Scouts, they've been nerfed, now let's buff them proper

By Ryat on February 22, 2010 12:59:11 AM from

Hello all,

Lets talk scouts.

We know they have been nerf and that might have been a good thing. Let's face it, scouts are suppose to make poor frontline soldiers.

But what about behind the lines? Or in other ways of attacking the enemy?

TEC scouts have timed explosives. That barely scratch the paint and often take way too long.

Advent scouts have kamikaze. The is like a bug splat to anything bigger then a scout.

And Vasari scouts? Well they might just be the most useful behind lines in taking over neutrals.

We need to do something to buff up these abilities. Maybe not the Vasari, but the other two are now simply useless aside from scouting. And even then, other ships can do it better and longer.

Lets ask the Devs to increase timed explosives damage and cut down on the time it takes. Also increase the kamikaze effect from the Advent scout. Not a lot mind you, but enough to make them useful and have them feared again. Plus, due to the higher end techs these involved, no one will have to worry too much about scout rushes, which I have to admit were lame. Does anyone else have any ideas to add? Or comments to deride my ideas?

+279 Karma | 15 Replies

I never paid much attention to the scouts... They just explored the map.

Scouts can be really cool. Let's take for example the game: Age of Mythology from 2002 (RTS)

There were four playable factions

Greeks
Egyptians
Norse
Atlanteans

Each of them had a cool, different way of scouting the map.

Greeks - you only got 1 scout in the beginning, but he's crazy fast and can avoid getting killed before scouting the enemy's territory sufficiently
Egyptians - scouts could create obelisks, cheap buildings that gave you line of sight in an area. They were also effective soldiers if you upgraded them sufficiently.
Norse - the Norse scouts were THE BOMB. Scouts, light infantry, and builders were one and the same. They could move around the map, create buildings, and fight.
Atlanteans - the Atlantean scouts had terrible line of sight, but as they stood still their line of sight grew steadily to see the farthest of any unit.

I am in no way suggesting that you copy any of these ideas, I'm merely stating that you can do cool stuff to revamp old traditional strategy game elements.

What? Did they nerf the Sandman again?

Oh wait...

Ummm...Cloaking?

I don't know, nor care really. But if I had to suggest something, I'd like to see scouts able to vanish for a bit, undetectable and unassailable.

Although I've been under the impression that cloaking such as that isn't actually possible, or else mines might not be as lame as they are. Seriously, what fun are mines that everyone can see? The damn things should be completely undetectable prior to a scout seeking them out. Watching a fleet plow through an unexpected minefield would be awesome.

Well the Vasari scout does have a cloak of sorts. It can go into phase space for a short period of time. It uses antimatter and that is its weakness, though its great parked at a star were its usage of 2 things of antimatters is outweighed by the stars giving 2.5 things of antimatter. But yeah, its similar to the mines in its you can still see it thing.

I have to admit, when it comes to abilities the Vasari scouts are the king (though their firepower/cost is the worst). Personally, I don't mind scouts being weakened frontline-wise, but the TEC's and Advents abilities for economic disruption are a bit on the weak side. I think that is what the devs intended (just by looking at the TEC's abilities) for them to be but they don't quite work out.

Alrighty,

Scouts. Sadly they have been nerf to 'im gonna fly around and die' units. the 20% DPS decrease was lame. Lame I tell you. Now they cant do anything but die.

I stand the what Im gonna call the minority of players who think scouts can/should do more than just scout. Before the nerf they could be used as early game fighters, backline distruption, neutral control. Now? They fly the pirate base and die.

IMHO, they need to unnerf the scouts 20% DPS decrease, lower the Advent scouts HP by 15%. There we all have balanced scouts. They can die with little honor as they fly around running into pirate bases and SB. Or they can die with glory in the heat of fleet combat.

The abilites on the scouts need a buff. The Advent scouts ability damage is weak. You could double it just about and it would still be just ok. The TEC ability cooldown is crazy long. It should be 5 mins instead of 9 mins. The timer to activate it is a bit long also. Can we shorten it down by 5-10 seconds? So that way maybe my scouts can actually plant the bombs before the hanger bay that being constructed is finished and has time to launch its fighters? Killing the construtors wasnt a problem with a few scouts before the nerf but after the drop in DPS those same few have a hard time killing even constructors. Vasari scouts really are great ability wise. Maybe a slight increase in AM storage so they can use it a bit longer.

Also, their mine scanning is stupid, and in most cases, scouts will suicide into mines instead of clear them out.

They should, imo, get an increase in their mine detect range, and the same for their ineffective cannon so it can actually take out a mine before it suicides into it.

Scouts should have all weapons removed and have their speed increased. Then they would be...um... scouts

speed increased yes

weapons removed?

no, scouts also make great harassing units in other RTS games and real life military

so while I agree to nerf them to no be frontline units, they still need to be of military value so they need some pwe pwe guns

edit: maybe change their attack to antimodule

If Antimodule increases their damage against mines, sure. Right now, I just ignore scouts as minesweepers and just facesplat mines with my capships.

yes, mines have module armor

could even force them to attack modules only

Only thing about that is constructors...its what I used my scouts for back in the day.

Re-reading what was said on mines being cloaked and invisible until a scout actually enters, I agree with that. Or at least get rid of their zoomed out picture. (The one that appears in the color of the faction it belongs to when zoomed out to a certain point. Make it so you really have to look for them. r detect them with scouts outright.

For the OP, yes, I agree to improving their combat special abilities slightly. A kamikazi scout should deal considerable damage, but it must be done this way in moderation, otherwise people will build nothing but scouts and just use them as disposable guided missiles.

-Exile Ascendant

WWI had the best scouts. They flew around in biplanes and threw bricks at one another

ROFL

good point splitshadow

lets give all the scouts bricks to throw!

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Scouts, they've been nerfed, now let's buff them proper