Hard to navigate with ambigious looking maps.

Guerra · Post by **Guerra** » 2007-03-22 16:32

I'd like to see certain things, such as rivers, canals, and other bodies of water, along with grass, forest, mountain and ROADS most importantly to be more pronounced in the mini map. Its very difficult to navigate on some maps (can't remember the exact map, but it has west beach, east beach, dam, bridge, etc. US vs China).

I just want to see roads more pronounced on the minimap, so we know there are roads, and we know how to drive to the battlefield. A lot of the roads are counter intuitive, they twist and turn, vehicles have torque issues and can't really move up hilly terrain, such as the mobile AA. So I think that making roads and paths more pronounced would prevent getting lost on some of the more confusing maps.

*waits for Vikingo to tell me I have to memorize the maps, because thats what he has done*

What do you guys think?

Post by **bosco_** » 2007-03-22 16:36

Remove the minimap on the top right and make the "M" map more detailed like some kind of GPS...

Guerra norte · Post by **Guerra norte** » 2007-03-22 16:52

bosco wrote:Remove the minimap on the top right and make the "M" map more detailed like some kind of GPS...

Agreed, we need maps which are showing the topography, buildings, rivers/water and vegitation better.

DirtyHarry88 · Post by **DirtyHarry88** » 2007-03-22 16:55

Doesn't ArmA have pretty good maps in regard to that?

jerkzilla · Post by **jerkzilla** » 2007-03-22 17:39

I don't think the maps in the game are actual maps as posted above, but more like a satellite photo of the area with a bunch of icons on it...
I'd like to see roads marked with red, kinda like in Battlefield Vietnam I think, water isn't causing me that many problems.
Oh, and by the way, that map is Jabal Al Burj and it's U.S. Marines versus M.E.C.

Guerra norte · Post by **Guerra norte** » 2007-03-22 17:50

DirtyHarry88 wrote:Doesn't ArmA have pretty good maps in regard to that?

Yup.

You can also click on "show textures" to get a more bf2 looking map.

JL · Post by JL » 2007-03-22 19:56

what model garmin is the one the military uses? or the one in PR?

Smash-Crunch · Post by **Smash-Crunch** » 2007-03-22 20:03

Guerra norte wrote:

The contour lines on that top map are useless without any measurements, plus theres no legend.

Guerra norte · Post by **Guerra norte** » 2007-03-22 20:40

Smash-Crunch wrote:The contour lines on that top map are useless without any measurements,

Uhh yes they are, what do you mean by measurements? Like a line that shows distances? Well there is one and it's dynamic too, it's just not showing on the screenshot I took.

Smash-Crunch wrote:plus theres no legend.

You mean like markers? Of course there's is none, I haven't put out any.

I might also add that the map is very dynamic when zooming in and out so you get a different level of detail avoiding getting lots of clutter when zooming far out.

ubiquitous · Post by **ubiquitous** » 2007-03-22 20:51

I think that from both a realism and a 'coolness' point of view, having maps like the ArmA one posted by Guerra norte for the full-scale map (and no minimap) would be good.

Could replace the minimap with an ordinary compass to aid navigation.

Top_Cat_AxJnAt · Post by **Top_Cat_AxJnAt** » 2007-03-22 20:59

For those of you not living in a properly mapped country, which is pretty much every one not in the UK, or possible a few EU countries, this is what a map should and for those who like to say "Ich bin ein Berliner!", this is for you:

ORdniate survey are the mother of map makers........for the UK and in terms of detail, they have like 5 + different scales of map, with hundereds and hundererds of maps in total.

I do realise the middle east, will never be mapped in such detai, but hell really, maps like these are the basis for what maps in RL should look like, and therefore a bench mark for PR to consider, but most certainly will never attain using the present game - not a problem though due to engine map size, object, terrain limitations.

I also realise, there almost certianly will be some difference between the above and military maps, although i am sure the British Army would not be too badely handicapped using OS maps if all came to the worse in an all out war over the UK.

For those desperate to see some more hardcore map pornography!:

ENJOY

http://leisure.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/lei ... s_explorer

El_Vikingo · Post by **El_Vikingo** » 2007-03-22 21:10

Just do google'earth it.

Top_Cat_AxJnAt · Post by **Top_Cat_AxJnAt** » 2007-03-22 21:14

NO, El_Vikingo, no. ... *shakes head*

ubiquitous · Post by **ubiquitous** » 2007-03-22 21:55

To be fair the OS are lords of all things map. Not sure the military have a lot of use for a map that tells you where you can park your car though

.

Here are some real military maps that I found:

Israeili

US

Soviet (looks kind of like the Arma one)

Guerra norte · Post by **Guerra norte** » 2007-03-22 22:39

Lol, while we're at it, here's a map of a real iraqi city (Samawah) in VBS1 terrain pack module 3.

Here's a real US army map of the city.

Go HERE for high-res versions.

Clypp · Post by **Clypp** » 2007-03-22 22:44

Topographical maps are possible. I saw one of the map makers once present one of the maps (Jabal I think) as a topographical style map. They complained that filling in the buildings would take too long but using an overlay of the normal map can do this quite easily. I would love to see the maps the military uses in game.

soraflair · Post by **soraflair** » 2007-03-22 23:15

Would be great but a very minor feature, if any of you guys would like to do them go ahed.

[-=IDSF=-]SykloAG · Post by **[-=IDSF=-]SykloAG** » 2007-03-22 23:35

Yeah those ArmA maps are cool. Most of the maps I saw while serving were aerial or satellite with contour lines etc overlaid on top and a legend on the side.

'[R-CON wrote:soraflair']
Would be great but a very minor feature, if any of you guys would like to do them go ahed.

Ok. I'll do Al-Basrah just for the fun of it. Been wanting to contribute for some time now. So consider this task/ticket/job taken!

[EDIT]
Hmm... On second thought Al-Basrah is somewhat lacking in topography... I'll do some other map - Hills of Hamgyong would be more appropriate.
[/EDIT]

I'll have to reinstall BF2 though as my editor is all screwed now and does not install in Windows 2003 64-bit (the installer cries foul).

Guerra norte · Post by **Guerra norte** » 2007-03-22 23:38

So does anyone here know how to covert a grayscale height map into a topo map? I'm too stupid....

[-=IDSF=-]SykloAG · Post by **[-=IDSF=-]SykloAG** » 2007-03-22 23:49

DEM2TOPO

http://people.uleth.ca/~brad.gom/dem2topo/

It makes stuff like this from height-maps in the right format.

Hard to navigate with ambigious looking maps.

Hard to navigate with ambigious looking maps.

Try this.