Scout Archive
Thread: Scout isn't all that appealing after this latest patch.
Ok so now it takes more resources to make a Basic Camp <sigh>. Was that really necessary? Additionally, I harvested a blue con womp rat and I got over 1000 scout expo taken away?! I thought I read the release notes properly. Did I miss something? Maskscent....when can we get any expo for that.....and if I use maskscent, will you be taking away my scout expo as was done when I harvested?
The Fencer profession is looking more and more appealling. 
You now get SurvivalXP for making traps and camps. Nuff said about that.
You still get Scout XP for MS.
Have no idea what your talking about about losing XP.
Ulf,
There really weren't that many changes to Scouting - certainly none that should make you like the profession less.
The issue with maskscent (if there is an issue - I'm still not sure) is the only major problem that I've seen so far.
The 60% is something that's good for us, although I'm surprised by the number of scouts out there who feel the need to hunt with a pet. 
The reasoning behind the increase in the costs for camps and traps is simple - with more Scouts grouping, you'll get more hide and bone out there and there needs to be a way to get rid of it. So they upped the costs. Sound thinking.
Could you explain what you mean by "taking XP away"?
B
"The reasoning behind the increase in the costs for camps and traps is simple - with more Scouts grouping, you'll get more hide and bone out there and there needs to be a way to get rid of it. So they upped the costs. Sound thinking."
Sound thinking only if scouts are grouping. However, there are a great deal of players that have zero interest, time or motivation to group. The current 'find group' method is easily one of the worst I have seen not too mention the sheer lack of group necessity which prevents players from LFG to begin with.
For those players that are not members of PA's or who play 1-2 hours a night, this move hurts them as they are now forced to find a group in order to reap what rewards were previously available to them to begin with.
IMO, this move does nothing to assist the 'casual player', the loner or those without a player infrastructure to support their hunting needs.
Hopefully, they will correct the issue so that solo scouts are no longer hampered by the desire to improve the desire to group.
The 60% is something that's good for us, although I'm surprised by the number of scouts out there who feel the need to hunt with a pet.
How about those of use that are CH's and hunt with them to get CH XP? But also need to harvest resources.
Losing 40% of resources harvested because we are grouped with a pet is ridiculous.
Darth,
Lots of Darth's in this game.
If you are a CH, and you are grouping to get XP, great - you'll get just as much CH XP as you did before.
If you are a CH and you are hunting to get hides and bone, don't use your pet.
If you are a CH and you use your pet to hunt, then you'll get a bit of a penalty. This is only fair - you are going to be able to kill stronger creatures (thus, creatures that give more hide/bone/meat and XP) than us regular scouts.
This is a bonus to the solo scout and a bonus to the grouped scout.
B
If you are a CH and you are hunting to get hides and bone, don't use your pet.
If you are a CH and you use your pet to hunt, then you'll get a bit of a penalty. This is only fair - you are going to be able to kill stronger creatures (thus, creatures that give more hide/bone/meat and XP) than us regular scouts.
You've GOT to be kidding me. That's one of the most ridiculous theories I've heard in a long time. You're telling me I'm only allowed to do ONE thing at a time? Or get penalized for it?
"Oh, if you're going to harvest resources.... NO CH XP FOR YOU!" LOL... you ARE kidding, right?
And I certainly should be able to kill stronger creatures, (thus, creatures that give more hide/bone/meat and XP), because I've EARNED those skills. Yes, the hundreds of thousands of Scouting & CH XP to get me to the point I am at now. I am a Master Scout. Technically, I'm a Ranger. I've had to put in a lot of time to get there.
Losing 40% of the kill because I have a pet is just wrong. Stop trying to defend a bad coding decision. I totally understand the need to find a answer to ninja-harvesting. I used to scream (well technically TYPE) my fingers off at people who did that. It's probably the MAIN reason I stopped going out in large groups, and with people I didn't know. But as usual, the programmers didn't fully think out what they were doing. They didn't consider that taking away 40% when grouped EVEN WITH NON SCOUTS was not right. Or that some scouts (like CH's) do not bother harvesting any more. All this is going to do is force Scouts and Ranger NOT TO GROUP, and thus INCREASE ninja-harvesting.
And please explain to me, if I am solo, with a pet... where does the other 40% go? Are mt pets now harvesting? Gee, I knew my Narg's claws were sharp, but not that she was using them as a hunting knife.
This needs to be made a GROUP command, plain and simple. It simply needs to have the ability turned on/off by the group leader.
Darth,
"You've GOT to be kidding me. That's one of the most ridiculous theories I've heard in a long time. You're telling me I'm only allowed to do ONE thing at a time? Or get penalized for it?"
Okay, why can't I get rifle XP and melee XP at the same time? Why can't I camp and get survival XP and go into combat and get combat XP at the same time? Why can't I get usage XP on the hide that I give to an armorcrafter?
C'mon - there are tradeoffs for everything in this game. It's not as if you are getting NO hide/bone/meat when you are with your pet. You're getting 60%. So it may take you a little longer, but you've got the ability to kill much larger creatures faster than I do without one. It makes up for it.
"Oh, if you're going to harvest resources.... NO CH XP FOR YOU!" LOL... you ARE kidding, right?
Read my response above. Frankly, it is not my concern how you get your CH XP- this is the Scout forum, and I'm concerned with your hide and meat harvesting - and not just yours, but all of us scouts.
"And I certainly should be able to kill stronger creatures, (thus, creatures that give more hide/bone/meat and XP), because I've EARNED those skills. Yes, the hundreds of thousands of Scouting & CH XP to get me to the point I am at now. I am a Master Scout. Technically, I'm a Ranger. I've had to put in a lot of time to get there."
Yes, you are able to kill stronger creatures. But why should you gain a benefit over say, a rifleman or a carbineer, simply because you chose to become a CH? With your pet, you can kill creatures with less risk and less time than me - so you get a penalty that doesn't give you an advantage simply because you chose a different profession.
"Losing 40% of the kill because I have a pet is just wrong. Stop trying to defend a bad coding decision. I totally understand the need to find a answer to ninja-harvesting. I used to scream (well technically TYPE) my fingers off at people who did that. It's probably the MAIN reason I stopped going out in large groups, and with people I didn't know. But as usual, the programmers didn't fully think out what they were doing. They didn't consider that taking away 40% when grouped EVEN WITH NON SCOUTS was not right. Or that some scouts (like CH's) do not bother harvesting any more. All this is going to do is force Scouts and Ranger NOT TO GROUP, and thus INCREASE ninja-harvesting."
I'm not defending a bad coding decision. I think it's a good coding decision. There's no reason why CHs should get a bonus to killing things that regular Scout and Rangers don't get.
Now - that's me talking personally.
As the correspondent, I will of course pass the request on for an opt out to group harvesting.
"And please explain to me, if I am solo, with a pet... where does the other 40% go? Are mt pets now harvesting? Gee, I knew my Narg's claws were sharp, but not that she was using them as a hunting knife."
Not every specific thing is this game has a roleplay or logical reason. Can anyone explain to me how exactly I mask my scent? Or why my corpse disappears after I loot it?
You're being picky here.
"This needs to be made a GROUP command, plain and simple. It simply needs to have the ability turned on/off by the group leader."
While I disagree with you, I will pass this along with my next report.
B
The proof that this is just lazy coding is the fact that I can still kill creatures using my pets and get the full harvest, I just can't group with them. It just sounds to me like you have a grudge against those who use pets. Everyone in the game can use pets or droids or even faction pets, but you refuse to do so and when they use lazy coding that punishes those who use pets you are happy. I am sorry, but that is just a bad attitude to have. But if you support not getting multiple types of experience and getting full harvests, I suggest you propose a 40% reduction in harvests for anyone using traps.
BTW, I am still getting full CH exp and full harvests. I just don't group with my pets. I am somewhat used to it because they still haven't bothered to fix the bug where pets steal your NPC loot. It is a slap in the face that I have worked hard to teach my pet every command and now they have gone and made one of them worthless, but I have learned to expect something like this in every patch.
Suenr wrote:
It is a slap in the face that I have worked hard to teach my pet every command and now they have gone and made one of them worthless, but I have learned to expect something like this in every patch.
Pet grouping is not worthless/useless. It is useful in letting you know where your pet is at all time and their current strength and their status (are they affected by the enemy's special attack). This is the advantage of grouping. The disadvantage of grouping is the application sees you as technically "grouped" and is using that flag to determine the amount of hide the creature drops.
I've been using the work-around of not grouping with my pet with creature-enemies that I know my pet can handle. I can handle maybe two nudfuh nests before I need to check up on my pet's status. I group with my pet on faction missions and theme parks and other NPC targets. I group with my pet when dealing with yellow (and above) creatures. In those cases, the resource drop isn't as important as survival.
I agree that the methodology used now is simplistic and it's possible that the developers will come up with a far more sophisticated and elegant solution. As a person that is a Creature Handler, I am for eliminating the work-around that I am using now. Receiving assistance (of any kind) when attacking a creature should result in the lessening of resources for the harvester, because it is assisted.
Sue,
I'm not "anti-pet". I have four pets - a probot, a Gnort, a Kaadu and a Dark Trooper.
Sometimes I hunt with them, most of the time I don't. It's not that I refuse to, its just that I don't really see a benefit to it. If I want to take down creatures that are larger than me, or tougher then me, I invite a friend to come hunting and we do it together.
That's the real point here - there are people who simply don't want to have to interact with other people (and judging from the tones of some of their posts here, I can understand why). So they solo everything, but they aren't content with killing the creatures that are about their level, and instead use pets to kill things faster.
"I suggest you propose a 40% reduction in harvests for anyone using traps." I don't have to propose a change here, Sue - you already have your combat and weapons XP dropped by using a trap. That's the trade off.
One of the first principles you learn in economics is TANSTAFL - There Ain't No Such Thing As a Free Lunch.
When you get something, you give something up. The Scouting community got a change that allows us to be more effective in groups and takes away a barrier to our grouping and gaining XP. In order to get that, we had to give something up, and that was that we can't group with our pets anymore to powerlevel or to harvest more hide/bone/meat.
You are right - there was sloppy coding. You shouldn't be able to get 100% if you havea pet out period.
I make a lot of jokes about the CHs and their whining, and 95% of it is tongue in cheek. But it wouldn't be true if it weren't rooted in the truth. There are a handful of posters here complaining about a change that is benefitting tens of thousands of Scouts in the game.
B