Scout Archive
Thread: Feedback on the scout correspondent issues
what we scouts need is a bio-engineered tracking hound with no or minimal combat capabilities.
sick him loose on our quarry and follow him...
should be rather easy to implement...especially if you tie it in so it only works on
explorer hunting missions.
maskscent's lack of XP sucks.
i HATE my bothian..i chose him 100% for the camo bonus (and then they nerfed maskscent XP).
his HAM's suck, he looks stupid, but im too far to turn back now.
main problem with scouts, as far as i'm concerned, is EVERYONE is a friggen scout.
way too many people. Everyone i know has a little scout, either for harvesting, MS, or camps.
it is quickly looking like BH, medic, and CH will be the only 3 real classes in the game.
Belk,
Go check out the Ranger report. Add them to your list. 
B
"Someone thought it would be a good idea to be able to fish and camp at the same time. I thought so as well, several weeks ago. Unfortunately, the way camps deploy, you can't get close enough to the water to cast and stay within the camp radius (if pitching a camp on an island, the island will actually expand to accommodate the camp size). So, an increase the size of the camp "zone" would allow you to camp and fish."
There's really no need to be camping and fishing at the same time any more. Now that fishing grants survival XP, to be able to do both would be double dipping, which we really don't need to be doing. There are other ways to pass the time in a camp. And as it seems that setting this up is not going to be easy (the island expanding thing leads me to think there's some underlying code that will make this hard to implement), I say we write this one off and be thankful we can get XP from fishing at all.
It is actually possible to fish from a camp. It takes patience to find the right spot, but it can be done. As far as double dipping, I don't think this is a problem for the following reasons:
- I need something to do while camping besides watching TV or reading a book. There are only so many traps or stims I can make.
- It takes a long time to catch a fish. Once you get a catch, battles between fish and fisherman (or fisherlizard in my case) can take 5 minutes or more, and more often than not you lose him and your bait anyway.
- How much experience do you really expect to come from catching a fish anyway?
- It takes a long time to forage for bait.
- We get no survival experience for foraging which is arguably more important, even while standing still with an empty inventory.
How about implimenting the harvesting system that I saw on one of the loading screens? If a creature has three resources to be harvested (hide, bone, meat) then three scouts can harvest from that creature for full xp and resource value. One guy skins the creature, then next one takes the meat and the last one can pick up the bones
Since I don't think that will be an option, I'll agree that the 60% idea is good as long as there can be a /harvestOff option so that if you are in a small party with only one person needing the scouting resources/xp the others can opt out and allow one person the full harvest. I also think that the 60% rule should only apply if there is more than one harvester in a group. (A scout who groups with non-scouts should not be penalized on his harvest. It takes the same amount of blaster shots to kill a creature - just less time with more people. So the 'more wear and tear on the creature' argument should not apply. Of course if the creature was being mauled by a pet then there could conceivably be less resources to harvest...)
The lack of space issue is a problem. I like the idea of some sort of container to hold resources. I was thinking of a foraged resource container where you can only put one type of harvested food. For instance, you can not stack the melon you forage because it has different stats from a preeviously foraged melon. You can put the two melons in a "foraged resource container" thereby "stacking" them. If you forage berries next time, you have to put them in a different container. They wouldn't go into the other container unless you take out the melons and then put in the berries. Maybe you could have the scout be able to craft the container with hides and bone as part of the higher level Wilderness Survival. After all, we can carry 10K units of metal as one unit but we can't carry 10 of the same vegetables as one unit?
Overall, I think the Devs are doing a very good job. The amount of changes, tweeks and fixes they plan to or need to do is daunting. Coupling that with knowing that they will never make everyone happy makes the job of the devs even tougher. Thanks for all your hard work and effort, devs.
DeltaXi65 wrote:
Machs,
Good post. Let me go over it with what I know.
...snip...
"For harvesting, add a command to auto-split hides and the associated experience gained from the harvest. Then, it wouldn't matter who does the harvest - all scouts in the group would get the exp and the resources. Functionality to opt out individuals in the group would also be nice so it wouldn't be an all-or-nothing selection."
This was what I suggested as an alternative to the current one-scout-one-harvest rule. However, I like this way better - it doesn't give scout XP to non-scouts, and it doesn't give hide/bone/meat to non-scouts. That way none of the XP is wasted. In the long run, it's better for us. Since nearly everyone has Scout as a basic skill, only those who want the XP/harvest get it.
There is a "/group menu" command for group leaders. How about addingfor each scout/ranger anoption for "Share Animal Harvest" even if you are not the leader (probably the only thing on the menu in that case). Every harvest splits amongst those "subscribed". Also, if there are 2 scout/rangers you can get 2 types, 3 typesfor >2. I also have issue with the harvest beyond Scouts, but that is for the Ranger forum, and I have already discussed it there.
"The idea about being able to carry more stuff with increasing levels of skill was a good one. Also easy to extend into the Ranger line. Perhaps you could add "Ranger packs" of differing levels to the tailoring skills. Allow advanced scouts/rangers to have "certs" for pack use. (Tailors get to sell more stuff.. scouts/rangers get to carry more.. win-win for both classes) One issue with foraging items and fishing is the amount of space they take. Add in traps of several flavors, a camp, a few stims, and harvested resources and you are maxed out. I find myself constantly in the +80% load limit. The proposed changes are only going to make this worse."
This is a good idea.
Better (or another)idea: stackable forage items. I have similar forage items not stacking after searching for bait. Also, need an option for picking a type of item (bait/buff/flora sampling). I feel we should also forage for samples of flora w/o the need of a sampler. A command to search an area for available forage items would be good too: a window listing possible items and % chance of success, then picking the item and looking for it. As a boy scout I used to be very good at finding edible mushrooms in our woods. The factors like the number in the list or the types of things (knowledge of the area increase at greater levels?) or other stuff could be adjusted. Brawler would like to look for Str and Act buffs, Rifleman look for Mind buffs. It would be more usefull that way (imho). It would also cut down on the inventory getting used up and the "forage, destroy, forgage, destroy" grind.
"Foraging could be more like an EQ style. At advanced levels, you don't just get food, you can get items. Perhaps add "spices" to the flora that can be harvested. Also, could add food that works similarly to the Chef foods. At ranger levels, you could have a chance to find something that really buffs up your stats. Since the chance to occur is pretty low, it wouldn't impact the chef profession. How about adding exp for a successful forage. Something along the lines of the pre-patch mask-scent. Base of a dozen points, scaled up with proficiency."
This isalso a good idea, but theproblem with granting XP toforage is the macroing issues. We've all probably tried the camp macro, andwhile I think survival takes a long time, it needs to take a long time.Like I said, those who are most concerned with getting through the Scout tree fast are the CHs andBHs and I like making them suffer.
Ya know, I get nervious when people ask for EQ-ness to SWQ. The phrase "EQ in space" comes to mind. How does EQ do this? I like the added items bit though (who wouldn't )
On another note: the feedback to /maskScent broke on the change... might want to look at that. Also, I found outlast night that FAILING can be leathal, above and beyond what is normal. Yellow on my 'dar attacked me once, this needs corrected.
...snip...
what i think you are failing to see is that everyone gets 60% so now all of your group should harvest and you will pull in far more hides than you were by yourself. that seems like an improvement if you are trying to maximize harvests.
SB,
It has better seating, cooler looking camps, a laser fence that's supposed to keep out animals, a weapon crafting station in addition to the food/chem station and it's even bigger.
The High Tech Field Base: guaranteed oohs and ahhs for at least five minutes.
B
"The High Tech Field Base: guaranteed oohs and ahhs for at least five minutes."
lol. I set one up as soon as I hit Master, looked around, disbanded it and proceeded to use a Basic Camp from then on. I don't need the xp anymore, and the Basic Camp is cheaper to make.
Ah, the price of success
I didn't read the whole thread, but I do have one comment.
I personally don't like the idea of harvesting increasing for groups. I know why people asked for it, and why the implemented it, but it just doesn't make sense to me. Its basically like saying that a 3 year old buck will have more skin or bone or meat available if more people work on cleaning it. Just doesn't make sense and kinda takes away from the roleplaying experience.
I will personally not be grouping for hunting as long as this exists.
Fish,
It's less of a roleplaying issue, and more of a gameplay issue.
And I hope you get used to not being grouped. Ouchy...
B