What, precisely, is "fog of war"?

[TheDawg]

Tried to search, but each is less than 4 letters.
I find what seems to be a differing opinion, and want to know how does it apply to offline, and online play.
What exactly does it do, or not do.
thanks

[Ian Boys]

It allows some enemy icons to appear in an otherwise no icon server.

For example - you are flying an IL-2 and a Pe-2 recon ahead of you flies over some blue tanks and reports them back.

Example 2 - you have a radar unit at your base and enemy up to 30km away over 40m alt (for example) show up on your map. However their position updates only every 30 secs. So it give you an idea what is close but not completely realtime.

It is great - you know things you would know and don't know things you wouldn't know.

[TheDawg]

thanks!

[Richie]

It's a great Documentary. Robert S. McNamara tells his life story...and other things.

[Wolf_Rider]

"The great uncertainty of all data in war is a peculiar difficulty, because all action must, to a certain extent, be planned in a mere twilight, which in addition not infrequently—like the effect of a fog or moonshine—gives to things exaggerated dimensions and unnatural appearance."" - Carl von Clausewitz

[TeeJay82]

FOW is easily explained as: Everything you dont see

[engarde]

Originally Posted by TheDawg

Tried to search, but each is less than 4 letters.
I find what seems to be a differing opinion, and want to know how does it apply to offline, and online play.
What exactly does it do, or not do.
thanks

I offer an explanation not game based, but sourced from my work as a.... govt employee.

I hope it can provide a useful comparison to what actually happens in game.

When groups of people get together responding to an incident, its f**#$n GUARANTEED that not everyone, knows what everyone else is doing.

OR where they are.

OR where theyre going.

And those supposed to be tracking the whole thing, only know if they receive regular detailed updates from everyone in the field.

IF thats automatic, fine. Mostly, its not.

So, everyone tries to give their 5c worth via the same radio channel.

SO, the brass gets piecemeal bits of garbled reports and tries to draw a picture.

Fog of war?

A state of general confusion present due to the impossibility of commanders to know whats happening anywhere at that instant, ie delay, made worse by how many are on your side.

And exponentially increased by the presence of the enemy.

In game? I doubt the enemy suffers from it. I see no such thing that can be interpreted as confusion by the AI. I never hear a wingman calling out anything that reveals panic from loss of situational awareness...

[TheDawg]

I offer an explanation not game based, but sourced from my work as a.... govt employee.

I hope it can provide a useful comparison to what actually happens in game.

I understood the concept of the phrase in real life, and google showed me the movie about that guy, but comparisons to RL and this game of mind since 2001 typically...is close, but not accurate, LOL!!
More curious as to exactly what it meant in OlegsWorld®

[Rainmaker]

I have a serious problem after updating to 4.10.
I have trouble spotting contacts in the far-far distance as i was spotting them back in 4.09. I am wondering if 4.10 Fog of War option causes this?
My visibility is really poor now. I cannot spot airplane thats in 2.5 - 3.0 km from my position. I tried even to set my ressolution on 640x480 to see that giant dots, but still, without success. Any ideas???

btw. 4.10 needs alot of more testing before it goes "out". Alots of people complaining about stuff thats going on on 4.10. You will see a 10 year old kid flying on keyboard with spitfire and shooting down expirienced ace pilot of bf-109. I hope they will fix it before it ruins the game.