Scout Archive

Atrayo,

We are SUPPOSED to be able to forage up to three items at a time as a Master Scout, but the skill is bugged. That's on the list.

Frankly, I'd like an overhaul of the whole system - I'd rather be foraging something more useful than minor temporary stat food buffs and bait, or at least have the choice of what to look for.

I'm not sure about adding the survey of flora to our skillset. I am a bit antsy about trying to steal other professions skills, but it does make good sense - we'd be the ones who know more about the wild, after all.

B

---

Atrayo wrote:

Hello DeltaXi65,

In regards to foraging, has it yet been mentioned about instead of getting the wimpy 1 or 2 items at a time. To increase the volume of items picked by hand, that can be tied to our "Hunting" skill tree. Since that determines how much we can harvest from creatures. It could also determine how much we harvest (forage)from the ground.

How about this, instead of "Artisans" having the ability to "Survey" for Flora. Have that be a scout specific skill tied to the foraging ability. Although artisans still get to be the ones to craft a flora farms.

How does that sound?

---

Forage tied to Hunting Tree: Actually I think it makes more sense to tie it to Wilderness Survival. Maybe I'm way off-base, but foraging to me seems more like a survival skill than hunting.

Forage versus Survey: I like it a lot, but why not just have the scout do the survey? Or give the scout bonuses to harvesting the flora. I personally think that harvesting water, flora, and fauna should all be the pervue of scouts. Minerals, chemicals, ores ... that's all the Artisan's realm. While I find it very cool being a scout, it's actually kind of tough to make descent money. We can't survey and plant extractors or farms. Our resources are very labor-intensive to gather. If a scout could be, say, a dirt farmer or a moisture farmer and then spend the rest of his time hunting, that would make it a lot easier to make a living at it.

---

DeltaXi65 wrote:

Atrayo,

We are SUPPOSED to be able to forage up to three items at a time as a Master Scout, but the skill is bugged. That's on the list.

Frankly, I'd like an overhaul of the whole system - I'd rather be foraging something more useful than minor temporary stat food buffs and bait, or at least have the choice of what to look for.

I'm not sure about adding the survey of flora to our skillset. I am a bit antsy about trying to steal other professions skills, but it does make good sense - we'd be the ones who know more about the wild, after all.

B

---

Back in beta, for some inexplicable reason, scouts were issued flora and mineral crafting tools as noobs on the space station, but had to have novice artisan to use them. Go figure.

I'd settle for the "uber forage" bug to be fixed so that it doesn't take up your entire inventory ("my inventory is full? I've got space for 30 items in it! What did I forage? A star destroyer?") so we can finally see what they heck they are. Holo hinted about these in beta, but no one ever saw them do to this bug.

And the items foraged should be more than food. How about a container of metal? Some fungi (medical foraging does this)? A rusty CDEF? How about once in a very great while a force crystal or a holocron?

Guys,

I threw up an updated version of the state of the profession. Please check it out and make sure I didn't miss anything.

B

Hi all.

I've been reading most replies to this post, and one thing that comes up more then once is the "prevent macro sampling of resources" I'm not sure but I recall that when I wanted to head out fishing the first time I needed some fish bait. I stood at the same spot a long time and the spt ran out of foragable items before I got any fishbait. I got some crappy 1 or 2 organics I threw away.

But the main point of my post is that the foragable materials stopped. I got a message saying something along the line "There are no more items to forage at this location" which forced me to move a bit.

Doesn't this prevent macro foraging?

AFAIK you can't make a macro that makes to move around.

Also. I was told by some guildmembers that Milking of herbavore creatures would become a scout skill in some patch. Have this been adressed by SOE in any way and if so have they said it will be? Or is it a wish from a scout and no word have been mentioned by SOE regarding this?

I've tried to do a search about milk, but not been able to find any answer

Kald,

We have received word from the Devs that Scouts will be able to milk herbivores in the upcoming patch.

I put a post on it here. It's confirmed.

B

Quandru,

Milk is a very rare commodity right now. It's extremely expensive. It's used in some of the chefrecipes, and they are very happy that we'll be able to do this.

It should be a good money maker for all of us.

B

Not only chefs will be happy. the BE also get uses out of milk. Altho as they need scout for their profession they probably gahter their own

Ideas -

Foraging - Make this more like sampling. Allow food items, organic resources, water, and random items. Let's face it, people lose stuff in the wild. Give wilderness survival xpcomprable to surveying xp for successful finds. This seems reasonable.

Burst Run - Let scouts recover more quickly from a burst run, allowing them to do it more often. Let them burst run for longer distances.

hum well if it is in the air lets say what i think

lets take things in teh order

SCOUT

1 )terrain negociation:

a) does it really give a scout or a ranger an advantage over other players, yes while travelling on foot a scout travels much faster than a non scout , a master ranger travels much faster than a novice scout but who travels on foot now you can pop a vehicle anywhere in the wild ? so in fine it does not give a real bonus here.

A) improvement, i like the idea of making a scout able to ride a mount faster, i also like the idea of making some of the slopes forbiden to people who dont have terrain negociation. the steepest the highest level in terrain negociation you must reach to cross, why no a new animation for climbing instead of running on 1000 feets high mounts). i like this idea of making mounts having a basic terrain negociation factor, some fast on flat ground some able to climb steep slopes. i like the idea of making vehicles unable to go on the steepest slopes. in terms of development it is easy set a number for each level of terrain negociation, and for each piece of terrain, precalculated a slope number depending on the scalar multiplication of the normal vector of the terrain vertex and the vertical normal vector id est project terrain vertex normal vector on vertical axis. then display the slope map overlayed on the ground map on radar.

b) does this give a bonus to the scout in pvp combat ? no a pikeman in composite armor, with a heavy axe burstrunning will be on you in 5 seconds slopes or not ......

B) improvement, same, make the pikeman stop down the slope while you can travel through it, because it is too steep for him but not for you.

c) does this give a bonus to the scout in pve combat ? no most creature run faster than on slopes even when you are a master ranger.

C) improvement, same make some creature unable to climb some of the slopes, while some experience scouts or ranger can, well here comes a AI path problem, and hence it is hard to really implement without bringing some major pathing bugs and the exploits that come with them. to prevent a slope exploit from scout another AI implementation should be made as well, creatures flying away far .

2 ) mask scent :

this skill seems balanced to me wears off at random making it intresting to use, and while working very usefull.

3 ) traps :

a) does the traps give a bonus to the scout on other players, yes traps can snare root, blind and so on, but, there are other special moves that give this ability and a trap requires to stop a special move dont , the duration is roughly the same. if proning a fighter can shoot some tiimes before being spotted throw a trap and you are immediatly detected.

A) improvements, make traps last longer, make some traps trap several creatures and have an area effect, make some traps throwable while walking instead of stopping, hell thats crazy people can shoot with a sniper rifle burstrunning, they can inject themselves stimpacks, drugs, they can even wear on and of a complete armor and we cant throw a snare trap to get away safely from a mob without stopping dead in the emptyness for 5 seconds just enough for the mob to close and strike us. make people able to throw traps with a concealment chance depending on the trapping level.

b) does the trap give a bonus in pvp, no, traps can t be cast on ch creatures, and traps can 't be cast on npc, and they can 't be cast on player.

B) improvements, make some traps able to trap players and other sentient beings, make all traps able to trap ch creatures.

c) does the trap give a bonus to the scout in PVE, if you want to kill a mob what is better, rifle 4 or trapping 4 ...... rifle 4 obvioulsy, well thats okay, but when you reach the level of ranger trapping 4 you need more skill points than those needed to reach master rifleman, and yet there is very few diffrence as far as pve efficiency is concerned between a master rifleman/trap master (ranger trapping 4) and a master rifleman with no trapping skills at all, and this is not normal.

C) improvements, same as detailed in A. would not unbalance things, would improve hunting efficiency for hunter, even make them intresting again in groups, watch a group fighting at the moment you will hardly see a ranger using his traps, because he does no better than the other who use special moves and no longer. and because he can't even throw traps prior to the fight while a rifleman can shoot the target a bunch of times before being spotted.

3) harvesting corpse :

a) does it give a real bonus to the scout compared to other players, yes a hunt master can get 3 times as much ressources from the same body than a novice scout and non scouts can ' t get ressources at all, so this skill is worth having, and it is worth upgrading.

4) burst run efficiency:

a) does this give a bonus to the scout compared to another player, no, every one burstruns very efficiently, the difference in efficiency does not justify to get this skill nor it justifies to upgrade it.

A) improvements, reduce the basic burst run to half the speed it actually gives, and the actual being availableonly tothe most experienced explorer, make experienced explorer recover faster their breath, make special moves unavailable when burstrunning because this does not make sense in pvp to use ranged weapon with a max range of 64 meters when the pvp duel will end 500 meters from where it started because people burst run one after the other, burst run makes distance worth nothing in the game in terms of combat, the lag represents an error of roughly 40 meters between the server position and the client position of an object while burstrunning, so you think you are at 64 meters while you are at 24 meters on the server. worse, you think you are at 80 meters and your client dont let you shoot because out of range while the guy who runs after you get you at 30 meters and is able to try a shoot that the server will acknowledge or not. test it take two nearby computers burst run with a friend in the same direction he runs and you follow him, when you look at your screen you think you run on his side when you lookat his screen he thinks that you are 20 to 40 meters behind depending on the lag.

5) foraging :

a) does this skill give a bonus to the scout, yes it grants the ability to find food and baits. it is worth having and worth upgrading, it does not concurrence the chefs though so i think it is balanced.

A) improvements, why not making the most experienced foragers able to find loot on the ground, and not just food.

6) camping :

a) does this skill give a bonus to scouts over other players, yes it grants the ability to set up a camp to heal wounds, so it is worth having, is it worth upgrading.... no, the major camp kits have integrated crafting stations, everybody can spawn a crafting droid anywhere. and people who can afford the ressources to build such kits usually have some powerfull factory made stims, and the use of a generic crafting or armor crafting station in the wild......., the major camp kits can repell creatures. hum it is always possible to find a safe ground where to lay a basic camp that does not repulse creatures,...... a major camp kit heals faster, who uses a camp kit to heal wounds without drugs, if you have drugs, the camp modificator changes nothing important, if you are not scout you can have a surgical droid and you can spawn it in the wild. a major camp kit can host several people..... a basic camp kit as well. a major camp kit costs a lot of very specific and expensive ressources..... a basic camp kit is very cheap...... a basic camp kit can 't heal battle fatigue, in a nutshell this skill is worth having but it is certainly not worth getting it up to the ranger tree.

A) improvements, invent a new skill tree for rangers that is worth something better than impressing your mates with a summer club disco like camp kit once because you dont want to build loads of them. or make it worth somethin

hum well if it is in the air lets say what i think

lets take things in teh order

SCOUT

1 )terrain negociation:

a) does it really give a scout or a ranger an advantage over other players, yes while travelling on foot a scout travels much faster than a non scout , a master ranger travels much faster than a novice scout but who travels on foot now you can pop a vehicle anywhere in the wild ? so in fine it does not give a real bonus here.

A) improvement, i like the idea of making a scout able to ride a mount faster, i also like the idea of making some of the slopes forbiden to people who dont have terrain negociation. the steepest the highest level in terrain negociation you must reach to cross, why no a new animation for climbing instead of running on 1000 feets high mounts). i like this idea of making mounts having a basic terrain negociation factor, some fast on flat ground some able to climb steep slopes. i like the idea of making vehicles unable to go on the steepest slopes. in terms of development it is easy set a number for each level of terrain negociation, and for each piece of terrain, precalculated a slope number depending on the scalar multiplication of the normal vector of the terrain vertex and the vertical normal vector id est project terrain vertex normal vector on vertical axis. then display the slope map overlayed on the ground map on radar.

b) does this give a bonus to the scout in pvp combat ? no a pikeman in composite armor, with a heavy axe burstrunning will be on you in 5 seconds slopes or not ......

B) improvement, same, make the pikeman stop down the slope while you can travel through it, because it is too steep for him but not for you.

c) does this give a bonus to the scout in pve combat ? no most creature run faster than on slopes even when you are a master ranger.

C) improvement, same make some creature unable to climb some of the slopes, while some experience scouts or ranger can, well here comes a AI path problem, and hence it is hard to really implement without bringing some major pathing bugs and the exploits that come with them. to prevent a slope exploit from scout another AI implementation should be made as well, creatures flying away far .

2 ) mask scent :

this skill seems balanced to me wears off at random making it intresting to use, and while working very usefull.

3 ) traps :

a) does the traps give a bonus to the scout on other players, yes traps can snare root, blind and so on, but, there are other special moves that give this ability and a trap requires to stop a special move dont , the duration is roughly the same. if proning a fighter can shoot some tiimes before being spotted throw a trap and you are immediatly detected.

A) improvements, make traps last longer, make some traps trap several creatures and have an area effect, make some traps throwable while walking instead of stopping, hell thats crazy people can shoot with a sniper rifle burstrunning, they can inject themselves stimpacks, drugs, they can even wear on and of a complete armor and we cant throw a snare trap to get away safely from a mob without stopping dead in the emptyness for 5 seconds just enough for the mob to close and strike us. make people able to throw traps with a concealment chance depending on the trapping level.

b) does the trap give a bonus in pvp, no, traps can t be cast on ch creatures, and traps can 't be cast on npc, and they can 't be cast on player.

B) improvements, make some traps able to trap players and other sentient beings, make all traps able to trap ch creatures.

c) does the trap give a bonus to the scout in PVE, if you want to kill a mob what is better, rifle 4 or trapping 4 ...... rifle 4 obvioulsy, well thats okay, but when you reach the level of ranger trapping 4 you need more skill points than those needed to reach master rifleman, and yet there is very few diffrence as far as pve efficiency is concerned between a master rifleman/trap master (ranger trapping 4) and a master rifleman with no trapping skills at all, and this is not normal.

C) improvements, same as detailed in A. would not unbalance things, would improve hunting efficiency for hunter, even make them intresting again in groups, watch a group fighting at the moment you will hardly see a ranger using his traps, because he does no better than the other who use special moves and no longer. and because he can't even throw traps prior to the fight while a rifleman can shoot the target a bunch of times before being spotted.

3) harvesting corpse :

a) does it give a real bonus to the scout compared to other players, yes a hunt master can get 3 times as much ressources from the same body than a novice scout and non scouts can ' t get ressources at all, so this skill is worth having, and it is worth upgrading.

4) burst run efficiency:

a) does this give a bonus to the scout compared to another player, no, every one burstruns very efficiently, the difference in efficiency does not justify to get this skill nor it justifies to upgrade it.

A) improvements, reduce the basic burst run to half the speed it actually gives, and the actual being availableonly tothe most experienced explorer, make experienced explorer recover faster their breath, make special moves unavailable when burstrunning because this does not make sense in pvp to use ranged weapon with a max range of 64 meters when the pvp duel will end 500 meters from where it started because people burst run one after the other, burst run makes distance worth nothing in the game in terms of combat, the lag represents an error of roughly 40 meters between the server position and the client position of an object while burstrunning, so you think you are at 64 meters while you are at 24 meters on the server. worse, you think you are at 80 meters and your client dont let you shoot because out of range while the guy who runs after you get you at 30 meters and is able to try a shoot that the server will acknowledge or not. test it take two nearby computers burst run with a friend in the same direction he runs and you follow him, when you look at your screen you think you run on his side when you lookat his screen he thinks that you are 20 to 40 meters behind depending on the lag.

5) foraging :

a) does this skill give a bonus to the scout, yes it grants the ability to find food and baits. it is worth having and worth upgrading, it does not concurrence the chefs though so i think it is balanced.

A) improvements, why not making the most experienced foragers able to find loot on the ground, and not just food.

6) camping :

a) does this skill give a bonus to scouts over other players, yes it grants the ability to set up a camp to heal wounds, so it is worth having, is it worth upgrading.... no, the major camp kits have integrated crafting stations, everybody can spawn a crafting droid anywhere. and people who can afford the ressources to build such kits usually have some powerfull factory made stims, and the use of a generic crafting or armor crafting station in the wild......., the major camp kits can repell creatures. hum it is always possible to find a safe ground where to lay a basic camp that does not repulse creatures,...... a major camp kit heals faster, who uses a camp kit to heal wounds without drugs, if you have drugs, the camp modificator changes nothing important, if you are not scout you can have a surgical droid and you can spawn it in the wild. a major camp kit can host several people..... a basic camp kit as well. a major camp kit costs a lot of very specific and expensive ressources..... a basic camp kit is very cheap...... a basic camp kit can 't heal battle fatigue, well a major camp kit neither, in a nutshell this skill is worth having but it is certainly not worth getting it up to the ranger tree.

A) improvements, invent a new skill tree for rangers that is worth something better than impressing your mates with a summer club disco like camp kit once because you dont want to build loads of them.and/or make it worth something, limit the number of people who can use a camp kit at the same time, make the better camps kits last longer, make the better camp kits heal battle fatigue,

7 ) conceal:

a) does this skill give a bonus to the ranger over the other players, yes it allows the ranger to hide from aggressive NPC. and also to make the others of his group to benefit from the camo kits. but the camo kits are expensive in ressources and last a very short time. travelling on a vehicle grants a better protection though on top of travelling way faster.

A) improvement, the camo kits are expensive, make it last a reasonable time not just 3 minutes.

b) does the concealment give an advantage in pvp ? no it is of absolutely no use in pvp.

B) improvement make some camo is available that make the ranger unseenable on the radar, and some even more expensive getting the ranger and his mates hidden to players as well until a certain range with a detecting probability

8) areatrack :

a) does this kill give an advantage over other players, yes it allows the ranger to spot babies or special creatures, and npcs. but a vehicle allows to do almost the same by exploring a vast area in a short time.

b) does this skill give a bonus over players in pvp, yes it gives the ability to track down a wounded target who fled away, it gives the ability to spot groups of players and possible attacks. but with the vehicles it is hard to spot an attack 500 meters is nothing it is 20 seconds burst running 10 seconds on a cehicle.

B) improvement, make the PA label appear on the tracking report, make the faction appear on the tracking report, make the declared or covert status appear on the tracking report.

no love for the scouts *sigh* well at least nothing is really broken

-Master scout since a few weeks after launch