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[Carp McDwarfEater]

You would think this topic would have been brought up before or implemented, but a search for 'fog of war' just brought up some threads on adding lighting systems. Basically, my suggestion is that if an area cannot be accessed by your dwarves and none of your dwarves have been there for a while, it should eventually just be undiscovered. For example, if you dig into a cavern but immediately wall off the hole, you will instantly be unable to see any creatures moving around down there, which would make sense since your fortress would have no way of knowing if a forgotten beast had appeared. You would still be able to see the actual terrain of the cavern, like the walls and floor, for some time until the dwarves that saw it eventually forget what it was like. After that, it just becomes another patch of black on your screen, like all the other hidden caverns.

This would also apply when you dig out a room and have constructed walls built around its perimeter and to your annoyance the once-exposed rock behind the constructions is still visible, or when you wall in your fortress. If your dwarves are stuck underground, it doesn't make sense for them to know if siegers are still camped above, if migrants came, or if the traders are up there wanting to sell you some stuff. Depending on the player, it might be a good feature to not be bothered by migrants and caravans, or a bad thing to not know what's going on above.

Any thoughts about this suggestion?

[GreatWyrmGold]

It makes sense, although you should be able to keep a "map" of the area; just because no one has looked into the king's sealed-up tomb for a couple years doesn't mean no one remembers where it is. This would reduce issues like accidentally digging into caverns or whatever that you SHOULD know are there.

[Carp McDwarfEater]

Yeah, the main reason I want this is just so that if I wall off a part of my fort that was flooded or something, I don't have to see that ruin in all its ugliness.

[CrzyMonkeyNinja]

Yeah, the main reason I want this is just so that if I wall off a part of my fort that was flooded or something, I don't have to see that ruin in all its ugliness.

Agreed. I sometimes mine a bit of wall that I don't want to, and in order to make the fort look nice again, I need to construct a wall and end up with a weird-looking double-wall-for-no-reason thing. I'd like to be able to fix that.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Of course, you'd want some indication of what was there, for reasons mentioned above.

[Scoops Novel]

It would give a reasons for sentrys, as well. I may be wrong, but setting up patrols is fairly hellish at the moment right? If so, lets have that tuned first.

[Mechatronic]

I think something like this would be good eventually, probably in conjunction with adding light sources. I'd rather make areas not currently in view greyed out or something so that you can still see the terrain but not creatures or any changes that have occured.

[assasin]

Maybe there could be a fog of war if no actual dwarves are around. Might make scouts important for offsite wars whenever that update is released.

[Carp McDwarfEater]

I think something like this would be good eventually, probably in conjunction with adding light sources. I'd rather make areas not currently in view greyed out or something so that you can still see the terrain but not creatures or any changes that have occured.

The part about areas staying greyed out was in the original post. I agree that you should be able to still see the terrain, but only for a time. I guess there could be an option in the raws to enable or disable the undiscovering of terrain.

And as for having sentries and only being able to see things within sight of dwarves, I don't know. It would make it difficult to check cisterns, lever rooms, and other places my dwarves rarely visit. As I said on the original post, if a place can be accessed by your dwarves I think you should be able to still see it. Fog of war would only apply to sealed off places.

[Graknorke]

Why would the dwarves ever forget the terrain?
That just doesn't make sense to me. It's just an obtuse feature that adds frustration.

[Carp McDwarfEater]

If you walked through a park once, could you give a perfect description of where every tree and hill is a few months later? Five years later? But still, I can see how some might hate this feature, so you should be able to easily disable it in the raws.

[Graknorke]

Actually I have an uncanny memory for places. So maybe.
I'd definitely remember where any walls etc were.

[Carp McDwarfEater]

Well, if you could remember where all the walls and such were in a cavern, then it shouldn't be much of an annoyance if your dwarfs forgot and it was undiscovered. And if you couldn't, then why would you expect your dwarfs to?

[Graknorke]

Well, if you could remember where all the walls and such were in a cavern, then it shouldn't be much of an annoyance if your dwarfs forgot and it was undiscovered. And if you couldn't, then why would you expect your dwarfs to?

I meant in a real place. Not in Dwarf Fortress.

[GreatWyrmGold]

If you walked through a park once, could you give a perfect description of where every tree and hill is a few months later? Five years later?

No, but I could still remember that there were hills, about so steep and high, about so many, about this many trees. And I don't draw maps. Dwarves should at least be able to remember the presence of such things.