What, precisely, is "fog of war"?

[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...