The enemy gate is down

Ender's Game anyone? lol

I open with that statement because that is how I think of it when I chose my preferred map orientation. I want to see my enemy downfield always. That means I rotate the map into a standing diamond were my base will be at the south and the enemy is north. In this way, north feels like it's down field. To me that just makes sense and I thought everyone would be doing it, but no. From watching casts and playing team games I learned that others don't ever change the rotation. And I wonder why? Then it struck me. It's just habit from playing other RTS's that can't change the map rotation. In those games however, the map and landscape are created with a one directional viewpoint in mind. So everyone all see the same exact view. COH engine is miles ahead though and with that comes no 'correct' way to view the map. So it would make the most sense to turn the map so that mentally your enemy is downrange ie coming from the basic direction of the top of your screen. When I'm seeing this done by others, as I would do, it's more of just an outcome of the player position they got placed in, and not a deliberate tuning of the map rotation.

So you all know you can rotate the map to place the enemy downrange. I guess my question to you all is why don't you do it? It only takes a second.

My best guess is old RTS habit.
Next would be that you consider the map rotation option an unnecessary gimmick. SC2 doesn't need it right... that kind of thought
Next would be that you just find the map confusing and unfamiliar looking if you rotated it. Well it's not that hard to learn a second viewpoint of a map. When you do it often like I do, feeling familiar with a map from 2 perspectives comes about naturally.

I do it too, i cant play otherwise. I guess i am an old dog and can't learn new tricks

I do it too. It helps me to see map features (flanking routes, cover) that I would not have discovered in the default map orientation.

I have never felt the need to rotate maps. The only time I would rotate it is when I want to place a mine behind a door that I can't normally see or something. After that, I always hit backspace to go back to standard view.

Rotating maps is downright annoying in teamgames. Player1: "We are getting flanked through the east!"
Player 2: "Alright, I am on it!" *sends units to intercept*
Player 1: "The other east!!"

You nailed it on the head with team games. Gezz if only my automatch team would just rotate the map so they are in the south as well. I have to remember that when my team says west to me its east if i had to turn the map. Not really that hard to keep track of however. And using pings makes it a non issue as well.

I always rotate. I like the view of pushing forward down the screen, than across. My 2v2 partner rages when I do this.

I haven't used backspace since the first week of playing coh in 2006. 100% of the time I tweak the angle to my preference and hitting backspace would just erase my effort. Plus I'm always tweaking the angle during the match, because sometimes you just want to see further downfield for a second.

I have never felt the need to rotate maps. The only time I would rotate it is when I want to place a mine behind a door that I can't normally see or something. After that, I always hit backspace to go back to standard view.

Rotating maps is downright annoying in teamgames. Player1: "We are getting flanked through the east!"
Player 2: "Alright, I am on it!" *sends units to intercept*
Player 1: "The other east!!"

Shit that's the reason why we lose so much ...

Something I wish Relic would do is just make it standard that your team is in the south. In this way one team isn't looking at the field backwards to begin with. I don't think it would have been to much trouble for them to have had 2 locked view orientations so that both sides start off with a 'normal' view. I really was expecting COH2 to have done that as standard. But that is polish that the game never got nor ever will at this point.

When I have to play a map from 2 different views, I'll have to learn 2 different maps.

When I have to play a map from 2 different views, I'll have to learn 2 different maps.

Or you could learn it in 3 dimensions.

Actually as a map maker myself I can tell you that whilst the maps are rendered in 3D, they are not designed in a fashion that suits all angles.

The functionality to turn the camera most likely comes because the game relies heavily on shot blockers and thus if you find something getting in the way you can look from a different angle. However, they are not necessarily designed specificially to make all views work as if this were the case maps would be built from the centre going outwards with lanes that appeared like spokes. If you turn maps around in game you discover inconsistencies and missing detail behind large objects as in game you will 99.99999999% of the time miss that area as you aren't expected to shift camera controls around much.

Many maps are built to be observed from one angle and the way a map is oriented heavily influences play. Take this as an example:



From 5:12 onwards ATR revolves the camera so it is facing the opposite direction to normal and continues to cast it like that until the end. There are two main issues with this:

1) Looking at maps from a new angle is like learning them all over again, they looked different despite having the same features since people don't just learn the positions of objects but also the positions in relation to how they see it. This can really be taxing for your perception and thus Relic default the maps to one position always so you can choose how to play and ensure that the information is easy to pick up every time you learn a new. This is why your view doesn't change if you are starting in position 1 compared to position 2 etc, because it's easier to recognise everything from the same POV.

2) The maps are built from a gameplay standpoint so all relevant detail is not obscured. In this cast you will notice that you cannot see the passage that goes behind the church as a bank of trees obscures it. Same with the further entrance to the right base (from video POV) being obscured by the house. This is incredibly important as it shows maps are designed to be looked at one particular way and whilst I'm not going to shoot you for using the game's camera controls, Relic make their maps from a certain perspective for a reason.

But hey, I'm just talking facts here, the way you like to play is subjective so I'm not criticising the way you like to see the map.