Fog of War Question About Shadow Tactics (and similar games)

Howdy,

Playing through Shadow Tactics a second time on hardcore mode, and I was just thinking to myself... I wonder why they didnt go with some sort of fog of war system, where you cant see anything that isnt by one of your characters?

Anybody have any thoughts? Speaking for myself, I dont make any tactic decisions based on full map availability at all times, the patrols are not that widespread where id need to follow them the full way.

I also wonder if there would be any technical benefits to the fog, i.e. perf, but I am not sure.

Anyways, something I was wondering about.

 

Because Shadow Tactics mimics the old Commandos and Desperados games and those didn't have fog of war (if memory serves).

Also, fog of war would have made it a different game I think. The focus is on planning and executing. Having the information hidden, would have taken the focus away from that.

 

As somebody with firsthand experience implementing fog of war in a Commandos/Shadow Tactics style game: it slows down the pace a lot. When normally you'd be able to just plan and execute like @AcidArrow said, fog of war has you creeping around the map. If you make it so that people have a long and wide field of vision to counteract this, you end up with a fog of war system that's essentially pointless.