Gun powder smoke and its effect on the battlefield. (graphically as well as mechanically)

[Xenutheeviloverlord]

Ever since I've started played this game, I've been finding myself googling/wikapedia-ing a lot of stuff about the civil war. I am a WW2 kind of guy, but this game has sort of piqued my interest in ACW history.

 

And I've read about how smoke greatly effected combat on the battlefield.

 

And thinking from both a developer and historical context. I think it would be awesome if there were some extra smoke effects from repeatedly firing guns. Just a huge cloud of gunpowder smoke just drifting across the battlefield from all the musket and cannon fire.

 

Because honestly, despite being a 2.5D game, it's asthetically more beautiful (and by more, I mean astronomical units more, very beautiful asthetics) than say... Command and Conquer, Diablo 3, despite using so few graphical resources. I think adding extra smoke effects would just nail home the asthetic and feel of the ACW.

 

And it would be kind of cool if visibility/ fog of war was effected by the thick white smoke...

 

That being said, some historians feel that actual musket accuracy reduced greatly as the battle went on, but I could see this mechanic being exploited in multiple way if it was implimented.

[MikeK]

The smoke from gunfire could fade and hang in the air for a while as a historically valid player indicator of how heavily troops have been recently engaged and where (since we can't watch the whole battlefield all the time). On the field, obscuring smoke could feel comforting or ominous, or a mix of both, and lead to tactical errors and confusion.  

 

Simplicity and calculations involved may militate against a "realistic" layer of smoke and weather conditions calculations affecting visibility. The most important visibility issue is spotting and ranged fire being impaired by terrain.   (For which riding a general or some horsemen over to scout visibility from a vantage point is a realistic thing to do)

[Xenutheeviloverlord]

Plus it would look authentic and rather badass

[David Fair]

My favorite gunpowder smoke story is the French infantry at Waterloo that was firing at a red brick wall thinking it was a line of Redcoats.

 

You'd think when they weren't taking casualties someone might send out a skirmisher or two before their ammunition supply was exhausted.  

 

On the other hand I guess not having ammunition is a legitimate rational for rotating to the rear.

[Heimdall2061]

I definitely like this idea. Heavy smoke would be quite cool- the one caveat being, it wouldn't do to obscure the battlefield too much. More realistic, perhaps, but then having a bird's eye view of the battlefield and instantly commanding every unit isn't realistic either. I'd like to see it, just maybe with some translucency.

 

Heck, put a slider in the options for "Smoke Density (Translucent vs. Opaque)."

['Card]

There are many reports from battlefields of that era (when volley fire was the norm and smokeless powder hadn't been invented) when troops would have to kneel down and try to peer under the thick clouds of smoke, in order to see where the enemy was.