Currently, the default visibility is a little bit more that one tile in each direction. In other words, a unit can see the tile its in, all of the 8 surrounding tiles, and then little bits of the edges of the 12-16 tiles further out. Not enough of them to see if units or resources are present, but usually enough to tell what terrain they are.
It seems strange to me that you can see this far even through forests and jungle. I could be standing in forests and I would know that not only is the square next to me also forests, but it contains a resource, and I would also know that the tile on the far side was water. I'm not sure exactly how big each tile is supposed to be, but I'm sure they're big enough that knowing there's a lake over there when there's an entire tile worth of forest in between me and the lake is unrealistic.
So here's what I'm suggesting: make it so that you can't see into forests and jungles. In other words, if I'm on open terrain (dessert, grassland, etc.) and I'm surrounded by open terrain, I can still see the entirety of all 8 tiles around me, and the edges of the ones further away. But if any of the 8 tiles around me is forests or jungle, I can only see the edge, not the entire tile, and obviously not the edge of the tile beyond it. I can see enough to know that there's a forest or jungle there, but in order to see beyond it, or to know if there's any resources or units there, I'll need to actually move into the forest. Just like RL: I can see the trees, but I can't see through them.
If you're up on hills or mountains, you would still be able to see over the forests: the change I'm suggesting would only matter if you were on low ground.
Now, I wouldn't suggest such a thing just to improve realism - gameplay is always more important to me. So here's why I think this change would improve gameplay:
(1) Exploring takes more time. You'd have to send units into a lot more tiles in order to fully explore the terrain, and thus, it would take longer for the entire world to be mapped. Many people have complained that the whole world is mapped to early.
(2) More use for scouts, explorers, and other units that treat all terrain as roads. Since there's more movement needed in order to explore all terrain, units that move through forests and jungles easily become more important.
(3) More interesting military tactics. Units could "hide" in forests or jungles, and enemies wouldn't know they were there unless they tried to enter the same tile. Thus, there would be greater importance on finding out exactly where the enemy was, not just marching your units towards the enemy who's standing in plain sight.
Anyway, its a pretty minor change, but I think it would actually have a significant effect. What do people think?
P.S. Presumably they'll fix the "submarine bug" for Civ 4. If they don't, then this idea would obviously have the same problem, since land units would often be unwittingly trying to move into a tile occupied by a unit from another civ, who wouldn't necessarily be hostile. If you aren't at war, you should be given the option to change your mind about the move if the tile is already occupied.
It seems strange to me that you can see this far even through forests and jungle. I could be standing in forests and I would know that not only is the square next to me also forests, but it contains a resource, and I would also know that the tile on the far side was water. I'm not sure exactly how big each tile is supposed to be, but I'm sure they're big enough that knowing there's a lake over there when there's an entire tile worth of forest in between me and the lake is unrealistic.
So here's what I'm suggesting: make it so that you can't see into forests and jungles. In other words, if I'm on open terrain (dessert, grassland, etc.) and I'm surrounded by open terrain, I can still see the entirety of all 8 tiles around me, and the edges of the ones further away. But if any of the 8 tiles around me is forests or jungle, I can only see the edge, not the entire tile, and obviously not the edge of the tile beyond it. I can see enough to know that there's a forest or jungle there, but in order to see beyond it, or to know if there's any resources or units there, I'll need to actually move into the forest. Just like RL: I can see the trees, but I can't see through them.
If you're up on hills or mountains, you would still be able to see over the forests: the change I'm suggesting would only matter if you were on low ground.
Now, I wouldn't suggest such a thing just to improve realism - gameplay is always more important to me. So here's why I think this change would improve gameplay:
(1) Exploring takes more time. You'd have to send units into a lot more tiles in order to fully explore the terrain, and thus, it would take longer for the entire world to be mapped. Many people have complained that the whole world is mapped to early.
(2) More use for scouts, explorers, and other units that treat all terrain as roads. Since there's more movement needed in order to explore all terrain, units that move through forests and jungles easily become more important.
(3) More interesting military tactics. Units could "hide" in forests or jungles, and enemies wouldn't know they were there unless they tried to enter the same tile. Thus, there would be greater importance on finding out exactly where the enemy was, not just marching your units towards the enemy who's standing in plain sight.
Anyway, its a pretty minor change, but I think it would actually have a significant effect. What do people think?
P.S. Presumably they'll fix the "submarine bug" for Civ 4. If they don't, then this idea would obviously have the same problem, since land units would often be unwittingly trying to move into a tile occupied by a unit from another civ, who wouldn't necessarily be hostile. If you aren't at war, you should be given the option to change your mind about the move if the tile is already occupied.
