Tactical map feedbak

Hello !

In CoH 1, Tactical Map [Num 0] was essential part of my play style and it was very often used (nearly as often like regular view mode) for situational awareness, selecting units, issuing macro commands,cap orders, queue movements and "jump" (tap 0, immediately click on place on map you want to see and tap 0 to go back in less than a second) with camera around battlefield - quite a lot tasks.

I would like to share my thoughts and give some feedback about Tactical map in company of heroes II.
Also I would like to hear other players thoughts and suggestions about TacMap !

Before this I want to say I know how TacMap situation was during beta and this can be subject to change.
Also tactical map is much more readable and better than in beta and this need some mentioning and credit for Dev's !

Ok, here we go:

• CoH2 had serious problems with displaying Tactical map on screens with 1920x1200 resolution (most modern 24" screens) and having "movie" black stripes on top and down part of the map screen seriously reducing map size and vertical resolution .
  
  
• Actual map (not counting white area around) Is only 1/2 of screen vertical resolution (rest are filled by useless mini-map style decals) what is much less size than CoH1 had and seriously decrease it's usefulness.
  
  
• Unit Decorators (shields) should be smaller and more compact, they are slightly larger than in CoH 1 (and much more larger compared to map resolution) which combined with smaller map size cause more clutter on map and often cause selecting units when we want to just move camera in some place.
  
  I suggest removing squad size number in tactical map to drop shied icon size down or made more compact/minimalistic unit icons for tactical map.
  If it's not possible It would very appreciated if camera will go to point clicked on tactical map even if we select unit by this... (You can still box select units without moving camera).
  
  
• additional, easy to reach hot-key, allowing quick use of Tactical map on laptop computers.
  

I don't want to rant, I just think that Tactical Map is one of most essential tools for playing Company of Heroes (and it's lack was big turn-off for DoW2) and it need some Love still .

The resolution of the tactical maps is horrible.
360x360 px stretched to a normal gaming size screen (e.g. 1920x1080 or even higher) simply looks horrible. Especially on maps like Minsk Pocket where the trees/forest areas are just slightly darker sprinkles on the map. Other path blockers aren't displayed at all.

I wanted to make a map pack for Gtactix, a strategy planning tool, like I did for CoH but for today's resolutions the tactical maps look horrible and the invisibility of many objects on the tactical map doesn't make strategy planning feasible anyways.


However, I appreciate that they added them because they were often asked for during beta.
On the other hand, I think that many of the uses a tactical map had in CoH 1 is now fulfilled by being able to issue capping orders on the mini map and by the unit banners in the top right of the screen.

The tactical map is great though when used e.g. during a recon flight so you can quickly see the symbols of the scouted units even when they were just barely inside the scouting area. Plus a scout plane is often pretty fast so moving the camera everywhere it flies isn't really a good solution.


Tactical map improvements I'd love to see:
1. higher resolutions
2. make the design fit modern screens better! Maybe use the space on the right or left e.g. to display the unit banners (like in the top right when outside of the tactical map)
3. Customizable Hotkey(s) but that needs to be done for everything. Maybe when we finally have modding tools (.sga packer please!).