You have a point; it is by far more realistic of the map designers to include things like that. In a real life situation, it makes sense for them to do so.
On the other hand, it removes a tiny bit of gameplay in the puzzle solving that I enjoy, even if it's just wandering around relatively aimlessly until you figure out how you're supposed to fly up those 600m to the second control point. Having Banshees lying around where the Covenant are camped out is less visually obvious than having the arrows lying on the floor at every kink in the hallway. :)
Again, you're right, it's right to do so...definitely contributes to that rail feeling in (what feels to me) a negative way.
: Granted, Halo 1 does have a rather railish feel to it, but I honestly like it
: for the most part, when you're supposed to be going to a specific location
: or objective, there are things in the game which make it easy to go there,
: if you follow them, if they make sense to be there. The level "Pillar
: of Autumn" is particularly good about that; there are all sorts of
: arrows on the floors pointing every which way, at every intersection,
: telling you where each hall goes. Some of the places they point, you have
: no need to go to, but there's arrows telling you how to get there. When I
: saw that, I didn't think "cheap gameplay device" but "good
: ship design idea". Or in Oni, the elevators that actually - GASP -
: had signs above them that said "elevator", to distinguish them
: from all the other doors.
: In the real world, buildings and ships really DO use the same type of door
: and hall over and over again, distinguishing them not by having "the
: round red door leads to engineering and the blue square door leads to the
: bridge", but the door to the bridge will say "Bridge", and
: the door to engineering will say "Engineering", and somewhere
: will be a map or guide telling you which halls to take to get there. It
: breaks from some FPS standards, but I rather like it. I just wish more
: real-world designers would copy ideas from gamers sometimes; vehicle
: control schemes, navigation techniques, etc. Game design really is the
: forefront of all sorts of interface design.
