What You Don't See

A tactical map becomes boring the moment it knows everything. If every enemy is visible as soon as they spawn, there is no reconnaissance, no second-guessing and no real flank — just a cleaner version of a minimap. On September 11, we moved FLANKED toward the opposite idea: information has to be earned.

The server now decides what a soldier can perceive from their actual position, posture and exposure. The view follows a 240-degree cone out to 80 metres, tests the target at several heights and lets terrain, walls and objects marked as vision blockers cut the line. A ridge or a low wall is not just decoration anymore; it changes what the team is allowed to know.

We also added a small close-range rule so the system does not feel unfair. Targets within two metres are revealed immediately, even if a tree or another local detail sits between the two characters. At the other end of the scale, detection needs a short confirmation window and survives for a fraction of a second after sight is lost. The result is readable: enemies do not blink in and out because of one noisy frame.

Smoke is part of the same calculation. It blocks sight in both directions, and the server uses its density rather than the prettiness of the particle effect. A squad can throw smoke to cross a road, break a firing lane or hide a retreat, but the cloud is a tactical trade: it hides the people inside it from both sides.

The team can share what it has seen, but only at squad scale. Living allies within 40 metres can pass a detection on, which lets one player watching a gap warn the rest of the push. That information still belongs to the team; it is not a global reveal and it does not quietly expose a hidden FOB on the other side of the map.

We wanted the vegetation to matter too. In configured grass, a prone and motionless soldier gets a real camouflage bonus: their detection range drops dramatically. Moving, standing up or firing gives that advantage away. Destroyed grass stops hiding the player. It is a simple rule, but it gives a patient defender a reason to stay still and an attacking squad a reason to check the ground instead of trusting the map.

The client renders the fog as a soft, cold veil over the unseen world. It keeps the terrain recognisable, fades entities rather than popping them, and carries the last known position briefly while a new capture is blended in. That visual layer is only a local indication; the server remains the authority, filters the information sent to each team and rejects stale network updates.

This changes the job of the Commander as much as it changes the job of a rifleman. A map can now show where your team has eyes, where contact was reported and where the next blind corner might be — without pretending that a plan is the same thing as certainty. Enough information to coordinate. Enough uncertainty to leave room for a flank.