Scout Archive

Exploring is currently to difficult to be done forfun. I have tried it on several occasions and it ends up with constant fleeing of aggro creatures that have suddenly popped up next to you, and no opportuntity to look around. Maskscent is useless. In no particualr order here are some of the hinderances and suggestionsto exploring (and I have exploration IV explorer title)

1. Mask Scent: does not work. When I am exploring it stays up for less then 3 second if creatures are around. having to wait the ridiculious 60 seconds!!!! to use it again makes this a worhtless ability. A side to this, which is very annoying, yellow non aggro creatures break mask scent!!! and give no exp!!! so this massively increases the chance of breaking the camo with the 60 sec penalty, but gives no benefit if it works, just plain silly IMHO

Solution: If there is an exp abuse issue from mask scent, dump the exp. gained from success and make it work 100%. i.e. let mask scent serve as a way for a scout to move about through hostile creatures, like a invsibility to creatures. This could also serve as an interesting tactics tool. And just get rid of the exp benefit. I am much more interested in safe moving about then scouting exp from mask scent.

2. sudden pops!!!! I constantly get new spanws popping up/ appearing very close to me as I am running along. I keep my 128m radar on and creatures appear suddenly inside the 128m range. 256m is useless because new spawns pop up within 128m!!!! making the look ahead of 256, 512 etc useless.

Solution: change the pop radius. Create a safe spawn zone around scouts such that nothing can appear within 128m while they are moving.

3. Terrain movement and Burst run: these need to be changed IMHO. First Burst run, once active it gets used up wether you run the whole time or not, and there is now way to turn it off to conserve it. Also terrain movement, every creature I have come across runs faster then a scout with exploration iv. I am assuming this is some type of anti kiting thing, but whats the purpose of of the terrain bonus past the first one to help up slopes?

Solutions: Burst run, two thoughts on this; First, make burst run function like an afterburner charge. You have x amount of brust run based on stats and skill. You turn it on you use up the charge, you turn it off you stop using the charge and it slowly recharges. Thus you could turn it on and off to conserver it and make it avaialable more frequently, and the slow recharge would replace the timer giving you a chance to use the little bit of charge you just gained to try and escape that mad spawn around you. Think of it as conserving energy. Second as an addition or alternative to the current burst run... sprints. Sprinting would not last as long as a burst run, but would be useable more often. once again to help get away from creature while exploring.

4. new idea, advanced mask scent would be friendly scent. Explorer could craft pheromone or whatever scent to make themselves blend in with the environment. This would make aggro creatures turn friendly.

a few thoughts.

Good ideas, making animal aggros friendly would be a good way for a scout to make himself useful, instead if being just another guy with a pistol.

I must say that a group of 5 bandits appearing in front of me is really retarded, and it happens FAR too often, resulting in death usually.

yep

Maskscent and the scout in general has a lot of potential, right now there is a serious fun factor problem with the scout. Additionaly Survival exp needs to be bumped, and I would like to see at Survival 4 a better camp defensive wise.

Hunter: You reckon having aggros spawn within 128m sucks? I get around on 64 and have them spawn in the middle of the radar at about 30-40!!!

Very good post, very good ideas.

Like you, I missed out on the whole Masked Scent heyday. I now only have Explore II, but Masked Scent is the most useless piece of crap I've seen. You've described the issues with it very well. Would I like *some* xp from it? Sure. As it stands now though, I've received about 100 scouting xp from using it against some very low level kreetles on Tattooine.

As for creature pops. Yup... I'm running along with a 64m radar and stuff pops up on me all the time. Ridiculous. I think that is probably more due to some sort of lag, but who knows. As a scout, you expect to have some sort of advantage for umm, scouting around, no? So far, I'm no different than any other pistol slinging fool out there. Oh wait, everyone uses rifle anyway, my bad... .

Agree completely with the Burst Run ideas. Supposedly I have some sort of Burst Run bonus. Oh, I do? LOL, I wouldn't have noticed . Very poor implementation of this and I think the ideas you mention would work well.

Good job, hope this stuff gets noticed.

Padain Fain
Novice Scout/Artisan/Brawler/Marksman
Flurry Server

Excellent post, great ideas. I agree with everything you said... almost.

The sudden spawning while running has to be one of the more annoying and idiotic things I have experienced. Unfortunately I don't think that preventing mobs from spawning within a certain radius of a scout while running would be the best answer.

What would be the best answer you ask? I don't know. But I am not sure if these mobs are just randomly spawning or if they are actually already there, but we just can't see them. I think they are having serious issues with graphics performance at the moment. I can't help but wonder if this is part of that issue.

There is a good chance that the engine/software/whatever just isn't keeping up with "rendering" the mobs while we are running.... maybe?

Let me know what you all think about this possibility.

Great ideas, let's hope the devs/management types actually read this!

Advanced mask scent isa great idea becuase it would make people desire a scout more so the scout could accually do his job and use his exploration skills andscout ahead of the group and make sure the way is clear. Also if the scout could craft bottles of mask scent/advanced mask scent it would give them a direct source of income rather than only destroy missons. Being in a group with scout skills is useless unless you have medical skills or combat skills aswellbecuase the scout dosen't have any skills that really benifit his/her group besides making a camp.

I think the scout proffression isn't living up to what it should be. I used an online dictionary and searched for scout and it said

One that is dispatched from a main body to gather information, especially in preparation for military action.

The only skill that relates the scout in-game to that is the fact that scouts can cover difficult terrain faster, but in just as much danger as the rest of the group. I think scouts should have a more active role in groups than simply setting camps after the battle. It would also get more people to aspirer to gather scout xp for something other than CH!