The intel map remembers
What recon has seen stays on the map, and what you destroyed stays destroyed, until fresh recon shows otherwise.
The map table is not a live feed. It is a record of everything recon has seen, kept for the whole war. Places you have looked at stay on it as they were when you saw them, and places you have shelled keep their scars.
Snapshots
Each patch of ground keeps its last-seen state: the terrain, trench segments, buildings, depots, guns and craters, and the time it was seen. When recon moves on, the patch stays on the map as last known, with its age. See Fog of war.
If a shell lands where nobody can see, the ground changes but your map keeps the old picture. When recon looks again, the new picture fades in over the old one.
| What happens | What your map shows |
|---|---|
| Recon looks at a place | Live, then a snapshot with the time it was seen |
| The snapshot gets old | After about 5 in-game minutes it fades further and shows a small clock |
| You destroy a depot or gun pit | Ruins, until fresh recon shows otherwise |
| Your side captures ground | Live again, and the truth about what is there |
| Your side loses ground | Last known, frozen at the moment you lost it |
Ruins stay ruins
A shelled depot, gun pit or base shows as ruins on your map. It stays ruined in the world too, unless the enemy rebuilds it, and only fresh recon would show you that. So the map can be out of date: a ruin you marked earlier may be working again.
How far the enemy can fool the map, with depots rebuilt or decoys built where you cannot see, is still being decided.
Old news fades
Last-known ground older than about 5 in-game minutes fades further and shows a small clock. It is a hint to look again before you trust it. A target from an old snapshot is still a target, but it is a guess.
When the front moves
When your side moves forward, the ground it captures turns live and shows the truth: your old craters, the ruins you made, the trenches you collapsed. The ground your infantry cross is the ground you shelled.
When the front falls back, the ground you lose turns last known, frozen at the moment you lost it.
Scars across the whole war
The valley is one map for the entire campaign. What you know and what you broke stay where they happened, so every place you have fought keeps its scars when you come back. See Terrain that remembers and One continuous war.
Shared intel
In the shared war planned after launch, your faction's recon feeds a shared last-known layer. A depot one player destroyed shows as ruins on the map of every player on that side. See The shared war.