Okay. First off I'd like to mention that I know how to make overviews just fine. I am not asking how to make one.

My problem is that I'm working on a map that takes place in an underground compoud that has approx 5-6 different floors/levels. How the heck could I make an overview of this?

I just realized that there would be a problem when it comes to making an overview for this map.
It's too bad that you can't make the overview/minimap automatically change each time you go up/down a level (can you???).

I have the idea of just making it a "generic" "drawn" map... but if that is so, it should only be like that for only one of the sides. Since it's an axis base, then only the axis should be allowed to have a complete map... and the allies have "generic" map.

Is it possible to do what I'm asking about?

hmmmm....it MIGHT be possible to make like a vertical overview...like a cross section, but i don't know if that's what you'd want.

I considered making a vertical map and was concerned about the same issue. the only thing I came up with was to actually make the map SEEM vertical, but actually not be.

what you do is make any spot that you can go between levels very isolated and small. you then put a teleporter in it so when people go up/down the stairs, they are teleported to another part of the grid, but they think they are above/below where they were. then the overview would work just fine. if done correctly the player will never notice the teleport.

How about a color system? Like the color system used by geografists (sp?) to make their maps. Maybe a degrade from red (higher level) to blue (lowest level) passing through others colors for the middle levels. I dunno, just an idea...

unless you go through some type of airlock type room i don't think you can manage to have teleports that work 100% efficiently.

other options include an overview containing maps of all the different levels color coded corresponding to the levels they are on or with numbers or something. sure it wouldn't be accurate to where you are actually moving, but people could study the map and move on.

or just have a normal top down overview but somehow like color differently parts that are on different levels that don't occupy the same area as the other levels. although i believe this may look funny and not neccessarily work considering you have 5 levels.

another option would be to NOT have them directly under each other. they can all be connected by a common point though if you wish or you could kind of travel in a large loop. i attached a picture to explain better.

I think I remember Waldo talking about eventually wanting to make the maps with layered abilities. But as it is now, the maps are already a big enough feat and performance hit respectively for the HL1 engine. It's almost certainly a possibility with Source, so your best bet is to do either more defined colours or descriptions. Try to keep it simple though, especially in games. Less is more.

Thanks for all the replies, people!
(Still struggling with the problem though.)

Hey, I haven't tried it yet (and don't want to go through the trouble, either)... but is it possible to make the entire map rotate 90 degrees along the X (or Z) axis? so that you could still get a "map" but of the different levels (a "cross-section" kind of thing) and not "top-down" (as it how it is right now)?

...am I making any sense?

You could technically do this with the angle you set in the corresponding overview .txt file I think. But I don't know how useful it would be unless your map is fairly "tubular" in that you won't need the width to show up at all.