Using Marvel-Styled Maps for SF

For those who don't know, the <b><i>Marvel Super Heroes RPG</i></b> (the one with the big color-coded chart) used a different style of game maps for their games. Were in <i><b>Star Frontiers</b></i>, maps are gridded in half-inch areas, with a counter taking up the whole area, MSH used maps with larger, less uniformed &quot;areas.&quot;<br /><br />The city map in MSH looks like a normal town with streets sidewalks, rooftops, parks, parking lots, along with small, superfluous urban elements (streetlight, fire hydrants, manhole covers, and so on), and some useful elements (street names and numbers printed on the corners of rooftops to note their height in stories). But the most remarkable thing about it, is that the map is broken down into solid and dotted lines to note &quot;areas&quot; that vary in size and shape. Out on the streets, an &quot;area&quot; could be a street intersection or half-a-block of roadway, all with sidewalks included. Buildings (or part there of) and back allies can be smaller than street areas. The park areas take on all sorts of odd shapes and sizes. Inside buildings, areas can be further reduced to rooms and corridors. (Fewer bordering is required with this one.)<br /><br /><i>See the basic map <a href="http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/assets/files/other_stuff/downlo… /><br />A single MHS &quot;area&quot; represents an sizable area were multiple characters can duke it out at fairly close range, and going out of the area means being safe form being grabbed and tossed like a human basketball by a super-powered Slim Goodbody (what a strange mental image). Multiple counters can occupy a single area without stacking, and the action within an area can be based on role-playing description instead of players moving their counters form square-to-square. Range and movement are reduced to smaller numbers, and things are kept a little more abstract, so players can focus more on the action than on the mechanics. <i>Clutter Markers</i> can note a lot of stuff in the area (desks, tables, boxes, trash cans, etc.), while <i>Crowd Markers</i> can note large crowds of people. (Crowds make fighting harder in an area, but they clear three rounds after a fight starts.) Other markers can be used to note traffic conditions and hazards. As an option, players can use arrows printed on the top corner of a counter to point where a figure is within an area.<br /><br />So, what do you guys think of this map setup?<br /><br /><i>You can find more maps within the sorted books <a href="http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/basic-game-and-modules.html">he…;, <a href="http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/advanced-game-and-modules.html"…; and <a href="http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/box-sets-and-enhancements.html"…;