Scout Archive
Thread: Feedback on the scout correspondent issues
Bane,
Obviously I have a clue, or I wouldn't be posting.
Look, we can fret and hem and haw over every change the Devs make because- granted - they seem to break two things with every one that they fix. But going into every upgrade and new idea change trying to figure out what they're going to screw up would be then only thing we'd have time for.So that's why I bravo for Peg posting exactly what I would have said - let's not go assuming that the devs are idiots and wouldn't think these things through.
Now that think about it more, I'll argue with you on the idea of it in general. There is absolutely no reason why you should be able to harvest 100% of a creature you've killed if your pet did half the work for you. Think of it as the penalty you incur for needing something to help you kill the bigger creature. Sure, you can solo a Fambaa now, but you get 40% less hide and XP because you used your pet do to it. I'm still a little annoyed that you can get Squad Leader XP when you've grouped with a pet or a bot - where's the leadership in that?
No self-respecting Scout needs a pet to do his harvesting. Only theCHs will bitch about this, and you all know my feelings on them.
In any event, my response wasn't personal, so don't take it that way. You all should know me better by now. How many posts am I up to now? 850+?
B
I love the idea that T1 wrote about having POI spawn sites that if you discover as a scout you scout exp for. The idea that I had, although maybe not as cool as T1's, would be to give experience for every 500x500m block that a scout visits on the map that is outside of a city, and perhaps another 1000 meters from that. I have already visited the NW corner and the SW corner of Corellia and every square kilometer on the left side of the map. When I'm done with the right side of the map I plan to move on to another planet and start all over. I would love to gain experience points from that considering how long it takes.
Question about group harvesting, Delta:
Why can't harvesting percentage be grouped with experience percentage? Isn't it true that the amount of experience one gets when grouped (or when not grouped for that matter!) is directly proportional to the amount of damage that one does to an (NPC/creature) opponent?
So, if one killed a creature, then one should get half of the resources from it. If one's pet killed 2/3 of a creature, then one should only get 1/3 of the resources from it. This would make hunting in groups (both pet and non-pet) fair.
Thoughts?
Iko,
I see the point, but this brings into question all kinds of issues with balancing of the combat classes. As a rifleman, I never get the same rate of combat/rifle XP as my pistol packing buddies get, because my cycle rate is so low, and I rarely get the "kill" because I can get the Famby's mind down about 3/4 of the way but the health always gets nailed by the other Pistol pukes in my group (no offense, honey - Daria's a pistoleer). I would hate to lose out on some of that XP because I picked rifleman.
Also, lower level Scouts who are out hunting with the groups and could use the XP also will get hurt, because they can't do as much damage.
It was a good idea, but I'm still partial to the 60% plan, since I helped come up with it. 
B
Actually Delta it's up to 929 posts according to your above one.
Man, I think you're taking some of this "discussion" a little personal. Your last few posts in this thread have been kind of heated. You usually stay so calm. Take a deep breath.
We all appreciate you and Devs help in improving the Scout profession and actually hearing us and making the big changes we all wanted to see.
Now for my comments. I appreciate the work and this post about what changes the Devs actually worked on and are still working on. Very very much wanted to hear that. Now we know what they are working on.
I'm confused about the camo/mask scent thing. And Delta, it is not just a ranger issue, it's "also" a scout issue. That is because now all of us scouts that have worked up our MS have different readings. Being a Bothan, I wonder if my natural camo bunus even helps my Scout MS. Along with that, I want to know, what was and is camo used for? Did it have anything to do with other things besides animals? Does it affect NPC's seeing me and agroing on me? How about with camo in ranger profession, will that effect NPC's or just animals? Is there anything currently or before update that camo worked on besides MS?
I personally think that both scouts and rangers should be able to hide from NPC's just as they do from animals. If not even more so. Animals are actually more perceptive and tend to use more of their sences then humanoids. So we should be able to hide and sneak up on NPC's as well.
I like the fishing changes, and the group harvesting thing is totally great.
I will reserve my other comments on what is actually happening with the update, for your different post.
My quote: "So, if one killed a creature, then one should get half of the resources from it."
What was I smoking? It should have read: "If one killed a creature on their own, they should get all the resources from it. If they only contributed to half the creature's damage to its death, then one should get half the resources from it."
Anyway, how do the combat classes get experience damage meted out? If you shoot at a creature and bring its mind to zero and I shoot at a creature and bring its health to ALMOST zero but you manage to kill it, do I get experience from it? If so, how much experience do I get? It seemed to me that I would shoot a creature (by wounding it) and not kill it and someone else kills it, I only get a small percentage of what experience I would have gotten if I killed it myself. So, I made the assumption that experience is based on some proportion of damage done to the creature. Based on that assumption, my suggestion was to make harvesting also based on such experience meters. Can you explain the system (or point to somewhere where there is an explanation)?
Heh, we always are partial to our babies. I understand where you're coming from, which is why I want to understand how the system works. Looking at your rifleman vs. lots of pistoleer problem, I would suggest then that your xp is based on how much damage you did to the creature for a particular HAM bar. So, if you have three pistoleers that eventually kill a creature with health damage (each pistoleer doing an equal amount of damage)vs. your single rifle getting the creature down to 1/3 its mind, you would get 2/3 of the xp expected from a kill while each of the pistoleers would get 1/3 of the xp expected. Taking this to the skinning problem, each of the pistoleers would receive 1/3 of the total units had they skinned the creature while you could get 2/3 of the total units. In order to prevent this from being exploited, the amount that you can take per creature is whichever amount is greatest. So, if you happen to switch weapons in the middle of the firefight and do 1/2 action damage, your 2/3 mind damage would be the greater and you would receive that amount in total skins.
I just think it's kind of scary that a creature that normally drops 10 hide can end up dropping 30 fora 5 person group (unless I am competely misunderstanding). I do, however, agree that, if a creature or pet helped you kill something, one should not get the full amount of skins it drops.
In my opinion the scout should have to visit the location and place a waypoint, rather than just entering the coordinates found on another map or website.
BaneShee wrote:
You mentioned that a scout shouldn't be allowed to harvest 100% of hides if he is using a pet, well for the sake of brevity I wont address thatcondescending and intellectually shallowcomment.
Ikochan,
Squid,
Sorry if my posts here aren't displaying my usual aplomb. I'm a bit perturbed by the BE, CH, and Ranger's trying to hijack our report - no offense to them at all. Well, a little to the CHs. They're hurting, but they'll get their attention. It just seems like some of the think this is a zero sum game and that our gain is there loss. That and the continual complaining about mask scent that has been answered on nearly every single thread, and I get a bit testy.
We need to wait and see the Ranger report to see what happens with Camo. I will ask if we can get some clarification on the Bothan racial bonus.
"what was and is camo"
Camo, as it stands now, is part of the equation that determines whether or not Maskscent is effective. I'm not sure how the current post-update equation is tailored, but before the update it was roughly:
Chance of mask scent working= (100 + camouflage) - Creature level
Then there are modifiers for movement. I'm not sure if this has changed or not with the new update, but that's what it was used for before. I believe that it is useful only against creatures and not humanoids, but I'm not 100% sure of that one.
Hopefully that clarified some stuff for you.
B
Bane,
I have a long standing feud with the CHs. Since I have been the Correspondent and even before, the biggest complainers, whiners and "how do I get scout xp FAST!!?!?!?!?!?!" posters were CHs who were trying to get to Novice so they could "pwn" in PvP with their umpty gnarled rancors. It's more a long running joke than anything else. Again don't take it personally. I've written almost a thousand posts here - check a few of the other ones out.
Grouping with scouts was (and still is) a major concern. I believe the 60% idea is a great one, and your point about making sure that the devs code it so that you don't get screwed with a pet is valid - for the CH community.
Most Scouts won't have pets to use, or won't be going after creatures that high level that they need them.
I recognize your point and I will of course pass it along. I personally don't agree with it, and that's why I said it that way.
I try and make all of my points intellecutally valid, thought out and objective - I apologize if you think I'm not doing that. I would respectfully request that you look over the entire body of my work rather then condemning me over thanking Peg for pointing out that you were concerned about a bug with something that's not even in the game yet. I recall you telling me to pull my head out of my ass, and all I said was "bravo". So let's both chill a bit here.
I try to keep these boards fun and funny. There's too much angst on the overall boards, so I try to keep the Scout forum an unofficial eye of the storm - you won't get flamed for asking a dumb question here, you won't get made fun of, and I try and answer even the questions that I've answered a thousand times. So take some of my grousing with a grain of salt and a tongue firmly planted in cheek.
B
Iko,
I'm not 100% sure exactly how the combat xp/weapon xp is divvied out.
All I can say is from my experience. When I'm grouped with my friends who are Pistoleers, I generally only get between 700-800 rifle points of XP when we kill a Fambaa. They are regularly getting 2300 - 2500. And I may get the Fambaa down to 1/4 of its mind bar before it goes. I've tried just using my regular shots, and the XP stays the same.
When I take a Famby on by myself, a usually get the 2300-2500 rifle XP. So where the drain is, I don't know. I'd be interested to see if anyone else is having this problem.
B
Nowi wrote:
Very interesting. So Mask Scent at Master Scout is 100 and therefor maxed? What does this mean for the Ranger's Wayfaring line?
Ad they didn't even touch on the racial bonus. Am I, a bothan Master scount at 110 maskscent?