Scout Archive

Guys,

Here is what I've posted (based on your feedback) in the Correspondent forums on our issues for this week.

B

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Scout Changes, Requests and Ideas - September 29, 2003

Green, I have done my best to clear off any Ranger issues from my Scout list (there were quite a few, actually), and to make this as brief and to the point as possible. Please do not hesitate to contact me to request more information. I recognize that you are working on other priorities, but I want to make sure that this list is posted as a good faith effort on behalf of the Scouts.

Thanks for your continued hard work for our profession.

Skill Modifier Requests and Suggestions

Burst run efficiency – Modify the burst run efficiency so that in addition to it requiring less HAM costs, it also allows a Scout to run further (longer duration), and recover from being “tired” in less time (tiered based on Exploration level). This makes the skill more useful, and more attractive for prospective Scouts.

Clarification on Camouflage and Mask Scent modifiers – There have been many questions regarding the change over with the introduction of the conceal kits. Many Scouts believe that the Camo modifier was useful against creatures AND NPCs whether or not they were using Mask Scent (under the old rules). I am of the impression that Camo was strictly the modifier that governed the calculation on a successful Mask Scent. Clarification on this would be appreciated.

Bothan Mask Scent modifier – The Bothans have asked me to remind you that they want to continue to have a modifier to their Mask Scent skill. I believe it was planned for a +5 Mask Scent and +15 Camo modifier for Bothans, but this +5 to Mask Scent hasn’t been implemented.

Mask Scent Aggro Penalty – The aggro penalty has been another issue for the Scouts. While I hope that the changes implemented in the next patch will alleviate concern, two other penalties to off-set using Mask Scent have been suggested as replacements to the aggro penalty. The first is to a HAM cost. Since every other skill that provides a benefit uses HAM, this shouldn’t be a majorly controversial addition. As long as it is a reasonable costs, similiar to forage. The second is to scale the aggro by range. Instead of having a strict cut-off of 40 meters, start the current increased percentage as a base at zero meters, and tier it.

0m – 9m = +50% chance of aggro
10m – 19m = +40% chance of aggro
20m – 29m = +30% chance of aggro
30m – 39m = +20% chance of aggro
40m+ = normal

Terrain Negotiation changes – There has been a lot of concern amongst the Scout community regarding our Terrain Negotiation modifier, especially once mounts and vehicles come out. The request here is that either now, or when the vehicle expansion goes live, that the Terrain Negotiation skill provide us with the same benefit over open (non-hilly) ground. This gives us a slight benefit to help compensate for the loss of the skills usefulness when speeders are readily available.

Skill and XP Requests and Suggestions

Forage to give minimal Survival XP – This continues to be a frequent request. We recognize the concern that this could turn into an exploit, but the Scouts feel that we can combine two requests into one and solve this problem. First, allow forage to give minimal XP. In addition, as a means to make it non-macroable, have a pop-up during a forage that states what it appears you have found, and ask if you want to proceed. This could read something like "You've uncovered what appears to be <X>. Do you wish to continue to forage?" And if you select yes, it shows up in your inventory. Select no, and it doesn't. XP is only gained if you choose to continue foraging. This way Scouts who are using forage to get bait won't have to select food items if they don't want them, and vice versa. It also gives us the ability to gain XP AND have it be non-macroable at the same time.

Forage to givehealing not buffs– In an effort to separate out the craftable food buffs, provided by the Chefs, and as part of some requests of the Scouts, convert the foragable buffs provided by food away from the temporary stat boosters and make them small “herbal healers”. Taking one type heals you mind by a small amount, another heals your action or health. They should be of moderate strength, perhaps roughly equivalent to a Stim-B. This shouldn’t alarm the Medics, however, as food is governed by the “stomach” cap, so Stims will always be more useful. I think this will make forage more useful, and provide us with a means of healing in the field that is consistent with the role-play of our characters without making medics or doctors less important.

Mask Scent message – Currently, if your Scout XP is capped, you do not get a message that Mask Scent has been successful (this is the XP message for Scouts who still need the XP). There was a request that there be a message saying “You have successfully snuck past <X> creature,” or something to affect.

Experimentation Points in General – Give Scouts one experimentation point per level of Survival and Trapping for use on experimenting on Camps and Traps, respectively. The idea behind this is that as Scouts increase in their knowledge of these tools, they should be able to come up with ideas that make their tools more useful and worthwhile. These experimentation points should ONLY work on Camp and Traps (and fishing poles if that is implemented…see the New Schematics section) and should ONLY be useable by Scouts.

Experimentation on Camps – Allow Camps to be experimented on, with experimentation being able to: Increase the XP caps by some percentage (capped at +10%); Increase the healing rates by some percentage (capped at +10%); Increase the Repel Creature radius by some number of meters (capped at 10m). And, of course, have experimentation levels based on the quality of the materials.

Experimentation on Traps – Allow Traps to be experimented on, with experimentation being able to: Increase the XP granted by a successful hit (capped at +10%); Increase the damage/effect times by some percentage (capped at +10%); Increase the distance a trap can be thrown from (capped at +14m – makes them inline with weapon max distances); Increase the number of traps per stack (capped at +50% of current stack level). And of course, have experimentation levels based on the quality of the materials.

New Schematics

Fishing poles – Allow Scouts to construct fishing poles as part of our camp/trap schematics, and have the crafting give minimal Survival XP. As Fishing is now a part of the overall Survival XP strategy for Scouts, it seems reasonable to allow non-artisan scouts to make their own poles. This also adds an additional sink for scout harvestable materials.

Fishing nets – We are frequently requested to provide fish for BEs who use fish in some of their craftable items. However, the current system is not conducive to allowing us to catch multiple fish at one time. The Scouts have suggested that we be given the ability to make a “fishing net” that can catch multiple fish at once, but provides minimal or no XP as a balance (the idea here being that catching a fish with a net is easier than with a pole). In addition, you could create different types of nets – say “active” nets that you use like a fishing pole, and “passive” nets, that work like a miniature fish harvester, but decay over time (and if not checked regularly and replaced, can be destroyed – losing all the fish). This also adds an additional sink for scout harvestable materials.

Scout packs – This is a common suggestion (and one that I know is an issue with other professions, and may not be plausible). As Scouts, our primary mon(k)ey making opportunity is through the selling of harvestable materials. As this material varies by type, planet and creature, it is common for us to get extremely bogged down with our materials. It has been suggested that Scouts be able to craft special packs that allow for the holding of Scout harvestable materials only, with certification provided in the Hunting line, and that take up less space in our inventory (say, each item counts as .5 items if its in a hunting bag). At hunting 1, you get a “Basic Hunting Bag”, that lets you hold say, 30 stacks of harvestable materials, up through Master Scout, where you’d get an “Elite Hunting Bag” that lets you hold, say 90 harvestable materials. I understand the database concerns that something like this could cause, so I don’t expect this to get implemented.

General Suggestions

Exploration logs – Setup special signposts or “log books” at the special “unique” static POIs so that Scouts, Rangers and others can post their names to it as having “explored” that area – and perhaps even leave messages for those who follow them. This is based on RL logs that are in many locations in hard to reach wilderness areas, such as along the Appalachian trail.

Remove traps from radar – Currently a little white box shows up on your radar when traps are thrown and landed. It clutters up the screen and makes it difficult to use the radar to find your critters, especially in tall grass, etc. It would be great to remove the traps from the radar.

Harvested/Unharvested Creature Notification – There has been number of requests for a means to determine if a Scout has already harvested a creature without having to verify it using the radial menu. The request is to have unharvested corpses be in “bold” and when they are harvested to go back to normal. Perhaps a “white” and then “gray” would work, as well.

Binoculars – There was a request to allow a craftable (perhaps not by Scouts) item that allows Scouts to increase their visual radius beyond 64-80 meters. These would be similar to the binoculars seen in Episode 1 (Darth Maul) and Episode 4 (Luke Skywalker) and would provide “range to target” info, and allow you to examine the creature as well. Perhaps these could be certified in the Explore tree, with better binoculars providing more information or longer ranges. I don’t know what the game mechanic limitations could be, so this could be another impossible idea.

Traps on CH Pets – We can’t use traps on CH pets. This has been brought up before, but in an effort to make the list complete, I’m bringing it up again. The Scouts want to be able to use traps on CH pets.

Bug Fixes

(Each bug fix has my opinion of the priority of the bug based on the number of complaints and the perceived interest of the complainers. These are grouped in “low”, “medium”, and “high” priorities. Low means something that has been mentioned, but most do not care. Medium means something that has been mentioned frequently, but has not evoked large amounts of anger or constant requests for updates. High means something that is being constantly requested/questioned and is causing players to drop skills or quit playing the profession all together.)

Forage – There continues to be a bug that does not allow for Scouts to harvest more than two items at once, nor can they harvest any of the “rare” items. Each time this occurs they get a message saying that “some items have been discarded due to your inventory being full,” despite having empty inventories. This has been going on for quite a while now. This is a medium priority bug for the Scouts.

Pet / Non-Scout Group Harvesting – There are continued requests to fix this issue so that Scouts hunting with pets or non-scouts are not penalized with having their harvests reduced by 40%. There is a work around (not grouping your pets) that seems to work, although I know this was not what you intended. This is a medium priority bug for the Scouts.

Traps – There is a bug that is believed to occur when you are throwing the last trap of a stack that results in the trap hitting the target, but no XP or failure notification is broadcast. It appears to primarily happen when firing the last trap of a stack only. This is a medium priority bug for the Scouts.

Recon Missions – There is a bug in the recon missions (primarily the high cash amount, long distance ones, which makes this bug really annoying) that is resulting in the Scouts getting to their destination and having it say “mission incomplete”. No one seems to understand why this is happening. Is there a timer on the missions? Some explanation is sought, or confirmation of a bug. This is a medium priority bug for the Scouts.

Missed one.. /throwTrap doesn't work. (At least, I've not found anyone who can get it to, now).

How about doing a delivery mission and having no one to deliver it to just a big light in the sky highlighting empty ground.

It really sucks having to split cash rewards from missions with your pets just because you grouped them.

Nice work, Brisc. I'm glad you brought up the fishing "nets" idea with Green. I've thought a lot about this, and it is something that is badly needed by both scouts and BE's.

I was thinking more along the lines of a fish "trap", much like some of the salmon traps uses by Native Americans in the NW U.S. Or the shallow water fish traps used by Fiji Islanders, etc. I think a very useful design could be implemented. The making of such trapscould be a certification gained in the trapping line, and would give trapping experience. They should only last, perhaps, two RL hours before complete decay...unless checked and emptied. If you are constantly "running your trap line", you should be able to leave them out either indefinitely or for an extended period of time. The Scout would just need to make sure they get back to each trap every 60 minutes, or they would disappear from the game.

Harvest on such traps should be moderately limited, so as not to flood the market with fish meat. Something along the lines of 10 max fish holding capacity, with a max of 10 traps deployed at once. Vegetation should not modify your catch, only the "fish rating", which you could check beforehand with a fishing pole.

BE's need an increased and reliable souce of fish meat. Currently, they cannot manufacture pet stims (which require fish meat) in quantity. They cannot make factory schematics for them. However, they have been promised a fix for this in an upcoming patch. Once they have the ability to use factories to make crates of pet stims, increased quantities of fish meat with the same qualities is going to be a prerequisite for making pet stims in quantity.

If we don't lobby for this ability to be given to scouts, it will most likely be given to the artisan line, in the form of "fish farms", or some such.

Keep up the good work, B!

This one cought my eye:

Mask Scent Aggro Penalty – The aggro penalty has been another issue for the Scouts. While I hope that the changes implemented in the next patch will alleviate concern, two other penalties to off-set using Mask Scent have been suggested as replacements to the aggro penalty. The first is to a HAM cost. Since every other skill that provides a benefit uses HAM, this shouldn’t be a majorly controversial addition. As long as it is a reasonable costs, similiar to forage. The second is to scale the aggro by range. Instead of having a strict cut-off of 40 meters, start the current increased percentage as a base at zero meters, and tier it.

0m – 9m = +50% chance of aggro
10m – 19m = +40% chance of aggro
20m – 29m = +30% chance of aggro
30m – 39m = +20% chance of aggro
40m+ = normal

I thought that the mask scent checkis supposed to be done whenyou enter40 m range of the creature ... and that so far it has been broken so that creature could have sniffed you out farther than 40 m and agroed on you. I also thought that this should be fixed in next big patch.

So in my mind what you're a suggesting is that creatures shouldbe ablesniff you out farther than 40 m and agro on you ... a thing that we've been complaining about. In other words you're asking for devs to reverse a fix that we've been (or at least I've been) waiting for some while.

If I'm wrong or if I've understood this wrong or if I've missed something then please correct me.

Feda,

The /throwtrap command was a Beta only command - it's not active in the game now. For a good trap macro, check my From Novice to Master guide at the top of the forum.

Sly,

That's an issue too, but as the Explorer mission terminals were added specifically for us, I kept my bug list to things that were primarily Scout issues. Notice there's no going prone warping bug listed there, even though it affects us.

Dega,

That's exactly how I envisioned those traps to work. Hopefully I can keep Green's attention on that issue!

B

Illeria,

You're wrong. I'm not asking for a nerf.

What were talking about here is the "aggro" penalty.

The change that is coming in the next patch will make it so that IF mask scent is broken, the creature willprobably attack you if you are within 40m.

What this change is asking for is a tiering of the "probably", so that on the chance that mask scent breaks within 40m, you stand a higher liklihood to get attacked if you are CLOSER to the creature, rather than at the full 40m. The way it stands now, if mask scent breaks, you have an EQUALLY likely chance of getting attacked if you are 40m or at 1m.

Does this make sense?

B

Delta, any news on the harvest reduction while pets are grouped? I know it is not a super high priority issue, but not being able to monitor my pets' health on advanced planets is *really* starting to get on my nerves.

Thanks

"Forage to give healing not buffs – In an effort to separate out the craftable food buffs, provided by the Chefs, and as part of some requests of the Scouts, convert the foragable buffs provided by food away from the temporary stat boosters and make them small “herbal healers”. Taking one type heals you mind by a small amount, another heals your action or health. They should be of moderate strength, perhaps roughly equivalent to a Stim-B. This shouldn’t alarm the Medics, however, as food is governed by the “stomach” cap, so Stims will always be more useful. I think this will make forage more useful, and provide us with a means of healing in the field that is consistent with the role-play of our characters without making medics or doctors less important."

I disagree for the following reasons, Buffs how ever short can often fix crazy stat effects when coming off spice downers.
Healing is the camp, Forage is for buffs
I like it as is

Nice Work btw

"40+ m = normal" means that your aggro chance at that range is equivalent to being at that range without maskscent on. Some highly ferocious creatures will latch on to you outside 40 meters, but it is not common.

For more details, see my post on the "BE concerns about masckscent" thread:

forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=scout&message.id=10988

/maskscent checks at 64m, the current changes on test makes stuff stop auto-aggroingin the 41-64m range.

Guys,

You aren't reading the heading of this part of the list:

MASKSCENT AGGRO PENALTY.

It has nothing to do with mask scent itself. It has to do with the penalty that was added a while back thatmakes creaturesmuch more likely to attack you if they break your mask scent.

What 40+ m: normal means is that since the change is being introduced that gets rid of the aggro penalty if you are over 40 meters away,the Devsdon't need to change that. That's "normal". No modifier.

Man - you guys must be looking for me to screw you or something.

B

You aren't? I thought you were a Bounty Hunter that resented having to grind through Scout to get your abilities and that by being our correspondent you were getting your revenge. And all this time I thought you were against us. Who would have thought?



(No offense to the actual bounty hunters out there.)