. Snapshots of both the soldiers of those players and of everything that falls within the LOS cone of those soldiers at that specific moment. Imagine these snapshots as a greyed out static overlay of a particular situation at a particular time. The snapshots will slowly fade out as time passes, but will remain visible until a new snapshot is received. The advantage of this method is that a player is able to view the information which has come his way at any time, although he or she has to deal with the fact that this information might be outdated.
This snapshot method was suggested by Martin as well as by one of you guys on this blog, thanks for that!!
Frequency
How often players receive snapshots through the chain of command is something which we cannot decide on until we’ve properly tested it as well. A difference compared to the old CoC is that players in the bottom of the new tree-structured chain of command will receive snapshots from their superiors as well, so it is no longer a one-way affair. However, the frequency with which this will happen will be a lot lower than the other way around.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask them in the comments below!