This may seem like a silly post, afterall everybody knows how to use the minimap: Its in the upper right corner of your screen and blue dots are your teammates, green dots are squad mates and red dots are enemies. Yes simple enough but in my experience as commander it amazes me how many people will driving by a flag in a tank will not notice me spotting an enemy trying to cap that flag.
So here are my quick tips to effectively using the mini-map:
1) Map the toggle zoom on minimap to your mouse (if you've got more than three clickable buttons) or to a readily accessible keyboard key. The mini-map has three zoom levels that show you the map with increasing details. I cannot stress enough the importance of constantly switching the zoom level to balance between your need to zoom in to assist you in local fighting and zooming out to visualize the entire battlefield and see what the commander is spotting. When I play I am constantly adjusting this view in order to increase my awareness of the battlefield and thus i have mapped the the toggle zoom button on my fourth mouse button.
2) Set Your Minimap to follow the player (don't use static map). I have played with both and from my experience the map that follows the player gives you a much quicker perspective. The reason for this is because the mini-map's main function is to show you other player's position relative you. If you are playing with the map that follows the player then all dots that are north are in front of you, south behind you etc. Very simple to see and process. If you use the static map, you must first identify where your view cone is pointing and then adjust for where the dots are. The result is that you will always be a step slower using the static map. As you get better BF2 and start to know the maps the usefulness of the static map to help you find your bearings will become nil...also, if you want to see a static map you can always press capslock to see the big map.
Judging from this post (http://forums.bf2s.com/viewtopic.php?id=16033) most people use static so there will be those of you who disagree because you have become accustomed to it and can process its information really quickly. Well, I was one of you but I gave the follow the player option a try...at first I didn't like it, but then after a week I got used to it and I can tell you there's a huge advantage. Consider this...You glance at the mini map and there is a red dot about 15 meters northwest of your center dot:
a) Static: Identify where you view cone is facing AND then turn accordingly.
b) Follow the Player: Turn 45 degrees to your left.
3) Look at it constantly to:
a) figure out where people are hiding. I get soooo many tank kills by looking at the map and then figuring out where people are hiding. Red dot to my right...building there...must be on the roof but i don't see him...fire at the little water tower on the roof...Superfly_Cox killed GuyWhoWasHidingOnRoof. Splash damage is a bitch.
b) make sure you are not firing at friendlies (blue tags will not immediately show up when you target a player).
Additions by posters:
Mj.Blindfisch:
Did you guys know that when you are commander and spot the enemy commander while he is using his "laptop" he is shown as a white dot??
I'm not sure if the normal players see a white dot too,but nevertheless,the moment I spot this white dot I immediately tell every unit in the vicinity to go and kill this soldier because he's the enemy commander,very useful if you wanna mess up his arty kill streak.
Answeller:
4- Empty veichles and static defence posts (Stinger-Tow) show as gray if its suddenly dissapers from your minimap:
a) It blown up
b) Enemy took it (%90)
Now you know your enemy's position without being spotted by commander or uav.
So here are my quick tips to effectively using the mini-map:
1) Map the toggle zoom on minimap to your mouse (if you've got more than three clickable buttons) or to a readily accessible keyboard key. The mini-map has three zoom levels that show you the map with increasing details. I cannot stress enough the importance of constantly switching the zoom level to balance between your need to zoom in to assist you in local fighting and zooming out to visualize the entire battlefield and see what the commander is spotting. When I play I am constantly adjusting this view in order to increase my awareness of the battlefield and thus i have mapped the the toggle zoom button on my fourth mouse button.
2) Set Your Minimap to follow the player (don't use static map). I have played with both and from my experience the map that follows the player gives you a much quicker perspective. The reason for this is because the mini-map's main function is to show you other player's position relative you. If you are playing with the map that follows the player then all dots that are north are in front of you, south behind you etc. Very simple to see and process. If you use the static map, you must first identify where your view cone is pointing and then adjust for where the dots are. The result is that you will always be a step slower using the static map. As you get better BF2 and start to know the maps the usefulness of the static map to help you find your bearings will become nil...also, if you want to see a static map you can always press capslock to see the big map.
Judging from this post (http://forums.bf2s.com/viewtopic.php?id=16033) most people use static so there will be those of you who disagree because you have become accustomed to it and can process its information really quickly. Well, I was one of you but I gave the follow the player option a try...at first I didn't like it, but then after a week I got used to it and I can tell you there's a huge advantage. Consider this...You glance at the mini map and there is a red dot about 15 meters northwest of your center dot:
a) Static: Identify where you view cone is facing AND then turn accordingly.
b) Follow the Player: Turn 45 degrees to your left.
3) Look at it constantly to:
a) figure out where people are hiding. I get soooo many tank kills by looking at the map and then figuring out where people are hiding. Red dot to my right...building there...must be on the roof but i don't see him...fire at the little water tower on the roof...Superfly_Cox killed GuyWhoWasHidingOnRoof. Splash damage is a bitch.
b) make sure you are not firing at friendlies (blue tags will not immediately show up when you target a player).
Additions by posters:
Mj.Blindfisch:
Did you guys know that when you are commander and spot the enemy commander while he is using his "laptop" he is shown as a white dot??
I'm not sure if the normal players see a white dot too,but nevertheless,the moment I spot this white dot I immediately tell every unit in the vicinity to go and kill this soldier because he's the enemy commander,very useful if you wanna mess up his arty kill streak.
Answeller:
4- Empty veichles and static defence posts (Stinger-Tow) show as gray if its suddenly dissapers from your minimap:
a) It blown up
b) Enemy took it (%90)
Now you know your enemy's position without being spotted by commander or uav.
Last edited by superfly_cox (2006-05-16 07:44:42)