Scout Archive

Just wanted to post some stuff I noticed using the /maskscent command. Some of it has already been said, but I played around with it a bit this morning and noticed a couple of things I hadn't read.

My first attempt at using mask scent was on some Crazed Durnis, near Cornet, Corellia, that were an even con. I chose these because, well... they were the first reds I found and I knew there was no danger of dying while I experimented.

I got about within about 70 meters of the mob and turned /maskscent on. I moved in and after moving in and out a few times as other people suggested, I noticed that at 44 meters, the creature would either notice me, or I got 122xp in General Scouting exp. At first, I thought that I had to move between +45m and 44 or less to activate an opportunity for experience to go up. It seemed later that this was not so because when I got within less than 44m and when I was seen, I just did the /maskscent thing again and I was hidden. I could then move around some more already 44m or less and either be seen or get exp again.

Since there were several crazed durnis in my camp, sometimes I could get to the closest one and be hidden, but moving into the camp, it appeared that when I got close to another (probably 44m) I would be seen. Even though that mob could see me, the one that I was standing right next to was not alerted, although, I wouldn't bet on this happening on all mobs. It also appeared that you could get experience off of every single mob in the camp if you got 44m or less and they didn't see you.

The chance of not being detected wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that great either. It probably relates to my camo skill and right now I'm only in tier III of that ability. Maybe when I get IV and another 10%, it'll get better.

Once you got exp from the mobs, you had to move away I think. I could get multiple experience hits without leaving the nest area, but I believe this was coming from multiple mobs and not the same mob twice.

After I got done messing with the durni's, I wandered around till I found some dire cats. A little more risk here since I can't outrun them, but they conned even and as long as I only got one I knew I'd be all right. They chew on you with /burstrun, but usually give up when you're pretty far outside their lair.

There was a large group of them, and I didn't want to get to close and found out I didn't have to. I could /maskscent from well over 50m. I couldn't tell exactly how far I was because "a female dire cat" is so long named, that the true distance was off my target bar. At any rate, there were several of them and I just ran around them in a big circle. Everytime I was seen, I'd just /maskscent right there where I was it would usually take or if I was seen, I'd just /maskscent again. Their aggro range was quite a bit bigger than the durni's and I got one on my tail once. I chose to just run away because I didn't want to kill it. It was still a source of experience for me. I was getting 168 xp from the dire cats I believe. Higher risk, higher reward I guess.

After all of that, and about an hourish of doing this, I got about 4kxp in general scouting.
Was it worth it?

Well, it's always a balancing act we play, I think I made more scouting xp then I would have if I had been hunting, but I missed out on my pistol and combat skills, credits for mission kills, trapping and hides/bones/meat. I would have gotten some general scouting xp for /harvesting also, although not nearly what I made doing the /maskscent thing I believe.

I plan on trying to keep this ability up at all times, and if I'm ever just heading back to town to get another mission and see a group of radar reds, I'll probably take an extra minute or two to try and get some exp this way and then just leave them alone.

Hopefully this will help others and if I've made any wrong statements or ideas, please feel free to correct me. I want to learn too.

Lyfisin

aka "Orion"

Lyfisin,

I'm a fresh scout that only created my avatar. I'm picking up some good clues to suceed.

Thanks for it .

Espirito

That was a great post Lyfisin! Really useful!

I just got Exploration II last night and started experimenting with it myself. I didn't know at first that XP would only be given for avoiding detection from aggressive critters, but when I finally understood that I must say that the XP was great! I agree with you that it can detract from other sources of XP and resource gathering takes a hit, but in my opinion it's a benefit. I don't need to rely only on resource gathering anymore.

As a pure scout, I could care less about my pistol skill. I got the level 1 pistol ability and for now that's more than enough for me. Considering my style of play, mask scent is not only a way to effectively avoid being jumped on by an aggro creature that I never saw coming, but it also grants me a fine amount of XP too!

Something to add,

I found this tactic out last night. If you take a destroy mission to aggro creatures you can make tons of scout xp and combat xp. I started out on explore 2 with about 6k xp to get to explore 3. After about 3 hours and 18 or so missions I was at explore 4 with 1200 scout xp. I had also made around 26k credits and gathered over 400 scaly hides and 1200 leathery hides.

This is for Tatooine. What I did was take 2 missions at once for kreetles. I would aproach the lair with mask scent on and take a bit to run around and try and get most of the ones on the outside to ignore me. 106 xp per mob at explore 2. Once you get them down harvest all of them put mask scent back up and shoot the lair once or twice. This is important, dont keep shooting the lair you want to draw them out a little at a time. If they dont detect you you will get 106 xp everytime one pops out of the lair. Now if one does detect you not a problem as long as it dosent attack. Just put mask scent up target it and shoot, at that point you draw its attention so it does a check on mask scent again. If you didnt get xp the first time you may get it this time.

Once you get Explore 3 move up to diseased bocatts, the give 91 xp on mask scent but give 59 xp for harvesting (kreetles gave me 106 xp and 21 xp).

One real nice thing about this tactic is, if done right you can take out even cons without them finding you most times.

another tip that seems to work is to put up /maskscent and then to attack something neutral to you. Often when the creature comes to attack you, it won't notice you (I know I rarely notice what I attack) and you'll get the Scouting XP.

Aanke Oonke - Bria