Map Scale and Fog of War feel a bit wrong

from Elemental Forums

So I was thinking and thinking why I felt bored when moving my units, so I fired up MoM and played it, and went back to Elemental and compared...    Now I realized that it is the scale of the world. The landmass is just to wide, speaking in tiles. In MoM you went 8 tiles from one end to the other of your starting areas and always have some choke points, rivers, oceans etc. and while doing so you are crossing a mountain, a forrest etc. cause it was all more abstract and thus felt more like a traditional board game where you move counters on an absract battlefield.

In Elemental you have much wider areas to cover, but your movement isnt really that much faster. Ususally 2 MP. Everything is wider and larger meaning your perception is less strategical. You have a fog of war that is really close to your units so this adds another dynamic where you have to constantly move troops around on those large areas. Its hard to describe but I found out that this is what bothers me: The scaling of terrain vs tiles. The world feels more empty that way. It feels bigger, but it feels also more boring. I dont pass many different terrain types, but usually have long walks until I am out of the mountain/forrest/etc.

Anyone got any idea what I am talking about?  (lol)   Its just hard to grasp somehow.

elemental
5,790 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I *think* I get what you're trying to say, but I don't really see a problem.  The world does feel pretty vast and empty, at least until you've researched more Adventure technology.  Then you start to fill up all of the emptiness with monsters, goodie-huts and quests.

I kind of like the vastness of it, more than the board-game feel of MoM.  Sending a hero out to explore is pretty cool, and feels pretty epic compared to the old 2D TBS games.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

The only thing I would change right now is to make the world more varied and colorful.  Right now it's just bland mountains, deserts and forests - rinse and repeat.  I'd like to see several more biome types beyond what we have.  So let's have alpine forests, snowy alpine forests, cloud forests, tropical forests, red-rock deserts, scrub deserts, arabian deserts, tundra, ice-caps, volcanic terrain, and so on.

Compare HoMM3 side by side with Elemental and you'll see what I mean.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah...HoMM has been a great game over thhe years...but that screen makes me want to claw my eyes out and die.

 

No offense.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Swamp

That is one of my attempts at map editing for AoW:SM for a swampy region. I am nowhere near as good as some other people, but it would be nice to have diverse terrain like this.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Goontrooper, reply 3
Yeah...HoMM has been a great game over thhe years...but that screen makes me want to claw my eyes out and die.

 

No offense.
End of Goontrooper's quote

Yeah you're right, HoMM tended to go a little overboard on the detail at time. :)

But, yeah, more diversity of the landscape could go a long way to making Elemental feel less empty and sterile.  I'd love Stardock if they did this for one of the upcoming expansions.