ESC Codes & Symbology
Two different codes drive how features are symbolised on the map. They look superficially similar and are easy to confuse, so this article keeps them firmly apart: the ESC code describes conflict events; NATO-standard symbols describe units and actors.
ESC code — Event Symbology Code
The ESC code is a compact, five-position code that summarises a conflict event at a glance. Its positions are:
[ Actor ][ Event-type ][ Domain ][ Target ][ Status ]
For example, D-ASU. Each position is a single character from a controlled set, so reading the code tells you who did what, in which domain, to what target, and in what state — without opening the event. This is the same five-dimension scheme described on the public Classification page, and it's what drives the shape, colour, and styling of an event's marker on the map.
How it's resolved. The code is derived automatically from the event's content:
- Event-type, domain, target, and status are determined from what the report describes.
- Actor is resolved against the battlespace's actor roster — the actors and aliases you manage in that battlespace (see Actors & Territory). This is why the same report can resolve to a different actor depending on which battlespace's roster applies.
Unknowns. Any position the system can't determine renders as a dash, -. A code where nothing could be resolved carries no information and is simply omitted rather than shown as all dashes.
ESC is about events, not units. If you're looking at a strike, a clash, or a manoeuvre, you're looking at something an ESC code describes.
The icon library
Each position contributes one visual layer, and they stack into a single marker. The legends below show what every value looks like (rendered on a dark map tile, as they appear on the globe), followed by worked combinations. Actor colours are the platform defaults — an actor can be assigned its own colour, which then drives the fill.
Position 1 · Actor — fill colour
Position 2 · Event type — base shape
Position 3 · Domain — modifier
Position 4 · Target — inner glyph
Position 5 · Status — corner indicator
Worked combinations
Reading left to right, the five layers compose into one marker:
Reading a code in the field: colour first (who), then shape (what), then any arc/wave (where — air or sea), the inner glyph (against what), and finally the corner (how sure / what outcome). With practice the whole code reads at a glance, which is the entire point.
NATO-standard unit symbols
Units and actors are rendered using standard military symbology — the familiar NATO scheme of friendly/hostile/unknown affiliations and infantry/armour/artillery functions. When the pipeline matches a unit in a report, it resolves the appropriate standard symbol so the unit appears on the map correctly.
Unlike the ESC code, these symbols attach to units and actors, not to events. See Units & Symbology for how to read them.
Telling them apart
| ESC code | NATO symbol | |
|---|---|---|
| Describes | Conflict events | Military units / actors |
| Structure | 5 positions: actor, event-type, domain, target, status | Standard NATO symbol |
| Example | D-ASU |
a NATO unit symbol |
| Drives | The event marker's shape, colour, and fill | The unit's rendered symbol |
If you remember nothing else: ESC = events, NATO symbols = units, and the two are never interchangeable.
Why it matters
At scale — a battlespace can hold thousands of events — you can't read every record. Standardised symbology lets you scan a dense map and discriminate at a glance between, say, a confirmed strike on infrastructure and an unverified clash at a checkpoint. The codes do the work so your eye doesn't have to.
Where to next
- Actors & Territory — the actor roster that feeds the ESC code's actor position.
- Units & Symbology — where unit symbols come from and how to read them.