Fog of war has arrived

There's a new option when you create a game: fog of war. Turn it on, and your team only sees the part of the galaxy it has actually scouted — everything else, including fleets heading to or from a planet you haven't found, stays hidden until you get there.

Vision radiates from planets your team owns. Capture new ground and the fog pulls back with you; once a planet's been seen, it stays on your map even if you lose whatever revealed it. Teammates start clustered together in the same part of the map, so a team can actually see each other from turn one.

The one rule we held ourselves to: nothing is allowed to be permanently unreachable. Every planet starts within sight of at least one other, so there's always a next step to take. As an extra backstop, fog stops restricting anyone's view entirely from turn 500 on — the whole map opens up, guaranteed.

AI bots play by the same rules. They can't target a planet their team hasn't discovered yet, fog or no fog, so they're not secretly omniscient while you're feeling your way through the dark.

Try it next time you set up a game.