Any tips on improving Orientation?

[MadTommy]

This is the one area i feel i struggle most...Orientation

I almost always have to check my map before i can give intel over voip.

I'll spot 3 enemy approaching my squad's defences.. "3 enemy approaching our positons from the..wait a sec..... (checks map).. south west"

This pause can be fatal.

This really annoys me... i know the maps well.. IRL my orientation has always been good. When i dont check i call west east, north south etc..

Any tips to help?

[bigmoose332]

If you stick your mini map to a 'no rotation' in your options, it wont move when you move.

So, then you can look up to your mini map, and judge it easier, imo

Bigmoose

[.:iGi:.U.G.H.]

Yeah I can call far quicker when using static mini map. Don't have to even think about it then.

[MadTommy]

.. i've never even seen this setting... i bet that's my problem. Thanks lads.

I hope its not already set to Static.

[IronTaxi]

best way IMO is to do the orientation without the minimap...try to pick a map landmark in the north that you can always use as refrence...ive been trying that and it helps...i hate having to look at the map when i know perfectly well where i am..

[Rhino]

I think we need a much better compass in PR. I use the static minimap but still not having a "N,S,E and W" on it around it dose sometimes make you think when its between E and W brain sometimes needs to think cos it can get a little confusing hehe.

[bosco_]

Remove minimap, add compass, profit ;P

[Wasteland]

Rhino']I think we need a much better compass in PR. I use the static minimap but still not having a "N,S,E and W" on it around it dose sometimes make you think when its between E and W brain sometimes needs to think cos it can get a little confusing hehe.

I keep a Post-It hanging from my monitor with the NSEW, "o'clock" bearings, and degree bearings (in multiples of 30) for quick and easy access.

[Rhino]

I keep a Post-It hanging from my monitor with the NSEW, "o'clock" bearings, and degree bearings (in multiples of 30) for quick and easy access.

lol, my post its never stick on my monitor, i have them floating around my room, most covered in PR bugs

[BlueSkunk]

i set waypoints regularly not too far ahead in direction of travel. then it's simply a "tree just left of waypoint ", or something, to announce a target location.

other than that i try to pay attention to the minimap a lot and use n,s,w,e as directions. problem is that sometimes others are rather unaware of the compass bearings

cheers

[Darkpowder]

I keep a Post-It hanging from my monitor with the NSEW, "o'clock" bearings, and degree bearings (in multiples of 30) for quick and easy access.

Just to repeat what i keep reminding people.

12 o'clock is -not- north, 6 o'clock is not south. Clock face bearings are relative to direction of movement/assault etc, whatever is the direction specified by commander/sl.

Irontaxi, is exactly right, picking a bearing and focussing on that does help, also the direction of the sun in the game can help you.
Many of the cues IRL to orientation isn't there in the game, so it will always be harder to orient yourself IG than IRL.

Also people who have a good sense of direction IRL don't always have a good sense of orientation in game, its more about learning the maps and picking up those directional cues/landmarks. (That one's scientifically proven, i wrote my dissertation on sense of direction in artificial worlds).

Also, in a squad pre-preparing direcitons of fire/observation with different squad members can help a lot too, in knowing where the enemy are coming from, as you are only covering a specific arc of fire. For a SL, knowing the sound of certain squad members voices can help in saving your SL life in tight spots. Hearing for example "Wormeaten" shout "Contact" and i know he has just medic-ed me and is covering my back, means i know exactly where the enemy is.

[Outlawz7]

Having the squad to proceed in a formation with everyone heading in the same directions and use the "o'clock" to spot targets, would ,imo, work very well...

Or use yourself as a reference, such as "Enemy target on my left"...

[MadTommy]

thank you all... some very good tips

my mini map is already static. I'll be working on a few things suggested.

[Long Bow]

I think part of the problem is the way the direction indicators are positioned on the mini-map

w_____N_____E


Instead of


______N

W__________E



For quick visual reference the first example takes a second to calculate things in my mind in relation to my position. The second would be take a little less time to orient yourself with.

I'm very compitent in the woods with orientering, more so then the average Joe (used to be part of my job, if I got it wrong I would be spending some cold nights alone in the woods ) Some times it does take time to get your bearings in relation to a map, add in gunfire and you might have a greater delay. In PR I like to look at the flag we're going to attack and figure out where north is before we move on it. Then when we move I already have a mental note, it's far from perfect but it helps.

One thing I do that probably doesn't always make sense is divide up the compass into quadrants. Example would be you have north and east. Between that (45deg) would be north-east. But I split those further by saying north by north-east (22.5deg) or east by north-east (67.5deg). It makes sense in my mind but I'm sure the rest of the squad think I'm mentally challenged.

[Hx.Clavdivs]

It's been mentioned, but not in the same way. If you are to secure a certain area over a period of time (that be 30 seconds to 15 minutes) use the compass in the top right corner.

If you suddenly see hostiles, you now know without having to look up what direction you are pointing/waving your gun.

[daranz]

If you're defending a static location, it's somewhat easier to point out hostiles (or anything else for that matter). You don't need a precise compass bearing, but you can instead use a combination of landmarks and compass directions to point stuff out. For example, instead of "enemies, SSW, 100m!" you can say "Enemies, south, other side of the road behind the house!" Yes, it takes more time to say that, but it's easier on everyone. Most people remember where the road is, if they're near one, and can quickly spot a house on the other side of it. If you call out a compass direction with no landmark references, they have to actually find the same compass direction, and look that way (and they can have problems with orientation as well).

[eggman]

I think we could do with a simple and discrete compass in the player hud (like the vehicle compasses). Would only have N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW as "tick marks".

This would indicate the player heading and would be in addition to the minimap (whether static or rotational).

I do prefer static minimap / gps but also agree it can take a second to calculate headings. A compass would be better because whatever direction you are facing would be displayed right there without reference to and calculation the minimap.

[MrD]

My compass directions are given out by map orientation. I put the maps in my memory and can give directions well enough in most cases by compass direction.

ie. enemy fire from NNE

meaning enemy fire incoming from North-North-East


Because of the time involved in the small scale clashes we see in PR ahead of the absolutely huge maps the mod is hopefully gearing towards it is always best to know where squad leader is or if everyone knows where you are or based on current fixed defensive position. By giving the compass direction based on the fixed map from the SL it is quite easy to get your bearings.

[=*CLA*=StudMuffin21]

Hey DEV's, how bout this for an idea.

Get rid of the minimap and introduce a compass as eggman suggested.

On the regular map which you view by hitting the "M" button, you would see a military style map. It would include:

• Topography lines
• Grid coordinates (with each grid representing 1000 meters, and a 6 grid coordinate system determining your location within 100 meters).
• All areas of water, vegetation, roads, man made structures and build up areas would follow the standard military color chart.

[eggman]

Let's not turn this into a "get rid of the minimap" discussion.

We'll evaluate that in the future with a fairly COMPREHENSIVE inventory of things the minimap is used for and a plan to evaluate each one.

MadTommy is an "exemplary" PR player and the discussion around situational awareness and orientation is an important and valuable one for the PR team to have. Having it digress into a half based, fact lacking, opinion filled redundant minimap discussion will not be helpful.

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We have attempted to clean up the HUD by greatly reducing the draw distances of CPs. These now begin to fade in at about 150m and are fully drawn at about 100m. I LOVE this change!!

In order for players to have HUD elements that are rendered at long distances, you need to be using the attack / defend / move markers. These draw out to 1000m, which i adequate for most maps.

However on really large maps the 1000m can sometimes fall short (spawn at main to get armor for an objective in the opposite corner). I think we should render these out to 10,000m, effectively making them work for all maps (subtle hint there that I am hoping we can see 64 sq km maps at some point lol).

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If we add a player compass for the v0.6 timeline it will be a very simple compass like the vehicle compasses. It will likely be at the bottom of the screen rater than the top.