@Para: Yeah, but the game takes place in, like, 4025 A.D.! Current VR systems use other ways to keep track of your orientation. I know you like scopes and compasses and all, but I don't mean it has to be like the 3 right next to my desk (or the 47 with that big pile of optics you have), i.e., it wouldn't have to be the Boy Scout magnetic needle kind. It could be GPS, and a beacon in the helmet tells the satellite which way you're facing. It is supposed to be 2000 years in the future, right? Good point, though. Although lots of shooters have even less plausible minimaps and compasses.
@whitebear: I agree about the minimap. As you said, it would give too much away. As many posters here said, players should play the maps and learn the maps (the default maps at least). I've played "single player" versions of all the defaults as both factions, just to learn where things are (beating Human defenses as a dretch is hard to learn). The blind jump into the Human default base on Arachnid is sweet. It took me a long time to get familiar with that map. Players should have to earn it by playing more.
I would use a compass more to describe things in teamchat, than to find my way (unless the map was new and unfamiliar). I also think it could be toggled on or off, just like tutorial mode. If you need a quick position fix, toggle it on, and suffer the framerate drop. When you're done, toggle it off. I just think "west end of green hallway" is the way soldiers would describe their position. It makes sense, and it works with our current military technology, let alone two millennia hence.
Sketching the maps is a great idea. I only learn with a pencil anyway, 'cuz that's the way I was taught.
Thanks for the input, y'all. Just idly wondering if anyone else had ever played any games with compasses in them, or had thought one might be useful for describing rooms and spaces within maps ("We're not in that room. The NORTH red hallway!").
Edit: @Para: Oh, well, that minimap sounds cool. If you could also share the "tagged" waypoints with your team, that would be pretty useful (Tribes-style). "Reac move to X location in two minutes".
Cheers.
Re-edited for clarity a day later and a dollar shorter.
PB: The Timbo minimap that Para is talking about sounds cool. One that just shows everything, without the player having to find it first, would be too easy though. That's why I edited the first post.
