Map Overview Feature - To add or not?

One of the most requested features to add is a map overview.

In the original Bolo this showed a separate window containing a zoomable version of the map. The screen started blank but as you explored the map appeared in place. It would update the area surrounding your tank but that area would grey out when you moved away and you couldn't see any changes that occurred. If you captured and placed pillboxes you could see the area surrounding the pillbox all the time like a permanent pillbox view. Like modern fog of war in RTS games.

When I remember playing on macs at the time, it was not very useful as it would consume some much CPU redrawing the full screen map it would only update every few seconds and slow down the game. Macs also didn't have a high resolution so the amount of screen space for the overview wasn't great without hiding the main game view.

However with modern computers, its would be very easy to render the full world zoomable and update at a high frame rate.

The case for it I see is:

1. The original game has it, so it should be implemented as well.
2. Allow for new / different game play

The case against it I can see:

1. It disadvantages different players. I run dual monitors. I could very easily open map view onto my second monitor and see the entire island and make different decisions then someone playing with a lower resolution monitor, or on a steam deck or on mobile (in the future) Having to use pillbox view to keep monitoring the surrounding area for what is happening out of sight disappears. This is the same reason I haven't changed the newswire into a more modern scrolling chat you can view all the time. If you miss the battlefield message that someone lost their builder, or that a pillbox had been taken before it scrolled off screen you don't have that information.

The case against is also the reason I haven't created a new UI and made it full screen allowing you to see a lot more around your tank - it disadvantages people at different resolutions and it takes away from only being able to see what's happening directly around you.

That's what I think. What does everyone else? Should it be added?

Elvis wrote: One of the most requested features to add is a map overview.

The case for it I see is:

1. The original game has it, so it should be implemented as well.
2. Allow for new / different game play

The case against it I can see:

1. It disadvantages different players.

The more and more decades pass between introduction of Mac Bolo and the current iteration of WinBolo, the "recreate the original" has less and less pull.

Simultaneously, the restrictive size of the view port itself and the required usage of pillview, have become central to the gameplay. Folks asking for the overview feels very much like a, "lol, skill issue," situation.

I could see a situation in team games where someone goes and scouts behind enemy lines. However, consistently being in a handicap situation just to catch glimpses of what the enemy team is doing/has done isn't a trade-off 99% of teams will make.

All that being said, could it be implemented kinda like bots and mines are today, as a per-server or per-game setting?

I could see a situation in team games where someone goes and scouts behind enemy lines. However, consistently being in a handicap situation just to catch glimpses of what the enemy team is doing/has done isn't a trade-off 99% of teams will make.