Scout Archive

All,

This isn't going to be a list format this week, as there were multiple issues that came up, and I have been corresponding directly with the Scout dev on a bunch of issues, all of which have been brought up here. However, as none of what we've discussed has been written in stone or confirmed yet, I don't want to get everyone's hopes up - so I'll be a bit vague. For this I apologize.

/duck

However, what I will say is that our Scout Dev has been creatively tackling all of the issues that we presented to him in my last email. The ideas for the maskscent fixes are coming along nicely and should reflect some of things that we've proposed in our posts here. Camping XP is also being heavily scrutinized. There are also some good ideas for different kinds of camps that could be used, and ways to make camping less of a pain in the buttocks.

We've also been discussing in detail adding XP for fishing and foraging, and I brought up the "tracking" skill idea that was presented here a few times.

The auto-split for harvesting and fixing the harvesting in groups issues were topics we went over tonight, and we tossed a number of ideas back and forth about fixing this problem.

In addition, we also talked about adding bonuses for exploration - although sadly my "odometer" idea is impossible. Another topic that was addressed was trapping and the usefulness of it.

Overall, the emails back and forth have been very interesting and informative. I will try to pass on as much of this knowledge to you all as soon as I can. I am extremely excited about the willingness of the Devs to listen to the community and to respond to our concerns. Not a single one of the issues we brought up has been dismissed out of hand and the level of creativity and thought that our Scout dev displayed in his emails to me makes me very happy that he is working with us.(I hope he drops in and introduces himself!)

So we're making progress. I know for some of you this won't come soon enough, but being a Scout has taught me a little patience.Again, I'm sorry for the vagueness, but I don't want to paint anyone into a corner by releasing the details of our "brainstorming" conversationand giving it out as hard fact.

B

PS - No monkey making opportunities yet. I'm still heavily lobbying for this.

Thank you for getting back to us. I didn't think the odometer suggestion would make it. It's too easy to exploit by having a "tour guide" leading around a swarm of afk players on auto-follow.

I was also sad to hear about the monkey making ban. Perhaps suggest they be added to the Traps line. Sort of like the Russian dogs that were outfitted withland mines and trained to run under tanks except our monkeys would climb the really tall critters with a dose of knockout gas.

"Democracy is the worst form of government... until you consider the alternatives."

Winston Churchill.

Argh!! Let me finish! I loved I idea of foraging bringing back survival xp, it would be nice to get that skill tree to raise faster because sitting at those camps gets rather dull sometimes! I mean sometimes you can get full camp xp from having 18 visitors in five minutes, but how many times does that happen?? Tracking would be really kewl, keep up the good work!

-Tylius

Tachy,

I did. The problem with this idea is that apparently adding an "odometer" would exponentially increase the amount of information stored per character on the server, and our Scout Dev knows he won't be allowed to do that.

What has been proposed and they are brainstorming on is a system for getting XP for completing "explore" missions - possibly from the new Scout terminals - or by visiting special sites on each of the planets. This was just brainstorming that we have, but rest assured...the devs are trying to develop a system that provides incentives to explore the galaxy.

B

Xaed,

That's a good idea. I'll bring that up.

B

---

DeltaXi65 wrote:

PS - No monkey making opportunities yet. I'm still heavily lobbying for this.

---

 10100100110010 
0110001001100101
0110110001101100
0110100101101111
0110111000100000
0100011001101111
0111001001100101
0111011001100101
0111001000100000

One other idea for Wilderness Survival XP - BBQ!

Very few Scoutsreally harvest meat as there isn't currently much use for it. I'd suggest each level of Survival gives a different schematic for a type of "Camp Food" (i.e. uses only meat/ hide/ bones). It doesn't need to give a large buff (on par with a Dom Arts of equivalent level or less), but should give Survival XP for the crafting.

I realise that this can be used for grinding - but no more so than any other crafting item, plus it makes the Scout that much more self-sufficient (which was the description of the class to begin with).

Also, it gives a reason for aspiring creature handlers to take Survival - as making your own food to feed the beasts just makes sense.

Jakkin,

I love it! I could make Monkey shish-kababs out of Sharupaut meat!

Finally....a legitimate monkey making opportunity.

B

Squid,

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I expect to get beat up for not being more loose lipped in this weeks post.

As for the higher end Ranger camps - I've actually seen onethat I believe was a High Tech Field Base, on Endor. It was huge - like significantly massive. It had one of each kinds of the crafting stations, multiple chairs and when I checked the terminal, it had been up for 11 HOURS!

I don't know if this is a bug, and I'm still about 15k away from Ranger survival 2, so I need to do more research (now that the Jaxes are nerfed, I can quit making money for my PA and go back to being a Scout again). I'll let you know how things go.

One other thing that the Scout dev and I talked about was the possibility of adding more kinds of camps, some that would aid in hunting and trapping, rather than just healing up after getting whomped.

B

Sounds great Delta. We all thank you for being the for runner of our ideas and complaints, and taking them to the devs. It really sounds like they care about our concerns and making this game as fun as possible.

You mentioned the tracking thing, and I put in a big post about some ideas on how that might work. That would be great to see something like that implemented.

On another note, something else I have discussed on the boards is about camps. You mentioned about talking about traps and making them more useful. Well one of my ideas about camps is for the higher level, probably the ranger level ones. Now I have heard the Ranger camps don't really work anyway, but here is my idea. Make them so they are more perminant. What I mean is, don't have them disband if you get into combat, or as long as you are, say within 64m of the center of the camp.

The thinking here is, at those level of camps, you are not worrying about xp anymore, especially if you topped out survival. If you are making a camp, especially a large one for a group, it's more like a base of operations. You don't want to have to keep making/setting up another one, because something came along and attacked you. Or because your group is hunting nearby Humbaba's and you got into combat. You want the camp to stay up, so you and group can return to it and rest, and heal up for the next critters.

As a Scout, I have found it very frustrating to be stting in my camp, have some swoopers start shooting at me. I start shooting back, from within my camp, and it gets disbanded. So not only do I have to use the resources of another camp, but I probably didnt get full xp for it to begin with.

Thanks for the work, Delta