How to mimic "fog of war" if there is a way?

Schulz

Fog of war isn't realistic either since nations usually have some informations about the enemy strenght before attacking/defending.

Unlimited stacks are also issue which I would prefer either limiting stacks or giving increasing penalties if a nation stack so many units in an area like increasing upkeep etc...

butterw

I don't know if fog of war makes senses gameplay-wise (it isn't a thing in Axis & Allies) but it could maybe be added as an option in Triplea.
I think it may be a way to give a small advantage to the AI and help in creating a more casual game, where calculating battle odds is less critical.

I've been able to do the following simple code modification:

Unit counts for Human players will optionnally be displayed on the map as fog(x) instead of x the unit count.
It's possible to cheat by looking in the territory tab for enemy zones or in tooltips, but it should at least allow to test the feature against the AI.

I haven't had time to playtest the feature myself, but I hope to make a dev build available next week, so that others may give some feedback.

While it makes sense that a Human player would know is own units count, there may also be some benefit to simplifying the unit count display on the map for new players.

EDIT:
The setting can be changed in Engine Setting > Game > Map show unit count.
1: Normal count
2: applies fog to AI players count
3: applies fog to all players
the list could be extended to switch between different fog functions.

! Changes are only applied on redraw (which may only occur at end of a given players turn). To force a redraw (mapPanel .resetMap()), click the current option in View menu > Unit Size.

currently only one Fog Function is implemented:

private String unitCountwithFog(int count) {
  return count>80 ? "C": count>40 ? "L": count>25 ? "B"  
       : count>15 ? "A": count>7  ? "X": count>3  ? "V"
       : count>1  ? "2": String.valueOf(count);
  }

TheDog

@butterw
A quick thought, the unit count for human players could be;

Traffic lighted, eg. Green(low numbers), Amber(medium numbers), Red(high numbers)
Ideally the above bandings would not be fixed, but would be dynamic, based on the largest stack on the current map for the current turn, although this might not be possible. If it was fixed then some maps with low unit count might never get to the higher banding.

Whatever you decide, put me down for giving feedback.