One thing which always makes me feel incredibly awkward is to specify an area or spot when I want to communicate a threat or direction.
“SG right side”. Sounds good, yet is utterly pointless without a reference. After all, “right” from what? And where? The point where I was before aforementioned sentry blasted my sorry corpse back to the respawn? Or where I am now? But then again, where am I? Parts of my team won’t know.
To optimize communication [1] specific points or locations should optimally have designations which unambiguously identify that location.
For example: On Badlands the designation “Red/Blue Spire” is wonderfully specific. “Soldier on blue spire” or “Scout coming up red spire” are descriptions which immediately pass along essential information.
But for most other locations and spots on the various maps we lack such unique designations. Sure, some terms are more common than others [2], some are pretty much self-explanatory [3] and I’m sure many clans have developed their own internal designations.
Yet I think it would be valuable to create a common naming convention for the official maps. It would enormously help communication, but would also make strategy discussion or tutorials easier and clearer.
What turns that into a bit of a challenge is the simple fact that while Valve usually tries to display a pretense of real life settings for their maps the specific points and buildings are usually quite neutral and without any features which would suggest a designation.
Take Dustbowl stage 2 for example: The area with the first CP has 3 buildings, each without any clear purpose. What could we call those three buildings? Sure, you can cope with “left”,”right” and “straight”, but that always requires the shared understanding of the respawn as reference point, otherwise these terms are misleading.
- Left? Right? Would depend on whether you attack or defend ...
Or Badwater, around the 3rd cap: Lots of buildings and areas make it quite difficult to offer a specific location if one was to point out - for example – the position of a sentry or sniper.
Not to mention Goldrush Stage 3, the long corridor between CP1 and CP2, where “left” and “right” can only offer an approximation.
Yes, that would be a lot of work for all the official maps we have by now [4], but I doubt I am the first to come up with that idea and perhaps some clans have already established such naming schemes.
Opinions? Insights? Suggestions?
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