Fog of war
Fog of War (also fog of war or English . Fog of War called (FoW)) refers to the fact that war vital information due to various circumstances (eg war chaos interrupted reporting channels, enemy deception.) Always have a degree of uncertainty and incompleteness. In geographical terms this would e.g. This means , for example, that an area, in contrast to an undiscovered area, is mapped or described from a geographical point of view, but other information that is usually important for the military (e.g. enemy landmines, soil conditions due to weather conditions, bridges destroyed by enemy forces) is missing.
military
The concept of the fog of war appears for the first time with Carl von Clausewitz . In his book Vom Kriege , he described the strategic necessity to make decisions under time pressure with incomplete information to the best of his knowledge and belief:
“War is the area of uncertainty; three-quarters of the things on which action in war is built lie in the fog of a greater or lesser degree of uncertainty. So here it is first where a fine, penetrating mind is used to feel out the truth with the beat of its judgment. "
Modern war doctrines accept a certain lack of security and precision in order not to forego speed and flexibility. With the help of an efficient command post, i.e. reconnaissance and communication, the uncertainty resulting from the fog of war can be minimized.
Video games
The fog of war is a design concept in computer games , especially in tactical and strategy games . In computer gamer jargon it means that elements in an area are not visible to the player until a unit has been sent there to investigate. This is extended in such a way that areas of the map that have already been explored become partially invisible again afterwards if they no longer fall within the line of sight ( LoS ) of your own units and buildings. Movable or easily changeable elements, such as enemy units, are usually invisible in the fog, whereas fixed elements, such as the terrain and often also buildings, remain visible despite the fog, but are not updated (disappear when new buildings are destroyed / appear).
The concept was implemented in strategy games early on, but has been expanded repeatedly since then. In the first games, events in the unobserved areas were simply faded out; today, cones of vision and shading are used to represent the "fog".
The concept was first implemented in a video game in the turn-around strategy game Empire from 1977. The first real-time strategy game to feature a fog of war was Dune 2 . In this game, however, once revealed, this remains permanently disappeared. The game Warcraft 2 from 1995 then introduced the fog of war, in which areas that were already enlightened are covered up again if no units or buildings are positioned there. This has since become the standard for games with Fog of War.
Individual evidence
- ^ Carl von Clausewitz : From the war . Anaconda, 1834, ISBN 978-3-86647-527-4 , pp. 23 .
- ^ Jason Darby: Going to War: Creating Computer Wargames , Cengage Learning PTR; March 2009, ISBN 1598635662