Just a thought about a feature that I and a few other people would like. Considering the map is an actual 3d rendering of the game world, it would be cool if there was a (completely optional) fog of war cloud-cover feature for the map. Basically, at the start of the game, most of the map would be covered by clouds, except for the starting city and some tall mountains which would have peaks poking through the clouds. Then as you explore more areas, the clouds disappear in those places, revealing more and more of the map. Of course this could be completely optional and turned off in the game settings.

I'd actually expect something like this.

We can hope.

Well Morrowind did, but Oblivion didn't really have anything like it, just POI markers :shrug:

whats with everything being optional... this is something that should be done, and should not be optional. Its a game, explore and discover.. stop whining if a feature which has been in hundreds if not thousands of games before it is put in. It doesn't hurt you in any way.

(EDIT: That was not directed at anyone, just said in general)

It feels like every suggestion I make on this forum needs the "optional" qualifier to avoid a string of angry posts about how I want other people to play the game my way. I personally would love a fog of war feature that makes me learn about the game world by playing the game rather than looking at the map. Although I guess I could see myself wanting to turn it off on subsequent playthroughs, but I still probably wouldn't. It's nice knowing where you've explored and where you haven't in a game like this.

Well, here's the thing.


It all depends on where you got your map. If, for example, society is advanced enough to have book shops that sell printer-reproduced maps (and, given that the Black Horse Courier distributed newspapers, the TES universe does seem to have some form of mass-reproduction), then you should have a full, but undetailed map. (i.e, no "fog of war" but no points of interest marked on it beyond the major stuff like main cities.)


Fog Of War is for when you don't have a map, and are exploring unknown terrain. When you go beyond the bounds of an explored empire, for example.


edit: now, you could make this part of the story. You have a foggy map to start with, but once you hit the first major town with a bookstore (or interact with a helpful villager who you can convince to spare a copy) you can obtain a map that makes all the fog go away.

I think the difference here is that the 3d map is not supposed to be the character's map, but rather the player's map. I think a good compromise would be to allow the character to buy detailed regional maps that can be viewed with the new inventory system as a hand drawn map on a piece of parchment. When you buy a regional map, it makes the fog of war on the player's map disappear in that region, and possibly adds some POI markers (not all of them for the sake of discovery). Perhaps you could buy a map of the whole province that doesn't get rid of the FOW, but just adds political boundary lines and POI markers for the major cities and some of the bigger settlements. Being able to completely remove the FOW with an item that can be obtained easily seems to negate the whole purpose of the system, and I at least would rather have a menu option to disable it.

Eh, fog of war is awesome, no need for a map for the character honestly i like fog of war and want it there.

I'm a little uneasy about the things I've heard about this "3D map". Seems like needlessly "over-fancying" things that worked perfectly fine as a typical "fantasy game" map. We'll see when we actually get the game, I suppose.

As an option, sure. If it can't be turned off, perhaps rather not D:

Totally forgot this was in Morrowind. It was very cool, showed you where you hadn't been on the map, like a challenge to go and see for yourself what was there.

Someone could tell you about a city, and it would appear on your map in the middle of all the black. So you knew how to get there, but not what was on the way. Of course, it would be nice to have "paper" maps that included stuff you don't "know" is there, but whether looking at a paper map will change your mental map, or if you have to go somewhere to do that is a different story.

Something about the thread title doesn't sit well with me, but as long as it's optional than I wouldn't mind this.

Eh... I hated oblivion's map. It's like... okay, this is a map that my player that he must have found in prison, and it looks kind of "realistic" for a medieval setting. But where's the function? It doesn't have any way of showing me where I've been other than POI markers, and it doesn't update with mods that add new landmasses. Just felt like a downgrade from Morrowind's map. Also I really didn't get why the local map had to have the same cartography effect. It's not like my character was actually drawing out bird's eye views of every rock, tree, and pathway they came across. IMO the map is meant to be a tool for the player, not the character.


If it's because "fog of war" is a term more commonly used in RTS games, just know that the term actually has a precedence in TES. Look at the console commands for http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Console and http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Console. Those just referred to the FOW on the local map, but Morrowind still had a FOW-esque system for the world map.

For the map?
Would love that.
But I'd also like to be able to buy maps from merchants that open up the map or add locations on the map I've yet to find yet. (like, say I've explored around the area in the woods and I haven't found a mine, then it won't show up to me, but if I buy a map that adds the locations in the immediate area then it pops up on the map.)
Would give me something to spend my money on.

My take is that the map's design owes less to "usefulness to player/character" than to "ease for developers." Using an overhead zoom of the actual game world as a map means no chance for discrepancies between "the map" and "the world" when those last-minute changes come pouring in. :shrug:

Good, also means ease for modders that add landmasses or significant changes to the landscape.

I love how Shogun 2: Total War handled the fog of war on the campaign map. It'd be nice if they adapted this idea into TES. When you've explored a certain section you'd get the 3d zoomable view of the terrain, kinda what the MW map looked like but more advanced. Unexplored areas would be flat and look like an old piece of parchment, kinda like the OB map.

I actually hope we have Morrowind-esque fog of war during a foggy day.

Oblivion did have FOW on the local map. I like that as it tells me if I have or have not explored an area when I am looking for something.

As for the world map, it is enough for me that map markers get revealed over time, but I still get to see the land mass and shape. At least I can plan out supplies for the journey if I know it will be short one or a long one.

I think this idea kicks a lot of ass. I Like the idea of knowing where I haven't been yet c:

I would like to see a partially fog of war, where only the big cities can be seen from the start. And there should be ways to reveal other places as well through purchasing/finding maps etc.